I am not a particularly big fan of what Mark Richt is doing with his program. For starters, he has had eight players arrested since January. His team also had two embarrassing celebration incidents last season. They jumped on the midfield logo at Vanderbilt Stadium, taunting and trashing the Commodore players and fans after a last-second victory. The other, more-publicized incident was when everybody but the trainers and coaches came out to celebrate a touchdown against Florida. I agree with Urban Meyer: It was bush and uncalled for. While Richt has assembled a very talented group of players, he needs to get control of those players.

But despite the off-field problems and the difficulty of Georgia's schedule, I'm going to play devil's advocate in this blog. First of all, only one of the eight players arrested -- guard Clint Boling -- was a starter and he's only suspended for one game. Now that the season has started, it should be down to business and the off-field incidents should be history. If they're not, the Bulldogs probably won't win the title.

As far as the schedule goes, let's go back to the 2006 season and take a look at this group of games for another SEC East team, one near and dear to Bulldog fans. All of these rankings were before the games were played.

• Sept. 16: at No. 17 Tennessee
• Oct. 7: No. 10 LSU
• Oct. 14: at No. 10 Auburn
• Oct. 21: No. 25 Georgia
• Dec. 2: No. 8 Arkansas

That's not to mention a Sept. 30 contest against a solid Alabama team, a Nov. 11 game against South Carolina and Steve Spurrier and Nov. 25 in Tallahassee against archrival Florida State. This team won seven of those eight games, and then went on to steamroll unbeaten Ohio State in the national championship game. That's five wins against ranked teams, three against top-10 teams. The only loss was on the road against Auburn, and that loss featured a questionable fumble call midway through the fourth quarter with the Tigers leading by just one that gave Auburn the ball back with this team driving deep into Tiger territory.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm referring to the 2006-07 national champion Florida Gators. Going into the season, while many thought Florida had the talent to win the title, few gave them a chance because of a brutal schedule that included a four-game stretch against what were thought to be top-15 teams. That stretch started with Alabama and ended with Georgia, but Alabama and Georgia both fell below expectations and those games became somewhat easier.

The Gators also had their share of scares besides the loss to Auburn. The victory over the Gamecocks on Nov. 11 featured a blocked field goal as time expired to give Florida a one-point win; they knocked off Tennessee in Knoxville by just one point; they beat struggling Florida State by only seven; and were trailing in the third quarter to Darren McFadden and Arkansas before coming back to win the SEC championship game and advance to the BCS title game.

There is one big difference between the Florida and Georgia schedules, and that is the amount of difficult road conteststhe Bulldogs must navigate. Georgia's schedule features six preseason top 25 teams, and three of those games -- Arizona State, LSU and Auburn -- are on the road. A fourth, against Florida, is in Jacksonville. That doesn't include games at South Carolina and Kentucky. There is a chance Arizona State, LSU or Auburn fail to meet preseason expectations, like Alabama and Florida State in 2006. But it's hard to see LSU and Auburn not being brutally difficult road games for Georgia. That preseason schedule also does not include the SEC championship game, which will undoubtedly feature at least a top-25 team and probably a top-15 squad.

Ironically, it could be the Gators on Nov. 1 in Jacksonville that prove to be the team standing in the way of Georgia's trip to Miami for the BCS title game. Meyer has vowed revenge for the celebration incident in last year's contest, and the Gators might be the only team Georgia plays this season that matches the Bulldogs' talent on the field.

But despite all the naysayers - like me -- who don't give Georgia a chance of getting to the BCS title game with that gauntlet of games, all they have to do is look to their archrivals for inspiration. While Florida's 2006 schedule doesn't appear to be quite as tough as this year's Bulldog slate, the Gators navigated what was thought to be an impossible schedule in the preseason to win the title. If Georgia is as talented and good as they appear to be, they can do the same.