Silver Britches

Tailback U is Back

2012-01-17T13:42:00.000-08:00

It's going to be so much fun next year. It was so painful when Isaiah wasn't in there because we simply weren't dangerous...at all. Now, I like what I saw from Boo late in the year, but he's not dangerous. I'm interested in seeing how it all plays out. I'd bet we've seen the last of Carlton. That feels a whole lot like an summer 'left the program' deal. I'm not sure you can actually have 5 tailbacks on the roster, can you? I mean, you can. It's just that...you can't. We're crazy if we don't move Richard to fullback. God bless that kid. He's tremendously gifted physically, just not athletically. I'd love to see him at 250 and blowing up LBs on ISO's and toss sweeps.

It'll be fascinating to see who starts next year. But, with that crew, it's hard to imagine one of them being the bell cow. I'm not sure you need one to unless you just have one that gets supremely hot for a few games.

It's gonna be fun in Columbia, MO. Those guys are going to be thinking, "What on earthy kind of defense is this?" "Is it legal for them to have 13 guys on the field on every snap? What? It just feels like 13?" And then, "Wow, that #4 cat sure could get gone once he got on the edge couldn't he?"

If IC gets healthy and has his head on straight, then we're going to have a pretty nasty 1-2-3 punch with him, Marshall and Gurley.

Wonder what number Gurley will wear? He's 1 in high school.

I'm sure he'll pick a single digit, but it would be all-world if he chose 38. You know, we signed another big RB out of North Carolina about 25 years ago that wore 38. This really could be a run like that. The shame of Worley and Henderson is that they were academically ineligible in '87. Lars was a senior and Rodney was a freshman. They carried the load. But, we should have had all 4 of them for that one season. But we rolled pretty good in '88 with Rodney, Tim and Keith. Tailback U is back.

Detox from Tampa....Why the Isaiah Crowell Hate?

2012-01-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

Good ride back from Tampa. Made good time. If we could just get our running game going like we were rolling. Guys, that was the story of the season. Luckily, in the meat of our season, Isaiah was healthy and we were a vastly different team.

He had:

147 @ Ole Miss
104 vs. Miss. St.
58 (and 2 TDs) @ UT
81 vs. Florida
132 vs. Auburn

The bottom line is that we were rolling by the Auburn game, even after the suspension. He came back and ran crazy hard against Auburn. After he got hurt against UK, it severely limited what we could do offensively. I'm frankly flabbergasted that people think he just came out of the game Monday and wasn't hurt. The kid wanted to get 1,000 yards. Frankly, I don't understand the vitriol for Isaiah. AJ never played a full season at UGA. His carreer was severely hampered by nagging injuries and a monumental suspension. No one seemed to care. Lattimore has yet to make it through an SEC season, and he's seen as a horse. I don't understand why some UGA fans want him to fail. Especially since the numbers simply don't lie. We were a much, much better team once we got him rolling mid-season. We turned the ball over less because Aaron didn't have to press, and we could milk games away and rest our D.

Toward the end of the season, we looked more like the 2009 Dawgs and Joe Cox. We couldn't run for anything and that forced Murray into bad situations. Aaron's a really good QB. He's going to be great. Our offense is not predicated on slinging it around. It's built on play action and we had to 'play' to 'action' late in the season. Tech's secondary is so bad it didn't matter. There was so much to blame about the bowl game, but it was a total team loss:

-Aaron's turnovers
-Richt's conservative calls
-The D wilted on the last drive after a stellar season
-Our (former) All-American kicker choked
-Bobo didn't have his best day

Couple notes from my perspective:

-We missed Gilliard, especially in pass coverage
-We dropped a boatload of game changing INTs
-We couldn't block them for nothing
-I'm going to miss Brandon Boykin
-That was a pretty good team, especially on defense

Two plays stuck out in my mind.

The shuffle pass to Orson, which I thought was a TD. We hadn't run it all year. It was brilliant and looked like a cinch. They closed the gap in a hurry and that made me think they were pretty good.
The pass that IC got hurt on. Another brilliant call that we haven't seen all year. It looked wide open and first and they closed on it in a hurry. I couldn't believe we didn't get the first down on the play.

They were just pretty good, and we missed our chances. I really don't mind Richt's calls. I don't think he does that in another game. I don't think he thought they could drive it on our D w/ no timeouts for 85 yards. I think he thought we'd get one sack, which would have been a drive killer. I also think he WANTED Blair to have the storybook ending. I don't know that it was a bad thing. I think looking back he'd run some plays and try to get some yards. But, he watched the same game we saw. We had 14 plays for lost yardage, Murray was off in the 2nd half and getting beat to death, and we were out of effective running backs. We were in a bind because 1 sack and you're out of field goal range.

Hopefully, we'll use it as motivation to say, "Hey, we made progress, but we still haven't really beaten anyone. We've got a lot to prove." That can be a good thing. Hard for me to complain about a 10 win season in which we beat our 4 biggest rivals. In the end, we lost to a 12-1 team w/ the winningest QB in NCAA history, the best team in the history of USCjr. Football that went 11-2, the best team I've probably ever seen in person in LSU (13-0), and a really good 11-3 Mich. St. We aren't quite there yet, but we're far from where we were.

Go Dawgs!
Beat Buffalo!

Year in Review....Favorite Moments of 2011

2011-12-31T00:01:00.000-08:00

So, it took me a while to detox from the whooping I got in the GA Dome. But I wanted to reflect on the season a little bit. I have this little personal tradition. After a win, I change my computer wallpaper to a play from the game. I try to find a nice picture of the 'play of the game' or at least one of the star of the game. I never put a picture from a loss up there. Do you know how long I had a picture of Justin Houston running a fumble back for a TD against Tech in Athens in 2010? A long time. Having said that, this team gave me great joy this year. I got to change that picture for 10 straight weeks. And in hindsight, a victory over Boise and subsequent lose to USCjr. Would have meant having the pro combats on my screen for 2 weeks, which would have been unfortunate.

We did all I asked of this team of it after an 0-2 start -- we beat our rivals. A season in which you beat UT, UF, Auburn and Tech is a resounding success. There's no other way to say it. On top of that you win your division and it's a really good season. Maybe a great season. We got better as we played. And we did much of it with smoke and mirrors on offense with the running game. Our defense was one of the most fun to watch in recent memory. This season and this team was much, much like the '03 team and in many ways a mirror image. That team was very talented. We lost to LSU and Florida. LSU ended up being a better team. Florida was in our heads. That team played some ugly, ugly games. We played terrible in Nashville and trailed 2-0 at the half. We also struggled against UAB, winning 16-13. Yes, we beat UAB 16-13. But that team also showed flashes of dominance, pummeling UT in Knoxville and beating Auburn into submission at home. We closed with a 34-17 win at Bobby Dodd in a game we controlled from start to finsih, much like our 31-17 win this year. That team had a dominating, dominating defense and a questionable running game. We bounced around with Michael Cooper, Tyson Browning, Tony Milton and Lumpkin came on later in the year. It was sad. We went to the dome and played a deeper, better LSU team en route to a National Championship. We ended up in Florida vs. a Big 10 team. I loved that 2003 team. I loved this team.

Having said that, this bowl game is very, very important. The fact remains that if we lose, we'll have lost to the best 4 teams we played. It'd be great to beat a team with 10 wins. They're good. I feel like we're going come out ready to play. And, their D is good, but I'll hedge my bet that they don't have a guy that can cover #26. I also believe this game is a great opportunity for Isaiah. We need him to be good. But, I'll say this. I left that dome very encouraged. The bottom line is that we're way farther along than we were last year. We played toe to toe with probably the best team I've ever seen us play. I was trying to think about that, but I'm pretty sure it is. And we had them. I'm not one for moral victories, but as far down in the dumps as our program was, it's about steps. And we took a lot of steps this year. A couple of highlights for me:

My favorite freshmen: Malcom Mitchell sure is something.
Players I'm looking forward to watching for their career: Conley and Bennett. Boy, they're going to to make a young Christian LeMay's life a lot easier one day.

My favorite player: Uh, #29. It sure is fun to have a player like that on your team.
Player I'll miss most: Boykin. We got about all we could out of him this year, finally.
Coach of the Year: Olivadotti. What he did w/ our LBs with injuries coming off an August with his daughter in Scottish Rite was pretty amazing.

Favorite game: Auburn. Best I've seen us play in a long, long time. Probably since that '04 LSU game. Or at least since the '08 Sugar Bowl.

Favorite O play of the year: Whew, the TD to TK in Jacksonville was pandemonium.
Favorite D play of the year: Bacarri's INT return vs. Auburn
Favorite moment: Going for it on 4th down from the 50 in Knoxville. To me, it showed a mentality that has been missing with Richt for a while. I truly think he's changed. We saw it time and time again throughout the season.

Play of the year: Drew Butler's game saving tackle. I shudder to think what we turn into if Vandy scoops and scores on that punt block. I think we implode.

It sure does seem hard to find a coach these days. I'm really glad we're getting to keep ours and he got his act together. It's nothing short of a miracle, and it might be the last time we see something like this happen in CFB again. And I really like Shawn Williams.

GO DAWGS!

BEAT SPARTY!

Getting to know Texas A&M

2011-12-09T06:32:00.001-08:00

After Texas A&M’s brutal domination of the Big 12 over the years, the next step is obvious. They are coming to slay the college football dragon that we know as the Southeastern Conference, and there is nothing that can stop them.

Texas A&M has been scheming for this move for some time. They started making minor preparations dating back all the way to the early 1900’s, when a few cadets in the Texas A&M fake army soldier club skipped fire-building practice one night, and discussed what they could possibly do to have the upper hand against Florida in the Swamp in 2012. After hours of deliberation they knew what had to be done. Instead of having attractive, under-dressed female cheerleaders with dainty voices jumping and flipping on the field, they would elect 5 boys each year with funny haircuts to dress up as janitors in white jumpsuits to run around the sidelines yelling at everybody. They were sure that it would instill fear in opposing teams and fan bases, and they could not have been more correct.

Furthermore, it’s not like TAMU has no idea what playing an SEC team is like. Trust me, they know, they even beat one in 1995. They come into the league boasting a 58-78-6 overall record against teams from the Southeastern Conference. Quit laughing, a .426 winning percentage is nothing to scoff at – Albert Pujols would kill for a .426 average. So obviously what I am saying is that Texas A&M would be a shoe-in first ballot Major League Baseball Hall of Famer – name one SEC team that can hang their hat on only this? You can’t.

TAMU enters the SEC after basically being the 5th best team in the Big 12 year in and year out. That is pretty good if you ask me. So what, they have losing records against conference foes Colorado and Nebraska (then in Big 12), Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech. Big deal. They beat Baylor and Iowa State a lot – that is good kind of. They were even Gallery Furniture Bowl champions in 2001. I highly doubt they would have lost to any Texas high school teams during their time in the Big 12, and we all know how big Texas high school football is.

Texas A&M brings a different element to the college game. This element is spirit. This is intangible. Their fans never, ever, ever give up. One of my most fond memories I have of any football game was the 2005 Cotton Bowl Classic, when the fiery Rick Clausen lit the Aggie defense up for a 38 – 7 route to victory. But what the Aggies lacked on the field, they more than made up for it in the stands. Their fans were relentless. The clock was winding down in the 4th quarter, they weren’t within four touchdowns, but you would think they had just won the Super Bowl with the way they wouldn’t shut up. It almost made me wish Tennessee had lost due to all the fun the Aggie fans were having. “Oh honey! Look! We are down by forty-seven touchdowns – Riffety, riffety, riff-raff! Chiffity, chiffity, chiff-chaff! Riff-raff! Chiff-chaff! Let’s give ‘em a horse laugh: Sssssss!”

So congratulations, Texas A&M. The Big 12 leash that has been holding you back for so long and keeping you distant from any kind of success whatsoever has been severed, and you are finally free to show what you are made of. Honestly, I’m not too afraid to say that in five years from now I just might be writing an article about how Texas A&M is gearing up for their first season as a member of the AFC South.

Watch out SEC, you are about to be gigged. (Whatever the hell that means.)

-Anonymous

It's the system we're stuck with.

2011-12-06T10:35:00.000-08:00

Just a little something to ponder, you can see the list compiled below. Since 1980, we've played in a bowl 28 times…in 11 bowls. That's right, we've played in only 11 different bowls in the last 31 years. That means we've been to most bowls. 2-4 times.

Since 1984, we've played in 24 bowls against only 15 opponents. We've played:

Twice:
FSU
Wisconsin
Purdue
Arkansas
BC

Three Times:
Michigan St.
Virginia

These are by biggest gripes with the bowl system. Every other school mostly has the same problem. South Carolina went to the Outback to play Ohio St. for 2 straight years. I don't really know the answer. The SEC has the best bowl tie-ins. It's not like we're going to send fans out to the Holiday Bowl or something. But I wish something could be done about the opponents. Could we get more Big 12 matchups, could we squeeze in a Pac-10 match-up somewhere? What about more ACC matchups that include us not playing a team from Virginia or Boston or FSU? How in the world have we not played Clemson or North Carolina in a bowl? Or Miami? How in the world have we not played Penn St. or Michigan all the times we've been to the Ouback or Cap One?

The best answer is to go to Big Time Bowls. Since '80, our matchups in the Sugar or Cotton have been: Notre Dame, Pitt, Penn St, Texas, FSU, WVU, and Hawaii. Not all great tradition schools, but the variety is much better than the standard UVA or Wisconsin matchup.

Year Bowl Opponent
1980 Sugar Notre Dame
1981 Sugar Pitt
1982 Sugar Penn St.
1983 Cotton Texas
1984 Citrus/Cap One FSU
1985 Sun Arizona
1986 Hall of Fame/Outback BC
1987 Liberty Arkansas
1988 Gator Mich. St
1989 Peach/CFA Syracuse
1990 N/A N/A
1991 Independence Arkansas
1992 Citrus/Cap One Ohio St.
1993 N/A N/A
1994 N/A N/A
1995 Peach/CFA Virginia
1996 N/A N/A
1997 HOF/Outback Wisconsin
1998 Peach/CFA Virginia
1999 HOF/Outback Purdue
2000 Oahu Virginia
2001 Music City BC
2002 Sugar FSU
2003 Citrus/Cap One Purdue
2004 HOF/Outback Wisconsin
2005 Sugar WVU
2006 Peach/CFA VaTech
2007 Sugar Hawaii
2008 Citrus/Cap One Mich. St.
2009 Independence Texas A&M
2010 Liberty UCF
2011 HOF/Outback Mich. St.

About the CMR Rumor...

2011-11-22T08:14:00.001-08:00

Eh...I'm not sure I buy it. The site it's from is very shady. It sounds like a recruiting ploy to me. I just don't see it for a couple of reasons:

-I think he likes making $3 million and has figured out how much good he can do with it.

-Zach and Anya are still in school

-I think he'd be worried about his assistants

-There's too much talk of contract extensions from McGarity, and I think he'd know

-We're going to be absolutely loaded next year.

CounselorDawg said he heard Petersen was visiting Chapel Hill with his family on Dec. 5. That'd be a great hire for the Heels.

Nothing surprises you in the business of College Football, but I just don't see it. I think he's fought like crazy to get it back and wants to enjoy the ride. He's said as much. It'll be interesting to see if he addresses it. The fact that the report says that we'd be looking at Dooley or Bobo kind of lends itself to ridiculous. Kirby would be at the top of that list. Of course, you know I'm all for Bobo. I actually think he'll make a good head coach and he's an outstanding and tireless recruiter, something Richt isn't, but something that Saban and Miles are. But I'm not sure McGarity would go that route, and there would be an uproar if he hired Derek. I think a lot of people want to bring UGA down, and now that the hot seat talk is over, the new thing is to say he's leaving. That's because they know we're about to land Marshall and Gurley and be unstoppable.

Rivalry Week Nugget

2011-11-21T21:38:00.001-08:00

Did you know that UGA/Auburn was the 7th oldest rivalry but is about to be #4?

Kansas/Nebraska, Kansas/Mizzou, & Texas/A&M are all getting lost in realignment. That's a darn shame. After next year, only Minnesota/Wisconsin, Miami (oh)/Cincy, & UNC/UVa will be older.

Kinda sad on this rivalry week.

The aforementioned chaos...

2011-11-21T06:03:00.000-08:00

And you thought I was crazy a few weeks ago…So, here's what we're looking at as far as the BCS.

1. LSU - Arkansas & SECCG
2. OSU - OU
3. Bama - @ Auburn
4. Oregon - Oregon St.
5. OU - Iowa St, @ OSU
6. Arkansas - @ LSU
7. Clemson - @ USCjr.
8. VaTech - @ UVA & possibly vs. Clemson in ACCCG
9. Stanford - Notre Dame
10. Boise St. - Wyoming, New Mexico
11. Houston - @ Tulsa, C-USC champ game
12. South Carolina - Clemson
13. Kansas St. - Iowa St.
14. UGA - you got that one
15. Mich. St. - @ Northwestern, BIG 10 CG vs. Wisconsin or PSU
16. Nebraska - who cares, they got blown out
17. Wisconsin - PSU, prob. Vs. Mich. St. in Big 10 CG

Why do Mich. St. and Wisconsin matter? Strangely the middle section of the USA Today (used for the BCS) looks crazy.
12. Michigan St.
13. Wisconsin
14. South Carolina
15. UGA
16. Nebraska
17. K-State
18. Michigan

You want…
Auburn to beat Bama
Virginia or Clemson to beat VaTech
LSU to beat Arkansas
OU to beat OSU
Clemson to beat South Carolina
Someone to beat Stanford
Houston to lose
Something crazy to happen in the Big-10, like their champion having 3 losses, but it probably doesn't matter there.

You don't really need all those things to happen, but we need most of them. Like I said, "We gotta play somebody." We just have to get to #2, not #1. NC State winning was huge. Clemson getting their act together and beating South Carolina and UVA would knock 2 teams out ahead of us, and VaTech still only has one loss.

2 weeks to go, and it's just getting fun!

Rankins: Let the Chaos Begin

2011-11-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

Chaos got a slow start this weekend, but it started a little. So, here's a rundown of those in the mix ahead of us and what they've got left. Mind you, I'm not saying we're going to end up playing on Jan. 9. I'm just saying that it might get crazy here at the end.

These are their losable games
K-State - @ Texas
Mich. St - @ NW, BIG 10 champ.
Wisc. - @ Ill, Penn St, Big 10 champ.
South Carolina - Clemson
Boise has essentially no tough tests left
Houston - SMU, @ Tulsa
Clemson - @ NC State, @ South Carolina
Stanford - Cal, ND
VT - UNC, @ UVA, ACC champ.
Arky - Miss St., @ LSU
OU - @ Baylor, @ Okie St.
Oregon - USC, Oregon St.
Bama - @ Auburn
Okie St. - @ Iowa St, OU
LSU - @ Ole Miss, Arkansas

So, there's a few ways to look at it.

LSU or Arky is going to lose
South Carolina or Clemson is going to lose
Wisconsin or Mich. St. is going to lose
Oklahoma or Okie St. is going to lose
Va Tech or Clemson is going to lose

So, if you take the chalk in those games. We end up ranked ahead of Arky, South Carolina, Mich. St, Oklahoma, and Va Tech by Dec. 4. That puts us at 9. I feel like a few other crazy things are going to happen and, if we win out, we're going to end up on that Sunday night at about 5 and be talking about 'What if?' Here's the games to watch if you want absolute chaos to transpire:

USC over Oregon
SMU over Houston
ND over Stanford
Texas over K-State
Illinois over Wisconsin, then Wisc. Beats Mich. St.
Va Tech or Clemson drop a game, then the one w/ 2 losses wins the SECCG
Baylor over OU, the OU beats OSU

That looks a lot like 2007 and probably won't happen. But, we've got 3 weeks left and only 2 teams left. I don't think we're gonna have 2 teams undefeated left when it's all said and done.

The game for us to really watch is SMU/Houston. I don't want to play vs. Houston in the Sugar Bowl. Case Keenum really does not want to play Jarvis Jones in the Sugar Bowl. We've seen that movie already. If Houston loses, then that frees up 4 at-large bids for the power conferences. The SEC would be guaranteed one and Stanford looks like a lock to get one. I'd love to see VT win the SEC and us play a 11-2 Clemson in N.O. Would be fun for my family…till game time. Who else gets one, then? Does the Fiesta really want a 10-2 OU? They go there every year and would their fans travel after just losing their conference title? The Big 10 championship game loser is going to have 3 losses. Do they go? Who gets stuck playing Cincinnati?

It sure is nice to be able to think about big bowls.

WOW! That happened...

2011-11-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

If you haven't looked at the stat line from Saturday, do yourself a favor and savor it. I still can't believe we whipped Auburn like that. I have literally gone to sleep smiling the past 3 nights. We did what I asked of us in mid-September. We beat our rivals. One more SEC game to go. One more rival to go. One more championship to go. I'm really interested to see how Saturday plays out. Will we be a little listless knowing we've got a hate game and a championship war on the horizon? I just hope we're efficient. Even with a division title on the line, I don't expect us to have that edge. I just want us to be efficient. Heck, what do I know? Hopefully, we'll have the attitude we had vs. NMSU, which seemed to be, "Hey, let's let everyone score a touchdown!" Just a couple random thoughts:

This sure is fun. I gotta admit, I was in a very dark spot after Boise. After the Cocks we were 6-9 in our last 15 games. Hard to believe we pulled it together. Probably the best coaching job by Richt in his career. That he pulled us out of this is remarkable.
Jarvis Jones is very, very good. Why, exactly, didn't they want him in Los Angeles?
And Alec Ogletree is also very, very good.
And, boy, it is a great feeling to excited about our D on the field.
At what point to people start talking about how lucky LSU and Bama were to not have to play UGA and South Carolina?
Grantham is worth every penny. Mike Bobo deserves a raise.
All-SEC is going to be littered w/ Dawgs. Rambo, Jarvis, Murray, Jones, and maybe Boykin are locks. We'll have some D-lineman in consideration, along w/ maybe Cordy, and you gotta wonder about a WR. Crowell's gonna come close, probably 2nd team. The interesting thing is that our virtual locks, Butler and Walsh, will be nowhere to be found.

What I'm most excited about is personnel improvement and use this year. Gilliard continued to start after Robinson got healthy. Rambo has gotten incredibly better. We pushed to get Shawn Williams on the field, even if it meant pushing Branden Smith off it. Carlton eased ahead of Samuel on the depth chart during the season. And we finally had enough with our all-world kicker. There truly is a new attitude in Athens.

My favorite moment from Saturday was Rambo's pick six. A wild moment in the stadium. After Boulder, Colorado…we deserved that. What was your favorite part?

To the Barners who still think Bo was better....

2011-11-08T18:37:00.000-08:00

HERSCHEL vs BO

Anyone who's watched SEC football for the past, oh, 50 years knows that when it comes to running backs, there's Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson, and everyone else. So who's the better college running back? Bo? Herschel? There are a few ways you can look at this one.

1. Freshman impact. No contest here. Herschel set the freshman rushing record at 1,616 yards - and he did that in the equivalent of 9 games (he missed the bulk of the Ole Miss game, and a half against both UT and TCU). Bo? 829 yards. Ho hum. Or let me put it this way: Bo rushed for fewer yards as a freshman than Jasper Sanks did as a sophomore. Herschel should have won the Heisman as a freshman. Bo? Bo wasn't diddly as a freshman. Advantage: Herschel, and Bo doesn't really deserve to be mentioned in his company here.

2. Season rushing stats. Let's take a look at their seasons in terms of yards gained per season and put them in order.

1. 1,891 yards. Herschel, 1981.

2. 1,786 yards. Bo, 1985.

3. 1,752 yards. Herschel, 1982.

4. 1,616 yards. Herschel, 1980.

5. 1,213 yards. Bo, 1983.

6. 829 yards. Bo, 1982.

7. 475 yards. Bo, 1984.

Auburn fans will quickly remind you that Bo's 1984 season was shortened by injury. I will remind Auburn fans that Herschel missed a game and a half his freshman year and a game his junior year based on injury. OK, so let's go ahead and play the "what if" game. What if Bo and Herschel hadn't missed any time due to injury? To let you know how I came up with these numbers, I did it like this. Herschel missed 1.5 games in 1980 due to injury. Take 1,616, divide by 9.5, multiply by 11 for the revised total. Here are the "no injuries" numbers:

1. 1,936 yards. Herschel, 1982.

2. 1,891 yards. Herschel, 1981.

3. 1,871 yards. Herschel, 1980.

4. 1,786 yards. Bo, 1985.

5. 1,213 yards. Bo, 1983.

6. 1,045 yards. Bo, 1984.

7. 829 yards. Bo, 1982.

Bo don't know Herschel's yards. Put another way, Herschel's 3 years are 3 of the top 5 rushing totals in SEC history. Bo's second best year doesn't even make the top 20.

Advantage: Herschel, and it's not close.

3. Career rushing stats.

Herschel: 5,259 yards in 3 years

Bo: 4,303 yards in 4 years.

Some Auburn fans will tell you that a healthy Bo Jackson would have outrushed Herschel over 4 years. Fine. Let's play that game, too. I'll even give Bo a 1984 equivalent to his best season, 1985. Don't forget, though, that Herschel had another full year to play when he left. Giving Herschel the equivalent of his best year, you get these numbers:

Herschel: 7,150 yards

Bo: 5,614 yards

Sorry, Aubies. Advantage: Herschel, and again, it's not even close.

4. Durability. To make it through the always-brutal SEC schedule, a running back must have durability. The best home-run running back in the world doesn't do squat from the bench.

Per game: Herschel has two of the top 4 rush attempts in a game. Bo doesn't even make the list.

Per season: Herschel has the top 2 seasons. Bo's best season is at #15.

Career: Herschel had more rushes in 3 years than anyone in SEC history had in 4.

No contest here. Compared to Herschel, Bo was a china doll. Bo took himself out of games. Herschel put himself back in them. Advantage: Herschel, and Bo isn't in the same class.

5. Team impact. Good players get good stats. Great players get great stats. Elite players lift the teams around them. Let's look at the team records and accomplishments.

National championships: In Herschel's 3 years, Georgia won a national championship and played for another. In Bo's 4, Auburn won none and played for none.

SEC championships: Georgia won 3 in Herschel's 3 years. Auburn won 1 in Auburn's 4.

Winning percentage:

Georgia: .917 (33-3), Auburn: .755 (37-12)

At home: Georgia: 1.000 (19-0), Auburn: .846 (22-4)

Away: Georgia: .909 (10-1), Auburn: .714 (10-4)

SEC: Georgia: 1.000 (18-0), Auburn: .708 (17-7)

Win streaks:

Home: Georgia: 19, Auburn: 10

SEC: Georgia: 18, Auburn: 9

AP final ranking:

Georgia: 1, 6, 4, Auburn: 14, 3, 14, unranked

Bowls:

Georgia: Sugar, Sugar, Sugar, Auburn: Tangerine, Sugar, Liberty, Cotton

Advantage: Herschel, and Bo is nowhere near.

6. Heisman balloting:

Herschel:

1980: 3rd (highest ever point total for a freshman)

1981: 2nd

1982: 1st (margin, 695 votes over John Elway)

Herschel beat out such names as John Elway, Eric Dickerson, Anthony Carter, and Dan Marino.

Bo:

1982: not on the ballot

1983: not on the ballot

1984: not on the ballot

1985: 1st (margin, 45 votes over Chuck Long, the closest vote ever)

Bo beat out such names as Chuck Long, Robbie Bosco, Vinny Testaverde, and Allan Pinckett.

Advantage: Herschel, and Bo doesn't approach him.

7. Other arguments.

Bo was a great baseball player. So was Nolan Ryan, but no one mistook him for a football player.

Bo had a better pro career. By what standards? Consider this:

Bo never had over 1,000 yards. Herschel did it for two different teams.

Bo never finished in the league's top 10 in any statistic in any season. Herschel was in the top 10 in rushing yards twice, rushing scores 5 times, receptions twice, yards from scrimmage 4 times, and rush/recieve TD's twice.

Bo never finished in the top 50 for any stat in his career. Herschel is in 5 categories. Herschel is the only player to have 10,000+ yards gained on offense and 5,000+ yards on kickoff returns. Herschel is one of only six players to exceed 60 TDs rushing and 20 TDs receiving.

Bo is only one of two players with two 90+ yard rushing TDs, but Herschel is the only player in NFL history to score a 90+ yard TD rushing, receiving, and kickoff return in the same season, and he did it in his 30's.

In conclusion:

The SEC has seen a lot of great players, and a lot of great running backs. None of them have been better in four years than Herschel Walker was in three, and that includes Bo Jackson. Bo had one great year. So did Charles Alexander from LSU and Kentucky's Mo Williams, who both exceeded 1,600 yards in a season. So did Florida's Emmitt Smith, Auburn's Rudi Johnson, and Georgia's Garrison Hearst, who all exceeded 1,500 yards in a season. No one, however, has had the sustained excellence that Herschel had throughout his career.

No one comes close. Not even Bo.

BCS and Bowl thoughts

2011-11-08T12:40:00.000-08:00

Just some thoughts on bowls. We really want Florida to win and win out. An 8-4 Florida would be awful attractive to the Outback, even though they went last year. You know the Outback, they don't care. Of course, a 9-3 or 8-4 USCe might be attractive, too. That might leave us with a shot at Dallas if we get 'upset' in the SECCG.

Just thinking BCS if things hold true to form. Who's getting 2 in? Big 10 is not. They stink and their highest ranked team is at, like 12, right now. And that's Penn St, who has a few more losses on that schedule. Plus, that conference is going to enjoy the ol' extra loss in the Championship game syndrome the SEC loser has experienced a time or 2. Pac 12 probably won't if Oregon gets beat this weekend. They could, but they'll drop to about 12 or 13 after losing. SEC certainly will. Boise St. will most likely be in. Big 12 looks to get 2 in, even if OSU beats OU. OU probably goes somewhere at 10-2. They'll still be highly ranked. It's a no brainer for them if OU beats OSU. Now, if OSU drops another one somewhere…could get interesting. Big East should thank God and the BCS they get in. Their leader, Cincy, got boatraced in Knoxville. So that leaves the ACC. Is this the year they get 2 in. Interesting thing here. Is the ACC better off if Clemson goes 11-1, then loses in the ACCCG? An 11-2 would be very attractive to the Sugar Bowl or Fiesta Bowl, I would think. But, a 9-4 GaTech coming off losses to UGA and Clemson has no shot at getting a bid. Just interesting to see what happens there. It's between the ACC and Pac 12, it looks like, with the Big 10 having an outside chance.

Speaking of the BCS, what in the world happens if Arkansas beats LSU. Figuring out who gets to Atlanta would be a royal mess. It would come down to BCS rank. I wonder if the pollsters would give the inside track to Arky because they would have been the only team to have lost on the road. Bama lost at home to LSU, and LSU would have lost at home to Arky. Arky lost in T-town. Just an idea. What if Arkansas beats LSU, Oregon beats Stanford and OU has their annual depants-ing of OSU? What in the world happens? You probably go SEC 1-loss champ vs. Boise. All that is very, very possible.

I'm not predicting this, but what if a few other things happen that are in the same vein.
-OU beats OSU
-LSU wins out regular season, looking impressive vs. Arky
-Oregon or ND beats Stanford and Oregon loses to USC
-Clemson loses to South Carolina or Ga Tech, again
-Boise wins out

Most of those things will happen. I'm not sure Clemmons is 12-1 team. I'll believe OSU is the real deal when they stop somebody. And LSU will probably beat Arky. The rub there is Stanford. But, something's gotta happen. We go into championship Saturday with rankings that look something like this:

1. LSU
2. OSU
3. Boise
4. Alabama
5. Oklahoma
6. Houston
7. UGA

No, I'm not smoking what Isaiah was smoking. Stanford will drop considerably after they lose because their schedule has been so weak. Oregon's gonna lose to either USC or Stanford, maybe both. Arkansas is out due to loss to LSU, VaTech will be out after losing to Tech this Thursday. Penn St has a lot of losses on their calendar left, as does K-State. The pollsters are just waiting to see if we can win a game against a real opponent this weekend to bump us up over USCe. What if that happens and Aaron Murray does his best DJ Shockley impression in the dome and we beat LSU 31-10? That's what you call a mess. Do we have a shot at the BCS game? Probably not. Stuff crazier than '07 would have to happen. But we might come real close. The best news for us is that we'll get a shot to play the undisputed #1 team in the land to win our league. And doing that will be enough. The question is, "Is a 2 loss SEC champion better than a 1 loss Pac-12 or Big 12 champion?" The last 5 years has taught us that the SEC is about 1 loss better than the rest of the leagues. It would be a very, very interesting scenario. Remember '02? People weren't talking about us sneaking into the game…it was 2 loss USC who started the season 0-2 or 1-2. If nothing else, we would bust up the formula and make for an exciting Sunday. Ain't scheduling crazy? That first weekend. We can't go ahead of Boise. Oregon can't go ahead of LSU.

Just chewed on that at the bar tonight. This thing could get crazy down the stretch. I'm not sure OSU or Stanford have "undefeated" on them.

Controlling our destiny and the weekend review

2011-11-07T08:29:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe after that debacle on Sept. 10 that we control our own destiny going into Auburn week. It's really hard to believe after what we saw in the Dome. For the life of me, I have no idea what we were doing in that game. But that's water under the bridge. We've won 7 in a row, which seemed impossible 8 weeks ago. And, we've already won more than we did all of last year, so there's that. Couple thoughts:

-When that Arkansas kicker missed that FG before halftime, after the TD drop, that's easily the most disgusted I've ever been watching a game that didn't involve UGA. I just thought, "Here we go." Alas, the Cocks offense is terrible. And it might get worse if Shaw doesn't play on Saturday. I'm predicting the typical November swoon for the Cocks. Florida wins and we clinch on Saturday. We're going to look back at 2010 as an aberration of winning the East w/ a 5-3 record. It won't happen again.

-Hey, you could be a USCe fan. They'll have to travel to Mizzou and Fayetteville BOTH every other year. Ouch.

-I'll say it once. Brandon Harton is better than Richard Samuel. Now, we needed Richard vs. Florida. We needed to run right at them and Harton can't do that. But, Harton's vision and balance are on another planet compared to Richard. It will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next few games with Carlton and Harton.

-After watching all of the Arky game, it is crystal clear that Murray is far and away the best QB in the conference. No one else is close. I thought Wilson was a little better that what I saw on Saturday, but he's not in Murray's league. I hope our fans can learn to appreciate it the next 2 1/2 years. The kid is going to break every UGA record and probably every SEC record, maybe even get close to Weurffel's career TD record, which I thought would never get touched.

-I don't know that I've ever actually seen a 3rd team defense on the field in a game. I did Saturday.

-I think we're going to roll Auburn. I think they've been playing above their heads, and I just don't think they're that good. It's about time we put it together. We are back to being relevant, but Mark Richt couldn't ask for much more. CBS game at home against your oldest rival to essentially clinch the East. Time to get it done.

-USCe vs. UF is on at 12 on CBS. We could know what we're up against before we even start. It sure would be fun to clinch it in a big game and not against UK.

-Derek Dooley needs a win in Fayetteville in a bad, bad way.

-As for the Game of the Century…it went about how I expected. I was encouraged. I'd be excited about playing LSU or Bama. It'd be Murray's game because they'd stop Crowell, but Murray can beat them. We'd get lots of one on one coverage, and Mitchell would have to play the role of Sean Bailey. If that team got down by 14, I don't know if they could catch up. They've got talent all over, but Jordan Jefferson has no idea what to do when he drops back to pass…even as a senior. I'm not predicting a win, but I'd love to get our shot.

That glorious catch by Chris Conley

2011-11-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

Whew, I just watched that pass to Conley again. If it's incomplete, we're at 3rd and 9 from the 36 and the clock is stopped at 2:23. Florida had one timeout left. It would have put us in an obvious passing down, and another incompletion would have given the ball to Florida with one timeout and about 2:10 left. Ballsy call after a 9 incompletions in a row streak. Maybe I was focused on other things, but being in the stadium and not hearing the commentators or seeing stats, but I never would have thought Murray had missed on 9 in a row at that point. I'd have said something like 5 or 6 maybe.

That's how you win big ball games. Kudos to Bobo and Murray for calling the play and making the play. And thank goodness we took Conley's shirt off. Looking back, maybe we should have played Justin Scott-Wesley this year, too. We hadn't really had a receiver like Conley. I can't figure him out. He's not a burner. He's big, though, and catches the ball really well. If people can get off comparing guys based on race, Conley is actually a lot more like Kris Durham and Bennett is a lot more like Michael Moore.

Perhaps this situation will bring some things into light...

2011-11-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

...That need to be brought into light. Blutarsky linked to a fantastic article on cbssports.com by Brett McMurphy. What we find is what we found about UGA in the '80s-'90s when it came to academics: UGA simply has a stricter policy than just about every other program in major college football. Michigan, Ohio St., Penn St., Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Texas A & M, Clemson, FSU, Georgia Tech, Oregon, Arizona St., West Va, Tennessee, Florida, LSU, Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas, and South Carolina all DO NOT suspend players nor report when a player fails a drug test for the first time. Kentucky and UGA are the only teams in the SEC to have manatory suspensions of 10% of the season after 1 failed drug test. Virginia Tech is the only other 'big time' public program that has a similar policy. Some of the also rans in other conference have a similar policy.

What does that tell us? LSU's boys had failed a couple of drug test to get suspended. This would have been a non story, not reported and a non-issue just about everywhere else. Once again, we are lambasted because we actually have stricter policies that we abide by rather than looser policies that allow us to work things however we want. Just kind of interesting. If McGarity really wants to help our program succeed at the highest level, he should be using the media (aka, the AJC) to help push for conference-wide policy reform on 2 major issues in which we are ahead of the curve:

1. 4-year scholarships and oversigning.
2. Standard drug testing procedures and suspension policies.
If we got those 2 things straight across our conference, it would change the landscape pretty quick for UGA and the SEC…in our favor.

On to Saturday, if you haven't heard or read about Kyle Karempelis, do your homework before Saturday. He's going to play, a lot. I'm actually kind of excited about watching it. I've seen Harton run in practice and the guy is good. The interesting thing is Karempelis. He was a standout at Wesleyan and rushed for over 5,000 yards. They knocked Nick Marshall's crew out of the playoffs. He is a true freshman and on track to redshirt, of course, as a preferred walk-on who would never see the field. The media didn't even really know he was on the roster. But, here we are 8 games in, and because of circumstances, they're pulling his redshirt faster than you can say "Karempelis". This tells me a few things.

1. He's good. Wes Van Dyke has played spot duty this year, but Bobo said he's not in the mix, meaning, he's not as good as Karempelis, even though Karempelis hasn't played a snap.

2. We're committed to putting the best guys on the field. The kid can always redshirt next year, but we want to win now…even if it is New Mex. St.

3. We're looking for guys to help us. There is no telling what we'll need in the 3 weeks following this game with Richard out. We might need Karempelis or Harton to carry it 3-4 times against Auburn or Tech, and we're committed to getting them meaningful snaps to see who might be ready.

I also can't wait to see Nick Marshall or Damian Swann take a toss sweep. It's going to be like watching a really, really good high school game. I think Harton might star on Saturday, but look out for Karempelis. You don't rush for 5,000 yards without knowing how to run the football. Great vision and feel for running. He might be a surprise. Boy, you come walk-on at UGA and you never think you'll get this chance. Good for this kid. I'll be his parents are throwing up daily this week.

There's a YouTube bit on him with highlights and interviews with him and his high school coach. You should watch it. And, yes, he is a Caucasian brother. Been a long time since we've seen that in Athens. The ol' Brett Millican days.

This game is HUGE for Georgia Football

2011-10-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

Are you like me and you're just glad that it's going to be over on Saturday. Not the game. Hopefully that will be 60 minutes of pure joy that I'll never want to end. But, no matter what, the drama will be over. Lose, and the Mark Richt era is probably officially coming to a close. Win, and he'll probably be here as long as he wants. I, for one, am glad to be getting an answer to that question on Saturday.

The more I think about the game, the more I want to throw up. Good Lord, it's huge. It's huge not just for Richt, but for our program and the national perception of our program. This isn't just about this year's team. This is about can Georgia finally take advantage of a poor Florida and some momentum to seize control of this series and recruiting. Win this game and you've got an uber-experienced Murray coming back against Driskel the next 2 years. I like my chances there. Win this game and #11 has the legitimate chance to be a UGA QB that leaves with a winning record vs. the Gators. That is, as we say, unheard of. The last QB to do that? Wayne Johnson was 1-0 and James Jackson was 2-1. Yes…the mid-eighties. It's time to stop it. If Mark Richt can't do it in 11 years, it's time to find someone who can. This year is a good place to start.

And, hopefully this will be the beginning of something to prove for the remainder of the season. 2009 vs. Georgia Tech is still the last time we beat a ranked team. That's a looooooooong time for a program like UGA. We haven't had many shots this year, but we'll get some down the road. Auburn will probably still be ranked when we play them. And, despite all their flaws, every team they've lost to is in the top 10 and either undefeated or their only loss is to one of the undefeateds.

And a scheduling note, Auburn will probably be a 3:30 game at home (finally) if we win. The other games that week are Bama @ MSU, UT @ Arkansas, and Florida @ South Carolina. If we win, ours will be the only game pitting two ranked teams. And, given the history of the series, they'd be crazy to pass it up. Bama will be a snoozer, and Arkansas might beat UT by 80. Depending on what the Cocks do, that could be a battle for 2nd place in the East.

Grantham-gate: It deserves nothing more than a slap on the wrist

2011-10-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that if any disciplinary action other than a slap on the wrist is taken against Grantham and Kwame it will push me to another level toward being done with SEC football. It won't be lack of sleep, long drives or ticket prices that ever push me away or make me end the streak or stop going…it's this nonsense. I'm not an old-timer, but I am just about sick and tired of the sissy-fication of American football. It is a collision sport. They are gladiators. That's why I come to watch, and I could care less is the coaches get in a cage match after the game. I thought Fairley was dirty, but dirty in a way that I wanted him on my team. The UGA fans crying about him last year were just being babies. Tackle till the echo of the whistle, my coach used to say.

And, if something were to happen to Grantham and not Mus-chump, then we have serious problems in our league. Kwame's action was a retaliation off a really dirty, possible career threatening play. It's 2 boys being boys. Separate them and move on. Good lord, we've turned into girls.

Well, here we are...5-0 after week two

2011-10-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

Hey, after walking out of Sanford Stadium on Sept. 10, you were begging to be 5-2 heading into the off week. If I'd have told you that I'd give you 5-2, with South Carolina toting a loss into the stretch of UT, Arky, and Florida and Garcia and Lattimore are gone for the year and Florida has 3 losses…you'd have taken it quicker than you can say "James Fraklin's a punk." So, take it. Don't whine about how ugly it was or the teams we've played. So what? The thing I think about this team is that we're going to get a lot better each week and as the season continues to progress. If we do, we'll get our shot against one of those monsters from the West and we'll see how we measure up. All we can do is play who's in front of us, and Lord knows we've had enough trouble with those guys since Lil Bit has been alive.

Having said that, if we can get our act together down there and play like we should, beat those lizards into submission, we'd be 3-5 over the last 8 years. Now, that's not great, but it's a heckuva lot better than we've fared recently. If we do that, I will no longer accept any arguments about our 20 year history with them. I will simply refer to those years as "The Dark Ages of Goff and Donnan". We'd be 4-18 over the last 22 years, but Richt would have 3 of those wins, so we'd be talking apples and oranges.

On Oct. 29, after we secure a victory, the Vols and Cocks come on at 7:15 that night. I don't know where my crew is watching that game, but we're watching it somewhere. No driving back this year!!!!! Hopefully Dooley can pull one out for the old Classic City home team. It really does all set up perfectly for us…it's scary. Off week (rest players), play guts out and beat Florida, Patsy game (i.e. rest injured players), play guts out and beat Auburn at home, Worst SEC team in ages [UK] (i.e. rest injured players and thank God it's not in Lexington), play guts out and beat Tech. Get ready to shock the world in the Dome.

Upon further review of the game, Aaron's late INT was bad and he missed a few guys, but when you look at the stats, it's hard to say he played bad. I wonder if we've become too much of perfectionist from that position and I wonder if our memories of Greene, Shock and Matthew are better than reality. The truth is, All-SEC QB is a 2-man race between Tyler Wilson and Aaron Murray. If we win the East, it's almost a lock it's Murray. You wouldn't trade a single QB in the league for him. Thinking nationally, what QBs are better? Luck, Moore, Landry Jones, Weeden from Okie St…who else? And those guys simply don't play against the kind of defenses we play against in the SEC week in, week out. We wouldn't take Darron Thomas over Aaron. No one in the ACC is on his radar. Is the kid form Clemson playing good? Sure. Is he better than Aaron…probably not. He's gotta clean it up a little bit, but 1 1/2 into his sophomore season, he is already ranked 4th in career TD passes for a UGA QB behind some guys named Greene, Zeier, and Stafford. He'll shatter Greene's TD record probably by the end of next year.

The most fascinating play of the game to me, looking back, was the blocked punt. Richt no doubt made the right call. Butler is a 5th year senior, and All-American, the son of a guy that understands situational special teams better than probably anyone in the history of the sport, and I can't ever remember him getting a punt blocked. What if there were only 5 seconds, what would you do? Basically saying, we could run around for 5 seconds. What do you do with 15 seconds. Assuming we get a touchback, they've got the ball with 6-7 seconds on their own 20 w/ no timeouts -- game over. However, the block is the risk. Holy smokes, I have no idea how Drew tackled that guy. In the future, I wonder if you think about putting Boykin or Smith in shotgun or maybe even in punt formation to get a deeper snap and having them run straight for the endzone, maybe even run around for as long as you can. You might burn out the whole 15 seconds. It would take at least 5-6 seconds just to get to the endzone in pads and with the snap. Then, you just run around till they get close and you step out of the back or side of the endzone. So, you end up getting the free kick off the safety up 33-30 with no more than probably 5-6 seconds left and they have no timeouts. You squib it and the games probably over right there. You have to cover the kick, obviously, but is covering the kick a riskier play than getting the scoop and score off the blocked punt? It would certainly be worth a thought the next time around. That's a play you've got to practice over and over to see how much time you can actually run off from different places on the field.

On a side note, on the last week of the regular season, 2 undefeateds OU and OSU will be squaring off, and we could be playing an undefeated West team. Boise could be sitting at #4 in the BCS rankings that day. They'll certainly be cheering for their week 1 opponent then.

We can officially start thinking about better days

2011-10-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

I've said today that if we go 10-2 I won't care if we win the East or not. Of course, I want to win it. But, the ship of controlling our destiny sailed a few weeks ago. What we can control are the next 6 games. Let's just win 'em and see where the chips fall. 10-2 in the dome would be great. 10-2 and ending up in New Orleans or Orlando would also be outstanding. But… I really tihnk we're the favorite for the East now. There's almost no way Florida wins it. They'd have to just about win out, and they've still got games against Auburn, Georgia, and South Carolina, and only one of those is at home. Those guys could only win 6 if things go down hill. South Carolina could win it with 1 or 2 losses. I don't think they get by Arkansas. The next month will tell the tape on them. They go @ MSU, open date, @ UT, @ Arky, UF I just don't see them winning those 3 straight road games. The question for them is 'What will UGA do?' If we win out, it's going to take a large effort for them to win the East.

Interesting scenarios would be us losing to Florida, but Florida losing to Auburn and beating the Cocks and the Cocks losing to Arky, too. I'm not sure how I'd feel about winning the East losing to Florida and South Carolina, but that scenario isn't even all that far fetched. I think it's going to get crazy in our conference in the next month. What I was thinking about today, though, was, what if we do win the East? What does that mean for Richt and our program? That would mean this during Richt's tenure:

SEC East Champs since Richt took over in 2001:
2001 - UT
2002 - UGA
2003 - UGA
2004 - UT
2005 - UGA
2006 - UF
2007 - UT
2008 - UF
2009 - UF
2010 - Fake USC
2011 - UGA?

That would mean 4 Division Titles in 11 years. 4 for UGA, 3 for UT, 3 for UF, 1 for Fake USC. That's about as good as you could hope for, right? What's happened on the other side of the conference during that time?

SEC West Champs since Richt took over in 2001:
2001 - LSU
2002 - Arkansas
2003 - LSU
2004 - Auburn
2005 - LSU
2006 - Arkansas
2007 - LSU
2008 - Bama
2009 - Bama
2010 - Auburn
2011 - Bama/LSU?

Assuming Bama wins, that would give LSU 4, Bama 3, Auburn 2, Arkansas 2. If LSU wins, that would give LSU 5, Bama 2, Auburn 2, Arkansas 2. It hasn't been a fun last couple of years but a division title sure would put us in some pretty elite company during Richt's tenure. You'd no doubt take that over the next 11 years. On that pace, if he coached here as long as Coach Dooley, he'd win 9 division titles in those 25 years. In this league, you're simply not going to dominate. That’s about as dominating as you can get.

Just for kicks and giggles, what if we shocked the galaxy and won on the first Saturday in December?

SEC Champs since Richt took over in 2001:
2001 - LSU
2002 - UGA
2003 - LSU
2004 - Auburn
2005 - UGA
2006 - UF
2007 - LSU
2008 - UF
2009 - Bama
2010 - Auburn
2011 - UGA?

That would make the 11 tally: UGA 3, LSU 3, UF 2, Auburn 2, Bama 1. People could say what they wanted to about whatever they wanted to, but that's as elite as elite can get in this league. It's funny. This is why I sort of like LSU. I feel a kindred spirit with them. I feel like they don't quite get the respect nationally that they deserve. Bama and Florida both get all the media love, but the truth is that LSU has been the most consistently great team in the league in the last 10 years. And the Dawgs ain't been far behind. You can talk about a lot of things, but those championships are what matter. Of course, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but that's what fans do.

Let's beat Vandy, get healthy, take care of business in Jax, pound those cheaters, score 100 points vs. UK, punch Paul Johnson in the face and see if Malcolm Mitchell can get open deep against all the man coverage LSU or Bama is going to play against him.

It's at least fun to start thinking about games that matter again!

Where are we and where are we going?

2011-09-26T21:01:00.001-07:00

So, I'm not sure where we are. I can honestly say that Saturday was the least excited I've ever been for an SEC victory, especially a road one. Not that I wasn't pleased with the way we played. It really didn't matter to me. Win ugly, win big, win the way we did, which was workman-like. Just win, get to 2-2 and prove it to me this week. That's kind of where I'm at. I WANT to be excited and play in games that matter. Saturday will go a long way in starting that. Win that one, and the next one, and the next one…and that next one will really, really matter. Drop one of these, and it doesn't matter quite as much.

Still, I'm excited we're in a different spot. I thought we'd get better as the season went on last year. I was wrong. We got progressively worse. This year, I think we've gotten better every week, and I like what that means moving forward. I think we're better than we think we are and better than most people are. But, it's put up or shut up time. Fact is, we knew 2 weeks ago that we'd be 2-2 right now. It's a good looking 2-2, with the colossal whooping we put on Coastal and the solid win in Oxford. That win looked like old school Richt. I'm hoping for some old school Richt this week and the next.

The next 2 weeks are humongous for Aaron Murray. I like Aaron. I think he's probably the best QB in the league. It's time to prove it. He needs to shine. I thought he was pretty sharp on Saturday. He needs to be sharper the next 2 weeks. He needs to play great in front of the home fans, then go on the road on TV and look like a stud.

I want to be pumped again. I'm getting there. I'm excited about what I think I'm going to see on Saturday. But I just don't know. I've been excited a couple times in the last 2 years, only to get crushed. I think I'm protecting myself. I want to let it all hang out again. I want to believe that we can do something that most say we can't. I want to see something different from this team than what we've seen the last 2 years. I do know that we went to Mississippi a year ago at 1-2 and our season turned into a dumpster fire. This time, we went to Mississippi 1-2 and we looked like we knew what we were doing. We looked in control. Our fans now need to see a performance for the ages. We need to look good between the Hedges in a game that means something and that we need. This game really matters, and we need to look like we think it matters. I'm cautiously optimistic.

And I'm starting to like our defense. I think they might be pretty fun to watch when everyone gets healthy and, shhhh, they might be awesome next year. There's 2 seniors on that defense and not any underclassment likely to turn pro…Don't tell anybody. It's so crazily (yes, I made that a word) frustrating. I want Richt to do it not only because I like him, but I think we've really got a shot to start building something again. I think we're starting to see CTG knows what he's doing. We are in position and flying around on D, and we return those guys. Our best players on offense are Crowell, Mitchell, and Murray, 2 freshmen and a sophomore. We don't have a single senior at a skill position that matters, except Figgins at FB, and I think Zander's going to be okay there. And if Richt can turn the tide, we're going to sign Keith Marshall and have a lethal 1-2 punch at tailback for 2 years, which will be Aaron's junior and senior years. So, I'm starting to see rays. But I need to see wins. I need to see a team that looks like those early 2000's teams the next 2 weeks and takes care of business and comes out ready to play 2 weeks in a row. There are no more moral victories. We need wins. Then, let's go win an ugly one 19-15 in Nashville and get rested for the stretch run.

Is it possible? I don't know. But I do know that if Chris Relf runs for 143 yards against us on Saturday, I'm liable to kill someone.

UGA's mind boggling stats compared to rivals

2011-09-12T18:52:00.000-07:00

Let me be clear and say that I'm not sure I want a new coach. I hope we go
10-2 and don't need one. I think, maybe, 9-3 will do it. This summer I
thought 8-4 could do it w/ wins over the Gators and Jackets, but now I'm not
so sure. Here's the bottom line, and the goal that is still out there for
Richt and probably my biggest pet peeve of mine over the years. Something
he's NEVER done and something I want done immediately or I'm simply ready to
cut bait and go fishing again...I think. I want to beat rivals. I am tired
of losing to rivals. Now, I do not expect to beat all our rivals every
year. No coach does this. But I want to beat all of them some years. And
we NEVER do it.

Bulldog Trivia. And for the most part I'm going to leave Tech out of this
because they're OOC. For the most part, I'm talking about conference
rivals. Do you know when is the last time we beat Tennessee, Florida, and
Auburn in the same season? 1982. 19 freaking 82. Do you know why 2007 was
so fun? We ended the year beating rivals. It was the first time since '82
that we'd beaten Florida and Auburn in the same season. Are you kidding me?
We can't beat our 2 oldest conference rivals in the same season in 25 years.
Are. You. Kidding. Me? Man, the more I think about what Ray Goff did to our
program, the madder I get.

Anyway, before you start thinking, I wonder about other teams? I'll kindly
oblige. The last time for comparable teams?
In 2010, South Carolina beat Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee in the same
season, along with #1 Alabama, and throw in a victory over Clemson for good
measure.
In 2010, Auburn beat Georgia, LSU, and Alabama in the same season. They
also did this in 2004. So, they've had 2 different coaches do it in the
last 7 years.
In 2009, Alabama beat LSU, Tennessee, and Auburn, plus Florida in the SEC
champ. Game, but I'm mostly concerned about the regular season games.
In 2008, Alabama beat LSU, Tennessee, and Auburn, and had a pretty good
showing between the hedges from what I hear.
In 2008 and 2009, Florida beat Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia (along with FSU),
and beat Bama in the SECCG in 2008.
In 2006, Florida also beat Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia.
In 2007, LSU beat Bama, Florida, and Auburn. LSU also accomplished this in
2005.
In 2004, Tennessee beat UGA, Florida, and Bama. They also did this in 1998.

Every team basically has 3 big time conference rivals that they play every
year. The other 2 of the big 6 in their division and their every year foe
from the other division. If you're a school like Arkansas or South
Carolina, you're basically looking at the big 3 in your division as your big
rivals. So, in Richt's tenure, South Carolina and Tennessee have done it
once, Auburn, LSU, and Bama have done it twice, and Florida has done it 3
times. You know what beating rivals does? It makes fans happy. I feel
immeasurably worse after a loss to those 3 guys then I do after a loss to
Arkansas, South Carolina or Kentucky. I don't like those teams, but I don't
hate them like I do those 3. And all this has happened for these other
schools in the last 7 years. We haven't done it in TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. I
want a coach that can get it done and will get it done. So that's where I
stand on September 12. My decision can get an extension on Oct. 8, another
on Oct. 29, and the final stamp of fan approval on Nov. 12. Beat those 3
teams, and then finish it off with a victory on the Flats, and it'll be hard
for me to complain because beating those guys makes me happy and gives our
team tremendous momentum. It's hard for me to fathom beating those guys and
going 8-4 or 7-5. Beat them, and I think you're 9-3 at worse. Beat those
guys with a loss to MSU or UK or something fluky like that, and I think I
can still live with that and go 9-3. However, 9-3 with a loss to Tech and
we probably win the East, but that's another conversation for another day.
If we can't beat those 3 teams, I think I'm willing to say 11 years was
plenty of chances and lets give someone else a shot at this thing. Thanks
for the great memories, most of the greatest in my life. I faintly remember
seeing Walker play, but the greatest teams I saw were Richt's Dawgs. But I
believe we can be greater. We have better everything than Auburn, better
everything but tradition than Tennessee and our recruiting advantage over
them far outweighs their slight tradition advantage. We have every
advantage over LSU except MAYBE recruiting base. Florida and Bama are the
only teams that have multiple advantages over us, but we're not that far
behind in natural advantages bent toward success. We are simply are one of
the plum jobs in America and can do better. So, if we had to have a new
coach, I began thinking about what I want.

New coach
-Beat our rivals.
-Oversign. No excuse for not signing 25/year
-A Mean s.o.b. I want a mean and nasty team that scares people on defense.
-Smart, disciplined play and 'mental mistake free football'
-Deploying young talent early and often. You think Ray Drew has played yet
in Gainesville? What do you think Clowney's role would be for us? If
you're noticing, he made the play of the game for the Cocks Saturday night.
In his 2nd game, Spurrier gave Lattimore 37 carries against us. We gave
Crowell 18 Saturday night in his second, on a night he averaged 7.3/carry.
-Hiring the guys in Atlanta for S&C
-Beat Florida
-Pro style offense
-Someone who makes o-line recruiting our first priority
-Better use of personnel and decisions. Richard's a LB, Prince Miller's a
WR, Brandon Miller's a LB. It's not that hard to figure out, people.
-Better game management

I hope it doesn't come to it, but my call list would be, in order:
1. Chris Petersen
2. Gary Patterson (and he might be 1A)
3. John Gruden (just for kicks...you never know)
4. Randy Edsall
5. Kirby Smart

I interview all of those that will. I want to see all of their plans. And
I start at $4 million, and I'm willing to go to 5 or 5.5 for the right guy.
I want them to know we mean business and we expect results.

The problem is that there are no guarantees. I think Brian Kelly is a good
coach, and he's 0-2 in year 2 in South Bend. But, we might be forced to
take a chance.

I want to say we've lost only a few battles, but I'm worried we've lost the
war.

What will make you madder on Saturday afternoon?

2011-09-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

A) Looking like we've looked the last season and a half. Totally unprepared, sloppy, and weak.

-OR-

B) Looking sharp, running power football out of the I, blitzing like a crazy man and not jumping off-sides and wondering why that was so difficult to do 1 week earlier.

It's a legitimate question. That's kind of the point I'm at. I'm not sure anything can make me happy on Saturday. Don’t get me wrong, I want to win, but why would it take that handling to figure all that out? I'll be happy if it's B, especially if that's a harbinger of what's to come, but I'll be peaved that we didn’t figure that out in the last 8 months first.

And, are we really going to become one of those teams looking to the sideline for the play call? I'm sorry, but right now I feel better about AM getting us in the right play rather than MB. It's not like Malzahn or Petrino are over there calling the plays.

I really, really hope we're walking back on Saturday thinking: "Boise would beat Oklahoma's britches off, 'cause we're pretty doggone good."

It was bad, but we need to hold off judgement...a few more days

2011-09-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

So, it took me a while to decompress from that handling we got on Saturday…and it was a handling. The truth is, it will take me a while to get over it. I've had to do a lot of soul searching. I mean, even after a 30-point victory over the Cocks, I still don't think I'll be over it. This is for 2 reasons:

1. I really thought they were a bit of a paper tiger. I knew they were good and had beat some good teams. But they were far better than I imagined. I was very impressed. Could they compete week in and week out in the SEC? I don't know, but they could sure compete in the East this year and they'd hold their own. If they had our schedule, I'd predict them to go 12-0 or 11-1.

2. We were far less prepared than I imagined. Everything. There's too many things to name. We weren't prepared for the first drive, weren't prepared for the short passing game, weren't prepared to have to replace Ogletree, weren't prepared to protect Murray. Heck, it was a million things. It disgusted me. With a $3 million dollar job on the line, I think I'd be prepared for everything, because I think I'd like making $3 million. Sometimes I wonder if Richt does. I really, really expected us to win by double digits on Saturday. Not because I'm a homer. I thought we were just that much better than them. This is why I'm not a prognosticator.

Now, my shock aside…

Saturday is HUUUUUUUUGE for Georgia and Mark Richt. It's the most important game of his career. We have not beaten a really good team since Tech '09. That's a long time. At some point, we've got to beat a good team. At the beginning of the year, we thought these were the best 2 teams we'd play. If you go 10-2 and lost do the 2 best teams you played…is that really a great year? At some point, you've just got to do it when all eyes are watching. Everybody's watching on Saturday. Win, and we start to think that maybe we can make something out of this. If we lose, I'm not sure we can recover. I think the fan base will turn, the team will begin to slip and Richt will lose the team. We're just losing too many games.

Don't give me victories. Those things don't matter as much as losses. In 12 game seasons, losses are the only things we can compare to previous years. In '91 and '92, we had 2 really great years. We lost 3 in '91, and won our bowl game. We beat a really good Clemson team, LSU, Auburn, and Tech, and Tech was good. In '92, we lost 2 by a gnats hair, beat South Carolina in Columbia handily (the last time that happened), beat Auburn and Tech. We won a New Year's day bowl and our tailback finished 3rd in New York. We followed that up w/ a 6 loss season in '93. It was a tough year with an absolutely brutal loss in Jax. We then lost only 4 in '94 against one of the hardest schedules in UGA history. We played @ South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, & Auburn. We hosted Tennessee, Clemson, and Tech…and only lost 4! We didn't make a bowl, and Coach Dooley wanted to give Goff another year with the reverse of that schedule. In '95, we experienced the worst string of injuries in school history, literally losing our 1st & 2nd string QBs and TBs and our All-American LB for the season. We lost 6 games, including the bowl. We fired Ray before he lost the 6, though. 3 straight seasons of 6 losses, 4 losses and 5 losses was enough.

Mark Richt has lost 5, then 7. We're 0-1 now. Ray Goff lost 14 in 3 seasons and we fired him. Mark Richt has lost 13 in 2 seasons and 1 game. I'm not saying…I'm just saying.

The caveat to all that is that we have been no friend of Richt when it comes to scheduling. We've simply scheduled in a way that is too difficult, and it makes judging our performance hard to figure. It's very difficult to judge what we're doing vs. other schools because it's apples to oranges. In the last 5 years (+ Saturday's opener), Florida is 4-1 vs. FSU. They are undefeated in the rest of their non-conference games, excluding bowl games. This is because they have scheduled guaranteed home wins in those games. In 5 years, we are also 5-1 vs. GT, which has been a much better program than FSU for most of those 5 years. However, we have lost 3 non-conference games. Would we feel different if our record in '09 was 9-4 and in '10 it was 7-6? And the proverbial "Would we have lost to the 'Cocks in '07 had we not played the Pokes?" and "Would we have lost to 'Bama had we not traveled to Tempe the week before?"

I hope we can recover from this game. It was fun to play in it, but at the end of the day…it was useless. It taught us something, but it got us an L. We don't need to play in that kind of game. We just don't. We're already playing at a disadvantage because we don't over sign, there's no need to make it worse by over-scheduling. I'm not crying. This is just simply a fact. I don't know if we'd have a false sense of hope if we'd have played Lafayette on Saturday, I just know we'd be 1-0 and feel a whole lot better getting ready to play the Cocks in the games that really matter. Of course, it'd be great to beat Boise, and that's no excuse for the performance we saw, just an observation on the overall state of things.

What does it all mean? I have no idea. I can only imagine Oregon and VT fans felt the same way the last 2 years. They both went on win their conference, and I wonder what they felt in Pasadena and South Beach thinking back on that opening game. I'll bet they thought, "We ain't worth a flip and we just got beat by a 3rd world country. USC/FSU is going to kill us." Is is possible? Yes. We have a boatload to fix. A boatload, I tells ya. But it can happen. I'm hoping it happens.

I just want Mark Richt to look really P.O.'d. Is that too much to ask? Just be angry. I think we all have to wait to reserve judgment till about 8 p.m. on Saturday night. I'm hoping I'm walking back on the railroad tracks saying to some stranger, "Man, Boise must be really good."

CAN'T WAIT!

2011-08-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

Gotta tell you, I'm about ready to run through a brick wall. I'm certain that I say this every year, but I don't think I've been this excited about a season in a long time. I've drank the Dream Team Kool-Aid. I know that all are not in agreement, but I think we are going to destroy Boise. I mean it. I think we're going to punish them. I don't know that it will look like the Hawaii Sugar Bowl, but it might be close. I really believe that #29 and #9 are going to unleash on some people. #2 is just too good and may run a kickoff back every game.

I've got some theories. I think we're going to see #1 and #2 both back at the same time for KO and punt returns. I think we're going to make people put it in our play-makers hands. I think Boykin tipped his hand a little bit with his tweet. I don't think he was just talking about KO's, because I think he's smart enough to understand the goal is for them to KO once. Richt said a few weeks ago when asked about whether we'd have 1 or 2 guys deep on KO returns: "That's top secret information." And, we listed Boykin or Smith as the punt returners. I think we're going to see a new attitude.

You know what I've said for 3 years. I just want to see #2 take one toss sweep and I can die happy. Just one. I think he'd look a lot like ol' #47, another former corner who turned into a pretty good tailback.

The bottom line is that I believe our defense is going to be loads better. We traded in some much better players than what we played in that Liberty Bowl with. Perhaps that day will be the death nail for Mark Richt, but I believe that sad day in Memphis was the best thing to ever happen to him in the last 3 years. It showed him that we needed a major attitude adjustment. I believe we got one. This team seems really ticked off. I'm calling it. We boatrace them on Peachtree. My hope is that we have enough in the tank to beat the Chickens 7 days later.

Interesting Boise / Gamecock Thought

2011-08-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

We posted this earlier in the Summer. Now that we're a little over a week away, how do you feel?

I began thinking something kind of strange today. Obviously, I want to come out of the gate 2-0. We do that and we're set. But I begin thinking about who I'd rather lose to if we go 1-1. It's kind of strange, and you have to think about what your ultimate goal is.

This may sound odd, but if you're goal is first and foremost win the National Title, then you have to say that it's more important to beat Boise. Boise will be higher ranked. Plus, if you beat Boise and lose to the 'Cocks, you could recover and go 11-1 and beat a bunch of good teams. Moreover, it's hard to imagine going 11-1, w/ the 1 loss being to Boise and going to the MNC game OVER an undefeated Boise. Heck, it would even be hard to put us in the game over a 11-1 Boise. I mean, if our records are equal and they won head to head, it's hard to say we deserve to go over them.

HOWEVAH…

If our goal is first and foremost to win the SEC, then obviously beating the Cock's is more important. In fact, the best route to the MNC game is winning the SEC, and it would be very hard to win the East without a win over FakeUSC.

It's just an interesting thought. For the record, I think we win both of them. We have so much on the line. I think we're going to come out swinging like we never have before. And I think our QB is going to be better than we remember. He's going to be a lot better this Fall. And #7 ain't bad.

Couple of tidbits on the secondary, the Cocks and uniforms

2011-08-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

-The fact that we lost Jakar Hamilton for the season and Richt doesn't seem that worried is a good thing, not for Jakar, but for that position. The other thing that hits me is as VERY positive is the comments about who's running with the first team secondary. Looks like Rambo is a decided 2nd teamer. I really like the idea of our starting 4 being Williams, Commings, Smith and Boykin. I really, really like that. If Rambo's loafing last year won't be tolerated this year, that's a very, very good sign about our coaching staff. I mean, we're talking about benching a guy that started EVERY game. I still think he was recovering from that Auburn hit all year. He looks like he's lost about 10-15 lbs, so hopefully that's good on Bacarri.

-Speaking of lbs…Got my SI preview yesterday with, get this, Alshon Jeffrey of the Cocks on the cover, along w/ some Richardson and some other national guys. Jeffrey's got a belly. More than that, he just doesn't look fit. Here's to hoping that Garcia has really influenced the culture in Columbia. They guy does not look good, man. Might not make a lick of difference on the field, but I'm going to go out on a limb and predict a decrease in production from Jeffrey because he's not fit. He does not look like AJ or Julio or, for that matter, Orson. He should really lay off the spandex.

-And speaking of the Cocks, their new unis are terrible. While their old unis had that Under Armour look, they were crisp and sharp. Their new ones have a TERRIBLE number font. They had a really good looking thick block font on the old unis, and this one is just skinny and has too many curves. Number fonts simply make a football uniform.

-And speaking of uniforms…Did you know that that Penn St. is getting new jerseys. GASP! They dropped the trim collar and cuffs. They're the same color as their jersey now. That's the way they were back when JoePa started. And did you know that the Mountain West, thank goodness, has prohibited Boise from wearing all blue at home. I don't know if that means orange jerseys or simply white or orange pants, but they can't wear all blue. I'm glad for it. It was just hard to watch and it was clearly a ploy to make film review difficult, especially when they changed their number color from white to gray, which made it even more difficult to read jersey numbers on the screen.

Oh, and Alec Ogletree is going to DO-MI-NATE. We wanted our Rolando McClain…I think we got him.

The world will be better when Swiper Boy is off the mic

2011-08-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you have all seen Renaldo Woolridge's song about Eric Berry....now he's got one about their beloved precious, Derek Dooley.

Enjoy!

Precious

I like change and new things and exciting things, so I'm cool with it (expansion)

2011-08-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

I think I like the idea of A & M and FSU rather than adding A & M and OU. I like Auburn and Bama in the same division because an SEC Champ. game w/ them is bad. I'd also rather go to Talahassee every other year than Norman every 7. It would be advantage Florida because they'd lose that non-conference game and have 3 patsies. We'd have Tech and 2 patsies. It would be a disadvantage to us and the Cocks for that reason.

However, I think it hurts Florida in recruiting. Maybe it's overblown, but only the Gators can offer those Florida kids the chance to play in the SEC. FSU offering that helps the Florida recruiting. I would expect A & M to rise pretty quickly. I think they'll be like Va Tech and get better because of it. Does it make the East better than the West? I don't know.

The interesting thing would be do you have 2 all the times and 2 rotating or 3 rotating from the other division?

WE ARE....the weird number team...and I love it.

2011-08-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

Our starting LBs wear 29, 45, 83, & 9. Our nose guard wears 6. Our tail back wears 1. Our fullback wears 89 and our tight end is 7. Our new star WR wears 26 and another one wears 31. And, still, my favorite, our All-American kicker wears 57. I love that kid.

Defensive Backs Situation

2011-08-08T09:37:00.001-07:00

Is it just me…but I'm getting pumped about our secondary. Sounds like Sanders is working at safety more, which I personally like. I think he, Rambo, Branden and Brandon are our best 4. Rambo looks like he's lost about 10 lbs, which he needed to.

That defense is paper thin, but they've got a chance to be scary good. I like our starting 11, especially with #29 on the field.

If #45 or #9 get hurt, I'm going to to need an anti-depressant.

Stat of the Day...Mind Blowing

2011-08-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

So, practice is underway. Thank goodness. Just glancing over the media guide today, I came across a staggering stat. I know we all hated seeing Logan back there to receive punts, but couldn't really put it into words. We knew he wouldn't fumble, but we knew he wasn't a weapon. Did it matter that much?

We have been keeping punt return yardage since 1950 -- 61 years. It list the top punt returner for each year in yardage. In 61 seasons, we have had 5 seasons in which we had a punt returner amass more than 400 yards in a season. This will blow your mind:

2002 - SEC Champs
2005 - SEC Champs
1980 - SEC & National Champs
1968 - SEC Champs & Dooley's "Other" National Championship team
1971 - 11-1 Gator Bowl Champs

Are you kidding me? Richt's 2 SEC titles, Probably Dooley's 2 best teams, at least 2 of his best 3 or 4, and an 11-1 team. In the regular season, those 5 included 2 undefeated teams, 2 one loss teams, and 1 two loss teams.

That's unbelievable. Here's to having one guy back there who is dangerous. BTW, the 2 guys in '68 and '80 were Jake Scott and Scott Woerner, 2 of our best players on the team. Scott was the best player, and Woerner was the best defender we had. Here's to either Branden Smith or Brandon Boykin finishing with 467 punt return yards.

Go Dawgs!
Beat Boise!
Eat Moore Hors!

40 Days and Counting

2011-07-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

It is getting close. Jesus fasted for 40 days, so look at like that. We're just one good fast away from football season. A couple of thoughts popped in my head lately.

-A positve thing for us is that South Carolina does NOT play on Sept. 1. They play a neutral site game vs. East Carolina in the Carolina Panthers stadium on Sept. 3, just like us. Noon kickoff. They'll have to put out some effort to win that thing. East Carolina is no pushover and much better than that Southern Miss team they played last year and probably those NC State teams they played in years before that.

-Have you seen those 2013 and 2014 Schedules? That's going to be some weird stuff. We play the first 2 games away in 2013. How weird is THAT going to be. @ Clemson & @ Vandy. What does Nashville look like in September? Very strange. But I like shaking things up and I certainly like that as our SEC opener instead of the Cocks.

-I'm pumped about the Pro Combats. Football is supposed to be fun, right? I think it will be fun for the players and I'm excited to see what NIKE comes up with. If they're terrible, we'll never see them again. If they're awesome and we rock Boise like a hurricane, maybe we'll see them down the road. If we roll Boise and end up in Atlanta in December, it'd be kind of fun to bring them back out. We could call them our Inside Unis. I really, really believe we're going to have silver helmets.

On to football. It really is a simple game. I did a little research w/ the handy new app I got from blutarsky's blog that has a plethora of stats. It was eye-opening. And it helps you understand the cunundrum the Dawgs were last year. Cox was a turnover machine in '09. We were terrible at take-aways and gave it away like we didn't want it. We knew it killed us and Richt and Bobo worked hard on correcting the -17 or -18 or -19 or whatever terrible number it was in '09. Murray was much more careful with the ball in '10 and we seemed to get a few more fumbles and INTs ourselves. We ended up w/ a +10 on the turnovers and it was hard to figure out how in the world we ended up 6-7 as opposed to 8-5 the previous year when we improved by over +25 for the season. Turnovers are the most important stat in football, right? Well, yes. We improved greatly over the season, but let me give you a little clue about how the season went down.

Minus 1 or worse: Arkansas, Miss. St., Colorado, Florida (0-4)
0 (even on turnovers): South Carolina & UCF (0-2)
Plus 1 or better: LA-Lafayette, UT, Vandy, UK, Auburn, Idaho, Tech (6-1…with the only loss to 14-0 National Champion Auburn*)

It's pretty clear: win the turnover battle and win the game. We've got to cause turnovers and we've got to avoid them. It is crazy to think about what happens last season if Ealey doesn't fumble on the goal-line vs. South Carolina and Miss. St., and Caleb doesn't fumble on the last play, basically, vs. Colorado. We could easily have been 9-3 without those 3 fumbles…as bad as we were. And who knows what happens in Jacksonville if Sanders Commings falls on the ball instead of trying to pick it up. Oh, I do…we win. There you go. Four plays. Four turnovers that didn't go our way. Four losses. Could that crappy team really have gone 10-2? Who knows. But it should would have been fun to get another shot at those War Chickens on our turf.

And P.S. on Ealey. We could sure use the depth at RB, but I got to thinking about him. I had forgotten about '09 UK. In the span of about 19 games in 2 seasons, the kid fumbled THREE times inside the 5 yardline when we're going in to score vs. and SEC opponent. The UK game was a lock win if he doesn't fumble. The Miss. St. game is probably a win. And the South Carolina game sure would have been fun to watch. 3 times. Fittingly…he wore #3.

Late July Thoughts Post Media Days

2011-07-22T22:28:00.000-07:00

So, SEC media days are over. I'm not sure what any of it means. Nothing. It means a bunch of nothing. They rarely get it right. They picked Bama last year and that team went 5-3 in the conference. They picked Florida in the East and that team went, what 4-4 in the conference. I could care less about predictions. Though I'll say this. IF Murray is, indeed, the All-SEC QB in December and Blair and Butler likewise, it's hard to imagine we didn't have a great season. I also don't make much of quotes. I'm not sure it all means that much. I heard from insiders prior to '07 Florida that we'd had a terrible week of practice. In contrast, I loved Richt's attitude prior to '08 Bama. What do I know. But there's something that keeps coming back to me...Bama.

I can't help but think about '07 Bama and '10 UGA. That 'Bama team went 7-6 and won a crappy Independence Bowl vs. Colorado. It was Saban's first season with a new defense in place. That team lost to UGA, FSU, LSU, Miss. St., Auburn and...LA-Monroe. They averaged giving up 22 pts/game. 23.75 pts/game in SEC play. They had a couple of memorable wins against Arkansas and UT. They survived against Ole Miss and Houston by 3 and 6 points, respectively, and they seemed to get worse as the season went along. I was not sold on Saban after '07.

They scheduled the very first Chick-fil-a Kickoff vs. Clemson, who was highly ranked in the preseason and looking for a big year w/ Spiller and Davis at RBs. Then in February, they made a huge haul on signing day, bringing in Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, and a guy name Terrance Cody. They stoned Clemson on their first possession, kicked a FG and went on to run them out of the building 34-10. They went on to go 12-0, losing the SEC championship game and the Sugar Bowl, then winning it all at 14-0 in 2010.

The scripts are too similar. We got Crowell, Mitchell, Rome, Drew, Marshall and Jenkins...guys that CAN make an immediate impact. And how the first quarter goes on Peachtree St. could change a lot about the psyche of this team. That game could, COULD, springboard us to greatness. And we could, COULD, improve on D like Bama did in '08. That was a wretched team to close out '07. Something happened in 8 months. John Jenkins and Kwame might just be that something. If those two big son of a guns dominate the line, Senor Ogletree will do just fine at LB.

A dawg can dream, can't he?

Good Thoughts on Richard Samuel Returning to Offense

2011-07-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

Happened to catch a little of the 2009 USCe game on TV the other night and I'll admit, I was pleasantly surprised/shocked/misremembered at how hard Richard ran the ball. After seeing 3 and 4 for two years I had forgotten how hard Richard Samuel ran. It was a noticeable difference. Hopefully the switch to D hasn't given him more stone hands and the bulk will help out his horrible balance. If nothing else he would make a great fullback, IMO.

I think Richard can be valuable on offense this year. If we put him in positive situations I think he can be a solid contributor. He sounds very excited to be making the switch back to offense.

Here's to putting one foot on the Richard Samuel bandwagon. I am personally excited to hear fans say Richard Samuels again....I missed that last season.

Interesting Boise/Gamecock Thought

2011-06-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

HOWEVAH…

Newcomer Jersey Numbers

2011-06-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

Looks like we might be headed towards the label of "crazy number team". I like most of them, but I'm not a huge fan of the WR numbers in this bunch.

61 David Andrews

58 Sterling Bailey

37 Devin Bowman

31 Chris Conley

1 Isaiah Crowell

78 Watts Dantzler

76 Zach DeBell

47 Ray Drew

43 Quintavius Harrow

52 Amarlo Herrera

6 John Jenkins

16 Christian LeMay

66 Hunter Long

27 Nick Marshall

26 Malcolm Mitchell

39 Corey Moore

87 Jay Rome

8 Chris Sanders

86 Justin Scott-Wesley

84 Sanford Seay

5 Damian Swann

59 Nathan Theus

3 Kent Turene

63 Xzavier Ward

51 Ramik Wilson

First Hand Thoughts On Spring Practice & G-Day

2011-04-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

Terry and I went to practice last week and then went to the Spring Awards Banquet on Thursday. Here's a few things I learned:

-Butts-Mehre is unbelievable. It truly is about as good it gets in facilities. The coaches offices are out of sight. The weight room is incredible. It's just remarkable.

From practice:
-Jarvis Jones is a large man, and a good kid

-LeMay is smooth, but in Bobo's words "He doesn't have a clue what he's doing right now." Bobo compared him to Charlie Ward

-Marlon drops too many balls, but we don't really have anyone else, so he's got to play.
-Orson was dominant
-I like Conley. That kid's gonna be pretty good.
-Bruce Figgins and Kwame should be first off the bus
-It's Murray's team.
-Joe T is ready to go and intense, as always
-John Kasay is the craziest man on the planet. However, to his credit (or something like that), he did tell Ben and I that Trinton was the softest OL he'd ever seen. 2 days later…

From the Banquet:
-I sat beside TJ Stripling. What a great young man. He was cordial and talkative. He says he'll be ready to go in the summer. He'll be playing OLB. Kind of the forgotten man, there. He did NOT get a redshirt last year. He says he's put about 20-25 lbs since coming to Athens. He said the S & C program has worked. He pointed to his arms and said, "It works." He said he feels strong and the best he's ever felt.

-I also had Brandon Harton, Parker Welch and a walk-on OL. All good kids. I like Harton.
-Also had Coach Ray Lamb, Mixon Robinson, Lou Perno (former trainer & Dave's uncle), and Jimmy Harper. Harper was a long time SEC ref. He said about 1/3 of the refs in the SEC now didn't even play H.S. Football. He said it used to be a requirement to that you played college ball. Just thought it was an interesting side note.

- Terry struck the jackpot. Had Murray at his table, along w/ Kolton Houston. He will concur that Murray is a great guy.
-Of course, we're apparantly trying to turn Murray into a lunatic because we put Bobby Poss (the craziest letterman in UGA history) and John Kasay at his table, too.

-The banquet was really cool in that they had a video about the history of G-Day and a little UGA football history. Richt is really trying to connect those guys to the past.

G-Day?

-I could've predicted Carlton's performance.

-Kwame Geathers was impressive.

-Alec Ogletree is a beast. He was everywhere.

-Zander Ogletree looks to have beefed up and added a lot of muscle. Looks good.

-Cordy Glenn looked great at LT.

-Jarvis Jones is really athletic.

-Michael Bennett was impressive. Looks to be a little bit thicker than Durham.

-Aron White looked more defined and quicker.

-Shawn Williams was all over the place.

-Bruce Figgins could be a weapon at FB. Looks to be in great shape.

-Derrick Lott had a great game and also caught my eye.

-If we're going to use Branden Smith on offense, we've got to get the jersey thing figured out. I've come around on the number thing. I hate it and if was the coach I'd find a way around it. But, I'm not the coach, and if it is putting us at a recruiting disadvantage, then we've got to compete. Bama, Texas, OU, USC, & Florida have double numbers. We might have to, too. BTW, it's not unprecedented at UGA. Gordon & Jeff Owens both wore #95 while in Athens. But, if we don't play Branden on offense when Crowell is in there, it will be terribly bad coaching. I suspect the answer will be for Branden to put on another number while on offense. That seems like a lot of crazy work to me -- but to each his own. Personally, if I was a player, I'd want my own identity. But we gotta get it figured out. If Branden Smith changed his number, he'd be my new hero and one of my favorite Dawgs of all-time.

-If Stafford had not won the skills competition, Detroit should be worried.

The SEC vs The other "big time" programs - Statistically

2011-02-12T14:32:00.000-08:00

Very interesting post from the Dawgvent. Post originally made by Auburn fan.

This year, Auburn joined the 700+ win club. We are the 13th program to win 700 or more games.

After looking over the post Seraph posted earlier this week, I decided to go back over all the numbers and gather the info again.

I took the 13 members of the 700-win club and looked at their performance against the Top 30 programs on the All-Time Wins list, as well as their performance against each other.

I'll post a lot of different looks at the information over the next couple weeks. One of my favorite things to do with this info is to see what the all-time numbers would look like if the competition had been more even. For example, Auburn has played 597 games against Top 30 programs. Ohio State has played 304. USC has played 361. Tennessee has played 417. See, when you're Auburn, and you've played hundreds of more games against top programs, it obviously effects your winning % and your overall win total.

For today, I thought I'd show the 13 members of the 700-win club and what their numbers look like against the Top 30 programs on the All-Time Wins List.

* I also added 4 teams this time around. There are four teams that have played fewer than 1000 games, but have a winning % of .620 or greater. That would be top 20 all-time on the winning % list, but they haven't played enough games to be in the Top 30 All-Time Wins list. They are: Miami, Florida St, S. Florida, and Boise St. So I included them in these numbers.

MOST GAMES VS TOP 30 PROGRAMS

1. 598 - Georgia
2. 597 - Auburn
3. 528 - Alabama
4. 445 - LSU
5. 437 - Texas
6. 417 - Tennessee
7. 392 - Notre Dame
8. 382 - Penn State
9. 381 - Oklahoma
10. 366 - Nebraska
11. 361 - USC
12. 326 - Michigan
13. 304 - Ohio State

MOST WINS VS TOP 30 PROGRAMS

1. 305 - Auburn
2. 304 - Alabama
2. 304 - Georgia
4. 266 - Texas
5. 243 - Notre Dame
6. 223 - Penn State
7. 213 - Tennessee
8. 211 - USC
9. 207 - LSU
10. 206 - Oklahoma
11. 204 - Michigan
12. 180 - Nebraska
13. 173 - Ohio State

This is a good one.

This is a list of the % of a programs total games played against Top 30 programs.

For example, Oklahoma has played 1169 games, 381 of which were against Top 30 programs. That's 32.6%.

1. 51.6% - Auburn
2. 50.3% - Georgia
3. 45.4% - Alabama
4. 38.5% - LSU
5. 36.0 % - Texas
6. 35.2% - Tennessee
7. 33.2% - Notre Dame
8. 32.6% - Oklahoma
9. 31.8% - USC
10. 31.3% - Penn State
11. 29.7% - Nebraska
12. 26.5% - Michigan
13. 25.5% - Ohio State

This list is even better. It's a list of the % of a programs' wins that have come against Top 30 programs.

For example, Oklahoma has 809 wins, 206 have come against Top 30 programs. That's 25.5%.

1. 43.0% - Auburn
2. 41.2% - Georgia
3. 37.9% - Alabama
4. 31.3% - Texas
5. 28.8% - Notre Dame
6. 28.7% - LSU
7. 27.4% - USC
8. 27.2% - Penn State
9. 27.0% - Tennessee
10. 25.5% Oklahoma
11. 23.1% - Michigan
12. 21.3% - Nebraska
13. 20.8% - Ohio State

That's pretty insane if you think about it. Over 50% of all of Auburn's games have come against programs in the Top 30 all-time. Even more impressive is that 43% of all the wins we've ever had have come against programs in the Top 30 all-time.

It's no wonder Michigan has racked up 880+ wins when less than 27% of their games have come against Top 30 programs.

All I can say is..."Wow." Pretty remarkable. There's an easy explanation for this: SEC & Tech. We play in the toughest conference in the land and we've been playing tech for 30+ years as a non-conference game, and it's an extra game each year vs. a top 30 program.

This clearly explains the insanity of the SEC. 5 of the top 9 in wins vs. the top 30 teams come from the SEC. The missing member? Florida. And Florida has been the most successful program in the nation the last 20 years. That's what makes the SEC so crazy and that nobody gets. There are 6 teams that start each September who believe it is their birthrite to win the SEC and compete for a national titile. Why? Their history tells them that they can compete w/ the best because they've done it time and time again, and through the generations.

And then there are places like Arkansas and Ole Miss. Programs that have tasted greatness, just not as often. And places like South Carolina, where the fans believe in Black magic.

But when the big 6 get together, it's a blood bath every time. You can see how adding Nebraska really helps the Big 10. That gives that conference 4 of those teams, with places like Wisconsin and Iowa that are a lot like Arky & Ole Miss and South Carolina.

But having so many teams means that in the SEC, almost every week features a must-see-TV game between 2 of these crazy schools - AND - the little 6 spend all their effort trying to knock one of the big boys off.

Fascinating information.

2011 Schedule is Beautiful

2011-02-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

Good gracious that thing sets up. If we can somehow defy the forces of evil in the universe and come back up I-75 w/ a victory over the Gators, we could really wrap that thing up. We'd finish out at home versus:

New Mexico St.
Auburn
UK

Then go on the road to play Tech. We should never look ahead. We went 6-7 for goodness sakes. But that's as easy as a schedule as it can get for us. Beat Boise and this thing gets on a roll. If you were rank the best teams on our schedule I'd rank them in this order:

Florida
Boise St.
South Carolina
Auburn
Miss St.
Tennessee
Kentucky
Tech
Ole Miss
Vandy
New Mexico St.
Coastal Carolina

So, we play the best 2 teams on our schedule at neutral sites. We play the other best 3 conference teams on our schedule at home. We only play 3 true conference road games, and 2 of them are against what were the 2 worst teams in our league last year, the only 2 SEC teams that didn't go to a bowl, one of which has a new coach, the other has a new QB. Beat Boise, beat the Cocks at home, win in Knoxville, and beat Florida and we got this thing wrapped up. Sounds easy, right? I mean, it's only been 30 years since we beat UT and UF in the same season. Why not do it now? We're gonna beat UT and be leading Florida in the 4th and CBS is gonna put that graphic on the screen and people are gonna go…"That can't be right!?"

Ealey and Swagger

2011-02-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

Let's hope Ealey gets his act together and rejoins the team. If nothing else, though, it seems like Joe T. and CMR are throwing down the gauntlet on this team, and that is a good thing. I wonder if you can see a perfect storm before it comes? Everyone new Cam Newton would be good, but not THAT good. We knew Tebow would be a great player, we didn't know he'd be a once in a generation kind of team leader. We heard reports all August 2002 about this Pollack that we'd moved to DE, but we didn't know he'd change the conference for 3 years. But maybe…just maybe…this is what that is like. The swagger (and the good, confident, but hard working kind) seems to be oozing from this signing class. Richt sounds more like the guy from 2002-2003 rather than the excuse maker from the last couple of years. And it sounds like T is making these guys' lives miserable, which is good to hear. And all reports are that Jenkins is, in fact, wearing #6. I can't wait.

Recruiting and Numbers

2011-02-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

After a few of the recruits have aparently chosen numbers and signing day is officially over, I had some thoughts of numbers and stuff. If I had MY WISH, this is how the numbers would shake out:

1 - Isaiah
5 - Swann
6 - Big John Jenkins
8 - LeMay
16 - Nick Marshall
25 - Mitchell (Mitchell wore 26 in H.S, so I'm just guessing he'll choose something close)
38 - Herrera
42 - Branden Smith (Oh yeah, if he let's IC take #1, I'd love him to switch to a powerful number in UGA history…John Brantley, Godfrey,

43 - Turene
47 - Drew
48 - Rome
80 - Scott-Wesley
84 - Conley

It's nice to be running out of skill numbers for scholly players and not have a bunch of walk-ons in them. Check this out, you know one of my favorite things about CFB is oddball numbers. We could have this lineup in the front seven at some point in the season:

D-line
56 G. Smith
6 Jenkins
85 Lott

LBs
47 Drew
22 Samuel
29 Jones
83 CornWash

Boy, do I love that! We're going to get better immediately. I love what I'm reading about using Jenkins at fullback and playing Swann, Marshall, and Mitchell both ways. Maybe we're about to enter into a creative season at UGA, using Marshall in a WildDawg (in which we actually throw the ball!), using Smith, Mitchell & Swann on reverses and sweeps. And, man, this class seems to be saying ALL the right things and has a different kind of swagger, and because we stink so bad, our guys know we need it. As Trinton said when he announced he was returning, "I hope we get some good recruits." We know that the off season often offers a lot of smoke. Something feels different about this. We really WEREN'T that far off last year. When you look at it, we were just an emotional basket case. We lost 7 games and could have easily won 6 of them. We had so little intestinal fortitude. That's what I like about these guys. This group coming in doesn't sound like they're coming in expecting to lose. They're not hoping to turn this thing around. They're going to. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Go Dawgs!
Beat Boise!

New Video Technology

2011-01-31T13:51:00.000-08:00

The Butts-Mehre is nearing completion, part of that is a new video room, which was Coach T's vision and baby. It's the first time in Pro or college football that a team has run everything on Macs. I don't think we have to worry about this guy being on the cutting edge w/ weight training. He pushed the envelope and pushed spending in video and moved us to the front of the pack in that area. Don't get me wrong, he's crazy as a 3 legged fox, but he might be smart, too.

Blutarsky has a video tour up of the whole facility. No wonder we're recruiting good. That place is Taj Mahal. There is essentially nothing else to do to Butts-Mehre now. The only logicaly step is an indoor facility, which I'm not sure is logical in the first place. But the whole place is magnificent. Offensive team meeting room, defensive, total team meeting rooms. Offensive staff, def. staff, and entire staff rooms. Unbelievable graphics throughout the whole place. And the colors are perfect. I'm biased, but red, black and silver just work in modern construction.

BTW, they mention in the video that T has the players working out in head to toe black sweats, just like the old days. That. Is. Awesome.

Lost Stars

2011-01-19T08:18:00.001-08:00

We were hit pretty hard losing Houston & Green to the NFL, but you may have missed the news that I guessed right on my prediction about Darvin Adams. He declared for the draft. One response from an Auburn fan I saw was:

"Auburn will be missing the experience and leadership next year, which will probably cost us a game or two. But, we will be much more talented thanks to a couple of excellent years of recruiting and all of our coaching staff returns."

Let me see, you're going to be more talented how? You lost 4 of 6 of the top WRs? Of the 12 INT's they had, 10 of them just left. That poster failed to recognize that Fairley and Cam were part of that stellar recruiting and, while they got their title, they won't be much help next year.

The great thing about college football is that players leave.

Philosophical Question...

2011-01-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

So, $cam and crew have made me think about some deep issues. Of course, he's announced he's going pro, and Fairley has too. They really had a perfect storm of recruiting and senior leadership, which is usually what it takes to win a championship unless you are insanely talented. So those 2 mercenaries are going to play exactly 14 games for the War Chickens. So here's the question:

Would you take a 14-0 national championship run with 2 JUCO one hit wonders if it meant you went into the tank the next year?

It's easy to just say "of course", but you have to think about the longevity of the program and what is best. Is it best to build a program around a Murray or a season around a Newton? Just looking at their roster, it's staggering what they lose. Their 22 seniors consist of:

Etheridge - DB
Washington - DB
Bynes - LB
Burns - WR
Byrum - K
Caudle - 2009 starter & back-up QB
Fannin - 3rd down back
Carter - DE
Pugh - Center
Goggans - DE
Ziemba - OL
Zachary - WR
Clayton - DL

They lose 4 of their starting 5 on the OL and their 2 back-ups at the guard spots were also seniors. They lose 2 of 3 starting WR, they lose their starting, Heisman trophy winning QB and replace him w/ a guy named Barrett Trotter, who looks a lot more like Joe Cox and went to a school w/ the word "Christian" in the name. Just sayin'.

With Fairley leaving, they'll lose 3 of their 4 DL. 2 of their 3 LBs graduate. 2 of their starting 4 DBs graduate and their other 2 are juniors.

Their kicker and their punter were seniors. And their best kick returner was Washington. They will AT LEAST lose 14 of 22 starters on offense and defense (7 on both sides of the ball). And both their specialist. And 4 of those 8 coming back are juniors. Except for Dyer and McCaleb, there's not that many ball players in that bunch, either.

They play @ Clemson, @ South Carolina, @ Arkansas, @ LSU, and @ Georgia.

They also host Florida, Miss. St. and Bama.

I'm calling it. They're going 6-6 next year and they might not make a bowl. So, would you trade a BCS title for 5-7 and not going to a bowl the next year. (I know, I know, we didn't win the BCS and almost did that this year…but it's not like you wanted to.)

Ringing the bell on the 2010 season, finally...

2011-01-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Well, it's all over with but the investigation. Can I say I really don't like Chizik? And, no, I don't know if I've spelled his name right, and I've made the personal decision to not really learn how to spell his name. I've always felt a little bit of a kindred spirit with LSU. I've always kind of viewed them as kind of the UGA of the West. I didn't mind them winning championships. I hate Florida, and I couldn't stand Tebow on so many levels…but I respected him. You knew Tebow did it right, even if you hated the way he did it. And I've never minded seeing Bama win a title. Their fans are way more annoying than their team. But there's nothing to feel good about this Auburn team. Newton is not cheerable. Fairley is not cheerable. Chizik can't answer a question on the podium w/ a straight answer. Just answer the question Gene. I still believe they're cheaters. I'll always think that.

But it's over now, and I'm reminded of a few things. Spread offenses don't work in the SEC. Oregon runs a spread. They have a mobile QB and use multiple formations and motions. Auburn runs the wing T. Florida ran the wing T. The spread that works in the SEC is not with a QB that can run, but with a Running Back that can throw. You don't need Pat White to run the spread in the SEC, you need Charley Trippi. How many times have we seen an SEC D-line absolutely dominate a National Title game? We have one guy that looks like Justin Houston. Auburn has 4-5, and that made all the difference. But can someone please explain to me why Cam doesn't talk to any cameras after the game. That situation over there smells.

Kelley made some ballsy decisions that our guy would never make, but he also made some stupid decisions. He should have gone for the FG on the 1. Get w/in 5 and the TD takes the lead, and who knows what that last drive would be like if Auburn was trailing. Cam looked tight the whole game. But, as I said last week, recruits can make a difference. I don't understand radio guys that poo-poo recruiting. Newton, Fairley and Dyer didn't play for Auburn last year. Those 3 were clearly the difference in the game. They needed all three to win the game. And, boy, Ontario McCaleb is fast, but he gets a lot of pub for not doing much. He always has a few highlights, but he's useless between the tackles. I am curious to see if Richt follows through with his vow to be cutting edge. A fake FG in the Dome would let me know that's true. The thing I like about Oregon is that they expect everyone on the team to be football players

That being all said, things can change real fast. 4 years ago, Stanford was 1-11 and we called that conference the PAC-1. And we joked that no one would ever compete w/ USC. Now USC is on probation, their coach is playing at Soldier Field this weekend, and Stanford and Oregon will finish #4 & #3 respectively. I do really buy what Richt says that he doesn't believe we're not that far off. We're not. Auburn went 8-5 last year. How far off were they? They lost to a bad UK team in Auburn and lost to a bad UGA team. They got boat-raced by LSU and Akansas lit them up. Something changed. Are we capable of it? I know that we'll have the best player at the most important position in almost every game we'll play. The interesting thing is that we'll play our best two QBs the first 2 weeks of the season. But it starts w/ defense, guys. That's it. We've got to get better on defense.

Oh, and S & C means something because Auburn sure does look different in their unis than we do. We've got some work to do, but be encouraged, it's a new beginning. I like my job and I'd work my rear end off it I knew I'd lose it next year if I didn't perform. Bet you'd do the same. Let's hope Mark Richt does the same.

Go Dawgs!
Beat Boise!

It can change in a hurry...

2011-01-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

It may sound a little crazy, but you need to read this article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=5985211

The Under Armour game is Wednesday night, and a few could commit then. It's been a bad, bad few months. But it can change in a hurry. Bama went 6-6 and signed a few guys named Ingram, Julio, Darreus, and Cody. Auburn went 7-5 and signed a few guys named Dyer, Newton, and Fairley. Both went 12-0 the next year. We've got a lot to fix. And I don't know if Richt can do it. I don't know if Coach T will work, but I hope he does. I don't know if Coach Richt will be bold, but I hope he can. But I know a few game changers can sho nuff change the game. Talent never hurts, and we desperately need some talent. Better talent. S&C is a big deal, but Justin Houston and Alec Ogletree seem to look fine w/ our program. I think they're just made that way. We need a few more guys made that way. The dream team could help.

Mark Richt won't save his job starting on Jan. 3. He'll save it on Feb. 3.

Shifting through the wreckage....again

2011-01-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm a positive spin guy, so I'll look for it. I told all of you, win or lose in Memphis, it really didn't change the fact that this season was a train wreck. We have had a lot to fix all year. If we'd have won 54-0, we'd still have had a lot to fix. And that's the positive note. Perhaps winning would have clouded the judgment of everyone in our program. Perhaps we'd have felt like last year. We kind of felt good after a crappy season because we beat Auburn, Tech, and won the bowl. And we don't need to feel good about this in any way. Sure, you want to have a winning record, but, more than anything, our guys (the 20 year olds and the 50 year olds) need to have bellies full of hot urine for the next 8 months. So, if it inspires us more…good. We don't need to feel good. We need to be angry and arrive on Peachtree St. w/ a bad, bad taste in our mouths.

Watching games this weekend, it's hard not to be discouraged about our staff. There are so many out there that could do more w/ what we've got: Edsall @ Uconn and Patterson, to name a couple. But I just don't think it's going to happen. And, frankly, it's hard to base that decision on one game. To me, we had to beat Tech and get to a bowl. I just don't think you change your mind because of the bowl.

In the long run, losing a bowl doesn't mean that much. Heck, even going to a meaningless bowl and losing means nothing. Just a few examples.

-UGA loses Music City and then goes 13-1 SEC champs
-Florida loses Cap. One and goes 13-1 Nat. champs
-Bama loses to Utah then goes 14-0 Nat. champs

It just doesn't mean all that much in the long run. BTW, I looked back and Greeney threw 2 picks in that Music City Bowl. Go figure. He also came out and struggled in the next 2 monster games to open the season and guys named Fred Gibson and David Pollack bailed us out. Greeney got on track after that and led us on a magical run. Of course, he didn't wear gloves.

The list is so long about what we need to fix, but here's mine:

-We are weak, weak, weak up front. We've got to get bigger, meaner, stronger, and nastier on both lines
-Our DBs stink, for the most part
-Our RBs are nothing special
-Our WRs don't work to get open
-We coach scared and timid
-We have no sense of urgency or fire

On a side note, after TCU's win in Pasedena today, UGA's win over Hawaii in the '08 Sugar Bowl remains the only win of a BCS school over a non-AQ school in a BCS bowl. How did he get that team so up to play that game? And how were we so good that year? That wasn't 2002 or 2005, that was 2007 and not that long ago. I loved everything about that team. We were mean, nasty, got lots of personal fouls and didn't care because we were going to stone you, sack you, intercept you, then outscore you -- dramatically. And we were going to wear black when we did it. I just don't get it. What happened?

And the last side note. Boy, it's a been a bad week for Jim Delaney, the Big 10 commissioner. You're premier player on your premiere team gets suspended along w/ 4 others for breaking NCAA rules, the Sugar Bowl President rats you out by saying he basically talked you into not suspending them for the bowl because he wanted a good game, you go 0-4 on Jan. 1, and even your shiniest new toy, Nebraska, loses in the Holiday bowl to an unranked and bad Washington team. Mark Richt had a bad week. Jim Delaney's was worse.

And it's entirely possible that UCF is better than Uconn.

Give me Liberty....

2010-12-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

If it makes you feel any better, we've been to the Liberty Bowl twice: 1967 and 1987, and followed those up w/ pretty special seasons.

In '68, we were SEC champs and had a strangely undefeated regular season, going 8-0-2. We lost the Sugar Bowl to Arky, but we were voted National Champions by a few polls. Unlike Alabama, we don't feel the need to prove our manhood by claiming that national championship. That team had a pretty good player named Bill Stanfill.

In '88, we opened up w/ a monster win over UT in Athens. We lost an inexplicable game in Lexington that year, which cost Dooley his 7th SEC title in his final season. We did finish 9-3 with a win in the Gator Bowl. Yes, that team had Worley, Henderson and Hampton…and Goldberg and Ben Smith. Unfortunately, it also had Wayne Johnson at QB. We also wore our shiny, new red pants our first two road games that year, in Starkville and in Columbia. We went 1-1 in them, and Dooley bagged them for the year. Goff never went back to them and in his 7 years never deviated from white or red on silver.

AND…Arkansas played in the Liberty Bowl last season and is now 10-2 and in the Sugar Bowl. So, it can happen.

Just some fun stats.

Let me get this straight....

2010-11-30T14:51:00.000-08:00

Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan, Texas, Southern Cal, and Florida all have a combined record of…38-34? By the way, in all-time wins, Michigan is #1, Texas is #2, Tennessee is #9, USC is #10 and UGA is #11. Pretty crazy and unbelievable season. That, alone, should tell us how crazy it all is. UGA is 3 years removed from a #2 ranking. UT is 3 years removed from an SEC East Title. Texas is 1 year removed from a 13-1, undefeated regular season, Big 12 title, and BCS champ. Game appearance. Southern Cal is 2 years removed from a string of about a million Rose Bowls in a row. Florida is a year (a year!) removed from a 13-1, undefeated regular season and 2 years removed from a National Championship. Michigan is 3 years removed from spanking Florida on New Year's Day.

In the meantime, in 2008 Auburn went 5-7. In 2009, Auburn went 7-5. In 2010, Auburn is 12-0. There are no promises, but it can change for the worse in a hurry and it can change for the better in a hurry. And we can talk about coaching all we want, but the answers are pretty clear to me. UGA no longer has Knowshon Moreno. Texas no longer has Colt McCoy. Florida no longer has Tim Tebow. Southern Cal no longer has all those studs…okay, I'll name a couple: Taylor Mays, Mark Sanchez, Clay Matthews, Brian Cushing. Michigan no longer has Mario Manningham and Chad Henne…or anyone on defense. Tennessee simply had the luckiest season in 2007 in the history of college football.

Auburn? Insert Cameron Newton and Nick Fairley = SEC championship.

We weren't that much different from 2006 to 2007. Matthew got better, but by the Auburn game in '06 he was pretty dang good. The difference was simple: Knowshon Rockwell Moreno. Yes, we need to coach better and make some better decisions. We need to play D better. But, dang, we need better players. For me, Richt has the 2 most important months of his career ahead of him. We need guys that can play now. It sure does make it easier to call plays when you can run a toss sweep on 3rd and 4 and it sure is easier to play defense when your offense can burn a little clock or you've got a safety you can trust if you choose to blitz or you have David Pollack wreaking havoc in offensive backfields. I don't know if Van Gorder made Pollack or vice versa, but I know Eric Berry made both Chavis and Kiffin look pretty smart. I think it's the players.

Kudos to Richt on landing Murray. Do you realize how big of a get he was 2 years ago? Whew, we'd be in a pickle if he'd have chosen Florida. But this is the biggest issue. For all the talk about Strength and Conditioning, it doesn't seem to affect Houston, Green and Ogletree because they are beasts. We need more beasts. Richt gets it, and I think HIS motivation for the Boise game was what I suspected. He said so on his show:

"We’re trying to recruit guys right now who, when we open in the Dome next year against Boise State .. can come right in and we can introduce them to college football .. when you talk about impact players, that’s why I've been talking about a recruiting “dream team” .. if we can get the best players in the state to stay home we can show how good the football is in this state."

Are you listening Isaiah Crowell?

It's crunch time for Richt. Win this crappy bowl and sign the best class we've ever had. Bama did that and signed some guys named Ingram, Jones, and Cody in winter of '08. That turned out alright in '09. Heck, it wasn't so bad in '08. Get to that Dome and find a way to beat the Broncos and a way to beat the Cocks and home and get this thing rolling. It's that simple. It doesn't matter how you win, just win. In 2002, we opened up with 2 ugly wins against Clemson and South Carolina. It didn't matter. We were 2-0. Just find a way to win them and let the momentum take #11 for a ride.

Is it August yet?

And let me just say that if we land Crowell, talk all August about how he's having trouble pass blocking, lose to Boise, and Crowell plays 5 snaps because we aren't sure he can pick up the blitz...I might just lose my mind right there. If he can't pass block, I think I've got the play for him. It's called "Toss Right." I'll bet they already run that one down in Columbus.

Why Herschel is better than Bo

2010-11-10T11:35:00.001-08:00

BO vs HERSCHEL