Many Dogs to spend Thanksgiving at Garner’s house

Athens — Georgia will practice Thursday morning and then many of the players will head to Rodney Garner’s house, as they do every year, for a Thanksgiving feast.

“I do it so they can have a home-cooked meal and be in a home environment,” said Garner, Georgia’s defensive line coach.

The Garner family - the coach, his wife, his mom and other relatives - do this every year for players who don’t have family nearby with whom to share Thanksgiving. More than 60 showed up last year for turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, macaroni-and-cheese, black-eyed peas, greens, dressing, cakes and pies. A similar crowd of players with big appetites is expected to fill the Garner home Thursday.

The game plan for the feast has been in place longer than the game plan for Saturday’s showdown against Georgia Tech.

“My mom started freezing dressing a while ago,” Garner said. “I’ve got eight trays of dressing in [the freezer].”

Garner started his Thanksgiving tradition when coaching at Auburn in the early 1990s, continued it at Tennessee and brought it with him to Georgia a decade ago.

“It’s fun fellowship,” he said. “Even though the economy is like it is, we still have so much to be thankful for. [It’s] an opportunity to fellowship with the guys in a positive manner.

“You know, sometimes I’m not the most positive guy. So they get a chance to see me in a different light. I hope they see that I do have a human side and I do care and I love them.”

But the day after Thanksgiving, he’s Coach G again.

“It’s back to normal. I’ll be saying, ‘That’s what you get for eating that piece of cake.’”

NFL talk

While Knowshon Moreno still insists he hasn’t considered whether to enter next year’s NFL draft, Matthew Stafford admits kicking the idea around on a quick visit to his Dallas home last weekend.

“I talked to some people - friends and family - but didn’t get into too much detail,” Georgia’s junior quarterback said. “I wanted to hold that until after the season.”

Stafford said, for the umpteenth time, he doesn’t know what he’ll do.

Asked if it’ll cross his mind Saturday that the game against Georgia Tech might be his last in Sanford Stadium, Stafford said: “Maybe for a second. Then it’s game time, and I’ll treat it like that.

“I’ve got to concentrate on trying to win a ball game. That’s the biggest thing for me. I’ll take the rest of the decisions as they come.”

Moreno, a redshirt sophomore, said he hasn’t talked with anyone about the draft because “this isn’t the time.” For now, he vowed, “I’m not going to let it cross my mind.”

The deadline for underclassmen to enter the draft is Jan. 15.

Dooley dedication

Gov. Sonny Perdue, U. S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, Augusta National Golf Club chairman Billy Payne and University of Georgia president Michael Adams will speak at a ceremony Saturday to rename Georgia’s sports complex on the southwest corner of campus for former football coach and athletics director Vince Dooley.

The ceremony will be held in the Butts-Mehre athletics headquarters at 9:30 a.m. Then, at the nearby corner of Lumpkin Street and Pinecrest Drive, a 14-foot bronze statue of Dooley being hoisted on the shoulders of two players from his 1980 national championship team will be unveiled in a newly created garden.

The Vince Dooley Athletic Complex includes Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall, Stegeman Coliseum, Foley (baseball) Field, the Woodruff (football) Practice Fields, the Spec Towns Track, the Dan Magill Tennis Complex and the Rankin M. Smith Sr. Student-Athlete Academic Center.