Georgia Bulldogs: Which SEC East Team Will Get The Jump?

The college football season officially kicked last weekend. But it really gets going in earnest this week. Week 1 in the SEC East will tell us a lot.

It’s here! On this day, August 31, 2017, college football is here. Yeah, yeah. No offense to Colorado State (or Mike Bobo), or to any of the other FCS teams and kids who bled to win last week. But it starts this week. Especially, in the SEC East. We’ll know a lot about these teams after Monday night. We’ll know a lot about the Georgia Bulldogs Saturday night.

It is rare that Week 1 of any football season is do or die. Even the much ballyhooed Bama vs. FSU tilt Saturday night isn’t do or die for those teams. Their fans will act like it, but it isn’t. Either could lose and still win a National Championship in 2017.

That can’t be said for any of the SEC East teams. In fact, a loss by an SEC East team this weekend (and Monday) will cause fans to light radio phone lines up, and there will be restlessness across “fill in the blank” Nation.

UGA hosts Appalachian St. Everybody remembers 2007 and Michigan. But most of those kids who played that game are in their 30s and are selling insurance, or some such. A decade might as well be three decades.

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What isn’t old news is the Appy St. from 2016. That team was a very good football team. A no joke opponent who had the “Jimmys and Joes” and the coaches with the “Xs and Os”. They won a bowl game just last December. They are supposed to be better this year.

If Georgia falters in this game, at home, after losing to Vandy and GT last year, you don’t want to be anywhere near Athens, Ga. on Saturday night. It also means that this coaching staff isn’t doing what they should be doing. That’s irrefutable.

The Florida Gators limp in with their tiny crocodile legs bandaged and bruised. Not with injury, but with psyche. A full 10 players are suspended for this game against Michigan. Now, it’s not like Michigan is necessarily a world beater this year. We don’t know. They have as many questions as Alex Trebek. And frankly, I think UF can still win this game.

But as my best friend, and faithful Gators fan, “Match” stated, “It doesn’t matter. Michigan always kills us in national games”. It does seem that way. But it doesn’t change the fact that the narrative will be they lost a national game because kids are running wild in Gainesville. Not a good look, and nobody knows if this thing goes longer.

Then you have the Tennessee Vols. I’ve written extensively about this game here and here. Let me reiterate: This game is an old school NWA Wrestling, Omni in Atlanta, Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard, loser leaves town, winner gets Baby Doll kind of game.

Whichever teams loses this game, those coaches better start working those resumes. That coach will be fired by season’s end. Mark it down. Plus, it is a part of the SEC vs ACC thing going on in the first weekend. That game matters. A lot.

Then, you have Kentucky going to Southern Miss. That’s no vacation. South Carolina hosting N.C. State. SC is a home underdog. And there’s that SEC/ACC thing again. Vandy is going to MTSU. They should win, but MTSU is no joke. If you sleep on them, you’ll get got.

Almost the entire SEC East has a game that they have to win, but that isn’t a cake walk. You might say these games should be cake walks, but they aren’t, and that’s a different conversation.

Next: Atlanta Braves: Set to Open Series Against Chicago Cubs

Week 1. SEC East college football. It’s here. And it’s on from the jump.

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