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 > 2009 > January > 12
Monday, January 12, 2009
Polls, stats and such
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Six morsels to start the week:
Anybody else surprised by how high Georgia climbed in the final coaches’ poll? From 17th to 10th — that’s quite a move based on a Capital One Bowl victory. Dogs passed Brigham Young, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State, Cincinnati, Ohio State, Boise State and Texas Tech, all of which lost their bowl games. It’s Georgia’s fifth top-10 finish in the coaches’ poll in seven years.
Running back is going to be an interesting position to watch in the NFL draft. One day after Knowshon Moreno said he’s turning pro, Ohio State’s Chris “Beanie” Wells said the same. Still waiting on official word from Pittsburgh’s LeSean McCoy, who is reconsidering his earlier statement that he’d remain in school. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., the dean of draft analysts, told me last month that any of those three underclassmen — Moreno, Wells, McCoy — could be the first (or third) RB taken if all three enter the draft.
Well, we tracked Georgia’s place among the nation’s most penalized teams all season, so we might as well get the final numbers: Georgia finished 115th out of 119 major-college teams in penalty yards with 72.15 per game. That’s better than only USC (72.92), Southern Miss (74.77), TCU (76.92) and Hawaii (78-36). For whatever it’s worth, the five most penalized teams finished with these records: 10-3 (Georgia), 12-1 (USC), 7-6 (Southern Miss), 11-2 (TCU) and 7-7 (Hawaii). The nation’s least-penalized team was Ball State, 26.71 yards per game while going 12-2.
In another stat that dogged Georgia’s defense this season: The Bulldogs finished 72nd among major-college teams in sacks, getting an average of 1.77 per game. No. 71 was Alabama, getting 1.79 sacks per game. No. 1 was Texas, 3.62 per game.
And one more thing that jumps out at me from the final NCAA stats: The teams that played for the BCS title — Oklahoma and Florida — finished the season as the nation’s top two teams in turnover margin. Oklahoma gained 23 more turnovers than it lost, and Florida gained 22 more than it lost. Georgia finished 73rd in turnover margin, losing three more than it gained for the season.
Quoting QB-designate Joe Cox, talking about his fiery, emotional style of play: “Hopefully, if I can transfer that to just a couple of other people on the team, it could spread like wildfire.”
