WUOG Sports Blog

Winter Break Recap

2009-01-05T14:13:00.003-05:00

Well, it has certainly been a long break since a blog update, but with 2009 in full swing now I promise that will change.

With that in mind, I will try to summarize some things that have caught my attention (in no particular order):

1) The Yankees Free- Agent Spending Spree:

So has anyone told the Yankees that the country is currently in an economic recession? After spending nearly$424 million dollars in contracts (with the signings of SP CC Sabathia, SP A.J. Burnett and 1B Mark Teixeira) , the Yankees now have the FOUR HIGHEST PAID Players in baseball (Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira).

Now, I understand that the Yankees had some money to spend, considering $88.5 million came off the books when OF Bobby Abreu ($16 million), Jason Giambi ($23.4 million), Mike Mussina ($11 million) and Carl Pavano ($11 million) among others became free agents. However, considering how prudent some of the other big market teams that also have money to spend have been this offseason, clearly moving into the brand-new Yankee Stadium next season has made the Yankees, for a lack of a better term, "recession-proof".

It is news like this that always brings up the great debate of whether or not MLB should adopt a hard salary cap like some of the other professional sports. On one hand, one can make the argument that we live in a capitalistic society and that if you have the money to spend, nothing should stop you from doing so. On the other side of things, you can point to the NFL's implentation of the hard salary cap in 1994 and its immediate rise to the top of the sports world in the US in just 10 years.

2) UGA's 24-12 Capital One Bowl Victory over Michigan State:

The game was not pretty at times, but considering that has been the common mantra for the 2008 Bulldogs it was only fitting that it was fitting that the Dawgs ended their season on that kind of note. Clearly UGA was the better 9-3 team last Thursday afternoon, but due to the usual culprits(7 penalties for 53 yards and 2 turnovers) Georgia made the game a whole lot closer than it should have been.

Regardless, a win is a win and it was great to see the defense (six sacks and holding MSU to only 236 yards of offense and 12 points) and Matthew Stafford (20-31 250 yds and 3 TDs in perhaps his final game as Bulldog) end the season on a high note. Unfortunately, Senior WR Mohamed Massaquoi ( 1 catch 10 yds) and potentially NFL-bound RB Knowshon Moreno (23 carries for just 62 yds, though did have 6 catches for 63 yds and a game-icing TD late in the 4th quarter) did not have the kind of performances they would have liked, certainly they must be happy that the team rebounded from the surprising loss to Georgia Tech to cap the end of the regular season and finished the year with 10 wins for the 6th time in the last 7 seasons.

3) The Red Hot Atlanta Hawks:

Like the Falcons, for those of you who are not aware, the Atlanta Hawks are back. At 22-11, they have the 4th best record in the Eastern Conference and have the 6th best record in the NBA. They are off to their best start since the strike-shortened 1998-1999 season and with such a young nucleus, the future appears to be very bright for an organization that for the better part of a decade had been used as a model of how to not run a sports organization.

With the Falcons and Bulldogs football seasons coming to a close and with the Atlanta Thrashers (13-22-5 and having the 2nd worst record in the NHL) struggling mightily after winning their division for the first time in the franchise's history just two years ago, we will continue to give more exposure to the surging Hawks.

4) The Playoff-Bound Atlanta Falcons:

Yes, I know that they lost on Saturday to the Arizona Cardinals, so technically they are no longer playoff bound anymore as the season is over, but again I am trying my best to recap a month's worth of news here so give me a break!

Anyways, at 11-5, the Falcons made their 9th trip to the postseason in franchise history. What an unbelievable season, by far the biggest surprise in Atlanta sports since the worst to first 1991 Braves. Pro football is alive and well again in Atlanta and while it was a very brief run in the playoffs, like the Hawks, the Falcons seem primed for their best days laying ahead.

Next year will be a critical step for the organization, as the Falcons attempt to have back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in franchise history. Now, while I consider myself an optimist, I truly believe that the pieces are in place, with a young roster and a solid coaching staff that is backed by a front office that has been solidified by new GM, Thomas Dimitroff.

5) Utah Utes: Undefeated National Champions?

After their surprising Sugar Bowl victory over #4 Alabama, 31-17, at 13-0 the Utes will finish the season as the only undefeated team. Now, some might question their schedule, but to play devil's advocate (because I truly believe that you can make the National Champion argument for USC, Texas if they win tonight and the winner of Oklahoma-UF on Thursday) they will have beaten #4 Alabama, #11 TCU (who will finish as another Top 10 team), #17 BYU and #24 Oregon State.

To put that in perspective, even if UF beats #1 Oklahoma they would have only won three games against Top 25 teams in the final polls: #1 Oklahoma, #4 Alabama and #15 (BCS Ranking) UGA. With a win against Florida, Oklahoma would have beaten 6 teams ranked in the Top 25: #2 UF, #8 Texas Tech, #11 TCU, #12 Cincinnati, #13 Oklahoma State and #25 Missouri.

I have said it time and time again, but it is time for a playoff system. It will never happen (at least not in the immediate future), but the incompetence of our current system is very frustrating. The first three BCS games' average victory margin is 13.67 pts and it wasn't pretty last year either (20 pts).

Finally, on Thursday night, as tempted as you may be now that Alabama lost, DO NOT root for Florida. It really does not make any sense to root for arguably your most hated rival. Forget all of that " Well they are in the SEC, so we ought to root for them" crap. Instead of ranting on and on about why you are wrong to do so, I will let the guys over at the Georgia Sports Blog "educate" those of you who are delusional to root for Florida: http://georgiasports.blogspot.com/2008/12/enemy-of-my-enemy.html

The Eighth BCS Is Out...UGA #15

2008-12-08T01:09:00.003-05:00

Well the regular season has finally come to a close after three-plus months of games. After the dust has settled, we have Oklahoma and Florida duking it out for the National Championship in Miami on January 8th (which ironically is the first day of Spring classes).

1. Oklahoma
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Alabama
5. USC
6. Utah
7. Texas Tech
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. Ohio State
15. UGA

Did the system get it right? In one man's opinion, no it did not. While I have no beef seeing the Gators in the Championship game (well, I mean I do not WANT to see them there, trust me, but based on merit they should be unfortunately) I must say that like UGA last year, Texas got the short end of the stick.

Last time I checked, Texas also lost one game all year, on the last play of a stretch of four games in which they played FOUR STRAIGHT TOP 11 Teams (Missouri was ranked #11, hence I did not say Top 10, but still an arduous schedule). They BEAT #1 Oklahoma by double digits (10) on a NEUTRAL FIELD. As mentioned on the blog last week, under any other three-way tie-breaker scenario used by other conferences, Texas would have been the one who would have been playing in the Big 12 Championship Saturday night and if the regular season is any indicator (which by the way, Texas thumped Missouri 56-21) Texas would be in the National Championship game.

But, this is the system we have. It is without question, extremely flawed and really has only produced the right championship matchup only a few times in its dubious 10-year history. This is the same system that one year says that in order to be able to play in the National Title you MUST win your conference, but yet the following year is very willing to send a team that did not (aka Texas this year if Oklahoma had been upset by Missouri Saturday night).

Anyways, here is the rest of the BCS lineup:

Rose Bowl
#8 PSU vs. #5 USC

Orange Bowl
#12 Cincinnati vs. #19 Virginia Tech

Sugar Bowl
#6 Utah vs. #4 Alabama

Fiesta Bowl
#3 Texas vs. #10 Ohio State

Last, but not least, as I have said for quite some time now, UGA will be playing BCS ranked #18 Michigan State in Orlando, FL in the Capitol One Bowl @ 1pm on New Years Day. A Top-1o win season is still a possibility with a win and quite honestly I think we would all be very, very disappointed in nothing less considering the great expectations we had placed on this team coming into/throughout the season.

As a final footnote to this post, I must say that while I have enjoyed ranting about college football throughout this Fall Semester, I do look forward to discussing some of the other local sport teams (aka the Men's and Woman's basketball teams and of course the Falcons, Hawks and Thrashers) in the upcoming weeks with college football wrapping up. While I do realize that this school loves college football #1 and as a result that is what most of you really want to read/discuss, I do wish that I and the rest of the staff gave some of the other sports some love (especially the hopefully playoff-bond Falcons).

The Seventh BCS Is Out...UGA falls to #16

2008-12-01T01:25:00.003-05:00

The second edition of the BCS poll was released last night and the Top 10 was virtually unchanged...except for one big movement: Oklahoma is now #2, Texas is now #3.

1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
4. Florida
5. USC
6. Utah
7. Texas Tech
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. Ohio State
16. UGA

This is critical, because according to the Big 12 Tie-Breaker rules, in the event of a three-way tie, the team ranked the highest in the BCS will win the division. In this case, because Oklahoma is now #2, Texas #3 and Texas Tech #7, Oklahoma will play # 20 Missouri in the Big 12 Title Game. The interesting thing about all of this is that out of the five conferences that are broken into divisions (ACC, Big 12, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference (MAC) and SEC), it is only the Big 12 rules that would have Oklahoma play in their conference title game. The other four conferences' three-way tie-breaker rules would have had Texas instead.

Anyways, after last wekeend's games, things have become very clear from a National Perspective.

The ACC Champion will be either #25 Virgina Tech or #17 Boston College. Those two each won their perspective divisions by winning last weekend and will play each other in the conference title game for the 2nd straight year (with this year's game being moved to Tampa Bay). The winner will play Big East Champion Cincinatti in the Orange Bowl.

The SEC winner will be either #1 Alabama or #3 Florida. Those two will gut it out next Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. The winner of this game will go to the National Title.

The Pac-10 scenario is pretty simple. If #5 USC goes on the road and beats 4-7 UCLA, they will play Penn State in the Rose Bowl. If they lose, they will fall into a three-way tie that will actually give Oregon State the Pac-10 crown and trip to the Rose Bowl.

The Big 10 will now more than likely get two teams in the BCS, due to Oregon State's home loss to #19 Oregon. #10 Ohio State appears headed to the Fiesta Bowl (more than likely playing Texas), while Penn State will represent the conference in the Rose Bowl. If USC loses Saturday to UCLA, the Big 10 might only have Penn State go to a BCS game, because USC still might earn an at-large bid over Ohio State.

With Ohio State likely playing in a BCS game, it appears that #21 Michigan State will be Georgia's opponent in the Capital One Bowl. Despite the loss Saturday to the now #15-ranked Yellow Jackets, UGA will still likely get the nod over 8-4 Ole Miss or 7-5 South Carolina or LSU.

As for the National Championship, it appears that it will be Oklahoma vs. the SEC winner. I cannot see Oklahoma losing to Missouri in their conference title game. If they do lose, however, then with a win Saturday, USC would play the SEC winner. If both Oklahoma AND USC lose on Saturday (a very, very unlikely scenario) then the BCS would be in complete turmoil, as Texas, Utah and Penn State would all make compelling cases to play the SEC champion.

Georgia Tech- Georgia: The Biggest Game of the Year? Depends On Who You Ask.

2008-11-25T18:52:00.007-05:00

If you were to ask any student on campus, which game you were looking forward to the most/which team is our biggest rival, the majority would say "Florida". Sure you would get some, "Auburn" or "Tennessee" or perhaps some "South Carolina" for those of you that just really hate Coach Spurrier that much, but few to none would say "Tech". Now, if you were to ask your father, grandfather or really any middle-aged alum who they circle on their calendar every year and almost everytime it's one team: Tech.

Despite Georgia's dominance over the course of the history (UGA holds the all-time series 59-38-5, including a 33-11 record since Vince Dooley took over the program in 1964), the older alum still hate nobody more than our closest and in-state rival. That might change over time, but until then you can still hear those that say that they would have no problem going 1-10, as long as that lone win is against Tech.

While some may say that besides pride, Georgia does not have a lot on the line this Saturday, here is something to consider: a win Saturday, would give Georgia 8 straight wins over Tech, matching the Yellow Jackets' streak from 1949-1956 as the longest in the series. On top of that, if would give UGA's its 6th 10 win or more season in the past 7 years. Off the top of my head, only Ohio State, USC, Oklahoma, Texas and Boise State (though, of course, they never play anybody) can match that kind of success.

However, it not not be easy, especially if history has anything to say about the outcome. From 1991-1997, despite having 2 losing seasons and a 6-6 season, UGA still managed to beat Tech 7 straight times. In 1998, Georgia came into the game 8-2 and faced a 8-2 Tech team in a game that was played in Athens. Unfortunately, Tech won a close won 21-19 and it began a stretch in which Tech won three straight against the Dawgs (something that had not happened since 1961-1963).

One thing that concerns many, including Mark Richt publicly, is Tech's new triple-option offensive attack. Georgia has not seen an offense like this since the 2004 season opening 29-7 win over Georgia Southern (who ironically was coached by Georgia Tech's new head coach, Paul Johnson). What makes it tough to stop is that it is the kind of offense you do not see very often and a result it is very tough to pick up with such a limited amount of time between one game and another. Georgia does have the luxury of having two weeks to prepare, but as Coach Richt mentioned the other day, the scout team will not be able to run it in practice nearly as well as Georgia Tech will be able to run it Saturday afternoon in Athens.

With the new offense in place, Tech is 4th in the Nation in rushing, averaging 270.8 yards a game on the ground. Defensively, they are giving up 78 points less than Georgia, which is just over a touchdown fewer than the Dawgs per game. In my opinion, with a confident Tech team that just rolled up 518 yds of offense against the previously ranked Miami Hurricanes last Thursday night on ESPN, this ought to be a very close, low scoring affair, much like the 2005 (14-7 UGA win) and 2006 (15-12 UGA victory) games.

If the Dawgs had to play Tech last week, I would probably pick an upset here. But, after a week off to rest and reflect on the season a bit and to now play a home game (the first in six weeks) after four straight games on the road, I think Georgia will be up to the challenge. It will be close and it will not be pretty, but give me UGA 21-Tech 17.

The Sixth BCS Is Out...UGA Still #11

2008-11-25T17:44:00.004-05:00

Well a week after not a whole lot of movement in the Top 10, we got plenty of action as 5 out of the top 7 spots saw new teams take hold:

1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. USC
6. Utah
7. Texas Tech
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. Ohio State
11. UGA

Oklahoma's unbelievable 65-21 thrashing of previously unbeaten Texas Tech allowed the Sooners to jump Florida into the #3 spot. They are now just behind Texas and with a road game @ #12 Oklahoma State this weekend, it appears that with a win this Saturday the Sooners are in a prime position to jump #2 Texas (who plays lowly Texas A&M on Thursday) and win the Big 12 South (due to the potential three-way tie, the Sooners would win the division by virtue of being the highest ranked Big 12 South team).

However, what makes things very funny for all three Big 12 teams (Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech) is that none of them control their own destiny. Texas essentially needs to beat A&M and have Texas Tech lose to Baylor in order to win the division. Under this scenario, Texas would play in the title game, because it holds the tie-breaker over Oklahoma.

Oklahoma needs to beat Oklahoma State and have Texas Tech beat Baylor to maintain a tie between them and Texas Tech/the three way tie in general.

Texas Tech needs to beat Baylor and have Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma. If this were to happen, Texas Tech would win the South division, since they have the tie-breaker over Texas. With all of those scenarios in mind, it ought to be a very interesting/important weekend for the Big 12.

In the Pac-10 it is simple: if Oregon State beats Oregon, they win the Pac-10. If they lose, USC will win the conference and go to the Rose Bowl.

The ACC is almost as simple. If BC beats Maryland, they will win the Atlantic Divison and either play GT or VT in the championship game. If they lose, then FSU will win the division. In the Coastal Division, if VT beats UVA this weekend, VT will play either BC/FSU in the championship game. If they lose, GT will go.

The Big 10 season is completed, with Penn State winning the title for the first time since 2005 and will be making their first Rose Bowl appearance time since 1995.

The SEC, as many of you know, has already been simplified to the winner of the #1 Alabama/#3 UF gets the title and the Big East crown is essentially down to 4 teams (Cincinnati, West Virgina, Pitt and Rutgers) but there are too many hypotheticals regarding that one so I will pass on going into to them...plus, who cares, it is the Big East, the worst of the major six conferences.

As for Georgia, from just about every media outlet, it appears that they are locked-in to the Capitol One Bowl at this point, win or lose Saturday against GT (unless, of course, Alabama or UF lose their last two games, in which case we would end up in the Sugar Bowl again). The one thing we do not know is who UGA's opponent will be: Ohio State or Michigan St.

This will be determined by who wins the #23 Oregon-#17 Oregon State game. If Oregon State wins, then the Pac-10 will send two teams to the BCS and we will get #10 Ohio State. If Oregon wins, then the Big 10 will get two teams into BCS games and we will get #19 Michigan State.

The Fifth BCS Is Out...UGA #11

2008-11-18T13:42:00.004-05:00

Sunday brought the college football world one step closer to the end of the regular season, by releasing the fifth edition of the BCS poll. Due to no upsets amongst the Top 10, the poll is virtually unchanged, with only Ohio State's jumping of Georgia being the only movement in the Top 10:

1. Alabama
2. Texas Tech
3. Texas
4. Florida
5. Oklahoma
6. USC
7. Utah
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. Ohio State
11. UGA

BCS matchups remain up in the air, with so many hypotheticals still possible. This weekend's games ought to shake things up, especially when #1 Texas Tech goes to Norman, OK to play #5 Oklahoma. This game has major, major implications not just for the Big 12, but for the National Title game picture.

If Texas Tech wins, Texas and Oklahoma will be eliminated from the Big 12 and National Championship picture. However, if Oklahoma wins, then things are wide open in the Big 12 as there would be a 3-way tie in the Big 12 South between Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma with only one game left in the regular season. According to Big 12 rules, in the event of a 3-way tie, the team that is ranked the highest in the BCS at the end of the regular season will play in the Big 12 Championship.

In another big game, #23 Oregon St. travels to 6-4 Arizona. If Oregon St. can beat Arizona this weekend and Oregon (8-3) next week at home, they will play in the Rose Bowl (thus eliminating any chance #6 USC has of getting to the National Championship).

The Big 10 picture will finally be complete, when #15 Michigan St. travels to Happy Valley and Michigan plays #10 Ohio State. The scenarios are quite clear in this conference:

1) If #8 Penn State beats Michigan St. they will win the Big 10 and go to the Rose Bowl
2) If Penn State loses and Ohio St. wins, they will win the Big 10 and go to the Rose Bowl
3) If Ohio St. loses and Michigan St. beats Penn State, Michigan State will win the Big 10 and go to the Rose Bowl.

Whoever wins the Big 10 will certainly help clear the picture for Dawg fans regarding potential bowl opponents. Assuming Georgia beats Tech in two weeks, they will likely play whoever finishes 2nd in the Big 10 in the Capitol One Bowl (though the Cotton Bowl against a Big 12 opponent is also a strong possibility).

Finally, the battle between #14 BYU @ #7 Utah should reveal which nonautomatic-qualifying conference team will earn a spot in the BCS. If Utah wins, they are in. Lose, and they must hope for #9 Boise St. to get upset in one of their final two games.

The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry Continues: Dawgs Shoot For 3rd Straight Win

2008-11-13T20:08:00.013-05:00

If one were to think back just two years ago, this game would appear to be very similar, with only one subtle difference...a complete role reversal. In 2006, as the 6-4 Dawgs, coming off two embarrassing losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky, came to Auburn to play the 8-1 #5 Tigers, many were expecting a pretty one-sided affair (hence the game got a 12:30 EST kick-off time, much like this matchup).

Well one-sided game they got, only it was Georgia that was on the good side of it, shocking everyone with a 37-15 thrashing of Auburn. Georgia went on to knock off Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech to finish the year 9-4 and set themselves up for last year's memorable season (which included the 45-20 Blackout victory over the Tigers).

So, while this years match-up may not live up to the preseason hype it received with both teams getting preseason ranked inside the Top 12, it still should make for a very good game. For Georgia, a win would give them three straight wins over Auburn, something they have not done since 1980-1982.

It would also close the all-time series gap, which Auburn currently holds 53-50-8. For Matthew Stafford, a third win against Auburn would also be quite an achievement. If the Dawgs win on Saturday, he would become the first Georgia QB to beat the Tigers three straight years in a row since Johnny Rauch from 1945-1948.

From Auburn's point-of view, while they are only a shocking 5-5 on the season, this game still holds quite some signifigance. In order to avoid missing the bowl season for the first time since 1999, the Tigers need a win against either #10 Georgia on Saturday or two weeks from now @ #1 Alabama.

So, what's going to happen Saturday? Well last time I offered a prediction, Georgia got its butt-kicked against the boys from Gainesville, but despite this I am feeling relatively confident in this one. Give me Georgia 24 Auburn 17.

The Fourh BCS Is Out...UGA Back in the Top 10

2008-11-13T19:26:00.002-05:00

On Sunday, the 4th Edition of the BCS Poll was released. Minus #3 Penn State's shocking upset to Iowa on Saturday and #2 Texas Tech thumping #9 Oklahoma State, there was not too much movement overall in the poll:

1. Alabama
2. Texas Tech
3. Texas
4. Florida
5. Oklahoma
6. USC
7. Utah
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. UGA

Despite Georgia's narrow 42-38 victory over 6-4 Kentucky, the Dawgs jumped up 3 spots, including over Ohio State who crushed previously-ranked Northwestern. The computer poll's love for Georgia (#7 avg. rank) over the aforementioned Buckeyes and Missouri Tigers (who the computers both rank at #12) is the biggest reason for this, despite the fact that both of those teams are ranked ahead of Georgia in the Coaches and Harris Polls.

Unfortunately, like I stated last week, unless Georgia gets some help (aka Alabama or Florida would likely have to lose twice), no matter how high Georgia is in the BCS, they will not be eligible to be selected in a BCS bowl.

In fact, figuring out who will actually get a BCS bowl bid is a bit complicated right now. The basic set-up of the BCS is that the six champions of the major conferences get a bid along with four other at-large selections. The only major rules that come into play are

1) No conference can send more than two teams to BCS games

2) The champion of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference or the Western Athletic Conference will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game if either:

A. Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or
B. Such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and its ranking in the final BCS Standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.

The Pac 10 has an interesting scenario. While USC is the conference's highest ranked team, it is Oregon State (the only team to beat USC this season) that actually controls its own destiny. If Oregon State can win its final three games, they will win the Pac-10 and play in the Rose Bowl, not USC. USC would then need to earn one of the four at-large bids to go to a BCS game.

That pool would include the loser of the SEC and Big 12 Championship games, Utah, Boise St., Miami of Ohio and Ohio State. Essentially six teams fighting for four spots.

With just a few weeks to go, it out to be a very interesting finish to the college football season. From Georgia's perspective, if they win out, a trip to the Capitol One or Cotton Bowl (both New Years Day games) appears to be on the horizon.

The Third BCS Is Out...UGA #13

2008-11-03T00:47:00.003-05:00

Last night, the 3rd BCS Poll came out. After Georgia's big loss against Florida, it is no surprise to see that UGA fell out of the Top 10, checking in at #13. They are the third highest 2-loss team, behind Ohio State and Missouri. Texas Tech was the big mover, jumping up five spots from #7 to #2. This was quite a surprise, because many figured that with Texas' loss, Penn State would move up one spot to #2. Now, it appears that even if Penn State wins their three remaining games, they will still need either Alabama or Texas Tech to lose.

Without further ado, here are the new rankings:

1. Alabama
2. Texas Tech
3. Penn State
4. Texas
5. Florida
6. Oklahoma
7. USC
8. Utah
9. Oklahoma State
10. Boise State
13. UGA

With a quick glance, one would think that with three weeks to go, if UGA won out and finished 10-2, they should crack the BCS Top 10 and therefore have a great shot of going to a BCS game as an at-large team.

Unfortunately, due to the BCS policy that a maximum of only two teams per conference are eligible to be selected to BCS games, no matter how high UGA is ranked they will more than likely not be invited to a game.

This is because Alabama and Florida are currently ranked ahead of the Dawgs in the BCS and considering both teams beat Georgia pretty handedly in front of a national audience, the selection committees of each of the bowls will likely pass over Georgia for one of them. Those two will likely be representing the SEC in the BCS games, one as the SEC champion and the other as an at-large bid selection.

Dream Destroyed: UF Routs UGA 49-10, SEC/National Championship Hopes Gone

2008-11-02T19:59:00.004-05:00

On August 1st, UGA was preseason ranked #1 in the Coaches Poll and shortly thereafter the AP writers also voted the Dawgs #1. With the way the team finished last year and given the expectations of the media, this season had more hype to it than any since the Hershel Walker days roughly twenty-five years ago. On November 1st, the dream season that countless envisioned came to a bitter end.

While the season as a whole is technically not over for another month (at least the non-bowl part), Georgia's chance to play for the SEC and potential National Championship essentially ended in an embarrassing 49-10 defeat to Florida Saturday. You have to go back to Jim Donnan's first season as the Dawgs head coach (1996, with a team that went 5-6, the last UGA team not to go to a bowl game) that lost 47-7 to the eventual National Champion Gators to find a defeat worse defeat (which happens to still remain as the worst loss to the Gators). With the win, Florida needs a win either this week @Vanderbilt (5-3) or at home vs. South Carolina (6-3) in two weekd to clinch the SEC East and more than likely play #1 Alabama for the SEC Championship in Atlanta next month.

The sad thing for Dawg fans comes with the fact that in many ways, Georgia beat themselves. Now do not get me wrong, clearly with or without the Dawgs help, Florida was the better team Saturday. But when you consider the fact that Florida scored 21 points on UGA turnovers and Georgia missed two very makable field goals (from 37 yds and 27 yds out) in the first half that swung the momentum, some might change their perception of the game to a certain extent.

Florida's scoring began on a drive that should have ended twice in my opinion. First off it was extended on a questionable spot on a Tebow run on a third and short that was challenged by Georgia. Then later in the drive while Tebow was throwing an interception, there was a personal foul call on a Georgia defensive lineman on the contact he made with the helmet of a Florida offensive lineman.

The rule should be that the penalty should be assessed on Georgia's offense (by backing them up 15 yards from the end of the play), because the penalty had nothing to do with the interception. But, that is not the case and by a technicality the drive continued resulting in a touchdown. The next Florida another scoring drive that was set up on a failed onside kick. If there was one that will be forgotten in this game it was the performance the UGA defense had in the first half. They gave up just 130 yds and due to the negated-interception drive and a drive set up by a failed on-side kick gave up 14 points.

The turning point of the game was without question Stafford's first interception of the game. With about 8 minutes to go in the 3rd Quarter and UGA on the UF 30 yd line, Stafford's interception that was returned to the Georgia one yard line turned the tide. Had Georgia not turned the ball over and either made a field goal or touchdown on that drive, the score would be been 14-6 or 14-3. Instead, after a 1 yd Tebow run , the game swung to 21-3. After a Georgia three and out, UF got the ball on their 44 yard line and marched down the field to put the game away 28-3.

On the next drive a bad toss by Stafford to Moreno, resulting in Florida getting the ball at the UGA 10 yard line. A few plays later the game became 35-3. Throw in another Stafford interception on the UF 11 a few drives later that gets returned to the UGA 25 and one-play later it is 42-3. A quick recap of my summary will find that on five of Florida's seven touchdown drives, UF started the ball on their 44-yard line or closer. Three of those drives started on UGA's side of the field (including two inside the UGA 10). It does not matter who you play, you turn the ball over that much and give any team that kind of field advantage, you will get burned.

At the end of the game, the defense gave up 373 yds and while it did not play its best game, it deserved a better fate than the 49 points that show up in the final score. UGA actually outgained UF, putting up 398 yds of offense (only 30 yds below its season average), but only had 10 points to show for it due to far too many costly mistakes. UGA turned the ball over FOUR times in roughly ELEVEN minutes of game time (from roughly 8:00 to go in the 3rd Quarter to 11 minutes to go in the 4th Quarter).

The dream is over. For Georgia, they must re-adjust their goals and focus on finishing as high as they can. They are 7-2 with three games left in the regular season, plus a bowl game. If they win out, Georgia will be going into the bowl game 10-2 and will likely make an appearance in either the Cotton, Outback or Capitol One bowl. They win that and UGA will likely end up inside the Top 10 for the 6th time in 7 years. However, first thing is first and Georgia must move on past this disappointing lost and travel to Lexington next weekend and beat UK.

Showdown In Jacksonville: Biggest GA-FL Game Ever?

2008-10-30T22:19:00.006-04:00

The stage is set. Both teams are coming off big wins (UF's 63-5 dismantling of Kentucky and UGA's 52-38 dominating road win against LSU) and playing their best football of the season. With the winner of this game unofficially clinching the East (the winner would have to lose their two remaining SEC games to not take the division) and giving themselves a very legitimate shot at getting a crack at a National Championship Game appearance, the stakes arguably cannot be higher. From a historical perspective, this is arguably a fact.

The following are other notable GA-FL games in which both teams came into the game highly ranked:

1976 #7 UGA vs. #10 UF (UGA 41-27)
1983 #4 UGA vs. # 9 UF (UGA 10-9)
1984 #8 UGA vs. #10 UF (UF 27-0)
1985 #17 UGA vs. #1 UF (UGA 24-3)
1997 #14 UGA vs. #6 UF (UGA 37-17)
1998 #11 UGA vs. #6 UF (UF 38-7)
1999 #10 UGA vs. #5 UF (UF 30-14)
2000 #13 UGA vs. #8 UF (UF 34-23)
2008 # 6* UGA vs. #8* UF (TBD)

*BCS Rankings

From purely a rankings standpoint, besides the 1983 game (#4 UGA vs. #9 UF) there has not been a year in which the two teams have been ranked higher. Not to mention, you can even make a case that this years' game is equal to that game rankings wise if you use the AP Poll's rankings (UF is ranked #5 and UGA is ranked #8).

If it were not for #1 Texas playing at #7 Texas Tech, ESPN College Gameday would be making its first trip to Jacksonville for the game since 2005. With the present day media exposure/hype and the fact that this game makes or breaks both team's seasons, in my opinion, this game is the biggest GA-FL game ever. Adding to the fact that the UF fans, players and coaches are now holding an apparent "grudge" against the Bulldogs after "The Celebration" that took place on the field last year and you have the elements for the perfect storm.

Despite the constant reminders from Gator fans that even after the Dawgs win last year, the Dawgs are still just 4-15 against UF since Dooley retired in 1988, I personally look at the numbers in a different way. Taking a much more recent sample size, I like to point out the fact that after last year's win the 5th year seniors on this team have gone 2-2 against the Gators in their career. None of these players were around when UF dominated the Dawgs throughout the '90s and first few years of the 21st Century. In their experience against the Gators, they have beaten Florida just as often as Florida has beaten them.

This year, amongst the players and UGA faithful, from Georgia's perspective, this is a much more confident bunch. While everyone certainly respects how good of a team the Gators have this season and the fact that they have the reigning Heisman Trophy winning QB, Tim Tebow, still running their offense, I do not feel like the Gators have the psychological advantage that they have used to their advantage over the years.

After sitting in the stands and watching Georgia put together its best performance of the season so far last weekend in Baton Rouge, in my opinion, I think they have their swagger back from last season. Despite all the injuries and the daunting schedule thus far that has worn out this team at times, I think the Dawgs are on the verge of playing their "A" game and putting it all together for four full quarters against an opponent. Much like last year when UGA busted out its first "A" game of the season against the Gators, in this all-or-nothing showdown Saturday afternoon between these two rivals, call me optimistic, but I think the Dawgs are going to once again rise to the occasion.

UGA 31 UF 27

The Second BCS Poll Is Out...UGA Is Up to #6

2008-10-27T16:57:00.005-04:00

Last night, the second BCS poll was released to the public and despite the lack of upsets among the Top 10 teams, there was still a bit of a shake up in the standings:

1. Texas
2. Alabama
3. Penn State
4. Oklahoma
5. USC
6. UGA
7. Texas Tech
8. Florida
9. Oklahoma State
10. Utah

UGA's road win against LSU (who is now #19 in the BCS) moved the Dawgs up a spot to #6. Penn State's road win against the Buckeyes (it's first win @ OSU since 1978) helped close the gap between them and Alabama, while USC's less than impressive 17-10 road win against 5-3 Arizona dropped them a spot back to #5. Florida's impressive 63-5 home beatdown of Kentucky pushed them up two spots to #8 and despite the close 28-24 loss @ #1 Texas, OK. St. is still in the Top 10, only dropping 3 spots.

Two games this week will really shake things up: #1 Texas @ #7 Texas Tech and #6 UGA vs. #8 Florida.

The winner of the Georgia-Florida game should become the highest ranked 1-loss team, which could put one of them as high as #3 if #7 Texas Tech beats #1 Texas in Lubbock. The biggest reason this is not a guarantee is that no one is sure what the ramifications of Saturday night's Texas-Texas Tech showdown will be. Texas Tech could jump into the Top 3 if they knock off the Longhorns, but if Texas avoids the upset the GA/FL winner will probably check-in at #4 next week with the Top 3 (Texas, Alabama, Penn State) staying the same.

Georgia Storms Through Baton Rouge 52-38...Showdown in Jacksonville Next

2008-10-27T16:56:00.003-04:00

(Knowshown Moreno telling the LSU Student Section To Keep Calling Him)

It appears that just like last year, the Dawgs are beginning to hit their stride right before their annual trip to Jacksonville. Without question, Georgia's surprising 52-38 win was easily their biggest and most impressive road win since their 2006 37-15 upset of #5 Auburn.

After LSU students and fans got word of Knowshown Moreno's cell phone number and called it so much throughout the week that he disconnected the number, it was only fitting that after his 68-yd touchdown run that put the Dawgs up 38-17 late in the 3rd Quarter that Knowshown took the time to acknowledge his "admirers".

The game started with a bang on LB Darryl Gamble's 40-yard interception return for a touchdown and was essentiallay wrapped up on yet another Gamble INT TD , tying an NCAA record for interception returns for touchdowns by a linebacker in one game.

This was by far Georgia's best performance of the season. While the defense did get extremely complacent after going up 38-17 by giving up 21 points and 262 yards of offense in the final 19 minutes of the game, after holding LSU to 17 points on just 237 yards in the first 41 minutes, you cannot argue about the entire body of work.

Zero turnovers, going 6-14 on 3rd down (including some key third and long conversions), doing a better job of keeping penalties to a minimum (the 7 penalties for 59 yds were the 2nd fewest amount of penalties/yds the Dawgs had acquired all season), giving up only one sack against a veteran LSU defensive front, constantly pressuring LSU's QBs which lead to three turnovers, producing two sacks on defense and putting up 52 points @ LSU (the most points they had allowed at home in 15 years) all added up to a great road win.

At 7-1, UGA controls its SEC destiny. With 4 games left (three in the SEC), Georgia still has National Championship hopes. Despite the big win in Baton Rouge, those hopes and dreams begin and end in Jacksonville next weekend against the #8 BCS ranked Gators (6-1).

Make or Break Game For The Dawgs: Must Beat LSU To Keep National Championship Hopes Alive

2008-10-23T22:10:00.011-04:00

As several pundits have stated this week, this game is essentially an elimination game. While the loser of Saturday's game will not be eliminated from the SEC Championship race, any hopes of playing in the National Championship will essentially be gone.

As history has shown, last year was an anomaly with a 2-loss team playing in the National Championship Game for the first time and while there have been plenty of upsets this year there is practically no chance that we will see a repeat of last year's craziness. Since LSU and UGA have already suffered an early season loss, to have a shot at the National Title game both have to run the table the rest of the way.

What makes this game even more intriguing is the fact that neither team has yet to post a signature win this year. Arguably, both team's best win came on the road against 5-3 South Carolina. Yes, some Dawg fans can certainly make the argument that the Vandy win last weekend was more impressive, though considering that Vandy has now lost two in a row and currently is not ranked, it's debatable. The same could said about LSU's early win @ Auburn (who is now 4-4 after tonight's loss to West Virginia), which looked impressive at the time but hindsight has suggested otherwise.

Both teams are loaded with talent, but in their biggest games thus far (LSU lost 51-21 @ UF and UGA's 41-30 loss at home to 'Bama) both teams have been disappointing. Whether it has been injuries (in Georgia's case) or the pressure of being the defending National Champ breaking in a freshman QB (for LSU), both teams find themselves at a crossroad. Win and you keep your hopes alive for getting to the big game. Lose and you must begin to refocus your season's goals.

Saturday afternoon should give a good indicator of what kind of teams UGA and LSU really are at this point. It was at this time last year that UGA put it all together in their stunning 42-30 win over UF and got the ball rolling for the Dawgs to finish the year the way they did. A year and three days ago, LSU had a stunning 30-24 win over Auburn at home that kept its National Championship hopes with a late touchdown in the 4th Quarter.

Historically, UGA is 11-14-1 against LSU, with LSU winnning the first 7 games of the series. UGA, however, is 5-2 in the past 7 games, with the last meeting being at the 2005 SEC Championship Game (a 34-14 Dawgs win for those of you with a short-term memory). This will be Georgia's first trip to Baton Rouge since the 2003 season. In a low scoring game, the Dawgs (ranked #11 at the time) lost a heartbreaker to #2 (and eventual National Champion) LSU, 17-10.

This game figures to be a similar game in my opinion. Much like the South Carolina game, look for this one to be a tough, low-scoring battle. And after falling short during their last trip to Death Valley, look for the Dawgs to pull out a close one, 21-17, and set the stage for a showdown against the Gators next weekend in Jacksonville.

The First BCS Poll Is Out...What Does It Mean For the Bulldogs?

2008-10-20T18:28:00.029-04:00

Yesterday at 4:30pm, the first edition of the BCS Standings were released to the public. For those of you who have not seen them, take a look at the Top 10:

1. Texas

2. Alabama

3. Penn State
4. Oklahoma
5. USC
6. Oklahoma St.
7. UGA
8. Texas Tech
9. Ohio State
10. Florida

As you can see, UGA is checking in at #7, despite being ranked #9 in the Coaches and Harris Polls. The reason for that is due to the computer's ranking of the Bulldogs (6th). Surprisingly, despite being ranked ahead of the Dawgs in both the Coaches and Harris Polls, UF is ranked #10. The computer's #12 ranking of UF (with one computer ranking them #20) is the biggest reason for this.

A lot can happen over the coarse of the rest of the season, so it is hard to take this first poll too seriously. However, if history has any impact on how this year is going to turn out, here are some facts and figures (courtesy of Brad Edwards' ESPN.com column today):

Nineteen of the 20 teams to reach the BCS National Championship Game were ranked in the top six of the initial BCS standings. LSU won the 2003 title after being ranked 12th in the first standings.

In each of the past nine seasons, at least one of the top two teams in the initial BCS standings has gone on to play in the championship game.

Only twice in 10 previous years of the BCS has the initial No. 1 team gone on to win the national championship (Florida State in 1999, USC in 2004)

Initial BCS rankings of eventual champions

YEAR	BCS CHAMPION	INITIAL BCS RANK
2007	LSU	4
2006	Florida	6
2005	Texas	2
2004	USC	1
2003	LSU	12
2002	Ohio State	6
2001	Miami	4
2000	Oklahoma	2
1999	Florida State	1
1998	Tennessee	3

How About Them Falcons? And A Belated Dawgs-Vols Recap.

2008-10-15T15:37:00.006-04:00

First off, I would like to congratulate the Atlanta Falcons. Despite playing just 6 games, they have already exclipsed last year's win total ( going 4-12, of course). I must say, with a rookie head coach in Mike Smith and a rookie starting QB in Matt Ryan (who I was very hopeful of, being a big Boston College fan) I really wasn't sure what to expect from the Falcons this year.

To be completely honest, at the beginning of the season I expected worst case they would finish 4-12. I mean that is easy to say considering the fact that as bad as they were last year, they still won 4 games and best case they would win 6, maybe 7 games. But, after watching their performance the past two weeks against two solid teams in Green Bay and Chicago along with their 4 previous games, at 4-2 the Falcons actually have a shot to be relevant towards the end of the season.

Now, I am not going to say that they are going to win the division or even earn a wild card spot for that matter, but I fully expect the Falcons to be very competitive in each and everyone of their remaining 10 games. While some games (@Philadelphia, Denver @ San Diego) will be a lot more difficult than others (@Oakland, New Orleans and St. Louis), this team has a shot to realistically win 7, 8, maybe 9 games in my opinion.

If they are able to reach any of those win totals, I think practically every Falcons fan would have to be very, very pleased with Year 1 of the Smith-Ryan-Thomas Dimitroff (the new GM of the Falcons) Era.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the Dawgs for their effort Saturday against Tennessee. Not only did they rebound from their worst game since the 35-14 beat down the Vols gave us last year in Knoxville, but they came out from the get-go and played a solid game. I hate Philip Fulmer and the fans of UT in general, so sending them to their worst start (2-4, 0-3 in SEC) since 1988 certainly was enjoyable.

Controlling the ball for an incredible 42+ minutes and racking up 458 yds of offense (while holding the Vols to an incredible 209 yds) this game in a lot of ways was very similar to our performance against ASU in September: the score did not indicate the dominance displayed. Seeing Southerland come back was certainly a pleasant site to see, but losing Vince Vance (the 3rd LT to be lost for the season after starting a game for the Dawgs this year) is worrisome.

Let's see if the Dawgs can pick up some momentum to start the 2nd half of their season by beating an upstart #22/23 Vandy team that has given us fits (e.g. Homecoming two years ago and UGA's lackluster 20-17 victory @ Vandy last year) despite the fact that we own a dominating 48-18-2 all-time record against them .

The second half of the season will make or break the perception of the Dawgs season with matchups against Vandy Saturday, LSU, UF, Auburn, Kentucky and a surprisingly good GT team. UGA controls its own destiny. The National Championship hopes are still alive, though Georgia would have to run the table the rest of the way and take on more than likely either LSU or Alabama in the SEC Title game to make the dream a reality.

The Biggest Game In Athens In The Mark Richt Era?

2008-09-26T17:13:00.009-04:00

I think Coach Richt says it best when talking about tomorrow night's matchup against the Tide, who will be making their first trip to Athens since 2003: "I hope the fans realize how special this night (Saturday) is going to be. It's going to be exciting."

Between the Blackout, Alabama's attempt to "White out" their section of the stadium and Game Day coming to Athens for the first time since the 1998 Tennessee-Georgia game I cannot remember the campus buzzing over a home game like this in quite some time.

Thanks to great research by another great Georgia blogger, Paul Westerdawg (http://georgiasports.blogspot.com/), the game Saturday will mark just the 10th time in the history of the program in which the Bulldogs and their opponent are both ranked in the Top 10 for a game that is played in Athens:

Top 10 vs. Top 10 Match-ups in Athens:

After the Dawgs pulled out a nail-bitting win in OT @ Alabama last year, 26-23, the Dawgs improved their all-time record against the Tide to 25-35-4 . Under Richt, the Dawgs are 3-0 against Alabama.

With #1 USC's stunning loss to Oregon State last night, with a win over #8 Alabama, the Dawgs could find themselves atop of the rankings again, jumping over #2 Oklahoma who plays #24 TCU this weekend. Will the Dawgs capitalize on the opportunity? In my opinion, in a tough, hard-fought football game look for the Dawgs to bring their best effort of the season and win a close one against the Tide.

Georgia 24
Alabama 14

Down To Wire

2008-09-17T19:37:00.007-04:00

While it has been a forgettable season for the hometown Atlanta Braves, (who are having their worst season since having the worst record in baseball in 1990 and are closer to last place than first place) it looks as if we are in for a very exciting conclusion of the regular season.

In three (AL East, AL Central and NL Central) of the six divisions, the team in first place has less than a 3-game lead and in the National League you have three teams (the loser of the NL East, Milwaukee and Houston) that are battling it out for the NL wild card. Just three games separate the Mets, who are currently leading the wild card race, and the Houston Astros. Keep an eye on this race. Since the wild card was created in 1995, a wild card team has made it to the World Series NINE times (winning four, the last of which being the 2004 Red Sox). To further reiterate my point, a wild card team has made it to the World Series six years in a row and seven times out of the last eight years.

In regards to home field advantage throughout the playoffs, despite the fact that the Cubs have one of the best records in all of baseball, since the AL won the All-Star game for the 6th straight year (and have gone 11-0-1 over the past 12 years), the Rays and Angels are battling it out for the top spot. The Angels currently have the best record in baseball, with the Rays just two games back heading into tonight's games.

What else could we expect?

2008-09-16T21:33:00.002-04:00

Saturday's game at South Carolina was a tight one, for sure. Many people are saying that perhaps Georgia is ranked too high at #2 (now 3). I feel the game came down to three factors: 1) South Carolina isn't as bad as they appeared in previous contests. 2) Georgia made enough mental mistakes to keep South Carolina in the game. And, 3) history repeats itself.

This game was not going to be a major blowout. History does repeat itself. This game is early enough in the season that South Carolina's lack of depth isn't showing yet. Lack of depth is what keeps South Carolina from playing for the SEC title (aside from silly South Carolina-esque mistakes like fumbling into the endzone). South Carolina always gets up for this game, and even more so now that S.O.S. is calling the shots. One personal theory I have had is that South Carolina, as a state, isn't the greatest of places. It's overlooked by many and has fun poked at it by most. They see Georgia to the south and know that is what they want to be like. I think this theory applies more to the fans than the team itself, but it could have some merit.

South Carolina can certainly play defense. They have playmakers on all parts of the field defensively. Jasper Brinkley is a man among boys, and Georgia really dropped the ball not getting him to sign with the Bulldogs. He wanted to play in the red and black very badly. Offensively, they can use some work. Chris Smelley played a whale of a game and S.O.S. found a way to exploit Georgia's weaknesses, namely defending the pass. But their lack of a run game will hurt them severely as the season progresses. I don't think this South Carolina team is too bad. We were all laughing about them losing to Vanderbilt, but Vanderbilt could be pretty darn good. We will see as the schedule tightens up.

Georgia made several mental miscues on Saturday. Matthew Stafford did a good job of managing the game. The mistakes that were made should be easily fixable in practice. It will be interesting to see if Georgia learns from its mistakes on Saturday against Arizona State. I also felt the playcalling was suspect at times. Knowshon and AJ Green need more touches. Period. The goal line futility was highlighted by not being able to score with a 1st and goal. Brannan Southerland was missed deeply in that situation. Georgia probably scores with Brannan in the game. Paul Westerdawg at the Georgia Sports Blog did a play by play breakdown of Georgia mistakes. In his estimation, UGA left at least 11 points on the table. South Carolina left possibly 7. So you could be looking at a 24-14 victory for Georgia.

The South Carolina matchup is always a war for Georgia, and this hasn't changed under Coach Richt. Offensive scoring has always been at a premium. In 2001, Georgia failed to score a touchdown as South Carolina won 14-9. Georgia won the meetings from 2002-2006, but three were decided by a touchdown or less, with the 2003 game being the only "blowout" 31-7. The 2001, 2002, and 2007 games had Georgia not even scoring an offensive touchdown. The 18-0 victory in 2006 was closer than the score would indicate. Saturday showed a pattern in Georgia football. The flaws of Richt coached teams were on display again on Saturday: Georgia bogs down offensively in the red zone and it drops passes.

One thing to consider is that this was a relatively new offensive line still working out the kinks on the road for the first time against a very quality defense.

Sure Georgia made mistakes, but I belive the Gamecocks are better than most have given them credit for. Keep in mind they were backed into the corner and gave Georgia their best shot. Georgia hung on, which is what you have to do on the road in the SEC, and found a way to win. Bottom line, the defense only gave up 7 points, which is fantastic, and Georgia walked away 1-0 in the SEC. Coach Richt put it best after the game. He told the team that not only do they get to walk away with a win, but they also learned what they need to improve upon. Typically when you find out what you need to improve upon, you aren't going home happy. So, what more can you ask for?

Dominance

2008-09-12T15:12:00.007-04:00

That is the one word I can think of to describe the "rivalry" between South Carolina and Georgia. The numbers do not lie: UGA is 44-14-2 all-time against South Carolina. That is a .750 winning %. South Carolina has not beaten UGA back-to-back since 2000-2001 and has not won in Columbia since 2000.

Keep this in mind: UGA is 48-18-2 against Vandy (.720 winning %). We have almost owned South Carolina as much as we have dominated Vandy (who last week beat South Carolina for the second straight year).

Coach Richt is 5-2 against South Carolina (.714 winning %), so I can only find it fitting that the Dawgs take care of businesss this weekend and up Coach Richt's record against the Gamecocks to 6-2...which would just so happen to match UGA's all-time winning percentage of .750.

Give me UGA 28 South Carolina 14

From A Historical Perspective, How Much Does Being The Preseason #1 Matter?

2008-08-29T17:46:00.005-04:00

Thanks to the fine researchers from AP Poll Archive (http://www.appollarchive.com/), the following is the list of all of the AP Preseason Poll #1's and what their final ranking ended up being. Obviously, the AP's vote does not factor into the BCS anymore, but it is still interesting to see how teams have fared after being given the top spot in the Preseason poll. Without further ado:

Final Rankings of Preseason #1 Teams

Season	Team	Final

2008	Georgia	???

2007	USC	3

2006	Ohio State	2

2005	USC	2

2004	USC	1

2003	Oklahoma	3

2002	Miami (FL)	2

2001	Florida	3

2000	Nebraska	8

1999	Florida State	1

1998	Ohio State	2

1997	Penn State	16

1996	Nebraska	6

1995	Florida State	4

1994	Florida	7

1993	Florida State	1

1992	Miami (FL)	3

1991	Florida State	4

1990	Miami (FL)	3

1989	Michigan	7

1988	Florida State	3

1987	Oklahoma	3

1986	Oklahoma	3

1985	Oklahoma	1

1984	Auburn	14

1983	Nebraska	2

1982	Pittsburgh	10

1981	Michigan	12

1980	Ohio State	15

1979	USC	2

1978	Alabama	1

1977	Oklahoma	7

1976	Nebraska	9

1975	Oklahoma	1

1974	Oklahoma	1

1973	USC	8

1972	Nebraska	4

1971	Notre Dame	13

1970	Ohio State	5

1969	Ohio State	4

1968	Purdue	10

1967	Notre Dame	5

1966	Alabama	3

1965	Nebraska	5

1964	Mississippi	NR

1963	USC	NR

1962	Ohio State	NR

1961	Iowa	NR

1960	Syracuse	19

1959	LSU	3

1958	Ohio State	8

1957	Oklahoma	4

1956	Oklahoma	1

1955	UCLA	4

1954	Notre Dame	4

1953	Notre Dame	2

1952	Michigan State	1

1951	Tennessee	1

1950	Notre Dame	NR

NOTE: The preseason poll started in 1950

As you can see, in the 58 years that the AP has provided a Preseason poll, the preseason #1 has gone on to finish #1 ten times (including five times since 1978). After glancing over the chart, the one thing that shocked me was the following statistic: from 1957-1973 no preseason #1 finished the year #1 (a stretch of almost two decades).

Much of that was probably due to the fact that back in those days luxuries such as ESPN GamePlan did not exist, so most of the writers got their information about teams through word-of-mouth as opposed to actually seeing the players/teams with their own eyes.

Due to all of the media coverage and the ability for millions to be able to see a plethora of games each week followed up with tons of highlights, I do not think it is a coincidence that since the beginning of the BCS era (1998) the lowest the Preseason AP #1 has finished was 8th in 2000 (a 10-2 Nebraska team). Actually that team is a bit of an outlier in the past decade, as the rest of the other nine teams finished ranked #3 or higher. Two teams (FSU in 1999 and USC in 2004) won the National Championship and four teams (Miami in 2002, Oklahoma in 2003, USC in 2005 and OSU in 2006) lost in the Title Game. So, in the past nine years, the preseason #1 has gone to the Title Game six times (going 2-4 over that stretch).

So, what does all of this mean? Well, you can look at it a variety of ways. On one hand, you could suggest that with the recent success of the preseason #1's, Georgia is destined for the BCS Championship Game. On the other, you can point out the fact that last year's preseason #1 did not and given the fact that the Dawgs are going to have to play the toughest schedule in the country with only two returning starters on the OL the Dawgs have just as good of a chance to not go. I tend to be more of an optimist, so hopefully the former (and not the latter) occurs.

Tomorrow can't come soon enough! Go Dawgs.

The 2008-2009 Men's Basketball Schedule Is Out

2008-08-09T00:29:00.007-04:00

I know we are on the verge of football season, but today I would like to pass along some news about our basketball team. On Tuesday, the Bulldogs released their 2008-2009 schedule. At least 13 of Georgia's 31 regular-season games will come against teams that competed in the 2008 postseason, with the potential for more such games if the team does well in the preseason NIT. This will mark UGA's 3rd appearance in the tournament, the first since 1998.

"Last year we were proud to have the challenge of playing one of the toughest schedules in the country," Georgia coach Dennis Felton said. "I also think it's a schedule that our fans can get excited about and start making plans for a great season. All of us are looking forward to building upon the SEC Championship last March."

With games against Virginia Tech, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Mississippi St. among the notable home games and Illinois, Georgia Tech and whoever they play in the NIT tournament on the road, it should be a very exciting, but challenging schedule for the Dawgs. Only three months until basketball season...

University of Georgia
2008-09 Basketball Schedule

Date (Day) Opponent (TV) Site Tipoff
Nov. 7 (Fri.) ALBANY STATE (Exhib.) ATHENS 7:30
Nov. 14 (Fri.) USC - UPSTATE ATHENS 7:30
Nov. 17-19 (Mon-Wed) Pre-Season NIT W. Lafayette, Ind. TBA
Nov. 21 (Fri.) PRESBYTERIAN ATHENS 7:30
Nov. 24-25 (Mon-Tues) Pre-Season NIT Consolation TBA TBA
Nov. 26-28 (Wed-Fri) Pre-Season NIT Semis & Finals New York, N.Y. TBA
Dec. 2 (Tues.) at Western Kentucky Bowling Green, Ky. TBA
Dec. 6 (Sat.) Illinois Chicago, Ill. TBA
Dec. 9 (Tues.) VIRGINIA TECH ATHENS 7:30
Dec. 20 (Sat.) WOFFORD ATHENS 4:00
Dec. 22 (Mon.) TEXAS A&M – CORPUS CHRISTI ATHENS 7:30
Dec. 28 (Sun.) NORTH CAROLINA A&T ATHENS 2:30
Dec. 31 (Wed.) KENNESAW STATE ATHENS TBA
Jan. 3 (Sat.) MISSOURI ATHENS 4:00
Jan. 6 (Tues.) at Georgia Tech Atlanta, Ga. TBA
Jan. 10 (Sat.) TENNESSEE (Raycom) ATHENS 12 Noon
Jan. 14 (Wed.) at Vanderbilt Nashville, Tenn. 8:00
Jan. 18 (Sun.) KENTUCKY (Raycom) ATHENS 12 Noon
Jan. 24 (Sat.) MISSISSIPPI STATE (ESPN2) ATHENS 6:00
Jan. 28 (Wed.) at Florida (Raycom) Gainesville, Fla. 8:00
Jan. 31 (Sat.) at Alabama Tuscaloosa, Ala. TBA
Feb. 4 (Wed.) LSU ATHENS 7:30
Feb. 7 (Sat.) at South Carolina Columbia, S.C. TBA
Feb. 11 (Wed.) at Tennessee (Raycom) Knoxville, Tenn. 8:00
Feb. 14 (Sat.) FLORIDA (ABC) ATHENS 3:30
Feb. 18 (Wed.) AUBURN ATHENS 7:30
Feb. 21 (Sat.) at Ole Miss Oxford, Miss. TBA
Feb. 25 (Wed.) VANDERBILT ATHENS 7:30
Mar. 1 (Sat.) at Arkansas (Raycom) Fayetteville, Ark. 4:00
Mar. 4 (Wed.) at Kentucky (Raycom) Lexington, Ky. 8:00
Mar. 7 (Sat.) SOUTH CAROLINA ATHENS 4:00
Mar. 12-15 (Thu-Sun.) SEC Tournament Tampa, Fla. TBA
All Times Eastern
Other TV Dates to be added

Finally Some Media Love

2008-08-07T01:00:00.000-04:00

For many of you who thought that Georgia got hosed last season from the National Title (myself included), it appears it was a learning experience for all of us. The one thing that we should have taken from last year was that in order to have a shot at the national championship, you need two components:

1) Talent
2) Media Support

Clearly, there was no question that UGA had the talent to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the country last year, but clearly we did not have the support of the media. Case in point: LSU last season. The Tigers, who were preseason ranked #2 behind USC by many at the beginning of last season went 4-2 (including a game in which they gave up 50 points AT HOME to an unranked opponent) to finish out the regular season (including a less than impressive SEC Championship Game victory against Tennessee in which the only reason they won came on a pick-six interception touchdown in the 4th quarter after trailing for the majority of the game).

Yet, despite being ranked #7 in both the Coaches Poll and BCS, jumped FIVE spots (including over one team that won their conference championship game in much more dominating fashion) to the #2 spot. So, with that in mind, do you think it was a coincidence that the media pundits decided to put LSU into the title game despite everything mentioned above? I think not.

In 2006, you had a scenario in which UF (who did, for what it's worth, win in style in the SEC Title Game against Arkansas) jumped Michigan in the standings while Michigan had a bye. The media, who for the most part did not want to see another Michigan-OSU match-up in the championship, all of a sudden began to really talk up Florida and sure enough UF went from #4 in the Coaches Poll and BCS to #2 (#2 USC got upset by UCLA that same week to allow UF to jump the two spots). Now, was UF a worthy National Championship contender? Yes. They played a ridiculously hard schedule (very similar to the one our Dawgs will play this year) and still came away with only one loss. But, did they deserve to jump an idle Michigan team that gave all OSU could handle? That is debatable.

Now, obviously UF went on to crush OSU in the title game and Michigan got their butt kicked against USC in the Rose Bowl, so most in hindsight would say that everything worked out for the best. But before those events occurred it was certainly a toss-up for many fans, depending on who you asked.

Auburn in 2004 (who was preseason ranked #17 in the AP/#18 in the Coaches Poll) did not receive enough media love, despite playing a tougher schedule than both USC and Oklahoma (who also went wire-to wire #1 and #2 throughout the regular season) and as a result they suffered from the lack of a playoff system in Division 1 football (do not get me started).

So, in short after looking back over the past few years case-by-case, you can certainly make the argument that sometimes it is not just the reality of how good you look on the field, but also how much of the national media acknowledges the fact that you look good on the field.

Hampton Returns (and doesn't get injured!)

2008-07-26T18:11:00.005-04:00

Mike Hampton finally made his long-awaited return to the mound after almost a three year absence. Despite my prediction that he'd still find a way to miss the start by pulling a pectoral muscle or breaking a nail during warm-up, he managed to avoid injury long enough to give up six earned runs in just 4 innings of work. Even with loads of run support (9 runs scored in the 4th inning), the Braves bullpen also did their part in blowing the 6-run lead in the 5th frame.

After the disastrous 5th, the only thing that could make me smile now was just thinking about how much Mike Hampton looks like George Michael (it's only fitting that he's coming to the Philips Arena in a few days). I hate to give up on my Braves, but it's obvious that this season isn't going to be the year they win a World Series title. Mark Teixeira is picking up his game as he always does in the second half of the season, so it's time to trade him before the Braves won't get anything but a few meaningless homers each week for a team that isn't healthy enough to win the division. Let's be real here: With an agent like Scott Boras, there's no way Tex is going to give Atlanta a discount and there's no way GM Frank Wren will pay that kind of money to keep him.

There are just lots of needs that need to be filled. Our outfield is dreadful. Our pitching is old. We need to build for the future and a good way for the Braves to do it is to make a splash before the trade deadline and get some solid prospects or high draft picks. I doubt very seriously that a team is going to give up a solid pitcher for Teixeira since pitching is at such a premium nowadays, but we need to take what we can get. Once Hampton's $15 million is off the books at the end of the season, the Bravos will have some money to play with to pick up a big time pitcher or outfielder in the free agent market. So let's get it done Frank. I give you my blessing.

Hey Braves, this isn't the NBA Playoffs.

2008-06-14T14:06:00.008-04:00

If the Braves continue to be riddled with injuries suffered by their stud pitchers, this team won't have an iceberg's chance in hell to make the playoffs. Peter Moylan, who was the rock in the bullpen last year, is done for the season; John Smoltz could be done for his career (let's hope he's not); Tom Glavine is out until at least the All-Star Break, and Rafael Soriano constantly has pain in his elbow.

And let's not forget the freak accidents. Jair Jurrjens twisted his ankle on the dugout stairs last Tuesday in Chicago and Chipper Jones got hit in the face from his own foul-tip in batting practice last night. Thankfully he was alright and will be back in the lineup tonight, but remember he is still battling with a minor tear in his right quad. And in infamous Disabled List news, Mike Hampton will soon have a sex-change operation to complete his transformation into a graceful and delicate ballerina.

The outfield is in shambles, too. Mark Kotsay is on the 15-day DL with back problems (maybe his smokin' hot wife had something to do with it) and Matt Diaz has a strained ligament in his knee. Martin Prado has caused some stress for the infield when he was placed on the DL with a thumb injury. Pretty soon the Braves clubhouse will be added as a new wing in Grady Hospital.

Even the seemingly healthy pitchers are struggling. Blaine Boyer and Manny Acosta can't seem to leave the mound until they make the game "a little more interesting" (ahem, or 'blowing it' as they call it nowadays).

Consequently, this leaves us with Charlie Morton making his MLB debut tonight against the almighty Angels. Since the entire Braves outfield seems to be on the DL, perhaps a few "angels in the outfield" could help them out in Anaheim. Oh the childhood memories and terrible puns...

And now we've arrived to the point I was making with the title of my post. Sure, the Braves have been solid at home (minus this past embarrassing home stand), but having the major league's worst away record (8-24) isn't going to cut it. But there is one record they can easily beat: The Braves have lost 21 consecutive one-run road games, which ties the all-time record with the KC Royals. WE CAN DO IT GUYS! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

As I've alluded to in the title, the Celtics have scraped by their NBA playoff series with very few road wins. It's been the theme, especially when they faced the Hawks, after stretching the miracle series to 7 games. Since then, the Celtics have won key games on the road against the Pistons and now the Lakers. They're pretty much guaranteed a championship ring at this point. And why? It's because they won the games they needed to win on the road.

And if the Bravos can't start doing the same for ol' Bobby (and stay off the DL), then you fans might as well catch a flight to Richmond to see our soon-to-be major league starters.

...

2008-06-03T23:00:00.000-04:00

Yes......I'm an idiot.

more later

5 reasons the Celtics won't reach the finals

2008-05-21T03:56:00.005-04:00

If anyone else has been watching the NBA playoffs so far, you'll most certainly have noticed that the celtics have had their fair share of scares in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Although the semifinals were against a legit opponent that had arguably the best player in the league, the first round was played against a team that snuck into the playoffs with less than 40 wins (sorry hawks fans, but its kinda true that you guys got lucky). Not to say they didn't give the C's a run for their money, but the celtics should have and were expected to blast through the playoffs on their return to glory. so where has that glory of the green gone? where is KG's passion in the endgames?

Be scared celtic fans, because looming large tonight is the definition of a battle-tested playoff team. The Pistons have reached four straight conference finals after winning their title in 2004 and are hungry for a return to the finals, and if things hold up, i wont be surprised to see the Pistons, and not the celtics, squaring off against the west's champion.

here are my top 5 reasons why the pistons will win this series and reach the finals one more time.

1. Winning road games: During the regular season, the C's were the best team on the road, by far. With a 31-10 record, the celtics were the definition of dominance on the road. However, Since the start of the playoffs, they haven't won a single game on the road, dropping three games each in Atlanta and Cleveland. Even though they are extremely dominant at home, it will take more than that to beat Detroit. To win this series, the Celtics need to split the two games at the Palace to have a real shot of moving on.

On the other hand, Detroit has been the only team that has consistently won on the road these playoffs. they dispatched the sixers in six, closing out the series in Philly, and they routed orlando in 5 games, splitting the games played in Orlando. The odds are very low that detroit will give up more games than they already have at the palace, and the Celtics are not looking very certain of themselves at home.

2. Proven scorers: We all know about the "boston three party", but what you may or may not have noticed is how that became a two person affair in the Cleveland series, when Ray Allen couldn't hit the ocean if he tried (he shot a whopping .328 from the field on 20-61 shooting, including .167 from beyond the arc on 4-24 shooting). Paired up with the fact that Allen is mostly ineffective covering one on one, he was almost a non factor in the series. The scoring slack was picked up mostly by Pierce, with KG helping most of the time. Boston's bench was also wildly ineffective, with major stinkbombs in games 5 and 6 (3 and 10 points from the bench, respectively).

Detroit has four proven scorers who are capable of taking over the game. Billups, Prince, Wallace, and Hamilton are all capable of carrying the scoring load when the game is on the line, and run their half-court offense to perfection. Even Antonio McDyess is a solid big man, htough not the best scorer. Although they have been known to start off games in sluggish fashion, i tend to trust the pistons' scorers more than i have Boston's in these playoffs.

3. Coaching: Flip Saunders vs. Doc Rivers. We're talking about two polar opposites here. For the past 3 years, Saunders has been the definition of consistency, getting his team deep into the playoffs every year, and consistently ending the regular season in the top slots in the East. While many people forget this, Doc Rivers has actually been one of the worse coaches in Basketball for the same period of time before this year. In the playoffs, Rivers' flaws have been exposed while Saunders has remained cool and managed his team.

Rivers' has been incapable so far of setting an established rotation and keeping to it, substituting players randomly as if they were a hockey team and destroying Rondo's confidence in the process by constantly giving his minutes to Cassell, who, while he has playoff experience, it necessarily isn't good experience, and he tends to try and keep the ball for as long as possible and make forced shots whenever he can. Rivers has also proven inept at modifying his game plan when needed, refusing to cover a red-hot Joe Smith in the Atlanta series, and constantly ignoring Al Horford. Against the cavs, his over-attention on Lebron (albeit justified), left the rest of the team to run wild and seemingly score at will. Saunders managed to shut down Iguodala against the Sixers and severely limited Jameer Nelson and Dwight Howard's effectiveness against orlando.

4. Experience: Now, this one may seem a bit of a stretch, but bear with me. The celtics have the big names (Garnett, Pierce, Allen), but their combined playoff experience leaves alot to be desired. Garnett had most of his experience in one season with the T'wolves, when they reach the second round, and went on to implode. Allen's experience follows the same line, and Pierce hasn't been in the playoffs since 2004.

The Pistons have more collective experience than any other team in the playoffs right now. They've kept the same core of players intact throughout their impressive run of conference finals. Because of this, the Pistons have developed a consistent game plan and are extremely adept at using it.

5. Clutchability: Simply put, the Pistons are a clutch TEAM. They showed it in game 4 of round 1 against the sixers. Down at the half, the pistons came out guns blazing and didn't look back until they were done with orlando. Chauncy Billups is perhaps one of the best playoff performers in the NBA right now, and Wallace, Hamilton, and Prince aren't far behind. The Pistons have showed time and time again that they can win when it matters, and they have an extra gear that is difficult to stop MOST nights (note: i wrote this while watching game 1, and the pistons looked extremely, well, un-clutch, but my argument still stands).

However, in this department, the Pistons have an ace in the hole, and his name is Paul Pierce. Even with the addition of KG and Ray Allen, it is always clear who is the leader on this team. KG may have pushed the team over the top with his passion and his chest-thumping near-psychotic energy, but Pierce has been the constant clutch for this team. KG plays like a scared kid when the game is on the line, shying away from the shots he needs to make and hesitating too much on his fade-away and easy looks. Pierce, on the other hand, in a brilliant display of clutch, outgunned LeBron in game 7 (even though he was outscored 45 to 41, Pierce's contributions to the C's were far greater, including his crucial steal of a ball LeBron should have had.) Pierce, however, cannot win without the other two parts of that threesome, and with Ray Allen's jumper somewhere between thailand and jupiter, its hard to see KG finally deciding to step up with two minutes left when the game is on the line.

So there you have it, i guess you can pretty much figure out my pick, but i'll write it down anyways, just so there's no confusion: Detroit in 7.
expect a crazy series, and don't blame me for being wrong......again.

5 reasons the Celtics won't reach the finals

2008-05-21T03:56:00.001-04:00

SEC Football Looks Bad... (off the field)

2008-05-12T15:33:00.003-04:00

Ryan Perrilloux will no longer be able to defend the national championship title. The prominent face of the 2008 LSU team will never take a snap for the Tigers after getting dismissed by Les Miles. He had numerous run-ins with the law in 2007 that included a nightclub fight and trying to use his brother's ID to go riverboat gambling, but he didn't make amends this Spring by missing team meetings and practices. Failing a drug test was the last straw and now LSU needs a new quarterback.

Jamar Hornsby, a Junior safety at Florida, has just been dismissed by Urban Meyer for using the gas credit card for 6 months of a woman who had been killed in a motorcycle accident.

In other Gator news, Florida defensive lineman Matt Patchan was shot in the shoulder in Tampa last Friday. No details have been released yet, but when you have a bullet in your arm it doesn't usually mean you were just "at the wrong place at the wrong time" in a library or at a church function.

Two Mississippi State players, Michael Brown and Quinton Wesley, have just been given suspended sentences for firing guns into the air on campus back in March and were dismissed from the team and kicked out of school.

In Nick Saban land, Freshman defensive tackle Jeremy Elder was kicked off the team following his arrest for allegedly robbing two other students at gunpoint a couple of months ago. At least eight players have been arrested from the Crimson Tide since Saban was hired.

I'm sure we can all agree the Southeastern Conference is the pinnacle of collegiate football, but boy, there have been several "personnel problems" recently that make the SEC look bush league off the field. We hear the college presidents get on their soap boxes and push sportsmanship rules on players and fans alike, and anointed the conference as the "Standard of Excellence". Sure the SEC has excellent teams in every sport available to our amateur athletes, but that excellence hasn't exactly been evident in newspapers and websites lately.

To be fair, the media loves to share negative stories more than they do heartwarming ones, so we fans don't get to hear about the generous and altruistic Kelin Johnson's of the world often enough. So for argument's sake, I am basing all of this negative attention on SEC football relative to the number of "big sports stories" lately. And I know SEC football players aren't the only troublemakers in the world of college football, but when you have this much bad press lately, it makes the conference look a Michael Vick prison league.

Oh Braves, not again

2008-03-31T23:45:00.002-04:00

Well, it's that wonderful time of year again. The grass is freshly cut and smelling great, the weather is turning warm to stay, and Atlanta's pastime is back in action. On Sunday night, the Braves played the role of sacrificial lamb in Washington as the Nationals won it on Ryan Zimmerman's home run in the bottom of the 9th to win the first ever game in their new stadium. You just knew that when the Braves tied it up late in the game that the baseball Gods would not let Washington's first game in their new house end that way.

The last time that the Braves were in such a position (to the best of my memory, that is) was after 9-11, when the first games after the tragedy were played. The Braves were in New York to take on the Mets, and I don't think anyone had a problem pulling for the Mets that night. As fate would have it, the face of Mets baseball, Mike Piazza, won it for the home team that night, giving the Big Apple the shot in the arm it needed.

After a suspect first inning last night, Tim Hudson settled in for a long stretch of fantastic pitching. Late in the game, the Braves tied, but the bullpen gave up the game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th to Washington.

On to Monday. Atlanta hosted Pittsburgh in the home opener, and the homecoming for Tom Glavine. As much dislike as I have acquired for Tommy since he spurned the Braves for an extra $6 million dollars to go to rival New York (when you are as rich as he is, can you really put a price tag on staying home?), it was good to see him back in Atlanta. He looked good too. He left with a game intact that the bullpen could win. But for the second straight night, the bullpen faltered.

What looked to be a lost cause being down 9-4 in the bottom of the 9th, the Braves not only rallied with those powerful bats, but with help from Pittsburgh's own attempt to give the game away, as well as a little luck (Jason Bay "misjudging" the ball with 2 outs).

But even after giving up the lead and allowing the Pirates to pad a huge lead, then letting the offense get back into the game, the bullpen once again showed its cracks, allowing a 3 run home run in the top of the 12th to put Pittsburgh ahead for good. Ultimately, the Braves fell 12-11 in 12 innings.

So a team that many are predicting to be NL East Champions, NL Champions, perhaps even World Series Champions is now 0-2, granted that those 2 losses were very close and hard fought battles down to the very end. It is very early yet.

But I am worried. I have been a Braves fan for as long as I was competent enough to watch and understand baseball. I have followed this team for years. I loved the run of division titles and probably did take them for granted. Now 2 years without playoff appearances has me restless. The main struggle that the past 2 Atlanta teams have dealt with would be bullpen pitching. This year, the pitching from top to bottom has been revamped, and they are now deep enough to make a deep playoff run. But after 2 losses in which the bullpen failed to hold for the powerful offense, I am beginning to question just a little. Is this the same bullpen of 2006 and 2007? Are we in for the same roller coaster ride once Hudson, Smoltz, Hampton, Glavine, or whoever the starter may be, leaves the game? This offense is talented enough to put up runs whenever it is asked to do such. It just doesn't need to do it multiple times a game after the 'pen has placed the team in a hole.

This is supposed to be a new Braves lineup, but so far the same faults and imperfections that have cost the team the past 2 seasons have cost them 2 victories on this young season. Let's just hope it's early season growing pains, and that the Braves turn things around quickly to get back to the summit of the NL East.

Georgia Bulldogs Pull off the Improbable

2008-03-17T14:03:00.003-04:00

(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

The University of Georgia Bulldogs Basketball team accomplished one of the, if the not the most remarkable feats in SEC Tournament history. The team played four total games in order to grab the SEC Tournament Championship. Led by Sundiata Gaines, the Bulldogs played some inspired basketball and pulled off some late game heroics to win their games. In the first game it was an unexpected bank shot by Senior Center, Dave Bliss and in the second game it was yet another unexpected 3-point shot by Freshman Guard, Zac Swansey. The Third game was played against the Western Conference Champs, Mississippi State. This game would prove to be difficult as the Georgia Bulldogs had to play just hours after beating Kentucky(for the first time in tournament history). The Bulldogs were forced into this position by SEC officials because of the tornadic activity causing damage to the Georgia Dome the night before. The tournament was transferred to Alexander Memorial Colosseum on the Georgia Tech campus with limited amount of people allowed into the venue because of "security issues" and fairness complications. People allowed to attend included credentialed media members, Pep bands, cheerleaders, and family of the players. The atmosphere inside the basketball arena was weird to say the least. With all these problems the Bulldogs somehow pulled a win out, even with Gaines fouling out again. Luckily the team would have to play the Arkansas Razorbacks for the Championship game, instead of the Tennessee Volunteers. The Razorbacks had beat the Volunteers by one-point previous to Georgia beating Mississippi State. The Georgia team had made it to far to lose to the Razorbacks in the finals. With more fan support the Bulldogs never trailed in the final game and even had a largest lead of 19 points. The Razorbacks made it interesting by coming within three points toward the end of the game, but it was determination that won it for the Bulldogs.

(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

As a fan, the SEC Tournament was one of the most exciting sporting events I have ever witnessed. I sat on my couch with my eyes glued to the T.V. After the doubleheader on Saturday I was excited to watch Sportscenter hoping they would cover the story about the two games and in fact it was the first story they showed. I was glad that the Georgia Basketball team was getting national attention. Georgia Basketball has been a sore subject for some years and now something positive was coming out of the program. This tourney was for all the fans who have stuck out all the bad times that go along with being a Georgia Basketball fan. I have to admit that although I am a season ticket holder I did not attend every game this season because of the disappointment that came with the season, but now I feel more excited about the future. It hurts that Sundiata Gaines, the soul of our team, will be leaving and Dave Bliss also. Dave Bliss may not of been most talented of centers in College Basketball, but he sure has heart. He is a consistent player with a high basketball IQ. Sundiata Gaines I think is the most underrated player in the SEC and I am sure many Georgia fans would agree. I was happy to see him finally get a reward for his hard work. He gave so much to the program and it would have been a shame to see his efforts wasted. I think most of the credit goes to him. Thanks Yatta! Thanks Bliss! Good luck to them in their future endeavours.

I must also thank all the other players on the team and I will list what I think they contribute to the team(now and in the future):

Terrance Woodbury - In the tournament he proved to be a good 3-point shooter that pulled out some clutch shots. When Billy Humphrey was struggling Woodbury stepped it up. I think he provides us with an experienced G/F. We will need him next year to support our inexperienced PG.

Billy Humphrey - He struggled in the tournament, but made some crucial shots in the Championship game. He will be our starting SG next year if he can stay out of trouble. I like him when he is on his shot. He also has experience.

Albert Jackson- I don't know what he did, but he looked much improved in the tourney. Although at times he reverted to his usual play, I feel like he is developing. I liked to see the nice hook shots he made in the games. He still needs to work on his post moves and he also needs to learn not to travel as much, but he proved that he is improving.

Jeremy Price - He did not stand out much in the tournament, but he definitely made his shots and provided a big body for the defense. Throughout the season I like what I have seen from him because he definitely knows how to play basketball. I will enjoy seeing how he plays next season with more minutes.

Zac Swansey - He provided a shot that kept us in it and took over for Sundiata at times. We needed him especially when Yatta fouled out. I like him as our backup PG now and trust him to be our future PG. He handles the ball well and is a pass first guard.

Corey Bulter - I do not think people would guess he is a walk-on...he is that good. He deserves a scholarship. He plays well and tough. He is one of those players that fans like because of his effort.

Troy Brewer- I enjoy seeing him make 3-pointers. I think he will be important in our shooting game when we need to some shots from the outside. We will see more from him next season.

Chris Barnes and Jeremy Jacob - They both are injured, which hurts us because we only have 9 players total to play our games. From what they showed this season, I think that they will definitely develop into solid players for our team.

Extra thoughts:

1) I have to credit our great defense in the tourney. We may not have a prolific offense, but we sure showed that we can defend with the best of 'em. It got us into foul trouble at times, but I think we can work out the kinks and defend well in the tourney as well as next year.

2) I am looking forward to our next year recruits. Howard Thompkins will be a great addition to our front court. From what I have heard/seen about Dustin Ware, I think he will definitely battle Swansey for the starting PG position. He sounds like a really good player. The other recruit Drazen Zlovaric is a PF and will add depth to that position.

3) I think that we have pretty good chance of upsetting Xavier and maybe even winning our second round game(maybe go all the way!!!) because we are playing with nothing to lose. Of course as a Georgia fan I think we could beat anyone and hope we beat everyone and win the National Championship...now wouldn't that be a great story. Then it would be made into a great inspirational movie 10 years down the road.

4) Before the SEC tourney I wanted Dennis Felton gone, now I am not sure. He will retain his job according to Damon Evans. I think that after what has happened he deserves another year, but if progress is not made he should be released.

Thanks for reading if you made it all the way through.

-Ryan

(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

WUOG Visits Braves Spring Training

2008-03-10T22:48:00.007-04:00

Greetings and salutations from Tim Kohrumel and Ryan Evans, who will be giving you an inside look at the Braves Spring Training for the next few days here at the Disney Wide World of Sports.

Let's start you off with the accommodations--Ron Burgendy would have lived it up big here at the Ramada where renovations have been non-existent since the disco era. But that gives it character.

Today was a day game with Jair Jurrjens taking the mound for his second start of the spring season. He looked solid, only giving up one hit in 4 innings. Detroit is going to be sorry for giving up this guy. He'll be a part of the 5-man rotation for sure.

Other things of note include old timer Javy Lopez getting his second homer of the spring...which also happened to be his second hit of the season. If he only gets homers for hits, that might be enough to give him a backup spot behind McCann. But that's probably unlikely at this point because he is hitting below .200 and his defense has been shakey. He admitted that he's pressing, but maybe Frank Wren will throw him a bone and give him a minor league contract in the meantime.

Jordan Schafer also is continuing to impress. He ended up with a double and two walks today, so the pop in his bat is continuing to...well, pop. Yes. Pop. He'll still play behind Kotsay this season, but he'll definitely be the starting center fielder in a year.

We were fortunate enough to sit behind the rarest of all baseball fans - the fan of both teams. He routinely would cheer for each batter, yelling "This is our inning! Get some RBIs!" only to cheer when the opposing team made an out. And as you would expect of a man of 60+, he was wearing his vintage Atlantic City hat sideways. Good thing the stereotypical Braves fan is apathetic, otherwise there would have been a bloodbath.

There was also the obligatory drunk and obnoxious Cubs fan there wearing Top Gun style mirrored aviators. Not sure if he knew where he was or who was playing. There was a "Massh*le" sitting in front of us (pardon the french) wearing a Red Sox shirt. Maybe those two guys were going to Epcot together tomorrow.

Words of warning to those of you wanting to come catch some spring training action. 1) Wear sunscreen and apply it evenly. Tim has a phallic looking sun burn running the length of his arm. He's not pleased. 2) If you are looking to try any local brews here in Florida, you are SOL. We've been to two bars/restaurants and the most eccentric beer choice is a Boston Lager and a Corona Light (this sadly includes the ESPN Club). Score dudez! Who wants a Bud Heavy and watch some NASCAR??? 3) If you really think there is some chance in this world that a hot trio of blonde females between the ages of 18-25 will be at spring training baseball games, you are going to be extremely disappointed. Women like Erin Andrews don't actually exist in the real world.

So tomorrow night, we'll shamelessly compete with 12 year-olds for autographs as we continue bringing you the inside scoop from Disney's Wide World of Sports. We'll leave you with a few pictures that I hope you'll enjoy.

Tex

Francoeur

Jurrjens

Tim and Ryan

Frenchy and Tex pt1

Frenchy and Tex pt2

Javy Lopez does the soulja boy before crankin' out a homer

Albert Pujols

Gators fans always find a way to top their infamous jean shorts. Classy.

UGA v UK

2008-02-04T17:17:00.000-05:00

I do a blog for a local paper so I figured I'd post here too.

This weekend, the almighty Kentucky Wildcats strolled into town in what promised to be an exciting game: The Dawgs were undefeated at Fort Stegeman while the ‘Cats had yet to win on the road.

I arrived at the Coliseum two hours early to ensure my place in the front row. The crowd slowly filtered in and excitement grew amongst the crowd. Free t-shirts were provided to boost a sellout crowd as well as the promise of Mark Richt presenting the Sugar Bowl trophy at halftime.

The Wildcats came out early to a chorus of boo’s and heckling fans (I amongst them). The main difference I noticed between the two teams in the early preparation was the focus of Kentucky compared to the loose demeanor of Georgia. The Bulldogs were talking and joking during the shoot around but I did not really notice any of the ‘Cats talking: each was preparing and getting mentally ready.

Dennis Felton then came through the student section and interacted with the crowd. I shook hands with him and he told me he appreciated my support. Felton has been receiving a lot of criticism lately for the team’s poor results but I stand by our Coach. He’s a good guy who is turning this program in a positive direction. Felton knew he would cost his team several wins by cutting Mercer and Brown but did it anyway. He cares about the prestige and class of UGA and I fully support that.

As the game was about to start I called out to my favorite player, Troy Brewer, and pointed at him. Yes, he pointed back. I was also selected to participate in the “dizzy bat race” during a T.V. timeout! It was very exciting to be out on the court in front of 10,000 people making a fool out of myself. Even better was that I got to talk to Knowshon Moreno and Matt Stafford! They were hanging out by the sideline and I asked Knowshon for some pre-race advice. He told me to “Finish the Drill.” Matt came up to me, shook my hand and asked who I was going against. I pointed and he said “Oh, you got him, man.” Well, turns out I didn’t…but the other guy cheated!

Before tip-off I wanted to note a few matchups: Ramel Bradley against Sudiata Gaines – two senior guards battling for pride and a late NBA draft pick -- and Jeremy “Big Dawg” Price against Patrick Patterson – two up and coming freshman with a lot of hype surrounding them. Unfortunately, neither one occurred. Bradley took a nasty fall about five feet away from me, hit his head hard on the court and never returned. Price didn’t get the minutes I expected (see below) and the match-ups became a moot point.

Overall the game was a thriller. There were so many lead changes I lost count. Once Georgia was down 11, I thought the game was over but the Dawgs came storming back late to take the lead. However, the win was not to be had. Patrick Patterson was a monster down low and Joe Crawford was so cool under pressure. Georgia had no answer for the dynamic tandem.

I was happy to hear Stegeman erupt at a few big three pointers, something I had yet to witness. A big UK fan who has been to Rupp Arena many teams (seats 24,000) said it was a hostile environment. That was quite the compliment

Two players I was impressed by: Terrance Woodbury and (you’ll never guess) Dave Bliss. Yes, Dave Bliss. I ragged on him hard in my last article (which he may have read…it can only explain his turnaround) but since then has performed better than ever. He’s scored double figures in his last three games and has been staying out of foul trouble. Woodbury took some of the heat off an anemic shooting performance from Billy Humphrey (2-9 FG, 8pts) chipping in twelve. Sundiata Gaines did exactly as expected: led the team in scoring and took over in clutch situations. He is The Man.

I do have to call into question the lack of playing time for our young forwards. Jeremy Price is our “highest-profile Bulldog newcomer” yet played three minutes. Three minutes. Jeremy Jacob is a four star recruit who I am a huge fan of did not leave the bench (but did flex his arms upon my request from the stand). I’m actually starting to wonder if he is in some academic trouble or doesn’t practice well because the guy can move in the paint. Troy Brewer came in with four minutes left and hit a three. Where was he the whole game? Humphrey had an off night!

Pretty soon, the coaches may have to come to an unfortunate realization: we’re not that good. The future of this program lies with the development of our prize recruits. Price is a big body who can use some work playing with the big boys. What better practice than against tough SEC power men? Jacob needs some playing time. From what I saw of Chris Barnes this weekend, he needs more minutes too! Playing Dave Bliss and Albert Jackson may get a couple more wins this season but long term; we need these young guys to get some experience.

quick-hit thoughts part deux.

2008-01-19T20:08:00.000-05:00

back here with the second half of Georgia-Arkansas

Again with the softness in the low point. All of Arkansas' points in the second half so far have come from inside the paint. Georgia's big men need serious work

Georgia needs to work on their fast breaks. only two points off the break in the first half and they had at least four opportunities off steals to convert. their transition offense needs serious work as well

The dawgs' half court offense is very stagnant. they don't create enough opportunities for shots, and are constantly pressured into bad passes and shots.

Georgia's bench on the court, playing very well. It's a great thing that the dawgs have good depth at every position (except for Center, see above) but their forwards are very good and look to have great future, they're all young.

Billy Humphrey from beyond the arc today: 3-5. this guy is really good. REALLY good

The more I see Woodbury play, the less I know about him. He's either really good, or really lucky, but he seems to be great when he gets excited, let's just hope he can stay excited for a long time.

Chris Barnes may be a little overexcited out there, but that's a good thing. He plays with passion, which is much needed for Georgia. Just saw him pull about 3 blocks in 6 minutes, plus a few boards and some great defensive assistance. This guy is gonna be great.

Rashard who? Albert Jackson is playing great. The Dawgs are getting a lot of blocks, which used to be Singleton's specialty, so that is being greatly compensated. Albert Jackson looks like a man possessed out there.

Its great to see sundiata gaines play. he's a pure, pass-first point guard, he's fast, and he hustles on every ball. It's going to hurt Georgia when he leaves. Those are some pretty big shoes to fill

Your Final Score:
Bulldogs 82, hogs 69.

See you next week vs. Kentucky.

quick-hit thoughts on Georgia-Arkansas game

2008-01-19T18:41:00.000-05:00

welcome sports fans to the quick-hit thoughts for tonight's game between the dawgs and the razorbacks. I'll keep you updated on what's going on with posts after the first half and at the final buzzer. feel free to tell me what you thought of the game:

1st half:

Georgia going into full court pressure early. i like the aggressiveness coach Felton is taking. Shows that he wants to win big tonight

The poor shooting from the perimeter continues for Georgia. they need to get better at shooting from the outside to have any real shot at winning in the SEC. They're to eager to take a shot without looking at their options early

The rebounding game needs some serious work. they're getting beat on both boards on easy rebounds

Billy Humphrey is making it look easy. he's a great scoring 2 guard, and has been great in the starter's role, is fast off screens and has phenomenal touch on his long range shots. his defense still needs a minimal amount of work, but he more than makes up for it on offense.

Georgia seriously needs a big man who can draw double teams. their poor shooting would be greatly aided by a big man who can draw constant double teams and clear up the perimeter for Georgia's shooters.

Chris Barnes is a phenomenal freshman. already he has a block, a massive dunk, and he looks like he's about to tear someone's head off constantly (in a good way). He's playing with grea energy, although he still needs some work on his mechanics in the pivot.

leading scorer with 7 minutes in the first half: Dave Bliss...who'd have thought? he's playing a great game. strong on the boards, fighting for every board and fighting for every single point he can get.

georgia has 8 turnovers in the first 14 minutes. most of them off very bad decisions and passes. its a recipe for trouble if they can't change it soon.

georgia has a big hole in the low post. Arkansas is getting big points simply lobbing it to the low post.

The Dawgs' big men need some serious work on their low-post offense. They can't work under the basket without dribbling the ball or falling into defensive traps.

half time score: Dawgs 34, hogs 27.

back with more in the 2nd half.

The Ridiculous Mitchell Report

2007-12-16T17:39:00.000-05:00

I want to thank the Mitchell report for ruining players' lives and careers with minimal to no evidence. Without any positive test results, these players have been trashed in the media and court of public opinion. I can now never look at Roger Clemens again, even though I know the evidence is so flimsy it would not stand up in court.
The Mitchell report did absolutely nothing for baseball. What was the point of naming all those players we already knew took steroids? What was the point of destroying kids' dreams of growing up to be Roger Clemens? Congratulations Senator Mitchell, you have unnecessarily killed the reputations of numerous retired and active players.
In all, the report told us mostly names we already knew, a few we could have figured out and about three surprises. And to accomplish what? His goal was not to punish players: he advised the commish not to punish anyone named in the report (probably because the evidence was incredibly weak). His goal wasn't to propose alternate ways of testing, or if it was, he failed miserably as he did not suggest any new methods. Perhaps Mitchell simply does not want Clemens in the Hall of Fame, because that is the only thing he may have achieved.
The report told us we had a steroid problem and the testing has improved the scenario. That is all the report needed to say. Why trash so many players? The report was unnecessary, ridiculous and accomplished next to nothing. Come to think of it, that also describes Bud Selig's reign as commissioner...

The Sugar Just Ain't as Sweet

2007-12-02T20:37:00.000-05:00

The Big Guy here and the college football regular season is over. What a season it's been, it started with the boys from Boone giving the Big Blue Nation a case of the blues. It ended with the number 1 and 2 teams in the nation losing on center stage. Then we all sat by our computers, refreshing, surfing, trying to find the "experts" that agreed with our points of view and posting on as many message boards we could about why our team should be playing for the BCS Title. And now, not even an hour after we found out where our respective teams are playing, the taste and thirst for the title is unfulfilled. That's right, the untested Ohio State Buckeyes will be playing the elusive Tigers of Louisianna State. The kids from Columbus will get their redemption but the party will be hosted in the Bayou's backyard and the home team might be out numbered by the fans of the visitors. New Orleans, the Super Dome, two BCS games will be played there in a matter of a week; one being for the National Title and the other, well the other is being played for the Sugar Bowl trophy, but how sweet the sugar will that sugar be? I suppose it depends on which side of the ball you are on.

The beloved Bulldogs of our own University of Georgia will play host to the Rainbow...wait no just the Warriors of Hawaii led by Colt Brennan and orchestrated by June Jones. After last year's Cinderella team of Boise State beat the powerhouse of the Big 12 the Oklahoma Sooners, all eyes will be on the Warriors and the Bulldogs on New Year's Night. Here in lies the sweetness, or sourness, of that sugar. The Dawgs have nothing to gain, nothing except the money. Everyone expects Hawaii to lose, the Dawgs are expected to beat this sandlot, pass happy team from the islands. With all that expectation, what happens when we win? No extra respect will be given, we just fell a spot in the BCS standings while two teams above us lost and saw LSU jump from #7 to #2, and I do not expect any "expert" or analyst to say, "You have to look at the impressive win by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, they went up against a tough Hawaii team and were able to come away with a win in a hostile environment, maybe we underestimated this team from Athens." No, no one is going to say that, we (The Bulldogs and the Bulldog Nation) have everything to lose in this game! We will not do any better with a win, but oh boy will be the poster boys for the "David and Goliath" cliche for at least a year. Calling all sports writers, calling all sports writers, here is your story, the non-BCS conference Hawaii Warriors top Georgia, a team from the toughest conference in America.

Good, great, grand, wonderful. As actors often ask, "What's my motivation?" So too will the Bulldogs. Well, that's your motivation, to not be the cliche Goliath. Ridiculous. Hawaii? Waikiki? Hang lose? Aloha? The Sugar Bowl was the last place the Bulldog faithful thought that they would be traveling to, but now we find ourselves in a familiar setting. This time the Super Dome, so I ask the Dawgs and the faithful followers of the Bulldog Nation get up for this game, bust out the red, get ready for the Hurricanes, and show these "up and comers" what SEC football is all about. Let us not be Goliath and instead end the season with the hopes of the cards falling right and perhaps still be able to share a piece of the National Title. It wouldn't be the first time, 2003 LSU and USC shared the title and with so many two loss teams out there, who knows maybe we can get what we need to happen, to happen. God, it would have been nice though, 27 years later to travel with an explosive freshman running back into New Orleans and beat a "better" team from the north in the national title game. Well, at least Bourbon St will be fun, I just hope the hangover does not last an entire off season.

#21 Sean Taylor was in a "catch 22"

2007-11-29T17:38:00.000-05:00

We've heard the debate and controversy surrounding Sean Taylor's death and how unfairly the media is portraying his unlawful past. Many say the media is blaming him for his own murder. After thinking about it myself, it seems far too easy to simply blame his murder on "running with the wrong crowd". I believe this is a grossly oversimplified explanation. The truth is, you can't always choose every single person who runs in your group of friends.

To make sure I have my bases covered, I know that there hasn't been any suspects in the case, so this theory is NOT necessarily the explanation of what happened. It's a theory. I'm only going by what I've heard about his rough past, and especially by what his longtime friend and former U of Miami teammate Antrel Rolle told The Associated Press (from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel):

"They say it was a burglary," Rolle said. "It absolutely was not a burglary. Down South, where we're from, there were many people talking to Sean, a lot of jealousy, a lot of angry people. Sean, he had a large group of friends, and he no longer hung out with those friends, so you never know where this came from."

"This was not the first incident. They've been targeting him for three years now. ... He didn't really say too much, but I know he lived his life pretty much scared every day of his life when he was down in Miami because those people were targeting him. At least he's got peace now."

Pretty scary stuff if you ask me. Even more scary is that this is a problem that is literally bleeding into the National Football League. Everyone remembers the nightclub shooting that was loosely associated with Pacman Jones. Pacman's Mom says that he is a good kid and can only explain all of his run-ins with the law by saying he just "runs with the wrong crowd". Sound familiar? Okay, I'm definitely not defending Pacman and his 38 arrests (give or take), but it's not that easy to simply walk away from your lifelong friends.

We all know Mike Vick is going to the slammer for at least a year or two for being loyal to his childhood friends (even though a couple of those "friends" testified against him). However, on the flip side of that, Taylor is being buried six feet under because he broke his loyalty to his friends (according to Rolle). What are star athletes supposed to do now? They get arrested if they hang on to their past, but then get punished if they break ties with their past (assuming it was a former "friend" who killed Taylor). It has become a dangerous (and deadly) catch-22. Who knows what would/will happen if Pacman breaks ties with his past? His pro wrestling moves sure as hell won't do him any good.

R.I.P. Sean Taylor

So the A-Rod Saga Continues...

2007-11-15T00:48:00.000-05:00

Alex Rodriguez. The name brings so many thoughts to mind; future Hall of Famer, big contract, no World Series rings, and most recently: drama. One minute Alex is “100% committed to being a Yankee,” the next he is opting out of his contract knowing the Yankees’ stance on renegotiating with him, and now, just after “Goodbye,” is uttered from Hank Steinbrenners lips, the two are close to a(nother) record breaking deal. $290 million dollars is the early estimate. With all he brings to the table, two, soon to be three, MVP titles, gold gloves, silver sluggers, media spotlight, a divided locker room and sub-par playoff performances, would you pay the man close to $300 million dollars?

If I were the Yankees, I would. However, no other franchise should. We all know pitching wins championships. If a team besides the Yankees were to sign him, any thought of getting pitching help would instantly be out of the window. New York is the only team that could get away with signing him and may still be able to afford Johan Santana next off season.

The Mets could probably get away with it but they already have an all star third baseman. The same goes for the red sox. The Rangers could probably afford him, even Jesus could not help the Rangers (though A-Rod may dispute that). The Angels and Dodgers were mentioned but they both need pitching help to get them over the top. Out of no where the Marlins were brought up. A-Rod would command more than the entire team combined. No, the Yankees are the only team A-Rod should, could and will sign for.

Thoughts?

2007-11-08T01:18:00.000-05:00

5 thoughts on the college football season

as the college football season starts to wind down, and the picture gets blurrier each saturday, here's some muddled thoughts and small ramblings on the season so far and what's to come

1. LSU is on the fast-track to the national championship game: Thanks to OSU's major choke-job against a solid Illinois team (which my cohost the big guy so astutely called last tuesday), LSU is back on track for their start-of-the-season goal. Should they win out, and by all means they easil could, with the hardest part of their schedule past them, they can start worrying about the SEC championship game, which will decide whether they get to play in the BCS title game or not. Should they play Tennessee, they'll have a very favorable matchup on offense, but their defense will not match up very well against Tennessee's Aerial attack. They'll really need their entire team to be healthy before their trip to atlanta, or whoever they play is going to be much harder. The most vital injury though, is that of Glenn dorsey. Though Dorsey is back on the field and is still a force, a completely healthy leg would give him that much more force against two strong offensive lines (GA and UT). Bottom line, LSU's title road goes through atlanta, and they have to win out to keep a pack of other hungry one-loss teams at bay.

2. Dennis Dixon is the hands-down favorite for the Heisman: No one has played as consistently well as Dixon this year. Tebow, Woodson, Daniel, Ryan, and Mcfadden have all tripped up over the season, but Dixon has consistently led Oregon's high powered spread offense to perfection. After a shaky 2006 season and an offseason playing minor-league baseball, Dixon is having an eye-popping year. So far, his line looks like this...

167-246 for 2074 yards, a 67.4 completion rate, 20 touchdowns vs 3 interceptions, and 103 rushes for 549 yards and 8 TDs.

Sure, some of the other candidates have better numbers, but Dixon is indispensable to his team, and he has not had a bad game yet, playing against some seriously tough competition in the pac-10

3. Kansas deserves some respect, and they'll get it before its all said and done: I'm just going to flat out say this. Kansas is a really good team. The exclamation mark of the season has been, other than going undefeated, hanging 76 points on mediocre Nebraska, which even USC didn't do. Sure, they've played against mostly mediocre competition, but in all except three of those games, they've been completely dominant. they face a tough team in Oklahoma State this week, and then their final game of the season against 6th ranked Missouri will really dictate whether they can keep a top 10 ranking heading into bowl season. as it stands, however, if they should lose to missouri, they'll lose a tiebreaker in their division and be left out of the conference championship game against OU (most probably)

4. Brian Brohm is still a top 10 draft pick: Sure Louisville is having an awful season under first year coach Craig Kragthorpe, but that blame can mostly be placed on a weak defense highlighted by a really bad secondary. This year he's already posted career highs in passing yards (3229), passing TDs (26), and passer rating (161.4). Along with Matt Ryan, Brohm is the best equipped QB to make an impact on a bad team in the NFL. He's been running a pro-style offense under Bobby Petrino his first 3 years at Louisville, and his mechanics are near flawless. Brohm cannot be blamed for his team's shortcomings, and NFL scouts will be highly impressed by his cannon arm and his accurate passes.

5. The SEC is the toughest conference in the land....and its gonna hurt all the SEC teams come bowl time: at one point or another this year, the SEC has had 6 teams ranked in the top 25. The SEC East has been responsible for 4 of those teams (UF, UGA, UK, UT). Should UT and Georgia both lose, we might actually see a three loss team in the SEC championship, which this season wouldn't be surprising. However, this new-found parity has a flipside. Although fans benefit from greater competition and entertainment any week, it becomes increasingly impossible for a team to run the table, which has in past seasons become the standard of a top 3 team. Not counting this season, it has been undefeated teams that have reached the national championship in the past 4 seasons. Making it through the SEC season with one loss is an impressive feat in and of itself, as LSU has so eloquently proven. But the fact that teams have a greater chance to lose every week (see Florida, who had their first 3 game losing streak of the Urban Meyer Era) is bad for the SEC in the national pictures. By achieving parity, which is what everyone had always hoped for, we might just end up effectively shooting ourselves in the foot.

2007-11-04T23:18:00.000-05:00

Lost in the joy and revelry of this Saturday's victory over Troy was some incredibly sombering news from one of the less glittery corners of the sporting world. American distance runner Ryan Shay died 5 1/2 miles into the US Marathon Olympic Trials, in one of the most tragic events to strike the distance running community.
While the autopsy has turned up initially inconclusive, doctors believe that Shay's enlarged heart may have contributed to his early death. Shay's heart not only allowed him to run great distances and accomplish a number of notable running feats (9 time All-American at Notre Dame, 2005 US Marathon Champion, Member of the US Half-Mar world championships team, US 15K champion) but also allowed him to be one of the kindest and most compassionate members of the running community.
He will be sorly missed, and not soon forgotten.

Ga-Fla game analysis...

2007-10-27T19:06:00.000-04:00

.....HELL YES!!!!!!!

more later.

2007-10-22T23:40:00.000-04:00

Oh, my. Are the Colts unstoppable? Do we think that anyone, other than the Pats, can beat them? With their decisive 29-7 crushing victory over the number 2 defense in the entire NFL, can anyone prevent the Colts from repeating as Super Bowl Champs? THE game to watch this season will pit the number 1 and number 2 quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, against each other in a battle of the guns. Ladies and gents, it's gonna be an enormous air game, that's my bet.

Joe Torre - Living Legend

2007-10-19T13:40:00.000-04:00

Joe Torre has always been known as a class act. On Thursday, October 19th, Joe stayed true to form by denying the Yankees' offer. The contract offer from the Yankees was despicable, disgraceful and distasteful. An offer which was designed to be denied was a slap in the face to Torre, as if 12 playoff appearances in a row and 4 World Series rings mean nothing.

Since the Yankees lost to Boston in 2004, it seems to me they lost more than an ALCS. They lost some of their professionalism. First, they allowed another Yankee great to leave, Mel Stottlemyre. Mel left due to disagreements in the upper office, namely George Steinbrenner. Second, they did not resign Bernie Williams. Sure, he lost a step but meant so much to the organization during his tenure in center field and has been a lifetime Yankee. He has the second all time singles and doubles in Yankee history. Give him a small contract for goodness sake, it's not like you can't afford it, and especially to replace him with a red sock. At the beginning of this season, they refused to resign Mariano Rivera, another lifetime Yankee. Now, they may lose him which could be more costly than losing Torre. They may also lose Jorge Posada because they also did not sign him pre-season.

What happened to honoring the Yankee greats? Once these players get slightly out of their prime it doesn't matter what a player has done in the past. We'll put you in Memorial Park but get the hell off my field. It's ridiculous.

Joe did the right thing by defying the contract. Not only did he preserve his dignity but maybe, just maybe he will have taught the Yankee management a lesson. As a lifelong Yankee fan, I sure hope he has.

My BCS Rant...

2007-10-18T19:35:00.000-04:00

So it seems every year this is the thing to do for anyone who knows anything about the BCS. to rant against it or for it, and to basically say that its worthless before we become the strongest supporters of it as soon as our team reaches a high enough spot to get one of those BCS bowl games. Here goes nothing...

First off, one of my biggest problems with the BCS is the fact that it doesn't take into account scores in games, just wins/losses. This is huge. How are you going to justify to me the fact that kansas winning against baylor 100000 to 6 is worth more than Kentucky beating LSU by 7 points in what was probably one of the best games of the year, or that USC winning after a miracle by their special teams against ARIZONA is worth more than Florida losing by 3 points to Auburn, who happen to have one of the best defenses in the country. A win is not just a win, its that simple. You can't count a walloping of a doormat team the same way you count a triple-OT win against a ranked opponent. you just cant. True, the walloping looked more dominant, but the close wins show what a team is really made of, not how bad they can beat up on subpar competition, which leads me to my next point....

How is OSU ranked ahead of USF (just pretend you're reading this column before tonight's loss against Rutgers). How is this even a matter of discussion???? OSU's schedule so far has been ranked 58 in the nation, while USF's is ranked 9th! notice the slight difference? how about this, USF's opponents are a combined 27-18. OSU's? a whopping 23-25. USF has beaten auburn on the road, and West virginia at home, and just lost to a resurgent Rutgers who were carried on the back of one of the best powerbacks in the country, while OSU's only legit win was against #23 purdue. See where I'm headed with this? LSU has one of the toughest schedules in the country. they had to play florida, kentucky, and have to play auburn in consecutive weeks. that's three consecutive top 25 teams in 21 days, if you're keeping count. Besides those games, they've already played Va. tech and South Carolina, and still face games against alabama and a physical arkansas team. put OSU and LSU on a neutral field. Who'd you pick? honestly?

Another big problem for me is the harris poll. When someone like mr. Eddy Crowder (Former Colorado Coach) can say something like this, and I quote "I haven't even seen a brief highlight of [USF],"and then went on to say about why he'd vote LSU over USF right now: "They're better stabilized ... They've been there, done that for 100 years." it makes you think about how objective these polls really are. The harris poll is made up of a bunch of ADs and retired coaches, and you can bet the vast majority are pretty much as subjective as Mr Crowder here, so how can you expect a fair poll?

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think we should get rid of the BCS, because for the life of me I couldn't think of a better alternative, but I'm saying that when a computer and a guy who's never seen footage of the #2 team in the country are the ones making the calls for the rankings, maybe we need to ask ourselves what's up?

GREATNESS? NOT QUITE

2007-06-12T12:40:00.000-04:00

His eyes were bloodshot. He was clinging on to dear life, it seemed. He sat on the bench slouched on his chair. The coach fired of instructions and plays, but he was in a daze. The buzzer sounded. Michael Jordan stepped up and continued to pummel the Jazz with a barrage of shots and drives to the hoop. His final line: 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and one block. I’ve always had that image in my mind of Jordan finally collapsing into Pippen’s arms when the game was in hand, seemingly about to faint on the court. It would be remembered as the “flu game”. One of MJ’s greatest performances. One of those instances where a player goes from man to legend in 48 minutes. Bird had his treys, magic had the hook, Dr. J had his dunks, Wilt had his 100 points in a game.

The greatest players in history all have defining moments. Situations where the odds are against them, when its impossible to win. Yet it seems by almost will-power alone they put their teammates on their backs and carry them to the finish line. These guys could go into a 10th gear when necessary, but played in 5th gear all the time. Jordan, Bird, Johnson, Dr. J, Wilt, Havlicek, ‘Nique, Hakeem, and Lebron? Hold on for a minute. Now I’m not saying James isn’t a freak of nature, which he is, or one of the best natural talents in history, which he is, or even one of the best 5 players in the league now, which he most definitely is. But unlike so many other people, I’m not ready to Crown him.

His signature game 5 against the Pistons was an instant classic. James literally carried the Cavs to the finish line, scoring 25 straight and 29 of the Cav’s last 30 points starting in the fourth quarter, and ending in the 2nd OT. The other point in between? A free throw. James has definitely shown that he has that fifth gear that all the greats were seemingly stuck in, but I haven’t seen him stay in that fifth gear for a consistent period of time. This season he practically mailed in almost half the season, before turning it on to make the playoff run, and then turned it off again at the start of the pistons series until he turned it on again for games five and six.

Against the spurs, however, it was a different story completely. James looked flustered and out of place. His shots weren’t falling, he was making rookie mistakes, and he made almost as many turnovers as assists (six TOs to 7 dimes). On the other hand, battle-tested Tim Duncan was going about business as Usual. The big fundamental’s line was 24 points, 13 boards, 5 blocks, 2 steals, and 1 assist (on 10-17 shooting). Clearly, the teacher was still the teacher in this situation. Duncan was James’ perfect opposite. Duncan did everything he had to on both sides of the court. James, on the other hand, couldn’t get it together.

I’m not writing James off. Before everything’s said and done LBJ will be one of the greatest players in history, but I’m just not ready to say he’s the greatest yet. He still has ways to go, and he still needs to get stuck in 5th gear for a long while before I’ll reconsider.

LUCK & LOGIC OF THE IRISH

2007-05-22T15:25:00.000-04:00

To preface: this post was inspired totally by a dream. Listeners of The 60-Minute Drill may already know what I'm referring to.

So if you're done rolling your eyes and pondering whether or not to turn off your monitor, allow me to continue. I have developed a fix for the Boston Celtics.

STEP 1: Using the luck of the Irish, get a pick in this year's lottery.

You're doing it again - that whole rolling the eyes thing.

But seriously, the C's have had some trouble getting what they need in this department, even when they are afflicted with the league's worst record. Remember '97? When they were supposed to get Duncan to team with some Kentucky vets (Walker, Delk, and Coach Pitino), and take the sliding East by storm? It didn't happen, they drafted Chauncey and got impatient with him, and they haven't won 50 since.

They've tried to assemble a team of mid-sized scorers with their typically late-lottery or early non-lottery picks, and succeeded only in alienating their fan base; Pierce (10th overall) and Jefferson (15th) are notable talents, but what else is there?

STEP 2: Using the logic of the...Irish, draft Joakim Noah.

We know Boston won't be lucky enough to get one of the top 2 picks - this simply does not happen for them, not these days. So wherever they end up drafting, they should take the Wookiee from Florida and immediately establish him as the starting center alongside Al at the power forward spot.

Sure, JoJo's stock has slipped recently. Ok, not slipped; more like plummeted. What people don't realize is that Noah still has the unmatchable energy and unreal court vision and awareness that made him Tourney MOP in '06. So what if he wasn't looking for his offense so much late in the season? Man was on a crowded UF team, with plenty of options. He knows how to fit (though maybe not blend) in.

STEP 3: In another exercise of this newfound logic, get rid of P-Dub, and get Corey Maggette in exchange.

I don't care if they have to swing a 6-team deal to get this done, but jettisoning the overpaid volume shooter that is Pierce is a necessity. I don't care if he's been the team's top scorer for years; Boston has a young, young core that Paul simply will not be able to contribute to. Whether it's an issue of age, ball demands, or chemistry with the coach, he does not fit here, and must go.

And in must come an athletic, unselfish replacement. Someone who does not settle for perimeter jump shots every possession; someone who has an attacking mentality and a body to go with it. C-Mags, your day has come.

STEP 4: With touch of luck and a pinch of logic, lure John Stockton out of retirement to coach Rajon Rondo.

Rondo gained confidence towards the end of the season, but he must quickly learn the cageyness and headiness of the best PGs to make the Fleet Center tenants elite once more. And I defy you to name one man better for this educational process than the Dimemaster himself. If he wants, he can even suit up every once in a while.

STEP 5: Out of sheer luck, snatch up a young, up-and-coming GM to replace 'Fingers' Ainge, who has done nothing but evil to this franchise.

I have one in mind, actually. He's got a basketball brain, a winner's heart, and some of the most outlandish (yet possibly brilliant) ideas in the sports world. And he's already established a 5-step plan to resurrect the once-proud boys in green.

I'll just be waiting by the phone.

2007-05-16T18:10:00.000-04:00

quick note on the Spurs-Suns suspension...

they did it. The NBA finally did it ladies and gentlemen. They've removed the last shred of competitiveness from these playoffs. Apparently the reasoning was, "heck, last year's playoffs went so well, let's see how much we can screw it up before people start noticing".

seriously, a suspension for an instinctive reaction? its complete BS. I know the rule, and it's pretty straightforward. it was the proper call to make by the NBA to suspend Diaw and Stoudemire for leaving the bench. The rules say the players on the bench can't step on the court at any time in the game (unless they've checked in, of course). there's absolutely no wiggle room with this rule. that's what makes it so godawful. Can you really blame Diaw and Stoudemire for getting out of their seats when 6-3 nash was checked by 6-10 robert horry, who outweighs him by almost 50 lbs? its a natural reaction a teammate has.

If you see the tape, the two suns players weren't looking to fight horry or any of the spurs, they even returned to their bench after about 0.003 seconds on the court.

Now, the NBA has basically shot phoenix in the foot and told them to run the 100-meters, while giving San Antonio nothing more than a wet willy, because Robert Horry was averaging all of 4.8 PPG, and his only real contribution was on defense, where the Spurs are already rock solid.

But hey, that's just the League office putting the exclamation mark on a crummy season, and a decent-at-best playoffs where we've seen the rise of the soccer flop, and some of the worse officiating I've seen in a long while. The NBA is losing it sense of basketball, and with it, its competitive spirit. Players are barely allowed to raise their voice or celebrate good plays (can anyone remember Baron Davis' instant classic of a dunk over Kirilenko [he was fined for throwing up his shirt when he came down]). Its really a shame, because pro basketball is losing its edge, and with it, the fans that have stuck around through some really down years.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LETTERS 'D' AND 'J'

2007-03-27T20:17:00.000-04:00

While at the Hawks-Mavericks game on March 25th (a 104-97 Mavs victory, their 58th of the year), something struck me. Look at the Mavs roster, and tell me if you can see something many of the players and personnel share. Besides being a part of a future-championship-winning team.

Almost everyone has either the letter 'J' or 'D' in as the first letter of one of their names. Just take a look:

C Erick Dampier
PF Dirk Nowitzki
SF Josh Howard
SG Jason Terry
PG Devin Harris
SG Jerry Stackhouse
C DeSagana Diop
SF Devean George

...it goes all the way down the bench, too:

PG Juan Jose Barea
C D.J. Mbenga
Head Coach Avery Johnson
Assistant Coach Del Harris

...so pretty much everyone, except maybe Austin Croshere and Greg Buckner. But I'm fairly sure Cro's middle name must be 'Joe' and Buck's 'Doug', so it's all good.

Clearly, this is the secret to Dallas's success this year. I mean, it wouldn't be the defense Avery Johnson has taught, would it? Or Dirk's silly-stupid jumper, which looks so bad at release yet so good as it goes through? And the key here couldn't possibly be just plain old determination after getting snubbed last June, could it?

No, couldn't be any of those mundane things. It must be something magical about these two letters and the way they weave through the lineup, instilling some special energy in players who would normally be plain.

Yeah, just overlook the fact that Dirk barely even looks for his own offense anymore, and passively attribute J-Ho's All-Star status to myriad injuries to 'better' players. After all, Jet will never be a real point, Devin will never mature, and Stack should be in an old-folks home by now. Dampier only plays for contracts, Diop will never get in shape, and...oh, wait.

They've beaten Phoenix twice, San Antonio twice, and Houston three times. They've had three double-digit win streaks. They've got 4 players averaging double figures, 3 with 7+ RPG, 4 with .8+ BPG, and 3 with 1+ SPG. They shoot 81% from the line as a team, they're healthy, and they signed Pops Mensah-Bonsu. POPS!

Not that the Mavs need more people on their bandwagon, but I thought I'd let you know what you're looking at right now. A team that wins 84% of their games, a team that is charging to 70 wins, a team that is on a freight train to the Finals. Yep, it's March 27th, and you have my Champs.

STATE OF UGA BASKETBALL

2007-03-10T00:59:00.000-05:00

Ok ok, I admit....my attention span is much shorter than I expected. I know I promised a weekly NBA top 10, but come on, its really not that interesting. let us explore some other facets of the world of sports, to put it a little bit more eloquently. ok, but seriously, I do guarantee I'll update as much as possible during March Madness, and then when the basketball season Peaks in early may. And of course, let's not forget the start of the baseball season (april 1st!)

For now, let us content ourselves by talking of the georgia Bulldogs' basketball team. After seeing their "seeing red tour" fall short of the NCAA tourney against defending champions Florida, I think it's a perfect time to reflect and predict. Not that I'm psychic or anything, seeing as to how I completely called Tennessee and Kentucky going deep.

Personally, I think Georgia is headed in the right direction. I'm not saying that the team is a great team, but it seriously has potential. Don't believe me? try this, this year was the first time since 2004, and only the third time in over six years that UGA made the Quarterfinals at the SEC tournament. Georgia's final record this year? a respectable (though it could have been better) 18-13. An improvement over last year's 15-15, and 2004's miserable 8-20. Its the first time since 2003 that Georgia has a winning record. By this time last season, Georgia wasn't even being talked about for the NIT, let alone the NCAA tournament. This year Georgia managed to stay on the bubble down to the last to games of the season, even receiving a few votes for the AP polls at one point or another during the season (albeit never resulting in an actual ranking).

This year, Georgia ranked in the top five in scoring offense, rebounds, 3-pointers, and field-goal percentage. It's the first time since the 2002 season (and we all remember what happened in 2002) that Georgia's been ranked in the top five of any of those categories.

Georgia still has a ways to go, but they're getting there. The team is very young, with only 2 seniors leaving this year (Stukes and Newman). Should Takais Brown stay for his senior year, and there's no reason why he shouldn't, Georgia could retain its new inside presence. Rashard Singleton is starting to come around and live up to hype, although he is still very streaky, and has trouble on offense. What this team lacks is experience, and i think that they gained alot of if this season, with wins over quality opponents and very close losses against others.

All i'm saying is, give them a chance. Keep filling up stegeman, 'cause it feels good to know that your student body supports you. We should fare well in the NIT, and with Mike Mercer returning next season, it should make for one helluva run for the big dance.

Until then, I'll keep hoping that Dennis Felton has some recruiting magic under his sleeves.

2007-02-22T00:18:00.000-05:00

Thanks for checking out the WUOG Sports 90.5FM Blog!

This is a quick post for all of you fans of our specialty sports programming. We have officially been approved to broadcast UGA Softball this Spring!

Here is the short (but sweet) schedule of our live broadcasts:
4/8 vs. Tennessee (Sun, 2 PM)
4/21 vs. Mississippi State (Sat, 4 PM)
5/5 vs. LSU (Sat, 2 PM)

Tune your radio dials to 90.5FM for our exclusive coverage of our nationally-ranked UGA Softball team!

Also be on the lookout for a possible exclusive broadcast of the Football G-Day Game on April 7.

2007-02-18T19:46:00.000-05:00

NBA Weekly Top 10, Vol. 1

Welcome to the first ever WUOG radio NBA weekly top 10. Just for the record, unlike my other "weekly" posts, I do quite intend to keep up with this, if only to see how long I can go before I either A) forget b)pretend I forgot or C) just plain get bored of trying to figure out anything about how the Least-ern conference matches up against the West.

So without any further ado...On to the Rankings

1. Dallas Mavericks (44-9):
The Mavericks are hands down the best team in the NBA right now. I would even go as far as saying that I'll pencil them in for the NBA championship. This team can play both defense and offense, and Dirk Nowitzki has really elevated his game in the last two seasons.

2. Phoenix Suns (39-13):
Before their streak was ended, I would've ranked them at the top, but losing their last 3 games and 5 of their last 10 dropped them a spot. Also, keep in mind that while the Suns are one of the top 3 best offenses in the league, their defense ranks among the last, so you have to question how ready they'll be when the playoffs roll around. Lastly, keep in mind that Nash is still out with a shoulder injury.

3. Utah Jazz (35-17):
Without Carlos Boozer, The Jazz managed to beat the Spurs, Suns, and Bulls--all serious contenders for the Championship--behind the superb play of Mehmet Okur. Look for things to get better with the return of Boozer, and for the jazz to keep their winning streak going at least to double digit wins.

4. Houston Rockets (33-19):
Tracy McGrady is back to superstar form, And Dikembe Mutombo is looking like he did a couple of seasons ago. However, Mutombo can't keep this up for long on his weak knees. The Rockets should get an even bigger boost from the return of Yao Ming. Look for the rockets to pick up strong after the All-Star break.

5. San Antonio Spurs (35-18):
Going 4-4 on an eastern road trip isn't very impressive when you're the spurs. But the spurs always do this to us at some point in the season. They'll start struggling a little, leading us to believe that they're not as good as they were last season, and then they'll turn it on close to the playoffs just in time to make a deep run. It feels good to have the best Forward in the league, doesn't it?

6. Detroit Pistons (32-19):
They've been playing more consistent ball lately, dominating the East (22-10). Chris Webber has seemingly been rejuvenated by returning home to Detroit, and the Pistons guards are deep and very consistent. their bench has been very deep all season long. However, they've only been 10-9 against the west, which shouldn't pose too much of a problem until they have to play the west in the finals, should they get there.

7. Cleveland Cavaliers (31-22):
The Lebrons have a strong cast to surround their superstar, With Hughes playing quality ball and playing an excellent wingman to James' superstar. The cavs have an alright rotation, but not a great one. James' play as of late has been slowed down--almost as though he's been on cruise control up until the Lakers game last week.

8. Chicago Bulls (29-25):
I'm really excited about this team. After struggling early in the season and playing a little bit hampered, Ben Wallace has returned to Detroit levels of playing, and the young players of the team have developed a great chemistry. Be wary of a Pau Gasol trade, i haven't been completely convinced that this is the best solution to the bulls inside absence of presence.

9. L.A. Lakers (30-24):
After years of hating the lakers, I'm finally starting to like this team. After Shaq, they had a couple of rough seasons, but Kobe Bryant has elevated his game to the next level and is really proving to be the best player in the league. A young, athletic team with great upside and tremendous potential.

10. Washington Wizards (29-21)
With "Agent 0" at the helm, the wizards are playing solid basketball. Very inconsistent at times, but still a good team. Caron Butler is a great player. Look for the Wizards to take one of the top seeds in the Least....errr....east.

2006-11-14T01:01:00.000-05:00

Welcome back to the world of the living, dawgs!

First and foremost I would like to apologize to everyone listening to my show Wednesday for dissing on the dawgs offense. I tend to forget that Stafford is still a freshman and that the receiving corps has taken major injuries and still managed to come out strong every game.
Now that that's out of the way, let me be the first to say that I have seen the future, and it looks bright for Athens.
No, i don't possess psychic abilities or a very prophetic magic 8-ball. My assumption is based solely on what I saw saturday afternoon during the UGA-Auburn game. Alright, don't give me the crazy look just yet. hear me out.
I'll be the first to admit, Georgia's offense has struggled out of the gates this season, and Matthew Stafford hasn't yet reached his full potential. But remember that he didn't get the sole starting job until the 8th week of the season. That meant that the first few weeks he was sharing first-team reps with two other QBs, and then with one before the Tennessee game. this means that he didn't really get to develop timing with his receivers until two weeks before the Florida game. And as irrelevant as that sounds, it is hard to get the passing game going when you can't seem to find where your receiver is going to be. In his first start without any substitutions, he threw for 267 yards, 2 TDS, and 3 INTS. The interceptions were freshman mistakes, I'll give you that, but he still had more pass yards than any other game in the season, when he was splitting reps with Joe T and Joe C.
True, his mistakes have cost us some games (namely Kentucky), but people are quick to forget that this guy is 18, and has only been in college football for one season. Aside from a few notable exceptions this season (Mustain in Arkansas and Tebow in Fla), there haven't been many amazing freshmen QB s. That's because there's a learning curve. Trust me when I say that He will get better after Auburn, and his number of turnovers will decrease dramatically next season. He's already learning. He passed for 219 yards, a score, and 0 INTs against a very tough Auburn D on the road. True, he lost two fumbles, but he also made major plays that led to most of Georgia's TDs, including one of his own on the ground
But enough about the QB. Remember the three headed beast people kept talking about at the beginning of the season? well, after losing one of it's head to injuries, and one of them playing averagely decent, Kregg Lumpkin has picked up the slack and leads the team in rushing with 708 yards,and Danny Ware has contrributed 261 yards of his own in about half of the carries Lumpkin's had. The best thing? Brown, Lumpkin, and Ware are all juniors, and it's likely they'll be coming back for one more season if only to get the bad taste of this season out of their mouths. Even if one of them were to leave for the greener (and more money-ful (and yes I know this word doesn't exist)) pastures of the NFL, Ga still has a freshman RB by the name of Knowshon Moreno, who last year was considered the #9 RB recruit in the country.
The only points of serious concern should be the O-line, which shouldn't be to hard to patch up, and the secondary with defensive leader Tra Battle leaving.
Other than that, there is very little I can say i find wrong with next year's odds of Ga returning to old standards

So for now, I hope I didn't bore you to death. That is the ramble of the day

2006-10-26T20:08:00.000-04:00

Enough with T.O.!!!!!

That's it. It's official. I cannot tolerate one more article about Terrell Owens.

I am officially sick of hearing about the biggest news source to come to sports since every single tidbit of information about a needle that potentially went into Barry Bonds.

This morning as I was watching sportscenter, I heard that Plaxico Burress, the giants WR had called TO a coward because he "had taken a dive" to avoid taking a big hit. Now, I don't know what's more ridiculous, Burress' claim, or the fact that it was actually considered important enough to dedicate an entire 8 minutes of sportscenter's time.

And just to clear the air, TO didn't take a dive. If you watch the replay (and all you have to do is flip to sportscenter to see it for the 100000000000th time today), TO had to turn back on a slant route and he slipped to the ground. Earlier, he had taken a huge hit when he was sandwiched between a CB and a linebacker. You're talking about one of the biggest WRs in the league, who could probably make the transition to playing DB easily, and you're saying he dived to take a hit?! it's completely bogus

Alright, that little rant aside, it's time to move on to my main rant. For the past two years (ever since the whole Philly-TO thing fell apart) there has been a weekly article about TO. And quite frankly, i've had about enough of it. Every single action of this man's life is put under the microscope! When he was angry that he wasn't getting the ball a couple of weeks ago, he wasn't exploding and becoming a cancer on the cowboys. he just wanted to make the big plays. If you saw the interview after the game, the guy wasn't trying to divide the team in any way. After the whole attempted suicide debacle, I couldn't help but think "poor guy". He's one of the most hated guys in sports, and the guy has trouble and people who don't know about what really happened are making assumptions about what happened and what they "knew happened". I for one believe that the guy deserves the benefit of the doubt, but hey, its one against the entire sports journalism world.

And by the way, did no one notice that Shawne Merriman--yes San Diego's golden boy--was suspended for STEROIDS!?! How is this possible. there has been more news about the burress-TO non-issue than about one of the top players in the league's potential steroid use!?

To date, I have only seen 2 articles about Shawne Merriman, but I'm sure that if it had been TO, ESPN.com would have dedicated the front page to TO's steroid use, and 10000 articles would have been written about it

So this is where I put my foot down. I can't stand to hear a single thing about TO, even if he does turn out to be the antichrist. I don't care anymore.

And that, readers, is the rant of a dissapointed sports fan

2006-10-17T21:53:00.000-04:00

How good do you have to be to win in the NFL? Well, how lucky are you feeling this Sunday?

I think the most recent and most obvious example is the Bears win last night in Monday Night Football. Needless to say a 21 point comeback with zero offensive touchdowns is hardly anything to be proud of, especially since they gave up 6 turnovers against the Arizona Cardinals. Who's to say that Zona hasn't arrived? They have a surprisingly good quarterback in Matt Leinart who has the highest passer rating of any rookie QB since 2003. Heck, the Cardinals were stompin' all over the (now) number two defense in the NFL.

Yes, defense does win championships and Chicago tore it up in the second half, but the defense shouldn't also lead the team in offensive points... unless of course luck is on your side. With the way things were going for the Bears, it didn't surprise me one bit that Rackers missed yet another potential game-winning FG to put the cherry on top of a lucky win for Da Bears.

Has anyone seen the Saints lately? How else can you explain [overrated] Reggie Bush's game-winning punt return for a TD in the final minutes to give him his first score of the season to beat the Bucs? The Bucs were controlling the final two quarters until the lucky stars shined on the Saints. But who's surprised--they're the feel-good team of the year and everyone and their mailman wants them to win. And what happens the next week? They kick a game-winning field goal to beat the Eagles. This is the same New Orleans team that barely beat the now 1-4 Cleveland Browns by only 5 points and squeezed by the now 1-4 Green Bay Packers by a single touchdown (and allowed 27 points). If you take away New Orleans win against Atlanta where they were obviously destined to be victorious for their first home game at the Superdome (or else the NFL would've cancelled the season), the Saints are a painfully mediocre team that scrapes by against crappy teams. There's no need to be good when they've also got luck on their side (and the NFL on their side, and the referees on their side, and the Pope on their side...)

Of course the cliché (and unoriginal) response to this is that "it doesn't matter how close the game was, all that matters is that they won." Wow, what a great point; it sounds like you put a lot of thought into that response. In actuality, what really matters is how lucky you are on Sunday. Sports fans wouldn't be talking about how close a game was if luck didn't have an influence on the score. But that of course would mean that you couldn't say that unclever cliché. Too bad.

How else can you explain why the 1972 Dolphins are the only team to go undefeated the entire season in the history of the NFL? They played a bunch of pee-wee teams and made history. Even the "greatest" teams of the past face the unfortunate flip-side of luck, i.e. the '85 Bears, the '84 Niners, or the '03 Patriots had a loss or two that blemished their record despite their domination.

There has also only been one team in the history of the NFL that has lost every game in a single season: the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs. This only further proves my point. Even if your NFL team is worse than my cooking ability, there's a really good chance that they will get lucky—even if they have just enough luck to win only one game (Keep the hope alive Raiders fans!).

It pays dividends to be lucky in the NFL more so than it does in the NCAA. Haven't you seen Georgia play this year? A few lucky plays aren't going to help you beat Vanderbilt or Tennessee. Defense may have helped Chicago win last night, but it sure hasn't helped Georgia against their last two opponents.

When it comes to the NFL, luck plays a much bigger role in the outcome of games. Sure, there are lucky plays in college football, but tell me how many undefeated teams have their been in the NCAA? A lot. The dynasties of college football are much more likely to be immune to getting beaten by a lucky team. However, in the NFL, luck is what makes the Colts tremble when they have to come from behind late in the game against the Tennessee Titans, or when the Denver Broncos beat the painfully bad Raiders by only 10 points. Luck is a scary thing when you're the team that doesn't have it.

I think Lefty Gomez had it right when he said, "I'd rather be lucky than good." The Falcons could definitely use some of that luck for their last-ranked passing offense this Sunday against the Steelers. Unless of course the Steelers are the team with all the luck.

2006-10-12T00:04:00.000-04:00

The first ever weekly (by weekly I mean whenever i remember) Heisman watch!

alright, here's the deal. Not to be out done by my colleague the KE, every week, or two weeks i'll put out a list of MY top 10 Picks for the Heisman, although I can be quite biased against any player from WVU (sorry steve slaton) or anyone named Brady Quinn (Sorry, ehem.....brady quinn). So without further ado, I give you my TOP 10!!!!! (in reverse order for dramatic effect)

10. Chase Daniel, QB, Missouri (128-199, 1446 yds. 14 TD, 5 INT)
Thats right, Missouri's man behind center. Quietly, he's putting together quite a season while leading the tigers to an impressive 6-0 that's landed them in the top 25. with a passer rating of 143.5, I'd say that mr. Daniel one of the top QBs in the NCAA

9. Chad Henne, QB, Michigan (80-129, 1103 yds. 13 TD, 4 INT)
Chad henne has made a quasi-strong case for himself. But his cause is greatly aided by his favorite target, Super Mario Manningham. His performance against ND was an eye opener, and he has been consistent all season long

8. Chris Leak, QB, UF (101-156, 1395 yds. 14 YD, 5 INT)
Although he hasn't put up "Heisman-like" Stats, Leak has consistently lead his team to victory. He's a solid QB who makes good decisions under pressure. And don't forget, his stats have been slightly dented by the introduction of Tim Tebow to UF's offense.

7. Ted Ginn Jr. WR, OSU (33 Rec. 459 Yds. 6 TD)
His stats may not be as amazing as other WRs, but Ginn is one of the best WRs in the country right now. He makes a habit of coming up with big plays when his team needs them, and is an explosive player from scrimmage.

6. Steve Slaton, RB, WVU (112 Att. for 768 yds. 7 TD. 7 Rec. 70 yds.)
OK, so the guy can run the ball. But so far, he hasn't been tested at all. His stats are highly inflated because of the crummy defenses and because after 2 quarters, WVU can simply run the ball for the rest of the game to grind down the clock. But other than that, he is a great running back and a dangerous weapon against any defense

5. Brady Quinn, QB, Notre Dame (148-233, 1634 yds. 16 TD. 4 INT. 1 rushing TD)
As much as I hate ND's poster boy, I have to give credit where credit is due. Quinn is a solid QB, and he can make plays happen almost at will. After his dismal performance against Michigan, He's been solid and as close to amazing as you can get.

4. Calvin Johnson, WR, Ga. Tech (35 Rec. 559 yds. 8 TD. 1 rush, 21 yds.)
I only have one problem with Calvin Johnson. He always seems to underachieve. He's potentially one of the best WRs in recent years, but not until this year has he begun showing his explosiveness and his awesome talent.

3. Troy Smith, QB, OSU (101-148, 1261 yds. 15 TD. 2 INT, 29 Rushes, 78 yds.)
Probably the best QB in heisman contention, Smith has lived up to his hype. Moving away from the "mobile QB'' stereotype, smith has shown that he can throw the ball as well or better than most QBs in the country. And, as evidenced last week, he can still apparently run the ball pretty well

2. Adrian Peterson, RB, Oklahoma (142 att. for 752 yds. 8 TD. 5 rec. 82 yds. 1 TD)
Peterson started the season off with a bang, and kept it going until he faced Texas. he had an "off day" running for 109 yards and a td. However, what most hurts his stock in most voters view is his dropped lateral that was returned for a TD by texas. Still, look for Peterson to make a big case for the trophy to come to his living room before year's end.

1. Garrett Wolfe, RB, N. Illinois (185 att. 1,343 yds. 13 TD. 13 rec. 162 yds. 1 TD)
Wolfe is drawing comparisons to Barry Sanders, and with good reason. He's arguably the best tailback in the nation, leading in rushing, and tds. And he can also be a threat catching the ball. Well rounded, and always a threat. You can see greatness when an off night for him is 169 yards.

2006-10-10T23:03:00.000-04:00

The Road To Glendale - A National Title Watch

Here's the first installment of a weekly feature designed to watch the march towards the National Title game. Teams are listed until in the case of BCS conference schools + Notre Dame they lose 2 games or in the case of non-BCS teams, they lose 1 game.

Tier A - Undefeated Favorites

Ohio State (6-0) - Should cruise to a showdown with Michigan for all the marbles.

Florida (6-0) - Could they be left out if there are more than 2 undefeated teams? With that schedule, I hope not.

USC (5-0) - Looks very shaky. Got a gift from the clock operator against the Huskies.

Michigan (6-0) - Two more very tough games before the schedule thins out a bit. How much will Manningham be missed?

Tier B - Undefeated Underdogs

West Virginia (5-0) - Haven't been pushed all that much. Beat Louisville and they'll join Tier A.

Louisville (5-0) - See above. They may look better than WVU if they win out thanks to a better schedule.

Missouri (6-0) - Addition by subtraction? No Brad Smith, no problem! Chase Daniel looks like a star, but can they survive games against Oklahoma and potentially Texas?

Rutgers (5-0) - May beat West Virginia or Louisiville but beating both would be a major task.

Tier C - One Loss Teams In Good Positions

Texas (5-1) - Lost early to #1 team and have looked good since. Tricky trips to Lubbock and Lincoln loom, but you'd have to fancy them to run the table at this point.

Notre Dame (5-1) - A cakewalk until USC. Many would drool over a possible ND-OSU matchup.

Tennessee (5-1) - Looked like the real deal against Georgia, but that lost to Florida will be costly.

Cal (5-1) - Look like a team on fire, but getting crushed by Vols doesn't help them any.

Clemson (5-1) - Is this the year they finally come together?

Georgia Tech (5-1) - Reggie Ball is a veritable schizo at the QB position, but they've got many other quality pieces.

Tier D - One Loss Teams That Need A Whole Lot of Help

Arkansas (5-1) - Suddenly a threat to win the SEC West.

Auburn (5-1) - Probably off the list entirely after this week.

Boston College (4-1) - As good a bet as any in the wild ACC.

Wisconsin (5-1) - Shhhhh. The Badgers are really good.

Oregon (4-1) - Obviously way down the Pac-10 pecking order, but a win over USC opens things up again.

Pittsburgh (5-1) - Tyler Palko has turned into quite the unsung hero. Could be a major player in the Big East.

Iowa (5-1) - Looked totally outmatched by Ohio State.

Nebraska (5-1) - Sketchy playcalling = iffy chances to crack the BCS.

Virginia Tech (4-1) - Very inconsistent offense could lead to a second half swoon.

Georgia (5-1) - Things could get ugly in a difficult ending stretch.

UCLA (4-1) - Could be gone from this list soon after losing Ben Olson to injury.

Texas A&M (5-1) - Don't be fooled by soft non-conference schedule.

Wake Forest (5-1) - Jim Grobe's team will still be bowling, but before the New Year.

Tier E - The BCS Buster

Boise State (6-0) - Needs to run up the score and hope for the best. Good news? Not many teams that can come within 25 points of them on the schedule.

2006-10-10T01:03:00.000-04:00

NFL meet defense. Defense, NFL

As I sat befuddled in my couch watching the broncos-ravens game tonight on MNF tied at 3-3 in the late third quarter, I was hit right between the eyes by an epiphany. This year, the NFL isn't dominated by flashy quarterbacks, or amazingly fast runningbacks. It's been the year of the D, as evidenced by tonight's kicker's duel. These have become more common this year than I've seen in the past few years. Either that or a complete lack of offense by some teams, but roll with me on this.

First off, you have the Bears defense, who has allowed 36 points in 5 games. that boils down to a whopping 7.2 points per game. They've allowed only one touchdown in soldier field, they're ranked sixth in running defense, fifth in passing defense, and third in total defense. Some other notables the bears join in the top ten of all three categories? the ravens, San Diego, Atlanta, and Jax. The bears are still undefeated, the ravens suffered their first loss of the season tonight against an equally tough Denver defense, who by the way are 4-1, San Diego is 3-1, and so is Atlanta. The only team with 2 losses in this list is Jacksonville, who have had a killer schedule so far (Dallas, Pitt, Indy, and Washington).

I'll give you this, Atlanta has the best rushing attack in the league, and Chicago has been aided by a suddenly surging Offense, but the rest of these teams aren't exactly offensive juggernauts.

Defense is going to dictate who'll win the superbowl, and it will be the most important part of a lot of coaches' gameplans come january.

2006-09-29T21:45:00.000-04:00

Level III: The Guillotine
Definition: This one combines the devastation of the Broken Axle game with sweeping bitterness and hostility ... your team's hanging tough (hell, they might even be winning), but you can feel the inevitable breakdown coming, and you keep waiting for the guillotine to drop, and you just know it's coming -- you know it -- and when it finally comes, you're angry that it happened and you're angry at yourself for contributing to the debilitating karma ... these are the games when people end up whipping their remote controls against a wall or breaking their hands while pounding a coffee table ... too many of these and you'll end up in prison.

Florida 2 - Georgia 1. Good god, I'm going to be having nightmares about this game for years to come. I'm too devastated to speak right now.

2006-09-26T00:25:00.000-04:00

Truly inspiring

Tonight I lay down my incessant ranting for something truly worth writing about. (and pardon the following cliches, but it's something that's important to remember)

A year ago before the 2005 NFL season started, hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and its Superdome. Today, a year later, New orleans is being rebuilt and the Superdome opened its doors not to house refugees faced with destruction and pain, but with a football game. Though some might say football is only a game, at least for tonight, I beg to differ.

For the first time in Superdome history, the stadium was completely sold out. People dressed in black and gold filled every single seat. Tonight, a city's hope was a team that ended last season 3 and 13. tonight, last season didn't matter. All that mattered was that the saints had come home. and what a housewarming party they had.

In a made-for-disney-inspirational-movie fashion, they shut down one of the best teams in the NFL this season, and did it in a dominant way. But more than a win, it gave the city hope. New Orleans is slowly being rebuilt, almost painfully slowly. But the Superdome stands strong even after the damage it suffered, and people looked to the saints tonight to give them hope for their city, and boy did the saints deliver. Behind a blocked punt, a double-reverse touchdown, and a strong defense, the saints pulled of an upset of the Atlanta falcons, and in the process, gave the people of New Orleans something to smile about and to stand on as they rebuild their lives in their city.

The rant shall continue next week. but for now
Good night, and good luck

2006-09-23T01:52:00.000-04:00

Pickin' and Grinnin' - Week 4 (Short and Sweet Edition)

I'm doing these based on the spread. I can't emphasize that enough. Home team in caps. God bless sports gambling.

Good Bets on The Favorite:

#2 AUBURN (-42.0) over Buffalo - The Tigers could hang 42 in the first half if they wanted too.

#4 West Virginia (-21.0) over EAST CAROLINA - You could probably bet your house on this one.

#5 FLORIDA (-26.5) over Kentucky - Line moved up 3 points over the week, showing betters don't have a lot of faith in Rich Brooks's team.

#7 TEXAS (-25.0) over Iowa State - The Iowa State secondary has resembled swiss cheese so far. It won't change here.

#8 Louisville (-14.0) over KANSAS STATE - Cards still have too much firepower.

#10 LSU (-36.0) over Tulane - Beatdown city.

#11 VIRGINIA TECH (-26.5) over Cincinnati - Cincy fought hard against Ohio State, but Beamer Ball will prove to be too much.

#12 Notre Dame (-3.0) over MICHIGAN STATE - Notre Dame doesn't have a defense, but neither do the Spartans.

#14 Iowa (-21.0) over ILLINOIS - Zook is working his anti-magic again...

#15 TENNESSEE (-22.0) over Marshall - Vols are quite decent. The Herd look hopeless.

#17 OKLAHOMA (-28.5) over Middle Tennessee State - Would YOU want to be playing the Sooners this week?

#18 FLORIDA STATE (-30.5) over Rice - Let's hope the Noles can actually run the ball against Rice.

#19 CLEMSON (-16.5) over North Carolina - Tigers should keep the good times rolling against toothless Tar Heels.

#20 Boston College (-7.0) over NC STATE - Wolfpack look lost out there.

#23 NEBRASKA (-23.5) over Troy - Huskers may be still reeling early from last week, but should pull it together late.

Good Bets on The Dog:

#24 Penn State (+16.5) over #1 OHIO STATE - Joe Pa's team will be too fired up for this to be a blowout.

Arizona (+22.0) over #3 USC - Seems like it's time for Stoops's boys to make a statement.

Wisconsin (+13.5) over #6 MICHIGAN - The Wolverines seem due for a blip.

Colorado (+27.0) over #9 GEORGIA - Buffs can't score, but they play defense well enough.

#22 Arizona State (+8.0) over #21 CAL - Sun Devils have the firepower to beat Cal straight up on the road.

Hawaii (+14.5) over #25 BOISE STATE - Yes, I know the dangers of Hawaii on the mainland, but the Broncos offense has sputtered too much for a huge line like that.

2006-09-15T22:21:00.000-04:00

Pickin' and Grinnin' Week 3

Ranked teams facing each other = Less Typing! WHOOO!

Last Week: 20-2

Cincinnati at #1 Ohio St (12 PM)

Okay, Ohio State are without a doubt the #1 team in the nation. There. I said it. But all you Buckeyes fans need to be put on notice. If your rush defense doesn't improve drastically, then you can kiss Tempe goodbye. Mark D'Antonio is a Tresselite, having served as Ohio State's defensive coordinator a while back. The Buckeyes will flounder a bit early, before pulling away to cover late.

Prediction: Ohio State 37 - Cincinnati 6

#11 Michigan vs #2 Notre Dame (3:30 PM)

Brady Quinn vs Chad Henne

Michigan in a road opener.

Charlie Weis vs Lloyd Carr.

No Brainer.

Prediction: Notre Dame 37 - Michigan 20

#17 Nebraska at #4 USC (8 PM)

With Nebraska choosing to play punching bags, nobody really knows what to make of the Huskers. While the best may be yet to come with Sam Keller at QB next year, some think that Bill Callahan's team has the potential to spring a surprise on the Trojans. But the loss of CB Zackary Bowman for Nebraska may prove costly, as the Trojans will look to air it out and get Nebraska into a shootout they can't win. The Huskers may take a shock lead early, but USC's team speed and depth will win out in the end.

Prediction: USC 34 - Nebraska 23

#6 LSU at #3 Auburn (3:30 PM)

Sorry Death Valley, but LSU's due for a clunker. Seriously, would you trust Les Miles in a big game setting on the road? Didn't think so. Kenny Irons will grind out 130+, and Auburn will take a giant step towards the national title on the plains.

Prediction: Auburn 30 - LSU 17

#7 Florida at #13 Tennessee (8 PM)

Will the real Vols team stand up? Is this squad the team that crushed Cal or the team that nearly lost to Air Force? Like most puzzles in life, the answer likely lies somewhere in between. The Gators look poised for a possible national title run with a punishing defense and an improving offense. Going into hostile territory is never easy, but look for Urban Meyer's team to quiet the Vol Navy on the night.

Prediction: Florida 24 - Tennessee 20

#8 Texas at Rice (at Reliant Field, 6 PM)

The Owls are going to be facing a seriously pissed off Longhorn squad that were embarassed on their home field last week. There aren't many better at smashing poor teams than the Burnt Orange, and while Rice is ever improving, they'll be in tough on Saturday night.

Prediction: Texas 48 - Rice 10

Clemson at #9 Florida State (7:45 PM)

It wasn't a good week for either of these ACC favorites. The 'Noles came perilously close to falling to defeat against a middling Troy team. Clemson once again dropped the ball, as they fell to Boston College. The Tigers have their backs against the wall here, but look for Florida State to remember how to run the football and win a close one at Doak Campbell.

Prediction: FSU 27 - Clemson 20

UAB vs #10 Georgia (1 PM)

Coronation Day? After being heralded as the messiah of Georgia football, Matthew Stafford looked anything but against South Carolina last weekend. The highly touted frosh had flashes but threw three picks that left a sour taste in the mouths of the Bulldawg faithful. The Blazers, who many thought would be rebuilding, are no joke as they topped a tough East Carolina team and pushed Oklahoma to the limit. Stafford will suffer through his jitters, but the Georgia defense and run game will pull away in the second half.

Prediction: Georgia 20 - UAB 10

#17 Miami at #12 Louisville (3:30 PM)

Everything about this game screams Cardinal win. They've got the better QB. They've got the better rush attack even without Michael Bush. And Larry Coker increasingly looks like a lame duck coach on the sidelines. But I just can't pick Louisville. Folly or no, I just have a nagging feeling that the Miami mystique will erupt once more in Papa John's Stadium. One thing's for sure. If Larry Coker loses, Vegas may as well form a shortlist of his potential replacements.

Prediction: Miami 34 - Louisville 20

Duke at #14 Virginia Tech (12 PM)

Duke will do well to score. No contest.

Prediction: Virginia Tech 41 - Duke 0

#15 Oklahoma at #18 Oregon (3:30 PM)

There will be no quarter given in a rematch of last year's Holiday Bowl. Oklahoma has been riding the back of Adrian Peterson so far, while getting flashes of brilliance from WR Malcolm Kelly. Oregon has been stunningly impressive under the command of QB Dennis Dixon, who won the starting job in the fall and his kept a tight grip on the job. Much will depend on the health of Ducks running back Jonathan Stewart. If healthy, the youngster could blow up for 150+ yards. Autzen will be rocking as the Ducks avenge last season's loss.

Prediction: Oregon 31 - Oklahoma - 27

Iowa State at #16 Iowa (12 PM)

The Hawkeyes will be just a bit motivated after last season's beatdown in Ames. Of course, this game really depends on the health of Iowa QB Drew Tate. Tate was unable to go against Syracuse last week, and the Hawkeyes nearly paid for it, surviving with an epic goalline stand. With Tate expected to play, Iowa should be able to squeak at a win at home. It'll be a nailbiter to the end though.

Prediction: Iowa 24 - Iowa State 20

#24 Texas Tech at #20 TCU (5:30 PM)

Let the fireworks begin. Two high powered offenses will light up the Texas night in one of Week 3's most underrated clashes. TCU knows a win here would be a giant step towards a BCS berth. But the Horned Frogs struggled against Baylor's halfbreed nise-Red Raider attack last week. Against the real thing, TCU may face a bridge too far.

Prediction: Texas Tech 38 - TCU 31

Portland State at #21 California (6:15 PM)

The Vikings already have a I-A scalp this year after topping New Mexico in week 1. They won't get close against Cal.

Prediction: Cal 41 - Portland State 13

#22 Arizona State at Colorado (7 PM)

You have to feel for the security at Folsom Field on Saturday, as there's likely to be near-riot conditions if an expected Buffs beatdown at the hands of Rudy Carpenter and friends occurs. Colorado has tanked so much in the past year, it's nigh-impossible to recognize this as a former Big XII powerhouse. It won't be pretty.

Prediction: Arizona State 38 - Colorado 6

BYU at #23 Boston College (12 PM)

Can we finally admit that Tom O'Brien is one of the great underrated coaches in the nation? Time after time, people expect little from the Eagles, and time and time again they prove people wrong. Beating a hotly tipped Clemson team will do wonder for the Eagles's confidence. BYU are a deceptively good team, but an early game on the East Coast will do them no favors.

Prediction: Boston College 27 - BYU 17

Youngstown State vs #25 Penn State (3:30 PM)

The Nittany Lions need a tune up after being blitzed by the Irish last week and a I-AA fits the bill nicely. Jim Tressel's former team are no patsies, so Joe Paterno's squad will get a fight. For a little while at least.

Prediction: Penn State 37 - Youngstown State 3

Best of The Rest:

Michigan State at Pittsburgh (12 PM)
San Diego State at Wisconsin (3:30 PM)
NC State at Southern Miss (7 PM)
Colorado State at Nevada (9 PM)

2006-09-14T01:55:00.000-04:00

Need to get this off my chest....again

WVU is #5 in the nation!?!?!?!?!?! are you @#$$#@#%@# kidding me?!?!
This has to be the most ridiculous thing to happen to college football since the BCS....
Ok, so maybe Slaton is better than I give him credit for....but you have to look at the defenses he has been running against. The combined record for last season of the 12 teams WVU plays is 60-75, and of the 11 teams they play, only 3 had winning records, and only one was ranked....(Banging my head against a wall)....Does this sound like a team that wants to prove they deserve a BCS bowl by beating the best? HECK NO!!!!! this looks like a team that wants to sneak into a BCS bowl by playing teams like syracuse (1 and 10 last year), and miss. state (3 and 8 last year). And you even consider comparing WVU to teams like Auburn, ND, OSU, Texas, Tennessee, UGA, USC, and LSU...
Granted, they beat UGA last year in the sugar bowl....by THREE POINTS!!! they almost lost the game they were dominating in the first half, were it not for a lucky fake punt.

And now they're number five in the nation? Something is seriously wrong with the ranking system. The BCS may have its flaws, but come time to rank WVU, it's the only ranking i'll pay attention to. Why might anyone do anything so foolish? you might ask. The reason is quite simple if you think about it. One of the BCS' most important criteria for ranking a team is its Strength of Schedule. And while GOOD teams like USC, Texas, OSU, and all the ranked SEC teams are playing normal to hard schedules and receive big points for S.O.S, WVU will be regretting the thousands of dollars it payed Syracuse to play against them...Now that is a thought worth savoring...

Until the time of my next inexplicable rant....
This is Joseph Sibony, signing off

2006-09-13T00:15:00.000-04:00

Let me brief UGA Sports Nation:

Ohio State prevails, Texas smells.

Michigan will prove this Saturday Notre Dame is overrated, as Heisman hopeful Quinn is deflated.

Clemson is upset, Boston College needs a cigarette.

Georgia scrapes by, and Spurrier has a bad case of scabies (that doesn't rhyme, I know).

Joe T is out, but let's hope Stafford stops playing like a girl scout.

The End.

-I'm a loser

2006-09-11T16:34:00.000-04:00

Colorado Fills Me With Murderous Rage

Due to Colorado being an embarassment to Big XII teams everywhere, the game against Georgia is at 12:30 on Lincoln Financial. On one hand, it isn't conflicting with UFC 63. On the other hand, I'm going to kill someone because of the heat.

2006-09-11T12:59:00.000-04:00

Georgia Soccer (Somehow) Wins Virginia Nike Soccer Classic

Despite losing to Virginia 2-0 and getting outshot 25-3 in the process, Georgia's soccer team stole the tournament title on the much beloved statistic of goal differential after hammering George Mason 4-0. Combined with Virginia somehow conspiring to lose against Seton Hall (who had lost to George Mason on Friday), Georgia finished with a GD of +2 and a tournament title.

Surprise, surprise Carrie Patterson was named tourney MVP by Coach Baker. Also on the all-tournament team from the Dawgs were everyone's fave destroyer Joni Vickers and Sarah Brown who slotted home a penalty against George Mason and also scored on a header (!) from a corner kick (!!!) from Lauren Glancy.

Going 1-1 on the tourney was pretty much expected from the outset, but it still has to feel good to score 4 goals against a decent opponent. The Dawgs should be 5-2 going into SEC play after a set with Georgia State and Furman this weekend. With a sketchy non-conference profile, the Dawgs may need to impress in conference and win a game in Orange Beach to move on to the big dance.

2006-09-07T20:01:00.000-04:00

Pickin' And Grinnin' - Week 2
Last Week 21-2

It's time for week 2 in the college football world. As the focus of the sporting world settles in on Austin, the winner of the titanic clash will have a foot in the door of the national title game. Take a good look kids, this'll be one of the few times you'll ever see #1 vs #2 in the regular season.

#1 Ohio State at #2 Texas (8:00 PM)

In the era of gutless non-conference schedule, lets give credit to both teams for having the guts to put together a dream series of games to give the fans a little bit of magic. The first game in Columbus last year lived up to the hype as Texas escaped the Horseshoe with a close victory. This year with both teams as national title contenders, the return match in Austin will be an epic #1 vs #2 classic. Ohio State has an offense featuring the explosive Ted Ginn and Troy Smith combo. Texas features a stable of quality backs and the best offensive line in the nation. Ohio State looked potent in their game last week against Northern Illinois, but Garrett Wolfe exploding for over 300 all-purpose yards and an abject special teams performance should send alarm bells ringing for the Buckeye faithful. The most important man in this game won't even be on the field. Texas defensive coordinator Gene Chizik will scheme up enough disruption to get a few stops on the Ohio State offense even without Tarrell Brown and the Texas ground game will storm through a depleted Buckeye defense. Texas to win.

Prediction: Texas 31 - Ohio State 21

#4 Auburn at Mississippi State (12:30 PM)

Auburn pulled away late after a game start by Washington State. Kenny Irons is the real deal kids. If he doesn't get hurt, you can book his seat in New York in December. This Tiger team is a scary bunch if they play up to their potential. Mississippi State are remarkably poor. How long until people start to hold Sylvester Croom accountable? There's simply no excuse for the utter lack of offense this team has.

Prediction: Auburn 34 - Mississippi State 3

#19 Penn State at #4 Notre Dame (3:30 PM)

Notre Dame's offense floundered against Georgia Tech, but that could be understood, facing Jon Tenuta's stifling defensive schemes. I've been hearing the media types flap their gums that Notre Dame's offense is overrated. Seriously? One game does not make a season folks. Penn State did a lot better job than I thought last week as Anthony Morelli showed some major league talent. But going to South Bend, I think Brady Quinn's experience will win out in the end, but not after a long fight.

Prediction: Notre Dame: 27 - Penn State 20

Eastern Washington at #6 West Virginia (1:00 PM)

This'll probably be entertaining for people who enjoy lions mauling gazelles. This could come back to haunt WVA if anything's close in the BCS standings. Slaton should have a big day until he gets pulled.

Prediction: West Virginia 48 - Eastern Washington 3

Central Florida at #7 Florida (6:00 PM)

Florida sputtered out of the gates against Southern Miss, but turned it on late to win comfortably. Expect the Gators to continue to improve on offense as the season progresses, with the team getting more comfortable with Urban Meyer's attacking schemes. Central Florida are a pretty good team that could win Conference USA, but Florida simply has the better athletes here.

Prediction: Florida 34 - Central Florida 13

Arizona at #8 LSU (6:30 PM)

Arizona got a gigantic boost to their bowl hopes with a crunch last second win against BYU last Saturday. Expect things to be much tougher when they roll into Death Valley. LSU looked about as good as a team can facing a punching bag. Stoops's bunch will fight tooth and nail with the Tigers, but LSU will break away late for a solid victory.

Prediction: LSU 27 - Arizona 13

Troy at #9 Florida State (6:00 PM)

If Miami's offense couldn't get it done, how can Troy's? It can't. Noles without too much difficulty.

Prediction: FSU 37 - Troy 0

Central Michigan at #10 Michigan (12:00 PM)

Central Michigan would've springed a shock on BC last week if they had a coach with half a clue. The interception that Brian Toal made was one of the worst late game calls I've ever seen by a coach. It won't get any easier this week, as the Wolverines will be looking to fine tune their offense after an inefficient performance against Vandy last week. Still they likely won't have too much trouble with this one.

Prediction: Michigan 41 - Central Michigan 13

Air Force at #11 Tennessee (7:00 PM)

And all was well in Knoxville. After much hand wringing and criticism, Fat Phil's offense looked more like the one that propelled the Vols to a national title with Tee Martin. While it's true that Cal's tackling was abysmal, David Cutcliffe got it right against a difficult opponent and Orange Nation can rest easier. Air Force will get stomped on early, before the Vols settle down and grind things out.

Prediction: Tennessee 34 - Air Force 6

#12 Georgia at South Carolina (7:45 PM)

When tedium met mediocrity. There's nothing like two uninspiring offenses to put yours truly into a valium-like stupor. Georgia's offense was painful at best to watch with Joe Tereshinski at the controls, and the calls for golden boy Matt Stafford will reach a fever pitch if there's a repeat in Columbia. South Carolina were just as painful to watch against an awful Mississippi State team. The Cock 'n Fire has been more like the Cock 'n Sputter throughout Steve Spurrier's tenure with the Gamecocks. You won't find two more boring teams playing in primetime Saturday. Do yourself a favor. Turn it to ABC for the real excitement. You'll thank me later.

Prediction: Georgia 20 - South Carolina 17

#13 Louisville at Temple (12:00 PM)

Louisville's national title hopes suffered a major blow when Mike Bush's leg was broken against in-state rivals Kentucky on Sunday. While the Cardinals have plenty of talent on the offensive side of the ball, Bush was a gamebreaker who had Heisman hopes. While Louisville still has a great shot at winning the Big East, they could find a national title elusive. Temple brings nothing to the table and will get squashed mercilessly here.

Prediction: Louisville 51 - Temple 7

#14 Iowa at Syracuse (3:30 PM)

Saying Syracuse is offensively challenged would be a kind understatement. The Orange look just as inept on the attacking side of the field as they did last year which many thought was impossible. Iowa looked good against Montana last week and they shouldn't struggle too much against the listless Orange in the Carrier Dome.

Prediction: Iowa 27 - Syracuse 3

Washington at #15 Oklahoma (3:30 PM)

Ty Willingham has to be feeling some heat after Washington didn't set the world on fire against lowly San Jose State in their first game. The Huskies, once a proud program, have recently been occupying the PAC-10 basement. Oklahoma struggled with a mediocre UAB team before riding Adrian Peterson to an eventual victory. Sadly, I don't think the Huskies are all that much better than the Blazers. Oklahoma won't keep this one as close.

Prediction: Oklahoma 34 - Washington 9

#16 Virginia Tech at North Carolina (12:00 PM)

VTech makes a living out of storming out of the gates. It's their late season form which often fails them. North Carolina's life became a whole lot tougher after losing to Rutgers last week. They'll probably be nothing more than a speed bump for the Hokies here.

Prediction: Virginia Tech 38 - North Carolina 10

Florida A&M at #17 Miami (7:00 PM)

ANGRY MIAMI STOMP! ANGRY MIAMI KILL! ANGRY MIAMI WIN!

Prediction: Miami 48 - Florida A&M 0

#18 Clemson at Boston College (3:30 PM)

Clemson efficiently disposed of Florida Atlantic while Boston College labored against Central Michigan. However, Boston College are a much better team than what they showed in their opener and should be able to make this a nail-biter with home field advantage. Expect a few lead changes before Jad Dean seals it away late for the Tigers.

Prediction: Clemson 27 - Boston College 24

#20 Oregon at Fresno State (10:00 PM)

Fresno State impressed me by handling a solid Nevada team with little problem last Friday. They now get Oregon at home, a daunting task considering how solid the Ducks looked in pummeling Stanford last week. Any concerns over Dennis Dixon behind the Oregon controls were quieted in a hurry as the Ducks new QB looked great. Fresno will have a jacked up crowd behind them, but Oregon are the second best team in the PAC-10 and they'll show why here.

Prediction: Oregon 34 - Fresno State 20

Nicholls State at #21 Nebraska (1:30 PM)

Obviously taking a page from the Bill Snyder book of non-conference scheduling, Bill Callahan's Huskers take on I-AA Nicholls State. The only question is how many points are Big Red going to roll to?

Prediction: Nebraska 44 - Nicholls State 3

Minnesota at #22 Cal (7:00 PM)

OK, Cal aren't national title contenders. But they aren't the bumbling group that came home from Neyland with their tails between their legs either. This'll be a game for rushing fans as both teams will pound the rock mercilessly. But Cal's stable of backs will gain the advantage, and with a home field edge, the Bears will get back in the swing of things.

Prediction: Cal 30 - Minnesota 21

UC Davis at #23 TCU (7:00 PM)

Yeah, THAT UC Davis. The one that pulled off one of the bigger upsets in years by stunning Stanford. Needless to say TCU will be on full alert for this one. And they'll have to be considering they struggled to beat an improved Baylor side in week 1. They'll come out of the gates a bit tense, but should pull away with ease as the night rolls on.

Prediction: TCU 41 - UC Davis 7

#24 Texas Tech at UTEP (9:00 PM)

Jordan Palmer is back to his interception throwing ways, which means UTEP will find it tough sledding against a strong Red Raider defense. Yes, I said defense. Mike Leach has built a fantastically talented Texas Tech team that has a real shot at Big XII glory. UTEP will make a couple mistakes and that's all it takes.

Prediction: Texas Tech 37 - UTEP 24

Nevada at #25 Arizona State (10:00 PM)

I had rated Nevada highly after a great 2005, but they came up a little short against a vulnerable Fresno State squad. Arizona State bumbled their way too an unimpressive win over Northern Arizona. When they meet in the desert on Saturday night, Nevada has a real chance of causing some problems with their Pistol offense. But eventually, Arizona State will display their full talent and take control.

Prediction: Arizona State 34 - Nevada 17

2006-09-05T21:44:00.000-04:00

All apologies.

Ok ok, so maybe I was a little delirious from the heat and Joe T really isn't a semi-decent QB. Maybe he just made a couple of decent passes. Buuuuut, he had to have done something wrong. i mean it's not like the "toppers" just sat on the field and watched the dawgs play. Every single QB throwed a couple of off passes. Joe Cox did throw a 40 yard bomb....for an interception. Joe T has only played a single game before this as a starter, and it wasn't the easiest job coming of the bench per se.

I'm not saying this guy is the next David Greene, I'm just saying give him a shot. He's already on the hot seat and he can feel stafford breathing down his neck for that #1 spot on the depth chart. I think that if the receiving corps learn how to catch footballs in a week, Joe T might actually have a decent game. He's probably gonna get pulled before the game's over anyway, that's a given.

Finally, all I can say is Mark richt's track record suggests he knows what he's doing. I mean, i'd understand if people had doubts over Phil Phulmer (probly misspelled, sorry) or someone like that. but Richt has a nack for knowing what to do to get the dawgs ahead.

Ladies and gentlemen...here's your 2006 Georgia BULLDAWGS!!!

2006-09-05T20:45:00.000-04:00

Top o' the evenin' to ya UGA SPORTS NATION!

I had to post something on this blog... better yet, I NEEDED to post something on this blog. After visiting this sports blog and having to read my fellow compadre's blog entry in which he really thought Joe Tarareid was "accurate" against the oh-so-dangerous secondary of the Hilltoppers (a.k.a. the Toppers, which is not surprisingly the name of an Athens stripjoint), it was my duty to retrieve WUOG's dignity. I must hold back my laughter out of respect of a co-worker, but that whole assessment of Joe Tbonesteak is crazy-talk. The only reason Joe Turkeyleg temporarily "deserves" that QB job is because he's the only QB with experience. Granted, UGA's receivers can't even catch a cold, let alone a football, but I recall watching a few terrible passes that aren't going to cut it as a UGA QB.

I think you can see where I'm going with this. Matthew Stafford is electric and he is the future. He's not red-shirting, so let's put him to good use and give him some more snaps against South Carolina. Let's see what he's got when the game is on the line in hostile territory... because we all know he'll be in plenty of those situations when he's our #1 QB next year.

And as far as making fun of South Carolina's mascot--that's just too easy.

RIP Steve Irwin

2006-09-02T19:01:00.000-04:00

Quick thoughts on the game

-Liked what I saw from the D. Aside from a couple of slipups and some allowed major yard rushes, the defense was solid. I especially like the pass-rush. WKU was under constant fire from the d-line, which is very good.

-Didn't like the O-line. I guess it was alright, but you have to know Mark richt is missing Max Jean-Gilles right now. Aside from Danny Ware's 40 yard TD, our RB's had trouble moving the ball...which leads me to my next point

-I REALLY didnt like what I saw from Thomas Brown. 10 rushes for 26 yards? reaaally dissapointed by the #1 tailback in the depth chart. I did however like what I saw from Danny Ware. Good breakaway speed, nice at finding holes, solid feet. If you ask me Thomas Brown is about to fall a little on the depth chart.

-Joe T deserves the starter's spot....for now. Joe T showed why Richt chose him to start. He's accurate, although he doesn't have extremely long range (and by this I mean he doesnt have long range) he was throwing good passes. However, Matthew Stafford made a very good first impression on the Sanford crowd.

-Thomas who? Flowers was not missed today as Mikey henderson returned consecutive punts to the endzone. thats right, take it in..2 straight punts. thats 133 yards worth of punt returns in 2 plays. and both would have been touchdowns were it not for a small premature TD celebration. wow..thats all i can say

And finally...

-I have a serious problem with the receivers. They dropped some major passes, which were veery catchable (hint hint...MARTREZ MILNER IN THE ENDZONE). theres not a snowballs chance in hell Georgia can beat a good defense if players are dropping easy passes.

And that, folks, is really all i can think of for now

2006-08-31T13:49:00.000-04:00

Let's keep the streak alive...

Keeping on with this week's trend of bashing WKU, I'd very much love to add my grain of sand to the cause of completely discrediting a fine football program...(trying not to laugh out loud)....alright moving on, even though this game SHOULD be in the bag for UGA (see "UGA v. Arkansas" last season where we were leading by 20 at the half and by 3 at the end of the game) it shouldn't be completely overlooked. There's a couple of good reasons for this.
First of all, it's the first game for the o-line sans all-SEC player Max Jean-Gilles. It's interesting to see what the o-line is gonna look like and how it's going to fill that massive gap to protect....(drums pleaase)....JOE T!!! i don't know about the rest of Dawg nation, but I'm pretty excited about Joe T. Granted, we have three potentially amazing QB's behind him just waiting for a slip up, but look for Joe T to silence his critics by having a great first game. He's going to be playing with something to prove, AND something to lose. Third, Joe T is going to be throwing the ball to a receiver core without two of its greatest weapons, all-universe TE leonard Pope, and #1 wideout Sean Bailey, who is out for the season. However, coaches will be looking to Mohammed Masaquoi and Martrez Milner to fill up those spots. Lastly, I think it's about time that RB Thomas Brown to finally step up and be the playmaker we all hope he can be...

Aaaaand that'll be it for my rant of the week.
Go dawgs! lets pull a "boise state" on these hilltoppers!!

2006-08-30T16:36:00.000-04:00

Pickin' and Grinnin' - Week One

All apologies to whomever I stole the title of my picks column from, it's magic.

Northern Illinois at #1 Ohio State (Saturday, 3:30 PM)

Dear MAC Schools,

I have a bad feeling you're about to make an unfortunate mistake. You see, the Husky team taking the field on Saturday afternoon at the Shoe may be sent home with a hefty defeat, but underestimating Northern Illinois will be a major mistake. They've got a great running attack and an underrated coach to boot. Just please don't take them for granted if the Buckeyes roll over them. THE Ohio State University'll make a habit out of doing that to teams this season.

Sincerely,
Chris

Prediction: Ohio State 33 - Northern Illinois 10

#2 Notre Dame at Georgia Tech (Saturday, 8 PM)

The weight of the College Football World will be on Charlie Weis's shoulders in Atlanta on Saturday night. His team has received months of hype from the media. Brady Quinn is a staggering favorite for the Heisman trophy. For the first time in ages, the words "National Title" and "Fighting Irish" can be used as contextual equals. Chan Gailey can wipe out a reputation of mediocrity with one victory at Bobby Dodd Stadium on a summer's night. It will be compelling and it will end in a Notre Dame victory.

Prediction: Notre Dame 30 - Georgia Tech 14

North Texas at #3 Texas (Saturday, 12 PM)

There's nothing like watching the Horns squash an inferior team. The Burnt Orange machine will roll up yards like they're going out of style and that whole quarterback battle issue will be forgotten. For a day or two.

Prediction: Texas 58 - North Texas 3

Washington State at #4 Auburn (Saturday, 7:45 PM)

Helllllloooooo Trap Game! The last time the Tigers were hot picks for national title glory and were facing an underrated team in their opener, Tommy Tuberville's bunch left with their tails between their legs. Have they learned their lesson? I think so. But still, WR Jason Hill and the Cougar passing game will give the Tiger secondary fits before Kenny Irons breaks off some big runs and the Tigers hold on to the win for dear life.

Prediction: Auburn 24 - Washington State 20

Marshall at #5 West Virginia (Saturday, 3:30 PM)

Remember the days when Marshall had a remotely competent football team? The days of Leftwich, Moss, and Pennington? Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? Things may get marginally better this year, but expect a heavy defeat against a West Virginia team that's tipped by many for glory this year.

Prediction: West Virginia 41 - Marshall 13

#6 USC at Arkansas (Saturday, 8:45 PM)

It could very well be payback time for the Hogs who suffered through a humiliating trip to the Coliseum last season while Houston Nutt slogged through a difficult season. But many an expert have declared the Hogs to be one of this season's sleepers, and they could become an instant hit with an upset of the Trojans. But losing Darren McFadden for this game has likely dealt a fatal blow to the Razorbacks's upset hopes before the first play from scrimmage. It'll be closer than expected, but Pete Carroll and crew will Fight On.

Prediction: USC 38 - Arkansas 27

Southern Miss at #7 Florida (Saturday, 6:00 PM)

There's not a chance in hell that Florida is the #7 team in the nation. Sorry folks, until that line learns how to block in Urban Meyer's spread offense or Chris Leak grows some cybernetic legs that allow him to run faster than a 4.9, Florida won't get within a sniff of the BCS. The Golden Eagles have an "anywhere, anytime" philosophy and live for this type of game. Expect the Gators to sputter for a few possessions before the gulf in class shows in earnest.

Prediction: Florida 34 - Southern Miss 9

Louisiana-Lafayette at #8 LSU (Saturday, 8 PM)

LaLa actually has Sun Belt title ambitions in the always wide open Sun Belt conference. Unfortunately, they've got a date in Death Valley for their opener. Expect the Ragin' Cajuns to die a quick death on this night.

Prediction: LSU 45 - Louisiana Lafayette 10

#9 California at #23 Tennessee (Saturday, 5:30 PM)

What? An actual competitive game in week 1? While the "OMG, Teh East Coast Bias dudez, 1!11!!!1!" yapping from the usual suspects in the blogosphere is buggin' me to no end, I do have to admit that the fact that I've heard a lot of people writing Cal off is a little bit bothersome. Marshawn Lynch and Justin Forsett are probably the best one-two RB punch in America. Of course the Vols will be playing like madmen knowing Fat Phil's job is on the line. When all is said and done, expect the Bears to emerge from Neyland Stadium with a smash-and-grab victory...and leave a whole lot of disgruntled Vols fans calling for Fulmer's head.

Prediction: Cal 27 - Tennessee 25

UAB at #10 Oklahoma (Saturday, 7 PM)

While as a Longhorn fan, I knew Rhett Bomar wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, I had little idea Norman had been having flashbacks of the days of Barry Switzer. With Bomar gone, the Sooners are now stuck with the unenviable task of getting the most out of Paul Thompson playing QB. That didn't exactly go swimmingly during last year's opener, but luckily UAB are a shell of their former selves without all-action QB Darrell Hackney. Sooners roll.

Prediction: Oklahoma 44 - UAB 10

#11 Florida State at #12 Miami (Monday, 8 PM)

While the rest of the action on the weekend is a tantalizing appetizer, the main course comes on Monday night in Coral Gables. Larry Coker knows anything less than an ACC Title will likely lead to his dismissal which means the 'Canes will be looking to start with a flourish against their hated rivals. Bobby Bowden's Noles limped to an ACC title (again) in 2005, but they've got one of their best squads in recent memory ready for 2006. It promises to be dramatic and close, but look for FSU to be haunted by Wide Right once more...

Prediction: Miami 20 - Florida State 19

Kentucky at #13 Louisville (Sunday, 8 PM)

Kentucky bafflingly kept Rich Brooks around for another year despite the Wildcats enduring another miserable season in 2005. 2006 doesn't look much more promising as the lack of SEC calibre talent on the team is shocking. Louisville will bring the beatdown wagon with them and give the Wildcats a whoopin' to remember in their opener.

Prediction: Louisville 55 - Kentucky 13

Vanderbilt at #14 Michigan (Saturday, 12 PM)

Poor 'lil Vanderbilt. They have a 1st round senior QB and still couldn't make a bowl. I'm not sold on Michigan or Lloyd Carr, but they'll kick off a very bad year for the Dores at the Big House on Saturday.

Prediction: Michigan 41 - Vanderbilt 13

Western Kentucky at #15 Georgia (Saturday, 12:30 PM)

After months of debate, hand-wringing, and general apathy from yours truly, Coach Richt named Joe Tereshinski the starter for the Dawgs. Reaction has ranged from optimistic ("He's a fifth-year senior, he has to know the playbook by now, right? RIGHT?") to forlorn ("Liberty Bowl? Memphis would be nice this time of year..."). Personally, I think it's a major mistake to not have Tereshinski as the fallback option rather than the main guy. If Stafford (or Cox or god forbid Blake Barnes) would've started and sucked it up, then Richt could've easily had a viable excuse to put Tereshinski in. If Tereshinski starts like crap, would Richt REALLY have the cojones to put a true freshman into the fire in the middle of SEC season? Back to the matter at hand, Western Kentucky has visions of being the 120th I-A team, so this may be a trial run of sorts for the Hilltoppers. Georgia will huff and puff and generally bore the hell out of Sanford Stadium while winning ugly. And the whining will begin in earnest.

Prediction: Georgia 26 - Western Kentucky 6

Montana at #16 Iowa (Saturday, 12:05 PM)

I'd be lying if I told you that the thought of Iowa football didn't lull me into a coma, but after a "down" year, big things are expected from Kirk Ferentz's boys. Montana are a pretty solid I-AA team, so they won't get embarassed too badly here.

Prediction: Iowa 31 - Montana 6

Northeastern at #17 Virginia Tech (Saturday, 1:30 PM)

It will be one-sided, it will be painful, and it will not be interesting in the least.

Prediction: Virginia Tech 61 - Northeastern 0

Florida Atlantic at #18 Clemson (Saturday, 3:30 PM)

The Owls are about as low on the I-A ladder you can get and figure to be toiling in the Sun Belt basement this year. Clemson have been tipped for the umpteenth time to bring glory back to Death Valley, but as many orange faithful have learned so painfully in the past, nothing is ever a given at Clemson. But Clemson will turn on the style Saturday and hope will spring eternal for the Tigers once more.

Prediction: Clemson 41 - Florida Atlantic 6

Akron at #19 Penn State (Saturday, 3:30 PM)

Upset alert? OK, maybe that's being a little too hasty, but Akron are not a team to be slept on in the MAC this season. Penn State will be a dodgy proposition for the first few games of the season, as Anthony Morelli is a far from tested signal caller. Akron will keep it close in the first half, before Derrick Williams and crew creep away in the second half.

Prediction: Penn State 24 - Akron 13

Louisiana Tech at #20 Nebraska (Saturday, 3:30 PM)

After a couple years of laughing at the Huskers expense, it might be time for a little payback. Bolstered next year by the transfer of possible All-American QB Sam Keller, Bill Callahan seems to have Big Red back on track in the Big XII. Louisiana Tech are among the blander and more non-descript mid-majors out there and probably won't be anything to scream about.

Prediction: Nebrasaka 31 - Lousiana Tech 9

Stanford at #21 Oregon (Saturday, 3:30 PM)

Will the good Oregon or the bad Oregon show up this year? It won't matter too much here, the bad Stanford has been running riot in Palo Alto for a while (UC Davis anyone?). Oregon will be good value for their win (they usually are), but expect more dissapointment from the Cardinal.

Prediction: Oregon 30 - Stanford 16

#22 TCU at Baylor (Sunday, 5:30 PM)

The Bears proved shockingly competent last year coming within a few bad breaks of going bowling after toiling in futility for years. Guy Morriss has injected a nice dose of talent and good coaching into a once moribound program. TCU are a trendy pick to make the BCS, but running the table in the Mountain West isn't exactly a foregone conclusion. Baylor figures to give TCU a major scare, but the Horned Frogs will hold on.

Prediction: TCU 26 - Baylor 24

Northern Arizona at #24 Arizona State (Thursday, 10 PM)

Well after Keller-gate, the Sun Devils have their QB in Rudy Carpenter. Unfortunately, Dirk Koetter has basically no options behind him, so I'd hope for his sake that Carpenter puts up some big numbers. Of course this being Arizona State, they'll put up 40 points a game and flail around miserably against the big teams and a team or two they'll beat. No problems here though.

Prediction: ASU 54 - Northern Arizona 10

SMU at #25 Texas Tech (Saturday, 7 PM)

SMU is a team on the upswing (Don't laugh!), but stand little chance of not getting flattened by the Red Raiders high-octane attack. It won't be interesting for long...

Prediction: Texas Tech 45 - SMU 17

Best of The Rest:

Northwestern at Miami (OH) [Thursday, 7:30 PM]
Toledo at Iowa State [Thursday, 8 PM]
UTEP at San Diego State [Thursday, 10:30 PM]
Nevada at Fresno State [Friday, 8 PM]
Rutgers at North Carolina [Saturday, 3:30 PM]
East Carolina at Navy [Saturday, 5:30 PM]
Wisconsin at Bowling Green [Saturday, 7 PM]
Virginia at Pittsburgh [Saturday, 7 PM]
Utah at UCLA [Saturday, 7 PM]
Hawaii at Alabama [Saturday, 7:07 PM]
BYU at Arizona [Saturday, 10:15 PM]

2006-08-30T16:25:00.000-04:00

Greetings and Salutations UGA Sports Nation!

I'm pretty pumped about the first UGA fooseball game going on Saturday against W. Kentucky. Believe it or not, they are nicknamed the "Hilltoppers"--which would frighten those of you who have experienced a grizzly mountain man with one boot and three teeth glaring at you from atop a hill. To put it in perspective, the mascot is the equivalence of a homeless person in downtown Athens trying to bum change off you. I apologize for that last bit, but as you can clearly see, any school who finds immense pleasure from conquering a geographical landform is a team the Bulldogs need to dominate. Needless to say West Kenny is a I-AA division school, so anything less than a blowout is embarrassing.

Moving on...

This Friday, Christopher and I will be broadcasting another installment of UGA GIRLS SOCCER against BYU at 7 p.m. on 90.5 FM (or stream it at wuog.org). They played really solid against Mercer, hopefully they can take some of the pressure off and score in the first half against the Cougars. BYU will be their first true test of the season, so it is imperative that the Bulldogs put away all of the very few chances they will get against such a solid team. It was nice to see 4 players contribute to the scoreboard against Mercer, but they need to keep the offense going strong (and make ZERO mistakes in the back).....And we'll do our best to make sure the radio signal isn't fuzzy this time. Listen in and support our nationally-ranked Soccer team!

For one final shameless plug, listen into The Sunday Sports Showdown, Shootout, Shakedown, Shelving, Shamrock, Shower, Shania Twain at Noon on 90.5 FM. Call it what you will, just don't call it a phone.

There's a snake in my boot,
-Ryan

2006-08-30T16:24:00.000-04:00

Official UFC 63 Card Has Been Released

-Matt Hughes vs. BJ Penn
-Mike Swick vs. David Loiseau
-Jens Pulver vs. Joe Lauzon
-Rashad Evans vs. Jason Lambert
-Gabe Ruediger vs. Melvin Guillard
-Jorge Gurgel vs. Danny Abaddi
-Roger Huerta vs. Jason Reinhardt
-Tyson Griffin vs. David Lee
-Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Mario Neto

The top 5 matches are the ones likely to air on the main card with Guillard/Ruediger being the swing fight, although God willing we'll get to see Tyson Griffin fight. Looks like a MUCH improved card than UFC 62 which turned out to be average rather than truly horrific. If Pulver's brainwashed Dana into putting five lightweight fights on the card, then we truly win.

2006-08-28T12:42:00.000-04:00

We have a new home! Or a home to be more specific. Yes, the long awaited WUOG Sports Blog is up and operational. We'll have more content in the near future, but until then please make do with a short review of yesterday's UGA Soccer triumph.

A tale of two halves really. Mercer were stubborn and refused to give in through blazing conditions in Athens for the first half. Georgia come out fired up in the second half and after the first goal, the floodgates opened up. Georgia will be very tough if they can repeat their second half form.

SCORING SUMMARY: GOAL Time Team Goal Scorer Assists Description

1. 46:04 UGA JACOBSEN, Katie (1) YOCULAN, Ali; PATTERSON, Carrie

2. 60:47 UGA PATTERSON, Carrie (2) BROWN, Sarah

3. 65:07 UGA STEIN, Lindsay (1) BROWN, Sarah

4. 69:18 UGA STINSON, Ashley (1) PATTERSON, Carrie; STEIN, Lindsay

5. 70:34 UGA STINSON, Ashley (2) STEIN, Lindsay

Player Ratings (out of 10, 6 is avg.)

Starters:

GK 0 CHURCH, Lauren - 7 - Came off her line well, but forced into little action

2 BRUCE, Catherine - 7 - Closed down well in the back

5 BROWN, Sarah - 8 - Imposed her authority on corner kicks

8 FARLEY, Natalie - 6 - Short night due to sickness

10 WEST, Olivia - 7 - A real scrapper in midfield

12 MCCONNELL, Leslie - 7 - Solid in defense

15 WHITAKER, Kelly - 5 - Looked uncomfortable on the right wing

20 STEIN, Lindsay - 9 - Fully deserved a goal for her effort

22 GARMAN, Kristin - 7 - More subdued at right back than usual

24 GLANCY, Lauren - 6 - Quiet

27 PATTERSON, Carrie - 8 - Marauding runs in second half tore apart defense

Subs:

00 BETOS, Michelle - 6 - Not called upon

3 BYRNE, Britta - 5 - Not enough time for impact

4 VICKERS, Joni - 8 - Much improved on the ball, still tough as nails

9 FRANKLIN, Lena - 7 - Solid set piece delivery was a plus

13 STINSON, Ashley - 8 - Found her stride

17 BRUSO, Randi-Lynn - 8 - Had plenty of room to operate

19 JACOBSEN, Katie - 7 - Did well on the left side

23 DARVILL, Sarah - 7 - Improved by leaps and bounds from last season

26 CARROLL, Tori - 6 - Limited minutes

29 YOCULAN, Ali - 7 - Had some nice runs

Did Not Play:

Cripps, Jackson, Joyner, Klueter, Meade, Tomlinson, Vierling