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 > November > 14
Friday, November 14, 2008
Marshall: AU losing with good players
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Phillip Marshall has been covering college football in Alabama for 39 years. Or as he says, “I’m really old.” But he’s really not.
What Phillip is is one of the great characters in the SEC, in my opinion. He’s been everywhere and seen just about everything over four decades in this league and he’s one of the best storytellers you’ll ever encounter.
Phillip covered Auburn for the Huntsville Times for 14 years until earlier this summer when he became one of the latest scribes to jump to a dot-com. Phillip is now the senior writer for the ESPN affiliate AuburnUndercover.com. In terms of knowing what’s going on at Auburn there is nobody better.
Phillip was nice enough to take some time out of his busy week to answer some questions for us about the 5-5 Auburn team Georgia will meet Saturday at 12:30 p.m. on The Plains:
Q: So, Phillp, what the heck is going on at Auburn this season? A team besieged by counterproductive influences or just not a good team?
Marshall: You can’t win with bad players, but you can lose with good ones. That’s what Auburn has managed to do. It hasn’t recovered from the Tony Franklin fiasco and isn’t likely to this season. Since the SEC isn’t real strong, it was set up for these guys to have a good year. But when you lose to Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Ole Miss, that ain’t good. They don’t have the best talent in the SEC, but they have too much talent to be as bad as they are. To be fair, they’ve had a lot of injuries, particularly on defense. The defense was really good early, but lately, not so much.
Q: Is there any truth at all to all these rumors that Tommy Tuberville is being run off or might bolt for Clemson or some other such place? Is there a jet warming up somewhere?
Marshall: Don’t think so. All indications are he’ll be back for his 11th Auburn season in 2009.
Q: What’s the inside story on this Tony Franklin character? And how much are his DVDs going for now?
Marshall: Tony is a good guy. High school coaches swear by him and his version of the spread worked at Troy. He was a bad fit at Auburn. He should have known and Tuberville should have known. Auburn is probably the only school in the country that is paying two offensive coordinators (Franklin and Al Borges) to not coach.
Q: Have they sorted out their problems now and getting back to Auburn football? Tell us about Kodi Burns and some other good players to watch for?
Marshall: I don’t think these problems are going to be sorted out until they get a new coordinator and move forward on offense. They were bad on offense when Franklin was around and they still are. Burns has made a lot of progress. He’s a better runner than passer right now, though he has a very strong arm. Most of the impact players are on defense, if they are healthy. Tackle Sen’Derrick Marks, cornerback Jerraud Powers and end Antonio Coleman are the best ones.
Q: What about this year’s Georgia game? Based on the history of this series, sets up perfect for the Tigers, doesn’t it?
Marshall: You know, it really does in that respect. Auburn is in a similar position to what Georgia was in 2006. Georgia had lost four out of five, as Auburn has, and whipped the Tigers good. But Auburn doesn’t have Matt Stafford, who I think kind of came into his own that day. I know Georgia has had some problems on defense, but I don’t believe Auburn can score enough points to keep up. Besides, Auburn is at home, and that’s usually bad news in this series.
So there you go, word from behind enemy lines, as it were.
A reminder, Georgia’s men’s basketball team opens the season against USC-Upstate (formerly USC-Spartanburg) tonight at 7:30 in Athens. Sooner or later we’re going to have to introduce some basketball talk to this blog. Anybody interested.
Next blog coming to you from The Plains.
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