During the fall of my freshman year at Georgia, I witnessed the final season of the Jim Donnan era. The insanely talented Dawgs (the defense had too many future NFL players to count) lost 4 games in the regular season, something they would not do again until 2006. Since I became a student at Georgia, it remains the worst season I can remember. Last fall, we once again saw the Dawgs struggle and what we got was an 8-5 season that suddenly has people outside of Georgia questioning Mark Richt's job. After sticking to his guns in previous years, Coach Richt gave in and a massive overhaul of the defensive staff took place.
So I had to ask myself, what is the worst thing that can happen this fall? With 10 starters returning on offense, we should be able to score points. Even if freshman Aaron Murray struggles, can it be much worse than a number of the interceptions thrown by Joe Cox last fall (and before you jump down my throat, I know Joe cox made some great plays as well. But it always seemed like he threw interceptions at the absolute worst time.) And the defense can't get any worse, can it? Worst case scenario, the defense performs the same as it did last year.
Even if Georgia has another terrible season in 2010, can we really expect a record worse than 7-5? Even if the defense is still bad and the offense is about the same, the schedule is easier as we get Tennessee and Arkansas at home, LSU is off the schedule, and Colorado is no where close to Oklahoma State. I expect the Dawgs to be much improved, but even if they are at their worst, I think the record will be better than it was in 2009.
What do you think?
7 comments:
You're spoiled. My first year was Goff's.
My freshman year was '87. Then, I survived the Goof years. That was definitely the most painful time. I like our situation.
Did anyone ever pick up that great Coach Donnan? I haven't heard since he doesn't appear on ESPN anymore to talk about the great team he handed over to Mark Richt and cheapshot the fans and alums. Let's hope that he has just simply faded away.
Fyi, Donnan actually still lives in Athens.
We have pretty much 7 guaranteed wins on the schedule: ULa-L, SC/Ark (pick whichever one you prefer, I think Ark is more of the gimmee due to their suspect D), Miss St, Colorado, Vandy, Kentucky, Idaho St.
That leaves 5 games where one could argue there is some doubt: SC/Ark (again, pick your poison), Tenn, Florida, Auburn, Ga Tech.
We realistically should win 3 out of 5 of those games, minimum (my choices: SC/Ark, Tenn, Ga. Tech).
In my mind, a 9 win regular season is a realistic expectation, and based on improvements on the little things we've had problems with in the past (penalties, turnover ratio, kickoff coverage), we can hope for a little more.
Our schedule is a little lighter on the front end to allow for a new starting QB to develop and the D to gel, outside of the trip to South Cackalacky.
I just graduated, my freshman year was the same as Stafford's. Unless we win an SEC championship this year, the class that came in with me will be the only one under Richt not to experience an SEC Championship. That would be a terrible shame considering the talent of the 2006 recruiting class. Stafford, Knowshon, Asher, Geno, Reshad Jones, Gamble, Dent, Dobbs, Durham, and Chapas have all been Damn Good Dawgs.
MT, I think Utn is more of a gimmee than either SC or Arky - now that Free Willie is off the sidelines. SC is always a close game and we swqueeked by Arky last year. I agree Ark's D is bad but will be score as many points this year? All and all I expect 9 wins, 10 would be a good year, 10+ would be incredible.
The way I see it, the over/under is 9. (w/o bowl). Maybe 8.5. With the talent we have, we' go as far as the RBs take us (less the inevitable mistakes by a new QB. If Murray can limit mistakes, it should be a good year.
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