I, like Orson Swindle, am pledged to use the BlogPoll rankings once college football season gets underway, but, until The Lawgiver gets this year's voting up and running, we are stuck with the newly-released USA Today preseason coaches' poll.
At 13th, the Bulldogs are the highest-ranked team not to have had a double-digit victory total in 2006. Georgia also is the only team in the preseason top 16 to have finished last season outside of the coaches' top 25. The 'Dawgs were a preseason No. 13 in the coaches' poll in 2005, as well. That Red and Black squad went on to win the S.E.C. championship.
Although DC Trojan fears an eventual dropoff, Southern California shows no signs of relinquishing its hold on the top spot, garnering 45 of 60 first-place votes to lay claim to the No. 1 ranking.
S.E.C. division favorites L.S.U. and Florida follow at second and third, respectively. Texas and Michigan round out the top five, with the Longhorns being the only team ranked above sixth not to have received even a single first-place vote.
Georgia rivals Auburn and Tennessee check in at 14th and 15th, respectively, with defending S.E.C. West champ Arkansas being ranked 20th. Georgia Tech effectively is tied for No. 26 with Boston College and the Yellow Jackets are joined in the category "others receiving votes" by South Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma State, and Kentucky, in that order.
Go 'Dawgs!