Don't Buy The Bulldogs

Despite Florida win, Georgia's not Top 10 material

Nov. 1, 2007

College Football Preview: Week 10

> The Red Zone | Tape It Up | Strike The Pose | Breaking The Code

> B.J.: Corn-shusked | Amsinger: Weekly Picks | Sorenson: 10 Questions | Braff: Boise's Back
> Trev: Look Out For 'Bama | Ohio State Isn't No. 1

  |  Palm: Soft Schedule Warriors
> Hart: Georgia Not Top 10 Material  |  Roland: Alabama's Not What They Appear
> Caparell: No Secret To Oregon's Success  |  Crystal Ball: Weekend Predictions

By Tom Hart

Special to CSTV.com


	TOM HART Tom Hart calls football play-by-play for CSTV and is a contributor to CSTV.com. E-mail here!

The young corporate lawyer was chatting on her cell phone at the bar in the Omaha Marriott. She was alone on the road, meeting with clients who she was obviously smarter than.

"You wouldn't believe this place," she screamed into her Blackberry to a trendy friend back home. Powered by a few glasses of Clos du Bois, she motored on.

"It is miserable, and gray and ugly, and sooo flat. If I went up in a hot air balloon I swear I could see our place. This is no Chicago."

She was in a room full of business travelers winding down from a busy day on the road. The men had one eye on the NBA game playing in the corner, and one on the boisterous blond. She offered some promise when she first walked in. Then she opened her mouth. If she didn't want to be there, why did she come in the first place? And why won't she leave?

There's only one way to describe this: the bar got Callahaned.

What is going on in Knoxville? The Vols nearly choked away a three-touchdown lead Saturday night against the evil genius, and needed a pair of late field goals from a freshman to pull out the win. Phillip Fulmer's season has mirrored that of college football as a whole. As the "Fire Him" pendulum has swung back and forth this year, (lose to Florida, beat Georgia, get hammered by Alabama, beat South Carolina), Fulmer has stayed standing. Before Saturday he was the Headless Horseman, terrorizing fans in the hills of East Tennessee. Then under the lights at Neyland the great orange pumpkin morphed into a jack o'lantern: a flicker in his eye, and a crooked smile on his face as he looked across the field at The Visor.

In my AP poll this week, I put Georgia at 14. Their aggregate ranking is 10. I'm not seeing it. The problems that plagued the Bulldogs early in the year are still there, and some more have been added. Knowshon Moreno looks like the real deal, and offers promise that this is a team built for the future. Matthew Stafford has been okay. The line is still young. The Bulldogs will be very good in the years to come. But No. 10 right now? I don't think so.

Is it surprising what Michigan has done? They got popped at home in the season opener, then beaten badly by a very good Oregon team. Now they've churned out seven straight wins - but against whom? While the SEC is beating each other up, the Big Ten is letting others slide by.

1. Ohio State

2. Boston College

3. LSU

4. Oregon

5. Arizona State

6. West Virginia

7. Oklahoma

8. Missouri

9. Kansas

10. Hawai'i

11. Texas

12. UConn