Tra Battle postgame quotes

If I'd been able to get some quotes in my story last night, I would have definitely have gone with my old standby, Tra Battle. Unfortunately since the game ended so late and the postgame interview process was a complete cluster...well, you get the idea...I didn't have time to get any quotes in before the paper had to be running.

There were player/coach family members, fans and other people everywhere outside the locker room, which created a disaster. The players and coaches are supposed to be brought out there so we can do our jobs quickly and it's tough when you're having to wait for Martrez Milner to finish signing autographs so you can ask him a couple questions so you can race back to the pressbox and get your stories finished before deadline. That's not the fault of the people who were asking for autographs. I don't blame them at all. And I don't blame Martrez for signing for them. If I were him, I'd probably prefer to deal with them than the media. But either the Georgia Dome security or the bowl people weren't doing their jobs by keeping people out who didn't belong right outside the locker room door. That was very poorly handled and I know a lot of writers were affected by their below-average preparation...

Anyway, here's what Tra had to say.

On the win:
"I just have to thank the rest of my senior class and all the underclassmen who fought so hard this entire game and throughout this entire season, who never let up on us when we were going through that drought for wins."

On Tony Taylor's play:
"Tony Taylor’s just extremely smart when it comes to football. He’s always been a leader, even when he’s been hurt, he came back on scout team and gave it his full effort. He’s just the ultimate team guy and that type of leadership out here on the field, it’s just a blessing to have that type of player on your team."

On the turning point in the game:
"I think it was that onside kick. That was the change of momentum. After that kick, we didn’t fall behind for the rest of the game."

On what the coaches said at halftime:
"I really don’t know what was said at halftime because I had played every snap except for the 10 that the offense had. I was getting an IV at halftime."

On why he was getting the IVs:
"I was tired. I had played just about every snap in the first half because I’m on every special teams. I played just about every snap except for the offensive snaps, so I was almost gone."

On what the comeback said about Georgia:
"I had always been told coming from my high school, the coach used to say to be the best you have to beat the best. Whether you like it or not, we were the best defense today. Maybe they were the No. 1 defense in the nation prior to the game, but we proved we have that same caliber defense."

On beating three straight ranked teams to finish the season:
"It’s just really hard to fathom the big turnaround we had. It’s like we turned a big 180 coming out of that five-game losing slump. But really, the only thing that can be said about that is it shows the true character of this team. We’re not a team that’s gonna give out. When the fourth quarter starts, we throw up four fingers and that’s saying that we’re gonna play 60 minutes, and any team that’s gonna play with us, we’re playing a fully 60 minutes."

Richt Sunday teleconference quotes

These are quotes the school sent out from this evening's season-ending teleconference:

(on team¹s defensive production over the last three games) ³It compares with some of the best we¹ve had. For a three-game stretch against ranked teams it certainly does. I can recall some games playing tremendous defense the Auburn game in 2002 when we had five straight three-and-outs that helped us win. This reminds me of that performance, only three in a row."

(on Mike Bobo as Georgia¹s play-caller) ³I think anyone in a leadership role instantly has some authority because of their title, but over time if you don¹t produce your ability to lead struggles. For him to be very productive in a big game against a great defense gives confidence that he can handle the position. It was a great start and one that can breed confidence in himself and everyone around him.

³I recall my first year as offensive coordinator (at Florida State) when the title was put on me in 1994. We were rolling up and down the field in some games, but the game that defined my leadership was when we were losing to Florida 31-3 in fourth quarter. We tied them and then beat them in the bowl game. To come back like we did ­ the tie was like a win to us ­ and then to win the bowl game really gave me confidence.

(on final outcome of 2006 season) ³We know we were very close to being an 11-2 ball club, but we were also close to having a losing record. When you look back on some of our championship years, maybe two or three or four games were decided by a touchdown or less. If you win those you¹re in the championship game, but if you lose, you¹re at risk of a six or seven-win season. This was not a whole lot different from the other years. We just didn¹t win some of the close ones.

(on team¹s mid-year struggles) ³It was such a tough time when we did lose those games and turned the ball over so much. But it was a time that helped us grow and gave us more confidence in each other. The slogan Finish the Drill maybe means more now than it has.

(on some junior-class players possibly leaving for the NFL) ³I¹ll probably make a couple of calls today. I don¹t think it will be for a final decision, but to set up some times to talk face-to-face. The main thing is for them to get good information from people who know what they¹re talking about and make a decision based on that. I don¹t want to make any predictions, there¹s a system set up for that. The players can listen and then get with their families and decide what to do.

(on younger players moving into the lineup next year) ³We¹ll have an infusion with some outstanding players who redshirted that will play a lot on scrimmage downs and special teams. Then you bring in a freshman class and we¹ll see who can get into position to play. There will definitely be a lot of young talented guys rolling into playing time, and that¹s pretty exciting.

³I think biggest question (next year) for us again will be the offensive line. We will be fortunate getting guys in mid-year and in (fall) camp who will give us some depth. If that comes together I think we¹ve got a good chance to be good in other positions offensively. Defensively, we¹ll have to see what some of our juniors will do, but we have some depth and guys who redshirted and some junior college guys who will help us. We¹ll have a chance.²

Mike Bobo postgame Q/A

I got a chance to talk to coach Bobo one-on-one for a couple minutes after the game, which is rare a lot of times in these postgame setups. He called a great game last night. The rooskie pass worked great. The goal line run play to Lumpkin for a touchdown worked great. They showed some guts pounding it in there on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with Southerland. It was just a very impressive showing by Bobo and the offense, taking the opportunities they were given by the defense and turning them into points.

I'll probably post more on the game later. I've got to write a couple stories right now.
Here's Bobo:

I think you guys had 47 yards at halftime and minus-3 in the second quarter, but your guys just exploded after that. Seems like they made you look a lot better in the second half…
We just had to calm down. I think Stafford was a little antsy in the first half and we didn’t have very good field position. The one time we had field position, we were able to get three points. And after that, the thing we talked about at halftime was that we’ve got to get some first downs. If we get some first downs, it’ll result in points and change the field position. That first drive coming out of the second half, when Mario Raley made the good catch on third-and-long was huge. We didn’t score on that drive, but we changed field position and I think that set the tempo and the mindset for the second half.

Do you think the momentum really swung in your favor on the onside kick?
That was huge. I really believe that when we were able to get some good field position that we had some plays that we felt comfortable with that were gonna get open. We had some open in the first half, but we just didn’t hit em, we didn’t protect very well. We changed a couple things at halftime, protection-wise, and the guys made the plays. You can’t say enough about the defense and the kicking game, the onside kick and the turnovers. If you get a short field, you’ve got to take advantage of it, especially against a team like Virginia Tech, and we were able to do that.

When you called that “rooskie,” was it just that we’ve got momentum, let’s try to kick ‘em in the stomach right here?
Right. We knew that if we had a chance to call that, it was gonna be a chance for a home run. Martrez did a nice job going after the ball and catching it in his fingertips. I’m real proud of him. He just made plays tonight. He’s a guy that’s sometimes been maligned in his career for drops, but he came through big on his senior night.

On the fourth-down run, did Richt make the final call on that?
Well he’s the head coach. We said, ‘What are we gonna do?’ and he said, ‘Go for it.’ Really, we didn’t know what to call down there. I was at my wit’s end deciding what to call and really it was a combination of everybody on what we needed to call because they were basically stuffing us in our jumbo set. They’re very good on defense. We knew it was gonna be a struggle running the ball and we knew it was gonna be a struggle moving the ball. If we’d just take care of the ball, we’d have a chance to win. And we ended up winning the turnover battle and winning the game.

Friday coaches press conference

These coach press conferences aren't especially valuable from a breaking news perspective. They're mostly good for TV cameras to get a couple good sound bites. That's especially the case with coaches Richt and Beamer on the podium. It's clear both guys like each other and they're not going to say anything remotely controversial about the other guy's team while he's sitting right there. So all the answers sound something like this: "I like everything about their team. I don't know if we'll score a point. I think when God created football coaches he had this other guy in mind." And that's fine. I understand it's part of the deal. It's just kind of boring once you sat through a few of them.

So with that outstanding buildup, here's some of what was said this morning by Richt and Beamer:
Richt, on how Georgia's come from behind a bunch this season:
"We’ve always had the ability not to panic when things weren’t going well. We’ve been a pretty unified team. The coaches don’t tend to get so bent out of shape that we lose our poise. We’ll get excited or maybe a little bit more motivated, but we’ve never gotten to the point where we just threw our hands up and quit. Even in last year’s bowl game, down 28-0, we could definitely have folded up the tent at that time. We got within three points going into the fourth quarter. We weren’t able to finish it, but no one gave up, no one panicked, everybody stuck together. We’ve been able to do that, so it’s good."

Beamer on what he expects from this game:
"I think this is gonna be a great football game. I think both of us are playing our very best at the end of the year. That’s what you want to do. They had a great finish and we had a good finish. I think it’s two teams that are very similar and I think people are in for a great football game."

More Beamer, same subject (I used some of this for my mini column for tomorrow's Ledger). This is on how Georgia compares to who VT's played this year:
"I think it’s ourselves. I know we didn’t play ourselves, but when you look at it we’re real similar. We’ve got a good defense, they’ve got a good defense. Both of them are ranked. Offensively, we’ve both got new quarterbacks. We both came up a little short on offensive linemen. We’re both inexperienced there. They’ve got a good kicker – I guess they lost one during the year – but their kicking game is very good and I think our kicking game is pretty good. So if I was looking for a comparison, I’d just look at ourselves. That’s why I think the game’s gonna be so good. I think we’re just very similar teams. I think we both play tough football, aggressive, get after it. I think it’s gonna be a great game."

Richt on how much influence he's had on the offensive gameplan/playcalling for the bowl:
"Early on when we initially put the plan in, I spent a lot of time studying the film with coach Bobo and the staff and helping install things. But I’m pretty much leaving it to Mike to decide how to call it and I haven’t really said, ‘Hey, you ought to do this’ or ‘you ought to do that.’ I just trust him and I know how it was for me when I was calling plays. If you get too many suggestions, it could be problematic, so I’m trying to stay out of his hair."

Richt on what this game means to his team:
"Our seniors, we had a little bit of a streak going on two – four years in a row with 10 wins and four top-10 finishes in a row. Our senior class was trying to build on that. Of course, there’s no way we can get 10 wins and I don’t think there’s any possible way we could jump into the top 10. I’m just hoping we can jump into the top 25 with a victory. I think what happened with us midseason, losing four out of five and having a lot of people really doubt us and kinda just forget about us, I think the nation forgot about us – and for good reason. For us to go ahead and finish with two great victories over, I guess Auburn was No. 5 at the time and Georgia Tech was somewhere around 15, 16 in the country, that was huge for us. We needed to play some ranked teams to just get back in the nation’s consciousness as a football team and gain some respect back. That’s what we were trying to do is gain some respect back that we’d lost. So by being able to play ranked teams, that was very important for us. We haven’t quite gotten into the top 25. I think we’re 26 in one poll, just on the verge of jumping into the rankings, which to me shows a sign of respect from the nation’s voters. That’s what means a lot to us. For our seniors to feel like they held it together – they did, they faced more adversity than any group of seniors since I’ve been at Georgia, where it looked like all hope was lost. But they held it together and were able to have a couple great victories. So we definitely gained a lot of relief in those last two victories and maybe some respect, so to be able to win this game, I think, would give us a lot of respect back nationwide."

Beamer on whether beating Georgia tomorrow would help legitimize the ACC in a "down year":
"I think if you look at the two teams that really control – what everybody’s trying to catch up to – Florida State in the ACC and Miami in the Big East, everybody tried to come up to their standards. Well they probably didn’t have the year that they thought they would. But I think Florida State had a great win the other night over UCLA and the more times we compete with people, certainly the better that is. I think on any given year, you could look at it and say, ‘OK, this conference did this and this conference did that.’ I think it’s the long haul and that’s why I think the Southeastern Conference is regarded as a great, great football conference, because they’ve done it over the long haul. Now this new ACC conference, we need to do it over the long haul. So I don’t think it’s a year to year deal. Maybe we didn’t have a dominant team this year, but I think it’s a great conference and over the long haul it’s gonna be OK."

Richt on what they're telling Stafford to settle him as he gets ready to play in a "big-game atmosphere." (By the way, this was asked by a VT guy and I thought it was kind of a dumb question. I'd argue that Stafford has already played in four bigger games than this one -- Tennessee, Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech -- and started three of them...sure, Georgia wants to win the bowl game, but if you're a Georgia fan, would you rather beat Florida, Auburn, Tennessee or GT or win the Peach Bowl?)
"Right now we’ve been through so many big games with Matthew that this is just another big game. It’s not a whole lot different than some of the games he’s already been in. So I don’t know if you treat it any differently, other than I hope he hasn’t forgotten what he’s done the last couple games to help us win and that’s not throw the ball to the other team. When we went through our times of struggling, we were losing the turnover ratio badly and we lost. When we played Auburn, we won the turnover ratio that game and when we went into the Georgia Tech game, we won the last two. Matthew didn’t throw a ball that really could have or should have been picked in those two games, where he was throwing about five passes a game in those other ones that could have gotten picked, and most of them did. He still has got to learn to wrap up the ball a little bit better. He’s gotta learn that there’s no point in trying to get a 2- or 3-yard gain on a scramble when you can just flip it out of bounds and not take the shot and not get hit, fumble and all that kinda stuff. So he’s learning that and it’s just part of the game, but I don’t see this game being a lot different than the last couple ones he was in."

Beamer on the value of playing unopposed Saturday night for recruiting purposes:
"I think it’s big. That’s why I love Thursday night games. It’s kind of like Monday Night Football in the NFL. Anytime you can get on national TV and be unopposed, if you can play well it’s just a plus. Now if you stink up the joint, it’s not too good. But I think it’s an opportunity for both of us if there’s recruits back home watching. Maybe you make them feel important."

Richt, same subject:
"Most of our class has been committed. You hope you play well enough to where they don’t decommit on you at this point. But there’s some top juniors out there, and sophomores and freshmen. I remember when I was a kid, I remember the first bowl game I ever watched was Florida State, I think, playing Texas Tech way back. They had miked coach Bowden for that game. That was just the most exciting game I ever saw. I didn’t sign with Florida State. I should have, but that made a big impression on me. I think I was in about ninth grade. So who knows what sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth graders are out there that might be impressed with what happens in the game."

Thursday bowl ramblings

It was not an especially newsy day at the Georgia Dome, but a lot of interesting things were said. I went to practice (the last practice we’ll watch this season. Ya-HOO!) this morning at 10 and hung around for the Georgia and Virginia Tech press conferences afterwards – Georgia’s featured outgoing offensive coordinator Neil Callaway, defensive coordinator Willie Martinez, quarterback Matthew Stafford and safety Tra Battle, while VT’s featured offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring, defensive coordinator Bud Foster, quarterback Sean Glennon and linebacker Xavier Adibi.

Got a chance to talk to Bud Foster one-on-one for several minutes after their presser for my story tomorrow about the VT defense’s “lunch pail.” You can find out more about it at his web site, lunchpaildefense.com. He’s got this old beat up steel lunch box that the defense keeps that’s supposed to represent all the stuff he expects from his players – hard work, accountability, loyalty, being a good teammate, all that. They put a written contract the players sign to hold themselves accountable to each other, the stated goals of the defense and turf from all the places where they’ve visited and won in the lunch pail. The defense’s player of the week each week gets the honor of taking the lunch pail to every meeting, practice and game. I thought it was fairly interesting, although yes, a little cheesy. Coaches are a cheesy bunch, though. They’ve got their cheesy little gimmicks and sayings (“Hold the rope,” “Finish the drill,” “Get after their ass”), but I guess the point is not to avoid being cheesy, it’s to get their players to buy into what they’re selling. That stuff seems to work, so you can’t knock it too much. It definitely works for coach Foster, who seemed to be a pretty likeable guy. With as successful as his defenses have been (he’s been there 20 years, defensive coordinator since 1995, and has been a finalist for the Broyles Award a record four times), you wonder why some team doesn’t come hard after him for a head coaching job. I didn’t talk to him about that, but it doesn’t make much sense to me.

Here’s an interview I did with Mikey Henderson today before practice:

What is it you see about Virginia Tech’s defense that makes them special?
Speed, physicalness, discipline, everything. To be the No. 1 defense in the nation, you’ve got to be doing something right. Scheme, discipline, they’ve got great players who play good in the system. Their defense is just rolling.

Do they compare to anybody you’ve played? I mean, the SEC’s a defense conference…
That’s what I’m saying. A guy asked me earlier and I’m like, ‘That’s what we face week in and week out. It’s what we see do in the SEC, play defense and special teams. For them to also have a great defense, it’s kind of like facing the challenge that we do every week. So it’s intimidating for them to be the No. 1 defense in the nation and for us to try to go out there and win the game, but it’s like what we see week in and week out.

It seems like the way they play football – power offense, physical, fast defense, it seems like they’d fit into y’all’s conference.
Right. Exactly. When you look at it and think about how they play with defense and special teams winning games for them, that’s what you get every week in the SEC. If we look at them like that, we have great respect because the SEC is a great conference. For them to fit that mold as a great defense and special teams-oriented team, it’s gonna be a great challenge. Hopefully we can overcome it.

Here’s Brannan Southerland on whether playing opposite VT’s much-hyped defense is motivating for Georgia’s defense:
“Nothing’s really been said, but they do (take it as a challenge). If Virginia Tech had the No. 1 offense, then me being on offense, I want to go out there and play a great game. I know our defense feels the same way. They want to go out and show them what kind of defense they are. By no means are they some crappy defense.”

Coach Callaway has already handed over the offensive coordinator duties to Mike Bobo, basically so Callaway can focus on his new gig at UAB and will only have to deal with coaching up the offensive line this one last time. Somebody asked him today about whether that transition was awkward and I thought his response was interesting:
“I’ve known Michael really since he was about 8, 9 years old, so I have a tremendous amount of respect and affection for Michael. I know he’ll do a great job. His daddy was an excellent high school football coach in the state of Georgia for a long time, so Michael’s been around football his whole life. I think anybody that’s been around him on the field, it’s obvious how well he does as far as coaching his players and relating to the players on the field. He has a tremendous mind and I know he’ll do great. Really he’s had a big part of our offense ever since he’s been here and I think he’ll do great. Really we talked, coach Richt and I talked early on when this whole thing kinda went down, and made a decision. I think it probably stemmed from what happened to him his last game at Florida State, as far as taking the job here at Georgia. It’s just a difficult thing to do, as far as being focused on two different programs. And so we made a decision early on that the offensive staff, along with coach Richt, would really implement the gameplan for this game and I would just kinda get caught up to speed on coaching the offensive line and make sure I took care of that part of it. So they’ll take care of the rest of it and I think it’s gone very well.”

On a note completely unrelated to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, but somewhat relevant to Georgia, did anyone watch the Independence Bowl today? What an entertaining game! I have to say I like Joe Kines, but I kind of liked Mike Shula, too, and you don’t have to know me very well to know how much it pains me to like either of them…Here’s how it relates to Georgia: Oklahoma State, next year’s season-opening opponent, rolled up 419 total yards and 207 rushing yards against a pretty decent Alabama defense. I don’t know how much you can read into that because, let’s be honest, things aren’t exactly stable in Tuscaloosa right now. But the Cowboys are a pretty dangerous opponent, especially for an opener. They were 16^th in the nation in total offense, after all. I especially enjoyed seeing Oklahoma State running back Dantrell Savage have a good game (112 rushing yards, 41 receiving, TD, set up winning field goal with 25-yard screen pass). He’s a Columbus guy. I think we voted him All-Bi-City Athlete of the Year his senior year at Jordan. He was at a JUCO the last two years and I think I wrote the first story about his committing to Oklahoma State. Not through intrepid reporting, but because I happened to be working on the copy desk one afternoon at the Ledger and his mom called and said, “Dantrell committed to Oklahoma State today. Do you want to do a story on him? Here’s his phone number.”

It reminds me of a similar story, in which a paper where one of my friends used to work, the Rome News-Tribune, broke a story about a coach being hired at Alabama (I think it was Joe Kines). You might think it odd that the Rome News-Tribune would break a story about Alabama hiring a coordinator, but the guy’s mother lived in the paper’s circulation area and called to let them know he’d gotten the job. So they called him up and had an exclusive…that’s the story as it was told to me, anyway.

Those stories always bring a smile to my face. Sometimes you break news by working sources and digging and going through back channels. That’s good investigative reporting. But then sometimes you break news simply by being the one who answered the phone when somebody wanted to dish a little dirt.

So that’s one of my final long-winded ramblings of the season. We’re nearing the finish line and now I understand what beat writers meant when I heard that they’d hit the wall late in the year. Between driving back and forth between Athens and Columbus numerous times, trying to get everything packed up in my apartment in Athens to take home, cleaning up before I leave and still trying to write at least one Georgia story and a blog post every day, things have REALLY started to drag over the last couple weeks. Like I always say, this is an incredibly fun job. But it’s starting to wear me down here near the end. Don’t pity me too much, though…I’m sure you won’t.

Wednesday update from Atlanta

Georgia and Virginia Tech both had press conferences today at the Georgia Dome. Georgia’s, attended by coach Richt, Tony Taylor and Nick Jones, was more than 30 minutes long, which was definitely good for information and quote material…but man, that’s no fun to go back and transcribe. Coach Beamer, center Danny McGrath and defensive end Noland Burchette appeared at Virginia Tech’s presser afterwards. That one was a more manageable 15 minutes.

I wrote about VT’s punt block team today and just how tough they’re going to be to defend. They’re so good there’s actually a section in the Hokies’ media guide devoted only to the subject of their success blocking kicks and returning special teams plays and defensive turnovers for touchdowns – all of which brought about the nickname “Beamer Ball.”

Check out these stats, which are fairly crazy:

• 113 blocked kicks in 239 games under Beamer (20^th season at VT). That’s 57 punts, 35 field goals and 21 PATs.
  • Of those 113, 62 have somehow led to points, either directly or to drives that produced points.
  • They’ve got five blocks this year, two of which led to touchdowns and another resulted in a safety.
  • In 1998, VT blocked 12 kicks. TWELVE.
  • The Hokies blocked more kicks than anyone (63) in the 1990s and are third this decade behind Texas and N.C. State.
  • VT has won the last 14 games in which it has blocked a kick. In the last 10 years, VT is 38-8 in games where it has blocked a kick.
  • Most frequently blocked teams during Beamer’s tenure are West Virginia and Pittsburgh, who have both been victimized 10 times by the Hokies.
  • Georgia also has had an impressive run blocking kicks, with 24 in Mark Richt’s nearly six full seasons (VT has 30 in that stretch). That’s not quite the pace the Hokies have set, but it’s still pretty good. The Bulldogs have two this year (punt vs. UAB and PAT vs. Colorado).

  Here are a couple of other things from today:
  * Coach Richt said he’s going to decide between one of two scenarios when hiring to fill coach Callaway’s spot on the staff. He’ll either move David Johnson to offensive line coach, as Johnson has expressed an interest in doing, or he’ll leave Johnson as tight ends coach and hire a new offensive line coach. He says he wants to have the vacancy filled by Jan. 14, when the recruiting dead period ends.
  * Richt was talking about VT’s special teams and how they play a bunch of starters on their punt return team, and brought up how Georgia does similar stuff…He talked about how he caught some flak from the assistant coaches for not playing more of the true freshmen, which I thought was interesting:
  “I haven’t really studied how many guys they’ll redshirt in any given year, but year in and year out they’re one of the best in the country, and I think really they’re willing to play their very best players on special teams, too. It’s not just young guys that are eager to hit, it’s a lot of veteran players along those teams. We try to do that too here at Georgia. We definitely redshirted a bunch of guys that could have been playing on special teams for us and I caught a lot of grief from the staff on that. They felt like we should have played more of the young guys, those linebackers and safeties and running backs – or at least Knowshon Moreno. Even at receiver, Tony Wilson could have been a guy helping us in those areas. But I just felt like, No. 1, the reason why I redshirted as many as we did is because I like them to graduate. Guys that redshirt graduate. Guys that don’t redshirt, it’s just much more difficult to graduate in the timeframe that they have.”
  * I could have sworn I read somewhere that the Georgia Dome’s roof/backdrop gave receivers problems spotting the ball, but coach Eason said his guys haven’t had any problems. I stood to the side while the team was practicing kickoff returns this morning and watched the kicks and the only time I ever lost it was when it was flying through the sightline between me and the lights – and that wouldn’t be a problem for players on the field, as the lights in the ceiling run only parallel to the sidelines and not behind either end zone, where they could cause a player to lose the ball. As Asher Allen walked past me between kick returns, I asked him if he had any trouble spotting the ball, either, and he said it wasn’t a problem…so there ya go…

On-site bowl practice begins

The team kicked off its bowl practice at the Georgia Dome this morning at 10 a.m. Can't say it was especially eventful. For fans in the area, they're having a team welcoming party at 5 p.m. at the ESPN Zone in Buckhead.

OG Seth Watts did not report with the team last night. Coach Richt only addressed it briefly this morning, saying he "didn't behave well enough to come to the bowl." He said Watts was given a one-game suspension.

Otherwise, everyone seems to be pretty much intact. We watched them stretch and probably the first 35 minutes of practice before taking off and they went through a normal early practice routine while we were there. A.J. Bryant (groin), Coleman Watson (groin) and Knowshon Moreno (?) were wearing green no-contact jerseys.

On the recruiting front, massive Hardaway offensive tackle and Georgia commitment Antwane Greenlee spoke with my buddy Robert Spruck, who covers preps for the Ledger, for a story on the North-South All-Star game that's in Columbus this week. He said he's still planning to sign with Georgia, but will probably take official visits to Florida State (where he'd previously committed and decommitted) and Florida. At one point he'd said he was shutting down his recruiting, but I think he still wants to take some visits just to see what else is out there.

CFA Bowl event schedule

The bowl just sent out this list of fan events, so if you're in the neighborhood...

What: Delta Football Feud
When: Wednesday, December 27, 7 – 9 p.m.
Where: Marriott Marquis, Marquis Ballroom
The Chick-fil-A Bowl and Delta Air Lines add a new twist to Bowl Week with the Delta Football Feud. Georgia and Virginia Tech will square-off in this game show competition. The Delta Football Feud will also honor graduating seniors from both teams. Tickets are $50.

What: Havoline Scholarship Luncheon and “Chalk Talk” presented by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When: Friday, December 29, 12 – 2 p.m.
Where: Marriott Marquis, Marquis Ballroom
Fans have the opportunity to have lunch with the head coaches and teams the day before the game. Both coaches will break down the X's and O's and discuss what it takes to prepare for a bowl game. They'll also recap their teams' seasons and give fans the chance to ask questions. Members of the Chick-fil-A Bowl Hall of Fame and top student-athletes from participating universities and Georgia high schools will be honored. Tickets are $30.

What: Celebration at the Station – THE ultimate party destination the night before the game!
When: Friday, December 29, 5 – 11 p.m.
Where: Atlantic Station
The marching bands from University of Georgia and Virginia Tech will fill the streets with music as attendees eat, drink and party the night away in anticipation of Saturday’s Chick-fil-A Bowl showdown. This block party will feature interactive activities and live mainstage entertainment by Livin’ Large, one of Atlanta’s top party bands. This is a free event.

What: Chick-fil-A Bowl Parade
When: Saturday, December 30, 1 – 2 p.m.
Where: Downtown Atlanta
Themed “Celebrating Atlanta’s Heroes,” the game day parade will feature giant helium balloons, classic cars, cheerleaders, mascots, award-winning marching bands, dynamic dance groups and more. The parade will step off at the intersection of Peachtree Street and Ralph McGill Boulevard and end at the Georgia World Congress Center leading all fans into the halls of the Chick-fil-A Bowl FanFest presented by Coca-Cola. This is a free event.

What: Chick-fil-A Bowl FanFest presented by Coca-Cola
When: Saturday, December 30, 2:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Where: Georgia World Congress Center, C1-C4
FanFest presented by Coca-Cola is a giant indoor pep rally that has it all, including cheerleaders, mascots and bands from each participating university. Interactive attractions such as punting, passing and kicking games, obstacle courses, and rock climbing walls will all be part of the fun. The “Team Walk” pep rally begins at 5:00 p.m. ending with each team parting the crowd to make their way to the Georgia Dome for the game. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door.

About the Chick-fil-A Bowl
The Chick-fil-A Bowl is the longest-running rivalry series of top-ranked teams from the ACC and SEC and is recognized as the most competitive bowl game in the nation over the last 20 years. Beginning this year, the Chick-fil-A Bowl will own exclusive rights to the first selection in the ACC – after the BCS – and will increase its total team payout to $5.65 million. Last year’s game between #9 Miami and #10 LSU marked the Bowl’s ninth consecutive sellout and helped the Bowl retain its position as the highest-attended non-BCS bowl over the last 10 years. The 39th annual Chick-fil-A Bowl will be played Saturday, Dec. 30 at 8 p.m. and will be nationally televised by ESPN. Visit Chick-fil-ABowl.com for more information.

last post for a couple days

Just like the team, I think I'm going to take a little hiatus for a couple days (unless something happens that's important enough to post about)...at least until bowl practice picks back up. I'm working on the copy desk at the Ledger tonight and heading home to south Alabama in the middle of the night after the paper starts rolling and I'll mostly be away from the computer until the 26th.

But before I go, there were a couple of things to report from today:
1. The Joe Blaes thing: Apparently someone didn't graduate that they were expecting to graduate, so there's not a scholarship available for him to sign and come in in January. They've got seven midyear spots available and those are going to be filled by Tanner Strickland, Trinton Sturdivant, Justin Anderson and JUCO signees Vince Vance, Jarius Wynn, Corey Irvin and Scott Haverkamp. Georgia still wants Blaes, but it can't take him now. The ball's in his court as to whether he wants to wait it out or accept an offer from somewhere else and go ahead and enroll as a midyear guy. I feel bad for the kid. He's all ready to sign and he finds out three days before he does so that they can't take him right now.
2. Ian Smith will remain on the team. He was given a six-game suspension, the bowl game and the first five games next year. His disciplinary agreement also requires him to do community service and go through counseling. I'm betting there'll be some behind-the-scenes punishment he'll be doing, too (i.e. lots and lots of running). He's on probation for the rest of his academic career at Georgia. Another incident with drugs or alcohol equals automatic expulsion.
3. Tight ends coach David Johnson has expressed an interest in the offensive line job. He's a veteran OL coach and played center in college at West Virginia. But they've got a good thing going while he's been coaching the tight ends. I'm wondering if coach Richt really wants to move him and risk damaging the continuity they've built there -- especially with a young star in the making they've got in NaDerris Ward.
4. Coach Callaway said he's not taking anybody on the Georgia staff with him to UAB. I was wondering if one of them might go to be a coordinator, but you'd have to think if a guy left Georgia to join him that the guy would be taking a paycut. UAB just isn't going to pay an assistant the way Georgia can. Heck, Willie Martinez won't make much less this year as Georgia's defensive coordinator than Callaway will make next year as UAB's head coach.
5. I mentioned yesterday in my notes that 50 Georgia players got 3.0 or better GPAs. That's pretty good. Didn't mention this part: two of them made 4.0s -- Quentin Moses and Joe Tereshinski.

So that's what I've got for now. Since I may or may not post again before Christmas, merry Christmas to all who read this, or happy holidays if the Christmas thing isn't your deal. It's been a great year. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to do this job and for how much fun it's been. Let me tell you, if you think covering college football would be a fun job, you're right. It's a blast. It's a lot more work than you'd probably expect, but it really is a fun way to make a living.

Add Vince Vance

Vince Vance's paperwork arrived this afternoon as well. They're now only waiting on Joe Blaes from the JUCO commits.

Here's Vance's bio:
VINCE VANCE
OL, So., 6-8, 310
Hinesville, Ga.
Bradwell Institute
Georgia Military College

VINCE VANCE: Born: Oct. 11, 1987...High School: Bradwell Institute...named to the 2004 Class AAAAA Honorable Mention All-State team as a defensive lineman...High School Coach: Jim Walsh.
Junior College: 2006 ­ Georgia Military College...earned first-team National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-American honors following the 2006 campaign...ranked No. 73 overall in Rivals.com Junior College Top 100 2007...was instrumental for the GMC offense as the Bulldogs advanced to the 2006 Golden Isles Bowl...helped give GMC the seventh-best team offense (358 yards per game) in the NJCAA...Junior College Coach: Bert Williams.

Stafford discusses Bobo

Here's some stuff from Stafford yesterday, mostly talking about Bobo's promotion and his style as a playcaller and coach. I used a tiny bit of this for today's paper and will use a tad more for tomorrow's:

On if he could tell Bobo was calling plays against Georgia Tech:
"Now when I look back on it I could, yeah, because we called a lot of the stuff that we practiced. He did a good job of that I think because we put in new stuff every week for different teams and sometimes they get called and sometimes they don’t. That last drive was pretty much all new stuff. I like the way he calls plays and I think he’s a really smart guy.

On playing for Bobo:
He’s a tough dude. He knows what he wants and he knows how he likes it run. He does a great job of doing it. He gets everybody to buy in around here and that’s all you need is for the people you’re working with to believe in you, and they do.

On Coach Callaway:
He does a great job and he’s been doing a great job for us for a long time. He’s just a hard worker. We don’t quit a play until we get it exactly right and that’s just a testament to him and him doing things right.

On whether he can tell the difference between playcallers:
There’s a certain style of plays in a row that I can tell the difference from coach Bobo and somebody else. I’ve worked with coach Bobo, so I know what he’s thinking. And when he calls a play, I’m like, ‘I know what you’re thinking vs. this and this.’

On Bobo's style calling plays:
He’s aggressive for sure. He’s just really, really smart when he comes up with his gameplan and he gets input from us. He’ll ask us in the meeting, ‘Do you see something?’ and he’ll go write it down and think about it. He’s open for help and suggestions and new ideas. He’s always trying to learn more and that’s what you want out of a guy calling plays is getting everybody’s input and thinking about it and trying to come up with the best gameplan.

More on that:
I love it. He’s just open to making plays, and then if the defense is just giving us something, like in the last drive against Georgia Tech. They were giving us a hitch weakside and we just kept taking it and taking it and taking it to Mo. On that play on third down that we called there where I hit Mo, not for the touchdown, but for the third down right before that, it was a play we’d put in the week before working just for Georgia Tech. He’s pretty gutsy to have confidence in a play that we’ve run for one week, third-and-the game, he calls it and just trusts the players to execute it. It’s a good feeling.

Leftover quotes

I was going back through all the interviews I've done for the last few days and came across some stuff that I thought was interesting, but don't know that I'll ever use for a story. That's what's so handy about the blog. I feel like maybe at least someone will read it and I didn't completely waste my time by transcribing...

Here's Frank Beamer talking about how he thinks football players should be given five years in school to play five years, instead of five years to have four years of eligibility. Coach Richt has said he agrees with that too. I think it's a pretty good idea. What do you think?

Here's Beamer:
"All of us would like to see more. I think the real answer right now is five years for five years of eligibility. What happens, you’re playing more games with less weeks off, because there’s one less week off now, with basically, if you’ve got 85 people, you’re probably (playing) about 50, 55, 60 people on scholarship because you’re redshirting and so forth. So I think what would help all of us and would make the game safer, and would just make sense, is five years for five years of eligibility. Then all those freshmen, they could fit in there on some special teams and keep people fresher. What happens, you get a couple of people hurt and now all of a sudden, guys are playing more plays in a ballgame than you want them to play. And then I think that becomes a health issue. I don’t know that we’ll ever get more scholarships because you get Title IX involved, but I do think five years for five years of eligibility makes a lot of sense."

I used some of this today, but not all. I talked to Thomas Brown (he says he's knee is progressing nicely, by the way) yesterday about making an adjustment to a new position coach like the offensive line will soon have to do...figured he'd be a good person to ask since he's had three different position coaches at Georgia:
"I can say it’s been a little bit good, kinda bad. We haven’t had the coach that’s been with us as long as coach Callaway’s been with the offensive linemen. But having a different coach for three years brings a different perspective of three different guys. It gives you the all-around perspective of three running back coaches because they all bring different things to the table. I guess the bad part is having to get used to a new guy coming in. But the system stays the same, so he’s gonna come in and teach the same thing, but he may go about it in a different way."

Brown on what's the biggest obstacle you face with another new coach:
"You just feel like you’ve got to prove yourself all over again. With the hard work you did with that coach, trying to prove yourself as a playmaker and having the ability to play on Saturdays, when a new guy comes in, he’s got to get a feel for you and you start all over again. I guess that’s the biggest thing. Getting adjusted to them really isn’t that hard. You’re gonna have plenty of time to be around them. He’s gonna teach the same schemes as the coach did before as long as the offense doesn’t change. But that’s the main thing – trying to prove yourself all over again."

Brannan Southerland, on his development in his second year as a regular:
"I felt much more confident this year than I had. Last year I was still new to everything and this year when I touch the ball, I feel like I can do something with it, whereas last year I was still real nervous. I’ve got my feet underneath me this year and I feel much more confident and able to do something with it after I’ve got it."

Rodney Garner on the need to sign JUCO offensive linemen, largely because of the shoulder problems Georgia's O-linemen seem to keep having:
"It’s definitely a need. We’ve had some misfortune around here with the shoulder thing with the o-linemen. It’s been a major mystery. Hopefully with those guys being a little bit older and a little more mature, maybe they can make it though."

Willie Martinez, on his talks with Florida International (a position that has just been filled by former Miami assistant Mario Cristobal):
"It got serious. Obviously I’m from down there and obviously where you’re from has a lot to do with it, where your ties are from. That’s always hard, you’ve got to look into it because that’s what’s gonna help you succeed too. We’re in a business where recruiting is it. Are you able to get the players? What kind of base do you have? And that’s a good base."

Martinez, on how Mark Richt reacts if you come to him and ask for advice on seeking a possible promotion elsewhere:
"He’s not gonna sit there and kill you if you ask him for advice. He’s gonna give it to you. He does a great job with that. Just like with anyone else, you want to help out whether it’s a position coach here wants to be a coordinator and guys with the desire to become a head coach, the stepping stone is to become a coordinator and have the opportunity. So you can’t stop those guys from doing that."

"It’s only a positive, too. It’s a positive thing, people that want you. Obviously you’ve been successful here, that’s gonna happen."

So there's some stuff to chew on for a while...

Three JUCOs have signed

Corey Irvin has signed to play for Georgia, bringing Georgia's total to three junior college players who have signed -- Irvin, Jarius Wynn and Scott Haverkamp. They're still waiting on paperwork from Vince Vance and Joe Blaes.

Here are the bios sent out by the school on the three signees. None of them are practicing with the team during bowl practice, nor are any of the high school commitments. Coach Richt said they decided against doing that this year.

SCOTT HAVERKAMP
OG/OT, Jr., 6-4, 300
Silver Lake, Kansas
Butler Community College

SCOTT HAVERKAMP: Born: Dec. 22, 1985...High School: Silver Lake...led Silver Lake to state runner-up finishes in his junior and senior seasons...named All-State for Class AAA as both a junior and a senior...named All-Mideast League on offense as a junior and on offense and defense as a senior...as a senior, recorded 30 knockdowns, 15 drive blocks, 23 touchdown holes and a 97 percent overall grade average....High School Coach: C.J. Hamilton.

Junior College: Butler Community College...rated as the 58th best junior college player (all positions) by Rivals.Com...helped Butler win the 2006 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference title with an 11-1 record...anchored the offensive line as Butler rolled up 382 total
yards and 35 points per game...helped pave the way for two 1,000-yard rushers and
33 rushing touchdowns...named Second-Team All-KJCCC offensive guard by the league's coaches...originally signed with Kansas before enrolling at Butler...Junior College Coach: Troy Morrell.

JARIUS WYNN
DL, Jr., 6-5, 275
Lincolnton, Ga.
Lincoln County High School
Georgia Military College

JARIUS WYNN: Born: Aug. 29, 1986...High School: Lincoln County first-team
GHSA All-State Class-A as a senior defensive lineman in 2004...earned first-team All-State honors as an offensive lineman in 2003SHigh School Coach: Larry Campbell.
Junior College: 2006 ­ Georgia Military College...earned second-team National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-American honors following the 2006 campaign...voted team captain and defensive MVP...tallied 21 tackles, including a team-leading eight for losses, two sacks, forced four fumbles and had one fumble recovery in 2006...part of defense which held opponents scoreless in the four games in 2006...ranked No. 6 overall in Rivals.com Junior College Top 100 2007...named 2006 NJCAA Honorable Mention Preseason All-American...key contributor on the nation's third-ranked NJCAA defense (142.4 yards per game) in 2006...helped lead GMC to the Golden Isles Bowl in 2006...Junior College Coach: Bert
Williams.

CORVEY IRVIN
DL, Jr., 6-4, 275
Augusta, Ga.
Laney High School
Georgia Military College

CORVEY IRVIN: Born: May 3, 1985...High School: Laney High School...named to the 2004 Class AA Honorable Mention All-State team...High School Coach: Eric Parker.
Junior College: 2006 ­ Georgia Military College...registered 11 tackles, four tackles for losses and two sacks during the 2006 season... part of defense which held opponents scoreless in the four games in 2006...ranked No. 32 overall in Rivals.com Junior College Top 100 2007... helped lead the GMC team to the Golden Isles Bowl in 2006...Junior College Coach: Bert Williams.

Bobo will call plays

We just finished talking to coach Richt after the evening practice. He says Bobo will call plays next year and will stay in the booth.

Additionally, he's not in as big of a rush to fill the vacant OL position. He says he wants to have that job filled by the end of the recruiting dead period in mid-January so they can tell kids they're still recruiting who that coach is going to be.

Bobo speaks about new job

This is most of the beat writers' conversation with Bobo after he was named offensive coordinator this afternoon. There were a bunch of TV and radio guys here today who aren't usually here and I taped when we were all standing there listening to them talk to Bobo too, but I haven't transcribed that yet. Let's just say TV folks' questions aren't always the most in-depth...I'm not speaking for all the writers, but I know I waited until those guys were gone before I asked the question I was most interested in -- and that's if this means Bobo will be calling the plays next year. (The answer was that he doesn't know yet. I'll ask coach Richt about it later and he'll probably say the same thing, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that Bobo will.)

So anyway, here ya go:

Matthew said he likes that you’re both aggressive.
I don’t know, I think Matthew is aggressive. I wouldn’t call myself aggressive. I think coach Richt, both of us playing the position, we think along the lines of being aggressive. But I think Matthew’s the one that wants to be aggressive and he’s probably trying to put that in my head. You’ve got to call what you think your players can do the best. You can’t get into, ‘Hey this call is gonna do this.’ You’ve gotta execute and go out there and make sure your guys know what to do. The bottom line, it comes down to execution and the way the guys execute is by you coaching your position and making sure they’re ready to play come gametime.

Does Matthew try to be persuasive in the meeting room about being aggressive?
I like that. I like guys that ask questions. I like guys that give ideas. That means they’re thinking about things we’re doing. They’re thinking about other ways that we could possibly take advantage of a defense. Right now that’s a limited basis for him because he’s a freshman. Right now we’ve got to get him to understand what we’re trying to do. When he can grasp that fully, then we’ll allow him to do a little more. But I never want a quarterback, any of the guys, to think, ‘Hey, this is the only way we know how to do it. This is how we’re gonna do it every time.’ There are certain things we’re gonna do that way, but I want them to be innovative and creative and be able to make plays on their own and think things through.

How ready do you think you are for this responsibility?
A lot of people will probably be concerned because I’m only 32, but I’ve been around football my whole life, my dad being a coach. And I’ve been around a lot of coaches, whether it was playing or coaching as a graduate assistant and now coaching. I’m just gonna do like I always do, and that’s work hard and prepare and again, I don’t think anything I’m gonna do is gonna make it become automatically magical. It’s gonna come down to us coaching our positions individually and making sure they’re ready to execute.

Is this a sign that he’s gonna have you calling plays next year or is that still up in the air?
I have not gotten to that point yet. He just told me, ‘I want you to be the coordinator,’ and I said, ‘Thank you, I appreciate it, yes sir.’

Is your dad an offensive or defensive coach?
He was actually an offensive line coach when I played for him early on and my junior year of high school, he became the head coach and actually started coaching me my junior year.

Was he calling plays?
He was calling plays at that point, yes.

Do you remember even that far back that the playcaller sort of gets a lot of frustration vented his way? It’s a high-profile spot.
It is. And coach Richt and I talked about it. Playcaller, head coach and quarterback on the offensive side, they’re gonna get criticism. I played quarterback here and I understand there’s gonna be criticism and I’m gonna be calling plays, and that’s just part of the job. I’ve got to focus on what I can do to help the team win and achieve what we’ve been achieving in the last five or six years and hopefully continue that. The way I know how to do that is to continue to work hard and lean on these other coaches. Our head coach was an offensive coordinator for a long time and had a lot of success. I’ll be leaning on him heavily.

So the skin is thick enough to take it…
Yeah I think so. I’ve been around football my entire life. I know how it is. Coaches and as a player, both sides. So long as those guys in that room know what’s going on and my family at home, I think I’ll be fine.

Do you remember your dad getting grief?
Oh yeah. He used to get grief because he played his son. His son doesn’t need to be out there and, ‘Why you calling this?’ We used to run the wishbone and we started throwing it when I became a junior. ‘You’re only throwing it because of your son,’ and some of that might be true because I couldn’t run the option. But that’s part of it. When we make a decision, we’ve got to stick with it and I’m sure there’ll be a lot of arguments up there – good arguments – in the staff room about the way we should do things. But when we make a decision, we’ve got to be one together and make sure we execute that plan to the players. That’s how it’s been since I’ve been here. We’re a close staff, offense and defense, and as a team, offense and defense. I think that’s a tribute to coach Richt and I don’t see that trend changing now that I’ve become offensive coordinator.

Did you second-guess any of your stuff against Tech when you went back and watched film?
Obviously. When you watch film, it’s a lot different than when it’s happening game speed. You can sit back and say, ‘We coulda done this or maybe did this a little more.’ That’s just part of it. It’s like when I sit at home and watch a game on TV and I’ve got Tivo and I can rewind it and say, ‘Why are they doing that?’ or certain things. That’s part of it. You’re not ever gonna call the perfect play or the perfect game. You’ve just got to realize that you’ve got to take advantage of opportunities and manage your mistakes and just play smart.

Would you have been kicking yourself the last few weeks if that last drive didn’t score?
I would have been kicking myself mainly because we lost. You play the game to win, and I thought we had done some good things during the game, but we hadn’t really put it together. It ended up working out the last drive, and we’re excited that happened. I’m excited for the players because they worked hard. They’ve had a tough year and they came back to win those last two.

Bobo's the OC

Just announced it...

more later. we're waiting to talk to Bobo.

Redshirts story

I did a story for today on Georgia's class of redshirts this year. As I'm sure most of you know, only six of the 24 true freshmen played this year. So I talked to the veterans at each of the redshirts' positions about what they're expecting from the young guys. It was actually fairly fun to do, although it took a long time to finish. The most interesting part about it to me was the comments on each player at the end.

I get asked a lot about my thoughts on the redshirts and, truthfully, I don't have many. We don't see much of what they can do in the time we watch practice. But the players see them all the time, so I thought asking them was the best way to get a decent idea of what to expect from them. Obviously they're not going to dog on a kid too much to a reporter, but I think if you read between the lines a little, you'll see what they think on a lot of them.

Here's the link if you want to check it out.

Richt Monday postpractice

I missed maybe the last minute. I had to talk to Joe Tereshinski and he was waiting near the end of the time we were talking to coach Richt.

Questions and answers are verbatim.

Opening comments:
We went ahead and changed plans again in our practice a little bit. I felt like we had a real good practices before we left for the weekend and I didn’t want a double day every day, even though we split it up, I still thought just going through the motions of padding it up twice a day wasn’t gonna hurt them so much physically, but I wanted to keep them fresh mentally. So we added just a tad more in the morning and then canceled this afternoon in lieu of a good lift and walkthroughs and mental parts. So we’re gonna stay with the idea of getting in great condition. We’re conditioning them right now, as you see. We’re gonna get some good lifts in, we’re gonna make sure we know what to do with meetings and walkthroughs. Today was the only day we’ll go full-pads before the Christmas break. I was gonna do it twice, but I decided to just do it today. We got some good, live tackling, inside drill, first-and-10 situation, a short-yardage situation we got in live, so we got a chance for everybody to get a chance to tackle. Tomorrow we’re still gonna do a two-a-day as we had planned. Wednesday is kinda…I’m leaning toward what we did today – a practice in the morning and lift in the afternoon, but we’ll just see how they practice tomorrow. That might help me decide. But other than that, you probably want to ask about something else.

What’s your timetable for making a hire?
No timetable. Just when we’re ready, when we know we’re doing the right thing and the best thing.

Is moving Mike to offensive coordinator and just hiring a line coach a possibility?
Yeah, there are a lot of scenarios and that’s one of them.

Is the bowl game in essence like an audition?
No. No, that’s not gonna be…That would not have any factor whatsoever. I would hope…when you say timetable, I would say my goal would certainly be to have a decision made prior to the bowl game if I can. I’m not looking to have this thing drag out a long time, but I don’t want to do it at breakneck speed where I don’t have peace about it. The main thing is I’m gonna think it through and pray it through and when I get some peace about it, then that’s when I’m gonna make a decision.

How much of a time-consuming thing is this for you? What sort of responsibility is it to make a hire? How many resumes and stuff do you get?
I get a lot of calls. When the word was out that Neil had interviewed, then the calls began immediately. ‘If he gets it, I’m interested,’ or, ‘I know a guy that’s interested,’ or that kind of thing. There’s been a lot of calls, a lot of interest. A tremendous amount of interest from some very outstanding people, by reputation, that I know of. I’m not gonna give any clues, but it’s been very well…A lot of good people that I would consider outstanding?

Do you have a short list given that you…
I don’t…no, because I know when people kind of catch the what-ifs, I get a lot of calls, and now that it’s certain, I’m sure there’ll be more people to get involved in being interested. I’m just gonna listen to what’s out there and then begin to hone it down. So I imagine there’ll be a few more days of people wanting to give me their opinion on what I should do. But a lot of people in the business that I respect – you’re either gonna get calls from that person or you’re gonna get calls from someone who knows a guy that they think would be outstanding. So I’m just gonna gather information and then we’ll hone it down, hopefully relatively quick.

Do you expect anyone on your staff to explore or has explored UAB?
I don’t know. Neil would tell me if they were and right now he hasn’t told me anything. Right now everybody’s certainly got a right to go to him. If he wants to speak to somebody on the staff, I’m not gonna say…I’ve never told any head coach if he wanted to speak to somebody on the staff that they couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do that with Neil, either.

How much time does it take away from preparation?
The good news is the majority of the preparation is done. We’ve had to practice it now, we’ve had time to prepare. So I’d say 90 percent of the preparation is done as far as the studying of the film. Not to say we’re not gonna continue to, and maybe change something here and there. But the bulk of deciding what we’re gonna do in all of our situations and field positions and that kind of stuff, we really hammered the majority of that out, finished it up over the weekend.

You know what Neil’s going through with doing two things at once.
Yeah. Basically with Neil, all I told him, I said, ‘Look, just make sure you’re up to speed on what we’re doing, what the line’s doing and everything after that we’ll handle. I know how hard it is to try to think creatively or anything like that while he’s going through what he’s going through. I’m thankful he’s here through the bowl, because I’m glad he wanted to be here. I know our players and I appreciate it, and I appreciate UAB allowing him to do it. For him to do anything other than making sure the line is up to speed and getting after them in practice, I can’t expect much more.

What about the timing of Neil leaving, right when you gave Mike the playcalling, that’s kind of weird how that worked out.
That’s a matter of opinion if it’s weird or not.

Did you find out what happened to Turner?
He got like a fever. They’re gonna test him for strep throat, but they don’t know what it is. He’s just got the crud right now like a lot of people have. The big bully had the crud today too, Charles Johnson, and he couldn’t go.

LB recruit arrested

Linebacker commitment Rennie Curran was arrested yesterday in Gwinnett County and was held to turn over to another agency. If what it was for was what I heard it was for, it's nothing huge. Frankly, I'm not especially interested in keeping tabs on kids who aren't already here. The ones already on the team who go to jail are enough to deal with. But this is just an FYI...

Smith avoids school suspension

You've got to give Marc Weiszer from the Athens paper credit. He did an open records request and has a story today on how center Ian Smith avoided school suspension for his Nov. 30 alcohol-related arrest, his second in a year.

Ian is probation for the remainder of his academic career at Georgia -- if he remains on the team -- and will be expelled for an additional alcohol or drug offense.

Coach Richt said a couple of days ago that he hasn't decided what to do for punishment. Ian is "indefinitely suspended," officially, but coach Richt said he'd suspend him for the bowl game and the first five games next year at minimum.

The university-mandated minimum punishment for a second alcohol-related offense is 30 percent of the team's season -- in this case, 3.6 games.

Callaway Q&A

Here's our telephone Q/A with coach Callaway from his new office at UAB that just ended a little while ago:

Initial thoughts on the hiring and if he was starting to think he wouldn't get this chance:
It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and, to be honest with you, I’d kinda had some thoughts about, ‘What if it doesn’t happen?’ and what direction we would go. But fortunately it did happen and I’m excited about being here at UAB and looking forward to the future.

You will be coaching in the bowl, correct?
I’m gonna come back tonight and of course be at practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ll be at two-a-days. Thursday morning I think we break and I’m gonna come back over here, work Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then take some time off for Christmas and then be over in Atlanta on the 25^th with the team. After the game, we’ll come on over this way.

You’ve been around Pat Dye, Mike Dubose, Mark Richt when they’ve all been taking over programs. Any blueprint that you think you might follow at UAB or might it be some of each?
It’ll probably be some of each. I think the biggest thing, you’ve gotta get in here and work hard and be fair with people and treat them with respect, but also make sure you demand their respect. That’s kinda how we’re gonna approach this thing, making sure we’re working hard, doing the right things and around good people, so that’s kind of where we’re gonna start.

I read where you said you want to take this program farther than anyone can imagine. Talk about what is your goal for UAB long-range.
Well, obviously we’ve got to do a good job of getting a good staff in here and we’ve got to recruit good football players and we’ve got to work hard. And I think, you know down the road, you look at what Louisville’s done, they’ve gotten out of Conference USA and gone to the Big East and I think they’ve got a very good program. We’ve gotta, I think along those lines, I’d like to see us try to build this program the way they built the one up at Louisville.

People say there’s the natural shadow of Auburn and Alabama in that state. Is that a huge obstacle that you have to deal with?
Alabama and Auburn both are very good football programs. They have a lot of tradition, a lot of history there. But I think all we can worry about is what we’re gonna do here at UAB. I think if we’ll put a good team on the field, win ballgames and are exciting to watch, then I think we’ll get our share of support and followers.

What does it mean to go back to where you spent so much of your coaching career and your playing career, personally, and how much of a foothold does it give you getting started, having so much experience there?
Of course, I was born and raised there in Macon and went to high school (there), and then went to college of course at Alabama and spent 12 years at Auburn and went back to coaching four more years at Alabama. Probably most of my adult life, I’ve been in Alabama. It’s a good place. High school football is very good here in the state, especially in the Birmingham area, so I think it will benefit us, the fact that I do have a background in recruiting this area. So we’ve gotta get, like I said, a bunch of good coaches on board and get started with the process and recruit well.

You mentioned getting good coaches on board. Where are you in that direction and have you talked to anyone on Georgia’s staff about joining you and do you plan to?
Well, I’m not ready to say anything at this time. I’ve certainly got some thoughts and ideas as what direction we want to go and how we want to do, but it’s a little premature right now.

I know you were on staff at Auburn with coach Sullivan and his name was one of the first ones that came up at UAB after coach Brown left. Have you talked to him at all this week about what to expect at UAB?
No, I have not talked to Pat.

Missed some of this part...he said he has 6 to 8 recruits committed to UAB right now and that he'll start looking over their film and deciding which direction to go:

...Get in here in the next day or two and start evaluating this recruiting film and deciding on which way we want to go on who. I kind of have some thoughts on what we want to do and go from there.

Can you talk about the specifics of your contract? I know it’s for five years, but can you say the amount?
I’ll let the university tell you how much they’re paying me.

Have they announced that yet?
I don’t know if they have announced it…They have not announced it, no.

With the guys you recruited at Georgia and the offensive linemen who are on the recruiting list, will you call those guys and talk to them and tell them everything about Georgia that I told you is still a fact?
Oh yeah. When I leave here tonight, that’s the first thing I’m gonna do is get on the phone and start calling those guys. That’s always the hard part of changing. You make a commitment to coach young men and recruit young men and you want to fulfill that commitment, but at the same time, I’ve been honest with everybody that’s asked on the fact that if I get the chance to be a head coach at what I thought was a good place, I would probably take that. So that opportunity’s come along and I think most of them will understand. I hope all of them will understand. That’s always the hard thing, is to leave guys that you’ve been around, not only players but coaches, people in the office and that kind of stuff. It’ll be tough in those regards, but we’ll work our way through it.

I know it’s still early, but is it your plan to call the plays next season?
No. I’ve been an offensive line coach for I think 29 years now and been an offensive coordinator where I called plays and an offensive coordinator where I didn’t call plays. I want to be a head coach now and I’m gonna hire somebody to be the offensive coordinator that will call the plays and basically run the offense, just like I’ll hire a defensive coordinator to run the defense. But at the same time, I’ll be the head coach and I’ll be involved in what’s going on and have my hands on it day-to-day. But I’m gonna hire those guys to do their job and let them do it.

When did you call plays before? Did you call them at Houston or at Alabama?
I did them at Houston and a couple years at Alabama, that is correct.

Will Mark kind of pick your brain on your replacement, do you expect?
Well, I’ll say we’ve talked a little about it and Mark does a great job, obviously, and I’m sure we’ll talk a little more about it. But it’s sort of his decision on what he’s gonna do and I’ll let him tell y’all about that. But we have talked a little bit about it, yes.

You mentioned it a little bit at the beginning, but after this finally became a reality, after all these years, what was your first thought or your first emotion?
I don’t really know that it’s sunk in right now. Anytime I guess you go through this process, it’s always kind of a whirlwind, hectic kind of deal, as far as you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that, trying to keep everything quiet on one end and this, that and the other. So I don’t know that it’s sunk in yet. I’m very excited, I’m very appreciative of the people involved here. President Garrison is a very good lady, very sharp lady, that I think is outstanding. I’ve been around here a little bit today and I’m just tickled to death with what she stands for and likewise with the administrative people – Richard Margison, Brian and Lee Moon all are guys that are passionate about UAB and wanting to be here, so I think that’s where it all starts.

Rodney spoke yesterday about the closeness and him playing for you. Is he someone that you would want to talk about the possibility of him joining you there?
Again, I do have some thoughts on who I want to hire, but I’m gonna just kind of keep everything under wraps here for a little bit. At the proper time, we’ll make those announcements.

More on Callaway

I sent an early version of my story to the paper to put online. It should be up on our Web site any minute. Coach Callaway is participating in a conference call with those of us who cover Georgia at 5:30, so we'll update after that.

Until the story gets online, here it is:
ATHENS, Ga. – Several days of speculation finally ended with a resolution for Georgia offensive coordinator Neil Callaway on Sunday.
After 29 seasons as an assistant, Callaway has been hired as the head coach at Alabama-Birmingham, taking over a job that has barely been vacant for a week.
“UAB has established a solid foundation when it comes to creating and developing a football program,” said Callaway, who assumes a job longtime UAB coach Watson Brown left last weekend after a 3-9 season. “I'm looking forward to building on what exists and taking it farther than people can imagine.”
The Alabama alum, 51, has made six previous coaching stops – most notably as offensive line coach during Auburn’s 1980s heyday under Pat Dye, and as offensive coordinator at Alabama and Georgia.
He came to Georgia in 2001 as a member of Mark Richt’s first Georgia staff and has been offensive coordinator and offensive line coach ever since.
“You hold your breath and hope everyone returns, but when you have success and good people, they are attractive to other people,” Richt said earlier this week. “That is what we have to go through every year.”
Callaway brings a reputation as a proven winner to the Blazer program. As a coach, his teams have won 63 percent of their games (216-123-4) and eight conference championships.
But he also had obstacles from his past to overcome before getting a head coaching gig.
Callaway was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in April 2003 and Georgia fined him a month’s pay, roughly $11,000.
Both Auburn and Alabama were put on probation for infractions that occurred while he was on the schools’ coaching staffs, and the NCAA originally accused Callaway of arranging to provide an SUV for former Alabama linebacker Travis Carroll to drive in 1999 – a vehicle that was repossessed when Carroll transferred to Florida.
Callaway was later cleared when the university disputed the NCAA’s charges, but many thought those problems might damage his chances for advancement.
After such a lengthy stint as an assistant, Callaway certainly wondered if he’d ever get a chance to lead a program. He’ll get that chance with a Blazer program that fell apart late in the season, losing its last six games.
“There are many people who are dedicated to this team, and that is so important in building championships,” Callaway said. “We have some work to do to get where we want to be, and where we expect to be in the very near future.”
This marks the third straight offseason a Richt assistant has left the staff. Running backs coach Kirby Smart departed after last season to join Nick Saban’s Miami Dolphins staff, a year after award-winning defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder left for an assistantship with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Ken Rucker left to join Mack Brown’s Texas staff.
Tony Pierce cited personal reasons when he left the Georgia staff in Oct. 2002. He is now an assistant coach at Alabama State.
Even with those losses, Richt has managed to keep his original coaching staff largely intact. Seven of the remaining nine assistants were on board in 2001, which has been a benefit in recruiting and maintaining continuity within the program.
“The kids feel like there’s not that many unknowns by coming to the University of Georgia. Coach Richt’s stated that he wants to be here the rest of his career,” Georgia recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner said.
“Every now and then you’re gonna lose assistant coaches. You’ve got a good staff. You’ve got guys that are capable of moving up and progressing in this profession. I think they know that, but I think just knowing (Richt’s) philosophy and his commitment to UGA, I think that helps a lot.”
Richt wasted little time trying to plug any leaks that could spring from Callaway’s departure. Richt spent Saturday night contacting prospects – most importantly, the nine offensive linemen committed to Georgia – to reassure them that all will be well even without Callaway in the fold.
The preemptive move was likely a smart one. Georgia’s coaches know that any sign of weakness will be used against them in the high-stakes world of recruiting.
“We’ve done a good job as a staff of tag-team recruiting kids and having multiple guys go see them, where it’s not just one guy that’s building that particular bond,” Garner said.
“There’s three or four guys that have rapport with the young man and rapport with the families, which I know I definitely think that has given us a little bit of an advantage, because your competitors are definitely gonna use that against you.”
Richt now begins a search that is becoming all too familiar in the last several years – looking to replace a valuable member of his staff. It’s not a pleasant experience, but Richt said he can hardly hold it against one of his assistants when they get the rare opportunity to be a head coach.
“I don’t get used to it or like it because I would like for everyone to stay,” Richt said. “On the other hand, if it’s an opportunity that the coach is excited about, you don't want to stand in the way of it.”

It's official

UAB just posted this release on its web site. Georgia is now officially in the hunt for an offensive line coach and offensive coordinator.

Link

Callaway apparently gone

The writing was kind of on the wall about this yesterday, so I went ahead and wrote a story about it: Coach Callaway has apparently been offered and accepted the UAB job. I've just got to plug some quotes from him and coach Richt into what I wrote and it'll be ready to go.

The question at this point is how does it affect Georgia? He's the offensive coordinator, but I doubt his absence will be as evident as far as the structure of the offense and the execution. Everyone knows coach Richt is an offensive-minded coach who has always called the plays until the last game, when he handed those duties off to Mike Bobo. I'm wondering whether Bobo's not auditioning for the OC job with how he performs as a playcaller in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.

The coaching staff and players understand this is part of the job. All of them that I talked to seem to be happy for the guy. Coach Garner all but said yesterday morning that Callaway had won the job, although I don't think he knew anything specific at the time. He was very excited for Callaway. Very few people get into that profession to be assistant coaches forever.

A bigger question is how does this affect Georgia's offensive line play and its recruiting? Callaway has a good reputation as a line coach. Look at what he did this year with really only seven players. Georgia has allowed 15 sacks this year, 15th best in the nation, with basically zero line depth. They've got a big contingent of offensive linemen -- either eight or nine right now, depending on what happens with Ben Harden -- in what is going to be a very important recruiting class. I'm not sure how many of those kids picked Georgia because of coach Callaway, but you know the position coach was a factor in their decision. They'll have some cleaning up to do to make sure they retain some of these guys' commitments.

Bottom line, everybody knows there are some guys on this staff who have their sights set on being head coaches one day. I'm sure that gets used against Georgia in recruiting -- telling some prospect that so-and-so position coach might not be there for your entire career because he's looking to leave and be a head coach. Coach Martinez talked about how you have to approach those questions yesterday when we were talking to him about coach Callaway's situation:

"You handle it in an honest way. You know there’s gonna be some negative recruiting from somewhere else, but you’ve just got to be honest with the kid and tell him what your intentions are and the biggest thing is I know that kids do choose coaches and all that, but really bottom line is this place is the right place for you. You kind of steer them in that direction because anything can happen in four or five years that they’re here, good or bad, so you’ve got to try to steer them…say hey look, I’m interested in this, that’s true, I’ve always desired to be a head coach or I’m not gonna take it, but your goal should be you want to go somewhere where you’ll fit in, where you’re gonna be happy in four or five years in the program, in the environment. But I understand that head coach is a huge thing, who that is and the stability and you’ve got to choose."

Anyway, according to ESPN, the hiring is supposed to be announced at a 3 p.m. news conference. I'll try to have more on that this evening.

ESPN.com story

Rodney Garner talks about Callaway, UAB

As usual, the questions aren't verbatim, but the answers are...

On how the continuity on Georgia's staff has been helpful in recruiting:
Stability, continuity is always important. The kids feel like there’s not that many unknowns by coming to the University of Georgia. Coach Richt’s stated that he wants to be here the rest of his career. Every now and then you’re gonna lose assistant coaches. You’ve got a good staff. You’ve got guys that are capable of moving up and progressing in this profession. I think they know that, but I think just knowing his philosophy and his commitment to UGA, I think that helps a lot.

On Georgia's recruiting philosophy, even if some of the coaches may change:
It’s the same place. Georgia hasn’t changed a lot, obviously, in recruiting kids that have relationships with individuals. We’ve done a good job as a staff of tag-team recruiting kids and having multiple guys go see them, where it’s not just one guy that’s building that particular bond. There’s three or four guys that have rapport with the young man and rapport with the families, which I know I definitely think that has given us a little bit of an advantage, because your competitors are definitely gonna use that against you.

With your past relationship with coach Callaway (Garner played OL for Callaway at Auburn), how do you feel about his being in the running at UAB?
I’d love it. Coach Callaway I think is a great man. I love him to death. I played for him so I know you’ll say I’m biased. I did play for him, but I’ll tell you, when I’m talking to offensive line recruits, what better testament can I say? I thought so much of him, I care so much about him that I named he and Miss Callaway the godparents of my 4-year-old. That tells you what he means to me, so I’m elated for him and his family?

So you think he's due for a chance like this.
I think he’s overdue. He’s paid his dues, he’s got a proven resume. He’s a good man, he’s a great coach, great teacher. He’s a player’s coach, believe it or not. He’s tough on them, but like I tell players, ‘When I played for him, I didn’t like him, but I always respected him.’ Now I love him to death. I think it’s long overdue and I’m excited that he’s getting this opportunity and I hope it all works out.

He hasn’t been hired as far as you know…
No, I’m saying just the opportunity, I think this is probably as far as he’s ever got in the process, so I’m excited for him.

Saturday Richt interview after second practice

This is pretty much our complete postpractice interview time with coach Richt after the second of today's two workouts. I cut some chit-chat in the middle out that I don't plan to use and can't imagine anyone would want to read.

Are you recruiting Clifton Geathers?
I don’t like to make any comments on prospects, so I’ll just keep it that way.

Any update on Neil Callaway?
I just know what everybody else knows. He’s been interviewed

But he’s still in the running as far as you know…
As far as I know. Yeah, he hasn’t told me any different.

What was the energy level out there for the first day of two-a-days?
It waned for the first time. Every practice was really pretty good and this last one, the enthusiasm was just about – there was still some, I’ll have to admit – but there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot. Defensively, the defense had more juice this last one. Everything was spirited and high-tempo and all that, but this afternoon, they were like, ‘You know what? I’m getting tired.’

But to this point you’ve been pretty pleased with it compared to last year at this time…
It’s been good. I can’t remember how it was (last year) on the front end of it. We didn’t have an enthusiasm problem and it wasn’t even a player problem or a strength coach problem or anything like that. It was I just think I gave them too much time off when I did. I think I gave them like six full days off and I just think that was too much. I think there’s so many days you can give them off and it’s helpful for rest and I think if you give them too many days off, they start to lose their conditioning. I just think I did that.

Any injury updates?
I was waiting for that one. I don’t know who had whatever, but Martrez got a stiff neck, I know that, but I know he’s gonna be fine. Probably be fine Monday. A.J. still has that nagging groin injury. I thought he might’ve felt real good by now, but it’s still bothering him.

How much do you worry about that when you have two-a-days?
Well just to set the record pretty straight, basically what we do is we take a practice, what would be a normal one relatively long practice, and just split it up into two practices. Just so it’s not one long grinding day. Or not one long practice. I also want to keep them a little bit occupied during this time, just kind of splitting one practice up into two is really all it is. We don’t do kicking in the morning and in the afternoon, we only do kicking in the morning. We only condition once, which is in the afternoon. Let’s say we were gonna do 20 minutes of 11-on-11 in any given practice in any given day, we just do 10 in the morning and 10 in the afternoon, so we’re really not doing two super-long practices by any means. They’re really two pretty short ones.

When you re-evaluate Mike, when you sit down at the end of the season to evaluate playcalling, what do you look at? What are the keys that you go over?
I don’t know yet. It’s just a good way of saying I’m not sure yet what I’m gonna do in the future.

…With adding all the JUCO guys, I guess it’s not something you necessarily want to do, but you felt like you needed to do at this point…
Yeah, we definitely needed some mature people coming in here to help us up front. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to say it, but I think I can. And the guys that are coming in in the midyear, whether they’re a junior college player or not, it’s a tremendous advantage to have them available for spring ball.

Do you feel at this point with the guys that you have committed that it’s a solution to the problem?
I don’t know if I’m on the edge of talking about – I know I’m not saying individuals, but if you start saying how so-and-so is gonna help us, I don’t know if I’m treading in bad water here, so I’d rather just (not comment).

So you feel better about the situation…
I feel better. We’re addressing our needs, yeah.

Between practices

Today's the first day of December two-a-days, so we got players and assistant coaches after the 9 a.m. practice and we'll get coach Richt after the 3:15 practice. Talked to lots of folks, mostly for this thing I'm doing on the redshirts. Let me say this one more time, man I'm really going to miss Ray Gant. I asked him about Brandon Wood and he says some nice things about him as a defensive end, but then he adds, "But he's about a biscuit away from being moved to tackle," and laughs and slaps my shoulder and goes, "Make sure you put that in there." He's just a funny, funny dude. If Danny Ware leaves after this year, we're losing our two quote goldmines.

Tra Battle is another quotable guy who's leaving. He really speaks highly of redshirt safeties Quintin Banks and Reshad Jones. He called Banks, "Baby Blue" after former UGA safety Greg Blue. He seems to think that kid has the total package -- big hitter, good physical tools and he said he's impressed by how quickly he picked up the defense. Jones sounds like he's going to be a pretty good free safety -- good ball skills, great athlete. Anyway, that story should run next week sometime. I think the quotes from the vets about the youngsters will be more interesting than the story itself.

Last thing, I know several Internet reports have Hargrave Military's Clifton Geathers on his way to Georgia soon, but I'd hold off on that expectation. Sounds to me like it's almost certainly not going to happen.

Richt Thursday postpractice

Coach Richt has been pleasantly candid the last day or so. Here's what he had to say after Friday morning's practice, covering how the redshirts looked in their mini-scrimmage today, what's going on with Ian Smith, coach Callaway, his thoughts on the CFA Bowl setup, and a bunch of other stuff:

On the redshirts getting to play more and scrimmage a few series in practice today with several players out for graduation.
Not really any surprises. Knowshon’s a real high-energy guy. He gets everybody cranked up, wanting to hit him real hard. I don’t think anybody got a real good lick on him. The first play they lifted him up and body slammed him as a group, but he likes to compete.

I saw Quintin Banks make a real nice lick coming up on a run and Reshad Jones had a real nice interception. Darryl Gamble picked up a fumble and woulda scored if the whistle didn’t get blown. I’m trying to think of who else…Durham made a couple of nice plays and Tony Wilson made a couple good catches. The o-line, those guys, we went four eight-play drives and we had to do it with just one group of linemen so we let them rest between each series. They did pretty good, I mean they’re hot and cold. Half the time, we couldn’t get the ball off or get any space for those backs, but it was good. The two fullbacks, Munzenmaier and Chapas, had nice short-yardage runs for first downs.

Was it the redshirts or most of the team scrimmaging?
A little bit of everybody, or not quite everybody. There’s some guys that have been playing a lot of snaps – not an awful lot of them – mostly scout team and redshirts, mostly. There were some other guys in there. I was in coaches ears, a little (saying), ‘Are you sure you want that guy out there right now?’

Was it ever tough this year to not send Sean Bailey out when receivers started getting hurt?
It wasn’t tough. It was never really a factor, once we made the decision that he wasn’t gonna (play). I mean, you thought about it once or twice because you watched him practice and you’d go, ‘He could really play right now, if it wasn’t for the rules.’ If there was a five-year rule, then he’d be playing. If he could have five years of eligibility, he’d be a guy that’d be playing. There are a lot of guys that’d be playing if you gave them five years of eligibility.

It's rare that you'll have a veteran guy that you can insert like you'll be able to do with him next year.
The ability, knows the plays, he’s already made big plays in some very big games. He could be a difference-maker, but he’s got to come back and prove that he can be that. But he’s got ability, he’s got knowledge, experience and an awful lot of other things going for him right now, and really a full year of feeling healthy at that point, if he still feels good, if he doesn’t have any setbacks.

Comparing the QBs who seem to be planning to stick it out at Georgia to players like Snead at Texas and Mustain at Arkansas, who are transferring or considering a transfer:
They’re special guys. If you’re one play away, you just don’t know – it could happen at any moment. For us to be a really great team, we’ve got to have more than one quarterback, that’s for sure. Plus, I think there’s a special camaraderie between those guys in that room, and on this team in general. We really have a good esprit de corps and I think that makes a difference. I think everybody from the very beginning has been shot straight. I don’t think anybody came to Georgia and said, ‘Well they told me this and it was really that.’ I think the guys, for the most part, trust us. When Shockley went through this thing, we always shot him real straight about everything and he appreciated that and he liked everybody. He just didn’t want to go, and if you leave, you’re guaranteed to sit out (a year). Not if you go down (to I-AA), that’s a whole different deal.

Do you discuss coach Callaway's situation with the players?
No, we don’t call them together and discuss it. It’s part of life, it’s part of football – college or pro, even high school.

You wouldn't see any of them holding grudges toward him over it, would you?
I don’t think anybody is anxious to see his coach go, but I think they understand. And the only thing I would say is for them to understand – and I think they DO understand – how serious I am about always being here and always being that stability. That hopefully will give them peace of mind, to know that even if someone did go, we would try not to change much of scheme or philosophy or how we treat people or all that kind of thing.

Is it a situation where you'd have to call recruits and tell them that he could leave, but the philosophy and everything will stay the same here, don't get cold feet?
Yeah.

Do you have any updates on where that stands?
I don’t. I don’t know when exactly they’re going to make a decision. I don’t know what they’re saying in Birmingham. Are they saying there’s a timetable?

Two guys, Jimbo Fisher and Tyrone Nix are out now. They were the other two names prominently mentioned. The guy at Valdosta State, Chris Hatcher, is mentioned too.
They’re not saying a timeframe or anything?

I haven’t seen anything.

How surprised are you that Tony Taylor hasn’t received more postseason accolades?
It’s just a sheer number of tackles. I don’t think it was as high as some other folks, is probably one of the main reasons why. I think if people just, it’s hard for everybody who votes to study everybody. You’ve got to go by statistical data, or maybe you watch enough big games on TV where you see them show up. I thought he showed up enough there to maybe get some. Going into the year, sometimes you’ve got to have a little momentum going in. I really felt like Tony was on the verge of moving into the elite level of play right before his injury and that set him back a little bit. He came back last year, played very well and now he’s playing great. I think if he’d have had two years like that back-to-back, I think he’d have probably had a better shot at that type of thing.

Is he back to the level where he was before the injury?
Oh yeah, he’s there, but sometimes you’ve got to do it two years in a row to get everybody’s attention, or have a massive amount of tackles, 120 tackles or something where he gets everybody’s attention.

The number of big plays he made this year was pretty impressive though.
Big, huge. I would think (that would have made it closer). But like I said, it’s tough for everybody – they may see five picks, but they may not see how valuable those picks were, or they may see a fumble recovery, but not really realize what it meant to that game. Everybody who votes, they’re all over the country and it’s tough to see everything.

Did you like what you saw of Coutu out there today?
Yeah. You could tell he’s a little rusty or whatever you want to say. But he had no pain at all. That was good. He’s not stroking it as full as he could stroke it, but yeah, I was very encouraged. I would say that there’s a pretty good chance that he’ll be able to kick in the game.

Would you roll him even if maybe he could only kick from say the mid-40s?
If we knew his range, maybe if we said his range this game is 35 yards, I’d probably say, ‘Yeah, 35 and in, he’s the guy.’

… Greg Blue said last year, ‘I didn’t come to Georgia to go to the Peach Bowl.’ … Does this game get a bad rap?
Greg Blue probably said that because he lives in Atlanta. You know what I mean? So you’ve got to take that with a grain of salt. I think we all know the Chick-Fil-A is an outstanding bowl. It really is. You’re gonna be in Atlanta, there’s all kinds of things to do, you’ll be indoors. You get to practice indoors, and that’s nice. We still don’t have to miss Christmas. If you’ve got a bowl any day earlier, you probably have to miss Christmas. I think it’s an outstanding bowl, it’s one of our top bowls, really.

How much attention do you pay to the bowl matchup – now that it’s the SEC’s fifth or sixth team and the ACC’s second?
I mean, at this point, just as we were thankful to play Auburn and Georgia Tech, two ranked teams, we’re thankful to be able to play another ranked team at this point. We want to try to play the best possible opponent so…Let’s say we were sitting at nine wins and we’re already in the top 15 or something and all we need is a victory to get 10, I might be saying, ‘Man, I’m not sure this is the best thing that coulda happened to us,’ but we need to play a great football team to gain some of that respect back. I think we gained a lot of respect back from a lot of people. But we’ve still got a ways to go to make a lot of people believe that we’re still a pretty strong team.

This is the first year where they’re not doing a 50-50 payout, since they raised it for the ACC to get a better ACC team. Do you feel like that’s the right way to do it?
I think it makes sense. It made sense to me. I was a little surprised because I didn’t study it or whatever. If they announced it, I really didn’t pay attention to it. But once I saw it, it made good sense to me, considering it’s their No. 2.

You mentioned yesterday about Fernando moving to center in the spring, so I’m wondering if you consider him the top choice to start there next year?
I would have to think so, although Chris Davis is gonna probably be right there. I’m not sure if we’ll have Perez take some snaps. I think with Ian’s situation where it is now, he’s certainly not gonna play the first five games.

Is that your number?
If he stays, he’ll have at least a six-game suspension, counting the bowl.

When will you know that?
That’s a good question. I’ve been struggling about what to do since I’ve got a little time to think about it. I’ve probably taken too much time, quite frankly. But my No. 1 concern is to get him help. I want to do what’s best for him first off and what’s best for the team too.

You want him out here for practice to keep him with the team?
Yeah, unless there’s another decision…unless I change my mind, or not that I change my mind, I haven’t made up my mind yet. If I decide that he’s not allowed to stay, I of course will…but right now, I’m still not sure what to do.

You see him out there at practice, how is he handling it? It’s kind of like a ‘dead man walking’ kind of thing.
Not really. I think he’s just thankful to be out there with his buddies, enjoying playing football.

How close to you feel like Velasco is to being ready to start?
Oh he’ll be ready. He’ll be ready.

Good grief

It has been a long, long day. Not complaining by any means. But I left home at 10:30 this morning to drive to the CFA Bowl Coaches Luncheon in Atlanta and got home around 11 p.m., so I'm not in the mood to drop a huge blog post today.

Today was one of the newsiest days there's been since I got this job. I had so much stuff that I had more than enough for three stories tomorrow and had to decide what not to use. Truthfully, there was enough today for a week's worth of stuff. We got about 20 minutes afterwards with both Frank Beamer and coach Richt and they were both great. And then some Georgia-related stuff was good too.

Here's some of the highlights.

1) Offensive coordinator Neil Callaway is in the running for the UAB head coaching spot vacated over the weekend by the departure of Watson Brown. I wrote for tomorrow that LSU OC Jimbo Fisher was also a candidate, but a Birmingham TV station is reporting that's not the case and that Callaway is now the top candidate. Coach Callaway refused to comment about it after practice, and I can't say I blame him. I'm sure the man wants to be a head coach and doesn't want to say anything right now that might damage his chances.
2) Coach Richt said Fernando Velasco will move back to center in the spring and will probably be the starter there next season -- although Chris Davis is a possibility, which could allow Velasco to remain at guard -- all because of Ian Smith's probable suspension. Coach Richt didn't address it directly, but obviously he's not expecting Ian to be available next season.
3) Both Paul Oliver and Charles Johnson have submitted their names to be evaluated as NFL draft prospects. There may be others, but I'm only sure of those two because I talked to both of them about it today. They both said they're leaning toward staying -- I think they're just putting feelers out to see where they stand. My guess -- and take that for what it is -- is that they'll both be back. I think Charles would be the more likely to leave, but if he comes out he'd be in a very deep pool of defensive end draft prospects. He'd probably be better served to come back and have a good senior season and be in the 08 draft because this upcoming one is going to be very top-heavy on star DEs.
4) I'm sure most folks already read somewhere that Brandon Coutu might be back for the bowl game. Coach Richt discussed it this afternoon and we talked to Brandon after practice about it. I wrote my Friday story about it actually. It seems to me that coach Richt thinks he's going to play and Brandon's leaning that way too, although he's far from proclaiming himself ready to play. He said he's taken some "half-kicks" where he was kicking at like half-strength this week -- 10 on Monday and 10 on Wednesday. That's all he's done besides rehab work, running and kicking a soccer ball around. He says it's amazing how much better it is this week than it was last week...so I'm betting he'll be kicking in the game. Otherwise, coach Richt said Andy Bailey will be back to it and Ely-Kelso will only be punting.

I think that's enough for tonight. Practice is at 1035, so I'm hitting the hay here pretty soon.

Wednesday press conference

There will be lots of stuff written from today's Georgia teleconference between the group of us who cover Georgia and the several Va. Tech writers who were on the call today. I'll predict you'll see these story subjects in the next day or two in one of these papers. Let's see how many I get right:
1) Richt promises team will be in better condition for this year's bowl. (I did this one for tomorrow, so there's at least one of those right there)
2) Something on Mike Bobo calling plays and his relationship with the QBs
3) Tony Ball prepares to coach against his old team, Virginia Tech, where he'd been for the previous eight years
4) Georgia's desire to finish the season in the top 25
5) Tony Ball, coach Richt compare the SEC and ACC
6) Something on redshirted players and how much of a difference it makes redshirting them...and also what goes into that decision.

Along the lines of No. 6, coach Richt said something interesting on that subject today:
"That was a big part of my thinking I want these guys to graduate. I want these guys to maybe slow down their clock. Sometimes they come in thinking they are going to play ball and go to the NFL early. I think a redshirt helps ground them academically and socially and indoctrinates them to the program. I know this, too, they are a much better player their fourth or fifth year than they could be their first year."

That bolded part is what really interested me. You don't see too many guys play as true freshmen in a good program for that very reason. I guess I'm picturing a guy like Caleb King when I think about this, but it could be Stafford or CJ Byrd or Darius Dewberry or even one of the young linemen who did in fact redshirt -- when is it worth it to pull the redshirt off a guy? That's the big question, I guess. Most of the time when they're true freshmen, you're going to get as much bad as you get good, but they're also getting extremely valuable experience. Is it worth it sending them out to the wolves when they're freshmen or biding your time and getting probably much more production out of them when they're fourth-year juniors and fifth-year seniors (if they stick around that long)?

That's a question I'm glad I don't have to answer because there's no definite right or wrong. It's all hypothetical. And it's different in every case. My gut feeling is that most all of the decisions on whether to redshirt/not redshirt players this season came out right. But you have to remember that my gut also thought it would be a good idea to eat a whole bag of giant marshmallows one time when I was like 6, and that didn't turn out especially well...

Anyway, that's about as philosophical as I'm capable of being today. Got to jump in the car and drive to Athens here in a minute once I get the truck packed up. It's gonna be a busy couple of weeks.

Twelve players graduate Friday

Twelve Georgia football players will be among the 37 UGA athletes set to graduate Friday morning. Here's the list:
Graduating football players include Bruce Adrine, Atlanta, Ga.; Dale Dixson, Garland, Texas; Ray Gant, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Daniel Inman, Hope Mills, N.C.; Alex Jackson, Quincy, Fla.; Tony Milton, Tallahassee, Fla.; Quentin Moses, Athens, Ga.; Joseph O'Keefe, Trenton, Ga.; Mario Raley, Charlotte, N.C.; Tony Taylor, Watkinsville, Ga.; Joe Tereshinski III, Athens, Ga. and Stephen White, Bronwood, Ga.

Georgia bowl schedule

I don't know why anyone would want to know this, but I've found this year that someone's always interested to find out the minute details about what the team's doing. I'm hoping the media's allowed to go to the Georgia Aquarium when the team goes, because that's something I'd kind of like to do myself.

Georgia starts bowl practice on Thursday. Can't say it hasn't been nice to get a break from that for a little while, but it starts back hard and fast pretty quick. The paper'll get plenty of work out of me before the year's up. Saturday will be the first of four two-a-day practices they'll have in the next week. They'll practice 14 times in total and have a walkthrough the day before the bowl game. Like with the Aquarium trip, I'm not sure which, if any, of the bowl events are open to the media and public, but I'll ask about that and post it on here in case anyone is interested in going.

So if you're wondering what the team's tentative practice schedule is for the rest of the year, here ya go.

12-14: Noon Joint coaches luncheon/4 p.m. practice
12-15: 1035 a.m. practice
12-16: 905 a.m. practice/315 p.m. practice
12-17: OFF
12-18: 1030 a.m. practice/440 p.m. practice
12-19: 1030 a.m. practice/545 p.m. practice
12-20: 1030 a.m. practice/545 p.m. practice
12-21: 920 a.m. practice
12-22 through 12-24: OFF
12-25: team arrives in Atlanta late afternoon
12-26: 10 a.m. practice at Georgia Dome
12-27: 10 a.m. practice at Georgia Dome
12-28: 10 a.m. practice at Georgia Dome
12-29: Evening team walkthrough at team hotel
12-30: 807 p.m. Chick-Fil-A Bowl kicks off

Moses, Battle named AP All-Americans

Georgia DE Quentin Moses and S Tra Battle were among the 14 SEC players named to the Associated Press All-America team on Monday. Both Bulldogs were third-team selections.

Here's the SEC Web site story

Full list:

First-team
Offense
Quarterback - Troy Smith, 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, senior, Ohio State.
Running backs - Darren McFadden, 6-2, 212, sophomore, Arkansas; Steve Slaton, 5-10, 195, sophomore, West Virginia.
Wide receivers - Calvin Johnson, 6-5, 235, junior, Georgia, Tech; Dwayne Jarrett, 6-5, 210, junior, Southern California.
Tight end - Matt Spaeth, 6-7, 265, senior, Minnesota.
Tackles - Jake Long, 6-7, 313, senior, Michigan; Joe Thomas, 6-8, 313, senior, Wisconsin.
Guards - Josh Beekman, 6-2, 318, senior, Boston College; Justin Blalock, 6-4, 335, senior, Texas.
Center - Dan Mozes, 6-4, 290, senior, West Virginia.
Kicker - Justin Medlock, 6-0, 197, senior, UCLA.
All-purpose player - DeSean Jackson, 6-0, 178, sophomore, California.

Defense
Ends - LaMarr Woodley, 6-2, 269, senior, Michigan; Gaines Adams, 6-5, 265, senior, Clemson.
Tackles - Glenn Dorsey, 6-2, 299, junior, LSU; Quinn Pitcock, 6-3, 295, senior, Ohio State.
Linebackers - Paul Posluszny, 6-2, 238, senior, Penn State; Patrick Willis, 6-2, 240, senior, Mississippi; James Laurinaitis, 6-3, 244, sophomore, Ohio State.
Cornerbacks - Leon Hall, 5-11, 193, senior, Michigan; Daymeion Hughes, 6-0, 188, senior, California.
Safeties - LaRon Landry, 6-2, 202, senior, LSU; Reggie Nelson, 6-1, 175, junior, Florida.
Punter - Daniel Sepulveda, 6-3, 230, senior, Baylor.

Second-team

Offense

Quarterback - Brady Quinn, senior, Notre Dame.
Running backs - Ray Rice, sophomore, Rutgers; Mike Hart, junior, Michigan.
Wide receivers - Jarrett Dillard, sophomore, Rice; Jeff Samardzija, senior, Notre Dame.
Tight end - Zach Miller, junior, Arizona State.
Tackles - Sam Baker, junior, Southern California; Arron Sears, senior, Tennessee.
Guards - Ben Grubbs, senior, Auburn; T.J. Downing, senior, Ohio State.
Center - Ryan Kalil, senior, Southern California.
Kicker - Arthur Carmody, junior, Louisville.
All-purpose player - Ted Ginn. Jr., junior, Ohio State.
Defense

Ends - Justin Hickman, senior, UCLA; Mkristo Bruce, senior, Washington State.
Tackles - Alan Branch, junior, Michigan; Amobi Okoye, senior, Louisville.
Linebackers - Dan Connor, junior, Penn State; Ameer Ismail, senior, Western Michigan; David Harris, senior, Michigan.
Cornerbacks - Aaron Ross, senior, Texas; Ryan Smith, senior, Florida.
Safeties - Eric Weddle, senior, Utah; Michael Griffin, senior, Texas.
Punter - Durant Brooks, junior, Georgia Tech.

Third-team
Offense
Quarterback - Colt Brennan, junior, Hawaii.
Running backs - Ian Johnson, sophomore, Boise State; Garrett Wolfe, senior, Northern Illinois.
Wide receivers - Robert Meachem, junior, Tennessee; Johnnie Lee Higgins, senior, UTEP.
Tight end - Jonny Harline, senior, BYU.
Tackles - Levi Brown, senior, Penn State; Tony Ugoh, senior, Arkansas.
Guards - Kurt Quarterman, senior, Louisville; Nathan Bennett, senior, Clemson.
Center - Jonathan Luigs, sophomore, Arkansas.
Kicker - Mason Crosby, senior, Colorado.
All-purpose player - Sammie Stroughter, junior, Oregon State.
Defense
Ends - Quentin Moses, senior, Georgia; Anthony Spencer, senior, Purdue.
Tackles - Jay Alford, senior, Penn State; Eric Foster, junior, Rutgers.
Linebackers - H.B. Blades, senior, Pittsburgh; Rufus Alexander, senior, Oklahoma; Brandon Siler, junior, Florida.
Cornerbacks - Dwight Lowery, junior, San Jose State; Brandon Flowers, sophomore, Virginia Tech.
Safeties - Tra Battle, senior, Georgia; Tom Zbikowski, senior, Notre Dame.
Punter - Jeremy Kapinos, senior, Penn State.

Taylor wins Dooley Award + other team awards

University of Georgia senior linebacker Tony Taylor of Watkinsville was named the winner of the Vince Dooley Most Valuable Player Award highlighting the recent annual UGA football Gala year-end banquet.

Senior center Nick Jones of Bowdon was named the team's Most Valuable Offensive Player; Taylor was chosen the Most Valuable Defensive Player; and tailback Thomas Brown of Tucker and punter Gordon Ely-Kelso of Athens were named the Most Valuable Special Teams Players.

Taylor and Jones were also named the team's permanent overall teams captains. Quentin Moses of Athens was named the team's permanent defensive captain while Jones was selected as the offensive captain.

Roverback Tra Battle of Forsyth and Ely-Kelso were named the team's special teams captains.

Battle was also named the winner of the David Jacobs Award given to the player "who by example portrays courage, spirit, character, and the determination to finish the drill."

Jones and senior quarterback Joe Tereshinski of Athens were named winners of the Leon Farmer Strength and Conditioning Award, presented to the player(s) "whose dedication to the strength and conditioning program results in a significant contribution to the football team." The annual "Block of Granite Award" winner, given to the player "the Georgia football team depends on," was offensive lineman Chris Abbott of Douglasville.

Other awards included:
Senior Career Scholar-Award, DB Joseph O'Keefe, Trenton, Ga., 3.80 career GPA; Outstanding Scout Team Defensive Player, DB Chad Gloer, Fayetteville, Ga.Outstanding Scout Team Offensive Player, QB, Johnathan DeLaureal, New Orleans, La.Outstanding Scout Team Special Teams Players, DB Quentin Banks, Warner Robins, Ga., and DB Joseph O'Keefe, Trenton, Ga.; Most Improved Offensive Player, OG Fernando Velasco, Wrens, Ga.; Most Improved Defensive Player, DT Dale Dixson, Garland, Tex., and DT Kade Weston, Red Bank, N.J.; Most Improved Special Teams Player, DB Rowdy Francis, San Antonio, Tex.; Offensive Newcomer of the Year, QB Matthew Stafford, Dallas, Tex.; Defensive Newcomer of the Year, DB Asher Allen, Tucker, Ga., and DT Geno Atkins, Pembroke Pines, Fla.; Special Teams Newcomer of the Year, CB Prince Miller, Duncan, S.C.

Big recruiting weekend

According to Chad Simmons over at Rivals, Georgia's hosting a whole buncha recruits this weekend, 11 in all, most of whom are already committed.

Here's the list: Caleb King, Antwane Greenlee, Neland Ball, Justin Anderson, Tanner Strickland, Vance Cuff, John Knox, Rennie Curran, Scott Haverkamp, Justin Houston, Chris Little.

I've seen Ball and Greenlee in person and I can say this much about them -- they've definitely got college frames. Out of pads, Curran doesn't look like an SEC linebacker but everybody who's seen him says he's just a tackling machine. I think Georgia fans are going to love the kid because he seems to have completely bought into wearing red and black.

Chad and Dean Legge from the Dawg Post helped me out with a recruiting story I did for Sunday's paper. It's mostly a recap of how Georgia addressed its OL needs and who they're still looking at (Haverkamp is expected to commit this weekend, giving Georgia five JUCO commitments -- three on OL and two on DL). Recruitniks won't find anything in it that they don't already know, though.

If you could put together a wish list for Georgia right now, it would obviously start with Creekside CB Eric Berry and also include LB Allen Bailey, DL Cameron Heyward, OL Chris Little, DB Morgan Burnett and DB Doug Wiggins. Berry is supposed to be the real deal. If Georgia somehow manages to wrestle him away from Tennessee, that would be the icing on a truly remarkable recruiting class. Adding a couple of those others would also be huge and would keep Georgia's class among the nation's best. It's ranked second in the nation right now by rivals and third by scout.

Rodriguez shoots Bama down

Appropriately enough, I'm sitting in the pressbox at Legion Field as I type this. You can't help but look around at this decrepit stadium, where Alabama used to play all its big games, and see a parallel between it and the state of the program it's so associated with. The difference is that Alabama could bounce back if the decisionmakers could get their heads out of their butts. This stadium ought to just be torn down. Hopefully it won't start toppling while I'm in it.


STATEMENT FROM MAL MOORE CONCERNING THE COACHING SEARCH
“I received word this afternoon that Coach Rodriguez has chosen to remain the head football coach at West Virginia . I fully respect his decision and wish him the best. I want to remind everyone of what I said at the outset of this process: my only objective is to get the best person available to lead the Alabama football program. I remain determined to bring to our program a proven head coach with impressive credentials. While I am hoping to conclude the search soon, following a timeline is not my main priority. Hiring an outstanding head coach to lead our players is the most important thing, and that will continue to be my only objective.”

Rodriguez apparently Bama-bound

It looks like West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez will be the next head coach at Alabama. I think that's a pretty good hire, but it's a tough place to coach. I was amused this week to look on Bama message boards and see some lunatics complaining about how they didn't want Rodriguez. Apparently those people think it's possible to genetically engineer a supercoach cross between Bear Bryant, Vince Lombardi and George Patton and that he'd love nothing better than coaching the almighty Tide.

Rodriguez is about as good as they can hope for right now, and that's still pretty good.

By the way, Georgia plays at Alabama in the fourth game next season, Sept. 22, in the middle of a rather difficult stretch of early games for the Tide. They play Arkansas, Georgia and Florida State (in Jacksonville) in consecutive weeks. If they don't win at least one of those, that new coach's seat could get hot mighty quickly.

All-star destinations

LB Tony Taylor, DE Quentin Moses and TE Martrez Milner will all appear in the 2007 Senior Bowl in my hometown, Mobile, Ala. Georgia strength coach Dave Van Halanger, who serves as the program's NFL liaison, told the Athens Banner-Herald that his persistence in talking to Senior Bowl president Steve Hale helped get Tony into the game.

It's a huge thing for the guys who get in, particularly Taylor and Milner, whose pro futures aren't quite as certain as Moses'. I used to go to the practices and games as a kid and I can tell you that the sidelines and stands at practice are crawling with NFL coaches, scouts and execs. The exposure a player gets there is a tremendous opportunity and every year you see guys fly up the draft boards when they have good weeks in practice. One that immediately comes to mind is Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Johnson...The Jan. 27 game and all of the practices will be televised on the NFL Network. Truthfully, it's gotten crazy how oversaturated the coverage of Senior Bowl week has become.

LB Jarvis Jackson and DB Tra Battle will play in the Jan. 15 All-American Classic on Jan. 15. Coach Richt, West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez, Fresno State's Pat Hill and Houston's Art Briles are scheduled to coach in the Jan. 14 Hula Bowl, but the game rosters have not yet been announced.

Stafford, Weston named Coaches All-Freshman

Florida's Percy Harvin was picked as Freshman of the Year.

2006 FRESHMAN ALL-SEC FOOTBALL TEAM
(*-Ties / #-Unanimous Selection / Coaches could not vote for their own players)

FRESHMAN ALL-SEC -- OFFENSE
Pos. Name School Ht. Wt. Hometown
TE Ben Cleveland Arkansas 6-4 235 Springdale, Ark.
OL Andre Smith Alabama 6-5 315 Birmingham, Ala.
OL Ciron Black LSU 6-5 314 Tyler, Texas
OL John Jerry Ole Miss 6-5 350 Batesville, Miss.
*OL Justin Jeffries Kentucky 6-5 300 Louisville, Ky.
*OL Craig Jenkins Mississippi State 6-4 319 Pearl, Miss.
#C Josh McNeil Tennessee 6-4 290 Collins, Miss.
WR Percy Harvin Florida 5-11 180 Virginia Beach, Va.
*WR Brandon LaFell LSU 6-3 194 Houston, Texas
*WR Damian Williams Arkansas 6-1 188 Springdale, Ark.
*QB Matthew Stafford Georgia 6-3 228 Dallas, Texas
*QB Tim Tebow Florida 6-3 229 Jacksonville, Fla.
RB LaMarcus Coker Tennessee 5-11 205 Antioch, Tenn.
RB Anthony Dixon Mississippi State 6-1 235 Jackson, Miss.

FRESHMAN ALL-SEC -- DEFENSE
Pos. Name School Ht. Wt. Hometown
DL Ricky Jean-Francois LSU 6-3 281 Miami, Fla.
DL Sen’Derrick Marks Auburn 6-1 287 Mobile, Ala.
DL Kade Weston Georgia 6-5 315 Red Bank, N.J.
LB Prince Hall Alabama 5-11 253 Moreno Valley, Calif.
LB Rodney Paulk South Carolina 6-0 200 Columbia, S.C.
LB Micah Johnson Kentucky 6-2 255 Ft. Campbell, Ky.
*LB Rico McCoy Tennessee 6-1 215 Washington, D.C.
*LB Wendel Davis Arkansas 6-1 205 Sweeny, Texas
*LB Jamon Hughes Mississippi State 6-0 221 Rolling Fork, Miss.
DB Trevard Lindley Kentucky 6-0 175 Hiram, Ga.
DB Emanuel Cook South Carolina 6-0 205 Riviera Beach, Fla.
DB D.J. Moore Vanderbilt 5-10 180 Spartanburg, S.C.
*DB Aairon Savage Auburn 5-11 187 Albany, Ga.
*DB Jerraud Powers Auburn 5-9 184 Decatur, Ala.

FRESHMAN ALL-SEC -- SPECIAL TEAMS
Pos. Name School Ht. Wt. Hometown
*PK Lones Seiber Kentucky 5-9 180 Knoxville, Tenn.
*PK Joshua Shene Ole Miss 5-9 170 Oklahoma City, Okla.
P P.J. Fitzgerald Alabama 6-0 196 Coral Springs, Fla.
RS Brandon James Florida 5-7 180 St. Augustine, Fla.

Coaches All-SEC Team: Tra, Trez, Mikey make first team

Georgia return specialist Mikey Henderson and safety Tra Battle both were named to the SEC Coaches All-SEC first team on Tuesday. Nick Jones is second-team at center, and DE Charles Johnson and LB Tony Taylor made second-team defense.

It seems unfortunate to me that I wish the AP team looked more like the coaches' one. I thought there were some silly choices among the writers, but this one's a little more in line with how I would have picked.

2006 ALL-SEC FOOTBALL TEAM
(*-Ties / #-Unanimous Selection) (Coaches could not vote for their own players)
FIRST-TEAM ALL-SEC -- OFFENSE
Pos. Name School Ht. Wt. Class Hometown
*TE Martrez Milner Georgia 6-4 255 Sr. Gainesville, Ga.
*TE Jacob Tamme Kentucky 6-5 240 Jr. Danville, Ky.
OL Arron Sears Tennessee 6-4 320 Sr. Russellville, Ala.
OL Zac Tubbs Arkansas 6-6 335 Sr. Cullman, Ala.
OL Tim Duckworth Auburn 6-4 310 Sr. Taylorsville, Miss.
OL Tony Ugoh Arkansas 6-5 305 Sr. Houston, Texas
*C Jonathan Luigs Arkansas 6-4 305 So. Little Rock, Ark.
*C Steve Rissler Florida 6-3 310 Jr. Sarasota, Fla.
WR Robert Meachem Tennessee 6-3 210 Jr. Tulsa, Okla.
*WR Dwayne Bowe LSU 6-3 217 Sr. Miami, Fla.
*WR Dallas Baker Florida 6-3 206 Sr. New Smyrna Beach, Fla.
QB JaMarcus Russell LSU 6-6 252 Jr. Mobile, Ala.
#RB Darren McFadden Arkansas 6-2 212 So. Little Rock, Ark.
RB Kenny Irons Auburn 5-11 200 Sr. Dacula, Ga.

SECOND-TEAM ALL-SEC -- OFFENSE
Pos. Name School Ht. Wt. Class Hometown
*TE Andy Boyd South Carolina 6-4 265 Sr. Concord, N.C.
*TE Richard Dickson LSU 6-3 237 Fr. Ocean Springs, Miss.
OL Chris Williams Vanderbilt 6-6 315 Jr. Glynn, La.
OL Drew Miller Florida 6-5 305 Jr. Sarasota, Fla.
*OL Michael Oher Ole Miss 6-5 1/2 322 So. Memphis, Tenn.
*OL Phil Trautwein Florida 6-6 308 Jr. Voorhees, N.J.
*OL Michael Aitcheson Kentucky 6-3 300 Sr. Miami, Fla.
*OL Antoine Caldwell Alabama 6-4 294 So. Montgomery, Ala.
*OL Ben Grubbs Auburn 6-3 301 Sr. Eclectic, Ala.
C Nick Jones Georgia 6-3 296 Sr. Bowdon, Ga.
*WR Earl Bennett Vanderbilt 6-1 202 So. Birmingham, Ala.
*WR D.J. Hall Alabama 6-2 188 Jr. Ft. Walton Beach, Fla.
*WR Sidney Rice South Carolina 6-4 200 So. Gaffney, S.C.
*WR Keenan Burton Kentucky 6-2 195 Jr. Louisville, Ky.
*QB Chris Leak Florida 6-0 207 Sr. Charlotte, N.C.
*QB Andre’ Woodson Kentucky 6-5 232 Jr. Radcliff, Ky.
RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis Ole Miss 5-11 215 Jr. New Orleans, La.
RB Felix Jones Arkansas 6-0 200 So. Tulsa, Okla

FIRST-TEAM ALL-SEC -- DEFENSE
Pos. Name School Ht. Wt. Class Hometown
DL Glenn Dorsey LSU 6-2 284 Jr. Gonzales, La.
DL Quentin Groves Auburn 6-3 250 Jr. Greenville, Miss.
*DL Jamal Anderson Arkansas 6-6 280 Jr. Little Rock, Ark.
*DL Ray McDonald Florida 6-3 280 Sr. Belle Glade, Fla.
#LB Patrick Willis Ole Miss 6-2 240 Sr. Bruceton, Tenn.
LB Quinton Culberson Mississippi State 6-0 239 Sr. Jackson, Miss.
LB Sam Olajubutu Arkansas 5-9 225 Sr. LaGrange, Ga.
*LB Earl Everett Florida 6-2 231 Sr. Webster, Fla.
*LB Wesley Woodyard Kentucky 6-1 212 Jr. LaGrange, Ga.
DB Reggie Nelson Florida 6-1 195 Jr. Melbourne, Fla.
DB Tra Battle Georgia 5-11 176 Sr. Forsyth, Ga.
DB Simeon Castille Alabama 6-1 192 Jr. Birmingham, Ala.
DB LaRon Landry LSU 6-2 204 Sr. Ama, La.

SECOND-TEAM ALL-SEC -- DEFENSE
Pos. Name School Ht. Wt. Class Hometown
DL Titus Brown Mississippi State 6-3 247 Jr. Tuscaloosa, Ala.
DL Derrick Harvey Florida 6-4 260 So. Greenbelt, Md.
*DL Tyson Jackson LSU 6-5 281 So. Edgard, La.
*DL Charles Johnson Georgia 6-2 270 Sr. Hawkinsville, Ga.
*DL Antwain Robinson Arkansas 6-3 255 So. Little Rock, Ark.
LB Will Herring Auburn 6-3 220 Sr. Opelika, Ala.
LB Jonathan Goff Vanderbilt 6-4 240 Jr. Stoneham, Mass.
LB Brandon Siler Florida 6-2 235 Jr. Orlando, Fla.
*LB Tony Taylor Georgia 6-1 237 Sr. Watkinsville, Ga.
*LB Ali Highsmith LSU 6-1 226 Jr. Miami, Fla.
DB Jonathan Wade Tennessee 6-0 195 Sr. Shreveport, La.
DB Fred Bennett South Carolina 6-1 199 Sr. Manning, S.C.
DB Derek Pegues Mississippi State 5-10 188 So. Batesville, Miss.
*DB Jonathan Hefney Tennessee 5-9 185 Jr. Rock Hill, S.C.
*DB Chris Houston Arkansas 5-11 188 Jr. Austin, Texas
*DB David Irons Auburn 5-11 188 Sr. Dacula, Ga.
*DB Ryan Smith Florida 5-10 165 Jr. Diamond Bar, Calif.

FIRST-TEAM ALL-SEC -- SPECIAL TEAMS
Pos. Name School Ht. Wt. Class Hometown
*PK John Vaughn Auburn 6-1 197 Sr. Brentwood, Tenn.
*PK James Wilhoit Tennessee 5-10 195 Sr. Hendersonville, Tenn.
P Britton Colquitt Tennessee 6-3 198 So. Knoxville, Tenn.
RS Mikey Henderson Georgia 5-10 163 Jr. Buford, Ga

SECOND-TEAM ALL-SEC -- SPECIAL TEAMS
Pos. Name School Ht. Wt. Class Hometown
PK Ryan Succop South Carolina 6-3 214 So. Hickory, N.C.
P Kody Bliss Auburn 5-10 177 Sr. Brentwood, Tenn.
*RS Felix Jones Arkansas 6-0 200 So. Tulsa, Okla.
*RS Craig Davis LSU 6-2 199 Sr. New Orleans, La.

CFA Bowl sold out

Well that didn't take long, did it? I guess this news is already semi-old, but I believe all the tickets were gone by late Sunday night. That says a lot about how good this bowl matchup is, I think...

ATLANTA (Dec. 5, 2006) – One day after selecting Georgia and Virginia Tech to face off in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, bowl officials are announcing the game a sellout. This marks the Chick-fil-A Bowl’s tenth consecutive sellout and further solidifies the Chick-fil-A Bowl’s position as the highest-attended non-BCS bowl game over the last 10 years.

“The fact that both schools completely sold through their ticket allotments in one day is a testament to the strengths of their fan bases and the interest in attending a first-class Bowl game,” said Gary Stokan, Chick-fil-A Bowl president. “The Bulldog and Hokie faithful have shown their excitement for this great match-up and we know they’ll carry that same level of excitement into the Georgia Dome on December 30.”

The 2003 match-up between Clemson and Tennessee set a Georgia Dome record attendance mark for a football game at 75,125 and Chick-fil-A Bowl officials say the Georgia-Virginia Tech game may approach that record mark.

“This will definitely be one of the largest crowds we’ve ever had,” Stokan said. “It’s already one of the toughest tickets we’ve seen in a number of years.”

Georgia and Virginia Tech each received a ticket allotment of 18,500 tickets. Both schools asked for, and received, more tickets than they were obligated to take.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl is the longest-running rivalry series of top-ranked teams from the ACC and SEC and is recognized as the most competitive bowl game in the nation over the last 20 years. Beginning this year, the Chick-fil-A Bowl will own exclusive rights to the first selection in the ACC – after the BCS – and will increase its total team payout to $5.65 million. Last year’s game between #9 Miami and #10 LSU marked the Bowl’s ninth consecutive sellout and helped the Bowl retain its position as the highest-attended non-BCS bowl over the last 10 years. The 39th annual Chick-fil-A Bowl will be played Saturday, Dec. 30 at 8 p.m. and will be nationally televised by ESPN. Visit Chick-fil-ABowl.com for more information.

Nagurski awarded to Little Animal

I thought this was funny. The FWAA sent out a press release yesterday announcing that Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis was the recipient of the Bronko Nagurski Trophy. They had to re-send it today when they realized they wrote his nickname was "Little Hawk" instead of "Little Animal."

Come on, FWAA, get it straight. Everybody knows Laurinaitis' dad is the former member of the Road Warriors, Animal. They were my favorite tag team growing up. It broke my heart the time when I was about 10 that they turned heel and tried to gouge out Dusty Rhodes' eye with that spike off their shoulder pads. That was a tough day around the Ching household...with that family precedent in mind, my advice to Troy Smith or Teddy Ginn is that if they ever see Laurinaitis holding a spike or sharp object of any kind, run. Dusty Rhodes never saw it coming either.


CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FWAA) – Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis on Monday night claimed the 2006 Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which annually is awarded to the best defensive player in college football.
Laurinaitis, nicknamed "Little Animal" in reference to his professional wrestling father, "The Animal," is the first sophomore to win the award, which is voted upon by the Football Writers Association of America and sponsored by the Charlotte Touchdown Club.
"It was an honor to be here," Laurinaitis said. "To be with this level of players, it's kind of surreal, me being the young guy. I was in high school when these guys were (already) in college. I definitely could not have done it without the entire defensive line and the whole defense."
The announcement was made Monday night at the annual awards banquet attended by more than 900 people at the Westin Hotel where Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, the only two-time Bronko Award winner in 1995 and 1996, gave the main address.

Two commitments from GMC

Georgia got two more JUCO commits this afternoon, as DT Corey Irvin and DE Jarius Wynn will both become Bulldogs, joining fellow Georgia Military College prospect Vince Vance, who committed last week.

Wynn (6-5, 275) is the prize of today's commitments, a four-star end who had offers from many of the top programs in the south. Irvin (6-4, 275) will help provide some depth for Rodney Garner's interior line. The three-star lineman had several offers as well, but he and Wynn had said they wanted to stick together after GMC.

Here's Chad Simmons' story from UGASports.com

Here's the scout.com story on Wynn's commitment.

Both recruiting services list the two players the same -- rivals and scout have Wynn as four stars and Irvin as three. They're the 22nd and 23rd prospects to commit to Georgia.

Inman named first-team all-SEC

Dan Inman was the only Georgia player named to the Associated Press first-team all-SEC squad. I look forward to your comments.

Nick Jones, Martrez Milner, Charles Johnson, Tony Taylor and Tra Battle were all second-team honorees.

Quentin Moses and Paul Oliver were honorable mention.

FIRST-TEAM OFFENSE
WR Earl Bennett, Vanderbilt
WR Robert Meachem, Tennessee
OL Arron Sears, Tennessee
OL Tony Ugoh, Arkansas
OL Dan Inman, Georgia
C Jonathan Luigs, Arkansas
TE Jacob Tamme, Kentucky
QB JaMarcus Russell, LSU
RB Darren McFadden, Arkansas
RB Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis, Ole Miss
K James Wilhoit, Tennessee
K (tie) John Vaughn, Auburn
All-Purpose Keenan Burton, Kentucky

FIRST-TEAM DEFENSE
DE Jamaal Anderson, Arkansas
DE Quentin Groves, Auburn
DT Glenn Dorsey, LSU
DT Turk McBride, Tennessee
LB Patrick Willis, Ole Miss
LB Sam Olajubutu
LB Quinton Culberson, Missississippi State
LB Jasper Brinkley, South Carolina
DB LaRon Landry, LSU
DB Reggie Nelson, Florida
DB Ryan Smith, Florida
DB Simeon Castille, Alabama
P Britton Colquitt, Tennessee

SECOND-TEAM OFFENSE
WR Dwayne Bowe, LSU
WR Keenan Burton, Kentucky
OL Stephen Parker, Arkansas
OL Will Arnold, LSU
OL Tim Duckworth, Auburn
OL Brian Johnson, LSU
C Nick Jones, Georgia
TE Martrez Milner, Georgia
QB Andre Woodson, Kentucky
RB Felix Jones, Arkansas
RB Kenny Irons, Auburn
All-Purpose Felix Jones, Arkansas

SECOND-TEAM DEFENSE
DE Charles Johnson, Georgia
DE Titus Brown, Mississippi State
DT Keith Jackson, Arkansas
DT Deljuan Robinson, Mississippi State
LB Earl Everett, Florida
LB Brandon Siler, Florida
LB Tony Taylor, Georgia
DB Tra Battle, Georgia
DB Jonathan Hefney, Tennessee
DB Chris Houston, Arkansas
DB Jonathan Wade, Tennessee
P Kody Bliss, Auburn

Also receiving votes:
OFFENSE
Brian Anderson OL Mississippi State, Cole Bennett TE Auburn, Antoine Caldwell OL Alabama, Jamon Meredith OL South Carolina, Michael Oher OL Ole Miss, Steve Rissler OL Florida, Brian Stamper OL Vanderbilt, Ryan Succop K South Carolina
DEFENSE
Jamaal Anderson DE Arkansas, Fred Bennett DB South Carolina, Jonathan Goff LB Vanderbilt, Marquies Gunn DE Auburn, David Irons DB Auburn, Ray McDonald DT Florida, Quentin Moses DE Georgia, Jarvis Moss DE Florida, Paul Oliver DB Georgia, Derek Pegues DB Mississippi State, Andrew Powell DT Mississippi State, Marcus Thomas DT Florida, Wesley Woodyard LB Kentucky

VT-UGA: Tale of the tape

At first glance, this looks like a matchup between two teams with very good defenses and underachieving offenses. I'm setting the early over/under at 9 points, favoring Georgia to win 6-3 (three safeties vs. one field goal).

Rushing offense: UGA 62nd (162.08 ypg); VT 84th (119.33)
Passing offense: UGA 69th (189.0 ypg); VT 78th (184.7)
Total offense: UGA 77th (321.08 ypg); VT 95th (304)
Scoring offense: UGA 55th (24.67 ppg); VT 47th (26)
Pass efficiency: UGA 82nd (115.81); VT 53rd (127.02)
Sacks allowed: UGA 15th (15); VT 72nd (26)
Third-down conversions, offense: UGA 42nd (40.7 percent); VT 71st (36.9)

Rushing defense: UGA 31st (113.8); VT 14th (92.9)
Passing defense: UGA 5th (150.25); VT 1st (128.17)
Scoring defense: UGA 21st (17.1); VT 1st (9.3 ppg)
Pass efficiency defense: UGA 10th (101.7); VT 2nd (90.7)
Sacks: UGA 29th (30); VT 42nd (28)
Third-down conversions, defense: UGA 4th (27.8 percent); VT 2nd (27.5)

Punt returns: UGA 5th (15.52); VT 29th (11.54)
Kickoff returns: UGA 42nd (21.27); VT 33rd (21.78)
Turnover margin: UGA 79th (-4); VT 25th (+7)

Individuals
Leading rusher:
UGA Kregg Lumpkin (78th nationally, 150 rushes, 759 yards, 5 TDs)
VT Brandon Ore (18th, 221-1095, 14 TDs)

Leading passer:
UGA: Matthew Stafford (96th nationally with 10.5 completions per game, 125-235 1,620 yards, 6 TDs, 12 ints)
VT: Sean Glennon (71st nationally with 13.08 completions per game, 157-276 2,097 yards, 11 TDs, 8 ints)

Leading receiver:
UGA: Martrez Milner (NA, 27 receptions, 376 yards, 2 TDs)
VT: Josh Morgan (NA, 31-434, 4 TDs)

Leading tackler:
UGA: Tony Taylor (NA, 87 tackles, 7.25 per game)
VT: Vince Hall (13th nationally, 115, 9.58)

Leading sacker:
UGA: Charles Johnson (41st nationally, 7.5 sacks, 0.63 per game)
VT: Chris Ellis (NA, 3.5 sacks, 0.32)

Interceptions leader:
UGA: Tra Battle (10th nationally, 6 for 154 yards, 1 TD)
VT: Victor Harris (43rd nationally, 4 for 75 yards, 1 TD)

CFA Bowl ticket information

You can buy bowl game tickets starting tonight on georgiadogs.com or call Georgia's ticket office starting tomorrow at 1-877-542-1231. I believe general public tickets are $75.

Also, you can go through the bowl Web site at chick-fil-abowl.com and try to buy tickets at this link. I'm not sure what's available there. It looks like they're only selling tickets to the FanFest and the Tailgate Party. Their ticket office number is 404-586-8499

Here's Georgia's release that's posted on the athletics web site:
ATHENS, Ga. --­ Georgia football tickets for the Chick-fil-a Bowl on Dec. 30 in Atlanta will be available later this evening at georgiadogs.com.

Requests for tickets will be filled in the order that they are received and based on availability. There is no order limit for a single request.

Georgia (8-4) is set to face No. 14-ranked Virginia Tech (10-2) at the Georgia Dome with kickoff slated for 8 p.m. ET.

For Georgia, it marks the program¹s 10th consecutive season ending in a bowl invitation. It will be Georgia¹s fifth time playing in the Chick-fil-a Bowl, and the Bulldogs are 2-2 in the previous games.

SEC Bowl Picture

Here's where the SEC schools will go bowling (as I understand it):
Dec. 28: Alabama (6-6) vs. Oklahoma State (6-6) in Independence Bowl
Dec. 29: Kentucky (7-5) vs. Clemson (8-4) in Music City Bowl
Dec. 29: South Carolina (7-5) vs. Houston (10-3) in Liberty Bowl
Dec. 30: Georgia (8-4) vs. Virginia Tech (10-2) in Chick-Fil-A Bowl
Jan. 1: Auburn (10-2) vs. Nebraska (9-4) in Cotton Bowl
Jan. 1: Tennessee (9-3) vs. Penn State (8-4) in Outback Bowl
Jan. 1: Arkansas (10-3) vs. Wisconsin (11-1) in Capital One Bowl
Jan. 3: LSU (10-2) vs. Notre Dame (10-2) in Sugar Bowl (tentative)
Jan. 8: Florida (12-1) vs. Ohio State (12-0) in BCS National Championship Game (tentative)

UGA-VT for sure

press conference is starting right now. It's finally confirmed.

CFA Bowl announcement delayed

A bowl rep just came on the teleconference and said the SEC has asked them to push back their announcement until 5. So we've got to wait 20 more minutes. This much is an absolute certainty: Virginia Tech is the ACC rep in the game, because VT coach Frank Beamer was on the conference call while we were waiting for things to get started.

Bowl announcement coming shortly

Listening in on the Chick-Fil-A Bowl teleconference right now. They should be announcing Georgia-Virginia Tech as the matchup in the near future.

More poetry from Mal Moore

I love these Mal Moore statements. This one was released today...probably dictated en route from when he flew to Columbia and hired Steve Spurrier to coach the Tide for $40 million a year.

A STATEMENT FROM MAL MOORE , DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – University of Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore released this afternoon the following statement regarding the status of the search for a new head football coach:

“While I remain committed to not engaging in a lengthy public dialogue on the progress of our search for a new head football coach, I want all of our fans and supporters to know that we appreciate and understand the tremendous interest in this process.

“I am very pleased with where we are in this search. I know there have been many rumors speculating about candidates and timelines and, while I won’t get into specifics of who we are interested in, I want everyone to understand that we have not contacted any college coaches who have not yet completed their regular seasons.

“While I do recognize the need to get a head football coach hired soon, I am less concerned with following a timeline than I am about making sure we hire the right person for the job.”

Weston named freshman all-SEC

School sent this out a little while ago.

ATHENS -- Georgia redshirt freshman DT Kade Weston has been named to The Sporting News SEC All-Freshman Team.

The Red Bank, N.J., native appeared in every game this season including six starts. He finished the year with 12 tackles, which was third among the team's defensive tackles. He also registered 12 quarterback pressures and two pass breakups.

The Georgia defense ended the season allowing 264.0 yards per game, which ranks second in the SEC behind only LSU (238.8).

Here's the whole team:

SPORTING NEWS 2006 SEC ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
OFFENSE
WR Percy Harvin, Florida
WR Damian Williams, Arkansas
TE Tommy Trott, Auburn*
OL (T) Ciron Black, LSU*
OL (C) Josh McNeil, Tennessee*
OL (T) Andre Smith, Alabama
OL (G) John Jerry, Mississippi
OL (G) Ronnie Wilson, Florida*
QB Tim Tebow, Florida
RB LaMarcus Coker, Tennessee*
RB Anthony Dixon, Mississippi State

DEFENSE
L (T) Sen’Derrick Marks, Auburn*
L (E/T) Ricky Jean-Francois, LSU*
L (T) Kade Weston, Georgia
L (E) Eric Norwood, South Carolina
LB Tray Blackmon, Auburn*
LB Rodney Paulk, South Carolina
LB Prince Hall, Alabama*
DB (FS) Aairon Savage, Auburn*
DB (CB) Trevard Lindley, Kentucky
DB (CB) Darlron Spead, Vanderbilt*
DB (S) Emanuel Cook, South Carolina

SPECIALISTS
K Joshua Shene, Mississippi
P P.J. Fitzgerald, Alabama*
KR Javier Arenas, Alabama

OFFENSIVE FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Percy Harvin, WR, Florida
DEFENSIVE FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Prince Hall, LB, Alabama*