Georgia's polled with the top dogs

They can't expand Sanford Stadium fast enough to keep up with the demand.

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The Georgia Bulldogs are always the hottest sports ticket around here, but this summer is particularly sizzling.

More than 9,000 wannabe Sanford denizens were denied admittance to the upcoming football season because of a lack of space. The fifth largest stadium in the nation can't contain the buzz.

Pollsters seem fairly united in the opinion that the Bulldogs will be one of the five best teams in the nation, if not the best. Only six times since 1941 have the Bulldogs ever been preseason ranked in the top 10 and never in the top five.

But after consecutive trips to the Southeastern Conference championship game, this year's Georgia team carries legitimate national championship credentials.

If things go really well, they might even have an underground campaign for their first Heisman Trophy winner since the last time Georgia won a national title. The Sporting News picked the Dawgs to be No. 1 this summer.

Rest assured head coach Mark Richt knows all about it.

"I've got our team chaplain reading it to me," Richt said of the glowing press clippings. "He's like, 'Dang, we're gonna win this and gonna win that!' I tell him, 'Chappy, you don't know one thing about football and that just shows it.' "

In only his fourth season as a head coach, Richt is more comfortable than you might imagine with the hype. At the possibility Georgia might be preseason ranked No. 1 in one of the two major polls that matter, Richt doesn't cringe like most head coaches worried that high expectations will lead to crushing consequences.

"I like people across the nation saying good things about us," he said. "I like them believing that Georgia is one of the best teams in the country, because that's where we want to be. It takes a lot of work to stay there. If (players) get carried away with the media, then they'll get comfortable and they'll get beat."

Richt knows about that first hand. He spent too long as an assistant in a Florida State program where expectations were annually where Georgia's expectations are now. Buying into the hype can be devastating on a program.

"The last time I was associated with a team that was preseason No. 1 (Florida State in 1988), Miami beat us 31-0 in the opening game," Richt said. "We probably didn't do a very good job of handling it. We certainly got a reality check in the first game."

That FSU team did win its last 11 in a row and finished No. 3 in the final polls. Two other years (in 1993 and '99) FSU started and ended No. 1. So Richt knows that as longs as everyone understands that there are no guarantees in college football, there is nothing wrong with being thought of as the best to beat.

"It's just so hard to predict what's going to happen," he said. "From now until the first game a lot can happen. You don't even know what your team is going to look like.

"But we're going to have a chance to be a good football team. ... There'll be a bunch of teams that are just as talented as us and just as well coached, or better. It's going to come down to a few close games and if we win the close games we'll have a chance to become champions. If we don't we can still be a real good football team but not a champion."

Richt is already greeted like a champion wherever he goes. His success in three years has made him the biggest celebrity in Athens since Vince Dooley.

Richt hasn't shied away from the attention. He just has to be a little more guarded. Back from vacation and preparing to get to ready for the season, Richt still walks around confidently in the Athens area Wal-Mart and Publix - usually with one of his kids in his arms to shield him from the more aggressive hand-grabbers and well-wishers.

He is still reminded everywhere he goes of his lone deficiency.

"They just say, 'Hey Coach! When are you going to beat Florida?'" he said. "That's usually what I get when I'm in public."

Becoming a college football champion is not bestowed in the preseason. It is a 13-step program. You have to check off every level before you can proceed - Georgia Southern, South Carolina, Marshall, Louisiana State, Tennessee ... You can't skip or take any shortcuts.

"I think the players have worked to hard to take anything for granted," Richt said.

If you pass every test, you still have to hope the newest version of the Bowl Championship Series to rely upon.

Richt isn't afraid of that system either.

"They've tweaked the BCS every year and that's all right," Richt said. "Just as long as we know the rules when the season begins. I like it the way it is. I don't want a playoff system.

"If we win with our schedule, we'll probably have a shot at the end. If we were to go undefeated and not have a shot at it, then I'd probably feel bad for the players. But I doubt that would happen. If we win I think we could control that."

If so, crowd control may be the Bulldogs' biggest problem.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.