Derek Raymond has done excellent job and will be just as good as Coop.. and our QB situation is the best it has been since Flynn... Mettsiah.. Booking it.. Best QB of the SEC this season.. BOOKMARK IT!
http://espn.go.com/college-football...n-tide-fan-charged-lewd-act-vs-lsu-tigers-fan Just be glad it wasn't a Montevallo alum...
I think LSU will win the national title this year. But if you're looking for a good darkhorse pick, a la Auburn 2010...Georgia. No LSU, Bama or Arkansas on the schedule and a lot of experienced and talented players returning on both sides of the ball. They could (and probably should) go into the SECCG undefeated. We could already have a de facto four team playoff this year...LSU vs Georgia in the SECCG, USC vs Oregon in the PAC 12 title game, winners go to the championship.
Tennessee will be much improved this year- I have them finishing ahead of Florida- but can't see them beating UGA in Athens . SC away is the toughest test of the season. Georgia can afford to lose though and still go to Atlanta (SC has to play UGA, LSU and Florida in consecutive weeks and also Arkansas.) The only other trap game for Georgia might be Missouri, since a few players will be suspended. But Georgia is good, really good.
That's two years in a row UGA has dodged the three current giants of the SECW. No idea how they managed that stroke of luck, but it is exactly that.
Of course, but it's still crazy they got to dodge that bullet. The rest of the SEC East was super pissed at the announcement.
Why? The East is a joke. Their champ will lose the SEC title game regardless of who comes out of the West. Unless someone's buying division champ rings, it doesn't matter who goes to the Dome between UT, South Carolina, and UF.
I agree they'll lose to the winner of the West, but everybody in the East still wants that chance at the incredibly unlikely upset. Georgia's basically had that opportunity handed to them by the SEC offices.
Another contributing factor is that Georgia has to play Auburn every year. With Missouri now on the schedule there was only room for one other Western opponent, which ended up being Ole Miss. And throw in the fact that Florida plays LSU every year, Tennessee plays Bama every year, and SC plays Arkansas every year...you get the picture.
Their talent on defense is comparable to LSU's, and 20 of their top 22 defensive players from last year return. Murray is the second best QB in the SEC. Almost all of his receivers are back. Crowell didn't even reach his potential last year. In other words, it's not just the schedule. Where does LSU have a HUGE advantage? Special teams. Brad Wing and Mathieu make them favorites in any close game. Georgia, on the other hand, is bringing in a new kicker and punter. That might just be the difference in the end.
Our defense is still better than theirs overall. lol Actually this defense is the best defense in America period. I don't think their depth compares to ours.
It's irrelevant that they play Auburn. These schedules were engineered to give the most "Welcome to the SEC!" wow-factor to Missouri and TAMU and somehow Georgia is the biggest beneficiary of that. Texas A&M was given Florida from the East as their rotating opponent and Missouri was given Alabama (both home games for the newcomers) in 2012. Considering LSU and South Carolina drew each other, I think it's reasonable to expect in this special re-engineered season that Georgia and Arkansas should've squared off against each other instead of Ole Miss and Kentucky respectively. The way it is now adds two worthless games to the SEC schedule instead of just one. Consider the following for the rotation with the West in 2012: Florida has to travel to Texas A&M South Carolina has to travel to LSU Georgia gets a home game with Ole Miss I can't possibly imagine why they're complaining.
Or maybe LSU could've played Georgia instead of SC? From Arkansas' perspective, drawing Georgia and South Carolina plus Bama and LSU in the division...that's a killer schedule. Georgia played Arkansas in 2009 and 2010, that might have been a factor. Plus, they played Ole Miss last year but before that hadn't played them since 2007. So this is the second year of a home and away series in the rotating cycle, I guess.
Agreed, LSU's defense is deeper. But talent wise, Georgia's starters might be just as good as LSU's. LSU won last December because of field position and special teams but Georgia's defense was dominant at times.
We're talking about the Eastern perspective though, not the Western perspective. From that vantage point Arkansas, Alabama, LSU and Auburn all have beef. We're talking about the top half of the East.
How about this... Bama vs Georgia (and Tennessee) LSU vs Missouri (and Florida) South Carolina vs Ole Miss (and Arkansas) Maybe that would have worked. I think it comes down to what I said in my last post though...Georgia was scheduled to play Ole Miss in order to complete the home and home from last year. I guess they figured the road trips to South Carolina, rival Auburn and a Missouri team eager to prove it belongs (in Week 2) were enough to justify not having any of the "Big 3" on the schedule.
This is fairly long-term stuff, gentlemen. It may be designed to introduce Missouri and TAMU to their new digs, but it all evens itself out after a few seasons. Mizzou will become Kentucky's foil in basketball (that's why they're there) and both they and TAMU will move freely between the second and third tier of the conference's football teams.
Not anymore. Mizzou is now Arkansas' permanent crossdivisional rival. USC has been paired up with A&M, which amuses me to no end.