Sunday morning, my fiancé and wife-to-be opened up the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to find the teaser on the front page, "Dogs demolish Ga. Southern". She was furious.
In her eyes, "demolish" couldn’t be further from the truth. The final 45-21 score does not imply demolition, nor did Georgia’s performance Saturday over the Eagles represent a demolition of any kind. In her eyes, those Bulldogs should just be lucky "we" let them out of the stadium alive.
Would I say Georgia’s win Saturday over the hometown Eagles was a demolition? Nope. Georgia was the better team, we’ll leave it at that. Plus, whoever wrote that teaser for Sunday’s AJC edition probably never saw the whole game, much like the 50,000 "diehard" UGA fans who left before the end of the third quarter.
I’ll say this about Saturday — Georgia is the No. 1 team in the country — but they didn’t play anywhere near close to being No. 1. If you were paying close attention to Georgia Southern, this could be a surprisingly exciting year for the Eagles.
After a 4-1 week: 23-26.
Fightin’ Yellow Jackets and the Pride of Metter
Before we get to the infamous predictions, congratulations are in order to the football teams of Southeast Bulloch and Meter.
Southeast went to Eastman and shut down Dodge County in a 25-20 win on Friday, starting the season with a big bang. Not many gave SEB a chance going into 2008, but the Yellow Jackets just beat a 9-3 team from a year ago, on the road, in region play. Brooklet should be a hoppin’ place Friday when SEB opens its home slate against Toombs County.
As for Metter, the move back to Class A did prove effective. The Tigers snapped a 23-game losing streak by beating rival Portal. Coach Clay Hill has said all along that he had a three-year plan for his team. This was the start of year three, and there can’t be many doubting him or his MHS squad now.
Eagles fly back home
Chris Hatcher was abnormally upbeat after Saturday’s loss to Georgia. The man hates to lose, regardless the opponent, but I think he recognized the positive efforts and execution his team made for a full 60 minutes.
The Eagles open a four-game homestand Saturday against Austin Peay — "Let’s go Peay! Let’s go Peay!" — and that second-half momentum in Athens should carry into Paulson in front of a raucous crowd.
Don’t take the Governors lightly — they were 7-4 last year.
Still, Southern rolls, 46-17.
SoCon upsets
East Carolina’s win over Virginia Tech may have been stunning to a few fans — this Saturday could be even more stunning.
Furman travels to Blacksburg to face the Turkey’s Saturday and this game has all the makings. The Paladins throttled Mars Hill in their opener, while VT may still be smarting from what can only be considered a disappointing way to start the season.
Furman has all the momentum and what looks to be a much improved team. Tech could still be scratching its head all the way up to kickoff.
Does Furman pull off the upset? No way. Playing in Blacksburg proves to be the difference.
Virgina Tech 24, Furman 14.
Another South Cackalacky team, The Citadel, faces Clemson this weekend. As I stated before, picking against the Tigers is likely to get me canned. But again, The Citadel is coming off a win against a much-lesser opponent while CU is nothing less than demoralized after being rolled by laundry detergent.
However, I don’t think the Military College of the South has enough team speed to keep up with the orange-and-purps.
Son of Clem 48, Bullpups 10.
Finally, the Elon hype should just about be silenced by now.
A preseason pick to finish second in SoCon play, the Phoenix had their flames handed to them Saturday by Richmond, 28-10.
Elon coach Pete Lembo had been calling the Richmond game perhaps the biggest in the school’s history… flop. The Spiders are a good team, but Elon didn’t even put up much of a fight.
Now, the Phoenix have to travel to Stony Brook. Believe or not, this upstate New York school has joined the Big South, which gives all you Confederate fans a small victory.
The Seawolves put away a usually solid Colgate team in the opener. I think they do it again to an even greater foe.
Stony Brook 31, Elon 28.
The Falcan’ts
Atlanta begins — I can’t remember his name era — on Sunday, hosting Detroit.
I would use the phrase, "O how the mighty have fallen" in this case, but the Falcons were never mighty. At this point it looks like they don’t have glass of ice water’s chance in hell to be mighty ever again.
The Falcons lose Sunday to the Lions — yes, the Lions — and frankly, I’m not sure they ever win again.
Detroit 35, Matty Ry-Ry 19.
In her eyes, "demolish" couldn’t be further from the truth. The final 45-21 score does not imply demolition, nor did Georgia’s performance Saturday over the Eagles represent a demolition of any kind. In her eyes, those Bulldogs should just be lucky "we" let them out of the stadium alive.
Would I say Georgia’s win Saturday over the hometown Eagles was a demolition? Nope. Georgia was the better team, we’ll leave it at that. Plus, whoever wrote that teaser for Sunday’s AJC edition probably never saw the whole game, much like the 50,000 "diehard" UGA fans who left before the end of the third quarter.
I’ll say this about Saturday — Georgia is the No. 1 team in the country — but they didn’t play anywhere near close to being No. 1. If you were paying close attention to Georgia Southern, this could be a surprisingly exciting year for the Eagles.
After a 4-1 week: 23-26.
Fightin’ Yellow Jackets and the Pride of Metter
Before we get to the infamous predictions, congratulations are in order to the football teams of Southeast Bulloch and Meter.
Southeast went to Eastman and shut down Dodge County in a 25-20 win on Friday, starting the season with a big bang. Not many gave SEB a chance going into 2008, but the Yellow Jackets just beat a 9-3 team from a year ago, on the road, in region play. Brooklet should be a hoppin’ place Friday when SEB opens its home slate against Toombs County.
As for Metter, the move back to Class A did prove effective. The Tigers snapped a 23-game losing streak by beating rival Portal. Coach Clay Hill has said all along that he had a three-year plan for his team. This was the start of year three, and there can’t be many doubting him or his MHS squad now.
Eagles fly back home
Chris Hatcher was abnormally upbeat after Saturday’s loss to Georgia. The man hates to lose, regardless the opponent, but I think he recognized the positive efforts and execution his team made for a full 60 minutes.
The Eagles open a four-game homestand Saturday against Austin Peay — "Let’s go Peay! Let’s go Peay!" — and that second-half momentum in Athens should carry into Paulson in front of a raucous crowd.
Don’t take the Governors lightly — they were 7-4 last year.
Still, Southern rolls, 46-17.
SoCon upsets
East Carolina’s win over Virginia Tech may have been stunning to a few fans — this Saturday could be even more stunning.
Furman travels to Blacksburg to face the Turkey’s Saturday and this game has all the makings. The Paladins throttled Mars Hill in their opener, while VT may still be smarting from what can only be considered a disappointing way to start the season.
Furman has all the momentum and what looks to be a much improved team. Tech could still be scratching its head all the way up to kickoff.
Does Furman pull off the upset? No way. Playing in Blacksburg proves to be the difference.
Virgina Tech 24, Furman 14.
Another South Cackalacky team, The Citadel, faces Clemson this weekend. As I stated before, picking against the Tigers is likely to get me canned. But again, The Citadel is coming off a win against a much-lesser opponent while CU is nothing less than demoralized after being rolled by laundry detergent.
However, I don’t think the Military College of the South has enough team speed to keep up with the orange-and-purps.
Son of Clem 48, Bullpups 10.
Finally, the Elon hype should just about be silenced by now.
A preseason pick to finish second in SoCon play, the Phoenix had their flames handed to them Saturday by Richmond, 28-10.
Elon coach Pete Lembo had been calling the Richmond game perhaps the biggest in the school’s history… flop. The Spiders are a good team, but Elon didn’t even put up much of a fight.
Now, the Phoenix have to travel to Stony Brook. Believe or not, this upstate New York school has joined the Big South, which gives all you Confederate fans a small victory.
The Seawolves put away a usually solid Colgate team in the opener. I think they do it again to an even greater foe.
Stony Brook 31, Elon 28.
The Falcan’ts
Atlanta begins — I can’t remember his name era — on Sunday, hosting Detroit.
I would use the phrase, "O how the mighty have fallen" in this case, but the Falcons were never mighty. At this point it looks like they don’t have glass of ice water’s chance in hell to be mighty ever again.
The Falcons lose Sunday to the Lions — yes, the Lions — and frankly, I’m not sure they ever win again.
Detroit 35, Matty Ry-Ry 19.
