. . . knowing that, if he’s right on five of them, he’ll look like a genius. He says South Carolina is a darkhorse national title contender but Georgia is a top eight team in his two best sets of power rankings. If either the Bulldogs or the Gamecocks exceed expectations, he’ll get to claim credit, no matter which team wins the Georgia-South Carolina game.

If you’re looking for things to like about Georgia, you can point to an experienced offensive line, a talented tight end corps, one of the best punter/kicker combinations in the country, a running game that came on strong toward the end of last season, and A.J. Green. In addition to being thin at wide receiver and linebacker, though, the Red and Black have question marks under center and on the defense.

In a way, we’re in a similar situation to y’all. No one seriously doubts that Derek Dooley is a better head coach than Lane Kiffin, but it may take some time for him to get the Tennessee program where he wants it to be. Likewise, no one seriously doubts that Todd Grantham is a better defensive coordinator than Willie Martinez, but it may take some time for him to get the 3-4 installed.

I believe Steele is assuming the defense will come together quickly and Aaron Murray will live up to the recruiting hype. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of those two things happen, but expecting both to happen seems unrealistic to me, and Georgia will have exactly one week to grow into a complete team in order to avoid an 0-1 start in SEC play. I don’t see it happening. I think we’ll see substantial on-field improvement over the course of the season, but it won’t start to show up in the Bulldogs’ won-lost record until 2011.

That, and offensive lines mean a whole heck of a lot (example one: Oklahoma), especially to Steele. If you close your eyes and squint a bit, come June you can talk yourself into Georgia being a poor man’s 2009 Alabama.

Steele seems to have an infatuation with South Carolina for reasons I don’t get – the whole offensive line thing yet again. That being said, I haven’t gotten into it too much yet.

With win-the-lottery best case, eight or nine wins. But I’ve never won the lottery.

I do like our defensive line, though. The DEs are excellent and deep, and Hughes in the middle is strong. Starter at the other tackle (if we have one) and depth in the middle is a concern, but I’m not nearly as concerned on the defensive side of the trench as I am on the offensive side. Although — Polyanna alert — there is some talent there; almost entirely devoid of experience, yes, but there’s talent. And most of ‘em are young, so by the time they’re upperclassmen, they may be the most experienced line in the conference.

See? We’re winning it all in 2013!

UTM, UAB, Memphis and Vandy are wins. Best case, Carolina, Ole Miss, and Kentucky are wins too (none of those are worse than 50-50 or 40-60 right now). Best case, you have to think we get at least one upset against Oregon (at home) or teams coached by Mark Richt and Les Miles, right?