Dawg Sports

Monday Night Dawg Bites: Who Dat Say Saints Make Him Wanna Puke? Edition

2010-02-09T03:21:06Z

The Monday following Super Bowl Sunday is like an aluminum bat to the face, and trebly so if the team you (nominally) supported the day before lost. Granted, there is no outcome of any NFL game I could find truly fortunate or unfortunate---it’s the NFL; it’s basically just a waste of six or eight otherwise perfectly good years of collegiate eligibility (and, hey, I took forever to get through school, so why can’t they?)---but the Super Bowl marks the surest sign that football season is well and truly done.

Accordingly, in an effort to come to terms with the reality of the offseason, I bring you a brief rundown of goings-on around the blogosphere for your entertainment and, I hope, edification:

The national news media would nominate Drew Brees for Sainthood, but that would be redundant. I’ll admit it . . . I had a much stronger visceral reaction against the Saints than was warranted under the circumstances, partly because of an Atlanta-area native’s ingrained disdain for the longtime Falcons rival but mostly because I have been annoyed for a full decade over the absurdity of Drew Brees being named the MVP of the 2000 Outback Bowl, which his team lost to my team. I repeat: he was named the most valuable player in a game his team lost, even though his team’s defeat would appear to suggest that there were 85 scholarship athletes on the opposite sideline who were more valuable to their team than Brees was to his, since their team, you know, won, or something.

Nevertheless, we now find ourselves in a curious situation wherein Saints fans are praising a player who went to school in Indiana while mocking a Colts quarterback who grew up in the Big Easy. Go figure. In any case, Florida fans were rooting for the Saints, so I know I was right to favor Indianapolis.

New Orleans head coach Sean Payton is gutless. At least, that’s what Brian Cook and Spencer Hall say, although I think they’re being more complimentary than they sound. Somewhere, there is someone who will play the Donald Kagan to the blogosphere’s George Will, but, in the meantime, the deromanticizing of athletics by mathematicians is undeniably accurate, inevitable, and regrettable. This, alas, makes sports much like a great deal else in life, which is precisely what dorky smart guys like me were trying to avoid in the realm of athletics in the first place before other dorky smart guys like us insisted upon bringing their intelligence and dorkitude to bear.

When raw recruits stop being recruits, shouldn’t they also stop being raw? Since I’ve unofficially assumed the responsibility for viewing as half-empty any glass Senator Blutarsky identifies as half-full, I am obligated to state that this is a testament to the Bulldogs’ gridiron underachievement. If a team lands eight top-ten recruiting classes in a decade and finishes with a top-ten postseason ranking only five times during that span, multiple players are failing to live up to their potential. Granted, the correlation is not one-to-one---we would do better to track the performance of the recruiting class from Year A in the football season of Year A+3---but look what Alabama, Florida, Louisiana State, Oklahoma, and Texas did in the 2000s with fewer top-ten recruiting hauls than the ‘Dawgs.

Paul Johnson would like to remind you that we don’t define them in any way. There’s trying too hard to find fault with a rival, and then there’s this:

Recruiting players you KNOW can't even get into school? Saint Richt goes Outlaw and sends his man to prep school for a year. Don't worry that they can't qualify, just keep that south Georgia pipeline open.....

That is a Georgia Tech fan’s unintentionally hilarious way of spinning what I actually wrote about Lonnie Outlaw:

Although the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Chip Towers reported that Outlaw will not qualify for freshman admission, the 6’7" receiver has earned the requisite ACT score. At the Bulldogs’ request, Coach Ledford faxed Outlaw’s ACT score to Athens before a formal offer was made.

Once the new Georgia signee’s test result was received, an offer sheet bearing the signatures of Mark Richt and Damon Evans was sent and Outlaw became a Bulldog. Because he needs additional credits, he will come to Athens by way of Milledgeville, where he will attend Georgia Military College.

Georgia signed a two-star athlete after confirming the adequacy of his ACT score and sent him to Georgia Military College because he still needed additional credit-hours to complete his coursework. You really have to work at it to characterize that as "[r]ecruiting players you KNOW can’t even get into school," particularly since Mark Richt has an admirable track record of signing recruits who pass muster academically. It’s not like our registrar’s office certified numerous ineligible athletes in multiple sports over a period of at least seven years or anything. . . .

Since all of us are out to get you, your paranoia is just a sign of clear thinking. Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples---presumably another of those ubiquitous Gator-haters just looking for ways to take every little thing out of context to make Urban Meyer look bad---wrote the following about the "turmoil" (his word) in Gainesville leading up to national signing day:

Meyer resigned, citing health reasons, on Dec. 26. He changed his mind the next day, saying he would take an indefinite leave of absence. He kept on working, and during that time, he had to replace his defensive coordinator, his secondary coach, his running backs coach and his receivers coach/recruiting coordinator.

Despite all that -- and despite Meyer staying off the road much of January -- Meyer and his staff managed to assemble one of the nation's best classes. . . . With so many staff members in flux, the players already on the roster turned out to be some of Florida's best recruiters.

So having a staff in flux presented an obstacle for Florida, and George Edwards left the day after signing day. Nope, nothing to see here, huh?

Maybe the mention of Bo Derek in the Super Bowl open comment thread got me thinking about rating women on a scale on which ten indicates perfection. . . . Last Friday night’s season-high score brought the Gym Dogs’ average up to 195.85, good for ninth in this week’s rankings. Georgia’s losses were to No. 2 Alabama, No. 4 Utah, and No. 14 Auburn.

Mark Fox has his team playing incompetently, which actually represents an improvement. Did Georgia’s 72-58 basketball victory over Vandy produce a final score that truly reflected the course of the contest? Not according to Train Island, it didn’t:

Judging by the numbers, it looks like Vanderbilt was lucky to come out with only a 14 point loss. The only key statistic that the Commodores came out ahead on was turnovers - 11 for VU compared to 21 for UGA. That opens up a whole other can of worms though - how do you force 21 turnovers and lose by 14 points? . . .

The team uncharacteristically fell apart in the second half after playing the first held together by streaky shooting and Bulldog mistakes. The only reason this game was close at any point was because of Georgia's incompetence. As a wise man said in the game thread: "Georgia's primary offense play is[/was] the turnover." Once the Bulldogs played with the composure of a Division I team, it didn't take them long to unravel the 'Dores.

It was a quality win for the Fox Hounds, but, when an opposing fan attempting in good faith to describe the game makes legitimate reference to your team’s "incompetence," you still have a long way to go. Winning two in a row and/or one on the road would be a nice start.

Because I don’t spend enough autumn Saturdays being obnoxious to people wearing orange. Clemson has released its 2010 football schedule and the Country Gentlemen have out-of-conference games against two teams with whom the Tigers share much history: Auburn and Presbyterian.

The first three men to serve as head football coach at Fort Hill all were alumni of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, and one of them, Clemson football founder Walter Riggs, later hired John Heisman to coach the Orange and Purple after having previously hired him to coach the Plainsmen while serving as the manager at Auburn. The Blue Hose, while never rising to the level of a genuine rival, regularly served as Clemson’s season-opening punching bag before Frank Howard recognized that Presbyterian provided no preparation for the tough slate that followed. The "Death Valley" nickname was first applied to Memorial Stadium by a head coach of the Blue Stockings.

Good for Clemson for reaching back into the Tigers’ past and scheduling teams with whom the Fort Hill Felines share significant history. If the Country Gentlemen have any more such dormant rivalries---and they do---perhaps it’s time to revive them more frequently, as well. I’m just saying.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Super Bowl Game Day Open Comment Thread

2010-02-07T22:45:09Z

Aside from the G-Day game, tonight's NFL championship outing is the last real football we'll get until Labor Day weekend, so we might as well make the most of it before the offseason truly begins.

Feel free to share your thoughts on Jon Stinchcomb, Tim Jennings, Travis Jones, 2000 Outback Bowl MVP Drew Brees, longtime Bulldog-slayer Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis Colts, the New Orleans Saints, Tim Tebow, and the rest of the commercials in the comments below.

Go 'Dawgs!

Why This Super Bowl Sunday Is a Big Day In Bulldog Nation

2010-02-07T14:11:10Z

James Wallace Butts was a native Georgian and a direct descendant of Captain Samuel Butts, for whom Butts County is named. During Coach Butts's first season as the Bulldogs' skipper in 1939, the Bulldogs were facing NYU in Yankee Stadium when New York Times sports editor Robert Kelley approached Athens Banner-Herald sports editor Dan Magill and asked, "What nationality is Coach Butts?" Perhaps for the first and last time in his storied career as the definitive source of data for all things Bulldog, Magill did not know the answer, so Atlanta Journal columnist Edwin "Ole Timer" Camp interjected, "Why, he's a Georgia Cracker---that's what nationality he is."

Camp was right. Coach Butts served the University of Georgia as an assistant coach, as head coach, and as athletic director. His 22 years at the helm of the Red and Black football program make him the Bulldogs' second longest-tenured coach, behind only Vince Dooley. Coach Butts trails only Coach Dooley in victories, as well; between 1939 and 1960, Wally Butts compiled a ledger of 140-86-9 that included four SEC championships, shares of a pair of national titles, and wins in the Oil, Orange, Rose, and Sugar Bowls. Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy called Wally Butts "one of the greatest coaches of all time" and praised the Red and Black headmaster for the "beautiful but deadly flow of pass patterns, sound execution of fundamentals, and . . . hard-nosed style of play" that typified his Georgia teams.

Coach Butts opened recruiting pipelines to Ohio and Pennsylvania (the latter with the help of Keystone State Coca-Cola bottler and former Red and Black player Harold Ketron) and he coached three of the four Georgia players whose jersey numbers are retired (Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich and Maxwell Award winner Charley Trippi among them), as well as "Peerless Pilot" Fran Tarkenton. Following his sudden death in 1973, Coach Butts was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery, in the shadow of Sanford Stadium; prior to his passing, he had written weekly letters to Coach Dooley throughout the younger skipper's coaching tenure in Athens.

I mention such things about Wally Butts because he was born in Milledgeville on February 7, 1905 . . . 105 years ago today.

Enjoy your Super Bowl Sunday, Bulldog Nation.

Go 'Dawgs!

Instantaneous Ill-Informed Roundball Wrapup: Georgia Bulldogs 72, Vanderbilt Commodores 58

2010-02-07T03:27:36Z

All right . . . so, wait, you can build up an early lead, lose it, be trailing at the half, come back, and then win? Are you sure they allow that, 'cause I thought the formula was play hard, build a lead, let them cut into it before the break, go into the locker room up by a couple or three but feeling demoralized, and let it get away at the end in the most agonizing fashion imaginable.

So you're saying the Fox Hounds actually are allowed to win one that's close at the half?

I'm sorry, I'm not buying it. I'm thinking the league office is going to review this one and say we have to forfeit it or something. I mean, being down at the break and outscoring the other team after intermission has to be against the rules when we do it, or else we'd do it all the time, wouldn't we? Hang on, I'm checking . . . wait a second while I Google that. . . .

Well, I'll be danged. It turns out we are allowed to do that. Georgia was behind 26-23 and came back to outduel the 'Dores by a 49-32 margin in the second half. Who knew?

Great job, guys. Maybe all those nailbiters were a learning experience, after all.

Could it really be that things are turning around in Bulldog Nation? Could it really?

Go 'Dawgs!

Vanderbilt Commodores at Georgia Bulldogs Basketball Game Night Open Comment Thread

2010-02-07T00:30:16Z

Admittedly, I pretty much ignored the midweek men's basketball game because it fell on national signing day and, frankly, I didn't think anyone would care.

Now, though, it's the weekend, the Fox Hounds are back in action at the Stegosaurus, and it's time to figure out if the Hoop Dogs can close the deal against an SEC opponent.

Should you be so inclined, you are welcome to comment on the evening's roundball action below.

Go 'Dawgs!

Gym Dogs Right the Ship in Home Win Over Kentucky

2010-02-06T02:51:58Z

It has been a busy day in Bulldog Nation, and especially here at Dawg Sports, so I regret that I cannot give the Gym Dogs the full attention they deserve. However, it suffices to say that, as suddenly as the bottom appeared to have fallen out on the nation’s top women’s gymnastics program, the Red and Black bounced back with a convincing win over Kentucky.

The Wildcat gymnasts outdueled the Red and Black in the vault, edging the Athenians 49.15-48.95 in the event in Friday’s meet at Stegeman Coliseum. Nevertheless, the home team was much more poised this week, as no Georgia gymnast earned a mark below 9.7 and three carded a 9.8 or better.

After that, the Gym Dogs took charge on the bars, notching an overall 49.45 to the Blue and White’s 48.925 score. A pair of 9.9s from Courtney McCool and Gina Nuccio were eclipsed by Kat Ding’s 9.975.

Georgia earned cumulative tallies of 49.4 both on the beam and in the floor exercise to put up a total of 197.2, for a figure much more in line with what we have come to expect from the Red and Black. Scores of 9.9 or above were received by Hilary Mauro (beam), McCool (floor), Grace Taylor (beam), and Shayla Worley (beam and floor). Kentucky limped home with a 48.65 on the beam and a 48.725 in the floor exercise to tally a 195.45 mark.

That’s more like it! While a victory over Kentucky in a home meet only proves so much, the collective score posted by the Gym Dogs offered a very encouraging sign that quality Georgia gymnastics did not end when Suzanne Yoculan retired. Nice job, ladies.

I’m almost hesitant to say this, but it’s been a pretty good week in Bulldog Nation.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Mark Richt Rounds Out Georgia Bulldogs' Defensive Staff by Hiring Warren Belin

2010-02-06T02:29:36Z

Fortunately, vineyarddawg was all over this story when David Hale brought us the news that Warren Belin is Georgia’s new linebackers coach, completing the staff that has been at least a man down since Willie Martinez and two other defensive coaches were sacked.

I know what you’re thinking . . . we’re hiring coaches from Vanderbilt? Yes, that’s right, and here’s why:

Who was Bobby Johnson praising two days ago when he announced his best recruiting class ever?

His recruiting coordinator, Warren Belin.

And now Belin, who is also the Commodores' linebackers and special teams coach, is joining Mark Richt's staff as linebackers coach at Georgia. You can read the entire press release and get some analysis on David Hale's excellent Georgia blog.

Belin was with Bobby Johnson for the past eight years and helped develop linebackers Hunter Hillenmeyer, Marcus Buggs, Moses Osemwegie, Jonathan Goff, Patrick Benoist and now Chris Marve. If you're a Georgia fan and don't recognize those names, let's just say that all those guys were two-star recruits who developed into All-SEC players under Coach Belin's tutelage. Most of those guys are playing or will play in the NFL, and Hillenmeyer is the son of a stockbroker and the Bears linebacker who stripped the ball from Adrian Peterson in overtime of a late-season Monday night game to stun Farve and the Vikings.

Imagine what Belin can do with four- and five-star talent, if those guys are willing to learn and achieve their potential.

After the disappointment of this year’s signing day, that ought to be music to your ears. Since poor recruiting efforts can doom a program long-term, Coach Richt decided to cure what ails us by bringing in a coach who can (a) improve our recruiting down the road and (b) get the most out of athletes with fewer stars in the interim. That sounds to me like a smart hire for now and a smart hire for later.

Bear in mind that Coach Belin’s service on the Commodores’ staff has included stints as linebackers coach, recruiting coordinator, and special teams coordinator. Had I asked you twelve hours ago to name the Bulldogs’ five or six biggest areas of need, three of them likely would have been coaching up the linebackers (particularly in the 3-4 scheme Georgia will adopt under Todd Grantham), recruiting, and special teams. Also, Coach Belin brings what Coach Grantham and Scott Lakatos lack: SEC experience.

Joke all you want about how it’s just Vanderbilt; even leaving aside the fact that Coach Belin was there for the most successful period of Commodore history in nearly three decades, the fact is that Brian VanGorder’s resume consisted of coaching stints at Grand Valley State, Wayne State, Central Florida, Central Michigan, and Western Illinois before Coach Richt tapped him to be the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator. Say what you will about the ‘Dores, but at least they don’t have a directional indicator in their nomenclature and at least you’re 100 per cent sure of the state in which their campus is located, which is more than you can say about any institution that employed Coach VanGorder prior to his arrival in Athens. Did that hire work out for us? Well, then trusting Coach Richt on this one wouldn’t be altogether out of line, then, would it?

All three of Coach Richt’s recent staff hires have been light on the sizzle but strong on the steak. That’s fine with me. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my fill of sizzle in Sanford Stadium lately. Sizzle is breaking out new uniforms for big games. Steak is wrapping up when you tackle. Sizzle is a long bomb on first down. Steak is establishing the run. Sizzle is a preseason No. 1 ranking. Steak is a postseason No. 1 ranking.

Enough with the sizzle, already. We need steak, because it’s time to let the Big ‘Dawg eat.

Welcome to Bulldog Nation, Coach Belin.

Go ‘Dawgs!

You might want to pre-cringe for this one Georgia fans...

2010-02-05T22:30:37Z

You might want to pre-cringe for this one Georgia fans...

... because to fill the last slot on the Georgia defensive coaching staff, the Dawgs reached out and struck fear deep into the hearts of our enemies...

by hiring a coach from Vanderbilt.

I can feel the trolls coming already. This one is gonna hurt.

Was the Florida Gators' Recruiting Class Deceived by Urban Meyer?

2010-02-05T04:21:48Z

Let’s not mince words here; ever since I made the mistake of treating this soulless Cardassian cyborg like a functional human being, Urban Meyer has used every means at his disposal to confirm that he is, in fact, a total sleazeball. Yes, I would dislike him just because he was the Florida head coach, but Steve Spurrier was merely obnoxious; Urban Meyer’s a lying scumbag. You know it, I know it, and Matt Hinton knows it. Here, for the record, is the tale of the tape:

On December 9, 2009, Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong was hired to be the head coach at Louisville. Less than a month later, in a move many Gator fans considered "a surprise," Coach Meyer hired George Edwards to succeed Coach Strong in Gainesville. SB Nation’s Florida blogger, mlmintampa, noted (in the posting linked to in the preceding sentence): "Having a pro coach might provide an advantage of, ‘Hey kid, I can get you to the pros’."

On January 19, 2010, Chan Gailey was hired as the head coach in Buffalo. SB Nation’s lead Bills blogger, Brian Galliford, offered this assessment the following day:

Clearly, the first thing Gailey needs to do is get his stable of assistants in place. Expect him to concentrate on the defensive side of ball first, as Gailey revealed at his introductory press conference that he would be Buffalo's offensive play-caller in 2010. . . .

Gailey's most important hire will obviously be his defensive coordinator.

While Galliford’s evaluation certainly made sense, Coach Gailey’s immediate moves were on the other side of the ball, and the assistants he chose shared a common characteristic: all of them had worked with Chan Gailey at his previous coaching stops. Less than a week after the new head coach was hired, longtime colleague Curtis Modkins was tapped to be Buffalo’s offensive coordinator, and, by January 27, tight ends coach Bob Bicknell, offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris, and offensive quality control coach Kevin Patullo had been added. All had prior experience with Coach Gailey.

The Bills’ offensive staff was rounded out on February 1, when hires reported over the weekend were announced officially. George Cortez was introduced as quarterbacks coach and special teams coordinator Bruce DeHaven came on board, as well.

Accordingly, although Galliford’s prediction was imminently sensible, the exact opposite occurred: Chan Gailey needed to make hiring a defensive coordinator his top priority, but, instead, he assembled a complete offensive staff and even hired a special teams coordinator without appointing a chief assistant to run the defense. This left matters very much up in the air, as Coach Gailey’s other defensive hires were without formal position responsibilities or official titles: Giff Smith was brought in as a defensive assistant and Bob Sanders was retained from the previous staff, but their job descriptions were amorphous while the most important staff position remained unfilled.

What made the situation even more odd was the fact that Coach Gailey must have had his man in mind. His other staff hires showed a clear pattern of picking assistants with whom he had worked previously, and Coach Edwards had been given his first NFL job by Coach Gailey more than a decade before. Since the new Buffalo head coach surely had at least an inkling that Coach Edwards was the guy he wanted, why didn’t he do what he did in assembling an offensive staff; viz., hire the coordinator first then fill in the flow chart from there? Nothing prevented him from doing so, since the customary prohibition on poaching coaches involved in playoff runs obviously did not apply.

On February 3, Florida inked the country’s top recruiting class on national signing day despite the turmoil caused by Coach Meyer’s uncertain status since Christmas. Undoubtedly, this was pleasing to Coach Gailey, who quarterbacked the Gators as a collegian and recently helmed a Georgia Tech program that shares with Florida the view that Georgia and Florida State are hated rivals.

Also on national signing day, Jim Donnan stated on Atlanta radio (without naming names) that a big hire was forthcoming that would take a notable coach from a significant program. Coach Donnan indicated that he expected an announcement that day. No such announcement was made on February 3.

On February 4, in apparent confirmation of Coach Donnan’s forecast the previous day, Coach Edwards was hired as the defensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills after less than a month on Coach Meyer’s staff. The members of the elite Florida recruiting class whose national letters of intent had been signed just the day before evidently knew nothing of the move beforehand.

Now, it’s possible that it could just be a heck of a coincidence and that relentless control freak Urban Meyer was blissfully ignorant that his defensive coordinator was about to bail on him, even though a radio host who’s been out of coaching for a decade---since then-Notre Dame wide receivers coach Urban Meyer was about to start his first head coaching job at Bowling Green---knew it was happening beforehand. Maybe Coach Meyer’s recent health reversals have left him that oblivious to major events inside the program he micromanages obsessively . . . but I don’t believe that, and neither do you.

Are we seriously to believe that Chan Gailey, despite needing most of all to hire a defensive coordinator, saved the most important position for last, even though his hiring pattern made it abundantly clear that he wanted someone with whom he had worked before and he knew full well that George Edwards had the best resume for the job? Are we to believe that Chan Gailey did such a thing in a vacuum, and just happened to hold off until the day after George Edwards’s presence as an NFL guy on Urban Meyer’s staff aided Chan Gailey’s alma mater in landing the cream of the incoming collegiate crop?

Maybe that makes sense to you, but, to me, it seems a good deal more plausible that Chan Gailey knew from the get-go that he wanted George Edwards and that, either at Urban Meyer’s request or with Urban Meyer’s knowing assent, he waited more than two weeks to formalize that relationship so that the Gators could create the illusion of stability in an effort to dupe at least some of their recruits into signing with Florida under false pretenses.

Do I know Urban Meyer did such a thing? I do not; I’m just connecting the dots, but circumstantial evidence is still good evidence, and the math doesn’t seem to add up any other way. Besides, given what we know about Urban Meyer, exaggerator extraordinaire and outright liar, is there anything even a Gator fan---or, for that matter, even the daughter who thought she had her daddy back---would put past this charlatan? Doug Gillett is a friend of mine, but he has Coach Meyer ranked three spots too low.

The irony is that Urban Meyer has been as successful as any coach in the BCS era yet Congress intends to subject the BCS to laws governing deceptive trade practices. This is silly, seeing as how the consumers of college football are so fully aware of the Bowl Championship Series’s inherent flaws that fans consistently refer to the national championship as "mythical," but, if the House of Representatives wants to protect someone from dishonest practices in college football, maybe it ought to start in Gainesville with the 28 young men who are bound by letters of intent that were obtained by a man who ought to be asked, "What did the head coach know and when did he know it?"

Maybe every last one of those kids would have signed with Florida, anyway, but not telling them until the ink is dry is just sleazy, and the fact that he apparently kept the information from them suggests strongly that Coach Meyer wasn’t so sure there wouldn’t have been some defections if he was honest. As it stands, any member of the incoming crop of freshman Gators who thought he was coming to play for George Edwards and wants to go somewhere else because he feels he was misled can go play in Division I-AA or transfer within Division I-A and sit out a year. When outside observers look at such restrictions and shake their heads at the system in place in college football, we should not wonder why they condemn the sport as morally bankrupt. As long as we reward lying sacks of crap like Urban Meyer, the critics are right.

Meanwhile, Mark Richt is drawing criticism from fans for his signing class, yet still he continues to stand up like a man and say things like this:

Recruiting is a lot about relationships. Anytime there is some kind of change on your staff for whatever reason, the relationships that have been built throughout this recruiting process were broken. I think the timing of the hire taking as long as it did, it did put a strain on these young men that we had committed. We know that some guys changed their mind.

So it can be confusing at times. It can be very difficult at times. That’s why our policy has been to be very straightforward from the beginning. Don’t say something that won’t come true in the end. Trust is really the only thing we have to hold us together, I think.

What does it profit a man if he wins two crystal footballs at the cost of his own soul? The reason Old Scratch came up empty in Charlie Daniels’s "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is that he went one state too far north.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Florida Defensive Coordinator Bolts One Day After Signing Day

2010-02-04T20:01:02Z

Florida Defensive Coordinator Bolts One Day After Signing Day

One month into his tenure as the Gators' defensive coordinator, George Edwards is leaving Gainesville to return to the NFL ranks.

Coach Edwards leaves Florida one day after the team hauled in the country's top-ranked recruiting class on national signing day. Coach Edwards is heading to Buffalo, where he will serve as defensive coordinator under Chan Gailey. Coach Gailey was hired as the Bills' head coach on January 20, after the NFL franchise's season was over and two weeks before high school seniors were allowed to sign their national letters of intent.

Given the stellar record of trustworthiness compiled by Urban Meyer, I feel certain this timing was purely coincidental and the Florida coaching staff in no way kept such valuable information as the impending departure of their defensive coordinator from the prospects the Gators were pursuing.

Go 'Dawgs!

Dawg Sports On The Radio Tonight.

2010-02-04T17:30:21Z

Tonight I have the pleasure of again going on John Frary's evening radio show on ESPN 1420 from St. Augustine, Florida. It's the Signing Day Wrap-up program, and I'll be discussing Georgia's class of 19 young men who actually want to play football in Athens. I'm told there are a few other guys who went to play football somewhere else. I have discarded their names from my limited memory space, as I only have room for those guys' names or Mack Strong's high school rushing totals during his time at Brookstone School in Columbus( 4414 yards and 83 touchdowns, in case you're interested).

Again I'm scheduled to be up around 7:20-7:30, but they'll get to me when they get to me. Likely after the stream of Gator fans trying to figure out how to Gator chomp over a phone line.

Tonight's backing music will be provided by the emo-tinged, heavy metal blastin' Def Leppard/Morrisey cover band Leprosey, the official poorly-named coverband of Signing Day 2010. Until this evening . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

How Lonnie Outlaw Became a Georgia Bulldog

2010-02-04T05:30:13Z

As I have noted many times, I am not a journalist and I try not to play one on the internet. Only once in my four years at Dawg Sports have I broken a story, as the sad news of Erk Russell’s passing appeared here first. Occasionally, though, I get a phone call from someone I trust who has information he obtained first-hand, and I feel comfortable running with it. So it was yesterday, when this site evidently became the first to report the signing of Lonnie Outlaw, who assuredly has one of the coolest names in a 2010 signing class chock full of them.

Take that, Necho Beard and Munchie Legaux!

This is the story of how he became a Bulldog:

On the night of January 12, Lane Kiffin slithered out of Knoxville in the dead of night, bound for Los Angeles. There, Coach Kiffin fils and former Old Miss boss Ed Orgeron demonstrated the recruiting acumen that earned them the right to call themselves the two most loathsome people in college football never to have been accused of killing anyone. Thanks to the departing Tennessee coaches’ attempts to ransack the Volunteers’ recruiting class, new Big Orange skipper Derek Dooley found himself in a position to extend a scholarship offer to Nash Nance and thereby make eleventh-hour inroads with Da’Rick Rogers in spite of the longstanding relationship between Georgia and the Calhoun prospect.

Rogers’s last-minute change of heart opened up a scholarship and heightened the Bulldogs’ interest in Outlaw, a wide receiver from Wilcox County’s Class A state championship team. Mark Richt and his staff have been paying close attention to Mark Ledford’s Patriot program, partly in an effort to mend fences following the Red and Black’s failure to recruit current Nebraska Cornhusker defensive back Alfonzo Dennard but also because Wilcox County is home to Nick Marshall, the top quarterback prospect in the class of 2011.

Mike Bobo has been paying regular visits to Rochelle, occasionally turning up at Patriot basketball games. At a recent awards dinner, Coach Richt made a beeline for Coach Ledford upon arriving. Marshall is highly sought after by the Bulldogs and every other major program within shouting distance of South Georgia. Everyone who bleeds red and black wants to see Marshall wearing silver britches in Sanford Stadium in a couple of years.

Accordingly, it made sense for Georgia to look to Outlaw, an underrated prospect in an area where the ‘Dawgs need inroads, when Rogers opted against the Classic City Canines shortly before national signing day. Calls began in earnest when Rogers switched sides. Although the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Chip Towers reported that Outlaw will not qualify for freshman admission, the 6’7" receiver has earned the requisite ACT score. At the Bulldogs’ request, Coach Ledford faxed Outlaw’s ACT score to Athens before a formal offer was made.

Once the new Georgia signee’s test result was received, an offer sheet bearing the signatures of Mark Richt and Damon Evans was sent and Outlaw became a Bulldog. Because he needs additional credits, he will come to Athens by way of Milledgeville, where he will attend Georgia Military College.

With any luck, Lonnie Outlaw will reopen the pipeline from Wilcox County to the Classic City, not just for Nick Marshall next year, but also for Outlaw’s younger brother, Jonathan "Bug" Howard. Although he is just a freshman, Howard is a three-sport athlete who already stands about 6’2" and distinguished himself with a terrific catch for the Patriots in the first half of the state championship game last fall.

While Outlaw was not a heralded recruit, his signing is a big deal, and not just because of the future prospects Georgia may land down the road. (Wouldn’t it be funny, though, if Derek Dooley wrested wide receiver Da’Rick Rogers from the ‘Dawgs by making an offer to the quarterback who was his best friend, only to open the door for Mark Richt to bring quarterback Nick Marshall to Athens by signing the wide receiver who is a close pal of his?)

For many of us in North Georgia, it doesn’t matter much whether a particular Bulldog played his high school ball at Brookwood or at Parkview, but that isn’t the case throughout the state. Heck, podunkdawg takes her Warner Robins football pretty seriously, and that’s just in Middle Georgia! Sometimes we forget that pulling Baileys out of Folkston matters as much as, if not more than, pulling Stinchcombs out of Lilburn, but keeping South Georgia solidly in the Bulldog column is mission-critical for the Red and Black, and that objective is made more difficult now that the ‘Dawgs play more night games, making it much tougher for fans outside of metropolitan Atlanta to attend games.

It’d be nice to see Nick Marshall throwing fades to Lonnie Outlaw between the hedges in a couple of years, but, in the meantime, we’re starting to see a bit of a shift in Mark Richt’s attitude, if the names are any indication. A program that once featured Mohamed Massaquoi, Quentin Moses, and Leonard Pope may have stopped turning the other cheek when it signed Roderick Battle, Lonnie Outlaw, and Bacarri Rambo.

This was a good signing by the Bulldogs. Lonnie Outlaw is going to look like a steal when we get him on the field. While we await that day, though, his story provides an interesting case study in how the dominoes can fall in a way that rapidly and unexpectedly changes young men’s lives for the better. We should bear that in mind before criticizing high school seniors whose choices for their futures do not jibe with our selfish preferences for them.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Signing Day Wrapup 2010: The Rorschach Test of Your Fandom.

2010-02-04T02:25:55Z

For perhaps the first time since I began seriously paying attention to University of Georgia football recruiting in the year 2000 (and covering it in 2006) I am glad to put National Signing Day in the rearview mirror. This recruiting period has been draining and frustrating, largely because there just hasn't been a lot of obviously good news to report. Things hit their apex sometime in June or July, and it's been essentially downhill since then.

Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat things. This recruiting class was not up to the standards we have come to expect from Mark Richt's staff, at least when measured by the criteria we have available right now. Right now, Rivals ranks this class #16 in the country. And it hurts even worse because 3 of the top 10 are on our schedule next year (and every year for that matter), and 5 of the top 10 are in our conference.

If you believe the recruiting rankings, we lost ground today. Of course, Georgia is also 1 of only 3 teams in the top 25 with fewer than 20 commitments. Also, if you rank classes by "star average" (that is, the average rating applied to each recruit in a class), Georgia's group jumps to #13, even with the addition of 2 star wide receiver Lonnie Outlaw (whose commitment was first reported, as best I can tell, by Kyle in today's open comment thread). Without Outlaw, we'd move up to #9. And frankly there's really not a whole lot of difference between Tennessee's 3.44 star averaging class (ranked #9) and Ohio State's #26 ranked, 3.39 star averaging class.

But this should not have been unexpected. This is what happens when 3 of the assistants you had on the road recruiting are cut loose going into the last two months of recruiting season. It's also what happens when you stumble to an 8-5 record and an Independence Bowl win, and your head coach has to change his recruiting pitch from "we're on the cusp of playing for it all" to "Please be patient. Just trust me, we'll get it worked out." That just doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in your program.

All in all, this class reminds me a lot of the class of 2007, the class that signed after the last "worst season of Mark Richt's tenure." In fact, based solely on Rivals' assessment, the two classes are almost identical. The 2007 group included 12 4-star recruits, 10 3-star recruits and a lone 2-star recruit. This one includes 9 4-stars, 9 3-stars and a lone 2-star. I said then that the class included a lot of guys who we would need to prove the recruiting services wrong. In that class, several of them have.

The lone 2 star recruit was some kid named Drew Butler. He was a bust, wasn't he? We also signed a 3-star tight end/offensive lineman named Clint Boling. All told, as many as 14 of the 23 guys in that class made significant contributions in the Classic City, and several others (Tanner Strickland and Charles White for example) still have the chance to do so. Rennie Curran, Jarius Wynn and Corvey Irvin became immediate contributors on defense. Aron White and Justin Houston have each progressed every season.

Another funny thing about this class is that while the overall ranking is poor, I like almost every guy in the class individually. It's a class that lacks star power, but not a lot else. You already know about the bluechippers in this group. Brent Benedict is an athletic offensive lineman who could play either guard or tackle. Garrison Smith is a physical specimen. But there are several 3-star or lower ranked players in this class who deserve notice.Looking at some of these guys, it's easy to get excited about their potential:

Lonnie Outlaw, WR, Wilcox County: The last guy Georgia offered on signing day who was nowhere to be found in any recruiting service's database was some guy named Tim Jennings. I was going to try to get him on the phone about the Lonnie Outlaw signing, but apparently he's in Miami on business. Outlaw may be one of the guys who fits Coach Grantham's stated objective of getting a few 6'5 to 6'6' "tweeners" in every class. No matter what the motivation, he almost certainly will spend one season at GMC in Milledgeville before getting to Athens. The best quote regarding Outlaw came from former Perry High Coach Andy Scott, whose opinion I respect, and who said "Lonnie Outlaw makes Fred Gibson look like a girl." Take that for what it's worth.
Brandon Burrows, Walton H.S., Marietta: I don't know a lot of other 3 star recruits who also had offers from Alabama, Florida, Clemson and Oklahoma. Burrows blew out his knee at the start of his senior season, which really hurt him in the national recruiting rankings. Otherwise he would likely be a 4 star player and one of the top 10 strongside defensive end/linebacker recruits in the country. He may be the biggest steal in this class.
Ken Malcome, S.W. DeKalb: Malcome is being brought in to be the big tailback Richard Samuel never quite became. Samuel, in case you missed it, will be moving to linebacker this season. Malcome is another one of those guys whose offer list is a lot more impressive than his ranking. I think it's because he's not a flashy, slashing tailback who just wows people on film. But he's solidly built, has good balance and a low center of gravity. Malcome reminds me of a little faster Fred Munzenmeier, and could play that same hybrid tailback/fullback role.
Mike Thornton, Stephenson: A quick, powerfully built 280 pound defensive tackle who could play inside or outside. I actually like Thornton better than Warner Robins' Jeff Whitaker, because Whitaker had some injury and weight issues his junior year that could easily resurface. Depending on injuries and position assignments in the new 3-4 defense, Thornton could see the field as a freshman.
Kenarious Gates, Greenville, Georgia: This kid is a physically impressive offensive tackle prospect. Seriously, I don't know if there are a lot of pictures of him out there, but the kid's just plain big, as you can see in the pictures of him on Scout's profile. Big legs. Big waist. Big shoulders. All in all, the perfect build for an offensive tackle. I thought we might offer him earlier in the process, but I'm glad we got him in the end. Gates will need some time to work on his technique before he's ready to play. But I have absolute confidence in Stacy Searels' ability to mold him into something special. You can see some video of Gates in action here. (h/t, Scout.com). Plus, he is a high character kid who really wants to play at Georgia, and that's worth something.
Alexander Ogletree, Newnan: Sure, everyone has heard of his brother, Alec (who we'll spotlight in a TMI feature next week). But "Zander" Ogletree was just as important to Newnan's playoff run this season as his brother. Ogletree appears ticketed to play either fullback or linebacker at Georgia, and will draw comparisons to Rennie Curran, another diminuitive tackling machine. Ogletree's not Rennie-strong, but then only one in 4,000,000 people are.

Finally, believe me when I say that next year's class, barring utter catastrophe, will be much better. Partially because there is a great deal of talent in the state of Georgia for 2011, and our coaches have done a great job of jumping on the right guys early. To some extent, especially on defense, it appears that the coaches moved on to 2011 early this year, knowing that our new defensive staff didn't have time to build the necessary relationships with uncommitted 2010 recruits.

So take heart. This class is not, on the whole, what we want. But if we find the next Drew Butler, Justin Houston and Rennie Curran in it, I won't be complaining. If you came into Signing Day with a generally pessimistic bent, this class probably doesn't really impress you. If you're an eternal optimist, you'll believe that all of these guys will live up to their potential and some will exceed it. What you see has nothing to do with what's in front of your eyes, and everything to do with what's behind them.

Also, be sure to check out RedCrake's Signing Day Post Mortem, which makes many of the points above, plus some other excellent ones. Until later . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

Instantaneous Ill-Informed Roundball Wrapup: Arkansas Razorbacks 72, Georgia Bulldogs 68

2010-02-04T02:15:05Z

There was a basketball game tonight.

We lost. Oh, well.

No one cares. It’s national signing day. What are we, Kentucky?

Do I look like Ashley Judd to you?

Me.

Ashley Judd.

No. No, I do not.

Turn your thoughts back to football. It’s national signing day, for crying out loud!

Go ‘Dawgs!

National Signing Day 2010 Open Comment Thread.

2010-02-03T05:15:09Z

The big day is finally here. It's that peculiar morning in February when everyone joins the South Carolina Gamecock faithful in preparing for an inevitable run to glory. Except Steve Spurrier, who leaves these things to his assistants and just checks in from the golf course.

Signing Day is sort of emblematic of the diffuse chaos which makes college football so intriguing for some of us. On each of 12 fall Saturdays, there is a winner and a loser on the field. National Signing Day however is a whole different animal, as success is totally subjective, and we won't know who really won until 3 years down the road (when Mark Richt is hoisting a crystal football atop a podium constructed entirely of the broken bodies of Boise St. Broncos who finally got their chance at the bigtime. A man can dream, can't he?).

Announcements of Bulldog interest include:

Calhoun wide receiver Da'Rick Rogers, who will announce at 9:45 a.m. With this announcement Bulldog Nation will likely either collapse in relief or go into spasms of rage. I suppose that if he doesn't come to Athens we'll just have to throw the ball to that Green kid from Summerville next season. At this point I think we're the underdog in this one, and I'll be pleasantly surprised if he signs with Georgia. If he doesn't, expect Mark Richt to be asked a question about it that he won't respond to, because nothing good could come from answering that question, and Mark Richt knows this.
Tampa wide receiver Christian Green, by some estimates the top player in the state of Florida, who will decide between Georgia and Florida State around 9:30. Green is almost as highly rated as Rogers, but looks like a lock to Florida State despite his father's protestations to the contrary. I would be both surprised and exhilarated if Green ends up in Athens.
Stephenson defensive tackle Mike Thornton, making his decision public at 10:30. Thornton may actually be more highly sought after than Warner Robins' Jeff Whitaker, and has Georgia among his 10 finalists. That's right. 10. If I wagered on recruiting (which I don't, because 17 year old boys are far more unpredictable than a skittish, limping gelding at Keeneland ever was) I would bet on Georgia. Thornton has spent a lot of time over in Athens and seems to have bonded well with our solid commitments. If we lose out on him, don't bother to go over to the various message boards. They'll make Kyle and I look like amateurs at the pessimism game.
Ocala receiver Kadron Boone, who will choose between Georgia, Texas Tech, Louisville and LSU at 4 p.m. Boone visited LSU last weekend and pronounced his trip "perfect." LSU is probably the favorite here, but if Rogers defects up into the hills a Boone commitment would soothe things a little.
Jordan Akins, a receiver/safety prospect from Union Grove who will choose between Georgia and Central Florida. Akins was under the radar for most of the recruiting cycle, and is very raw as a receiver. But he reminds me a little of Bacarri Rambo, in that he's an option quarterback in high school who has tons of athleticism and just seems to always make plays. I predict he ends up at Georgia, though given his list of suitors many in Bulldog Nation will view it as only a minor recruiting victory.

You're invited to post your predictions, updates, thoughts on the ones we got as well as the ones who got away, and your thoughts on the whole bizarre rakrootin' game here. Just try to keep it civil, and avoid impugning the character of 17 year old kids if possible. Feel free to impugn the character of Urban Meyer to your heart's content, however. Nothing would make me happier. Until the dust settles this evening . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

A (Failed) Attempt to Maintain Perspective on the Eve of National Signing Day

2010-02-03T03:19:27Z

This shouldn’t surprise us, since it’s been a rough 25 months in Bulldog Nation, but it’s been a rough 36 hours in Bulldog Nation. Christian Green and Jeff Whitaker opted for other schools after listing Georgia among their choices and a couple of guys who told Mark Richt they were coming to Athens (commonly called "verbal commitments"; the adjective is accurate but the noun is false) backed out on their previously stated intentions when Nickell Robey and Da’Rick Rogers had last-minute changes of heart.

Is this the end of the world as we know it? Probably not, although recruiting is the lifeblood of the sport and the division rival we have the most trouble beating seems to have the top talent on lockdown, so it probably means the preservation of the status quo as we know it. I, for one, blame Senator Blutarsky’s optimism for the Bulldogs’ most recent reversals.

Tomorrow is a big day, and the signing day open comment thread will be up and running by the time you wake up . . . and maybe even before you go to bed. Two things worth bearing in mind are that (a) these are young men, given to the impulsiveness and suspect decisionmaking that typify even those 18-year-old boys who have not received the level of ego-boosting adulation heaped upon high school athletes of this lofty caliber, and (b) youth is wasted on the young.

At least, youth was wasted on me when I was young, so much so that I enjoyed what I surely realized even then was lousy television. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to this, which helps me to put national signing day in its proper perspective:

Wait a minute . . . Liam Neeson as John "Hannibal" Smith?!?! With that accent? Are you kidding me? This is the worst casting since that idiot at Pixar came up with the cockamamie notion that Owen Wilson had the acting chops to carry off a role with the range and nuance of Lightning McQueen!

Yeah, this movie’s going to be lousy. I hate it when a plan fails to come together. So much for maintaining an even keel around here. When you expect the worst, your only option is to be proven correct.

Have a happy national signing day, everyone.

~~AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!~~ Go ‘Dawgs!

TMI 2010: Garrison Smith

2010-02-02T02:37:39Z

Earlier today Warner Robins defensive tackle Jeff Whitaker announced that he would not be playing his college football at the University of Georgia. We here at Dawg Sports wish him the best of luck 11 weekends of the fall, even though we bear a consistent, strong animosity toward the school at which he will matriculate.*

But now seems like a good time to focus on the defensive tackle who did not get away, Garrison Smith.

The Rundown: Smith is a 6'4, 250 pound defensive lineman from Douglass High School in Atlanta. Rivals rates him as the #6 defensive tackle in the country for the class of 2010, and the #7 player in the state of Georgia. Smith also checks in at #79 on Rivals' list of the 100 best high school prospects in the country. The other major recruiting service, Scout, considers Smith the 6th best defensive line prospect in the nation. He was selected to participate in the Army All-American game in San Antonio, and was the Atlanta Touchdown Club's Bobby Dodd National High School Lineman of the Year. He's also scored a one-on-one interview with David Hale before even graduating from high school. Given the roster of people whom Hale has never seen fit to interview (President Obama, Lady Gaga, Tom Waits, and Michael Cera among other luminaries) that's heady stuff. Smith chose Georgia over offers from a literal who's who of college football, including Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma and Southern Cal.

The Evidence:

Also, Rivals has a huge gallery of photos accompanying Smith's profile on their site. What's below is drawn from the above video, the referenced photos, and some additional video from one of those evil pay sites.

Impressions: Smith has a quick first step that makes him dangerous as a pass rusher. And he pursues the ball as hard as any defensive lineman you'll see. Smith seems like a real "effort guy", which is not something you can say about a lot of national top 100 prospects.

But his biggest weakness is inconsistency. Sometimes his pad level is too high, and he tends to take some bad angles to the ball occasionally.

Physically, Smith has great upper body strength. He's got a broad chest and isn't one of those flabby defensive linemen who'll always be one biscuit away from the bench. He's narrow-waisted, and if anything will be challenged to get over the 280 pound mark. With his quickness off the edge and long arms, Smith has the makings of a great 3-4 defensive end who should be effective against both the run and the pass.

Kind Of Reminds Me Of: Geno Atkins. Atkins also came in as an underweight but strong defensive tackle who sometimes seemed to play below his potential. He leaves the Classic City as a probable first day NFL draft pick.

Bottomline: Garrison Smith is on a list of guys who should be helped by Georgia's move to a 3-4 defense. While Smith is a little light to play defensive tackle in a 4-3 at this point, he could get into the rotation at defensive end depending on which players (Justin Houston, Cornelius Washington, move from end to outside linebacker. My impression is that Smith is a better prospect than a football player right now. But his upside is obvious.

*And of course by "matriculate" I mean "get a degree in sociology with little or no discernible academic exertion." Hey, I said I wish him the best. I didn't say I wasn't going to make fun of him just like the rest of the crowd in greater Opelika.

[I]f you're the sort of puritan who believes in that kind of monomaniacal infidelity to a sport,...

2010-02-02T01:24:37Z

[I]f you're the sort of puritan who believes in that kind of monomaniacal infidelity to a sport, then sure. But that assumes one kind of sports fan. A doting, faithful fan whose eggs of loyalty lie in one basket, a basket that in the case of Will [Leitch] bears the logo of the St. Louis Cardinals. Your loves are trademarked, and every second away from them is a moment of longing abandon looking back toward them.

Good for you. I have my own faith, too: Florida football. Unfortunately, she's only around five months of the year at best, and a man like any man has serious needs. For seven months these eyes wander in search of spectacle, especially heart-stopping, violent, and often dangerous spectacle. Thus the appeal of the Olympics, and especially the World Cup—the stunning Brazilian in the short skirt that almost gets us fired every four years—which forces us to abandon home, family, and common sense in the name of soccer and incoherent international hullabaloo.

The same applies to MMA, or the Triple Crown, or to March Madness, the NBA playoffs, or to any ridiculousness that catches the eye and can reasonably be called sport. Which is why I'll be the one watching men betting on the first raindrop down the windowpane on ESPN 17 in ten years in April. For me, fandom can be ducking your head in every four years, because while life is not long it is certainly very wide, and covering that span is worth the effort.

Like pretty much everyone else who is acquainted with him, I like ~~Orson Swindle~~ Spencer Hall. One of the things I like about him is the fact that he, like Matt Hinton and Brian Cook, articulates effectively positions with which I disagree, which I respect because it helps me to understand and appreciate that which I otherwise would dismiss out of hand as simply wrong.

This is a classic example of that phenomenon, which is crystallized in Spencer's use of the phrase "while life is not long it is certainly very wide," which absolutely sums up the distinction for me.

William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway both were innovative authors and Nobel Prize-winning novelists who lived life on their own terms, but their writing styles could not have been more different because their lifestyles could not have been more different. Faulkner traveled the world and did what Southern writers tend to do, two guys whose birth certificates read "Thomas Wolfe" notwithstanding: he settled in, put down roots in or near a place to which he had longstanding family ties, and wrote about where he was. Hemingway, by contrast, went everywhere and wrote about everything he saw in the great big wide world, doing so with a level of effectiveness that allowed him (as P.J. O'Rourke put it) to romanticize Spaniards teasing farm animals.

While I have never discussed literature with the man, I'd be willing to bet a fairly good-sized sum of money that Spencer Hall prefers Hemingway to Faulkner and no one who has ever been in my living room has any doubt that my preference is for Faulkner over Hemingway.

Faulkner, you see, was all about depth, about knowing one place intimately. Hemingway, by contrast, was all about breadth, about experiencing as much as possible. Both approaches have their merits, and each has its pitfalls---the risk of depth is narrowness; the risk of breadth is shallowness---but we define by our choices the risks we are willing to run.

If asked to complete the phrase "while life is not long it is certainly very _____," I would have filled in the blank with "deep," not "wide," and therein lies the difference. I don't intend to watch one minute of the Olympics, and the next soccer match I watch that does not include among the contestants a blood relative of mine of elementary-school age will be the first one, but I will spend Friday nights following women's gymnastics meets on the computer because those women represent the University of Georgia. Spencer cares about sports broadly, I care about Bulldog athletics deeply, and, while he is capable of depth and I am capable of breadth, each of us knows where he falls when push comes to shove.

The fox knows many things. The hedgehog knows one big thing. Vive la difference.

Jeff Whitaker Opts for Auburn

2010-02-01T19:14:32Z

Jeff Whitaker Opts for Auburn

Georgia was his third choice.

When you expect the worst, your only options are to be proven correct or pleasantly surprised.

Go 'Dawgs!

College Football Playoffs and the Mountain West's Rise: Why a Government Flunky's Watered-Down Letter to a Showboating Senator Poses No Threat to the BCS

2010-02-01T09:30:13Z

It is said that a drowning man will reach even for the tip of a sword, which may explain why proponents of a Division I-A college football playoff, despite being stymied at every turn and facing monolithic opposition to their position by everyone in a position of authority regarding the sport’s postseason arrangements, have been reduced to hanging their hats on meaningless correspondence from cumbersome bureaucracies to grandstanding politicians.

Last week, following a state of the union message in which President Barack Obama addressed such issues as the economy and health care, an assistant U.S. attorney general sent a letter to a hypocritical U.S. senator containing these bold words:

The administration shares your belief that the current lack of a college football national championship playoff with respect to the highest division of college football … raises important questions affecting millions of fans, colleges and universities, players and other interested parties. . . .

This seemingly discriminatory action with regard to revenues and access have raised questions regarding whether the BCS potentially runs afoul of the nation’s antitrust laws.

Whoa! When a Justice Department functionary a few steps down the organization-chart food chain starts using such rough language about "shar[ing] your belief that" circumstances have "raise[d] important questions" about "seemingly discriminatory action[s]" which also "have raised questions" (although, apparently, not important ones this time around) about "whether" college football’s postseason "potentially" violates any laws, brace yourself for . . .

. . . um, yeah, not much. When you’re that focused on the questions that have been raised, you’re nowhere near saying those questions have been answered; when you’re interjecting that many adverbs, you’re qualifying your statements to keep them as noncommittal as possible. If this represents the fulfillment of the president’s promise "to throw my weight around a little," it is clear that the occupant of the Oval Office intends to throw his weight around a very little, indeed. (By the way, if, as he says, President Obama doesn’t "know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this," the Venn diagrams of the serious college football fans of our respective acquaintance do not overlap by much. The president would find spending New Year’s Day at my house an enlightening experience.)

The recipient of that letter, however, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, offered a response which attempted to apply the most positive spin possible:

I’m encouraged by the administration’s response. I continue to believe there are antitrust issues the administration should explore, but I’m heartened by its willingness to consider alternative approaches to confront the tremendous inequities in the BCS that favor one set of schools over others. The current system runs counter to basic fairness that every family tries to instill in their children from the day they are born.

If he recognizes that the Justice Department is focusing on "alternative approaches," surely Senator Hatch realizes that this means his assertion that "there are antitrust issues the administration should explore" has fallen upon deaf ears.

Furthermore, Senator Hatch’s faith in "basic fairness" is perfectly respectable, considering that he became the first member of his family to attend college before working as a janitor and a construction worker while in law school, but he is simply misguided if he believes the Bowl Championship Series flies in the face of the idea of an America in which effort and talent allow the cream to rise to the top.

The structure of college football is as fundamentally American as you can get, with the rising tide of the sport’s popularity lifting all boats. Boise State’s recent ascent parallels that of many previous "mid-majors" who now are part of the established power structure and the Broncos now find themselves knocking on the door of the full-fledged big time as the latest in a long line of upstarts who made good dating back at least as far as underdog Alabama in the 1926 Rose Bowl.

If you’re in favor of a Division I-A college football playoff, by all means, celebrate the fact that folks are talking about the BCS, for all the good it will do you. Even if the power brokers with a vested financial interest in preserving the existing system lacked the savvy, the political connections, and the war chest to beat back the tepid efforts suggested by the Justice Department’s letter to Senator Hatch---a dubious proposition at best---all the sturm und drang originating in the Beehive State will last approximately as long as it takes for the Mountain West to be made an automatically-qualifying BCS conference. Since that development appears to be right around the corner, Senator Hatch’s outrage figures to cool as soon as his home state’s major players are let inside the gates he presently is bound and determined to storm.

President Lyndon Johnson, explaining why he would not take the political risk of dismissing J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director, famously said, "It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in." Right now, Orrin Hatch is outside the tent. All the BCS has to do to shut him up is to open up the tent flap and allow the Mountain West inside. For playoff advocates, the rise of the MWC is a short-term gain but a long-term loss.

Go ‘Dawgs!