Who is ready for some football?

[Dyas]

This is a line I read while on SI.com and this just made me smile even though I have heard it so many times........




This is the week when I'm supposed to jump on the Georgia bandwagon, right? That's what you're supposed to do whenever a highly ranked SEC team goes on the road and beats an equally heralded conference foe, because, as you know, the SEC is the toughest conference in the land, no questions asked.
But has anyone stopped to consider that maybe, just maybe, the league that merited four preseason top-10 teams isn't what it was cracked up to be this year?
Nothing against the Dawgs, whose "no-name" defense (ranked No. 7 nationally in points allowed) has been the driving force behind their 5-0 start and top-five national ranking, but let's be honest, this season's SEC offenses leave a lot to be desired. With the exception of one glorious quarter and overtime in Baton Rouge, Tennessee has been a mess. The Urban Meyer experiment at Florida is off to an overly rocky start. LSU is wildly inconsistent (the Tigers led Vanderbilt 12-6 after three quarters Saturday before pulling away). Auburn is a work in progress. South Carolina and Mississippi State, the two other conference teams Georgia has beaten, are well below that.
The D.J. Shockley-led Dawgs are a mix of good and bad, hence my hesitation to embrace this team. Anyone who watched their 27-14 win over the Vols on Saturday saw what amounted to a battle of turnovers. Georgia jumped to a 13-0 lead thanks in large part to Tennessee QB Rick Clausen's first-half interception at the goal line and subsequent fumble. Shockley then let the Vols back in the game in the second half with his own pick (which was returned 41 yards by Jonathan Wade) and fumble, before Tennessee doomed itself for good by turning the ball back over three plays later.
As a result, Georgia is sitting pretty in the SEC East, with the Oct. 29 Cocktail Party against Florida likely the lone obstacle in the way of a third trip in four years to the Georgia Dome. If the Gators fall to LSU next week, the Dawgs might not even have to win that one.
Georgia's defense is playing at the same dominant level as it has the past three seasons, despite losing renowned coordinator Brian VanGorder and first-day NFL Draft picks David Pollack, Thomas Davis and Odell Thurman. That's a credit not only to VanGorder's understudy, Willie Martinez, but also to a core of previously unheralded veterans (defensive end Quentin Moses, safeties Greg Blue and Tra Battle, cornerback DeMario Minter) who have taken their games to another level. The Dawgs' offense, however, much like the rest of the conference, is good but not great. Shockley is up and down. The running backs, Thomas Brown and Danny Ware, get the job done but they don't exactly wow you. The receivers are almost non-existent.
Don't get me wrong, I'll still take a flawed SEC over most of the nation's other major conferences right now. Let's face it, the Big Ten has been an embarrassment. Can you even name the second-best team in the Big 12? But when push comes to shove, there's only one SEC team, Alabama, who I'd give a fighting chance against a USC, Texas or Virginia Tech -- because the Tide are explosive both offensively and defensively.