Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Georgia No. 2 in latest polls

Interesting development today: Georgia fell to #2 in both the AP and Coaches' polls. It's easy to see why, although I'm not sure I understand the logic behind it: USC, the new No. 1, trounced Virginia 52-7 on the road, while Georgia and Ohio State routed Georgia Southern and Youngstown State, both FCS teams.

(Off-topic, but still relevant: Bowling Green, in light of its 27-17 upset of #25 Pittsburgh, received votes in both polls, with 17 in the AP and two in the Coaches'.)

While both polls are very close toward the top, this doesn't exactly bode well psychologically for CMU. Facing #2 is better than facing #1 in theory, but the Bulldogs are going to feel a little cheated for losing their top spot in the polls despite doing nothing to lose it. This could give them a lot more to play for Saturday, when they play Central at 3:30 p.m., to prove that they should be #1. This doesn't mean CMU has no chance, by any means, but it's doubtful they're going to sneak up on Georgia. That team's going to be ready to play, so CMU's going to have to really show up, too.

UPDATE: Here's a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that kind of previews Saturday's game. Fun fact: "The reporter" that Chip Towers is referring to is me, from the Monday morning teleconference with Butch Jones. But two things were misconstrued: I actually asked Jones, as a wrap-up question, if he was going to try any other different things with his team this weekend after seeing it in action for the first time last week, and I definitely didn't think I "got a great scoop" after Jones answered the question. After working with Jones for more than a year, I would hope that I could tell when he's kidding around. Sometimes experiences in your own line of work come back to bite you, I guess!

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