Son...people can SEE you!

I realized this morning that, after my last post, some of you may have worried that my subsequent absence from the blogosphere may have meant that I may have actually died from my massive headache. Never fear, dear readers...still alive and well, watching entirely too much television, and back ready to bend your ear for a while.

First things first...I do think I want to do a more long-form writeup of Justified episodes. I just need to figure out a schedule, and see what (if any) online resources there are for transcripts, which is what I used to do my old LOST recaps.

As for this week's episode, I thought it was good but not great. I sincerely hope that there is more Carla Gugino in the future, as she was obviously perfect in her old "Karen Sisco" role. In fact, that was probably my only issue with this episode...not enough of Raylan and Karen (although they never actually CALLED her Karen).

But, honestly, the rest of the episode was good enough that I can understand why something had to get the shaft. Some of the things I loved:

 - Art being a bada**, and possibly letting us in on why he has such a complicated relationship with Raylan. On one hand, Raylan has to be an absolute nightmare as an employee, and Art has made no bones about how fed up he is with constantly having to clean up Raylan's mess. On the other hand, Art probably sees a younger version of himself in Raylan, which is why he continues to clean up the mess no matter how fed up he gets.

 - Everything about the Boyd/Dicky scenes. Obviously, Walton Goggins is phenomenal as Boyd, but I think Jeremy Davies is a little underrated by people who talk about the acting on this show. There are so many "versions" of Dicky (each one as true and believable as another), and we got a good example of that here...look at the difference between how Dicky is acting when he thinks he's talking to a guard, vs. when he realizes that it is actually Boyd coming to visit. There is a version of Dicky that he projects when he thinks he has the upper hand, and another very different one when he knows he is in a position of weakness...both versions are at the same time very real, but also very much an affectation. I don't think he is ever as strong as he likes to pretend he is sometimes, but you better not underestimate him and think he's as weak as he projects at times either. Just great, great stuff from both guys.

 - Always fun to see Band of Brothers alumni pop up on other shows, and this is not the first time we've seen one here.

 - We didn't get any more of Neal McDonough's character (currently only known as "The Carpetbagger"), but we were introduced to another of this seasons Big Bads. Mykel T. Williamson was terrifying as Limehouse. And also a big fan of Fight Club, which automatically makes it hard for me to root against him.

It's also really disconcerting to see Bubba be such a psychopath. Forrest would be SO disappointed.

Overall, another really good episode, albeit one that I still feel like is doing a lot of foundation work. We haven't even really gotten into what the "Big" story is going to be this season, but that's not unusual for this show...they like to establish the world and its players early on, and then start moving the pieces around.

 - I also watched the pilot of Touch, the new Tim Kring joint that stars Kiefer Sutherland. I thought it was a really good pilot...cool concepts, Kiefer is really good, etc. I'm going to stick around, but it's hard not to compare this project with the LAST one that Tim Kring put out, which was Heroes. This pilot reminded me so much of the Heroes pilot...the global scope, the "everybody is connected" themes, even the overly pretentious voiceovers and long subtitled scenes. I loved the Heroes pilot and most of the first season, but then that show went off the rails in a HUGE way as it collapsed under the weight of its own mythology. This is obviously a different show...I'm hoping that Kring learned the right lessons from Heroes and fixes some of the issues here.

I don't think the show comes back until sometime in March, so you have plenty of time to catch the pilot between now and then...I'll be watching with cautious optimism when it makes its return.

 - Last night's Parks and Recreation was tremendous, and I would actually suggest that this could be an "Emmy submission" episode...there was so much good stuff for almost every character:

Ron - FANTASTIC Ron episode...from the snack bar in the bowling alley being his "favorite restaurant" to his horror at Tom's bowling mechanics ("Son...people can SEE you!"), to his subsequent anonymous testing of Tom's "technique" ("I was never here..").

Tom - Another great Tom list, with all of his possible bowling nicknames (forgot that in the Ron section earlier...he went with BOWLER, GIRL, and TOM). And his whining about his "fingy" was Tom at his pathetic best. All that was missing from his storyline was Jean-Ralphio.

Jerry - "Well, I don't really think you need MY social security number...but I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it out. It's 2-1-0.."

Andy - Every single thing Chris Pratt says and does cracks me up. "Why are we laughing?" "Champion really doesn't like awkward situations..."

April - I really think Aubrey Plaza was the MVP of this episode. Her annoyance with Chris leading to her wanting to win the contest in order to make his happiness "go away", that tremendous scene of her affecting different accents and personas in order to wring donations out of people, and of course her heart growing three sizes after she realizes Chris is heartbroken (and it may be her fault: "I might be a wizard"). April showing actual human feelings always gets me.

Obviously, that list could keep going...the only problem I had with this episode was that it wasn't a great one for Leslie. I thought her reaction to that one guy in the focus group saying he couldn't see himself going bowling with her was too over the top, even for her. But A) the show acknowledged it (through Ben's reactions), and B) she got to redeem herself at the end with her refusal to apologize for the fact that her boyfriend stood up for her to this repulsive jerk, and in fact she found it pretty hot.

So, yeah...this is still the best comedy on TV.

 - Archer. Well...as usual, there are a lot of jokes that I can't re-create here, either in order to keep the blog family friendly or because they don't translate as well in writing. But even though Parks and Rec is the best comedy on TV, I didn't laugh harder at anything last night than I did at "Did you hear we met a TIGER? But...then, he was....murdered", with the possibility of "I'm gonna die in a toilet stall! Just like the gypsy said!". Or Ray Gillette as a Decepticon.

TOKEN SPORTS CONTENT:
As usual, Blutarsky says what I want to say, just much better...great post from him today on the dangers of a college football playoff, specifically my biggest problem with a tournament-style system. And extra points for using a reference from The Wire in the title of the post.

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND:
 - Chuck has its series finale tonight. If you haven't been watching so far, I guess it's a little late to jump in now...but for those of us who have been along from the beginning, what a ride. And I'm still shocked and happy that we got five seasons of this show, and that they are being allowed to go out pretty much on their own terms. Hooray for NBC suckiness! If they actually had done a better job of developing shows over the last four years, there is no way we would have made it to this point...Chuck kept getting renewed because NBC had absolutely nothing with which to replace it.

Alan Sepinwall has been one of the biggest online Chuck supporters since season one, so of course he is going to have some excellent finale-related material. HERE is part five of his week-long interview with showrunners Josh Schwarz and Chris Fedak, and HERE is a fantastic post listing all of his favorite moments from the series.

As for me, I'm really going to miss this show...but I think I will miss Sarah most of all.

 - Also this weekend is the "beginning" of HBO's Luck. I put "beginning" in quotation marks because HBO actually ran the pilot a while back. I watched it then and thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I had to watch it in standard def vs. hi-def (the HORROR!!!).

I'm a HUGE fan of Deadwood, which is also from creator David Milch. That one was set in a "western" type setting, but it was so much more than just a "western". It was a story about community, the greater good, how the truly awful things in life can sometimes open our eyes to the beautiful things....all with some of the most beautifully profane dialogue ever written. So I'm sure this one won't be for some of you...if you're easily offended by certain words, don't bother tuning in.

But I admire Milch's vision and style, and this one has the added bonus of a visionary director (Michael Mann) and a ridiculously talented cast (Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte, Dennis Farina, Jason Gedric, Richard Kind, just to name a few). So I'm in, 100%.

Oh, and by the way, speaking of Deadwood...AV club has a great piece today about the first season that is co-written by a first-time viewer and a long time fan. Good stuff from them, as usual.

Have a great weekend!

EDITED TO ADD: Didn't want to make a whole post out of this, but Grantland agrees with me with regards to what Jericho is doing since his return (the part in bold is my favorite part):

The shtick was nothing short of brilliant. To play with the crowd's instincts — turning their welcome-back applause against them — was the most effective way for a star like Jericho to "turn heel" in short order. In fact, he was turning heel in perhaps the most meta way possible: Average fans were largely left perplexed by Jericho's act, but the "smart" fans on the Internet felt most strongly aggrieved. Many of them knew what Jericho was doing, yet they were still disgusted by the inanity of it. When CM Punk went off-script, those fans swooned; when Jericho deliberately undermined the whole edifice, that was a step too far. Punk assaulted the fourth wall over the summer; Jericho went out and found a fifth wall to address. Jericho and Punk are expected to clash, and when that happens "reality" may take the biggest beating.

The most obvious precedent for Jericho's audience-taunting is Andy Kaufman's "I'm from Hollywood" routine in the early 1980s, but what Jericho did in those few silent appearances actually has more in common with another Kaufman stunt: reading The Great Gatsby in its entirety to stupefied audiences. It was performance art under the guise of a blunt assault on fans' expectations, or vice versa.

What I'm thinking about today...

Going forward, this place is probably going to be a lot more stream-of-consciousness...if some repeatable patterns start popping up, I may do some more structured posting, but for now it's going to be just the stuff that I am thinking about, or talking my coworkers' ears off about.


 - Still can't get over how dominant Alabama was in the national title game Monday night. They were one late penalty away from basically pitching a perfect game...no points allowed, no turnovers, and no penalties. And not against Coastal Carolina, either...this was against the undisputed number one team in the country, who had beaten three top 5 teams already this year, and was basically ripping their way through everybody. Add that to the fact that they really outplayed LSU the first time they played them (they just couldn't hit a field goal), and there is no doubt in my mind who deserves to be the national champion.

Which brings me to a subject that I am likely only to post on once (or at least not more than once a year)...the BCS vs. playoffs debate. I am almost 100% anti-playoff. I feel like that puts me in an increasingly small minority, but I do have my reasons...

First of all, I love that the college football regular season is the most meaningful in all of sports. EVERY week really does matter. People dispute that, because teams lose and still get in almost every year, but I look at it this way...at least with the current setup, if you are serious about playing for a national title you better at least APPROACH every week as if it is a must win, because you never know what game is going to be the one that costs you. When Alabama lost to LSU on November 5, for all they knew their hopes at a national title were over. And they would have been, too, if Oklahoma State, Stanford, Oregon, and Boise State had not all lost games that they should have won. If we go to a playoff, then that sense of urgency is lessened....we can argue about how MUCH it's lessened, but I don't want it lessened at ALL.

Because of that, the only playoff system that I can get behind is one that includes NO MORE than four teams....if you're not in the top 4, there's a reason, and you are not elite. And the playoff system that will most likely be implemented at some point probably will be only four (or even a plus one)...but I've watched the NCAA long enough to know that mission creep is not a possibility...it's an inevitability. One thing the NCAA can't resist is the siren song of cash, and if four teams makes them a gazillion dollars, they are just going to want to make TWO gazillion, so why not go to EIGHT teams, etc..

The other reason I like the BCS is that it is a system that rewards an entire body of work...too often, playoffs and tournaments are won by teams that just got hot at the right time. I like to see excellence rewarded, and I think that almost 100% of the time the two teams that are matched up in the BCS championship are the two teams that most deserve to be there based on their entire body of work. The teams that don't make it are USUALLY not there for a very good reason...either they lost to somebody they shouldn't have, or they didn't beat anybody of note. I don't like the idea of one of those teams sneaking in to the playoffs and then riding a late season hot streak to a championship.

So that's just one man's opinion...we can debate in the comments, but this is a subject that I think gets beat to death in the blogosphere, so I doubt I will post on it too often.

 - Good news out of the Georgia Bulldog front yesterday...Orson is leaving (as expected), but virtually the entire defense is returning, as well as our defensive coordinator (after a pretty silly report that he may be flirting with the Falcons). That defense should be an absolute blast to watch next year...let's just hope the offensive line gels, a running back steps up, Aaron Murray continues to develop, etc...next year could be special.

(note: "special" = running through a fairly weak regular season schedule, inching our way in to the Top 5, losing to the Alabama juggernaut in the SECCG, and then winning a Sugar Bowl, setting ourselves up for a similar season in 2013. VERY early predictions there.)

 - There are MANY times that I wish I was a TV critic, and seeing reports from the 2 Broke Girls panel at press tour yesterday was certainly one of those times. Jut deliciously awkward and hostile. Excellent writeups are HERE and HERE, from Alan Sepinwall and Todd VanderWerff, respectively. The VanderWerff writeup is particularly interesting, because Todd has been one of the more outspoken defenders of the show online...don't think that's going to be the case anymore.

Todd's opinion of the show has been much like mine: that there is a really good show in there, particularly in the performances of Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs....but that show is being buried under an avalanche of bad puns, racial stereotypes, and raunchiness for raunchiness sake. There is a way to do racial stereotypes and off color humor WELL (see Happy Endings "rotary dial" joke last night for an example of the second thing), but Michael Patrick King is WAY too arrogant and tone deaf to ever be able to pull that off successfully.

It's a shame...I will probably keep watching the show, because I do enjoy the two leads, but I no longer hold out hope that it will turn in to the show that I had hoped it would be.

 - The winner of the ABC comedy block last night...Happy Endings. I laughed so much I missed some of the jokes...I'm going to have to start keeping the show on my DVR so that I can go back and rewatch, to get the full experience. They just throw 50 jokes a minute at you...they might not all hit, but there are so many of them that I'm usually laughing nonstop. Favorite part last night? Anything involving the racist, slightly homophobic, parrot that Alex bought on Craigslist from Aryan420. "You trippin, bird..."

Pretty solid outings from Suburgatory and Modern Family, as well....but Happy Endings is the big winner from last night.

 - As for tonight...Community may not be back (::sob::), but the rest of the NBC Thursday lineup is, including the return of Parks and Rec (my #3 show of 2011), and 30 Rock.

Also, if you have HBO and have never seen the Paradise Lost documentaries that detail the case of the West Memphis 3, I highly recommend checking your listings for tonight and the next couple days...they are replaying the first two parts and then premiering part 3...if you want to be really furious, and then sad, and then sort of happy but still sad/mad at the same time, you should check it out.


OK! Glad to be back in the blogsosphere...please excuse my rust as I try to get back in the swing of this thing!

The end to a friendly rivalry

Let's get this out of the way up front...absolutely nothing that is to follow in this post has anything to do with why the Dawgs lost yesterday. Auburn is a better team than Georgia is right now. I think that without a doubt, we are a better team than the 5-6 record would indicate, but Auburn is the #2 team in the country for a reason, and they showed it yesterday. We never even looked like we MIGHT stop their offense at any point after the first quarter, and another very good performance by our offense could not overcome our defensive deficiencies and poor special teams play.

Now....on to the point.

Unlike some Dawg fans, I have never really hated Auburn. There are a lot of reasons for that...some of them as innocuous as the fact that my high school was the War Eagles, so we shared a fight song and the same color scheme. There was also the Pat Dye-Vince Dooley institutional incest. And when I got older and visited their campus, I was always struck by how much it reminded me of Athens. On top of all that, about ten years ago my parents moved to the Opelika area and my father now pastors a church full of Auburn fans who happen to be great people who treat their pastor and their pastor's family very well.

So, yeah...I'm one of a minority of Dawg fans who has always sort of pulled for Auburn a little, as long as they weren't playing us.

Never again.

Cam Newton is a thief, a liar, and a cheater. These aren't allegations. Not "allegedly". As Captain Jack Ross said, "These are the facts of the case...and they are undisputed". On top of that, over the last couple of weeks there has been a ton of smoke regarding pay-for-play allegations, including the latest news that Cam's father has allegedly admitted soliciting money in exchange for his son's prodigious football talents. Now that part of the story IS still in question, but I ask this: Knowing what we know about the kind of person that Cam Newton has repeatedly shown himself to be, why are we supposed to give him the benefit of the doubt?

Along those same lines, why do we keep being told that this is a "feel good story"? When does the "feel good" part kick in? This story makes me want to take a shower.

And yet...the Auburn administration, coaching staff, and fan base continue to be, in their own words, "all in". Not only are they not embarrassed or ashamed by any of this, they have anointed this player as the face of their program, and seem to be reveling in the controversy, flaunting the fact that they are going to support this individual, NO MATTER WHAT.

As for Nick Fairley, well...I don't understand any fan base who can look at THIS:


and THIS:


..and feel anything other than embarrassed. (By the way...Fairley was NOT "blocked into" Aaron. He was blocked, yes...but he saw Aaron's exposed knee, changed direction, and INTENTIONALLY drove his helmet into his knee). But that's not what I saw or heard last night...instead, I saw Auburn fans (some of whom I have known and respected for a long time) sticking up for him and saying that he was just "playing hard", that this was "just football".

Those who know me know that I am for the most part disgusted by the rule changes that we have seen in recent years that try to "soften" football. I have no issue with football as a violent sport. But what this man (not kid...man) did yesterday was intentionally try to injure an opponent in the most cowardly ways possible. Not only the two plays above...he repeatedly picked up Aaron and drove him into the ground with his shoulder, which is against the rules but repeatedly not called yesterday. (slight caveat...I know it's a rule in the NFL, not sure about the NCAA. But the point remains...there is no reason for that move other than to take advantage of an opponent in a defenseless posture and try to injure him).

I was also told last night that these are just 18-21 year old kids making "mistakes". I mostly agree with that sentiment. That's why it becomes incumbent on the adults surrounding them...their coaches, administration, and the so-called adults in their fan base...to teach them that there is a right way and a wrong way to go about your business, and the wrong way will not be tolerated.

But that's not what's happening.

The Auburn coaching staff, administration, and fan base has made it quite clear that they not only accept these two individuals...they celebrate them. They obviously represent everything that Auburn now wants to be.

Which is why, at least for me, this rivalry can never be friendly again.

I'll end with this...Auburn is 11-0. My Dawgs are 5-6.

Without a doubt...I would still rather be a Bulldog.

GO DAWGS!

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 random football thoughts

- Outside of Brock Lesnar, is there any athlete in the world that is more obviously taking steroids than Keith Brooking? The guy is bigger than he has ever been, in his 13th year in the league, and he's running around acting like a crazy scary buffoon on the sidelines, which he never did in Atlanta. I guess he figured he only has a couple of years left in the league anyway, so there are no real consequences, and he REALLY wanted to be a contributor on a team that had a shot to win the Super Bowl.

Steroids or not, some things remain constant...he is and will always be an overrated Techie who racks up tackles 8 yards downfield.

- In this week's Monday Morning QB column (a weekly must read for football fans), Peter King has a pretty gloomy forecast when it comes to the current labor negotiations in the NFL. In fact, it sounds like he would be very surprised if there was not a work stoppage in 2011, to the point where he says, "You'd better savor the 2010 season, because it could be the last football we see for a while."

As a football fan, this sucks.

As a Dawg fan...maybe the silver lining is that we get a senior season out of A.J. Green?

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

Speaking of rivalries...

I will, of course, be back soon with the recap of yesterday's immensely satisfying win over the gnats...but in the meantime, I found THIS to be absolutely hilarious:



The comments on Dr. Saturday's blog are pretty funny, too...basically a bunch of UCLA fans and other pansies calling Pete Carroll "classless" and other not-so-nice words.

Whatever.

First of all, it's up to you to stop the other team from scoring, PERIOD. But if you want the game to be over, then don't call timeout with less than a minute to go when the other team is trying to run the clock out. By calling timeout, you're basically saying you're not ready for the game to be over. And Pete Carroll said, "Fine...if you want to keep playing, then let's keep playing."

I love college football.

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!!!!!!!

Upon further review....

Some leftover thoughts from the weekend....

- Another game, another season-ending injury. Rod Battle tore his ACL and is out for the year. I hate it for him...he's a senior and just never seemed to be healthy the entire time he was here.

As far as the impact on the team goes, we may still be in pretty good shape. Luckily, Justin Houston returns from his two game suspension, looking to build on reportedly dominating performances in spring and fall camp. And Cornelius Washington, the redshirt freshman that I have been predicting big things for since spring camp, got his first extended playing time on Saturday and responded with 1.5 sacks from the D-End position.

All that being said...we are rapidly approaching the point in both the DE and offensive tackle positions where we can not withstand any more major injuries...fingers crossed, everybody!

- OK...I'm seeing several blog posts and hearing a lot of conversation trying to take some of the heat off of the defense after Saturday night's performance. The general opinion of these pieces is that A) the defense was on the field for a ridiculously long time; B) At least Willie brought the heat, which we have been begging for him to do...it's just that Garcia escaped the pressure very well; C) Hey, the scheme worked...we made him make short throws under pressure and took away all big plays; and, D) the red zone defense saved the game.

Well, allow me to retort:

A) It's true that the defense was on the field entirely too long, in large part due to offensive and special teams miscues in the first half...but some of the blame for that goes to the defense itself. The defense didn't force a single 3-and-out all night. Make a play somewhere along the way and maybe you get some more rest.

B) This point is true. This was the most aggressive I've seen us play on defense in quite some time.

C) OK, fine...but when he completely lit us up the entire first half, shouldn't we have adjusted at some point to at least take away the tight end? Obviously, the TE was his security blanket...if you take that away and make him move his eyes somewhere else, maybe he gets a little rattled?

I don't like this argument, anyway...what's the difference between 10 7-yard passes or one 70-yarder, other than that it makes your defense work harder?

D) This point is true, as well...when the field was shortened, our secondary was playing closer to the line of scrimmage, which took away those short passes, and we pretty consistently stopped the run all night.

Bottom line...we let Steven Freaking Garcia throw for 300 yards, and the defense gave up 25 points to a team who only scored one touchdown against NC State (I'm not counting the pick-6, the safety, or the field goal after the Smith fumble)...sorry, that can't be classifed as a good performance, no matter what the extenuating circumstances.

And if we perform the same way against Arkansas, Bobby Petrino will design 75 different pass plays to the tight end over the middle.

FALCONS THOUGHTS:
- What a great start by the defense, which I was seriously worried about coming into this season. They played like they were PISSED, which is a great sign...the linebackers were playmaking machines, especially Mike Peterson. He made more plays in one game than Keith Brooking has made in the last five seasons, and the hit he made that caused the fumble was BRUTAL. It's at the 1:29 mark of this highlight clip....




- John Abraham. He deserves his own bullet point. This guy is completely unblockable one-on-one, and he absolutely DESTROYED Pro Bowler Jake Long on this play (which I have watched about a dozen times, by the way)..



- Matt Ryan was not sharp, looked a lot like the season opener. Some of those passes he missed will be touchdowns once they get the timing down a little better.

- Tony Gonzalez...believe the hype.

- The Dolphins obviously decided to take Turner away and make Matt Ryan beat them...even on an off day, Ryan managed to do that. This offense is going to be nightmares for opposing defenses.

If only Clemson could have completed the comeback against the gnats Thursday night, it would have been a perfect football weekend. Next chance starts on Thursday night (of course)....at my house, at least for one night, it will be all about THAT U!!!

Offense - revisited

For those of you who may have stopped paying attention to this blog in the offseason due to the heavy GeekTV/Idol content, you may have missed an actual football post that I did back in March. A couple of them, actually, in which I went position-by-position with my thoughts as the Dawgs were going through spring practice.

I thought I would resurrect those posts and see if my feelings have changed based on what we have now seen in the spring game and heard from fall practice reports.

In case you forgot:

Bold=starter (these are my predictions as to who will be the starters come Opening Day, and may not reflect the current depth chart)

italics=incoming freshmen

italics*=incoming freshmen whom I believe will redshirt in '09.

Quarterback:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:

Joe Cox, Logan Gray, Aaron Murray, Zach Mettenberger*

OUTLOOK: I know that we are going to miss Matt Stafford's talents, and there is certainly no one on this list who can match Staff's arm strength. However, I am excited to see what Joe Cox can do with this offense. From all accounts, he is extremely knowledgeable of the offense, and he has always been very accurate as a passer. I do have a little concern regarding how well he can throw the deep ball, because that is something that we have to be able to do to run our offense effectively. He obviously won't be able to throw it like Stafford does, but it has to be an option in order to keep defenses honest, and also to fully utilize guys like A.J. Green and Marlon Brown. But there is no doubt that this guy is a leader, and is relishing that part of his role, which I love to see.

At backup, I fully expect to see Logan Gray on the field quite a bit as a "change-up" style quarterback. I don't think it will be anything similar to what we did with Shockley/Greene in that I don't expect to see a set timetable to get him in a game (every third series, etc). But I think you have to get him on the field quite a bit, for a couple of reasons. First, I think he's too talented athletically to leave him sitting on the bench, and I think he could be very effective in spot duty with his ability to both run and throw. Second, Joe C is a senior...this guy needs to be ready to take the reins next year, which means we need to get him some looks in real-game situations (not just mop-up duty).

Then you have the two freshmen...I think there is the possibility that they might BOTH redshirt, but if one of them is going to see the field I think it's Murray. Mettenberger is still pretty raw right now, and I think the redshirt year will do him some good. Both of these guys will get a chance to compete with Gray for the starting job next year.

GRADE: B+

WHAT I SAY NOW:
Pretty much the same thing. Joe has apparently had a great fall camp as far as knowing the offense and moving the ball, and he is the unquestioned leader on this team. I’m just really ready to see what he does when the live bullets start flying.

Logan Gray will play this year, in what capacity we don’t yet know, and I still say Mettenberger redshirts and Murray plays. We actually need to get Murray some playing time along the way if at all possible, otherwise we will be going into next year with Logan as the only QB who has seen any live action.

Running Back:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:

Caleb King, Richard Samuel, Dontavious Jackson, Carlton Thomas, Washaun Ealy*

OUTLOOK: Unfortunately, I think this is a position where we have "quantity over quality." I was not at all impressed with King's performance last year, either as a runner or (especially) as a blocker. Also, reading between the lines of some of the coaches' comments about him, I don't think they have been really happy with the attitude or the effort he has displayed. We know he has talent...hopefully, the chance to be the #1 guy will be motivation enough for him to work to become the guy who was one of the more highly recruited tailbacks in the country.

Behind King, you have several guys looking for playing time. Richard Samuel was somewhat impressive last year as a true freshman, but he needs to work on holding on to the ball. D-Jax put up MONSTER numbers in high school, but was sidetracked by the injury bug last year (and won't be available in spring practice, either). Carlton Thomas is an undersized guy who has coaches raving about his speed and quickness...look for the coaches to try to find ways to get the ball into his hands, maybe at punt returner.

With this much personnel at the position, I think it's almost a lock that Ealy redshirts...and that's assuming he actually makes it to campus this year (academics may be an issue, although the latest reports have been positive).

GRADE: B-

WHAT I SAY NOW:
Well, obviously Richard Samuel is now the starter over Caleb, due at least in part to the fact that Caleb has been sidetracked since the first fall scrimmage with a hamstring injury. Until the injury, all reports regarding the work that Caleb was putting in were positive, so hopefully that part will continue into the season.

Richard has supposedly put his fumbleitis behind him and is running very well, and Carlton Thomas looks like the playmaker we were hoping he would be. Ealy did make it on campus, but may be headed for a redshirt anyway. Dontavious Jackson has not had a good camp, and was actually passed by Kalvin Daniels on the depth chart.

I would still give the same grade…B-, with hopes that Richard Samuel breaks out a la Robert Edwards in ’97.

Fullback:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:

Shaun Chapas, Fred Munzenmaier

Outlook: I listed Chapas as the starter, but these guys are really interchangeable. We'll miss Southerland, but Southerland missed quite a bit of time last year and there wasn't much dropoff as these guys filled in admirably. Both of these guys can run, catch, and block...no game-changer here or anything, but definitely solid football players.

GRADE: B+

WHAT I SAY NOW:
Exactly the same thing as I said then.

WR:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:
A.J. Green, Michael Moore, Kris Durham, Tony Wilson, Israel Troupe, Tavarres King, Marlon Brown, Rontavious Wooten*

OUTLOOK: There are some nice weapons here. A.J. Green certainly lived up to the hype last year, and gets a chance to prove that he can be the #1 guy. I love what we are hearing about this guy's desire and work ethic...let's just hope he can stay healthy. He was hampered by a groin strain last year, and he is still taking it pretty slow to keep from re-aggravating it in the spring.

On the other side of Green is most likely Michael Moore, although I think there will be some competition for that spot. Moore is one of those guys who seems like he has been on campus forever...he is a 5th year senior who has shown flashes of playmaking ability in somewhat limited time. He had 29 catches for 451 yards and two touchdowns last year.

Moore will be pushed by: Kris Durham (great hands, better than expected speed), Tony Wilson (tough receiver...always seems to pick up extra yards), Israel Troupe (????...lot of talent coming out of high school, has not gotten many chances so far), and Tavarres King (super-quick slot-type guy who showed some potential before going down with an early-season injury last year).

And then there is Marlon Brown...this guy is a physical specimen (6-5, 200 LB, 40 time probably in the 4.55 range) who really came on strong this past year and became one of the most sought after WR in the nation. He will push for playing time, and if he develops as expected he sets up an unbelievable WR tandem with A.J. Green.

GRADE: B+

WHAT I SAY NOW:
Well, we have a lot more question marks here now than we did in March after losing Kris Durham to injury and Tony Wilson to injury/stupidity. We now only have 6 scholarship WR, and two of those are true freshmen. We REALLY, REALLY can’t afford any more injuries to this position, especially to either of the top two. Based on numbers, I would probably bump the grade down to a B…only reason it’s not lower is because AJ Green is apparently even more of a freak than we thought he was.

Tight End:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:

Bruce Figgins, Aron White, Bryce Ros, Orson Charles, Arthur Lynch*

OUTLOOK: This is a strange bunch...normally, I can get a good idea of what style offense a team runs by what kind of TEs they have on the roster, but this is a mix-and-match group. Figgins is the old-school tight end, who is probably 65% blocker, 35% pass catcher. White is a hybrid type, built more like a big WR than a TE (6-4, 228) who has shown an early ability to stretch the field. Ros is an enigma...he played FB and DL in high school, but certainly has the build (6-4, 242) and the pedigree (his dad Frank was a captain on the 1980 MNC squad).

The trend continues in the 2009 signees: Arthur Lynch is a big blocking TE who has shown some ability to catch (like the white version of Figgins), while Orson Charles is an athletic freak who was actually moved to WR in the Rivals.com recruiting rankings.

So what does it all mean? Versatility, baby. There is a lot of talent in this group, and I'm very interested to see how Coach Bobo goes about getting them involved.

GRADE: B

WHAT I SAY NOW:
Just like the WR group, this group has been decimated by injury and stupidity. Ros is done with football due to a lingering shoulder injury, and Figgins is out until the Vandy game due to violation of team rules.

So I no longer expect Lynch to redshirt…in fact, he may see as much playing time as White and Charles due to his blocking skills that would have otherwise been provided by Figgins. By all accounts, Orson Charles is a beast, and I expect him to be very involved in the passing game. Aron White is currently listed as the starter…I just hope that the problems he had holding on to the ball in the spring game were an aberration.

I would probably change the grade on this one to an Incomplete…there is just not enough history with any of these guys to really know what to expect.

Offensive line:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:

Clint Boling, Cordy Glenn, Ben Jones, Chris Davis, Trinton Sturdivant, Vince Vance,
Josh Davis, Justin Anderson, Tanner Strickland, Ben Harden, AJ Harmon, Jonathan Owens, Kevin Perez, Dallas Lee, Chris Burnette*, Austin Long*

OUTLOOK: Yeah, that's right. SIXTEEN offensive linemen on the Opening Day roster. Kudos to the coaching staff for taking a position that seemed to be a liability a couple of years ago and changing it into what I think may be the strength of the team this year. If we can ever keep this group even relatively healthy, then the possible question marks at QB and running back all of a sudden look a lot more promising.

Boling is the MVP of this group, in my opinion. He has been a do-everything guy...he's played every position except center (at least I don't THINK he's played center), and has played admirably everywhere we've put him. If we can ever put him somewhere and leave him (RT is my guess as to where he ends up), there is no telling what his potential can be.

The rest are an impressive mix of size, athleticism, and nastiness.

GRADE: A

WHAT I SAY NOW:
Well, I nailed the starting 5…after that, things have changed a bit. The good news is that both Sturdivant and Vance appear to be 100% recovered from the injuries that ended their seasons last year. Tanner Strickland is out for the year, Josh Davis has still not recovered from offseason surgery. I don’t think I’ve heard ANYTHING about Harden, Owens, or Harmon…I can only assume they are still on the team.

I’m still very fired up about our starters, and Vince Vance and Justin Anderson are quality backups who provide tons of versatility. We just have to really hope we stay healthy, which we learned last year is certainly no guarantee. Because of the versatility of several of the guys, we can probably withstand one or two major injuries before we see a noticeable dropoff in production…and you know those injuries are most likely going to come, just due to the nature of the position.

Due to some reduction in the depth, especially at the guard positions, I would probably downgrade the position grade from an A to an A-…if we actually stay healthy all year, this is probably an A+ group.

Overall, I would say I feel slightly worse about the offense now than I did six months ago...injuries and suspensions have robbed us of a lot of our quality depth. I think an awful lot depends on how effective Cox can be (duh...that's some hard-hitting analysis right there) and avoiding injuries in the OL and WR positions. If we can stay relatively healthy and Joe C can avoid the bad plays, I think this offense can be more effective than a lot of people are expecting.

Be back tomorrow with the defense!!

GO DAWGS!!!

Data dump

I love that term...data dump. There are too few business cliches with the word "dump" in them, in my opinion.

Dump.

HEE-HEE.

I'm 35...why do you ask?

First, some Dawg news:

- The first green jerseys of the season are beginning to make their appearance. The biggest name yesterday to go down was Reshad Jones...and, as my brother was nice enough to point out in the comments yesterday, it's my fault. I finally got off Reshad's back and actually gave him some positive commentary for once, and he immediately injures his hamstring. I will now go right back to dogging him at every step...I've learned my lesson.

Good news is that it does appear to only be "tweaked" and that he's expected back in time to be ready for Okie State. More good news was that Quentin Banks was able to step in and take his place, so apparently Quentin is getting close to 100%.

- All other reports out of practice continue to be glowing. I keep waiting for that one practice that always seems to come early when Richt is just completely ticked off (or, as ticked off as he gets when it doesn't involve SEC officials - probably what would be referred to as "mildly agitated" if it was anybody else). But so far every practice has been deemed to be outstanding by the coaching staff. Can't wait til they put the pads on next week and we start getting scrimmage reports!

- More good news...Kwame Geathers actually qualified and will start practicing next week. To tell you the truth I was shocked, but Jody had the best line: "I’m not sure I was certain he was even real." (Great to have Jody blogging on a pretty regular basis, btw).

This means that every one of our recruits qualified and are now on campus. WH00T!

- Coaches poll was released today, which is absolutely ridiculous. I've made my thoughts known before on this, but I hate pre-season polls. It's why I wholeheartedly support Blutarsky's Mumme Poll, where voting doesn't start until around the midpoint of the season. However, in this absurdly early poll, Dawgs are ranked 13, while the gnats are at 15. HAH! SUCK ON THAT, NERDS!!!!11!!1!!

- MaconDawg put up a fun post today looking at what kind of "wrinkles" we may see in our offensive and defensive strategies this year. I think that with some of the personnel we are accumulating, especially on offense, we are going to beseeing some creativity in getting the ball into our playmakers' hands. We already have the little swing passes and WR screens in our arsenal, and we run them pretty well...I was noticing that especially while watching the replay of the Capital One Bowl. I can only imagine that they may be even more effective with someone like Rontavious Wooten catching the screen pass with his speed, or Carlton Thomas going in motion to the slot to catch the swing pass...we really are accumulating some weapons.

On defense, the talk continues to be that we will be moving some of our LB's up to the rush end position on obvious passing downs to try and get more pressure on the quarterback. Great move, in my opinion, and it's encouraging to see the coaching staff going at least a LITTLE outside the box to try and find solutions to probably the biggest problem our defense had last year.

Non-Dawg stuff:

- Falcons training camp is not off to NEARLY as good a start as the Dawgs. First, Harry Douglas (and not HUGH Douglas, as I erroneously posted on Twitter yesterday) goes down for the year, and now rookie safety William Moore is expected to miss 2-4 weeks with a knee injury. The team has high hopes for the 2nd round pick, and he was expected by many to actually be the starter at SS. This defense can not afford to lose ANYBODY, especially in the secondary. Only place on defense we may be more vulnerable is at DE, but I'm not mentioning names there after the Reshad Jones debacle from yesterday. I'll just say his initials are J.A. and hope the Football Gods think I am referring to Jamal Anderson and not...that other guy who plays DE for the Falcons with the initials J.A.

On top of that, the Roddy White negotiations seem to be stalled. But don't worry, Falcons fans...Marty Booker is in the house!!! (chirp....chirp)

What, Mark Duper wasn't available? Phil McConkey? How about John Taylor?

But seriously....how about Terrence Edwards? Isn't he still in the Canadian League somewhere?

- Posting may be kind of light for the next couple of weeks...we're entering the busiest time of the year for me at work, and plus I am planning on doing some different stuff with the blog once the season starts that may take some extra time. But stick around...I'll probably still throw up a random post or video every now and then when I get a chance. There may be days when I don't post at all, but there may be days when I get to throw up three or four quick hitters, depending on how the schedule goes.

GO DAWGS!!!

ONLY 29 DAYS!!!

33 days to kickoff!!

Until the Blackout game against Auburn, the reaction to this play was the loudest I had ever personally heard Sanford Stadium...

Big play by #33, Odell Thurman


GO DAWGS!!

A voice of reason...

One really weird internet meme that has come up over the last few months is Coach Richt somehow being "in trouble", "hearing grumblings", or even "on the hot seat".

Really? Maybe it's just the circle of people I hang out with, but I have no idea where any of this is coming from, and I truly hope this doesn't become one of those stories that everybody latches on to and turns into a self-fulfilling prophesy.

David Hale does a magnificent job of laying out the reasons that this kind of thinking is ridiculous in his blog post today. It's a very informative, well researched piece, and I think that all Dawg fans, ESPECIALLY the ones who somehow, someway feel that we may be able to do better than Coach Richt, should read, re-read, and post on their refrigerator.

I know, every school has its Lunatic Fringe (except Alabama, who has their Reasonable Fringe), but any so-called fan who is thinking we need to be looking for another head coach needs to have his/her head examined. The man has won two SEC championships, played for another, has us in contention for SEC championships on a yearly basis, wins 10 games every year, consistently finishes in the top 10, consistently brings in top 5 recruiting classes, and represents the University with the utmost of class and high moral standing. Yep, let's kick this one to the curb.

No, he doesn't have a national championship yet....YET. But if you look at the performance of the 2002 and 2007 teams, for instance, they had every bit the pedigree that, say, the 2006 Florida team or the 2007 LSU teams had...we just didn't get the benefit of some of the breaks that those teams received.

If Richt's teams continue to perform the way they consistently have (and if you see any reasons to believe they won't, please feel free to enlighten me) then it's simply a matter of WHEN he wins a MNC, not IF.

Maybe that will be enough for the lunatics, but probably not.

GO DAWGS!!!!!


***UPDATE - Cousin Walter at Football on the Brain is apparently as tired of this crap as I am, and he also links to a piece that Tony Barnhart did for AJC that I totally agree with...check it out hyeah.

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!!!

Happy Herschel Walker Day!

34 Days to go, and we commemorate with the greatest college football player of all time: Herschel Walker, the Goal Line Stalker:









GO DAWGS!!!

Happy Rennie Curran Day!!!

Can you believe it's only FIVE WEEKS to kickoff???!??!??





GO DAWGS!!!!

Happy Brannan Southerland Day!!

In honor of today being 36 days to kickoff, here is a great clip of my favorite #36, Brannan Southerland clearing the way for Thomas Brown against the gnats in '07.



BOOM!!

GO DAWGS!!!

Fair warning...

I'm probably going to be posting some non-Dawg, non-sports stuff today...

So to make up for it, here is one of my favorite Dawg moments of all time...I like everything about it except the black stripe on the helmet.

One of my favorite Munson calls of all time, as well...



37 DAYS TO KICKOFF!!

GO DAWGS!!