FanHouse

I disagree that UGA has been the most successful SEC program this decade, even if we confine what we means by success to SEC play. UGA has earned 3 SEC Title appeareances this decade, the same as LSU. They have won two SEC Titles this decade, the same as LSU and Florida. They have a worse SEC winning percentage and have won fewer SEC games this decade than either LSU or Florida. And of course they have not won any National Titles, but LSU and Florida have won one each.

At best, UGA is the third best SEC team of the decade.

Reply

I agree, Mike. Ryan, please qualify your statement a little better. Even the most ardent UGA fan or alum wouldn't agree with that. Richt took over a pretty talented team from Donnan and if he makes a couple of better "on the field" calls, he probably has a little more success under his belt. But most successful in the past decade? Have they even played for an NC? Pullleeeeeeaze....

Auburn, LSU and UF are all considered better programs right now with UGA hoping the recruiting and "Stafford" factor become a reality and they vie for another NC next year. This isn't their year but I can see them going 11-2. And if Richt can get back the Dawg bravado of a couple of decades ago and beat UF with some regularity, then we can reevaluate in 2010.

Some stats to consider:

UGA has been to two BCS bowls in 10 years, 3 Outback Bowls, 2 Peach Bowls, 1 Capital One, 1 Oahu Bowl, and a Music City Bowl.

UF has been to four BCS bowls (1 NC), 3 Outback Bowls, 2 Citrus Bowls, 1 Peach Bowl.

Again, Ryan, please clarify your argument.

Reply

I believe the Dawgs have been the most successful team in this decade WITHIN THE CONFERENCE. What I mean by that is conference play only -- that excludes bowl games, BCS, etc. I agree that it should have been worded a little better. My apologies.

Reply

Ryan, my man, what do you have to support that argument? Just the facts, Sir...just the facts. Mike provided you with the SEC championship numbers. They are tied with LSU and Florida for SEC Champ wins. They only made two of those champ. games because Zook lost to Ole Miss two years in a row. UF would have won the tie-breaker without those losses to Eli. They also didn't beat Florida head-to-head in those seasons.

What they HAVE had, that Florida and LSU have lacked, is a consistent coaching staff. Are they the most solid program of the decade? Yes. But the results don't add up. And, losing to Kentucky and Vandy in the same year has got to discount them somewhat.

Reply

"It is odd that the Dawgs have been the most successful team (within the conference) in this decade"

(1) Only The Dawgs have been ranked in the Final AP Poll the last 10 years of Consecutive Final AP Poll Rankings. This includes all teams in ALL Conferences for the last Decade.

http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/past_AP_Polls.htm

(2) You cannot exclude Bowl Games, and must include all Opponents :

I-A Wins 1997-2006 (10 years) The Last Decade :



---- ----------------------- ------- ---- ---- ---- -----
Rank Team name Win-Pct Won Lost Tied Games
---- ----------------------- ------- ---- ---- ---- -----
1 Texas 0.77778 98 28 0 126
2t Boise State 0.77600 97 28 0 125
2t Ohio State 0.77600 97 28 0 125
4t Florida State 0.75591 96 31 0 127
4t Georgia 0.76190 96 30 0 126
4t Michigan 0.77419 96 28 0 124
7t Oklahoma 0.74219 95 33 0 128
7t Virginia Tech 0.75397 95 31 0 126
9t Florida 0.74603 94 32 0 126
9t Miami-Florida 0.76423 94 29 0 123
9t Nebraska 0.73438 94 34 0 128
9t Tennessee 0.74603 94 32 0 126
13 Southern Cal 0.72000 90 35 0 125

Only Texas (by 2), Boise State (doesn't count playing in their conference) and Ohio State (by 1) have more Wins in the Last Decade of 1-A Football than The Dawgs do. In the SEC Conference, there is no team who has enjoyed anywhere near the consistency of success the Last Decade that The Dawgs have. Florida has Won 1 National Championship in the last decade after 3 Consecutive Seasons of Losing 5 Games a Season 3 of the last 4 years. 94-32 Florida the Last Decade is NOT 96-30 UGA has been. LSU is not even in the Top Dozen in Football Wins the last Decade, and have only half a mythical national championship when the # 1 in both the Coaches' Poll and AP Poll was NOT SELECTED to play Saban, now at Alabama. Tied in the Top Dozen 1-A Football Programs the last entire Decade are both Tennessee and Florida tied for 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th places. LSU is NOT even in the Top Dozen, and while both Florida (1 NC) and Tennessee (1 NC) have one (1) NC in the last Decade, there are 8 better more consistent programs than both of them, while there are only 3 better more consistent winning programs than The Dawgs.

http://football.stassen.com/cgi-bin/records/calc-wp.pl?start=1997&end=2006&rpct=1&min=1&ss=on&se=on&c1a=on&pt=on&by=Wins


(3) There are no programs in the SEC, and damn few in the nation who have more players in the NFL than The Dawgs do over this last Decade. There are fifty-six (56) shown today at CBS Sportsline dot com who are Dawgs. 56 :

http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegefootball/alumni-tracker/school/5813

(4) Looking at The SEC, Georgia stands alone at the top of this conference for what The Dawgs in fact have accomplished :


SEC Decade of Dominance: 1997-2006

1. Georgia - 96 wins. The Bulldogs have been remarkably consistent at a high level the last decade, having won eight games or more each of the last ten years. Georgia won SEC Championships under Mark Richt in both 2002 and 2005.

2. Florida (tie) - 94 wins. The defending national champions have two SEC championships in the last ten years, 2000 and 2006. Steve Spurrier won ten games four of his last five seasons in Gainesville. Urban Meyer has won 22 games and a title in two years.

2. Tennessee (tie) - 94 wins. Phillip Fulmer has had five double-digit win seasons since 1997, a run which includes a national championship in 1998. The 'Vols slipped to 5-6 in 2005, but rebounded to win nine games a year ago.

4. LSU - 86 wins. Under Nick Saban and Les Miles, the Tigers have won 44 games the last four seasons. Saban won a conference championship in 2001 and a national championship in 2003. LSU last had a losing season in 1999.

5. Auburn - 84 wins. Chalk it up to the system, but in 2004 the Tigers went 13-0 en route to a conference championship but never got a chance to play for it all. Tommy Tuberville and company have won 33 games since 2004.

6. Arkansas - 71 wins. Houston Nutt has gone 67-44 in nine seasons with the Razorbacks. His tenure includes runs to the SEC Championship Game in both 2002 and 2006.

7. Alabama - 66 wins. The Crimson Tide have been up and down the last ten years, rising to ten wins three times but falling to losing records three times as well. Alabama won the SEC Championship in 1999.

8. Ole Miss - 65 wins. With David Cutcliffe calling the shots and Eli Manning under center, the Rebels surged to ten wins in 2003. Cutcliffe suffered just one losing season in Oxford, his last.

9. South Carolina - 54 wins. Carolina struggled at the end of the century, winning one game in two years under Brad Scott and Lou Holtz. The Gamecocks have averaged almost seven wins a year since that point.

10. Mississippi State - 50 wins. Jackie Sherrill won 33 games from 1997-2000, earning a western division championship in 1998. Since 2000, the Bulldogs have not won more than three games.

11. Kentucky - 46 wins. The Wildcats have three bowl appearances the last decade, including a Music City Bowl victory over Clemson this past year. Kentucky won nine games in 2006, the most since 1984.

12. Vanderbilt - 30 wins. Though the Commodores have come close twice, they have not had a winning season over the past ten years. Vanderbilt jumped off to a great start with Jay Cutler at quarterback in 2005, only to finish 5-6.


http://www.southernpigskin.com/page.cfm?story=11416&cat=exclusives

All of you attempting to make your team look better over the last Decade of 1-A Football in this conference are full of Shiite.

Reply

Nice Try Mr. UGA. Here are some facts for your "Decade of Dominance."

Let's be realistic about this. You base your entire argument on three things:

1. Total wins in 10 years
3. Consistency in the AP
4. Players in the NFL.

1. 2 wins is what separates UGA from UF over that span. TWO! I am sure if you compare schedules for the last 10 years you will see that UF had to play FSU in its heydey and UGA has Georgia Tech. Now, did you look at conference records? Ryan's whole argument was "throw out the BCS, bowl games, etc." Well UF's record for the 10 years in conference?

62-19. vs. UGA's 58-24. FOUR wins. So you have the same number of SEC Championships in the last decade and a worse record.

2. AP consistency. There is no denying that UGA has finished each year in the top 25 for ten years. As a matter of fact here is the list of the average final poll number for four schools. The assumption is that for the years any team was not listed in the poll, I gave them a 30 as a final number rather than 26 in fairness.

1. FSU 12.7
2. UF 13.1
3. UGA 13.2
4. GTech 24.5

Every year UF plays a team at 12.7 and 13.2. You get to play hapless GT at 24.5. That should account for a couple of those "extra wins." Even with assigning the 30 to UF for a couple of seasons, they still averaged out better.

3. Players in the NFL? 56. Did you count how many Gators are in the NFL? 59.

So you put together a very thoughtful argument but you missed some key numbers. If we treated several categories with assigned values like SEC wins, AP finishes, Championships, etc.

National Championships UF
SEC Championships TIE
Overall Record UGA
SEC Record UF
AVG Poll Rank UF
Players in NFL UF
Head to Head UF
Strength of schedule UF
BCS Bowl appearances UF
Peach Bowl appearances UGA

...you will lose everytime. Decade of domination? That is laughable. 2 more wins, with the same number of SEC's and no NC, is NOT domination. I don't know LSU's numbers for this argument but they at least have their "mythical NC". You guys haven't even played for the NC. Not once! UGA has less conference wins in that span. Why? You are 2-8 against Florida in that span. Richt even went 1-2 against the Zooker. You had me going when I first read your argument but when you peel back the onion, there isn't much there.

Ryan, any comments?

Reply

My comment is that in retrospect I'd rather have said Mark Richtin particular, rather than UGA as a program, has had the best record in the SEC (again, playing within the SEC only) considering that Meyer, Spurrier, etc. are still relatively new to their teams.

It is hard to think of UGA as a dominant team in the SEC. But they do have a very good record.

Reply

and I would agree with that, Ryan. Thomas UGA throwing around the "Decade of.." stuff just got me fired up to do the research. If I thought it was true for a second, I would have accepted it. But not once in the last 10 years have I felt they were the best team in the SEC except for 2002. That was a very good team. Thanks for the post and the comments. I love a little debate before the season.

Reply

    I'm a little late to this argument, but I'd have to say that I was a little surprised at the hate toward Georgia. They have most of the hard numbers on their side. (I'm talking wins and losses. NFL graduates and poll stuff ain't it.) It wasn't even close till the little problems with Ky and Vandy last year... And a lot depends on how one defines "this decade."

    I think, technically, "this decade" means 2001 till present. Some would count 2000 in this decade, as in 2000-2009. Dateologists, however, will remind those folk that the year 2000 was part of the twentieth century. There WAS no year zero, remember? 1 AD, not zero. Then again, it could mean "this decade," as in June 1997-June 2007.

    As I argued in Mr. Marshall's blog, I don't think it's a blowout unless it's a 21 point margin or more. 14 may have been a blow-out in the 1960s, but not now.

Reply

Acid, did you even read my post? They DON'T have most of the hard numbers on their side. It's not about hate. I was very respectful about UGA's program. But the facts are all in black and whie. They have 2 more wins than Florida in that period but 4 less conference wins. Setting aside all of the "NFL graduates and poll stuff," they lack the BCS games, strength of schedule, head-to-head, etc. What did you miss in all of that? Thomas called it a "Decade of Dominance." I have more than proved that they did not dominate the last ten years. You would have to smoke crack to not follow the logic of my "hard" numbers versus Thomas UGA's. You are on the clock, Acid.

Reply

    I read the post. I also took "this decade" to mean 2001-2007. UF's total record: 55-21. UGA: 61-17. UF's SEC mark: 35-14. UGA: 36-15. Florida was slightly better in the SEC, but only went to Atlanta once, to Georgia's three times. Georgia wins the total record battle, although it could be argued that Georgia Tech is not as tough as FSU, and UF did get beat by Miami and Ken Dorsey twice.

    I could also point out that Auburn's SEC record during this time was 37-12, which trumps both UGA and UF. LSU is 38-13. Overall, Auburn is 57-19, and LSU is 62-16.

    And so, by the numbers, this decade [the decade of the 2000-single digits]... SEC records: 1. Auburn, 2. LSU, 3. UF, 4. UGA. Overall records: 1. LSU, 2. UGA, 3. Auburn, 4. UF.

    Georgia has more numbers than Florida. 3 Zooker years will do that to a team...

Reply

Thanks for the research, Acid. The premise was Thomas UGA's 10 year window. So now it's seven.

It's hard to argue against UGA since '01. Ryan's post referred to coaching consistency and UGA definitely has that. Donnan, I mean Zooker's 8 win bonanzas did set UF back but I am sure UGA would trade all of that for just one NC. It's about rings and the "decade" ain't over yet.

Reply

    The first comment to mention "decade," said, "this decade." That's good for me, because if "the past decade" were used, I'd have to include Auburn's stinker 3-8 1998 record in the calculations.

    Despite the "Zooker" comment, Zook's SEC record was 16-8, and Donnan's was 25-15. There are certainly long-term coaches still in the SEC that would like to have records like that. Houston Nutt, for instance?

    As to consistency, no SEC team in the past ten years has more than two SEC championships, or more than three appearances in the SEC Championship Game. Tough conference...

Reply

No doubt it's a tough conference, Acid. I guess we agree to disagree. You use the '01-07 and I'll stick with the last 10 years. The last "Decade of Dominance" in the SEC was the Nineties with UF. This decade will be interesting to see how it plays out. I would be curious to see or break down the Seventies and Eighties. Obiously, UF wouldn't be part of that argument. Either way, it's fun to banter in the off season. I see we have not heard from Thomas UGA since his comments. Yes, I'm a homer. But, I'm reasonable and will listen or read any argument. Thanks for your comments. I respect your opinion and research.

Reply

    There used to be some archives of old records at

http://www.secsports.com.

    I don't know of those are still there, but I spent hours one cold weekend pouring through them. It was fun to look at. I don't have time with the holiday coming up tomorrow, to do a bunch of research, but I do have some non-proofed opinions about the 1970s and 1980s in the SEC.

    I think (as much as it pains me to type it) that Alabama DOMINATED the 1970s. I'd be surprised if any other SEC school was even close. I THINK Auburn is going to have the best SEC record of the 1980s, especially if it's 1981-1990. (4 SEC titles) But, some other schools are going to be very close. Florida was very good in the 1980s, too, and would have been tops if not for Charley Pell and Galen Hall getting the program in trouble. Steve Spurrier had the Gators back on top as the decade closed out, at 10-1. Arnsbarger's LSU teams were good (Dalton Hilliard and Gary James, anyone?) and so were the Vols. UGA had a couple of titles at the start of the decade, too.

Reply

Not sure why everyone thinks the Dawgs haven't been "close" to the national title. In 2002 Ohio St. beat 7 teams with last second heroics and/or a long FG and that was the year UGA finished 3rd in the BCS with 1 loss.

So if Nugent missed one wide, it would have been UGA vs. Miami instead of the Buckeyes. That's "close" in my book...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Ohio_State_Buckeyes_football_team

Reply