Georgia Sports Blog

Best Blogs that Cover the Bulldogs

2009-07-14T11:39:00.007-04:00

Ryan at BulldawgIllustrated.com named the Georgia Sports Blog as one of the top blogs covering the UGA program. The guy has great tastes what can I say:

Sharp writing, solid coverage of UGA sports across the board, and little insider tips make this among my personal favorite sports blogs. The posts are short, insightful, and always have great pictures. Some highlights from this blog's past include leaked pictures of the junked Ramblin' Wreck and the TECH Fund checkout code so UGA fans could buy mini-season ticket packages for the Georgia game at the Joke by Coke in 2007. Damn Good Dawgs!

BTW -- Speaking of me having tidbits...the Hartman Fund cut-off scores for football should come out this week. Likely as early as tomorrow. My guess on the scores based on rumblings I've been hearing for months:

Home Season Tickets:
4-5k (applies only to those that didn't buy last year)

Road Games:
Ok State - 28-33k
ARK - none
UT - 26-28k
VU - 15k (I'm most shaky on this one)
UF - 11k
UF Club-Level - I have no idea
GT - 26-28k

So my guesses are public. Feel free to mock me when the real numbers are announced. Or you can mock now I guess.

PWD

Longest July ever

2009-07-13T11:00:00.001-04:00

It seems like SEC Media Days are usually earlier in the year. The July lull pre-start of the media crush from SEC Media Days is exceptionally long this year. Or is it just me?

Quietest off season I can remember. Some of that is good ... fewer legal incidents. But it's really quiet.

PWD

The Relative Awfulness of the Oklahoma State Defense

2009-07-10T08:00:00.002-04:00

Conventional wisdom says Oklahoma State had a rotten defense last year. Just how bad was it? I looked at OSU's final stats rankings and compared them with the defenses we saw last year. None of these comparisons are good for the Pokes.

In total defense, OSU ranked 94 out of 120. The only opponent we faced last year with worse numbers was Central Michigan (#105) who we scored 56 on.
In rushing defense, OSU was a more respectable 52nd. Of our opponents last year, only Auburn and Kentucky were worse at 55th and 57th respectively.
In scoring defense, they were 77th, ahead of only Central Michigan at 90th.

So, we should walk all over these guys right? Those stats aren't bad, they're atrocious. Georgia fans want Willie's head and he finished 22nd in total defense last year. Imagine if we finished 94th. It's simple then, Oklahoma State can't play defense. Right?

Those defensive stats only show a confined, distinct measurement without context. The actual picture is broader. In factoring those terrible defensive stats, remember that OSU played the #2, #3, #4, #7, and #8 total offense last year. They faced six of the top 10 scoring offenses. They could have been Bama '92 and still given up big numbers just based on the offenses they played. The best total offense we faced last year was UF at #15. In fact, we only played two teams better than #50 last year, UF and Central Michigan.

So, those stats need a control. How well did OSU's defense do when compared with their opponents' average yards gained? Only three teams outperformed their season total offense average against the Pokes by more than 30 yards. Texas Tech exceeded their average by 98 yards, Oregon by 80, and Texas A&M by 62. Everyone else was right at or slightly below their season average. Okie State held three other teams to more than 30 yards under their season average (Washington State, Houston, and Baylor). In other words, the Pokes weren't awful last year. They were just average.

All of this doesn't mean much because it is based on last year's numbers. It's just that I've seen a bunch of folks assuming we will be able to score at will against OSU because of those awful rankings and it just isn't that simple.

Bill Young is taking over the OSU defense this year after spending 2008 at Miami (who finished 26th in total defense last year and 56th in scoring defense). Young is probably best known as John Cooper's defensive coordinator at Ohio State from 1988-1995. He's confident is his crew, but with only six starters returning, the mediocrity of last year's play, and the installation of a new defensive scheme, I don't think the Pokes are going to be much improved from last year's average, but not awful, efforts on September 5th. I still say we get our points, but it might not be quite as easy as some presume.

Quinton

Richt on the Oklahoma Airwaves

2009-07-09T18:38:00.000-04:00

Coach Richt gave this interview to an Oklahoma radio station this week. He talks about last year, Oklahoma State, and his future at UGA. Richt is his usual trash talking self, saying he "respects" Oklahoma State and their offense was a "big concern." You tell 'em coach, Kiffin-style!

Quinton

It's Gordon Beckham's World...

2009-07-09T16:33:00.002-04:00

We just live in it. Best sports quote in a long time. And yes. It's a real quote. That's certainly one way to woo hot women.

Separately -- Gordo is now hitting .258 with 3 HRs and 18 RBI in 30 games. He peaked at .278 about a week ago, but he cooled a little since then. The guy he replaced at third base, Josh Fields, only has 6 HRs and 26 RBI in 65 games...with 2 HRs and 3 RBI coming while playing 1B after Gordo took his original spot.

PWD

Dawgs 13th Commit: Explosive DE

2009-07-09T10:07:00.001-04:00

Brandon Burrows committed to the Dawgs yesterday. The 6'4" 230 lb defensive end had offers from Florida, Oklahoma, Clemson and NC State. You had me at Florida offer. The upside -- explosion and work ethic. The downside -- both knees have been injured, and he's currently rehabbing an ACL.

Boss Bailey (ACL) and Kedric Golston (Car Accident) were both highly recruited kids who suffered catastrophic injuries early in their SR years. Both worked out. My guess is that he redshirts in Year 1 to get bigger and shore up his rehab. Then we see a 6'4" 250 lb kid at rush end trying to work his way up the depth chart in 2011.

Good luck to Burrows during his rehab.

PWD

The Fever: Are You Catching It?

2009-07-07T18:02:00.002-04:00

So, last year at this time, I had bought about five season previews, had devoured them, and couldn't wait for the season to start. I felt like a dog with a treat at the end of my snout, awaiting my master's slight signal to flip it into my jaws. The possibilities were boundless and I felt a feast at hand.

This year feels different. Not necessarily the opposite of last year's frothing, but just much, much more restrained and sheepish. Maybe it's because we really have no clue what this team will look like (the spring, after all, gave virtually no insights due to injuries) or maybe it's just that the hangover from last year still persists. I'm just suffereing from an unjustified malaise, a resigned, stoic stare. Am I alone?

There's a lot to look forward to: the nonconference schedule, Washuan and the freshmen, the underdog role, the renewed hate, the new faces we've been waiting to see perform. My malaise to the coming season will break soon. My copy of Phil Steele beckons. Camp opens in less than a month. We'll be rolling out some season previews shortly.

In the meantime, I ask: Are you as fired up as usual?

Quinton

Basketball Schedule: UGA to play UAB

2009-07-07T16:28:00.001-04:00

The Georgia men's basketball schedule continues to evolve as the Birmingham News reports that UAB is set to begin a home and home with Georgia starting in the upcoming 2009-2010 season. The first game will be played at Bartow Arena, and the second game will be played in 2010-2011 at Stegeman Coliseum.

The Blazers will play Georgia, Virginia, Cincy and Butler in 2009 along with their regular CUSA slate. They are consistently in the RPI 50-100 range so this is a quality mid-major game without being a Ben Hur game.

The existing 2009-2010 Georgia Basketball schedule so far:

Home:
Georgia Tech
New Orleans (Billy Humphrey's return)
UNC-Asheville

Away:
St. John's (Big East Challenge in Madison Square Garden)
Missouri
Virginia Tech
UAB

Neutral:
Illinois

PWD

Some football headlines

2009-07-07T00:02:00.000-04:00

I was beginning to get the shakes it had been so long since anything interesting was said about the football team not involving finances or recruiting.

Joe Cox -- David Hale has a profile of Cox up on his site. I may have said this already, but I'm coming around on Joe. I think it was Buck Belue who said Joe is probably the #3 QB in the SEC right now. Hard to disagree on that one. The only other viable candidate for #3 QB is Jefferson at LSU. If you've got one of the Top 3-4 QBs in the SEC and a veteran OL, you should be looking at 10 wins. Not a rebuilding year.
#2 in the East - Dennis Dodd has us as second in the East behind the Gators (ht - Bill). I have to take issue with his selection of South Carolina at #3. Who is a playmaker for the Gamecocks? Their QB is a headcase who committed about 11 turnovers in the loss to Iowa which is the same number of times he's been arrested. Name a WR...Moe Brown? Yeah...he's fast, but those hands aren't sponsored by Palmolive. Cook is gone. Three of their top 4 DBs are gone, and so is Brinkley. You've basically got Norwood (a DE playing linebacker) and a bunch of maybes. They look like the least talented Gamecock squad since 1999, and Spurrier is almost a decade removed from being a genius. I'm thinking we beat this group about like we beat that '99 crew 24-9. My pecking order is:
SEC West - I'm with Blutarsky in that I don't know who to pick in the West. I just know it's not Nutt. He's at his best when the least is expected. Worst front runner ever. I'm really leaning towards LSU because they added Chavis and removed the 10 points per game in turnovers from the pre-Jefferson QB Collection.
Recommended Reading - Bulldog Illustrated recommends some non-UGA SEC Blogs. To his list, I would add RockyTopTalk, RollBamaRoll, AL.com/Sports (great aggregation of Bama and AU news), and the Joe Cribbs Car Wash.
The Top 10 Games of '09 - Bruce Feldman list his Top 10 games, and the Dawgs aren't in there. I'd obviously remove the USC vs. ND selection in favor of UGA vs. Ok State. Something special is going to happen in that game. One of those two teams is going to start a pretty interesting season on Sept. 5th.

PWD

Trey Thompkins continues to make progress

2009-07-06T23:14:00.007-04:00

(Updated: 6:15 am ET) Trey Thompkins's work with the U19 Team USA squad really looks promising so far. Against Greece on Monday, he scored 22 points on 10 of 14 shooting. And this morning eastern time, Trey again lead the US with 14 points and 9 rebounds in a big 82-61 victory over Puerto Rico.

After five official games in New Zealand, Trey is the leading scorer for the Team USA squad. He's averaging 12.8 points in only 15.4 minutes while pulling down 5.6 rebounds per game. Through five games he only has one turnover. His minutes are down a bit because he got in foul trouble in Game 2, and Coach Dixon (Pitt) is giving everyone lots of minutes to keep the players fresh for the daily tourney grind.

More importantly, there's this quote:

“I decided today that I was going to be very, very aggressive. I heard that Greece liked to bump and bang, well I decided that I was going to be the guy that initiated it first and they were going to have to throw punches back,” said Thompkins.

Oh...and this one...

"Well I’ll be honest with you. Coach Dixon and everyone ran us [into] the floor when we were in training. So we’re definitely ready for that second half of defense, and that was his most important objective, second half of defense. He wasn’t so much worried about our offense because we have a bunch of dynamic scorers, so he just banged on the second half of defense."

If you asked those close to the basketball program what are the three biggest concerns about Trey, I'm pretty sure you'd hear conditioning, toughness and defense. It sounds like he's making big progress on all three fronts.

I know...I know...you're thinking...we're USA. We *should* be killing these other teams. True, but Team USA U19 hasn't won this event (which is held every four years) since 1991. In 2003, we didn't even medal.

With the win over Puerto Rico, the Team USA is assured of advancing to the quarter-finals, and they are guaranteed the top seed regardless of the outcome of their game tomorrow night vs Lithuania.

PWD

Hoops Schedule: UGA vs. UNC-Asheville

2009-07-06T22:23:00.006-04:00

More of Mark Fox's schedule is beginning to take shape for the 2009-2010 Georgia Basketball season. The latest mid-major addition is the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs at home on Tuesday, Nov. 24th at 7:00 pm. (ht - macdaddy)

UNC-Asheville went 15-16 overall on the season last year and finished with an RPI of 200. This year, they return 4 of their top 5 scorers and 4 of their top 5 rebounders. The #1 guy in both categories appears to be gone.

They will have played Tennessee and Charlotte before our game so they should have their act together when they roll into Athens. Incidentally, they face Kentucky after us. Those four games combined with returning the bulk of their talent should give them an RPI in the 150-200 range next year.

Also, Coach Ed Biedenbach of UNC-Asheville was an assistant coach at Georgia for Hugh Durham from 1981-1989.

The existing 2009-2010 Georgia Basketball schedule so far:

Home:

Away:

Neutral:

You won't find many SEC or ACC schools playing five BCS schools in a year. In fact, last year Kentucky lead all SEC and ACC teams by playing six non-conference BCS conference members. Most SEC and ACC schools played 2-4 such opponents. UGA faced four of them.

Plus, rumblings indicate that one or two quality mid-majors (RPI 50-100 caliber programs) will still be added to the slate. It'll be a manageable schedule that the computers will like. The trick to basketball scheduling is to avoid the sub-300 RPI teams that Felton booked extensively.

I still think it's an NIT team at best, but that would definitely be an improvement over all but 4 days of the past two years.

PWD

A Dawgly Black Sheep Passes

2009-07-06T21:07:00.003-04:00

On June 20th, retired Marine Col. Kenneth L. Reusser (age 89), passed away in Portland, Oregon. The former Georgia Bulldog football player and wrestler was a two time winner of the Navy Cross for bravery in World War II and the Korean War. He earned his second Navy Cross as a member of Marine Fighter Squadron 214, nicknamed the "Black Sheep Squadron."

The Washington Post profiled Reusser as part of their July 4th coverage. His obit is an incredible read. His life is the sort that Dan Magill typically writes about in his series of articles I call "Bill Brasky Eat Your Heart Out."

BTW -- I'm not selling this big enough. Let me mention that...he ran out of ammo mid-flight so he chased a Japanese recon plane for 100 miles and then rammed him in mid-air from the rear to knock him out of the sky. That's why you should be reading this.

If you have a minute, give his story a read.

PWD

ht -- Eric T.

Official UGA Deck Parking Passes on Sale

2009-07-06T15:36:00.001-04:00

From UGA Communications:

Season-Long Parking Pass
Parking Services will once again offer a season-long parking permit at multiple locations on campus. Parking permits will guarantee you a space in the parking deck you have chosen. No more rushing to beat the crowds.

Season parking permits will be sold on a first come, first served basis regardless of point status within the Athletic Department's giving system. Permits in selective decks will sell out quickly.

Pricing
2009 SEASON PARKING PERMIT
$120.00 ($20 per game for 6 home games)
plus shipping & handling

Click to buy.

(This isn't a sponsored link of mine. Although, it would be cooler if it were)

Reporters returning back from vacation

2009-07-06T12:01:00.000-04:00

The beat writers and columnists are starting to return to work today after pre-SEC meetings hiatus/vacations. Tony Barnhart gets things started today by just talking about random tidbits. My favorite:

The SEC has now won 179 national championships in various sports since its founding in 1933. But 63 of those championships, over one-third, have come since 2000....
...The SEC sponsors 20 men's and women's sports. In 10 of those sports the SEC either won the national championship or was the national runner-up during the 2008-2009 academic year.

PWD

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T00:01:00.001-04:00

On behalf of Quinton, Dawgnoxious and myself, I want to salute the men and women serving the country this Fourth of July. Seen above are 1st Lt Jason Gwinn (Class of '00), 2nd Lt Jonathan Rue (Class of '04). Rue is the one with the 'stache. He allegedly is a reader of the site, and for that we owe him a second thank you.

They are standing on a MRAP (mine resistant, ambush protected vehicle) before going on a patrol. You can click on the picture to enlarge and get a wallpaper sized version. The photo was sent in by Matt B.

Thanks fellas,

The Georgia Sports Blog Team

UGA vs. Michigan in 2010/2011?

2009-07-01T19:21:00.003-04:00

Michigan fans react to this post.

Despite the rumors swirling around about a potential two game series between UGA and Michigan, we heard earlier this afternoon from a pretty good source that there's nothing to it. Certainly not now anyway. The rumor originated from the Michigan campus newspaper.

Additionally, Bill King the AJC fan blogger debunks the rumor via applying common sense to the situation; although, he made no indication of actually calling the athletic department and asking.

The original rumor had UGA traveling to the Big House in 2010 to open the season. King pointed out that UGA already has a season opener against Louisiana-Lafayette in 2010. However, that's not such a big problem according to the Athens Banner-Herald (05/18/09):

"Georgia would play Louisiana-Lafayette on Sept. 4, 2010 in the season opener, but that might be moved to a November date to accommodate another opponent the Bulldogs might add, [Arthur] Johnson said."

The real issues are these (some Bill outlined and some he didn't):
1. Georgia absolutely will not play a schedule with only five home games. To play a game at Michigan in 2010 (and the series would have to start there due to the UM schedule), UGA would only have 5 home games. For financial and political reasons that will never, ever, ever happen. Nor should it.

2. To avoid having only 5 home games, we would have to cancel the road game at Colorado in 2010 or move it. It would be extremely difficult to move that game given Colorado's schedule. So we'd have to buy the game out. Thereby reducing the financial incentive of playing Michigan in the first place. I would glady swap two games with Michigan for one game with Colorado. Or we could move the UF game out of Jax (kidding).

2. UGA's 2011 schedule is full. We've already moved the App State game once. I guess we could move it again. But we just booked NMSU so I'm doubting that we're about to move that one. That leaves the Louisville game. Pushing the first game in that series (home in 2011) out makes no sense because 2012-2014 is when the schedule turns more difficult with Bama and LSU returning to the rotation. So we'd have to cancel the series likely. Do you think that Georgia is going to pay the cancellation fees to end one game with Colorado and two games with Louisville just to play Michigan? That seems pretty expensive.

3. Michigan has only played three games in the Deep South during the regular season since the Great Depression. Those games include:

Chapel Hill - '65
Duke - '68
S. Carolina - '85

In my opinion, they aren't coming down here in September. You can pretty well forget that. Since 1922, Michigan hasn't traveled to the states of Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missisippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Virginia, Texas or Oklahoma. During those years, schools from almost all of those states have played games in Ann Arbor without a return trip. Including Georgia (1957 and 1965).

I would be shocked out of my chair if this happened. Thrilled. But shocked.

Brian Cook, leading Michgan blogger, doesn't think it'll happen either; although, some of his details are wrong about UGA's scheduling issues.

PWD

Trey Thompkins update from New Zealand

2009-07-01T13:44:00.001-04:00

Howard "Trey" Thompkins III is in New Zealand with Team USA's U19 team, and things are going well. The team played an international friendly upon arrival in New Zealand against Croatia and won 97-68.

Trey had seven points and seven rebounds in the game. Team USA Head Mentor Jamie Dixon (head coach at Pitt) said this about the team so far:

"I would say the thing that really stands out (about the USA team) is how different guys have impacted throughout and how it has changed constantly. I had a couple of people who have been through this who said that. Even just in practices from one day to the next, guys would change, different guys would step up and I think really that's going to be our strength. The strength of this team is we have 12 players top to bottom, that might be our advantage over some other teams.

"John Shurna today played really well today and he didn't play as much in our last scrimmage. Tyshawn Taylor played really well, so we've had different guys. Seth Curry has been our leading scorer, so has Howard Thompkins, but today I don't think they were and so we had different guys today. I think that again will be our strength and we've really stressed that as well through these 10 days, that we're going need all 12 guys to win every game and I think the guys are seeing that as well."

To learn that Trey is one of the leading scorers for a team like this through the practice sessions is promising. It'll be interesting to see how he performs as they get into more serious international play.

PWD

Gordon Beckham Heats Up. Average now at .267

2009-07-01T06:05:00.000-04:00

Gordon Beckham is now adjusting to the White Sox in a big way. During the Chicago White Sox's Monday and Tuesday games, Beckham combined to go 6 of 7 with 1 HR, 4 RBI, 1 walk, and 1 stolen base.

On the season, he's hitting .267 with 2 HR and 13 RBI in 23 games. Considering he started out 2 for 28 (.071) thru his first 8 games, he's doing extremely well to have a .267 average now.

Tuesday night he was moved up in the order from 8th to 7th for the first time.

(Image: TheBeckettBlog)

Why do I keep coming back to Gordo? Because the one thing the baseball program lacks is a flagship Major Leaguer, and because...how can you not like the guy? He's the Diamond Dawg equivalent of David Pollack in terms of charisma and production in Athens.

PWD

The Steady Erosion of UGA Athletics?

2009-06-30T21:30:00.002-04:00

The final NACDA Learfield Sports Cup rankings came out Tuesday and the news isn't good for Dawg people. For those that don't know, the cup (it was once the Sears Cup, but is now sponsored by something called Learfield Sports) is the award for the best overall athletic performance by an NCAA athletic department. Each school's score is based on a system of point allocations. Points are given to each athletic program based on how their athletic teams finish in NCAA championships. Each program gets to take their top twenty performing teams, ten teams of each sex. Stanford, who fields an enormous amount of D-1 teams, always wins because they can usually pick twenty really good teams from their diverse portfolio. UGA, in comparison, has only 20 athletic teams and riding horses doesn't count in the standings.

Across the conference, however, the criteria are fairly equal. LSU has 19 sports teams and UF has 20, but one is women's lacrosse, which they haven't ever gotten points for. So, of the three SEC athletic programs which are consistently in the top 15 in the standings, all have the same number of sports, 19.

For the first half of the previous decade, UGA and UF were always fighting it out for the best SEC athletic program. From 1999 to 2005, these two schools were in a constant battle. UF held on to the conference crown in successive years only once. Other than those two years, it was an alternating honor between the two schools. LSU was a consistent third.

Since 2004, however, check out the trends:

That's disturbing for UGA as it illustrates a consistent erosion in overall athletic competitiveness. This year's finish sees us outside of the top 15 for the first time since 1997. Meanwhile, LSU has been on the opposite trajectory, rising for its first back-to-back top 10 finish.

So, what's the problem? Could it be Damon Evans, who assumed the reigns of the UGA athletic department on July 1, 2004? Or is that just a coincidence? Damon inherited Felton (the basketball program has garnered points only once during the decline), Andy Landers had his worst year in a long time last season, and it was an odd year for the baseball team. Most of this year's differential with LSU can be accounted for by two sports: track and basketball. Every other UGA team is within the general area of their 2004 performance (baseball was #3 in 2004, but we did get points this year). When UF and LSU are putting every team they have in postseason, UGA is going to fade fast with a couple of misses. That's just what happened this year.

Any year you finish in the top ten is a good year. This year's big drop isn't necessarily Damon's fault, but it should be a warning. UF and LSU are demanding and getting excellence from every program they field. We should do the same. I hate for UGA to be second in anything. I hate third even more.

Quinton

Dawgs Land Running Back

2009-06-30T13:13:00.002-04:00

UGA landed its eighth commitment from the month of June today as Ken Malcome announced his intention to enroll at Georgia ($ premium). Malcome (6'0" and 212 lbs) is described as a power back ($) with scholarship offers from Florida, Alabama, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. If we are landing kids that UF, Bama and OU are chasing, that's all I need to know about the kid's "rating."

He is attends the same high school as T.J. Stripling (6'6" 210 lb. four star DE).

PWD

Defending Tech's Option

2009-06-29T12:32:00.001-04:00

TheBirdDog is a Navy football blog that understands and follows Triple Option football as good or better than anyone. This week, he did a write up of last year's UGA vs. GT game. It's sort of an autopsy of what went wrong, and it looks at how difficult Johnson's triple option is to defend.

He starts by pointing out that the Triple Option as run by Paul Johnson isn't the Wishbone of the '70s and '80s, and that's relevant because he believes that Willie Martinez used some old Dave Wannstedt concepts for defending OU's option. Wannstedt was the Miami defensive coordinator when the Canes beat Nebraska and Miami by a combined score of 71-33 from 1986-1988. Martinez was a defensive graduate assistant on the '86 Miami team working for Wannstedt.

Wannstedt's Pitt team lost to Paul Johnson's Navy in 2007 by a score of 48-45. In other words, the writer's point that defending Johnson's option is different than defending the Bone is a valid point. Although, I don't think we were using the entire Wannstedt script verbatim.

The link above includes some play by play videos with diagrams that show what went wrong or right for UGA. It also shows opportunities for Tech to improve in running their offense next year. After reviewing his videos and reading his article, I still come up with the same opinion. Willie's strategy wasn't fundamentally flawed to some unworkable level like many Dawg fans think. Was it without blemish? Obviously not.

But, watch those videos and focus on our safeties instead of the ball carrier. What you'll see is epic fail. You'll see our safeties running into blocks aimed at other defenders. You'll see shoulder brushing nudges instead of tackles. Long runs followed by horse collar tackles resulting in add-on 15 yard penalities. When Willie benched one of the starting safeties for Bryan Evans, Evans performed ok. But we didn't have the healthy depth at safety to bench the other starter.

You're going to have a tough time convincing me that the same DB coach that instructed Jermaine Phillips, Terrell Bierra, Sean Jones, Thomas Davis and Greg Blue suddenly forgot how to coach safeties. At some point, the player simply has to want to deliver.

And in their defense, you don't get better at tackling by not practicing tackling for 2 months. If Richt is really committed to tackling to the ground this season instead of going "thud" all year, we should look more competent defending the option. With healthy young players providing some depth at Safety, we can also pull our starters before they are in total meltdown mode.

Will we defend the option like LSU did with a month to prepare? I doubt it. But we can look better.

Tech will improve offensively as well. But our team's tackling was so bad from mid-season to Thanksgiving that the opportunity for improvement defending the run in any form is extremely high.

PWD

(ht - Nathan)

Dawg Fans Will Get Four Years to Ogle Ogletree

2009-06-26T22:41:00.001-04:00

So, I told myself that I was done with recruiting this year, but since Paul is away, coverage falls to me. UGA's recruiting efforts have picked up this month starting with Da'Rick Rogers and has now totaled six more recruits. The latest is another headliner: Alec Ogletree of Newnan ($ subscription required $). Rivals ranks him as the top safety in the country and the #29 player overall. He's 6-3, 210 and runs a 4.55. The commit was a bit surprising because Ogletree hadn't given many indications of where he was leaning. Be glad he was tilted toward Athens.

Judging by this video, he can move and isn't shy at the point of contact. (Warning: the video's music contains naughty words. If you're sensitive, turn your speakers down, but don't close your eyes.)

It was the second commit in as many days. Yesterday Treasure Coast, Florida linebacker Deon Rogers committed to the Dawgs. Unlike Ogletree, Rogers had virtually no other BCS school offers, which has disturbed the recruitniks. Hey, the coaches saw something and the kid is really fast (4.48). He will need to add some weight to his current 197 pounds to play SEC football, but if he can keep that speed and tackle well, we can use him.

Others have cynically pointed out that Rogers may have gotten an offer because he is boys with Jeff Luc, another Treasure Coast linebacker with considerably more acclaim than Rogers. As in the No. 8 player in the country. Luc has appeared wide open so far, but it can't hurt that Rogers is already in the fold and can talk the Dawgs up to Luc for eight months.

Quinton

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-06-25T22:07:00.006-04:00

All my bags are packed. I'm ready to go.

You can't imagine how ready I am to blow off the next few days at work, here, at home, etc. Don't worry, I won't be hiking the Appalachian Trail, visiting my Argentina mistress, or paying my respects to Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett or Ed McMahon.

Although anyone my age and up should provide a moment of silence for that red one piece of Farrah's. And frankly, I think I'd get more street cred than I'd know what to do with if I had a mistress from Argentina or really any old country. But clearly, I digress.

I'm out. If Quinton or Dawgnoxious post, great. If not, there's always the rest of the tubes.

BTW -- Why did airlines do away with these uniforms? In my humble opinion, they are the very model of professionalism and commerce.

PWD

Recruit Profile: Demetre Baker

2009-06-25T07:18:00.001-04:00

Baker is the explosive, power hitting, undersized (waistline wise) four star linebacker from Jacksonville who committed to Georgia recently. The Florida Times-Union named him Boys Athlete of the Year.

The article talks about his plans to add 10-15 pounds before this coming football season. That would put him his 6'0" frame at 210-215 pounds. In other words, it's reasonable that he would be at least 220 pounds by the 2010 season.

The article also talks about his accomplishments including:
-- 4A State Champ - Shot Put (I think he's the two time champ)
-- 4A State Runner-Up - Discus
-- All Conference - Weightlifting Team
-- Times-Union's All-First Coast boys track and field athlete of the year

When I picture a championship caliber shot putter or discus thrower, I envision a guy shaped like Reese Hoffa. Not a guy like Baker. He's an impressive kid physically, and the Florida paper says his academics are in great shape.

PWD

ht - OldDog

Perno Talks Draft and Scholarships

2009-06-24T21:54:00.002-04:00

Coach Perno talked about the impact of the MLB draft on the incoming baseball class today with 960 the Ref. The short version is that he thinks stud C/1B Miles Head is likely to sign a pro deal instead of come to UGA, but he's probably the only guy we'll lose.

Perno also discusses the new scholarship rules for baseball and his anger at the NCAA for telling them not only how much he can give but how he can give it. I won't bore you with the details, but dividing 11.7 scholarships between an entire college baseball team is difficult. It's more difficult with rules about how much of a scholarship you may allocate to players. Perno might need a finance professor and a team of lawyers to field a team.

It's worth a listen.

Quinton