Someone explain UGA and Auburn to me:

[Johnson85]

I see a lot of people acting like there's no way we win in UGA.

But looking at their record last year, they lost to Vandy, beat Mizzou by 1 point, beat UK by 3. Their only real impressive win was beating Auburn, followed by Ga Tech. I know they were young last year, but they had talent and nothing in their record provides any evidence that Smart is a good coach. Maybe he is and last year was just an adjustment for him and his players, or maybe he is not and they're going to field an inconsistent team this year also.

I get thinking that in Athens that's not quite a toss up for us but why are people thinking that game is out of reach? Is it based on their roster? Or are people just going off their performance under Richt?

On the flip side, I see people talking about Auburn being within reach or even a toss up. I know a major problem of ours is gone with Sirmon, but they could have named the score against us last year, beat Arkansas even worse, and other than UGA, didn't have any head scratchers once they got on track. Did they lose a ton? Or are people just thinking we can beat them because we've been competitive with them lately?

[Ezsoil]

I'm with you without sounding too wooly....I think that stretch of LSU GA and AU is the same as the early season stretch in 2014... it will depend on the defense...

[QuadrupleOption]

I'm wooly enough that I think we can beat all three.

Auburn will be the toughest challenge unless their newest savior flames out (and honestly it wouldn't surprise me at all).
LSU will have a tough defense and a good running game, so we'll have to make Etling beat us throwing the ball. They've relied on an RB the last two years that isn't around any more, and while Guice is good he's no Fournette.
Georgia is one of those teams that everyone always thinks of as being great but at the end of the day they are average. I think we can beat them if we don't turn the ball over.

[ShotgunDawg]

My guess is that everyone will think we have a better chance at winning both games by the time we actually play them.

Pre-season predictions are based on really 4 things: recruiting rankings, returning starters, home/away, & coaching. However, in-season predictions include the mentioned factors, but also include injuries & how a team is actually playing.

So, in the preseason, the factors that are included in predicting the games work against MSU & make it obvious that we will lose, but once context is added & teams actually play games, the water gets muddied

[Jack Lambert]

I see a lot of people acting like there's no way we win in UGA.

But looking at their record last year, they lost to Vandy, beat Mizzou by 1 point, beat UK by 3. Their only real impressive win was beating Auburn, followed by Ga Tech. I know they were young last year, but they had talent and nothing in their record provides any evidence that Smart is a good coach. Maybe he is and last year was just an adjustment for him and his players, or maybe he is not and they're going to field an inconsistent team this year also.

I get thinking that in Athens that's not quite a toss up for us but why are people thinking that game is out of reach? Is it based on their roster? Or are people just going off their performance under Richt?

On the flip side, I see people talking about Auburn being within reach or even a toss up. I know a major problem of ours is gone with Sirmon, but they could have named the score against us last year, beat Arkansas even worse, and other than UGA, didn't have any head scratchers once they got on track. Did they lose a ton? Or are people just thinking we can beat them because we've been competitive with them lately?

UGA has a lot coming back but the key with them is they were not that good and did not get better as the season went on. They only beat Nchols State by two, Mizzu by one, lost to Ole Miss, KY, Vandy and GA Tech. They did beat Auburn but I think Petway was hurt. I'm also not not sure it Smart is the guy. We are going to beat GA. I just think we will be better and Fitz is going to play his ass off. He will probably have one half of his home town there, with that the fact GA did not even give him a look Fitz is going to run all over them.

I think we have a good shot at LSU. They got new staff, we got them at home, we play them tough every year and we have a better QB.

We will play Auburn hard but lose by 14.

[Hasu Dackds]

I personally think Georgia is going to rise in year 2, the talent is there. Even Nick Saban had a rough year 1, too many people judge by that.

As far as we go, we are going to be sky high for the LSU, so common sense says that after that, win or lose, and going on the road to a good team, probably means we aren't escaping with a W. Georgia has Samford the week before us.

Auburn? Hard to tell. No one know how good they will be. I don't like 2 road games in a row. Hard to predict a W there. However, when you have a good quarterback, you always have a chance.

[mstatefan91]

We're Mississippi State and so when you hear traditional powers such as UGA, you think loss..

Media are especially guilty of this. Throw in the prodigy Kirby Smart, and everybody just expects a Bama like rise for UGA.

[JoseBrown]

I'm with you without sounding too wooly....I think that stretch of LSU GA and AU is the same as the early season stretch in 2014... it will depend on the defense...

I agree with you. On UGA, they have probs with the Oline and qb position. Eason looks like Tom Brady, but plays like Shit a lot. Their defense shouldn't be too bad, and be the strength, but ours will perform better in my opinion this year.

Call me woolly, but I expect to beat UGA and LSU. Auburn, yes folks are giddy because we've played well on the Plains. But not me. For I too saw last years game, and their D may be a hint weaker I don't think their Offense will be bad. I expect their offense to be very good and the D too be very competitive. I don't have a good feeling about this one.

While we may lose one or two more excluding Bama, I still think we get to 8-9 wins and say '17 off' to the preseason prognosticators again this year!

[TrapGame]

I expect LSU to have QB problems similar to us last year early on. O let that QB competition go too far.

UGA's offense does not scare me nor should it scare anyone else.

Did Briles prepare Stidham for Gus? We'll see. People act like he's the next Cam Newton, but Jeremy Johnson is still waiting on his Heisman invite.

[Johnson85]

I personally think Georgia is going to rise in year 2, the talent is there. Even Nick Saban had a rough year 1, too many people judge by that.

As far as we go, we are going to be sky high for the LSU, so common sense says that after that, win or lose, and going on the road to a good team, probably means we aren't escaping with a W. Georgia has Samford the week before us.

Auburn? Hard to tell. No one know how good they will be. I don't like 2 road games in a row. Hard to predict a W there. However, when you have a good quarterback, you always have a chance.

I'm not saying I think Kirby will be bad; it's just that Smart's performance wasn't anything to make you think they'd be good. He may turn out to be great this year. But if he turned out to be very mediocre, nothing from his performance last year would make me think that's a surprising result. The only reason it'd be surprising is that he's been a good coordinator under Saban and you'd think he'd be a pretty solid head coach.

[ShotgunDawg]

The only reason it'd be surprising is that he's been a good coordinator under Saban and you'd think he'd be a pretty solid head coach.

What does being a good coordinator under Saban have to do with being a good head coach?

Jimbo is the only Saban coordinator that has turned into a top coach. Muschamp - meh, McElwaine - pretty good, Dooley - awful,

[ShotgunDawg]

I personally think Georgia is going to rise in year 2, the talent is there. Even Nick Saban had a rough year 1, too many people judge by that.

Saban took over a program at Bama that didn't have anywhere near the talent that Georgia had in year 1 of Smart. Saban took over a team coached by Mike Shula while Smart took over a team coached by Mark Richt.

Enormous difference

[LC Dawg]

Georgia started a freshman quarterback last year and he struggled at times. If Eason progresses like a lot of people think he will Georgia will be a much better team. Our best scenario would be for Eason to struggle early in the season and us beat LSU. Then we could go into Athens with a lot of confidence playing against a qb who may be struggling with his confidence.
I never know what to expect when we have to go to Auburn and play those cheating mother****ers.

[Tbonewannabe]

I agree with you. On UGA, they have probs with the Oline and qb position. Eason looks like Tom Brady, but plays like Shit a lot. Their defense shouldn't be too bad, and be the strength, but ours will perform better in my opinion this year.

Call me woolly, but I expect to beat UGA and LSU. Auburn, yes folks are giddy because we've played well on the Plains. But not me. For I too saw last years game, and their D may be a hint weaker I don't think their Offense will be bad. I expect their offense to be very good and the D too be very competitive. I don't have a good feeling about this one.

While we may lose one or two more excluding Bama, I still think we get to 8-9 wins and say '17 off' to the preseason prognosticators again this year!

I think he actually looks like Matthew Stafford but he is going to have learn when to not throw it deep. UGA probably has the best group of RBs in the league if Chubb is close to 100%. I think we will see what kind of coach Kirby is this year.

[BrunswickDawg]

I think he actually looks like Matthew Stafford but he is going to have learn when to not throw it deep. UGA probably has the best group of RBs in the league if Chubb is close to 100%. I think we will see what kind of coach Kirby is this year.

Chubb and Michel were 100% last year - and their production was down with a terrible OL. Chubb was down to 5 yards a carry from ridiculous 7.6 ypc pre-injury. That OL will either still have the same terrible players 1 year later or a number of true freshman. Their running game should not scare us.

[Kyper]

Saban took over a program at Bama that didn't have anywhere near the talent that Georgia had in year 1 of Smart. Saban took over a team coached by Mike Shula while Smart took over a team coached by Mark Richt.

Enormous difference

not really. Georgia had 1 player drafted last year- a 5th rounder. Thats it. That doesnt scream "extremely talented"

[Bothrops]

Historically we've played like dog shit in Athens, although we always brought shit teams over there. So they expect to beat us, it's up to our players to prevent that. We'll see.

Auburn will get the calls and win late. If we come in there 0-2 in the league, it may be over early. If we come in 1-1 it will be one hell of a ball game.

[bulldawg28]

We're winning both

[Reason2succeed]

Fitz and Grantham will put in extra work against Georgia to give us the win. The momentum if we've beaten LSU and Georgia will push us past auburn too.

Last year we played like crap on both sides of th ball. It's not so much about what they did to us as much as it was what we did to ourselves. Mentally our team checked out on that game. Had we played Auburn like we played TAMU it would have at least been a closer game.

[KentuckyDawg13]

It's due to the timing of the schedule mostly. On paper, MSU matches well with UGa but playing on the road the week after LSU which our team/fans/stadium will be rockin'...is a hard win. Their game prior to ours is mostly a scrimmage/warm-up.
I hope I am wrong predicting this loss to UGa, especially with the Fitz going home scenario.