Georgia returned to college football’s land of the relevant Friday when the Bulldogs were tabbed No. 21 in the USA Today coaches’ preseason poll.
The preseason ranking was the lowest for the Bulldogs since they were unranked before the 2001 season, Mark Richt’s first as head coach. Georgia had been ranked in every preseason top 15 since but had its national perception dented last year with an 8-5 season that culminated in the Independence Bowl.
“It’s always good to be ranked, and it’s a starting point for us,” Richt said. “Hopefully, we’ll play good enough to merit moving up in the poll as the season moves along.”
The Bulldogs were among six Southeastern Conference teams ranked, joining No. 1 Alabama, No. 3 Florida, No. 16 LSU, No. 19 Arkansas and No. 23 Auburn. Alabama is the third consecutive SEC team to hold the top preseason spot, joining Florida last summer and Georgia in 2008.
Several Georgia players have admitted that last season, which contained lopsided losses to Tennessee and Florida and a home loss to Kentucky, is serving as motivation for this year. Last year was the first five-loss season for Richt, and it resulted in the firings of three defensive assistants, including coordinator Willie Martinez.
“It’s definitely spurred a lot of guys into action,” junior tight end Aron White said. “It’s something we don’t see as the norm here at Georgia, and we’re very disappointed in ourselves. We let a lot of our fans down, and we let our coaching staff down. It hurt us to see the defensive staff almost entirely disappear before our bowl game. We cared about those guys a lot, and a lot of us felt responsible for that, so we definitely have a lot to prove.
“We’re still Georgia. We’re still a program that’s going to have 10 or 11 wins, and hopefully this year we can have more than that.”
The Bulldogs worked out Friday for a fifth consecutive day in what coaches view as the installation phase. They will practice in full pads this afternoon for the first time.
“It’s time to see who’s ready to line up and whip the guy in front of them,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said.
Topping the league
Since the SEC split into divisional play in 1992, Georgia has the best record against the opposite division.
The Bulldogs are 36-17-1 against teams from the West, which ranks just ahead of East colleagues Florida (36-18) and Tennessee (35-18-1). Alabama is 35-18-1 against teams from the East, while Auburn is next at 32-21-1.
Most of Georgia’s success has occurred under Richt, who is 23-7 against the West and has yet to lose to Arkansas (5-0), Ole Miss (4-0) and Mississippi State (2-0).
Odds and ends
Bobo said freshman tailback Ken Malcome doesn’t know his right from his left right now but has shown to be elusive in the open field. … Bobo also said sophomore split end Marlon Brown “looks like a different player” this camp. … New defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said the best position battles right now are at one outside linebacker spot between Cornelius Washington and Darryl Gamble and one safety spot between Jakar Hamilton and Nick Williams