From T Kyle King over at Dawg Sports:
Last night, the ‘Dawgs served notice that they are a force to be reckoned with in college football. Georgia no longer may be considered merely a regional power. With the team on the upswing and their schedule becoming more national in scope, the Classic City Canines have made it clear that they are Southern Cal with a Southern accent.
Somehow beating a WAC team that needed overtime to put away San Jose State and Louisiana Tech and only beat Nevada by two points is the national coming out party for the Bulldogs? Please pass whatever you’re smoking Kyle. I’m happy that the Bulldogs managed not to embarrass the SEC on a national stage like Arkansas did, but that’s all the win really amounts to.
I can’t stand UGA fans belief that they are always the best team in the nation (no, really).
Just to highlight how not great UGA was this year, here are teams that held Troy to a lower score than UGA did:
Louisiana-Monroe
Florida International (ok so FIU scored 34, still kind of proves my point)
Arkansas State, and
Western Kentucky
Couple things.
First (to Rusty), let’s talk about what determines national prominence. Is it your schedule? No. See Ohio State, who played a week Big-10 schedule. Is it how well you’ve recently played? No. See LSU, who lost to Arkansas the week before being placed in the BCS game. Is it going undefeated? No. See Who-waii. So what it is? It’s whoever the fuck ESPN likes, which is usually tOSU, Michigan, Florida, LSU and USC. ESPN kisses their ass like no one’s business. Auburn goes undefeated, in the SEC, and do they get to play in the Big Game? No. It’s a fucking popularity contest and I say that for this reason - we can talk about the week ass WAC and how Hawaii didn’t deserve to be there, but the fact is this: The media, specifically ESPN, built them up. Ooooh, Colt Brennan’s passing game. Watch out for those receivers! At the very least, Lee Corso and Mark May picked Hawaii to win.
Now you and I (and everyone else on the mainland) may think that was a bone headed pick, but Georgia’s win in the Sugar Bowl had the media talking and when it comes to college football, that’s what matters. Not schedules or ass-whippings that one received earlier in the season. Media hype = an edge in pre-season polling. And polling is the king of all college football.
Second (to rugbyfan), if you’ve ever met a Georgia fan in the flesh that thought Georgia was ALWAYS the BEST team ever, please introduce him / her to me. I’ve never met such a creature. They only exist on the AJC sports “blogs.” Oh, and that one jerk on Peach Pundit.
Audacity,
I don’t disagree with most of what you said. The media definitely has a hard-on for the programs you mentioned and definitely snubs worthy teams in favor of some that are more friendly to their bowl partners. The process is often rife with bullshit.
However, Kyle’s reasoning was that the Bulldogs were somehow a “national power” (whatever that means) because of the actual merit of the win and by virtue of a schedule that’s becoming more national in scope.
In response to the first point, it’s totally fair for me to then point out what a lackluster schedule Hawaii barely made it through, and what a lackluster conference they play in.
I never really addressed the second argument, but the Bulldogs traditionally haven’t scheduled as many tough out-of-state opponents as some other SEC schools. That isn’t meant as a knock on their overall strength-of-schedule. Part of the problem for them is having Ga. Tech as a just-strong-enough OOC rival makes it hard to schedule another strong OOC game.
Florida benefits from a perception standpoint having better in-state rivals than Georgia does.
Tennessee benefits because their in-state “rivals” are so much worse than Ga. Tech that they are free to go out of state to seek out an extra high profile game for the schedule.
Wow. Rugby, seriously?
The best you can offer is the fact that Troy scored fewer points against a couple of teams? I mean that’s about as pathetic of a strawman as I’ve seen in a while.
I never really addressed the second argument, but the Bulldogs traditionally haven’t scheduled as many tough out-of-state opponents as some other SEC schools. That isn’t meant as a knock on their overall strength-of-schedule. Part of the problem for them is having Ga. Tech as a just-strong-enough OOC rival makes it hard to schedule another strong OOC game.
Florida benefits from a perception standpoint having better in-state rivals than Georgia does.
Tennessee benefits because their in-state “rivals†are so much worse than Ga. Tech that they are free to go out of state to seek out an extra high profile game for the schedule.
My problem with Kyle’s point was the assumption that a team that over the past seven years has won two SEC titles, played in three BCS bowls and compiled six 10-win seasons wasn’t already a national power.
I ain’t saying Georgia’s Southern Cal yet because, well, no one is in Southern Cal’s league right now … but Georgia and Florida have both been recruiting well enough the past five or six seasons to be teams which could challenge for that honor.
But, yes, your point is correct (and you forget that Georgia used to regularly play Clemson too). Much of this I fault with an unwillingness of Dooley to want to travel to play and, since most teams want to sign home-and-home series, it’s hard to find those (the last one being UCLA back in 1983 and even then the Bulldogs managed to opt out of the visit to Los Angeles somehow).
Fortunately this has changed, and the schedule is becoming national in scope (with games against Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, Louisville, etc. on the horizon) because that’s what you have to have in order to get over that hump (unless you’re Ohio State … and then beating Youngstown State is good enough).
In Florida’s case, though, it’s all perception … Florida State is dead in the water and it isn’t as if the Gators play Miami regularly. Georgia Tech has been just as competitive as those two teams the past four or five years, which is kinda sad.
But audacity’s points are pretty much what I’d argue. LSU wasn’t on their radar until recently, and that’s because Les Miles knows how to work the system. He called out the Pac-10 prior to the start of the regular season, held a press conference prior to the SEC Championship and made the Tigers the story.
Richt, though in a more subtle fashion, has finally gotten that. He recognized the need to not only beat Hawaii convincingly, but to also talk about beating them in order to rank high in the preseason.
It’s a beauty pageant, and that’s a shame.
I suppose I never directly addressed Kyle’s point either. Prior to the game, I said that playing Hawaii was a lose-lose proposition. We win, we played Hawaii. We lose, we played Hawaii. But my perception has changed mainly because I’ve become really jaded when it comes to football. If ESPN thinks we’re hot shit, well then.. that’s all that matters, not whether we’re really a team that can whip anyone in the country (which we’re not). Of course, I can’t really provide you with any expert football commentary on the game because they were selling doubles and I was trying to collect commemorative cups.
Regarding OOC, we’re becoming better about that. We played Colorado last year, Oklahoma State this year. Arizona State next year. Oregon in 2014.
True if we’re talking about the past four or five years, but not over a longer span of time. I don’t think it’s totally unfair to frame perception of national competitiveness into a longer time frame. For a solid two or three decades prior, Florida’s in-state competition has been generally tougher.
I think that will pay off for them.
Tennessee has less in-state talent than either UGA or UF, and has to recruit outside the state more than either school does. Playing games against Notre Dame, Cal, UCLA, Miami, etc. in the past decade has been helpful for the Vols recruiting.
I don’t think it’s totally unfair to frame perception of national competitiveness into a longer time frame. For a solid two or three decades prior, Florida’s in-state competition has been generally tougher.
Fair enough, though I think the Seminoles are going to be down for a while. Like Nebraska, I see it being hard for them to rebuild back into a consistent winner, particularly with the rise of Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn and, in some regards recruiting-wise, South Carolina. Bowden can’t raid southern Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi anymore.
Playing games against Notre Dame, Cal, UCLA, Miami, etc. in the past decade has been helpful for the Vols recruiting.
Man … I would love to play Notre Dame in a regular season game. Or Texas. It would be cool to go to Austin.
… not whether we’re really a team that can whip anyone in the country (which we’re not).
Not that I have anything to prove it since, well, we have no playoff system, but I do believe Georgia would match up against anyone right now, and that includes Ohio State, LSU or Southern Cal. They’re a far cry from the 35-14 loss to Tennessee (which, in my mind, isn’t as sad as the South Carolina loss … the Volunteers were actually a good team).
I think FSU has an easier road than Nebraska. The talent is down slightly, but not that far. Bowden will probably retire in another year or two, and then they’ll have a fresh start.
Bill Callahan wasn’t just a bad coach, he destroyed a lot of the enthusiasm for the Nebraska program. Did a 180 on offense from a hard-nosed triple option team to a soft pass-happy spread. Stopped letting the players hit in practice. Stopped letting alums hang out on the sidelines. Snubbed Tom Osbourne at every opportunity. Generally was just a mean-spirited asshole.
It may take the better part of a decade to undo the damage Callahan did.
Fair enough, though I think the Seminoles are going to be down for a while.
I’m obviously not going to argue that we’ve sucked for about 7 years now. But in fairness, we had nearly the hardest schedule in the country this year. Now I don’t know how the suspensions the first 2.5 games will play out, but if not for those FSU is poised to actually have a great team next year with a very favorable schedule. All the big games are home games except Miami, who thankfully are even worse than we are. And we’re probably going to have a top 3 recruiting class as well.
Just wanted to jump in here while you all dump on FSU. They won’t be down for much longer, I assure you.