I'm ready

I have two people that I talk to on the phone almost every day (my brother and Brent). Even in the dead periods like March or early June, those conversations inevitably turn to UGA football at some point.

Lately, my part of the conversation consists primarily of two words: I'm ready.

I'm ready to put the window flags up.

I'm ready to wear the same shirt to work every Friday for the next three months.

I'm ready to get little to no work done on Fridays and Mondays, as office conversation invariably centers on what's gonna happen this weekend, or what just happened over the weekend.

I'm ready for the tailgate.

I'm ready to be at the Dawgwalk a week from Saturday, letting these young men know how much we love, appreciate, and support them.

I'm ready to take my daughter to see Russ during the pregame festivities.

I'm ready to hear the Redcoats live, not just on the CD that I've started listening to every day.

I'm ready to hear the opening solo of "Glory, Glory" from the South end zone, with my Georgia hat upraised and tears in my eyes...every single time.

I'm ready to see if Coach Grantham can coach football as well as he can talk it.

I'm ready to appreciate the last season Between the Hedges of the best wide receiver in the country, and the best one the Dawgs have ever had.

I'm ready for Justin Houston to become a household name.

I'm ready to watch the quarterback that all of Dawg Nation was beside ourselves with excitement over when he committed to the Dawgs over his hometown gators.

I'm ready to stop reading message board posts about how Aaron Murray is apparently a dwarf who can't throw the ball more than five yards downfield.

I'm ready to hear Scott Howard, and I'm ready to imagine I can still hear Munson telling me to "Get the picture".

I'm ready, believe it or not, to get irrationally angry at ESPN and their idiot "analysts".

I'm ready, believe it or not, to have weekly heated discussions over whether SEC refs are crooked or too stupid to be crooked.

I'm ready to tell Paul Finebaum where he can stick his hot seat.

I'm ready to watch an offense with more weapons than I can ever remember the Dawgs having at one time.

I'm ready to watch Marlon Brown blossom into the player we all know he can be.

I'm ready for Brown to join AJ, King, Durham, Wootentheballcarrier, Charles, and White to form the best group of receivers and tight ends in the SEC.

I'm ready for Caleb King and Washaun Ealy to RUN THE SEC the way we RUN THIS STATE.

I'm ready to watch a big and nasty offensive line be big and nasty.

I'm ready to watch the Dawgs go to Columbia and put the "sleeper team in the SEC East" to sleep.

I'm ready to send Bobby Petrino scurrying out of the state of Georgia with his little rat tail stuck between his legs...again.

I'm ready for the Dawgs to avenge their embarassing loss to the Evil Hillbillies from Knoxville, and I'm ready for the staff to show no mercy while doing so.

I'm ready to go through a season without having to use fancy uniform tricks to fire the team up for a rivalry game (fingers crossed for this one).

I'm ready to hear the Chapel Bell ringing.

I'm ready to watch the deepest and most athletic group of safeties ever compiled on one team unleash their collective fury. Rambo. Williams. Ogletree. Hamilton. I'm ready to hear those names a LOT.

I'm ready to celebrate a win in Jacksonville (Please, Lord, make it so).

I'm ready to get one for the thumb against the War Tiger Eagle Plainsmen.

I'm ready to show the gnats from North Avenue that they are still the little sister, and always will be.

I'm ready for an epic showdown in the Dome between the Dawgs and the Sabanites.

I. AM. READY.




GO DAWGS!!

Catchin' up

Well, I'm back from Florida...which, of course, means that posting will actually be MORE sporadic, not less.

Go figure.

So...what's been going on?

- First of all, my long ago promised (and even longer overdue) apology to Troy Glaus. I was as hard on him as anybody early in the season, hitting him hard both on the blog and on my Twitter feed.

All he's done since then is win the NL Player of the Month for May and take over the NL lead in RBI.

So, maybe instead of apologizing, I should just say....you're WELCOME!

Just kidding...I was wrong, so I'll gladly admit it.

Troy Glaus for MVP!!

- While I was in Destin, the mighty Trojans of USC got as close to the death penalty as any program is going to get post-SMU.

To which I say, simply:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! ::gasp, gasp::.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, man, that's AWESOME.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

My favorite part was when Kiffykins said that the sanctions (loss of 30 scholarships over three years, two-year bowl ban, and most interestingly, the release of juniors and seniors to transfer to another school without sitting out) will have "no impact" on recruiting.

He followed that up with "DERP DERP DERPITTY DERP".

- Also, the Big 12 threatened to explode, only to be saved at the last minute thanks to Texas graciously accepting an additional $15 MILLION DOLLARS or so to stay put. Such a charitable gesture.

I was pretty out of the loop while all of the conversations were going on last week, so I will leave it to others to go through all the ins and outs and backroom politics. I just know that I was extremely glad that the rumored Texas A&M move to the SEC didn't happen. I really don't want to see the SEC expand at all, and I especially don't want them to make a move just because everybody else is and water down the conference by bringing in inferior teams.

I also don't like what SEC expansion would do to the schedule. I don't really want to see more than 8 SEC games on the schedule, so even if the conference was to only expand to two seven-team divisions, in order to keep from going to 9 SEC games you would have to drop one of the "rotating" games. So we would have 6 division games, the game against Auburn, and then only one rotating SEC game, which would mean we would go 10 years or more between games against LSU, Alabama, and the other teams in the SEC West. I don't like that.

Surprisingly enough, Mike Slive didn't ask my opinion, and I don't expect that to change when this comes up again in a couple of years. Expansion is inevitable, I'm afraid...I was just glad the SEC dodged the bullet this time around.

So...is the Big 12 (or whatever they will be called now) really going to go with just ten teams and no championship game? If so, can we take their automatic BCS bid away? Otherwise, won't the winner of the Texas-Oklahoma game just cakewalk to the BCS every year?

- Remember when I was so excited about the fact that the Hawks let Mike Woodson go, and maybe the team was going to go in a different direction other that stagnant mess we've seen over the last two years?

Yeah...never mind.

- Couple of key additions to the Dawgs over the last couple of weeks.

First of all, we got a big commitment from Nick Marshall. I absolutely love this story...this guy grew up a Dawg fan and Georgia was his dream school. We were recruiting him as a quarterback, as were most of the other schools pursuing him, but then we received the commitment from Christian Lemay and Coach Richt said we probably wouldn't take another quarterback in the 2011 class. The gnats were his second choice, so he came very close to committing to them...and then Coach Richt called and offered him as a defensive back. Nick JUMPED at the second chance to be a Dawg...my kind of guy.

On top of that, he is also one of the top basketball recruits in the state, and he will be playing for Coach Fox's Hoop Dawgs as well. The basketball program is making HUGE strides in the right direction under Coach Fox...with the talent we have coming back plus a couple of big recruits, I think we could really make some noise in 2010-2011.

Here are some highlights of Nick playing DB (h/t to Bubba 'n Earl):



Then, today the Dawgs got some more big news when Jarvis Jones decided to transfer to UGA from USC. Jarvis was very highly recruited in 2009, when Rivals had him rated as the 3rd best prospect in Georgia. He had a neck injury last season, after which USC released him from his scholarship, but all reports from both the USC and UGA medical staff seem to indicate that he is ready to play.

I think Jarvis fits in EXTREMELY well as an inside linebacker in Todd Grantham's 3-4 defense. If he does step in there and live up to his vast potential, we could be looking at a possible 2012 linebacking corps of Cornelius Washington (assuming he doesn't have a big enough year to jump to the NFL in '10), Jarvis Jones, Richard Samuel, and T.J. Stripling.

I'll take it.

Here are some Jarvis Jones highlights from when he was being recruited:




Getting fired up yet? Only 81 DAYS TO KICKOFF!!!

To celebrate, here is a very well done highlight video of the Dawgs win over TAMU in the Independence Bowl...our #81, Aron White, has a couple of big plays (at the 2:35 and 4:36 marks):



And, while I'm at it, since I missed yesterday, here is one of my favorite highlights from the career of #82, Fred Gibson...a fingertip TD catch against the gators:


Good to be back...

GO DAWGS!!!

Couple of quick UT/Kiffin thoughts

- Initial reports are that Kiffin's contract at USC is $20M for five years. That is so absurd that I can't even wrap my mind around it.

Off the top of my head, the other coaches whose salary is in the $4M range are: Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Mack Brown. That's seven national titles, if you are counting. ***EDIT (thanks to the ever-present Anonymous: That's FIVE national titles. I originally had Carroll and Les Miles included for comparisons sake as well. The point is still the same: USC has lost their mind).***

Kiffykins has less than two years head coaching experience: a disaster in Oakland and seven wins at Tennessee last year. He has a career coaching record that is less than .500.

Ridiculous.

- If I'm Tennessee, I call Phil Fulmer and offer to make him my interim coach for 2010. Rather than try and sift through the leftovers this late in the hiring season, I see if Fulmer will sign a deal that guarantees that it is a one year arrangement. He could provide stability, probably salvage a good bit of the recruiting class, and then UT could spend the next year conducting a coaching search at their own pace.

Wait, what am I doing? Ron Prince for UT!!!

My reaction to the Kiffin news

h/t EDSBS

Pathetic.

Ugly.
Putrid.
Nauseating.
Horrible.
Ridiculous.
Perplexing.
Depressing.
Terrifying.
Disgusting.
Inept.
Infuriating.

And most of all...embarrassing.

BIG game today

Today's game is huge for both teams, but especially the Dawgs...this could be the swing game between something like 9-3 and 7-5 or 6-6.

I've been busy again this week, but I also am holding off on posting some things that I really don't want to...it's sufficient to say that I'm hoping to see a HUGE change in mindset from this team and coaching staff today.

Here, this should help us feel a LITTLE better...


Check the 0:15 point of this clip... :-)



And, finally, a fellow Austell, GA native:


GO DAWGS!!!!!!!

SEC Media Days - Day 3

OK, let's get Chizik out of the way so we can get to the Spurrier/Miles/Kiffykins trifecta...

AUBURN:
- I was disappointed that he talked about spring recruiting with no mention of the War Eagle Express. Seriously, that was the ONLY thing I was interested in hearing ChiZZZZZZZZZZZZZik talk about.

- The SECOND most intriguing thing to me about Auburn next year is what Gus Malzahn, their new OC is going to do. They're trying again with a spread approach. I think Malzahn is a better option than Tony Franklin, and now I think they have a coaching staff that will actually support the philosophy, so I think this one has a better chance at success. Chizik brought up the fact that over the last two years, Malzahn's offenses have averaged over 270 yards on the ground. Last year at Tulsa, his offense was #5 in the country on the ground and #9 through the air...I don't care where you are, that's impressive.

Chris over at SmartFootball gives his thoughts on the Malzahn running game here.

- He made mention of the PR push that has seen Auburn billboards go up all over the place...I've seen a couple of them in the Paulding and Alpharetta areas.

I'm putting up a bounty...if you can give me verifiable proof of you defacing one of these billboards, I will personally award you with a prize package that defies description.

SOUTH CAROLINA:
- Let me add my voice to the chorus of people who do NOT like the new watered down, apologetic, humble Steve Spurrier. I like watching him lose, but I don't like watching him snivel.

Brandon Adams on 790AM made an apt comparison the other day...as a kid, we watched Darth Vader through the first two and a half Star Wars movies and just hated him. Even if we thought he was a cool villain, we still loved to hate him. So then he finally dies in Return of the Jedi, and Lucas turned him into a sympathetic figure...bullied by the Emperor, weak, vulnerable. I felt a little bit cheated...I don't want to feel sorry for Darth Vader! I want to EXULT in his destruction, not sympathize with it!

Similar situation here...I want to ENJOY the downfall of Steve Superior, but instead I have to watch it happen to this pathetic shell of what he used to be.

- Case in point...we start fall practice next week, and he still doesn't know who is going to be in charge of play-calling. Who would have ever imagined that on a Spurrier-coached team?

- But there was one little bit of vintage Spurrier...in response to a question about Stephen Garcia, his entire answer was about incoming freshman athlete Stephon Gilmore possibly playing some quarterback. So don't be surprised to see the typical quick hook we've all come to know and love.

- More about Gilmore...as a true freshman, he is already penciled in at one of the starting corner spots...Joe Cox should have some opportunities to make some plays on 9/12.

- He actually said he was trying not to talk about other schools anymore....that's just sad.

LSU:
- No hat? What's up with THAT?

- Best hire of the offseason, in my opinion: John Chavis as LSU's new DC. That guy saved Phat Phil's job on NUMEROUS occasions.

- Another reason to love Les Miles (which I do)...he was the only coach to bring up the new focus on helmet-to-helmet contact, saying it has a chance to be "over-officiated." You can COUNT on SEC officials screwing this one up at least one or two times a week.

The sissification of America continues....

- This was maybe the most enjoyable Q&A of any of them...a great mix of humor and real football talk.

Bottom line, Jordan Jefferson should be much improved, they still have tons of playmakers on offense (LaFell, Charles Scott, Trinton Holliday, etc) and the defense has nowhere to go but up, especially with the addition of one of the best defensive coordinators in the country.

A lot of people are jumping on the Ole Miss bandwagon. Not me...I'm calling LSU as the SEC West champs.

TENNESSEE:
- Kiffykins! I think it should be mandatory that his wife appears with him at ALL media functions. Yowza.

- He continues to spout this crap about how all of this attention has been good for the program, stating that every 17 year old in the country is seeing UT in the news more than any other school. I don't see how being a national punchline on a regular basis can be construed as a good thing. If he actually believes that, he's extremely naive...if he DOESN'T believe it, then he just thinks that all of us are.

- Another example of The Lane Kiffin Reality....the injuries to all three of his top 3 receivers is a GOOD thing. O....Kay.

- Oh, and he continues the B.S.....he actually is throwing that crap out there that he took less money so that they could pay assistants more. Baloney. He took what he could get from UT, as a head coach with ZERO track record of success. He was the best UT could get, and he was paid according to his record and worth on the market. THEN they went out and overspent on assistants, to make up for the fact that they have a pubescent as a head coach.

Sorry, there is no way you're going to convince me otherwise.

You know what? That's all the Kiffin I can take. And the amazing part is that he actually came off as more likeable than I would have thought possible. But he is either fooling himself, or he thinks the rest of us are fools, if he expects us to buy this whole "Master Plan" nonsense.

That's a wrap, folks...hope you enjoyed my rather lengthy Media Days thoughts. Almost time to tee it up....BETWEEN the HEDGES!!!

GO DAWGS!!!

40 DAYS TO KICKOFF!!!

Weekend/random thoughts

- First things first...SEC Media Days start TOMORROW!!! WOOT!!

Like David Hale said earlier this week, that's our equivalent to pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training...there's no real activity yet, but it's the first sign of life since Signing Day.

This year's festivities should be fun...it's Lane Kiffen's first year, for one thing, so we get to hear 100 different variations on whether it's true that A) All of this making a public fool of himself is some sort of master plan; and B) All publicity is good publicity.

No Phat Phil this year, so the possibility of subpoenas drops drastically.

I'm personally really looking forward to the quotes from the two Dawg representatives, Joe Cox and Jeff Owens. Pretty much everything these guys say fires me up to the point of wanting to run through a wall, and they were definitely the perfect choices as our representatives, despite what Pat Forde says...he seems to think that the reps should be the biggest "stars" on the team, so he wanted AJ Green and Rennie. I think it should be as Richt has always done it, with two senior leaders going to speak for the team, and these two definitely fit the bill.

- Dawgs recruiting is continuing to roll...two more huge commitments over the last couple of days:

• Garrison Smith, DT out of Atlanta: We need DT's desperately this year (we lose three of our top 4 to graduation after this year), which made this guy pretty much a must-have. He's 6-4 250 right now, and he is so athletic that he actually plays mostly at DE in high school.

• Nickell Roby, CB/ATH out of Frostproof, FL: If the name of that city looks familiar, it should...it's also the hometown of his cousin and future teammate, Carlton Thomas. This guy is a burner, and ESPN.com's scouting report just raved about him. He's also 5-8 and 165 pounds, which means he'll wear #23 when he arrives on campus. I'm convinced that we had a special tiny jersey made for Tim Jennings when he showed up at school, and rather than throw it away, we just sign another diminutive corner every four years and just pass the jersey down. He's a little guy, obviously, but runs a 4.4, and at 165 has max lifts of 285 at the bench and 445 squat listed...that's nearing Thomas Brown territory.

This makes 17 commitments, which means I only seeing us taking about 3-4 more...if I had my wish it would be one more DT, one more WR, and then whomever we can get out of Mack Brown (highly rated running back) and TJ Stripling (pass rushing DE).

- Braves continue to be on a roll...unfortunately, it's too little, too late. This team had a chance to make noise earlier in the season when nobody in the NL East could seem to win any games...now the Phillies are on a monster roll (9 game winning streak, 12 out of their last 13), and even though the Braves are playing much better baseball over the last couple of weeks they are actually losing ground in the standings and are now 6.5 games back. We are only 4 games out of the wild card, however, so that's a possibility....but I'm not getting my hopes up. We're swinging some hot bats right now (especially the middle of the order), but I'm not sold that we can maintain that level of success...this is still the same team who, not too long ago, was losing series while only scoring 3-4 runs over a three game span pretty consistently.

And if the offense DOES fall off, we're in even bigger trouble, because Bobby is working this bullpen like crazy. Just about all of our top guys are near the league lead in appearances, which shouldn't be the case...number one, we haven't won enough games to have used our setup and closer that often, and number two, our starters have been extremely effective for the most part. The problem is that Bobby rarely lets anybody pitch past the 7th inning, no matter how effective they've been. The other night, Vasquez was throwing a gem and was lifted after the 7th having thrown only 101 pitches...we should have gotten at LEAST another inning out of him.

One more Braves note...Nate McLouth may be my new favorite player, even though he can't hit his way out of a paper bag right now. I just like saying his name really loudly with a thick Scottish accent. Try it sometime...it always puts me in a better mood.

- Doc Jensen at EW.com continues to put out pretty good LOST content, even in the long hiatus. This week, he looks at 15 reader-submitted mysteries that "must" be solved before next year's series finale.

Hate to break it to him and his readers, but some of those ain't gonna happen...I think we've seen the last of Libby, for example, and I also think we've received all of the explanation we're going to get on the numbers (try researching the Valenzetti Equation).

- And I'm about 9 games into my first season on NCAA 10 from EA...like I mentioned before, I have a PlayStation 2. The only game I play is this one, and I can't talk myself (or more importantly, my wife) into ponying up the cash for a PlayStation 3 for just one game. Apparently EA is also not ponying up any more money for improvements to games on the PlayStation 2 platform, because this one is EXACTLY the same as last year. Only updates are to the rosters. I literally can not tell any difference in the game play, and there have only been minor font changes to the overall appearance.

As for the rosters, there are the usual interesting screw-ups (Vince Vance is white, for example), and I wasn't too happy with some of the player rankings, but those were rectified pretty quickly (how is Michael Moore a higher rated WR than AJ Green? Did his mother help with the programming?).

If you've never bought the game before, I would give it an A-. It's still the best as far as gameplay and overall enjoyment. But if you have bought the game in recent years, it's only worth it if you want the roster updates.


OK, that's enough worthless stuff for now!

46 DAYS TO KICKOFF!!!

GO DAWGS!!!

Stafford was pretty good

First of all, let me preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of Joe Cox and I am really looking forward to seeing what he is going to do this year. His attitude during the time he's been on campus has made him one of my favorite Dawgs, even though his playing time has been limited.

But I want to talk a little about the REASON his playing time has been limited. There have been rumblings that this team will actually be better off with Joe Cox, with an implied "Good riddance" to Matthew Stafford...not HUGE rumblings, but enough that I noticed it.

My opinion is that Matthew Stafford is the best quarterback we've had at UGA since Fran Tarkenton. Period. Better than Greene. Better than Shockley (barely). Better than Zeier.

His detractors like to talk about unfulfilled potential and lack of big wins during his tenure...well, allow me to retort.

I'll grant you that it seems almost impossible that we didn't even PLAY in an SEC Championship Game while we had him and Knowshon, but let's look at the numbers...

Games I would consider "big wins":

Auburn '06: On the road against the number five team in the country, in what was shaping up as a disastrous season for the Dawgs. As a true freshman, Stafford goes 14/20 for 219 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT. Also, ran 11 times for 83 yards and a TD.

Georgia Tech '06: Remember, this was supposed to be the year that the gnats finally broke through against us...they were getting ready to play in the ACC Championship game, Bulldawg legend Reggie Ball was a senior, they had the best WR in college football, one of the best defenses in the country. After struggling for most of the day, Stafford drives us down the field on a 7 minute, 64 yard touchdown drive, culminating in a clutch 3rd down TD pass to MoMass, and providing probably the last truly great call from the legendary Larry Munson (on a related note...if somebody can find a link to the entire last drive, I would greatly appreciate it. The whole drive was just classic Munson, and I used to have the link, but I can't find it anywhere, even larrymunson.com).

Virginia Tech '06: I brought this one up a couple of weeks ago...posted here. But this was our third straight win against a ranked team, and served as the springboard to the '07 success. One of the greatest comebacks in Bulldawg history.

Alabama '07: ONE and DONE, baby!!!

Florida '07: Probably the biggest win of Stafford's career. This game is most notable for being Knowshon's breakout game (well, that and The Celebration), but Matt was 11/18 for 211 yards and 3 touchdowns (almost 20 yds per completion, and 12 yds per attempt).

Auburn '07: In what was definitely the trend, we beat Auburn up with the run, but Stafford was 11/19 for 235 yards and 2TD (21 yds per completion and 12 yds per attempt). The numbers from '07 are pretty telling...we were definitely a team that would beat you down with the run and then throw the deep ball off play action.

Hawaii '08: Yeah, it was Hawaii, but it was also a BCS bowl...Stafford was 14/23 for 175 yds.

Arizona State '08: First game west of the Mississippi for the Dawgs in about 50 years, national TV, many pundits predicted trouble for the Dawgs. Instead, it was no contest, and Stafford had a big night...16/28 for 285 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT.

LSU '08: On the road at the #13 team in the country, Stafford was 17/26 for 249 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT, and the Dawgs put up 52. We needed everything Stafford and the rest of the offense gave us, cause our defense gave no help. Dawgs win 52-38.

Yeah, the '08 wins are kind of weak...but also keep in mind that without his performance against Kentucky, then the season becomes a disaster rather than a disappointment. In Lexington, he went 17/27 for 376 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, and THIS:

That play shows the kind of athleticism that I don't know that Stafford gets credit for...as much as I love David Greene, if he's the QB there it's a sack.

As for those disappointing losses, let's look closer (I'm taking out the early '06 losses...he was a true freshman and wasn't even named the full time starter until about 4-5 games in):

South Carolina '07: Ugh. Plenty of blame to go around in this one, including a horrible game by our WR and TE corps and an inexplicable lack of touches by Knowshon...but Stafford definitely deserves his share. 19/44 for 213 yds (4.8 per attempt), 0 TD, 1 INT. Again, he got no help from his WR or TE, and the INT was on a desperation pass on the last drive, but still...this one was ugly.

UT '07: Dawgs get the ball first and go three and out...Stafford is 0/1. Defense allows the Vols to march right down the field and score, and it's 7-0. On the ensuing drive, Dawgs run 4 times, pass twice (Stafford is 1/2 on the drive) and then punt. Dawgs D force a punt on the next drive, but an illegal block on the return means we start at our own 12. Three straight rushes (including one of the infamous QB draws on 2nd and long) nets 8 yds and we punt. Two plays later it's 14-0 Vols, after the trick play for a 56 yd TD. Dawgs go three and out, get the punt blocked, Vols drive for another TD, 21-0, and the game is basically over.

I find it hard to put this one on Stafford. Our defense was just SHREDDED in the first half of this game, which took us totally out of what our strength was in '07. UT no longer had to worry about the running game, which rendered the play action game useless. We ended up being outgained 411-243, with a TOP deficit of around 12 minutes.

Alabama '08: Alabama gets the ball first, drives straight down the field, gets helped by a stupid Dawgs penalty, goes up 7-0. Dawgs get the ball back, pick up 2 quick first downs off two 13-yd completions, then bog down and have to punt. Alabama drives right down the field, helped by another stupid Dawg penalty, kick a field goal and it's 10-0. Dawgs go three and out (Stafford is 0/2 on the drive), Mimbs punts the ball freaking 19 YARDS, Alabama takes advantage of the short field, shreds our defense, scores a touchdown, and it's 17-0. Dawgs get the ball back, Stafford completes a pass to AJ Green, who fumbles. Alabama gets the ball, drives STRAIGHT DOWN THE FREAKING FIELD AGAIN, scores to make it 24-0. Ball game. Remind anyone of the UT '07 game?

Dawgs came back and almost made a game of this one in the second half, and Stafford ended up 24/42 for 274 yds, 2 TD, and one interception that came on the last play of the 1st half. He was running for his life for the whole game, as well, and was sacked multiple times.

This one was NOT on Stafford. Dawgs committed 10 penalties for 81 yards, and the defense allowed JOHN PARKER WILSON to go 13/16 for 205 yds, and basically rolled over and played dead the entire first half.

Florida '08: This one is tough...most people forget, the Dawgs were actually in this one early. Missed an early 37 yd field goal, which is when I started having a really bad feeling. After kicking a field goal to make it 7-3 Gayterds, we try a stupid onside kick that UF recovers and turns into 7 quick points, 14-3. We come right back down the field, stall out on the 10...and then miss ANOTHER field goal, this one from 27 yards.

To start the second half, defense stops them and forces a punt. We get the ball, drive to the UF 30, looks like we're about to make it a one score game...and Stafford throws a pick that gets returned all the way to our 1, UF punches it in and makes it 21-3. Ball game.

Lots of bad stuff in this one, including bad special teams play and a generally poor outing by the defense...but you can definitely point to that INT as the turning point in the game. Once we were down 21-3 in the third quarter, it was over. Didn't help that the defense made virtually no stops from that point on, but we would have had to score on pretty much every possession at that point. The Gayterds D knew that, and ended up picking off two more passes that would not have even been attempted under normal circumstances.

So this one is at least PARTIALLY on Stafford.

Tech '08: We ALL know where the blame for this one lies, and it ain't on Stafford. He ended up 24/39 for 407 yds and 5 TD. Defense COMPLETELY let the team down in this one.

So....bottom line? Stafford won more big games than he lost, and the majority of the losses during his tenure were for the most part out of his control. For his career, he was 564/987 (57.1%, including 61% his junior year), 51 TD, 33 INT (including 25/10 his junior year). Passer rating progression his three years was 109-129-154.

7-4 as a starter against the Big 4 (Auburn, Tech, UT, and Florida)...unfortunately, you'd be hard pressed to find a QB with that kind of record against those 4, at least in the non-Herschel era.

This turned out to be a lot longer (and a lot more cathartic, actually) than I originally intended, but some of the criticisms I have heard about Staff kind of ticked me off. He was and is a DGD, and we will miss him next year...anybody who says otherwise is engaging in some revisionist history, in my opinion.

I hope for nothing but the best for him in the NFL.

Now, bring on The Ginger Assassin!

Attention college football fans:

Go read THIS.

It is an excellent piece by David Hale about the difference between how Lane Kiffen goes about his business as compared to Coach Richt.

Great stuff.

Go DAWGS!!!!

85 days to go! 12 weeks from tomorrow!

Lane Kiffen continues to be the greatest thing to ever hit the Blogospere

Hilarious.

Token football post

- I haven't really posted anything about the non-stop thrill ride that is the Lane Kiffen administration, but that doesn't mean I haven't been enjoying it thoroughly...if you want to catch up on all that has been going on, there is no better place to start than right here. I would say the good Senator has done as good a job as anybody keeping up with the almost daily shenanigans.

However, probably my favorite quote regarding the whole situation to date was David Hale's:

My guess is that by Thursday of this week we'll have a story of Kiffin standing
atop Neyland Stadium, stoned to bejeezus on acid, screaming, "I am a golden
god!" while Ed Orgeron tries to talk him back down. That'll be fun.

Almost Famous reference, FTW!

- And, in Bulldawg news...Groo makes a good point regarding all of the "we're so much more motivated, we're working harder than ever" talk we are hearing out of the team the last few weeks. Can anybody remember an offseason where players were ever quoted saying "You know, I think we as a team have just decided to take it easy this year, and we'll just let the chips fall where they may"? Not that I don't think the players are being honest, but the true test of all of this will come in a few months, both in the offseason (no more stupid arrests, please), and of course the 1st weekend in September in Stillwater.

- I will finish up the series I started a few weeks ago on the Dawgs signees, I promise. As for why I stopped it, well, the next position on the list is WR/TE, and we're still waiting on Orson Charles, and I wanted the list to be complete. It's certainly not that the whole thing got dropped due to my writing volumes and volumes about GeekTV, no way.

- And to wrap up...Rennie Curran is a BEAST.

Thoughts on the Citrus Bowl, and the Dawgs in general

First of all, I'll say this...10 wins is a successful season, no matter what the expectations were. We can be disappointed that this team didn't accomplish what we all hoped, and we can vent our frustrations over a defense that brought to mind the Donnan era with their consistent inconsistency, and we can bemoan the injuries and constant barrage of yellow hankies...wait, where was I? This was supposed to be the POSITIVE part. Right, 10 wins...and for the 6th time in Richt's 8 years. Nothing to sneeze at, and we are certainly miles ahead of where we were pre-Richt if we have come to the point where we can be disappointed by a year like the one we just completed.

That being said, I was strangely frustrated by the Citrus Bowl performance by the Dawgs. First of all, that first half was U-G-L-Y on the offensive side of the ball, which means at best this was going to be one of those games where we didn't play our best football for the full 4 quarters. Remind me...did we actually have a game this year where both sides of the ball clicked for the entire game?

Anyway, the offense...in the first half, NOTHING worked. Couldn't open holes for the running game, and Stafford looked awful. Not sure if he was trying to throw the Lions off his scent or what, but he was under throwing, over throwing, wide right, wide left...just awful. Then, in the second half, the light came on, at least for the passing game. Still couldn't really get anything going in the run game, but Stafford looked like an entirely different player. Almost perfect, and looking every bit the part of the #1 overall pick. Once the passing game got going, we were never really in any danger of losing the game.

As for the defense...where was THAT all year? I think it was Blutarsky who said a couple of weeks ago that he wasn't sure what would be more frustrating...if the defense came out and made the same mistakes they had made all year, or if they all of a sudden came out and looked like we all expected them to before the season started, now that the game was COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS. So, I was glad to see them play well, but it is certainly frustrating to think about what could have been.

And...I told you Willie reads the blog. I asked for Ron-Dayne-circa-98 Outback Bowl type numbers for Ringer. Well, Ron Dayne rushed for 36 yards on 14 carries against the Dawgs in the 98 Outback Bowl, and Javon Ringer had 47 yards on 20 carries...pretty close. Also, six sacks, 4 from the D-line, and pretty consistent pressure on the QB all day. Best day the defense has had since the South Carolina game.

Special teams...ugh. Blair kicked ANOTHER one out of bounds, and I still feel like EVERY SINGLE opponent's kickoff return has the chance to go the distance. Kickoff coverage HAS to improve next year. Not sure how much the injury situation hurt our kickoff coverage team, but we did have a LOT of guys out there who never see the field in any other situation. But injuries have nothing to do with the fact that Blair can't keep the ball inbounds on a regular basis.

I'm sure my somewhat negative view of the game has something to do with the fact that when the season started I did not expect the Dawgs to be in anything less than a BCS bowl. If the team had put together this same game in, say, the Sugar Bowl, I'd probably be heaping praise on them. As it is, it's another 10 win season, another bowl victory, and I'd still rather be a Dawg than anything else.

Couple of other thoughts:
- Stafford/Moreno: I still think both are gone. The only one I can even make an argument for is Stafford. I can see him POSSIBLY saying that he'll put off the millions for one more year in order to improve his game and give him a better chance at long term success in the NFL. But that seems extremely unlikely to me...it's almost impossible to turn down the chance to be the number one overall pick, and if I was advising him I'd probably tell him to go on, take the money and run (Woo-hoo-hoo).

As for Moreno, the shelf life for a running back is so short, especially for somebody like Moreno who doesn't appear to have the physical build to take an NFL pounding for many years. He almost has to go and go ahead and start making his money.

So where does that leave the Dawgs? I actually think we'll miss Moreno more than Stafford. I'm intrigued by the idea of Joe Cox and Logan Gray perhaps sharing the QB position the way David Greene and DJ Shockley did. At running back, on the other hand, I was not impressed with what we saw out of Caleb King this year. However, maybe he is one of those guys who needs to be The Man and get 20 or so carries to really reach his potential...hopefully. We also have Richard Samuel (unless he switches to LB), and Dontavious Jackson and Carlton Thomas both redshirted. Plus Washaun Ealy comes in next year as well, so at least the cupboard is not bare.

- There has been some good news this offseason...first of all, Stacey Searles rebuffed Auburn's advances in favor of staying in Athens. This was, of course, great news for the Dawgs, as I don't know very many coaches who have done as amazing a job as Searles has in patching together these O-lines the last two years.

Then, Rodney Garner turned down the big orange Brinks truck in Knoxville in order to stay on Coach Richt's staff. I, for one, feel bad...I thought for sure that the Vols offer to nearly double his salary would make a move a no-brainer for a relative nomad like Garner, but he proved that money really isn't the only thing to him by telling to keep their stinking $400K...he don't want their orange money.

By the way...what UT is doing with their coaching staff is ridonkulous. $2M for a guy in Lane Kiffin who has had exactly ZERO success as a head coach is one thing...but $1.2M for Monte Kiffin as defensive coordinator? As a comparison, we pay Coach Martinez around $350K. I understand that Kiffin the Elder has had a great deal of success as Tampa Bay's DC, but keep in mind two things:

#1 - The "Tampa 2" defense that his defenses have made famous is not his creation, not his alone anyway. Tony Dungy was extremely instrumental in devising this scheme, and Kiffin has simply continued what he and Dungy started, with the luxury of a GM who will get him whatever defensive talent he wants.

#2 - Tampa 2 is not comparable to, say, Urban Meyer's Spread, as far as innovation goes. Virtually any defense who runs a 4-3 has at least some Tampa 2 mixed in to their playbook, so it's not like he's bringing anything to the table that SEC offenses have never seen before.

UT is also paying the always entertaining Ed Orgeron in to be the recruiting coordinator (since I don't see Monte Kiffin burning up the recruiting trail) and D-line coach, and paying him $600K a year. We paid Coach Garner around $230K last year to do the same job.

The insanity didn't stop there...I think every position coach they have brought on so far makes more than we (along with most other schools) pay our coordinators (at least for now). It's their money, and they can do what they want, but what happens when they go 7-5? And what in this coaching staff's past leads you to believe that 7-5 is not a very real possibility?

Other thing it does is drive the market up for all the other major schools...thanks a lot, Vols. One more reason to hate these orange morons. Higher ticket prices.

So, the season is over...seems like we just got started. I'm no recrootin' guru, but I will probably post some recruiting stuff as we approach Signing Day. And there's only 242 days left till kickoff!

GO DAWGS!!!