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 > June > 06
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Baseball’s not Troupe’s strength
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While even football recruiting seems an exact science when compared to the Amateur Baseball Draft, my sources are telling me Georgia has nothing to worry about with regard to losing wide receiver Israel Troupe to pro baseball.
Jim Callis, an old college buddy of mine who I worked with the at the Red and Black while we were at Georgia, is executive editor of Baseball America. He’s their top dog and will be on tomorrow’s telecast of the baseball draft. I asked him about Troupe and he said he didn’t have him listed anywhere. So he referred me to a colleague, Alan Mitchell, who is BA’s national writer and is charged with knowing about anybody this side of the Mississippi River. Mitchell knew all about Troupe and said Georgia football fans could rest easy. I’ve written a story about it that will be up later but here’s most of what Mitchell told me:
“[Mark] Richt is safe on this one,” Matthews said. “There’s really no doubt whatsoever that Troupe is not going to be drafted high enough to sign with a professional baseball team. Israel Troupe is a very, very raw athlete with very limited baseball skills. Could he develop into a professional baseball prospect? Yes, maybe with a few years of college baseball experience at Georgia. But for now, he’s not ready even at the rookie ball level.”
Matthews went on to say Troupe will probably get his name called but it probably won’t be until late on the second day of the 50-round draft. Troupe, who I also talked to for the story, said he has a number early in the draft after which he won’t consider signing a contract but declined to share that. So it looks like Troupe will be playing football for the Dogs this fall. He also plans to play baseball for Dave Perno while at Georgia, though I haven’t seen many two-sport guys pan out in recent years. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, two of Georgia’s signees have not yet gained academic eligibility and therefore haven’t joined the 21 other first-year players on campus. Defensive backs Vance Cuff of Moultrie and John Knox of Statesboro still have some work to do and may end up in prep school, according to the Athens Banner-Herald. I’m not planning on writing anything on it at the moment but we’ll monitor the situation and let you know if there are any developments.
Meanwhile, as Rennie Curran told me earlier today (I’m writing something on him for this weekend), Thursday if the first day the freshmen “get down to business” as far as football. To date, they’ve spent their time getting moved into dorms, going through orientations and, Wednesday, they had their official physicals. Usually there’s one or two players with medical issues that have to be addressed after these physicals but I haven’t heard anything yet. We’ll let you know when we know.
Meanwhile, the freshmen will be welcomed to a whole new world Thursday morning when Coach VanHalanger puts them through the paces of the offseason strength and conditioning program. These guys may think they’ve worked out but nothing like what they’ll experience when they follow around Brannan Southerland and Thomas Brown in the Dogs’ expansive weight room.
That’s all for now. Let me know what you want to know.
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