"At least our coach has a nice tan." (AP Photo/Jim Lytle
Oh, Georgia. Coming off of an embarrassing showing in Starkville, it’s safe to say that the wheels are officially off for Mark Richt’s program. But hey, at least AJ Green is coming back, right? Mark Bradley did his best to assuage the fears of Bulldog nation, as he’s known to do, but even his best sugarcoating can’t cover up the fact that Richt is 2-7 in his last nine conference games.
I’m not a Georgia fan, but if I were one, I’d be pretty sick of my coach by now. And I’d be even more sick of the apologetic local media glossing over his failures.
This paragraph in particular is dripping in red’n'black kool-aid:
2. The Bulldogs shouldn’t lose again until the day before Halloween, if then. The next four games: At Colorado, Tennessee in Athens, Vanderbilt in Athens, at Kentucky. The first three shouldn’t be much trouble, and surely Kentucky can’t beat Georgia two years running. (I mean, could it?) There should be much momentum-building done before UGA heads for Jacksonville, and who knows how good Florida is?
You’re right, the first three shouldn’t be much trouble. And neither should a date with Mississippi State, right? And as depleted as Tennesse is right now (they will travel to Baton Rouge this Saturday with just 60 players on their travel squad), it’s not too hard to envision them getting up for Georgia, considering they’ve trounced them in three of the last four match ups.
And you know how knows how good Florida is right now? Me. You want to know how good Florida is? Better than Georgia, at the least.
But hey, what’s the Atlanta media without a little blind homerism?
Game of the Week: #7 Florida (4-0, 2-0 SEC) vs. #1 Alabama (4-0, 1-0)
Not surprisingly, this was tabbed by CBS as their one annual prime time game, and it should be a great one to watch. Freshman Trey Burton’s emergence in recent weeks has really lifted Florida’s offense, he’s filled the “Tebowback” role admirably and even broke Timmy’s single game touchdown record last week, but I still don’t think the Gators will have enough firepower to escape Tuscaloosa with a win. After Burton, Florida’s only other offensive playmaker is Jeff Demps, who is nursing a foot injury that Urban Meyer says has limited him in practice. Demps should be good to go, but it won’t matter. The Tide will prove too much at home. ‘Bama 35, Gators 24
Upset Alert: Alcorn State (3-0, 2-0 SWAC) v. Mississippi State (2-2, 1-2)
The gap between FBS and FCS is narrower than it’s ever been. We’ve already seen one SEC team go down to a team from the division formerly known as D1-AA, and we could see another this weekend. The Braves enter averaging 39.3 points per game, and could conceivably turn this game into a shootout. Can Chris Relf, who has only thrown two touchdown passes all year with a modest completion rate of 57%, put enough points on the board to stave embarrassment? I think State will be okay ultimately, but this is far from a gimme. Bulldogs 28, Braves 24
Other Games
#10 Auburn 45, Louisiana-Monroe 13
#12 LSU 27, Tennessee 10
Kentucky 38, Mississippi 35
Georgia 17, Colorado 14
Connecticut 24, Vanderbilt 21
Last week: 5-2 Season: 11-4
Extra Points
- When it comes to “Dumbest Tweet of the Year”, Oklahoma receiver Jaz Reynolds is the leader in the clubhouse thanks to his rather crass remarks about the gunman who killed himself on the Texas campus last week. Reynolds is suspended indefinitely.
- Another shoe dropped in the ongoing investigation at North Carolina. This time, financial link was established between a Tar Heel assistant and an NFL agent. As Bruce Feldman writes, this could be the final straw for Butch Davis.
- Georgia will switch to a more pussified scheduling policy under new AD Greg McGarity. This new plan will emulate Florida’s philosophy, which is essentially “Never leave the state for a non-conference game.”
- Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson is “good to go” for the Wolverines conference opener at Indiana. Purdue was not so lucky on that front, losing starter Robert Marve for the season.
- Per Glenn Guilbeau of the Shreveport Times, Patrick Peterson has been practicing with the LSU offense this week. Les Miles says the odds of PP7 lining up with the O. on Saturday is greatly dependent on the weather. A cool day will enhance the odds that we see the all-universe corner and returnman see some action on the other side of the ball. But as anyone who’s ever lived in Baton Rouge can tell you, unless the calendar says January, it will be balmy. My bet is that Peterson’s cramping issues will probably keep him from channeling Charles Woodson or Chris Gamble.
That’s all for now, see you Saturday. ‘Dawg fans, don’t forget to bring your kool-aid.
