Friday, August 1

The sky above, the earth below.

It's interesting to think that in maybe ten minutes' worth of Web surfing this morning, I was treated to a crystal-clear picture of just how far the Georgia Bulldogs have come in the last 10 years.

First there was this announcement of a new milestone in Georgia history:

The Georgia Bulldogs are ranked No. 1 in the preseason USA Today coaches poll released today.

Georgia returns 16 starters from last year's 11-2 team, which finished No. 3 in the coaches' poll and No. 2 in the Associated Press poll.

Georgia is followed in the poll by Southern Cal, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Florida, LSU, Missouri, West Virginia, Clemson and Texas.


Now, I'm not gonna lie to you: This terrifies me. As I've tried to make very clear, I was kind of hoping that somebody else, maybe even somebody in our own conference, would be helped to the #1 preseason poll spot while the Dawgs languished down at #4 or #5, letting us fly at least a little underneath the radar and giving us maybe a chip on our shoulder besides. There won't be any room under the radar now, that's for sure, but if Richt's skills as a motivator and a leader of men have come along as much as we think they have, maybe he can use the #1 ranking as a motivating tactic itself -- i.e. The poll voters have put a lot of faith in us, guys. Now we have to go out there and earn it. Or something like that.

But anyway, as if to keep us all from getting too big a collective head over this, only a few bullet points down from that story on the front page of AJC.com we got this taste of the way we were:

Davie, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins drew another name from the past of Bill Parcells on Thursday, working out former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter.

But Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said the workout is merely an evaluation of Carter, an arena league quarterback who started for the Cowboys and New York Jets before poor play and drug-related arrests ended his NFL career.


Ahh, yes. The fall of 1998, when spirits were high, QC was a future Heisman Trophy winner, and a national title was always right around the corner.

Let's remember that when we think about getting a little too full of ourselves over this pre-season ranking, kids.

Anyway, I couldn't help but smile at this unintentionally hilarious last graf of the article:

Carter was dismissed by the Cowboys in 2004 — a team coached by Parcells, now vice president of football operations for Miami. Carter's understanding of the Dolphins' offense would seem to make him a good fit in Miami, which has struggled to get consistent quarterback play in training camp.


Yep, inconsistent quarterback play is definitely the kind of situation that Quincy Carter will fit right into. Good luck, buddy.

3 comments:

Tommy said...

Yes, what better city for a QB with a history of drug-related arrests than Miami. What could possibly go wrong?

caliban said...

When exactly did Quincy play poorly for either the Jets or the Cowboys? Far as Dallas is concerned, most QBs wouldn't have lived through playing behind totally immobile bloated turds Larry Allen and Flozell Adams. Might drive anyone to the occasional J.

Quincy Carter's never been arrested for anything but pot (and I think that was once), which a sane nation would be collecting taxes on, and if he'd strangled Herm Edwards for coaching malfeasance, no jury would have found him guilty.

His NFL record is decidedly superior to anybody's on the Dolphins roster, and about 2/3 of current NFL QBs. I don't think it's South Beach that Quincy'd have to worry about, but a renewed association with that black-hole, self-important, insufferable prick Parcells. Those 10 wins Carter engineered for the Boys in 2003, well actually Mr. Man-teats separated from birth from Colin Montgomerie must have won those games.

Anonymous said...

Excuse you. Where the hell is the Friday Random Ten+5? YOU KNOW THAT'S ONE OF MY REASONS FOR LIVING, RIGHT?