The Expectation Bowl

By John McMullen  |   Thursday, November 13, 2008  |  Comments( 2 )

Auburn Tigers
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College football isn't played on paper and that has to be quite the disappointment to both Mark Richt of Georgia and Auburn's Tommy Tuberville this season.

Of course, there are degrees of disappointment.

Georgia began the season ranked No. 1 with hopes of claiming its first national championship in 28 years. Despite a ton of talent and speed on the defensive side of the ball, the Bulldogs couldn't stop Alabama between the hedges in late September, losing 40-31.

That was followed by another lackluster defensive performance a month later when LSU blitzed Georgia in Baton Rouge, 52-38.

Meanwhile, Auburn, despite not having a proven quarterback and planning on using a new offense that relied heavily on the QB, was No. 10 before it took the field.

Ten games later, the Tigers are a .500 team after Tony Franklin's spread offense failed on a biblical level and will need a monumental upset to avoid a losing season.

At the end of the day, Richt still pilots a national power while Tuberville is just hoping to fend off enough angry alumni and boosters to keep his job. But both coaches have suffered at the altar of expectation and hope to finish with a flourish.

For Richt, that means winning out and earning a major bowl bid.

For Tuberville, that means stunning the Bulldogs or the top-ranked Crimson Tide and proving he still has it as a coach.

"It's Georgia week this week," Tuberville said earlier this week. "You can tell that the intensity in the players really changes when you get to the last two games of the year here. It's important, not just for the fans, alumni, and the coaches, but it’s really important for the players because they really get into it."

Richt obviously has a better chance to end the season on a positive note. By winning out, Georgia would finish 11-2, the same record it had a year ago when it finished behind No. 2-ranked LSU (the eventual national champion).

Tuberville has a much tougher hill to climb. The Bulldogs have one of the nation's best offenses and a quarterback who could be the No. 1 selection in the 2009 NFL Draft, Matthew Stafford.

"Georgia has probably one of the most potent offenses that I've seen in a long time in college football," Tuberville said. "With the skill players that they have at quarterback, wide receiver, running back and fullback, there is a reason that they were the preseason number one pick in the country. Their quarterback is as good as I've seen in college football in a long time and he’s got some receivers who can catch it."

Expecting an inconsistent Tigers team to rise up and salvage the season is a long shot, but Tuberville is doing his best to stoke his players.

"These players chose to come here, because they wanted to play either against Georgia or Alabama," Tuberville said. "I don't know whether you would call it ‘salvage’ for us. When you lose five games, we are not used to it and you are still going to have that knot in your stomach, but it sure would ease the feelings a little bit going into these next few games.

"We just want to play better."
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About John McMullen

John is the managing editor of The Phanatic Magazine, the assistant managing editor of The Sports Network and the co-host of the highly rated 'Johns on Sports' radio show on WTBQ in New York. Every Saturday from 6:30-9 p.m. (et) you can hear John along with his co-host, John Gottlieb, talk to the ...
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