The Dawgs Better Off Without Stafford and Knowshon?

so i was listening to the local Athens sports talk show "The Home Team" this morning on The Ref (man i love sportstalk radio station names) and they were talking about the fact that a lot of returning Georgia players have been calling out last year's team for it's lack of leadership and that the team is more unified going into next season. Tight End Aaron White had the most damning comment about last year's team with this little nugget, "There's a lot more of a team mentality around right now," (White) said. "We're not focused on he's a star and we've got to go to him. We're more focused on everybody's got to work together and pull their own weight."

after White made his comments several other players came out and said basically the same kind of thing. nobody went and called out Stafford or Knowshon or anybody who is gone but after i read this interview/article about Joe Cox and the kind of firey leadership he wants to bring to the Dawgs that they've been lacking you can read between the lines and see that Matt Stafford may be the most gifted UGA QB they've ever had but he didn't have much going in the leadership department. so yeah, maybe Mark Sanchez isn't such a bad choice with the #1 pick after all.

if you are a Georgia fan you can only look at this stuff as a positive. it's called the Patrick Ewing effect, which is summed up as a team with a star athlete receives an inordinate amount of media attention and fan interest, and yet his teams never win anything substantial with him. then that players leaves and the team is written off by the media but actually improves thanks to having less pressure and better team chemistry. Georgia may be losing a lot in the talent department, but the team seems like they are feeling better off without them. i said it right after Stafford and Moreno declared for the draft that i wouldn't be surprised if the Dawgs shocked everyone and won the SEC next year. i'd at least assume they'll be good enough to win 10 or 11 games and get back to a BCS bowl with a game manager like Joe Cox and a veteran offensive line blocking for a trio of runningbacks with different skill sets. plus there is no way their defense could possibly be as bad as it was last year as long as Jeff Owens and Geno Atkins can stay healthy. so yeah, don't sleep on the Dawgs next year.