by MCL staff writer

According to a story by Marc Weiszer at marc. weiszer@onlineathens. com, the Georiga Bulldogs ended their year as No. 13 in AP poll.

Georgia ended up at No. 13 in the final Associated Press college football poll released early last Friday morning.

It is true that the Bulldogs (10-3) were the preseason No. 1 team, the fact that they ended as a top-15 team for the sixth time in the last seven seasons can only be considered a small consolation. It tastes a little bitter since rival Florida is the national champion for the second time in the last three seasons.

"We are hungry," Georgia coach Mark Richt said earlier this week. "We're hungry for a championship. We're like the rest of our fans. We want to win. We want to win the (Southeastern Conference's) East. We want the SEC. We're going to fight like heck to do it."

Georgia had the lowest final ranking of a preseason No. 1 team since Penn State was 16th in 1997. The Bulldogs finished No. 10 in the USA Today coaches' poll.

The Florida Gators defeated Oklahoma in the BCS national championship game, 24-14, night and won the AP title as well.

Florida received 48 of 65 first place AP votes. No. 2 and unbeaten Utah got 16 first-place votes and No. 3 Southern Cal (12-1) got the other. Texas and Oklahoma rounded out the top five.

Georgia is one of five teams to finish in the top 15 in six of the last seven years. Southern California and Texas have been ranked top 15 every year during that span and Oklahoma and Ohio State in six of the last seven.

"We've won an awful lot of games since we've been here, even as of late," Richt said. "We won 11 last year, and we won 10 this year. That's not too shabby."

As one Georgia fan stated, "I won't even say wait till next year, with the team leaders heading to the NFL next year."