Georgia Football: Lack of respect will continue throughout 2018

Georgia Football has experienced a good deal of disrespect in the build-up to this weeks game in South Carolina. No matter the results this Saturday that’s likely to continue throughout the 2018 season.

It’s been an interesting week for Georgia Football fans. Their team put up a 45-0 win over Austin Peay and currently sit number 3 in the country according to the AP poll. And yet, if you read all of the stories out there, you would think that this UGA team isn’t very good.

Since the moment the schedule was announced, we’ve all been treated to the same narrative. South Carolina, 2nd game of the season, look for the upset. A few, Gamecock friendly, leaning websites were pushing this theory back in the spring. Now that we’re less than a few days from the game, the whispers have become screams.

Whether it’s ESPN, the SEC Network, CBS Sports, you name it, everyone seems to be saying the same thing. The Dawgs are going to lose on Saturday. We’re all officially being put on notice about just how amazing this South Carolina team are. They’ve got Deebo Samuel, Jake Bentley and according to Saturday Down South, they’re better pretty much everywhere than UGA. These writers make you wonder why the Dawgs even turn up on Saturday. Don’t they know they don’t stand a chance?

It’s all becoming a bit ridiculous, to be honest. Whether it’s former Gamecocks ‘guaranteeing’ an SC victory or current players saying they have no idea who UGA’s All-American cornerback Deandre Baker is, the amount of disrespect being thrown Georgia’s way is borderline comical. But you know who isn’t laughing? The Georgia Football players.

Watching Richard LeCounte and Ben Cleveland yesterday, I couldn’t help but think how little they cared about what others seem to think. In Kirby Smart’s third year, the players seem to have fully taken on the personality of their head coach. They are calm and focused on themselves and the performance they need to put in this week. Are they aware of what’s being said about them? Sure, but it doesn’t seem to bother them one bit.

That’s probably a good thing because this week is just the beginning. Even if the Dawgs do show the rest of the college football world how good they are and beat down SC, the disrespect isn’t going to stop. Florida players have already indicated that they intend to talk plenty of trash in the build-up to their game with UGA.

We can expect the same from Tennessee under a coach in Jeremey Pruitt who isn’t exactly lacking in brashness. I can still hear Gus Malzahn talking about ‘dog-****’ and doubt he’ll be quiet going forwards. This weeks game is just the first of many where opposing players, coaches, and fans will throw a lot of insults around about a team that clearly worries them. There’s not much that we as fans or our team can do about the insecurity of others.

What we can do is rest assured that this is not the same program that it was 4 or 5 years ago. If 2017 taught us anything it’s that these tactics don’t seem to work against a Kirby Smart football team. Maybe our rivals will learn that this season, maybe they won’t. Until they do, I’m more than happy for them to keep poking the bear. Some people never learn…