Tag: UGA

Yesterday was a solid 3-2 day with a healthy serving of Bulldogs and another Big Ten whipping. Today we get three more games …

Cotton Bowl: #25 Mississippi (8-4, 5-3 SEC) vs. #7 Texas Tech (11-1, 7-1 Big 12). Ole Miss is getting 4.5, and this is the game where Texas really goes “WTF happened?” The Red Raiders will leave no doubt that the Oklahoma drubbing was no fluke.

Autozone Liberty Bowl: Kentucky (6-6, 2-6 SEC) vs. East Carolina (9-4, 6-2 C-USA). If I thought the Fighting Chickens were a piss poor representation of the SEC, I am not sure what the kitty cats are doing in this game. They are getting 2.5, and it pains me to pick against them, but the Rum Runners are the pick. Still going to pull for a Kentucky upset.

Allstate Sugar Bowl: #6 Utah (12-0, 8-0 MWC) vs. #4 Alabama (12-1, 8-0 SEC). I think the Tide will win, just not by 9. So in the spirit of picking against the spread, Utah is the pick.

I have a feeling that I may be going 0-3 today, but who cares? The Bulldogs won yesterday, so all is right with the world.

Record to date: 14-10.

Or the Happy New Year Edition! Yesterday was a banner day, as I got 3 out of 4 picks correct, moving me back over .500 for the first time in a while. Thanks to Houston for covering, Oregon St. squeaking by in a (good grief) 3-0 game, and congratulations to Vanderbilt for winning a bowl game for the first time in pretty much forever. The one game I lost, begrudgingly taking the Bumble Bees over the LSU Tigers, restored my faith in the SEC. Thanks to the Tigers for beating the shit out of Tech!

Today gives us a tasty serving of games to go with black-eye peas, thick chops on the grill, and a bunch of cold ones. Let’s get down to business!

Outback Bowl: South Carolina (7-5, 4-4 SEC) vs. Iowa (8-4, 5-3 Big Ten). Are you kidding? Hawkeyes are favored by 3.5 over one of the more piss poor SEC teams to land a Bowl game? Iowa is not Georgia Tech, so don’t expect me to go on a run against SEC teams. The Fighting Chickens are the pick.

Gator Bowl: Nebraska (8-4, 5-3 Big 12) vs. Clemson (7-5, 4-4 ACC). I am sorry but Big 12/ACC match-ups are just not very compelling. The ACC sucks (see Georgia Tech last night in Bowl formally known as The Peach Bowl), but Nebraska is luck to get out of the cold and visit the Sunshine State. The Tigers are laying 2.5 to the Corn Huskers (WTF kind of nickname is that?). I cannot stand Clemson, but those farm boys from Nebraska are not ready for the tobacco road boys from Carolina. Oh this pains me to do this, but Clemson is the pick.

The Rose Bowl: #8 Penn St (11-1, 7-1 Big Ten) vs. #5 USC (11-1, 8-1 Pac-10). This is where everyone comes back to earth and realizes that the Big Ten really does suck. No one except the media cares for this outdated brand of football.  USC will completely embarrass Penn St., and the 8.5 points the Nittany Lions are getting will not be enough. Besides, how can you pick against great looking cheerleaders in tight fitting sweaters?  Mmmm … yum.

FedEx Orange Bowl:#12 Cincinnati (11-2, 6-1 Big East) vs. #19 Virginia Tech (9-4, 5-3 ACC). The last Bowl game of the day happens to be the worst offering. Hopefully I will be inebriated by the time this one rolls around. Who came up with the bight idea of letting the Big East into a big boy game? How did a 4 loss ACC team even manage to land a big pay day? Since I have to pick someone, I am going to take the points (2) and the Hokies because everyone wants to hear Vick references all night.  Not really, but most of these announcers are just too damn predictible.  Seriously, this is Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech.  What else are they going to talk about?

Capital One Bowl: #15 Georgia (9-3, 6-2 SEC) vs. #18 Michigan St (9-3, 6-2 Big Ten). I am not sure why anyone thinks that the Spartans can hang with the Bulldogs. Obviously Vegas does not because the Dawgs are laying 7.5. Funny thing about this one is that the snow birds are happy to be in this Bowl (probably any Bowl), while Georgia is bitterly disappointed because they had National Title inspirations at the beginning of the year. Alas, injuries and poor defensive play made being #1 a mere wet dream. Still, the Dawgs will rebound, much in the same way that LSU kicked the snot out of Georgia Tech (man that was beautiful). Go Dawgs!

Happy New Year!

Record to date: 11-9.

June 1 is rapidly closing in on us, which can only mean one thing. The yearly onslaught of NCAA football annuals is upon us. Each year I write that I am going to stop the addiction. Stop being wasteful. Stop buying yearly college football annuals.

Another year goes by, and I find myself throwing money away once again. What a proud tradition! The local Books-A-Million only had two guides on the shelves – SportingNews SEC Preview, and Lindy’s Southeastern 2006 Preview. Of course I picked up both.

I have not had much time to skim through the magazines yet, but a couple of things stand out. First, the SportingNews annual has Auburn and ‘Bama on the cover (yuck!), and they only have SEC coverage. In past years they had some national coverage, and some regional coverage (i.e. Troy, Southern Miss, etc). At least I am pretty sure this has been the case, but I do not save my yearly guides, so I am not certain if things have changed this year. This year’s version has a short Top 25 preview, and national schedules. Georgia is picked to go 10-2 (6-2 SEC), which is tied for 1st Florida. Everything depends on QB play this year, so we will see what happens after fall camp.

The second thing I noticed was the great sideline pictures in the Lindy guide. Nice! This guide is full of coverage around the south, not just the SEC, with some coverage of Conference USA and the Sun Belt. National coverage gets more than just a cursory glance. I understand that there are also national guides, while the league (or regional) specific guides are there for fans of specific conferences, but I still like to have some national coverage in my SEC specific guides. Looks like the Lindy guide will be a good read, but I could not find any predictions (not sure what is expected of GA, other than having a hard final four games).

Every year I say that I am going to cut back on my purchases of the various college and NFL preview annuals that assault the bookstores each June. Once again I have failed.

All the new shiny books were on display last night, and of course I had to get Phil Steele’s 2005 College Football Preview. While I do not bet on sports, I love all the junk Mr. Steele crams in his annuals. This is one of my favorite reads every summer, even if they never have the SEC cover version in our bookstores; PAC 10 cover always makes a yearly appearance. I tried to stop at just this one annual; honest. But then it happened …

Lindy’s 2005 Southeastern Football annual had D.J. Shockley on the cover; and all good Dawg fans know that our season is going to be in the crapper if D.J. does not figure it out in a hurry. I wish Richt would just go wishbone; with all the HBs and D.J., I think Georgia could easily manage 9-10 wins in they do not put the ball in the air. Speaking of all the good HBs, Athlon Sports 2005 Southeastern annual had Danny Ware, Kregg Lumpkin, and Thomas Brown on the cover – as these guys go, so will UGA’s season. OK, I admit that I could not show any restraint, so three annuals were no in hand. But wait, there is more!

Yes, I am a college football annual whore, but as I said I cannot help myself. The SportingNews SEC preview was also on the newsstand, and while I could care less about the Auburn and Alabama cover, I love the SportingNews, so I had to add this one to my stack. You would think that would have been enough to put an end to my shopping spree, but nope, four annuals would just not do my summer reading program justice. Enter the Pro Football guides …

The SportingNews 2005 Pro Football Preview made it into my grubby hands, as do the Pro Football Weekly 2005 NFL Preview. As if I am going to have time to read all the coverage; as if I do not get enough NFL coverage each week in the SportingNews. It is a disease my friends, a very sick one indeed.

Fantasy football? I am trying to give that up, but no, oh no, the publishers have to keep tempting me! Somehow (and I am really not sure how), the Pro Football Weekly CBS SportsLine.com Fantasy Football Guide 2005 also ended up at the checkout counter.

“Hi, my name is Jonathan, and I am one sick, broke bastard, but I have a big stack of football magazines to read, so everything is going to be just fine, thank you very much.”

Two posts tonight and everything sucks. I guess the Dawgs have put me in a nasty mood tonight. They are physically beating the shit out of Arkansas (oh how I hate those Hogs), but they are still clueless when it comes to closing out a game. You would think Richt would figure the redzone offense out by now, but I am getting off track.

Running is about the only way that I can lose any weight, but like many red blooded gamers, I hate to run. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy exercising (swimming, riding my stationary bike, running around with the kids), but I cannot stand running for the sake of running. It is different on the soccer field, but running around the freaking neighborhood sucks.

Unfortunately, if I want to look half way decent for my better half, I have to run every now and again. I thinking watching one of those makeover shows (where they suck the fat out of ugly people) scared the crap out of me. Time to start the fall festivities back up again. I usually run in the fall and spring; too damn cold for this Southerner in the winter and too freaking hot to walk outside in the muggy Georgia summers.

So the other day I notice that my face is starting to look rather fat and it is time to hit the road again. Thankfully my new iPod makes the experience more tolerable than it has been for past runs. Last night I kicked off the seasonal pain and suffering; lasted all of about a mile … 10 mins or so … lots of hills in my area, so no worries. I was planning to do the usual every other day thing, but Georgia was pissing me off so much that I had to burn off some energy. Well, that and my wife told me to stop yelling at the TV. Screw that! I told her that this was “how I had fun” and that “if there was no emotion involved there would not be a reason to watch.” Some women just don’t get this no matter how long the marriage.

So off I went for a halftime jog. Just short of two miles in 12 mins; cross country style through the local school yard and over all those damn hills. Man I hate running, but I suppose it is good for me. It better be anyway because I sort of hurt right now. At least Georgia just took care of business 20-14.

Here’s to hoping that I will not dive into the chips and beer like I did after last night’s run. Oops!

Granted, I did not make any predictions this week, but I can still be a Sunday Morning Quarterback. This is America, were punks like me can sit back and call for a coach’s head, despite being completely ignorant of the program. Thus, call-in radio was born. Thankfully, the golden age of Internet trashing is here, were any dumb rock with a will to publish trash can well, start trashing his or her favorite program, schools that need to be thrashed, and pretty much any other whim that comes to mind.

Sure I am being a little preposterous, but that is what happens when I have too much caffeine from Dunkin’ Donuts. Go figure.

OK, on to the thrashing …

As depressed as I was last week after Georgia took it on the chin from the Volunteers, I was equally sick in my stomach last night as I realized Tennessee’s best chance for an upset went up in smoke with the porous Ol’ Miss 3rd down defense in the 4th quarter of Tennessee’s 21-17 come from behind win. I have to admit that the Rebels suck, but Tennessee has a great chance to run the table and represent the SEC East in Atlanta. That is pretty painful to say, but Tennessee’s remaining SEC schedule is not enough to strike fear into the heart of Erik Ainge (the Volunteers freshman QB): Alabama, at South Carolina, at Vanderbilt, and Kentucky. Can you say hello Atlanta?

Florida had their way with Middle Tennessee State, roughing up the Blue Riders for over 500 total yards in a lopsided 52-16 victory.

Alabama had an easy time of it with Southern Mississippi, winning 27-3, despite being without their starting QB and HB. Wow – what does that say about Nebraska, who the Eagles beat 21-17 in Lincoln back in early September. Sure Nebraska sucks, but I expected more of a fight from Southern Miss. Maybe that means there is some hope for the Tide to Roll, Roll, Roll over Tennessee this weekend. Maybe. Probably not, but one can always hold out some misguided hope.

In a match-up that had the appeal of a turd in a punch bowl, South Carolina pecked the Wildcats of Kentucky 12-7. Kentucky could only muster 230+ total yards to Carolina’s 300. Those paltry numbers have to be truly depressing for fans of these two teams.

I never thought I would say it in the Tommy Tuberville era, but Auburn looked pretty damn impressive in their dismantling of the Razorbacks from Arkansas. I never thought I would see the day when Jason Campbell was damn near perfect, racking up 297 yards and 3 TDs, completing 17 of 19 attempts. If Campbell can continue to play like that, a National Championship is certainly within the Tigers grasp. Unbelievable, and equally impressive. I have always said that the Tigers have the talent to be a top 10 team year in and year out, but I never thought they would put it all together under Tuberville. The rest of their schedule is easy, with only a November 13 clash at home with Georgia standing in their way of an undefeated season. I am almost speechless. Hats off to Auburn fans. War Eagle? Looks that way.

Georgia bounced back from last week’s disaster, dismantling Vanderbilt 33-3. The Dawg’s defense limited the Vandy to 187 yards, while the GA offense put together 527 yards, 273 on the ground. Freshmen Ware and Brown both had 120+ yards on the ground, which was impressive and may help to finally restore some luster to a University that once churned out halfback after remarkable halfback.

While it may sound disrespectful to talk about the future instead of the present (Tennessee has the East locked up), the future for Georgia does look bright. Georgia has 17 seniors on this squad, 20 juniors, 30 sophomores, and 49 freshmen. If talented freshmen such as Ware and Brown continue to bubble up, maybe, just maybe Georgia can run the table sometime in the next few years.

For now, I am a Tide fan, Roll bloody Tide, Roll!

It was a bad week for me as a prognosticator, finishing 5-4. I guess I should have learned my lesson about picking Vanderbilt; they just could not stop Ole Miss when it mattered. Maine over the Mississippi State Bulldogs? Ouch. Huge embarrassment for the SEC, not to mention that State must not have any pride.

Georgia squeaked by. As I said in my roundup, I was not sure if it was going to be close or a blowout. The UGA offense is sputtering. We need Ware back for the October 2 clash with LSU.

I was right on the money with Arkansas, although they did miss my 50+ points on the board prediction. Still, 49-20 of La Monroe must feel nice after getting kicked in the teeth by Texas.

South Carolina easily took down South Florida; I thought it would be closer, but a win is a win.

A last second field goal by Tennessee ruined my prediction of a Gator win.

Kentucky also showed some spunk and thrashed Indiana. I honestly thought Indiana was better, Kentucky was worse, and the Wildcats would embarrass the SEC. I am sure the ‘cat fans are thankful that honor goes to Mississippi State.

As predicted the Tide easily rolled over Western Carolina, 52-0, but at what cost? Alabama lost starting QB Brodie Croyle for the season. That is going to be a huge loss for the Tide.

The Bulldogs have a week off to think about getting their offense in gear. I am now 20-5 on the young season (9-1, 6-0, 5-4). The most interesting match up on the board next week has Alabama traveling to Arkansas, but the game has lost a little luster now that the Tide are going without Croyle.

Time is short, so I will get right to the picks.

Vanderbilt over Ole Miss. I still have confidence in Vanderbilt despite the thrashing they took at the hands of South Carolina a couple of weeks back, while the Rebels are still looking for an identity in the post Eli era.

Mississippi State will easily prevail over Maine.

Arkansas will put up 50+ on La Monroe.

South Carolina will beat South Florida, in a game that is closer than most experts are expecting.

I think Auburn will surprise LSU *IF* Auburn can manage some semblance of a passing attack. The Tigers (from Auburn) will use this game to move to the driver’s seat in the SEC West.

Poor Kentucky – they will fall to Indiana. The Wildcats will be the SEC embarrassment week; they are a pitiful bunch of cats in desperate need of a win. The schedule only gets harder, and the losses are about to pile up in a hurry. The best they can hope for are four or five wins – if things fall in their direction.

Alabama will once again Roll, this time Western Carolina will make them feel extra special.

Finally we have Florida at Tennessee. This one is the hardest on the board to call, even harder than the Tiger vs. Tiger match-up. I am going to go with the Gators over the Volunteer’s inexperience at QB.

Georgia will outlast Marshall. To be honest, I am not sure if this one will be closer than expected or a laugher as Marshall starts the season 0-3.