Welcome to the 2009 season. Florida (1), Alabama (5), LSU (9), Mississippi (10), and Georgia (13) all SEC teams at the top of the first poll of the year. Landing five teams in the Top 13 spots affords me the opportunity to offer up five questions:
- Can Florida repeat?
- Is the SEC West really that good?
- Can Houston Nutt manage the pressure of a Top 10 team?
- Can Georgia successfully replace Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford?
- Is the SEC really that much better than the rest of the country?
When it is all said and done I think Georgia will have a hard time cracking the Top 10 this year. I think they will lose once game against Oklahoma State, South Carolina, or Arkansas. The Dawgs will beat Arizona State. The will lose to LSU or Tennessee, and then beat Vanderbilt, which will take them into the Florida game with a 5-2 record. The Gators will win yet again, but the Dawgs will recover handily against Tennessee Tech bringing them into the home stretch with a 6-3 record. I can see the Bulldogs stumbling twice in the final three games, but I am going to say they win two out of three against Auburn, Kentucky, and Georgia Tech. 8-4 or ouch.
Normally you would say an 8-4 record is not terrible, but by Georgia standards it would be horrible. The Dawgs are going to have to find a way to flip one or two of those defeats into victories. 9-3 or 10-2 look so much better than 8-4, and would be a far better indication of the talent on this squad. I hope I am piss poor at predictions.
Go Dawgs!
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