Welcome to the official off-season for Georgia football.
Sure, there's recruiting in full swing, with signing day coming up in February, and then there'll be spring practice/G-Day to feel luke warm about in a few months.
Meh.
I'm ready for actual football against an actual team in the actual fall.
But, until then, I get to ramble about whatever's on my mind, and today I've got something that's worrying me.
Tennessee.
No, not next year's game in Knoxville (though it sure will be nice to get the 2016 game out of my taste buds), but the way the Vols went through 2016, which I fear will be how Georgia does in 2017.
I have a sneaking suspicion (which I hope is wrong) that the Dogs will be a trendy pick to win the SEC East in '17, perhaps a contender for the playoff, since coaches usually take a big step forward in Year 2.
They'll point to the schedule. Home dates with Appalachian State, Samford, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina and Kentucky.
Barring catastrophe, that should be six wins.
The road games? Notre Dame, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Auburn and Georgia Tech.
None of those teams were especially potent in 2016 (though, it should be noted, Georgia lost to three of them anyway), so might there be four or five wins in this group? I'm sure the analysts will say there's only one or two losses in there, at most.
Toss in the annual Cocktail Party in Jacksonville, which prognosticators continue to say (incorrectly) that this is the year the Dogs take back Everbank Field, and that's another "what if" on the schedule.
Here's my point. Everyone always feels great in the off-season. Nobody ever loses.
Come this fall, when Georgia will likely start the season ranked in the Top 15-20, it might actually lose.
Heck, it might lose right out of the gate to the Mountaineers, or a week later in South Bend. Or both.
It could lose in Knoxville, Nashville, Jacksonville, Atlanta or even in Athens. Or all of the above.
I fear, in much the same way Tennessee was supposed to contend for the playoff in 2016 and didn't, the Bulldogs will repeat that arc in 2017. High expectations, dud results.
But again, I hope I'm wrong. Maybe this coming team will surprise me.
