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 > 18
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Paranoia reigns in Athens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s all in your head, you need to unwind You’re losing your grip, the paranoia never ends It’s all in your head, what you see in your mind There’s no reason to trip, the paranoia never ends
Borrowing the style of the AJC’s undisputed ace blogger, Braves reporter David O’Brien — or DOB as he’s known in the blogosphere — that’s the chorus of a song by a band called “Swollen Member.” I can’t profess to being a fan of or having any idea what they sound like, but the lyrics of their song “Paronoia” are appropriate today considering the current state of mind of the Georgia football camp. (I was actually looking for the lyrics of an 80s song I remembered that says “paranoia will destroy ya,” but Swollen Members’ work is all I got on that. Oh well).
Anyway, I don’t think I can recall a time when there was as much concern over football espionage. Alabama’s Nick Saban has somewhat of a reputation for doing whatever it takes to win and, a former member of Bill Belichick’s staff, he actually has been accused of deploying some sneaky tactics — or is he just being creative? — to gather information that may help his team gain some sort of edge. I’m not going to repeat the accusations here because I can’t independently determine their validity. Let’s just say they’re out there and judging from Georgia coach Mark Richt’s behavior this week, he is accutely aware of them. It’s probably not a coincidence that first-year offensive line coach Stacy Searels worked with Saban for years and would know for certain what tactics Saban deploys.
All that said, as I’m sure most of you guys are aware, Coach Richt has closed practices this week to the media — and everybody besides direct family of the Georgia coaches. He said Tuesday he didn’t have a problem with the actual members of the media or what we’re writing, but just that he wanted to be sure to control and and all information that comes out of their practices this week.
“We felt like we just wanted some privacy,” Richt said. “We’re always concerned about people watching practice. I know we’ve cut the media out of it but we’ve cut a lot of people out of it. Coaches always worry about if so-and-so says something. Some people say things inadvertently or they may something to a friend and a friend puts it on the ‘Net and then it becomes a clue for someone… . What happened in the NFL awareness probably brought a little more awareness to maybe something going on.”
Carter’s writing a story about it but I just wanted to get the views of you good folks about this. Is Richt just being paranoid. Obviously I’d prefer that they didn’t close practices — though they’ve limited it to the point these days that we don’t see thatj much anyway — but are you glad to see shutting things down? And what about the distraction angle? Is all this focus and concern on security and information control taking away from the primary task of preparing for and ultimately finding a way to beat Alabama?
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