With everything happening on the injury/suspension/getting-guys-back front, this Miami game shapes up as a "big deal early" confrontation--like in the old days when we used to annually OPEN with them...I wish I was more confident than I am right now going into the week. Our D looks like it could chew steel and spit nails already and likely will only get better, though, so if that offense (that looked fluid and efficient at times--then sloppy, choppy and shooting itself in the foot at others, 'specially in the 2nd half) shows up in more steady and complete form, maybe that's not just a win but a fairly easy one after all--and if THAT turns out to be the case, LOOK OUT: This team could be a freight train rollin' downhill by October...
As for the rest of the SEC, well, some represented themselves outside the conference better than others--and in UGA's case, well, yeah, great game (entertaining, anyway) on the road against a formidable and highly ranked opponent, but considering their own claims and expectations AND the media's anointing them "The East team likeliest to meet and BEAT the Tide in Atlanta", well, not exactly SEC-quality D being played by a team who everyone KNEW had an offense going in...Now SC(e) has the next-in-line spotlight swinging their way--and that's just FINE: Keep it off of us long as possible, let our young squad grow up together (hopefully with a big chip on their collective shoulder, too!) in the meantime, and maybe things fall nicely into place as the season unfolds...
(Not that we don't continue to have our own drama and drawbacks to deal with: That "suspension for 6 games" BS is just another "Let's arbitrarily f*ck w/ the Gators in unfair fashion" courtesy of the NCAA--and just like that we lose a piece of our "rotation of fresh talent in on defense"-plan in VERY dubious fashion--in a virtually unprecedented way they punish our team, and in particular one excited and hard-playing young man who clearly WASN'T "Headhunting", FOR MORE THAN HALF THE SEASON! When are "we"--and here I mean the let's say 64 or so "Major Football Colleges" that will soon comprise the new "Separate Group of Powers" that will play for their own--actually "OUR OWN" National Championship in the post-BCS Era about to dawn--going to either buy off the NCAA to leave us alone for a few "points off the top" on merchandise sales, or maybe even just throw them off entirely?!!)