The Georgia Bulldogs Are No. 1...but For How Long?

Late last season, the Georgia Bulldogs football team caught fire and won their last seven games, including victories against Florida, Auburn, Georgia Tech, and (uh) Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl.

During that streak, Dawg running back Knowshon Moreno was running wild and fans were anointing him the next Herschel Walker. Well, Georgia fans, that was last season.

Who did the Dawgs beat last year in that streak that they weren't supposed to beat?

Florida's Tim Tebow was limping around the field. Chan Gailey was Georgia Tech's coach (enough said).

Auburn had lost to Mississippi State and South Florida already. Hawaii's biggest win was a 35-28 squeaker against a 4-9 Washington team. 

Georgia has key players they must replace this year as well.  Leading receiver Sean Bailey, who could always be counted on for big plays, is gone.

So are center Fernando Velasco, tackle Chester Adams, and defensive stars Brandon Miller, Marcus Howard, Thomas Flowers, and Kelin Johnson. 

The Georgia defense will really have to step up this season to replace the key losses they sustained.  The secondary is a real question mark and will be tested very early by a strong Arizona State team. 

This takes us to Georgia's Schedule...Wow. 

Early in the season, the Dawgs face a tough four game stretch: @ South Carolina (who beat Herschel, wait I mean Knowshon Moreno's Dawgs in Athens last season I remind you), @ Arizona State, Alabama, and Tennessee (who drubbed the Dawgs 34-14).

After that, they play @ LSU, vs. Florida, @ Auburn, @ Kentucky, and Georgia Tech with Vanderbilt mixed in the middle.  That's an extremely hard schedule for a National Championship contender.

If the Dawgs can, which I highly doubt, go through that schedule losing only one game (and winning the SEC Championship game) they deserve to be No. 1.

However, with the question marks they have, the difficult schedule, and off-season discipline problems (six players, including a couple starters, have been suspended for the first two games of the year), should they really be ranked No. 1?

They are for now, but probably not for very long.