Dawgs Hobnail Boot Moment …

Awful sports day for me, with my 1A (Georgia – my first love) and 1B (Texas – my mistress; I’m a native Texan) both going down. Texas was completely and utterly (and how about absolutely) shellacked by the Cowboys of Oklahoma St.

Things actually looked just as awful for Georgia, except that they did manage to come from 20 points behind in the fourth quarter, only to have their very own hobnail boot moment. Unlike the Longhorns, the Dawgs showed some pride and an unwillingness to give up.

I can’t imagine what short of description would have come from Larry Munson’s pipes after Auburn’s miracle play.

Unlike Georgia stomping a hobnail boot on Tennessee with a well-executed goal line play, Auburn was lucky, simple as that, but sometimes you need to be lucky instead of good. I find it a little disingenuous that Greg Ostendorf didn’t describe it as such:

“It was a play for the ages. Marshall launched it about 50 yards in the air, and it look destined to be an interception. However, it was tipped by one of the two Georgia defenders who were in the vicinity, and Louis snuck past them, caught the tipped ball and ran into the end zone.”

100% agree that it was a play for the ages, but Louis was damn lucky. Period. A much better description of the play can be found at the AJC:

“Though wide receiver Ricardo Louis was well-covered by Josh Harvey-Clemons and Tray Matthews, the two safeties both reached for the ball at the same time. The ball deflected off Harvey-Clemons’ hands — Matthews appeared in position to intercept it — and over Matthews’ head. Louis continued down the field and, as Georgia’s defensive backs fell to the ground, he hauled in the deflected ball and ran untouched into the end zone for a 73-yard touchdown with 25 seconds remaining.”

Although Chip Towers covers the Bulldogs, his outline of the play points out the same miracle, but actually describes what happened. Lucky was good enough for the Tigers on this night, but I think they will need more than luck to Roll past the Tide …

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Georgia Survives Florida

A win is a win is a win, however the Dawgs really had me concerned in the end, recalling the horrors of Nashville two weeks ago. In the end, GA’s 23-20 win over the not so mighty Gators gives the Bulldogs a nice 3-0 run in the series.

“We did have Coach [Vince] Dooley come by and speak to our team this week,” Richt said, referring to the coach who led the UGA program from 1964-88. “That’s one thing he mentioned. I didn’t know the stat, but he said if we win, it would be the first time we got three in a row in like 30 years or something. I was frankly kind of embarrassed that was the truth. But that’s where this series has gone. It’s nice to at least, to this point, get it turned around a little bit.”

In an otherwise lackluster football year, a win over the hated Gators is always a nice pick me up, but that crushing Vandy loss and all those injuries makes me wonder “what could have been” …

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UGA Opens Can Of Jarvis Jones Whoopass On Mazzo

Missouri, welcome to the SEC and “old man football!” I’m still not sure what old man football really is, but after UGA handed the newest SEC Tigers a second half thrashing to the tune of 32 points, 24 of which were unanswered as UGA pulled ahead for the first time with under a minute to play in the third quarter, Mizzo will be licking their wounds most of the week.

To be fair, Mizzo acquitted themselves well, thwarting the Dawgs for much of the night. They just didn’t have an answer for Jarvis. The fans were equally into it, and it really looked like a great atmosphere. Much like Texas A&M, the other new SEC team, Missouri learned that the second half is where “old man” (or smash mouth) football wins and loses games.

UGA was the only Top 10 team to play on the road, so with many pundits predicting the Bulldogs as the top ranked team most likely to lose, may the Dawgs will move up in the standings this week instead of dropping as it did after a lackluster win in its opener against Buffalo.

Looking back on the week one win over Buffalo may tell a different story. Maybe the Dawgs where just running some vanilla stuff in anticipation of last night’s showdown? Maybe the Buffalo game was a wakeup call? I’m not really sure, but Georgia was clearly ready to stop Missouri’s Franklin from beating them on the ground. In the air was another matter as Franklin ranked up buckets of yards, but not enough to overcome Missouri’s first SEC opponent.

I really don’t want to hear about what would happen if Mizzo didn’t suffer o-line injuries. What would have happened if the Dawgs didn’t have to suspend four defensive starters? That one is just not playing with me.

This tidbit from the ajc really sums things up:

“I think we showed people we can play,” Jones said. “In the first half, they threw a variety of punches at us, they showed us everything they had. In the second half we were more comfortable. And we made plays.”

Meanwhile, the Tigers unraveled. It started with their head coach, Gary Pinkel. He called for a fake punt early in the fourth quarter when Georgia led only 24-20. Some might call that the element of surprise. In reality, it was an awful message to send his players. It was like telling them, “We can’t win this playing normal football.” There is nothing wrong with calling a fake plant, but not at that point of the game.

The game was already turning in the Dawgs favor, but I agree that this was a great momentum boost, paving the way for the Dawgs to start off the season 2-0 (1-0 SEC).

Go Dawgs!

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UGA to Win SEC East?

That is the prediction out of the SEC Media Days event. Of course last year SI picked the Falcons to win the Super Bowl, and you see where that prediction got this diehard Falcons fan.

In this case, hopefully the media got it half right; Dwags to take the East and claim the SEC Crown on their way to their first National Championship in 30-some-odd-years. One can dream, right?

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Columbus – Making News for All The Wrong Reasons

First, Isaiah Crowell, formally of the University of Georgia Bulldogs football, decided to test Coach Mark Richt’s generosity, resulting in being kicked off the team.

Crowell, 19, was arrested June 29 and charged with a felony count of possessing a weapon in a school zone, a felony count of an altered identification mark and a misdemeanor count of possession/carrying a concealed weapon.

Let’s not forget innocent until proven guilty. Yeah, right … as Coach Dooley said, this guy is a bad apple. Google it.

Speaking of Columbus and Google, just try “Columbus GA little league fight” – this sucks. I grew up playing at Northern.

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Ohio St. – Running Scared of UGA

Or just call them a bunch of chicken shit wankers. I cannot believe that they are calling off a match-up 10 years into the making (agreed to a home and away for 2020-2021), and using future PAC-whatever and Big-whoever scheduling as an excuse.

“They couldn’t make it happen due to the Pac 12-Big 10 football schedule deal,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said Thursday, referring to a recent agreement between those conferences for a series of regular-season matchups beginning in 2017.

“And we understood,” McGarity added.

You have to be f’ing kidding me, right? We “understand”? Probably. Actually, we the UGA fans that have been calling for something other than cupcake match-ups get a no penalty back-out from The Ohio St. University.

Whatever. I can’t wait to see what sort of out of conference schedule the Buckeyes have in 2020 and 2021.

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UGA 2012 Recruiting Class Semi-Stellar

I’ll start off with this caveat. While recruiting is the life blood of college football programs, you always have to take a wait and see approach. I have written about it many times before, so I will spare you the agony of me spewing my recruiting spill one more time.

By all counts, Georgia has a top class; maybe not stellar, but one that any university that is not Alabama, FSU, Texas, or Florida would appreciate.

At last check, Georgia’s class was ranked No. 5 by ESPN, No. 6 by 247Sports, No. 12 by Scout, No. 19 by Rivals and No. 20 by Tom Lemming. Take it for what it’s worth.

Exactly. Take it for what it is worth, but the 2012 class is a nice building block, and momentum springboard.

Even if it did lose to the four best teams it played last season. Even if it did blow its bowl game. Even if it didn’t get every single recruit it wanted. Quibble all you want, but Georgia in 2012 resembles the Georgia of 2002. And the very nice haul of this signing day, even if it wasn’t quite so dazzling as last year’s Dream Team, showed a program primed to move from strength to strength.

Hopefully these guys will contribute right away, adding depth, and in some cases competing for playing time.

Go Dawgs!

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Another SEC BCS Title

At least for one more year, the SEC is still the top flight conference on the face of God’s Green Earth. Nice. Too bad the Dawgs failed to participate in the conference stomping activities.

SEC Winners: Arkansas (Cotton), Florida (Gator), Auburn (Chick-fil-A), Mississippi St. (Music City)

SEC Losers: Georgia (Outback), Vanderbilt (Liberty). Let’s face it, Georgia screwed up. It’s really hard to say they got outplayed. They were out coached, but not outplayed.

Vanderbilt was 6-6 (2-6 SEC), so they received a Bowl invite just because someone felt sorry for the Commodores. That or there were not enough teams to fill out the full plate of Bowl match-ups.

BCS: Alabama or LSU. SEC fans always say that SEC schedules forces teams to cannibalize and beat each other up. Case in point, tonight an SEC team will fail to win the Championship at the hands of another SEC team. I know that’s just rubbing salt into the wounds of non-SEC fans. I guess I am not so nice that way.

Wait until next year? Missouri (Independence), and Texas A&M (Texas) may not be SEC stalwarts (honey please; dripping with sarcasm) until next year. Just saying that they also won.

Go Dawgs!

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Georgia Has Miserable Outback Bowl

I was too distraught (pissed off would be a better description) after yesterday’s 33-30 3OT debacle to Michigan St. to bother throwing up (literally) and article on the disappointing day.

The game was indicative of everything that has been wrong with Georgia over the last 2-3 years. No, I’m not forgetting the nice little 10 win run, but the book-ends of two losses at the start and end of the season are really hard to swallow. Especially when you consider that things could have been different if the Bulldogs had one ounce of creativity.

And again, playcaller Mike Bobo seemed incapable of adjusting to the realities of what was happening on the field and stubbornly stuck with what wasn’t working.

With the middle of the Spartan’s defensive line as solid as a brick wall, Bobo continually called for runs up the middle — often with delays that turned into tackles for loss since State was getting into the Georgia backfield so quickly. Early on, Georgia was able to have some running success on the outside, but once MSU adjusted to stop that, the Dogs basically were no threat on the ground.

I kept yelling at the TV – run a f’ing pitch, toss, or sweep play. Go side-to-side for gosh sakes, and stop going up the middle because we were getting manhandled. In general the play calling was terrible.

Georgia coach Mark Richt has often been criticized for being too conservative, and it almost cost him, as he ran just two plays after Bacarri Rambo’s interception before sending Walsh out for the 42-yard field goal attempt on Georgia’s first overtime possession. Walsh missed, and Michigan State eventually won in triple overtime … after a Walsh kick that was blocked.

For Georgia, this loss will sting for a while. The conservative play calling late and the missed field goal likely will be brought up a lot with this team.

I hope the Dawgs find a running game this offseason, and get creative on offense. One can always hope …

Go Dawgs!

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Texas hooks turnovers into Holiday celebration. UGA Escapes Bama in 2012.

That was a nice 21-10 win for Texas Wednesday night over Cal in the Holiday Bowl. By nice I mean, at least Texas won. Unlike the pathetic showing by the Falcons on Monday Night Football …

Yes the Saints are good, but 45-16 is disgraceful. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I suspect that the Falcons’ win percentage is sub 0 when Ryan has to chunk the ball 50+ teims.

Bitch and Moan Session: How can ATL’s D not even bother to show up on third down? Special teams (kickoff and punt return coverage) also completely sucked. Roddy cannot hold onto the freaking rock. Untimely penalties (as if there is every a good time to rack up 7). Last, but certainly not least, the offense still cannot convert a solitary yard on 4th f’ing down.

I digress, back to Texas

And as Mack Brown said, “There is a huge difference between 8-5 and 7-6.”

Agree. 8 is higher than 7. Hopefully Texas will recruit a Championship caliber QB. I saw screw it; throw ‘em in as a true freshman because I doubt that David Ash (or even Case McCoy) will make some major off season improvements.

“We’re not throwing Gatorade,” he said. “We’re not jumping up and down and screaming.

“But hopefully this is a step forward.”

To illustrate his point, Brown pointed to 2003 and ’07. Texas played in the Holiday Bowl both years. In 2004, Texas was in the Rose Bowl. In 2005, it was in the national title game. The progression was the same in 2008 and ’09. [Source: Same as previous]

The difference was that those teams had a decent QB situation, unlike this current squad. I still say Hook ‘em, but Good Lord, without a decent QB, Coach Brown is going to have a long 2012 campaign.

UGA Skips Out On Bamma …
And LSU, and Arkansas, and anything else worth a lick in the SEC West. If you are a Dwags fan, you have to like the way the 2012 schedule falls.

Back to the here and now. I skipped out on Bowl predictions this year, but I expect UGA to win, covering the 3.5. Love this article from the AJC:

Georgia has had a good week. There has been no news of academic suspensions — fill in name of oft-speculated freshman running back — and I think the Dogs already have clinched the 2012 SEC East title, given Alabama has been dropped from the Hostess-wrapped schedule.

Here’s a nice consolation prize for having their limbs ripped off by LSU: sunshine (Outback Bowl) and Michigan State (good defense but No. 60 offense). And to think, 12 months ago, Georgia was losing to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl.

A season completed in the alternate universe: Dogs cover 3½.

Funny. Any week where players are not suspended is a good week in my book. It’s bad when it comes to keeping score of which players didn’t toke on lefty wacky weed, which ones didn’t get an unnecessary traffic violation, which ones didn’t get a night in the county jail for underage drinking and bar fighting, and so on and so forth.

Go Dawgs!

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UGA – Marshall Adds Depth

As longtime readers know, I never put much stock into rating recruiting classes. What does it mean if a university lands a Top 5, Top 10, or subpar class? It is all based on conjecture and predictions, only no one can predict how a young kid is going to react once they get away from home for the first time.

With that said, how can you not like UGA signing RB Keith Marshall, who some pundits have rated as the #1 RB prospect in the nation?

At a minimum, Marshall should add depth, and dare I say hope, that UGA can have one of the top backfields in the nation. Aaron Murray + (a healthy) Isaiah Crowell + Keith Marshall could be something special.

Go Dawgs!

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Woof, Woof, Woof

As I write this, UGA is stomping the Bumbling Bees of Tech, 31-10 (2:57 left in the 3rd Qtr).

Heading to Wal-Mart Mr. Johnson?

Near the end of his show, a caller, presumably a Georgia Bulldogs fan, came on the air and said, “Hello? Hello?” and then began barking before either hanging up or being cut off. Johnson responded, “Hello? Hello? He just got off from Walmart.”

Whatever. Woof, woof, woof!

Go Dawgs!

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Of Hate, and Dreaded Bumble Bees …

Just win baby. At the end of the day, can any self-proclaimed Dawg loving fan say that today’s matchup in ATL against Tech doesn’t really have any significance? Can anyone say that next week’s date with LSU via the SEC Championship is more important?

To quote myself “Let’s beat the *^$# [call it snot for the underage crowd] out of the Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech” …

Today state bragging rights are on the line. Pride. Good Old Fashioned Hate.

You could go 11-0 but if you lose to Georgia Tech it’s not going to be a good season. You could see that in 2008. A lot of people would say going 10-3 and winning the Capital One Bowl was a successful season for a program. But that loss to Tech really ruined that season and left a sour note in everybody’s mouth.
– Senior tight end Aron White [Source: ajc.com]

I hope the Bulldogs are not looking past Tech in favor of the SEC Championship game. If they are not, this season can be very special as Georgia continues to recover from their 0-2 start.

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UGA = 2011 SEC East Champions

Yes, UGA overcame a 0-2 start to finish the drill and capture the SEC East crown.

On Saturday, his Bulldogs finished this latest drill. Yes, they were aided by a schedule that eased after the back-to-back whammy of Boise State and South Carolina, but it isn’t as if Georgia backed into anything. It has won nine consecutive games, beating Tennessee and Florida and Auburn en route, and it finished 7-1 in SEC play. (Let’s note that South Carolina took the East with a 5-3 record last season.)

Richt: “It’s hard to win nine in a row. We’ve done something special.”

Yep; regardless of some these SEC stalwarts having a down year (no one outside of the SEC wants to read this), it is still very difficult to win week in and week out.

Even after 11 games and nine victories, it’s hard to know just how good Georgia is. The Auburn victory was the only time the Bulldogs thrashed an SEC opponent, and for long stretches Saturday they flailed against the worst Kentucky team of the new millennium. But they won. Since the night of Sept. 10, they’ve done nothing except win.

Said Richt: “I don’t know if we’re a great team, but we’re SEC East champs.” [Source: Same as previous ajc reference]

Not to look past the wrecking wreck of Tech next weekend, the team to capture the SEC West will be strongly favored; however I like the Bulldogs chances.

It doesn’t end there. Arkansas can beat LSU Friday and move all the way to No.1 – and still not play in the SEC Championship Game. A Hogs win would force a three-way tie in the West Division, and the conference tiebreaker is reduced to head-to-head when two teams are within five spots of each other in the BCS rankings.

If Arkansas and Alabama are Nos. 1 and 2, Alabama would play in the SEC Championship Game by winning the SEC tiebreaker. Of course, Auburn could still beat Alabama next weekend and take the Tide out of the equation – and after what happened Saturday, would it really be a surprise?

Should be a fun time watching how this plays out.

Go Dawgs!

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Why I Love College Football

Cyclones. Cowboys. On ‘paper’ not really worth watching. Friday night I kept checking in on the game during the first half, between Skyrim sessions, and didn’t see anything captivating, worth holding my time or attention. However, it had been a long week, so I decided to just veg out, have a few cold ones, turn off Skyrim for the night, and watch the beat down in the second half. What a reward!

Somehow, Bedlam arrived two weeks early, and it was delivered by the most unlikely of teams. Iowa State, which had been 0-56-2 against opponents ranked in the top six of the Associated Press top 25 poll since 1936, stunned the No. 2 Cowboys 37-31 in double overtime at Jack Trice Stadium.

Saturday. First, Georgia escapes, which allowed the Dawgs to capture the SEC East. This is a much different team than the one that started the season 0-2.

Saturday night I was watching the Texas game (very disappointing) of FX, and checking in on the USC – Oregon game, and FX would post the occasional coverage of ‘… those Baylor Bears are beating the Sooners …’

What a crazy two days of college football, which is why I love college football.

This season has officially lost its mind, which isn’t such a bad thing. We thought we had clear-cut national title matchup (unbeaten LSU against unbeaten Oklahoma State). Now we have LSU and BCS bedlam.

There are the once-beatens — Bama, Arkansas, Oklahoma State and, sure, why not, Stanford, Virginia Tech and Boise State. And by the way, Houston is 11-0.

So here’s what we know going into the final two weeks of the regular season: we don’t know anything.

From a UGA standpoint, they gave to travel to ATL to take on the Bumble Bees, and they damn sure better bring their A-Game, or there will be an upset. Then of course there is that little date in the Georgia Dome for a BCS birth.

Go Dawgs!

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