Noel Devine eat your heart out

There are great highlight videos and then there's the Noel Devine clips from his freshman year. Those Devine videos made him look like a cross between Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson and Carl Lewis.

Move over Devine. There's an 8 year old roughly 12-13 year old name Cody Paul that's set the new gold standard. (ht - The Big Lead and The Commission)

Cody's runs


And speaking of spectacular youth league football clips. Orson has a real gem.

UPDATE -- the comments thread has discussion that he's around 13 in that video. I'll buy that. No way he's 8...although that makes the whole thing dramatically funnier and I wish people hadn't given me the actual facts b/c it's more impressive at 8 years old.

PWD

Mark Richt Bulldog Club Recaps

The AJC starts things off with quite a bit of optimism from Richt. He says that he feels that we're not too far off from competing for a national title. Richt also alludes to an interest in moving the GA/FLA game from Jacksonville or utilizing some broader rotation of Jax, Athens, Gainesville, Atlanta. No thanks. Keep it in Jacksonville. Stop wetting the bed when we get down there and no one will want to move it.

JimFromDuluth has the much more detailed recap hosted on the Anti-Orange page.

The Athens paper mainly just focused on Damon's comments regarding Munson's travel schedule. Nothing new there.

PWD

Hoops Schedule Rumors....

As of now, the non-conference hoops schedule is rumored to look like this:

Known / Mostly confirmed:
Hawaii Tourney (likely 2-3 games)
Gonzaga (road/neutral away) - Rumored Jan. 5th (SEC play opens Jan. 12th)
Wisconsin (road)
Western Kentucky (road) - final game of the series
Georgia Tech (home)
Wake Forest (home)

Rumored Games
Elon (home)
Presbyterian (home)
Unknown (Gwinnett Arena neutral site game)

Assuming we get 3 games in Hawaii and a non-garbage game in Gwinnett, that gives us NINE games ranging from ambitious (Wisconsin and Gonzaga on the road) to interesting (GT and Wake) to solid RPI games (Hawaii tourney and WKU) to wretched (Elon and Pres weren't Div I teams last year).

My back of the napkin math suggest that there are 2-3 more games left to schedule. If Felton can avoid adding any more of the sub-RPI 300 teams like Elon and Pres while laying off the HBCU circuit as much as possible, this is a very high quality RPI / Strength of Schedule friendly docket designed to get a good Georgia team a solid seed in the NCAAs.

Taking care of business in the SEC is still priority #1. That decides if you get in or not. We'll need 9 wins + a Saturday SEC tourney appearance or 10+ a Friday showing to lock the NCAAs. But scheduling is the difference between being a 12 seed and a 9 seed or being a 9 seed and a 6 seed.

(BTW -- this is likely my last hoops post for a while. Tonight is the Greater ATL bulldog club meeting. So football season really begins tonight for me)

pwd

Bulldog Club Meeting Tonight! (New Location)

Due to construction / renovation, the Greater Atlanta Bulldog Club meeting will NOT be held at the Colony Square Sheraton in Midtown. It will be held at the Cobb Galleria Centre. See details below.

(From UGA Athletic Department)
ATHENS, Ga. ­ --- The annual meeting of the University of Georgia Greater Atlanta Bulldog Club will be held Monday, July 30, at the Cobb Galleria Centre.

This event on the 2007 Dawg Days Road Tour, sponsored by the UGA Athletic Association and the Georgia Bulldog Club, previously has been held at Colony Square but will be relocated this year due to construction.

The reception and social will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the program at
7 p.m.

Scheduled to participate in the program are Director of Athletics Damon Evans and coaches Mark Richt (football), Manuel Diaz (men's tennis) and Suzanne Yoculan (gymnastics).

Loran Smith will be signing copies of his new book, "University of Georgia Football Vault," from 5-7 p.m.

There is no admission charge.

Mike Vick being sued for $63 billion (Source: AJC)

Image: DeadSpin

An inmate housed in a South Carolina prison is suing Michal Vick for $63 billion. The lawsuit claims that Mike Vick stole Jonathan Lee Riches' pit bulls and sold them on eBay and opened credit cards in Richs name, used his likeness to sell merchandise and stole copyrighted material. But that's not the half of it. Per the AJC.

Riches claims that Vick sold the pilfered pooches on eBay and used the proceeds to purchase missles from the Iranian government, that he has "plead (sic) allegiance to Al-quaeda" and has subjected Riches to "microwave testing."

Riches is demanding $63 billion "backed by gold and silver."

In related news, Vick has been implicated by LaToya Jackson in a dastardly plot to sell her nipples to North Korea's Kim Jong-il in a complex flesh for plutonium ring.

See Also
-- Full Ron Mexico / Mike Vick Coverage - DeadSpin

PWD

Going to be in meetings all day

Here's the best I can do in terms of media days coverage....

EDSBS - Day 2 highlights
SEC Media Days -- Day 2 quotes
Gator Headlines
Alabama Headlines
Georgia Headlines
Auburn Headlines
Tennessee Headlines
LSU Headlines

PWD

SEC Media Days: Auburn Headlines

From Tuberville and Co.'s meetings with the media.

-- Saban's words stoke Groves' Fire - AL.com
-- In walks tuberville - AL.com blog
-- Media days news and notes - Huntsville Times
-- Tigers get plenty of Saban questions - Columbus Ledger
-- Auburn fine with Saban getting headlines - Cullman Times
-- Cox = Confident and Smooth - AL.com blog

More headlines on Auburn sometime tomorrow. I'm not posting any headlines from Arkansas b/c none of the main ARK or Memphis papers had any articles up when I went to bed.

PWD

SEC Media Days: Kentucky Wildcat Headlines

From around the Southeast we have early recaps from Rich Brooks' always boring speech.

-- Brooks: "I have a good football team" - Louisville Courier
-- Brooks upbeat about future - Monroe (La.) News-Star
-- Brooks optimistic - NOLA.com
-- Kentucky quotes -- Chattanooga
-- Legge's look at UK - Scout.com (premium)

More articles later as the Lexington paper and others do their recaps tomorrow.

PWD

SEC Media Days: Gamecock Headlines

Some quick headlines from the Spurrier and the Chickens.
-- Spurrier runs up the score with media - The State
-- Spurrier Talking Championships Again - SportingNews (AP Story)
-- Gamecock Quotes -- Chattanooga.com
-- Optimistic Ball Coach -- Charleston Courier
-- Spurrier speaks. Insert foot - AL.com blog
-- Spurrier shoots from the mouth - AL.com blog

Best dumb question / dumb answer (ht - Kentucky Sports Report):

Spurrier is asked how his recruiting will change on August 1 when the NCAA rule outlawing text messages begins. "We'll quit text-messaging on August 1."

Nice. More headlines for the Gamecocks will be online tomorrow morning at various pubs.

PWD

New tailgating tents? (how big a boy are you)

FanBlogs.com tipped us off to the latest in tailgating. It's a 26 foot wide inflatable tent from Sunbelt Inflatables. They have "versions" for other schools, but they aren't officially licensed yet. So the versions for other schools (except UT) look sort of hooptie for now. (Note: the comments page on the FanBlogs article includes a mention from the Sunbelt inflatables person that a 33' wide version is in the works. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice)

As for the $1,300 sticker price, it's not that outrageous given that:
-- It covers the space of roughly three or four*** 9x9 tents which cost $125-200+ when branded with a UGA logo. So you're paying a 2-3x premium to have the first one on the block.
-- I'm pretty sure that it self inflates so you get a break on setup effort.

You would have to assume the prices would come down if they could figure out how to mass produce / distribute these things.

Regardless, I think it looks cool as hell.

See Also:
-- Sunbelt Inflatables - Sunbelt
-- Photos of Available Tents - Sunbelt (warning: most of these are photoshop "what ifs")

PWD

***Someone else can do the math of the square footage of a 26' diameter circle tent vs. a series of square tents. Given my math skills, I'd be working on that problem til next football season.

UGA Headlines..catching up....

Some headlines from the last few days...

-- Immediate Impact Freshmen? - UGASports.com (today)
-- No thanks to UGA vs. FSU in the Dome - Dawgsports.com (today)
-- UGA still working to get Vance Cuff eligible - ABH (7/24)
-- Coaches making it rain - DawgPost (7/24)
-- Stafford takes leadership role - AJC (7/24)
-- Have SEC Teams stopped trying - Get the Picture (7/23)
-- Freshman face tough start - AJC (7/22)
-- Pre-Fall Redcross report - UGAsports.com (7/21)

And Derek Dooley talks football with the IdahoStatesman. It's a great series of one-liners from Vince's son.

pwd

UGA Announces Ticket Cutoff Scores for most games

When I saw the cutoff scores for UGA tickets, I had some sort of out of body experience where I felt that I was channeling Montgomery Brewster.

A $23,500 lifetime contribution is required for the right to buy UGA vs. Bama tickets in Tuscaloosa. Maybe Damon misunderstood my ticket form. I don't want to play running back versus the Tide. I just want to watch the game. For $23k, I expect to either tote the rock (unabated towards the end zone) or to cuddle with the entire cheerleading squad during the Fifth Quarter.

In all seriousness...every time I think I'm making progress on the giving front, the scores leap again.

Also...GT has stopped selling Flex Packs with the UGA game included. They're only including UGA vs. GT tickets in season packages. To hell with that, you can get a better deal on StubHub.

Anyway...here's the press release.

From UGA SID:
The University of Georgia Athletic Association Ticket Office has released the following cut off score requirements for the 2007 season.

Renewable Season:
Contributors who ordered and have a cumulative score of 1,991 or higher will receive adjacent renewable season tickets.

Non-renewable/Regular Season:
All orders will be refunded.

Oklahoma State, Troy, and Kentucky:
All contributors who ordered will receive tickets.

Western Carolina:
All contributors with a cumulative score of 9,000 or higher will receive tickets.

Mississippi:
All contributors with a cumulative score of 12,000 or higher will receive tickets.

Alabama:
All contributors with a cumulative score of 23,500 or higher will receive tickets.

Tennessee:
All contributors with a cumulative score of 22,200 or higher will receive tickets.

Vanderbilt:
All contributors who ordered Vanderbilt tickets will receive tickets.

Cut-offs for Florida and Georgia Tech will be released as soon as determined. All refund checks for unfulfilled orders will be mailed by August 15.

PWD

SEC Media Days....I'm looking forward to...

SEC Media Days are our league's little version of a tempest in a tea cup. You've got hundreds of well dressed reporters and radio stations packed into Birmingham, and 90% of them are writing the same stories. This means they all get to ask the same questions. Over. And. Over. And. Over.

Some coaches, like Richt, can hold their water all week. They can stay on message and never waver, and they bring kids who can avoid saying something ridiculously stupid. Other coaches and players get fed up and start saying nutty stuff to humor themselves. See Steve Spurrier as Exhibit A.

And my favorite...the coach that gets frustrated and to quote Nick Saban, they "don't have time for this shit." The smart money on cracking this year follows Les Miles. After watching him this afternoon on ESPN's new College Football show (3:30 PM EST), you could tell that he bristles at the very mention of Nick Saban. You can also tell that he hasn't found a graceful / honest way of answering any questions about Saban's return to the SEC.

Saban is totally in his head. Or to paraphrase Paul Finebaum tonight..."Miles is Saban's bitch."

The media will ask Miles a parade of Saban related questions. Eventually, he'll snap and say something dumb. The best part, he's too proud to just admit when he's wrong and too stupid to know how to avoid obnoxious media questions.

For instance, all Miles had to do when asked about the Southern Cal / Pac-10 comments a few weeks ago was to just laugh and say, "I was just hamming it up with our fans back in Louisiana. I seriously doubt that Pete Carroll cares what I said." Then there's no story. Instead of sort of denies that he said it. That's why almost a month later he still gets asked the question.

Of course, I look forward to Steve Spurrier poking some of his peers with a stick. Ideally, it will be Fulmer again.

I'm not looking forward to three days of questions for Houston Nutt about Arkansas fans. Nutt won't say anything honest or interesting the situation, and I'm not comfortable with questions that bounce around allegations of marital infidelity. Unless they are funny questions.

I'm also not looking forward to Urban Meyer and Tommy Tuberville as they navel gaze at their own personal greatness and monstrous achievements. Although, listening as Tuberville makes up stats and yardsticks that proclaim his dominance over the rest of the SEC is always fun.

What are you looking forward to this week?

PWD

Shockley's Big Break?

Image: Jim Hipple

Unless you woke in a ditch this morning, you know that Mike Vick has been ordered by the NFL not to report to the Falcons camp. You may also know that the State of Virginia will likely join the Federal Government in their pursuit of Vick. Even as Surry County backs off. You may not know that the State of New Jersey is also considering investigating Vick for dog related offenses.

So here sits DJ Shockley. Suddenly, the #2 quarterback. Here's the latest on DJ's chances...
-- DJ's Big Break - BlackAthlete.net
-- We want DJ - AOL Fanhouse
-- D.J. Shockley News - Google News

PWD

Barnhart on SEC Scheduling and Media Days

Mr. College Football has his Top 5 non-conference match-ups listed. He avoided the easy answer of UF/FSU, UGA/GT and SC/CU. Instead he looked at the non-traditional games. I have a couple of disagreements with his list. (sorry I forgot the link earlier)

I would switch FSU vs. Alabama and UGA vs. Ok State. I think the FSU vs. Bama game is much more anticipated. I would also put Auburn vs. Kansas State ahead of the MSU vs. WVU game. West Virginia will beat Sly Croom's bizarro dogs so badly they'll wish they were boarding in Mike Vick's kennel.

Update: Speaking of scheduling...Roll Bama Roll asks...Why is UF's schedule ranked so high (per Rivals.com) when Bama's is ranked so low...despite playing virtually the same type of schedule.

As for SEC Media Days...Georgia goes on Friday. TodayWednesday is ARK, SC, AU and UK in that order. Here's the complete schedule. I would imagine that the SEC web site will also have recaps here.

PWD

(PS - I won't suck this bad tomorrow. lol)

Gigantic Waste of Time of the Day

ht - swampfox22

Charley Trippi Video Profile

Uploaded to Youtube last year by Dawgterfeelgood. With 1 minute left in the video you see Trippi absolutely rip through a defense.

I believe it was legendary UGA coach/player Bill Hartman Sr. who said that Trippi was the greatest defensive back that has ever played at Georgia. If memory serves, he said that around the time that Champ Bailey was getting a ton of press here.

PWD

ESPN to televise AJ Green's season opener

USAToday reports that ESPN will televise Summerville High School (SC) vs. Booker T. Washington (FL) on Saturday, August 25th at noon EST. Both teams are projected to begin the season in USAToday's Top 25 high school football poll.

UGA recruit AJ Green will be prominently showcased during the game.

PWD

ht - gatorhater27

Darren McFadden has Herschel beat in one area....

...outrageous vehicles. This certainly tops the Burt Reynolds style Trans-Am. See Boss Hawg's sweet ride below.


Click the image for a bigger shot and more pics.

Orson Swindle has the rest of the pics at EDSBS.

PWD

Hoops Schedule Rumor: Hawaii Rainbow Classic Update

Memphisdog is the Bob Woodward of Georgia hoops scheduling news. His accuracy rate, especially this late in the off season, is extremely high. Here's his updated field for the December 2007 Rainbow Classic basketball tournament in Hawaii.(last year's RPI listed with team name)

Georgia - 63
Hawaii - 98
Ohio University - 105
East Tennessee State - 123
St. Johns - 133
Tulane - 143
St. Mary's (Ca.) - 154
UL-L - 270

If we can win the tourney and avoid playing UL-L, this could be a solid boost to our RPI without taking on any massive risk. Beating Hawaii in their gym isn't without obstacles...crooked refs...cough....cough....crooked refs...cough. But it's not a bad event for us.

See Also:
-- Felton looking to get leid - GSB

PWD

Auburn Fan Talks about his Hexing Powers

From the movie "A Fall in Dreamland." Ht - King Bee at the Wishbone Blog.

PWD

Kickoff Game Time Rumors

Image: Hipple

Message board rumor...."Vandy Coach Bobby Johnson said this afternoon on Nashville radio that the UGA-Vandy game will be picked up by ESPN. The game is the return game promised to Vandy for them playing Michigan last season in Ann Arbor. He didn't know a kickoff time yet."

(Note: CBS posted some very specific start times a few days ago, and they promptly yanked the entire web page down)

The schedule very likely looks like this:

OKSU (Home) - 6:45 pm ESPN2 (confirmed)
SC (Home) - 5:45 pm ESPN2 (confirmed)
WCU (Home) - 1:00 pm TBD (projected based on history)
Alabama (Away) - 3:30 pm CBS (projected)
Ole Miss (Home) - 12:30 pm LFSports (projected)
UT (Away) - 3:30 pm CBS (projected)
Vandy (Away) - Night Game ESPN/ESPN2 (rumored)
Idle
UF (Jax) - 3:30 CBS (confirmed)
Troy (Home) - 1:00 pm No TV (projected based on history)
Auburn (Home) - 3:30 pm CBS (projected)
UK (Home) - Who knows!!!
GT (Away) - 3:30 ABC (projected)

A nice mix of start times at home and only one road night game, and it's Vandy. You can't beat that.

PWD

Calm before the storm....

I think the SEC media types are trying to take some time off in anticipation of SEC Media Days next week. Thus the slowness.

As for the Caleb King story yesterday. I'm tired of doing my normal bit on the whole driving with a suspended license thing. Dean Legge at DawgPost nailed it when he said, "There was no fighting; no drugs; no alcohol; no major event occurred beyond a traffic violation."

Exactly. It's nothing. No way he gets suspended so who cares.

Georgia Great Kevin McLee Dies of Stroke

McLee was the star running back on the SEC Champion 1976 Squad

Thoughts and prayers go out to the McLee family. McLee died of a stroke at his home in California. Georgiadogs.com has a full obit on him.

Damn. Good. Dawg.

See Also:
-- Georgia rushing legend dies of stroke - ABH
-- McLee passes away - AJC


PWD

(Image: Georgiadogs.com)

New Dawg Video: The bar has been raised again

Damn this is good stuff.

Video uploaded by BarkingDawgUGA on YouTube.

PWD

Tripp Taylor (Walkon) implicated in brawl

The AJC has the story.

Update: The story has been further updated by the AJC, and it's not really funny anymore. I don't know who did what or to whom. But this is way, way out there. I'm taking my original attempt at humor down. The accusations made by the juveniles seem too outrageous to be completely true. But who knows either way.

Regardless, it's not the type of thing I usually joke about once the gory detail / charges came out. We'll see how this all pans out. Regardless, this isn't the normal boys will be boys stuff that doesn't bother me and that I joke about.

Taylor is either in a world of trouble, or this will blow over in a few months after all the he said / she said stuff passes by.

PWD

Quick Hitters

Rivals.com has their preview of Georgia up. They have us at #14. The preview is a free read. I pretty much agree with every word of it; although, I'm not convinced that Jeff Owens is our best player on defense, nor do I feel that Kade Weston is the most overrated. However, I don't have a better answer there. So should I really criticize?

Last week, Stewart Mandel ran his yearly best and worst coaches list. Richt made the best list at #9. Tuberville didn't make the list in favor of TCU's Gary Patterson. I don't really get that, but whatever. The worst list didn't include Mandel's normal whipping boy in Chan Gailey. However, he is listed just off the cusp. Any worst coaches list that starts with Al Groh, can't be all bad, but how can you leave off Mike Stoops at Arizona?

Carter Strickland apparently lost his calendar and wrote an article about G-day. Insert rolling eyes here.

Bug Fixed....

Last week, you may have noticed that the "Read More" link had suddenly appeared at the bottom of every article. And it was broken / it didn't do anything. That has now been fixed. In other words, the "peekaboo post" feature works again.

Apparently, the great folks at Hackosphere had run into some technical issues, and I implemented their patch.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's fine too. Just ignore this. If you use their peekaboo hack on your own blog, you can get the fix here.

PWD

Toughest SEC Schedules

Tony Barnhart discusses what he considers the five toughest schedules in the SEC in today's AJC. Here's Barnhart's take:

Image: There is a rumor the "I'm Georgia" curse towel is going away, so this place may get a lot less friendly for opponents]

1. Auburn
Our Take: the home schedule is typically powder puff (Missy State, Vandy, Ole Miss, plus Bama), and but for the Kansas State game the non-conference schedule is vintage Auburn (South Florida, New Mexico State, Tennessee Tech). The road schedule is killer: Swamp, Arkansas, LSU, and Georgia. Eight games in their home state isn't too bad.

2. South Carolina
Our Take: Like Auburn, the home schedule has one real game (Florida, preceded by Missy State, Kentucky, and Vandy). The non-conference is not particularly impressive, even with Clem(p)son and home and at UNC (Louisiana-Lafayette?, S.C. State? puh-leeze). Like Allbarn, the road schedule is a killer: Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, Arkansas.

3. Tennessee
Our Take: Decent home schedule: UGA, South Carolina, Arkansas & Vandy. Non-conference is not too bad, except for a rough road game at California (Southern Miss, Ark. St., and Louisiana-Lafayette). Road games are Florida, Missy State, Bama & Kentucky. All things considered, this isn't too bad a schedule. I don't think it is 3rd toughest.

4. Florida
Our Take: Tennesse and Auburn at home, plus Vandy. Road games at Ole Miss, LSU, Kentucky and South Carolina. Other than Florida State, non-conference is a parade of lightweights: Western Kentucky, Troy, and Florida Atlantic. There's no way this is a tougher schedule than UGA.

5. Georgia
Our Take: Oklahoma State to start this season is a tough one [only Auburn (KSU) and Tennessee (Cal) can boast real season opening games], followed by a tough one against South Carolina. Auburn later in the season will also be a test, especially with their road field advantage. Other non-conference games are Western Carolina, Troy, and of course, Tech dragging down our strength of schedule to end the season. The road schedule is a bear: Bama, Tennessee, a breather at Vandy, then our annual bed-sh*tting in Jax.

We really think the Dawgs have at least the 3rd toughest schedule in the country. I'd say that we have a tougher schedule than South Carolina, but they have to play us and we have to play them, so they get the nod for getting the tougher draw.

Dawgnoxious

Light posting this week

Having some computer problems and traveling for work. I'll post when I can, but it'll be light this week likely.

Mark Bradley's Greatest Work to date

There's nothing more I can add here..

pwd

Odell Thurman's 99 Yard INT against Auburn

The loudest thing I've ever heard in Sanford Stadium. Even louder than LSU's infamous "The Kneel."

Uploaded by our friends at The Wishbone.
PDW