Who Needs a Blogpoll Week 12: Mark Richt is vindicated as Kirby goes full-Georgia

We’ve had our suspicions here that mmmaybe Georgia was not as good as we were told to believe they were. Why? Besides the terrible East, there’s a wildcard that has nothing to do with stats or play on the field: You can take Kirby out of Georgia, but you can’t take the Georgia out of Kirby. Yesterday’s result was as predictable as the one-sided way it happened was not. Auburn was more physical, more disciplined, better coached and simply better team. Georgia is a very good team, a top 10 team. But that glaring softness on the interior of both lines, long a problem under Richt, was on full display again yesterday. And, after getting the gameball following Miami’s 41-8 thumping of No. 3 Notre Dame, you know Mark Richt had to sit back and smile. At least a little. He earned it.

Elsewhere, Alabama survived its predictable biannual hangover in Starkville. Nothing to say about that one which doesn’t involve a metric ton of f-bombs, cursing Brian Daboll to the flames of perdition for those first 49 minutes, and saying some ugly personal things about a defender who shall remain nameless. I’m taking the high road here...Publicly, at least.

In flyover-land, Oklahoma continued tearing through Top 10 teams like an EF5 on the Kansas prairie. That TCU game was not as close as the score. Wisconsin put on a defensive masterpiece in Madison — 66 yards allowed, to continue their quiet asskicking of everything they face. And out west, Wazzu, Stanford and USC have gotten over their midseason funk. It very much appears that the Coug-Trojan classic of a month ago will be your P12CG rematch. When Washington’s offense isn’t pooping itself, the defense is. Who’da figured Jake Browning would regress this far. The DOOGs loss shuts the P12 out of the playoffs. If your options are, say, a hypothetical two-loss USC or a two-loss Auburn who do you take?

Conference rankings:

1. SEC
2. Big 12
3. ACC
4. Pac 12
5. Big 10

Playoff Prediction:

1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. Notre Dame Wisconsin
4. Washington Ohio State Clemson Miami