So they said they simply was not focused and that wasn't the 'same team' that beat UGA the first time last season. Ok...whatever you say. So, you're playing for the SEC Championship and a chance to advance to the playoffs to win the NC...and THAT's not enough to make you 'focus'...?? What exactly does it take then?

Ok, I'll buy the fact that they had played us and Bama both, and that would have been hard for any team, and they were probably a little spent by the time they played us, but it's not like every team in the freakun country isn't tired and beat up by the time you play a dozen games, right? My point is, when it's all on the line, great teams rise to the occasion. Like we did in the Rose bowl. True we ran out of steam a bit in the last half of the NC game against Bama, but I don't think it was because we wasn't focused or motivated.

Thoughts?

They are desperately trying to make excuses for their performance last year. They will then take those excuses and assume they are fact, and then try to use that to build on for this year. It's exactly the same thing the guy from South Carolina (guaranteeing the win) and the guy from Florida (the score doesn't determine the better team) is trying to do. They are doing it because they don't have anything else.

Do they think we were "focused" in the 1st game? We played a total of 4 bad halves of football all season. We overcame bad halves against South Carolina and Oklahoma to win. We unfortunately did not do so last year on the plains. We made mistake after mistake, turnovers, dumb penalties, missed open receivers, and on and on. We corrected those and steamrolled them in the rematch. And yes, like you said, if they can't get focused for the SEC-C, then it ain't gonna happen.

One common theme I am reading from our opponents (not so much Bama other than saying we are not a rival-which is true since we don't play them every year) is a general lack of respect. From UF players saying the game was a lot closer than the score showed (year, it was 21-0 at the half and 35-0 heading to the 4th), the Auburn excuses (key item here, Auburn played incredible at HOME), they lost at Clemson and at LSU and lost in the Benz twice, and the South Carolina guy saying he guarantees a win-they don't want to believe that UGA is capable on the verge of being the next Alabama of the SEC. You don't hear much talk about Bama by other teams, except to say they are the team everyone is trying to be like etc.

A further slight is when looking at the SEC first team voted on the by the media, Bama had 7 first team players to our 3?? I guess I get it but we need to put together another year like last year and then everyone will know we are for real. I can remember the first time Clem played for the title and lost, I thought, NO WAY they do it again, well they did it again and I think now they get that respect. They made the playoff last year losing to a bad Syracuse team-and they are predicted to do the same again this year. For UGA to get to the place we all want to be, we have to be able to sustain the success. We all remember the Richt era, we had some good teams but it seemed it was every 5 years, after the first mini run, we won the SEC in 2002 but fell short in 2003, we were supposed to win in 2004 and fell flat, 2005 won it again, but from that moment on it was like no consistency. 2007 yes very good and hot team down the stretch but nothing again until 2012, and then it took us to 2017 to win a title-first in 12 years. Kirby and company need to stay at the top, that is what escaped Richt, he took us from the Goff/Donnan era of having talent but not enough, to having more talent and winning some but not enough. Hopefully we can sustain this success and you know Bama is eventually headed down when Saban hits the road-he will deny he is leaving but he will not stay once he breaks the Bear's record, or that is my opinion.

Yeah, I saw that...Cece Jefferson from UF.....'That score doesn't reflect who's the better team.' Uh....this boy IS in college right? What a stupid comment to make, when your down 21-0 at the half and end up getting prison raped 42-7. This is from a team that was pretty awful all year long, so to insinuate they were somehow a 'better team' than us is just embarrassing to anyone with an intelligence slightly above the primates.

Haney said:

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One common theme I am reading from our opponents (not so much Bama other than saying we are not a rival-which is true since we don't play them every year) is a general lack of respect. From UF players saying the game was a lot closer than the score showed (year, it was 21-0 at the half and 35-0 heading to the 4th), the Auburn excuses (key item here, Auburn played incredible at HOME), they lost at Clemson and at LSU and lost in the Benz twice, and the South Carolina guy saying he guarantees a win-they don't want to believe that UGA is capable on the verge of being the next Alabama of the SEC. You don't hear much talk about Bama by other teams, except to say they are the team everyone is trying to be like etc.

A further slight is when looking at the SEC first team voted on the by the media, Bama had 7 first team players to our 3?? I guess I get it but we need to put together another year like last year and then everyone will know we are for real. I can remember the first time Clem played for the title and lost, I thought, NO WAY they do it again, well they did it again and I think now they get that respect. They made the playoff last year losing to a bad Syracuse team-and they are predicted to do the same again this year. For UGA to get to the place we all want to be, we have to be able to sustain the success. We all remember the Richt era, we had some good teams but it seemed it was every 5 years, after the first mini run, we won the SEC in 2002 but fell short in 2003, we were supposed to win in 2004 and fell flat, 2005 won it again, but from that moment on it was like no consistency. 2007 yes very good and hot team down the stretch but nothing again until 2012, and then it took us to 2017 to win a title-first in 12 years. Kirby and company need to stay at the top, that is what escaped Richt, he took us from the Goff/Donnan era of having talent but not enough, to having more talent and winning some but not enough. Hopefully we can sustain this success and you know Bama is eventually headed down when Saban hits the road-he will deny he is leaving but he will not stay once he breaks the Bear's record, or that is my opinion.

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It's almost impossible to disagree with you, and I'll add that this year we will see further evidence of poll bias against UGA. We are almost certain to be ranked outside the top 3 in the preseason polls - most likely 4th or 5th behind Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and maybe someone like Washington or Oklahoma. Compare us this year to Clemson being ranked 2nd entering the 2016 season. We both had lost the NC game the previous year, although we played Alabama closer than they did in 2015. We both return our starting QBs, but we return more of our offense (8 starters vs 7) and more of our defense (5 starters vs 4) this year than they did that year. Our recruiting has been significantly better over the last 4-5 years than theirs had been at that time. And perhaps more importantly, prior to Clemson's current run, they had spent a full 20 seasons fluctuating between being mediocre and just plain bad - never a 10-win season in that span, but several 6, 7 and 8-loss seasons. Heck, they even coined the word "Clemsoning" because of the vast number of times they gacked one up.

But probably the biggest thing is that in 2016, after Clemson lost AT HOME to a an unranked 5-4 Pitt team, they dropped a whopping 2 spots in both the AP and CFP polls. Two!! Last year after we lost ON THE ROAD to a TOP 10 Auburn team, we dropped 5 spots in AP & 6 spots in the CFP poll.