UGA blog finds new home
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February
February 2009
Dooley ‘humbled’ by documentary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sorry I’m just getting something out to you today. I had a bunch of things to attend to this morning and hadn’t had a chance to settle in at my desk. Now settled in, let’s blog.
I had a nice conversation with Vince Dooley this morning. He was in Macon Thursday night to attend a film festival in which a documentary of his life — “Vince Dooley: The Other Side of Football” — was being unveiled. The event was all the rage in Macon, attended by Gov. Sonny Perdue and some other local dignitaries, and was covered well by the Macon Telegraph.
I asked him if it was like a Hollywood premier, with red carpet walks and paparazzi. “Not quite,” Dooley said with a hearty laugh.
Coach Dooley and I have a good relationship that spans the last three decades. So I just had to give him a call to see what it was like to stare up at a giant silver screen to see someone else tell the world the story of your life.
“It’s a little but of mixed emotions, I’d have to say,” he said. “On one hand you appreciate all of the hard work that was done by Andy Permar, who was the 60-Minute Man on this thing. He did everything. He was the publisher, the producer, the director, the filmer, everything. On the other hand, it’s me, so it’s sort of humbling. Also, it was about an hour long so I felt for those people who had to sit through it and watch it all that time. I sat right behind the governor and I felt for him and everybody else.”
The sidebar on this story is a sad one. Permar, who had traveled to Dooley’s hometown of Mobile and all over the South shooting, passed away with the film about 85 percent completed, succumbing to cancer. His wife Debbie completed the work and was honored at the premier.
“It looked like he had it whipped,” Dooley said of Permar. “He was working to finish up the film and all of the sudden it came back on him and he didn’t last any time.”
“He went all over the place and he didn’t leave any stone unturned. I didn’t know he’d been down in Mobile talking to old friends and such. So anyway, he really worked hard at it. From that standpoint I was very grateful to him for wanting to do it and for the job that he did.”
Dooley did have one mild criticism. “I think people were a little too nice,” he said.
“They were all were very complimentary. It was not one of those objective pieces where you say the nice things and also turn around and mention the flaws. The flaws were left out, put it that way.
“It was a very nice experience. What he tried to do was show something beyond football: Growing up during the depression, family, old friends, and my other interests, Civl War history and gardening. Very, very kind, and humbling.”
You can order the DVD here.
Now, a few links:
This is one of those priceless stories you only run into once in a while that crystallizes the concept of sportsmanship and human kindness. A must read! …
Sumter County and Americus honored former Bulldog and current Arizona tight end Leonard Pope… .
MaconDawg, in his continuing series for dawgsports.com in which he breaks down Georgia’s 2009 signing class, focuses his attention on DT Abry Jones.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
UGA blog finds new home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Alert
Bulldogs swing new bats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now I’m just going to gloss over this because I haven’t looked at a bunch of data on it but Georgia has made a change its baseball players and coaches believe could make a huge difference.
The Bulldogs — who open the season Friday against Youngstown State — will be allowed to use Easton bats this year. To hear a lot of them talk about it, not having that luxury may have cost them the national championship against Easton-swinging Fresno State in the College World Series finals last June.
I talked to athletics director Damon Evans about the switch Wednesday night before the Georgia-Auburn basketball game. Clearly he’s not sold on the premise that Easton’s composite bats are markedly better than Nike’s bats. According to him, there is no scientific data to support that hypothesis. And the Bulldogs did hit 96 home runs last season with Nike bats, the second-most in school history. Personally I haven’t looked into it enough yet to have a strong opinion either way.
But coach David Perno and his players were passionate in their belief that they needed the technological advantages the Easton bats provide to remain ultra-competitive. That carried enough weight with Evans that he was willing to, well, go to bat for them.
Now keep in mind, this is a thorny issue. UGA is a Nike school. It gets paid millions of dollars by Nike to use it’s equipment exclusively, which the sporting goods giant provides generously for all 20 sports the Bulldogs field. So this wasn’t a little thing for Evans. It required some phone calls and some negotiating and more than a little research to find out who was doing what nationally.
In the end, Evans said, “Nike was kind enough to work with us on this.” So Georgia is using Easton bats, for now just for this one season. But it still has Nike bats, too, and it’s up to the players to decide which one they want to swing.
Word is it’s 10-to-1 Easton. If they want to keep them the Bulldogs best hit 100 homers.
Couple o’ links:
Speaking of Nike bats, there is a really cool video that can be found on YouTube about former Georgia star Gordon Beckham made last season. Called “Gordon Beckham All-Access,” it was pointed out by JordanDawg33 and it features a little snippet about all the Nike bats he busted last season. Don’t know how I missed it last year but it’s very entertaining and I’d recommend watching the whole thing… .
Hope you saw my report on the Georgia-Auburn basketball game. Here’s the one from Charles Goldberg of the Birmingham News… .
Here’s a nice little story on former Bulldogs David Greene and Matt Stinchcomb visiting some older alums over in Augusta… .
The Sporting News unveiled an interesting ranking system designed to determine which schools do the most with the least amount of talent. Spoiler alert: Cincinnati was No. 1.
- By the way, I’m in the process of making the switch over to the WordPress blogging platform on Monday. By all accounts it’s supposed to be a much more user friendly way to negotiate the blogosphere. I’m hoping not to lose touch with any of you guys during the transition so I’m going to be posting on both platforms for the next few days. You can see the NEW BLOG at: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/. Be sure to bookmark that address in your browser. The plan right now is to make a permanent move over there by Monday (Feb. 23). Happy blogging!
Permalink | Comments (33) | Post your comment | Categories: Baseball
‘Wide open’ race to succeed Knowshon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
That was an incredible debate that ensued yesterday regarding Georgia’s best quarterbacks of all time. That’s definitely one of those arguments that can go around and around without ever reaching a consensus.
Here’s one that will be a little more finite regarding this year’s team. I’m currently putting a little something together on tailbacks Dontavius Jackson and Carlton Thomas. Those two guys have been kind of like the forgotten men in the Bulldogs’ wide-open race to succeed Knowshon Moreno as the primary ball-carrier next season. And let’s be clear, new running backs coach Bryan McClendon used just those words — “wide open” — to describe the competition.
So which of Georgia’s tailbacks do you believe will end up having the most carries at the end of the 2009 season? Sophomore Caleb King, sophomore Richard Samuel, redshirt freshman Dontavius Jackson, redshirt freshman Carlton Thomas, true freshman Washaun Ealey or junior walkon Kalvin Daniels?
In the meantime, I’m going to be making the conversion over to WordPress for this blog at some point today. I’m going to carry over as much as I can in terms of old blogs but we may lose some of the archives in the process. Sorry for the inconvenience but, by all accounts, it’s going to make for a better blogging experience for all. Wish me luck.
Now for some links …
Here’s a nice breakdown of Georgia’s 2009 recruiting efforts by AthlonSports.com… .
Athens Banner-Herald reporter Mark Weiszer informs us that Matthew Stafford won’t throw at the NFL combine. It’s fairly common, by the way, for the highest-rated quarterbacks.
A shout out to Georgia coach Mark Richt, who reports on his blog that defensive tackle Ricardo Crawford will spend the summer term studying at Oxford in England. Way to go, Ricardo, and thanks for pointing that out, Coach… .
Apparently defensive lineman Kwame Geathers is going to make a decision on Friday, according to TotalUGA.com. It’s between Georgia, Tennessee and Central Florida, apparently. Subscription required… .
Joe Thiessman thinks the spread offense is stunting the development of quarterbacks such as Florida’s Tim Tebow.
Permalink | Comments (96) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
Tough call on Dogs’ best QB ever
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I got into a pretty good debate the other day with a friend of mine about who was the better Georgia quarterback, Matthew Stafford or David Greene.
My buddy was emphatic that Stafford was based on the fact that he is about to become the No. 1 pick (or thereabouts) in the 2009 NFL draft and, Greene, well, his NFL career didn’t amount to much. I argued that Greenie, plain and simple, won more games. In fact, he won more games than any quarterback in NCAA history, 42 out of 52, and started every single game he played in college.
Both arguments have merit. There may not have been or will ever be an individual come through Georgia that can hurl a football like Stafford. Take a look at this video from Rivals.com of Stafford working out with his trainers out in Arizona. It’s that type of thing that gets scouts salivating.
But, man, did Greenie have some big moments? Tennessee and P-44 Haynes and Auburn and 70-X Takeoff. You know they’re historic moments when the play is almost as famous as the game itself.
I threw another guy in there while debating this topic. When he came through, Eric Zeier was the most impressive quarterback I’d ever seen up close and personal. I still haven’t seen anybody throw the deep ball better than that guy and he completed nearly 60 percent of his passes during his career. But Zeier simply didn’t win enough games at Georgia. After a nice start, he was 30-15, with 10 of those losses coming during the inexplicable 1993 and ‘94 seasons.
Winning is the bottom line, I reasoned, and actually made the argument for Buck Belue being the best of the modern era since he won it all in 1980 and almost did again in 1981. Yeah, yeah, he had a pretty good tailback on those teams. But he managed those offenses and made some big throws in some big games, too.
Anyway, it’s one of those great debates that can go on forever. Go back another half-century and you can make another whole argument with guys like Zeke Bratkowski and Johnny Rauch and Frankie Sinkwich, who threw the ball a good bit, too.
Let’s here what y’all think. Here’s some stats for fuel:
Greene — 52-52 games started, 849-of-1,440 (.590) for 11,528 yards, 72 TDs, 32 INTs, 42-10 record
Stafford — 34-39 games started, 564-of-986 (.572) for 7,731 yards, 51 TDs, 33 INTs, 30-9 record.
Zeier — 39-44 games started, 838-of-1,402 (.597) for 11,153, 67 TDs, 37 INTs, 30-15-1 record.
Now a few links …
SI.com’s Andy Staples took on an interesting - and painstaking — project to re-rank the 2006 signing classes based on the actual production the teams got ouot of the players. Spoiler alert: Georgia was No. 4.
Accusations are flying that Alabama coach Nick Saban may have violated NCAA rules in a “bump-into” encounter that resulted in the commitment of Memphis prospect Keiwone Malones… .
Here’s our daily report on Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin. This one is his boss Mike Hamilton defending the hire… .
In case you missed it, starting offensive lineman Carl Johnson of the Florida Gators was arrested on Monday.
Permalink | Comments (274) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
Wild weekend for Georgia sports
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was a wild weekend and a lot has gone down over the last week. So let’s take just a minute this morning to kind of catch up on everything before forging forward with the rest of this week.
No doubt the biggest news of the weekend was the stunning 88-86 upset of Florida by the Georgia basketball team. The Gators had come in leading the SEC East and, of course, the Bulldogs hadn’t won an SEC game and had lost 11 in a row. To me it was very reminiscent of the amazing awakening we saw Georgia experience in Atlanta to win the SEC Tournament last March… . Meanwhile, here comes Auburn into Stegeman Coliseum on Wednesday. Could the Dogs make it two in a row?
Of course there is always a flip side to any athletic contest and the devastating loss rocked the Gators pretty good. They’re trying to play their way onto the NCAA bubble after missing out last season. Anyway, here’s the write-up in the Gainesville Sun
Boy Blunder has done it yet again. Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin, as he is otherwise known, committed his third NCAA violation in about as many weeks when he dropped the name of Bryce Brown — the No. 1-rated prospect in football according to Rivals who remains unsigned and was scheduled to visit UT this weekend — during a radio interview. At this point it’s clear Kiffin either doesn’t know the rules or simply doesn’t believe they apply to him and neither is an acceptable reason. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported the slip up and the Nashville Banner took a detailed look into why Kiffin keeps screwing up… .
A real interesting story is developing with the Georgia men’s track team. Freshman sprinter Torrin Lawrence is lighting it up and this past weekend logged the fastest 400-meter time on the planet this year. Lawrence also ran an awesome anchor leg for a come-from-behind win over No. 1 Florida in the 4x400 relay and has singlehandely lifted the Bulldogs into another whole stratosphere of competition this year. You’ll be seeing a profile on this kid pretty a soon… .
By the way, our old buddy pitcher Joshua Fields finally signed with the Seattle Mariners, reportedly for $1.75 million. The UGA star’s agent, the notorious Scott Boras, had asked for $2 million and the M’s offered $1.5 million. Don’t know if that was worth missing a whole year of pitching but I guess we’ll find out this spring. Fields was invited to the major league camp. Here’s what they’re saying about him out West. By the way, he cut his hair short… .
And, finally, former Georgia football player Tony Milton reportedly is trying to become a pro golfer. I kid you not.
Permalink | Comments (36) | Post your comment | Categories: Multiple sports
Richt speech inspires hoopsters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I had a lot of good stuff left over after filing my game story on Georgia’s 88-86 win over Florida on Saturday so I figured I’d share it with our loyal bloggers.
First of all, I wasn’t able to note in the game story that football coach Mark Richt deserves at least some credit for inspiring the Bulldogs. At the behest of interim coach Pete Herrmann Richt came and spoke to the team before their Friday afternoon practice.
“I called Mark and asked him if he’d come over,” Herrmann said. “He’s as respected a person as we have on this campus and I wanted him to, you know, say a few words about what he loves. He loves Georgia. He loves the coaches here at Georgia, he loves the athletes, and he talked about that. And he talked about playing it all the way through.”
It worked.
“That really inspired us,” senior captain Corey Butler said. “He said ‘G.A.T.A.’ Wrote it on the board. I don’t want to say what that stands for but we all know what it means (Get After Their [butts]). He told us about some of his experiences and how nobody believed in them when they went down there in play them [in 2007]. He said we have to play for us and that’s what we did.”
Also, while his line in the box score doesn’t pop off the page, junior center Albert Jackson played a fantastic all-around game. He finished with nine points and seven rebounds and that was nice but it was his offensive and defensive aggression in 33 minutes of play that was most impressive. Jackson had two emphatic, crowd-inspiring dunks and, while he was credited with only one block, he altered several others.
Jackson was beaming afterward: “We found some sunshine today,” he said. “Those smiles I’ve been looking for finally came back in the locker room. I haven’t seen my teammates smiling and happy in a long time. I feel like I’ve won the SEC championship right now.”
Also of note, sophomore forward Jeremy Price did not play for the second straight game. Herrmann said it wasn’t a punishment like the last game in which Price was held out along with teammate Travis Leslie for arguing with each other.
“Nope, no issue,” Herrmann said. “He’s just got to play better. And Chris [Barnes] is coming in and doing a good job.”
Permalink | Comments (38) | Post your comment | Categories: Football and basketball
Positive signs for Georgia football
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s waaaaaay early to start making any kind of predictions regarding Georgia football and I’m not going to attempt that today. But I will say that I have detected some positive signs for the type of team the Bulldogs might be developing for next season.
They’re subtle signs, to be sure, and they might not mean much when it comes to blocking and tackling and scoring points come September. But based on a criteria strength coach Dave Van Halanger enumerated for me a couple of years back I think they bode well for Georgia.
Van Halanger told me in a conversation in July of 2007 that “chemistry and morale” are the two most important ingredients for team success. “Everybody has good players and everybody lifts weights, runs and conditions year round,” he explained. “The difference is how the players truly feel about each other. They have to love each other and care about each other.”
Van Halanger went on to say he felt that 2007 team was very close and scored high in chemistry and morale. That squad went 11-2 and finished with a No. 2 ranking, you may recall. He did not say the same thing about last year’s team.
I haven’t talked to Van Halanger about this latest group but I’ve noticed some things that speak well for fitting into his criteria.
For example, it may not have seemed a big deal to people that UGA signee Branden Smith ended up with the No. 1 jersey he so coveted. After all, Mohamed Massaquoi wore it the last four years and he’s graduating and heading to the NFL. But the reality is, like Smith, A.J. Green had worn No. 1 in high school and wanted to wear it at Georgia. But since Massaquoi already had it, Green agreed to wear No. 8 last season with the understanding he’d be first in line to get it this year.
“A.J. Green said he would let me wear No. 1 and he would keep No. 8,” Smith told the AJC’s Larry Hartstein recently. “He said if I decided to come up there, he’d let me wear No. 1 because he wanted me to be his teammate.”
A small gesture on the surface, yes, but it could be huge in the locker room.
There are other similar signs, such as the work of Jeff Owens. I’ve linked to his blog here a couple of times, Jeff Owens: The Real Deal. If you read the type of posts he’s putting on there, things like “What It Means to Wear the G” and various tributes to his teammates and things like that, you’ll see that he’s not your stereotypical self-absorbed jock. He’s clearly a team-first, love-my-school player and that guy’s a big-time leader on this team.
Quarterback Joe Cox falls into this category, too. As you’ll note between now and his debut next fall, Cox is an excitable, enthusiastic, kind of in-your-face leader. Teammates have pointed out his infectious personality and get-behind-me style. Again, it’s not going to help him pick up a zone blitz but it’s going to help him win over the trust of his teammates.
Like I said, you still better have speed and skill and all the good chemistry and morale in the world is not going to overcome 22 season-ending injuries. But with six months between now and preseason camp it looks like the Bulldogs have some strong intangibles to build on.
Now for some links:
I guess it’s never too early to start looking ahead to the next Georgia football recruiting class. Our recruiting specialist Michael Carvell looks at the Bulldogs’ numbers for next year… .
Matthew Stafford, if you haven’t heard, is projected to be the No. 1 pick in April’s NFL draft in April. Here’s a nice look at Georgia’s other three No. 1 NFL draft picks by those noted bloggers, “Bubba and Earl Sittin’ on the 50.” …
This is a great, awards-style breakdown of Georgia’s 2009 signing class by Macondawg on another dedicated Bulldogs blog called Dawg Sports. And the Freddie goes to …
Permalink | Comments (95) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
Here’s your Georgia football fix
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How ‘bout a little football?!
I know, I know, you guys can never get enough regardless of the time of year. Certainly we don’t write as much as we do during the season and there’s not as much going on right now. But both Tim Tucker and I have been over at the football complex a couple of times each the last two weeks as the Bulldogs go through mat drills and offseason workouts and such. We’ve been gathering interviews and information for stories we’ll be providing weekly all the up until spring practice starts next month.
Unfortunately we’re writing only a couple of stories a week for the paper, so a lot of commentary and info we’re collecting is stacking up. I’m here to empty that out a little bit today.
On Wednesday I interviewed Jeff Owens, Logan Gray, A.J. Green and Joe Cox. Some of this stuff you’ll see in the paper in the coming days.
- I was talking to Owens, the senior defensive tackle, about his new blog called “Jeff Owens: The Real Deal” (his latest entry is a Q&A with Cox). Unfortunately just about every other reporter that covers the Dogs was interviewing him at the same time, so you may read some about it somewhere else before my story appears. Nevertheless, Owens was his normal jovial self and went on and on about his blog and how well it’s taking off and how much he enjoys doing it. He said he started it because he wants “to let people know the real inside scoop of the college athlete and our everyday lives and what we go through from time to time.” He admitted to being totally obsessed with it and trying to write something every day. Anyway, I’ll have more details in the story I write that’ll appear online Friday.
In the meantime, the football scoop on Owens is his right knee is healing right on schedule. He said it’s at about 50 percent of full strength now and he started running about three weeks ago. I happened to catch a glimpse of Jeff through a window in the weight room and he was doing step-ups on a box about three feet off the ground without any trouble… .
- Logan Gray was another guy I wanted to talk to because I feel like he has kind of been overlooked by the Joe Cox anointment and all the attention that has gone to the two freshman signees. The most pertinent news regarding Logan is that he is no longer going to play on any special teams for the foreseeable future. Or at least as long as he remains at quarterback and he plans to stay there for the duration. In fact, Logan told me the special teams were fun, important and helpful for getting used to the speed of the college game but probably held him back as a quarterback.
“I definitely think so,” Gray said. “We do a lot of our quarterback stuff warming up and throwing the ball and going through practice reps. That’s all going on while special teams practice is going on. Missing that every single day you just, when you’re losing out on reps it just kind of catches up to you. I think that’s probably why I — I don’t know if I regressed — but I wasn’t getting better at the rate I thought I should have been during the season last year. I’m just excited now to just be focusing on quarterback and getting back into it.” …
- With A.J. Green, I just wanted an update on his groin injury and find out what he thought about Marlon Brown signing on as a receiver mate. Green had a good laugh when I asked him how it felt to be asked, “how’s the groin?” every time somebody talks to him. For the record, he said “a lot better” and “getting better every day” and that he’s moving around better than he did all last season. As for Brown, Green said he got to him “pretty well” during the recruiting season and has watched some tape on him. He thinks they’ll make a pretty lethal pair.
“They’re not going to be double-teaming me all the time,” he said of opposing defenses. “[Brown] can stretch the field, too, with his size and speed. He attacks the ball whenever it’s in the air. He’s a basketball guy like me. That always gives you an advantage to go up and attack the ball like you do on the basketball court. He’s good.”
- I talked to Joe Cox mostly for some of these other stories but he did tell me that they’ve been doing a little bit of 7-on-7 drills out on the practice fields. “The ones we’ve done have been real productive,” Cox said. “Everybody’s been out there, a lot of young guys who are having to step up this year. And they’ve been doing good. Everybody wants to learn and that’s been good to see.”
So there’s your football fix. Feel better now.
If not, there’s a little more in these here links… .
Here’s a good detailed look at the oversigning trend by rivals.com.. Apparently Ole Miss didn’t get the award for most greedy. That goes to Troy, which signed 40… .
Oklahoma State football proclaimed its 2009 schedule as “one of America’s most daunting,” due in large part because it opens the season against Georgia on Sept. 5. By the way, the Georgia game has been designated the season’s ‘premium game’; by the Cowboys, meaning other than 5,000 tickets, only season-ticket holders will be allowed to purchase tickets… .
We couldn’t go a day without a story on something that came out of the mouth of Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin now could we? …
This is a little farther away from home but I thought this story on former Arizona standout Jay Dobyns was really cool and ought to make an awesome book, which he has written. He was a stud receiver for the Wildcats before going on to become an ATF agent who went undercover and infiltrated the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Can you say “tough?”
Permalink | Comments (84) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
Felton’s Dogs successful in classroom
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is kind of old news but I thought it should be pointed out that ousted Georgia basketball coach Dennis Felton, who was charged with cleaning up the academic mess left behind by Jim Harrick, was successful on that front.
In the latest APR (academic progress rate) rankings, Georgia’s score of 958 was second only to Vanderbilt in the SEC. The NCAA’s acceptable threshold is 925. Seven SEC teams fell below that: Florida (919), Ole Miss (917), Tennessee (911), LSU (910) Auburn (905), Mississippi State (901) and South Carolina (899).
New ratings are due out late this spring, but I thought I should give Felton his due. So if they weren’t winning on the court, at least the Bulldogs were winning in the classroom. Not sure how much weight that carries with the average fan.
A lot of links leftover from the last couple of days, so … .
Columnists from around the SEC rarely agree on anything but they are lining up in solidarity to light up Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin. Our Mark Bradley talked to legendary coach Vince Dooley about Kiffin on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Ron Higgins has nicknamed Kiffin “Boy Blunder” and Mobile Press-Register columnist Paul Finebaum calls for Kiffin’s dismissal right now. And Finebaum’s a Tennessee grad! …
By the way, former Georgia defensive end Michael Lemon is NOT headed to South Carolina as was reported on some of the fan sites earlier this week… .
Speaking of South Carolina, No. 1 was No. 2 choice for the latest hotshot Gamecock in something they’re calling “Jersey Gate” over in Columbia… .
In case you missed it, the Willie Martinez-to-Miami saga is officially over. The Hurricanes hired North Carolina’s John Lovett as defensive coordinator… .
Looks like Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks has kept his Lexington-La Grange recruiting pipeline intact for another year… .
I’m just going to link to Jeff Owens’ blog every day. He always seems to have something interesting to say… .
For what it’s worth, Tennessee’s basketball team is taking tonight’s basketball game against Georgia very seriously.
Permalink | Comments (29) | Post your comment | Categories: Football and basketball
Will Hoop Dogs win an SEC game?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How many of you guys caught Georgia’s basketball game at South Carolina? Don’t let the final margin (79-68) fool you. It wasn’t that close. The loss was the Dogs’ 10th in a row and dropped them to 0-8 in conference play.
I’m beginning to wonder if they’ll win an SEC game this season. By the way, a Georgia team hasn’t gone winless in the league in the modern era. The Dogs went 0-2 in a punctuated season in 1944. Otherwise, they went 1-13 in 1956, 2-12 in 1952, 2-9 in 1945 and won just three SEC games in ‘53, ‘58, ‘62, ‘75, ‘77 and 2000.
It’s going to be tough to get a win this week. They’re at Tennessee Wednesday then play hosts to Florida on Saturday. It looks like Georgia’s next best chance will be Feb. 18 against Auburn in Athens. Don’t you know the pressure to win will be mounting by then?
A link …
You’ll recall that last week I pointed out that Georgia senior defensive tackle Jeff Owens had started his own blog. Well, I have to admit I’ve been very impressed with young Mr. Owens’ writing ability. His latest entry is entitled, “What It Means to Wear the G,”, and it’s guaranteed to fire up you Bulldogs fans. Very eloquent and passionate. And it’s particularly poignant coming from a kid that grew up in Sunrise, Fla.
Permalink | Comments (75) | Post your comment | Categories: Football and basketball
Teams mock NCAA signing limits
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Don’t know if you noticed but Ole Miss signed 38 players. to national letters-of-intent on Wednesday. “Thirty-eight!” And a year after signing 32 players in its 2008 class, Alabama signed 27 or 28 this year, depending on whom you believe. North Carolina signed 29.
Just to clarify, NCAA rules stipulate that teams are permitted to enroll no more than 25 players in a calendar year and can have no more than 85 players on scholarship at any given time. It’s a fairly important rule designed to keep all the teams on an even playing field.
Nevertheless, the latest trend seems to be to go bonkers with the letters-of-intent on signing day, then worry about how to deal with it later.
There are two basic ways teams get around this rule. One, teams have no intention of admitting the number of players they sign. A significant number are expected to NOT qualify for admission. So the school is merely claiming them now, helping to place them elsewhere and hoping they come back. Two, a big trend lately is for players to “greyshirt.” That is, they pay their own way for a semester or two with the promise of eventually being placed on scholarship. It’s a kind of pay-me-later agreement.
“I know it seems like a high number,” Nutt told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger of the Rebels’ 2009 class. “But it helps Mississippi. It helps out junior colleges… . I’ve got some guys who want to be a part of our program, but probably won’t make it academically. They’ve got a chance to go to a (junior college) and still be a part of our family.”
The trouble with that is, if these kids are so far off from being academic qualifiers, should a team be bothering to sign them? And if they’re not very far off from qualifying, isn’t there the potential for controversy if some of these players meet qualifications before fall camp? What happens then? You either have to tell them they can’t come, tell them they have to pay their own way or you have to boot somebody off your existing roster to make room.
Meanwhile, Georgia signed only 18 players this season (and has offers out to two more unsigned prospects), not all of whom are expected to qualify. And the Bulldogs famously turned away a couple of big-time recruits last season because they didn’t want to go over the limit.
Needless to say, Georgia coach Mark Richt has a different philosophy regarding oversigning.
“I think we do things the way it ought to be done,” Richt said on Wednesday. “We could always get into a situation where we oversign, but there’s no way I could look at a kid and his parents and say, ‘we had some room but now we really don’t.’ I just think you have to be careful. I don’t want to oversign then tell one of the kids we’ve already got ‘you’ve got no value to us’ and toss him aside. I’m not going to do that.”
Whatever you think, it’s a growing trend. According to bleacherreport.com, 33 teams signed more than their allotment of 25 prospects in 2006, 39 in 2007 and 30 in 2008. That was up sharply from previous seasons. I haven’t located this year’s numbers yet but I bet it’s at least that many.
Some links… .
Apparently Georgia defensive tackle Jeff Owens has his own blog now. No fair! …
Guess what! Apparently Bob Knight has dropped to Paul Finebaum the same hints about wanting the Alabama job as he did to our Furman Bisher about wanting the Georgia job. Methinks he just wants a job period… .
Add Lance Thompson’s name to the list of loudmouths now at UT.
Permalink | Comments (137) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
The lull begins after recruiting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, now what do we do?
National Signing Day has come and gone and, with the exception of a few stragglers here and there, all the drama is done. Georgia is in the hunt for one of the holdouts. Tight end Orson Charles of Tampa, a teammate of the Bulldogs’ quarterback signee Aaron Murray, will supposedly be making his decision in a week or so. Other than than that, the Dogs are done.
By all accounts, Georgia did quite nicely, especially considering it signed a relatively small class (18). Based on the rankings I looked at this morning the Dogs generally were slotted around eighth or ninth in the nation. Take that for it’s worth.
So now, the long vigil begins. There is nearly seven months to go before college football season resumes. I guess there’s spring practice to whet your appetites. Never done much for me, especially this year as something like 16 Georgia players will be sitting out due to injuries.
Regarding this year’s recruiting class, lost in all the late dramatics was all those players that committed to the Bulldogs’ early and stayed true to their word all the way to signing day. A lot of times I don’t think those kinds of guys get enough credit.
So let’s hear your thoughts. Meanwhile, here’s a bunch of mostly-recruiting-related links to chew on. Bon appetite! …
Here’s some recruiting rankings from Tom Lemming and we list the Scout and Rivals rankings HERE… .
By the way, did you catch that Georgia offensive line coach Stacy Searels broke his silence on the occasion of National Signing Day? …
Here’s the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s take on wide receiver Marlon Brown choosing Georgia… .
SI.com’s Stewart Mandel writes that early playing time is the chief motivation for where kids sign these days… .
Georgia held up well “Reevaluation Rankings” complied by Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News. He ranked teams based on their recruiting rankings each of the last five years and what they got out of those classes. Spoil alert: Dogs are No. 3… .
Speaking of Alabama, did you see that the Crimson Tide’s plans to expand Bryant-Denny Stadium? The project, expected to cost more than $80 million, will take their seating capacity to 101,000. That will, of course, surpass Georgia’s Sanford Stadium as the fifth-largest on-campus stadium… .
Great story in the New York Times about the next nasty trend in football recruiting — agents. At least that’s what I’m calling them.
Permalink | Comments (64) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
Georgia gets off to slow start, but expecting fast finish
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia will find out today whether its gamble for the some of the nation’s top prospects has paid off.
The Bulldogs started off recruiting as if they were going to finish with the country’s No. 1 class. Georgia was gangbusters through the summer, securing a top 10 class, and giving the Bulldogs the confidence to target some of the nation’s top prospects at their respective positions with the few remaining scholarships: wide receiver Marlon Brown of Memphis, safety Jawanza Starling of Tallahassee, Fla., offensive lineman Bobby Massie of Hargrave, Va., defensive tackle Kwame Geathers of Carver’s Bay, S.C., and tight end Orson Charles of Tampa, Fla.
Was it the right move for the Bulldogs? Should they have gambled so much on out-of-state guys? Or should they have focused more on state players? They could’ve easily had Miller Grove wide receiver Stephen Hill (signed with Georgia Tech), Dacula’s Cameron Kenney (committed to Oklahoma), and Walton’s David Paulsen (committed to Oklahoma State) had the Bulldogs offered them earlier.
About 50-60 fans are gathered in the Butts-Mehre Building (UGA’s athletic department) to watch the festivities. The crowd was hushed as word spread that Miller Grove wide receiver Stephen Hill had decided to sign with Georgia Tech rather than Georgia this morning.
Permalink | Comments (183) | Post your comment | Categories: Football, Football and basketball, News business, Recruit
Expect high drama on signing day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When I first broke into the sports writing business back in the 1980s, there were basically two ways I kept up with recruiting. I’d buy the reigning recruiting magazines of the day — you know, Lindy’s Southeastern, Max Emfinger, etc. — and I’d call my recruiting “source,” a guy named Don in Commerce who for whatever reason always knew exactly whom the Georgia Bulldogs were after and exactly when they’d get them.
It’s a little different nowadays. All due respect to Rodney Garner and Lance Thompson and all the other reputed recruiting superstars in coaching, but you’d have to have your head in the sand not to be able to identify the best prospects these days. Between Rivals.com and Scout.com and UnderArmour, there must be a hundred camps nationwide that start measuring, weighing and testing potential prospects as high school freshmen and sophomores. Between that, some actual games and YouTube, there’s not much guesswork as to which kids can run, throw or bench a Volkswagen.
That said, the competition for these prospects has never been more fierce. After all, everybody knows who the best ones are and they all want them. Therein lies the thrill of the chase for millions of “recruitniks.”
Which brings us to national signing day Wednesday and Georgia’s pursuits. The Bulldogs have already assimilated a nice class. By all accounts it’s a national Top 10 group, even though it’s smallish in nature. But what was expected to be an anticlimactic signing day when the Bulldogs thought they were at near-capacity in September will be anything but on Wednesday.
Thanks to some unexpected roster activity (ie: Stafford, Moreno and Allen turning pro, couple of players shown the door, one or two not getting admitted) Georgia ended up with more scholarships available than expected. The trouble is, thinking they were close to capacity, the Dogs narrowed their focus to superstar national targets at the expense of showing more love to some promising in-state prospects. That could be a good thing if they land a few of those big fish this week — or really bad if they don’t.
So now, according to our resident recruiting guru Michael Carvell, it has come down to this: There are basically six main targets on Georgia’s wish list heading into the final 24 hours — WR Marlon Brown, TE Orson Charles, LB Jarvis Jones, OT Bobby Massie, CB Greg Reid and S Jawanza Starling. We’ll all learn about Reid, the relative late-bloomer from Lowndes County, when he announces at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at Austin’s Steakhouse in Valdosta (insert meat market joke here). Apparently Charles isn’t going to decide until well after signing day. The other four will have Wednesday announcements.
If Georgia landed half these remaining targets the recruitniks will be dancing in South Lumpkin Street Wednesday afternoon. Whiff on them all and they’ll be taking away the glass mugs in Athens’ pubs.
So there’s my rundown on national signing day for the Dogs. Our experts will be breaking it down and rating it for you six ways to Sunday over the next couple of days. Meanwhile, we’ll be there to chronicle the flips and the flops and the drama. Let me know what you think is going to happen.
Permalink | Comments (112) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
Durham believes Georgia’s “a great job”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Had a great conversation with Hugh Durham over the weekend. Surely everybody remembers Georgia’s basketball coach of 17 years. He’s living comfortably in retirement these days, splitting time between homes in Boone, N.C., and Jacksonville, Fla. He’s in Florida this time of year, of course, and was getting ready to hit the links shortly after I called him. Poor Hugh.
Do you realize that since Durham was fired in 1995, Georgia will have had six coaches by the time Damon Evans hires Dennis Felton’s successor sometime in the next six weeks? The last five were Tubby Smith, Ron Jirsa, Jim Harrick, Felton and interim coach Pete Herrmann. With the exception of Herrmann, on whom the book is still out, only Smith could be considered a success.
Anyway, couple of things from Durham: (1) He still loves Georgia. Said the Bulldogs and his alma mater Florida State are the only two teams he truly roots for. Said he follows the Dogs very closely. (2) Durham said he thought Felton was a decent coach but might not have embraced the Georgia people as well as he could have. When times got tough Feltyon didn’t have enough folks standing up for him. (3) A lot of people think Georgia is a tough job, hard to recruit to. Durham believes Georgia is not only a good job, which it was when he had it, but “a great job.” He said it still has its unique set of obstacles to negotiate but, with Stegeman fixed up like it is these days and the $30 million practice facility, there should be nothing holding them back. (4) Said he likes Bob Knight and thinks he would create a nice buzz for Georgia but he doesn’t believe it’s what’s best for the Bulldogs in the long run. (5) Of the candidates we discussed Anthony Grant seemed to be the only one he was real enamored with but he didn’t want rate candidates, not right now anyway. (6) No, Hugh’s not applying… .
— Speaking of “Herrmann’s Hounds” (see how I just slipped that in there?), they’ll be looking for their first win in more than a month — and first under Herrmann — Wednesday against LSU. That’ll be another toughie. I’ll be interested in seeing what kind of support the team gets back home post-Felton… .
— By the way, take this for what it’s worth but a person I know that spends a bunch of time in the Coliseum Training Facility said more noise hsa been coming out of the men’s practice gym in the last few days than had been heard in there the last few years… .
— What else is going on this week? Oh, yeah, I think something’s happening with football recruiting. But you’re probably not interested in that… .
— OK, not to steal Michael Carvell’s thunder (he’s our in-house recruiting guru), but I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. The Dogs will get DB Greg Reid and TE Orson Charles and some wide receiver from somewhere not named Marlon Brown. So there, now you can just relax until signing day.
— In case you hadn’t guessed, those were guesses… .
— Another ring for Hines Ward. You gotta like that… .
Tell me what you want to know this week and I’ll try to get you an answer.
Permalink | Comments (38) | Post your comment | Categories: Football and basketball
