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
June 2007
Workouts going well for Dogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I decided to get up early this morning and go over to the Butts-Mehre Building to catch the football team’s 6:30 a.m. workouts. My main observation: I can’t tell you what the Bulldogs are going to do this coming season but, whatever happens, it won’t be because they’ve been out-worked!
Players have an opportunity to participate in either the morning workout or the afternoon workout, which begins at 1:30 p.m. Though they covet their sleep — like all young people of that age — the morning workout tends to be the best attended because of the slightly cooler temperatures and because they can get it over with, get to morning classes, then sleep in the afternoon. On Wednesdays, the whole team works out together. It’s completely voluntary. No attendance is taken and the strength and conditioning coaches are forbidden by NCAA rule to make reports for the assistant or head coaches.
“Peer pressure is the biggest motivator,” said associate head strength coach Keith Gray, who oversees the workouts [Dave VanHalanger is on vacation this week]. “That and competition. If you know everybody else is working hard you’re more inclined to want to yourself.”
I witnessed the hard work part myself. For nearly two hours, they never stop. Split up into groups of “skill,” “big skill” and “line,” they rotate from work station to work station. Hip-hop music blasts from a surround-sound system but there’s a lot of noise besides. Mostly it’s players yelling encouragement — or challenges — to and at each other.
I wasn’t calculating weights and such so it’s hard to tell which of the young pups were the weightroom standouts, though I did notice tight end Bruce Figgins of Columbus drawing some “oohs” and “ahs” on the bench. The highlight came from punter/place-kicker Drew Butler, believe it or not, at the clean and jerk station. Butler has dedicated himself to enduring everything the regular players do and he apparently was handling a good bit of weight on the clean bar, enough to attract the whole group to stop what they were doing and gather around Butler and clap and cheer as he successfully jerked the bar up around his shoulders several times before throwing it down triumphantly. High fives and chest bumps ensued.
Gray told me that, as a group, this is the best group of freshmen in the weightroom he’s seen since he came to Georgia in 1999.
After an hour and 20 minutes of this, I thought it was over but Gray summoned the players outside the double glass doors to the bottom-most field at Woodruff Practice Fields. There, again divided by groups, they proceeded to run 110-yard, timed wind sprints. First they did four “strides,” in which they didn’t run full speed. Then they went close to full out six times in a row, with the bigs having to cross the goal line in 19 seconds, big skills in 17 and the skills in 15. Everybody made it
For the last four sprints, they separated into their groups by 10-yard intervals, with the skills still at 110 yards, the big skills on the goal line and the bigs on the 10-yard line, and had them race. On the last one, they really got after it and went full out. I didn’t recognize the big guy that crossed first (we’re not allowed to interview them out there) but I think it might have been Geno Atkins (apologies to whomever it was if it wasn’t). He barely edged Knowshon Moreno, who looked like he was gliding. But let’s be clear: this was not about speed; this was about survival.
I also noticed that wide receiver Kenneth Harris and linebacker Brandon Miller were kind of leading the way — yelling encouragement, shooting down complaining and sort of leading by example. But nobody was slacking off.
The players do this four days a week, Monday through Thursday, then go to class. So I thought they deserved a tip of the cap. I hadn’t planned to blog today but, after seeing it, I thought the least I could do was bring a little attention to their hard work. I’ll try to answer any questions you might have. Keep in mind, this was just the morning group, so I didn’t see everybody.
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Hoop Dogs new digs impressive
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just came back from making my rounds on the UGA campus. Today, among other things, I swung by Stegeman Coliseum. Have any of you guys gotten a look at the new office and practice facility next to Stegeman? If you haven’t, you absolutely have to get by there and check it out.
The place is unbelievable and, I’m telling you, it’s going to make a major difference in the future of Georgia basketball. It’s still not 100 percent completed but, if you’re a basketball prospect, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to show up for work in a place like that every day. The facility is shared by Georgia men’s basketball, women’s basketball and gymnastics programs and, believe me, there is plenty of room for all of them.
The men’s basketball office is already up and running in the new space — they had to because an elevator shaft is now running through Dennis Felton’s old office — and it is truly incredible. They’re still working on the men’s locker room and lounge but it’s close enough to being completed to see what it’s going to look like. The rotunda room housing the actual lockers is first rate and will be a truly special place for the players to huddle up before and after games and practices.
Of course, it’s camp time right now and the coaches were busy coaching up hundreds of kids inside Stegeman. I did get to visit with coach Dennis Felton for a few minutes and he seemed well and genuinely excited about the prospects for the future. Of course, he went to Kuwait earlier this year for Operation Hardwood, a USO jaunt to support troops and lift their spirits through basketball. He called it an unforgettable and life-changing experience.
Also saw Jon Stinchcomb today. Man has gotten bigger as an NFL pro. Jon was at Quiznos with Clay Walker of the Bulldogs’ strength and conditioning staff and bust getting ready for the annual “UGA Countdown to Kickoff” he and his brother Matt cohost. He was really talking up to me and wants lots of people to come out and expects it to continue to be a big success. Jon, who has re-upped with the New Orleans Saints for a couple more years, remains one of the nicest guys in the world, despite all his NFL success. Y’all try to get by and see him July 6-7 at UGA.
That’s all for now.
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Privacy and the right to know
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s times like these that you really don’t like being a reporter. I’m referring to yesterday’s horrible accident that involved Drew Landers, the son of Georgia women’s basketball coach Andy Landers. Drew was injured and had to be life-flighted to Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital and one of his coaches at North Oconee High was killed in a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer in Oxford, Ala. Sunday evening.
I was informed of the accident early this morning and was asked to file a report for the newspaper. Of course, that involves calling people that would probably prefer not be bothered at the moment. I called Coach Landers a few times on his cell phone and finally got his wife Pam on that number a few hours ago. She said they were “doing as well as could be expected under the cirsumstances” but didn’t care to comment any further about Drew’s condition. She said would ask Andy to call me but wasn’t sure whether he would. I still haven’t heard from him but, by all indications, it appears the young Landers is going to be OK.
Here’s why it’s important I speak with Coach Landers: Nowadays you must talk directly to an individual or a parent about a medical situation because of a federal privacy rule known as HIPAA (pronounced “HIP-puh”). An acronym for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the law was enacted in 1996 and required that medical agencies and caregivers share medical information only with direct family members and/or people or insurance agencies they specify.
As sports reporters, we run into this rule all the time, especially during football season, when we’re trying to determine what sort of injury a player may have suffered. The more major the injury, the more difficult it can be to get the information. In the meantime, while we respect the law and abide by it, we do everything we can to acquire the information because you, our loyal readers, expect it if not demand it. Anyway, I’m not complaining. Just trying to give you guys some insight into some of the hoops we have to jump through to bring you the news.
Meanwhile, here’s some information to file away:
The UGA Kickoff 2007, an annual preseason football celebration hosted by former Georgia football players Jon and Matt Stinchcomb, is set for July 6-7. There’s a golf tournament on the 6th, an auction that night, then the main event is Saturday at 3 p.m. at the UGA practice fields. Former and current players will be on hand for autographs and such and there’s interactive games for the kids. For information, go to www.ugakickoff.com.
There’s a guy named Jake Ivey who, along with some friends, have come up with the concept of “The Fulmer Cup.” The Fulmer Cup goes to the football team that records the most arrests between last year’s bowl games and the first game of this season. At the moment, they have Georgia leading, though I’m not sure their accounting is accurate. Go to http://www.secfanatics.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=25122 and see what you think.
Carter Strickland and I have a lot of stories planned this week so stay tuned.
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Cleaning out the notebook …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, it’s been another not-so-quiet week in what is supposed to be the quiet time of year on a college sports beat. Then again, in the age of the Internet and 24/7 news and information, I guess there really is no down time anymore.
Of course, nobody expected Larry Munson’s health to become such a pertinent issue so fast, bringing his legend and his legacy to the forefront. I want to offer one more clarification on that subject. I had a long conversation with Neil “Hondo” Williamson yesterday (Thursday) regarding Larry. Hondo, of course, is WSB Radio’s director of sports marketing, the station’s chief liaison to Munson and one of Larry’s closest confidantes. I’ve known Hondo a long time and have found him to be a nice guy and a straight shooter.
Anyway, as Hondo explains it, Munson has an “open agreement” with the UGAA and WSB and can pretty much do whatever he wants when it comes to announcing Georgia’s games.
“Everybody wants it to be definitive, to be black and white,” Hondo told me. “But that’s not the way it is. Right now, Larry’s saying he doesn’t want to do road games and that’s fine. But if we get to the fourth week of the season and Larry says, ‘you know what, I feel pretty good and I think want to go to Tuscaloosa and do the Alabama game.’ We’re not going to say no to that. Of course we’d want him there. So I think it’s going to be more of a wait-and-see thing.”
Again, talking about the “no off-season thing,” there truly isn’t one any more. With football recruiting metamorphosizing the way it is, summer has become a pretty busy time if you aim to follow that side of college football. At last count, Georgia is up to 16 commitments for the 2008 signing class, with several more right there on the verge. At this rate, the Bulldogs might have 25 locked up before the season’s over.
Speaking of commitments, one of Georgia’s biggest — A.J. Green — was affected by the terrible tragedy over in Charleston. Louis Mulkey, who coached football and basketball over in Summerville, S.C., was a volunteer firefighter and one of the nine that died in that tragic blaze. He was a mentor for Green, who called him a “second father.”
You probably saw where Danny Ware got cut by the Tennessee Titans late this week. So it’s going to be a tough go for the former Bulldogs’ tailback, who left UGA after his junior season. I’m sure he’ll probably get another tryout somewhere else but, at this point, NFL Europe is looking like a good bet.
That’s all for now. We’ll tackle some new subjects on Monday. Let me know what’s on your minds.
One more time on Munson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s always fascinating to me to see the tremendous response we always get about anything we write concerning Larry Munson. I have never seen an individual — including many of the on-field or sideline legends to have worn the red and black — that elicits such an emotional outpouring from almost everyone all the time.
Of course, Munson was in the news this week because he said he wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to announce Georgia football games this fall. For a little background on this, I was in our office in downtown Atlanta in a training class (we have to complete 20 hours of journalism training every year) when I got a text message that something was up with Munson. I have to be honest, I thought he must’ve died.
When I went to see my editor on the 8th floor, he pointed out the Macon newspaper had written a story quoting Larry that it was “50-50” whether he’d be able to go this fall. I laughed. “He says that every year,” I told my editor. “We wrote something about it last year.” And the year before that and the year before that, I’m pretty sure.
Here’s the bottom line: Munson will turn 85 later this year. He is dealing daily with all the health issues somebody of that age must. I’m reminded of what my father, Ray, always tells me — “Getting old ain’t for sissies” — and don’t we all know that’s the truth?
But I know Larry very well personally and a lot of people close to Larry and the reality is this: What else is he going to do? Of course, Larry loves to fish and to go to the movies. But as much as everybody believes Georgia football IS Larry Munson, Georgia football is EVERYTHING to Munson. I personally think he’ll still be doing it if they have to roll him to the mic in a wheelchair, which very well might be the case.
That said, we will continue to stay in touch with Larry and follow his situation closely and be sure to keep you informed of his status. In fact, we’ll be following up with a story for tomorrow in which we talk some more to Larry about his iconic status among the Georgia people and include some anecdotes from you, his fans.
So once again, let me give a shout out to ask for feedback on Munson. If you have a favorite memory or — even better — a particularly interesting personal experience with Munson over the years, please e-mail your thoughts to me at ctowers@ajc.com, include your name, hometown and a phone number at which you can be reached and we’ll see about getting it published in Thursday’s newspaper.
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On bias, objectivity and bad news
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve been surfing the Internet, like I do every day and it’s interesting to see the debate that’s going on in the fan forum over on Rivals’ uga site (www.ugarivals.com??). They’re going back and forth about the AJC being a news organization that is biased against UGA. There are a few supporters of my employer but far more detractors.
This really surprises me. It seems as though the UGA fans, our at least those most fervent ones that subscribe to this paid site, believe it’s the job of a newspaper or news organization to be a booster of the school and/or its athletics department. By contrast, they believe we make it our full-time job to discredit the school. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
I’m here to tell you we work very, very hard to be objective in everything we do, whether it be cover UGA or Georgia Tech athletics or Coca-Cola or Home Depot or the state house or the DOT. The pure fact of the matter is my bosses think enough of UGA athletics and local people’s interest in it to employ two full-time sports reporters that live in Athens in order to cover everything that goes on there.
If you were to do a tally of the stories Carter and I write, you’d find that far more are positive or at least innocuous in nature (see Carter’s story on Mark Richt today) than the ones that have to do with arrests or NCAA investigations or Matthew Stafford lifting a keg, the latter of which was thoroughly plastered all over that same fan forum and others throughout CyberSpace the first day they fell into the public eye.
A great deal of what we do at newspapers has to do with watchdog reporting, which very simply means that business is being done in a righteous way without abusing powers bestowed upon it by the public. That’s important no matter what the entity being covered. But in my humble opinion, I think UGA benefits far more from the full-time attention we give it on a daily basis and I’m pretty sure Claude Felton, the Bulldogs’ media relations czar, would tell anybody who asked the exact same thing.
I think the ultimate gauge of our credibility in that regard is the fact that Tech fans are convinced we’re UGA-biased. If both groups think we favor the other, then we must be doing something right.
But that’s my obvious stance on the subject. What is yours? Are we fair? Do we focus too much on the negative? Are we getting it about right? And while we’re at it, tell us what you think we could be doing better. In this age of interactivity, we definitely want to know what our most loyal readers think.
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Long odds on Dogs winning title
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Time to clear out the notebook and see what we can find… .
Do you think Georgia has a chance to win the national championship this season? If you do, you have a chance to make some money in Las Vegas.
According to sportsbetting.com, the odds of the Bulldogs winning the national title are 35 to 1. That’s the fourth best odds among SEC schools. Florida leads at 7 to 1, followed by LSU (10-1) and Arkansas (30-1). Behind Georgia are Auburn and Tennessee (60-1), Alabama (75-1) and South Carolina (100-1). The favorite is Southern Cal at 5-2.
In light of the latest alcohol-related arrests at Georgia, we have need to pause a moment to keep this in perspective. Defending national champion Florida had its sixth and seventh arrests since its bowl victory recently and the Gators’ problems are a lot more serious than underage consumption. Their last two players were arrested for felony possession and there have been gun charges and other such serious incidents in recent weeks.
Interviewed NaDerris “Duke” Ward this morning. The highly-touted tight end from Oakland suddenly finds himself in the spotlight after the recent arrest of Tripp Chandler. Writing a story on him for Sunday’s paper. All I’ll say is he’s a super polite and impressively humble young man.
Word is that Georgia’s tight end woes might not be a major issue this fall. The Bulldogs are set run more three and four wide receiver sets anyway with the improvement of the wideouts and, of course, Matthew Stafford under center.
Georgia’s national championship tennis team heads to the White House to meet President George Bush on Monday. John Isner makes his pro debut a week later.
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Suspensions piling up for Dogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All right, you guys are already talking about it so let’s just throw it out there.
As everybody is well aware at this point, two more Georgia football players were arrested for alcohol-related offenses in the wee hours of Sunday morning. This makes five such arrests since last December: Offensive lineman Ian Smith (second), linebacker Akeem Hebron (February AND March) and now quarterback Blake Barnes and tight end Tripp Chandler. The athletics department policy on alcohol-related arrests, as written by AD Damon Evans in response to the last rash of indiscretions, is an automatic suspension for 10 percent of the season. With 12 games, that’s a suspension of 1.2 games and, for whatever reason, the Bulldogs round it up. So Barnes and Chandler are expected to miss the first two games of this season. That’s Oklahoma State and South Carolina, two doosies.
For those keeping count, that means Georgia football players that would otherwise be eligible and contributing will miss a total of 22 games this coming season. Hebron, who was dismissed from school, accounts for 12, Smith for six and two each for the latest violators.
Now I’ve been reading our blogs and the fan forums on the Internet and the general response I’m seeing from the Bulldog Nation is “this hurts recruiting” and “the police have it in for football players.” I’m not sure that’s realistic thinking.
Hey, I don’t necessarily agree that the drinking age is 21. It was 18 when I went to college and I kind of fall into that category of, if you’re old enough to die for your country and vote, then you’re old enough to drink. But the law is the law and 21 is the law. Athens also has an open-container ordinance. It’s against the law to walk down the street with a beer bottle in your hand.
Believe me, these guys know all this. Can you imagine how many times and to what degree coach Mark Richt and his assistants have gone over this with Georgia’s players? The obvious downside is that Chandler’s loss clearly will impact the team. Not only was he pretty much the only tight end getting snaps this past spring, but he was showing signs of getting ready for a breakout year. He’s the Bulldogs best player at that position. Coleman Watson is experienced but not as polished. Redshirt freshman standout NaDerris Ward is coming off shoulder surgery but I’m told he’ll be ready for preseason practices and is an impressive talent, just not as knowledgeable at this point.
So let’s hear what your thoughts are on the subject. Are football players being picked on? Is UGA going overboard in its punishment of underage drinkers and alcohol violators? Are they getting what they deserve? And what about the laws regarding drinking age?
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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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Football frosh report to campus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There has been so much going on in the Bulldog Nation lately, I don’t even know where to begin. Like last week, I’m just going to clear my thought list and then keep this blog updated a little more often in the coming weeks.
First of all, as most of you know, most of Georgia’s freshmen signees reported to campus Sunday and Monday. This is a lot different than the way it used to be. Used to be, unless you enrolled spring semester, you didn’t show up to schools until freshmen reported the first of August. Now nearly 100 percent of the recruits enroll in summer classes and go through summer conditioning with the rest of the team. This is a good thing for everybody. The young guys are able to acclimate a little to their new lives, get into better condition so that they might have a better chance to compete for playing time in the fall and get to know their teammates and coaches. Plus, they get a head start on their academics. It’s a win, win, win situation.
I’m hoping to get some interviews with some of the newbies this week and write a story or two for you, but Claude Felton tells me NCAA rules have been changed a little this year regarding schools being able to facilitate media interview requests. One way or another, we’ll get in contact with some of these guys and let you know what is on their minds as they undergo this transition. I’ll gladly take your suggestions for specific guys you’d like to hear from.
On that note, it will be a telling week for signee Israel Troupe. The high-caliber wide receiver from Tift County apparently is already on campus but is expected to be drafted in the Amateur Baseball Draft this weekend. Word is that Troupe is not expected to go too high — he’s not listed among the top 200 prospects at this writing — and reportedly does not intend to play professional baseball unless he is a high, single-digit draftee, which he apparently does not expect. If he doesn’t go pro baseball, this AJC Super 11 prospect is expected to be an impact college football player and one whale of a walk-on for Bulldogs’ baseball coach David Perno.
You’ll never believe who I ran into this weekend. I was driving into the gates of Cuscowilla Golf Club down on Lake Oconee and was greeted by a sign at the entrance that said “Welcome Coach Harrick and Friends.” Sure enough, after I finished my round with three buddies, there was Jim Harrick eating a cobb salad on the clubhouse deck. He was surrounded by all his old friends from the Georgia Tipoff Club — Kevin Price, Allan Hixon, Ed Schimmel, Bob Wimberly and several others. I should say former members of the Tipoff Club because none of them have anything to do with it anymore since Harrick is gone, which is a shame. They’ve refused to embrace new coach Dennis Felton or his program, even though Felton had nothing to do with anything that went down. But I digress. Harrick said he and his wife Sally are doing well and miss Athens. “We really loved it there. We had it going,” he said. He still maintains a home in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., but spends the basketball season in Bakersfield where he coaches the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA developmental league. After Lake Oconee, Harrick was heading up to North Carolina to play Pinehurst No. 2, so he must be doing all right.
Those of you who are regulars know I’m not much of a recruitnik but I have to say I’m definitely impressed with the list of football commitments the Dogs have for February 2008. The latest to give UGA the nod was Griffin defensive lineman Toby Jackson, who by all accounts is another big-timer. He makes No. 12. Too bad for Mark Richt and Rodney Garner football doesn’t have an early signing period coming up in the next month or so. Otherwise they’d have a lot of their work done for 2008.
I’ll get up another blog by Wednesday. Until then, let’s hear what YOU have to say.
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