Sorry...a depressing thought to start your Monday

Did you know that it's only FOUR WEEKS until game week? That's not the depressing thought, obviously...the depressing thought is that I remember last year, in the last four weeks before the season started, WSB Radio in Atlanta replayed our four biggest games from 2007, one on each of the four Saturdays. They replayed Alabama (ONE and DONE!!), the Blackout against Auburn, the Florida game, and the beating we put on the NERDS.

I started wondering if they were going to do the same thing this year, since we are now four weeks out. But then I started trying to figure out which four games they would replay, and I couldn't think of four games from last year that I would really want to hear again. The best I could come up with were LSU, ASU, Tennessee, and Auburn. And even those were a stretch, because I only included the Viles and the War Tiger Eagle Plainsmen because they were wins over bitter rivals...those actual games were bowling shoe ugly.

In retrospect, 2007 was really a magical year (once we got past the embarrassment at Knoxville)...the Alabama, Auburn, and Florida games from that year are some of my greatest memories as a Dawg fan, and I go back almost 30 years of memories (I was a Dawg fan before that, I have pictures to prove it....but it wasn't necessarily by choice. Thank God for good parenting).

But the 2008 season that started with so much promise and hype has to be one of the most frustrating sports seasons I can remember...even in most of the wins, it seemed like we never really hit our potential. That we still won 10 games in such a frustrating year just tells you what kind of job our coaching staff has done in elevating both the performance and the expectation level for this program.

No better way to wash away that frustration than the fact that players report today, officially starting the 2009 season. There's not nearly as much hype about this team, and yet I think I am even MORE excited to see what this group of young men can do.

And since I know I am usually a source for nothing but excitement and enthusiasm when it comes to the Dawgs, I don't want to be a complete downer...so here, enjoy AJ Green carving up the Arizona State defense from last year, and imagine him 15 pounds heavier and 100% healthy:



GO DAWGS!!!