Why did the SEC media pick Florida over Georgia?

So do you think Florida will beat Georgia this year?

1. is a major reason for me, especially since Florida gets Kentucky at home the week before the TWLOCP, while Georgia is at LSU.

So do you think Florida will beat Georgia this year?

Right now it’s a toss up for me.

Kind of like the Tech hype this year. When it was all said and done the majority voted Texas higher.

Link

Tebow/Harvin > Stafford/Moreno.

UGA D > Gator D

Meyer’s daughter > Richt’s wife

A hot daughter always beats an a middle-aged wife.

Gators by 5.

I kind of think both Texas and Tech will come into Lubbock with 2 losses, and the winner going to the Cotton Bowl. That’s assuming the Big 12 gets two in the BCS (OU & Mizzou).

Tebow/Harvin > Stafford/Moreno.

Really? That certainly wasn’t the case when they met last year.

And why is it Tebow and Harvin are injured so often? Hmmmm… Good luck with them in that spread-smash this year I guess.

Right now it’s a toss up for me.

Whole lot of people missing the obvious on this game, imho. And that is more than fine with me. The general consensus is that last year’s game was just the product of UGA’s celebration and a one-time deal. But go back and watch the game. Florida had 53 minutes after the celebration to do something about the celebration affront. But they couldn’t. Instead, they had the ball run and thrown down their throat and were incapable of stopping it. Georgia was very simply the better team in numerous ways.

Well… what has changed since last year? Georgia returns pretty much everyone on both sides of the ball, and for the first time, Stafford gets to play behind a serious OL. Georgia’s defense is not only great at every spot, but it is deep at each position as well.

Florida? The offense gains Chris Rainey and Emmanuel Moody at RB… yet neither of those was impressive enough to be named the RB out of spring practice. So Kestahn Moore is still the #1 for now. And I’m sorry, but if Kestahn Moore is even an option at this point, the other two just can’t be that great. And at WR Florida loses Andre Caldwell. And despite how productive its offense was last year, Florida’s coaches are vowing to run Tebow less and put him in the pocket more. Huh? An offense that great… yet you are going to make a major change to its QB’s style of play? Interesting. Good luck with that… but Tebow looked pretty human at times last year when he wasn’t able to run.

And on defense? Florida lost 4 of its first 6 options at safety for this year this off-season. They only have 3 safeties on the roster now: a great sophomore (Major Wright), a converted CB who has never started (Ahmad Black, another sophomore), and a true freshman (Will Hill). They are an injury or two, if that, away from where they would be longing for their secondary from last year. At CB they have the same crew (now sophomores), last seen being torched by Michigan in January. At LB, they have a great in Brandon Spikes, but after that? eh… AJ Jones and Dustin Doe. And on the DL they lost the #8 pick in the draft (Derrick Harvey) and have only one proven player (Jermaine Cunningham at DE). After that they have a hyped but inexperienced DE (Carlos Dunlap) and then next to zilch at DT. Several guys who have shown they just aren’t very good and then two true freshmen talents (currently recovering from injuries) that the coaches and fan base seem to be desperately hoping will be able to fill this hole. True freshmen DTs in the SEC? Yeah. Good luck with that.

Meyer is going to talk, and Florida is going to get all riled up and take the field on Nov. 1. And then Moreno is going to start running and Stafford is going to start picking that sophomore secondary apart again, while Tebow/Harvin struggle harder for their yards… and the reality that they are just simply up against a better football team is going to come crashing down on them hard.

This is the same mistake 2006 Texas/OU, fwiw. People just assuming the recently dominant team would resume its dominance after a one-year hiccup. Oops.

I think it’s going to come down to who improves more, Stafford or UF’s defense. Both were awful last year.

Stafford was awful? Ummm… not really.

His numbers weren’t great (though not horrible either), but he was absolutely huge in the tight spots of some of our biggest games (i.e. Alabama, Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech).

This as a true sophomore playing with an OL that had 3 freshmen including 2 true freshmen (one at LT)… which meant for a very shaky team for the first half of the year.

But fair enough on your general point. So, which of the two would one generally expect to improve more? A true sophomore QB turned 3rd-year starter behind a much better OL… or a defense that had a nightmare off-season, will feature an all-sophomore secondary, will have no senior leaders, and which is hoping for major contributions from 3 true freshmen?

Lock in that Florida -2.5 early line now. Because they won’t be favorites at gametime. And it will only get worse from there.

Instead of posting Ph.D. dissertations, the Georgia fans here are going to have to come to terms with the fact that Chris Applewhite just doesn’t like Marc Richt and Matt Stafford.

MJD,

LOL. Nice.

For the record, I’ve got no problem with people thinking Florida will beat UGA this year (they’ll see how silly this was in a few months)… and as I noted, I love that that’s the opinion of most. Just thought I’d examine Florida’s team in a little depth given that many who haven’t really looked beyond “THE GREATEST QB OF OUR ERA!!!” haven’t noticed that there’s really not much reason to think Florida will be any better in 2008 than it was in 2007. The same certainly can’t be said about Georgia though.