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 > July > 20
Sunday, July 20, 2008
‘Take One’ on the 2008 Bulldogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s time. No sense putting it off any longer. The ACC football meetings started this weekend at Reynolds Plantation and I’ll be at SEC Football Media Days in Birmingham on Wednesday. The preseason football magazines are months old and even more irrelevant now the day they came out and players report next week for preseason camps at many schools (Georgia on Aug. 3).
Time for what, you ask? Time to let you know what I think about the Dogs this coming season.
A couple of qualifiers first. This will be Take One. I’m a veteran beat guy and realist. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I have all the answers more than a month before the season starts. I’ve seen too many times what can happen in those four weeks before the opener. So I’ll closely monitor what happens in camp, whether there are any significant injuries, how the young studs like A.J. Greene and Ben Jones and Blair Walsh develop, exactly when Brannan Southerland might be back, etc., and we’ll recast the week of the opener.
Also, I’m not going to proclaim in late July what record I think Georgia will finish with and certainly not whether or not they’ll win the national championship. Besides, that’s what our columnists do. I call this the “Silly Season” because so many so-called national experts inundate you football fans with that every year and they do it earlier all the time. My buddy Mark Schlabach of ESPN has already slotted the bowl games and even our own Mark Bradley has anointed Georgia as the 2008 national champions. Smart fellas, both of them, but doing that in July is akin laying down a 20 on black at the roulette table. Hit it and you look great. Miss it and you’re out 20 bucks.
That said, here’s what I think:
I think Georgia is going to be really good. I think the Dogs have as much talent as I’ve seen them with in a long time. What makes them particularly impressive is not just the various stars sprinkled throughout the lineup but their depth. I don’t like just No. 1 offense and defense, I like their first 44 or so players. This is particularly important in a season and with a schedule such as this.
Like most everybody else I think Georgia’s offense is going to be good and balanced but I like the Dogs’ defense even better. Nobody’s talking much about it but Willie Martinez’s unit has a chance to be the best he’s fielded yet, IMO. Think about it: Talented, seasoned secondary deep with speed; depth at linebacker with studs in Dannell Ellerbe and Rennie Curran; a nasty and mean interior defensive line that rolls in Jeff Owens, Geno Atkins with Kade Weston and Corvey Irvin (Owens, by the way, told me the other day that Irvin, a former JUCO transfer. may be the best among them). The main concern is at D-end but I’ve watched Georgia reload there since Pollack and it has continued to recruit strong at the position. I like the talent there and, quite frankly, it isn’t the end-all position some folks would have you think.
Offensively, I like quarterback Matthew Stafford but I need to see him live up to his billing, which is lofty. If he’s a 60-plus percent passer with a 2-to-1 TD to INT, look out. I also have reservations about the O-line. I can see how it may be better but also how it may not (C Fernando Velasco, folks, was way better than he ever got credit for). But there’s impressive young players there. The Dogs match or surpass any team in the league at tight end, tailback and fullback (particularly with a healthy Southerland) and I think they’re a lot better at wideout than they’re given credit for, especially if they get anything out of the freshmen A.J. Greene or Tavarres King.
Specials teams is a huge unknown. Dependability like Brandon Coutu brought is a precious commodity, so Blair Walsh better be the real deal. Likewise, kickoff, punt return and kickoff return are question marks. This is not a minor detail.
I get tired of hearing and reading about it, too, but the schedule IS a factor. That said, it doesn’t blow me away like it does some pundits. Yeah, it’s hard and it doesn’t fall ideally as far as off games and road dates. But CMR is supposed to have been building for this for years and games like they have this season is why these kids showed up. However, the attitude the Dogs take on the road will be key.
All that said, I’ll just say at the moment I’m a little closer to Phil Steele, who picked Georgia ninth, than Bradley, who’s among the many slotting the Dogs No. 1. I, like many of you, saw every snap of every game last year and I know how close that season could have been 9-4 rather than 11-2. But they definitely have what it takes to be in the championship picture.
So that’s Take One. What do y’all think?
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