"Florida and LSU have each won national championships since the last time Georgia won the SEC. Is there something missing at Georgia and what must the Bulldogs do to pull even with those programs again?"
Tony Barnhart wrote his response to Ching's question back in April. He basically said, "Absolutely nothing" is missing. When you look at the stats from Barnhart and realize that Georgia leads the SEC in overall and is tied for first in SEC regular season wins since 2001, it's hard to disagree.
We're close as a program. We just aren't there yet.
This week, Ching got one last response to his original question from a national writer. The response was, "Georgia is a program that probably lies out of the top 10 on an annual basis." The columnist goes on to explain why we're not as good as UF, LSU or Bama. Here's my replies (his answers are in bold):
National Columnist: "Georgia is a program that probably lies out of the top 10 on an annual basis."
PWD Retort: Richt has won more games over the past 8 years than any SEC school. Meyer has 2 Top 10 finishes in his four years at UF. During those 4 years, Richt has 3 top 10 finishes. So his point is basically wrong and ill-informed.
NC: "The Dawgs always seem to be missing something. The last couple of years it was the offensive line. This year, heck, it might be quarterback, or secondary."
PWD: Well...that's true. But aren't most schools "missing something" when they aren't winning a national title? Last year, the biggest problem was the injuries to Sturdivant, Owens, Ellerbe and every able bodied DE on the team. That and tackling like the team was endorsed by Charmin. If you're "not missing something" and still not winning national titles (See: Southern Cal) isn't that a bigger issue than "missing something?"
NC: That doesn't make [UGA] a bad program but it has to realize what it is -- not Alabama, not LSU, not Florida.
PWD: Bama? Seriously? Bama? Bama lost to UL-Monroe two years ago, and they're likely going to be on a 3 game losing streak come Sept. 6th. Bama is building something exciting, but Saban hasn't built what Richt has built. Not yet anyway.
NC: This might sound weird but LSU and Florida and Alabama probably have more talented recruiting bases.
PWD: Louisiana and Georgia have comparable recruiting bases based on NFL rosters, recruiting rankings, whatever. This map shows 2007 NFL Rosters by State. Our state was the #4 producer of NFL talent on 2007 rosters. Louisiana, Ohio and Pennslyvania are in a near tie for 5th place. The State of Alabama has almost half as many NFL players as Georgia on active rosters.
The problem GA faces is that Atlanta is a more transient community and there are fewer life long Dawg fans in the state. Alabama's talent base is grossly inferior from a numbers standpoint, but there are more people growing up longing to play for the Tide. Florida obviously has a deeper in state pool. No argument there.
NC: And if there is a five-star player in Alabama, he usually isn't going to Georgia."
PWD: Definitely true. Garner's Alabama connections have been near totally useless. We rarely have more than two scholarship players from Alabama at a time. Currently, we have two.
PWD Retort: Richt has won more games over the past 8 years than any SEC school. Meyer has 2 Top 10 finishes in his four years at UF. During those 4 years, Richt has 3 top 10 finishes. So his point is basically wrong and ill-informed.
NC: "The Dawgs always seem to be missing something. The last couple of years it was the offensive line. This year, heck, it might be quarterback, or secondary."
PWD: Well...that's true. But aren't most schools "missing something" when they aren't winning a national title? Last year, the biggest problem was the injuries to Sturdivant, Owens, Ellerbe and every able bodied DE on the team. That and tackling like the team was endorsed by Charmin. If you're "not missing something" and still not winning national titles (See: Southern Cal) isn't that a bigger issue than "missing something?"
NC: That doesn't make [UGA] a bad program but it has to realize what it is -- not Alabama, not LSU, not Florida.
PWD: Bama? Seriously? Bama? Bama lost to UL-Monroe two years ago, and they're likely going to be on a 3 game losing streak come Sept. 6th. Bama is building something exciting, but Saban hasn't built what Richt has built. Not yet anyway.
NC: This might sound weird but LSU and Florida and Alabama probably have more talented recruiting bases.
PWD: Louisiana and Georgia have comparable recruiting bases based on NFL rosters, recruiting rankings, whatever. This map shows 2007 NFL Rosters by State. Our state was the #4 producer of NFL talent on 2007 rosters. Louisiana, Ohio and Pennslyvania are in a near tie for 5th place. The State of Alabama has almost half as many NFL players as Georgia on active rosters.
The problem GA faces is that Atlanta is a more transient community and there are fewer life long Dawg fans in the state. Alabama's talent base is grossly inferior from a numbers standpoint, but there are more people growing up longing to play for the Tide. Florida obviously has a deeper in state pool. No argument there.
NC: And if there is a five-star player in Alabama, he usually isn't going to Georgia."
PWD: Definitely true. Garner's Alabama connections have been near totally useless. We rarely have more than two scholarship players from Alabama at a time. Currently, we have two.
What are your thoughts? What are we missing?
PWD
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