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 > April > 03
Thursday, April 3, 2008
What do you expect from G-Day?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, it’s finally upon us, that most glorified of all scrimmages, the G-Day Game.
These spring “games” have come a long way in recent years. A long way toward what is another question. What once was an intimate spring ritual for a couple of thousand rabid fans in flip-flops has morphed into a modest spectacle. Of course, Alabama famously drew 92,000 for its spring game last year. Am I the only one who came away thinking that was just a tad bit warped?
Some schools have tried to do something even more with it this year, such as Bama, of course, and South Carolina and Florida. But the NCAA mercifully stepped in a couple of weeks back and said rock-and-roll and country music acts and massive ad campaigns aren’t exactly the business model they’re looking for in college athletics.
Georgia, to its credit, seems to have kept the event in perspective. The Bulldogs sell tickets for charity and only modestly promote their beloved G-Day game. They have guest coaches but they don’t fly them in from the West Coast or anything like that. And almost solely based on the excitement and anticipation of this coming season, they’re talking about drawing a crowd in the neighborhood of 40,000, depending on the weather of course (which doesn’t look great as of today).
On top of that, this year’s event is generating the most extensive broadcast coverage in school history. The game will be telecast live by Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) and will have be broadcasted on radio by WSB-AM 750 — it will mark the first time since 1993 that WSB has carried the Bulldogs’ spring scrimmage — and the Bulldog Radio Network, XM satellite radio (ch. 199) and the UGA campus station, WUOG.
GXtra, UGA’s subscription website accessed through georgiadogs.com, will also be broadcasting the game live. It will be first time that the UGA “official” athletic website has ever streamed a football game.
So, all that said, what I want to find out from you guys is: (a) who plans on actually attending the game and who will tune in via these many other options; (b) what are your hopes and expectations for the game? Coach Mark Richt and defensive coordinator Willie Martinez have said they’re going to sit most of their front-line players. So you want to see Caleb King rush for 100 yards? You want to see the defense stone the offense, something it was unable to do last year? You want to see everybody come out injury free?; (c) and who out there considers themselves a big-time fan but could care less about this glorified practice?
For me, I’m most interested in seeing these young offensive linemen in action and see if any of the defensive ends look up to filling the shoes of Marcus Howard and the other great predecessors at the position.
Let’s get the banter going and keep it going through Friday. I’ll monitor throughout, answer your queries and provide some tidbits or two in the meantime.
C-ya.
Permalink | Comments (105) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
Services »
