ATHENS - This seems the beginning of an anticlimatic week for the Georgia football team.
It doesn't face an SEC opponent, but instead New Mexico State, which is 3-5. The hangover from the win over Florida can probably last awhile.
And while the nation will be fixated on LSU-Alabama, the Georgia program and fan base will also have their eye on South Carolina-Arkansas. By this time next week, the Bulldogs could very well be alone in first place in the SEC East.
But there are still issues for Georgia, as we write today. The special teams is a mess. The offensive line just got thinner. And it's unsure when Malcolm Mitchell will return from his hamstring.
Still, everyone feels good, as they should after knocking off the arch-rival, and extending the winning streak to 6-2. The losses to Boise State and South Carolina seem long ago.
The rest of the morning paper:
What they're saying about Georgia: The Bulldogs are now No. 18 in the BCS standings, having moved up to as high as 15 in two of the computers that are used. They are ranked 20th in each of the polls that are used, the Harris and coaches polls.
As for the AP poll, which isn't used in the BCS standings per our request, the Bulldogs are No. 20, up a couple spots. We can't find out till later which coaches and Harris voters are voting the Bulldogs high and low. But the AP makes its votes public, so we know Georgia was on every submitted ballot except one - a writer from Jacksonville, Mike DiRocco of the Florida Times-Union. On the flip side you have Joe Giglio of the Raleigh News and Observer, who has Georgia at No. 12. Randy Rosetta of TigerSportsDigest (a participant in our weekly SEC power poll) has Georgia at No. 13.
And yours truly has the Bulldogs at No. 21. So I'm kind of on the low end.
In writing news, Matt Hayes of The Sporting News writes that Richt "saved his job" by beating Florida. (That might be a bit strong. I guess we will know for sure about that later.) And ESPN.com's Chris Low gives kudos to Richt and Jarvis Jones for their performances on Saturday.
Story from elsewhere in the SEC: It doesn't seem like quite a certainty anymore that South Carolina will lose at Arkansas. The Razorbacks are still a six-point favorite, but they haven't looked good the past couple weeks, including Saturday at Vanderbilt. And even without Marcus Lattimore, South Carolina is finding a way to win, mainly because of its defense.
Story from former SEC: Lane Kiffin is up to his old tricks. Or maybe he's just being outspoken. The second-year Southern Cal coach is alleging he was deceived by a Pac-12 official at the end of Saturday's loss to Stanford.
YouTube flashback of the day: I wanted to get to this last week, but that was dedicated to something else. So now I give you, in recognition of 10 years of the best sports show on television, 10 years of openings for ESPN's "Pardon The Interruption."
Song of the day: It's Halloween, so if I didn't make it "The Monster Mash," then really, what would I be doing here? It's a graveyard smash, people!
Tweet I wish I'd written: "Most sports: You keep winning, you keep playing. College FB: You keep winning, talking heads decide if you're good enough to keep playing." - Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman, @murphsturph, while watching the BCS standings show.
Inspirational quote of the day: "You blockhead! You kept me up all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin, and all that came was a beagle! I didn't get a chance to go out for tricks or treats. And it was all your fault! I'll sue! What a fool I was! I could have had candy apples and gum and cookies and money and all sorts of things. But no! I had to listen to you, you blockhead. What a fool I was. Trick or treats come only once a year, and I missed it by sitting in a pumpkin patch with a blockhead." - Sally Brown to Linus in the Great Pumpkin episode.
