How Georgia becomes the next Auburn

Let’s leave aside all the justified questions about how Auburn arrived at its national championship. It still ended up where it is, becoming the fifth straight SEC team to hoist that weird crystal ball – the one Orson Charles once broke – and the fourth different one over that span.

Some incredible stats about the SEC’s dominance since the BCS began in 1998:

- Seven of the 13 different champions have been from the SEC. That’s more than any other league has won in the history of college football.

- The SEC has had as many different teams win titles in the past five years (four) as the Big Ten has ever had. (Not counting Penn State, which was not in the Big Ten when it won its titles.)

- In the past 13 years, half of the SEC West (Alabama, LSU and Auburn) and one-third one of the East (Florida and Tennessee) have won the national championship.

And yet, for all its history, and its 96 wins since 2001, Georgia is not one of those teams.

Never mind an argument over what’s gone wrong. For the sake of a blog post, let’s say Georgia is going to be that next team to join the party – as a few current and former players tweeted on Monday night. What has to happen?

And I mean next year. Hey, who thought Auburn would do it this year? Here’s my list:

- Justin Houston decides to come back to school. (Not likely, but it’d be a start.)

- Brandon Boykin and Cordy Glenn also decide to come back. (Both possible. We’ll know by Friday.)

- Isaiah Crowell, Jonathan Jenkins, Ray Drew and Malcolm Mitchell sign on the dotted line. (That’s their order of importance for next year, in my opinion. Jay Rome may be a great player, but tight end is not a need position for the Bulldogs in 2011.)

- Crowell’s presence, or at least a general improvement in the running game, take Georgia from ranking 10th in the SEC in rushing offense to at least the top four of the league.

- Aaron Murray not only doesn’t have a sophomore slump, he’s even better. Yeah, it'd be hard to ask him to improve on his stats (24 TD, eight INT, more than 3,000 yards) but we're talking national championship here.

- Tavarres King and Orson Charles emerge as big-play receivers, replacing A.J. Green and Kris Durham. It also wouldn’t hurt for Marlon Brown to have a big year.

- The defense makes a big leap in its second year under Todd Grantham (Gran-tham, people, not Gra-ham). After ranking seventh in the SEC this year in scoring defense and fourth in total defense, it moves up to at least fourth in scoring defense and in the top three in total defense.

More importantly, the rush defense (seventh in the SEC this year) and pass defense (sixth) each rank in the top three.

- Jarvis Jones, playing outside linebacker, is a force. The transfer from Southern California records at least eight sacks and 20 quarterback pressures. (I’m assuming he replaces Houston.)

- Either Christian Robinson, Marcus Dowtin or Richard Samuel steps up to fill the Akeem Dent, tackle-machine role.

- Jenkins, playing nose tackle, allows DeAngelo Tyson to play his more natural end position. If Jenkins doesn’t sign up, Kwame Geathers or Justin “Bean” Anderson make big strides in spring practice and preseason.

Either way, if you watched Nick Fairley in Monday’s game, it’s hard to foresee Tyson playing nose tackle on a national championship team. And that's by no means a shot at Tyson; this team just needs a classic nose guard.

- These returning players firm up after so-so years: Bacarri Rambo, Boykin, Ben Jones, Cornelius Washington and Branden Smith.

- These other newcomers, or ones who didn’t play most of this year, solidify need positions: Damian Swann, Alec Ogletree, Richard Samuel, Kenarious Gates, Ken Malcome (if Crowell doesn’t sign), Abry Jones and Garrison Smith.

- Drew Butler and Blair Walsh don't get any foot infections.

So … yeah … That’s all. Not a huge list, is it?

Next year's championship game is in New Orleans. That's reason enough to dream, isn't it?