Dawgs have a long climb to rejoin SEC's elite

The dreams of a national title have long since been shattered, although only the most optimistic Georgia fan ever even considered the possibility.

A Southeastern Conference championship? That’s basically out of the question, too. A pair of losses in the SEC won’t be good enough to catch Florida in the East, which might make it to Atlanta without one league setback.

The goals of elite SEC teams always revolve around first winning the conference crown then claiming the national prize, and lately taking care of the former has served as a free pass for the latter.

Unfortunately the Bulldogs aren’t among the SEC elite. Not this year. And even with the loss of Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and Mohamed Massaquoi, I’m not sure anyone expected the drop-off to be so severe — and so quick.

The running game is dead last in the SEC. Nationally, it ranks 103rd.

That means only 17 programs have a worse rushing attack than the school that produced guys like Herschel Walker, Frank Sinkwich, Charley Trippi and Garrison Hearst.

Looking for an ugly sister on the other side of the ball?

She’s there — warts and all.

The defense is 10th in the conference in yards allowed (365.6 yards per game), which is bad enough for 70th in the nation.

Tennessee, which has spent much of the season struggling to gain first downs much less cash in touchdowns, hung 45 points on the Dawgs.

And don’t forget turnovers. UGA has 17 and has come up with only six.

With a minus-11 ratio, it’s amazing Mark Richt’s team has won four games.

In a nutshell expectations have been lowered this season not because anyone wanted them to be, but out of necessity.

So how can the Bulldogs turn things around?

Well they have to beat Florida for starters, and that hasn’t been easy even when the playing field is relatively even. In fact, the Gators — who are more than two touchdown favorites today — have won 16 of the last 19 meetings.

Although unbeaten, Urban Meyer’s team hasn’t looked unbeatable in the last month.

That’s good news for Georgia.

The bad news, of course, is that the Dawgs haven’t given any indication that they’ll suddenly be a good team this afternoon.

Rushing issues, defensive problems, turnover woes — they don’t get solved overnight.

Richt is an outstanding coach and Georgia, obviously, is a tradition-rich program.

Yet Florida and Alabama continue to pull away from the pack, and the men in red and black are losing ground.

It’s going to be a tough climb back to the top of the SEC summit.

And the Bulldogs need to start scaling the mountain soon.