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 > 2007 > March > 22
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Dogs’ O-line woes mount
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cleaning out the notebook from yesterday’s trip out to football practice:
Head coach Mark Richt speaks glowingly about Georgia’s young offensive line, even though it has already encountered two losses to knee injuries (tackles Vince Vance and Josh Davis, neither considered serious).
“You know what, considering there’s only two guys who know what they’re doing and even those guys have new terminology, I think they’re doing pretty good at this point,” Richt said. “We’re nowhere near being where we need to be. But what I imagined it might be to this point, it’s better than that.”
Encouraging words, but I’m not sure I believe them. The LAST thing the Bulldogs needed was any of these guys to miss any practice time, especially Vance and Davis. So now true freshman Trinton Sturdivant is your starter at left tackle. I asked offensive coordinator Mike Bobo if he’d ever seen a true freshman excel as a starter. “No,” he said. “They just have so far to go strength-wise.”
O-line coach Stacy Searels was very vague and cryptic in his answers about his unit. I found that kind of telling in and of itself. I don’t think he’s thrilled with what he’s seen so far. In case you didn’t know, Searels and Bobo decided to abandon the split/tight formations, where linemen were required to play on both the right or left depending on the strong or weakside of the field. They did this in favor of what most of us grew up on, where there’s right and left guards and tackles and the plays going to the left side are odd-numbered and those to the right are even.
In some ways it’s good that the Bulldogs have so many new offensive linemen because of the new system and new terminology, which overall is actually easier to understand.
“It’s different,” senior tackle/guard Chester “Cheese” Adams said. “Coach [Neil] Callaway had a different style and taught different techniques. Coach Searels is doing a lot of new stuff so it’s taking a little time but by the end of the spring, we’ll be good with it.”
By the way, I think it was Matthew at the SLC who asked but QB Matthew Stafford calls the pass protections and center Fernando Velasco also has some responsibilities in that regard (ie: relaying assignments based on Stafford’s call).
A few other observations: There’s talk of DE Marcus Howard being a real darkhorse star on the defense this fall (Carter’s working on a story for Sunday). Also, Sean Bailey and Mikey Henderson have been looking good at wideout, Tripp Chandler is the only uninjured tight end, DE Jarius Wynn has been impressive, Kregg Lumpkin and Knowshon Moreno look like an unstoppable tailback tandem, Stafford looks to be in particularly good shape and the Dogs’ seconday is going to be stout. Also, there are an awful lot of very impressive-looking players that are redshirt freshmen and sophomores that I think a lot of folks have forgotten about or are overlooking while focusing on signing classes and graduating seniors.
G-Day’s Saturday at Sanford Stadium. Do you guys get fired up for the spring game and come in droves to see it like they do at some football schools or just sort of cast a casual eye toward it to see who stands out?
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