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 > 2008 > January
January 2008
Dogs awesome at home, awful on road
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Drove back from Columbia, S.C., early this morning after watching the Bulldogs get dismantled by South Carolina last night at the Colonial Center. Never mind the final score, I can’t tell you how bad Georgia looked most of that game. Especially early.
When it comes to playing on the road versus at home, this is truly a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde team.
Last night represented an almost exact duplicate of what happened to them against Tennessee and Mississippi State, albeit against a far inferior team, hence the six-point margin. I’m not sure how to describe it but it’s like they’re already defeated as soon as they step onto the court. They play nervous or tight or dumb or sloppy. Whatever you want to call it it’s just flat-out bad.
Compare that to Georgia’s play at home and it’s almost like they’re a completely different team. Now you and I know there’s almost disparity between the way teams play at home and on the road but with the Bulldogs it’s just ridiculous. Just look at the last six games: Georgia averaged 74 points at home and 54.6 on the road; it shooting .472 at home and .346 on the road. Not coincidentally, it was 3-0 in Stegeman and 0-3 at other places.
You could say that’s just part of being a young team. But if you look close at the Dogs, they aren’t really all that young. Six players gobble up the majority of the minutes and they’re two seniors, three juniors and a true freshman.
If you ask me I think it’s mostly a mental thing with this team. Perhaps they could use a session with a sports psychologist or something. Granted, without Takais Brown and Mike Mercer this is not a great team. Maybe not even a good team. But at least they used to be scrappy on the road.
Anyway, Kentucky is coming to town on Saturday (1 p.m., CBS) and that’s followed by a visit from Vanderbilt. To the Dogs’ credit, they’re 10-0 at Stegeman and their students are flocking to the gym in big numbers. Based on what I’ve seen so far, Georgia best take care of its business at home because I’m not seeing much hope for them on the road.
What’s your thoughts on it?
Permalink | Comments (56) | Post your comment | Categories: Basketball
Don’t sweat the 11th-hour recruits
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ah, football recruiting. It’s that time of year again… . Actually that’s not right. It’s recruiting time all year around nowadays. But now, in late January, is when it reaches fever pitch.
Those of you who come here regularly know where I stand on recruiting. Don’t get me wrong. I realize its importance. It truly is the lifeblood of any program. What really humors me, though, is the attempts to quantify it. To me it’s kind of like trying to catch water in your hand. You know whether it’s hot or cold but really not a whole lot else.
I say this to reference the relatively recent concern among many Georgia fans about Florida passing the Bulldogs in the recruiting rankings. Or at least in one of the recruiting ranks. If I’m following this right, that recent adjustment in the rivals.com rankings had mostly to do with the defensive tackle from Buford, Omar Hunter, signing with the Gators rather than Georgia.
Hunter’s decision continued a mythical trend of late-deciding prospects choosing other places other than Georgia. The truth is, the Bulldogs have been maxed-out for a while on scholarships. Sure, there were one or perhaps two recruits they would have considered taking in right there at the end. But they weren’t putting a ton of time and energy into that because they had already filled their quota and, more importantly, their needs.
And isn’t that what recruiting is all about, filling your needs? Georgia had long since done that. That’s what’s crazy about ranking recruiting classes. Some teams need to sign 15 prospects while others go over 25. Some, like Georgia last year, need a lot of offensive linemen, while others need to load up on skill players. It’s apples and oranges and there’s no accurate way to compare.
Here’s what I like about what Georgia is doing: The Bulldogs are working far ahead in recruiting. One of the things that allows them to do that so well is the stability of the coaching staff. I’m sure you saw where they got three commitments just the week for the 2009 class, which won’t likely be very large. The best players in the state want to play for Georgia and Coach Mark Richt and, as we saw this year, if the Dogs come forth with an offer you’d be well-advised to take it because they’re not going to wait around while you play the look-around game.
That is the philosophy of Richt and recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner. The logic is that not only do you get focused and committed players who can concentrate on doing what they need to do to get ready for college, you get players that are more deeply devoted to Georgia.
So I don’t know if the Dogs are first, fifth or 100th in the recruiting rankings. But I’m impressed that they filled their needs early and have devoted their energies to next year’s recruiting needs.
What do y’all think?
Permalink | Comments (119) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
BVG with Falcons better than those other birds
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I know we have forums on this latest development in other places, but I just had to weigh in on it here and hear what you guys had to say.
Of course, Brian VanGorder is on the move again. Seems he’s leaving South Carolina to join new Falcons coach Mike Smith here in Atlanta. Obviously VanGorder and Smith know each other very well having worked together in Jacksonville and coming back to the NFL as a defensive coordinator is certainly a more lucrative and prestigious position for BVG.
What makes this particular interesting is, just a month ago, BVG came out in the South Carolina papers and vehemently pledged his allegiance to college football and to Steve Spurrier in particular. This, my friends, is just another good example of a phrase Vince Dooley used to always cite regarding the football business: “Never say never.”
Meanwhile, Spurrier said he understands the move and doesn’t have any hard feelings toward BVG. However, it certainly can’t be helping the Gamecocks’ cause, especially with immediate regard to recruiting. VanGorder was heavily involved in their recruitment of several defensive prospects.
Meanwhile, I don’t care what anybody says, but this can only be good for Georgia. I don’t know about the actual coaching staff but I know a lot of Dogs’ fans were concerned about BVG calling the defensive shots for South Carolina and I think their concerns were justified.
I’m not saying he’s better than anybody on the Dogs’ staff. I’m just saying the VanGorder is a really, really good coach — assistant coach especially and defensive coordinator in particular. So you knew the Gamecocks’ defensive players were going to be “coached up,” especially the front seven, where they were already pretty talented and gave the Dogs fits last year. Got to be a setback for Carolina.
Meanwhile, say what you will about VanGorder’s job-hopping — this is position number six in the last four years, for those keeping count — but there’s a reason he’s such a popular commodity. The guy knows what he’s doing when it comes to coaching defense. I’m not sure about what went wrong with Georgia Southern down in Statesboro but not everybody is meant to be a head coach. Truth is, he wasn’t there long enough to ever know if he would be successful.
Anyway, I know this is a subject a lot of people are talking about and I wanted to see what everybody thinks about it.
By the way, a press conference is underway as I write this at South Carolina and the word going into that was they were going to name Citadel head coach Ellis Johnson as the new d-coordinator. I’ll update you with that info as soon as I have it, which could be as soon as I post this.
Permalink | Comments (155) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
No need to fret over recent UGA arrests
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OK, first off you just have to laugh. As Larry Munson would say, get the picture:
It’s 3 o’clock in the morning and a cop is driving down Milledge Avenue in Athens when a huge guy leaps off the sidewalk in front of the police car flailing his arms wildly as if trying to flag him down. Turns out that the man was Georgia fullback Fred Munzenmeier, who had been drinking, and he thought the cop car was a cab.
Munzenmeier was hauled off to jail and cited for underage consumption and pedestrian walking in the roadway. Miraculously, he was not charged with public drunkenness because, scientific field sobriety tests aside, the fact that he thought a police cruiser was a taxi is a pretty good indication Munzenmeier had a buzz. In retrospect, I guess Munzenmeier DID get the ride he sought.
Almost simultaneously, on another side of town, defensive back Donovan Baldwin was being pulled over for DUI. Nothing funny at all about that. But imagine each player’s surprise as they ran into each other in a holding cell.
But here’s what I wanted to say about all that: It always amazes me when these kinds of things happen and fans of different schools start jumping up and down and pointing fingers like a bunch of kindergarteners going “na-na-na-na-na-na” and claiming Georgia or whatever U is has an out-of-control discipline problem and recruits a bunch of thugs.
The truth is, the same type of incidents happen everywhere there are college campuses and bars and it doesn’t make said school a gathering place for heathens.
If anything I believe the Bulldogs athletics department is as strict or stricter than most when it comes to such things. It took coach Mark Richt less than eight hours to issue a statement that the two Georgia players would be suspended for AT LEAST the first game next season and that they would be subjected to alcohol counseling and treatment and would have to perform some community service in addition to some “in-house” punishment. At UGA, discipline for arrests is clearly spelled out — get cuffed and you’re automatically suspended for 10 percent of your games.
Compare that to the recent arrests at Tennessee. Two players were arrested for possession of marijuana when they were pulled over by Knoxville cops while driving around town with a recruit on an official visit. Their punishment: Community service as dictated by coach Phillip Fulmer, ride-alongs with local police and some “unnamed punishment” within the football program. But no suspensions from competition.
I guess Fulmer figures the Vols were punished enough when wide receiver recruit Jameel Owens committed to Oklahoma upon his return from his UT visit.
I joke, of course. But, the truth is, discipline and punishment are very much personal things. After all, not all parents discipline their kids the exact same way, do they?
The bigger point is this: These football player ARE kids. They’re away from home for the first time. Athens is fantastic town — the “Classic City” — but it’s full of all sorts of temptations, as are most college towns, and there are always going to be a few slipups. Last year it was Akeem Hebron, Tripp Chandler and Blake Barnes. This year it’s Baldwin and Munzenmeier and there will probably be another screwup before we reach the opening game of the 2008 season.
Does that make the University of Georgia Thugville? In my opinion, absolutely not. And similar incidents at Tennessee and Florida and LSU between now and opening day — and they’re coming, I can assure you — won’t make them Thugville either. What’s your thoughts?
Permalink | Comments (202) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
Herschel’s new book; UGA’s hoops future
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wow, what a weird day. I meant to post earlier but I ended up spending all afternoon chasing a bizarre story on Herschel Walker.
If you haven’t seen it yet, apparently Walker has written an autobiography called “Breaking Free” that will be published by Simon and Schuster and released on August 12 this summer. It’s about — and I confirmed this through the publisher — Walker living with multiple-personality disorder.
Very little information is available about the book (which you can preorder for $24.95 at Amazon.com) and, as anybody in this business can tell you, you can get the Pope on the phone easier than you can Herschel Walker. So I’ve left messages all over the place but we can’t reach him to talk about it.
Meanwhile, I talked to Vince Dooley and Frank Ros, two of Herschel’s closest friends here in Georgia, and neither of them knew anything about Herschel having MPD or any other psychological disorder and certainly not that he was writing a book about it. So it’s a strange deal.
Anyway, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I did want to try to generate some talk about the basketball team and their exploits. They need to learn to close out games a little better but they’re actually playing OK considering all the talent they’re missing.
On that note, I ran into Trey Thompkins and his dad at a Georgia game the other day and they’re really excited about joining the Bulldogs next season. Howard Jr, Trey’s dad, really believes his son can give them what they’re missing right now, and that’s a consistent scorer.
Trey’s certainly getting it done at Wesleyan this season. He’s averaging 30 points and 10 rebounds a game and he needs 28 points against Buford Friday night to reach 2,000 for his career. That’s pretty good considering he will have played only two seasons at Wesleyan after spending last year at Oak Hill Academy.
I do think the future shows some promise at Georgia but they definitely need to import more talent, especially along the lines of an explosive wing type.
So there you go. Sorry for the lateness. Feel free to weigh in on Herschel or basketball or football or whatever. I’ll try to stay tuned.
Permalink | Comments (242) | Categories: Football and basketball
USC, UF getting more love than UGA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As most of you already know, Georgia has gotten a lot of nods as the super early preseason No. 1 football team in 2008, including one from own Tony Barnhart. If you sincerely believe those prognostications, then you should put some money down on it in Las Vegas because you can get some pretty good odds right about now.
I say that not because I’m promoting gambling, but only to point out that the guys in Vegas seem to believe the odds are better for somebody other than Georgia to win the BCS national championship next season. In most cases they cite the Bulldogs’ treacherous schedule as the main reason UGA will come up short.
An outfit called sportsmemo.com has made the Bulldogs 10-to-1 odds to win it all. That’s not bad but it’s also behind Southern Cal (3-1), Florida (6-1) and Oklahoma (8-1). For what it’s worth, defending champion LSU comes in at 12-1, as do Ohio State and Texas.
Bodoglife.com also has the Trojans at 3-1. That group has Georgia, Florida and Ohio State all at 6-1 - the lowest odds I could find on the Dogs - followed by LSU (10-1), Texas (12-1), West Virginia (12-1) and Virginia Tech (15-1).
In fact, most of the gambling sites I looked at had at least a team or two ahead of the Bulldogs and Florida was usually one of them. If it comes to pass that the Georgia and Florida are as good as everybody thinks they’re going to be, can you imagine how big that game World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party is going to be in October?
Anyway, Southern Cal was pretty much the consensus pick to win it all, according to the many sites I visited (and I looked at enough to get bleary-eyed). Based on the odds, they seem to figure they’ll play Ohio State or Gators.
So, once again, despite the early annointment by some some national scribes, Georgia doesn’t seem to be attracting similar love from the guys that put money on such things.
Who do you think is right? The Dogs definitely have a difficult path to the BCS title game. Then again, it is a championship-caliber schedule if you can negotiate. Is it way too early to even be thinking about?
What do I think? Ain’t touching it, fellas. Having reported on this game for a couple of decades now, I’ll just say it’s a long spring and summer before football season arrives and there is oh so much that can happen between now and then.
By the way, the BCS title game is in Miami next year. Wouldn’t that serve the Rose Bowl right if USC and Ohio State played in Miami?
Oh, and for what it’s worth, ticket and hotel packages are now available for the 2009 BCS game. True Believers may want to know.
Permalink | Comments (433) | Categories: Football
No. 1 in football, Adams and hoops talk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Long time no see! I’m back from a brief hiatus from the blogosphere. Did you miss me?
That’s what I thought.
Sorry I haven’t been able to update the blog daily as I usually do for the past week. After the bowl game and the holidays and all, I had tons to catch up on at home and at work from a paperwork and organization standpoint and I just haven’t had much extra time beyond my base duties.
But I’m back now, got the old fingers loosened up and ready to blog up a storm. And man is there a lot to blog about.
Now personally I’d like to talk about the basketball team because it is, after all, basketball season. But when I do that the responses in this space tend to drop about 75 percent compared to just about any football topic we could discuss.
So let’s just consider today a clearinghouse day and we’ll touch on everything we can and then, as usual, I’ll ask you guys to let me know what you want to discuss the rest of this week and next one.
Let’s hear your thoughts on the following:
What do you think of the Bulldogs getting all this national love as the preseason No. 1 in football next season? As you all know, that can be a double-edge sword. Expectations can’t get any higher than No. 1. Some would say there’s only one way to go from there. On the other hand, as we’ve seen from LSU and Ohio State this year and others in other years, the good thing about being ranked so high at the beginning is it’s easier to get back there at the end should you lose grip somewhere along the way.
And what about President Adams making his carefully-orchestrated splash regarding a college football playoff? It really surprised me because I’ve had some discussions with Dr. Adams on the subject and I remember him being pretty skeptical about it when Florida’s Bernie Machen broached it a couple of years ago. My theory on it is, Adams, ever the calculating politician, proposed an eight-team playoff knowing he’d never get what he asked for but even a 50 percent or 25 percent negotiated settlement would mean a four-team playoff or a plus-one. Both would be better than the crap we had to settle for this season.
Does Adams’ move put him any more in favor with you, the Bulldog Nation? Not sure if that was what he was going for but he was roundly booed in pregame ceremonies before the Sugar Bowl.
And finally, regarding the basketball team, what did you think of the Dogs’ win over Georgia Tech? Neither team looks very strong at the moment. As a friend of mine who is a basketball fan said at halftime of that game, “the NIT just called and neither team is invited.” Obviously expectations have to be tempered with the loss of three starters now but could you live with Dennis Felton’s team missing the Big Dance again this year and do you have any problems with the attrition that was created this season.
Let’s go. Let’s talk about it. I’m energized and ready to rock.
And stay away from all the trash-talking. One of my resolutions this year to be less tolerant of the immaturity that often rears its ugly head on this board.
Happy New Year. Should be a great one!
Permalink | Comments (187) | Categories: Football and basketball
Look what the Dogs brought in …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jefferson County High School’s A.J. Harmon had professed his allegiance to Clemson long ago.
But the 320-pound lineman pulled a rabbit out of his hat Saturday during the U.S. Army All-American Bowl at the Alamodome when he announced he’d be playing football at Georgia. But even that wasn’t firm.
“I’ve got a knot on my head that I can’t get out right now,” Harmon would tell the AJC afterward.
He says he is “100 percent Georgia right now,” but who knows come signing day next month.
How about you? What’s your feeling about the state’s top recruit’s indecision? Is it annoying or understandable?
Have the Bulldog’s recent successes inspired recruits to take a new look at Mark Richt’s lighter-side of coaching? Or was Georgia’s top recruit just itching to stay home?
Now … will he play offense or defense?
Permalink | Comments (287) | Categories: Football
Not much of a surprise at all
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans — Well there you have. Georgia just obliterated Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl 41-10. It could have been worse for the Warriors.
If I said I was surprised I’d be lying. I just felt from the beginning the matchups of the front seven were not good at all for the Warriors. Georgia had a bowl record eight sacks of quarterback Colt Brennan, who was knocked out of the game on the last one by Geno Atkins.
DE Marcus Howard became the first defensive player since Alabama had one in 1979 to be named Most Valuable Player of the Sugar Bowl. And it was well deserved: 3 sacks (BCS bowl record), two forced fumbles, one of which he recorded for a touchdown, a pass deflection that led to a UGA interception.
Here’s some of what was said after the game:
Colt Brennan — “You know what, I took one in the mouth today. Luckily there’s always tomorrow.”
Brennan on UGA defense — “We knew coming in they had the best defense we’ve ever seen. We just couldn’t get going. They were extremely fast and physical. It wasn’t Xs and Os. They were just winning the battles.”
June Jones — “Georgia has a lot of great players. When you face somebody like that you have to play almost mistake free and we weren’t able to do that.”
Mark Richt — “We wanted to force Colt to throw the ball faster than he wanted to. We really didn’t think we would get that many sacks but we thought we could make him throw it quickly.”
Marcus Howard — (on being named MVP) “Wow, I don’t know. It feels great. I didn’t do it by myself though. I had a lot of help from my teammates and my position coach (Jon Fabris) and the man upstairs.”
Howard on defensive effort — “We came out tonight with a winning attitude. The goal was to put pressure on Brennan and our coaches said if we could do that we would win the game.”
Blackout, whiteout collide at Superdome.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m now sitting in the pressbox at the Louisiana Superdome with my colleagues Jeff Schultz, Tony Barnhart and Carter Strickland. Some of the players are on the field, though Georgia’s players are still in warmups while Hawaii’s guys already have on the bottom half of their uniforms and t-shirts. That’s except for Colt Brennan, who is in sweatpants, an oversized t-shirt and tennis shoes throwing passes to his receivers.
The Hawaii fans are also early arrivals compared to the Georgia fans. For the moment they outnumber the Bulldogs and their are a bunch of them way up high in the upperdecks. Looks like both groups took their team’s instructions seriously. The Warrior faithful are dressed in white tops for their “whiteout” and the Bulldogs’ fans followed through on Blackout Part II. Should make for a nice contrast on television.
First Dog in uniform takes the field at 6:55 p.m. It’s Andy Bailey.
I’ll be back with more riveting details soon!
Permalink | Comments (259) | Categories: Football
Party time is over for Dogs, Warriors
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greetings from the Crescent City. It’s an absolutely beautiful day here. About 55 degrees and bright and sunny without a cloud in a baby blue sky.
The city was slow to stir today, with many of the visitors out late last night celebrating the arrival of 2008. I spent my New Years Eve at the House of Blues where I had the honor ringing it in with legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy at the House of Blues. I don’t know how many blues enthusiast we have out there but, for me, seeing the 68-year-old Guy ripping it up like he was half that age did my heart good. Awesome show, one of the best I’ve ever seen.
But all the entertainment and all the practices and all the pregame talk is over now. Now it’s time for Georgia and Hawaii to tee it up in the Superdome tonight. The New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a list of predictions from media members across the country. All but two picked the Dogs and most of them had it as not even being close. Pierce Huff of the Times-Picayune picked the Warriors 41-38 in overtime and Sean Meriner of Thepalestra.com took Hawaii 35-31. The rest generally had Georgia by double digits.
I think a big key for the Bulldogs is going to be how they do early. They need to come out and establish dominance. The longer Hawaii hangs around and believes the harder it will become.
Tony Barnhart and I will each be putting up blogs throughout the day so be sure to stay tuned to ajc.com heading into the game and throughout. Let me hear what you guys are thinking in terms of a score tonight and I’ll be checking in from the Superdome.
Permalink | Comments (38) | Categories: Football
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