Like you, I tend to start really missing college football about this time of year. It’s almost enough to make me a fan of The Sun Belt conference. Troy State versus Western Kentucky, anyone? Oh, wait. Troy dropped the State from its moniker. It’s now Troy University. I understand why. Last time I checked, not one of the 50 states in the U.S. was called Troy.  
Onward. From the net, five things you’ll never hear the average UGA football fan say,:
5. I have reviewed your job application.
4. I’ll take Shakespeare for 1,000, Alex.
3. Let’s go to the museum.
2. Too many deer heads detract from the décor.
1. I hope this wasn’t tested on animals.
Same old song and dance?
Speaking of UGA, this is going to be the year the University of Georgia gets over the hump and wins the SEC and a national title and why not?
They’ve got gunslinging quarterback Aaron Murray back and about a billion talented skill players. They’ve got straight-arrow coach Mark Richt, who seems to be on the hot seat about once a season but somehow lives to fight another day. I suspect this is because he’s hauled in about a dozen straight top-10 recruiting classes and usually has more talent on the roster than the Jacksonville Jaguars. Why the Bulldogs don’t win every game they play 75-0  is beyond me.
In any case, Georgia will again have a deep and talented stream of underclassmen ready to step up and lead the Bulldogs to world and, more importantly, SEC domination, if they aren’t suspended first.
And given what usually takes place over the offseason in Athens. that’s not unlikely but for arguments sake let’s say only a couple are forced to sit out a game. They can rest against North Texas.
There’s this in the Dawgs favor, too: Georgia’s supposedly tougher schedule doesn’t seem as brutal as it was first cracked up to be.
The Bulldogs open with Clemson — the only program on earth I dislike more than UGA — then face mighty South Carolina.
Note: As a South Carolinian from generations of South Carolinians, some of whom are actually Clemson fans and others conditioned by years of woeful and bitter experience to think of the Gamecocks as being everything but mighty, it’s fun to use the adjective to describe the real USC, as we tend to think of the real Carolina.
Onward: Granted, that’s a tough way to start the season. Clemson’s ugly orange uniforms alone could qualify as an unfair advantage for the Tigers and should be investigated by the NCAA. Georgia has an off date and a game against North Texas to rest up for visiting LSU before hitting the road to face Tennessee, then a home contest against Missouri and a road tilt at Vanderbilt.
The Bulldogs get another off week before taking on Florida. From there it’s a home game against former FCS power Appalachian State — the Mountaineers are moving up to FBS along with Georgia Southern — a road tilt at Auburn, a home game against Kentucky and then the road game at Georgia Tech.
I think the Dawgs beat Clemson, lose to South Carolina, crush North Texas, somehow knock off LSU, slip by Tennessee, whip Missouri, escape Vanderbilt, luck into a win over Florida, blast Auburn and Kentucky and then fall to Georgia Tech but still somehow finish ahead of South Carolina in the SEC East standings. It’s just how it works. The chicken curse will never die.
After that, Georgia squeaks past Alabama in the SEC title game and beats Ohio State in the BCS title game. And that will either be the only time I’ll ever pull for a northern school over a southern one or the only time in my life I’ll pull for UGA to whip anyone and in this case the Buckeyes, who probably have more fans living in the Coastal Empire than Savannah State does.
Why the Tebow hate?
The esteemed writer John Feinstein — I esteem him, anyway, and consider him one of the finest sports journalists of my lifetime — has a radio show on CBS and it’s about the only thing worth listening to on FM 102.1 other than Braves and Georgia Southern coverage.
Feinstein is on from 9 a.m. until noon, if you’re interested. And yep, he’s the guy who wrote “Season on the Brink,” about Bobby Knight. Great book.
Anyhow, last week Feinstein said he didn’t understand why Tim Tebow has such a devoted fan base. I don’t know either, but I know why I root for the former Heisman trophy winner from Florida.
It’s the result of the evolution of the 24-hour sports cycle and ESPN type coverage that tends to magnify the trivial and trivialize the important and confuse us all as to which is which.
Not that Tebow is one or the other. He is instead a formerly-great but unconventional college quarterback who hasn’t yet had much of a chance to prove he can do the job in the NFL. There’s been so much blather from ESPN talking sports heads about how he can’t do the job I can’t help but hope he proves them wrong.
Big time prospect
Looks like Liberty County High School linebacker Raekwon McMillan is the No. 1-rated inside linebacker in the country, at least according to some. The 6-foot-2, 242-pound teenager from just down the road in Hinesville is ranked No. 13 overall by ESPN and is considering Alabama, Ohio State, Florida and a host of other schools.
Richmond Hill High School last played against Liberty County when McMillan was a freshman and sophomore, and coach Lyman Guy said that while he was too worried about overall schemes to focus on any individual opposing player, it was clear even then McMillan was a tremendously talented young player with a great deal of potential.