(WARNING: This is pretty much my rant of bashing UGA, who I despise – thanks to my first road game as a student to Athens in 2006. That said, please enjoy!)

Nope, that’s not a mistake – the Georgia Bulldogs are ranked at the top of both the media and coaches’ polls, after finishing #2 in the nation last year. Georgia rode the wave of momentum created by this well-know, dramatically overblown act of celebration…

…to a 42-30 win over the media’s darlings in Florida. These silly antics continued two weeks later for the Dawgs’ home game against Auburn…

…where Georgia won 45-20. After a seventh-straight win over Georgia Tech, UGA, perceived as “playing the best football in the country,” was hoping a national title game appearance was possible thanks to the carnage going on everywhere else.

Except there was one problem: Georgia didn’t even win their own division. UGA ended up in the Sugar Bowl, where they crushed a WAC team, thus forcing the offseason hype machine into the red. I guess it’s still going because of the #1 ranking and the talking heads everywhere calling for Georgia as the favorite to win it all.

I swear the media apparently forgot this game ever happened, or that it was some sort of false stroke of luck…

The hype machine has been sputtering a little bit though. The biggest hiccup came just recently, when All-SEC Freshman from last year T Trinton Sturdivant was lost for the year, a huge, huge blow for such a powerful running team. That of course followed the well known string of offseason nonsense going on down in Athens, resulting in suspensions and dismissals. We Tennessee fans saw the effects of those in 2005, though that team and this UGA team are pretty different, so I’m not sure that comparison holds water.

Let me just get to the point: Georgia is not going win the national title, the SEC, or even the division in 2008. Let’s examine how UGA came to be anointed the 2008 paper champions: lost to South Carolina at home, got smoked here in Knoxville (a worse beating than 2006), stole victory from defeat at Vandy, beat a beaten-up Tebow, beat an ACC team on the road, and beat a WAC team. What in there really makes you think this is going to be the best team in 2008.

It starts with Knowshon Moreno. He had a whopping 30 yards against Tennessee, so it’s not like he’s totally unstoppable, though he’s an incredibly talented back and one of the SEC’s best. Stoppable? Yes. Scary good? Yes, without a doubt

Matt Stafford has done nothingspectacular, throwing 26 TDs and 23 INTs in his career. All the hype he’s getting is based on pure potential and speculation. Stopping UGA isn’t rocket science people: you make Stafford beat you with his decision-making throwing the football. He hasn’t done that yet to my knowledge (I’ll even give you Alabama last year, but that was one throw). The receivers don’t scare anybody.

I can’t argue against Georgia being pretty good defensively this year with nine starters back, but then again, Tennessee has hung 86 points on them the past two years. Geno Atkins, Jeff Owens, and Roderick Battle up front, Dannell Ellerbe, Akeem Dent, and Rennie Curran at LB, and Prince Miller, Asher Allen, C.J. Byrd, and Reshad Jones is a pretty good secondary. I think they are going to be really good.

But this Georgia offense isn’t what it’s been made out to be for me. What scares you outside of Moreno and the talented backs behind him? The offensive line has really become a concern now due to some injuries and suspensions.

I haven’t even discussed the schedule: trips to Arizona State, South Carolina, LSU, Auburn, Florida in Jacksonville, and Tennessee and Bama at home. It’s rough. Really rough. I just don’t think Georgia’s as good as the media has made them out to be – they’re very talented, sure – and the brutal schedule should reveal that.

Mark Richt’s an excellent coach with plenty of class in my book, but he is out of place at Georgia. Those fans deserve a bigger jerk as their coach than Richt. I also have to wonder what antics UGA will pull this year. Internet rumors are that the game against Tennessee will be this year’s blackout game. Here’s a reminder of how that worked last time…

So to answer my originally posed question…absolutely not.