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May 31, 2006

Donnan Talks Cocktail Party

Paul Finebaum interviewed Donnan a week or two ago about Mike Adams eagerness to rename the Cocktail Party. Donnan mostly resists the temptation to take shots at Adams; however, he does talk about how pointless the issue of the name really is. Click here to listen.

Actually, Donnan comes down on Adams' side as it relates to the issue of too much drinking by college students. However, he and Finebaum think it's hypocritical for university presidents to condemn drinking by adults on gamedays given that entertaining alumni givers always involves booze.

pwd

Richt Softens his Stance on the Indoor Practice Facility

Interesting read on the Indoor Practice Facility issue from Josh Kendall. This follows Damon Evans recent comments on the issue a few weeks ago.

pwd

Wussification of American Sports Continues

Connecticut high school football coaches beware. According to ESPN, you will now be penalized for running up the score and face suspensions for wins greater than 50 points.

All the great quotes and stories of sport are about winning or losing. None of them are about the margin of victory. You learn more from getting blown out than you do many other activities in sports.

When UGA was getting blown out 28-0 in the Sugar, we learned that a Mark Richt team never gives up. When UT was getting blown out 41-7 in 2003 by UGA, we learn that a Fulmer team will quit when the going gets tough.

Does this sort of legislation stop at 50 points? Why not 40 or even 30 points? Who decides what is running it up vs. a blowout. I've seen fans defend a 70-0 score as not running it up, and then turn around and cry about a 51-7 score as running it up (I'm looking at you GT fans).

The story just shows how nancy sport is becoming. What's next? Will we add judges to sports and grade on form and degree of difficulty?


Bear would not approve

(hat tip to DawgFreak on DawgPost.com)

pwd

May 30, 2006

WhatchuTalking 'bout Willis? (video)

While I'm stalling and you know...actually working at my job. A football video to placate you.

Certainly not the best hit of 2005, but definitely the best pure form tackle of last year. Ole Miss All-American linebacker Patrick Willis clobbers Justin Vincent.



hat tip: Deep South Sports

Spy School Rocked

A weapon unused is a useless weapon. Well, a blog unupdated is a .... well a typical blog really.

I'll be out from under the mountain of spam and paperwork soon. (I really don't understand where all this crap came from. I was only gone a day).

When I clean up some thoughts on the Diamond Dawgs, our Regional and National Seed. As for a breakdown on Spy School, Dawgnoxious and I are sworn to an oath of silence.

Note to Techies -- you dodged a bullet with us not being in your bracket. And you know it.

pwd

May 26, 2006

Enrolling in Spy School

Dawgnoxious and I will be enrolling in Spy School effective immediately. Upon completion of our physical testing, we will be assigned to perform counter intelligence work surrounded by deadly Asian assassins for the next 4-5 days.


Like this. Only warmer.

Spy Code Translator: And by spy school I mean a casino. And by Asia I mean there will be strippers there. And by assassins, I mean ass. And by work I mean vacation. All this blogging has the Georgia Sports Blog team exhausted.

pwd

May 25, 2006

Georgia Beats the Hell out of Kentucky in Baseball


Wyatt on the move

Georgia was down 3-1 at the top of the 4th inning when a truck carrying an explosive payload of Georgia whoop ass collided with a train full of Kentucky blunders. Two innings later Georgia led 10-5 and never looked back winning 16-10 and sending Kentucky home early from the tourney.

How's this for an odd box score:
22 - # of Georgia hits
21 - # of Georgia singles (only 1 double)
4 - # of UK wild pitches
2 - # of UGA batters hit by pitches
2 - # of UK errors

UK could do no right, and UGA could do no wrong. UGA may need to win one more game to stay firmly ahead of UK in the Super Regional race, but taking 3 of 4 from them in the final two weeks of the season has to count for something.

pwd

More Rival Posters from HeyJennySlater

Doug brings us a handful of UT, AU, ND and GT posters. Along with some pop culture classics.

My favorite...



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Profanity: Bobby Knight's true artistic medium

No kidding when I say this. If you're bashful around extreme profanity, don't watch this. If you don't have headphones at work. Don't watch this.

But if you want to see an artist at the height of his game, check out these outtakes from Bobby Knight's golfing show. Un.Real.Profanity.



pwd

hat tip to chappy from DawgPost.com

Auburn Fan Poster for 2006



Dawgnoxious put this one together using MotivationalBuck.com's site. It fits nicely with the GT Team Poster that I uploaded yesterday.

Feel free to make your own and post links to them here. I'll repost direct links to the best.

pwd

Dogs Lose SEC Tourney Opener



The good news. It's a double elimination tourney, and the #1, 2 and 4 seeds lost.

The bad news. The #3 seed (UGA) also lost and now play from the loser bracket.

The really bad news. We've got to play UK to make get our feet back under us. Luckily, the Cats play better in parks smaller than The Met. Plus, we just took 2 of 3 from them.

pwd

Ellerbe's Case is Resolved (non-joke)

Ellerbe has been suspended for three games by Richt, and will face probation and a 24 hour jail sentence. (GSB readers knew about it 4 hours ago as one of our readers gave us an update from the courthouse)

As expected the theft by taking charge related to Mudcat Elmore's car was dropped. The DUI charge was also dropped given that they never tested his blood-booze level. The other charges stuck.

I had predicted a 4 game suspension based on the possible DUI. Without a DUI three games is pretty fair.

pwd

Georgia Sports Blog Sighting

So I had my first "sighting." A friend of mine calls me from the road on business recently.
    Him: "Yo Westerdawg, I'm in Nashville on business."

    Me: "So?"

    Him: "So, I was touring the offices of Rivals.com, and I saw three people reading your blog as we walked around."

    Me: "Did you say anything to them?"

    Him: "Yeah....I asked, 'Do you honestly read that trash.'"

No respect for Westerdawg.

If you ever have an unusual sighting of the blog drop me a note. Orson at EDSBS said his best "sighting" so far was a buddy calling him from Gainesville as he overheard two students discussing an article that they read on EDSBS that day.

pwd

May 24, 2006

Looking Around for Interesting News

A tour of bulldog news from beyond the normal sources or topics.

Football:
-- An unoffical recap from the North Georgia Bulldog Club's meeting. Guest speaker was Rodney Garner. (Kdawg59 did the recap). If you happen to see other bulldog club recaps, shoot me a note.

Basketball:
-- Steve Newman and Billy Humphrey are in Brazil playing hoops with a Christian group that combines basketball and ministry. (hat tip to DaugMan)

Mascots:
Mayor Kyle is running a "How Not to Take Care of a Mascot" series. Part 1 and Part 2 are now up.

Comedy:
-- Non-Dawg, but Doug at Hey,JennySlater knows what Justin Timberlake is thinking right now.

Tennis:
The Dawgs lost the national title game in Men's Tennis to Pepperdine.

pwd

Ellerbe gets Probation. Enrolls in Mixology Classes


Ellerbe after his INT vs. Boise

The University of Georgia has reached a verdict in the Dannell Ellerbe case. The UGA linebacker was given probation through Nov. 13th and told to complete a class called "Prime for Life," an alcohol education program.

Much to Mike Adams' disappointment, it turns out that Prime for Life is a mixology class where Ellerbe will attempt to become the athletic department's version of Isaac, The Bartender. Remember, football is a team sport, and everyone on the team has a role.
  • Nick Jones is the leader.
  • Dan Inman is the fighter.
  • Quentin Moses is the playmaker.
  • Thomas Flowers gets the girls.
  • Mudcat Elmore is the driver.
  • Martez Milner is good with explosives.
  • Tony Taylor tells the jokes.
  • Ken Shackleford gets the gravy.
What the team clearly needs is a someone to step into the role of bartender -- a full-tilt, finish the drill style mixologist.

They need someone that knows a Prime for Life drink isn't Jim Beam; it's Makers Mark. Someone that appreciates the fact that a cocktail properly presented makes more of a visual impact than one dumped into a plastic cup. Someone that understands that ladies don't respond to Spanish Fly as well as they do Hunch Punch. And more importantly, someone who knows which juice to serve with Gin and Juice.


Not so much this.

Dannell Ellerbe upon completion of the Prime for Life classes will be a better teammate and a better friend to the entire Georgia community. For that, the Georgia Sports Blog salutes him!


More like this.

Ok, seriously. Ellerbe is no where near out of the woods yet. He still has to deal with the Clarke County District Attorney and Mark Richt. Richt will likely wait to see how the case shapes up in court before ruling on playing time penalties.

Luckily, the theft by taking charge will be thrown out because it was his roommate's car. Mudcat Elmore won't push that issue enough for a conviction. Plus, the car he was driving is possessed by a demon. No jury will hold a man accountable for driving a possessed vehicle. It's like a law or something.

The giving false info charge, the DUI and the underage possession charges will be tougher to beat. Thus, he's got some heavy, well-deserved punishment coming from Athens-Clarke County and Richt.

Georgia Sports Blog prediction = 4 Game Suspension

pwd

Georgia Tech 2006 Team Motivational Poster


Original fark by NoleDawg. Poster by MotivationalBuck.com

Peter at BurntOrangeNation turned me on to this poster builder tool from MotivationalBuck.com. Orson is using it too. Feel free to make your own and post links to them here. I'll repost direct links to the best.

pwd

well my readers have crashed their first site....

Doh! Sorry about that.

The intense interest in the Financial info from the endowment post below caused *many* of you to download the PDF from the http://www.nacubo.org/ web site. Apparently, they couldn't handle the traffic.

There's probably an object lesson in there somewhere. Regardless, I took the link to the PDF down for now.

pwd

May 23, 2006

While we're discussing Mike Adams

Speaking of University Presidents and Paul Finebaum, Paul Finebaum wrote a blistering article last Saturday concerning university presidents. The article particularly focused on Mike Adams' ineptitude.

Finebaum says:
Someone needs to help these poor people (university presidents) in the bowties before they seriously injure someone with their clumsiness and utter pomposity.

The latest case in point comes from the president of the University of Georgia, Michael Adams. To meet him is to immediately dislike him. He is supercilious and self-righteous, haughty and highbrow. And those are some of his better traits.

Instead of straight talk from our college leaders, we get drivel. We get presidents trying to talk down to us instead of directly to us. We get people who all speak from a particular manual. It's a basic course called Hypocrisy 101. It's being taught on almost every big-time college campus these days by the person sitting in the president's office.
Finebaum is correct. The double talk and hypocrisy from Adams is endless.


Adams briefs reporters on the evils of drinking on game day (as long as you're not in his sky box)

While we're on the topic of Adams, Nathan at GoldenTornado.net talks about why GT fans should cheer for UGA in the classroom. When GT fans are pulling for you to get a new president because you're giving the entire state a black eye, things are bad.

pwd

Orson Swindle Interviewed by Paul Finebaum

Orson discusses the Fulmer Cup on the Paul Finebaum radio show.

My dad (aka IHeartFinebaumdawg) is such a fan of the show that Orson has probably moved ahead of me on dad's "Favorite Son List." I was already running 3rd in a 2 son race. This probably puts me in 4th.

Dad is probably writing me an email right now that says, "When r u going to be on Finebaum? Your blog is now teh suxorz."

(note: Link fixed)

pwd

UGA's Endowment Continues to Embarrass. Thanks to Adams

Sunday's New York Times discussed academic fundraising efforts across the country. Some highlights:
"The University of Virginia will announce a $3 billion fund-raising drive in the fall. New York University is in the middle of a $2.5 billion campaign. And officials at Columbia University say they are moving ahead with plans for the largest university campaign so far, a push to raise $4 billion over seven years."

"Money is the mother's milk of academic quality, because it pays for the people, which is to say professors and students, through salaries and scholarships, and it pays for the stuff, which is to say computers and libraries and laboratories and classrooms. Everybody needs more all the time."

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which tracks university fund-raising, 22 universities are in drives to raise $1 billion or more."
Look, I realize that Columbia and NYU aren't our academic peers. But where does UGA stand next to more similar universities?

In 2005, the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) published its report that ranked the endowments of 746 reporting universities and colleges. (EDIT: Link to PDF temporarily removed b/c their site has crashed).

I took a look at our SEC peers, the public universities ranked near us in the US News University Rankings and other interesting regional players. The results are beyond disappointing.


8 years into Mike Adams tenure, and we're barely ahead of Furman?

Mike Adams' lack of progress as a fundraiser is staggering. Especially as it relates to our academic and regional peers. We didn't hire him for his expertise as an administrator of a large university. We hired him for his fundraising abilities.

I just don't see it.

hat tip to Ignatiusdawg from DawgChat.

May 22, 2006

NCAA 2007 Fake / Alternate Covers are Out

FanBlogs.com has the first batch of more than 150 alternate game covers posted on their flickr site. So far I only saw one for Greg Blue (see below).

However, if someone can find me the Template for this year's game and send it to me as a PhotoShop *.psd file, I'll start making some for the DawgNation.



Let me know if you find the template. My email is over to the right in my profile.

pwd

Baseball Top 25 Polls are Out

Per Baseball America's Top 25 Poll, UGA is ranked 9th.

We've passed Kentucky and we remain ahead of Georgia Tech and Ok State. All of those teams are relevant as we inch closer to the Super Regional Bubble.

BaseballNews.com has us at #10. We're in striking distance of UK. Hopefully, the ACC won't have 3 teams host because UVA has a great resume.

pwd

(hat tip to Ryan Jordan on the 2nd poll)

Bama Pre-Game Video

"The same things win that always won.
We just have a different bunch of excuses if we lose."
-- Bear Bryant




Way too long, but really damn good. Just posting because I'm in the mood for football.

Plus, I really wish UGA would make our pre-game videos easier to access.

pwd

616* Homers. ESPN Page 2 looks at Bonds run at the Record


not so juicy

Interesting read from ESPN proposing a theory that Bonds without steriods would be at around 616 career home runs.
So, how did Page 2 place Bonds' "legitimate" total at 616 homers? In taking away 98 home runs since 1999 -- when Bonds' allegedly began using steroids -- we sought to quantify the performance-enhancing effects of steroids in four hitting-related categories: strength, stamina, longevity and confidence.

To do so, we spoke to a swing guru, a major league scout, training and biomechanics specialists, and an expert on the physics of baseball. We looked over hit charts and home run distances, tabulating every Bonds blast from '99 to now. We even got help from a nuclear scientist (albeit a nuclear scientist who really likes baseball).
The article closes with a good comment on Bonds. "Such is the shame in having to wonder: Without steroids, Bonds was a damn good player. With steroids, he's a good player damned."

pwd

Dawgs Still in the Running for a Super Regional Slot?


Dawgs need a hot start in Hoover

The Diamond Dawgs did what it took to secure the #3 seed in the SEC tourney, and they hung on to their hopes for an NCAA Super Regional host site by winning two of three from Kentucky.

As I suggested on DawgRun.com, here are my thoughts on locks, likely sites and the battle for the final spots when it comes to the eight Super Regional sites.

I based these on last week's polls, how the teams faired over the week (ie...Nebraska blew their shot a Super Regional) and WarrenNolan's RPI site. Agree? Disagree?

Locks (in order):
1. Rice
2. Clemson
3. Texas
4. Cal State
5. Bama (Champ of #1 overall conference playing tourney in home state)

Front Runners for the other 3 but can still blow it:
6. UNC (#2 team in #2 league)
7. Oregon State (Pac 10 Champ gets a site b/c of Geography as much as merit)

Final Slot Battling it out with chances to move up:
UGA - two SEC teams should definitely host given SOS. However, we still have to move up the polls.

UK - UK probably has never hosted a Super. That's a plus. However, stadium is smallish. If they can do some temp seating, they should be fine if they advance in the tourney. Needs a big tourney showing.

Oklahoma State - #2 team in a power conference. Geography isn't their friend b/c of Rice and Texas.

GT - Finished 4th in the ACC. Would just about have to win the ACC Tourney to host a super. However, they do have a ridiculously high RPI.

UVA - #3 in the ACC. Solid ranking and RPI.

Dawgs have to win on Day 1. Almost impossible to make any real noise in B-ham starting from the Losers bracket. Plus, we need to keep winning just to avoid being in Clemson's super regional.

BTW -- As of Sunday night, the Dawgs were the cover story over on BaseballAmerica.com.

I'm very new to college baseball blogging. I'm trying to cover this stuff, but my knowledge is not as deep as my interest. If you've got a great baseball bracketology site or others that I should be checking / linking to, please send me a link. Thanks!

pwd

Richt vs. Spurrier - Comparing First 5 Years in the SEC



Check out this post on DawgRun.com for a comparison of the two coaches' first five years at UGA and UF.

Interesting. Richt stacks up very well.

pwd

May 21, 2006

Evans Talks Indoor Practice Facility for Football

Interesting article on Scout.com last week talking about the Indoor Practice Facility plans for football. Damon says:
"I’ve heard a lot of schools say they don’t utilize it, and if you’re going to build something of that magnitude, you want to make sure you are going to utilize it and put it to good use,” he said.

An indoor practice facility, which would allow the Bulldogs to practice out of the elements when there is rain or lightning in the area, could cost as little as $10 million or as much $40 million, Evans said.
I said back in December that I'm passionately against the idea of an indoor practice facility for football because of many, many reasons. Damon's logical comment that other teams don't even use the ones that they built just adds to my list of reasons why not.

pwd

May 19, 2006

Six Degrees of Michael Adams

Somewhere there is a kid who didn't go to college asking himself, "how can I be on the Board of Regents one day?" You might be tempted to tell that kid that if you want to be on the governing body of the University System of Georgia, you should become knowledgeable about higher education issues, and it wouldn't hurt to be the graduate of a college or university, or even Georgia Tech. But, that would be naive advice. Because we all know that the road to the Board of Regents is paved with crony gold, but not necessarily diplomas.

No doubt in pursuit of job security, a Regent reluctantly recently turned himself in to the State Ethics commission for "inadvertently" violating Georgia's campaign contribution limits.

Like a fatter, more evil Kevin Bacon, there are just a few degrees of separation between Michael Adams and most dishonorable activity in Georgia. For example, the recent guilty plea of former State School Superintendent Linda Schrenko.

When you're compiling your night list of people to whom you are appreciative for allowing Michael Adams to destroy everything he touches remain president at UGA, include Board of Regents Chairman Tim Shelnut next to Don Leebern's name.

Regent/Adams Apologist Shelnut discovered his "inadvertent" ethics violation while preparing to be a witness in Schrenko's just-concluded federal corruption trial. Like fellow Regent/Adams Apologist Don Leebern, Regent Shelnut also does not have a college degree. I'm sure that fact is merely coincidental to why he & Leebern are complicit to allowing an undistinguished scholar and poor fundraiser from a small, obscure college to continue to run the state's flagship university in spite of behavior that would have been unbecoming more honorable men.

According to Bill Shipp (which admittedly is the factual and persuasive equivalent of beginning a sentence 'according to Furman Bisher'), Shelnut was "characterized by federal investigators as mighty cozy with former state school Superintendent Linda Schrenko. Shelnut’s name has surfaced as a money handler in the federal corruption trial against Schrenko."

So, hats off to Tim Shelnut. Stay Classy. Thanks for nothing.

Inman Suspended?

Here we go again. DawgPost.com has the story here and here. No confirmation yet, but this has train wreck written all over it.

The people we can't afford to lose are (in no particular order):
Dan Inman (b/c there's almost nothing at OT)
Nick Jones
Paul Oliver
Quentin Moses

pwd

Diamond Dawgs Roar Back to Beat Cats


Dogs come from 6 runs down to win

Georgia won its 13th game in a row as it stormed back from a huge deficit to beat the SEC leading Wildcats. Per Josh Kendall of the Macon Telegraph/DawgPost.com:
Kentucky led 8-2 when Josh Morris came to bat in the sixth, but he quickly trimmed that lead to 8-4 with a two-run home run that cleared the scoreboard in right field. The next inning, after Kentucky had gone ahead 9-4, he came up with the bases loaded and hit his 20th home run of the season over the center field wall.
For Photos from the game, check DawgPost.com. For more stories, check UGASports.com and the AJC.

Lastly, JimFromDuluth has the SEC standings. If the Dawgs win the next two, we win the East. Bama won tonight so winning the SEC is going to be tough.

pwd

Her first baby come out sideways



Pretty odd / funny article on our Softball Team's coach from the AJC. Georgia softball coach Lu Harris-Champer plans to perform her duties despite being due to deliver her third child Tuesday.

Honestly, the only reason I posted this was so I could quote Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Del: Are you Gus' son?

Owen: I'm Owen. You the shower curtain fella?

Del: Yeah. Yeah. Del Griffith. How are you? This is Neal Page from Chicago.

Neal: Hi.

Owen: Pleased to meet you both. I'm to drive you to Wichita to catch a train?

Del: Yeah, we'd appreciate it.

Owen: Train don't run out of Wichita. 'Lessen you're a hog or cattle. People train runs out of Stubbville.

Neal: That'll be fine.

Del: That'll be just fine.

Owen: Leave it be. Get your lazy behind out here and put that in back.

Del: No. We've got it. It's very heavy.

Owen: She don't mind. She's short and skinny, but she's strong. Her first baby...come out sideways. She didn't scream or nothing.

Del: Isn't that something? You're a real trooper.
So there's that. The Athens Banner-Herald has a similar story.

pwd

What Time is it in Texas?

DawgBone.net has its Old School Pic of the Week up, and it's Lastinger's run vs. the Longhorns in the '84 Cotton Bowl that put the Dawgs up 10-9.


Click to Enlarge

That was the last great moment for Georgia and Texas on the national stage for almost 20 years. It's safe to say that both are back. For more on this game, check out this article from the official Texas site or this article in the Dallas Morning News.


Click for the article. Registration required.

pwd

May 18, 2006

Trailer Park Magazine: Athletic Department of the Year

From Trailer Park Magazine, the leading finance and culture publication for mobile home dwellers, we learn the following:

On Sunday, The Gamecock Athletic Department announced that they lost $2,656,084 in 2005, and that they expect to lose another $2.46 million in the academic year ending June 30, 2006. The school also announced that last summer they had $7 million in the bank as part of the "in case of emergency" fund. They are now borrowing at least $2.45 million from that fund to keep the lights on at the games.

So naturally.....on Wednesday, they announced that they are buying a $1.2 million video board for Williams-Brice Stadium.

Man, is there anything more rednecky than someone who can barely pay their bills, but says "Baby, what we need is a bigger TV! I'm talking WIDE SCREEN." Sadly, some Gamecock fan is probably reading this thinking, "You know that thang ain't worth a shit without a satellite dish."


Rendering of Future Gamecock Purchase

The whole episode reminds me of something out of the movie Major League. Maybe the new Gamecock AD has to lose a certain amount of money before he can move the football team to Florida. Which would make sense for Spurrier because he hasn't done a whole helluva a lot since he left that state in 2001.

Imagine poor old Sidney Rice. He comes in from a hard day of practicing his post corner routes and learning how to steal VCRs from the stadium like his teammates. All he wants is to give his tired bones a good soak in the whirlpool. Alas, there's no hot water....wait...there's no water. President Sorenson walks in and informs Rice that he's just going to have to get tougher.


Snipes as Sidney Rice in Major League IV: Revenge of the Gamecock

Yeah. Recruiting is going to be a breeze for old Stevie.

In unrelated news, Damon Evans swims in a gold plated pool underneath the Butts-Mehre Building as UGA posted a $23.9 million profit last year.

pwd

hat tip to Old Dawg on DawgRun.com.

FAMU Band Pulls the Coolest Halftime Drill Ever

Ok, this is just too damn cool. The Florida A&M Band forms two football players on the field...one throws the football and the other catches it. Slick.



pwd

May 17, 2006

The Simpsons, Pro Dawgs and Retarded QBs

The guys over at FootballHuddle.net have a variety of photos up from NFL Dawgs in pre-season camps. My favorite:


Veteran leadership

Doug at HeyJennySlater has updated his legendary Simpson Character list. He looks at which college football programs are similar to which Simpsons Characters. If you missed the original, you can find it here.


North Carolina State: Otto Mann

FootballHuddle.net also has several interesting discussions going on. First is an interesting post about the overblown nature of Bama's 12 national titles. The writer pokes holes in 3 of them. There's also a note up about Georgia winning the SEC All-Sports trophy. Along that same line...Georgiadogs.com says UGA just won its 7th SEC title this year. A new record.

Orson Swindle breaks the story of Chris Rix's school for retarded QBs. You have to see this to believe it.

Lastly, Mayor Kyle gives us Part II in his series of Coaching Misfits.

pwd

Felton Continues to Ramp Up Schedule



Boom. We've got dates, times and more rumors! The Athens Paper brings us the news of:

Gonzaga - Philips Arena (Dec. 16 or 17)
Wisconsin - Athens (Dec. 31)
Clemson - Away (TBD)
Georgia Tech - Away (TBD)
WKU - Home (TBD)

And...the ABH reports that we're close to a game with Wake Forest. Although various reports show that earlier rumors with Arizona were false.

And as DrewDog mentioned on DawgPost.com, if the SEC and Big East team up for a shootout, we could have another major conference team on the books.

One way or the other, we're going to know what this team is made of by Jan. 1 of next year. One thing is for sure. Felton is confident in this team, and that's a good thing.

pwd

ESPN Gameday to Open Season with Fish Toss


Local Georgia Tech student finds ideal fish for Notre Dame game

The Georgia Tech fan base (meaning both Dan and Nathan) is fired up about the recent announcement that ABC will open the season by televising Georgia Tech vs. Notre Dame at 8:00 pm on Sept. 2nd. ESPN College Gameday will also be there.

Why the excitement? The younger GT fans will finally get to participate in the famous GT tradition of throwing dead fish and hurling anti-catholic insults at Notre Dame players. That was a sacred right of passage for the Tech old timers who saw the last fish flinging episode in 1974. Total person huh? The entire situation reminds me of an old Bobby Dodd speech.
"We feel that the spectator can be most influential and instrumental in helping to achieve these objectives, if he will develop the right attitudes. May we suggest a few?

The fan that flings fish at catholic students or beats up the other team's band members gets a great deal more enjoyment from the game than one who doesn't.


Dodd returned to GT in '74 to train students

Also, we would never minimize the importance of winning, but it is very unfair to the coach, the player, and the school when fans forget to hit a ref in the head with liquor bottles when they blow a call.

The spectator should remember the football players are just human beings. They perform at times under great pressure, and they, as all other earthly inhabitants, are likely to make mistakes. It behooves all of us to remember, "To err is human, to boo, divine."

Robert L. "Bobby" Dodd
Head Coach and Athletic Director
Georgia Institute of Technology
In anticipation of that game, I loudly say "Go Irish."

Paul Westerdawg
Georgia Sports Blog

BTW -- For more on ABC expanding up the Primetime slot try Orson's article on Footbaw Games.

UGA at SC Kickoff Time Announced


Jackson clobbers Pinkins (Photo: SI.com)

It is all set for 7:45 pm on ESPN. UGA hasn't lost a night game in Columbia at least 1996. A later start will give the brutal Columbia heat a chance to break a bit.

My favorite moment from our last visit to the Carolina Cockroach was Greg Blue's hit on Dondrial Pinkins that knocked him into the middle of next week. Tuesday to be exact. (SaxonDawg at his finest via the DawgVent's archive).

Should be a tough game. The Gamecocks always give us a tough game at their place.

(Hat tip: Chickenbog on DawgPost.com)

May 16, 2006

Diamond Dawgs Poll Update



Georgiadogs.com has a release up on the latest baseball rankings. To jump to the actual polls:The weekend series with UK is huge.

pwd

More Crowd Reactions to Bonds



Deadspin is covering the fan reaction to the Bonds steriods saga home run record chase better than anyone. Check out their various links to crowd reactions to the Juice King.

pwd

Odd Coaching Fits

DawgSports.com has the first in its series called "Odd Coaching Fits." Mayor Kyle's list is impressive, but I'm with his commentor who asked how he could forget Zook at Florida. A Spurrier reject replacing the very man that demoted him?


Zook at UF is as odd as hiring Malcolm X as the Chancellor at BYU.

If he had an article called "Things that sound like a good fit but aren't" then O'Leary at Notre Dame would top the list.

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Charlie Trippi: Not Enough Credit for his Monsterous Career

Over the weekend, I stumbled into some stats, articles and info on Trippi. I knew he was/is a towering legend at UGA, and after reading more about him I think the sheer scope of his legend doesn't get the pub it should.

Most Dawg fans know that Charlie Trippi is one of the 3 greatest and most decorated Bulldogs. He won the Maxwell Award in 1946, and he played on Orange, Sugar, Oil and Rose Bowl teams. Along with being a dominating single wing halfback, I once heard Bill Hartman call him "the best defensive back to ever play at UGA."

But did you know that he is also tied for the the 4th highest all-time single season batting average in SEC history at .464. And oh yeah...that was with a wooden bat.


That's Mister Damn Good Dawg to you son.

More on Trippi: (Augusta Chronicle May 1, 2000)
Trippi is honored in four halls of fame, is one of four Bulldogs to have his jersey retired, played professional baseball with the Atlanta Crackers, coached at the college and NFL level, and retired to establish a reasonably successful real estate business.
He also had a Kentucky Derby entrant named after him in 2000.

The Augusta Chronicle article linked above us a must read. Go Dawgs.

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Our Top OL recruit is heading to Hargrave

Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!

Justin "Bean" Anderson is heading to Hargrave for at least the Fall. He didn't make the grades on his HS exit exam. Here's Scout.com's story and Rivals.com's story.

Back in Feb, I gave our Offensive Tackle recruiting for 2006-2007 a D- with a grade of B- for 2008 and beyond. With Bean not qualifying and Geathers remaining unlikely, I have to wonder what Richt, Callaway and Garner were thinking the past 3 years. It's not like we haven't had playing time, success and momentum to offer recruits.

For all his successes, OT recruiting for Mark Richt has been a total disaster.

We have three scholarship OTs on campus right now, and they are all seniors. Their backups all look like year 3 projects, or they are headed to Hargrave. We're now a near total lock to enter 2007 with the same lack of experience along the OL that we had in 2003. Only there's no Max Jean-Gilles at OT next year.

Frustrating.

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Around the Horn with Mike Adams vs. Fun

So Mike Adams wants to steal all the fun from the world. No longer satisfied with his overbearing reach into every corner of UGA tailgating fun...he is now pissing off the Gators too.

Mayor Kyle looks at "The World's Largest Indoor Presidential Ego."

Orson Swindle says that UGA and UF fans finally have something to agree about. (caution: liberal use of profanity)

And The Wizard of Odds points out how ridiculous Adams' war on booze is given that his biggest backer on the Board of Regents runs a $700 million liquor distribution company.

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May 15, 2006

Oddest Off Season Story Thus Far

Marshall's tight ends coach has given up coaching football to...wait for it...work at Chick-Fil-A. (hat tip to mountainlair)

Some would argue that this is a non-story given that "it's just Marshall." And it's not like he's announcing that he's going to be open on Sunday or anything.

But still...Chick-Fil-A? I mean NOBODY loves that place more than me. I probably ate there three times last week alone. But leaving the magical world of college football to peddle yard bird?

Odd indeed.

Milner Graduated over the Weekend

Martez Milner graduated over the weekend. He joined David Jacobs, Josh Brock, Bartley Miller, Marcus Jackson, Darrell Holmes, Ken Veal and several other Damn Good Dawgs in getting their degrees.

Although...I have to admit laughing out loud when I saw the following line on the DawgVent:
"Hopefully, Milner didn't drop his diploma."
Damn. That's cold. Cold, but funny.


Milner celebrates a TD with Kenneth Harris

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May 14, 2006

Georgia Wins 11th. RPI Stands at #9


Josh Morris broke the HR record vs. Auburn

[UPDATE: Since this article was originally written, WarrenNolan.com has updated the RPI stats. We're now up to #8. Clemson is still #1 and GT is still #4]

Georgia beat Auburn to win its 11th in a Row. We play Kentucky this weekend for the SEC Championship, and we have to sweep them to take it.

Which brings us to a discussion of the post-season. WarrenNolan.com updated his RPI standings before Sunday's games, and he shows Georgia at #9 in the latest standings. Georgia Tech is #4. Tech finishes up the season with the high powered Miami Hurricanes in Atlanta.

JimFromDuluth has another baseball update over on DawgRun.com.

Georgia looks like a near lock to host a Regional, but it's not out of the question that we would host a Super Regional. However, more than likely this very out of the loop blogger thinks that we're looking at playing Tech in the Super Regional.

(Note: With Clemson #1, GT #4, Bama #5, UNC #7 and UGA #8 in the RPI standings, we're going to need to *really* close strong vs. UK and the SEC Tourney to get a super regional).

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Georgia Tennis Better Than Ever?

Dean Legge of DawgPost.com has put together a very good article on the Men's Tennis Program. In it he belittles the Gator program's lack of class, and he talks about the possibility that this is the greatest UGA Men's Tennis Team ever. It's a solid read.

[Photo: John Isner]

Today, the Dawgs take on the Yellow Jackets in the second round of the NCAA tourney. Action starts at 2:00. Winner advances to the National Championships.

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Diamond Dawgs Win 10th in a Row



The baseball team continues to roll along winning its 10th straight at Auburn by a score of 4-3.

JimFromDuluth has a great baseball note on the DawgRun.com message board in which he breaks down the SEC Baseball Tourney seedings (if the tourney were today).

The Dawgs have the 3 seed right now, and with 4 games left and a 3 game deficit on the Kentucky Wildcats, the Diamond Dogs still have an outside shot at the SEC Regular Season Championship. Especially since they close the season out against Kentucky at home next weekend.

First things first though....we close out the series with Auburn today.

BTW -- To the Techies on the Hive who were saying that Georgia doesn't have near the players that GT has...you might want to check last week's Baseball America Top 25 poll which had GT at 15th and UGA at 16th. That was before UGA beat the Jackets.

As for the argument that GT would've beaten Georgia if they had two of their better players on Thursday in the game...you might remember that they DID play those two kids in the game in Athens. A game UGA won by an even wider margin than the Turner Field affair.

For more on Saturday's game, check DawgSports.com.

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May 13, 2006

Harrick Saga finally behind UGA

Predictably, the Harrick legal mess is finally over. An Atlanta court threw out all the remaining works of fiction that the Harricks put together and referred to as "complaints."


Two of my all-time least favorite people associated with UGA.

Although, I do find it funny that the Harrick's legal problems aren't over. Now their own lawyer is suing them for defamation of character.

If they had kept their mouths shut instead of being the petty, small, vindictive people that they are, both of them would already be back coaching college somewhere.

The sad footnote in all of this...Mike Adams never got fired for any of it.

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May 12, 2006

God Bless Bobby Felmy. Dawgs Topple Tech


Photo: AJC.com's coverage of the game. Click to jump

Georgia's Bobby Felmy delivered an RBI double in the bottom of the 11th inning to win the game for the Dawgs 5-4. Tech fans may remember Felmy from his Super Regional heroics two years ago against the Jackets.

Honestly, I never grow tired of beating Georgia Tech, and the only thing better than beating them is beating them after they had...hope. When GT tied the game late to send it into extra innings, the Tickle Pilers surrounding me were in a tizzy. When UGA ended it in the 11th, their moment of hope only made the final defeat that much sweeter.


"Hope can drive a man insane in a rivalry like this," said Ellis Boyd Redding (GT Class of '40)

My favorite moment of the game was Danny Hall getting tossed. As I sat with Dawgnoxious in the middle of the Tech section we observed that Hall's behavior might not be in perfect keeping with Bobby Dodd's Total Person Concept. This sound, well-reasoned argument drew the ire of a local Techie / Chan Gailey look alike.

Mr. Quasi-Gailey informs his 10 year old son, "I don't care where you go to college, just don't act like those two drunks."

The humor? Dawgnoxious and I had two beers total between us. The drunk Techies who could barely stand were adorable to him. The sober UGA fans who were enjoying the win were out control classless jerks.

Typical techies. His speech to his kid only made it that much more enjoyable.

For more:
Athens Banner Herald
UGASports.com

God Bless the Dawgnation.

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Takais Brown in the News

This is the first quality interview I've seen with new UGA hoops recruit Takais Brown. Brown, as noted previously, could be the missing link that Georgia has needed the past 2 years to compete inside against some of the stronger teams in the league.

Hat Tip to ChileDawg on UGASports.com's b-ball board.

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May 11, 2006

Banging My Head Against the Wall

Blogging college sports right now is tough. Outside of baseball...nothing is happening.

Orson feels my pain as he's writing about Stoops flying with the Blue Angels. Once you start blogging that and giving as much attention to womens athletics as I have lately, you KNOW it's the silly season.

And while I'm at it. Let me just make a public service announcement to all recruits and athletes who are involved in any kind of absurd, ridiculous or negative story. On behalf of all bloggers I beg you to give us a day or two before you defuse the situation.

For instance....The TebowGate / CJ Spiller story. As most of you know, Clemson tried to turn UF in for violations involving Tebow "allegedly" visiting Spiller illegally in an attempt to sway him the night before signing day. The story was bizarre enough and I'm bored enough this offseason that I wrote this really off beat story comparing Tebow to Dinero's character in Taxi Driver driving Spiller around all night. The analogy extended to Spiller as the Jodie Foster hooker character, and Tommy Bowden as the Pimp.

It was dark, facinating, sorta funny and about 80% finished when I read that Spiller has defused the entire situation. Well that just dropped a big old turd in my punch bowl.

These kids need to be more considerate. Give us blogger some time to put together nice parody pieces and let ideas develop. These bang-bang story-no story pieces give us blogger very little time to work.

All I'm saying is...What about me? What about my needs? Bloggers need more student-athletes like Ian "Tater Salad" Smith, and less like CJ Spiller.


Ian Smith. Friend of the Blogger Community.

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Baseball, Women's Hoops, Scoreboards and D-bags

The Athens Banner Herald starts things off with a preview of tonights UGA vs. GT baseball game.

The ABH follows that up with some pretty big news for Andy Landers' Lady Dawgs. Apparently Andy signed one of the top Juco players in the country when he inked Amber Holt. She's a two time all-american who's career stat line looks like this:
As a freshman, Holt was named second-team All-America by the NJCAA after averaging 20.3 points, 10.9 rebounds and 3.6 steals.

During her sophomore year, Holt was a first-team All-American. She averaged 20.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and four steals while leading SIC to a 33-3 record and a fifth-place finish at the national tournament.
Interestingly, she attended the same JUCO that Takais Brown, UGA men's hoops signee, attended.


Holt gives Andy Landers options at 3 positions

In college football news, EverydayShouldBeSaturday tips us off that Texas is getting a new scoreboard, and in true Texas size it will be the biggest in history.

Mayor Kyle begins a discussion of best and worst dressed teams in college football over at DawgSports.com. BTW -- Peter Bean of BurntOrangeNation busts Kyle's balls about the topic.

And your non-football link of the day...Peter Bean also tips us off to the hysterical site "Hot Chicks with Douchebags." Don't worry it's safe for work. The site recognizes ridiculously hot women seen with absurdly putzy, toolshedish d-bag guys.

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May 10, 2006

Two Must Read Articles

First, Brian at MGoBlog breaks down Rivals.com's 2002 recruiting class rankings. I could explain his metrics and hype the article, but I'd rather just say..."Trust me. It's a must read." File under the heading: "Do Recruiting Rankings Matter." (Ht-Fanblogs.com)



Secondly, The Realist looks at the surging Diamond Dawgs. Personally, I find it very frustrating that Perno's Dawgs continue to have such yo-yo like seasons.

The team goes into bi-polaresque funks where nothing goes right for weeks on end, and then the team will hit a manic streak when they can do no wrong. Once Perno matures as a head coach and finds a way to maintain the team's focus for the duration of a season...watch out. He's too good a recruiter to not make this program into something great. He just needs to find a way to develop week to week consistency. (Ht-Dawgsports.com)

Don't forget the Diamond Dawgs vs. Yellow Jackets game at Turner Field has been moved to Thursday.

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May 9, 2006

UGA vs GT Baseball Pushed Back to Thursday

(update: Georgiadogs.com now has the official announcement up)

The Children's Spring Classic For Kids at Turner Field has been postponed until Thursday, May 11. Everything moves back 24 hours.

GAC vs Wesleyan - 4:00 PM
UGA vs GT - 7:00 PM

Ed Mangan with the Braves called CHOA and said they have close to zero chance getting game in tomorrow night. Weather is supposed to be beautiful on Thursday.

They've sold over 24,000 tickets, so with a decent walk up they should once again have an excellent crowd for this college baseball classic.

Please tell everyone and make your plans to be there on Thursday.

Found via DawgRun.com and Catfish (a senior exec with Children's Hospital of Atlanta)

Huge Hoops Scheduling News and Rumors


Less cupcakes in Felton's future?

It looks like Felton may be on the verge of making progress in the scheduling area. At the Macon Bulldog Club meeting, Felton said:
"the upcoming non-conference schedule includes a visit from Wisconsin - which he called a Final Four contender - and he's hoping to land Arizona."
Many Dawg fans (particularly this one) have been very critical of Felton's scheduling. While I fully realize that we didn't have the talent to beat Duke, Florida and UConn, we did have the talent to avoid scheduling sub-RPI 250 teams like Savannah State, Fordham and Eastern Kentucky.

And, as was reported on the Rivals hoops board by Groo, we were 5-2 vs. NIT teams last year. So we can play competitively with the mid-tier teams.

I like the possible addition of Wisconsin and 'Zona. It might a bit too ambitious but at this point I'd rather him sway too far in that direction that the way he's gone in the past. Interesting match-ups pre-season are a GREAT way to re-energize a fan base that where apathy has risen to its highest levels in the past 17 years that I've been following the program.


Felton points towards a better schedule

The rumors don't stop with Wisconsin and Arizona. MemphisDog over on the Rivals b-ball board does a better job than anyone of sniffing out the latest hoops scheduling rumors. The latest he's hearing UGA vs. Gonzaga in Athens this coming season. I try to keep the rumors to a minimum, but MemphisDog's track record is ridiculously good. Plus, the Gonzaga fans had been hinting at this for a while.

So if everything came together that would make a schedule that looked something like this:

Western Kentucky -- Home (Year 3 of the contract)
Clemson -- Away (Year 4 of the deal)
Georgia Tech -- Away
Gonzaga -- Home
Wisconsin -- Home
Arizona -- TBD

We'll post more if more gets leaked.


The good news. He'll be gone next year.

I'm in such a good mood about this that I'm going to let Felton's comment about scheduling tougher last year than the year before go.

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