That glorious catch by Chris Conley

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...

...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

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

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

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

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?

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.