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!!!

Well, that's just great...

I thought I had my new American Idol Girlfriend all picked out (last year's was Megan, for those of you who don't remember and actually care).

Janell Wheeler. Gorgeous voice, great stage presence, and smokin' hotttt.

Well, get this: She definitely WAS, and maybe still IS....


....Tim Tebow's girlfriend.

Now I just feel....DIRTY.

LOST recap should be up later tonight, after I recover from my shock and disgust and take a "Crying Game" shower.


*********UPDATE**************
Check the comments section to this post....

Great news....now she can be my Idol girlfriend again! I'm sure she is going to be THRILLED!!

Thanks, Anonymous!! If I only knew who you were...I would shower you with gifts!

Some quick thoughts on a very busy day

Don't know how much I'll be able to update today...work will be occupying most of my thoughts and time.

- First of all, I don't know if I've actually mentioned it here yet, but Dawgbone is back with a vengeance. Make sure you stop by there at least once a day...it is the one-stop shop for all Dawg updates. New address is http://www.thedawgbone.com/, so update your bookmarks accordingly.

I also would like to thank them for adding me to their blogroll and updates...after consistently seeing about 50 visitors a day for as long as I have been tracking, my visits jumped to 400 yesterday. So welcome to any new readers....hopefully you will be entertained by my ramblings and rantings enough to stick around.

- FINALLY the offseason is over, as practice officially starts today. There are several great reads from the usual suspects as to what to expect as practice starts....feel free to peruse the links to your right, being careful to avoid my geektastic TV tastes.

(Although, guys, I might suggest checking out Shan's latest contribution...they just don't make secretaries like they used to)

- And now that the offseason is over, I can finally talk about how smooth an offseason it was without feeling like I might jinx it. Not a single arrest and every recruit except for one is on campus and starting practice today. The players and coaches are all saying the right things, demonstrating both a team-first attitude and a general sense of being wholly unsatisfied with last year's results. There's no overwhelming preseason hype this year to distract both players and the fanbase.

All in all, I think things may be setting up for a very special season. I am most excited to see what Joe Cox is going to do with his opportunity. I have been a huge supporter of Matt Stafford, but I am already more of a FAN of Joe Cox. I love the guy's attitude, his swagger, how much he obviously loves to be a Bulldog. Check out this pic, my favorite one of The Celebration...look how pumped up he is, and this is when he knows there is almost no chance of him even being able to see one snap on the field:

And I think people forget that when he came out of Independence High in Charlotte (as an undefeated quarterback, by the way) he was the #7 rated pro style quarterback in the country, according to Rivals. He has skills...not the off-the-chart tools that Stafford has, but he's not Tereshinski, either. I think he will at least be able to throw an out pattern.

And another thing...I think his skill set actually sets up BETTER for Mike Bobo's offensive philosophy. Think about what kind of quarterback Bobo was...accurate passer, good decision maker. Wasn't asked to do too much other than put the ball in the hands of his playmakers in a position where they can make plays. If Bobo can just design an offense around Cox's skillset the way Donnan did with him in '97, I think our offense can be very effective.

- It's always a conundrum for me once fall camp starts...I'm jonesing for news and I can't wait to start getting practice reports, but I'm also terrified to read any news. You almost never get any really GOOD news out of training camp. Only thing I want to read is that there are no injuries, and the execution looks sharp.

- And now for the Braves post mortem....stick a fork in this team, they are dead. At least they stayed relatively competitive until football practice started.

I don't think this team is far away from being a real contender. I think the offseason focus should be to bring one more big bat to the lineup...I think that was truly all we were missing this year. The pitching has been great, for the most part, and there are a lot of good hitters in the lineup. There was just nobody who provided any consistent power, nobody in the lineup who scared the opposition.

Hopefully, Wren will be given the financial support necessary to make one big move...I would love for the Braves to be a contender at least one more time before Chipper rides off into the sunset.

All right, that's all I got for now...I'm going to be really quiet this afternoon, hoping to hear the sounds of pads popping, coaches yelling, and players puking. Ahhh...the sounds of the first day of practice.

GO DAWGS!!!!

SEC Media Days 1 and 2

Ahhh, football season is right around the corner. And what better way to spend it than in Hoover, Alabama with a few thousand Alabama fans clamoring for the chance to touch the hem of Saban's garment?

This picture is from Jeff Schultz's blog over at ajc.com...he is actually doing a fairly entertaining job of covering the festivities, including this quote about the above picture.

"You see what I see. Fortunately, you don’t smell what I smell — like these Bama fans who’ve been waiting in the hotel lobby since 7:30 a.m., hoping to get a glimpse of a football coach or a left tackle. They didn’t move. For hours. It was a Thursday. I can’t verify their employment at this time."

Let's hit the highlights:

(fair warning...this turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would be. That's what happens when all of the bosses take the same day off.)

Day 1:

Wow, they must have really backloaded the schedule this year. Today we get Petrino, Bobby Johnson, Dan Mullen, and Rich Brooks. Should be a real laugh riot.

Before the coaches took the podium, we did get the "State of the SEC" speech from Commissioner Slive. To sum up: The SEC is doing just fine. Or, as Orson Swindle put it in his twitter: "Mike Slive, paraphrased: We're getting hit by the recession just like everybody else. Please excuse me while I adjust my platinum underwear."

Then the ESPN guys talked about the new contract with the SEC...the gist of that is that SEC football is going to be on ALL THE TIME. Like, every day. On every channel.

Really cool news coming out is that Matt Stinchcomb, former Dawg great, will be co-hosting the studio show for the early games. Great news for him, and I think he's going to do a great job. I have also heard that Pollack may be involved on some level as well, but I don't know the specifics on that one.

On with the show...

ARKANSAS:

I have made my thoughts about Petrino pretty clear in this post...let's just say I'm not a big fan.

Most interesting quotes:

- He made some pretty interesting comments about high school offenses. He said that while he is excited and happy that high schools are throwing the ball around a lot, going no-huddle, having a lot of 7-on-7 drills/tournaments, etc., he thinks it's hurting the development of quarterbacks when it comes to getting a play, calling it in the huddle, and walking up and taking the snap from under center. He said that one of their backup QBs, Tyler Wilson, had taken every single snap since 8th grade in the shotgun, in a no-huddle offense. When he got to Arkansas, they had to start by teaching him how to simply get a play called in the huddle that has been sent in from the sideline. Not to mention things like the footwork involved in taking a snap under center and turning to hand the ball off to your running back in the right place. He said he wishes they would institute a rule that HS offenses have to operate from under center at least 25-40% of the time. That will never happen, of course, nor should it (and if somebody tried to tell Petrino what type of formation he had to run 25% of his offense from, he'd tell them to stick it), but it was still an interesting train of thought.

- Ryan Mallett was over 265 pounds when he showed up on campus, which explains why he probably would not have been effective in the Rich Rodriguez spread at Michigan. They now have him down to under 240. I wish they had gotten him to go the other way, and just see how big he could get and still throw the ball. I can't be the only one who misses Jared Lorenzen.

- He never thinks about how his stint with the Falcons would have been different had Vick not gone to jail. Yeah, Coach, I'm right there with you...I don't like to think about it, either. I wouldn't trade Smith and Ryan for Petrino and Vick even if you threw in the '85 Bears defense in the deal.

- He voted for Tebow. I could not care less, and have no idea why this is a story. I only wish it had been Richt who didn't vote for him....since it wasn't him, this will be the last I mention of this absurd obsession.

VANDERBILT:

Most interesting quotes:

- ummm....still searching the transcript....oh, here's something: They play 12 straight weeks without a bye week. Sucks for them.

- And, according to Coach Johnson, Florida has a chance to be pretty good. That's the kind of insight you will ONLY get at SEC Media Days.

And, that pretty much wraps up the Vandy portion of our show.

MISSISSIPPI STATE:
New head coach Dan Mullen proves to be the funniest speaker of the day (not that there was a lot of competition in this group), by claiming when he gets to the podium that he will ONLY be communicating via Twitter for the day.

By the way, Mullen talks a LOT, and he talks very QUICKLY. I would hate to have been the one transcribing him.

Most interesting quotes:

- Claims to be very excited to be living in Starkville, Mississippi. Yep. Told you he was funny.

- Talked about how excited he was to have Carl Torbush as the Defensive Coordinator. That one, I will agree with...not so much the Starkville thing.

- Very excited to be playing a SWAC school in the opener. I was just surprised to learn that the SWAC still existed. I thought it disbanded back when SMU got the death penalty, Arkansas joined the SEC, and Texas A&M went to the Big 12.

Oh...that was the SWC. So who are they playing in their opener? JACKSON STATE? Wow...way to go out on a limb there, guys. No wonder Mullen is excited about it.

(By the way, I know I'm using the word "excited" in every one of these bullet points. Trust me, I'm leaving out 95% of the times he used the word)

- He also gave a description of his "spread offense" that would make Chris Brown cringe:

"I'll give you all my definition of a spread offense. I don't know if we're spread option, spread passing, spread running or just spread. To me, we're a multiple spread team. We're going to be a team that goes out there, spread offense. I want to make sure the defense has to defend the entire field sideline to sideline. Through personnel and through formations, we want to create advantageous one on one matchups, where I get a player in the open field matched up against someone that he's better than. That's the spread offense, the offense we're going to run. The biggest thing we have to do is make sure our personnel fits that. "

OK....so the point of his offense is to create matchups that are advantageous for his team. BRILLIANT!!! Dude, Urban is going to miss that kind of forward thinking at Florida this year.

- Seriously, he just went on and on at the beginning...just a stream-of-conciousness type ramble where he starts every sentence with the word "and" or "so" and uses the word "excited" about 675 different times.

Here's an example of one of his, for lack of a better description, "sentences":

"You see our team play, hopefully if you do, hopefully win enough games y'all want to show up, watch us play one week, if you do come to that stadium, you're going to walk out of there, my expectations, I'll be proud of my team if you walk out of that stadium and say, Wow, did you see how hard those guys played every single snap of that game."

I believe Coach Mullen had one too many Red Bulls.

- That's enough time spent on Miss. State, but the transcript of his time at the podium is just fascinating...just a big ole word vomit, as the answer to every question.

Oh, and there's this...he has a deep and unending love for Tim Tebow. Just like the rest of us.

KENTUCKY:

Coach Brooks gets off a zinger, saying it's appropriate that he was going last, since that's where they are picked to finish every year, anyway. Ha...ha? I don't think I would find that too funny if I were a UK fan. Actually, if I were a UK fan, I would be too busy worried about how Calipari is going to do and monitoring basketball recruiting to even know that Coach Brooks was speaking today.

Most interesting quotes:

- He was as surprised as the rest of us that Trevard Lindley came back for his senior year, and thinks he's the best returning corner in the country. He may be right. I at least think Lindley will be the best returning corner in the conference...sure wish Asher had made the same choice.

- Mike Hartline will be the full time QB, Randall Cobb will play mostly at WR with some Wildcat packages thrown in there for him at QB. I think this is the right move for them...a lot fewer negative plays with Hartline back there, I think.

- You know, the more I look at this UK team, the more impressed I am with them. In Hartline, Cobb, Lindley, Corey Peters, and Micah Johnson, they have some playmakers on both sides of the ball. Four seniors on the offensive line. They have really played us pretty tough the past few years, and there's a chance that we may be looking past them to the gnats when we play them. So now I'm nervous....as if I needed ANOTHER game to worry about.

WHEW...that was just Day 1. Day 2 is when the fireworks REALLY start.

DAY 2:

UGA had our day on Day 2, but I think I'm going to do a separate post for them, since I will obviously want to go into some more detail with the Dawgs.

ALABAMA:

- First of all, Orson was on fire with his tweets during Saban's time at the podium. My two favorites:

- "Saban approaches the podium, looks like money and anger"

- "Someone's phone rang loudly while Saban speaks. He has been taken out by snipers, and the body pulled through a trap door"

- "Saban: No one player can make a team great, but one player can destroy everything. That player? ERIC BERRY"

- Seriously, the hysterical reverence that the Tide faithful have for this guy would be funny if it weren't so scary.

- I do kind of like the guy, though, or at least admire his intensity. Check out this quote:"I think it's also important that you establish a work ethic on your team, that your team understands they're working to dominate the competition. It's not relative to what they think hard work is; it's what they need to do to dominate the competition in a very competitive, difficult, tough league, with a very difficult, tough schedule." (emphasis added)

That's what I want to hear from a football coach. Your goal is to work hard enough to DOMINATE, not just work hard enough that you feel like you worked hard.

- VERY interesting stuff about leading up to the bowl game. Basically called Andre Smith out...said that one player not doing the right things can destroy everything you've worked on, and an example of that was what happened to them in the Sugar Bowl, where they embarassed the conference by getting destroyed by Utah.

Seriously, that's pretty blatant. He just shifted the entire blame for that debacle onto one guy. I'm surprised nobody called him out on that.

- They are in a tough spot on the O-line, having to replace two All-Americans in Smith and Caldwell. How they do that could go a long way in determining their success.

- He's very happy about the recruiting bump he gets from playing the opener in Atlanta two years in a row. Coach Richt has talked about that...I hope to see us in that opener sometime soon, if we can find a place on the schedule for it.

- Soldiers have DIED for the rights of SEC coaches to vote privately for the All-SEC team. Hey, Saban said it...it must be true. So, thank a soldier today!

(seriously, thank a soldier today...but I do not remember from my history class the great Battle of Hoover that won this right for SEC coaches)

- I do love hearing him talk about defense.

- On the other hand, I do NOT like to hear him talking about how they are going to get down to the 85-scholarship limit. I think that the way they go about these things is disgraceful...oversigning every year and then having to find ways to take scholarships away.

I haven't said anything about the whole "UGA is banned from Carver-Columbus HS" flap, but I will say this...if I were a HS coach I would MUCH rather my players go through something like Devin Burns did (even though I don't think we handled it right, which is why Richt called and apologized) than to have a team accept the committment and then find a creative way to pull the scholarship after he is already signed.

- He went on and on about how the fans and players are going to react to seeing him wear LSU colors in the movie adaptation of the Michael Oher book "The Blind Side." I'm not sure why they would be expecting anything else...does somebody need to explain the difference between real life and a movie?

OLE MISS:

Most interesting quotes:

- Coach Nutt talked about some of the same things I have thought...lots of high expectations for them, but replacing Michael Oher and Peria Jerry will be tough.

- It had been 727 days since they won a conference game when they beat Florida. That says a lot about what an impressive performance and huge upset it was, but also...this is the team that so many are picking top 5 and handing the SEC West to? A team that, as recently as last year, had a TWO YEAR conference losing streak going? Excuse me if I don't jump on that bandwagon just yet.

- Jerrell Powe is still there? Well, most of him is...he's down to 320 from 383. Hasn't he been there for like 6 years now? How is he only listed as a sophomore? He signed in 2005, for crying out loud!

- And, as a sort of follow up to my Alabama scholarship thoughts...Ole Miss signed THIRTY NINE guys last year. There is no way that should be legal...that's a disgrace.

- Last in the SEC in pass defense last year. I'm just sayin'...this team is getting an awful lot of love.

FLORIDA:

Meyer said he has never been more anxious to coach a team than this one...kind of reminds me of Donnan's "I've been waiting thirty years to coach a team like this one" quote before the 2000 season. Somehow, I don't expect similar results.

- Man, this guy is boring. Intense, sure, but very boring to listen to.

- Interesting to see what happens with the play-calling this year. Mullen always called the plays from the box, but Adazzio will be calling from the sideline. I know Richt has talked about what a transition that is, so it might cause some issues.

I know, I'm grasping at straws.

- He's fine with FSU being their only big out-of-conference game. What a pansy. For somebody who talks about "competition" so much, he sure wants to reduce the amount of competetion they have on their schedule.

- Refuses to answer any questions about suspensions. Funny how they don't take the heat the Georgia did last year regarding behavioral issues, even though their arrests have been for much more serious offenses than ours. Not like funny ha-ha...more like funny-makes-me-want-to-punch-somebody-in-the-throat.

- In case I haven't mentioned it before...Florida brings back their entire two-deep on defense. All 22 of them. Ridiculous.

- Still looking for an every-down running back...haven't found him yet.

- Ongoing theme we hear from Meyer a lot...people talk about his offensive "scheme" all the time, but he's not married to any one scheme. It's all about personnel, and finding the right system for the players you have. He's made enough adjustments to what he does over the years that I believe him when he says that, and it's part of what makes him a great coach.

- Funny story...Brandon Spikes was originally supposed to go with them to media days, but get this...he's scared of crowds. I can only wish it affected his football ability, and not just his public speaking ability.

- I haven't talked about the players Q&A portion, mainly because they were very boring for the most part. But Tebow can really work a room. He came off as intelligent, humble yet confident, funny...man, I hate that guy.

And that does it for now...I'll be back later with thoughts on the Georgia portion of the day, and then later tonight or tomorrow with the Miles/Spurrier/Kiffen show...should be fun!

GO DAWGS!!

All work and no play...

Work has me pretty much covered up right now...to help fill my posting quota, here is one of my favorite UGA Yoo-Tooobs, even if it is a video recording of someone's television screen.



GO DAWGS!!! Only 65 more days!!

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!

Do YOU remember the feeling?

Per David Hale's blog post today, that is the question that is being asked of the Dawgs every day, by virtue of this picture that is posted in the Dawgs weight room:

To which I say...GOOD. I think it's fantastic that somebody (probably Coach Van Halanger) is making sure that our guys remember the embarrassment of those games, as well as the other embarrassing performances from last year, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.

Totally different atmosphere from last year....last year at this time our guys were all hearing about how awesome they were, and what a juggernaut they were going to be. We all saw how that worked out. If this team feels like they have something to prove this year, if they are embarrassed, if their pride is wounded....good. Go do something about it.

GO DAWGS!!

75 Days!!!!

Urban Meyer IS WHO WE THOUGHT HE WAS!!

Further proof that we are 100% correct in despising Urban Meyer.

No one is allowed to question him, even under the pretense of doing THEIR JOB, apparently.

"Either you're a Gator or you're not," he says. I wonder if he feels that way about the Utes. Or whatever Bowling Green's mascot is.

Shane Matthews is more of a Gator than Urban Crier will EVER be. He sweat and bled for that team, as the former Miami player said in the article. Urban has been there for, what, four years? And that makes him some sort of authority on who's a "Gator" and who's not?

Sports Guy still has it (sometimes)

Yeah, I know...Bill Simmons has become a bit egotistical, and he rarely writes about anything other than Boston sports teams, but every once in a while he can still make me spit water all over my keyboard, which is why I still check out his articles.

This excerpt is from the article he posted today about why the Boston-Chicago playoff series has a chance to be special:
And, yeah, the fact that he wrote it about a Gayter makes it even funnier.

10. The Agitator

There's hate and there's sports hate. Real hate is not OK. Sports hate is OK. We are fans. We are allowed to "love" certain athletes and "hate" others. It doesn't mean we actually love them or hate them. So under that umbrella, I present you with the following statement: I hate Joakim Noah. I hate looking at him. I hate his hair. I hate how he dunks. I hate the way he high-fives. I hate every reaction he has. I hate his game. I hate the
way announcers pronounce his name. I hate the story that I've heard a million times about his tennis-playing father.

I want the Celtics to win for a variety of reasons, but one of them is because it means Joakim Noah would lose. I want him to cry when it's over. And we are only two games in. I can't imagine how I'm going to feel about
him by Game 5. He's like a cross between Bill Laimbeer, Marcus Camby and Lisa Bonet. Near the end of Game 2, he wandered over to the Boston bench after a whistle and lingered there pretending to be disappointed about a call -- breaking the NBA code of "don't hang out for too long near someone's bench," because, you know, he's a complete jerk that way -- and I was screaming at Kevin Garnett (on my TV), "PUNCH HIM! PUNCH HIM! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THIS! YOU'RE NOT PLAYING ANYWAY! PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE!!!!" I hate Joakim Noah. I hate him.

Little does he know, but I already exacted my revenge on him a few months ago, when I took my daughter to a Clippers-Bulls game. She was entranced by Noah's hair for some reason and asked me in all seriousness, "Is that a girl?" I thought it would be funny to convince her that, yes, Joakim Noah was a girl. She didn't fully believe me for about a quarter. By the end of the game, Noah was her favorite player and she was excited that girls could play in the NBA. We came home and she said, "Mommy, we saw a girl play at the Clippers game!" My wife thought it was evil that I did this. She made me feel bad. Now I feel happy. I love that it happened. Just retelling the story makes me happy. I hate Joakim Noah.

(Of course, if he played for the Celtics, I'd love him.)

It's Great To Be a Georgia Bulldawg

Attention all Dawgs: If you feel the sudden urge to pick up a mic and bust a rhyme regarding your undying love for Matt Stafford, or the wonders of Willie Martinez's marvelous defensive schemes, please, for the love of Erk Russell...DON'T VIDEOTAPE IT!!!!

I love Rennie Curran as much as the next guy, but I DON'T want to see any of you rapping about him on the YouTubes.

I'm telling you, between this little monstrosity at timtebowsong.com (thanks to Brent for the link)....

**UPDATED WITH VIDEO!!**


And, of course, THIS:


Let's just say I'm still glad to be a Dawg fan, even with the disappointments of this season.

Smart Football is back

I always learn something reading Chris Brown over at Smart Football.

This week's post about Urban Crier's offense is no exception.

As much as I hate Urban (and trust me, I do), you can't argue the fact that he truly is an offensive genius. I thought Alabama played them about as well as you can play them on defense Saturday night, and there was still no doubt in my mind that the gayters would score touchdowns when they needed to. And that was without Percy Harvin.

Meanwhile, the Sooners continue to hang 60 points on folks like they're playing Playstation. The rest of the BCS matchups may be garbage, but the title game should be a lot of fun.

Thoughts on the Florida game

VERY delayed thoughts on the debacle in Jacksonville...

Well, here's what I was RIGHT about in my pre-game thoughts:

- Neither defense could stop the other team's offense. When the game was still in doubt (all of the first half, into the third quarter), the Dawgs moved the ball up and down the field at will. But, just like in the UT game earlier this year, our socks looked like Swiss cheese we shot ourselves in the foot so often in the red zone. Florida didn't stop us...we stopped ourselves. We should have been tied or even leading going into halftime. Then, after Stafford threw the pick early in the third that the Gayters turned into a 21-3 lead, we could no longer run our offense. Against Florida, you can't come back on them by running the ball, punting, and playing defense, because their offense is virtually unstoppable right now. So, we had to throw in situations where we normally would not, which turned into more turnovers, which turned into more points. The game was lost in the first half when we failed to convert drives into points.

The Dawgs defense played pretty well in the first half, but constant short fields against that level of talent and offensive efficiency overwhelmed them in the second half.

- Penn Wagers' officiating crew stinks. Seriously, why do they keep showing up on my TV at 3:30 every Saturday? They are AWFUL, and even when they aren't missing calls, the games they call are just a mess. Multiple LONG conferences, instant replay reviews that seem to take 10 minutes, etc. There were some crucial blown calls in this one, most notably the obvious offensive pass interference when Louis Murphy pulled the Roller Derby move on Asher and pulled himself past him for the touchdown. But, again, you know what you're going to get when this crew takes the field...blatant incompetence. Unlike a lot of Dawg fans, I don't think Penn and the Gang are out to get us...they're too stupid to be crooked.

Bottom line...Florida is better than we are, but I still don't think they are 39 points better than we are. We bumbled our way to a 21-3 deficit, and that's too much to make up against a team of this caliber.

I hate Urban Meyer.

It's finally here...

This is the one we have all had circled for a full year now. EVERYTHING that we have hoped for, all of the goals that we hoped to achieve...it's all on the line tomorrow. Add that to the fact that it is one of our most hated rivals, in a game between two of the top teams in the country, in one of the most celebrated and historic atmospheres in all of college football, and you have what may be the biggest regular season game in decades for the Dawgs.

Up until recently, I would have actually had Florida 3rd on my "Most Hated Rivals" list, behind Tech and Tennessee. I realized during the week of the the UT-UF game, however, that for the first time ever I was actually rooting for Tennessee. This week, as gametime has approached, I've realized that Florida is REALLY close to passing Tech. All because of one man...Urban Meyer. This guy sickens me. He is an arrogant, hypocritical, whining, lying scumbag. When Spurrier was there, I hated losing to him, but I respected what he had accomplished and was actually entertained by him a lot of the time. There are ZERO redeeming qualities about Urban Meyer. He lies to recruits, he applies discipline to his team only when it does not affect his own goals, he changed his story regarding last year's Celebration in order to sell books, he refers to himself in the 3rd person, he runs up the score unnecessarily...the list could go on and on.

Enough about that piece of trash...on to the game.

No secret here...this one is going to be a shootout. Two of the most prolific offenses in the country, trading haymakers for a full 60 minutes. I don't think either defense is capable of shutting the other one down, but I think the winner will get some big plays from their defense...in fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict another defensive score for the Dawgs. I'm not going to get into a full breakdown of the two teams strategy, strengths and weaknesses, etc...that's been hashed and re-hashed to death this week. I just look for an exciting game, with big time players making big time plays for both sides. I truly believe that if these two teams play 10 times, they probably split the games right down the middle. Tomorrow, I think the Dawgs make enough big plays to win...let's say 42-30. Sound familiar?

Speaking of familiar...I've seen reports that Penn Wagers will once again be the head referee for this game. Look for at least 4-5 blown calls and a minimum of half a dozen personal fouls. What is the SEC thinking let this incompetent crew referee ANY game, much less one of this significance? Even by SEC standards, this crew is subpar, and it would really be a shame to have a game with this much riding on it come down to one of these guys doing something stupid.

I'll leave you with this...early in the week, I was already sick of hearing about and seeing footage of the Celebration last week. However, I watched it again this morning with Scott Howard and Eric Zeier doing the commentary, and I was reminded how fired up I was when it originally happened. I will never forget this moment, and I think we will point back to it in a few years as the moment we turned this series around.

GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never gets old...

Nothing really new to post today, other than make sure you check out Jody's write-up at Viewfrom336.com.

In the meantime, there's always this...



Go DAWGS!!!

HATE WEEK IS HERE

This is, of course, Hate Week Part 1....part deux is coming the last week of November.

Mom and Dad...don't read this post. :-)

h/t to Dixie Dawg

Leftover thoughts from the weekend

Didn't get to watch much this weekend, since I was in Athens all day Saturday.

My quick leftover thoughts from the weekend...

- Looks like Carlton Thomas and Dontavious Jackson will both redshirt this year, barring any unforeseen injuries. If they were going to get in, they probably would have in one of these first two games. What this means is that, even if Knowshon goes pro after this year, the tailback depth chart will include King (So.), Samuel (So.), Jackson (RFr), Thomas (RFr), Washaun Ealy (Fr.). Wow. Tailback U, indeed.

- Urban Meyer is a putz. There is NO reason to still be throwing the ball with your first team offense and kicking field goals with 25 seconds left. Like Randy Shannon said, that kind of thing will tell you a lot about what kind of person somebody is. I already hate him much more than I ever have Spurrier. At least Steve is entertaining. Meyer is just an arrogant, whiny, lying, classless, punk crybaby.

- Tebow's running stats from Saturday night: 13 carries for 55 yards. Florida's non-Tebow running stats from Saturday night: 14 carries for 34 yards. Take away one Chris Rainey run of 13 yards, and it's 13 carries for 21 yards. Moody did not get a single carry. So much for the running game improving and Tebow shouldering less of the burden. He took some big hits Saturday night, and that doesn't look to get any better when they face UT next week. Hope Tebow stays healthy...I don't want ANY excuses at the WLOCP this year.

- Great media-related news for Dawg fans...at the Athens Banner-Herald, John Kaltefleiter is out as Sports Editor, and David Ching is in. Kaltefleiter was consistently the most negative writer among all of the regular Dawg scribes (in my opinion), and David Ching is the MAN when it comes to providing quality coverage.