Around the SEC: Georgia ‘Kings’ of the East?

The Georgia Bulldogs and Joe Cox will have to overcome some lost talented offensive weapons and Florida to make it back to the Southeastern Conference championship game.

By Harold McIlvain II

With big expectations last year, the Georgia Bulldog football team fell short, failing to navigate a very difficult schedule with a mass amount of injuries.

Georgia Football Schedule 2009: 9/5 @ Oklahoma State 9/12 South Carolina 9/19 @ Arkansas 9/26 @ Arizona State 10/03 LSU 10/10 @ Tennessee 10/17 @ Vanderbilt 10/24 Bye 10/31 Florida 11/7 Tennessee Tech 11/14 Auburn 11/21 Kentucky 11/28 @ Georgia Tech

But Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and Mohamed Massaquoi are back for another run at a national title.

What’s that? They are all gone? All of them? Well, I guess a SEC title is out of the picture.

But that isn’t the case for this talented team.

Replacing Stafford, Moreno and Massaquoi will not be easy, but the trio of Joe Cox, Caleb King and Tavarres King will look to fill the talent void that left Athens.

The schedule is still a problem, however. The Bulldogs will be served well by playing some solid out of conference teams early, especially Oklahoma State.

Cox will be thrown right into the fire with three road games in the first four games, but Georgia head coach Mark Richt said the senior has been ready to play for two years.

“In my opinion, you need to have an accurate passer, you need to have a great decision maker and you need to have a young man who can handle the pressure of the job,” Richt said. “And Joe really personifies all those characteristics.”

The offensive line has went from a question mark the past couple of years to being a clear positive as the Bulldogs bring plenty of experience back this year.

And it doesn’t hurt to have sophomore wide out A.J. Green (963 yards with eight touchdowns)  as a main target.

Understatement of this article:  There might be a little more of that to come this season.

Cox and the team is expecting big things out of receiver Tavarres King, who redshirted last year after not being ready for SEC football. Along with senior Michael Moore (451 yards), the team has talent to spread a team out and open for the other King, Caleb, and perhaps allow Georgia to be the kings of the east.

Another huge factor in not living up to expectations last year were injuries. And there were a lot of them.

Richt said it got to the point last year that the defense didn’t even get to practice in full pads at times to figure out the starters from the reserves.

But that won’t happen this year.

“I knew I made a mistake because you don’t get good at defense by doing that,” Richt said. “I hope I’m not put in that situation again to have to make that decision, but if I don’t flinch, we’re gonna keep practicing the way you got to practice playing defense.”

Good, solid defense and an upset win over Florida could bring the Bulldogs into a surprise national title game a year removed from those expectations.

Players to watch:

LB – Rennie Curran:  The defense was a pretty big problem last year as the unit allowed a lot of points in big games. Curran (115 tackles and three sacks) will lead the talented linebacking core and set a tone of the rest of the group.

WR – A.J. Green/Tavarres King:  College football fans saw what Green could do last year, but it is now King’s turn to help the offense. Both are talented and will open space up for one another.

QB – Joe Cox:  He has been waiting for this season for a couple of years now. He is a true leader that has the full support of the team behind him and will look to make plays for the team has stuck around with.

Around the SEC will be looking at each team as they prepare for the college football season. For more coverage, check out the Mississippi State, Alabama, Florida, LSU or Ole Miss preview.