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 > September > 17
Monday, September 17, 2007
‘Bama’s focused on UGA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m here in Tuscaloosa. Specificially, I’m in the Naylor Stone Media Suite on the second floor of the Moore Athletic Facility. This is where coach Nick Saban conducts his weekly press briefing and where we interview ‘Bama players.
Couple of observations. The town and the program is still very much abuzz about this past Saturday’s come-from-behind, last-seconds win over Arkansas (41-38). Believe it or not, the Tide hadn’t recorded a fourth-quarter win since 2001 and never under previus coach Mike Shula. They were already bananas about Saban before so you can imagine what it’s like now. There is already talk of ‘Bama running the table. Even Saban laughed at that one.
“They’ve been saying crazy things since I’ve been here,” Saban said. “But I don’t want to dampen their spirits or expectations. I just want them to be enthusiastic and supportive.”
You can tell, though, that Saban is already tiring of all the talk about last Saturday. Almost all of the questions from the local media today had to do with the last game, specifically quarterback John Parker Wilson’s pass to Matt Caddell with eight seconds left, or the fact the ESPN GameDay is going to be in town. When the line of questioning continued in that direction, Saban finally bristled.
“The team we’re playing this week is where our focus needs to be,” he said. “We’re not talking about last week.”
Saban pointed out that the reason the Tide had to execute a dramatic last-second play was they blew a 31-10 lead by giving up 28 unanswered points. That they overcame adversity was admirable but that they needed to was not, he said.
“If you have outstanding victories in games or in life, you usually have to overcome adversity and we did that against Arkansas,” Saban said. “But we also have to understand that excellence is a habit and there was a significant difference in how we played when we were ahead 31-10 than we did at the beginning or at the end.”
Some of the other interesting tidbits from today:
Saban said of Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford: “I think he’s clearly one of the best quarterbacks in the league and I think very soon he will be one of the best in the country.”
Saban got downright cantankerous when talk turned to Alabama being ranked this week: “That is one of those external factors that has no impact whatsoever on anything. It’s good exposure, it’s good for our program, but it has absolutely nothing to do with anything.”
I also talked to Matt Caddell, John Parker Wilson, Wallace Gilberry, Darren Mustin and a couple others.
That’s all for now. I’ll be filing some notes from here later, then heading back to Athens. I’ll also be doing some ‘Bama stories for the paper this week.
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