Big Hairy Blawg

Two years ago, I used Big Hairy Blawg to try to get y’all worried about the explosive Oklahoma State Cowboys. GEORGIA fans, like all sports fans, tend to be overly optimistic, especially in the preseason. As my fellow alum brother and I always say about UGA this time of year, “The Dawgs are lookin’ good.” When you have a program built to the level that we have reached, the excitement about returning talent can easily overshadow the very real holes in the team, and every college team has holes, question marks, weaknesses, teams or situations that cause struggles.

Our struggles have come in two forms:

1. GATORS. Looking up: If we can manage a win this year, UGA will have won 3 of 6. The Stafford and Moreno combo went 1 and 1 in Jacksnonville. And when you are this far down in a recent series, winning .500 would be a huge step forward.

2. HOME games against SEC rivals that we are favored to win and don’t. The Carolinas and Tennessees of the world have waltzed into our back yard and beaten us when we were the better team.

Outside of the aforementioned scenarios, we have dropped very few other games in the 8 years that Richt has been at the helm. Some examples: an undefeated Auburn team, a National Champion LSU squad twice, a BAMA team that would finish the regular season without a loss. Tough teams will come up not named FLORIDA, because this is the SEC.

We have done very well on the road and out of conference and with season openers. Our trends versus the Pokes all say DAWGS win. And as any good gambler can tell you, college football is easily the biggest trend game in existence.

Two years ago, Okie State came into the humidity of that drained river valley we call home and just melted. They could not score like we heard they would; they could not stop us. The great Moreno appeared on the scene from off the bench late that game. He controlled the clock, to assure no comeback was to happen. We gave up only 14 points and won by three touchdowns.

The Big 12 is a scorefest of a league and the Pokes can really score. Zac Robinson is a gaudy statistics, dual-threat quarterback in his senior season. The shifty Kendall Hunter gained over 1,600 yards rushing last season. Dez Bryant had almost 1,500 yards receiving and is a size matchup nightmare that lives for a jump ball in the end zone. Perrish Cox is a dynamo return specialist. Russell Okung is a classic 6′6″ 300-pound road paver. They have the talent to outscore anyone in the country.

Thing is, they generally have to, and have not gotten the job done against conference powers Oklahoma or Texas. Okie State plays a lot like we did last year. They score a ton of points most weeks, but they give up way too many points to get over the hump.

The Joe Cox era is underway and we may need him to put up 40. Or maybe our defense finally steps up against a big time offense and mostly shuts them down.

One way or the other: GEORGIA needs this win to claim our rightful spot in the top ten. From there, we start the wars of the SEC: the greatest football conference in the land.