More on GT's Blow up in San Francisco

Nathan is a passionate GT fan who manages the Golden Tornado blog. He and I went back and forth via email about the Emerald Bowl, which produces one of the great all-time sports rants in history from Nathan. Warning: Implied profanity. Nathan explains what his beefs are with the game in no uncertain terms.

Also, Orson Swindle at EDSBS gives his take on the game as well. Orson's undergrad was at UF. His post-grad degree is from Tech. Orson compares Reggie Ball to Omar Conner, which is pretty harsh towards Conner. He also compares Gailey to a thumb wrestler.


Image from ivillage.

Unstoppable Super Human Tandem Tramples Techies

Utah's Travis LaTendresse and Brett Ratliff undressed Georgia Tech's defense in route to 550 yards of total offense and a 38-10 victory over the Yellow Jackets.

The solace that Tech fans can take in this defeat is that LaTendresse and Ratliff are two of the most seasoned and explosive players super humans in the country. Plus, their coaches had these two running some revolutionary passing routes that are borderline illegal.

Or maybe, they weren't human at all. Were these men, or were they Football Warriors from another solar system? No way they could be mere mortals as the "great" GT defense wouldn't surrender 550 yards to just any old Mountain West Conference also ran.

Breaking News.....This telegram just in from the Georgia Sports Blog's research team....

BULLETIN [STOP] UTAH PLAYERS HUMAN [STOP]
PREVIOUSLY UNPRODUCTIVE NO TALENT
ASS CLOWNS [STOP] ALL DATA POINTS
TO GAILEY SUCKING [END]

Ratliff, the Utah QB, was making his second start of his career. He's a guy that was a Division III QB not too long ago. Yet he passed for 381 yards against the Tech "defense."

And it turns out that LaTendresse isn't super duper elite either. In fact, the less than juggernaut defenses of UNC, Colorado State and Utah State held him to pedestrian numbers such as:

vs. UNC - 3 catches for 32 yards
vs. Colorado State - 2 catches for 31 yards
vs. Utah State - 3 catches for 29 yards

And for the tricky, borderline illegal plays that Utah ran for every single TD pass...Most schools simply call that a "post pattern," and it has existed since the 1950s.

Tech lost because Tech flat out stone cold quit. I've said many times that Gailey might not be a bad Xs and Os guy, but he's a lousy motivator of college players. Hard to argue that a team capable of beating Auburn and Miami, but losing to NC State and Utah is well coached.

"They really quit on themselves," LaTendresse said. "They came out talking and jumping up and down, and slowly but surely, we put that knife in there and they gave up. That first quarter they had a lot of fight. The corners were talking, the d-linemen were talking, but slowly that talk diminished and their heads started to go down. That's what you have to do: make them quit." Source: AJC.com and Utah's official site.

"You could just tell that they didn't want to be here," Utah defensive back Eric Weddle said. "When we hung around them [during bowl week], you couldn't see the fire in their eyes." Source: AJC.com

If it happened once in a while, it would be one thing. But Tech comes out and wets the bed like this vs. a team with lesser talent at least once a year under Gailey. Here's to 5 more years and another Chantastic roller coaster season for the Jackets.

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut: Emerald Bowl Recap

What bothers me most if that Georgia Tech as an institution, a fan base and a football team showed so little respect to our troops during tonight's 38-10 butt whipping.

Tech fans purchased approximately 7,000 tickets to the Emerald Bowl, and then donated approximately 6,000 of those tickets to members of our armed forces...and orphans.

ORPHANS! It's bad enough that they gave what amounts to a White Elephant Gift to our brave fighting men and women, but to do the same to Orphans? That's just cruel.

In fairness to the Tech people, it's possible that the free tickets didn't require the holder to pull for the Yellow Jackets.

[photo: Tech traveled 3,000 miles just to wet the bed.]

Some highlights from the game via personal observation as well as commentary overheard while watching the debacle. Also links to GT fans in meltdown mode....

-- "Tech just gave up 550 yards on defense and 38 points to a backup QB while a slow white dude shredded them for 220 yards and 4 TDs running the same post pattern for each and every TD. $5 bucks says the Techies blame the loss on Ball."

-- Chan Gailey is the Blue Balls of College Football (by BOR posted on StingTalk and The Hive).

-- When Reggie slipped and fell down on 4th and 2..."Well, in fairness to Reggie he thought it was 3rd down."

-- "Fresno State '02, Duke '03, UNC '04....UTAH '05. What will it be in '06? Hawaii on the Smurf Turf? Arkansas A&T on some baseball field? Maybe we could get creamed by Pacific on a squash court." - By Lay Em Down and Smack "em Jackets.

-- When Reggie caught his own batted ball..."I think that's more than Calvin has snagged in a month."

-- "The team came out flatter than week old Coke, the offense was a disaster and we got embarrassed again on national TV. A complete F- for Gailey." - GoldenTornado

-- Early in the game..."My hope is that Georgia never stoops to a bowl so low as to be played on a baseball field with a woman doing play by play for our game."

-- Retort..."She's twice the man the color guy is."

-- "Maybe if we had given Gailey a 10 year extension we only would have lost by 14." by MacDaddy.

-- Ball completes a deep pass to Calvin....10 yards beyond the back of the endzone to the back wall of Pac Bell Park..."Warning Track Power [clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap]."


[Photo: Please. Think of the children. Before you donate Tech tickets to orphans. Just do everyone a favor and eat the things.]

Dawgs Topple Undefeated Tigers

Last night, in Athens the Georgia Bulldogs beat the undefeated Clemson Tigers by a score of 72-69. Georgia has now matched its win total from last year at 8 games....with 3 more months of basketball remaining.


[Photo: Billy Humphrey pulled down 8 rebounds despite tough outside shooting as the Dawgs clobbered CU on the boards]

A look at the Box Score is pretty interesting.

-- 3 Pt shooting: The Dawgs shot 54% from the three point line. Most interestingly, Mercer went 3-4.

-- Bench Strength: The Bulldog bench outscored the Tigers 38-19 with Mercer leading the way at 22.

-- Rebounding: Georgia outrebounded a very good rebounding CU team 42-31.

-- Free Throws: We continue to struggle at the free throw line going 5-12. We aren't getting inside enough to draw fouls, and we aren't making our shots when we get there. Bad combo. Free throw shooting and penetration are the biggest things holding this team back from really exploding in SEC play.

-- Assists: Gaines had 8 on the night. No other bulldog had more than 1. We've got to move the ball better.

-- South Carolina: The Gamecocks lost to the Tigers. Obviously, there is no perfect transient property in athletics, but it is still encouraging to know that if Clemson can beat them we should give them a helluva a game.

Overall, I think this is team can go about 7-9 in SEC play. We're 8-3 now plus 2 more wins vs. Howard and Western Carolina plus 7 SEC wins would put us just outside of the NCAA bubble. Our non-conference schedule is too weak to make the tourney without an 8-8 record. Regardless, it's huge progress.

In unrelated news, Georgia Tech lost to Air Force by a score of 54-46. Given that they were playing basketball and not war games, this probably comes as a shocker to the Tickle Pilers. Air Force shot 29% and Tech shot 47.6%. GT out rebounded the Falcons 31-19. However, Tech lost the turnover battle 6 to 18, and only took 7 Free Throw shots to Air Force's 26. The Yellow Jackets (5-4) stone cold don't have a Point Guard whatsoever, and it's killing them. It will be a miracle if they make the NIT.


GATA!

Biggest Ref Screw Job Ever

So I watched the Michigan vs. Nebraska game last night. Worst officiating ever.

At least when Al Ford and his crew killed the Dawgs in 1999 vs. Tech, they didn't have instant replay as a resource. They couldn't go back and review the non-fumble by Jasper Sanks even if they wanted to.

Last night, the refs did have instant replay and consisently refused to use it. Lloyd Carr had to call two timeouts in the second half to get them to review questionable plays. He was 1 for 2 on his reviewed plays. However, the loss of the two timeouts cost Michigan the ball game late. Watch for the Michigan Bloggers to go nuts as they sober up enough to post their thoughts. (Most are still in mourning so they haven't posted their rants/thoughts yet)

It was the worst officiated game that I've seen since the 1988(ish) Middleton High School vs. Strom Thurman High School football game in the South Carolina State playoffs. During that game, I saw a referee block a punt for Strom's boys at home in the rain costing my Middleton High Razorbacks the game. A travashamockery that tops even the Sun Belt officials making up fake rules in last night's UM vs. Huskers duel.


[Photo: Friggin racist, viril old coot and his paid off refs screwed my Hogs big time. Not that I'm still bitter or anything. But Hootie and I took it pretty hard.]

pwd

Work and Holidays

Things have been nutty lately. I'll have some thoughts up on the huge win by the Dawgs over Clemson late Thursday. Also some pre-game thoughts on WVU vs. UGA soon.

Until then....

Book Review: Dooley's Tales from 1980

Yesterday, I finally got around to reading Dooley's newer book on the 1980 season. It's a good light read. I'm about half way through it, and a couple of things stuck out to me...in no particular order:

-- When Bobby Dodd pulled GT out of the SEC in the mid-60s, he did it so unexpectedly and abruptly that the SEC struggled to address scheduling problems for 3-4 years. All of the SEC schools had existing contracts with GT that had to be honored as well as contracts with each other. Plus, each school needed 6 league games on the schedule. It was too late to reshuffle everyone's schedule while honoring the GT contracts. So the SEC's solution was rather unique. The league looked at everyone's schedule for the next few years. If GT was on the schedule (formerly as an SEC game), they picked a different game to count in the SEC Standings. When UGA was SEC co-champ in 1966, the UNC game counted as a conference game. If I remember correctly from the book, the 1967 game with Clemson also counted as an SEC game by the league.

-- The story of the purloined pig is good enough to buy the book for. Old timers have heard it before, but it was new to me. Hugh Nall, Scott Woerner, Nat Hudson, Frank Ros and one other guy (Welton) got the bright idea that the post-Spring Game beer bash the team usually threw itself needed more than just beer in 1980. They wanted BBQ. So....they snuck into the UGA hog farm that used to be over on East Campus, and Nall (now the OL Coach at Auburn) shot a 400 lb pig with a bow and arrow late, late that night. The pig was too heavy to get over the fence, so they dressed it in the middle of the field and snuck it back to Athens. The whole story of them getting busted and Dooley/Erk disciplining them is comedy. Dooley told them that they had screwed up and eaten an experimental pig injected with serum that caused impotence. lol.



-- The story of how the 1977 7-6 loss to Clemson set up the rivalry against the Tigers for the next 11 years is interesting. Dooley told that story to set up the game with the Tigers in '80. A game in which UGA only ran about 45 plays to Clemson's 95+ plays...and still won b/c of Scott Woerner. Dooley was 10-1 against Clemson prior the 1977 game, and he was 5-5-1 after it. He said that win in 1977 by Clemson was a watershed moment for them, and it completely turned their program around.

-- Dooley mentions in the book that he knew about Wayne McDuffie's bi-polar disorder when he was the OL coach back in the 80s. Dooley talks about what a great coach McDuffie was, but that he was so high strung and intense that they had to send Wayne out recruiting on Thursdays and Fridays. The players would be so stressed out after Sun-Wed with Wayne that they needed a few days to build their confidence back up.

-- The players interviewed pretty much throw Coach Pyburn under the bus. Pyburn was the DB coach until '79. He retired after being disillusioned with the way that Dooley and the fans handled the Buck Belue (So) vs. Jeff Pyburn (R-SR) quarterback controversy in 1979. One of our DBs (Welton?) talked about Pyburn's coaching style as "Just go hit the shit out of somebody" vs. Bill Lewis' more organized approach that actually involved teaching assignments.

-- My favorite story so far is about Bill Hartmann, the pan-ultimate bulldog. Hartmann was an All-American fullback for Georgia in 1937. He was also our kicker. After two years of pro ball, he returned to Georgia in 1939 under head coach Wally Butts as backfield coach and served in that capacity until 1956. Dooley brought Hartman back in 1970 as the volunteer kicking coach.

That part of the story most everyone knows. What I didn't know is that the NCAA did away with the volunteer coach in the early 1990s. So Hartmann went back to grad school at UGA so that he could serve as a Graduate Assistant coach for 3 more years. He was near 80 at the time. To keep the kickers focused, he would run them through their kicking drills each practice. However, that never took the entire practice. So Hartmann would teach the kickers the "Notre Dame Box" offense that he ran at Georgia under Harry Mehre, a former ND assistant under Rockne. They would run plays from this offense just to keep them focused and engaged.

The Notre Dame box was the contemporary to the Single Wing. The sight of kickers, punters, snappers and holders all running a 40-50 year old outdated offense while an 80 year old man coaches them up is comedy to me. It must have worked as our best kickers all played for Hartmann. Butler, Robinson, Kasey, etc. Every elite kicker except Billy Bennett was trained by the legend who taught kickers based on the golf principals of consistent swings.

Church AA Meeting

This is a great prank call.

Bowl Ticket Sales

A few days ago ESPN ran an interesting article about bowl ticket sales. Which teams are under performing and which teams are exceeding expectations for ticket sales. Tony Barnhart at the AJC followed up with a similar article focused mostly on how the ACC teams are doing with their allotment.

Here's a summary of those articles and some thoughts...


Exceeding Expectations:
- BYU: Sold most of the 40k tickets to the Las Vegas Bowl. 150,000 Mormons in the Las Vegas area made sure this game was a sellout. "Sin City" was settled by Mormons, who came to Las Vegas to mine lead for the bullets they thought they would need to fight the U.S. government." (source: USNews). How's that for an obscure fact today?

- Navy: Sold 20k tickets to the Poinsetta Bowl. A huge Naval Base in San Diego doesn't hurt.

- Georgia Tech: Sold 6k tickets to Emerald Bowl, which is tremendously more than anyone thought that they would buy. HOWEVER, look closer at the numbers. 5,600 of the tickets were donated to "local organizations in San Francisco, including Special Olympics, Pop Warner Youth Football and military in the Bay Area." That means only 400 Tech fans will be travelling to the game. (hat tip to GTSports for the link). In order to get fans to buy the tickets, their Athletic Department gave ticket buyer's two AT points for each purchased ticket. For UGA fans reading this, that's the equivalent of UGA giving us 200 GEEF points for buying tickets. So should GT be listed in both exceeding and disappointing? Who knows.

Most Disappointing:
- Nevada: Sold 100 tickets to Hawaii Bowl. Can't blame them. I don't think UGA sent 500 down there.

- Missouri: Sold 2,500 tickets to Independence Bowl. For a team that rarely bowls, you'd think that they would send SOME fans to this thing.

- Virginia: Sold less than 4,500 tickets despite promising Music City Bowl that it would sell 10-15k. Given that UVA was selected out of order by this bowl, this is probably the biggest disappointment of the bowl season.

- Wisconsin: Sold 8k to Capital One Bowl desipte having never been to what is generally considered the #1 non-BCS bowl. I don't buy the Hawaii game excuse listed in ESPN.

- Michigan: Sold 6k tickets to the Alamo Bowl.

- South Carolina: Sold 4,500 tickets less than its allotment to the Independence Bowl. FINALLY the myth that they will travel anywhere is exposed.


It will be interesting to see how the sale or non-sale of tickets to bowls by teams that traditionally travel well will impact their future bowl slots.

Hat tip to Dawg22 on The Porch for showing me the first link on this thread. If anyone has links to info on how WVU fans are travelling to this year's Sugar, let me know.

pwd

Richt's Near Miss with Cold Feet

I mentioned this in my Awards Gala recap. The Macon Telegraph does a great job of expanding on the story.

Dec. 20, 2000. The night that changed Georgia's future. A night that could've gone a lot differently.

Calvin Johnson's Bowl Diary: From San Fran with Love

The Georgia Sports Blog has reached an agreement with the Georgia Institute of Technology to enable Tech football players to report back from the Emerald Bowl via blog diaries from the road. The first installment is from Calvin Johnson, wide receiver at Tech.

Georgia Tech vs. Utah: Welcome to Frisco!
Day 1: By Calvin Johnson

When I came to Georgia Tech, I wanted to lead this team to a very prestigious bowl game.

Mission Accomplished!

I couldn't be more thrilled with San Francisco. Reggie says that this beats the pants off of Boise, Idaho. Up there, they only fed the guys potatoes for three meals a day. Here we get all-you-can eat shrimps at this place called Fisherman’s Wharf. Shrimp are my favorite fish.

I'm really looking forward to this game. I think having the home field advantage is going to be really helpful for us. I mean it isn't Bobby Dodd Stadium, but the Yellow Jackets were made for a game like this. Big city. Lots of Noise. Tons of Traffic. Aggressive bums everywhere. Loose women with a variety of cold sores. We fit in here.

Secondly, it's a big advantage for the coaches to be here. Apparently, they are doing some heavy recruiting over in some area called Castro. That may bee a secret. I only know about it because I heard Coach Nix say he's going to spend some time there looking at tight ends over there. Awesome! Can't beat a tight end.

I think Coach Nix and the Tech Band Director will be recruiting together. I over heard something about "the search for another flag boy."

Anyway, the bus arrived in Frisco (that's what the locals call it) this morning at 3:30 a.m., and we all checked into the motel. 2,553 miles in a Greyhound is tough on the legs. We were exhausted and slept for a few hours before roster call.

[Photo: This is how the Jackets roll!]

During roster call, they gave us our bowl gifts which included a wax bust of Jackie Chan's head, a jar of collectible Sea Gull poop from the Golden Gate Bridge, 2 cans of Emerald Nuts Cashews and a Special Edition "Re-Take The Rock: Alcatrax Indians 4 Life T-shirt." In a word -- Jacketastic.

At this same meeting, Coach Gailey told us that we will be playing the game in a baseball stadium. At first, I was really freaked out because I didn't bring my baseball glove. Reggie tried to settle me down, and he explained that we won't be using gloves. No GLOVES? Is he serious? I'm the only guy on this team that can catch to start with, and playing baseball without a glove is going to be tough for even me. I hope the Utah guys didn't pack their gloves either.

Otherwise, things are looking great, and I'm feeling JACKET! Tell everyone back in the Great State of Atlanta that I said hello.

Love,

Calvin


Photo: Emerald Bowl Seating

UGA vs. Nevada Recap: Making Progress

Making Progress. That's my review in a nutshell.


[Younes Idrissi had a career night against the Wolfpack. Photo: Georgiadogs.com]

Last year, we played Nevada at home and lost 58-47. This year, we played them at their place and lost 68-62. Georgia lead for large portions of the game against a Top 20 team, and we played with Nevada until the shooting dried up in the second half.

If we can play with these guys on the road, we can play with most of the SEC's elite. However, the crowd was remarkably non-hostile so we have still yet to play a pressure cooker road crowd like we will face in the SEC. If we hadn't gone 1-10 from beyond the arc in the 2nd Half, we would've put the fear of Felton into these guys until the end.

Good and Bad:

-- Idrissi: The difference in this guy's game is night and day. Huge kudos to Felton and Coach Pete. Not only does he look stronger and more coordinated, but the addition of the jump hook to his game is really nice. In fact, it's obvious that Felton/Pete teach this shot really well as Bliss, Kendrick Johnson, Idrissi and even Singleton have all shown it this year. In Idrissi's case, I think everything is coming to him easier this year as he can understand the English language better. Easier to coach a guy that knows what you're talking about. Idrissi's line for the game was 16 points and 6 rebounds. At the end of last year, I was wondering if we should just redshirt him this year. Glad as heck we didn't.

[Photo: Idrissi is the best thing to come out of Casablanca since Rick Blaine put Isla on the plane]

-- Athleticism continues to improve: It's shocking to see how far we've come athletically this year since last. I said that earlier this season, but it bears repeating. A telling moment to that point came in the second half when Steve Newman was beaten badly by Nick Fazekas on a backdoor play. Steve's feet looked made of lead as he tried to chase the much more fleet footed Wolfpack All-American candidate. In this game, Steve only had 16 minutes. Last season, he averaged 26+ minutes per game. As the athletes surrounding Steve learn their roles more, his minutes will continue to decrease. Thus continuing to improve our athleticism.

-- Mercer: The good is that this kid can really move, and he brings great energy to the court. He also has a nice running shot from 6-8 feet in. However, his outside shot is one of the worst looking sins against Naismith that I've seen in the SEC in many, many years. He reminds me of Willie Mays Hayes in Major League. Everytime that Hayes pops up at the plate, his manager makes him drop and do push ups. Even during games. Felton needs to consider that approach with Mercer when he shoots 3s. If he makes one, it looks like blind luck. Huge upside to his game, and it beats the hell out of playing Brophy. But it's not all quite there yet.

-- Sundiata Gaines: The unquestioned leader of the team, and our best player. He could go down as one of our Top 3 all-time Point Guards by the time he leaves. Behind only Wright and Vern Fleming. However, he's another guy that's just horrific from beyond the arc. Gaines is shooting less than 17% from the three point line, which is half as accurate as Mercer. Given that his shot is much more polished than Mercer's, I attribute that difference primarily to Mercer being more lucky.

-- 3 Point Shooting in General: Gaines, Stukes and Mercer combined to go 2-14 from 3 land. These guys have to shoot it less, and Humphrey and Toney have to shoot the 3 more.

-- Clemson game: We play the Tigers next Wednesday. Other than a baseball game here and there, I think we've beaten these guys in everything from Football to Chutes and Ladders for the better part of the past 15 years. A win would help us get our feet back under us, and it would give us some momentum for a tough 4 game opening swing in SEC play.

We're getting better as a team. This still isn't an NCAA tourney squad, but it's a squad that deserves support. As they mature and learn to stay focused during games, they will get much better over time.

Until then. Go Dawgs.

pwd

Georgia Sports Blog's 2005 Journalist of the Year Award

Our prestigious Journalist of the Year Award for 2005 goes to....

Gregg Ellis
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
Tupelo, Mississippi
Ellis, the pride of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, earned this award during the voting for the Associated Press College Football Player of the Year. Per the Athens Banner Herald:

Quarterback D.J. Shockley was in some pretty good company in the voting for The Associated Press college football player of the year.

Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush of Southern California won the AP award with 59 of 65 votes of the media panel. Heisman runner-up Vince Young of Texas got five votes. Shockley picked up the other vote.

Gregg Ellis of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo cast his vote for Shockley.

The Georgia Sports Blog's trophy for Journalist of the Year is seen below.

This and That

Mayor Kyle suggests who Dawg fans should pull for during the bowl season.

Kit Kitchens looks at the 2006 UGA offense. I think he's overly optimistic on the OL. More on that later. Otherwise, a good post.

Football Huddle has their All-South team up.

Recruiting Reminder for Dawg Fans

We have 24 commitments. Many of the "bad guys" have 10-15 commitments.

There is about a month and a half left. With early enrollees and non-qualifiers, we might sign 5-6 more guys. That's less than 1 per week. On *most* days from here on in the bad guys will be signing players, and we won't.

We're still going to finish with a ridiculously good recruiting class no matter who does or doesn't sign from here on out.

The only thing missing in this class is one more OT and one more DT that can contribute serious minutes in Year 2. Everthing else we get is gravy after we fill those two slots.

Who will be the Bill Brasky of 2006 in College Football

Right now, the unquestioned Bill Brasky of College Football is Leonard Pope.

Pope is tough to top. He's a 9'4" 635 lb. tight end with sprinter speed, a penchant for buggery and a top salesman.

Did you know that he grew up on a Spaghetti farm outside of Americus, Georgia. All his childhood was spent fighting the spaghetti weevil, helping raise a family of 32 while getting an education in both the martial arts and traditional reading and writing.

Prior to that, Pope invented black. In fact, he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Steve Spurrier invented pink.

[Photo: One of Pope's Spaghetti Workers.]

Leonard is a success story today because of the trials and tribulations that made him stronger as a young man. Did you know that in high school Pope went into business for himself selling Brassieres to women?

Unfortunately, all 10,000 bras malfunctioned. The copper support wires were designed for fire alarm use. When they came in contact with nylon and body heat, they produced static electricity which, in turn, interfered with local television and radio broadcasts. A failure that taught Pope much about the value of craftmanship, mind control and the importance of studying federal regulations. All of which he applies today as a Tight End for the Georgia Bulldogs.

But I digress. Who will be College Football's next Brasky now that Pope will surely be moving on to the NFL/Congress?

I present some of the candidates:

Sidney Rice (SC) - 6'4" 200 lbs.
Pros: Freshman wideout with almost 1,000 yards and 12 TDs. Scored 40 percent of South Carolina's offensive TDs for the entire season *despite* missing a game. Human females have two X chromosomes. Males have an X and a Y. Rice has three Ys and a TD. He's more man than you'll ever be. Writes novels under the pen name "Anne".
Cons: Plays in Columbia. Rice hates Columbia. And he is half Columbian. And he hates irony.

[Photo: Sidney interviewed regarding his next book.]

Calvin Johnson (GT) - 6'4" 235 lbs.
Pros: Has the body control of Jacquez Green, runs routes like Chris Carter, and uses his body to push off without getting caught like Michael Irvin. Can roll Yahtzee with just one die. Calvin Johnson wasn't born. He shed a woman. Built the first Waffle House out of French Toast.
Cons: His QB has the field vision of Helen Keller, the height of Webster and the arm of Andreas Katsulas. Can't beat Georgia.

Jared Gaither (Maryland) - 6'9" 330 lbs
Pros: Freshman All-American Offensive lineman. Major Div I recruit in basketball and football. Beat Michael Jordan in a slam dunk contest without ever jumping. Gaither can divide by zero, and he is the only man alive to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis. Uses a Volkswagen Beetle as a medicine ball.
Cons: Candidate to be eaten by Ralph Friedgen on a cold winter night....or a Wednesday.

[Photo: Brasky doesn't get eaten. So that strikes Gaither.]

Mike Moore (UGA) - 6'4" 200 lbs.
Pros: Freshman WR at UGA. Founder of Disney World Tornoto, trained with Randy Moss, once peed into a 567 acre valley in Alabama in order to make a lake. Looks to be the next big deep threat for the Dawgs.
Cons: Hasn't played a down...yet. Redshirting this year.

Noel Devine - 5'9" 175 lbs.
Pros: Greatest high school football running back video of all-time...as a freshman. Once gained 300 yards in a game on 2 carries. Devine is not black. It's just that the sun isn't fast enough to shine on him.
Cons: Currently living with Deion Sanders. Sanders likely to make him a pusscator afraid of all violent contact by osmosis. Still not in college yet.

[Photo: Deion's dilemma was "how do I get the best RB in the country to FSU without violating NCAA rules?]

Quentin Moses - 6'5" 260 lbs.
Pros: All-SEC junior defensive end at Georgia. Once freed a group of nearly two million Hebrew slaves and organized them in the desert. Promotes the doctrine of monotheism. Talks to burning bushes and God.
Cons: May not return for senior season. Unlike "the other Moses" seems to lack ability to part Red Sea.

Who are the other candidates to replace Pope as the next Bill Brasky of College Football? Feel free to comment or blog it and link over.



Note: some ideas original. Others shameless ripped off from the Mr. T, Chuck Norris, Vin Diesel fact generator.

Top 10 Bowls to Watch

SI.com ranked all the bowls 1-28. I don't have the patience for that. Several other bloggers have done something similar as well. Others have just re-written the entire bowl selection process.

Pretending that I'm not a UGA fan for a moment, here's how I would rate the Top 10 Bowls this year.

1. Rose: USC vs. Texas
- These look to be two of the best teams in years. I can't wait to see what Reggie Bush does vs. the Texas defense. It wouldn't shock me to see a score of 34-31.

2. Fiesta: Notre Dame vs. Ohio State
- I've pulled for Ohio State maybe three times in my life. Once was in the 2002 National Title game against Miami. I have no idea when the other two would've been, but this will be one of those times. Weis and Quinn vs. an elite defense for the first time all year. Ohio State wins 23-20.

3. Peach: LSU vs. Miami
- If both teams show up ready to play, this could be the #2 match-up of the season. The risk here is that one or both of them will come in half asleep and put on a lousy show b/c they feel like they are slumming. Miami wins 27-17.

4. Cotton; Bama vs. Texas Tech
-- This could either be the most interesting or least interesting game of the Bowl Season. I can't remember the last time two teams so different got hooked up together. Texas Tech wins 24-13.

5. Orange: PSU vs. FSU
-- The Grim Reaper Bowl. On paper, this looks like a blow out win by Nittany Lions, but Bowden's record in bowls is ridiculously good. Penn State wins 31-17.



6. Sugar: Georgia vs. West Virginia
-- How good are the 'eers? Does the Big East have any future as a respectable conference? Over the last 15 years, Georgia is 10-3 in the Atlanta City Limits. Will the Dawgs give WVU their full attention? No prediction yet.

7. Sun Bowl: UCLA vs. Northwestern
-- What happens when you get two teams together that can't play a lick of defense, and have explosive offenses? Good TV. UCLA wins 235-221.

8. Outback: Iowa vs. Florida
-- The Hawkeyes are the only Big 10 team that consistently gives the SEC schools fits in bowl. They took the Gators to the woodshed in this game a few years back, and then they hit the miracle Hail Mary last year vs. LSU. This game will give the Big 10 some solace b/c the next one certainly won't. Iowa wins 24-16.

9. Capital One: Auburn vs. Wisconsin
-- I actually don't think that this bowl will be all that watchable. I'm expecting Auburn to completely dismantle another slow Wisconsin team in another Florida Bowl. However, with all the great Alvarez story lines, this will be entertaining. Plus, you have the added advantage listening to commentators discuss the relative slowness of the entire Big 10. Auburn wins 34-10.

10. Alamo: Michigan vs. Nebraska
-- I'm planning to DVR this game. I'll be in Athens watching the Dawgs play Clemson in hoops, but this one intrigues me. Have the Huskers finally turned the corner? Will Michigan do anything to suggest that their coaches aren't trapped in a 1975 play calling time warp? This one is odd because you have two competing forces at work. Michigan probably is less excited about being here so normally that means Nebraska wins. However, Nebraska is coached by Callahan -- the biggest red flag of them all. Michigan wins 20-17.

Agree? Disagree?

pwd

Reason #1 Why Indoor Practice Facilities are Bad

Indoor Practice facilities make you soft. They are a crutch.

The Falcons spent most of this week preparing for a game against the Chicago Bears, which would be played outdoors in -8 degree weather, inside. It took a power outage to get them outdoors on Thursday for 2 hours.

Why plan to get quasi-acclimated to colder weather when you can stay comfortable (read: soft/candy ass) inside in a 65+ degree heated facility?

The result of the Falcons vs. Bears Game. Another loss in the cold. The Falcons record in sub-freezing weather is now 1-3. I wonder if there is some relation between practicing to avoid cold weather and playing like piss when you actually get in cold weather.

Since this is mostly a Bulldog Blog, I will tie this back to the Dawgs with my trademark anti-Indoor Practice Facility rant.



The reasons that the Georgia Bulldogs should never invest in an Indoor Practice Facility include:
1. UGA plays outside. At least with the Falcons, there is some logic in that they play over half over their games indoors.

2. If you have an indoor facility, you'll use it even when you don't need to. They don't end up getting used just for the rain, ice and snow storms. "But coach, it's so hot. Can't we practice inside. But coach, it's too cold. But coach, it's rainy." Give me a break.

3. We don't need one for recruiting purposes. We've got the #2 recruiting class in the country coming in right now. Yet amazingly, we have no indoor facility. The team that we seem to lose the most recruits and games to is the Florida Gators. A team that also doesn't have an indoor facility.

4. Cost. Richt doesn't want a facility to avoid the elements. He wants a $20-30 million indoor multi-use palace with a new weight room, coaches offices and meeting rooms. We just spent $1.5 million on a new weight room, meeting room renovations and coaching office improvements. Why duplicate that expenditure?

5. Georgia needs $60 million in new facilities for basketball and other sports where we genuinely lag our peers in a meaningful way.

6. There are less than 5 days per year where the weather sucks so bad that we need to practice inside. And during those rare days, we can either do a walk-thru at the Ramsey Center. Or we can hit the road and use the Falcons' facility. 5 days a year isn't enough to warrant a $20-30 million expense.

Indoor practice facilities. Baa humbug.

Final Harris Poll: Belated Thoughts

A guy over on the DawgPost.com free message board found this link, and I started tinkering with it. It's a link to each individual ballot from the final Harris Poll.

Here are some ballots of note to the Dawg Nation:

-- Ray Goff
(former UGA Coach and SEC Player of the Year)
Four things stick out regarding Ray's ballot. First, he has Georgia at #9, below West Virginia. Secondly, he has Notre Dame at #4. He has Fresno State ranked at all. Also, he has TCU at #11. Ray's ballot is as illogical as his clock management.

[Photo: When asked about his ballot he said, "Well Loran, we juss gotta work hard ta git butter."]

-- Dick Bestwick
(former Assistant AD at UGA, former UVA head coach)
Ranks Georgia #8 and GT #22. A very rational, mainstream ballot. I think he has Oregon a bit high, but otherwise. It looks good.

-- Homer Rice
(former GT Athletic Director)
God bless him. He has the Dawgs ranked #4. Only has Tech at #23.

-- Roy Kramer
(former SEC President)
Has a heavily pro-SEC biased ballot with UGA at #5, AU at #6, UA at #9, LSU at #11, UF at #15 and SC at #25. You almost have to laugh at a ballot that rigged. Don't get me wrong, I love it. But it's pretty over the top. Even I have trouble ranking the Dawgs over AU.

-- Bill Dooley
(Vince's brother. Former UNC Coach)
Only has Georgia ranked at #9. I have trouble with anyone ranking us below Miami, because I simply don't see the logic in that. But otherwise a pretty solid ballot. Hard to pick out any nutso biases.

-- Charles Johnson
(I have no idea who this guy is)
Ranks UGA at #14, VT at #9, TCU at #10, and my favorite Nebraska at #23. That's right 7-4 Nebraska who's biggest win of the year was over Iowa State is ranked on his ballot. If anyone knows who this guy is, please give me a heads up via the comments area. If he's related to Frank Solich, I'd love to know that as well.


[Photo: Jeff Owens is looking for Dr. Johnson. And when he finds him...watch out. Photo from Georgiadogs.com]

Around the News and Blogosphere: Weekend Edition

With no particular order or method to the madness, let's start with the news.

-- Let's start in West Virginia where the Charleston Gazette has an interesting article about WVU linebacker Kevin "Boo" Lee Jr. Lee's father played for the Dawgs on the 1976 Sugar Bowl team that won the SEC, beat defending national champ Bama and got clobbered by Pitt in the National Title game. Per the article:

Kevin McLee still ranks as the fifth most productive rusher in Georgia football history with 2,581 yards.

Boo's dad will be pulling for him to do well, but he will still be wearing his UGA hat. Good times.

-- Shifting to North Carolina, there's a nice feel good piece on Bulldog wideout Kenneth Harris in the Charlotte Observer.

-- And *of course* there's this uber ridiculous goodness from the AJC. Here comes Matt Stafford -- the most anticipated QB recruit at UGA since Zeier.

-- Lastly, on the news front is the Game Notes from Georgiadogs.com on tonight's game between Oregon State and Georgia in basketball. Tipoff is set for 5:30 pm ET on Fox Sports Net. If the Dawgs win this one, they move to 8-1, which equals their entire win total from last year. It also would be the longest win streak since Tubby Smith's last year in Athens.



Around the Blogosphere:
-- I'm A Realist discusses Mike Vick vs. Reggie Bush

-- Doug at Hey, Jenny Slater has a very different take than mine on the Peach Bowl's new name. My point is "Who Cares, I love Chicken more than Peaches." His is more tradition oriented. Kyle on Football agrees with Doug.

-- How 'Bout This Blawg proposes nicknames for recruits.

-- StateFansNation discusses the new ACC Bowl Selection process which is hopefully designed to keep screwing Tech and not hose Boston College quite so badly.

That's all for today.

pwd

Peach Bowl to Drop "Peach" from Name

The new name for the bowl will be the Chick-Fil-A Bowl starting in 2006. I noticed that some message boards are in an uproar over this. Some dude was threatening to boycott Chick-Fil-A for it.

Are you kidding me?

If Chick-Fil-A bought the naming rights to the Southern Baptist Convention, oxygen and the naming rights to my child, I still wouldn't stop eating those blessed sandwiches.

I'd march my butt down to First Chick-Fil-A Church, and sing hymns such as "Just As I Am...Hungry," "Victory in Lemonade," and "How Great Thou Waffle Fries Art."

I'd slap my own mother before I would boycott Chick-Fil-A.

Or as said by a friend, "Makes sense. I eat a helluva lot more chicken sandwiches than I do Peaches."

Instant Classic: GT Fan Photo

SIonCampus nails it. Click to jump to SI's enlarged version.

Kyle King Evaluates Mark Richt's First 5 Years

First Kyle puts together a quantitative comparison between Richt and all other UGA coach's first five years.

Then he puts together a very funny qualitative look at Richt. This version poses the theory that the Devil and God placed a bet with Richt at the center. A bet the Lord has since won.

Good stuff.

You're My Boy Blue

Greg Blue graduated this week. Congrats to Greg for continuing the tradition of proving people wrong about our partial qualifiers.

The first partial qualifier that UGA was allowed to enroll was Jermaine Phillips, and he also graduated. In fact, every UGA partial qualifier since Phillips has graduated except for Durrell Robinson. We can only take 1 per year, and we can only have two on the team at any given time. The other partial qualifier on campus right now is Milner.

We'll miss you Blue. Congrats.