Tra Battle gets some national love

Georgia safety Tra Battle's getting a little attention from national folks in the last couple days, so I thought I might drop some links for those who haven't seen them already.

He was named a third-team all-American by rivals.com
Here's what the section on Tra had to say:
"Battle might provide the most uplifting story of all our All-America selections. This former walk-on battled his way into a spot in the starting lineup and has collected 56 tackles and a team-high six interceptions in his second year as a starter. His three-interception performance against Auburn knocked the Tigers out of national title contention and sparked the Bulldogs' late-season surge."

Personally, I never really thought Tra was having an AA-caliber season, but his performance against Auburn was definitely AA-caliber. That put him on some people's radars and might earn him some more postseason attention.

Tra also got a mention on Sports Illustrated's Web site, as one of their online writers -- who also happens to have gone to high school with Tra -- submitted him as his nominee for Sportsman of the Year. You can read the column Here

CFA Bowl bid: Well, not exactly

I'd heard that Channel 2 in Atlanta's newscast confirmed Georgia will be offered a bid to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, so I watched the 11 o'clock newscast...that's not exactly what happened.

They basically reported what we all already know -- that barring unforseen circumstances, Georgia will get the offer.

They had bowl president Gary Stokan on camera saying "We love the Gobblers" (Virginia Tech) and that Georgia "did a wonderful job of helping themselves in the play-in game by beating Georgia Tech."

But that's not exactly a confirmation. We're operating under the assumption that LSU gets a BCS bid -- a strong assumption, but not an absolute certainty. Assuming two SEC teams make the BCS, and there's little reason to assume that won't be the case, Georgia will likely play Va. Tech in Atlanta. I can't imagine this would be set in stone until after the BCS berths are announced on Sunday.

Virginia Tech is playing great football right now, as is Georgia. Of the remaining possibilities, I can't think of a bowl matchup that has a more impressive opponent for Georgia than this one.

Smith arrest story

This is my story on Ian Smith's early morning arrest today. It should be available on our Web site sometime in the near future.

ATHENS, Ga. – Georgia center Ian Smith was suspended for the first two games of the season after his February arrest for public intoxication.
The penalty could be much more severe this time, as the redshirt freshman was arrested after being found drunk and unconscious by a University of Georgia Police Department officer early Wednesday morning.
According to the university policy on alcohol, that could result in the Cartersville native’s suspension from school and possibly leave him ineligible for the 2007 season – when he was expected to compete for the Bulldogs’ starting spot at center.
Georgia coach Mark Richt was out of town recruiting on Wednesday, but released a statement through a school spokesman saying Smith has been indefinitely suspended while he investigates the matter further.
“Certainly it’s very disappointing, but I’m continuing to gather information on the incident before reaching any final decisions involving discipline,” Richt said.
After receiving a call from a concerned citizen, a UGA PD officer arrived at the corner of Sanford Drive and Hooper Street at 2:26 a.m. Wednesday, where he found Smith, 20, unconscious and breathing.
The incident report states that assistance from St. Mary’s Emergency Medical Service arrived and helped revive and treat Smith before he was placed under arrest for underage possession of alcohol. A breathalyzer test revealed Smith’s blood alcohol level was .216, nearly three times the legal limit for an of-age drinker to drive, before he was taken to the Clarke County Jail.
He was released on $500 bond at 9:28 Wednesday morning.
This is the second time this year Smith has been arrested after being found drunk and unconscious by Athens-area police.
On Feb. 18, he passed out in the bathroom of an Athens nightspot before Athens-Clarke County officers had to knock down the locked door to revive him. He was re-arrested four days later when police discovered he’d presented false identification that listed his age as 21 when he was originally arrested.
By university policy, Smith was handed a two-game suspension and placed on probation for the next two semesters when he was arrested in February – meaning he is still on probation. That same policy states, “Students in violation while on probation will be suspended for the current semester and next semester.”
Even if Smith manages to remain academically eligible, he would be suspended for no less than 30 percent of the season, or 3.6 games, because of his status as a two-time alcohol offender.

UNIVERSITY’S OFFICIAL POLICY ON ALCOHOL

• UGA will notify parents after the first and every subsequent violation.
• Students in violation for the first time will be assigned to an alcohol awareness class and placed on probation for the current semester and the next two semesters.
• Students in violation while on probation will be suspended for the current semester and next semester.

Willie withdraws

The school sent out a statement saying Willie Martinez has withdrawn his name from consideration for the head coaching job at Florida International.

I'd have had that on here earlier, but I was out picking up Ian Smith's police report, which was interesting. I'm going to wait a while to put any details on here, though...competition and all...I'm sure somebody else has got it as well.

Here's Willie's quote in the release:
"I'm extremely flattered that Florida International called and I had the opportunity to interview. But our family is very happy in Athens and I look forward to continue being part of the building process that's going on at Georgia. I think we have a lot to look forward to here."

Ian Smith arrested

Redshirt freshman center Ian Smith, 20, was arrested for underage possession of alcohol this morning by the UGAPD. He was booked into Clarke County Jail at 3:47 a.m. and released on $500 bond at 9:28 this morning.

This is Smith's second (or you could call it his third) alcohol-related arrest this year. He was infamously arrested in February for public intoxication, when he passed out on the toilet of a downtown Athens nightspot, Amici Italian Cafe, and police had to knock down the door to get him out. He was arrested again a few days later when police discovered he used a fake ID that listed him as being older than he is.

Leeman Bennett's CFA Bowl Blog

For a good portion of the season, Leeman Bennett, the co-chairman of the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, has been doing a blog about the bowl selection committee's thoughts on prospective teams.

It looks to me like Georgia's almost a lock for the game, especially if Georgia Tech wins the ACC's BCS spot, although there are some possibilities that could throw a monkey wrench in those plans.

Here's what he had to say about Georgia: "We made no secret of the fact that the Georgia / Georgia Tech game was a possible play-in game for the Bulldogs and Georgia took full advantage of the opportunity. Right now we’re looking at an 8-win team that beat a No. 5 Auburn on the road and a No. 16 Georgia Tech team to finish the season. That’s a strong statement for Coach Richt and his team that has showed a lot of character coming down the stretch. We’re also looking at a team that hasn’t played in the Chick-fil-A Bowl since 1998 that could deliver a great match-up against a Virginia Tech or a Wake Forest team."

And here's what he said about Tech: "There’s no doubt Georgia Tech hurt their chances by losing a close game to arch rival Georgia in Athens. But, if the Yellow Jackets come up short in the ACC Championship against Wake, they could still be a good selection for us IF we do not have Georgia on the other side as their SEC opponent (and that will mainly depend on whether or not the SEC gets two teams up into the BCS). We have made it clear, we are not interested in playing a re-match game and have made the decision not to look at that possibility. That being said, if we could put together a Georgia Tech vs. Auburn or Georgia Tech vs. Tennessee game, we certainly would be very interested in how Georgia Tech compares with Virginia Tech for those possible match-ups."

You can read his thoughts on all the teams they're considering here

Interesting stat

An acquaintance who works for Lindy's magazine sent me this note today. Even in what's been a fairly disappointing year, Georgia's still in fairly high cotton.

There are 119 Division I college football programs.

In the decade of the 2000s, 100 of those programs have had at least one losing season. Only 19 teams have avoided a losing season during this decade.

Of those 19, four are SEC teams: Auburn, Florida, Georgia and LSU.

The others: Northern Illinois, Boston College, Clemson, Oklahoma, Boise State, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami (FL), Michigan, Ohio State, Southern Mississippi, Texas, Texas Tech and Virginia Tech

Among SEC teams, six have had multiple losing seasons during this decade ... Alabama, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Mississippi, Mississippi State and South Carolina.

Eddie Robinson Award ballot

Filed a vote for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award today. You had to rank your top three out of the nine finalists. I went with:
1. Greg Schiano, Rutgers
2. Jim Grobe, Wake Forest
3. Houston Nutt, Arkansas

The finalists were Schiano, Grobe, Nutt, Art Briles (Houston), June Jones (Hawaii), Lloyd Carr (Michigan), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Chris Petersen (Boise State) and Bronco Mendenhall (BYU).

Vince Vance commits

My boy Dean Legge over at the Dawgpost has a story up right now saying Vince Vance has committed to Georgia, making him No. 21 for the current recruiting class. And this is a big one, literally. Six-foot-eight, 310 pounds of offensive tackle.

Scout.com and rivals.com rate the Georgia Military College product at three stars.

Most importantly, he'll have three years to play three seasons at Georgia. He redshirted his first year at GMC to learn how to make the switch from defensive end to offensive tackle. He should graduate within the next month and be in Athens in January so he can participate in spring drills.

You have to figure he's in the mix to start at OT right away, with Shackleford, Inman and Turner all exhausting their eligibility. This recruiting class is really starting to come together well.

Scout story

Martinez interviews at FIU

According to Pete Pelegrin of the Miami Herald, Georgia defensive coordinator Willie Martinez was in South Florida last weekend (the bye weekend) to interview for the head coaching job at Florida International.

Martinez, 43, is a Miami graduate and a native of South Florida, so he has ties to the area. He's also worked as a coach at a couple Florida high schools and as a GA at Miami and an assistant at Central Florida.

He's one of five candidates the story lists as possibilities to replace Don Strock, who has led the team to an 0-11 record this year. Other names listed were Miami defensive coordinator Randy Shannon, former Miami offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, Miami offensive line coach Mario Cristobal and Arkansas quarterbacks coach Alex Wood.

Link:
Search for new FIU coach narrows

Dogs get JUCO commit

Georgia picked up its 20th commitment, and they went the JUCO route this time, picking up Coffeyville (Kan.) CC offensive lineman Joe Blaes. Blaes is 6-foot-2, 290 pounds. He's rated three stars by rivals.com and two stars by scout.com.

He's originally from Cherryvale, Kan. He'll show up in January for spring practice and he'll have two years of eligibility at Georgia.

Rivals story

Scout story

Mike Shula's statement

By the way, I listened to interim head coach Joe Kines speak to the media a little while ago. Didn't say much, but I thought this was an especially telling remark: "This is the greatest game in America. Sometimes it's just not a very good business. That's just the way it is sometimes."

Here's what Shula had to say:
I am deeply disappointed to be fired as the Head Football Coach at the University of Alabama . From my very first day on this job, I had a single mission: To return the Crimson Tide to its place among the elite programs in college football. Although I maintain that we were moving steadily in that direction, I regret sincerely that I will not be given the opportunity to finish the job I was hired to do.

I am forever grateful to my loyal coaching staff, who worked so tirelessly to help us overcome the difficulties we faced during these past four years. Despite inherited restrictions, including probation and scholarship limits, our teams played with integrity and commanded respect. Our 10-2 record in 2005 was no fluke; it was evidence of a program on the rise. Although the past season was not as fulfilling, it was nevertheless a season that witnessed the emergence of several young players who will help the Crimson Tide win big in the years to come.

I want to thank our players and their families for committing to our mission. I am sorry that our record this past year did not reflect your passion and commitment to winning. When we met Sunday night, I fully believed that I was going to remain the head coach at the University. I apologize that you did not learn about my firing from me. Do not let the circumstances of my firing allow you to lose your focus. Do not let this transition rob you of your potential for greatness. Together with the talented recruits who have committed to join the Tide next year, I am fully confident that the pieces are in place for you to accomplish great things.

Finally, I want to acknowledge and thank those of you who made our four-year stay at Alabama a rewarding experience. Your kindness toward me, Shari and our family will be remembered fondly.

In closing, I leave Alabama proud that the football program is a better place than the one I inherited four years ago. Although time will ultimately gauge the depth of our progress, I am confident that the return on our efforts will be realized by the University and its football community.

As a former player and a graduate of this great University, I wish the program great success in the years ahead. Roll Tide.

Shula thoughts, presser in 30 minutes

Alabama AD Mal Moore released a statement concerning Mike Shula's dismissal earlier today. There'll be a 3 p.m. teleconference I'm planning to dial into, just to hear what is said.

You had to see this coming after that cryptic release they sent out last week. I'm of two minds on this Shula thing. On one hand, I see the uneven performances this year and all the near-misses and the occasionally poor decision-making on the sidelines and think, "This guy's just not a good head coach." And on the other hand, I see that he seems like a good man who was dealt a horrible hand and has a team that's pretty much completely reconstructed from last year's 10-2 team, especially on defense, and still put some fear into some pretty good teams this year. And I think whoever coaches them next year will be inheriting some very good young talent. It just seems like the most fair thing Alabama could have done, considering the mess Shula inherited a couple years ago, was give him next year to see what he could do with that team -- which I'll go ahead and say will be in the thick of the race for the conference title next year -- and if they underperform then, can him. But life is not fair, especially when you're the head coach at Alabama. You've got to win. It's that simple.

Following is a statement from Mal Moore director of athletics at the University of Alabama, regarding the head coaching position of the Alabama football team:

“I have informed Mike Shula that he will not be retained as head football coach at the University of Alabama .

“Mike and his staff took over our program during a trying period four years ago, and in a number of ways Mike has been an excellent representative of our program. He personally has displayed impeccable character. As both a player and a head coach, Mike has made tremendous contributions to our program and we always will be grateful for his efforts. He has provided stability for our program through four years of NCAA probation which ends on February 1, 2007.

“However, we did not make progress on the field this season and have not been able to maintain the positive momentum necessary to return Alabama football to a place among college football’s elite programs.

“We will immediately begin a national search for a new head football coach. I am seeking a proven head coach with a proven record of achievement who can reach the level of excellence that all of us desire.”

Oliver wins SEC Defensive POTW honors

Of all the guys from Georgia to win weekly awards this year, this one might have been most deserved. Paul didn't play a perfect game, but he did more than enough. I never would have thought Calvin Johnson would finish with two catches for 13 yards.

Georgia junior CB Paul Oliver was named the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.

Oliver helped lead the Bulldogs to a 15-12 win over No. 16 Georgia Tech while holding All-American WR Calvin Johnson to two receptions and 13 yards. Oliver finished the game with four tackles, one forced fumble, three pass break-ups and an interception.

Oliver's INT was his third of the year and seventh of his career. The pick came late in the fourth quarter to preserve Georgia's victory, much like his INT earlier this year in a 14-9 win at Ole Miss.

The Georgia defense limited Georgia Tech to 188 total yards including just 42 passing yards. Georgia's total defense average for the season is 264.0, which ranks second in the SEC and ninth nationally. The Bulldogs are also ranked second in the league and fifth nationally with a 150.2 average in pass defense.

Master Coaches Poll 11/26

Georgia pops in at No. 25.

* 1. Ohio State (16)
* 2. Southern Cal
* 3. Michigan
* 4. Florida
* 5. LSU
* 6. Wisconsin
* 7. Louisville
* 8. Arkansas
* 9. Auburn
* 10. Boise State
* 11. Oklahoma
* 12. Notre Dame
* 13. Virginia Tech
* 14. Rutgers
* 15. West Virginia
* 16. Texas
* 17. Nebraska
* 18. Wake Forest
* 19. Tennessee
* 20. BYU
* 21. California
* 22. Texas A&M
* 23. Georgia Tech
* 24. Boston College
* 25. Georgia

Other teams receiving votes ... Hawaii, South Carolina, Clemson, Penn State, Missouri, Oregon State

More from Sunday teleconference

I have to say I was shocked by coach Richt's announcement that coach Bobo was calling the plays yesterday. Looking back in hindsight, you see some of the subtle differences between the two that you might not have thought much about at the time. I never thought I'd see Richt give up playcalling duties. He definitely doesn't seem like an egotistical dude by any means, but I thought he'd look at giving up that job as saying that he wasn't doing it well enough. That's tough for anyone to admit -- and when you're the boss, you don't have to admit it unless you want to.

He said he'd been considering the move for a long time and even decided to make it last offseason before talking himself out of it. But he said he'd been praying over it after the Auburn game and thought this was the right time to do it. Bobo will call the bowl game and then they'll re-evaluate where they go from here in the offseason. interesting.

He and Stafford both said they thought Bobo did a great job calling plays. I included Stafford's quote in my story for tomorrow. It comes out looking a lot better after they won it in the end. If Georgia hadn't scored on that last drive and lost the game 12-7, I'm not sure we'd be talking about Bobo calling plays in the bowl game or in the future. Honestly, it's hard to gauge just how well he did. Tech's got a pretty feisty defense and Georgia had some problems that the playcaller couldn't control -- penalties, dropped passes, missed field goals. You have to see how a guy does over the course of a little more time before you anoit him as the answer to Georgia's offensive problems. Whether Bobo's the answer or not, how impressive is it to see Richt step aside and give the guy his shot? That takes some big brass ones.

Georgia didn't quite crack the top 25 in today's AP poll. They'd be no. 26, if you want to call it that. Coach Richt commented on that:
"I think we’re a top-25 team, but I’m not shocked we weren’t voted that way. We’re also a four-loss team."

"I think we’re deserving, but it is a season-long decision and we did have some games that hurt us, there’s no doubt."

"You wish you had a couple of do-overs now that Matthew’s a little more seasoned and mature."

He also said he'd "love it" if Georgia was extended a bid to play in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, which I think is a likely possibility. There were a couple of CFA Bowl people in Georgia's locker room after last night's game and they also sat in with the media people for coach Richt's postgame news conference. With LSU jumping into the top five in today's BCS, the Tigers are probably a second SEC team in the BCS. That helps Georgia basically move up a rung into most likely the CFA against the No. 2 ACC team, which I expect will be Virginia Tech. That would be a great matchup to close the season. We'll see what happens, though. Memphis and Nashville aren't completely out of the picture, I guess, and there may be other possibilities as well. We'll have to see what shakes out next weekend.

BCS Standings 11/26

1. Ohio State
2. USC
3. Michigan
4. Florida
5. LSU
6. Louisville
7. Wisconsin
8. Boise State
9. Arkansas
10. Notre Dame
11. Auburn
12. Oklahoma
13. Rutgers
14. Virginia Tech
15. West Virginia
16. Tennessee
17. Wake Forest
18. California
19. Texas
20. Nebraska
21. Brigham Young
22. Georgia Tech
23. Texas A/M
24. Oregon State
25. Hawaii

Bobo called the plays

I know I said earlier that I'd be interested to find out how much of the last drive that Mike Bobo called. Turns out he called the entire game. Every play. Coach Richt said on his Sunday teleconference it's the first time he's gone an entire game without calling a play since 1991.

Bobo will also call the entire bowl game and Richt said they'll re-evaluate that situation after the season.

Very interesting. I'll post more later.

Tech postgame player quotes

This is darn near everything I have leftover from last night's postgame interviews. You're up against the clock so much after these games that a lot of times you don't get to use much of what you'd like. Thankfully I can dump it all here:

Tony Taylor had another great game. Obviously the biggest play was that fumble recovery, where he somehow wrestled the ball out of the pile, knocked the referee out of the way and took off. Here’s what he said he saw:
“It was just down there. Nobody had control of it. I was just trying to pick it up.”

On the referees not blowing the play dead:
“They didn’t know nobody had the ball, so I was just hoping they didn’t blow the whistle.”

Cornerback Bryan Evans came on the blitz a couple times last night and had a very good overall game opposite Paul Oliver. He’s a pretty good quote, so I was glad to get to talk to him one-on-one for a minute or two after the game.

This is Evans on whether he was surprised by how much he got to blitz:
“I really wasn’t surprised because we were doing a lot of that in practice – trying to get pressure on Ball, trying to make him make quick decisions. I think that it worked. I think we made a couple of big plays on the blitzes, so I think that overall the blitzing was well played.”

Evans on Reggie Ball:
"He’s a great scrambler, so we had to get him scrambling and try to make him make bad decisions throwing the ball while he was running. He made a couple of bad decisions today. We made a couple of big plays on him. That was a big thing for us – trying to cause him to make bad decisions while on the run.”

Evans on them playing Calvin Johnson tough:
"The thing with Calvin, we were just trying to be as physical as we can with him. We tried to play physical with him to throw him off his gameplan so he wouldn’t get momentum.”

Evans on whether he thought Calvin was getting frustrated:
“I could tell. He was overthrown a couple times and he tried to dive for it, and he got up snatching his facemask. You could kinda tell the frustration, just by him not being able to make the big play like he wanted to make. We were just trying to stay on him, trying to get in his head so he wouldn’t make the big play, so their offense wouldn’t get the momentum.”

I probably quote Tra Battle too much, but he’s always got something interesting to say. Here’s what he had to say about the play of the secondary:
“It’s just what was called for. It couldn’t have come at a better time. The secondary and the defense have been down at times and up at times and this is just a wonderful way to cap the season. When we came out from the first play, we defended the deep ball, we didn’t give up any plays throughout the entire game. We started fast and finished fast. That’s all you can ask for from a defense.”

Battle on Paul Oliver’s play against Calvin Johnson:
“He didn’t do anything that we didn’t expect from him. Being a team guy, you always want to say my player’s better than yours. My guy’s better than your guy. We went in with that confidence. I think a lot of guys who faced Calvin Johnson may have given him too much respect and gone into the situation a little timid. You can’t play football timid at all. If you go in with confidence and do what you know you can do, you can have the result that Paul had today.”

Battle on whether Johnson was frustrated:
“I don’t know if we got him frustrated, but we wanted to be physical with him and disrupt some of the timing of the routes and the passes and we were pretty successful at that. A lot of guys play off of him and we wanted to get in his shoulder pads and jack him up to throw the timing off.”

Battle on Tony Taylor’s fumble recovery/touchdown. By the way, watch the replay again as Taylor runs off. Battle tries to block a Tech lineman for him and takes a pretty good beating:
“I saw the ball the entire time. The lineman tried to jump on it and he tried to squeeze it between his legs. When I was running in, Tony and I came in at the same angle and we saw it the entire time. He just snatched it from the guy's knees and took off.”

“I told him I wasn’t gonna block for him anymore. That big lineman slammed me.”

Marcus Howard on the fumble he forced from behind on Reggie Ball. He said he wasn’t trying to strip him, it just happened:
“It was just something that happened. I was just trying to make a play, really.”

Matthew Stafford on Tech’s defense:
“If it’s not the best, it’s right up there. They do a great job. They’re great at what they do. They bring blitzes from everywhere and it’s tough to pick up. They do a great job of making plays on defense and I’m just happy for us to stick together and get the win.”

More Stafford, more on Tech’s defense:
“That’s one of the toughest defenses, as far as picking up blitzes and things like that, that we’ve faced, if not the toughest. They’re great at what they do, and I’m just proud of the o-line. We’ve got three seniors up there that helped everybody else out picking it up and giving me some time to throw."

The senior who’ll be most missed by the writers is definitely Ray Gant. As they say, Ray fills up your notebook. He’s hilarious and always has interesting stuff to say. Sometimes you may be reading a Georgia story and it’ll be on something has has absolutely nothing to do with the defensive line OR the defense…could be on how well Brandon Coutu’s kicking…and you might see a Ray Gant quote. You might think, ‘What the heck?’ and you’d have good reason. After all, what does Ray Gant know about field goal kicking. But he adds color to every story. You desperately need guys like that. Anyway, here’s some of what Ray had to say. This is about trashtalking:
“What we said out there, I can’t put that in the paper, but we said a lot. There was a lot of jawing going back and forth. Especially with Tech. Right off the bat, first play of the game, I’ll see you later. We’ll be back.”

Gant on how he knew they were in Reggie Ball’s head:
“You guys might be able to see the stuff or hear the stuff he says. But any little thing, any time you’re close to him, he’s always got something to say. When he’s doing stuff like that, you know you’re getting to a guy.”

Gant on whether the end of the season erases the middle:
“You definitely can’t erase anything, but in my mind it’s nothing but new memories now. I’ll never think back on Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Florida. Now I’m thinking back on Auburn, Tech, wherever we finish in the bowl game.”

On how they came out of it:
“Camaraderie, our team sticking together. This is as close as I’ve ever been to 100-plus men in my entire life. Everything, emotionally, physically, everything. It’s like we’re a family – true brothers. That’s what kept us together. No matter what, we weren’t letting the media get to us, we weren’t letting family get to us, pointing fingers. Everytime you call home, family says, ‘Oh, so-and-so can’t catch’ or “So-and-so can’t tackle.’ It’s like, look, ‘That’s my teammate, we do the best we can and hey, maybe I could have did a little bit more. It’s no one person’s fault.’”

Does this prove the seniors were a good group after all?
“I definitely think that it shows that it was a good senior group. We held us together. All the young guys were looking at us. We could have easily tanked it. Quentin Moses, myself, Tony Taylor, Tra Battle, guys like that, we could have easily said, ‘To heck with it. Let’s get ready to the NFL,’ this or that. But we wanted to leave Georgia as winners. We had senior meetings saying, ‘How can we do this? How can we get together? How can we pull guys out of their slump?’ The main thing was lead by example. All they saw from us was positive.”

Gant on Tony Taylor’s fumble recovery:
“He just snatched it and took the ball. It was armed robbery, he just took it from him. I was like, ‘What in the world?’ I thought the whistle had blown or something, he just snatched the ball and I’m like, ‘Are we still playing?’”

Gant on if he saw who Taylor took the ball from:
“I don’t know who it was, I couldn’t really see. All I saw was Tony just snatch it – he stole the man’s ball.”

Gant on what goes on in a pile like that:
“There’s definitely eye gouging and guys grabbing parts they should never ever touch in their entire life. It’s a lot of stuff that goes on in the bottom of the pile. I’m glad I was towards the top of it.”

Willie Martinez on the importance of pressuring Reggie Ball:
“Even if we don’t get a sack, we can force hurries, make him make quicker decisions. If he has his feet set and he’s just sitting there, he’s gonna pick you apart. He’s got an outstanding arm. I know people don’t talk about that a lot, but if he sets his feet, but if he sets his feet, he can throw it.”

Martinez on the play of the defense:
“It’s just players making plays. When you mature, you had a young team in the back end. You had some young guys – Kelin, you know, coming on and Bryan Evans has been coming on. In the last couple ballgames he’s really given us some plays.”

“We switched the corners because Paul Oliver had to play Calvin the whole night, he had to follow him in zone or man, so Bryan had to have a good game tonight. No. 1, it’s huge that our boundary corner is productive and he played boundary corner most of the night.”

Martinez on Paul Oliver’s play:
“When we had to play an extra man in the box, he had to play him by himself. Obviously in the red zone it was huge. I thought maybe he had one bad play where he lost him on a deep ball going into our locker room, but other than that I thought he played outstanding.”

Martinez on whether Paul Oliver had to play the way he did for Georgia to win:
“There’s no doubt. We challenged him as a team – basically, hey look, you’ve got to do a great job because we’ve got to defend the run and we’ve got to defend James Johnson, Tashard Choice, Reggie Ball was a key. We couldn’t just sit there spread out and try to double- and triple-team Calvin. We had to place him in coverage at time and then we’d get Paul some help at times. But he had to make the plays he made tonight for us to win.”

Nick Jones, on how the offensive line picked up Tech’s blitz:
“We thought we did a pretty decent job of protecting Matt. We did a lot of film study, a lot of practicing this week and the bye week. It shows that the hard work paid off because we got the job done.”

Jones on the final drive:
“It was sweet. We fought hard the whole game. We kept saying if we keep plugging and we keep making plays that good things will happen, and that’s what happened on the last drive.”

Jones on winning his final game at home on the final drive:
“It’s like a storybook ending – the last game at home and you’re down late in the ballgame and need a drive to win, and that’s what happened.”

Tech postgame news, notes

Well, it wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. It’s funny how one huge drive makes everything look better in the end – as well it should. Tech shut down Georgia’s offense pretty well and the Bulldogs didn’t do themselves any favors by giving up key sacks, dropping wide-open passes, taking stupid penalties and missing an easy field goal. They came close to their first home game without an offensive touchdown since 2001, but they got it done in the end.

Up until the last drive, Stafford was 12-for-25 for 136 yards. Danny Ware had four carries for 15 yards. But on the last series, Stafford went 4-for-4 for 35 yards and Ware ran seven times for 26, most of which came on a big 15-yard gain. Interestingly, Stafford gave QBs coach Mike Bobo credit after the game for calling great plays on the last drive. I’m not sure when he started calling plays on the drive – typically Bobo’s the one-minute offense guy – but I’d be interested to find out.

You’ve got to give the kid a lot of credit, Stafford played a heady ballgame. He wasn’t forcing passes like he had earlier and was willing to throw it away or take a sack when the play wasn’t there. I can only think of one pass he threw that could have been intercepted – a crossing route to Massaquoi near Tech’s goal line that hit Kenny Scott in the hand. Otherwise, an excellent game. Although his numbers aren’t great, he might have played his best game yet because he didn’t make any stupid mistakes.

But you have to give Georgia’s defense the credit for this win. The offense wasn’t doing diddly poo for three and a half quarters and not only did the defense keep Georgia in it, it put points on the board. Tony Taylor’s fumble recovery and touchdown was simply heads up football – which is just what you should expect from Tony Taylor. He’s been the rock of that defense all year, making plays when they were desperately needed. And he again led the team in tackles Saturday with 5.5.

Paul Oliver played a superb game, often matched up with Calvin Johnson one-on-one. Bryan Evans did a good job at the other corner spot. They put solid pressure on Reggie Ball, forcing four sacks, two interceptions and numerous other poorly thrown balls. Tashard Choice did have a good game running the ball (23 carries, 146 yards, TD), which they said came in part because they were trying to shade coverage toward Calvin. But Johnson didn’t beat them and Tech only mustered one touchdown. It was an outstanding gameplan. I guess Willie Martinez can coach a little bit after all, huh?

Here are some other noteworthy items:
* We found out earlier this week that fullback Des Williams and tight end Trahern Holden planned to go ahead and graduate and not return next season. One addition to that duo that Macon’s Josh Kendall and I noticed during pregame warm-ups was offensive lineman Zeb McKinzey. Although all three are redshirt juniors and have a year of eligibility remaining, they all went through Senior Day festivities on Saturday. Josh and I caught Zeb after the game and he said he just doesn’t think his perpetually injured shoulder will hold up so he’s calling it quits. It’s a shame. I know that’s a tough decision to have to make. All three are on pace to graduate on time.
* I talked to Ken Shackleford briefly after the game. He injured his ankle in the first quarter and did not return. He said the same ankle’s been giving him trouble for a while now and finally gave out Saturday. Said he wants to stay off it for a little while and it should be OK.
* Tech held Georgia to 84 rushing yards. That was the ninth time in 12 games this season that Tech kept its opponent under 100 yards – but the first time they lost while doing so.
* Tech’s six completions and 42 yards were season lows. The six completions were the second-worst for Tech at any time since 1980 (5 vs. Tennessee in 1986) and the 42 yards were also the second-worst since 1980 (19 vs. Tulsa in 2004 Humanitarian Bowl).

Richt post-Tech comments

These are most of coach Richt's comments from the postgame Q/A session.

On recovering from the midseason slump:
I want to give a lot of credit to our seniors and their ability to hold things together when everybody doubted us and things looked bleak. It was just a great job of turning it around against two highly ranked football teams back to back. I’m just thankful for the job they did.

On struggling for most of the game on offense:
Tech’s defense did a beautiful job. Jon Tenuta, as we all know is an outstanding coach, and had his team playing great. We did some good things offensively, moved the ball around, but we were our own worst enemy a couple times – a personal foul penalty, jumping offsides on a third-and-medium, fumbling the ball, dropping the ball when it looked like a sure first down. Four of our drives in the first half were just ruined by us being foolish.

On Tony Taylor's fumble recovery:
I didn’t hear a whistle blow and I knew the officials did not blow it, or they didn’t think they’d blown the whistle. That’s the one thing, a lot of times there’s a scrum in there and they think the ball’s been recovered and they don’t want guys jumping in, so they blow the whistle to stop play. To their credit, they did not stop play. I was pretty confident we were gonna be OK. If the officials were huddling around at the site of the fumble saying the whistle was blown or something like that, I’d have thought we may be in trouble, but I was pretty confident he was gonna stay with the call on the field.

Has Stafford arrived?
I think so. Two games in a row where I don’t think there was a ball thrown that could have or should have been picked off. That’s huge for a young quarterback like that. Actually had to take a sack or two instead of throwing it up for grabs, which he did, he learned. Even a sack is better than that. We don’t like sacks. He did a good job of scrambling around one time and threw the ball out of bounds and didn’t take the hit like he did in the Kentucky game where he got hit right on the sideline and the ball came out on a fumble. All those things are what really hurt Matthew. His ability to make plays, I think, has been proven since the first time he stepped on the field for us. I think he’s been making plays all along, it was just the foolish decisions that was getting him in trouble, getting us in trouble as a team at times.

On Massaquoi's play:
Mohamed did a great job all the way around, especially on that last drive. The touchdown was a play where he had to be a little patient and really sell that hook right and he forced the defenders to break on the ball. Matthew did a good job of pump faking to him and he had to have enough time to do it. We had to protect a little bit longer on a play like that, and when Matthew pumped to Mohamed on that little hook route, the defenders broke on the ball and then Mohamed did a nice job of separating and made a very good catch. That was not an easy catch. So that was beautiful. And then the 2-point play was a fantastic job of running that route. It didn’t look like a whole lot, but you’ve gotta kind of find a little seam in there in that hook and he was able to do that. And again, it was a little sprint, where the right tackle – I think it was Michael Turner – did a nice job of getting the edge for us where Matthew was able to have clear vision and was able to make the throw. So all those things had to come together.

How down did Massaquoi get during the season?
He was down because the one thing Mohamed always did his whole career was catch the ball. He never had a time in his life where he was just having the yips, but he dropped a few. He dropped more than he probably ever dreamed he would drop. And it can get in your head a little bit. You’ve got to keep playing these guys. You can’t quit on them. There’s times when you’ve got to make a substitution and give another guy a chance, but Mohamed’s a guy that we really believe is one of our better receivers and he just had to work his way through it and it looks like he has.

On the play of the defense:
Great job of scheming. Coach Martinez did a beautiful job getting a plan to make it tough on Calvin. He did a great job of mixing different blitzes and different coverages. The times that Calvin was one-on-one, we did a pretty good job of pressuring Reggie to make it tough for him to throw it. Tashard Choice of course had a good day and had more yards than we would hope, but we were able to contain him enough to (can’t tell) on the scoreboard. Of course we had a defensive score too, which was fantastic. Three turnovers to our one…When you win the turnover battle, you’ve got a chance to win the game.

On Stafford handling Tech's blitz:
We thought we had some good protections on paper to help him out, but even if you get a hat on every blitzer, you’ve got to block. If they come down after down after down, they’re gonna win some of those things and I think the line and the backs and the tight ends did a pretty good job throughout the day. When the protection was there, Matthew did a nice job of hitting his target. When it wasn’t there, he did a good job of throwing it away or taking a sack. That’s called managing the game. Sometimes that sounds boring to some people, but quarterbacks have got to manage the game, especially when people pressure as often as Georgia Tech does, and Matthew did a great job of that.

On why Georgia always seems to beat Tech in the end:
I don’t know. We’ve won three very close games in a row, the last three games. It could have gone either way. We play Florida year after year and found a way to lose those close games. I can’t explain that. I don’t know.

On Paul Oliver's play against Calvin Johnson:
Paul did a beautiful job. Paul had a big job tonight. A guy who’s on Calvin most of the day. He did a good job disrupting some of his routes at the line of scrimmage with some of his technique of jamming him at the line. He also broke up some balls. He broke up the one ball in the end zone that could have been huge. Then of course he got the pick at the end of the game. Paul did a great job against a great player.

On whether they've solved how to defend Calvin, based on what they've done against him in his career:
Not really, we’ve changed it up a little bit from time to time. But the whole key is to either double him or pressure the quarterback where the quarterback can’t get it to him. Those are the kinds of things that you try to do to keep them from going to a great player. We had to sacrifice rushing yards at times to keep that big play from happening. I think a couple times he got loose and if the ball was placed just right, he might have burned us for a couple touchdowns. But thankfully they didn’t hit them. Those are low-percentage throws. Even if you’re out there in pass skeleton and there’s no rush at all and you throw a 65-yard bomb, you’re just not gonna throw and catch it every time. Thankfully they weren’t on the money the couple of times they did break free.

On the offensive line's protection on the last drive:
Great job. I don’t know if there was a time when he did get a lot of pressure. We threw a couple of quick ones early and got some momentum there. Then I know the touchdown pass in the red zone was a play where the quarterback gets in the gun, gets back in the pocket and has to pump fake the ball and then recoil and throw it. That’s the thing you worry about the most, will we be able to hold the ball long enough to get this play run? Thankfully we did. Matthew also had to recognize coverage. There’s a couple options on that play and he actually signaled that route to Mohamed.

On Georgia's postseason possibilities:
We at least put ourselves in position to get the best opportunity after the bad run that we had. To defeat the No. 5 team and the No. 16 team back-to-back, I’m hoping that the pollsters will put us back in the top 25. I think we deserve it and hopefully we’ll jump back in and that ought to make us a little more attractive to the bowls also.

On taking out Ely-Kelso for Bailey after Ely-Kelso missed a chip shot FG:
After Gordy missed that kick, we told Andy he was gonna kick. He did kick an extra point, Andy did, and hit it well. If you’d have gone by pregame warmup, you’d have definitely let Andy be the kicker. Gordon was struggling even in pregame. That’s a lot to ask for a guy – just jump in there and all of a sudden be the extra point/field goal guy when your whole career all you did is punt. It’s not really fair to him, but we thought it was the best thing to do at the time. And right now – I don’t want to get pigeonholed in it – but I’m definitely leaning toward Bailey being our man in the bowl game.

Did you quickly run a play after Harris' catch on the sideline to keep it from being reviewed?
Yes. Anytime it’s a tight sideline catch like that, we’ll try to run a play as fast as we can just in case it gets reviewed and it turns out he was out of bounds. We had no idea whether he was in or not. It was close enough to the sideline where I was like, ‘Let’s run a play quickly and keep that from happening.’

Have you definitely decided that Coutu will not kick in the bowl game?
No, we haven’t made that determination. Brandon, I think, thinks he’s gonna kick, and he might. We’re not gonna take any chances on him to have a setback right now, though. He’d have to prove that he’s very, very strong and ready to go because it’s just not worth it to play one game and set yourself back even further.

what the hell just happened?

Tony Taylor just has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. That might have been some home cookin', but I don't think there's any other play the referees could have made.

7-3 Georgia. stay tuned...

Friday unposted notes

Didn't see these online, so I thought I'd post them. I guess it's a little late...

ATHENS, Ga. – Georgia coach Mark Richt couldn’t quote a statistic, but said it “feels like” his offense has been much more efficient inside an opponent’s 20-yard line lately.
And his feeling is correct.
The Bulldogs have scored on 12 of their last 14 trips inside an opponent’s red zone – and one of the two times they didn’t score was when they kneeled on the ball inside Auburn’s 10 to keep from running up the score.
Most impressively, Georgia has scored touchdowns when it reached the red zone in the last three games. Eight of the Bulldogs’ 11 red-zone drives have ended with touchdowns, along with a field goal, one turnover and the Auburn kneel-down.
“We just have executed better down there. That’s what it comes down to,” Richt said. “You know, you try to analyze every single thing you possibly can but it always comes down to did everybody do their job as they should, and they’ve just done a better job down there.”
Richt credited some of the improvement on the maturation of his offense, but couldn’t put his finger on why, exactly, the group is performing better.
“I don’t know why,” he said. “We haven’t really done anything different in preparation. We watched the same amount of film, we practice it the same amount of time.”
Whatever the reason, it’s coming at a good time for Georgia, which hosts a stout Georgia Tech defense on Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets have done a good job of keeping opponents out of the end zone once they make it inside Tech’s 20. Only 10 of opponents’ 27 red-zone drives have ended in touchdowns. Opponents have also kicked 10 field goals on red-zone drives, meaning they’ve scored on 20 of 27 trips inside Tech’s 20 (74 percent).

No special plans
Richt has frequently been quizzed this week about whether senior quarterback Joe Tereshinski would play Saturday and how much other senior Bulldogs would work into Georgia’s plans during their final appearance at Sanford Stadium.
The coach said he hopes to get all of them in the game, but that’s far from the top of his list of things to do.
“My goal, or my heart’s desire, is for them all to get an opportunity to get out there and play and have a great memory of their last home game,” Richt said. “But I’m not sitting here planning on that.”
Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, Richt said, but the coaching staff can’t be concerned with making unusual changes against their rival if the game is on the line. It’s difficult enough planning for the 16^th-ranked team in the nation without worrying about how much each senior gets to play.
“We’re planning to win the game and if it just so happens that (receiver Mario) Raley gets to play a bunch or Joe T. or whoever, that’s great,” Richt said. “But if they don’t, I hate it for them, but my focus is just getting after Georgia Tech right now.”

Quick hits
Georgia practiced for two hours Thursday morning so players who live within driving distance of Athens could go home for Thanksgiving. The team will have meetings and a walkthrough this morning to conclude preparations for Georgia Tech. … Saturday’s official kickoff time will be 3:34 p.m. … If Georgia Tech wins on Saturday, Reggie Ball would surpass Joe Hamilton as the second-winningest quarterback in school history with 30 wins. That would put him one win behind leader Shawn Jones, who led the Jackets to the 1990 co-national title.

11/25 SEC Picks

Didn't think about this until yesterday, while I was listening to LSU and Arkansas play while I was driving to scenic Jackson, Ga., to cover a high school football playoff game (how bout them Carver Tigers). I didn't think LSU would win yesterday, so I basically start off 0-1 this week. Went 7-0 straight up, but only 2-5 against the spread last week. Including yesterday's game, I'm 76-15 straight up and 44-41 ATS.

Florida at Florida State, Noon Saturday, ABC
Line: Florida by 8
My guess: Florida State is falling apart at the seams. The Gators haven't been playing that great for the last month, honestly, but they've seem to have a tailor-made win today. Here's the thing, though. Other than the humiliating shutout loss to Wake Forest a couple weeks ago, FSU hasn't lost by more than seven to anyone all year. I think maybe the Wake game was just one of those days where nothing went right, so I'm throwing it out to a certain extent. You can't expect the Noles to play that kind of uninspired football against their rival. In fact, I think they're in a position like Georgia was against Auburn -- with somehting to prove. I don't think they win, but they'll give the Gators all they want. Florida 24, Florida State 18

South Carolina at Clemson, Noon Saturday, ESPN
Line: Clemson by 5
My guess: I started to point out how good South Carolina was on the road this year (3-1), but I thought it was only fair to point out those three wins came against Mississippi State, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, while the loss was by one point at Florida. Clemson's 6-1 at home this season, but the Tigers aren't exactly playing great lately. This should be a close one...it usually is. I'll take Clemson because they're playing at home, but I think South Carolina keeps it close. Clemson 20, South Carolina 17

Kentucky at Tennessee, 12:30 p.m. Saturday, LF Sports
Line: Tennessee by 21
My guess: Can you believe Kentucky has won four in a row and five of the last seven? Crazy. If they win today, they finish second in the SEC East. Of course, they're not going into Neyland Stadium and pulling that off, but it would be kind of amusing if they did. The Vols looked great last week and it looks like Erik Ainge is back to normal after struggling with some injuries while the Vols lost two of the previous three. That's bad news for a Kentucky defense that is rather, well, porous. Gave up 501 yards last week to Louisiana-Monroe of all teams. So Tennessee rolls up some pretty big points today, but I think Kentucky scores enough to beat a three-touchdown spread. Tennessee 40, Kentucky 20

Mississippi State at Ole Miss, 2 p.m. Saturday, No TV
Line: Ole Miss by 3
My guess: Let's be honest, the home-field advantage factor is fairly negligible when it's Oxford on a Saturday afternoon. The Rebs have been pretty decent at home (3-3), at least compared to an unimpressive 0-5 on the road. Both teams have been playing better lately. Ole Miss is 1-4 in the last five games, but three of those losses were by six points or less, and those close losses were to LSU, Auburn and Alabama. Mississippi State is also 3-8 and is 1-3 in its last four, but I've been impressed with how tough they've been playing lately. The problem is that QB Michael Henig is out with a broken collarbone. Omarr Conner's a pretty good playmaker, and he's probable to return from a groin injury today, so I'm taking the Bulldogs in a close one. Mississippi State 27, Ole Miss 24

Georgia Tech at Georgia, 3:30 p.m. Saturday, CBS
Line: Georgia by 3
My guess: I'm just not sold on Reggie Ball. The guy has made mistakes, big mistakes, every time he's played Georgia. Throwing punches and picks, or throwing it away on fourth down because he lost track of what down it was -- that doesn't inspire much confidence. Truthfully, this is the year that Tech should beat Georgia. The Jackets have a very good team. But Tech wins and loses based on which Reggie Ball shows up, and the good one has never shown up against Georgia. Georgia 24, Georgia Tech 20

Coach Fab talks punt return

I talked to Georgia assistant coach Jon Fabris Wednesday about Georgia and Georgia Tech's punt return teams. It should be one of the more important matchups on Saturday, should Tech kick to Mikey Henderson. The Jackets have the No. 1-rated punt return team in the nation, but Henderson's fourth in the country with nearly 17 yards per return.

Both questions and answers are verbatim.

You look at the stats for Tech’s punt team and they look pretty good. What’s the biggest component in their being No. 1 in the nation in net punt? Is it that he kicks high or is it that the coverage team is especially good?
Well it’s kind of like an orchestra. The kicker or the punter would be like the conductor. If he’s on, you’ve got a good chance to be on, but you still have all the other musicians, you have all the other players. If they’re not very good, who cares who the conductor is. So it’s a combination of all those things. Certainly his punting average speaks for itself and certainly their net average speaks for itself, so you can’t have one without the other. But his punting average is tremendous, but the net average is impressive as well. I think anytime you’re going into the 12^th game of the season and you’ve done as well as they’ve done, that speaks for itself, particularly when you’ve played the schedule that they’ve played. Like I said, it speaks for itself.

Is it safe to say this is the best punt coverage team y’all have played so far?
I don’t generally make comparisons of teams, units or individuals. Every game is a different one, whether it’s an individual battle a player’s having or whatever. I just focus on that game at hand, which is this one right here. It doesn’t do me any good to sit around and compare who’s best or who’s better or whatever.

I guess that’s a lot of wasted thought.
Yes it is.

Last year, the momentum of the game changed so much with special teams. How big of an impact did Thomas (Flowers’) returns make on the outcome last year?
Who really knows how much they did? It certainly kept us in some good field position, even when we perhaps weren’t doing anything with it. At least if we were going three-and-out, at least you’re still pinning them down deep and not losing the field. Make sense? Sometimes you don’t take advantage of big plays in the kicking game, but the one thing you still get is field position. Then (you’re) hoping something good will eventually come from it. Eventually Shockley threw the go-ahead touchdown pass, but you never know, he could have thrown that from his 2-yard line. So, who knows? Every play’s different, every game’s different. The thing about kicking plays, they don’t come in series. There’s only one and that may be the last one. It’s not like, here’s first down, here’s second down, here’s third down, or next series, there may not even be another play. You have no control over how many times you go out on the field. You have no control. Offense and defense are kind of like starting pitchers. They get into a routine of how many pitches they’re gonna throw weekly, how many days rest, they get into a groove. Offense and defense is that way. The kicking game is kind of like a bullpen pitcher. You still have to get yourself just as ready every day, but you may sit out there the whole night, you may sit out there forever, and then have to pitch three hours later or maybe not pitch at all. It’s a different mindset.

Keeping with that, it’s been a while since Mikey (Henderson has) had a really legitimate chance to make a return. It seems like people might be kicking away from him a little bit. Are you getting that feeling?
Perhaps people aren’t punting that much. We’ve gone through games where the unit hasn’t even been on the field for two and a half quarters. That’s happened several times. Of course, sometimes it may be the fact that they are directional punting, but sometimes the guy just doesn’t hit the ball that good and it goes out of bounds. Sometimes it’s just a combination of a bunch of things. I think the last two games, we’ve had no attempts. We had no attempts against Kentucky or Auburn. Sometimes it happens that way. But anyway, we’ll see.

We were talking to him yesterday and asked him, ‘Do you get antsy? Do you perhaps get the urge to want to take one that maybe you shouldn’t, just to get a chance to return one?’ Do you feel like he’s been making pretty good decisions whether to run with one when it’s coming to him?
Yes. I think so. You want a guy with ice water in his veins that wants to return them all, but you also want a guy that’s got good sense to know that there’s not one punt that has to be caught. You don’t want a guy that’s gonna do foolish things. It’s a fine line. You want a guy, again, who has ice water in his veins, but yet he’s smart, and also knows the situation. If you’re down by two touchdowns and need to make something happen, maybe you take a little bit more of a chance. If you’re ahead by two touchdowns, why do something foolish? It’s a lot of intangible things that go into the return. You can’t just have a fast guy or whatever. But can you make good decisions? Do you know the field, do you understand where you are on the field and that sort of thing?

Unposted Thursday notebook

I had a bunch of stuff to write for Saturday's paper last night, so I didn't send in my notebook until really late. Maybe that's why it doesn't appear to have made it online.

ATHENS, Ga. – For all the problems seemingly erased in Georgia’s 37-15 hammering of Auburn
two weeks ago, one still remained. The Bulldogs missed an extra point try for the third time in the last four games, when Auburn’s Jonathan Palmer busted through the center of Georgia’s line to knock down Gordon Ely-Kelso’s kick.
“We finally got it solved one kick too late. It didn’t cost us. It cost us a point, but it could have cost the game,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “It’s kind of been a sore thumb all year long, a certain spot they’ve been trying to blast through.”
Normally the team’s punter, Ely-Kelso was playing his first game as Georgia’s place-kicker, taking over from Andy Bailey partly because of Bailey’s inconsistency on PATs.
Bailey missed two field goals and an extra point in a narrow loss to Kentucky and also missed a PAT against Mississippi State.
An additional missed PAT against Tennessee was erased because of a penalty, and Bailey hit on the second try.
Ely-Kelso hit his other four extra-point tries against Auburn, as well as a 34-yard field goal, but the kicking team was still a far cry from the consistency once shown by Brandon Coutu, who had hit 58 straight PATs before suffering a season-ending hamstring injury before the Tennessee game.
“I think it’s been such a combination of things. That (blocked kick) could have had a little of the blame placed on blocking and I was probably slow,” said Ely-Kelso, who was Georgia’s holder on kicks before taking over as kicker. “Andy had a couple where he just missed and I had a bad hold on one.
“It’s so many things that all add up to missing three or four extra points – that’s gonna be a bad spot where people are gonna look at it and be like, ‘If you can’t make an extra point, what can you make?’”
One person Ely-Kelso said didn’t deserve blame was holder Brian Mimbs, making his first appearance on the job since Ely-Kelso became the place-kicker.
“He had an amazing game holding. I was really impressed with him,” Ely-Kelso said of Mimbs, also his backup at punter. “He got one snap – it might have been his first one – that he handled really well. He’s real calm and did a great job.”

Star recruiter
Perhaps fullback Brannan Southerland has a future as a college recruiter ahead of him.
While he doesn’t take credit for highly touted running back Caleb King’s commitment, Southerland did encourage King – who played this season at Southerland’s alma mater, Greater Atlanta Christian – to come to Athens.
Southerland attended a GAC game earlier this year to watch his brother Blake, a sophomore on the team. While he was there, he informed King that he’d like to block for him one day at Georgia.
“I told him, ‘Hey, for me Georgia was the best place. For my family, it’s worked out great for me,’” Southerland recalled. “I said, ‘I love it up there.’ I told him to enjoy the recruiting process and if Georgia was the place for him, then come on up. ‘I’d love to be your teammate and it’d be fun if you get up there.’”
One of the top running back recruits in the nation, King was no doubt hearing that type of thing wherever he went. But he committed to Georgia last Friday, so Southerland’s offer couldn’t have hurt.
Assuming King follows through on his commitment by signing with Georgia in February, Southerland will have to back it up by clearing a path for King when he takes the field as Bulldog.
“I’ve talked to my (GAC) coaches and they say he’s a special back, so to get up here and have an opportunity to block for him in a couple years, it’ll be a lot of fun,” Southerland said. “I look forward to it.”

Quick hits
Running back Danny Ware (knee/ankle) was out of a green no-contact jersey at Wednesday’s practice and is expected to play Saturday against Georgia Tech. Richt said running back Kregg Lumpkin (ankle), receiver Mario Raley (concussion) and offensive lineman Michael Turner (ankle) have all recovered sufficiently from their injuries. All three should play Saturday as well. Turner and backup kicker Ben Wilson practiced in green jerseys Wednesday. … Georgia’s 22 seniors will be honored in pregame festivities before Saturday’s game, their final appearance on the Sanford Stadium turf.

Happy Thanksgiving

It has been a long, long day, but I figured I'd drop a quote or two on here, in the spirit of Thanksgiving. I talked to coach Fabris today for a special teams story. He's just an interesting dude. I'll transcribe that tomorrow and post it on here. Till then, enjoy your turkey and football today.

Willie Martinez, on whether he was concerned over how CB Bryan Evans would respond to being picked on in his first start, against Mississippi State:
"You always worry about a player’s confidence when he doesn’t perform at the level that maybe you’d like or he’d like. A credit to him, he’s been fighting and he’s been clawing and grinding and just improving each and every day. He’s got a ways to go, but he’s gained a little bit of confidence here and there since that time."

On why he decided to start Evans over Ramarcus Brown against Auburn:
"Just he’s been practicing well and just to change up and get a spark and see what’d happen. Ramarcus hasn’t done anything – really Ramarcus has been practicing really well these last two weeks. Obviously we didn’t practice that much last week, with last week’s practice and then the first two we’ve had here. We expect him to play. IT was just a changeup. There really hasn’t been a guy that’s taken off and taken control of that other corner spot."

Gordon Ely-Kelso, on Georgia's problems kicking extra points:
"I think it’s been such a combination of things. That one could have had a little of the blame placed on blocking and I was probably slow. Andy had a couple where he just missed and I had a bad hold on one. It’s so many things that all add up to missing three or four extra points – that’s gonna be a bad spot where people are gonna look at it and be like, ‘If you can’t make an extra point, what can you make?’ I think in that sense it is a sore thumb, but there’s not one thing to really fix, it’s just a matter of bringing all the things together that we need to do on that play."

Tra Battle, on his pregame routine before the Auburn game:
"I don’t think we’re gonna get the same pregame meal. Last time we had steak. I don’t know if that was intentional, but it was probably the best pregame meal I’ve had since I’ve been at Georgia. Really I didn’t do anything differently than I did for the entire season. I always have a laptop with film on it and watch it as I go to sleep at night. I did watch film a little bit longer before the Auburn game, but I didn’t do anything different than what I’ve done the entire season."

"It was so good we ran out of it before everybody got a chance to eat. That was the best pregame meal I’ve had in a while."

Brannan Southerland on Joe Tereshinski:
"It hasn’t gone the way he probably envisioned it. It’s his fifth year and he was the starter and we’ve had some younger quarterbacks come in here. With all that happening, you never once have seen Joe T. badmouth anyone, badmouth any of the other quarterbacks. Personally he might have got down a couple times, but he’s always been a vocal leader, he’s always been there for the team, he’s always continued to work hard every single day."

Southerland on whether Matthew Stafford runs like a fullback:
"It looks that way because when he runs the ball it looks like it takes seven or eight of them to get him down. I’ve never really seen him fall backwards."

Southerland, on meeting Caleb King during the season and encouraging him to come to Georgia:
"I met him at one game, I went back to watch my little brother play. That was my first time to see Caleb, I got to see him play a little bit and also shake hands and meet him. I told him, ‘Hey, for me Georgia was the best place. For my family, it’s worked out great for me.’ I said, ‘I love it up there.’ I told him to enjoy the recruiting process and if Georgia was the place for him, then come on up. ‘I’d love to be your teammate and it’d be fun if you get up there.’ I told him to pick the spot that’s best for him."

On the recruiting process:
"At first it takes you by surprise and then it’s fun. If you let it get to you, it can get to be a little obnoxious and run your life a bit."

I imagine it was crazy how much attention he was getting?
"He had it worse. He’s on the cover of every recruiting magazine. There’s a lot of pressure, so I know for him to get this off his shoulders is a big relief."

On King coming to Georgia:
"I’ve talked to my coaches and they say he’s a special back, so to get up here and have an opportunity to block for him in a couple years, it’ll be a lot of fun. I look forward to it."

Alabama AD's statement

This has nothing to do with Georgia. I just thought it was interesting.

Alabama's sports information people just released this statement from AD Mal Moore, which really says nothing, does it? They must really be getting overwhelmed by the heat on Mike Shula over there. The way people are carrying on in Alabama, you almost have to expect them to fire him after the season. I'm not sure if that's fair. Thankfully, I don't have to make those decisions and then answer for them.

A STATEMENT FROM MAL MOORE , DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- A statement follows from University of Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore regarding the Crimson Tide football program:

“As is customary at the end of the regular season, we are evaluating our football program. We are evaluating every aspect of our program and this is not a process that I wish to discuss at length in a public forum. We are bowl-eligible and we hope to remain positioned to play in a bowl game. We remain firm in our commitment to our student-athletes. I am proud of their efforts throughout this season and we are more determined than ever to return Alabama football to its rightful place among college football’s elite."

Neither Mr. Moore nor Coach Shula will be available to the media until after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We thank you for your patience and consideration.

Chan Gailey teleconference transcript

Here's the Q/A portion of Chan Gailey's time on the ACC coaches teleconference yesterday. The questions aren't verbatim, but obviously the answers are...

On whether they'll hold anything back for the ACC championship game:
Our approach to every game this year has been let’s go win this game and we’ll worry about the next game after that. But do whatever it takes to win this game and don’t worry about what you show, what you don’t show. Don’t worry about what the gameplan is. If you’ve got a trick play, use it. We’re not saving anything for any game. We’ve never taken that approach. I don’t see us treating this game any differently.

On the chance to play in the ACC championship game:
We’re very pleased with that. I’m really happy for our seniors in particular. They’ve worked very hard and seen a lot of ups and downs through their four years here. They had this goal back when we started in February. They are excited about the opportunity. Really though when you play a game like Georgia this week, we can’t dwell on that fact too much. Fortunately we have a bunch of guys that don’t dwell on that. They’re getting ready to play this one.

On the difficulties of playing Georgia:
Their defense is ranked No. 13 in the nation. They’ve got very good people at every position. They’ve got a secondary that gets after the ball, both run and pass. They’re very aggressive. Their offense is starting to come around. Traditionally, during the early part of the year, they’ve been giving up a lot of sacks and a lot of turnovers and they’ve started to cut that down. When they do that they become a very good offensive team. Stafford’s starting to come around a little bit as a quarterback and you can see that just by the way he plays and the confidence he has. And they’ve been very good on special teams all year. I think they’ve got three or four touchdowns via kick returns this year. So they have the capability of being an extremely good football team. They just haven’t put it all together at times this year.

On whether he expects Georgia to do something drastic to defend Calvin Johnson:
There’ll be something different, we just don’t know what it is. That’s the thing about it is people don’t face a Calvin Johnson during the course of the year so you can’t go back and look at film and say, ‘OK, this is what they’ll do.’ It’s always something that’s unique and you have to see what the adjustment is going to be and then adjust on your own part to what they’re doing.

On how the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry compares to others he's been around:
The only other one I’ve really been around…well, I take that back, I’ve been around a couple. I’ve been around the Florida-Florida State rivalry and that one was pretty intense while I was there. And I coached in the service academies and anytime you play one of the service academies, there’s a lot riding on those games as well. It’s up there in the tops of the country. It always has been, it probably always will be. It’s just one of those that’s a cross-conference game, which some places have that, some places don’t have that. But it’s a big game, obviously.

On how good Reggie Ball has been this season despite a 47 percent completion percentage:
The thing that our offense is about is throwing the ball down the field and running the football. We’re not a big intermediate passing team. That’s not something we do a ton of, so I don’t think our completion statistics, the way we’re set up now, will ever be great. I think they will always be in that mid-range or a little bit below because of the way we’re set up at this point. But he’s done a great job of managing the game and leading the team to victory. When it gets down to it, the statistics don’t matter. It’s did you lead your team to victory, and he’s done that a buncha times around here.

On the horserace in the ACC Atlantic Division to face Tech in the ACC title game:
If you’re sitting in our shoes, you’re hoping it’s taking a lot of energy out of whoever it is over there to play. What they’re hoping, whoever comes out of that side, is that we’re getting complacent somewhat because we’ve had it somewhat in hand for the last couple weeks, so maybe we’re not as primed and on the edge. So hey, the one thing about it is, it doesn’t matter who’s there, it’s going to be a great football game. It’ll probably be a tight ballgame because both teams are gonna play as hard as they can play. One of the bigger issues is, does anybody get a major player hurt in this last week before the last ballgame.

Does that concern you going into Saturday's game?
Sure it is. That’s what you worry about in a game of this magnitude, because you’re not gonna rest guys in this game. It’s your arch rival. But at the same time, you win the next one and you go to a BCS bowl. So it’s a Catch 22 to a certain extent.

What do you think about how the race has come down to the end in the other division?
It’s great for all those fans. It’s wonderful for football fans in general. It’s what you hope to create with this type of situation. You hope to create that type of interest and that type of competition going down to the last week if you can.

On who he would rather play in the title game:
Like I’m gonna say.

On the development of James Johnson at wide receiver:
I think he’s made a lot of progress this year. He started out as a young player who had a little bit of experience, but he’s to me really come on to become a very good receiver at this point. Obviously he’s gotten a lot of opportunities, because if you’re on the opposite side of Calvin Johnson, you’re going to end up with a lot of single coverage, you’re going to end up with lots of chances to make plays. He’s really matured as a player. I see the strides he’s made, not only as a route runner but in the way he’s disciplined in reading coverages and getting to the right spot.

Wednesday notebook

I've been having a rough time the last few days (car trouble, among other things), so I don't really have time to do a full blog post today. That being the case, here's the notebook I wrote for Wednesday's paper. Also, I finally threw something together on the touchdown celebrations Stafford and Lumpkin have been doing.

By the way, nothing huge happened today. I've got lots of stuff for stories and notes, but I'll have to get back to you with that stuff, hopefully tomorrow night.

ATHENS, Ga. – It’s easy to credit all-star receiver Calvin Johnson or 1,000-yard rusher Tashard Choice for Georgia Tech’s improvement on offense this season.

Both players have had excellent seasons and deserve plenty of praise for the Yellow Jackets’ 9-2 record and Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division title.

But a number of Georgia’s players say another Yellow Jacket deserves acknowledgement for the team’s improvement from 18.5 points per game a year ago to 26.9 this season – senior quarterback Reggie Ball.

“I think for the most part it’s been Reggie Ball and how consistent he’s been,” said Georgia cornerback Paul Oliver, whose team hosts Tech on Saturday. “He’s not turning the ball over really too much. He really makes plays when they need to.”

Turnovers are the most obvious sign of the senior’s increased maturity. Of the four seasons Ball has been Tech’s starting quarterback, this is the first where he’s thrown more touchdowns (20) than interceptions (10). He’s also run for 318 yards, pushing his career total to 1,415 yards – the sixth-best total for a quarterback in ACC history.

“When the routes are covered, he can run for a first down, he can get out of any kind of trouble, any kind of pressure,” Oliver said. “He’s been a difference-maker.”

Coming into the year, Ball’s career had been marked by poor decision-making and often erratic play, as evidenced by his 37 touchdowns against 41 interceptions through his first three years.

He’s still completing only 47 percent of his passes, but Georgia’s players don’t expect him to make another dumb mistake like he did the last time Tech visited Athens, when he lost track of what down it was and blew the Yellow Jackets’ last chance to score in a 19-13 loss.

“He makes a lot better decisions,” Georgia safety Tra Battle said. “Some of the passes he throws are so much more accurate than in the past. That really increases the challenge that we have for the game.”

Senior starters

Sophomore defensive tackle Jeff Owens has been dropped from Georgia’s starting lineup for the first time this season, but it’s not because of anything he’s done wrong.

Defensive line coach Rodney Garner plans to start seniors Ray Gant and Dale Dixson for their last home game at Sanford Stadium, with Owens and redshirt freshman Kade Weston backing them up.

“Jeff Owens has been playing great, but Jeff Owens is a good team guy and I’m sure he understands,” Garner said. “If the shoe was on the other foot, he’d relish that opportunity.”

Dixson certainly will relish that chance. The Texas native has started just twice in an injury-filled career.

“He’s probably just doing that to honor me and Ray in our senior year,” said Dixson, who has nine tackles and a blocked field goal this year. “It’s my last game here in the stadium. I’d feel honored if that was the case.”

While Garner said both Gant and Dixson have played well enough to start, the starting spots are largely ceremonial. All four players will continue to rotate evenly, as they have for much of the season.

“All my guys play the same anyway, they rotate,” Garner said. “(Dixson is) a senior and this is his last time in Sanford Stadium and we think he deserves this opportunity.

Injury update

Receiver Mario Raley returned to practice in a normal jersey on Tuesday, after getting limited work in Monday’s practice in a green no-contact jersey.

Raley had been out since spending the night of the Kentucky game in a Lexington hospital after a brutal hit caused him to lose consciousness and be wheeled off the field on a stretcher.

After a series of medical tests Tuesday to make certain there were no residual effects remaining from the concussion he suffered on that play, Raley was cleared to return to full contact. He lined up as Mohamed Massaquoi’s backup at split end in practice.

“I actually feel better (than before the Kentucky game),” Raley said. “I’ve got my legs back up under me.”

Offensive lineman Michael Turner (ankle) and running back Danny Ware (knee/ankle) both continued to practice in green jerseys Tuesday, but both are probable for Saturday.

Kicker Ben Wilson (knee) also practiced in green.

Tuesday flex line

Here's the stretch line from today's practice. Remember, it's not necessarily an absolute indicator of the starting lineup and depth chart, but it's a pretty good guide.

First-team defense: Charles Johnson, Quentin Moses, Ray Gant, Dale Dixson, Brandon Miller, Jarvis Jackson, Tony Taylor, Tra Battle, Kelin Johnson, Bryan Evans, Paul Oliver

First-team offense: A.J. Bryant, Mohamed Massaquoi, Martrez Milner, Ken Shackleford, Fernando Velasco, Nick Jones, Chester Adams, Dan Inman, Brannan Southerland, Kregg Lumpkin, Matthew Stafford

Second-team defense: Rod Battle, Marcus Howard, Kade Weston, Jeff Owens, Darius Dewberry, Unknown freshman linebacker, Dannell Ellerbe, Donavon Baldwin, CJ Byrd, Ramarcus Brown, Asher Allen

Second-team offense: Kenneth Harris, Mario Raley, Tripp Chandler, Josh Davis, Chris Davis, Ian Smith, Seth Watts, Michael Turner, Jason Johnson, Danny Ware, Joe Tereshinski

In green: Danny Ware, Michael Turner, Ben Wilson

Quick Monday notes

Georgia was back at it on Monday. Matthew Stafford said they had some spring in their step after only practicing one day last week.

The main thing I wanted to look for today was to see how much/if some of the injured players practiced. In that regard, things look pretty good for Georgia:
* OL Michael Turner (ankle) practiced in a green jersey, but I watched him work in some blocking drills and he seemed to be holding up pretty well. He said he's "pretty sure" he'll be able to go Saturday.
* RB Danny Ware (knee/ankle) was probably the other most questionable guy, and he was in uniform, also in green on Monday. In what we saw of practice, he only ran sprints across an end zone, but he said he later got in on some contact and some technique drills. He says he'll play Saturday, but the ankle's still sore and he didn't really want to guess what percent he's currently at.
"Everything really was just in my ankle. The MCL’s just a little sore, is all that is. The ankle just swelled up so bad, and now it went down. I’m just trying to get back in the groove of things."
* RB Kregg Lumpkin (ankle) is probably going to be fine although he said his ankle "could be better." He practiced more than Ware on Monday and I'm pretty sure he'll start on Saturday unless he reinjures himself.
* WR Mario Raley (concussion) is probably still questionable. I'm not 100 percent sure that he didn't practice today, but I didn't see him out there. Coach Richt said yesterday he thinks Raley will be back for Tech, though.
* PR/WR Mikey Henderson actually practiced in a normal jersey today. I believe he's been in green during practice every day since originally injuring his ribs against Mississippi State.
* Backup K Ben Wilson (knee) practiced in green. I'm not sure what his status is for Saturday.

In other news, I'd look for Bryan Evans to start again Saturday at cornerback ahead of Ramarcus Brown. He made quite a recovery from his first start, against Mississippi State, when he started against Auburn and played pretty well. Also, you'll probably see quite a bit of Danny Verdun Wheeler again vs. Georgia Tech. He'll probably start at sam linebacker, but now that Marcus Washington is out with a season-ending knee injury, he's officially the backup mike linebacker as well. Truthfully, I think he's always been Jarvis Jackson's true backup at middle linebacker, although Washington's been the backup on the official depth charts all season.

Last thing, I know most of the people who'd want to read this have probably already read it, but I figured I'd throw out a link to it anyway. This was a fascinating story written by Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, who tracked down former Georgia and Miami Dolphins great Jake Scott in Hawaii and got him to do his first interview since he retired from the NFL in 1979. He's definitely living the dream...deciding when he gets up every day whether he wants to go fishing, golfing or sitting down at the bar for a drink or two. Once I finish building my vast fortune as a professional blogger, that's what I plan to do as well. Anyway, he'll be Georgia's honorary captain at Saturday's game.

Where's Jake Scott? We found him

Master Coaches Poll 11/20

1. Ohio State (16)
2. Southern Cal
3. Michigan
4. Florida
5. Arkansas
6. Notre Dame
7. West Virginia
8. LSU
9. Wisconsin
10. Texas
11. Louisville
12. Auburn
13. Boise State
14. Oklahoma
15. Georgia Tech
16. Virginia Tech
17. Rutgers
18. Boston College
19. Tennessee
20. Nebraska
21. California
22. BYU
23. Wake Forest
24. Texas A&M
25. Clemson

Other teams receiving votes ... Maryland, Georgia, Hawaii, Penn State, Cincinnati, South Carolina, Texas Tech, Oregon State

Teams falling out of the poll this week ... Maryland

BCS Standings 11/19

1. Ohio State
2. Michigan
3. USC
4. Florida
5. Notre Dame
6. Arkansas
7. West Virginia
8. Wisconsin
9. Louisville
10. LSU
11. Boise State
12. Auburn
13. Texas
14. Rutgers
15. Oklahoma
16. Georgia Tech
17. Virginia Tech
18. Boston College
19. California
20. Tennessee
21. Wake Forest
22. Nebraska
23. Brigham Young
24. Clemson
25. Penn State

Link

King picks UGA

I assume everyone who wanted to know this already knows it. Caleb King picked Georgia this morning over a fistful of offers from other top programs.

The five-star tailback -- Georgia's first five-star commitment this year -- has been a superstar at Parkview and then Greater Atlanta Christian in Gwinnett County. With at least two of the three current tailbacks back next year, plus redshirt freshman Knowshon Moreno -- whom lots of the defensive players are raving about from over his outstanding play on the scout team -- you'd wonder if it wouldn't be best to redshirt King next season. Not sure that would happen, but they will have a lot of folks back at the position.

But by all counts, this kid is one of the top couple -- if not THE best -- tailback(s) in the nation. It's a huge get for Georgia. Now we'll see if they can keep him solid between now and signing day.

Scout.com story

King videos (Scout)

Rivals.com story

SEC Picks for 11/18

Nice rebound last week. Went 4-1 straight up and against the spread to move to 69-14 overall and 42-35 ATS. The winners this week won't be that tough to call, but the spreads could make things interesting in a couple of them.

Tennessee at Vanderbilt, 12:30 p.m. Saturday, LF Sports
Line: Tennessee by 7.5
My guess: Just when I go and say Tennessee's the most explosive team Georgia's played this year, the Vols turn around and lose two straight. Everything hinges on Erik Ainge and he's been banged up lately. He's supposed to start in this one and supposed to be close to 100 percent. If he is, Vandy can't stop Tennessee's offense enough to beat that spread. The Commodores are feisty, as Georgia found out. By the way, if Vandy loses this one, it'll end the season with one SEC win. Ouch. Tennessee 20, Vanderbilt 10

Western Carolina at Florida, 1 p.m. Saturday, No TV
Line: The only line I could find for this one (Pinnaclesports.com) had Florida by 48
My guess: Considering they have an offensive genius as a coach, Florida sure doesn't score much. After a 42-0 win over Central Florida in the second game of the year, the most the Gators have scored in any game since has been 28 points. Obviously they're gonna wallop Western Carolina, a I-AA team that has lost eight straight and is last in the Southern Conference. But I'm betting on the Catamounts to put some points on the board. Florida 50, Western Carolina 7

Middle Tennessee State at South Carolina, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, PPV
Line: South Carolina by 15
My guess: Middle Tennessee's not a bad team this year. Of its three losses, two were to Oklahoma and Louisville. Not only are they capable of beating that spread, they're capable of beating South Carolina. I don't think that happens, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities, considering they've won five of six and are playing a South Carolina team that has lost three straight. But Steve Spurrier's fairly P.O'ed after three close losses to top 25 teams, so poor Middle Tennessee might have to face the wrath. South Carolina 27, Middle Tennessee 14

Louisiana-Monroe at Kentucky, 1 p.m. Saturday, No TV
Line: Kentucky by 19.5
My guess: La-Monroe ended a seven-game losing streak with a whupping of Florida International last week, which was apparently enough to prompt FIU coach Don Strock to tender his resignation. If you can't beat Louisiana-Monroe, it's time to go, as the saying goes. At least, that should be a saying. Kentucky will do that Saturday and win its seventh game of the year. How bout them Wildcats? If they win out, they'd finish second in the SEC East. Probably won't, but could happen. Kentucky 35, Louisiana-Monroe 14

Arkansas at Mississippi State, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, No TV
Line: Arkansas by 14.5
My guess: Mississippi State is starting to play like a real football program, with narrow losses to two bowl-bound teams before upsetting Alabama in Tuscaloosa in its last game. It would be nice to see Sylvester Croom get something going in Starkville, as it seems he does things the way they're supposed to be done...well, everything except win. That's pretty big too. And it ain't happening today against an Arkansas team I think is playing better than just about anybody in the country right now. Arkansas 30, Mississippi State 13

Auburn at Alabama, 3:30 p.m. Saturday, CBS
Line: Auburn by 3
My guess: I've been saying all season that halfway decent teams are capable of beating Auburn. They're just not that good on offense. What was most surprising last week was how well Georgia moved the ball against what was supposed to be a pretty good defense. Georgia dominated every phase of that game, which isn't a good sign for the Tigers as they head into their biggest game of the year. Alabama has had a bad year, so this game -- and the whole "one for the thumb" thing if Auburn wins for the fifth straight time -- gives the Tide plenty of reason to be as feisty as Georgia was a week ago. Tuberville's teams usually bounce back from ugly losses, though, and I think Auburn will skate by. Auburn 21, Alabama 17

Ole Miss at LSU, 8 p.m. Saturday, PPV
Line: LSU by 27.5
My guess: Their win over mighty Northwestern State ended a streak where the Rebs had lost seven of eight. They won't win this one, either, but I think there's a chance they could cover that big spread. I'm torn on this one. Ole Miss has fallen flat on the road a couple times against good teams and this one's at Baton Rouge on a Saturday night. Not good. But I could see LSU calling off the dogs with a showdown against Arkansas the following week. I'm gonna take LSU covering, but I don't feel good about it. LSU 38, Ole Miss 10

King announcement tomorrow

Looks like Greater Atlanta Christian RB Caleb King is set to announce his decision. According to the good folks over at scout.com, King will announce where he plans to sign tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m.

The scuttlebutt lately has been that Georgia is in the lead for King's services, but Auburn's supposed to be pretty high on his list as well. He has more than 50 scholarship offers from some pretty big-name schools, so there may be others in the picture as well.

Before suffering a season-ending leg injury earlier this year, King was widely considered the nation's top RB prospect and the top in-state prospect.

Link

Not much news + AA noms

I had a minor crisis at the homestead, so I wasn't able to stay for all of practice today. I think it's resolved now, but I don't have much for you. I can say to watch for Macon ace Josh Kendall's story on freshman OL Mickey White in the near future. I listened to the two of them talking some and Josh will really have to screw up to turn that interview into a bad story.

I did see the start of what was a rainy practice today and can say that RB Kregg Lumpkin was on the field, but I don't think he played. WR Mario Raley and RB Danny Ware did not practice and I did not see OL Michael Turner. One of my friends who was there called and said Raley has not been medically cleared yet, but he's expecting to be back for the Tech game. Lumpkin is going to be fine. There was no reason to send him out there on a dismally rainy day and try to run around a bunch. I saw Danny Ware yesterday and he seemed to be moving around OK. I imagine he won't really try to test it until next week, but I bet he'll be back as well.

I have a bowl story in tomorrow's paper and some leftover stuff that I'm going to write up to string together for a notebook for Friday's paper. So check the Ledger site for that. I probably won't post a ton on here over the next couple days unless something happens between now and Sunday's teleconference. I'll be in Columbus covering Columbus State women's hoops Friday night and heading to my home state to help cover the Iron Bowl on Saturday. Should be tons o' fun. I've never been to a game in Tuscaloosa.

Also, here are the players I nominated for the Football Writers Association all-America team. I appreciate all the recommendations folks made. I actually took several of them into account. And perhaps there was a little home cooking going on. This is only the nomination stage, after all, so I can let my distaste for that sissy brand of football they play in other regions affect my judgment. You may also notice I nominated four centers out of the five offensive linemen. I'm just now noticing it myself. Now THAT would be a tricky offensive line. The actual voting will be next month.

QB Troy Smith, Ohio State
RB Ray Rice, Rutgers
RB Darren McFadden, Arkansas
WR Calvin Johnson, Georgia Tech
WR Earl Bennett, Vanderbilt
TE Greg Olsen, Miami
OL Nick Jones, Georgia
OL Jonathan Luigs, Arkansas
OL Arron Sears, Tennessee
OL Dan Mozes, West Virginia
OL Dustin Fry, Clemson
P Kody Bliss, Auburn
PK Justin Medlock, UCLA
ST Mikey Henderson, Georgia

Interview with CFA Bowl rep

I mentioned the other day that I talked to Steve Robinson, a bowl representative from the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, before the Auburn game. I wrote a story about bowl possibilities for tomorrow, so I transcribed the interview today and thought I might as well post it.

Remember, this was BEFORE the game. Things have changed a bit, but there are still several relevant points made, if for no other reason than some insight into how bowl folks think. I think Georgia winds up in the CFA Bowl if it beats Tech and the Music City if it loses. Either way, it could be a pretty interesting matchup.

I assume you're here to scout Georgia moreso than Auburn?
Auburn would probably have to lose at least one game, maybe two.

Does Georgia have to win out to be a strong candidate for your bowl?
I think we'd all feel a lot better about it if they won at least one of those two. Personally, I think most of us on the bowl committee -- if they were gonna win one of those games, the most crucial one would be the last one because then they'd be coming into the bowl game with a victory and I think they'd be up. But you know what? If Georgia's the best team on the table for us to pick from, in terms of the competitiveness they'll be able to bring to the game and obviously the fan support and TV viewership, they'll be in the hunt. There's five or six teams right now that could be in our game. It's a cliche, but it is to early to call it.

How much does Georgia's proximity to Atlanta add to its attractiveness. Does a 7-5 Georgia team have more appeal than say an 8-4 Alabama team because of its proximity?
I think it depends on the quality of the wins, their ranking within the conference and their division. It's not just win-loss, it's those kinds of things, who they beat, how they played in their division and who we think they're gonna be playing against.

Speaking of which, who from the ACC is especially on your radar?
This is the first year of our new contract so we're picking first after the BCS from the ACC. We could be looking at a Virginia Tech, we could be looking at Wake Forest, Boston College. Florida State might win out, you just don't know.

Suppose Georgia is to win out and Georgia Tech loses in the ACC championship game. How appealing is a rematch game to your bowl?
We typically don't like to do rematch games. I say we, the bowl. That would not be our first option, ideally. I mean, I'm being truthful with you. Would we consider it? Sure we'd consider it. If all of our other scenarios were not as appealing, we might do it. We may very well do it. There is no potential package of games out there that after the 18th, we won't start looking at real, real seriously. So if a Georgia-Georgia Tech rematch is a really viable game, sure we'll look at it. It's not the favorite thing for the bowl to put together a rematch, but it's not off the table absolutely.

Battle: Vote for Me!

Talked to Tra Battle some and he wanted to encourage everyone to text message a vote for him in the Cingular All-America player of the week voting. It was a fairly funny conversation he had with a couple of the writers.

He said he was waiting for the campus bus Monday when Dale Dixson came up and told him about it:
"I was at the bus stop and Dale told me about it and I was like, ‘For real?’ Dale told me about it and was like, ‘I’ve been texting all morning.’ I didn’t have my phone on me at the time because my battery was dead. I just left it at home on the charger. But I sent like five of them in when I got back to my house."

And he hopes you'll do the same:
"Put that in there – 87654 and text “vote” to 87654. It has to be done by Thursday 12 a.m. I'm Option D"

So you've got a little less than five hours. He's up against UConn's Donald Brown, Kansas State's Josh Freeman and Arkansas' Darren McFadden. That's some pretty stiff competition. The winner will be announced during tomorrow's West Virginia-Pitt game on ESPN.

Tuesday notes

It was a slow-ish day today. We did get to talk to a couple players this evening before the men's basketball game against Western Kentucky (which was sloppy, sloppy, sloppy). I talked to Stafford about the "You can't see me" celebratory thing he and a couple of other guys have been doing. I might do something with that depending on what the others have to say. They're practicing tomorrow for the first time this week, so we'll see what comes from all that. That's all for today on football.

So I went to my first Georgia hoops game tonight, quite honestly because I didn't have anything at all to do. I won't be covering any Georgia sports after football season ends until spring football, so I figured I'd take in a basketball game while I was here, just for the fun of it.

There's no reason Georgia should have lost, but they did. Just fell apart in the last few minutes. I stuck around just to hear what coach Felton had to say about Channing Toney's departure from the team, which was announced today...mostly just because he apparently told the reporters who cover the team after practice that Toney was still a part of their plans, but had told the players before practice that Toney was transferring. I found that interesting and wanted to see what his reasoning was for that. Whatever it was, he didn't really illuminate it other than to say they were trying to "get organized." Call it "Getting their story straight" if you like. I'm sure he had a good reason for not wanting to address it yesterday. He doesn't have to share what that was, but nobody likes being lied to.

Although there are rumors that Toney will transfer to Georgia Southern, Felton and Levi Stukes both said they didn't know where he plans to go. Felton also said the decision to leave Georgia was entirely Toney's. Several of the players said they were extremely surprised by the news.

And that may be the only time I ever post about Georgia basketball on here. Hope you enjoyed...

FWAA all-America nominations (Offense/Special teams)

I thought this might be fun for a couple people if anyone's interested. I got my Football Writers Association Offense/Special Teams all-America nomination sheet today. I thought I'd let readers make some suggestions and make a case for their picks before I send in my noms...doesn't mean I'll actually nominate them, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd have some pretty good ideas.

Here's the format for a nomination sheet:
QB
RB
RB
WR
WR
TE
OL
OL
OL
OL
OL
P
PK
ST

Battle awards keep rolling in

Now it's the Master Coaches getting in on the act...and y'all let me know if this is any easier to read. I'm trying to get it fixed...

Like his interceptions against fifth-ranked Auburn, awards keep coming for Georgia senior Tra Battle. The Master Football Coaches group becomes the latest to recognize Battle’s outstanding performance in Georgia’s 37-15 road win over the Tigers.

Battle has been awarded an “MCS Nike™ Game Ball” as the Defensive Player of the Week. Each week during the 2006 college football season, the 17 Master Football Coaches award a game ball to the respective schools of an Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Player of the Week.

Battle tied a school-record with three interceptions – all in the first half – as Georgia posted its first-ever win over a top five-ranked opponent on their field. Battle returned one of his interceptions for a touchdown (30 yards) to help the Bulldogs take an impressive 30-7 halftime lead. Overall, Georgia held Auburn to just 171 yards of total offense. Also, the Bulldog defense limited Auburn to only 35 yards passing on four completions while registering four sacks. Battle tallied four tackles and one pass break up. Battle’s three interceptions were the most in a game by a Bulldog since 1982 when Terry Hoage had three against Vanderbilt. Battle has a team-leading six interceptions this season and eight for his career.

Earlier this week, Battle was named the National Defensive Player of the Week by the Walter Camp Foundation and the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Week. Also, he is one of four nominees for the Cingular All-America Player of the Week as selected by ESPN, then voted on by the fans, and the winner announced during Thursday’s ESPN college football telecast.

Battle is the second Bulldog to receive an MCS Nike™ Game Ball this season. Willie Martinez was named Defensive Coordinator of the Week following the team’s 18-0 shutout over Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks on Sept. 9. The Master Coaches also present a game ball weekly to the offensive and defensive coordinator whose game plans made the biggest impact in their respective teams' victory.

The Master Coaches Survey is an advisory poll comprised of 17 former college football coaches, includes 11 College Football Hall of Fame Members. Also, they establish a ranking of the Top 25 teams.

Mikey up for return man award

from the university...

University of Georgia junior Mike Henderson has been named
a semifinalist for the inaugural Randy Moss Return Man Award presented
by GameDay Consultants and Gulf Coast Events.

The award, voted on annually by NCAA Sports Information Directors, will
be presented for the first time at the 2007 North South All-Star
Classic in Houston, Texas, to the Division IA level collegiate athlete
who demonstrates exceptional talent and skill in returning punts or
kickoffs. The individual should also represent their team and
university with the highest standard of character.

Henderson leads the Southeastern Conference and ranks fourth nationally
with a 16.9 punt return average. He is on pace to set the school record
with that average and has tied the mark for most punt return touchdowns
in a season with two. Henderson had an 86-yard punt return for a
touchdown against 13th-ranked Tennessee, which is the longest by an SEC
player this year.

Along with Henderson, the semi-finalists for the award include the
following: Ray Baum (Iowa St), Darrell Blackman (North Carolina St.),
Ross Dickerson (Hawaii), Chris Garrett (Ohio), Jonathan Hefney
(Tennessee), Jessie Henderson (SMU), DeSean Jackson (California),
Grant Jones (Okla. St), Kevin Marion (Wake Forest), Damon Nickson
(Middle Tenn. State), Ean Randolph (South Florida), Lowell Robinson
(Pittsburgh), Jeff Smith (Boston College), Sammie Stroughter (Oregon
St), Marcus Thigpen (Indiana), Jeremy Trimble (Army) and Josh Wilson
(Maryland).

The selection of the finalists will be December 13, 2006 with the
winner being announced and presented at the North South All-Star
Classic being played on January 13, 2007 in Houston, Texas. The game,
featuring 90 of the nation’s finest collegiate seniors, is set for 12
p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.

“We are extremely excited to announce these fine young men as the
best
in their field and as semifinalists for our award,” said Jerry
Ippoliti, President Gulf Coast Events. “Their work on the field as
outstanding return specialists will finally be recognized with our
award and we look forward to the best in the country being announced at
our game in January.”

Randy Moss, for whom the award is named, played collegiately at
Marshall University, and has been selected to the Pro Bowl five times.
He was the leading kick returner in I-AA in 1996, with 484 total yards
and a 34.6 yard return average. Marshall went undefeated and won the
1-AA National Championship in 1996.

Tech-Georgia kickoff is 3:30

this came from Tech earlier. Didn't have time to post it until now.

TECH-GEORGIA GAME SET FOR 3:30 P.M.

ATLANTA--Georgia Tech's Nov. 25 football game at Georgia will kick off
at 3:30 p.m. ET at Sanford Stadium in Athens. The game will be
nationally televised on CBS-TV (WGCL in Atlanta).

That will mark Tech's ninth television appearance of the season,
including three games on ABC, two on ESPN, two on ESPNU, and one on the
Lincoln-Financial ACC network.

Tech, ranked 18th, enters the week with a record of 8-2 overall, 6-1 in
the ACC. This week, the Yellow Jackets host Duke in their final ACC
contest, scheduled for Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Bobby Dodd
Stadium/Grant
Field. Georgia (7-4) is off this week.

More accolades for Battle, Stafford

The school just sent this one out.

Following Georgia¹s 37-15 win over No. 5 Auburn, rover Tra
Battle and quarterback Matthew Stafford both earned awards
from the SEC office on Monday.

Battle was named the SEC¹s Defensive Player of the Week, while
Stafford was named the league¹s Freshman of the Week.

Battle tied a school-record with three interceptions on Saturday ­ all
in the first half.  He returned one of his interceptions for a touchdown
(30 yards) to help the Bulldogs take an impressive 30-7 halftime lead.
Overall, Georgia (7-4, 4-4 in SEC) held Auburn to just 171 yards of total
offense. Also, the Bulldog defense limited Auburn to only 35 yards passing on
four completions while registering four sacks. Battle tallied four tackles
and one pass break up. Battle¹s three interceptions were the most in a
game by a Bulldog since 1982 when Terry Hoage had three against Vanderbilt.
Battle has a team-leading six interceptions this season and eight for his career.

Stafford completed 14 of 20 passes for 219 yards and a touchdown
against the Tigers.  He also tallied 83 yards rushing on seven attempts with a
score. In the first half, he competed 10 of 15 passes for 170 yards, which
included a career-long 53-yard completion to A.J. Bryant on the Bulldogs¹ first
possession of the game.

Georgia is off this week and will conclude its regular season on Nov.
25 with a home game against No. 18 Georgia Tech.

Battle wins national weekly award

The university just sent this out a little while ago.

The Walter Camp Football Foundation has named University of
Georgia senior safety Tra Battle the National 1-A Defensive Player of
the Week.

Battle tied a school-record with three interceptions – all in the
first
half – as Georgia defeated fifth-ranked Auburn, 37-15 this past
Saturday in Auburn.  Battle returned one of his interceptions for a
touchdown (30 yards) to help the Bulldogs take an impressive 30-7
halftime lead.  Overall, Georgia (7-4, 4-4 in SEC) held Auburn to just
171 yards of total offense. Also, the Bulldog defense limited Auburn to
only 35 yards passing on four completions while registering four sacks.
Battle tallied four tackles and one pass break up. Battle’s three
interceptions were the most in a game by a Bulldog since 1982 when
Terry Hoage had three against Vanderbilt. Battle has a team-leading six
interceptions this season and eight for his career.

Each week, the Walter Camp Foundation names a national offensive and
defensive player of the week. Kansas State freshman quarterback Josh
Freeman, who led his squad to a 45-42 upset over fourth-ranked Texas,
was the offensive player of the week.

Also, Battle has been named one of the four nominees for the Cingular
All-America Player of the Week. Battle, Freeman, Arkansas running back
Darren McFadden and Connecticut running back Donald Brown are this
week’s four nominees as selected by a panel of ESPN college football
analysts. Fans can determine the winner by text messaging “VOTE” to
“87654” on their wireless phone and casting their votes for the
nominees.

Georgia is off this week and wraps up the regular season by playing
host to 18th-ranked Georgia Tech (8-2, 6-1 ACC) on Nov. 25th.

Master Coaches Poll 11/12

• 1. Ohio State (17)
• 2. Michigan
• 3. Southern Cal
• 4. Florida
• 5. Arkansas
• 6. LSU
• 7. Notre Dame
• 8. West Virginia
• 9. Wisconsin
• 10. Texas
• 11. Rutgers
• 12. Louisville
• 13. Auburn
• 14. Boise State
• 15. Wake Forest
• 16. Oklahoma
• 17. California
• 18. Georgia Tech
• 19. Virginia Tech
• 20. Nebraska
• 21. Boston College
• 22. (tie) Tennessee
• 22. (tie) Maryland
• 24. BYU
• 25. Texas A&M

Other teams receiving votes: Oregon, Clemson, Hawaii, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas Tech, Iowa, Missouri

Bizarro Bulldogs

Saturday was like opposite day for this year's Georgia team.
* They cashed in on scoring opportunities when the defense gave the offense a short field after a turnover.
* The defensive line put consistent pressure on Auburn quarterback Brandon Cox.
* Georgia's defensive backs were making plays on the ball while in coverage.
* Nobody dropped a pass. In fact, they made several clutch catches on third downs to extend drives.
* Matt Stafford didn't make a single god awful throw.
* The offensive line protected him well all day and gave the backs room to run.
* When Auburn briefly threatened their second-half lead, they actually ran the ball and salted away the win by putting together a time-consuming drive on the ground. Lumpkin became the first Georgia back this year to record more than 16 carries in a game on Saturday, running 21 times for 105 yards (only the second 100-yard outing of the year for a Bulldog).

Where has that stuff been all season? Who woke up Ray Gant? Seriously, I think Ray might have made the biggest play of the game on Auburn's first offensive snap (although the Charles Johnson deflection/Tra Battle interception that ended an Auburn drive just before the half and led to a 30-7 halftime lead deserves strong consideration too). He busted through the line and laid Cox out for a sack. They're not saying it, but I think he hurt Cox, who was already hobbled by a knee injury, on that play. He never looked comfortable throwing the ball all day, which was partially because I think Georgia had him rattled, but I also don't think he was physically right after that hit by Gant.

That's quite a way to be going into the bye week. On his Sunday teleconference, coach Richt said he didn't really do anything college football-related today except vote in the coaches poll. It's the first time the coaching staff has had a day off since practice started on Aug. 5. If I were those guys, I wouldn't want to think about football for at least a couple days. But they'll be back at it Monday.

He said the team will only practice for sure on Wednesday, and they might go Thursday. They won't meet Monday, Friday or Saturday and will only do some running and lifting on Tuesday. After the beating they put on Auburn, they deserve a little break.

Also, he said he's not sure where Danny Ware (knee/ankle) and Kregg Lumpkin (ankle) stand today, but he said his "gut feeling" is that both will be ready for Georgia Tech. He also thinks Michael Turner (ankle) will be back for Tech. I don't know if you noticed, but Ken Shackleford hurt his ankle on the opening drive and briefly came out. Since Turner wasn't available, they moved Chester Adams to tackle and brought in Seth Watts at guard. I talked to Shackleford briefly on the field after the game and he said he'd only tweaked it and he was OK. But they could really use Turner coming back so they won't have to shift things around like that so much if a tackle gets hurt again.

BCS Standings 11/12

These were just officially released a few minutes ago.

1. Ohio State
2. Michigan
3. USC
4. Florida
5. Notre Dame
6. Rutgers
7. Arkansas
8. West Virginia
9. Wisconsin
10. Louisville
11. LSU
12. Boise State
13. Texas
14. Auburn
15. California
16. Wake Forest
17. Oklahoma
18. Georgia Tech
19. Maryland
20. Boston College

Link

Game DVD selling for $35

The school sent out this announcement today, that you can buy a DVD
copy of Georgia's win over Auburn for 35 bucks. As a side note, if
you're interested in spending $390 to buy this entire season on DVD,
we need to talk about some extra special deals I'd like to offer you...

A DVD copy of Georgia's 37-15 victory over Auburn Saturday
is currently on sale through online orders.

Copies of the Bulldogs' victory over the fifth ranked Tigers are
available for $34.95 and can be ordered on the following website:
www.gametimedvd.com.

The victory marks Georgia's 700th victory all time, making the Bulldogs
only the 11th football program to achieve the mark in NCAA Division 1-A
history.

The entire 2006 season is also available on DVD for $390.00.

Look at them Bulldogs

It's 17-0 with 5:42 left in the second quarter and Georgia is flat running over Auburn. I believe this is what's known as an Alabama (butt) whipping. Somebody woke up the Bulldogs. Only took 11 games. Make that 24-0 thanks to Tra Battle.

Also, I talked to Steve Robinson, a rep from the Chick-Fil-A Bowl before the game. He said, as far as Georgia being in that game, it would really help the Bulldogs to win either today or against Tech. Particularly Tech. Looks like the Auburn game's in the bag.

Interestingly, he said a Georgia-Georgia Tech rematch is not necessarily an appealing scenario for them. I would have thought they'd jump at that. More later...

SEC picks

I'm really tired, so I'll make this quick. Got to get up pretty early Sat. AM

Georgia at Auburn, 12:30 p.m., Lincoln Financial Sports
Line: Auburn by 12
My guess: This is always a game where your best guess goes right out the window. There's no reason to think Georgia can beat Auburn, but I don't know how many times I've thought that about a team in this rivalry, only to see the exact opposite happen. I'm picking Auburn, but I have absolutely no confidence that Auburn will win. Auburn 23, Georgia 10

Vanderbilt at Kentucky, 1 p.m., no TV
Line: Kentucky by 2
My guess: I like both of these teams. They've added a little spunk to the league this season, which has been nice to see. Kentucky's got more offensive talent and it's playing at home -- and we all know you don't come into Commonwealth Stadium expecting an easy win....Well, maybe that's not exactly true, but I think Kentucky wins. Kentucky 30, Vanderbilt 24

South Carolina at Florida, 3:30 p.m., CBS
Line: Florida by 13
My guess: Spurrier's back in the Swamp. Will he bring his old magic back to his old stomping grounds? If this storyline hasn't been thoroughly exhausted yet, I just thought I'd mention it one more time. So enjoy that. Unfortunately, his team doesn't have enough to pull of the upset again this year. Florida 28, South Carolina 17

Tennessee at Arkansas, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Line: Arkansas by 6
My guess: Tennessee's still kind of questionable because of the uncertain status of its offense. Arkansas is playing at home and is in some kind of groove. I'm going with the Razorbacks. Arkansas 28, Tennessee 21

Alabama at LSU, 7:45 p.m., ESPN
Line: LSU by 18
My guess: I don't like this line at all. Alabama is not good. Is it almost three touchdowns worse than LSU? Maybe, but I'm not betting on it. LSU 27, Alabama 13

Richt talks about Okie State

We talked to coach Richt before practice today. He was in a pretty chipper mood, actually. Most of the talk was about the newly signed contract with Oklahoma State. Georgia will open at home next Sept. 1 against Oklahoma State and will make the return trip to Stillwater for the Sept. 5, 2009 season-opener for the first game after massive renovations to Boone Pickens Stadium.

ESPN helped broker the deal, guaranteeing OK State that it would broadcast two additional games next year if it would agree to come to Athens to start the season.

So here's what Richt had to say about opening with the Cowboys next year, and some other quick practice notes will follow:
"That'll be a great challenge for us. It's an up and coming program as of late. Coach Gundy's doing a good job, considering their big win against Nebraska recently."

"It's gonna be something to work toward in the summer, I would think."

"I think we work hard anyway, but I think a game like that will -- if there was anybody who needed a little extra incentive, that would be it."

On cutting it close before next season:
"I didn't sweat it as much as our administration did. I'm not in charge of that. I get communicated with on all these teams that become possibilities, but I think it turned out to be a pretty good one."

And they didn't have to sacrifice their open date ahead of Florida, either, giving Georgia a bye before the Florida game for the first time since 1991.

* Asher Allen looks to be the kickoff return man this week. He took the first attempts in practice at the stadium today, ahead of Danny Ware. But if he's not doing enough that coach Ball thinks he should be doing it in pregame, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Danny doing it instead.
* Coach Richt said Michael Turner (ankle) should be back for the Georgia Tech game. "He's still on crutches today. I don't know, in my mind, I think he'll be back. We'll know a little bit better next week, but my guess is he'll go."
* He laughed when asked if Chester Adams will be able to play the whole game. "He's got to," he answered. "Cheese did good. We took him out of a green jersey yesterday and I've been talking with him all along. He seems to be fine and excited to play."
* Mikey Henderson (ribs) continues to practice in a green no-contact jersey, but fullback Brannan Southerland (neck) was out of green today.

That's all I got. I'm off to Columbus.

Oklahoma State the 2007 opener

I heard this was a possibility last night and had planned on asking about it today. I guess that's what you get when you wait around.
So Georgia opens against Oklahoma State next year in an ESPN-brokered home game. That's kind of fun for me because there's a running back from Columbus at OK State, Dantrell Savage, who I think will be pretty good. I wrote a story on him committing to the Cowboys back in February or so.

Link

Coutu's doing better plus other stuff

I talked to Brandon Coutu about his recovery from a season-ending hamstring injury, plus about his buddy Gordon Ely-Kelso, who will be taking over as the place-kicker this week. I don't guess it's a certainty he won't play in the bowl game, but he doesn't sound too optimistic about playing again this year.

Here's some of what he had to say:
"I’ve been off of (crutches) for a while. I feel really good. It feels a lot better. I can walk around fine and I don’t feel any pain or anything. I feel like I could run, but they’re just gonna hold me back a bit just to make sure everything heals correctly."

On the possibility of playing against Georgia Tech if Ely-Kelso doesn't kick very well:
"I don’t feel like that’s an option. No matter what happens, I think the important thing is for me to heal for next year and hopefully for the future. I’m not trying to come back and rush anything and get another setback and tear something or hurt something again. I’m gonna wait till I’m fully healed."

On Ely-Kelso's progress:
"We kid around about it and I tell him he has four years of kicking he needs to learn in one week. I told him he’s four years behind me, but he’s actually hitting the ball pretty well. He’s actually hitting a lot better today than he was Monday. He’s been working on some things, just kind of getting all the wrinkles out. The big thing is right now he’s putting the ball through the uprights and he was doing that all day today."

On what he's been helping Ely-Kelso with:
"Some of the little things. I could catch something if he’s getting to the ball too quickly or if his steps don’t look right or something like that. Obviously he knows a little bit more about punting than I do and I know a little more about kicking than he does. It’s nice to have someone stand there and kind of make sure you’re headed in the right direction. He’s gotten a lot better, honestly, the last two days. It sounds funny, but he’s gotten a lot better. He went out there and hit some really good kicks in team (drills) with a 20-mile-an-hour wind in his face, it seemed like. That was big for him because if you miss it a little bit with the wind, the wind really will take it. I think that will help his confidence a little."

On what's a reasonable expectation as far as Gordon's range:
"I think definitely 50, 52 and in. Once you start moving back, it’s not so much that he can’t kick it that far, but the goalposts get a little bit smaller when you’re back there. I think he can improve himself with time. But there’s no doubt that he has the leg to kick a 60-yard field goal, but like he’ll tell you, maybe not accurately. He’s working on that, so I think we’ll see. Time will tell what his range will be."

Also talked to Demiko Goodman for the first time since he got hurt. He's taking the injury in stride. Had a very optimistic outlook. He'll have surgery within the next week or two and guaranteed he'll be back next season, faster and stronger.

Brannan Southerland (neck spasms) and Mikey Henderson (ribs) were still in green jerseys today. Chester Adams (ankle) was out of green for the first time today. Coach Richt also said that things are progressing well with Mario Raley and he should be back at practice when the headaches subside from the big hit he took Saturday. He reiterated today that Raley should be ready to play against Georgia Tech in two weeks and might be back at practice next week.

The story on the 1996 Auburn-Georgia game will be in our Thursday paper. I had a great interview with then-Auburn quarterback Dameyune Craig today. I wish I'd had more time and space to spend on that story because there was so much you could write about. So many personalities. A more talented writer could write a book about that game and how it related to the teams' seasons and how it affected their next season. But I just wrote one long story, plus another shorter one on the now-legendary incident when Uga V lunged at and tried to bite Auburn receiver Robert Baker during the game. (One chapter of the book would have to be about that, wouldn't it?)

Also, there will be representatives from the Chick-Fil-A Bowl at Saturday's game, mostly to scout Georgia. I'm going to try to talk to the guy to gauge their interest in the Bulldogs before the game. It makes sense to invite Georgia (despite a less-than-impressive record) from a marketing aspect because of their proximity, plus it's only so often (at least, based on recent history) that Georgia will be considering an invitation to play in that game. So we'll see what he has to say. I think if Georgia wins one of the last two, that's where the Bulldogs will go bowling.

Tuesday news

Today was another of those days where it's especially fun to do what I do. I'm working on a story for Thursday about the 1996 Auburn-Georgia game (our Auburn writer did a look back at the 1986 game for Wednesday's paper) and talked to a couple of the people who were involved -- Mike Bobo, who came off the bench and led Georgia back from a 28-7 deficit to a 56-49 win in four overtimes, Jim Donnan, who coached Georgia that year and couldn't have been nicer when I called him tonight, and Charles Seiler, who was handling Georgia mascot Uga when the dog nearly bit Auburn receiver Robert Baker and had some great stories. It was really fun hearing all of them talk about it as, looking back, that was one of the crazier games I've ever seen. I was in college at the time and was at the game. My strongest memory of it was being glad when the game was over because it was miserably cold. I'm going to try to talk to a couple Auburn folks for it tomorrow.

Funny story from Charles Seiler that I don't know that I'd use for this story: He said the dogs have always lunged at anything that moves quickly in front of them. That's just the way they've always been, which is part of why Uga lunged at Baker when the Auburn player came up on him so quickly and startled him. Anyway, he said when the TV camera people pull their coaxial cables quickly in front of the dog, it catches his attention and he'll usually wind up grabbing the cable at least once a game. He said he'll have to put his fingers in the dog's nostrils and wait until it runs out of breath before it will let go once he gets a hold of it. You can't say that dog doesn't have some personality.

In current Bulldog news, there's not a ton of heavy stuff to report. They're being fairly hush-hush on the as-yet-unscheduled opponent for next year. I guess in the wake of the Oregon State deal falling through, they'd prefer to have a firm agreement before announcing anything. ... Danny Verdun Wheeler will probably start again this week. He started last week against Kentucky, but neither he nor Brandon Miller played much because Georgia played so much nickel defense, which took the strongside linebacker off the field. ... I think they're still in wait-and-see mode on A.J. Bryant's status this week. He's been suffering from a variety of injuries, most recently to his back. But Mohamed Massaquoi should be OK to go, as should Mikey Henderson (ribs), Brannan Southerland (neck) and Chester Adams (ankle), all of whom practiced in green no-contact jerseys again today. ... They practiced for 90 minutes at the Ramsey Center today. It wasn't so much because of rain today as it was because I think they just wanted to give the players some rest, coach Richt said. ... I asked coach Richt about CJ Byrd's progress today at the press conference. He's been playing a little more lately and I think you'll be seeing even a little more than that down the stretch. ... Also talked to Darius Dewberry today for a second. He's back this week from a hamstring injury that kept him out for the previous two games. He said it was just a freak injury -- just running along and it popped on him a little. He said he's feeling back at 100 percent, but doesn't know how much he'll get to play because of missing practice time. You probably won't see a ton of him except on kickoff return.

Danny Verdun Wheeler's feeling froggy

I'll post more stuff later from today's press conference and one-on-one interview time. Nothing too urgent's going on. Just wanted to drop a quote from Danny Verdun Wheeler today about people complaining that coach Martinez doesn't call enough blitzes.

"He does everything for a reason. Obviously he’s watched way more film than we have. He’s played a whole lot longer than we have and we totally trust his decision making. It ain’t what he calls – if it’s more blitz than not – it’s the players’ mentality. It’s more, excuse my French, but a kickass-type defense. He can call a base-front defense…You’ve got to take that base front, kick somebody’s butt in front of you and make a play at linebacker. We ain’t got to blitz. We’ve got to drop back in coverage, find the receiver, knock the devil out of them, get interceptions, take it to the house. It’s all our responsibility. If we don’t blitz, it ain’t his fault. It’s our fault. Players aren’t making plays. … We need 11 guys making plays. If we don’t blitz this game, we still could beat Auburn. If we blitz, we could still beat Auburn. It doesn’t matter if we blitz or not."

Richt postpractice comments

Coach Richt broke his usual Monday trend and spoke with us after practice so he could address Demiko Goodman's season-ending injury. I figured I'd post most of his comments:

On when he found out about the injury:
I didn’t know at 5:30 (Sunday) when I spoke to y’all. Normally Ron catches me prior to that meeting, but when he came to see me I was already speaking to y’all. So when I was bragging about Demiko, if you remember, I had no earthly idea what was going on until probably within half an hour, an hour at the latest. Ron called me and told me what happened.

Did you know he even dinged it? He was playing some in the second half.
He played his tail off. He played with a lot of energy, he was blocking extremely well, he was running good routes, he made some nice plays. It was a shock. And it was a shock to him too. He just came to the training room and thought his calf hurt. He just wanted Ron to look at his calf. There was a collision when he did get hurt, but he didn’t even know he’d hurt it.

Was it the collision with Martrez?
Yes.

It’s pretty unusual to suffer that kind of injury and still be able to perform at that level, isn’t it?
I would think. Maybe those ACLs are overrated. At one time, people didn’t know they tore an ACL. It would swell a day or two and go away and they’d start playing again. But with technology, we know what’s going on in there now. Those guys that played without ‘em are probably playing a pretty good price right now in their lives. A lot of knee replacements and that kind of thing.

What are the chances he’ll be around in September?
I would think he’s got a pretty realistic shot. If you look at (Sean) Bailey’s injury. If we really wanted to push it with Bailey, he probably could have played this year. He might could have, I don’t know. It’s gonna be a lot like Bailey, we’re just gonna have to see. Now, Demiko has had a redshirt year, so he probably would be a little more anxious to get in there, even if it meant October or something like that. I’d say there’s a very good chance he plays next year.

You’d talked about Mohamed maybe not playing as much because of injuries. I guess now maybe you really need Massaquoi.
The good news is he really felt good today. He was moving around great. Mikey is still a little sore. A.J. looked good today. A.J.’s, early on it was more groin/hip flexor stuff, but this past week is more of a shot that he took his back that was bothering him more than anything else. I thought it was still his legs, but in actuality it was his back that was bothering him. But he said he feels pretty good right now, so that’s good news.

Did Martrez get his starting spot back?
Yeah. I would think so. I don’t think we sat in the meeting room and said he’s got it back, but I would think he’s got it back.

On the play Demiko was hurt, did he pull up and start blocking too soon? He should have just ran that on out?
That’s a play that we have a short guy in the flat and then that crossing route, which was Milner. Demiko was clearing it out. We ran that play earlier in the day and the short guy got it. Of course, when he catches it, you want everybody to start blocking it. Demiko must have just assumed that the ball went to the short guy and started to block. His back was to what’s happening, but he really should have kept going.

On how it helps to be playing at Auburn at 12:30 instead of at night:
For us, it’s probably a benefit to play earlier in the day. Most fans get a little bit more electric in the nighttime. Wherever the electricity’s coming from, I don’t know. It tends to be a little bit louder and a little bit louder at night.

On Gordon Ely-Kelso's performance at kicker:
Just from what I’ve seen the last two, three weeks, I’m confident he can do the job.

If Matt continues to struggle against Auburn, would you consider putting Joe or Joe T. in?
I don’t know. You never know. I guess you don’t ever know, but I’m very confident he’s our starter.

Encouraged that Chester might be able to play Saturday?
Yeah I just spoke to him and watched him practice today. Cheese practiced today. I just talked to him and he feels confident he’s gonna play. So he knows we need him too. That’ll help.

Monday news

It was actually a fairly busy postpractice for a Monday. For starters, coach Richt talked with us, which he usually doesn't do on Mondays. I think it was probably because he hadn't discussed Demiko Goodman's season-ending ACL injury on Sunday because he didn't know about it yet. I talked to six other guys as well, which is quite a bit for the first day of the week, but maybe it'll help me get ahead a little.

Here's the news:
* TE Martrez Milner, DT Ray Gant and OG Chester Adams lined up today as starters -- Milner replacing Tripp Chandler, Gant replacing Dale Dixson and Adams replacing Michael Turner, who will not play after seriously injuring his ankle against Kentucky.
* Chester said he's feeling pretty good and expects to play against Auburn. He was one of several guys in green, along with FB Brannan Southerland and WR Mikey Henderson. All should play Saturday.
* Darius Dewberry returned to practice. He's been out since injuring his hamstring against Mississippi State.
* We talked to Gordon Ely-Kelso after practice. He's pretty psyched about getting the chance to kick this week. He said he hit a field goal from 60 yards today and practice and thinks he can hit from as far as 65 if necessary. He's buddies with Brandon Coutu, so Coutu came out there to work with him in practice today to finetune his kicking technique. Ely-Kelso would admit that it's not always pretty when he puts his foot into one, but as he said, "Hopefully nobody’s gonna care what it looks like as long as it’s going through the uprights."

I talked to several people, and a couple more on the Auburn player teleconference this afternoon, about playing at 12:30. I look at that as a major bonus for Georgia. Auburn has played three games at 12:30 this year (Miss. State, Ole Miss and Arkansas) and has not played well in any of the three. It would have been much better for the Tigers to be playing at night, and not just because they've been flat when they've played the early game this year. A 12:30 start doesn't allow the fans to tailgate all day and get geared up for the game, however they may go about doing that. That erodes a lot of the home-field advantage, in my opinion, because a crowd at 12:30 is never as loud as the ones you'll get for a nighttime game.

Here's some of what Brannan Southerland said on that subject today:
"If it was gonna be an 8 o’clock game, it would be like the Tennessee atmosphere was here. It was pro-Georgia here, obviously, and it would be pro-Auburn there. It will still be an advantage for them. I’m sure it’ll be all-Auburn there, but the crowds, it’ll come on them quick and they won’t have all day getting prepared."

"The schedule’s usually the same. You’ve got to take it on yourself as a player, maybe get up 30 minutes early and get yourself a hot shower, wake yourself up. You don’t have all day to kinda slowly get awake. You’ve gotta wake yourself up quick and you’ve gotta make yourself get in bed a little earlier."

"I find it a little harder to get going in warm-ups in the morning sometimes, but once I get sweating, I’m fine."

Martrez Milner, on regaining his starting position at tight end:
"I feel like I responded well to the situation I was in. I’m not taking anything away from Tripp. Tripp deserved to start that game and Tripp did well in that game. The coaches decided to put me back in the starting lineup, but I’m pretty sure we’re both gonna play."

Here's some stuff from A.J. Bryant:
What are your thoughts on Demiko going down?
It’s just crazy, man. I’m still shocked. We were just talking about it a couple minutes ago. He was doing good in the game. A torn ACL, I couldn’t believe it. He just thought his calf was hurting. His knee really wasn’t hurting. He found out yesterday. It’s just crazy, man.

Ever heard of a receiver being able to play on for that long with an injury like that?
No man. I’ve never heard of that ever.

It was kind of out of left field, wasn’t it?
He’s got big strong thighs, so I guess that might have helped him out some. But no, I’ve never heard of that.

Brannan Southerland has had problems in the past with his shoulders, so I asked him if they had something to do with why he was wearing a green no-contact jersey today:
"Nothing’s wrong with my shoulders. My neck’s a little irritated. My traps have had some spasms in them, so we’re just gonna let them calm down."

In response to a smart aleck commenter today, I asked A.J. and coach Richt about how unusual Demiko's injury was, considering that he played with it without even knowing how severe the injury was. They both expressed a great deal of surprise he was able to play with it at such a high level. Apparently they think it's a little different playing receiver in the Southeastern Conference and running and cutting at full speed on every play with an ACL tear than it is playing running back at the South Georgia School for Special People with a bum knee. Who knew those two things were different? Oh yeah, anybody with even the most remote lick of sense in his little pea brain.

So that's pretty much it. On a personal note, Loran Smith invited me to go on the pregame show Saturday and talk with Larry Munson about the Auburn game. I can't say I'm not excited about that. So y'all listen and let me know how dumb I sounded.

CFN bowl projections

These are the most recent bowl projections (from Sunday) from collegefootballnews.com. They've got Georgia playing Boston College in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.

Link

Independence Bowl
Bowl Projection: Oklahoma State vs. Alabama

Music City Bowl
Bowl Projection: South Carolina vs. Wake Forest

Liberty Bowl
Bowl Projection: Houston vs. Kentucky

Chick-fil-A Bowl
Bowl Projection: Boston College vs. Georgia

Cotton Bowl
Bowl Projection: Oklahoma vs. Tennessee

Outback Bowl
Bowl Projection: Penn State vs. LSU

Capital One Bowl
Bowl Projection: Arkansas vs. Wisconsin

Rose Bowl
Bowl Projection: Michigan vs. USC

Fiesta Bowl
Bowl Projection: Texas vs. Boise State

Orange Bowl
Bowl Projection: Georgia Tech vs. Louisville

Sugar Bowl
Bowl Projection: Notre Dame vs. Auburn

BCS Championship Game
Bowl Projection: Ohio State vs. Florida

Goodman has torn ACL

The school sent this out about an hour ago. This is one of the stranger ACL injuries I've heard of, because I'm pretty sure he continued to play. I know I saw Demiko in the postgame interview room, so apparently they didn't know the severity of the injury at that point.

University of Georgia redshirt sophomore wide

receiver Demiko Goodman suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his

left knee during Saturday’s game against Kentucky.

The injury occurred in the second quarter. According to Georgia

Director of Sports Medicine Ron Courson, the injury will require surgery and

he will be lost for the remainder of the season; however, a full recovery is

expected.

Goodman, a native of Newnan, had 13 receptions for 187 yards while

playing in all ten games this season.

11/5 Master Coaches poll + all-America noms

Here's this week's Master Coaches Poll results. Below that are the defensive players I nominated for the Football Writers Association All-America team.

Master Coaches Poll

• 1. Ohio State (17)
• 2. Michigan
• 3. Texas
• 4. Louisville
• 5. Auburn
• 6. Florida
• 7. Southern Cal
• 8. California
• 9. LSU
• 10. Arkansas
• 11. Notre Dame
• 12. West Virginia
• 13. Wisconsin
• 14. Tennessee
• 15. Boise State
• 16. Rutgers
• 17. Oklahoma
• 18. Wake Forest
• 19. Georgia Tech
• 20. Oregon
• 21. Virginia Tech
• 22. Nebraska
• 23. Texas A&M
• 24. Boston College
• 25. Maryland

Other teams receiving votes ... Clemson, Texas Tech, BYU, Oregon State, Hawaii

The FWAA all-American nominations are submitted by region, so I felt like I should probably nominate all guys from the southeast. I decided to be a bit of a homer, too...nominated a couple of Georgia guys and G-Tech's Philip Wheeler, who's from Columbus, so I've got to show some love for the folks from the hometown -- at least in the nomination process.
DL Derrick Harvey, Florida
DL Gaines Adams, Clemson
DL Quentin Groves, Auburn
DL Charles Johnson, Georgia
LB Patrick Willis, Ole Miss
LB Philip Wheeler, Georgia Tech
LB Tony Taylor, Georgia
DB Reggie Nelson, Florida
DB LaRon Landry, LSU
DB Simeon Castille, Alabama
DB Fred Bennett, South Carolina

Here's the highlights

I'm fairly exhausted, so here are some of the high points from coach Richt's Sunday teleconference:
* Mario Raley's doing OK. They did lots of tests on his head and neck and everything is coming back the right way. Raley came back home this morning after spending the night in the hospital and still feels "a little stiff and sore," but will play again this season. Coach Richt didn't rule out him playing against Auburn, but said Georgia Tech is a more likely return date.
* He said Michael Turner is doubtful to play against Auburn and he doesn't expect him to practice any time soon. He was on crutches after injuring his left ankle in the second quarter yesterday. Starting guard Fernando Velasco might start crosstraining some as a backup tackle.
* However, Chester Adams (also an ankle) should be back for Auburn, so he could slide back into the starting spot at tight guard. If neither is able to go, Seth Watts would be the starter at guard and they'd probably start crosstraining Nick Jones and Ian Smith there.
* They're considering sitting Mohamed Massaquoi (hip flexor/groin) and A.J. Bryant until they're fully recovered from the injuries that have been bugging them for most of the year. Richt said they're not at full speed and it's negatively affecting their performance.
* Gordon Ely-Kelso will handle extra points and field goals this week. Andy Bailey is out. He might also lose kickoff duties, but that hasn't been decided yet. Brian Mimbs will likely be the holder on kicks.
* They're sticking with Stafford at QB. definitely.
* Apparently, they're either very close to finalizing a deal with an opponent for next year's opener or they've already done it. Coach Richt didn't go into details because he wasn't sure on where things stood. All he said was that it was not a Division I-AA opponent and that it was a school from a BCS conference.

Three Vols arrested

Just saw this and thought I'd drop it on here before I go get ready to board my flight back to Hartsfield.

Running back Arian Foster, safety Antonio Wardlow and fullback David Holbert were charged with disorderly conduct and underage consumption, police said. Wardlow also was charged with public intoxication. All three players are 20.

I'll post later after I get back to Athens and listen in on coach Richt's teleconference this evening. I'll try to update on the conditions of Mario Raley and Michael Turner.

AU-UGA kickoff at 12:30

Auburn's media relations folks just sent this out:

AUBURN -- The Auburn football game against Georgia on Nov. 11 will air on Lincoln Financial Sports. Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is slated for
11:30 a.m. CT.

It will mark Auburn’s third game on Lincoln Financial Sports this season and first game on LFS at home.  The contest will be the Tigers’
eighth televised game in 2006.

Lincoln Financial Sports, previously Jefferson Pilot Sports, aired the Tigers’ 34-0 win at Mississippi State on Sept. 9 and 23-17 victory at
Ole Miss on Oct. 28.

Other Southeastern Conference televised games for Nov. 11 include: South Carolina at Florida, CBS, 2:30 p.m. CT; Tennessee at Arkansas,
ESPN2, 6 p.m.; Alabama at LSU, ESPN, 6:45 p.m.

Quick thoughts

It's been a long day, so I want to go to bed. Thought I'd post a couple of telling quotes before I do. Georgia's just not that good this year. If you told me before this year that Coutu would suffer a season-ending injury, Thomas Brown would suffer a season-ending injury, injuries would be a problem on the already-thin offensive line and Joe Tereshinski would get hurt early in the second game that would knock him out for a month (and completely throw off the rhythm the offense could have potentially developed), I would have guessed that Georgia would go about 8-4, 7-5. I wouldn't have guessed it would be quite like this, though. They can still do that, but I don't know too many rational people who think Georgia is going to win its last two. It would be pretty interesting to see how that would happen...
we'll have to see about all that.

Danny Ware, on the loss:
"Any loss is tough for us. This is what, three, four? This ain’t like Georgia football, so it’s real frustrating."

Danny Ware, on who deserves blame:
"We can never blame the defense because they always go out there and play their heart out. We had some turnovers on offense, missed field goals, so we can’t put (everything) on anybody. We just didn’t get it done as a team."

Matthew Stafford on the loss:
"It’s tough to keep losing. That’s the way it goes. One after the next, it’s just that much tougher."

Pregame note

WR Mohamed Massaquoi is dressed out and looks good in pregame warmups. Like coach Richt said on Thursday, Chester Adams does not appear to be here.

By the way, when people talk about whether Georgia's fan base is good or not, remember that's a relative thing. On one hand, it's kind of ridiculous to boo your own players. On the other, at least there are people at the game. It's 14 minutes before kickoff and I just counted 48 people in one entire section in Kentucky's upper deck. That's an entirely different kind of bad fanbase.

SEC picks

It's pretty chilly in Lexington, so bring a jacket if you come. Here's my SEC picks for the week.
61-10 straight up and 35-31 against the spread so far.

Mississippi State at Alabama, 12:30 p.m. Saturday, LF Sports
Line: Alabama by 15
My guess: Mississippi State's offense came to life last week against Kentucky, which tends to happen against the crappy Wildcat defense. Michael Henig threw for a career-high 384 yards, besting the career high he'd set the previous week against Georgia. State's not playing horribly lately, although they keep falling short. Alabama had better get its act together, because this isn't Florida International (who led Bama early) or Duke (who led the Tide at halftime) we're talking about. I'll bet there aren't many teams Sylvester Croom would rather beat than Alabama, considering he's a Bama alum and was reportedly in the running for the job that was given to Mike Shula. I think Alabama wins this one, but it wouldn't shock me if State makes things rough on them. Alabama 24, Mississippi State 14

Florida at Vanderbilt, 12:30 p.m. Saturday, LF Sports
Line: Florida by 17
My guess: It's not out of the question that Vanderbilt (4-5) will qualify for a bowl game, but it will have to beat Kentucky and either Tennessee or Florida to do it. Probably won't happen, but the Commodores aren't a bad team. They're just really uneven. They'll play Arkansas close and then turn around and lose to Ole Miss. You have to expect Florida to win this one fairly easily, but Vandy's always got a trick or two up its sleeve. Florida 28, Vandy 14

Georgia at Kentucky, 1 p.m. Saturday, No TV
Line: Georgia by 7
My guess: I get tired of writing this, but if Georgia takes better care of the ball, I think they'll win. Kentucky's defense is so horrible, I think it'll give the Bulldogs' offense a little spark, which may help with Auburn and Georgia Tech on the horizon. Georgia's defense is starting to look a little better, but Kentucky's passing game is pretty good. That will be an interesting matchup. I still think Georgia will get pressure on Andre Woodson, put a good score on the board and pull away in the second half. Georgia 28, Kentucky 17

Northwestern State at Ole Miss, 2 p.m. Saturday, No TV
Line: No line
My guess: Blah. Ole Miss 30, Northwestern State 10

Arkansas State at Auburn, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, PPV
Line: Auburn by 30.5
My guess: This one's a tough call for Auburn. You know they'd like to get the starters on offense clicking. But there's not much reason to do it against Arkansas State. That could make that huge spread a difficult cover. Truthfully, Auburn's backups should roll on this team -- and that's probably what will happen. They'll probably cover, but Auburn has not been very reliable about that this year. Auburn 42, Arkansas State 10

LSU at Tennessee, 3:30 p.m. Saturday, CBS
Line: LSU by 4
My guess: This is obviously the most interesting matchup of the weekend, made moreso by Tennessee QB Erik Ainge's mysterious status for the game. LSU's defense will put a hurting on you -- ask Auburn's Brandon Cox -- so Ainge being hobbled by a bum ankle should give Vols fans serious pause. It's a huge advantage to be playing in Knoxville, and I think Ainge will go, the OL will protect him and Tennessee will win. If Ainge can't go or if he gets knocked out of the game, JaMarcus Russell and co. could win fairly easily. Tennessee 24, LSU 17

Arkansas at South Carolina, 7:45 p.m. Saturday, ESPN
Line: Arkansas by 2.5
My guess: This is also a fairly intriguing game. I don't think any SEC defense, much less an average South Carolina run defense, can completely shut down Arkansas' running game. McFadden and Jones are really, really good. I like South Carolina with Syvelle Newton at quarterback, so the Gamecocks might be able to make some noise. But they won't stop the Hogs' running game and that will mean a loss. Arkansas 28, South Carolina 24

Thursday update

Nothing really new from today's practice. We talked to coach Richt before practice today, but Thursdays are rarely eventful -- unless someone's working on a new onside kick technique. The onside kick techniques I watched them try today were pretty traditional, so I don't think there were any problems there.

WR Mohamed Massaquoi (hamstring, hip flexor, groin) practiced in a green jersey today. I think he's going to play, but can't say that for sure. He was pretty cagey about it yesterday...wouldn't even say what was wrong with him. I'd say he's questionable/probable. Coach Richt doesn't think OG Chester Adams is healthy enough to even make the trip to Lexington, so that offensive line can't afford any injuries. Here's the OL contingency plan as I see it.

TE Tripp Chandler, Martrez Milner
TT Dan Inman, Michael Turner
TG Michael Turner, Seth Watts
C Nick Jones, Ian Smith
SG Fernando Velasco, Seth Watts
ST Ken Shackleford, Michael Turner

In other words, the starters are gonna keep taking a ton of snaps. But that's nothing new.

Carter asked coach Richt today about whether the depth at OL makes them more likely to go after JUCO guys and he said they're in the process of doing that right now. I'm expecting them to sign at least two of those guys. I know there are several at Georgia Military (not all OL) that they're after and some from other places, so they'll probably break trend and sign their first JUCO players since their first signing class at UGA.

If you want to see a one-loss SEC team in the national championship game, and I do, tonight's West Virginia-Louisville outcome is probably what you wanted to see. Even though they won tonight, I see Louisville as the more vulnerable of the two -- and Rutgers might prove that to be true in New Jersey next Thursday night. I don't know that any of the one-loss SEC teams will win out, but it'll be interesting to see what happens if we get to bowl selection time and there are a bunch of one-loss teams. This BCS thing is nothing short of god-awful, so someone's gonna get screwed again.

On that note, I've got to pack up my stuff and get to bed. I've got to get up in a little more than six hours to head to Hartsfield for my flight to Lexington.

Talkin' defense

I wrote a story today about coach Willie Martinez and the defense. They played pretty well last weekend, but it’s been a fairly rough month for that bunch. I’m not sure how much of the blame to put on the defense, though. I can say that you’ll be watching a game and wonder how a particular play continues to work with success and why they don’t make adjustments. But then again, how do I know they’re not trying to make adjustments and the personnel just isn’t making the plays?

What I’m saying is, I feel very uncomfortable saying I think Coach X is doing a good or bad job because I’m not qualified to make that judgment. Neither are you, most likely. So I fully intend to stay away from those types of value statements – plus that’s REALLY not my job. Like Carter Strickland from the AJC said today when we were talking about this subject, “I’ll start telling him how to coach when he starts telling me how to write a story. I don’t know anything about coaching and he doesn’t know anything about ampersands.” As far as I know, Carter’s never discussed grammatical symbols with coach Martinez, but I could be wrong. I’ll have to ask him about it tomorrow, and you should thank me since that’ll distract him from working with the other members of the AJC sports staff on new and varied ways of raining on Georgia’s parade. You should hear Carter in the writers’ room, always plotting against the Bulldogs. I for one am sick of it. (Edit: This was a JOKE, people!)

Anyway, I can say that coach Martinez has put more than twice as many of his players (defensive backs) on current NFL rosters as any other position coach on the staff, so the man evidently knows what he’s doing. But I can’t imagine you just get a coordinator job and everything goes perfectly right away. It’s not like they’ve been horrible, though, since the defense ranks in the nation’s top third or better in every defensive category. Believe me, I understand the fans’ frustrations over the way the season has gone – and how they weren’t able to stop Tennessee or Vanderbilt when they needed to and how Mississippi State was able to throw the ball on them. But it’s hard to place a lot of blame on the defense when the offense keeps putting them in such bad positions. Over and over again.

I talked to a couple of defensive backs, Ramarcus Brown and Paul Oliver, about what coach Martinez is like as a position coach, as well as how much they pay attention to Internet message boards and how much criticism they hear and pay attention to. I can pretty much guarantee you Paul’s not reading the fan sites because he told me one time he doesn’t mess around much with computers. I wish I could say that some days when I go on some of those sites.

Here’s some of the conversation with Paul:
“I don’t think really too many people listen to it. The fans make the game fun, but they’re not there Monday through Friday.”

Oliver on if he thinks the criticism ever affects coach Martinez:
“Coach Martinez, he’s football all day, every day.”

Oliver on what Martinez is like as a coach:
“He’s a good teacher. Coach Martinez has probably forgotten more football than most people know. He does a good job of relating everything to his players.”

And I guess that shows in all the players he’s helped get to the NFL?
I think so, because you look at all of them, there’s been so many different kinds of athletes that have all been able to produce in the same ways and really be productive in the defense.”

Ramarcus was a little more outspoken on all that:
“He’s a great coach. This year he had to play a lot of young guys and anytime a coach has to do that, it’s gonna be hard on him because you don’t have a lot of experience. And when you don’t have a lot of experience, you’re gonna have guys in the secondary making a lot of mistakes and not knowing stuff that you’re used to when three of your guys started or two of your guys started. He lost all those guys and he was stuck in a situation with a lot of inexperienced guys, so that’s always hard in the end. But he’s stuck through it with us and pushed us and didn’t give up on us. He keeps working us every day and every day we’re getting better. He’s doing everything he can to help us, so I just feel like he never gave up on us, even if we’re not making enough plays for him, he always made us feel like he’s there, get better. He’s still got a job to do to do, to coach, and we still compete every day, but he’ll let you know, if you don’t get the job done, somebody right there will. We all compete and that’s what I think it should be like. That’s one thing about him that I can say he does.”

Brown, on how much of the fans’ criticisms they hear:
“People on the outside looking in, they’re just not used to Georgia losing. If we weren’t losing and we were playing like this, he’d be the best defensive coordinator in the nation to the fans. They’re only saying that because we’ve lost three games. I really don’t buy into all that. I think he’s doing a great job, it’s just that in certain situations we haven’t been winning ballgames in the end. We haven’t, I don’t feel like, played a whole game as a team. I feel like this season, we’ve been playing halves. If we’d come out and play four quarters like we play a half, then I feel like maybe we’d be undefeated or maybe 8-1 right now, to be respectful to Tennessee. But I feel like he’s doing a good job, it’s just little things that we’re doing. You can’t just blame the coaches. In the end, we’re out there playing. He makes the calls, but there ain’t no best call you can make for a defense, we’ve got to go out there and make it happen. He’s put us in great situations.”

Does he think that has to do with inexperience at some positions?
“Every game it’s something different. Sometimes I feel like we don’t create enough turnovers, sometimes it’s inexperience, it’s a little bit of everything. It’s not just one thing. Sometimes it’s something different.”

More Ramarcus, on how they handle people being critical of the defense’s play:
“We just know what we’re here for. When you’re playing football, you can’t think about it. Even though you’re out there playing for the fans, we’re all we got. We can’t play for the fans. We’ve got to have each other’s back. Everything’s not gonna go right, so we’re all men here. College is about growing up. You’ve got to be able to handle that. That’s part of life. That’s why after playing football in college, you should be able to get a job and go out and work for anybody, because you’ve got to put up with a lot of things. The coaches prepare us for things like that. If you don’t win, it’s gonna be like that. If you win, it’s not gonna be like that. That’s how it is and we understand that.”

In other news, offensive lineman Chester Adams (ankle) was not able to practice today after tweaking his injured ankle again in Tuesday’s practice. Coach Richt made it sound like he’s doubtful and may not even make the trip to Lexington. Mohamed Massaquoi (hamstring, groin, hip flexor) and Mikey Henderson (ribs) both practiced in green no-contact jerseys today. Richt said Mohamed was not able to finish practice today, but I think they’ll both still play. He thinks freshman linebacker Darius Dewberry (hamstring) will be able to return next week.

Richt on the offensive line’s fatigue level:
“They’re tired. They’re beat up. Because of our lack of depth, they’ve just had a lot of, they’ve taken so many reps in practice. When you’ve got two lines that can roll, you’re taking some pressure off these guys. But quite frankly, we’ve been kind of mixing and matching, but not really rolling two units, and it’s been wearing them down. There’s no doubt about it. Everybody’s tired. I’m talking about across the nation, not just Georgia. But I know that group of linemen is tired right now.”

Richt, on doing a better job spacing out the recruitment of offensive linemen:
“Well, we’ve tried. We’ve just been very unfortunate with a lot of injuries and some academic issues. The depth is not good. We’ve got to build it up, there’s no doubt about it. Linemen are one of the few positions, across the board, that actually love to help recruit. They’re like, ‘Yeah, bring in as many guys as you can!’ Some of the skill guys are like, ‘Naw, don’t bring them in, I don’t want them to take my job,’ but linemen are like, ‘Bring them all in, man, because that’s one less rep I’ve got to take with Callaway climbing my frame.’ Linemen are always happy to bring in more.”

It was a good day

Today was just one of those rare days where everything seemed to be going right. I asked a couple good questions and got some very good answers, even from people I don’t usually have much luck with as interview subjects. Talked to Stafford, Michael Moore, Charles Johnson, Paul Oliver, Danny Ware, Ramarcus Brown and coaches Martinez, Ball and Callaway and got something usable from all of them. So I was very pleased with the day. Don’t get me wrong, there were still plenty of stale clichés, but there was some good stuff mixed in as well.

I’ll drop a bunch of things in here today, but I’m going to hold onto some stuff for stories and notebook items later in the week. And some of this stuff might appear in one of those things later. So you’ll just have to read it twice.

I imagine I’ll lead my notebook tomorrow with something on Danny Ware as the primary kickoff return man. I talked to both he and coach Ball about it today. I guess I’ll just go ahead and post both of those interviews because I thought they were both fairly interesting. Coach Ball’s always informative and Danny’s rarely at a loss for words.

Here’s what coach Ball said:
“I thought he did a good job. No. 1, he fielded the ball. You’ve got to be able to orchestrate and field the ball and make sure everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to do. I thought he did a good job and showed some ability to hit the seam. I just wish we could have gotten him free. We’re doing the right things. This past weekend, I tried some new people in some different spots. For example, Tra Battle was in there. Had CJ Byrd out there. We were doing some different things, and then to have them out there, first time doing it against what Florida was doing, I thought they did a good job. I had like four new guys out there this past weekend and I had some of the older guys out there in different spots. I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part.”

Ball, on what Ware did to win the job:
“He communicated the ball. He caught all the balls. As I said earlier, that’s the first thing, you’ve got to catch the football. I went down to pregame, and the pregame was really good because the wind was blowing and it was all over the place, so in pregame, I got a chance to see who could catch it. I mean, it went down to pregame with me.”

I mentioned to him that Danny’s more of a sledgehammer type than your typical elusive kickoff returner and asked if that style helps him as a returner:
“As a kickoff returner, you’ve got to be able to hit like a ram and run like a deer. And the thing that Danny can do is that Danny can see it. He has a burst. Now does he have the top speed to take it the distance? He says he does. Hopefully he’ll get a chance this weekend.”

And now onto Danny, discussing his two kickoff returns:
“The first one was kinda terrible. I think we messed up a couple blocks up front and I was just trying to follow everybody and kinda, I guess, made a bad decision and instead of trying to pop it outside, I tried to go inside. The second time I told Kregg to not even worry about faking inside, to just go straight outside, and we had a little bit more success. I know we had a penalty on it, but we still got some positive yards and got it up to about the 30 and that holding call brought it back. I think we did all right though.”

Ware, on what coach Ball has said to him about how he did:
“He ain’t really said nothing. I guess he really just expected it of me, so he really doesn’t have to say anything. He’s got me back there working again this week, so I’m guessing I’ll be back there again. I’ve just gotta go out there and catch the ball and communicate. That’s all they really want – run the ball hard and find the hole.”

Danny said Prince Miller, Asher Allen, Ramarcus Brown and Bryan Evans are also working at kickoff return. That’s the same group of players who were in the running for the KOR job last week.

Coach Martinez was asked several things about Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson, who’s a big dude. He’s listed at 6-5, 232, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t weigh a little more than that.
“I was at Central Florida when Daunte Culpepper was there, so we practiced against him every day. Anytime you get a quarterback who’s big, they can take hits and elude tackles, they have a knack at that big, to be able to get off a defensive lineman that’s trying to grab them with one hand or something like that. It makes it tough and it’s really an advantage for the offense because they’re physically able to take it. They’re able to take the hits, where a smaller guy may not be able to.”

“I know that those are the ones that you worry about, because you could have a blitz in there, whether it’s a defensive back that’s not that big. We’ve had that here in the past where you can’t bring them down. You’ve got the perfect defense called and you can’t wrap up and make a play. And linebackers, some of our linebackers aren’t as big as some of these quarterbacks. That’s huge.”

And here’s some of what he had to say about the defense’s effort in the Florida game:
“Obviously we’re not happy that we didn’t win, so that’s always leaving a bad taste in your mouth. But I thought that we did a lot of good things in the first half. Heck, the first play of the game, we strip the ball and it bounces perfectly to an offensive lineman. What if we get the ball right there? There’s a lot of things that we did in the first half.”

“Obviously there’s some things that we didn’t like – giving up a big play, the only one that we gave up. It helps your team, there’s no doubt about it. If we feel like we played well, and we think we did, obviously it helps.”

Coach Callaway, on coach Richt saying the offensive line “got whipped” against Florida:
“We had some problems. I think if you look early in the game, we didn’t do some things as well as we wanted to do, but I think overall we got better as the game went on. We’re just all frustrated because we didn’t move the ball like we wanted to move the ball.”

Callaway, on where they go from here:
“We all make mistakes. No game’s perfect. If you compete, if you’ve ever competed, you’re gonna get whipped. So we’re gonna learn from it and keep on going.”

Callaway on the situation at guard with Turner and Adams:
“Chester’s still not 100 percent, he’s a little gimpy, so that’s the reason we made that move.”

On where he sees Chester playing:
“He’ll play primarily at guard. All year long, he’s worked at backup tackle.”

David Paschall from the Chattanooga paper asked a couple people what they thought was Georgia’s best total offensive performance this season. Interestingly, nobody that I heard thought Georgia had given a total offensive performance this season.

Here’s what Stafford said in response to that question:
“I couldn’t even tell ya. Western Kentucky maybe, I don’t know. The first half against Tennessee was pretty sweet. We played well there, and I think the second half of Florida. If you put those together, you’d have a pretty good whole game.”

Here’s some more Stafford, discussing all the turnovers he and the offense have been committing lately:
“It’s tough and it puts our defense in a bad way. We definitely don’t like to do that. We’ve hurt them, definitely, turning the ball over and giving the other team a short field every once in a while. It’s something we’ve got to just keep working on and trying to get better at.”

“It’s more frustrating in the game when things are clicking for you and going right and then all of a sudden, you turn the ball over and you lose all the rhythm and all that kind of stuff. It’s definitely frustrating, but we’ve got to keep grinding, keep working and hope that things’ll change.”

“It’s tough to do that, especially in a tight ballgame like it was against Florida – down by a touchdown, those kind of things – just trying to make something happen that wasn’t there. I’ve definitely done that some this year, and some of those are just poor throws. It’s something I’ve got to keep working on.”

I asked Stafford if there was something they could put their finger on that they needed to improve on to be a better offense:
“It seems like something new every week. The last couple weeks it’s been turnovers. We can’t have ‘em. You can’t expect to win with the amount of turnovers we have. It’s kind of a miracle we were in that game. Our defense played so well keeping us in it. We just had some unlucky breaks at some points and some other things that we could have avoided. It’s just one of those things.”

Stafford said he’d already put his helmet on to get ready to go back on the field when Quentin Moses made the third-down stop on Andre Caldwell late in the game, only to be flagged for incidental facemask. Obviously Stafford said the offense was looking forward to a final chance:
“I was pretty confident. I’d done that a bunch in high school – gotten the ball back with two minutes, one minute, that kind of thing, and drove down the field and gave us a chance to win. I just wanted a chance, just to get the ball back. That was a tough call for us. It was one that could have gone either way and he was just giving everything he had, making a good play. Same thing with that punt, it hits Kelin’s foot, I mean what can you say?”

I also asked Matt if he’d seen tape on the Kentucky-Mississippi State game and he said they hadn’t yet, so I told him about how they’d had kind of a shootout. I forget the exact passing numbers, but both Woodson and MSU quarterback Michael Henig lit it up pretty good. So I was curious if he saw that and kind of hoped they’d be putting the ball in the air a lot. He slipped into a bit of one of his old standby answers, but he put a little twist on it that I hadn’t heard him say before and thought was kind of funny:
“Whatever the plan is for the week, I’m just gonna try to execute it. I don’t have any kind of bearing now, as far as what I say. I’m too young to have any kind of influence. I’m just trying to go out there and try and help out and win.”

Michael Moore, on his increased playing time lately:
“I feel like I’ve been working a lot harder in practice and that’s why coach (Eason) said I’m getting on the field. It wasn’t my routes or my hands or anything like that, it was just my effort in practice. But I’ve been working a lot harder, so hopefully I’ll see more time on the field.”

Charles Johnson, on putting pressure on Chris Leak last weekend:
“That was one of the main things that we wanted to try to do. When you put pressure on Leak, it might cause a mistake or something like that. But we didn’t do too much of a good job because we didn’t get the W.”