The Season Approacheth

In May, I shared with you my predictions for the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision 2009 season overall, conference by conference. (you can read them here: dawgs.com/georgia-bulldogs/21743-predict...otball-season/#21743) I did so with the promise that I would share my thoughts on Georgia’s game-by-game schedule “later on.” Well, one day before the last month left until kickoff, “later on” has arrived. So here we go. Keep in mind that these predictions are through red-and-black-colored glasses. I honestly think we have the potential to win every game this season, much like we did in 2002, 2005, and 2007. Here we go.


Week One: Georgia at Oklahoma State

In 2007, a lot of talking heads were pretty hyped-up over what Mike Gundy had done with the Cowboys’ offense. A lot of folks were picking the upstart ‘Pokes to come into Athens and hand us a start-of-season upset, scoring a lot of points in the process. I remember reading the Playboy College Football preview that year. Now, normally I don’t put much stock in what Playboy has to say about sports – from baseball to football to foosball, they’re almost always universally wrong. But one thing caught my eye: at #25, they had listed Oklahoma State’s Cowboys. The Georgia Bulldogs were nowhere on their list.

That ticked me off.

So imagine how happy I was when OSU rolled into the Classic City, accompanied by every football critic in the nation, ESPN and Lee Corso, and got absolutely spanked by our O and our D. I don’t really think it’s going to be all that different this time around. Oklahoma State’s coming in hyped to the gills, with a senior receiving corps and a quarterback with his head on his shoulders. I’m sorry, Cowboys, but you came in fourth in the Big 12 South last year. Doesn’t impress me. You’re also a representative of the No-Defense League. That ain’t gonna cut it. So here we go.

Georgia 45, Oklahoma State 21

Week Two: Georgia vs. South Carolina

Every year this game terrifies me. Last year was a helluva squeaker: 14-7 on the basis of an end zone fumble. You can bet SCarolina ain’t gonna make that mistake again. Somehow, though, I don’t see Spurrier’s chickens coming into Athens – where they stole a national title from us the last time they came to town – with Stephen Garcia and not much else and taking home a ‘W’. Our defense is going to be hungry, our offense is going to be prepped, and 93,000 people singing “And to Hell with Spur-ree-ER!” can’t do much for your morale. It’ll be a tough one, but I think Georgia pulls away in the 4th quarter.

Georgia 20, South Carolina 9

Week Three: Georgia at Arkansas

Call me crazy, but I’m petrified of this game. Two away games on the other side of the Mississippi within three weeks? Not only that, but we’re going back to Fayetteville, where a pretty bad Arkansas team nearly beat us in 2004. Let me make you a little list:

Urban Meyer
Steve Spurrier
Nick Saban
Mark Richt

What do all of these guys have in common? Well, besides being very good coaches, every single one of them won the SEC title in their second year in the conference. Nick Saban nearly did it twice last year, winning the SEC West in his second year at Alabama. And make no mistake: Bobby Petrino is a very good coach. I don’t think the Hawgs will beat our Dawgs, but I also don’t think it’ll be any easier than that 2004 game. I’m going to pick the same score, as a matter of fact.

Georgia 20, Arkansas 14

Week Four: Georgia vs. Arizona State

There is no reason at all, none, to believe that Arizona State is going to be even one yard better than they were last year. Not only that, but they have to fly all the way out here, losing two hours in the process. Our defense will overwhelm them, and our offense will pass and run all over their non-existent defense. Expect a repeat of last year, but with a home-field advantage blowout powder lightly sprinkled over the whole affair.

Georgia 38, Arizona State 17

Week Five: Georgia vs. LSU

I would like to know what they put in the water at SEC Media Days this year. Something has to explain why all of these otherwise very accomplished and football-savvy coaches picked THE Louisiana State University to come in second in the SEC West, behind Alabama. Are you kidding me? Name even one player who’s going to come in this year and make a difference for LSU, who’s going to guarantee them any more than the 8-5 year they had in 2008. I think LS-Who? is a 9-4 team at best, with losses to Florida, Alabama, Ole Miss and our good ol’ hairy DAWGS in the mix. Look, in the last three meetings between these two teams, Georgia has scored 131 points on LSU’s vaunted defense. 97 of those points have come in the last two regular season meetings (45-16 in 2004 and 52-38 last year). We haven’t lost to LSU in Athens since 1987. This is going to be an embarrassment, and afterwards the LSU Athletic Director is going to join West Virginia’s in wishing that Les Miles was the head coach at Michigan.

Georgia 45, LSU 21

Week Six: Georgia at Tennessee

Man, oh man, I can’t wait for this game. In such a short period of time, Lane Kiffin has managed to antagonize two national-championship-winning coaches in Urban Meyer and Steve Spurrier, recruit sex offenders, commit numerous recruiting violations and win zero games at the college level. By the time he gets to us, I’m hoping he still hasn’t won a college football game. People keep lauding his recruiting ability without realizing that a good number of those recruits aren’t going to see the field. The ones who do are probably not going to have A.J. Green-type years, which is what he’ll need every single one of them to have if he wants to have a shot at even a 5-7 season. This game’s gonna get ugly. You know, the Georgia fan in me wants to write this:

Georgia 70, Tennessee 0

But I’m too smart for that. This is the Southeastern Conference, after all, not the Big Twelve North. Instead, I’ll write the final score from my favorite Tennessee game ever, the 2003 blowout, as summed up by the Legendary Voice of the Georgia Bulldogs, Larry Munson, thusly: “All I know is that 41 is 14 backwards!”

Georgia 41, Tennessee 14

Week Seven: Georgia at Vanderbilt

Another tough game. I know that no one in Athens is taking Vanderbilt for granted anymore – not after 2006 and definitely not after last year. Vandy is coming off of a 7-6 season, their first winning season since 1982 and their first bowl appearance since 1984. They won a bowl game in their home town over much-lauded Boston College, and I honestly think Bobby Johnson’s just getting warmed up. The past few years, Vandy has boasted a pretty dogged first-half-of-the-season defense, and we’ll be catching them at the halfway point. They’ve also got the bye week before us, their second such break in their first four games. Not for nothing, but I think the ‘Dores are going to put up the biggest fight we will have seen all season, and certainly be the toughest team we’ve faced since South Carolina. You really look at their schedule and Vandy should be 4-2 coming into the game, on their way to a 6-6 or 7-5 season. Georgia wins, but not until the fourth quarter.

Georgia 24, Vanderbilt 17

Week Nine: Georgia vs. Florida (Jacksonville, FL)

Notice I wrote Week Nine, and not Week Eight. That’s because we have the bye week before Florida, which has been a precious rarity in the last twenty years. Since Steve Spurrier became head coach at UF, we have had the bye week before the Cocktail Party exactly three times as of 2008. The last time Florida defeated us after we had a bye was in 1991, when Ray Goff was our head coach and Preston Jones was our starting quarterback. The last time we beat Florida without a bye week was 1997.

Secondly, and I’ve harped on this before, Georgia has failed to defeat a defending national champion on the regular season exactly once in the last thirty years, when we fell to Tennessee in 1999. We beat Clemson in 1982, Georgia Tech in 1991, Florida in 1997, LSU in 2004, Florida in 2007 and LSU in 2008.

Also, not to beat a dead horse, but we did have 16 guys on the sidelines last year, injured. I’m not sure we would have beaten Florida healthy last year, but ask yourself this question: if Demps, Spikes and Pervin, along with thirteen other starters, were hurt last year, would it have been 49-10? I don’t think so.

Georgia 34, Florida 24

Week Ten: Georgia vs. Tennessee Tech

Homecoming. Division II opponent. The only thing on the line is the Tennessee State Title, which we will win. Personally, I’ll consider us humanitarians if we let these guys escape with their jock straps.

Georgia 63, Tennessee Tech 10

Week Eleven: Georgia vs. Auburn

First time since the Blackout that Auburn will have visited the Classic City, and the first time since Iowa State last hosted Missouri that a Gene Chizik-coached team has lost by double digits. (That, by the way, happened in Week 11 last year).

Georgia 35, Auburn 17

Week Twelve: Georgia vs. Kentucky

Kentucky doesn’t really have anything, do they? They sort of got lucky against our bad defense last year, as apparently only DeMarcus Dobbs could stop a Kentucky drive (which he did, effectively, twice), and I’m not so sure they’ve gotten any better. I predict a more traditional Georgia-Kentucky score this year.

Georgia 42, Kentucky 16

Week Thirteen: Georgia at Georgia Tech

I just let out a huge sigh. Look, say what you will, but Paul Johnson has worked magic everywhere he’s ever worked. He won a national title at Georgia Southern, he ended a 40+ year losing streak to Notre Dame at Navy, and last year he broke Tech’s drought on our home field by running the hell all over us. While we typically don’t have problems with options, when we do they MURDER us (West Virginia, 2008 Florida, Tech last year). Not only that, but of all of our rivalries, this one is the streakiest. Not since 1977 has one team beaten the other without winning the previous or next game in the series. (Georgia won in 1976, Tech won in ’77, Georgia won in ’78). Before that, the last time a one-time-only win occurred was in 1974, when Tech was again sandwiched between two Georgia losses. Before that, it was a Georgia win sandwiched between two Tech wins in 1948, the last win we had until Theron Sapp broke the drought. I’m not saying it’s an impossibility; I’m saying that historically, it doesn’t look good in Atlanta for us this year. Remember how I said I thought we could win every game this year? I still think we can…but I don’t think we’ll win this one.

Georgia 24, Georgia Tech 34

There you have it, folks. 11-1, with a shot at the SEC title and still, possibly, the national championship. Go Dawgs, and I hope they prove me wrong come Turkey Day!!!

Excellent post dapolla......have to agree with all your stats, reasoning and logic. I certainly hope you are right with your NC logic for the UF game and the tradition continues!!!

I believe we go 10-2 at BEST. Unfortunately I believe we will lose one of those \"factor\" games, i.e., travel/fatigue, injuries, luck etc, in the 1st half of the season. I also think that we will lose to UF.

I think all the players have marked the GT game on their calendars. I feel GT is going to have some RB injuries by the end of the year and we will march into Atlanta and \"take\" that game, leaving them scratching their collective heads wondering what hit them. By the time they figure it out the Dawgs will be back in Athens celebrating.

All this said, I also believe that even though the OSU is the first game, I feel it may be absolutely CRITICAL to our season. I feel we will win the game but if we don't, it could be a long, tough year. We win it....we're OFF AND RUNNING.....BIG game for our confidencs.

All our games ARE win-able but can't see anything better than 10-2 if we beat OSU out of the gate.

Yeah I agree with a lot of your reasoning on your games and scores, but if we are undefeated we wont lose to tech,however, the best I see is 10-2. We'll have to see how our D can play this year along with new leaders on offense.

Again we overschedule.
I don't know.

Boy averagedawg, is THAT an understatement. We need to start taking UF's scheduling approach.......cupcake schedule compared to ours.

BRING ON OKLAHOMA STATE!!!!!!!! GO DAWGS!!!!!! THE SEASON CAN\"T GET HERE QUICK ENOUGH!!!!!! I\"M GOING BLOOMIN', FRICKIN', CRAZY!!!!!!!