If 2003 and 2004 were instances where some people said we needed one more game to decide things (the “plus-one”), is this year a case of needing one fewer game?

I mean if we’re not going to have a playoff, if the regular season means everything, and if the goal of the BCS is to match the two best teams, aren’t we pretty much done after this weekend? Is there something that the second tier of teams can show in the next three weeks that would convince pundits and pollsters that the two best teams aren’t playing in Columbus this weekend?

CBS will televise the November 25th game against Georgia Tech. Kickoff will be at 3:30.

If the Dawg fans you’ve talked to about Saturday’s win are anything like my friends, their first reaction to the win was probably, "FINALLY!". Georgia finally put a complete game together, didn’t blow a lead, didn’t make crushing mistakes, etc, etc. Finally. The next reaction was probably a question: "Where has that been all season?"

I have to ask though if Georgia was capable of that kind of game all season. I’m not sure they were. Were the pains of this year necessary in order to get to this point? Certainly some of it was. You actually saw Stafford learn and develop in this game. I disagree with Ching that Stafford didn’t make any "god awful throws" – there was a pass right before the touchdown screen to Lumpkin that was thrown behind and could have been intercepted. But that’s a minor quibble – Stafford was generally golden in this game, and two plays on the same drive show the payoffs of that experience.

• After two forced fumbles while scrambling, Stafford slid safely once he had picked up another key first down late in the third quarter. He might have had more yards ahead of him, but he learned the lessons of the other two turnovers and didn’t get greedy.
• Soon after that play, Georgia faced second down on the Auburn 9. The Dawgs lined up in the power "wham" formation with only Massaquoi lined up wide. The play was going to be a pass to MoMass isolated on the Auburn cornerback, but Auburn dropped the safety into coverage where the pass was heading. Instead of forcing the ball as he has so many times this year, Stafford saw that Auburn had perfectly defended the play, and he threw the ball out of the end zone. He strolled into the end zone on the next play to put the game away.

Stafford’s two fumbles hurt in that they cost the Dawgs two good scoring chances, but they weren’t fatal as many of Georgia’s turnovers this season have been. They were at least in the Auburn end of the field. More importantly, they weren’t interceptions. For the first time this season, Stafford didn’t throw an interception.

It also helped that Auburn’s offense (under Sooper Genius Al Borges) hasn’t been as productive this year. They managed a single touchdown against LSU. LSU has a good defense, but even Alabama’s hapless offense managed two scores. They didn’t score an offensive touchdown against Florida. They were just as impotent against Arkansas. They were pedestrian against South Carolina. Right now, Auburn fans are tearing themselves apart trying to play the blame game (trust us, guys, we’re very familiar with that). Should they have run more? They only called 16 passing plays. But you can’t run or pass when you don’t have the ball. Auburn had no drives – zero – longer than six plays. They could not convert third downs, and Georgia’s defense ended other drives. Even their scoring drives happened quickly. Because Georgia was able to hold onto the ball themselves and create some drives as long as 14 plays, 16 passing plays probably seemed like 40.

This kind of win is a big deal if the Dawgs can handle the success. The mistakes were reduced for one glorious afternoon – will the same smart decisions be there in the next game? Without the benefit of foresight, some are calling this win the official start of the Stafford Era. If he (and his team) can keep it up and also beat Tech, I’ll agree.

But above all else, beat Tech!!!

The Orange Sea parts for Stafford…again. (AP – Todd Bennett)

Georgia’s iconic women’s basketball coach Andy Landers has been selected as one of the 2007 inductees to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. The ceremony will be held next spring. This is a long overdue recognition for Coach Landers, and I’m sure he was thrilled that it came on the same weekend as a very significant win over Rutgers to start this season.

Georgia’s 37-15 win over Auburn Saturday marked the 700th win in the program’s storied history. Very fitting that the win should come in the game known as “The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.”

It’s ten years since the famous 1996 Georgia-Auburn game. So many storylines…the four overtimes, the comeback, the Hail Mary, Uga and Robert Baker….

Others have more to say about it than I do, but to me the story of the game was a fresh Robert Edwards. Edwards was benched to start the game but became a poster boy for fresh legs in the overtime. He had nearly 100 yards of rushing (98) – in overtime alone. With both defenses gassed by the long and emotional game, Edwards seemed a half a second faster and ran effortlessly. Had the game gone on, I think he might have had another two or three touchdowns in him.

Can we do it again ten years later? Along with 1996, we might need to invoke 2002. Injuries at the receiver position forced the Dawgs to start little-known receiver Michael Johnson, and he ended up becoming one of the biggest Auburn-killers in Georgia history (remember he also had a big part in the 2003 game). The situation is slightly similar this year – Georgia is without several wide receivers, and A.J. Bryant might not be able to go. Demiko Goodman was lost for the season last week. Will another Georgia receiver use this opportunity on the Plains to add his name to Bulldog lore?

We’re cynical and hardened here in SEC country. Where college football has become big business, every play and decision is scrutinized like a performance metric. Wins aren’t impressive enough, losses aren’t acceptable, and the CEO coach goes from hero to bum from week to week and season to season. It’s not an entirely irrational reaction – the investment put behind these programs is serious stuff, and the passion behind it all is second to very little. When a program with the capital and human resources, talent base, and expectations that Georgia has loses to a program with much less in all of those areas, it leads to questions about how well those resources are being used. Business metrics again, and every fan is a McKinsey consultant with an answer.

Every so often though we’re reminded that all of this overhead is about a game played by college students. Complex thought behind schemes, state-of-the-art training methods, millions of dollars in investment, and huge national audiences all come down to how well 85 college students execute. That unpredictability is a lot of what makes college sports so maddening and also so enjoyable and superior to anything else.

We saw the kind of innocence and pure joy that just comes from winning that those of us who treat each game as an exam forget about. The fans had fun, not giving up on their team after a 15-point deficit. They unashamedly sang "We Will Rock You" as if hearing it for the first time. The players swelled with pride and emotion.

We see that kind of environment a lot in "traditional power" land, perhaps enough to dull us. Georgia might be down this year, but the environment for the Tennessee game earlier this year was as good as it gets in college football. The West Virginia game last year was just another game, but to the Mountaineers, it was everything – and they played like it. The hustle and passion shown by Rutgers last night is what impresses people more than a complicated scheme or true superstars.

We see this kind of story a lot in sports when fans get treated to a rare taste of winning. Atlanta went nuts over the Braves in the early 90s. Now they yawn and barely notice when they don’t make the playoffs. Kentucky beat a 6-4 Georgia team, but they tore down the goalposts in jubilation as if they had beaten Ohio State. Georgia baseball fans made Kudzu Hill a household name in 2001. That kind of pure enjoyment in the new experience of winning is what we saw last night, and it looks great every time we see it because we remember when we’ve had times like that. It’s what it felt like to be at Auburn in 2002 or in Jacksonville in 1997. Over time, we become used to or harden to those experiences and lose just how much it meant to have that innocent and even naive moment of pure joy after a win. It will be interesting to see how Rutgers fans go through this process in the coming games and seasons.

But what few are talking about while enjoying the Rutgers movie-script season is the complete collapse and bed-wetting by Louisville. Their 25-14 halftime lead wasn’t insurmountable, but any team worth a spot in the national discussion can’t let that get away. Louisville’s most frequently-used play in the second half was "QB scramble for his life left". They had a double-digit lead and one half separating themselves from a good chance at a spot in the national title game.

How fleeting it all is. Lousiville has a staff full of Certified Offensive Sooper-Geniuses™, but their unit looked lost and impotent in the second half. Even Jeff Bowden was chuckling. This week, he Again, full credit to Rutgers and their coaches and players. They had to make the plays and, most importantly, not fold early when they got embarrassed a bit in front of the home crowd. Once they settled down and were able to channel the evening’s emotion, they were fine. Now Schiano is the "it" guy…enjoy.

How would this be – say home field holds and West Virginia beats Rutgers in the last week of the season. Who wins the Big East and goes to the BCS?

Last night’s events certainly gave new life to many teams and threw open endless national title scenarios. Florida especially has to perk up at the prospects of moving up to #3. But Mark May’s caution is very apt here – there’s a ton of football to play yet. Call it the Virginia Tech rule – how many times in recent years have we seen them start out undefeated and then swoon in November? Or name it after Tommy Tuberville whose Auburn team got drubbed the week after complaining about the BCS. Play the games. There’s likely to be controversy this year, and that’s a topic for another post, but the cast of characters will surely change and be thinned between now and then.

We looked at the men’s team yesterday, and now we preview the Lady Dogs. Rated among the Top 10 in preseason polls, the team should be strong and deep if they can weather some early season challenges in conditioning and personnel. The season starts tough right out of the gate with a Sunday afternoon game against perennial power Rutgers (1:00, ESPN2).

When we last left them…

The 2005-2006 Lady Dog season ended with a heartbreaking loss to Connecticut in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament. But the story of last season was written much earlier. Entering last year, the Lady Dogs lost four frontcourt players due to injury and attrition. Tasha Humphrey remained as the only true post player, and wing Megan Darrah was forced out of position into the power forward role all season. The injuries left Georgia small and without depth on the frontcourt. They rarely played more than seven people.

Despite that depleted roster, the team still had a strong season. They came up just short in several close games against LSU and Tennessee, but they dominated the rest of the SEC. The senior guards ran the show, and of course Humphrey continued her all-American pace. Cori Chambers emerged as one of the nation’s deadliest three-point threats, and defense was strong across the board. The ability of the team to overcome a major preseason setback and still finish third in the SEC and top 15 nationally was the legacy of last season.

Key losses:

• PG Alexis Kendrick
• SG Sherill Baker

You can’t underestimate the loss of these guards. Baker blossomed as a senior, setting SEC marks for steals and emerging as a prolific scorer on her way to a WNBA first-round selection. Kendrick wasn’t quite the threat on offense, but her presence as a dependable floor general gave the team stability and identity. They were the glue that kept the team together.

Key additions:

• F/G Christy Marshall
• PG Ashley Houts

Marshall is an outstanding wing from Savannah. She will be a good inside-out option on offense and an athletic defender. Houts is the program’s point guard of the future. Tough and quick, she will be stepping into the big shoes of Alexis Kendrick right out of the gate. The additions actually don’t stop there. The return of posts Rebecca Rowsey and Angel Robinson is huge and should make the team much more balanced. Georgia also has two newcomers who won’t play – Jaleesa Rhoden is a shooting guard from Canada who injured her knee over the summer playing for her national team. Lindsey Moss transferred in from Tennessee and will sit out this year due to transfer rules. It’s also possible that UGA volleyball player Maria Taylor (remember her?) will play for the Lady Dogs this year.

The competition:

As usual, Tennessee is expected to be the class of the SEC. They return Candace Parker and a slew of talented players. LSU without Seimone Augustus will rely heavily on center Sylvia Fowles, but her supporting cast will be tested. Anticipating a slight dropoff from LSU, the preseason selections had Georgia second in the SEC. Kentucky and Vanderbit should battle for that fourth spot. Vandy has their usual tough squad, and Kentucky took a big step forward last year with a fourth-place finish and a win over Tennessee. Florida and Ole Miss should also be competitive.

The schedule once again makes things difficult for Georgia. The quirks of the SEC rotation have them playing both LSU and Tennessee twice (just like last year). Georgia was extremely competitive in those four games last year, but they still lost all of them. Fortunately, they took care of business against everyone else and still had one of their better SEC seasons in a while. The same challenge exists this year. Georgia has little room for error against "everyone else" if they want to be right there with Tennessee and LSU at the top of the standings.

Georgia faces a couple of early-season contests that will be made much more interesting due to the six-game suspension of Tasha Humphrey. The season opener against Rutgers and a Thanksgiving weekend home game against Stanford are games that Humphrey will miss. Tasha will be back in time for an important early December game at Georgia Tech.

What to expect:

The Lady Dogs enter the year ranked in the Top 10. Replacing the backcourt combo of Kendrick and Baker will be job #1. Ashley Houts is the point guard of the future, and she’ll be thrown into the fire right away. I believe the play of senior guard Janese Hardrick will be Georgia’s key this year. Hardrick over her first three years has shown spectacular offensive skills and strong defense. She has all the tools to be a star, but the consistency hasn’t been there.

Once Humphrey returns from her suspension, Georgia will be as deep and balanced as it has been in years. Tasha will have help inside, and there will be multiple options on the wing. We’ll see a freshman develop at point guard bolstered by the experienced Hardrick and Chambers. Unlike the past few seasons where they were forced into mismatches, Georgia should be able to have some elements of customization in their lineups in order to counter opponent strengths and weaknesses.

The Lady Dogs should certainly expect to finish again among the top four teams in the league, but a second-place finish seems very possible. They’ll have to turn the tide against LSU and hold off the rest of the conference, especially Kentucky and Vanderbilt, but this team should be capable of remaining in the SEC championship picture. A favorable conference result could be very important with the SEC Tournament right down the road in Duluth.

Georgia’s men’s basketball team begins the 2006-2007 regular season on Friday night against Southern. The Dawgs look to show additional progress from the 15-15 mark they ended with last season. Today we’ll look at what to expect from the men, and the women’s preview will be up tomorrow.

When we last left them…

Georgia flirted with midseason dreams of the postseason last year, and an early February win over Alabama made a postseason trip seem all but certain. The Dawgs faded during the final month of the season as team after team exploited Georgia’s lack of an interior presence. In the end, they came up a win or two short and spent March at home.

The bright spot last season was the play of Georgia’s young guards. Sundiata Gaines matured as a capable point guard. Freshmen Mike Mercer and Billy Humpries had impressive first years. Still, the inconsistency and youth at guard could not carry the team past its frontcourt deficiencies.

A .500 record last year was a disappointment after the early part of the season teased at something better. Still, that result represented a solid improvement over the hopeless previous season.

Key losses:

• PG Kevin Brophy
• F Younes Idrissi
• F Kendrick Johnson

The tragic death of Brophy puts a crunch on the backcourt with no true backup for Gaines at point guard. Johnson didn’t play much last year, so his departure (for academic reasons) is a wash. Idrissi developed over his two seasons at Georgia but still wasn’t anywhere near a physical presence inside. His experience will be missed, but the Dawgs should be able to absorb the lost production.

Key additions:

• F Takais Brown
• C Albert Jackson

Help is on the way for the frontcourt. Brown and Jackson are both bonafide post players who were courted by some very respectable programs. Brown’s debut will be delayed indefinitely because of an academic-related suspension.

The competition:

Even if a team is better and improved in absolute terms, that improvement has to be measured against the teams it will play. Unfortunately, the SEC continues to improve across the board. Florida returns as the defending national champion and preseason #1, and much of the same cast of characters is back. Alabama and LSU look strong after deep NCAA runs last March. Kentucky had a "down" year by their standards, but the young talent they have should be coming along now. Tennessee should also be strong, but a late-season fade has kept them from being a preseason favorite this year.

While Georgia should now have the depth and talent to compete with anyone in the league, their ability to beat the rest of the conference will determine the bulk of their success. Seven games against Vandy, SC, Auburn, and the Mississippi schools will hold the keys to Georgia’s SEC fortunes. When you figure that a minimum of seven and likely eight SEC wins will be necessary for an NCAA berth, Georgia must holds its own against this group and find a couple of wins in the nine games they will play against UK, UT, UF, Bama, LSU, and Arkansas.

The nonconference schedule isn’t terribly brutal. A game against Gonzaga in Duluth should be interesting, and a trio of ACC games against Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, and Clemson will be very good December tests. The Dawgs should expect to win the remainder of their nonconference games.

What to expect:

The frontcourt additions alone make this team much better. Dave Bliss is healthy, and Rashad Singleton has bulked up. Consistent guard play still will determine the success of the team. Stukes and Humphries will have to be much more steady shooters, especially from outside. Humphries can’t be the guy who hits a few first half baskets and then disappears. Mike Mercer has to find a role. He’s not quite a point guard, but his shot was too streaky to play him for long stretches at other positions. Mercer has spent the offseason re-tooling his shot, so we’ll see what comes of that. If he can be anything close to consistent as a shooter, he is explosive enough to become a big-time playmaker. Gaines will be fine at point guard if he is not asked to carry the backcourt’s offensive production.

The wing position could be an x-factor for the team this year. As a junior, it’s time for Channing Toney to show that he can be a steady contributor to the team. Sophomore Terrence Woodbury missed most of last year with an injury, and he is an unknown that could really make a difference. Georgia really hasn’t had much of a wing/small forward since Jarvis Hayes left, relying on guards like Damien Wilkins or posts like Steve Newman to fill that role. Woodbury in particular is the kind of player you expect to see at this position.

December games against Gonzaga, Wake Forest, Clemson, and Georgia Tech should be good barometers for this team, and a split of those games would be a pretty favorable sign. It would be a red flag if the Dawgs lost other nonconference games.

The deficiencies of last season were understandable and easy to spot, but they’ve been addressed and won’t be excuses for much longer. The jump from winning 15 games to winning 18-20 seems small, but that would represent wins over some very good teams while eliminating the occasional dreadful losses to some bad teams we’ve seen over the past two years (Auburn anyone?). That kind of transition can come from maturity and experience, and there are now several players with two or three years of experience in the Dennis Felton program. Fans have understood the challenges facing the program and been patient as Felton built a foundation, but for the first time in a while some payoff from that investment will be expected.

It seems official – the Tulsa World newspaper is reporting that Oklahoma State has agreed to an ESPN-brokered deal to come to Athens for next season’s opening game.

Georgia will return the visit to open the 2009 season in the “first game played at the completely renovated Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater.”

Oklahoma State is currently 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the very tough Big 12 South. They have an upset win over Nebraska to their credit this year, and the offense is coming around nicely (until they ran into Texas last week). Georgia will recognize the Cowboy offense – OSU offensive coordinator Larry Fedora was behind the Florida offense from 2002-2004.

Georgia’s future non-conference games of interest (better list here):

2007: Oklahoma State, @ Georgia Tech
2008: @ Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Cincinnati
2009: Arizona State, @ Oklahoma State, @ Georgia Tech
2010: @ Oklahoma, Georgia Tech
2011: Louisville, @ Georgia Tech
2012: @ Cincinnati, @ Louisville

Down the road….Clemson and Oregon

2009 looks like a tough schedule on paper – Arizona State, Okla. State, and Tech. Throw in SEC West games with LSU, Arkansas, and Auburn. Of course we don’t know where the fortunes of college football will have teams in three years.

And goes for a week – through November 15th. Several sports will add players, but basketball is the most high-profile sport with a signing period tomorrow.

Georgia men’s basketball team expects to sign four:

• 6’8″ F Chris Barnes
• 6’7″ SF Jeremy Jacob
• 6’9″ F Jeremy Price
• 6’1″ PG Zac Swansey

The women also expect to sign at least three:

• 5’9″ G Brittany Carter
• 5’6″ G Angela Puleo
• 6’3″ F/C Nicole Stroud
• 6’2″ C Jasmine Lee

I was listening, as I often do, to the Colin Cowherd show this afternoon. Love the college football talk. The whole Big East/BCS discussion came up, and he said that if finishing undefeated were all that mattered, then Texas could assure itself of a national title berth every year by playing four nonconference cupcakes. He gave Texas credit for having the “courage” to schedule Ohio State.

The question should be, “why did Texas schedule that game?” Where would Texas be right now had they scheduled Ohio University instead of Ohio State? Right – they’d be undefeated and awaiting the winner of the tOSU-Michigan game for a chance to defend their national title.

I don’t deny the importance of schedule, but give it the proper relative importance. The first order of business is almost always finishing undefeated. You can start backtracking on that as soon as the Big East and the usual “BCS busters” come into the discussion, but there is no way that an undefeated Texas (or SoCal or Auburn or Wisconsin) would be left out of the national title game if they were one of two unbeaten teams at the end of the year.

The importance of scheduling comes into play when you must choose between two similar teams with identical records, but teams like Tulane get left out when they go undefeated. Texas doesn’t. Having more than two unbeaten major programs happens so infrequently in college football that scheduling becomes such a secondary objective versus running the table.

The question shouldn’t be why don’t we have more series like Texas-Ohio State…it should be why those teams with real national title aspirations seek those games out. I’m not saying I like avoiding those kinds of games, but that’s what the system – as it is – rewards. I continue to say that a playoff system would encourage many more interesting nonconference games (just see the December basketball slate) rather than the current system where you must balance the subordinate strength of schedule criteria with the clear primary objective of finishing undefeated.

So what do I think about the Big East? I agree with a great line I heard on ESPN over the weekend, and I wish I could remember its source. I don’t think the Big East champion could have as good a season going through the grind of a more demanding conference, but I wouldn’t count Louisville or West Virginia out when it comes down to an individual game.

(As an aside…how does West Virginia’s destruction of Maryland and Mississippi State look after the past weekend?)

Go Vandy.

Why? Kentucky is currently 3-3 in the SEC with games against Vanderbilt and Tennessee remaining. Georgia is at 3-4. The only chance Georgia has to finish above UK in the SEC standings is to beat Auburn and have the Wildcats lose their final two games.

Yes, it’s really sad to be crunching these kinds of numbers, but it’s all we have left now. It also has a great deal to do with which teams are more attractive in the bowl selection process.

Now I know there are a lot of fans out there posturing and saying that “Georgia doesn’t deserve a bowl” or that they should refuse one (as if fans have any say in that). That’s garbage. Even a minor bowl means two to three more weeks of practice. When a big part of the problem is the inexperience and youth at key positions, why on earth (other than vanity) would you not embrace that opportunity?

Demiko Goodman is out for the season with a torn ACL. It sounds cliched to say “just as he was starting to come around”, but that’s true with him. He was one of the more interesting receivers lately with his receiving starting to catch up to his track speed. Damn.

Ching spoke with some defensive players about the adversity the unit has seen over the past month. Some very interesting comments in there – very good job as always.

I thought Ramarcus Brown made an extremely mature and insightful comment. He said, "Everything’s not gonna go right, so we’re all men here. College is about growing up. You’ve got to be able to handle that." When I read that, I see someone worth keeping an eye on in the next year or two. That kind of perspective is what I’d expect from the program’s leaders.

Some fans will probably focus in on and get bent out of shape about his statement that "we can’t play for the fans. We’ve got to have each other’s back." Brown isn’t denying the importance of fans or not being grateful for the support they do get. All he’s saying is that you can’t rely on that. Fan support is fickle. All you had to do was look around the parking lots and the stadium at the Mississippi State game to know that. I’m not getting into the endless "what defines a good fan" argument here; it’s just a fact that fan support ebbs and flows. We all know that. The players know that if they really need someone to lean on during tough times, they’re going to look to each other first. And I hope that’s how it will be. Brown and the other young players will have to be the core of the program’s resurgence. They are getting forged in fire right now, and they need to come through it together.

Ching also asked the players about "how much they pay attention to Internet message boards and how much criticism they hear and pay attention to." I hope that’s not for this year’s version of the tired "Internet BAD!" article that was played out around 1999. I expect not though since he seems to understand this medium well. We’ll see what comes of that.