Tuesday ‘Dawg Bites and Madness Takes Its Toll

Welcome to Tuesday, Bulldog fans! And a Happy Halloween to all those who celebrate. We hope you have a safe and fun one, whether you are going to an adult costume party, taking a young’un trick-or-treating, passing out candy to neighbors, bingeing horror movies, or perhaps the scariest thing of all... watching the first CFP ranking reveal of the 2023 season! (cue organ playing Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor).

Before you take a step to the right, maybe first take a jump to the left:

Now onto news and notes of the Bulldog variety:

All the Gators are safely ensconced back home with their collective scaly tails between their inordinately short legs, thus the need for mules to ride in and out on. But in the Classic City, the Bulldogs are riding high and soaking up the WLOCP win with requisite glory. An especial focus is on #84, as Ladd McConkey was awarded the SEC Offensive Player of the Week. It makes a difference when he can play pretty much an entire game, no?

If you leave TIAAEverClear Field with a win, you should automatically get an “A”. Because that school, and that city, has wrecked many a dream before. So victory is the most important thing. Unless you’re one of the intrepid staff at the Red & Black, in which case you dive deep on position groups with a critical eye.

We know the game time for Missouri - another featured SEC matchup on CBS which will be the sixth time Georgia is broadcast by such (the others being SC, Kentucky, Auburn, Vandy (kinda, noon), and UF). With some key division and conference matchups on the horizon, some uncertainty has been injected into the mix. The Ole Miss visit to Athens broadcast announcement has been put on hold. Is there a limit how many times CBS can carry a single team? Beats me.

There was a lot of injury news during the Cocktail Party. Apparently CBS dedicated a camera just for Brock Bowers on the sideline. But we also saw Amarius Mims dressed out, though Truss and Freeling were good enough to keep him rested one more valuable week. I am just finding out Roderick Robinson was also dressed out Saturday, and was 3rd on the depth chart. Again, Edwards and Milton did a more than serviceable job, so he didn’t see the field.

This is the first I’m hearing about Dangerous Dan Jackson’s situation, as well as updates on CJ Allen and Tykee Smith, both of whom left the field at some point during the Gator Stomping.

If Madness does take it’s toll, what does it do to the poll? Georgia’s dominant win versus a rival, plus Michigan’s off week on top of making news for all the wrong reasons, means UGA cements its position as the #1 team in the AP Poll for the 20th straight week.

Tonight some scary things will happen. Black cats become uber-plentiful, witches polish up their Nimbus 2000s, monsters come out at night, and the College Football Playoff committee reveals their initial rankings for the current season. With Washington having a Heisman favorite and a valuable victory over Oregon, they are looking to get into the top 4 for the first time since 2016. That Ohio State is crowing about their wins over also-ranked Notre Dame and Penn State. Michigan just points to dominating a mostly meh-schedule to date. Florida State took care of LSU early, beat an average Clemson, and pulled away from a used-to-be-ranked Duke. They are all undefeated. And so is Georgia. And wins matter, at least to last year’s committee. This one may go off script and instead value the number of unpaid Paleontology grad students deployed in Mongolia.

Where do you think the Bulldogs land? I understand no team ranked #1 in the initial poll has made the playoffs (or some such hokey). Does Georgia get the benefit of the doubt as the 2 time reigning champs? Does Michigan get the bump because of it’s margin of victory? How about oSu, FSU, and UW? Will their strength of schedule push UGA outside the top 4?

Let us know any news we missed, or how you feel the rankings will shake out in the comments below. And as always...

GO ‘DAWGS!!!