I have been posting these articles or blogs for about two years now. Even so, I have not kept a real steady schedule or even been consistent on writing about real estate. I quickly realized that always writing about real estate could become a little boring or even redundant because good real estate topics don’t emerge every week. On the other hand, Georgia football is always a welcome discussion in our neck of the woods. Therefore, I try to write a couple of posts each year depending on available time and my current feelings about the state of the program. For example, in 2015 my feelings quickly went from good to terrible in what was ultimately Richt’s final season. For better or worse those feelings were well
documented on this blog. Nowadays, I am pretty d@&n optimistic about the “Smart Era” of Georgia football as you will see as you read through my predictions about the Bulldogs this year. So now let me put on my magic 8 Ball jacket and gaze into the crystal ball.
UGA vs App State Sept 2nd– This is the typical game that happens every year where people want to talk up an underdog that is going to beat UGA, and this year it happens to be Appalachian State. Long & short people are talking about how they upset Michigan in 2007 and almost beat Tennessee last year. Well so what! Tennessee was not a good a football team last year, and neither was Michigan in 2007. The dawgs are going to win this one by 14 to 17 points. 1-0
UGA vs Notre Dame Sept 9th– Chicago and South Bend have no idea what is coming to town in less than two weeks. I am not talking about the football team. I am talking about the Bulldog fan base. There is going to be a sea of red and black
swarming around up there. Now I could be wrong, but I bet some of those Dawg fans do a little drinking while they are in town. I am sure the fan base will keep it classy unless the Bulldogs lose badly or even worse lose a heart breaker. But that is not going to happen. This game is going to be about Georgia’s defense. I like Georgia in a close one. 2-0
UGA vs Samford Sept 16th– JUST STAY HEALTHY! Seriously, get the win and get some people some playing time. Dawgs Win! 3-0
UGA vs Miss State Sept 23rd– Miss State will be the SEC opener, and probably the first game that brings a big game crowd to Athens. Plenty of people are already pointing to this game as a hiccup for the Dawgs. Not because Miss State is that good, but because Georgia always does this once or even twice a year. But you know what? We hired Kirby to stop this trend, and I think he will get it done sooner than later. Dawgs win by 17. 4-0
UGA vs Tenn Sept 30th– Someone I know well is getting married this weekend and I will be in attendance at the wedding. I am already stressing about the wedding & reception time vs the kick off of this game. I really hate to miss watching this one. You know why? It is going to be fun. Knoxville is a hard place to play, but Tennessee does not have the talent or the coach to win this game. I hope the Volunteers enjoyed the two year run over Georgia because it is over. They will be trying to hire a new coach come December of this year. Dawgs Win! 5-0
UGA vs Vandy Oct. 7th – Boy this one sure did hurt last year. Georgia has definitely lost too many games to Vanderbilt over the last 20 years or so. But the year after a loss to Vandy has historically been good to Georgia, and this year will be no different. I do like their coach, but I have been surprised by Vanderbilt fans of late. In fact, I don’t really care for them anymore. No reason to give you details, but I will say some recent experiences are reminiscent of a Duke fan. GROSS! Dawgs win again. 6-0
UGA vs Missouri Oct. 14th– This one was a close one last year, and if you recall, it was a big moment for Jacob Eason. I think that if Mizz couldn’t beat Georgia last year in their own stadium then they won’t be able to do it to this Georgia team in Sanford. I don’t even like this one to be close. Dawgs Win! 7-0
GEORGIA vs Florida Oct. 28th– This one will always matter to both fan bases regardless of either team’s record. Florida doesn’t seem to have a quarterback yet, and they have had a ton of off field issues. I think 8 players may be suspended for the first game. Florida will be the trendy pick for this one, and all the talking heads will be calling for Georgia to lose this one in Jax. It will be close and Florida always seems to show up for this one, but I really believe Georgia pulls this one out. Probably a low scoring game. Dawgs Win! 8-0
UGA vs South Carolina Nov 4th– Historically, this is the letdown game for
Georgia right? I mean if I am correct and Georgia is undefeated after the Florida game then typically Georgia would lose. But like I said earlier, I don’t think that is going to happen this year. Georgia pulls away in the 4th quarter to win by 10 or more. 9-0
UGA vs Auburn Nov. 11th – Last year this game proved to be Kirby’s first big win as a head coach. In fact, Georgia has been dominating Auburn as of late. Sadly, this domination will come to end on the plains just before 8pm. Auburn pulls this one out and breaks our hearts. 9-1
UGA vs Kentucky Nov. 18th– Kentucky will probably be pretty good again this year. At the time, last year’s win in Lexington was actually a really good one for Georgia. However, this year the Wildcats are going to run into an angry Bulldog team in Athens. 35 to 14 Dawgs Win! 10-1
UGA vs techies Nov. 25th– No reason to even bring up last year with this game because this year is going to be so much fun. I think Tech is in for a bad season. A real bad one in fact. Granted, they will always give Georgia a fight because of the rivalry, but there sting won’t be strong enough this year. Dawgs Win 11-1
So there you have it. My prediction for Georgia’s 2017 season. Pretty optimistic right? I think Vegas has the over/under on Georgia wins at 8.5 which means I am probably a complete moron or maybe I am just a homer. In the end, Georgia’s season depends so much on an improved offensive line. If this area gets better it will really help Eason and the entire offense. With this in mind, let me rant about Eason for a little bit. It seems to me that fans are giving this guy a bad rap a little too early. He played very well at times last year for a TRUE FRESHMAN. Does anybody remember Stafford’s freshman year? If you do then you might recall it was worse than Eason’s, but I will say that Stafford showed improvement at the end of his freshman year. My point is to say, give this guy a chance to be good because with a better line he just might be great.
Moving on, it seems every year in college football there are surprise teams that win more than the experts predict. So why not Georgia? The schedule seems manageable to me, and programs in their second year of a coaching change tend to do well. Especially here at Georgia. Just look at Jim Donnan’s team in 1997 and Mark Richt’s in 2002. Two great teams both in the head coach’s second year. Furthermore, Georgia is one of only 10 teams in all of college football that have over 50% blue chip prospects on their roster. Did you know that every single national champion since the 90s has had over 50% blue chip players? If that holds true again it means only 10 teams have a chance to win it all. Now I am not saying Georgia will win it all, but I do think they will win a lot of them. Go Dawgs!