I've been trading e-mails with Troy's beat writer at the Dothan Eagle, Drew Champlin. He has a useful blog on the paper's site, if you want to check it out, here.
He spoke with Troy coach Larry Blakeney today about QB Omar Haugabook's health. Still sounds pretty iffy to me, judging by the following paragraph:
Right now, Haugabook hasn’t taken any real practice reps - just some preliminary practice stuff like drills, etc. Blakeney did say “He’s jogging a little bit without pain, but the process is going to be long.”
Drew says if Haugabook doesn't go, they're probably going to let redshirt freshman Tanner Jones and true freshman lefty Jamie Hampton each get a crack. Jones apparently has a huge arm, but scattershot aim, while Hampton's run-pass skills might be a better fit for the Trojan's offense.
Neither has played much. Jones and Hampton are a combined 6-for-19 for 69 yards and one touchdown.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Another two commits
EVERYONE expected Heard County running back Dontavious Jackson to commit to Georgia today, but the Bulldogs got an added bonus with the commitment of Westside-Augusta defensive back Sanders Commings as well.
That brings Georgia's commitment count to 23 players, including three who receive five stars from both Scout and Rivals.com. Scout has eight more Georgia commits with four stars while Rivals has it at 12. Either way, it's shaping up as an outstanding class. In comparison, this year's class had one five-star and 10 four-star prospects (according to Scout) or 12 four-star prospects and no five-star prospects (according to Rivals).
I'd imagine they're only looking to add maybe one or two more guys and signing day is still three months away. Here's a rundown of the group so far, along with their position and rating from Rivals and Scout:
TE Dwayne Allen 4 stars (R/S)
ATH Xavier Avery 4 stars (R)/3 stars (S)
CB Brandon Boykin 4 stars (R/S)
DB Sanders Commings 3 stars (R/S)
LB/RB Marcus Dowtin 4 stars (R/S)
WR A.J. Green 5 stars (R/S)
LB Akeem Hebron 4 stars (R)
RB Dontavious Jackson 4 stars (R/S)
DE Toby Jackson 4 stars (R/S)
C Ben Jones 3 stars (R/S)
WR Tavarres King 4 stars (R/S)
DE Jeremy Longo 3 stars (R/S)
OL Jonathan Owens 3 stars (R/S)
DB Makiri Pugh 4 stars (R)/3 stars (S)
ATH Bacarri Rambo 3 stars (R/S)
LB Christian Robinson 4 stars (R)/2 stars (S)
TE Bryce Ros 3 stars (R/S)
LB/RB Richard Samuel 5 stars (R/S)
RB Carlton Thomas 3 stars (R)/4 stars (S)
DT DeAngelo Tyson 5 stars (R/S)
K Blair Walsh 3 stars (R/S)
DE Cornelius Washington 4 stars (R/S)
S Nick Williams 4 stars (R)/3 stars (S)
That brings Georgia's commitment count to 23 players, including three who receive five stars from both Scout and Rivals.com. Scout has eight more Georgia commits with four stars while Rivals has it at 12. Either way, it's shaping up as an outstanding class. In comparison, this year's class had one five-star and 10 four-star prospects (according to Scout) or 12 four-star prospects and no five-star prospects (according to Rivals).
I'd imagine they're only looking to add maybe one or two more guys and signing day is still three months away. Here's a rundown of the group so far, along with their position and rating from Rivals and Scout:
TE Dwayne Allen 4 stars (R/S)
ATH Xavier Avery 4 stars (R)/3 stars (S)
CB Brandon Boykin 4 stars (R/S)
DB Sanders Commings 3 stars (R/S)
LB/RB Marcus Dowtin 4 stars (R/S)
WR A.J. Green 5 stars (R/S)
LB Akeem Hebron 4 stars (R)
RB Dontavious Jackson 4 stars (R/S)
DE Toby Jackson 4 stars (R/S)
C Ben Jones 3 stars (R/S)
WR Tavarres King 4 stars (R/S)
DE Jeremy Longo 3 stars (R/S)
OL Jonathan Owens 3 stars (R/S)
DB Makiri Pugh 4 stars (R)/3 stars (S)
ATH Bacarri Rambo 3 stars (R/S)
LB Christian Robinson 4 stars (R)/2 stars (S)
TE Bryce Ros 3 stars (R/S)
LB/RB Richard Samuel 5 stars (R/S)
RB Carlton Thomas 3 stars (R)/4 stars (S)
DT DeAngelo Tyson 5 stars (R/S)
K Blair Walsh 3 stars (R/S)
DE Cornelius Washington 4 stars (R/S)
S Nick Williams 4 stars (R)/3 stars (S)
Troy Messenger column
I got a heads up tonight on a column from Tuesday's Troy Messenger, written by sports editor Bobby Mathews, on how it wouldn't be a surprise if the Trojans were to win on Saturday.
It's a fine column. Exactly what you might expect from the hometown paper. I enjoyed the lead quote in the column, about how Troy won't be intimidated by playing in Sanford Stadium (and in my opinion, they shouldn't be. It infrequently strikes me as an intimidating environment, particularly at a 1 p.m., non-conference, non-TV game).
But the quote amused me:
"We play in Movie Gallery Stadium,” said senior linebacker Marcus Richardson. “Anything else, it's just a football field.”
You know, I've always had the same thought about anything that's not 30,000-capacity Movie Gallery Stadium in scenic Troy, Ala. Just another ballpark where you won't have to take a thrashing from the mighty Troy Trojans.
On another note, I saw this article linked on the Vent and thought it was interesting. It's on Troy offensive lineman Windham Rotunda, the son of pro wrestler Mike Rotunda, nephew of wrestlers Barry and Kendall Windham and grandson of wrestler Blackjack Mulligan. He grew up dreaming of playing football at Georgia. I grew up on 1980s NWA wrestling, so I thought it was kinda cool to see a kid whose dad was in the Varsity Club and whose uncle was in the Four Horsemen will be on the field Saturday. Good times.
It's a fine column. Exactly what you might expect from the hometown paper. I enjoyed the lead quote in the column, about how Troy won't be intimidated by playing in Sanford Stadium (and in my opinion, they shouldn't be. It infrequently strikes me as an intimidating environment, particularly at a 1 p.m., non-conference, non-TV game).
But the quote amused me:
"We play in Movie Gallery Stadium,” said senior linebacker Marcus Richardson. “Anything else, it's just a football field.”
You know, I've always had the same thought about anything that's not 30,000-capacity Movie Gallery Stadium in scenic Troy, Ala. Just another ballpark where you won't have to take a thrashing from the mighty Troy Trojans.
On another note, I saw this article linked on the Vent and thought it was interesting. It's on Troy offensive lineman Windham Rotunda, the son of pro wrestler Mike Rotunda, nephew of wrestlers Barry and Kendall Windham and grandson of wrestler Blackjack Mulligan. He grew up dreaming of playing football at Georgia. I grew up on 1980s NWA wrestling, so I thought it was kinda cool to see a kid whose dad was in the Varsity Club and whose uncle was in the Four Horsemen will be on the field Saturday. Good times.
Tuesday wrapup
Here are the links to my stuff in Wednesday's Ledger-Enquirer:
* Notebook: Johnson, Bailey may miss Georgia-Troy game
* Richt looks for answers to Dogs' emotional rollercoaster
There was a lot of talk today about emotion, or the occasional lack thereof, from Georgia. Seems like that especially happens early in games. Richt blames it on the immaturity of a young team. I'll post some quotes from him on the subject at the bottom.
I had a couple of theories on it that I asked guys about.
* The offense not getting something done early. Did you know Georgia is 5-0 in games where it scores first and 1-2 in games where the opponent scores first? Mohamed Massaquoi seemed to agree the occasional slow starts on offense had something to do with it.
* I asked Marcus Washington if this team is mean enough. Truthfully, most of them seem like pretty nice, agreeable kids and I was curious whether that might translate to not being fiesty enough all the time. Not surprisingly, Marcus didn't agree with that suggestion.
At any rate, they can't afford to keep having these slow starts. They started poorly in the three games preceding the Florida game and Troy's not a cupcake you can pull that stuff against. A loss won't affect their chances in the SEC East, but it would seriously damage the national reputation they're beginning to build and kill the momentum they established last weekend.
I wasn't aware of this until today, but Saturday's game will match up two of the most productive running backs in New Jersey high school football history. Georgia's Knowshon Moreno ended his prep career with 6,268 career yards -- second only to Troy's Kenny Cattouse, who totaled 6,720 yards. That leaves them ahead of New Jersey products like Franco Harris, Craig Heyward, Ron Dayne and Mike Rozier. Not a bad group to be a part of. Knowshon's 782 career points -- including 128 career touchdowns -- made for a state record, though.
I mentioned it in a previous post that Kelin Johnson is most likely out for Saturday with a left knee injury and that Reshad Jones will probably start in his place. Sean Bailey's status is uncertain as well, as Sean's left knee (not the knee with the torn ACL in 2005) has been "clicking" he said. He was going to talk to team doctors about it after he talked with us after practice. He said he hurt it in the first quarter against Florida and played the rest of the game with it, although he could barely walk on it Saturday night. He said it's been getting better each day, but he didn't practice Tuesday. Fred Munzenmaier is still struggling with a lower back injury from last week. He was on the side in the portion of practice we watched today.
Other stuff:
* Jon Fabris said either Mikey Henderson or Thomas Flowers could return punts on Saturday.
* Jarius Wynn is back at defensive end full-time. A bunch of us spoke with him about it today and he seems excited about the move.
* Another Troy guy to watch out for is cornerback Leodis McKelvin -- I'll be writing on him later this week as well. The consensus is that he's the best corner Georgia will have faced this season and a surefire NFL player next year. He's from Ware County in Waycross, home of Fred Gibson. Bobo, Richt, Stafford, Sean Bailey and Mohamed Massaquoi all seem very impressed with his abilities. And I shouldn't fail to mention that he leads the NCAA in punt returns with a 21.2 average and three TDs in 17 attempts.
* As per usual, Rodney Garner had some really interesting things to say today. He and Stacy Searels played at Auburn with Troy assistant Shayne Wasden and under Troy head coach Larry Blakeney (who was Auburn's offensive playcaller at the time), as well as Troy athletic director Steve Dennis (who was an all-SEC defensive back at UGA and coached there for three years in the early 1990s). I haven't gone back to transcribe that Q/A, but I will tomorrow and I'll post it when I do.
So here's some of what Richt had to say about failing to maintain a consistent emotional level:
"Every game is big. There are no games that aren’t big. So you’re like, ‘Why can’t they get up for a big game?’ I think it is difficult to get at a fever pitch. How many times in the last seven years or 20 years have we seen Georgia play with that much passion? I don’t know, that might’ve been the No. 1 game we’ve had since I’ve been here as far as that kind of passion and energy. So can you do that every week? I don’t think you can – you try to. Should you have a game like we had against Tennessee, and let’s face it, Tennessee came in and jumped on us and took the momentum, but we never punched back. That was very disheartening. And I’ll be honest with you, when we played Ole Miss, we didn’t have a whole lot more juice that game till they fumbled that darn tshing. They’d scored once and they were about to go up 14-0 too and they fumble right there in front of it and we go 90-something yards and score and it just seemed like, ‘OK, now we go.’ But we can’t wait for something good to happen to get excited, we’ve got to get ready."
On why that might happen:
"We’ve been up and down, there’s no doubt. Why it happens I don’t know. The question you had is is it tougher for this team than others – maybe a little bit. Somebody asked me early on about it and I felt like it was more of a maturity thing. Because there are games that you play that you don’t have that emotional energy, so now you’ve just gotta play good fundamentals, you’ve just gotta play hard regardless of how you feel. How many times do people wake up in the morning and say, ‘I just don’t feel like going to work today?’ Well, you’ve gotta go anyway. And while you’re there, you’ve gotta do your job well, whether you feel like doing it well or not. That’s what I was saying when it comes to the maturity level of a team – even if you’re not at a fever pitch emotionally, it’s no excuse for not playing hard. You’ve gotta play hard no matter how you feel. Now it does help you play hard when you feel excited. But can you count on that every week? It’s hard to count on that, so now you’ve gotta count on your habits, you’ve gotta count on your fundamentals. That’s why I say if you’re mature enough as a team, you’re gonna play hard no matter how you feel that day. That’s what I think is the difference."
On what might fix it:
"I think Knowshon’s spirit and energy is beginning to rub off on people – even if it just rubs off on the fan base. You want leaders who want to lead the charge too sometimes. I’ve talked to the guys about that. I talked to them about it when we met Sunday instead of Monday. I was like, ‘Here we are, men. We’re in a good position again. We’ve been here before. After Oklahoma State we were here. We were here after Alabama. By the grace of God, here we are again. What are you gonna do now? Are you just gonna let it fall by the wayside or wait for me to do something nutty? Can we sustain this thing? Are we still that immature team that I talked about earlier? Are we that team whose leaders didn’t keep the ball rolling when we had it rolling? Let’s see if we can keep it rolling, see if we can keep it going.’"
* Notebook: Johnson, Bailey may miss Georgia-Troy game
* Richt looks for answers to Dogs' emotional rollercoaster
There was a lot of talk today about emotion, or the occasional lack thereof, from Georgia. Seems like that especially happens early in games. Richt blames it on the immaturity of a young team. I'll post some quotes from him on the subject at the bottom.
I had a couple of theories on it that I asked guys about.
* The offense not getting something done early. Did you know Georgia is 5-0 in games where it scores first and 1-2 in games where the opponent scores first? Mohamed Massaquoi seemed to agree the occasional slow starts on offense had something to do with it.
* I asked Marcus Washington if this team is mean enough. Truthfully, most of them seem like pretty nice, agreeable kids and I was curious whether that might translate to not being fiesty enough all the time. Not surprisingly, Marcus didn't agree with that suggestion.
At any rate, they can't afford to keep having these slow starts. They started poorly in the three games preceding the Florida game and Troy's not a cupcake you can pull that stuff against. A loss won't affect their chances in the SEC East, but it would seriously damage the national reputation they're beginning to build and kill the momentum they established last weekend.
I wasn't aware of this until today, but Saturday's game will match up two of the most productive running backs in New Jersey high school football history. Georgia's Knowshon Moreno ended his prep career with 6,268 career yards -- second only to Troy's Kenny Cattouse, who totaled 6,720 yards. That leaves them ahead of New Jersey products like Franco Harris, Craig Heyward, Ron Dayne and Mike Rozier. Not a bad group to be a part of. Knowshon's 782 career points -- including 128 career touchdowns -- made for a state record, though.
I mentioned it in a previous post that Kelin Johnson is most likely out for Saturday with a left knee injury and that Reshad Jones will probably start in his place. Sean Bailey's status is uncertain as well, as Sean's left knee (not the knee with the torn ACL in 2005) has been "clicking" he said. He was going to talk to team doctors about it after he talked with us after practice. He said he hurt it in the first quarter against Florida and played the rest of the game with it, although he could barely walk on it Saturday night. He said it's been getting better each day, but he didn't practice Tuesday. Fred Munzenmaier is still struggling with a lower back injury from last week. He was on the side in the portion of practice we watched today.
Other stuff:
* Jon Fabris said either Mikey Henderson or Thomas Flowers could return punts on Saturday.
* Jarius Wynn is back at defensive end full-time. A bunch of us spoke with him about it today and he seems excited about the move.
* Another Troy guy to watch out for is cornerback Leodis McKelvin -- I'll be writing on him later this week as well. The consensus is that he's the best corner Georgia will have faced this season and a surefire NFL player next year. He's from Ware County in Waycross, home of Fred Gibson. Bobo, Richt, Stafford, Sean Bailey and Mohamed Massaquoi all seem very impressed with his abilities. And I shouldn't fail to mention that he leads the NCAA in punt returns with a 21.2 average and three TDs in 17 attempts.
* As per usual, Rodney Garner had some really interesting things to say today. He and Stacy Searels played at Auburn with Troy assistant Shayne Wasden and under Troy head coach Larry Blakeney (who was Auburn's offensive playcaller at the time), as well as Troy athletic director Steve Dennis (who was an all-SEC defensive back at UGA and coached there for three years in the early 1990s). I haven't gone back to transcribe that Q/A, but I will tomorrow and I'll post it when I do.
So here's some of what Richt had to say about failing to maintain a consistent emotional level:
"Every game is big. There are no games that aren’t big. So you’re like, ‘Why can’t they get up for a big game?’ I think it is difficult to get at a fever pitch. How many times in the last seven years or 20 years have we seen Georgia play with that much passion? I don’t know, that might’ve been the No. 1 game we’ve had since I’ve been here as far as that kind of passion and energy. So can you do that every week? I don’t think you can – you try to. Should you have a game like we had against Tennessee, and let’s face it, Tennessee came in and jumped on us and took the momentum, but we never punched back. That was very disheartening. And I’ll be honest with you, when we played Ole Miss, we didn’t have a whole lot more juice that game till they fumbled that darn tshing. They’d scored once and they were about to go up 14-0 too and they fumble right there in front of it and we go 90-something yards and score and it just seemed like, ‘OK, now we go.’ But we can’t wait for something good to happen to get excited, we’ve got to get ready."
On why that might happen:
"We’ve been up and down, there’s no doubt. Why it happens I don’t know. The question you had is is it tougher for this team than others – maybe a little bit. Somebody asked me early on about it and I felt like it was more of a maturity thing. Because there are games that you play that you don’t have that emotional energy, so now you’ve just gotta play good fundamentals, you’ve just gotta play hard regardless of how you feel. How many times do people wake up in the morning and say, ‘I just don’t feel like going to work today?’ Well, you’ve gotta go anyway. And while you’re there, you’ve gotta do your job well, whether you feel like doing it well or not. That’s what I was saying when it comes to the maturity level of a team – even if you’re not at a fever pitch emotionally, it’s no excuse for not playing hard. You’ve gotta play hard no matter how you feel. Now it does help you play hard when you feel excited. But can you count on that every week? It’s hard to count on that, so now you’ve gotta count on your habits, you’ve gotta count on your fundamentals. That’s why I say if you’re mature enough as a team, you’re gonna play hard no matter how you feel that day. That’s what I think is the difference."
On what might fix it:
"I think Knowshon’s spirit and energy is beginning to rub off on people – even if it just rubs off on the fan base. You want leaders who want to lead the charge too sometimes. I’ve talked to the guys about that. I talked to them about it when we met Sunday instead of Monday. I was like, ‘Here we are, men. We’re in a good position again. We’ve been here before. After Oklahoma State we were here. We were here after Alabama. By the grace of God, here we are again. What are you gonna do now? Are you just gonna let it fall by the wayside or wait for me to do something nutty? Can we sustain this thing? Are we still that immature team that I talked about earlier? Are we that team whose leaders didn’t keep the ball rolling when we had it rolling? Let’s see if we can keep it rolling, see if we can keep it going.’"
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Quick injury notes
A couple of reporters noticed Sean Bailey was in the weight room during practice today and I stuck around with a couple of the guys afterwards to see what the story with him was. He said he injured his knee in the first quarter against Florida and was about to visit one of the team doctors about it. He played the rest of the game, obviously, but he wasn't sure how serious it was. He said it felt like it was "clicking" and that it was hard to walk after the game, although it's getting better every day. So we'll see what happens there.
Also, Kelin Johnson is highly doubtful for Saturday. He wasn't dressed out at practice today and was favoring the injured left knee when he walked. Otherwise, they seem to be a pretty healthy bunch. Fred Munzenmaier (back) was working on the side with trainers and Richt talked in his press conference about how they didn't want to overload Mikey Henderson until he was back at 100 percent, which is part of the reason why he didn't return punts against Florida. From what Richt said and what assistant coach Jon Fabris said after practice today, the punt return duties for Troy are still up in the air. Could still be Thomas Flowers on Saturday.
More later.
Also, Kelin Johnson is highly doubtful for Saturday. He wasn't dressed out at practice today and was favoring the injured left knee when he walked. Otherwise, they seem to be a pretty healthy bunch. Fred Munzenmaier (back) was working on the side with trainers and Richt talked in his press conference about how they didn't want to overload Mikey Henderson until he was back at 100 percent, which is part of the reason why he didn't return punts against Florida. From what Richt said and what assistant coach Jon Fabris said after practice today, the punt return duties for Troy are still up in the air. Could still be Thomas Flowers on Saturday.
More later.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Curran arrested
EDIT: He was released at 7:07 on $1,500 bond from Confidential Bonding.
Georgia linebacker Rennie Curran was booked today at 4:32 p.m. in connection with the warrant UGA PD issued for him last week.
Officially, he's been charged with theft by taking after moving his scooter to his dorm from South Herty Drive after it had been fitted with a parking boot because of unpaid parking tickets. Bond is set at $1,500.
Georgia linebacker Rennie Curran was booked today at 4:32 p.m. in connection with the warrant UGA PD issued for him last week.
Officially, he's been charged with theft by taking after moving his scooter to his dorm from South Herty Drive after it had been fitted with a parking boot because of unpaid parking tickets. Bond is set at $1,500.
Richt sends apology letter to SEC office
EDIT: Georgia will not be fined for the TD celebration. The SEC isn't making a statement on the matter, letting Richt's letter stand as a public apology and his punishment.
Not surprisingly, Mark Richt heard from SEC commish Mike Slive about Saturday's touchdown celebration against Florida. He sent an apology letter to the league office this afternoon, cc'd to Damon Evans and Michael Adams, which the University forwarded to Georgia media.
The text of the letter is as follows:
Dear Commissioner Slive:
As a followup to our telephone discussion earlier today, I do want to apologize in writing for what transpired after the first score of the Georgia/Florida game this past Saturday when our entire team left the bench area to celebrate the score. If you would again allow me to explain my thought process, I would appreciate it.
Two weeks ago when our preparation began for the Florida game I told the team that we have got to have more energy and enthusiasm in this ballgame or we are going to get whipped pretty good. I said, as a matter of fact, when we score our first touchdown, I expect you guys to celebrate to the point where the official will throw a flag for excessive celebration. I admit this was inappropriate. What I had envisioned was for the eleven guys on the field to celebrate the score. On the day of the game I re-emphasized to the team that this was not going to be an individual celebration, but a team celebration. Again, I was expecting the eleven players on the field to be doing the celebrating, not for the bench to clear as it did. I understand that the entire team running on the field created the potential for an altercation and that excessive celebration is not in compliance with the Southeastern Conference sportsmanship policies and expected standards. My only intention was to create enthusiasm.
I apologize that I put everyone in that situation and specifically apologize to you, the Southeastern Conference, and the University of Florida. You can be assured I will not ask our team to do this type of thing again.
Sincerely,
Mark Richt
Not surprisingly, Mark Richt heard from SEC commish Mike Slive about Saturday's touchdown celebration against Florida. He sent an apology letter to the league office this afternoon, cc'd to Damon Evans and Michael Adams, which the University forwarded to Georgia media.
The text of the letter is as follows:
Dear Commissioner Slive:
As a followup to our telephone discussion earlier today, I do want to apologize in writing for what transpired after the first score of the Georgia/Florida game this past Saturday when our entire team left the bench area to celebrate the score. If you would again allow me to explain my thought process, I would appreciate it.
Two weeks ago when our preparation began for the Florida game I told the team that we have got to have more energy and enthusiasm in this ballgame or we are going to get whipped pretty good. I said, as a matter of fact, when we score our first touchdown, I expect you guys to celebrate to the point where the official will throw a flag for excessive celebration. I admit this was inappropriate. What I had envisioned was for the eleven guys on the field to celebrate the score. On the day of the game I re-emphasized to the team that this was not going to be an individual celebration, but a team celebration. Again, I was expecting the eleven players on the field to be doing the celebrating, not for the bench to clear as it did. I understand that the entire team running on the field created the potential for an altercation and that excessive celebration is not in compliance with the Southeastern Conference sportsmanship policies and expected standards. My only intention was to create enthusiasm.
I apologize that I put everyone in that situation and specifically apologize to you, the Southeastern Conference, and the University of Florida. You can be assured I will not ask our team to do this type of thing again.
Sincerely,
Mark Richt
Troy QB doubtful
Troy quarterback Omar Haugabook, a gifted player if you haven't seen him, is doubtful for Saturday's game according to Troy coach Larry Blakeney.
"I would say he’s doubtful right now," Blakeney told the Dothan Eagle. "He’s doubtful to start, and doubtful to play. Every day, his status can be upgraded."
Haugabook injured the hamstring on a 9-yard run in last Saturday's win over Arkansas State. He came out four plays later. Here's a link to the Dothan Eagle blog and beat writer Drew Champlin's comments concerning the injury.
Haugabook would be replaced by the combination of Tanner Jones and Jamie Hampton if he can't go, but Haugabook is hard to replace. He's second on the team with 420 rushing yards and has a team-high eight rushing touchdowns and is passing for 260 yards per game, with 12 TDs and 11 ints. Jones and Hampton are a combined 6-for-19 for 69 yards and one touchdown.
This is from the story our Troy stringer, Luke Brietzke, turned in for tomorrow's paper:
"Quarterback Omar Haugabook insists he will play this weekend despite being hampered by a hamstring injury.
But Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said he wouldn’t jeopardize the season to play Haugabook this week. Blakeney said that Haugabook’s current status is doubtful, but could change later in the week and that his signal-caller would likely be a game-time decision.
The Trojans currently sit atop the Sun Belt with a 5-0 conference record, but their toughest two conference games – against Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic – are their final two games of the season.
Blakeney doesn’t want to chance losing Haugabook for those two games because Troy likely needs to win out to qualify for the New Orleans Bowl.
"I would say he’s doubtful right now," Blakeney told the Dothan Eagle. "He’s doubtful to start, and doubtful to play. Every day, his status can be upgraded."
Haugabook injured the hamstring on a 9-yard run in last Saturday's win over Arkansas State. He came out four plays later. Here's a link to the Dothan Eagle blog and beat writer Drew Champlin's comments concerning the injury.
Haugabook would be replaced by the combination of Tanner Jones and Jamie Hampton if he can't go, but Haugabook is hard to replace. He's second on the team with 420 rushing yards and has a team-high eight rushing touchdowns and is passing for 260 yards per game, with 12 TDs and 11 ints. Jones and Hampton are a combined 6-for-19 for 69 yards and one touchdown.
This is from the story our Troy stringer, Luke Brietzke, turned in for tomorrow's paper:
"Quarterback Omar Haugabook insists he will play this weekend despite being hampered by a hamstring injury.
But Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said he wouldn’t jeopardize the season to play Haugabook this week. Blakeney said that Haugabook’s current status is doubtful, but could change later in the week and that his signal-caller would likely be a game-time decision.
The Trojans currently sit atop the Sun Belt with a 5-0 conference record, but their toughest two conference games – against Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic – are their final two games of the season.
Blakeney doesn’t want to chance losing Haugabook for those two games because Troy likely needs to win out to qualify for the New Orleans Bowl.
Monday stuff
I've already posted several things today, most of which were FYI things I posted from UGA press releases, so look over to the right side at the list of previous posts to see if anything interests you.
The team's not practicing today, so I doubt there will be a ton of news today other than the UGA-Auburn game being televised by CBS at 3:30.
Here are a couple quotes from postpractice last night and Mark Richt's Sunday teleconference.
Knowshon Moreno on whether they need to be careful about overworking him down the stretch:
"No, no. no. Whatever’s working in the game, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re a balanced team. We can do both things – we can throw the ball and run the ball – and we also have great backs behind me right now. So we’re not gonna be careful with that. Whatever’s working at the time is what we’re gonna do."
Jason Johnson on being able to contribute against Florida (and by the way, that was an interesting playcall and good execution on the opening play, when he started at a slot receiver position and cracked down on a Florida defender to spring Knowshon for a good gain:
"To contribute is great. Just being a part of the team sometimes ain’t enough. You feel a lot better when you’re out there and feel like you did something to get to that goal, to the end."
Johnson on what he thought his role would be coming in:
"Coach Bobo had told me that I was gonna play at least one play on offense. That first play on offense, we were gonna run that just to try to jump out on them, to surprise them, attack them."
More from Johnson on that:
"Pretty much, it was in the gameplan that I was gonna do that. And coach Richt let the team know, be looking out for JJ. He’s gonna do something real spectacular, try to spark the team’s enthusiasm. So it was really exciting."
Richt on the decision not to play Caleb King:
"Caleb was getting work, was learning what to do, kinda re-learning some things and trying to get that quick … you know, you can learn the system in camp, but then all of a sudden every week is a new gameplan. That adds to the learning, and he was coming along pretty well, but it was pretty evident that JJ really had a better grasp of what was going on – he should have. He’s a senior and has been around a long time. JJ practiced extremely well and we kept reminding ourselves that Knowshon seems to have an awful lot of energy and we thought he might be able to do what he did. So we just felt like it might still be in Caleb’s best interest not to get in there unless there was a true emergency, which we didn’t feel like there was. And then the other thing is we don’t know for sure on Thomas Brown. But Thomas, the Auburn game is six weeks out on that injury and guys with the same injury have come back and other guys have not come back that quickly. We know it’s kinda up in the air there too, and that was part of the factor. If we knew absolutely that Thomas wouldn’t play till the bowl game or something like that, we probably woulda just started getting Caleb some work. But we’re not sure."
Richt on trying not to overwork Knowshon:
"We talked about that today a little bit. We were comfortable with JJ last game going in. It’s just every time we were getting ready to rest Knowshon, it seemed like a TV timeout showed up or something like that. We just said, ‘Well let’s just leave him in there,’ because he was hot and we knew he was gonna wrap up the ball. Anytime a new guy gets in there and gets a lot of totes, you always worry about the ball spitting out of there or an exchange or something like that, just because he hasn’t done it a lot. But we can’t let that keep us from playing Jason. Jason’s ready and we’ve gotta let it go and let him play."
Also, if any of you are interested in weighing in, I'd be happy for some feedback on the Football Writers All-America team and the Heisman race (and I'm sure I'll delve more into that conversation in the near future).
The FWAA sent out its ballot today for 11 defensive players and the offensive/special teams ballot will come next week. I have about a week and a half to cast the defensive one.
It consists of four defensive linemen, three linebackers and four defensive backs. If you want to play, tell me who you'd vote for and why. I'm not saying I'll necessarily go by that, but a few people made convincing enough arguments last year that I voted for someone they proposed. I'm always open to feedback.
On the Heisman thing, I was probably leaning toward Tim Tebow before Saturday and he still might make it on the ballot somewhere. I expect two things from my Heisman Trophy winners: football excellence and no crying. He's got one of the requirements covered, but the other still needs a little work...so we'll see. Oregon's quarterback looks pretty good to me. Not sure I want to vote for Matt Ryan from Boston College just yet. If you have any feelings on that one way or another, feel free to share those as well.
The team's not practicing today, so I doubt there will be a ton of news today other than the UGA-Auburn game being televised by CBS at 3:30.
Here are a couple quotes from postpractice last night and Mark Richt's Sunday teleconference.
Knowshon Moreno on whether they need to be careful about overworking him down the stretch:
"No, no. no. Whatever’s working in the game, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re a balanced team. We can do both things – we can throw the ball and run the ball – and we also have great backs behind me right now. So we’re not gonna be careful with that. Whatever’s working at the time is what we’re gonna do."
Jason Johnson on being able to contribute against Florida (and by the way, that was an interesting playcall and good execution on the opening play, when he started at a slot receiver position and cracked down on a Florida defender to spring Knowshon for a good gain:
"To contribute is great. Just being a part of the team sometimes ain’t enough. You feel a lot better when you’re out there and feel like you did something to get to that goal, to the end."
Johnson on what he thought his role would be coming in:
"Coach Bobo had told me that I was gonna play at least one play on offense. That first play on offense, we were gonna run that just to try to jump out on them, to surprise them, attack them."
More from Johnson on that:
"Pretty much, it was in the gameplan that I was gonna do that. And coach Richt let the team know, be looking out for JJ. He’s gonna do something real spectacular, try to spark the team’s enthusiasm. So it was really exciting."
Richt on the decision not to play Caleb King:
"Caleb was getting work, was learning what to do, kinda re-learning some things and trying to get that quick … you know, you can learn the system in camp, but then all of a sudden every week is a new gameplan. That adds to the learning, and he was coming along pretty well, but it was pretty evident that JJ really had a better grasp of what was going on – he should have. He’s a senior and has been around a long time. JJ practiced extremely well and we kept reminding ourselves that Knowshon seems to have an awful lot of energy and we thought he might be able to do what he did. So we just felt like it might still be in Caleb’s best interest not to get in there unless there was a true emergency, which we didn’t feel like there was. And then the other thing is we don’t know for sure on Thomas Brown. But Thomas, the Auburn game is six weeks out on that injury and guys with the same injury have come back and other guys have not come back that quickly. We know it’s kinda up in the air there too, and that was part of the factor. If we knew absolutely that Thomas wouldn’t play till the bowl game or something like that, we probably woulda just started getting Caleb some work. But we’re not sure."
Richt on trying not to overwork Knowshon:
"We talked about that today a little bit. We were comfortable with JJ last game going in. It’s just every time we were getting ready to rest Knowshon, it seemed like a TV timeout showed up or something like that. We just said, ‘Well let’s just leave him in there,’ because he was hot and we knew he was gonna wrap up the ball. Anytime a new guy gets in there and gets a lot of totes, you always worry about the ball spitting out of there or an exchange or something like that, just because he hasn’t done it a lot. But we can’t let that keep us from playing Jason. Jason’s ready and we’ve gotta let it go and let him play."
Also, if any of you are interested in weighing in, I'd be happy for some feedback on the Football Writers All-America team and the Heisman race (and I'm sure I'll delve more into that conversation in the near future).
The FWAA sent out its ballot today for 11 defensive players and the offensive/special teams ballot will come next week. I have about a week and a half to cast the defensive one.
It consists of four defensive linemen, three linebackers and four defensive backs. If you want to play, tell me who you'd vote for and why. I'm not saying I'll necessarily go by that, but a few people made convincing enough arguments last year that I voted for someone they proposed. I'm always open to feedback.
On the Heisman thing, I was probably leaning toward Tim Tebow before Saturday and he still might make it on the ballot somewhere. I expect two things from my Heisman Trophy winners: football excellence and no crying. He's got one of the requirements covered, but the other still needs a little work...so we'll see. Oregon's quarterback looks pretty good to me. Not sure I want to vote for Matt Ryan from Boston College just yet. If you have any feelings on that one way or another, feel free to share those as well.
Mark Richt show time change on SportSouth
Just as an FYI for those of you who watch Mark Richt's coach's show on SportsSouth. It will air Sunday, Nov. 4 and Sunday Nov. 18 at 5 instead of 7:30. SportSouth will be televising Atlanta Hawks games in the 5 o'clock timeslot on those days.
It won't affect the air time on local TV affiliates.
From the UGA release:
The Mark Richt Show will be shown on Sunday, Nov. 4, at 5:00 p.m. ET and Sunday, Nov. 18, at 5:30 p.m. ET instead of its regular 7:30 p.m. slot due to SportSouth's coverage of the Atlanta Hawks. The show will continue to air on SportSouth at 1:00 p.m. on both dates and will also air on Monday, Nov. 5, and Monday, Nov. 19, at 5:30 p.m.
"The Mark Richt Show" is also carried by several traditional television stations including WALB TV Albany, WSB TV Atlanta, WJBF TV Augusta, WMGR TV Bainbridge, WTVM TV Columbus, WCTV TV Tallahassee, WNET TV Toccoa, and WTOC TV Savannah.
It won't affect the air time on local TV affiliates.
From the UGA release:
The Mark Richt Show will be shown on Sunday, Nov. 4, at 5:00 p.m. ET and Sunday, Nov. 18, at 5:30 p.m. ET instead of its regular 7:30 p.m. slot due to SportSouth's coverage of the Atlanta Hawks. The show will continue to air on SportSouth at 1:00 p.m. on both dates and will also air on Monday, Nov. 5, and Monday, Nov. 19, at 5:30 p.m.
"The Mark Richt Show" is also carried by several traditional television stations including WALB TV Albany, WSB TV Atlanta, WJBF TV Augusta, WMGR TV Bainbridge, WTVM TV Columbus, WCTV TV Tallahassee, WNET TV Toccoa, and WTOC TV Savannah.
Knowshon named SEC Off Player of Week
From the UGA release:
University of Georgia redshirt freshman tailback Knowshon Moreno has been named the Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week, according to an announcement by the league office on Monday.
Moreno, a 5-11, 207-pound native of Belford, N.J., tallied career highs of 188 rushing yards on 33 carries for three touchdowns during Georgia’s 42-30 win over No. 9 Florida in Jacksonville. In addition to averaging 5.7 yards per carry, Moreno also registered a pair of catches for 17 yards.
Moreno’s rushing total was the most for a Bulldog since Verron Haynes recorded 207 yards against Georgia Tech in 2001. It was Moreno’s third career game going over 100 yards and his second in a row after racking up 157 yards during Georgia’s 20-17 win over Vanderbilt. Moreno moved to the No. 4 spot on the school’s all-time list for rushing yards for a freshman with 807.
Through eight games, Moreno is third in the league and is third best out of the nation’s freshmen with an average of 100.9 yards per game. Moreno has already been named the SEC Freshman of the Week twice during the 2007 season.
University of Georgia redshirt freshman tailback Knowshon Moreno has been named the Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week, according to an announcement by the league office on Monday.
Moreno, a 5-11, 207-pound native of Belford, N.J., tallied career highs of 188 rushing yards on 33 carries for three touchdowns during Georgia’s 42-30 win over No. 9 Florida in Jacksonville. In addition to averaging 5.7 yards per carry, Moreno also registered a pair of catches for 17 yards.
Moreno’s rushing total was the most for a Bulldog since Verron Haynes recorded 207 yards against Georgia Tech in 2001. It was Moreno’s third career game going over 100 yards and his second in a row after racking up 157 yards during Georgia’s 20-17 win over Vanderbilt. Moreno moved to the No. 4 spot on the school’s all-time list for rushing yards for a freshman with 807.
Through eight games, Moreno is third in the league and is third best out of the nation’s freshmen with an average of 100.9 yards per game. Moreno has already been named the SEC Freshman of the Week twice during the 2007 season.
Postseason ticket information
UGA released information on ordering postseason football tickets today.
You can read the information at the school's official site here or below:
William C. Hartman Jr. Fund contributors will be mailed a football post season ticket application on Monday, October 29th. This application provides William C. Hartman Jr. Fund contributors the opportunity to reserve both SEC Championship and Bowl Game tickets until the priority deadline of 5:00 pm Friday, November 16th. The letter will include ticket prices as well as a patron number and PIN/email information. Orders will be accepted by mail, but orders placed over the internet will require the patron number and PIN/email information.
All games in which Georgia may be selected to play will be listed. William C. Hartman Jr. Fund contributors should request only the venues in which they are willing to travel. The Athletic Association will not charge your card until the SEC Championship and bowl bid has been officially determined. Orders will be filled only for the game(s) in which Georgia is selected to play and tickets will be assigned based on William C. Hartman Jr. Fund cumulative score. Any orders received after the priority deadline will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis regardless of priority.
In the event that the demand for tickets for a particular game exceeds Georgia's supply, it would be necessary to reduce and/or cancel orders. For more information, log onto georgiadogs.com and click the link for tickets or call the Ticket Office at 1-877-542-1231. Only Visa and MasterCard credit cards will be accepted.
You can read the information at the school's official site here or below:
William C. Hartman Jr. Fund contributors will be mailed a football post season ticket application on Monday, October 29th. This application provides William C. Hartman Jr. Fund contributors the opportunity to reserve both SEC Championship and Bowl Game tickets until the priority deadline of 5:00 pm Friday, November 16th. The letter will include ticket prices as well as a patron number and PIN/email information. Orders will be accepted by mail, but orders placed over the internet will require the patron number and PIN/email information.
All games in which Georgia may be selected to play will be listed. William C. Hartman Jr. Fund contributors should request only the venues in which they are willing to travel. The Athletic Association will not charge your card until the SEC Championship and bowl bid has been officially determined. Orders will be filled only for the game(s) in which Georgia is selected to play and tickets will be assigned based on William C. Hartman Jr. Fund cumulative score. Any orders received after the priority deadline will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis regardless of priority.
In the event that the demand for tickets for a particular game exceeds Georgia's supply, it would be necessary to reduce and/or cancel orders. For more information, log onto georgiadogs.com and click the link for tickets or call the Ticket Office at 1-877-542-1231. Only Visa and MasterCard credit cards will be accepted.
Georgia-Auburn at 3:30
The SEC just announced that Auburn and Georgia will kick off at 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 10 and will be televised on CBS.
Georgia plays Troy this Saturday at Sanford Stadium. Kickoff is 1 p.m. There will be no live TV. Georgia replays are Mondays at noon and 9 p.m. on CSS.
Interestingly, this is Georgia's third CBS appearance this season (the Bulldogs are 1-1, with a win over Florida and a loss to Tennessee), but Auburn's first appearance on CBS since the 2006 Iron Bowl.
Other Nov. 10 SEC games on TV:
Florida at South Carolina (ESPN, 7:45 p.m.)
Arkansas at Tennessee (LF Sports, 12:30 p.m.)
Alabama at Mississippi State (12:45 p.m.)
Georgia plays Troy this Saturday at Sanford Stadium. Kickoff is 1 p.m. There will be no live TV. Georgia replays are Mondays at noon and 9 p.m. on CSS.
Interestingly, this is Georgia's third CBS appearance this season (the Bulldogs are 1-1, with a win over Florida and a loss to Tennessee), but Auburn's first appearance on CBS since the 2006 Iron Bowl.
Other Nov. 10 SEC games on TV:
Florida at South Carolina (ESPN, 7:45 p.m.)
Arkansas at Tennessee (LF Sports, 12:30 p.m.)
Alabama at Mississippi State (12:45 p.m.)
Sunday practice + More on the touchdown thing
This touchdown celebration seems to remain the thing everybody's talking about, so I wrote more about it for my UF-UGA follow-up for tomorrow. I'll probably do more on emotion later this week, after talking with Brandon Miller about it tonight and some other guys last night. Richt spent a good 10 minutes talking about it, so I transcribed all that stuff already. I'll put that stuff at the bottom.
It has been a long day. Got back about 5:30, participated in Richt's teleconference at 6:30, left for Butts-Mehre for practice at about 7:30, talked to a handful of players at about 9:30 and was done with my story around 10:30. So forgive me if I don't go into a ton of detail. But I spoke with Jason Johnson, Knowshon Moreno, Stafford, Massaquoi and Miller tonight.
They lifted and had some meetings and then held a short practice tonight -- possibly the first in-season Sunday practice of Richt's time at Georgia. Richt said about 20 or 30 of the players are taking the Regent's exam on Monday, so the team has a day off Monday instead of Sunday. Things go back to normal on Tuesday.
Knowshon said he's fairly sore today, but not too bad. I asked him if it's a concern about being overused (he's had 61 carries in the last two games) and of course he said no. But Richt's response was a bit different. He said they talked about that very thing today. He said it seemed like most every time they were going to take him out to give him a break, it was time for a fortuitous TV timeout or some other break in the action. If you think about it, yesterday was just one of those days for Georgia where things went just right when they needed them to go right. What an entertaining football game it was.
Richt said Kelin Johnson injured his knee and didn't play much if at all in the second half. He wasn't sure about the severity of the injury and said Kelin wouldn't practice today. Kelin was unavailable after practice, although I requested him.
Will post more from Richt and the players tomorrow after I transcribe tape. Not doing anymore tonight.
Here's Richt talking about the touchdown celebration and the thought behind it:
"We spent a few games playing at a very high level. We played a few games playing at a very low level when it came to the emotion that it takes to win a big game. We felt what it feels like to do it at an Okie State or an Alabama and we felt what it was like at South Carolina and especially Tennessee – I wouldn’t say South Carolina so much. But Tennessee, we had very little emotion. And Vanderbilt, we spent a lot of time kinda looking at each other and wondering who was gonna make something happen. I just didn’t want to live through that again, so I told them after that Vandy game, ‘We’re gonna liven this thing up. We’re gonna create some excitement here. The way we’re gonna do it is when we score that first touchdown in the Florida game, we’re gonna celebrate.’ I said, ‘As a matter of fact, if you guys don’t get a celebration penalty, I’m gonna be upset with y’all and I’m gonna run y’all.’ That’s kinda how it started. As the two weeks went on, I could sense that some of the guys who might possibly score were starting to get their little idea of how they were gonna celebrate to get this penalty. I kinda was sensing that it was gonna be some kinda individual act that I didn’t want to happen. So the day of the game, right before we left the hotel, I spoke to the group right after our chapel service and I said, ‘I want to make sure we all understand thing thing here. This celebration thing is a team thing. I don’t want any individual to do anything off on his own because I guarantee there’s 10 other guys that helped him get in there. Plus there was probably a defensive play that probably helped you get in position and there’s probably a bunch of scout teamers who didn’t dress for this game that also helped you get here by preparing everybody these last two weeks. So it’s not an individual thing, it’s a team thing. I said I want you to understand, this is gonna be a team thing, I want a team celebration and I want it to happen only once. It’s a one-time shot, so take advantage of it. We weren’t trying to disrespect anybody in any way. I can see now in hindsight where if somehow tempers flared, it coulda been bad. But the goal was never to stomp on anybody’s logo or rub in anything other than just getting excited about the fact that we just scored some points."
Well what if you lost?
"That’s OK. I was willing to take that risk. I’ve been through too many games where there’s not enough emotion. We had to make sure that we created it, and if it cost us, it cost us. At least we were gonna play with a lot of heart and a lot of energy and a lot of spirit."
On how people have responded to it:
"I think everybody enjoyed it. I think people who know me well enough know that I wasn’t trying to disrespect anybody. Some people try to compare it to what happened at Vanderbilt. But for me, to be stomping on somebody’s logo at the end of the game like that is definitely a slap in somebody’s face – an act that we just don’t expect and don’t want. This situation was strictly a decision that was made to sacrifice 15 yards for the emotion that it might take to win a game like that. That was the only thing we were trying to get done, and everybody seemed to think it did jack the boys up more than they’ve seen in a long, long time and it might’ve been a factor in helping us win the game."
On what he expected them to do when he ordered them to draw a celebration penalty:
"I was envisioning the guys on the field that were on offense to go celebrate until the official threw the flag. I didn’t tell the whole team, ‘Run off the sideline and go celebrate.’ So I didn’t really get specific. I said I wanted it to be a team celebration, meaning I wanted everybody on the field to go celebrate. I didn’t really expect the whole mass to run off the sideline, but when they started running, I was like, ‘I guess that’s what they heard me say.’ I did say I wanted it to be a team celebration. I really was talking in terms of I didn’t want one guy to launch the ball up in the stands or something like that, I meant everybody on the field to (do it). It’s just like when you make a tackle, you want everybody to celebrate together. You’ll say, ‘I want you to celebrate as a team.’ That doesn’t mean the bench clears every time a guy makes a great tackle. That’s kinda what I was saying in my mind, what I was meaning, but I think they heard the entire team. And they took off and I was like, ‘Oh boy.’ Then of course, we got two penalties out of it on that particular one. And another thing too, what Bubba was doing, what Fernando was doing, he wasn’t trying to taunt anybody. They had some kinda deal where they were gonna act like they were taking a picture. They had two weeks to think about this thing, so I guess that’s what he was doing. But he wasn’t trying to do anything disrespectful to anybody. And I’m not saying some of the guys didn’t do much. I didn’t see it. I haven’t seen the replay of the game yet. That was not the intention at all. It’s just…I’m just glad it’s over with. I doubt that’ll happen (again) anytime soon."
It has been a long day. Got back about 5:30, participated in Richt's teleconference at 6:30, left for Butts-Mehre for practice at about 7:30, talked to a handful of players at about 9:30 and was done with my story around 10:30. So forgive me if I don't go into a ton of detail. But I spoke with Jason Johnson, Knowshon Moreno, Stafford, Massaquoi and Miller tonight.
They lifted and had some meetings and then held a short practice tonight -- possibly the first in-season Sunday practice of Richt's time at Georgia. Richt said about 20 or 30 of the players are taking the Regent's exam on Monday, so the team has a day off Monday instead of Sunday. Things go back to normal on Tuesday.
Knowshon said he's fairly sore today, but not too bad. I asked him if it's a concern about being overused (he's had 61 carries in the last two games) and of course he said no. But Richt's response was a bit different. He said they talked about that very thing today. He said it seemed like most every time they were going to take him out to give him a break, it was time for a fortuitous TV timeout or some other break in the action. If you think about it, yesterday was just one of those days for Georgia where things went just right when they needed them to go right. What an entertaining football game it was.
Richt said Kelin Johnson injured his knee and didn't play much if at all in the second half. He wasn't sure about the severity of the injury and said Kelin wouldn't practice today. Kelin was unavailable after practice, although I requested him.
Will post more from Richt and the players tomorrow after I transcribe tape. Not doing anymore tonight.
Here's Richt talking about the touchdown celebration and the thought behind it:
"We spent a few games playing at a very high level. We played a few games playing at a very low level when it came to the emotion that it takes to win a big game. We felt what it feels like to do it at an Okie State or an Alabama and we felt what it was like at South Carolina and especially Tennessee – I wouldn’t say South Carolina so much. But Tennessee, we had very little emotion. And Vanderbilt, we spent a lot of time kinda looking at each other and wondering who was gonna make something happen. I just didn’t want to live through that again, so I told them after that Vandy game, ‘We’re gonna liven this thing up. We’re gonna create some excitement here. The way we’re gonna do it is when we score that first touchdown in the Florida game, we’re gonna celebrate.’ I said, ‘As a matter of fact, if you guys don’t get a celebration penalty, I’m gonna be upset with y’all and I’m gonna run y’all.’ That’s kinda how it started. As the two weeks went on, I could sense that some of the guys who might possibly score were starting to get their little idea of how they were gonna celebrate to get this penalty. I kinda was sensing that it was gonna be some kinda individual act that I didn’t want to happen. So the day of the game, right before we left the hotel, I spoke to the group right after our chapel service and I said, ‘I want to make sure we all understand thing thing here. This celebration thing is a team thing. I don’t want any individual to do anything off on his own because I guarantee there’s 10 other guys that helped him get in there. Plus there was probably a defensive play that probably helped you get in position and there’s probably a bunch of scout teamers who didn’t dress for this game that also helped you get here by preparing everybody these last two weeks. So it’s not an individual thing, it’s a team thing. I said I want you to understand, this is gonna be a team thing, I want a team celebration and I want it to happen only once. It’s a one-time shot, so take advantage of it. We weren’t trying to disrespect anybody in any way. I can see now in hindsight where if somehow tempers flared, it coulda been bad. But the goal was never to stomp on anybody’s logo or rub in anything other than just getting excited about the fact that we just scored some points."
Well what if you lost?
"That’s OK. I was willing to take that risk. I’ve been through too many games where there’s not enough emotion. We had to make sure that we created it, and if it cost us, it cost us. At least we were gonna play with a lot of heart and a lot of energy and a lot of spirit."
On how people have responded to it:
"I think everybody enjoyed it. I think people who know me well enough know that I wasn’t trying to disrespect anybody. Some people try to compare it to what happened at Vanderbilt. But for me, to be stomping on somebody’s logo at the end of the game like that is definitely a slap in somebody’s face – an act that we just don’t expect and don’t want. This situation was strictly a decision that was made to sacrifice 15 yards for the emotion that it might take to win a game like that. That was the only thing we were trying to get done, and everybody seemed to think it did jack the boys up more than they’ve seen in a long, long time and it might’ve been a factor in helping us win the game."
On what he expected them to do when he ordered them to draw a celebration penalty:
"I was envisioning the guys on the field that were on offense to go celebrate until the official threw the flag. I didn’t tell the whole team, ‘Run off the sideline and go celebrate.’ So I didn’t really get specific. I said I wanted it to be a team celebration, meaning I wanted everybody on the field to go celebrate. I didn’t really expect the whole mass to run off the sideline, but when they started running, I was like, ‘I guess that’s what they heard me say.’ I did say I wanted it to be a team celebration. I really was talking in terms of I didn’t want one guy to launch the ball up in the stands or something like that, I meant everybody on the field to (do it). It’s just like when you make a tackle, you want everybody to celebrate together. You’ll say, ‘I want you to celebrate as a team.’ That doesn’t mean the bench clears every time a guy makes a great tackle. That’s kinda what I was saying in my mind, what I was meaning, but I think they heard the entire team. And they took off and I was like, ‘Oh boy.’ Then of course, we got two penalties out of it on that particular one. And another thing too, what Bubba was doing, what Fernando was doing, he wasn’t trying to taunt anybody. They had some kinda deal where they were gonna act like they were taking a picture. They had two weeks to think about this thing, so I guess that’s what he was doing. But he wasn’t trying to do anything disrespectful to anybody. And I’m not saying some of the guys didn’t do much. I didn’t see it. I haven’t seen the replay of the game yet. That was not the intention at all. It’s just…I’m just glad it’s over with. I doubt that’ll happen (again) anytime soon."
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Master Coaches Poll 10/28
Georgia moved up to No. 10 in the BCS, AP Poll and Coaches Poll.
The Bulldogs are No. 12 in the new Master Coaches Poll. Here's the section on Georgia from the release about the poll, including a quote from former UGA coach Vince Dooley.
"Georgia kept their SEC title hopes alive after beating the Gators 42-30 in Jacksonville. "It looks like a rivalry again," former UGA Head Coach Vince Dooley said. "Coach Richt had the troops fired up and their offense could not be stopped by the Florida defense. It was obvious that the quarterback, Tebow, was playing with a tender shoulder but the difference in the game was the Gators inability to stop the Bulldogs offense."
* 1. Ohio State (16)
* 2. LSU
* 3. Oregon
* 4. Boston College
* 5. Oklahoma
* 6. Arizona State
* 7. West Virginia
* 8. Kansas
* 9. Missouri
* 10. Michigan
* 11. Hawaii
* 12. Georgia
* 13. Texas
* 14. USC
* 15. Auburn
* 16. Virginia Tech
* 17. Florida
* 18. Alabama
* 19. Connecticut
* 20. Tennessee
* 21. South Florida
* 22. South Carolina
* 23. California
* 24. Wisconsin
* 25. Wake Forest
Other teams receiving votes ... Kentucky 34, Virginia 29, Boise State 21, Purdue 21, Illinois 14, Clemson 11, Penn State 11, BYU 5
Dropped from last week's poll ... Kentucky, Penn State, Rutgers, Virginia
The Bulldogs are No. 12 in the new Master Coaches Poll. Here's the section on Georgia from the release about the poll, including a quote from former UGA coach Vince Dooley.
"Georgia kept their SEC title hopes alive after beating the Gators 42-30 in Jacksonville. "It looks like a rivalry again," former UGA Head Coach Vince Dooley said. "Coach Richt had the troops fired up and their offense could not be stopped by the Florida defense. It was obvious that the quarterback, Tebow, was playing with a tender shoulder but the difference in the game was the Gators inability to stop the Bulldogs offense."
* 1. Ohio State (16)
* 2. LSU
* 3. Oregon
* 4. Boston College
* 5. Oklahoma
* 6. Arizona State
* 7. West Virginia
* 8. Kansas
* 9. Missouri
* 10. Michigan
* 11. Hawaii
* 12. Georgia
* 13. Texas
* 14. USC
* 15. Auburn
* 16. Virginia Tech
* 17. Florida
* 18. Alabama
* 19. Connecticut
* 20. Tennessee
* 21. South Florida
* 22. South Carolina
* 23. California
* 24. Wisconsin
* 25. Wake Forest
Other teams receiving votes ... Kentucky 34, Virginia 29, Boise State 21, Purdue 21, Illinois 14, Clemson 11, Penn State 11, BYU 5
Dropped from last week's poll ... Kentucky, Penn State, Rutgers, Virginia
Saturday, October 27, 2007
On the touchdown celebration
PREVIEW/EDIT: There's some kind of Regent's Exam on Monday, so the team is practicing Sunday evening. Rather than the typical Sunday teleconference stuff, I'll have something from postpractice tomorrow. Not sure what it'll be like, exactly, because I don't know what to expect from a Sunday practice. This may be the first in-season Sunday practice they've had under Mark Richt. not sure about that...
I thought Fernando Velasco's retelling of the touchdown celebration after the first score was the best. He said the offensive players planned to act like they were taking pictures of each other to draw the celebration Mark Richt told them they HAD to get. But when about 50 teammates rushed the field after the TD, the plan was shot.
But he kiddingly blamed Knowshon Moreno for continuing with the photo plan after the first celebration penalty. That resulted in Velasco getting a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and pushing Georgia back to kicking off from the 7-and-a-half-yard line.
"We had a plan already. We didn’t plan for everybody to run on the field. Whoever scored the touchdown was just gonna pretend he had a camera and take some pictures of everybody," Velasco said. "I just looked around and everybody was running on the field, and that wasn’t even the plan. Then after everybody left the field, Knowshon just came and grabbed me and started taking pictures. And he gave me the camera and I started taking pictures of him. It was just awesome."
That may be the ballsiest (can I say that?) move they've made under Richt. It could have really blown up in their faces. But it may have been exactly what they needed. They showed some attitude that seems like it goes more than it comes with this team. Maybe it's a sign they're turning the corner.
Here's how Mikey Henderson explained it:
"We needed it, just to let us know to have fun. Sometimes we go into games and we play tight and we’re worried about making mistakes. It was basically like we just had a huge mistake and he let us move on from it without having anything wrong. And we just kept on playing like that, like we had nothing to worry about, nothing to lose."
Expounding on all this is for another time. I was saying it throughout the game -- what a great football game. One of the most entertaining I've ever watched in person. But if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go enjoy some of the Jacksonville nightlife. Should be entertaining.
I thought Fernando Velasco's retelling of the touchdown celebration after the first score was the best. He said the offensive players planned to act like they were taking pictures of each other to draw the celebration Mark Richt told them they HAD to get. But when about 50 teammates rushed the field after the TD, the plan was shot.
But he kiddingly blamed Knowshon Moreno for continuing with the photo plan after the first celebration penalty. That resulted in Velasco getting a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and pushing Georgia back to kicking off from the 7-and-a-half-yard line.
"We had a plan already. We didn’t plan for everybody to run on the field. Whoever scored the touchdown was just gonna pretend he had a camera and take some pictures of everybody," Velasco said. "I just looked around and everybody was running on the field, and that wasn’t even the plan. Then after everybody left the field, Knowshon just came and grabbed me and started taking pictures. And he gave me the camera and I started taking pictures of him. It was just awesome."
That may be the ballsiest (can I say that?) move they've made under Richt. It could have really blown up in their faces. But it may have been exactly what they needed. They showed some attitude that seems like it goes more than it comes with this team. Maybe it's a sign they're turning the corner.
Here's how Mikey Henderson explained it:
"We needed it, just to let us know to have fun. Sometimes we go into games and we play tight and we’re worried about making mistakes. It was basically like we just had a huge mistake and he let us move on from it without having anything wrong. And we just kept on playing like that, like we had nothing to worry about, nothing to lose."
Expounding on all this is for another time. I was saying it throughout the game -- what a great football game. One of the most entertaining I've ever watched in person. But if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go enjoy some of the Jacksonville nightlife. Should be entertaining.
What the heck?
Rushing the field after that touchdown is either the smartest thing Mark Richt has ever allowed or the dumbest. We're going to find out shortly.
Georgia's about to kick off from the 7 and a half.
Georgia's about to kick off from the 7 and a half.
Pregame observations
Thomas Flowers is wearing jersey No. 6 today in an apparent tribute to Kregg Lumpkin.
I looked and looked for Marcus Washington during pregame stretching and finally got up to ask. He ran out of the locker room right as I was asking. Sports information staff says he's going to start.
I looked and looked for Marcus Washington during pregame stretching and finally got up to ask. He ran out of the locker room right as I was asking. Sports information staff says he's going to start.
Week 9 picks
Mississippi State at Kentucky, 12:30 p.m., LF Sports
Line: Kentucky by 14
My guess: This Mississippi State team is scrappy, but I don't think the Bulldogs can score with Kentucky. That simple. Did you know pretty much every team in the SEC has a legitimate shot at being bowl eligible? Ole Miss is 2-6, but everyone else is .500 or better, including Mississippi State (4-4). State's gonna have to pull off a couple upsets to get to six wins, though, and one of them ain't coming Saturday. Kentucky 31, Mississippi State 14
Florida International at Arkansas, 2 p.m., No TV
Line: Arkansas by 41
My guess: Cupcakes are tasty, aren't they? Did you know the four teams Arkansas has beaten are a combined 10-19? And five of the 10 come from Troy, which Arkansas beat in the opener and is the only winning team the Hogs have beaten. As bad as some of those teams are, 0-7 Florida International may be the worst. Oddly enough, the Golden Panthers lost to Miami (the Florida version, not the Ohio one) by two touchdowns -- tied for FIU's closest loss of the year -- but lost to Middle Tennessee by 41, Kansas by 52 and Penn State by 59. Arkansas is erratic, but the Hogs win easily. Arkansas 48, Florida International 3
Miami, Ohio at Vanderbilt, 2 p.m., No TV
Line: Vanderbilt by 13
My guess: I think Vanderbilt wins this game, but I don't love the spread. Miami's been a pretty up-and-down team and they could make this one interesting. Vandy's about as high as it has been in recent memory after beating South Carolina last week and nearly knocking off Georgia the week before. Both outcomes were extremely surprising to me. It's possible I underestimated the Commodores and it's possible those two teams aren't as good as we all thought they were. Those things are still to be determined. I'll give Vandy the benefit of the doubt for now. Vanderbilt 27, Miami 10
Florida vs. Georgia, 3:30 p.m., CBS
Line: Florida by 7.5
My guess: I talk about this point with people pretty regularly -- Georgia has to start winning some games in this series before I'll start expecting them to win. Do I think Georgia CAN win? Sure. But will they keep it together and actually pull it off? Series history has no effect on what happens Saturday, but it does have an effect on my pick. Florida 24, Georgia 21
Ole Miss at Auburn, 6 p.m., PPV
Line: Auburn by 18
My guess: I have a feeling Auburn will win this one without being REALLY tested, but not cover that spread. Auburn has scored more than 24 points only twice in eight games. They probably will today, but they're not shutting Ole Miss out, either. Auburn 28, Ole Miss 14
South Carolina at Tennessee, 7:45 p.m., ESPN
Line: Tennessee by 2.5
My guess: I was convinced Tennessee had it together before last week. Now I don't know what to think. The question is, whose loss last week was more disappointing, Tennessee's or South Carolina's? Those were a pair of stomach punches. It'll be interesting to see whether these two rebound. I'm not even sure which team is better equipped to rebound. Their seasons are completely up in the air at this point. That's nothing unique to them. Not this year, in that division. I'll go with Tennessee because the Vols are at home and have a stable veteran quarterback. But I don't feel good about it. Tennessee 20, South Carolina 17
I'm 47-16 straight up and 29-32 against the spread.
Line: Kentucky by 14
My guess: This Mississippi State team is scrappy, but I don't think the Bulldogs can score with Kentucky. That simple. Did you know pretty much every team in the SEC has a legitimate shot at being bowl eligible? Ole Miss is 2-6, but everyone else is .500 or better, including Mississippi State (4-4). State's gonna have to pull off a couple upsets to get to six wins, though, and one of them ain't coming Saturday. Kentucky 31, Mississippi State 14
Florida International at Arkansas, 2 p.m., No TV
Line: Arkansas by 41
My guess: Cupcakes are tasty, aren't they? Did you know the four teams Arkansas has beaten are a combined 10-19? And five of the 10 come from Troy, which Arkansas beat in the opener and is the only winning team the Hogs have beaten. As bad as some of those teams are, 0-7 Florida International may be the worst. Oddly enough, the Golden Panthers lost to Miami (the Florida version, not the Ohio one) by two touchdowns -- tied for FIU's closest loss of the year -- but lost to Middle Tennessee by 41, Kansas by 52 and Penn State by 59. Arkansas is erratic, but the Hogs win easily. Arkansas 48, Florida International 3
Miami, Ohio at Vanderbilt, 2 p.m., No TV
Line: Vanderbilt by 13
My guess: I think Vanderbilt wins this game, but I don't love the spread. Miami's been a pretty up-and-down team and they could make this one interesting. Vandy's about as high as it has been in recent memory after beating South Carolina last week and nearly knocking off Georgia the week before. Both outcomes were extremely surprising to me. It's possible I underestimated the Commodores and it's possible those two teams aren't as good as we all thought they were. Those things are still to be determined. I'll give Vandy the benefit of the doubt for now. Vanderbilt 27, Miami 10
Florida vs. Georgia, 3:30 p.m., CBS
Line: Florida by 7.5
My guess: I talk about this point with people pretty regularly -- Georgia has to start winning some games in this series before I'll start expecting them to win. Do I think Georgia CAN win? Sure. But will they keep it together and actually pull it off? Series history has no effect on what happens Saturday, but it does have an effect on my pick. Florida 24, Georgia 21
Ole Miss at Auburn, 6 p.m., PPV
Line: Auburn by 18
My guess: I have a feeling Auburn will win this one without being REALLY tested, but not cover that spread. Auburn has scored more than 24 points only twice in eight games. They probably will today, but they're not shutting Ole Miss out, either. Auburn 28, Ole Miss 14
South Carolina at Tennessee, 7:45 p.m., ESPN
Line: Tennessee by 2.5
My guess: I was convinced Tennessee had it together before last week. Now I don't know what to think. The question is, whose loss last week was more disappointing, Tennessee's or South Carolina's? Those were a pair of stomach punches. It'll be interesting to see whether these two rebound. I'm not even sure which team is better equipped to rebound. Their seasons are completely up in the air at this point. That's nothing unique to them. Not this year, in that division. I'll go with Tennessee because the Vols are at home and have a stable veteran quarterback. But I don't feel good about it. Tennessee 20, South Carolina 17
I'm 47-16 straight up and 29-32 against the spread.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Assorted Tebow quotes
Considering this stuff came from the teleconference several days ago, you may have already seen most of these. But here is a sampling of what the Gators' Heisman Trophy frontrunner had to say earlier this week.
On guarding against being injured on a run:
"I don’t think you can worry about it or think I’m taking too many hits or get down or something, because when you play like that, then you’ve got a much greater chance of getting hurt or getting injured – when you’re thinking about it and not going out there and playing the way you know how to play. I don’t ever think about that, I just go out there and play and I’m just trying to get first downs and put points on the board, so that’s it. It never really crosses my mind on the field about taking hits or anything like that."
On whether he feels like he's been running too much:
"Not really. The only time this year was after the Ole Miss when they told me I had 27 carries. I didn’t realize it – it felt like 10 to me. I realized, ‘Oh man, 27 carries,’ but that was about it."
On not throwing much last year vs. throwing more this year:
"I was confident in my passing ability. Last year as a freshman, I was just trying to follow through with my role, which was run to get first downs, get momentum and trick plays and whatnot. So I tried to do that role to the best of my ability, but it didn’t call for me to throw the ball a lot. I didn’t lose confidence by not throwing a lot or anything like that. I just worked hard this season and tried to get ready for it. This year they’ve asked me to throw more, so that’s what I’ve been doing."
On whether he's uncomfortable with all the Heisman hype:
"It doesn’t bother me that people talk about it. You just try to be humble with it. Football is such a team game and for you to have success depends on the player next to you and it just goes right on down the line. It’s nice when you get individual success, but you just have to remember that it’s because of your teammates and your coaches. That’s the reason why you have success. It’s great to get awards, but I think the team awards mean a lot more, just because it’s everyone going out there and doing it together and you couldn’t do it by yourself."
On the jump pass touchdown play he ran against LSU last year and Kentucky last week:
"Actually it started at Utah. They put in one of their tight ends to run that play, but he does the really step up and step back and kinda tossed it into the end zone, and it worked to beat Air Force in triple overtime. We put it in last year and just talked about it a little bit and went out there and ran it in practice one time. Then I ran up there and jumped and tossed it in and Tate caught it. It worked pretty good – (they) kinda said, ‘Hey maybe it might be all right if you run up there and jumped.’ It sucks everybody up pretty good. It worked last year for us against LSU for a big touchdown, and we put it back in this week for Kentucky and figured we might get to suck in their linebackers and they might be expecting run. Aaron got right behind ‘em and I just put it in and he made a good catch. It’s a fun play to run and it’s something like you’d see on Sunday afternoon. Guys like running that stuff. It was fun and it’s fun to practice and it just gives everyone a little spark to run something like that."
On whether Georgia having the bye week last week is an advantage:
"It’s nice to get a bye week and get a chance to rest, but we just got one a week ago, so we’re not too banged up from the Kentucky game. Although it was a physical game, I think we’re in pretty good shape and everybody’s feeling good. I think it’ll be pretty even as far as getting the rest. They get it this week and they had it last week. I think it’s definitely helpful just to get that week of rest, but I think we’ll be pretty even as far as that."
Well, I just finished my game preview story for Saturday's paper, so I'm about to pack up and hit the sack for a while. Going to Jacksonville in the morning and I'll do my SEC picks tomorrow night. I'm sure you'll be eagerly awaiting some more of my brilliant prognostication.
On guarding against being injured on a run:
"I don’t think you can worry about it or think I’m taking too many hits or get down or something, because when you play like that, then you’ve got a much greater chance of getting hurt or getting injured – when you’re thinking about it and not going out there and playing the way you know how to play. I don’t ever think about that, I just go out there and play and I’m just trying to get first downs and put points on the board, so that’s it. It never really crosses my mind on the field about taking hits or anything like that."
On whether he feels like he's been running too much:
"Not really. The only time this year was after the Ole Miss when they told me I had 27 carries. I didn’t realize it – it felt like 10 to me. I realized, ‘Oh man, 27 carries,’ but that was about it."
On not throwing much last year vs. throwing more this year:
"I was confident in my passing ability. Last year as a freshman, I was just trying to follow through with my role, which was run to get first downs, get momentum and trick plays and whatnot. So I tried to do that role to the best of my ability, but it didn’t call for me to throw the ball a lot. I didn’t lose confidence by not throwing a lot or anything like that. I just worked hard this season and tried to get ready for it. This year they’ve asked me to throw more, so that’s what I’ve been doing."
On whether he's uncomfortable with all the Heisman hype:
"It doesn’t bother me that people talk about it. You just try to be humble with it. Football is such a team game and for you to have success depends on the player next to you and it just goes right on down the line. It’s nice when you get individual success, but you just have to remember that it’s because of your teammates and your coaches. That’s the reason why you have success. It’s great to get awards, but I think the team awards mean a lot more, just because it’s everyone going out there and doing it together and you couldn’t do it by yourself."
On the jump pass touchdown play he ran against LSU last year and Kentucky last week:
"Actually it started at Utah. They put in one of their tight ends to run that play, but he does the really step up and step back and kinda tossed it into the end zone, and it worked to beat Air Force in triple overtime. We put it in last year and just talked about it a little bit and went out there and ran it in practice one time. Then I ran up there and jumped and tossed it in and Tate caught it. It worked pretty good – (they) kinda said, ‘Hey maybe it might be all right if you run up there and jumped.’ It sucks everybody up pretty good. It worked last year for us against LSU for a big touchdown, and we put it back in this week for Kentucky and figured we might get to suck in their linebackers and they might be expecting run. Aaron got right behind ‘em and I just put it in and he made a good catch. It’s a fun play to run and it’s something like you’d see on Sunday afternoon. Guys like running that stuff. It was fun and it’s fun to practice and it just gives everyone a little spark to run something like that."
On whether Georgia having the bye week last week is an advantage:
"It’s nice to get a bye week and get a chance to rest, but we just got one a week ago, so we’re not too banged up from the Kentucky game. Although it was a physical game, I think we’re in pretty good shape and everybody’s feeling good. I think it’ll be pretty even as far as getting the rest. They get it this week and they had it last week. I think it’s definitely helpful just to get that week of rest, but I think we’ll be pretty even as far as that."
Well, I just finished my game preview story for Saturday's paper, so I'm about to pack up and hit the sack for a while. Going to Jacksonville in the morning and I'll do my SEC picks tomorrow night. I'm sure you'll be eagerly awaiting some more of my brilliant prognostication.
Late Thursday update
Me and Dean Legge from Dawgpost went out tonight to watch the Va. Tech-Boston College game, so I'm just now rolling in to post an update from this afternoon's practice. Like a normal Thursday, we spoke with Mark Richt before practice today -- although there was already some stuff going on on the practice fields outside the window while we were talking.
* No new developments on the Caleb King front. If he plays this weekend (if I had to put money on it, I'd say he will. They're potentially without a backup feature back for too long without using him.), I'd guess that it will be in limited fashion, with the potential to increase game-by-game.
* There was some talk of how good Florida's punt coverage team is. I know I mentioned this earlier in the week, but Kentucky's two returns for 14 yards were the first against the Gators this season. Their true freshman punter, Chas Henry, is from Georgia. Richt complimented him on his ability to hit them high to allow the coverage team to prevent a return:
"They’re gonna do a good job of getting downfield. I think Kentucky actually doubled each gunner to give them a chance to actually have a return. I think they had 14 yards out of two tries. But when you double both gunners, you’re very vulnerable to fakes. They’ve been known to do that at times, so I don’t think anybody wants to get too vulnerable in that way."
Richt pointed out that Florida's not typically punting from deep in its own territory, either, which would have an effect on opponents' ability to make a return as well.
* It was interesting to hear why he thinks it's important that Marcus Washington's back this week. The middle and weakside linebacker spots the central to Georgia's defense, he said, since a strongside linebacker is typically walked out on a receiver or tight end. MLB and WLB are similar positions in Georgia's defensive scheme and he thinks Washington and Ellerbe are the best they've got for those two positions right now.
"It allows us to get a very solid mike linebacker, hard-nosed tackler in there and it allows Ellerbe to be a little bit more free to run at times. Take advantage of his ability to run at the will. When he’s out, Dannell’s inside. And Dannell’s doing very well at mike. But I think the combination of Marcus and Dannell is the best one we’ve got right now. Because they’re really the two true inside backers."
* I know I mentioned Kiante Tripp the other day on here and I asked about him today. It was a good Thursday subject, since those sessions are usually more laid back. Kiante's doing great, he said. He'd probably be playing more right now if he hadn't switched right before the season. I went back and looked it up. The switch occurred Aug. 14, roughly two weeks before the season started.
"I’m excited, very excited about Kiante. In-season I think he’s already gained about 20 pounds, and good looking pounds. His chest is still bigger than his belly. He looks good. His arms are getting bigger, he’s getting much more comfortable in his techniques, much more comfortable just knowing what to do. If we’d have made the move in the spring, I’m certain he’d be playing a lot more than he is right now. But moving when we did, it was tough for him to really be prepared. But he has taken advantage of this time to get ready to comp in the spring. I know with Chester and Fernando leaving, he’s gonna have a trem opp to be one of our best five."
* Richt said Tripp (now at 285 pounds, up from 265 when he moved to O-line in August), Trinton Sturdivant(whose weight he said has dipped to 280 pounds), Clint Boling and Vince Vance are your four potential tackles for next season. Chris Little and Justin Anderson, he said, project as guards.
* Speaking of the future, he said they don't plan to sign a quarterback in this signing class, which could make Georgia appealing ("We think that’ll be very attractive to somebody," he said.)for one of the current junior prospects -- of which he said there are many at the position.
"There’s a bunch of them out there I’ve seen so far that are whetting our appetite. I guess I can say that in general terms. That’s high, high priority."
* Asher Allen will return kickoffs, Richt said, and Ramarcus Brown has been backing him up. It could be either Mikey Henderson or Thomas Flowers returning punts.
* Richt said WR A.J. Bryant will travel and play, but he's not sure how much.
"He’s healthy enough to go and he’ll be there. That’s about it. I don’t know for sure," Richt said when I asked what A.J.'s role will be this week. "There’s a lot of guys that have gotten an awful lot of reps and we’re traveling a good many receivers. I’m not gonna sit here and say he’s gonna bust up to the top of the lineup, but he’ll be ready to go."
* More on the injury front, fullback Fred Munzenmaier may not make the trip after injuring his back this week.
So I'll be leaving for Jacksonville around lunchtime. Should be an interesting weekend.
If you want to read my stories in Friday's paper:
* Week off may be what Dogs needed
* Notebook: Change of positions could benefit Tripp
* No new developments on the Caleb King front. If he plays this weekend (if I had to put money on it, I'd say he will. They're potentially without a backup feature back for too long without using him.), I'd guess that it will be in limited fashion, with the potential to increase game-by-game.
* There was some talk of how good Florida's punt coverage team is. I know I mentioned this earlier in the week, but Kentucky's two returns for 14 yards were the first against the Gators this season. Their true freshman punter, Chas Henry, is from Georgia. Richt complimented him on his ability to hit them high to allow the coverage team to prevent a return:
"They’re gonna do a good job of getting downfield. I think Kentucky actually doubled each gunner to give them a chance to actually have a return. I think they had 14 yards out of two tries. But when you double both gunners, you’re very vulnerable to fakes. They’ve been known to do that at times, so I don’t think anybody wants to get too vulnerable in that way."
Richt pointed out that Florida's not typically punting from deep in its own territory, either, which would have an effect on opponents' ability to make a return as well.
* It was interesting to hear why he thinks it's important that Marcus Washington's back this week. The middle and weakside linebacker spots the central to Georgia's defense, he said, since a strongside linebacker is typically walked out on a receiver or tight end. MLB and WLB are similar positions in Georgia's defensive scheme and he thinks Washington and Ellerbe are the best they've got for those two positions right now.
"It allows us to get a very solid mike linebacker, hard-nosed tackler in there and it allows Ellerbe to be a little bit more free to run at times. Take advantage of his ability to run at the will. When he’s out, Dannell’s inside. And Dannell’s doing very well at mike. But I think the combination of Marcus and Dannell is the best one we’ve got right now. Because they’re really the two true inside backers."
* I know I mentioned Kiante Tripp the other day on here and I asked about him today. It was a good Thursday subject, since those sessions are usually more laid back. Kiante's doing great, he said. He'd probably be playing more right now if he hadn't switched right before the season. I went back and looked it up. The switch occurred Aug. 14, roughly two weeks before the season started.
"I’m excited, very excited about Kiante. In-season I think he’s already gained about 20 pounds, and good looking pounds. His chest is still bigger than his belly. He looks good. His arms are getting bigger, he’s getting much more comfortable in his techniques, much more comfortable just knowing what to do. If we’d have made the move in the spring, I’m certain he’d be playing a lot more than he is right now. But moving when we did, it was tough for him to really be prepared. But he has taken advantage of this time to get ready to comp in the spring. I know with Chester and Fernando leaving, he’s gonna have a trem opp to be one of our best five."
* Richt said Tripp (now at 285 pounds, up from 265 when he moved to O-line in August), Trinton Sturdivant(whose weight he said has dipped to 280 pounds), Clint Boling and Vince Vance are your four potential tackles for next season. Chris Little and Justin Anderson, he said, project as guards.
* Speaking of the future, he said they don't plan to sign a quarterback in this signing class, which could make Georgia appealing ("We think that’ll be very attractive to somebody," he said.)for one of the current junior prospects -- of which he said there are many at the position.
"There’s a bunch of them out there I’ve seen so far that are whetting our appetite. I guess I can say that in general terms. That’s high, high priority."
* Asher Allen will return kickoffs, Richt said, and Ramarcus Brown has been backing him up. It could be either Mikey Henderson or Thomas Flowers returning punts.
* Richt said WR A.J. Bryant will travel and play, but he's not sure how much.
"He’s healthy enough to go and he’ll be there. That’s about it. I don’t know for sure," Richt said when I asked what A.J.'s role will be this week. "There’s a lot of guys that have gotten an awful lot of reps and we’re traveling a good many receivers. I’m not gonna sit here and say he’s gonna bust up to the top of the lineup, but he’ll be ready to go."
* More on the injury front, fullback Fred Munzenmaier may not make the trip after injuring his back this week.
So I'll be leaving for Jacksonville around lunchtime. Should be an interesting weekend.
If you want to read my stories in Friday's paper:
* Week off may be what Dogs needed
* Notebook: Change of positions could benefit Tripp
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Wednesday postpractice notes
I never got around to putting those Tebow quotes together this afternoon (but I'll get to it sometime) as I'd planned because I was trying to get something together on that Rennie Curran thing. Which doesn't sound like a very big deal. I was pretty surprised today when I first saw that he was accused of theft by taking because he seems like a genuinely nice, polite, most likely law-abiding kid. And in this case, the charge sounds much more harsh than what actually happened.
Here's basically what Rennie said: He got some parking tickets on his scooter this summer before he knew he had to get a permit. Got his fourth ticket earlier this month (they're $40 apiece) and got a boot put on it (another $75 to get off). He didn't want it to get impounded, so he picked it up, put it in his truck and drove it back to his dorm. He said he "wanted to buy myself more time" to pay the fines. But moving a vehicle that has been booted -- and the boot -- is considered theft by taking. He took the scooter in to pay the fine and have the boot removed on Oct. 12. He thinks it's all going to be cleared up when he pays the tickets.
Mark Richt said he isn't planning to administer game punishment for the matter and defended Rennie as a good kid who did something dumb:
"If you know Rennie, he’s just a good boy and I guess he got nervous or scared or whatever and just did something that was bone-headed. But I’d defend him to death, that’s the kind of person he is. He’ll have to pay some price for it, but I don’t think it’s gonna relate to any kind of a game suspension or anything like that."
* I'm sure you'll see lots more Caleb King material in tomorrow's editions. I missed him yesterday in the interview room, so I definitely had to catch him today. He said he still doesn't know if he's going to play, but that RBs coach Tony Ball sat down with him one-on-one for some individual tutoring on Georgia's pass protection schemes. He said he's gaining confidence in that regard, but Richt chuckled a little when I asked him about his confidence in Caleb as a blocker. "He’s learning," he said.
* Richt said they began really considering this move when it became clear that Thomas Brown isn't ready to return soon. He's out for Florida, out for Troy and MIGHT be back for Auburn on Nov. 10.
"That’d be the soonest. That’d be the six-week point. After six weeks, most doctors wouldn’t say, ‘Hey, it’s a slam dunk,’ but they’d say, ‘We’ll give you our blessing if you understand the risk,’" Richt said. "The other thing too is as we x-ray that injury, we’ve gotta get a gauge of how quickly it’s healing. So there’s a lot up in the air on that thing. But there’s no chance on Saturday, no chance the next Saturday, maybe the next one. But we’ll know more by then after we take a couple more pictures."
* Richt said it's not 100 percent that Caleb will play on Saturday, but they're preparing as though he will. He said they can't take a chance that nobody else (meaning Knowshon Moreno) will get hurt and not have someone ready just in case.
"You’re at the point now with your injury situation if you have another injury where a guy’s gonna be out for any extended time, I think he’s just gotta go. So you can’t wait till (someone) gets injured and then get him ready, you’ve gotta start getting him ready now just in case."
* WR A.J. Bryant (knee) doesn't know his role for Saturday, but says he's feeling good. Same for OG Scott Haverkamp. He said he's working mostly at right guard behind Clint Boling.
* Florida safety Kyle Jackson will apparently start for Major Wright on Saturday. Wright is listed as questionable after surgery to repair a broken thumb on Monday. Urban Meyer spoke about Jackson on today's SEC coaches teleconference as if he's going to start this week.
* Did you know that Matthew Stafford was responsible for 18 of Georgia's 31 turnovers last year (13 interceptions and five lost fumbles) and that he's responsible for all five this year (four interceptions and one fumble)? Five's really not many at all. Matthew is taking very good care of the ball this year, isn't he? The fumble came on a blind-side hit against Western Carolina and one of those interceptions was at the end of the game against South Carolina, just throwing a hail mary up for grabs. What's striking is that Matthew's one fumble is the only lost fumble all year for Georgia. Not one running back has lost a fumble. Pretty crazy midway through the season. I wrote about that stuff for tomorrow. Leland Barrow from the sports communications staff was good enough to actually go through all of last year's individual game statistic books to help figure out some of the stats I used, which was well beyond the call of duty. But that's part of why those guys are so well-regarded within the media ranks.
Here's basically what Rennie said: He got some parking tickets on his scooter this summer before he knew he had to get a permit. Got his fourth ticket earlier this month (they're $40 apiece) and got a boot put on it (another $75 to get off). He didn't want it to get impounded, so he picked it up, put it in his truck and drove it back to his dorm. He said he "wanted to buy myself more time" to pay the fines. But moving a vehicle that has been booted -- and the boot -- is considered theft by taking. He took the scooter in to pay the fine and have the boot removed on Oct. 12. He thinks it's all going to be cleared up when he pays the tickets.
Mark Richt said he isn't planning to administer game punishment for the matter and defended Rennie as a good kid who did something dumb:
"If you know Rennie, he’s just a good boy and I guess he got nervous or scared or whatever and just did something that was bone-headed. But I’d defend him to death, that’s the kind of person he is. He’ll have to pay some price for it, but I don’t think it’s gonna relate to any kind of a game suspension or anything like that."
* I'm sure you'll see lots more Caleb King material in tomorrow's editions. I missed him yesterday in the interview room, so I definitely had to catch him today. He said he still doesn't know if he's going to play, but that RBs coach Tony Ball sat down with him one-on-one for some individual tutoring on Georgia's pass protection schemes. He said he's gaining confidence in that regard, but Richt chuckled a little when I asked him about his confidence in Caleb as a blocker. "He’s learning," he said.
* Richt said they began really considering this move when it became clear that Thomas Brown isn't ready to return soon. He's out for Florida, out for Troy and MIGHT be back for Auburn on Nov. 10.
"That’d be the soonest. That’d be the six-week point. After six weeks, most doctors wouldn’t say, ‘Hey, it’s a slam dunk,’ but they’d say, ‘We’ll give you our blessing if you understand the risk,’" Richt said. "The other thing too is as we x-ray that injury, we’ve gotta get a gauge of how quickly it’s healing. So there’s a lot up in the air on that thing. But there’s no chance on Saturday, no chance the next Saturday, maybe the next one. But we’ll know more by then after we take a couple more pictures."
* Richt said it's not 100 percent that Caleb will play on Saturday, but they're preparing as though he will. He said they can't take a chance that nobody else (meaning Knowshon Moreno) will get hurt and not have someone ready just in case.
"You’re at the point now with your injury situation if you have another injury where a guy’s gonna be out for any extended time, I think he’s just gotta go. So you can’t wait till (someone) gets injured and then get him ready, you’ve gotta start getting him ready now just in case."
* WR A.J. Bryant (knee) doesn't know his role for Saturday, but says he's feeling good. Same for OG Scott Haverkamp. He said he's working mostly at right guard behind Clint Boling.
* Florida safety Kyle Jackson will apparently start for Major Wright on Saturday. Wright is listed as questionable after surgery to repair a broken thumb on Monday. Urban Meyer spoke about Jackson on today's SEC coaches teleconference as if he's going to start this week.
* Did you know that Matthew Stafford was responsible for 18 of Georgia's 31 turnovers last year (13 interceptions and five lost fumbles) and that he's responsible for all five this year (four interceptions and one fumble)? Five's really not many at all. Matthew is taking very good care of the ball this year, isn't he? The fumble came on a blind-side hit against Western Carolina and one of those interceptions was at the end of the game against South Carolina, just throwing a hail mary up for grabs. What's striking is that Matthew's one fumble is the only lost fumble all year for Georgia. Not one running back has lost a fumble. Pretty crazy midway through the season. I wrote about that stuff for tomorrow. Leland Barrow from the sports communications staff was good enough to actually go through all of last year's individual game statistic books to help figure out some of the stats I used, which was well beyond the call of duty. But that's part of why those guys are so well-regarded within the media ranks.
Curran update
Spoke to Richt and Rennie about it today. Sounds like this is settled and he won't face game punishment. He just had four unpaid parking tickets and didn't have the money to pay them, so he moved the scooter at the time. So he's got to pay the tickets and pay the $75 fine for getting booted.
Scootergate, Vol III
So the neverending fun concerning scooters continues.
The UGA PD issued a warrant yesterday for Georgia linebacker Rennie Curran, and yes, it's another scooter-related case. I spoke with Lisa Boone, a spokesman for the UGA PD, on the phone today and she told me that on Oct. 9, the UGA PD put a parking boot on Curran's scooter on South Herty Drive. Somehow, the scooter was removed from the site, with the boot, which is technically considered theft by taking.
Here's the interesting part to me: the boot, valued at $350, was returned undamaged on Oct. 12. How do you get one of those things off without damaging it? But the subsequent investigation apparently convinced the officers that it was Curran's doing, as they issued a warrant yesterday.
Not sure what the result of this will be, but we'll likely find out more in the near future.
The UGA PD issued a warrant yesterday for Georgia linebacker Rennie Curran, and yes, it's another scooter-related case. I spoke with Lisa Boone, a spokesman for the UGA PD, on the phone today and she told me that on Oct. 9, the UGA PD put a parking boot on Curran's scooter on South Herty Drive. Somehow, the scooter was removed from the site, with the boot, which is technically considered theft by taking.
Here's the interesting part to me: the boot, valued at $350, was returned undamaged on Oct. 12. How do you get one of those things off without damaging it? But the subsequent investigation apparently convinced the officers that it was Curran's doing, as they issued a warrant yesterday.
Not sure what the result of this will be, but we'll likely find out more in the near future.
Tuesday notes
You could go in a bunch of different directions as far as what to talk about from today. If you haven't read the Q&A I posted from talking with running backs coach Tony Ball today (along with the beat guys from Macon, Atlanta, Chattanooga and Athens), I'd suggest giving it a look. It's interesting stuff, although I still don't think it's a guarantee you'll see Caleb King this weekend. It could be gamesmanship, but I didn't get that vibe. We'll see.
Mark Richt said at his noon press conference that he thought Marcus Washington and Dannell Ellerbe would start at linebacker on Saturday, but he wasn't sure whether Brandon Miller will be healthy enough to start. But after practice, LBs coach John Jancek said Brandon was looking better in Tuesday's practice and he's expecting him to start unless he suffers a setback between now and then.
I for one am glad to see Marcus back. He's always been a pleasant guy to interview, he's got some flair (showed up to the post-press conference interview session with his hair picked out in a big afro) and he's a pretty good quote. Like say here, when I asked him if, knowing that Tim Tebow's right shoulder is sore from last week, if they want to tee off on him and tag that shoulder to see how he'll respond:
"Yeah, matter of fact we do. Knowing that he has a shoulder injury, a slight injury, I’m not sure is he gonna put his shoulder in there as much, is he gonna slide more, is he gonna try to run us over? But either way, we’re gonna be focusing on it and trying to soften up that spot. Hopefully (we’ll) make it welt a little bit."
Here's a little more Marcus, talking about facing Tebow and trying to bring him down:
"Anytime I see a quarterback, an average quarterback, I think he’s gonna slide, he’s not gonna come at me. But Tebow, he’s probably gonna try to come and run me over. I can’t let that happen."
Marcus was among the pretty good number of guys I got to talk to for a few minutes today. Georgia's sports communications staff did a pretty perfect job of wrangling the right combination of significant players and many of the best quotes on the team for today's presser. I didn't speak with everyone, but I talked to Stafford, Kelin Johnson, Massaquoi, Southerland, Chandler, Washington, Byrd, Ball, and Kiante Tripp. It was a great combination of people and the usual job well done by Claude Felton and his crack staff.
* Us not being out there at practice as frequently anymore means we don't get to listen to strength and conditioning coach Dave Van Halanger hold court quite as frequently. He was pretty entertaining today, as usual, with a combination of impressions of coaching acquaintances and other observations on college football and life in general. He needs his own show I think...Anyway, he suggested I talk with Kiante about his progress putting on size since moving to O-line just before the season started. Kiante, another good interview, said he's gone from 265 pounds to 285 right now (following the Chris Davis diet of lots of meals and late-night PB&J) and is gaining confidence at O-line and feels good about his chances to really help the team next year. I'll do a note on it later this week, most likely. Haven't gone back through the tape just yet.
I'll get to most of the remaining interview stuff tomorrow. Here are a couple other things from today:
* Mikey Henderson (hamstring) is healthy and should be able to play WR, gunner on punt coverage and punt return on Saturday, Richt said.
* DT Tripp Taylor wasn't dressed out and had his arm in a sling at practice today. Not sure what the story is there, since we don't talk to Richt after Tuesday practice.
* Former SID/tennis coach Dan Magill and running back Tim Worley will be inducted into the UGA-UF football hall of fame on Saturday.
* Fernando Velasco, Knowshon Moreno, Jeff Owens and Kelin Johnson are the captains for Saturday. Moreno will be a captain for the second straight game. In the last game against Vanderbilt, he was Richt's first-ever freshman game captain. Richt said his high level of effort is so outstanding that he deserves the captain honor despite his youth.
That's all for tonight. I'll post some of those Tebow quotes tomorrow afternoon sometime. If anybody's interested in playing online tour guide, give me some ideas on what might be fun to do Friday/Saturday night in Jax. Remember, I'm a novice with this whole WLOCP thing. I've heard about the Landing, but I've never been to any of these places. Seems like I should, just to have done it one time...
Since I'm up late, here are the links to my stories in Wednesday's paper and on the LE Web site:
King will travel with Dogs, make take off redshirt
Notebook: Georgia healthy at linebacker
Tebow not Gators' only weapon
Mark Richt said at his noon press conference that he thought Marcus Washington and Dannell Ellerbe would start at linebacker on Saturday, but he wasn't sure whether Brandon Miller will be healthy enough to start. But after practice, LBs coach John Jancek said Brandon was looking better in Tuesday's practice and he's expecting him to start unless he suffers a setback between now and then.
I for one am glad to see Marcus back. He's always been a pleasant guy to interview, he's got some flair (showed up to the post-press conference interview session with his hair picked out in a big afro) and he's a pretty good quote. Like say here, when I asked him if, knowing that Tim Tebow's right shoulder is sore from last week, if they want to tee off on him and tag that shoulder to see how he'll respond:
"Yeah, matter of fact we do. Knowing that he has a shoulder injury, a slight injury, I’m not sure is he gonna put his shoulder in there as much, is he gonna slide more, is he gonna try to run us over? But either way, we’re gonna be focusing on it and trying to soften up that spot. Hopefully (we’ll) make it welt a little bit."
Here's a little more Marcus, talking about facing Tebow and trying to bring him down:
"Anytime I see a quarterback, an average quarterback, I think he’s gonna slide, he’s not gonna come at me. But Tebow, he’s probably gonna try to come and run me over. I can’t let that happen."
Marcus was among the pretty good number of guys I got to talk to for a few minutes today. Georgia's sports communications staff did a pretty perfect job of wrangling the right combination of significant players and many of the best quotes on the team for today's presser. I didn't speak with everyone, but I talked to Stafford, Kelin Johnson, Massaquoi, Southerland, Chandler, Washington, Byrd, Ball, and Kiante Tripp. It was a great combination of people and the usual job well done by Claude Felton and his crack staff.
* Us not being out there at practice as frequently anymore means we don't get to listen to strength and conditioning coach Dave Van Halanger hold court quite as frequently. He was pretty entertaining today, as usual, with a combination of impressions of coaching acquaintances and other observations on college football and life in general. He needs his own show I think...Anyway, he suggested I talk with Kiante about his progress putting on size since moving to O-line just before the season started. Kiante, another good interview, said he's gone from 265 pounds to 285 right now (following the Chris Davis diet of lots of meals and late-night PB&J) and is gaining confidence at O-line and feels good about his chances to really help the team next year. I'll do a note on it later this week, most likely. Haven't gone back through the tape just yet.
I'll get to most of the remaining interview stuff tomorrow. Here are a couple other things from today:
* Mikey Henderson (hamstring) is healthy and should be able to play WR, gunner on punt coverage and punt return on Saturday, Richt said.
* DT Tripp Taylor wasn't dressed out and had his arm in a sling at practice today. Not sure what the story is there, since we don't talk to Richt after Tuesday practice.
* Former SID/tennis coach Dan Magill and running back Tim Worley will be inducted into the UGA-UF football hall of fame on Saturday.
* Fernando Velasco, Knowshon Moreno, Jeff Owens and Kelin Johnson are the captains for Saturday. Moreno will be a captain for the second straight game. In the last game against Vanderbilt, he was Richt's first-ever freshman game captain. Richt said his high level of effort is so outstanding that he deserves the captain honor despite his youth.
That's all for tonight. I'll post some of those Tebow quotes tomorrow afternoon sometime. If anybody's interested in playing online tour guide, give me some ideas on what might be fun to do Friday/Saturday night in Jax. Remember, I'm a novice with this whole WLOCP thing. I've heard about the Landing, but I've never been to any of these places. Seems like I should, just to have done it one time...
Since I'm up late, here are the links to my stories in Wednesday's paper and on the LE Web site:
King will travel with Dogs, make take off redshirt
Notebook: Georgia healthy at linebacker
Tebow not Gators' only weapon
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Ball talks about RBs, Caleb King
All right, so I went ahead and transcribed it. This is UGA running backs coach Tony Ball talking with me and a couple of the other beat writers after Tuesday's practice.
On how he foresees the running back carries being split behind Knowshon Moreno:
Well, we’re going to obviously have to play it by ear in terms of the gameplan. We’re getting several people ready to play and know what to do at the position. And we’ll play it by ear. A lot of times you’ll run plays, if we’re on a long drive, obviously I’ll give him a break. But a lot of times between timeouts and things of that nature, you may not have to take him out. So it’s all gonna be based on the flow of the game and the situation in the game. But we do have some people ready to sub him.
Is it fair to say Jason Johnson is the No. 2 tailback?
Right now, I’m not gonna say because today’s Tuesday and I’m working several people. JJ, Chapas, I’m looking at several people. So I’m gonna look and see how things unfold between now and Thursday before we make that determination.
What circumstances would it be that Caleb would be somebody you'd consider?
We would have to feel that he could handle the gameplan. It’s a lot going on. He has not been involved in the protection, so a lot of things are happening. We’d have to feel good that he could handle the bulk of what we’re doing. We know that he’s gonna be limited in some areas, but he’s gotta be able to handle the bulk of what we’re doing. Right now the biggest thing is protection.
So it would probably require another injury before you'd even consider it?
Well, he’s getting work this week. By Thursday I’ll know if he can handle it, but he’s getting work this week.
If Knowshon were to go out, how would you see the offense changing or would it change?
Sure it would change because he’s getting the bulk of the reps. He understands the gameplan and a lot of times the gameplan’s centered around him. So yes it would change to a more simplistic type of a gameplan, while executing the gameplan. Whoever goes in there has gotta be able to understand the pass protection so we can still do what we need to do in the passing game.
When thinking about putting Caleb in, does his class status have any bearing at this point?
Class status, you mean redshirt?
Yeah…
No. We’re trying to win games.
Y’all are at the point now where if he can help us, he’s got to go in…
Yeah. We’ve got five, maybe six games or five, six, maybe seven games that we need to get ready to play. That’s a whole season for a freshman. We’re looking at it from the standpoint of can he help us win.
Is he looking at it from that standpoint as well? He wouldn’t be upset if his redshirt was burned?
We would never do anything against his will. We’ve spoken with him and he understands the magnitude of our situation and he’s understood that from Day 1. It’s not like he hasn’t known the possibilities.
Can you play catch-up that much to get him ready?
Well, I don’t think we’re playing catch-up because he’s always been there. He’s in all my meetings and as much as I can, trying to keep abreast of what’s going on. But I think you do have to be conscious and cognizant of how much he knows or what he don’t know, and kinda have a package for him. So from that standpoint, you don’t worry so much about catching up.
Instinctively, does he pick everything up pretty quickly?
In some areas. He knows what to do in the running game. He understands that. He understands some of the protections, not necessarily all of them. I’m just trying to get a feel for how much he knows and what he struggles with.
So you guys aren’t thinking of ideally let’s hope Knowshon can carry the load and let’s not even have to use Caleb this week?
Well we’re not necessarily thinking that way because we’re not only thinking about this game, but we’re thinking about the next one and the next one. So we’ve gotta – if we’re gonna get him ready, we’ve gotta get him ready with the idea of getting him ready for the remainder of the year.
And Thomas, you guys don’t expect back for Troy either, right?
I do not know that. I don’t get into the medical aspect of things. I really haven’t heard to be honest with you.
When did Caleb start getting non-scout team reps?
Well, he has only been on scout team for about two weeks. He was before this week, or two weeks prior to this week, he was always with the varsity. He was always with it because I wanted him right there to kinda just understand the whole format and the magnitude of practice and continuing to hear it and learn it. So he’s only been on scout team, I’m gonna say three weeks max.
On how he foresees the running back carries being split behind Knowshon Moreno:
Well, we’re going to obviously have to play it by ear in terms of the gameplan. We’re getting several people ready to play and know what to do at the position. And we’ll play it by ear. A lot of times you’ll run plays, if we’re on a long drive, obviously I’ll give him a break. But a lot of times between timeouts and things of that nature, you may not have to take him out. So it’s all gonna be based on the flow of the game and the situation in the game. But we do have some people ready to sub him.
Is it fair to say Jason Johnson is the No. 2 tailback?
Right now, I’m not gonna say because today’s Tuesday and I’m working several people. JJ, Chapas, I’m looking at several people. So I’m gonna look and see how things unfold between now and Thursday before we make that determination.
What circumstances would it be that Caleb would be somebody you'd consider?
We would have to feel that he could handle the gameplan. It’s a lot going on. He has not been involved in the protection, so a lot of things are happening. We’d have to feel good that he could handle the bulk of what we’re doing. We know that he’s gonna be limited in some areas, but he’s gotta be able to handle the bulk of what we’re doing. Right now the biggest thing is protection.
So it would probably require another injury before you'd even consider it?
Well, he’s getting work this week. By Thursday I’ll know if he can handle it, but he’s getting work this week.
If Knowshon were to go out, how would you see the offense changing or would it change?
Sure it would change because he’s getting the bulk of the reps. He understands the gameplan and a lot of times the gameplan’s centered around him. So yes it would change to a more simplistic type of a gameplan, while executing the gameplan. Whoever goes in there has gotta be able to understand the pass protection so we can still do what we need to do in the passing game.
When thinking about putting Caleb in, does his class status have any bearing at this point?
Class status, you mean redshirt?
Yeah…
No. We’re trying to win games.
Y’all are at the point now where if he can help us, he’s got to go in…
Yeah. We’ve got five, maybe six games or five, six, maybe seven games that we need to get ready to play. That’s a whole season for a freshman. We’re looking at it from the standpoint of can he help us win.
Is he looking at it from that standpoint as well? He wouldn’t be upset if his redshirt was burned?
We would never do anything against his will. We’ve spoken with him and he understands the magnitude of our situation and he’s understood that from Day 1. It’s not like he hasn’t known the possibilities.
Can you play catch-up that much to get him ready?
Well, I don’t think we’re playing catch-up because he’s always been there. He’s in all my meetings and as much as I can, trying to keep abreast of what’s going on. But I think you do have to be conscious and cognizant of how much he knows or what he don’t know, and kinda have a package for him. So from that standpoint, you don’t worry so much about catching up.
Instinctively, does he pick everything up pretty quickly?
In some areas. He knows what to do in the running game. He understands that. He understands some of the protections, not necessarily all of them. I’m just trying to get a feel for how much he knows and what he struggles with.
So you guys aren’t thinking of ideally let’s hope Knowshon can carry the load and let’s not even have to use Caleb this week?
Well we’re not necessarily thinking that way because we’re not only thinking about this game, but we’re thinking about the next one and the next one. So we’ve gotta – if we’re gonna get him ready, we’ve gotta get him ready with the idea of getting him ready for the remainder of the year.
And Thomas, you guys don’t expect back for Troy either, right?
I do not know that. I don’t get into the medical aspect of things. I really haven’t heard to be honest with you.
When did Caleb start getting non-scout team reps?
Well, he has only been on scout team for about two weeks. He was before this week, or two weeks prior to this week, he was always with the varsity. He was always with it because I wanted him right there to kinda just understand the whole format and the magnitude of practice and continuing to hear it and learn it. So he’s only been on scout team, I’m gonna say three weeks max.
On the King thing
I'd have to say I was adamant in the belief that Caleb King will not play this season before now, but after talking to RBs coach Tony Ball this evening, I'm much less convinced of that. Not saying I think he's going to play...but I don't NOT think he's going to play, either.
Basically, Ball said that the determining factor is if he thinks Caleb's ready to do the job, and he hasn't decided on that yet. It's intriguing. To a question about whether maintaining King's redshirt status was important, Ball said basically 'no, we're trying to win ballgames.'
I've got some stuff to write now, but I'll post a Q/A with Ball late tonight and you can decide for yourselves.
Basically, Ball said that the determining factor is if he thinks Caleb's ready to do the job, and he hasn't decided on that yet. It's intriguing. To a question about whether maintaining King's redshirt status was important, Ball said basically 'no, we're trying to win ballgames.'
I've got some stuff to write now, but I'll post a Q/A with Ball late tonight and you can decide for yourselves.
Monday stuff
Spoke mostly with defensive guys today so I could jump on the Tim Tebow story bandwagon. Practice stuff ran late tonight, so I wound up not even using it. Thankfully there's no shortage of material on Tim Tebow, particularly after listening in on the teleconference with him this morning. If anyone's interested, I can post some quotes and stuff from that tomorrow. Let me know if you want to read some of it (but here's an interesting tidbit that he told us about that jump pass goal line play they run: Urban Meyer started using it at Utah, with a TIGHT END running it. Apparently they used it to beat Air Force in triple overtime one year).
* This evening, there seemed to be a lot of grasping at ways to convince themselves that they have an edge coming into Saturday's game, despite the 2-15 series record that so frequently comes up. For starters, Georgia is the team coming off its bye week. Here's how senior CB Thomas Flowers put it:
"Technically we’ve got the edge. We’ve got the bye week. We’ve got the extra week to prepare. We’ve got the edge, know what I mean? If we keep continuing to talk about how they won this many games in the past, no, stop. This is a new year, this is ’07, let’s go out there and get the win."
And the bye week thing is an interesting point for discussion. Since 1993, Florida has had a bye the week before Georgia each year except 2004 (which coincidentally was one of Georgia's two wins in the last...well, forever). On the other side of things, Georgia hasn't had a bye the week before Florida since 1991 (and that one didn't do much good, considering the Gators won 45-13). I'll probably do a note on this stuff one day this week. I'm not sure that it's that big of a deal. Florida will have had its bye two weeks ago, so it's not like they've been going for weeks on end without a break.
* Did you know that Georgia is second-to-last in the country in turnovers created? I didn't know that until Thomas Flowers told me this evening. Georgia (6) is 118 out of 119 teams, ahead of only Marshall (3). Incidentally, Florida is tied for 111th (8). On the other end of the spectrum, Georgia leads the nation with only five giveaways. Florida is tied for second with seven. Those are truly crazy statistics.
Will get to more later...Richt's weekly press conference is at noon. We'll see what develops from that.
For now, here's some of a Q/A session with backup tailback Jason Johnson I did today with a guy from the Red and Black. There's some talk of Caleb King in here, but I'm not exactly sure you should read anything into it. He's worked some with the first- and second-team offense in weeks past as a safety measure and that may be all this is. My personal guess is that it would require more injuries for him to make it into a game this year. But if you follow my weekly picks, you know my guesses are pretty frequently incorrect. I'd hazard another guess that we won't see a ton of Jason Johnson in the backfield on Saturday, though. Maybe a little.
On his approach going into Saturday's game:
I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to go into the game, whether it’s special teams or offense – just filling in – at that point in time, I’m the starter. That’s how I’ve got to approach it. I’ve got to learn my assignments and execute to the best of my ability and be real fundamental with it. When it’s all said and done, it’s just the game of football. If the coaches have got enough faith in me to put me in, I should try my best to get it done.
I brought up a conversation I had with him before the Western Carolina game when he was hurt and frustrated that he wouldn't be able to play in a game where he'd probably get carries. I asked him if he could have imagined then that it would be Florida week and we'd be talking about him possibly getting into the game:
It’s unbelievable. It’s not hitting home yet. I spoke to my parents and said it’s just another day. I’ve gotta take it one day at a time and make sure I stay healthy and just do everything I can as far as practice and get the gameplan down. Saturday, we’ve just gotta execute. Regardless if I play one or two snaps, I’m gonna do it wholeheartedly and I’m gonna root on my fellow teammates – Knowshon, Caleb, whoever’s in there.
Is Caleb getting work in practice?
He’s been practicing, but I’m not quite sure what’s going on with that.
Is it hard treating this like any other week?
I just take it one day at a time. When coaches come in to implement the gameplan, I take notes and try to remember as much as I can. If I don’t remember out there on the practice field, I make sure I ask, make sure I get it right. Go home, watch film, look over my notes. It’s just like being in the classroom basically. You’ve gotta go to class every day, focus on what the teacher tells you and go home and go over it again until you get it.
* This evening, there seemed to be a lot of grasping at ways to convince themselves that they have an edge coming into Saturday's game, despite the 2-15 series record that so frequently comes up. For starters, Georgia is the team coming off its bye week. Here's how senior CB Thomas Flowers put it:
"Technically we’ve got the edge. We’ve got the bye week. We’ve got the extra week to prepare. We’ve got the edge, know what I mean? If we keep continuing to talk about how they won this many games in the past, no, stop. This is a new year, this is ’07, let’s go out there and get the win."
And the bye week thing is an interesting point for discussion. Since 1993, Florida has had a bye the week before Georgia each year except 2004 (which coincidentally was one of Georgia's two wins in the last...well, forever). On the other side of things, Georgia hasn't had a bye the week before Florida since 1991 (and that one didn't do much good, considering the Gators won 45-13). I'll probably do a note on this stuff one day this week. I'm not sure that it's that big of a deal. Florida will have had its bye two weeks ago, so it's not like they've been going for weeks on end without a break.
* Did you know that Georgia is second-to-last in the country in turnovers created? I didn't know that until Thomas Flowers told me this evening. Georgia (6) is 118 out of 119 teams, ahead of only Marshall (3). Incidentally, Florida is tied for 111th (8). On the other end of the spectrum, Georgia leads the nation with only five giveaways. Florida is tied for second with seven. Those are truly crazy statistics.
Will get to more later...Richt's weekly press conference is at noon. We'll see what develops from that.
For now, here's some of a Q/A session with backup tailback Jason Johnson I did today with a guy from the Red and Black. There's some talk of Caleb King in here, but I'm not exactly sure you should read anything into it. He's worked some with the first- and second-team offense in weeks past as a safety measure and that may be all this is. My personal guess is that it would require more injuries for him to make it into a game this year. But if you follow my weekly picks, you know my guesses are pretty frequently incorrect. I'd hazard another guess that we won't see a ton of Jason Johnson in the backfield on Saturday, though. Maybe a little.
On his approach going into Saturday's game:
I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to go into the game, whether it’s special teams or offense – just filling in – at that point in time, I’m the starter. That’s how I’ve got to approach it. I’ve got to learn my assignments and execute to the best of my ability and be real fundamental with it. When it’s all said and done, it’s just the game of football. If the coaches have got enough faith in me to put me in, I should try my best to get it done.
I brought up a conversation I had with him before the Western Carolina game when he was hurt and frustrated that he wouldn't be able to play in a game where he'd probably get carries. I asked him if he could have imagined then that it would be Florida week and we'd be talking about him possibly getting into the game:
It’s unbelievable. It’s not hitting home yet. I spoke to my parents and said it’s just another day. I’ve gotta take it one day at a time and make sure I stay healthy and just do everything I can as far as practice and get the gameplan down. Saturday, we’ve just gotta execute. Regardless if I play one or two snaps, I’m gonna do it wholeheartedly and I’m gonna root on my fellow teammates – Knowshon, Caleb, whoever’s in there.
Is Caleb getting work in practice?
He’s been practicing, but I’m not quite sure what’s going on with that.
Is it hard treating this like any other week?
I just take it one day at a time. When coaches come in to implement the gameplan, I take notes and try to remember as much as I can. If I don’t remember out there on the practice field, I make sure I ask, make sure I get it right. Go home, watch film, look over my notes. It’s just like being in the classroom basically. You’ve gotta go to class every day, focus on what the teacher tells you and go home and go over it again until you get it.
Monday, October 22, 2007
No TV for Troy
EDIT: I have confirmation on it now. No live TV for Troy. CSS carries the rebroadcast at noon and 9 p.m. on the Monday after the game, as usual).
Haven't heard with 100 percent certainty that UGA-Troy on Nov. 3 won't be carried on PPV (although I feel pretty confident saying that it won't). Here is the announcement from Alabama on the Nov. 3 SEC TV schedule:
"The Southeastern Conference announced today that CBS Sports will televise the Alabama-LSU game to a national audience beginning Saturday, November 3, at 4 p.m. (CDT) from Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama (6-2, 4-1 SEC) and LSU (7-1, 4-1 SEC) both have this weekend off before resuming play against each other on Nov. 3. Lincoln Financial Sports will televise the Vanderbilt at Florida game earlier that day beginning at 11:30 a.m. (CDT). There will be no SEC games on ESPN or ESPN2 on November 3."
Haven't heard with 100 percent certainty that UGA-Troy on Nov. 3 won't be carried on PPV (although I feel pretty confident saying that it won't). Here is the announcement from Alabama on the Nov. 3 SEC TV schedule:
"The Southeastern Conference announced today that CBS Sports will televise the Alabama-LSU game to a national audience beginning Saturday, November 3, at 4 p.m. (CDT) from Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama (6-2, 4-1 SEC) and LSU (7-1, 4-1 SEC) both have this weekend off before resuming play against each other on Nov. 3. Lincoln Financial Sports will televise the Vanderbilt at Florida game earlier that day beginning at 11:30 a.m. (CDT). There will be no SEC games on ESPN or ESPN2 on November 3."
Tebow teleconference
There was a media teleconference with Tim Tebow about an hour ago that I listened in on. Dialed in at the last second, so I didn't know how to actually ask a question. Whoops.
Anyway, it sounds like he thinks this "no contact in practice this week" angle because of his sore right shoulder is a bit overblown. He said he doesn't remember the last time he was allowed to have contact in practice. He said the shoulder actually feels fine.
So take that for whatever you think it's worth. Obviously he's probably not gonna go around saying that it's killing him. But it's possible that maybe a little too much was being made of it.
Anyway, it sounds like he thinks this "no contact in practice this week" angle because of his sore right shoulder is a bit overblown. He said he doesn't remember the last time he was allowed to have contact in practice. He said the shoulder actually feels fine.
So take that for whatever you think it's worth. Obviously he's probably not gonna go around saying that it's killing him. But it's possible that maybe a little too much was being made of it.
Sunday teleconference highlights
The teleconference was fairly long today and there was some stuff on there that frankly was rather uninteresting -- at least enough to where I don't feel like typing it all out. But here's some of the stuff that I thought might be either interesting to you guys or useful to me at some point this week.
On Georgia's stake in the SEC East race:
I’m taking this baby one at a time. I quit worrying about all that other stuff. Let’s worry about who we’re gonna play this time around, that’s it. I’m done looking too far into the future – at least this year.
On his feeling on moving the game away from Jacksonville annually:
I’d be open to a lot of things. I’d be open to home-and-home, I’d be open to Jacksonville-Atlanta alternating. I’d be up for a series of a home-and-home and then a Jacksonville-Atlanta. I’d be up for all those kinda combinations.
On Jacksonville being a neutral site:
If everybody’s saying it’s a neutral site, then let’s play at a neutral site in the state of Georgia. I think that’d be neutral playing in the Dome – that’s a neutral site.
On the state of the UGA-UF rivalry:
A rival game needs to be more equal on who wins and who loses, which it hasn’t lately. It’s been a rivalry of streaks. I don’t know how often it’s been back-and-forth, back-and-forth. Like our rivalry with Auburn has just seemed to always be very, very close games but also spread out pretty good where no one had a huge run. Maybe way back, but not anytime lately. But Florida’s just been dominating as of late, and in years past, Georgia had dominated.
I thought this was an interesting question by Marc Weiszer from the Athens paper. He asked if they might use a linebacker or fullback from the scout team to simulate Tim Tebow in practice:
We should. We’ve got right now Logan is an athletic quarterback, which Tebow is, but their weight difference is probably about 40, 50 pounds. It’s probably not a bad idea. We probably need to find an old – some linebacker who might’ve played a little quarterback back in the day and let him do it or a fullback that might’ve played quarterback back in the day. You could probably get a scout teamer and just get a big, strong kid in there and let him do the QB runs. You wouldn’t necessarily have to throw it to simulate just the running game of Tebow. It would take two guys really to simulate, but we don’t have that. There aren’t many Tebows in the country. I can only think of one right now.
On the health of Jason Johnson, Brandon Miller and Marcus Washington:
Jason Johnson is healthy, he knows what to do. He’s played some ball for us in some big games, whether it’s on special teams or even a few reps behind the line of scrimmage. Brandon Miller, we will give him about 50 percent of the work tomorrow just to see how he reacts to it, and we’ll go hopefully full-speed Tuesday with him, just giving him all the work, depending on how he feels. I think Marcus, we might just give him scout work tomorrow and by Tuesday let him go ahead and get a little bit of competition physically, maybe an inside drill, whatever we might be doing, just to let him get a little confidence in that shoulder and how it feels. We don’t want that first time that he does any kind of contact to be in that ballgame. We’ll have contact Monday, Tuesday and after that, we’ll go for the two dress rehearsals. By Tuesday, both of those guys oughta get some work in some competitive drills.
So is Miller probable and Washington questionable?
If you ask me after Tuesday’s practice, I could probably give you a really good feel. But I think both of them are, my word is ‘hopeful.’ I’m hopeful that both of them will play. That’s where I’m at right now. … A.J. (Bryant) also. … Mikey (Henderson) will be probable at this point. If he doesn’t have a setback, Mikey’ll play.
On Matthew Stafford's progression this season:
The No. 1 thing he’s doing better is he’s not turning the ball over. That’s a big deal, a very big deal. The thing that Matthew’s also done extremely well is in some games where we’ve had to have some big drives, at the moment of truth, he’s been able to come through and play very well at those times. He definitely understands what we’re trying to get done. I think he’s moving right along, quite frankly. He’s doing a good job for us.
On what happens on the offensive line this week:
Haverkamp right now, if he’s healthy, we expect him to be there. He’ll just be able to split time with Boling. I think that’s the main thing. We’re still gonna kinda let Vince Vance and Chris Davis split time. Right now the other three have just been going. If there’s an injury anywhere across the board, if it’s anything on the left side, Vince would get it, if it was right guard, you’d probably have Haverkamp just step in. If it was right tackle, it’d probably be Vince Vance. So Vince, he’s covering three of them spots, basically as the backup. If the center got hurt, you’d probably put Davis in there and Vance would pop in there at left guard. So really I guess Vance is the backup if any one of four guys got hurt. If the right guard gets hurt, I think Haverkamp would just go.
On Georgia's stake in the SEC East race:
I’m taking this baby one at a time. I quit worrying about all that other stuff. Let’s worry about who we’re gonna play this time around, that’s it. I’m done looking too far into the future – at least this year.
On his feeling on moving the game away from Jacksonville annually:
I’d be open to a lot of things. I’d be open to home-and-home, I’d be open to Jacksonville-Atlanta alternating. I’d be up for a series of a home-and-home and then a Jacksonville-Atlanta. I’d be up for all those kinda combinations.
On Jacksonville being a neutral site:
If everybody’s saying it’s a neutral site, then let’s play at a neutral site in the state of Georgia. I think that’d be neutral playing in the Dome – that’s a neutral site.
On the state of the UGA-UF rivalry:
A rival game needs to be more equal on who wins and who loses, which it hasn’t lately. It’s been a rivalry of streaks. I don’t know how often it’s been back-and-forth, back-and-forth. Like our rivalry with Auburn has just seemed to always be very, very close games but also spread out pretty good where no one had a huge run. Maybe way back, but not anytime lately. But Florida’s just been dominating as of late, and in years past, Georgia had dominated.
I thought this was an interesting question by Marc Weiszer from the Athens paper. He asked if they might use a linebacker or fullback from the scout team to simulate Tim Tebow in practice:
We should. We’ve got right now Logan is an athletic quarterback, which Tebow is, but their weight difference is probably about 40, 50 pounds. It’s probably not a bad idea. We probably need to find an old – some linebacker who might’ve played a little quarterback back in the day and let him do it or a fullback that might’ve played quarterback back in the day. You could probably get a scout teamer and just get a big, strong kid in there and let him do the QB runs. You wouldn’t necessarily have to throw it to simulate just the running game of Tebow. It would take two guys really to simulate, but we don’t have that. There aren’t many Tebows in the country. I can only think of one right now.
On the health of Jason Johnson, Brandon Miller and Marcus Washington:
Jason Johnson is healthy, he knows what to do. He’s played some ball for us in some big games, whether it’s on special teams or even a few reps behind the line of scrimmage. Brandon Miller, we will give him about 50 percent of the work tomorrow just to see how he reacts to it, and we’ll go hopefully full-speed Tuesday with him, just giving him all the work, depending on how he feels. I think Marcus, we might just give him scout work tomorrow and by Tuesday let him go ahead and get a little bit of competition physically, maybe an inside drill, whatever we might be doing, just to let him get a little confidence in that shoulder and how it feels. We don’t want that first time that he does any kind of contact to be in that ballgame. We’ll have contact Monday, Tuesday and after that, we’ll go for the two dress rehearsals. By Tuesday, both of those guys oughta get some work in some competitive drills.
So is Miller probable and Washington questionable?
If you ask me after Tuesday’s practice, I could probably give you a really good feel. But I think both of them are, my word is ‘hopeful.’ I’m hopeful that both of them will play. That’s where I’m at right now. … A.J. (Bryant) also. … Mikey (Henderson) will be probable at this point. If he doesn’t have a setback, Mikey’ll play.
On Matthew Stafford's progression this season:
The No. 1 thing he’s doing better is he’s not turning the ball over. That’s a big deal, a very big deal. The thing that Matthew’s also done extremely well is in some games where we’ve had to have some big drives, at the moment of truth, he’s been able to come through and play very well at those times. He definitely understands what we’re trying to get done. I think he’s moving right along, quite frankly. He’s doing a good job for us.
On what happens on the offensive line this week:
Haverkamp right now, if he’s healthy, we expect him to be there. He’ll just be able to split time with Boling. I think that’s the main thing. We’re still gonna kinda let Vince Vance and Chris Davis split time. Right now the other three have just been going. If there’s an injury anywhere across the board, if it’s anything on the left side, Vince would get it, if it was right guard, you’d probably have Haverkamp just step in. If it was right tackle, it’d probably be Vince Vance. So Vince, he’s covering three of them spots, basically as the backup. If the center got hurt, you’d probably put Davis in there and Vance would pop in there at left guard. So really I guess Vance is the backup if any one of four guys got hurt. If the right guard gets hurt, I think Haverkamp would just go.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Picks redux
I was putting myself down earlier for how I had been sure Tennessee and South Carolina would win and I'd have lost lots of money on them as a bettor. But on further reflection, I'm disturbed by just how dead-on some of my other picks were today. I picked the point differential exactly right on the last three games today -- something I'm sure will never, ever happen again.
LSU by 6. Florida by 8. West Virginia by 25. Crazy. I'm still not gonna start betting.
I'm now 47-16 straight up and 29-32 against the spread.
LSU by 6. Florida by 8. West Virginia by 25. Crazy. I'm still not gonna start betting.
I'm now 47-16 straight up and 29-32 against the spread.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Interesting stat
I was listening to Florida's play-by-play team on the way home from picking up dinner a while ago (and by the way, if you haven't tried the fried chicken and mashed potatoes at Mama's Boy in Athens, you're missing out) when it was halftime of the Florida-Kentucky game. They dropped an interesting stat.
This is the SIXTH time Kentucky has trailed at halftime. In the previous five, the Wildcats are 4-1. Pretty amazing. And it feels like they've got Florida on the ropes right now, although the Gators are still up by seven at the start of the fourth quarter.
This is the SIXTH time Kentucky has trailed at halftime. In the previous five, the Wildcats are 4-1. Pretty amazing. And it feels like they've got Florida on the ropes right now, although the Gators are still up by seven at the start of the fourth quarter.
Five Alabama players suspended
The local angle on this is that one of the five players suspended for today's Tennessee game, Marlon Davis, is from Columbus. I actually attended his signing day at Carver to write that story. Nice kid. Not sure if this is a terribly big deal, but we're talking about a couple of pretty important players here. Thus far, Bama hasn't missed them. They're up 10-0 in the first quarter, but we'll see what happens. The Tide isn't especially deep.
FROM UA RELEASE:
The University of Alabama has suspended five football student-athletes – Antoine Caldwell, Glen Coffee, Marlon Davis, Marquis Johnson, and Chris Rogers – for today’s game with the University of Tennessee for a violation of institutional policy involving impermissible receipt of textbooks.
The infraction was discovered on Thursday, and the school immediately initiated an inquiry that is ongoing. The student-athletes were informed of the suspensions on Friday upon the initial results of the inquiry. The University is still in a fact-finding phase and will release further details when it is completed.
“This is a situation that developed late this week and we are actively investigating,” said Director of Athletics Mal Moore. “These suspensions are a measure aimed at dealing with the facts as we know them at this time. While I cannot discuss the situation in great detail, I can assure you we will address it fully when we have completed this inquiry.”
FROM UA RELEASE:
The University of Alabama has suspended five football student-athletes – Antoine Caldwell, Glen Coffee, Marlon Davis, Marquis Johnson, and Chris Rogers – for today’s game with the University of Tennessee for a violation of institutional policy involving impermissible receipt of textbooks.
The infraction was discovered on Thursday, and the school immediately initiated an inquiry that is ongoing. The student-athletes were informed of the suspensions on Friday upon the initial results of the inquiry. The University is still in a fact-finding phase and will release further details when it is completed.
“This is a situation that developed late this week and we are actively investigating,” said Director of Athletics Mal Moore. “These suspensions are a measure aimed at dealing with the facts as we know them at this time. While I cannot discuss the situation in great detail, I can assure you we will address it fully when we have completed this inquiry.”
Week 8 picks
That hole against the spread just keeps getting bigger after going 4-2 straight up and 2-4 against the spread last week. Overall, I'm 43-14 straight up and 25-30 ATS. Maybe it'll start to turn this week.
Tennessee at Alabama, 12:30 p.m., LF Sports
Line: Pick 'em
My guess: Tennessee seems to have it going, while Alabama's been mostly unimpressive for the last month. However, Erik Ainge has STUNK against Alabama in the past. That and the fact that they're playing in Tuscaloosa, is enough to give me pause. But I still think the Vols are the better team. Tennessee 27, Alabama 17
Vanderbilt at South Carolina
Line: South Carolina by 13.5
My guess: Vandy's not a good football team. I don't care how people who nearly lose to them try to spin it. They have some nice pieces, but they're simply not a good team. And I don't see any way they win at South Carolina. South Carolina 30, Vanderbilt 14
Arkansas at Ole Miss
Line: Arkansas by 5
My guess: Arkansas sure does seem to be showing all the signs of an implosion. But they've still got Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. Considering Thomas Brown and Knowshon Moreno gashed the Rebels for 320-something rushing yards, I figure McFadden and Jones are good for about 400. It wouldn't shock me in the slightest to see Ole Miss win this game, but I'm going with the Hogs. Arkansas 28, Ole Miss 17
Mississippi State at West Virginia
Line: West Virginia by 24
My guess: West Virginia has been a wee bit underwhelming this year, to the point that I'd pick the Bulldogs to beat that 24-point spread...if they were playing in Starkville. They're not, and I don't think the Bulldogs will be able to shut down the Mountaineers' running game -- although State has played pretty well since a blowout loss to LSU to open the season. West Virginia 35, Mississippi State 10
Florida at Kentucky
Line: Florida by 6.5
My guess: Kentucky could very easily be undefeated right now. Of course, the Wildcats could also easily have four losses. I absolutely didn't think Kentucky had enough to beat LSU last weekend and they surprised me. I don't think they'll beat Florida, either, particularly with the Gators coming off a bye week. I look forward to watching this one, but I figure the Gators will be at least a touchdown better. Florida 28, Kentucky 20
Auburn at LSU
Line: LSU by 10
My guess: LSU's coming off a two-game stretch where they had to fight it out into the last minute each time -- coming away with a win and a loss. If you happen to be an Auburn grad looking for anything to grab hold of as a reason why Auburn's got a chance, you're hoping the Bayou Bengals are worn down by this point. Of course Auburn's had its share of close ones this year too. I think this'll be a typical Auburn-LSU slobberknocker, but the visiting team hasn't won since 1999 (Auburn). Maybe Auburn keeps it close, though, and then who knows? LSU 20, Auburn 14
Tennessee at Alabama, 12:30 p.m., LF Sports
Line: Pick 'em
My guess: Tennessee seems to have it going, while Alabama's been mostly unimpressive for the last month. However, Erik Ainge has STUNK against Alabama in the past. That and the fact that they're playing in Tuscaloosa, is enough to give me pause. But I still think the Vols are the better team. Tennessee 27, Alabama 17
Vanderbilt at South Carolina
Line: South Carolina by 13.5
My guess: Vandy's not a good football team. I don't care how people who nearly lose to them try to spin it. They have some nice pieces, but they're simply not a good team. And I don't see any way they win at South Carolina. South Carolina 30, Vanderbilt 14
Arkansas at Ole Miss
Line: Arkansas by 5
My guess: Arkansas sure does seem to be showing all the signs of an implosion. But they've still got Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. Considering Thomas Brown and Knowshon Moreno gashed the Rebels for 320-something rushing yards, I figure McFadden and Jones are good for about 400. It wouldn't shock me in the slightest to see Ole Miss win this game, but I'm going with the Hogs. Arkansas 28, Ole Miss 17
Mississippi State at West Virginia
Line: West Virginia by 24
My guess: West Virginia has been a wee bit underwhelming this year, to the point that I'd pick the Bulldogs to beat that 24-point spread...if they were playing in Starkville. They're not, and I don't think the Bulldogs will be able to shut down the Mountaineers' running game -- although State has played pretty well since a blowout loss to LSU to open the season. West Virginia 35, Mississippi State 10
Florida at Kentucky
Line: Florida by 6.5
My guess: Kentucky could very easily be undefeated right now. Of course, the Wildcats could also easily have four losses. I absolutely didn't think Kentucky had enough to beat LSU last weekend and they surprised me. I don't think they'll beat Florida, either, particularly with the Gators coming off a bye week. I look forward to watching this one, but I figure the Gators will be at least a touchdown better. Florida 28, Kentucky 20
Auburn at LSU
Line: LSU by 10
My guess: LSU's coming off a two-game stretch where they had to fight it out into the last minute each time -- coming away with a win and a loss. If you happen to be an Auburn grad looking for anything to grab hold of as a reason why Auburn's got a chance, you're hoping the Bayou Bengals are worn down by this point. Of course Auburn's had its share of close ones this year too. I think this'll be a typical Auburn-LSU slobberknocker, but the visiting team hasn't won since 1999 (Auburn). Maybe Auburn keeps it close, though, and then who knows? LSU 20, Auburn 14
Friday, October 19, 2007
Thursday roundup + A.J. Bryant talks comeback
The team wrapped up its second practice of the week today and most everyone seemed to be in a fairly chipper mood. The coaches will be on the road recruiting tomorrow, but they're taking Saturday off. Mark Richt joked he didn't want to disclose his Saturday plans because he didn't want anybody to know where he'd be. Can't say I blame him. As much as I'm enjoying this bye week thing, I'll bet they enjoy a Saturday off 100 times more than I do.
There was some talk today of Georgia officially announcing its deal with Central Michigan for next year's schedule (they also announced the Coastal Carolina deal for 2011). I'll say this about it and I'm sure I've said it before: next year's schedule is an absolute bear. It would have been good for UGA to add another cupcake on there, but it's good that they didn't have to dip into the I-AA ranks to do it. Next year's schedule includes teams that are currently ranked Nos. 4 (at LSU), 6 (at South Carolina), 7 (at Kentucky), 8 (at Arizona State), 15 (Florida in Jacksonville), 17 (at Auburn) and 21 (home against Tennessee) in the BCS rankings. And let's be hypothetical here. Say Georgia is one of three teams to go undefeated -- and this is a tall order, I know -- plenty of people would have made a case against UGA being in the title game for playing two I-AA teams (they open the season with Georgia Southern).
Richt didn't seem to have been too concerned about the CMU deal getting done, saying he knew something was going to come together eventually:
"It’s not that big of a load off my mind. I knew sooner or later we would. It’s not as easy as you think just to call somebody and strike a deal. We’ve got a couple of coaches that have coached on that particular team and they know that’s not gonna be a whole lot of fun, either. But it’s good to know who you’re gonna play to get your mind right."
There was also some talk about the indoor practice facility possibly getting done. Football facility upgrades came up at the athletic association's board meeting on Wednesday and it sounds like something's going to eventually get done. Damon Evans indicated it would require a fundraising project and Richt said today he's "ready, willing and able" to beat that drum. As I'm sure most of you know, Georgia is one of two SEC football programs without an indoor facility -- Florida being the other.
Here's some other stuff from this afternoon's postpractice:
* I got a chance to ask punter Brian Mimbs about a rumor I'd heard. He confirmed that a couple days before the Tennessee game, he was trying to throw something onto a hill behind his apartment, leaned against his balcony railing and it gave way. He fell off and landed on his back/tailbone. Fell about 10 to 15 feet. Pretty crazy, huh? I'm going to do a note on it in the next day or two. He said he's fortunate that it wasn't more serious, but he made it into the game and obviously punted pretty frequently and was only sore afterwards.
* They practiced a couple hours today and then, for the second time this week, let the reserves and freshmen run a handful of drives. Richt thought Donovan Baldwin got two interceptions, said Caleb King and Kalvin Daniels both had some nice runs and that Demarcus Dobbs had a sack. He also said QB Logan Gray "had a fantastic run, made a couple guys look kinda silly trying to tackle him."
* Of the scrimmage and this week's practices in general, Richt said, "It was good. We got just about everybody in there I think. Sometimes a guy can go, ‘Aww man, I don’t want to do this,’ but they got after it. It was good to see. The rest of practice I thought was good. We began to install a few things that we felt comfortable enough to install and we’ll be able to reinforce that all next week. Spend some time this weekend as coaches making sure we feel comfortable with the plan and add to it a little bit, but we’re in pretty good shape on that, too."
* Brandon Miller dropped in and said he's doing well in his comeback from the calf injury he sustained early last week. He said he'll be good to go against Florida, although he didn't practice today. Brandon, by the way, cut all of his hair off and looks like a different dude. Josh Kendall from Macon told Brandon he was trying to copy Josh and I with the close-to-the-scalp do, but let's just say mine and Josh's are more of nature running its course than hair clipper-induced.
* On the same front, here's what WR A.J. Bryant had to say to me, Josh and Marc Weiszer from Athens about his physical state. He started running some this week and believes he's going to be ready to go for the Florida game. Not sure how much work he'd get in that game, considering how long he's been out, but it would be nice to see A.J. do well down the stretch. He's clearly a good kid and he's been through a lot.
On how his rehab is going from the knee injury:
It’s going pretty good. It’s ahead of schedule and doing better than they thought I would at this point in time. We’re still just taking it one day at a time, just taking it slowly. Like you said, that’s my first day really jogging on it and stuff like that, and it felt pretty good. We’re just testing it out right now.
Still considering redshirt?
I really don’t know. I’ve still got to wait and see how it does. I’ve got another week. I’m not really sure, but I don’t really plan on it right now.
So your plan is to get back for Florida and if you don’t, you’ll re-evaluate?
Yeah.
Are you feeling confident Florida is a possibility?
Yes. From how my knee’s been doing, it feels like there’s a real good chance. I’m just still taking it one day at a time.
You and Mikey were doing cuts and stuff, right?
Yeah.
Did it get sore on you at all?
It don’t hurt cutting at all. Today’s the first day it’s been sore. I believe because they wanted me to run like four or five consecutive days on it and see how it feels. Well now it’s finally feeling a little sore. But earlier, it felt pretty good.
Sore’s probably a good thing though, right?
Yeah, they’re trying to see where it is. That’s why they’re making me do more strenuous stuff, too.
There was some talk today of Georgia officially announcing its deal with Central Michigan for next year's schedule (they also announced the Coastal Carolina deal for 2011). I'll say this about it and I'm sure I've said it before: next year's schedule is an absolute bear. It would have been good for UGA to add another cupcake on there, but it's good that they didn't have to dip into the I-AA ranks to do it. Next year's schedule includes teams that are currently ranked Nos. 4 (at LSU), 6 (at South Carolina), 7 (at Kentucky), 8 (at Arizona State), 15 (Florida in Jacksonville), 17 (at Auburn) and 21 (home against Tennessee) in the BCS rankings. And let's be hypothetical here. Say Georgia is one of three teams to go undefeated -- and this is a tall order, I know -- plenty of people would have made a case against UGA being in the title game for playing two I-AA teams (they open the season with Georgia Southern).
Richt didn't seem to have been too concerned about the CMU deal getting done, saying he knew something was going to come together eventually:
"It’s not that big of a load off my mind. I knew sooner or later we would. It’s not as easy as you think just to call somebody and strike a deal. We’ve got a couple of coaches that have coached on that particular team and they know that’s not gonna be a whole lot of fun, either. But it’s good to know who you’re gonna play to get your mind right."
There was also some talk about the indoor practice facility possibly getting done. Football facility upgrades came up at the athletic association's board meeting on Wednesday and it sounds like something's going to eventually get done. Damon Evans indicated it would require a fundraising project and Richt said today he's "ready, willing and able" to beat that drum. As I'm sure most of you know, Georgia is one of two SEC football programs without an indoor facility -- Florida being the other.
Here's some other stuff from this afternoon's postpractice:
* I got a chance to ask punter Brian Mimbs about a rumor I'd heard. He confirmed that a couple days before the Tennessee game, he was trying to throw something onto a hill behind his apartment, leaned against his balcony railing and it gave way. He fell off and landed on his back/tailbone. Fell about 10 to 15 feet. Pretty crazy, huh? I'm going to do a note on it in the next day or two. He said he's fortunate that it wasn't more serious, but he made it into the game and obviously punted pretty frequently and was only sore afterwards.
* They practiced a couple hours today and then, for the second time this week, let the reserves and freshmen run a handful of drives. Richt thought Donovan Baldwin got two interceptions, said Caleb King and Kalvin Daniels both had some nice runs and that Demarcus Dobbs had a sack. He also said QB Logan Gray "had a fantastic run, made a couple guys look kinda silly trying to tackle him."
* Of the scrimmage and this week's practices in general, Richt said, "It was good. We got just about everybody in there I think. Sometimes a guy can go, ‘Aww man, I don’t want to do this,’ but they got after it. It was good to see. The rest of practice I thought was good. We began to install a few things that we felt comfortable enough to install and we’ll be able to reinforce that all next week. Spend some time this weekend as coaches making sure we feel comfortable with the plan and add to it a little bit, but we’re in pretty good shape on that, too."
* Brandon Miller dropped in and said he's doing well in his comeback from the calf injury he sustained early last week. He said he'll be good to go against Florida, although he didn't practice today. Brandon, by the way, cut all of his hair off and looks like a different dude. Josh Kendall from Macon told Brandon he was trying to copy Josh and I with the close-to-the-scalp do, but let's just say mine and Josh's are more of nature running its course than hair clipper-induced.
* On the same front, here's what WR A.J. Bryant had to say to me, Josh and Marc Weiszer from Athens about his physical state. He started running some this week and believes he's going to be ready to go for the Florida game. Not sure how much work he'd get in that game, considering how long he's been out, but it would be nice to see A.J. do well down the stretch. He's clearly a good kid and he's been through a lot.
On how his rehab is going from the knee injury:
It’s going pretty good. It’s ahead of schedule and doing better than they thought I would at this point in time. We’re still just taking it one day at a time, just taking it slowly. Like you said, that’s my first day really jogging on it and stuff like that, and it felt pretty good. We’re just testing it out right now.
Still considering redshirt?
I really don’t know. I’ve still got to wait and see how it does. I’ve got another week. I’m not really sure, but I don’t really plan on it right now.
So your plan is to get back for Florida and if you don’t, you’ll re-evaluate?
Yeah.
Are you feeling confident Florida is a possibility?
Yes. From how my knee’s been doing, it feels like there’s a real good chance. I’m just still taking it one day at a time.
You and Mikey were doing cuts and stuff, right?
Yeah.
Did it get sore on you at all?
It don’t hurt cutting at all. Today’s the first day it’s been sore. I believe because they wanted me to run like four or five consecutive days on it and see how it feels. Well now it’s finally feeling a little sore. But earlier, it felt pretty good.
Sore’s probably a good thing though, right?
Yeah, they’re trying to see where it is. That’s why they’re making me do more strenuous stuff, too.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Central Michigan deal done
The University just sent this out:
The University of Georgia and Central Michigan University have signed a memorandum of understanding which schedules the two teams to play in Athens on Sept. 6, 2008.
The game will be the first meeting between the schools and finalizes the 2008 Georgia schedule which includes home games with Georgia Southern, Alabama, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Tech, in addition to Central Michigan.
"We're delighted that we've teamed up with Central Michigan for the 2008 game in Athens," said UGA Director of Athletics Damon Evans.
"We were looking for a quality Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1-A) opponent and we found that in Central Michigan which won the Mid-American Conference championship last year and also defeated Middle Tennessee in the Motor City Bowl."
The agreement provides for a guarantee to Central Michigan of $750,000.
Georgia defensive coordinator Willie Martinez and linebacker coach John Jancek both have ties to Central Michigan. Martinez coached defensive backs there in 1994, '98 and '99 and served as assistant head coach and secondary coach in 2000 before joining the Georgia staff in 2001. Jancek served as defensive line coach at Central Michigan in 2003 and defensive coordinator and linebacker coach in 2004. A current member of the Chippewas' staff is Jeff Beckles who served as a graduate assistant coach at UGA in 2002, 2004 and '05.
Georgia has also scheduled a game in Athens with Coastal Carolina University from the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division 1-AA) Big South Conference for Sept. 17, 2011.
The University of Georgia and Central Michigan University have signed a memorandum of understanding which schedules the two teams to play in Athens on Sept. 6, 2008.
The game will be the first meeting between the schools and finalizes the 2008 Georgia schedule which includes home games with Georgia Southern, Alabama, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Tech, in addition to Central Michigan.
"We're delighted that we've teamed up with Central Michigan for the 2008 game in Athens," said UGA Director of Athletics Damon Evans.
"We were looking for a quality Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1-A) opponent and we found that in Central Michigan which won the Mid-American Conference championship last year and also defeated Middle Tennessee in the Motor City Bowl."
The agreement provides for a guarantee to Central Michigan of $750,000.
Georgia defensive coordinator Willie Martinez and linebacker coach John Jancek both have ties to Central Michigan. Martinez coached defensive backs there in 1994, '98 and '99 and served as assistant head coach and secondary coach in 2000 before joining the Georgia staff in 2001. Jancek served as defensive line coach at Central Michigan in 2003 and defensive coordinator and linebacker coach in 2004. A current member of the Chippewas' staff is Jeff Beckles who served as a graduate assistant coach at UGA in 2002, 2004 and '05.
Georgia has also scheduled a game in Athens with Coastal Carolina University from the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division 1-AA) Big South Conference for Sept. 17, 2011.
Georgia adds Coastal Carolina in 2011
I wasn't aware of this until I read it on the Athens paper's site today, but Georgia will host Coastal Carolina in the 2011 football season. Coastal Carolina's coach actually announced it last Friday, but I hadn't heard about it until tonight.
Here's the link to the story about it in the Myrtle Beach paper from last week.
Here's the link to the story about it in the Myrtle Beach paper from last week.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Yoculan retiring after 08-09
Again, this isn't really my area, but Georgia just sent out this announcement...
University of Georgia gymnastics coach Suzanne Yoculan, who has led the Gym Dogs to eight NCAA national championships, will retire from her head coaching position following the 2008-09 season according to an announcement Wednesday by UGA Director of Athletics Damon Evans. Long time UGA assistant coach Jay Clark will succeed Yoculan according to Evans.
“Suzanne has done a remarkable job in her 25 years at UGA,” said Evans. “She has built the Georgia program into the most successful in the country. She’s been relentless in her quest to be the best every year and has brought to Georgia an enviable record of national and SEC titles, national champion gymnasts, and graduation rates. And there’s certainly reason to believe she will add to that legacy in her final two years.
“At the same time, we’re excited about Jay taking over the program. He’s been an integral part of the program that has been built and is the perfect fit to continue that tradition of excellence for many years to come. We’re fortunate to have Jay and I’m sure the coaching transition will be a seamless one.”
In 24 years at Georgia, Yoculan has led the Gym Dogs to eight NCAA titles, including three straight from 2005-07. She also has coached 15 Southeastern Conference Championship teams and 19 NCAA Regional Championship teams in her tenure. In fact, in 17 of her 24 years at Georgia she has led her team to either an SEC title, an NCAA title or both, and she has won at least an SEC, Regional or NCAA title in each of her 24 years.
You can read the whole thing at UGA's official site here.
University of Georgia gymnastics coach Suzanne Yoculan, who has led the Gym Dogs to eight NCAA national championships, will retire from her head coaching position following the 2008-09 season according to an announcement Wednesday by UGA Director of Athletics Damon Evans. Long time UGA assistant coach Jay Clark will succeed Yoculan according to Evans.
“Suzanne has done a remarkable job in her 25 years at UGA,” said Evans. “She has built the Georgia program into the most successful in the country. She’s been relentless in her quest to be the best every year and has brought to Georgia an enviable record of national and SEC titles, national champion gymnasts, and graduation rates. And there’s certainly reason to believe she will add to that legacy in her final two years.
“At the same time, we’re excited about Jay taking over the program. He’s been an integral part of the program that has been built and is the perfect fit to continue that tradition of excellence for many years to come. We’re fortunate to have Jay and I’m sure the coaching transition will be a seamless one.”
In 24 years at Georgia, Yoculan has led the Gym Dogs to eight NCAA titles, including three straight from 2005-07. She also has coached 15 Southeastern Conference Championship teams and 19 NCAA Regional Championship teams in her tenure. In fact, in 17 of her 24 years at Georgia she has led her team to either an SEC title, an NCAA title or both, and she has won at least an SEC, Regional or NCAA title in each of her 24 years.
You can read the whole thing at UGA's official site here.
Thomas Brown talks about injury
The paper gave me a new handy dandy digital recorder because we're doing these podcast-type things in cooperation with the NBC station in Columbus. The neat thing about this recorder is it works like a flash drive, so I can pop it straight into my laptop and upload audio files onto the computer and email them to work as an attachment. I decided to try it out and upload Thomas Brown talking about his collarbone injury from after practice today onto this site as an audio clip...BUT, I'm not sure how to do that. Apparently you have to have a web hoster or something and can't just upload sound files straight to this page. Oh well. If it's easy (and free) and someone is in the mood to explain this process to a big dummy, I'd welcome any advice.
So since I can't upload the sound file, I'll post a few quotes from Thomas.
On practicing for a week and playing a half with a broken collarbone:
The week at practice, it was slightly painful, but not as painful as it was in the Ole Miss game. The Tennessee game, it didn’t hurt at all. I didn’t feel it at all. I was just getting it inspected before the game started and the doctor decided it was a problem with my collarbone. He said he wanted to X-ray it before the game and I told him I wanted to wait until halftime. I played the whole first half and didn’t have any problems out of it. I went into the locker room and got X-rays and saw it was broken.
On how it felt during the Tennessee game:
I didn’t feel it at all. I actually felt pretty good. I got it warmed up, got it loose, got it stretched out. I was thinking the whole time it was just my separated shoulder. It was extremely tough just to take that that it was broken.
On whether he thinks he could come back for Florida:
It’s not a question of if I can come back and play – I can play. It’s just there’s always the possibility, that chance of me reinjuring it or making it worse and breaking it completely where I’d have to have surgery, which would put me out for three months – which I don’t want at all. I played on it without even knowing about it. If I was to fall like I did before, it could just snap completely in two and I’d have to have surgery, which is nothing I want to go through. I’m just taking it day to day and learning as much as I can from the injury – other people that I’ve seen have the injury. Hopefully it heals pretty quickly.
On whether he's seen/heard of anyone coming back from this injury in four weeks:
The only people I’ve seen come back in four weeks have been quarterbacks. They don’t get hit as much as running backs. I’m gonna hit somebody every play or get hit every play, which puts me more at risk. I haven’t really seen any running backs come back in four weeks.
On whether he's feeling pessimistic about his chances to play vs. Fla:
Maybe a little bit moreso than usual, just because of the chances I’d be taking with coming back. I don’t think getting hit directly on my shoulder would be a problem at all. It’s having a situation where I get my legs cut from under me and fall directly on my shoulder or dive into the end zone again like I did before would probably be the biggest problem that I would face, which is something you can’t say could or couldn’t happen.
Other stuff:
* Kregg Lumpkin had his knee scoped today. If you're in to this kind of thing, his official injuries were a torn lateral meniscus and a sprained posterior lateral complex. Richt said the best-case scenario is for him to be back for the bowl game:
"I think that’d be the only shot. But I think just talking to him today, he would welcome that opportunity. Some seniors are like, ‘You know what? Forget about it.’ But today he acted like if he was healthy, he wanted to finish."
More on the possibility of Kregg playing in the bowl:
"Ron thinks there’s a chance of that. Like when Coutu got hurt last year, initially he was like, ‘I don’t think so,’ but then healing went well and the guy felt good. ‘Let’s go.’ And he thinks that’s a possibility of that happening, too."
I was on a radio show today in Columbus and they told me it looked like Lumpkin was "chop blocked" when he was injured. I haven't seen the play, but I said I'd ask Richt about it:
"I don’t know if you’d call it a chop block. He got hyperextended. I didn’t study the play, but it was described that he got in a stalemate or whatever and then he got hit and his knee hyperextended."
* They let the youngsters who haven't played much get out there for a few eight-play drives after practice today. Richt seemed pleased with what they showed and said the older guys enjoyed watching.
* I'm not 100 percent sure on this and I forgot to ask, but I think today was the first day freshman OL Chris Little didn't practice in a green no-contact jersey since he's been at Georgia. He definitely wasn't in green today, but I'm not certain this was the first day. At any rate, he hasn't been practicing out of green long after having surgery to fix a broken wrist this summer.
* Other injury news: Brandon Miller (calf) ran and rode a stationary bike in the portion of practice we watched. A.J. Bryant (knee) and Mikey Henderson (hamstring) also ran sprints. Marcus Washington (shoulder) actually practiced in a green no-contact jersey, as did Kris Durham. Not sure what Durham's injury is, although he was in green recently with a separated shoulder. His being in green today could still be related to that.
* I mentioned the thing about Chris Gaunder being accepted to Mercer's medical school earlier. Richt also mentioned today that three players were accepted to Georgia's Terry College of Business -- Jeremy Lomax, Brad Arsenault and Christian Norton. Apparently that's a fairly prestigious achievement, so good for them.
So since I can't upload the sound file, I'll post a few quotes from Thomas.
On practicing for a week and playing a half with a broken collarbone:
The week at practice, it was slightly painful, but not as painful as it was in the Ole Miss game. The Tennessee game, it didn’t hurt at all. I didn’t feel it at all. I was just getting it inspected before the game started and the doctor decided it was a problem with my collarbone. He said he wanted to X-ray it before the game and I told him I wanted to wait until halftime. I played the whole first half and didn’t have any problems out of it. I went into the locker room and got X-rays and saw it was broken.
On how it felt during the Tennessee game:
I didn’t feel it at all. I actually felt pretty good. I got it warmed up, got it loose, got it stretched out. I was thinking the whole time it was just my separated shoulder. It was extremely tough just to take that that it was broken.
On whether he thinks he could come back for Florida:
It’s not a question of if I can come back and play – I can play. It’s just there’s always the possibility, that chance of me reinjuring it or making it worse and breaking it completely where I’d have to have surgery, which would put me out for three months – which I don’t want at all. I played on it without even knowing about it. If I was to fall like I did before, it could just snap completely in two and I’d have to have surgery, which is nothing I want to go through. I’m just taking it day to day and learning as much as I can from the injury – other people that I’ve seen have the injury. Hopefully it heals pretty quickly.
On whether he's seen/heard of anyone coming back from this injury in four weeks:
The only people I’ve seen come back in four weeks have been quarterbacks. They don’t get hit as much as running backs. I’m gonna hit somebody every play or get hit every play, which puts me more at risk. I haven’t really seen any running backs come back in four weeks.
On whether he's feeling pessimistic about his chances to play vs. Fla:
Maybe a little bit moreso than usual, just because of the chances I’d be taking with coming back. I don’t think getting hit directly on my shoulder would be a problem at all. It’s having a situation where I get my legs cut from under me and fall directly on my shoulder or dive into the end zone again like I did before would probably be the biggest problem that I would face, which is something you can’t say could or couldn’t happen.
Other stuff:
* Kregg Lumpkin had his knee scoped today. If you're in to this kind of thing, his official injuries were a torn lateral meniscus and a sprained posterior lateral complex. Richt said the best-case scenario is for him to be back for the bowl game:
"I think that’d be the only shot. But I think just talking to him today, he would welcome that opportunity. Some seniors are like, ‘You know what? Forget about it.’ But today he acted like if he was healthy, he wanted to finish."
More on the possibility of Kregg playing in the bowl:
"Ron thinks there’s a chance of that. Like when Coutu got hurt last year, initially he was like, ‘I don’t think so,’ but then healing went well and the guy felt good. ‘Let’s go.’ And he thinks that’s a possibility of that happening, too."
I was on a radio show today in Columbus and they told me it looked like Lumpkin was "chop blocked" when he was injured. I haven't seen the play, but I said I'd ask Richt about it:
"I don’t know if you’d call it a chop block. He got hyperextended. I didn’t study the play, but it was described that he got in a stalemate or whatever and then he got hit and his knee hyperextended."
* They let the youngsters who haven't played much get out there for a few eight-play drives after practice today. Richt seemed pleased with what they showed and said the older guys enjoyed watching.
* I'm not 100 percent sure on this and I forgot to ask, but I think today was the first day freshman OL Chris Little didn't practice in a green no-contact jersey since he's been at Georgia. He definitely wasn't in green today, but I'm not certain this was the first day. At any rate, he hasn't been practicing out of green long after having surgery to fix a broken wrist this summer.
* Other injury news: Brandon Miller (calf) ran and rode a stationary bike in the portion of practice we watched. A.J. Bryant (knee) and Mikey Henderson (hamstring) also ran sprints. Marcus Washington (shoulder) actually practiced in a green no-contact jersey, as did Kris Durham. Not sure what Durham's injury is, although he was in green recently with a separated shoulder. His being in green today could still be related to that.
* I mentioned the thing about Chris Gaunder being accepted to Mercer's medical school earlier. Richt also mentioned today that three players were accepted to Georgia's Terry College of Business -- Jeremy Lomax, Brad Arsenault and Christian Norton. Apparently that's a fairly prestigious achievement, so good for them.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Brown out for Florida
Spoke with Thomas Brown and Mark Richt today after practice. I'd planned on writing how Thomas didn't sound very optimistic about playing. And then Richt gave me reason to basically phrase it as though Thomas is pretty much definitely not playing. ("I don’t think there’s any chance he’ll play against Florida," is how he phrased it.)
That means Jason Johnson may be a valuable guy to have around starting soon. Actually, I think he's already a pretty valuable guy, in ways many folks don't see. I wrote something last week about how big of an emotional leader Thomas Brown is. Well next time you're watching pregame position drills or times when the running backs are grouped together, take note of who's leading that bunch. I wrote a feature on Jason early this season and pointed some of that out. He's a player that guys on the team seem to rally around, although his workload has been almost zero. (I believe he has three career carries)...not to say I expect him to get a bunch from here on in, but I'd like to see that happen for him on a personal level. He's been really fun to interview in the past and he's a great quote and it's a good story about how he came from Chicago as a walk-on and worked his way into a full scholly...
Also while I'm thinking about it. I spoke with walk-on special teams player/linebacker Chris Gaunder after practice. It was the first time I'd spoken to him and what a nice kid. He's from Woodstock, where my late aunt used to live and where I spent a lot of time as a kid. Richt mentioned on his TV show the other night that Chris was recently accepted to Mercer medical school, so I decided to get something together on that. Spoke with him for it and then asked Richt about it in post-practice Q/A time today. It was a great interview. What I've found is that, in general, the walk-on guys have much more interesting stories to tell. There are exceptions on either side of that coin, but I've enjoyed the couple of times I've done something on walk-ons because they've often got fun off-the-beaten-path kinds of stories. That story will be in our paper in the next few days.
Anyway, more late tonight. I'm gonna write my practice notebook and go to the gym to hopefully watch Cleveland put the Red Sox deep in the hole.
That means Jason Johnson may be a valuable guy to have around starting soon. Actually, I think he's already a pretty valuable guy, in ways many folks don't see. I wrote something last week about how big of an emotional leader Thomas Brown is. Well next time you're watching pregame position drills or times when the running backs are grouped together, take note of who's leading that bunch. I wrote a feature on Jason early this season and pointed some of that out. He's a player that guys on the team seem to rally around, although his workload has been almost zero. (I believe he has three career carries)...not to say I expect him to get a bunch from here on in, but I'd like to see that happen for him on a personal level. He's been really fun to interview in the past and he's a great quote and it's a good story about how he came from Chicago as a walk-on and worked his way into a full scholly...
Also while I'm thinking about it. I spoke with walk-on special teams player/linebacker Chris Gaunder after practice. It was the first time I'd spoken to him and what a nice kid. He's from Woodstock, where my late aunt used to live and where I spent a lot of time as a kid. Richt mentioned on his TV show the other night that Chris was recently accepted to Mercer medical school, so I decided to get something together on that. Spoke with him for it and then asked Richt about it in post-practice Q/A time today. It was a great interview. What I've found is that, in general, the walk-on guys have much more interesting stories to tell. There are exceptions on either side of that coin, but I've enjoyed the couple of times I've done something on walk-ons because they've often got fun off-the-beaten-path kinds of stories. That story will be in our paper in the next few days.
Anyway, more late tonight. I'm gonna write my practice notebook and go to the gym to hopefully watch Cleveland put the Red Sox deep in the hole.
On the Central Michigan thing...
No breaking news here...
I'd forgotten to post about this since the weekend was a bit of a blur. Sounds like the Central Michigan thing for the 2008 season is a strong possibility, but still not set in stone. I asked around about it and here was the response from on high:
"We are discussing a potential game with several institutions, including Central Michigan. However, we do not have a signed contract."
You'd have to think Central Michigan feels pretty good about it, though, if they're backing out of a deal with Mississippi State.
I'd forgotten to post about this since the weekend was a bit of a blur. Sounds like the Central Michigan thing for the 2008 season is a strong possibility, but still not set in stone. I asked around about it and here was the response from on high:
"We are discussing a potential game with several institutions, including Central Michigan. However, we do not have a signed contract."
You'd have to think Central Michigan feels pretty good about it, though, if they're backing out of a deal with Mississippi State.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Coutu's home burglarized
Anybody see this story from the Athens paper today? Brandon Coutu's house in Athens was burglarized while he was away in Nashville over the weekend. That's scary stuff.
Link
If the team were practicing today, I'm sure several of the reporters would probably talk to him about it and I'd include that in my notebook. But it's not exactly breaking football news, so I'm not doing something separate on it.
Link
If the team were practicing today, I'm sure several of the reporters would probably talk to him about it and I'd include that in my notebook. But it's not exactly breaking football news, so I'm not doing something separate on it.
Knowshon named SEC Frosh of Week
This is the second time Moreno has earned the weekly league honor. He also won it after the Alabama game.
From the UGA release:
University of Georgia redshirt freshman tailback Knowshon Moreno has been named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week for the second time this season, according to an announcement by the league office on Monday.
From the UGA release:
University of Georgia redshirt freshman tailback Knowshon Moreno has been named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week for the second time this season, according to an announcement by the league office on Monday.
Moreno, a 5-11, 207-pound native of Belford, N.J., registered a career-high 157 rushing yards after starting the first game of his career in a 20-17 win over Vanderbilt. After being named the first freshman captain in the modern era of Georgia football, Moreno averaged 5.6 yards per carry after rushing the ball 28 times against the Commodores, which was the most carries since Musa Smith had 37 carries (148 yards) in 2002. Moreno finished with 175 all-purpose yards since he also had two receptions for 18 yards.
Through seven games, Moreno leads No. 21 Georgia with 619 rushing yards for an average of 88.4 yards per game, which is seventh in the SEC (first for freshmen) and 48th in the nation. Also, Moreno has three rushing touchdowns and is second on the team with 195 receiving yards.
This is the second time Moreno has won the SEC Freshman of the Week award (Sept. 24).
Georgia-Florida kicking off at 3:30
Although there was some question as to whether the Cocktail Party would air in its usual 3:30 timeslot, that's the way it wound up. The game will air on CBS at 3:30.
Other SEC games that weekend on TV:
* Mississippi State at Kentucky: LF Sports, 12:30
* South Carolina at Tennessee: ESPN, 7:45
Other SEC games that weekend on TV:
* Mississippi State at Kentucky: LF Sports, 12:30
* South Carolina at Tennessee: ESPN, 7:45
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Fun with the polls
Here are the results of this week's Master Coaches Poll. Below that will be more observations on today's polls, including the first BCS rankings.
* 1. Ohio State (16)
* 2. Oklahoma
* 3. Boston College
* 4. (tie) LSU
* 4. (tie) South Florida
* 6. USC
* 7. Oregon
* 8. California
* 9. South Carolina
* 10. Florida
* 11. West Virginia
* 12. Kentucky
* 13. Virginia Tech
* 14. Arizona State
* 15. Kansas
* 16. Missouri
* 17. Hawaii
* 18. Texas
* 19. Auburn
* 20. Tennessee
* 21. Michigan
* 22. Texas Tech
* 23. Penn State
* 24. Illinois
* 25. Cincinnati
Other teams receiving votes ... Virginia 29, Georgia 24, Wisconsin 16, Alabama 8, Rutgers 5, Wake Forest 4, Oklahoma State 3, Boise State 2
* Georgia is 20th in the Harris Poll, the BCS and the coaches poll and 19th in the computer rankings. The Bulldogs are 21st in the AP poll, but that has no bearing on the BCS.
* Apparently Mike Slive is programming the computers for their rankings. It's interesting to see the composite average of the computer polls that combine to form the computer ranking that figures into the BCS. Here are where the ranked SEC teams stand in the computers:
2. LSU
3. South Carolina
4. Kentucky
12. Auburn
T17. Florida
T17. Tennessee
19. Georgia
* I have to admit, the first BCS rankings look crazy to me. Here's the top 10:
1. Ohio State
2. South Florida
3. Boston College
4. LSU
5. Oklahoma
6. South Carolina
7. Kentucky
8. Arizona State
9. West Virginia
10. Oregon
I would not have expected about half those teams to ever reach the top 10 this season, but here they are. Crazy season. Then again, I'm somebody whose weekly picks continuously prove that my prognostication skills may be somewhat lacking. (Went 4-2 straight up and 2-4 against the spread this week, by the way).
* 1. Ohio State (16)
* 2. Oklahoma
* 3. Boston College
* 4. (tie) LSU
* 4. (tie) South Florida
* 6. USC
* 7. Oregon
* 8. California
* 9. South Carolina
* 10. Florida
* 11. West Virginia
* 12. Kentucky
* 13. Virginia Tech
* 14. Arizona State
* 15. Kansas
* 16. Missouri
* 17. Hawaii
* 18. Texas
* 19. Auburn
* 20. Tennessee
* 21. Michigan
* 22. Texas Tech
* 23. Penn State
* 24. Illinois
* 25. Cincinnati
Other teams receiving votes ... Virginia 29, Georgia 24, Wisconsin 16, Alabama 8, Rutgers 5, Wake Forest 4, Oklahoma State 3, Boise State 2
* Georgia is 20th in the Harris Poll, the BCS and the coaches poll and 19th in the computer rankings. The Bulldogs are 21st in the AP poll, but that has no bearing on the BCS.
* Apparently Mike Slive is programming the computers for their rankings. It's interesting to see the composite average of the computer polls that combine to form the computer ranking that figures into the BCS. Here are where the ranked SEC teams stand in the computers:
2. LSU
3. South Carolina
4. Kentucky
12. Auburn
T17. Florida
T17. Tennessee
19. Georgia
* I have to admit, the first BCS rankings look crazy to me. Here's the top 10:
1. Ohio State
2. South Florida
3. Boston College
4. LSU
5. Oklahoma
6. South Carolina
7. Kentucky
8. Arizona State
9. West Virginia
10. Oregon
I would not have expected about half those teams to ever reach the top 10 this season, but here they are. Crazy season. Then again, I'm somebody whose weekly picks continuously prove that my prognostication skills may be somewhat lacking. (Went 4-2 straight up and 2-4 against the spread this week, by the way).
Sunday teleconference highlights
I just got home from Nashville about 30 minutes ago. I was sitting in a BP parking lot in Chattanooga for Mark Richt's teleconference and typed my story in the cab of my truck while hijacking a wireless signal at a Krystal in Cartersville...all that said to explain why I won't be doing a full transcript of the teleconference today.
Enjoyed Nashville, though. I went to Cooter's Dukes of Hazzard museum and gift shop while killing time yesterday afternoon. I believe my buddy from Macon, Josh Kendall, was legitimately disappointed that I didn't follow through on my offer to buy a General Lee onesie for Baby Kendall while I was there. It's quite an establishment, though. You can get your picture made in the General Lee, Daisy Duke's jeep OR Rosco P. Coltrane's cruiser for a few bucks...If you told 5-year-old me such a place existed, I'd have been saving my pennies. Anyway...
The main news item today was that Kregg Lumpkin's knee and ankle injuries are going to keep him out for quite some time, perhaps the rest of the regular season. They're hoping Thomas Brown will be back for Florida, but if not, Richt said Jason Johnson, Shaun Chapas and Kalvin Daniels can back up Knowshon Moreno, and Brannan Southerland might even work out of some one-back sets. Otherwise, he said they came out of the Vandy game pretty healthy. Haverkamp held up and Rennie Curran got in there some. There was also a lot of talk of the team apparently jumping on the Vanderbilt "V" logo after the game and Richt's exchange with Bobby Johnson after the game. He said the meeting was not heated -- that he apologized to Johnson if that ticked him off and that Johnson said not to worry about it. I didn't see any of this stuff as I was trying to get through the crowd to the field at the end of the game, but he said their interaction was as cordial as it could have been considering the circumstances.
Here are some of the quotes I transcribed today:
On Lumpkin's injury situation:
I wouldn't count him out for the entire season all the way to the bowl, but it doesn't look like he'll be back anytime soon.
On how the injury occurred:
I don't really know for sure. He felt like on one of his runs, he got kinda stood up a bit and as he got hit, I think there was a little bit of hyperextention on the knee. He also had a high ankle sprain along with it. I think it happened on the same play.
More on Lumpkin:
Ron Courson called me and said this doesn't look good for the near future and maybe the majority of the season. I don't think it'll go as far as saying it'll end his season or not, but it doesn't look like he'll play here any time soon. He had a high ankle sprain that coulda kept him out a good bit, but his knee also was hurt. Ron was saying that it's an injury that they're gonna let it settle down and there's a chance that it'll require no surgery other than possibly a little bit of scope for some cartilage.
More on extent of injuries:
They're gonna have to wait a little bit to decide, but they're very optimistic that it will not require any major surgery, just a scope of a cartilage.
On tailback depth:
Anytime you don't have a lot of depth at any position, you've gotta really guard that guy. That's where Knowshon is right now. There's an outside shot that Thomas Brown could make it, being that it would be at the four-week mark. We're not gonna count him out. Jason Johnson definitely knows what to do and he's a very physical football player, and a senior who's been in some contests before, been in some wars before, and Chapas also knows what to do at that position.
(He said Daniels will probably come over from the scout team and work with the first- and second- team offenses in practice.)
On Knowshon Moreno's fatigue level after running 28 times Saturday:
(He's) pretty good. I'm sure he's tired. I'm sure he's a little beat up, but this day off will be a blessing for him as it will for the rest of the team.
On Thomas Brown's chances of being ready for Florida:
I'm not saying he's gonna make it, but it's possible... Florida would be the four-week mark, so there's an outside chance he could be ready for the Florida game.
On taking a win into the bye week:
It is great to have a win before we've got two weeks to prepare for the next opponent. I didn't want anybody to think about football today at all unless they wanted to watch some NFL or something like that. I don't want the coaches -- I told the coaches not to come in at all and to just Monday morning get going and start working on wrapping up on Vanderbilt and beginning their work for Florida. I'm not gonna say a coach here or there didn't go in there individually or take a computer home.
More on getting a win before the bye:
It's definitely good medicine because if you're sitting there with a loss, it just gnaws at you. A loss gnaws at you. If you have to let it get after you for two weeks instead of one before you get a chance to redeem yourself, it's tough.
On hoping to get the injured guys (Brown, Miller, Washington, Bryant) back before the Florida game:
We might have just about everybody back other than Lumpkin.
It sounds like it's going to be a semi-relaxed week. The team will practice on Tuesday and Thursday, which will allow the coaches to get out and recruit a couple days this week. I'll have a few things this week, but the volume of posting will probably be down. Will try to have a Q/A or something every day, though, so keep checking with me.
dc
Enjoyed Nashville, though. I went to Cooter's Dukes of Hazzard museum and gift shop while killing time yesterday afternoon. I believe my buddy from Macon, Josh Kendall, was legitimately disappointed that I didn't follow through on my offer to buy a General Lee onesie for Baby Kendall while I was there. It's quite an establishment, though. You can get your picture made in the General Lee, Daisy Duke's jeep OR Rosco P. Coltrane's cruiser for a few bucks...If you told 5-year-old me such a place existed, I'd have been saving my pennies. Anyway...
The main news item today was that Kregg Lumpkin's knee and ankle injuries are going to keep him out for quite some time, perhaps the rest of the regular season. They're hoping Thomas Brown will be back for Florida, but if not, Richt said Jason Johnson, Shaun Chapas and Kalvin Daniels can back up Knowshon Moreno, and Brannan Southerland might even work out of some one-back sets. Otherwise, he said they came out of the Vandy game pretty healthy. Haverkamp held up and Rennie Curran got in there some. There was also a lot of talk of the team apparently jumping on the Vanderbilt "V" logo after the game and Richt's exchange with Bobby Johnson after the game. He said the meeting was not heated -- that he apologized to Johnson if that ticked him off and that Johnson said not to worry about it. I didn't see any of this stuff as I was trying to get through the crowd to the field at the end of the game, but he said their interaction was as cordial as it could have been considering the circumstances.
Here are some of the quotes I transcribed today:
On Lumpkin's injury situation:
I wouldn't count him out for the entire season all the way to the bowl, but it doesn't look like he'll be back anytime soon.
On how the injury occurred:
I don't really know for sure. He felt like on one of his runs, he got kinda stood up a bit and as he got hit, I think there was a little bit of hyperextention on the knee. He also had a high ankle sprain along with it. I think it happened on the same play.
More on Lumpkin:
Ron Courson called me and said this doesn't look good for the near future and maybe the majority of the season. I don't think it'll go as far as saying it'll end his season or not, but it doesn't look like he'll play here any time soon. He had a high ankle sprain that coulda kept him out a good bit, but his knee also was hurt. Ron was saying that it's an injury that they're gonna let it settle down and there's a chance that it'll require no surgery other than possibly a little bit of scope for some cartilage.
More on extent of injuries:
They're gonna have to wait a little bit to decide, but they're very optimistic that it will not require any major surgery, just a scope of a cartilage.
On tailback depth:
Anytime you don't have a lot of depth at any position, you've gotta really guard that guy. That's where Knowshon is right now. There's an outside shot that Thomas Brown could make it, being that it would be at the four-week mark. We're not gonna count him out. Jason Johnson definitely knows what to do and he's a very physical football player, and a senior who's been in some contests before, been in some wars before, and Chapas also knows what to do at that position.
(He said Daniels will probably come over from the scout team and work with the first- and second- team offenses in practice.)
On Knowshon Moreno's fatigue level after running 28 times Saturday:
(He's) pretty good. I'm sure he's tired. I'm sure he's a little beat up, but this day off will be a blessing for him as it will for the rest of the team.
On Thomas Brown's chances of being ready for Florida:
I'm not saying he's gonna make it, but it's possible... Florida would be the four-week mark, so there's an outside chance he could be ready for the Florida game.
On taking a win into the bye week:
It is great to have a win before we've got two weeks to prepare for the next opponent. I didn't want anybody to think about football today at all unless they wanted to watch some NFL or something like that. I don't want the coaches -- I told the coaches not to come in at all and to just Monday morning get going and start working on wrapping up on Vanderbilt and beginning their work for Florida. I'm not gonna say a coach here or there didn't go in there individually or take a computer home.
More on getting a win before the bye:
It's definitely good medicine because if you're sitting there with a loss, it just gnaws at you. A loss gnaws at you. If you have to let it get after you for two weeks instead of one before you get a chance to redeem yourself, it's tough.
On hoping to get the injured guys (Brown, Miller, Washington, Bryant) back before the Florida game:
We might have just about everybody back other than Lumpkin.
It sounds like it's going to be a semi-relaxed week. The team will practice on Tuesday and Thursday, which will allow the coaches to get out and recruit a couple days this week. I'll have a few things this week, but the volume of posting will probably be down. Will try to have a Q/A or something every day, though, so keep checking with me.
dc
Kessler passes away
Don't know if you've seen this or not, but former UGA basketball star Alec Kessler just died at age 40. You can read more on it at the school's site here.
I'll post some Vandy stuff tonight once I get home from Nashville. Going out to hang out around the city some before heading home. Wandered around downtown last night. It's a pretty neat town. There was a good band at B.B. King's.
I'll post some Vandy stuff tonight once I get home from Nashville. Going out to hang out around the city some before heading home. Wandered around downtown last night. It's a pretty neat town. There was a good band at B.B. King's.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Saw Samuel
I went to see UGA commitment Richard Samuel play last night on the way to Nashville. Seems a nice kid. It was kind of nostalgic to go to his school, Cass High in Cartersville, to watch the game since one of my first newspaper jobs was at the paper in town.
He's a gifted player. I know the recruiting services mostly list him as a running back prospect, but I'll eat my hat if he doesn't play linebacker in college. When he gets a clean shot on somebody, you don't need to see his jersey number, you can tell who it was from the way the ballcarrier pops back. He is all right as a running back, but I don't see him having nearly the impact ability as a runner as he does as a tackler. He reminds me a little bit of Auburn linebacker Tray Blackmon, whom I watched several times in high school. They're similar players, although Blackmon had a lot more defensive talent around him at LaGrange than Samuel does at Cass. Just one man's opinion.
He's a gifted player. I know the recruiting services mostly list him as a running back prospect, but I'll eat my hat if he doesn't play linebacker in college. When he gets a clean shot on somebody, you don't need to see his jersey number, you can tell who it was from the way the ballcarrier pops back. He is all right as a running back, but I don't see him having nearly the impact ability as a runner as he does as a tackler. He reminds me a little bit of Auburn linebacker Tray Blackmon, whom I watched several times in high school. They're similar players, although Blackmon had a lot more defensive talent around him at LaGrange than Samuel does at Cass. Just one man's opinion.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Week 7 quick picks
Heading out the door for Nashville as soon as my clothes come out of the dryer, so I'll try to make this quick.
Alabama at Ole Miss, 12:30 p.m., LF Sports
Line: Alabama by 6
My guess: I would have predicted the Tide would win big over Ole Miss after the first quarter against Houston. But somehow, Alabama led a 23-0 lead evaporate into a 30-24 win where Houston was deep in Alabama territory and throwing for the end zone on the final play. Whoops. I think the Rebs will move the ball through the air and make the Tide sweat, but Bama will eventually win and cover. Alabama 30, Ole Miss 21
Tennessee at Mississippi State, 2:30 p.m., PPV
Line: Tennessee by 7
My guess: Boy the Vols didn't look like a 2-2 team last weekend, did they? I don't know if they're as good as they looked while taking Georgia behind the woodshed, but I know they're 7 points better than Mississippi State. Tennessee 28, Mississippi State 14
LSU at Kentucky, 3:30 p.m., CBS
Line: LSU by 10
My guess: I thought this spread looked big until I recalled how Kentucky pooped the bed last week at South Carolina after outplaying the Gamecocks (at least I thought they did). Kentucky's fun to watch, but I think they might be a bit too fancy to beat LSU. And by fancy, I'm summoning up a little Pat Dye to say they aren't man enough. LSU 40, Kentucky 20
South Carolina at North Carolina, 3:30 p.m., ABC
Line: South Carolina by 7
My guess: North Carolina's shown a little life for the first time in a while under Butch Davis, but I don't think the Tar Heels will be the team to bring the Gamecocks back down to earth. I have to say, Chris Smelley looks pretty good. I'll admit I was skeptical he had "it." South Carolina 24, North Carolina 14
Georgia at Vanderbilt, 6 p.m., ESPN2
Line: Georgia by 7
My guess: I was surprised at the way Georgia came out last weekend. I'd be shocked if the Bulldogs don't put it to Vanderbilt. The Commodores are not good. Auburn ran wild on them a week ago (and the Tigers started three true freshman offensive linemen). Knowshon Moreno and Kregg Lumpkin have big days and the Bulldogs cruise. Georgia 35, Vanderbilt 14
Auburn at Arkansas, 7:45 p.m., ESPN
Line: Arkansas by 3
My guess: You got me. This game has quite often been an unexpected woodshed beating. Maybe at some point we should start expecting it, but I don't see how it will happen Saturday. McFadden and Jones are tough, but Arkansas is fairly subpar around them. Then again, Auburn will probably be without four defensive starters and its starting center. Arkansas 23, Auburn 21
Alabama at Ole Miss, 12:30 p.m., LF Sports
Line: Alabama by 6
My guess: I would have predicted the Tide would win big over Ole Miss after the first quarter against Houston. But somehow, Alabama led a 23-0 lead evaporate into a 30-24 win where Houston was deep in Alabama territory and throwing for the end zone on the final play. Whoops. I think the Rebs will move the ball through the air and make the Tide sweat, but Bama will eventually win and cover. Alabama 30, Ole Miss 21
Tennessee at Mississippi State, 2:30 p.m., PPV
Line: Tennessee by 7
My guess: Boy the Vols didn't look like a 2-2 team last weekend, did they? I don't know if they're as good as they looked while taking Georgia behind the woodshed, but I know they're 7 points better than Mississippi State. Tennessee 28, Mississippi State 14
LSU at Kentucky, 3:30 p.m., CBS
Line: LSU by 10
My guess: I thought this spread looked big until I recalled how Kentucky pooped the bed last week at South Carolina after outplaying the Gamecocks (at least I thought they did). Kentucky's fun to watch, but I think they might be a bit too fancy to beat LSU. And by fancy, I'm summoning up a little Pat Dye to say they aren't man enough. LSU 40, Kentucky 20
South Carolina at North Carolina, 3:30 p.m., ABC
Line: South Carolina by 7
My guess: North Carolina's shown a little life for the first time in a while under Butch Davis, but I don't think the Tar Heels will be the team to bring the Gamecocks back down to earth. I have to say, Chris Smelley looks pretty good. I'll admit I was skeptical he had "it." South Carolina 24, North Carolina 14
Georgia at Vanderbilt, 6 p.m., ESPN2
Line: Georgia by 7
My guess: I was surprised at the way Georgia came out last weekend. I'd be shocked if the Bulldogs don't put it to Vanderbilt. The Commodores are not good. Auburn ran wild on them a week ago (and the Tigers started three true freshman offensive linemen). Knowshon Moreno and Kregg Lumpkin have big days and the Bulldogs cruise. Georgia 35, Vanderbilt 14
Auburn at Arkansas, 7:45 p.m., ESPN
Line: Arkansas by 3
My guess: You got me. This game has quite often been an unexpected woodshed beating. Maybe at some point we should start expecting it, but I don't see how it will happen Saturday. McFadden and Jones are tough, but Arkansas is fairly subpar around them. Then again, Auburn will probably be without four defensive starters and its starting center. Arkansas 23, Auburn 21
Central Michigan on '08 sked?
Don't know if you saw it, but Josh Kendall from our sister paper in Macon led his notebook with the item that Georgia is close to a deal with Central Michigan to join/complete next season's schedule. I don't have many details at this point, but I'll see what I can find out. Good job by Josh.
Link
Link
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Mikey Henderson update + David Johnson Q/A
We spoke with Mark Richt before practice, as per usual on Thursdays. Nothing especially monumental, although he did say that Mikey Henderson will travel to Nashville for Saturday's Vanderbilt game (Brandon Miller and Thomas Brown will not). Mikey is cleared to play and could probably return punts if something were to happen with Thomas Flowers, but it sounds like they're trying to avoid using him, as of now.
Here are his comments:
"Thomas Flowers will be our punt return man to start the game. If something would happen to Thomas, I think Mikey’s still capable of fielding a punt and probably returning a punt. Our concern is if we do too much with him, we could overload that hamstring right now. He has got a medical clearance to play, but he doesn’t feel 100 percent. He feels like if we do too much we could cause a problem. Initially we were like, ‘Well let’s not do anything.’ But the more we think about it and the more he feels a little bit better as the week goes along, you feel like let’s get him in position to help if needed."
He also said they hope to get A.J. Bryant, Brandon Miller and Marcus Washington back in practice not next week, but during the week of practice preceding the Florida game.
Someone also asked him about the suspension of the three Georgia basketball players and how the new academic policy that brings game punishment when players don't attend classes affects things. He said he doesn't think the policy affects recruiting because he's never met a parent who doesn't want them to try to make their children attend class. There's a bonus written into his contract (which he said he didn't ask for) that nets him a little extra green when the team meets certain academic standards, but he said that has never been a motivating factor for him.
Here's a snippet of what he had to say:
"I’m not gonna work any harder to get these guys graduated because of a bonus or because of a policy. My intention from the first day I got to Georgia is to do everything we possibly can to support these guys and motivate these guys and discipline these guys if need be to take care of their academic responsibilities. It doesn’t change the way we do anything."
Here's that Q&A I did with tight ends coach David Johnson yesterday. We talked about how Tripp Chandler and Bruce Figgins are splitting time with the first- and second-team offenses (I still kinda think Tripp will start, but Figgins' role continues to increase. They threw to him once last week, although Bruce said he did the wrong thing on his route and the pass wound up zipping past him inside), as well as what's been going on with NaDerris Ward.
Here's what he had to say:
It looked like Figgins and Chandler were splitting first-team reps while we were watching. Is that what's going on?
Yeah pretty much. Depending on what is scripted for that particular period, different guys will get different reps based off of who we think is gonna be in for those particular plays. So they’re rotating. They’re both getting one reps and some twos, depending on what we’re running at that particular time.
Is it Bruce having made a move?
It’s called competition. We just want to have them compete. After I think it was South Carolina where we just said we’re gonna take it week by week and we’re gonna determine who’s gonna start based off the week’s practice, and give each guy the opportunity. Even in the games, Bruce is in there when we’re in two-tight sets and those types of things too. Plus he’s in there on (long scrimmage?) downs, too, with the ones. It’s just a way of them competing with each other. It brings out the best in both of them and we’re trying to bring them both along.
How have you felt about the way the two of them have responded to that competition?
Pretty good. I think we’re taking advantage of some opportunities. We still need to do better. We need to play more consistently. They’re doing fine. Anything you do with competition is gonna help. I’ve been pleased so far, but we’ve got a long way to go.
This is not something that’s new, this is something that’s been going on for the last few weeks, right?
Yeah. And actually with Tripp not playing in the first game, Bruce all through camp after a certain amount of time was taking most of the ones anyhow, so he’s been either with the first unit or rotating with the first unit since camp started.
How has NaDerris fared lately? We haven’t heard a lot about him.
He’s progressing. He’s getting stronger coming off that shoulder surgery. He needs to get in the weight room and get stronger. He’s progressing, he’s progressing. It’s gonna take a little while, but he’s progressing and working hard in practice. He has a good attitude. So I think it’ll be all right. Time will tell, but hopefully we’ll get him in the mix and maybe even fire up that competition even more.
Were you expecting him to be physically where he is right now or were you thinking he’d be further along than where he is at this point?
I wasn’t really sure. With the kind of surgery he had, I really didn’t know what to expect. It was an injury that affected his total body. He couldn’t squat, he couldn’t do anything because of his shoulder. You can’t put a bar on your back and you can’t power clean and all the things that’ll help build up your lower body, too, so he’s a little bit behind in that way too. He’s working hard in the weight room and I just keep reminding him that every spare moment that he has, if he can get in there and get something done in the weight room far and above anything that we do as a team, that’ll be well worth his time to do that.
Here are his comments:
"Thomas Flowers will be our punt return man to start the game. If something would happen to Thomas, I think Mikey’s still capable of fielding a punt and probably returning a punt. Our concern is if we do too much with him, we could overload that hamstring right now. He has got a medical clearance to play, but he doesn’t feel 100 percent. He feels like if we do too much we could cause a problem. Initially we were like, ‘Well let’s not do anything.’ But the more we think about it and the more he feels a little bit better as the week goes along, you feel like let’s get him in position to help if needed."
He also said they hope to get A.J. Bryant, Brandon Miller and Marcus Washington back in practice not next week, but during the week of practice preceding the Florida game.
Someone also asked him about the suspension of the three Georgia basketball players and how the new academic policy that brings game punishment when players don't attend classes affects things. He said he doesn't think the policy affects recruiting because he's never met a parent who doesn't want them to try to make their children attend class. There's a bonus written into his contract (which he said he didn't ask for) that nets him a little extra green when the team meets certain academic standards, but he said that has never been a motivating factor for him.
Here's a snippet of what he had to say:
"I’m not gonna work any harder to get these guys graduated because of a bonus or because of a policy. My intention from the first day I got to Georgia is to do everything we possibly can to support these guys and motivate these guys and discipline these guys if need be to take care of their academic responsibilities. It doesn’t change the way we do anything."
Here's that Q&A I did with tight ends coach David Johnson yesterday. We talked about how Tripp Chandler and Bruce Figgins are splitting time with the first- and second-team offenses (I still kinda think Tripp will start, but Figgins' role continues to increase. They threw to him once last week, although Bruce said he did the wrong thing on his route and the pass wound up zipping past him inside), as well as what's been going on with NaDerris Ward.
Here's what he had to say:
It looked like Figgins and Chandler were splitting first-team reps while we were watching. Is that what's going on?
Yeah pretty much. Depending on what is scripted for that particular period, different guys will get different reps based off of who we think is gonna be in for those particular plays. So they’re rotating. They’re both getting one reps and some twos, depending on what we’re running at that particular time.
Is it Bruce having made a move?
It’s called competition. We just want to have them compete. After I think it was South Carolina where we just said we’re gonna take it week by week and we’re gonna determine who’s gonna start based off the week’s practice, and give each guy the opportunity. Even in the games, Bruce is in there when we’re in two-tight sets and those types of things too. Plus he’s in there on (long scrimmage?) downs, too, with the ones. It’s just a way of them competing with each other. It brings out the best in both of them and we’re trying to bring them both along.
How have you felt about the way the two of them have responded to that competition?
Pretty good. I think we’re taking advantage of some opportunities. We still need to do better. We need to play more consistently. They’re doing fine. Anything you do with competition is gonna help. I’ve been pleased so far, but we’ve got a long way to go.
This is not something that’s new, this is something that’s been going on for the last few weeks, right?
Yeah. And actually with Tripp not playing in the first game, Bruce all through camp after a certain amount of time was taking most of the ones anyhow, so he’s been either with the first unit or rotating with the first unit since camp started.
How has NaDerris fared lately? We haven’t heard a lot about him.
He’s progressing. He’s getting stronger coming off that shoulder surgery. He needs to get in the weight room and get stronger. He’s progressing, he’s progressing. It’s gonna take a little while, but he’s progressing and working hard in practice. He has a good attitude. So I think it’ll be all right. Time will tell, but hopefully we’ll get him in the mix and maybe even fire up that competition even more.
Were you expecting him to be physically where he is right now or were you thinking he’d be further along than where he is at this point?
I wasn’t really sure. With the kind of surgery he had, I really didn’t know what to expect. It was an injury that affected his total body. He couldn’t squat, he couldn’t do anything because of his shoulder. You can’t put a bar on your back and you can’t power clean and all the things that’ll help build up your lower body, too, so he’s a little bit behind in that way too. He’s working hard in the weight room and I just keep reminding him that every spare moment that he has, if he can get in there and get something done in the weight room far and above anything that we do as a team, that’ll be well worth his time to do that.
Three Georgia hoops players suspended
And they're significant guys. Mike Mercer, Takais Brown and Albert Jackson. Don't know anything about this and won't be writing an actual story about it since I don't cover UGA hoops, but I figured I'd pass along the news.
Here's the start of the UGA release:
University of Georgia basketball players Mike Mercer, Takais Brown and Albert Jackson will face suspensions during the 2007-08 season for violating Athletic Association policy, according to an announcement Thursday from head coach Dennis Felton. Mercer will miss 15 games of the coming season, while Brown will miss nine games and Jackson will sit out six contests.
Mercer’s 15-game suspension will begin once he has been medically cleared to participate. The junior from Snellville missed the last 10 games of the 2007 season after he suffered injuries to his right knee in the Bulldogs’ win at South Carolina on Feb. 10.
The suspensions for Brown and Jackson will begin with Georgia’s exhibition game against Clayton State on Friday, Nov. 2.
Here's the start of the UGA release:
University of Georgia basketball players Mike Mercer, Takais Brown and Albert Jackson will face suspensions during the 2007-08 season for violating Athletic Association policy, according to an announcement Thursday from head coach Dennis Felton. Mercer will miss 15 games of the coming season, while Brown will miss nine games and Jackson will sit out six contests.
Mercer’s 15-game suspension will begin once he has been medically cleared to participate. The junior from Snellville missed the last 10 games of the 2007 season after he suffered injuries to his right knee in the Bulldogs’ win at South Carolina on Feb. 10.
The suspensions for Brown and Jackson will begin with Georgia’s exhibition game against Clayton State on Friday, Nov. 2.
Note before bed
I spoke with a bunch of guys today -- Bruce Figgins, David Johnson, Rennie Curran, Akeem Dent and Thomas Flowers. Flowers was very funny today. He'll be the starting punt returner this weekend with Mikey Henderson sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Talked to Bruce and coach Johnson about what they're doing at tight end. Bruce said he and Tripp are splitting first-team reps and Johnson said which player goes in depends on what is scripted for particular instances. He said the competition has been good. I'll do a note on that stuff for Friday. Johnson said NaDerris Ward was set back by his shoulder injury last because it kept him from working out so long and getting stronger, but he continues to make progress.
Led my Thursday notebook with the possibility that Georgia could have its fourth combination of starting linebackers. Because Brandon Miller is likely out with a calf injury, it looks like Akeem Dent will start at strongside linebacker, Dannell Ellerbe will be in the middle and either Rennie Curran or Darius Dewberry will be at weakside. Dent-Ellerbe-Dewberry was the combination for Western Carolina, so it won't be a new combo unless Curran works his way into the starting lineup.
This might be the source of some concern. With Miller and Marcus Washington out, Georgia has five scholarship linebackers healthy -- Dent, Ellerbe, Dewberry, Curran and Darryl Gamble. Richt said Chris Gaunder and Benjamin Boyd can also help if necessary. The linebackers have had a tough time lately, though, so maybe letting the young guys get a look will be a good thing.
The team's defensive problems were the subject of my Thursday story. It was fairly long, as my Thursday UGA story usually is. I tried to get into some of the things that went wrong against Tennessee and what some of the players/coaches thought about why those lapses happened. I guess it came out OK. You can read it here.
And you can read the notebook here.
Talked to Bruce and coach Johnson about what they're doing at tight end. Bruce said he and Tripp are splitting first-team reps and Johnson said which player goes in depends on what is scripted for particular instances. He said the competition has been good. I'll do a note on that stuff for Friday. Johnson said NaDerris Ward was set back by his shoulder injury last because it kept him from working out so long and getting stronger, but he continues to make progress.
Led my Thursday notebook with the possibility that Georgia could have its fourth combination of starting linebackers. Because Brandon Miller is likely out with a calf injury, it looks like Akeem Dent will start at strongside linebacker, Dannell Ellerbe will be in the middle and either Rennie Curran or Darius Dewberry will be at weakside. Dent-Ellerbe-Dewberry was the combination for Western Carolina, so it won't be a new combo unless Curran works his way into the starting lineup.
This might be the source of some concern. With Miller and Marcus Washington out, Georgia has five scholarship linebackers healthy -- Dent, Ellerbe, Dewberry, Curran and Darryl Gamble. Richt said Chris Gaunder and Benjamin Boyd can also help if necessary. The linebackers have had a tough time lately, though, so maybe letting the young guys get a look will be a good thing.
The team's defensive problems were the subject of my Thursday story. It was fairly long, as my Thursday UGA story usually is. I tried to get into some of the things that went wrong against Tennessee and what some of the players/coaches thought about why those lapses happened. I guess it came out OK. You can read it here.
And you can read the notebook here.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Quick practice update
Just came in from watching the first four periods of practice.
Brandon Miller and Mikey Henderson were not practicing. Brandon is out of the boot he was wearing yesterday, but he, Mikey, A.J. Bryant, Thomas Brown and others were in the weight room working out when we left practice. A.J. and Thomas had been doing some running and walking on the practice fields prior to that.
Also in green: Tanner Strickland, Chris Little, Kris Durham, Rowdy Francis, Marcus Washington.
Out of green: Scott Haverkamp. Benjamin Boyd was also out of green and running on the side.
Will also bear watching whether Bruce Figgins or Tripp Chandler is the starting tight end. Will ask about that later. Appeared as though they were splitting first-team reps, although Bruce took the first snap I saw the starting offense take against the scout team.
Brandon Miller and Mikey Henderson were not practicing. Brandon is out of the boot he was wearing yesterday, but he, Mikey, A.J. Bryant, Thomas Brown and others were in the weight room working out when we left practice. A.J. and Thomas had been doing some running and walking on the practice fields prior to that.
Also in green: Tanner Strickland, Chris Little, Kris Durham, Rowdy Francis, Marcus Washington.
Out of green: Scott Haverkamp. Benjamin Boyd was also out of green and running on the side.
Will also bear watching whether Bruce Figgins or Tripp Chandler is the starting tight end. Will ask about that later. Appeared as though they were splitting first-team reps, although Bruce took the first snap I saw the starting offense take against the scout team.
Tuesday notes
I already posted that news about Knowshon Moreno starting Saturday against Vanderbilt. So check out that Q/A with Tony Ball I posted earlier.
The team only practiced for about 30 minutes today before it started pouring rain and there were some flashes of lightning. Instead they went over to the Ramsey Student Center and practiced for about an hour. I'm sure that unfortunate circumstance was met with a certain amount of joy, since Tuesdays are their heavy hitting days. One of the players grinned when I asked him about it and didn't seem to mind they missed out on that experience today, but noted they'd have fresher legs against Vanderbilt.
* Tony Ball said Asher Allen will return kickoffs and Knowshon will be his backup.
* Richt said today that Rennie Curran suffered a slight concussion against Tennessee, but said he had been pushing for a starting job at weakside linebacker in place of Darius Dewberry. He was supposed to practice in a green no-contact jersey today (although I'm not certain that he did) and Richt said he still could push for a starting spot if he's able to get back to practice fairly quickly.
Here's what Richt had to say:
"It’s not out of the question this week. He’s recovering from a little bit of a concussion, which I think he’ll go today in a green jersey, non-contact situation. And if he does well, he’ll probably get to have some contact tomorrow, which will be great. I don’t know if that would keep him from moving into a starting role, but he played very well. If he didn’t have a concussion issue, he’d have been a strong candidate to start. I’m not gonna say it was guaranteed he was gonna start, but he definitely was making a strong move in that direction."
Other injury news:
* LB Brandon Miller was had his left foot in a walking boot today. He said he injured his calf in Monday's practice and isn't sure whether he'll play Saturday -- although he says it's a possibility.
* OL Scott Haverkamp (ankle) was on the practice field in a green no-contact jersey before the team took it indoors.
* Saw WR Kris Durham (shoulder) after practice. He was in green today as well. WR coach John Eason said Durham will probably play on Saturday.
Here's another Richt quote I thought was interesting today. On why the team has been so up and down this year:
"I think it’s immaturity. I just don’t think we’re a real mature team. We’ve been up, we’ve been down. We have not had a consistent effort throughout the season. Even in the Ole Miss game, we didn’t start out too good in that one. And fortunately they fumbled and we go 90-something yards and then something sparked our ability to start getting after it. Maybe it is a confidence thing. I don’t think that’s what it is. I know when something good happened in that game, it changed the momentum. I just think that we’re young more than anything else overall. We’re just not at the point where we can mentally overcome things like fatigue, overcome things like momentum going against you. We’ve got to do a better job of that. This week, we’re just gonna really harp on that type of thing. We’ve gotta create our own momentum and it seemed like coaches, players alike, we were waiting for something to spark us and nothing happened until it was too late. We did get a three-and-out to start the second half, we did get Demiko making a play that could spark a comeback, but it just didn’t last very long. We’ve gotta be able to create a little bit more of that – whether it’s by us doing things coaching-wise or seniors taking on that role or just some guy who wants to make a play."
I did a story for Wednesday's paper on how big of a loss Thomas Brown is for the next month -- for his presence as much as his play. I talked to several guys about that subject, about whether it's important to have an emotional leader in the huddle and who that might be without Thomas around. A pretty frequent response was that Fernando Velasco is the vocal leader. It's interesting to me that the subject of leadership rarely comes up until a team suffers an embarrassing loss. I found it interesting this time in particular because the loss was accompanied by Thomas going down.
Anyway, here's what Kelin Johnson -- certainly the vocal leader of the defense -- said about why it's important to have an emotional leader:
"It is important because you have some guys that will come to practice to practice. You’ll have guys who come ready to play and emotions don’t really set in on them. They’re just football players. But then you do have some guys that need some motivation. If you don’t have the guys on your team that are outspoken, that have emotion and care about the atmosphere, everyone’s gonna stay the same and the team’s gonna (plateau) or they’re gonna go down."
More tomorrow.
The team only practiced for about 30 minutes today before it started pouring rain and there were some flashes of lightning. Instead they went over to the Ramsey Student Center and practiced for about an hour. I'm sure that unfortunate circumstance was met with a certain amount of joy, since Tuesdays are their heavy hitting days. One of the players grinned when I asked him about it and didn't seem to mind they missed out on that experience today, but noted they'd have fresher legs against Vanderbilt.
* Tony Ball said Asher Allen will return kickoffs and Knowshon will be his backup.
* Richt said today that Rennie Curran suffered a slight concussion against Tennessee, but said he had been pushing for a starting job at weakside linebacker in place of Darius Dewberry. He was supposed to practice in a green no-contact jersey today (although I'm not certain that he did) and Richt said he still could push for a starting spot if he's able to get back to practice fairly quickly.
Here's what Richt had to say:
"It’s not out of the question this week. He’s recovering from a little bit of a concussion, which I think he’ll go today in a green jersey, non-contact situation. And if he does well, he’ll probably get to have some contact tomorrow, which will be great. I don’t know if that would keep him from moving into a starting role, but he played very well. If he didn’t have a concussion issue, he’d have been a strong candidate to start. I’m not gonna say it was guaranteed he was gonna start, but he definitely was making a strong move in that direction."
Other injury news:
* LB Brandon Miller was had his left foot in a walking boot today. He said he injured his calf in Monday's practice and isn't sure whether he'll play Saturday -- although he says it's a possibility.
* OL Scott Haverkamp (ankle) was on the practice field in a green no-contact jersey before the team took it indoors.
* Saw WR Kris Durham (shoulder) after practice. He was in green today as well. WR coach John Eason said Durham will probably play on Saturday.
Here's another Richt quote I thought was interesting today. On why the team has been so up and down this year:
"I think it’s immaturity. I just don’t think we’re a real mature team. We’ve been up, we’ve been down. We have not had a consistent effort throughout the season. Even in the Ole Miss game, we didn’t start out too good in that one. And fortunately they fumbled and we go 90-something yards and then something sparked our ability to start getting after it. Maybe it is a confidence thing. I don’t think that’s what it is. I know when something good happened in that game, it changed the momentum. I just think that we’re young more than anything else overall. We’re just not at the point where we can mentally overcome things like fatigue, overcome things like momentum going against you. We’ve got to do a better job of that. This week, we’re just gonna really harp on that type of thing. We’ve gotta create our own momentum and it seemed like coaches, players alike, we were waiting for something to spark us and nothing happened until it was too late. We did get a three-and-out to start the second half, we did get Demiko making a play that could spark a comeback, but it just didn’t last very long. We’ve gotta be able to create a little bit more of that – whether it’s by us doing things coaching-wise or seniors taking on that role or just some guy who wants to make a play."
I did a story for Wednesday's paper on how big of a loss Thomas Brown is for the next month -- for his presence as much as his play. I talked to several guys about that subject, about whether it's important to have an emotional leader in the huddle and who that might be without Thomas around. A pretty frequent response was that Fernando Velasco is the vocal leader. It's interesting to me that the subject of leadership rarely comes up until a team suffers an embarrassing loss. I found it interesting this time in particular because the loss was accompanied by Thomas going down.
Anyway, here's what Kelin Johnson -- certainly the vocal leader of the defense -- said about why it's important to have an emotional leader:
"It is important because you have some guys that will come to practice to practice. You’ll have guys who come ready to play and emotions don’t really set in on them. They’re just football players. But then you do have some guys that need some motivation. If you don’t have the guys on your team that are outspoken, that have emotion and care about the atmosphere, everyone’s gonna stay the same and the team’s gonna (plateau) or they’re gonna go down."
More tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Moreno to start
Just an FYI. More notes later.
Running backs coach Tony Ball was asked about the starting tailback job and somebody mentioned how he and Mark Richt had said in the past that Knowshon Moreno wasn't ready to be a starter. They went on to ask if Moreno's ready for that responsibility now.
Ball's response?
"He'd better be, because he's starting."
Here's about five minutes that a handful of the beat writers did with coach Ball after tonight's practice. I always find him an interesting and engaging interview.
On whether Kregg Lumpkin is ready for double-digit carries:
He played last week. I didn’t flinch, he didn’t flinch, so that’s what I’ve been telling you. You’ve gotta bring guys along. Guys have gotta stay strong mentally and physically and that’s what he’s done, so he’s ready to go. It’s ironic and it’s always interesting how things work out, you know. But he’s ready to go.
On how Lumpkin will fare on screen passes:
He can catch. Lump’s got really good hands. His fingers are free and as long as your fingers are free, that’s how you catch the ball – with your fingers. So as long as those are free, he can catch it. Now when he had that club on, he had to really be concentrating. But what that cast has done is really made him concentrate. Whether it’s catching the ball or carrying the football, it’s made him concentrate on handling the football and not taking it for granted. So he’ll be better for it.
That could be good for him because he’s fumbled before last year, wasn’t it in the Vanderbilt game?
In the Vandy game, that’s correct. I showed him that today. (big laughs)
He had a good Vandy game two years ago…
That’s what I heard. But I showed him the one from last year so he understands how important that is.
On whether Knowshon Moreno’s ready to start:
He’d better be, because he’s starting. He’d better be. He’s ready. He understands.
On how Lumpkin and Moreno are different type backs:
That’s correct. Kregg’s more of a downhill guy, probably a little bit more fundamental than Knowshon is. But understands his limitations, and his limitations obviously is to outrun somebody – he’s not gonna do that. He’s gotta run downhill and make that guy miss. He’s got good enough feet to make that guy miss and get all he can get. But there is a big difference, or I should say that’s the big difference between the two.
Does it matter that Knowshon has not been the guy out there for the first few snaps before?
When you’re on the field, you’re a starter. That’s the thing I’ve always told them. When you’re on the field, you’re the starter. It doesn’t matter who started the game. When you’re on there, you’ve got to go and he understands that. So when he’s out there, whether he starts first play or he’s the 10th play, you’re the starter when you’re out there.
Is Asher going to be doing kickoff returns?
He will be, yes. He’s excited about that.
Knowshon’s No. 2 behind him?
Yes.
Is that a big drop-off?
Who Asher? No, Asher did a great job last year. He’s excited about it. I was really impressed with the job that he did, so obviously you’d love to have TB back there because of the ability to run with the ball, but I was really pleased with the job Asher did last year.
On why their kickoff return average has been dropping lately:
Well, teams have been doing some things to kinda throw us off, to kinda throw the timing off, and then last week, we did some things to kinda hurt ourselves, which really was the first time that we’ve done that this year. We’ve gotta just come back. We’ve gotta come back, we’ve gotta get back on a roll and we’ve gotta break a couple. That’s what we’re gonna work towards. And Vandy does a great job, so we’re gonna have to really work at it.
Is it fair to say Thomas was the emotional leader of the offense?
That’s fair. That’s fair to say that. He’s just not gonna be on the field, but he’s still around. And he knows how important it is for him to be around the guys. That was one of the things last week that I told him when he went down. I said, ‘Now I need you on the sideline being the coach on the sideline for me and being the emotional leader.’ That’s the role he took on last week. In the locker room, he was down. But his role changed and he accepted that role, and I thought he handled it well.
How valuable is it to have somebody filling that role in the huddle? Does a team really need that guy?
You need that because the game of football, you play X number of plays and you’ve got 25 seconds between plays. Your concentration level can only last so long, your intensity level can only last so long, and you need that. You need that spark. You need that positive person in there. You need that person that you can look across when that play’s called and you can look in his eye and everybody can say, ‘Yeah, he’s ready to go.’ That fires you up, so you need that. Sure you do.
Do you see people trying to step into that void and fill Thomas’ place at all?
I can see that happening. We have kids that can do that. One in particular – Knowshon, he understands that. I can see in his demeanor this week, he’s taken on a more focused and mature role. But his focus has been great the first two days.
Do you think seniors and veterans have any issue with a redshirt freshman trying to take that leadership position?
No, because I think they respect what he brings to the team. I think there are certain levels of leadership. What is that? His role right now as the spark as a running back is what it is. Then you have other roles within the team that he cares not to venture into. So I think everybody has a role to play and that’s different levels of leadership.
Running backs coach Tony Ball was asked about the starting tailback job and somebody mentioned how he and Mark Richt had said in the past that Knowshon Moreno wasn't ready to be a starter. They went on to ask if Moreno's ready for that responsibility now.
Ball's response?
"He'd better be, because he's starting."
Here's about five minutes that a handful of the beat writers did with coach Ball after tonight's practice. I always find him an interesting and engaging interview.
On whether Kregg Lumpkin is ready for double-digit carries:
He played last week. I didn’t flinch, he didn’t flinch, so that’s what I’ve been telling you. You’ve gotta bring guys along. Guys have gotta stay strong mentally and physically and that’s what he’s done, so he’s ready to go. It’s ironic and it’s always interesting how things work out, you know. But he’s ready to go.
On how Lumpkin will fare on screen passes:
He can catch. Lump’s got really good hands. His fingers are free and as long as your fingers are free, that’s how you catch the ball – with your fingers. So as long as those are free, he can catch it. Now when he had that club on, he had to really be concentrating. But what that cast has done is really made him concentrate. Whether it’s catching the ball or carrying the football, it’s made him concentrate on handling the football and not taking it for granted. So he’ll be better for it.
That could be good for him because he’s fumbled before last year, wasn’t it in the Vanderbilt game?
In the Vandy game, that’s correct. I showed him that today. (big laughs)
He had a good Vandy game two years ago…
That’s what I heard. But I showed him the one from last year so he understands how important that is.
On whether Knowshon Moreno’s ready to start:
He’d better be, because he’s starting. He’d better be. He’s ready. He understands.
On how Lumpkin and Moreno are different type backs:
That’s correct. Kregg’s more of a downhill guy, probably a little bit more fundamental than Knowshon is. But understands his limitations, and his limitations obviously is to outrun somebody – he’s not gonna do that. He’s gotta run downhill and make that guy miss. He’s got good enough feet to make that guy miss and get all he can get. But there is a big difference, or I should say that’s the big difference between the two.
Does it matter that Knowshon has not been the guy out there for the first few snaps before?
When you’re on the field, you’re a starter. That’s the thing I’ve always told them. When you’re on the field, you’re the starter. It doesn’t matter who started the game. When you’re on there, you’ve got to go and he understands that. So when he’s out there, whether he starts first play or he’s the 10th play, you’re the starter when you’re out there.
Is Asher going to be doing kickoff returns?
He will be, yes. He’s excited about that.
Knowshon’s No. 2 behind him?
Yes.
Is that a big drop-off?
Who Asher? No, Asher did a great job last year. He’s excited about it. I was really impressed with the job that he did, so obviously you’d love to have TB back there because of the ability to run with the ball, but I was really pleased with the job Asher did last year.
On why their kickoff return average has been dropping lately:
Well, teams have been doing some things to kinda throw us off, to kinda throw the timing off, and then last week, we did some things to kinda hurt ourselves, which really was the first time that we’ve done that this year. We’ve gotta just come back. We’ve gotta come back, we’ve gotta get back on a roll and we’ve gotta break a couple. That’s what we’re gonna work towards. And Vandy does a great job, so we’re gonna have to really work at it.
Is it fair to say Thomas was the emotional leader of the offense?
That’s fair. That’s fair to say that. He’s just not gonna be on the field, but he’s still around. And he knows how important it is for him to be around the guys. That was one of the things last week that I told him when he went down. I said, ‘Now I need you on the sideline being the coach on the sideline for me and being the emotional leader.’ That’s the role he took on last week. In the locker room, he was down. But his role changed and he accepted that role, and I thought he handled it well.
How valuable is it to have somebody filling that role in the huddle? Does a team really need that guy?
You need that because the game of football, you play X number of plays and you’ve got 25 seconds between plays. Your concentration level can only last so long, your intensity level can only last so long, and you need that. You need that spark. You need that positive person in there. You need that person that you can look across when that play’s called and you can look in his eye and everybody can say, ‘Yeah, he’s ready to go.’ That fires you up, so you need that. Sure you do.
Do you see people trying to step into that void and fill Thomas’ place at all?
I can see that happening. We have kids that can do that. One in particular – Knowshon, he understands that. I can see in his demeanor this week, he’s taken on a more focused and mature role. But his focus has been great the first two days.
Do you think seniors and veterans have any issue with a redshirt freshman trying to take that leadership position?
No, because I think they respect what he brings to the team. I think there are certain levels of leadership. What is that? His role right now as the spark as a running back is what it is. Then you have other roles within the team that he cares not to venture into. So I think everybody has a role to play and that’s different levels of leadership.
Kelin Johnson on SEC good works team
From the UGA release:
ATHENS, Ga. --- Georgia senior strong safety Kelin Johnson will be featured as the Southeastern Conference Community Service Team Player of the Week on this weekend's Lincoln Financial Sports telecast of the Alabama at Ole Miss contest.
ATHENS, Ga. --- Georgia senior strong safety Kelin Johnson will be featured as the Southeastern Conference Community Service Team Player of the Week on this weekend's Lincoln Financial Sports telecast of the Alabama at Ole Miss contest.
Johnson, who has an interception and is tied for fifth on the Bulldogs with 24 tackles, was the Georgia football team's recipient of the Howell Community Service Award for the 2006-07 academic year for his numerous community service activities.
The Daytona Beach, Fla., native, has been a speaker at the Commerce Community Center, Benton Elementary School, Coile Middle School, Barrow Elementary School and Clarke County High School, speaking to students and children.
He has also volunteered with HERO for Children (a non-profit dedicated to improving the quality of life and of children infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS), Camp Well Springs, St. Mary's Hospital, Rising Star Youth Enrichment and Boys & Girls Club Mentor Program.
Johnson has also been active in Habitat for Humanity, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Egleston Children's Hospital and Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Student-Athletes earn SEC Good Works Team recognition for their community service and campus activities.
The SEC sponsors 16 Good Works Teams during the season, including one for each sport in the SEC, combining the indoor and outdoor track & field and cross country teams into one unit.
Monday notes
Chester Adams told the group of reporters that he didn't see too much in the way of depth chart changes in practice today, but he wouldn't be surprised to see some tomorrow. That makes sense, as Tuesday's really when they start their installation for Saturday's game at Vanderbilt.
Mark Richt hinted that some changes are coming. I'll be interested to see what they are. Linebacker? Cornerback? Offensive line? Defensive line? Receiver? Not sure. I guess I just named about two-thirds of the possible positions where a change could occur. I guess that in itself says something, doesn't it?
Other stuff:
* He also said Scott Haverkamp tried to go some today. Didn't do everything, but participated in some individual drills. Chester said he looked good, so they're hoping to get him back. But that's still very much up in the air. Tuesday and Wednesday will be big days.
* Spoke with Kelin Johnson for a handful of stories I'm working on, the first one being for Tuesday's paper on Vandy receiver Earl Bennett. Did you know he's six catches from tying the SEC career record for receptions (208, set by Kentucky's Craig Yeast)? Still 500-something from Terrence Edwards' career record for yardage. I wasn't sure if Kelin would know that or not, but he laughed when I mentioned that to him. He basically said, 'Of course I knew that.'
* Dannell Ellerbe characterized Georgia's linebacker play as "just average," which he said is disappointing. I'm sure some of you might put it more harshly, but that was his assessment.
* I didn't realize this until after I'd written my gamer the other night, but both Ellerbe and Kelin registered 12 tackles apiece against Tennessee. Ellerbe also had a tackle for a loss. Reshad Jones, Rennie Curran and Asher Allen all had seven apiece. Brandon Miller, Darius Dewberry, Akeem Dent and CJ Byrd had four apiece.
* Spoke with several defensive players about what they thought went wrong Saturday and how to fix those things. Among the top responses: too many missed tackles, too many missed assignments, not playing with enough heart/emotion. I'll be writing something about that later this week.
* On another front, I saw on the ticker while watching Dallas' miraculous win over Buffalo on Monday Night Football that Seattle Seahawks fullback Mack Strong suffered a career-ending neck injury yesterday. I point that out because he's a former Georgia player, as well as a Columbus native who played at Brookstone and is generally regarded as a really good guy. He has a herniated disc that's pinching his spinal cord, but doctors told him it will heal if he stops playing now. So he's playing it smart.
Mark Richt hinted that some changes are coming. I'll be interested to see what they are. Linebacker? Cornerback? Offensive line? Defensive line? Receiver? Not sure. I guess I just named about two-thirds of the possible positions where a change could occur. I guess that in itself says something, doesn't it?
Other stuff:
* He also said Scott Haverkamp tried to go some today. Didn't do everything, but participated in some individual drills. Chester said he looked good, so they're hoping to get him back. But that's still very much up in the air. Tuesday and Wednesday will be big days.
* Spoke with Kelin Johnson for a handful of stories I'm working on, the first one being for Tuesday's paper on Vandy receiver Earl Bennett. Did you know he's six catches from tying the SEC career record for receptions (208, set by Kentucky's Craig Yeast)? Still 500-something from Terrence Edwards' career record for yardage. I wasn't sure if Kelin would know that or not, but he laughed when I mentioned that to him. He basically said, 'Of course I knew that.'
* Dannell Ellerbe characterized Georgia's linebacker play as "just average," which he said is disappointing. I'm sure some of you might put it more harshly, but that was his assessment.
* I didn't realize this until after I'd written my gamer the other night, but both Ellerbe and Kelin registered 12 tackles apiece against Tennessee. Ellerbe also had a tackle for a loss. Reshad Jones, Rennie Curran and Asher Allen all had seven apiece. Brandon Miller, Darius Dewberry, Akeem Dent and CJ Byrd had four apiece.
* Spoke with several defensive players about what they thought went wrong Saturday and how to fix those things. Among the top responses: too many missed tackles, too many missed assignments, not playing with enough heart/emotion. I'll be writing something about that later this week.
* On another front, I saw on the ticker while watching Dallas' miraculous win over Buffalo on Monday Night Football that Seattle Seahawks fullback Mack Strong suffered a career-ending neck injury yesterday. I point that out because he's a former Georgia player, as well as a Columbus native who played at Brookstone and is generally regarded as a really good guy. He has a herniated disc that's pinching his spinal cord, but doctors told him it will heal if he stops playing now. So he's playing it smart.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Master Coaches on Facebook
A man I've known since my first newspaper job in Thomasville six or seven years ago, Pete Wolek (his son, Stephen, was a walk-on guard on some of Dennis Felton's first UGA teams), is the administrator of the Master Coaches Survey online site. He sends me their weekly poll stuff that I post on here.
Pete sent me a note tonight telling me a little about their Facebook group. So if you're into the Facebook thing, here's a link to the group. All of the coaches who vote in the poll, including Georgia's Vince Dooley, have Facebook pages associated with the group.
Just an FYI...
Pete sent me a note tonight telling me a little about their Facebook group. So if you're into the Facebook thing, here's a link to the group. All of the coaches who vote in the poll, including Georgia's Vince Dooley, have Facebook pages associated with the group.
Just an FYI...
Richt Sunday teleconference
On how Tennessee game might be setback to offensive line:
Well it was definitely a learning experience for ‘em, no doubt about it. What happened against Tennessee was what we feared would happen when we played Alabama at Alabama, that type of atmosphere where we fortunately got one in the end zone early against Alabama and I think that helped their confidence to the point where they were able to just kinda battle away the whole time. But this game here in particular certainly will create a memory in those guys’ brains. I’m sure they’ll always be able to reflect on it and understand what it takes to win in that kind of environment.
On struggles against SEC East teams:
I don’t know. We’ve just got to get it corrected is all I know. Thankfully we play an eastern division foe this week.
On possible lineup changes:
Not real extensive. There’ll be a few changes here and there, we’re not exactly sure yet. I did meet with both offense and defense and we talked just briefly about personnel. We spent more time just watching the film and observing what happened. There could be some changes, but injuries could fall into play on some of these possible changes too, so I’ve gotta get with Ron and just see where we’re at before we start talking about that.
Has linebacker been the biggest problem on defense and are you concerned with the inconsistency there?
I wouldn’t say it’s the biggest concern. We’ve got problems all the way front to back. We’ve got some issues. I think we’ve had some good play at times all across the board also. We’re just not playing consistently enough together. We’ll have one guy, two guys maybe make a mistake on any given play, and it seems like a lot of them are on crucial third downs and then all of a sudden, we can’t get them to punt. So we’ve got some issues more than just linebacker.
What’s the situation with Thomas Brown?
Right now Thomas looks like he’s gonna be out six weeks. Broke his collarbone.
Increased role for Lumpkin?
Just in time. Lump got back just in time, got that cast off. We were a little reluctant. Even with that splint on his thumb, it’s just a little bit of concern when it comes to turnovers in a game. We figured it’d be close, which it turned out not to be that way, but I guess when you get behind you don’t want anything to happen either. But when he did get a chance to carry the ball, he did seem to be very confident and he seemed to have a little bit of juice in his legs, too, which is pretty understandable because he hadn’t been getting the work.
On this blow to Thomas:
Yeah it’s a shame. He’s probably the toughest guy on our football team. I know he’d play with it. Matter of fact, he might’ve played a week with it. I don’t know if it happened last week. I don’t know that. He’s just that tough. He would go anyway, but we can’t take that risk. It’s tough, but he’ll lead, he’ll lead. And guys will step up. They’ve got to.
On Thomas’ role being a blow to special teams too:
Oh yeah. He’s a gunner, probably one of the best gunners in the country. He’s been a good kick return man. He’s also the safety on our kickoff coverage team, just to make sure no one takes one the distance on us. I don’t know if he’s been on the punt team, but he’s been on three of those special teams. When you consider that you’re a return man, you’re a gunner, those two things take a lot of energy. I’ll see him out there and he’ll be huffing and puffing, he’s tired, but he gives maximum effort and we need more guys that would play like Thomas.
On when Thomas might be back:
I didn’t look down the road. Gosh it might not be till Georgia Tech. We’ve played six and got six to go with an open date. And you know, sometimes bones’ll heal in more of a 4-6-week period, so I’m not gonna sit here and say it’s gonna be six. But 4-6 is probably more realistic, or at least the range for how fast he can come back. But I guess they have ways now to MRI bones and all that stuff to really feel comfortable that it’s completely healed before he goes back out there. If he heals bones like he rehabs ACLs, who knows?
This is a heal-on-its-own type thing?
Yeah, it’s a more of a crack or a fracture or whatever. It didn’t like, break. Whether they need to put any pins in it or anything like that…
Rethinking Caleb King redshirting?
As of right now, we would not. You’ve got Knowshon, you’ve got Lumpy, you’ve got Jason Johnson and you’ve also got Chapas. So at this point I would not do that. And you’ve even got Kalvin Daniels.
Who’ll be emotional leaders without Thomas?
That’s a good question. I think that’s one that only those guys will be able to answer. And then the staff too, we’re gonna have to fuel the fire ourselves.
What about Kris Durham?
Durham right now, he would definitely not practice tomorrow. Maybe not at all. He may be out. I guess that’s questionable. I’d say questionable at best.
That’s shoulder?
Yes sir.
On what they still want in this recruiting class:
I would be thrilled to death to nail down one or two great offensive tackles. There’s a running back spot that we really need to…I believe we need a great tailback to be added to the group.
So three, four more guys?
Yeah somewhere in there. Defensive back and maybe a linebacker that’ll just light you up. You just can’t really say exactly how it’s gonna fall, but those are some of the things. We feel pretty good most everywhere else.
On Tennessee defense’s play, Vols’ backs-to-the-wall mentality:
I think that was part of it. They were being challenged at all levels and they played inspired football. It’s not that hard to be inspired at the beginning of a game when you’ve got 100,000 people excited, you’ve had an open date and feel rested and all that. And they started out that way and because we really couldn’t get a stop on defense and we couldn’t get a spark on offense, they just continued to feed off of that energy and we just dug a bigger and bigger hole. We couldn’t do anything to break the cycle of their energy and excitement. Someone’s gotta make a play. The first time we got a spark was with Demiko Goodman. We got a three-and-out prior to Demiko Goodman making that big catch. That’s the first time in the whole game we really started to feel some energy from something good that happened on the field. But in the first half there was none.
How good has Matthew been about shaking losses off?
Well you have to. You just have to. I don’t know how many he lost in high school, but he had to deal with it last year. I don’t know how much it was affecting him as we were in that streak, that five-game streak where we lost four out of five. In hindsight he’s said that it might’ve shook his confidence a little bit during the time last year. I would have to think he’s fine right now, but I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t look him in the eye and try to judge that.
On facing Earl Bennett, scheming for one person:
In his case, you do. You better know where he’s at and you better have a plan for him, because he’s a great receiver. When he was getting all the numbers early on and kinda on the rise, you’d kinda hear his name and you don’t think a lot about it. But when you study that guy, he is a really talented guy and he is tough and he’s fast and he’s just got confidence. He’s oozing with confidence and he continues to make plays. I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s a pro. He’ll be a pro.
On failing to generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks:
Well it’s an issue, no doubt. You can’t hardly use the Tennessee game as a judge because no one else has gotten any pressure on the guy either, hardly. But we’ve got to disrupt quarterbacks’ timing and we’ve got to disrupt receivers’ routes to force them to hold the ball a little longer to help us get the pressure there. If we’re in coverage, if we’re pressuring – bringing blitzes and things of that nature – we’ve gotta get there. But a real good veteran senior quarterback like Ainge, when you bring the heat, he knows it’s coming and he gets rid of the ball. When you’re bringing just your four-man pressure, four-man rush, he can start to go through his progression and if he feels pressure, he’s gonna throw it away. Or he’s gonna know where his outlet (is). We made him go a couple times to places that he did not wanna go with the ball, but he just was very, very good at finding that third guy or a guy completely on the other side of the field, completely opposite of where his read was because of pressure, but then he found a guy and flicked it to him. He made some very nice plays that even as it was happening, I didn’t know exactly what was going on. But as you watch the film, you can see he might’ve had a half-field read to his right and for whatever reason, either pressure or coverage forced him to look elsewhere and he was able to find some people and make plays. He did a nice job.
On whether Mimbs’ blocked punt was a scheme issue or a timing issue:
It was definitely a protection issue. It was not an operation issue. The snap and the operation, Mimbs was fine. We just, we had a missed assignment. We turned a guy free inside. We just can’t do it.
Was that the issue with the blocked punts last year?
Last year it was more of a technique issue where we just attacked – not attacked, but when you go to get a guy who’s a wide guy, he can slip underneath you. You’ve got to just stay inside, be patient, force him to go outside of you. Sometimes if you get a little too aggressive, the guy can slip underneath and that was more of the issue last year.
On whether he felt the need before now to keep Lumpkin’s spirits up about how opportunities were still going to come:
When he was clubbed up, there really wasn’t much of an issue on should he or should he not be carrying the ball. We just felt like it was not very wise to have him carrying it with just one arm. But this week he wasn’t getting a lot of carries early in the game. It wasn’t until Thomas got hurt that he began to get more work. And I think if it weren’t for Thomas getting hurt and knowing at this moment that he’s gonna get a lot of work now, I think it might’ve become an issue. But right now there isn’t an issue at all. He knows he’s gonna play a whole lot and carry the ball a whole bunch and help us win.
Is Knowshon the starter?
That’s a good question. I haven’t talked to Tony yet about it. I would think they’re both just gonna play an awful lot. It may (depend) on how these guys practice on who starts because I would think the play would be very close to 50-50. It will probably be very similar to the amount of carries that Thomas and Knowshon were getting. That ought to be Knowshon and Lump.
Well it was definitely a learning experience for ‘em, no doubt about it. What happened against Tennessee was what we feared would happen when we played Alabama at Alabama, that type of atmosphere where we fortunately got one in the end zone early against Alabama and I think that helped their confidence to the point where they were able to just kinda battle away the whole time. But this game here in particular certainly will create a memory in those guys’ brains. I’m sure they’ll always be able to reflect on it and understand what it takes to win in that kind of environment.
On struggles against SEC East teams:
I don’t know. We’ve just got to get it corrected is all I know. Thankfully we play an eastern division foe this week.
On possible lineup changes:
Not real extensive. There’ll be a few changes here and there, we’re not exactly sure yet. I did meet with both offense and defense and we talked just briefly about personnel. We spent more time just watching the film and observing what happened. There could be some changes, but injuries could fall into play on some of these possible changes too, so I’ve gotta get with Ron and just see where we’re at before we start talking about that.
Has linebacker been the biggest problem on defense and are you concerned with the inconsistency there?
I wouldn’t say it’s the biggest concern. We’ve got problems all the way front to back. We’ve got some issues. I think we’ve had some good play at times all across the board also. We’re just not playing consistently enough together. We’ll have one guy, two guys maybe make a mistake on any given play, and it seems like a lot of them are on crucial third downs and then all of a sudden, we can’t get them to punt. So we’ve got some issues more than just linebacker.
What’s the situation with Thomas Brown?
Right now Thomas looks like he’s gonna be out six weeks. Broke his collarbone.
Increased role for Lumpkin?
Just in time. Lump got back just in time, got that cast off. We were a little reluctant. Even with that splint on his thumb, it’s just a little bit of concern when it comes to turnovers in a game. We figured it’d be close, which it turned out not to be that way, but I guess when you get behind you don’t want anything to happen either. But when he did get a chance to carry the ball, he did seem to be very confident and he seemed to have a little bit of juice in his legs, too, which is pretty understandable because he hadn’t been getting the work.
On this blow to Thomas:
Yeah it’s a shame. He’s probably the toughest guy on our football team. I know he’d play with it. Matter of fact, he might’ve played a week with it. I don’t know if it happened last week. I don’t know that. He’s just that tough. He would go anyway, but we can’t take that risk. It’s tough, but he’ll lead, he’ll lead. And guys will step up. They’ve got to.
On Thomas’ role being a blow to special teams too:
Oh yeah. He’s a gunner, probably one of the best gunners in the country. He’s been a good kick return man. He’s also the safety on our kickoff coverage team, just to make sure no one takes one the distance on us. I don’t know if he’s been on the punt team, but he’s been on three of those special teams. When you consider that you’re a return man, you’re a gunner, those two things take a lot of energy. I’ll see him out there and he’ll be huffing and puffing, he’s tired, but he gives maximum effort and we need more guys that would play like Thomas.
On when Thomas might be back:
I didn’t look down the road. Gosh it might not be till Georgia Tech. We’ve played six and got six to go with an open date. And you know, sometimes bones’ll heal in more of a 4-6-week period, so I’m not gonna sit here and say it’s gonna be six. But 4-6 is probably more realistic, or at least the range for how fast he can come back. But I guess they have ways now to MRI bones and all that stuff to really feel comfortable that it’s completely healed before he goes back out there. If he heals bones like he rehabs ACLs, who knows?
This is a heal-on-its-own type thing?
Yeah, it’s a more of a crack or a fracture or whatever. It didn’t like, break. Whether they need to put any pins in it or anything like that…
Rethinking Caleb King redshirting?
As of right now, we would not. You’ve got Knowshon, you’ve got Lumpy, you’ve got Jason Johnson and you’ve also got Chapas. So at this point I would not do that. And you’ve even got Kalvin Daniels.
Who’ll be emotional leaders without Thomas?
That’s a good question. I think that’s one that only those guys will be able to answer. And then the staff too, we’re gonna have to fuel the fire ourselves.
What about Kris Durham?
Durham right now, he would definitely not practice tomorrow. Maybe not at all. He may be out. I guess that’s questionable. I’d say questionable at best.
That’s shoulder?
Yes sir.
On what they still want in this recruiting class:
I would be thrilled to death to nail down one or two great offensive tackles. There’s a running back spot that we really need to…I believe we need a great tailback to be added to the group.
So three, four more guys?
Yeah somewhere in there. Defensive back and maybe a linebacker that’ll just light you up. You just can’t really say exactly how it’s gonna fall, but those are some of the things. We feel pretty good most everywhere else.
On Tennessee defense’s play, Vols’ backs-to-the-wall mentality:
I think that was part of it. They were being challenged at all levels and they played inspired football. It’s not that hard to be inspired at the beginning of a game when you’ve got 100,000 people excited, you’ve had an open date and feel rested and all that. And they started out that way and because we really couldn’t get a stop on defense and we couldn’t get a spark on offense, they just continued to feed off of that energy and we just dug a bigger and bigger hole. We couldn’t do anything to break the cycle of their energy and excitement. Someone’s gotta make a play. The first time we got a spark was with Demiko Goodman. We got a three-and-out prior to Demiko Goodman making that big catch. That’s the first time in the whole game we really started to feel some energy from something good that happened on the field. But in the first half there was none.
How good has Matthew been about shaking losses off?
Well you have to. You just have to. I don’t know how many he lost in high school, but he had to deal with it last year. I don’t know how much it was affecting him as we were in that streak, that five-game streak where we lost four out of five. In hindsight he’s said that it might’ve shook his confidence a little bit during the time last year. I would have to think he’s fine right now, but I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t look him in the eye and try to judge that.
On facing Earl Bennett, scheming for one person:
In his case, you do. You better know where he’s at and you better have a plan for him, because he’s a great receiver. When he was getting all the numbers early on and kinda on the rise, you’d kinda hear his name and you don’t think a lot about it. But when you study that guy, he is a really talented guy and he is tough and he’s fast and he’s just got confidence. He’s oozing with confidence and he continues to make plays. I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s a pro. He’ll be a pro.
On failing to generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks:
Well it’s an issue, no doubt. You can’t hardly use the Tennessee game as a judge because no one else has gotten any pressure on the guy either, hardly. But we’ve got to disrupt quarterbacks’ timing and we’ve got to disrupt receivers’ routes to force them to hold the ball a little longer to help us get the pressure there. If we’re in coverage, if we’re pressuring – bringing blitzes and things of that nature – we’ve gotta get there. But a real good veteran senior quarterback like Ainge, when you bring the heat, he knows it’s coming and he gets rid of the ball. When you’re bringing just your four-man pressure, four-man rush, he can start to go through his progression and if he feels pressure, he’s gonna throw it away. Or he’s gonna know where his outlet (is). We made him go a couple times to places that he did not wanna go with the ball, but he just was very, very good at finding that third guy or a guy completely on the other side of the field, completely opposite of where his read was because of pressure, but then he found a guy and flicked it to him. He made some very nice plays that even as it was happening, I didn’t know exactly what was going on. But as you watch the film, you can see he might’ve had a half-field read to his right and for whatever reason, either pressure or coverage forced him to look elsewhere and he was able to find some people and make plays. He did a nice job.
On whether Mimbs’ blocked punt was a scheme issue or a timing issue:
It was definitely a protection issue. It was not an operation issue. The snap and the operation, Mimbs was fine. We just, we had a missed assignment. We turned a guy free inside. We just can’t do it.
Was that the issue with the blocked punts last year?
Last year it was more of a technique issue where we just attacked – not attacked, but when you go to get a guy who’s a wide guy, he can slip underneath you. You’ve got to just stay inside, be patient, force him to go outside of you. Sometimes if you get a little too aggressive, the guy can slip underneath and that was more of the issue last year.
On whether he felt the need before now to keep Lumpkin’s spirits up about how opportunities were still going to come:
When he was clubbed up, there really wasn’t much of an issue on should he or should he not be carrying the ball. We just felt like it was not very wise to have him carrying it with just one arm. But this week he wasn’t getting a lot of carries early in the game. It wasn’t until Thomas got hurt that he began to get more work. And I think if it weren’t for Thomas getting hurt and knowing at this moment that he’s gonna get a lot of work now, I think it might’ve become an issue. But right now there isn’t an issue at all. He knows he’s gonna play a whole lot and carry the ball a whole bunch and help us win.
Is Knowshon the starter?
That’s a good question. I haven’t talked to Tony yet about it. I would think they’re both just gonna play an awful lot. It may (depend) on how these guys practice on who starts because I would think the play would be very close to 50-50. It will probably be very similar to the amount of carries that Thomas and Knowshon were getting. That ought to be Knowshon and Lump.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Master Coaches Poll 10/7
Georgia slipped to 24th in the Associated Press poll and 23rd in both the USA Today Coaches Poll and the Harris Interactive Poll. The Bulldogs fell all the way out of the Master Coaches Poll.
Here's the Master Coaches Poll results for today:
Dropped from last week's poll: Clemson, Georgia, Miami, Nebraska, Rutgers.
Here's the Master Coaches Poll results for today:
- 1. LSU (17)
- 2. Ohio State
- 3. California
- 4. Boston College
- 5. Oklahoma
- 6. USC
- 7. South Florida
- 8. Florida
- 9. Oregon
- 10. South Carolina
- 11. West Virginia
- 12. Missouri
- 13. Virginia Tech
- 14. Illinois
- 15. Arizona State
- 16. Wisconsin
- 17. Hawaii
- 18. Cincinnati
- 19. Kentucky
- 20. Kansas
- 21. Texas
- 22. Purdue
- 23. Auburn
- 24. Tennessee
- 25. Florida State
Dropped from last week's poll: Clemson, Georgia, Miami, Nebraska, Rutgers.
Thomas Brown out 4-6 weeks
Thomas has a broken collarbone. Richt said on his teleconference he'll be out 4-6 weeks. may be back for the last game or two. Expect Lumpkin's load to increase greatly this week. He didn't say whether Moreno or Lumpkin will start, but that they'll probably share work in much the same way Thomas and Knowshon were.
Well that was something
I have to say I didn't see that coming. I thought Tennessee had a very good chance of winning, but I bought into this Georgia team enough to think it didn't have a blowout loss in it. Clearly I thought they were better than they are -- and maybe I thought Tennessee wasn't as good as I'd originally thought when I had them as my darkhorse pick to win the East.
They looked pretty dang great today. The problem was the same problem it has been lately. Georgia's offensive and defensive fronts pretty much got whipped. Thomas Brown and Knowshon Moreno busted numerous long runs after getting hit in the backfield last week. But let's be honest, Ole Miss is not Tennessee. And they got zero pressure on Erik Ainge. I really thought Georgia would be able to move the ball on the ground and keep Ainge and his guys off the field. But I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
I'm not going to write all night. It's 2:30 in the morning and I just rolled in from Knoxville, but I figured I needed to post something before bed after a game that went like that. It will be interesting to see where this team goes from here. I don't think you'll see a monumental slide like you saw last year, but they'd better start learning how to wrap up on tackles in a hurry. It was shocking how poorly they did that today, although I don't know why I felt that way. They've been missing tackles all year.
So as not to seem completely negative, there were a handful of good things I saw today.
* Demiko Goodman's touchdown catch was spectacular.
* Tripp Chandler made some nice catches and caught a touchdown.
* Knowshon Moreno continues to play with a ton of fire -- although I'd like to see the replay of what happened down there near the goal line when he and the Tennessee guy got flagged for offsetting personal fouls. There was some monkey business going on over there.
* Thought Lumpkin looked good when they let him start getting some carries. He had Georgia's longest run of the game (10 yards). That's good because they weren't sure just how serious Thomas Brown's left shoulder injury was. All Richt could say for sure was that his left clavicle was really sore. Saw Thomas briefly outside the locker room. He said he wasn't sure what his prognosis would be, but he was clearly upset -- whether that was more over the loss or the injury we'll find out today, probably.
* On a personal note, Brannan Southerland was impressive in the postgame interview room. Some kids come in there after a game like this and act...well, like kids. Spoiled little children. He might have been unhappy, but he took what happened today like a man and was able to discuss what happened in a thoughtful, analytical way without poking his lip out and pouting. I guess there's a cliche about college teaching you how to be an adult and Brannan seems like he's well on his way there.
* Went 6-1 in Saturday's games straight up and 3-4 against the spread, making me 39-12 SU and 23-26 ATS.
That's all I got for now.
They looked pretty dang great today. The problem was the same problem it has been lately. Georgia's offensive and defensive fronts pretty much got whipped. Thomas Brown and Knowshon Moreno busted numerous long runs after getting hit in the backfield last week. But let's be honest, Ole Miss is not Tennessee. And they got zero pressure on Erik Ainge. I really thought Georgia would be able to move the ball on the ground and keep Ainge and his guys off the field. But I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
I'm not going to write all night. It's 2:30 in the morning and I just rolled in from Knoxville, but I figured I needed to post something before bed after a game that went like that. It will be interesting to see where this team goes from here. I don't think you'll see a monumental slide like you saw last year, but they'd better start learning how to wrap up on tackles in a hurry. It was shocking how poorly they did that today, although I don't know why I felt that way. They've been missing tackles all year.
So as not to seem completely negative, there were a handful of good things I saw today.
* Demiko Goodman's touchdown catch was spectacular.
* Tripp Chandler made some nice catches and caught a touchdown.
* Knowshon Moreno continues to play with a ton of fire -- although I'd like to see the replay of what happened down there near the goal line when he and the Tennessee guy got flagged for offsetting personal fouls. There was some monkey business going on over there.
* Thought Lumpkin looked good when they let him start getting some carries. He had Georgia's longest run of the game (10 yards). That's good because they weren't sure just how serious Thomas Brown's left shoulder injury was. All Richt could say for sure was that his left clavicle was really sore. Saw Thomas briefly outside the locker room. He said he wasn't sure what his prognosis would be, but he was clearly upset -- whether that was more over the loss or the injury we'll find out today, probably.
* On a personal note, Brannan Southerland was impressive in the postgame interview room. Some kids come in there after a game like this and act...well, like kids. Spoiled little children. He might have been unhappy, but he took what happened today like a man and was able to discuss what happened in a thoughtful, analytical way without poking his lip out and pouting. I guess there's a cliche about college teaching you how to be an adult and Brannan seems like he's well on his way there.
* Went 6-1 in Saturday's games straight up and 3-4 against the spread, making me 39-12 SU and 23-26 ATS.
That's all I got for now.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Week 6 Picks that will likely stink once again
After whiffing on tonight's Kentucky-South Carolina game, I'm 33-11 straight up and 20-22 against the spread this year. Maybe I'll do a little better with some of these other tries.
Vanderbilt at Auburn, 12:30 p.m., LF Sports
Line: Auburn by 7.5
My guess: Auburn gets Brad Lester back, but who knows whether he'll have an immediate impact? It will also be interesting to see whether there's any residual hangover from last Saturday's shocking win at Florida. Auburn rarely comes out strong in these 12:30 games, so this one could get interesting. Vandy's 3-1, remember. But I'll go with the Tigers. Auburn 27, Vanderbilt 17
Louisiana Tech at Ole Miss, 2 p.m., No TV
Line: Ole Miss by 13
My guess: I was fairly impressed with Ole Miss last weekend. At least their offense. The Rebels played tough for about three quarters, but they didn't have the horses to stick with Georgia for a full game. But they'll win their 11th straight homecoming today against Derek Dooley's Bulldogs, who have been horrible on defense, particularly through the air. Ole Miss 35, Louisiana Tech 17
UAB at Mississippi State, 2:30 p.m., No TV
Line: Mississippi State by 19
My guess: The Fighting Neil Callaways have gotten off to a tough start (1-3), although they gave Florida State a run for its money in Tallahassee a few weeks ago and they've played fairly well since being embarrassed at Michigan State in the opener. UAB actually beat Mississippi State a few years ago on homecoming -- a day that hasn't been especially successful for the Bulldogs in recent seasons (they're 1-2 in the last three years). I actually think State's a halfway decent team this year, so I think they'll win this one. That's a pretty big spread, though. I'll pick the Bulldogs to win and not cover. Mississippi State 37, UAB 20
Houston at Alabama, 3 p.m., PPV
Line: Alabama by 10.5
My guess: Is the bloom off the rose in T-Town? It shouldn't be, although Alabama fans might be too insane to realize that. The town might implode if they lose a third straight game this weekend (Saban never lost three straight at LSU). Houston's not a cupcake, but it would surprise me if the Cougars keep things interesting for more than a half. Alabama 30, Houston 17
Georgia at Tennessee, 3:30 p.m., CBS
Line: Tennessee by 1
My guess: I kind of feel about this game the way I did about the Georgia-Alabama game -- I have no strong feeling for what to expect. I have a feeling it will be high-scoring because I think Georgia will have trouble slowing down Erik Ainge and I think Tennessee will have difficulty against Georgia's running game. I think Georgia's a better football team, but you never know exactly what to expect from these Bulldogs. I'll pick them, but I'm not especially confident about it. Georgia 28, Tennessee 24
Chattanooga at Arkansas, 7 p.m., No TV
Line: Arkansas by 48
My guess: We're in the middle of an embarrassing midseason schedule for the Hogs. They throttled a ridiculously bad North Texas team (0-4) last week 66-7, follow that with I-AA Chattanooga (1-3 in I-AA at that), then get a visit from Auburn (3-2) -- the only team in the five-game stretch that currently has more than one win -- then Ole Miss (1-4) and Florida International (0-5). Take Auburn out of the mix and you're talking about four opponents with a combined 2-16 record. And even with Auburn added in there, we're talking 5-18. Ridiculous. Considering the Mocs lost 41-16 to The Citadel last weekend, I feel like Arkansas might cover that massive spread. Arkansas 58, Chattanooga 7
Florida at LSU, 7:30 p.m., CBS
Line: LSU by 8
My guess: Florida's been exposed a bit in the last two games, but I still fully believe the Gators have maybe the most talented team in the league. They're just young. That's a bad thing to be facing this LSU team, on a Saturday night, in Baton Rouge. It wouldn't stun me if the Gators made things interesting or even pulled off an upset, but I don't think LSU's losing this season. We'll see. LSU 30, Florida 21
Vanderbilt at Auburn, 12:30 p.m., LF Sports
Line: Auburn by 7.5
My guess: Auburn gets Brad Lester back, but who knows whether he'll have an immediate impact? It will also be interesting to see whether there's any residual hangover from last Saturday's shocking win at Florida. Auburn rarely comes out strong in these 12:30 games, so this one could get interesting. Vandy's 3-1, remember. But I'll go with the Tigers. Auburn 27, Vanderbilt 17
Louisiana Tech at Ole Miss, 2 p.m., No TV
Line: Ole Miss by 13
My guess: I was fairly impressed with Ole Miss last weekend. At least their offense. The Rebels played tough for about three quarters, but they didn't have the horses to stick with Georgia for a full game. But they'll win their 11th straight homecoming today against Derek Dooley's Bulldogs, who have been horrible on defense, particularly through the air. Ole Miss 35, Louisiana Tech 17
UAB at Mississippi State, 2:30 p.m., No TV
Line: Mississippi State by 19
My guess: The Fighting Neil Callaways have gotten off to a tough start (1-3), although they gave Florida State a run for its money in Tallahassee a few weeks ago and they've played fairly well since being embarrassed at Michigan State in the opener. UAB actually beat Mississippi State a few years ago on homecoming -- a day that hasn't been especially successful for the Bulldogs in recent seasons (they're 1-2 in the last three years). I actually think State's a halfway decent team this year, so I think they'll win this one. That's a pretty big spread, though. I'll pick the Bulldogs to win and not cover. Mississippi State 37, UAB 20
Houston at Alabama, 3 p.m., PPV
Line: Alabama by 10.5
My guess: Is the bloom off the rose in T-Town? It shouldn't be, although Alabama fans might be too insane to realize that. The town might implode if they lose a third straight game this weekend (Saban never lost three straight at LSU). Houston's not a cupcake, but it would surprise me if the Cougars keep things interesting for more than a half. Alabama 30, Houston 17
Georgia at Tennessee, 3:30 p.m., CBS
Line: Tennessee by 1
My guess: I kind of feel about this game the way I did about the Georgia-Alabama game -- I have no strong feeling for what to expect. I have a feeling it will be high-scoring because I think Georgia will have trouble slowing down Erik Ainge and I think Tennessee will have difficulty against Georgia's running game. I think Georgia's a better football team, but you never know exactly what to expect from these Bulldogs. I'll pick them, but I'm not especially confident about it. Georgia 28, Tennessee 24
Chattanooga at Arkansas, 7 p.m., No TV
Line: Arkansas by 48
My guess: We're in the middle of an embarrassing midseason schedule for the Hogs. They throttled a ridiculously bad North Texas team (0-4) last week 66-7, follow that with I-AA Chattanooga (1-3 in I-AA at that), then get a visit from Auburn (3-2) -- the only team in the five-game stretch that currently has more than one win -- then Ole Miss (1-4) and Florida International (0-5). Take Auburn out of the mix and you're talking about four opponents with a combined 2-16 record. And even with Auburn added in there, we're talking 5-18. Ridiculous. Considering the Mocs lost 41-16 to The Citadel last weekend, I feel like Arkansas might cover that massive spread. Arkansas 58, Chattanooga 7
Florida at LSU, 7:30 p.m., CBS
Line: LSU by 8
My guess: Florida's been exposed a bit in the last two games, but I still fully believe the Gators have maybe the most talented team in the league. They're just young. That's a bad thing to be facing this LSU team, on a Saturday night, in Baton Rouge. It wouldn't stun me if the Gators made things interesting or even pulled off an upset, but I don't think LSU's losing this season. We'll see. LSU 30, Florida 21
Thursday prepractice Richt time
I'd have to say Mark Richt seemed to be in an abnormally good mood today when we spoke with him before practice. There were a lot of laughs in the 20 or so minutes we spoke before the team boarded the buses for their final practice of the week at Sanford Stadium, where they piped in some artificial noise to simulate the environment at Neyland Stadium.
Among the topics he covered today: walk-on running back Kalvin Daniels, whether to blitz a quarterback like Erik Ainge, how Bryan McClendon is faring as a Georgia graduate assistant (very well), whether the team might ever change up the uniform (red pants, maybe?) and Richt's various jobs before he became a grad assistant (did you know he'd been a bartender and a parking valet? Interesting stuff).
I guess the most relevant thing that came up was Kregg Lumpkin's prospects for playing on Saturday. He didn't make any guarantees, but I'm thinking if he doesn't play, it won't be because he's not physically able.
"It looks like he’s gonna be able to carry the ball. I saw a couple passes, one he dropped, one he caught. The one that was a little closer to his body, he caught it, one that was a little further away from his body he did not. We’ve got a lot of guys that drop a ball from time to time, so I don’t know if that has anything to do with his thumb. If he’s not ready, he’s very close to being ready."
Other injury news: OG Scott Haverkamp (ankle) has not practiced all week and is not expected to play on Saturday. S Rowdy Francis (hamstring) is also doubtful. I observed DT Jeff Owens as the team was boarding the buses to travel to practice at Sanford Stadium. He was dressed out to practice, but he was favoring that ankle he reinjured on Tuesday a bit.
A reader e-mailed me earlier this week and asked if there were any plans for them to do anything special with the uniforms anytime soon. That is something that's been pretty popular lately, considering LSU, Tulane and Minnesota all wore special-edition or throwback uniforms last weekend (at least, those are the ones I know of) and Auburn will do so this weekend to honor its 1957 championship team. So I figured it would be interesting to run it by the coach and see what he thought about Georgia ever doing something similar, like say, the kind of white-top, red-pants getup the 1980 team wore when it visited Tennessee in 1980. Didn't sound like there was a plan to do something like that anytime soon, but I wouldn't rule it out forever.
"We may do it one time or another, I don’t know. I do like our silver britches, I like our white and red. I like people to know when they flip the TV on, when they see us they can recognize us without wondering who the heck we are. I just like the way we look in those things, not to say I wouldn’t ever stray."
Did you ever do anything like that at Florida State?
"We did some all-garnet sometimes. Before I got there, they did an all-gold, which kinda looked, not all-orange, but kinda that. They said it was a real bad look and I think they lost the game of course, and they were like, ‘Don’t ever wear all-gold again.’ ... Yeah, we’d probably do something like that."
Is there any kind of superstition involved, like we've established a certain level of success wearing what we wear and not wanting to stray from that?
"It’s not superstition as much as tradition. ... I’m not superstitious, I can tell you that."
Among the topics he covered today: walk-on running back Kalvin Daniels, whether to blitz a quarterback like Erik Ainge, how Bryan McClendon is faring as a Georgia graduate assistant (very well), whether the team might ever change up the uniform (red pants, maybe?) and Richt's various jobs before he became a grad assistant (did you know he'd been a bartender and a parking valet? Interesting stuff).
I guess the most relevant thing that came up was Kregg Lumpkin's prospects for playing on Saturday. He didn't make any guarantees, but I'm thinking if he doesn't play, it won't be because he's not physically able.
"It looks like he’s gonna be able to carry the ball. I saw a couple passes, one he dropped, one he caught. The one that was a little closer to his body, he caught it, one that was a little further away from his body he did not. We’ve got a lot of guys that drop a ball from time to time, so I don’t know if that has anything to do with his thumb. If he’s not ready, he’s very close to being ready."
Other injury news: OG Scott Haverkamp (ankle) has not practiced all week and is not expected to play on Saturday. S Rowdy Francis (hamstring) is also doubtful. I observed DT Jeff Owens as the team was boarding the buses to travel to practice at Sanford Stadium. He was dressed out to practice, but he was favoring that ankle he reinjured on Tuesday a bit.
A reader e-mailed me earlier this week and asked if there were any plans for them to do anything special with the uniforms anytime soon. That is something that's been pretty popular lately, considering LSU, Tulane and Minnesota all wore special-edition or throwback uniforms last weekend (at least, those are the ones I know of) and Auburn will do so this weekend to honor its 1957 championship team. So I figured it would be interesting to run it by the coach and see what he thought about Georgia ever doing something similar, like say, the kind of white-top, red-pants getup the 1980 team wore when it visited Tennessee in 1980. Didn't sound like there was a plan to do something like that anytime soon, but I wouldn't rule it out forever.
"We may do it one time or another, I don’t know. I do like our silver britches, I like our white and red. I like people to know when they flip the TV on, when they see us they can recognize us without wondering who the heck we are. I just like the way we look in those things, not to say I wouldn’t ever stray."
Did you ever do anything like that at Florida State?
"We did some all-garnet sometimes. Before I got there, they did an all-gold, which kinda looked, not all-orange, but kinda that. They said it was a real bad look and I think they lost the game of course, and they were like, ‘Don’t ever wear all-gold again.’ ... Yeah, we’d probably do something like that."
Is there any kind of superstition involved, like we've established a certain level of success wearing what we wear and not wanting to stray from that?
"It’s not superstition as much as tradition. ... I’m not superstitious, I can tell you that."
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Quick pick for Thursday
I don't have time to do my full SEC picks for the week before tonight's game, so I wanted to go ahead and get Kentucky-South Carolina out of the way and I'll do the others later.
Kentucky at South Carolina, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
Line: South Carolina by 3.5
My guess: Let's be honest, Kentucky's not going undefeated this year. But I'm just not sold on South Carolina. I think it was kinda flukey that the Gamecocks beat Georgia and that was before they had some turmoil at QB and Jasper Brinkley went out for the year. I'm on the Kentucky bandwagon until they give me a reason to hop off. I know Williams-Brice will be rocking tonight, but...Kentucky 24, South Carolina 20
Kentucky at South Carolina, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
Line: South Carolina by 3.5
My guess: Let's be honest, Kentucky's not going undefeated this year. But I'm just not sold on South Carolina. I think it was kinda flukey that the Gamecocks beat Georgia and that was before they had some turmoil at QB and Jasper Brinkley went out for the year. I'm on the Kentucky bandwagon until they give me a reason to hop off. I know Williams-Brice will be rocking tonight, but...Kentucky 24, South Carolina 20
Mostly conversational postpractice
I've already talked to everybody I needed for the week, so I didn't do any postpractice interviews today. And most of Mark Richt's postpractice interview time covered out-of-the-blue stuff. Josh Kendall is clearly working on a story on how Richt noticed his routine has changed, a few games into the season, now that he's not the offensive playcaller. It was mostly ground he's covered in previous interviews, but I found this interesting. Now he's doing 15-minute sit-downs with all the players each week, just to talk with them about what's going on, which is something he never could have done before. In fact, he said those meetings are the reason he got walk-on Mitchell Pittman into Saturday's game. Pittman told him one time in one of these meetings that he's enjoyed his career and he was just hoping to make it in for one play sometime. So with them up big and Ole Miss with the ball in the fourth quarter Saturday, Richt made sure he got into the game. He even got in on a tackle. It was a nice story.
Other subjects covered: Israel Troupe playing two sports, the difficulty of attempting that, whether he foresees Georgia ever playing a Thursday-night game (not in Athens, probably nowhere) and how much of a benefit Tennessee has by coming off a bye week. I'll post quotes below.
The only injury news he dished out was that Jeff Owens didn't practice today. I knew he reaggravated his previously injured ankle yesterday and didn't finish Tuesday's practice, but I was under the impression it wasn't serious. Apparently it isn't really. Richt said he'll practice tomorrow and I saw Jeff wandering around in the hallway and he doesn't look any worse for the wear.
He also said he was pleased with the last two days worth of practice -- and really Tuesday and Wednesday are the two most important practice days of the week. He said they rarely put two good days together back-to-back like this, so we'll see if that's translates to anything on Saturday.
On Israel Troupe practicing with the baseball team:
"As long as it’s not interfering with football practice. Some weekends when we’re out of town or even when we’re at home if he’s not dressing out or whatever. The last time we were out of town, I guess he spent maybe two or three days working with the baseball team. Coach Perno called me and asked and I said, ‘Yeah I don’t have any problem at all.’ I’m excited for him to have some fun and let the baseball team see him. If he was playing and part of the rotation, he wouldn’t do it, but he’s redshirting. No problem with that. When I had Charlie Ward at Florida State, we allowed him to hoop it up. So I don’t have a problem with it."
On why you don't see more of that:
"It’s so tough. It’s so tough academically. It’s just tough, it’s a grind. Even Charlie, it used to kill Charlie. It would wear him out because you’d have your football season, two-a-days and the whole season, bowl game, then go play basketball right away, grinding it. And basketball, a couple times they went to the Elite 8 or Sweet 16, and before you know it, it’s spring ball again. I think there was even some cross over a couple times. And spring ball goes to May and then you’ve got just a couple months to start lifting and learning again. It’s just a grind. Football is one of the sports, it’s a sport that you probably miss the least amount of classes is football. If you are like us and don’t play many or any Thursday night games. You just don’t miss many. You miss a little bit on Friday travel day. On away games, we’ll leave about 1:30 and a couple guys will miss a class right at the end there, but baseball, lot of travel, basketball, good bit of travel. It’s tough to do those things."
On whether he thinks Georgia will ever play on Thursday nights:
"Not at home. I don’t know if we’ve ever been asked to play away or not. But I don’t want to step out of line because I’m not sure if Damon’s given some policies. I know we’re not gonna play any at home – and you can’t. You’ve got an on-campus stadium. You would literally have to shut down the school. We’re not gonna shut down the school. We shouldn’t shut down the school for that. I suppose if there’s an away game, it could probably work if you opened dates for it just right, but I don’t want to go on a five-day (span) where you play Saturday and then Thursday."
On what helps about coming off a bye week:
"You do get rested, you do get healthy, you do have time to work on fundamentals midseason which is important because you do tend to lose fundamentals as the year goes on. The coaches have more time to just be very deliberate in their plan – just take their time instead of rushing through it. The players usually have more time to digest the plan. All those are advantages, no doubt. So is it always a deciding factor? No, but I think it’s definitely an advantage for the team with the open date."
On a completely unrelated note, what are you folks' impressions of the baseball playoff coverage on TBS? Am I the only one watching? I think the announcing choices are bizarre. I was disappointed they didn't have Skip Caray on one of the crews, although I understand TBS' thinking. They're trying to establish a new brand with this national MLB thing and Skip Caray is probably a little "too Braves" for that. Plus, he may be an acquired taste. Although he's one of my favorites because I grew up listening to him and Pete Van Wieren and Ernie Johnson Sr...On that note, it's cool that Ernie Johnson Jr. is hosting the studio show. One of my favorite TV shows is the NBA one he hosts with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith. One of the funniest shows on TV.
But this studio show pales in comparison. Ernie's analysts, Cal Ripken and Columbus' own Frank Thomas, are completely bland. I can't figure out why Big Frank's on the show. He has no opinions. He said he agreed with Tim McClellan's call on the last play of the Rockies-Padres game the other night because the guy's one of the most consistent umpires in the game. Never mind that the call was clearly incorrect. Then he said after the Cubs-Dbacks game that he won't question Lou Piniella's decision to go to his bullpen tonight, nor will he ever question Lou Piniella's decisions, because Lou Piniella's a great manager. Thank the good lord we've got Frank around for that kind of analysis. For the record, I think Piniella's thinking was sound in taking out Carlos Zambrano early since he's bringing him back on Sunday. But clearly it backfired on him, considering the reliever came on and immediately gave up two runs. So let's talk about it fellas. You don't have to blast him to point out that the move obviously went wrong. That's what they're paying you for.
Other subjects covered: Israel Troupe playing two sports, the difficulty of attempting that, whether he foresees Georgia ever playing a Thursday-night game (not in Athens, probably nowhere) and how much of a benefit Tennessee has by coming off a bye week. I'll post quotes below.
The only injury news he dished out was that Jeff Owens didn't practice today. I knew he reaggravated his previously injured ankle yesterday and didn't finish Tuesday's practice, but I was under the impression it wasn't serious. Apparently it isn't really. Richt said he'll practice tomorrow and I saw Jeff wandering around in the hallway and he doesn't look any worse for the wear.
He also said he was pleased with the last two days worth of practice -- and really Tuesday and Wednesday are the two most important practice days of the week. He said they rarely put two good days together back-to-back like this, so we'll see if that's translates to anything on Saturday.
On Israel Troupe practicing with the baseball team:
"As long as it’s not interfering with football practice. Some weekends when we’re out of town or even when we’re at home if he’s not dressing out or whatever. The last time we were out of town, I guess he spent maybe two or three days working with the baseball team. Coach Perno called me and asked and I said, ‘Yeah I don’t have any problem at all.’ I’m excited for him to have some fun and let the baseball team see him. If he was playing and part of the rotation, he wouldn’t do it, but he’s redshirting. No problem with that. When I had Charlie Ward at Florida State, we allowed him to hoop it up. So I don’t have a problem with it."
On why you don't see more of that:
"It’s so tough. It’s so tough academically. It’s just tough, it’s a grind. Even Charlie, it used to kill Charlie. It would wear him out because you’d have your football season, two-a-days and the whole season, bowl game, then go play basketball right away, grinding it. And basketball, a couple times they went to the Elite 8 or Sweet 16, and before you know it, it’s spring ball again. I think there was even some cross over a couple times. And spring ball goes to May and then you’ve got just a couple months to start lifting and learning again. It’s just a grind. Football is one of the sports, it’s a sport that you probably miss the least amount of classes is football. If you are like us and don’t play many or any Thursday night games. You just don’t miss many. You miss a little bit on Friday travel day. On away games, we’ll leave about 1:30 and a couple guys will miss a class right at the end there, but baseball, lot of travel, basketball, good bit of travel. It’s tough to do those things."
On whether he thinks Georgia will ever play on Thursday nights:
"Not at home. I don’t know if we’ve ever been asked to play away or not. But I don’t want to step out of line because I’m not sure if Damon’s given some policies. I know we’re not gonna play any at home – and you can’t. You’ve got an on-campus stadium. You would literally have to shut down the school. We’re not gonna shut down the school. We shouldn’t shut down the school for that. I suppose if there’s an away game, it could probably work if you opened dates for it just right, but I don’t want to go on a five-day (span) where you play Saturday and then Thursday."
On what helps about coming off a bye week:
"You do get rested, you do get healthy, you do have time to work on fundamentals midseason which is important because you do tend to lose fundamentals as the year goes on. The coaches have more time to just be very deliberate in their plan – just take their time instead of rushing through it. The players usually have more time to digest the plan. All those are advantages, no doubt. So is it always a deciding factor? No, but I think it’s definitely an advantage for the team with the open date."
On a completely unrelated note, what are you folks' impressions of the baseball playoff coverage on TBS? Am I the only one watching? I think the announcing choices are bizarre. I was disappointed they didn't have Skip Caray on one of the crews, although I understand TBS' thinking. They're trying to establish a new brand with this national MLB thing and Skip Caray is probably a little "too Braves" for that. Plus, he may be an acquired taste. Although he's one of my favorites because I grew up listening to him and Pete Van Wieren and Ernie Johnson Sr...On that note, it's cool that Ernie Johnson Jr. is hosting the studio show. One of my favorite TV shows is the NBA one he hosts with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith. One of the funniest shows on TV.
But this studio show pales in comparison. Ernie's analysts, Cal Ripken and Columbus' own Frank Thomas, are completely bland. I can't figure out why Big Frank's on the show. He has no opinions. He said he agreed with Tim McClellan's call on the last play of the Rockies-Padres game the other night because the guy's one of the most consistent umpires in the game. Never mind that the call was clearly incorrect. Then he said after the Cubs-Dbacks game that he won't question Lou Piniella's decision to go to his bullpen tonight, nor will he ever question Lou Piniella's decisions, because Lou Piniella's a great manager. Thank the good lord we've got Frank around for that kind of analysis. For the record, I think Piniella's thinking was sound in taking out Carlos Zambrano early since he's bringing him back on Sunday. But clearly it backfired on him, considering the reliever came on and immediately gave up two runs. So let's talk about it fellas. You don't have to blast him to point out that the move obviously went wrong. That's what they're paying you for.
Graduation success...or a lack thereof
What a great time of year. I got up today and wrote my story for tomorrow while watching the Phillies-Rockies game. After practice, went to the gym and there were two games on while I was jogging. And now I'm typing out my blog post and watching the end of the Diamondbacks-Cubs game.
So onto the ugly details of today's NCAA GSR report. I know, I know. Academics are boring. But twice a year, these reports come out and it's our obligation to report the findings. During one of those times, when the NCAA releases Graduation Success Rate findings in the fall, Mark Richt is testy when talking about it. And the other time, when Academic Progress Rate comes out in the spring, he's happier.
So today was the testy day. Georgia ranked dead last in GSR in the Southeastern Conference. Only 41 percent of Georgia football players who enrolled between 1997 and 2000 graduated within six years. The next worst football program was Alabama at 49 percent. Vanderbilt led the SEC with 91 percent.
Of course, I don't blame Richt for getting a bit irritable about it. He coached a lot of those players, but he didn't sign any of them and wasn't around when any of them were freshmen -- which is probably the most significant academic year, as far as the athletes getting settled and starting off their academic career on the right foot. He points out that Georgia was second in the SEC in the most recent APR report, which tracks more recent academic achievement.
Apparently next year will also look bad. He said there was one particularly bad year (they couldn't remember which, but thought it was 1998) that brings down the GSR total. Next year will be the last year that bad year is included in Georgia's total.
Here's what he said on the subject:
"It’s still mostly not (from my time). We like to concentrate on what we’ve been doing since we’ve been here – which the APR is really the thing that does give a much greater snapshot of what’s happening right now. I know when you look at that, if you look at that way, if you want give balanced reporting, I think we’re top 10 of all the BCS schools with our APR rate. I think we’re second in the Southeastern Conference. I think we’ve graduated over 95 football players since we’ve been here and got 14 more that are supposed to graduate here in December. So I think a lot of good things are happening. That rate, which most people probably don’t understand, if you just have one awful year in there – which there is one in particular – it’s a grouping over four seasons over a six-year period. They’ve got six years to graduate and it’s four classes combined. I think one of those is not very good and it’s gonna take a little while to cycle out of it."
* If you're one of the rare folks who are interested in this subject, here's the overall NCAA percentages, ranked by sport, in today's GSR report.
* And here are Georgia's percentages by sport.
So onto the ugly details of today's NCAA GSR report. I know, I know. Academics are boring. But twice a year, these reports come out and it's our obligation to report the findings. During one of those times, when the NCAA releases Graduation Success Rate findings in the fall, Mark Richt is testy when talking about it. And the other time, when Academic Progress Rate comes out in the spring, he's happier.
So today was the testy day. Georgia ranked dead last in GSR in the Southeastern Conference. Only 41 percent of Georgia football players who enrolled between 1997 and 2000 graduated within six years. The next worst football program was Alabama at 49 percent. Vanderbilt led the SEC with 91 percent.
Of course, I don't blame Richt for getting a bit irritable about it. He coached a lot of those players, but he didn't sign any of them and wasn't around when any of them were freshmen -- which is probably the most significant academic year, as far as the athletes getting settled and starting off their academic career on the right foot. He points out that Georgia was second in the SEC in the most recent APR report, which tracks more recent academic achievement.
Apparently next year will also look bad. He said there was one particularly bad year (they couldn't remember which, but thought it was 1998) that brings down the GSR total. Next year will be the last year that bad year is included in Georgia's total.
Here's what he said on the subject:
"It’s still mostly not (from my time). We like to concentrate on what we’ve been doing since we’ve been here – which the APR is really the thing that does give a much greater snapshot of what’s happening right now. I know when you look at that, if you look at that way, if you want give balanced reporting, I think we’re top 10 of all the BCS schools with our APR rate. I think we’re second in the Southeastern Conference. I think we’ve graduated over 95 football players since we’ve been here and got 14 more that are supposed to graduate here in December. So I think a lot of good things are happening. That rate, which most people probably don’t understand, if you just have one awful year in there – which there is one in particular – it’s a grouping over four seasons over a six-year period. They’ve got six years to graduate and it’s four classes combined. I think one of those is not very good and it’s gonna take a little while to cycle out of it."
* If you're one of the rare folks who are interested in this subject, here's the overall NCAA percentages, ranked by sport, in today's GSR report.
* And here are Georgia's percentages by sport.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Dogs add 21st commitment
According to the good folks over at UGAsports.com, Georgia added its 21st commitment for the 2008 recruiting class over the weekend.
Cedar Grove High (Ellenwood, Ga.) athlete Xavier Avery apparently gave the Bulldogs a verbal commitment after visiting for Saturday's Ole Miss game. The 6-foot, 190-pounder had numerous offers, including from a host of SEC and ACC schools. He can play running back or defensive back.
Rivals lists him as a three-star prospect, the No. 36 athlete nationally and the No. 19 player in Georgia. Scout has him as a three-star player and the nation's No. 68 running back.
Rivals.com profile
Scout.com profile
Interesting sidenote: Avery is a very talented baseball player (an outfielder, he hit better than .600 and stole 40-something bases last year) and wants to play college baseball as well, if he makes it to college. My understanding is he's good enough to potentially be a first-day MLB draft prospect. In fact, he was one of five Georgia natives invited to play in the prestigious Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic in San Diego this summer. ... in which case, you have to wonder whether he'd ever make it to Athens at all, even if he does sign with the Dogs in February. Who knows? It's something that will bear watching, as will whether his decision has any effect on Cedar Grove teammate Josh Jarboe, who's one of the top uncommitted prospects in the state right now.
Cedar Grove High (Ellenwood, Ga.) athlete Xavier Avery apparently gave the Bulldogs a verbal commitment after visiting for Saturday's Ole Miss game. The 6-foot, 190-pounder had numerous offers, including from a host of SEC and ACC schools. He can play running back or defensive back.
Rivals lists him as a three-star prospect, the No. 36 athlete nationally and the No. 19 player in Georgia. Scout has him as a three-star player and the nation's No. 68 running back.
Rivals.com profile
Scout.com profile
Interesting sidenote: Avery is a very talented baseball player (an outfielder, he hit better than .600 and stole 40-something bases last year) and wants to play college baseball as well, if he makes it to college. My understanding is he's good enough to potentially be a first-day MLB draft prospect. In fact, he was one of five Georgia natives invited to play in the prestigious Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic in San Diego this summer. ... in which case, you have to wonder whether he'd ever make it to Athens at all, even if he does sign with the Dogs in February. Who knows? It's something that will bear watching, as will whether his decision has any effect on Cedar Grove teammate Josh Jarboe, who's one of the top uncommitted prospects in the state right now.
Tuesday notes + quick Jancek, Ball Q/As
I spoke with a ton of people today -- Stafford, Allen, Byrd, Weston, Southerland, Coutu, Moreno, Massaquoi and coaches John Jancek and Tony Ball -- as well as Vince Dooley for something I'm doing for our Saturday paper. It's a shame that we got our wires crossed at work today and I didn't do a full story, only a notebook, because I have a ton of stuff that's going to eventually go unused most likely.
I'm fairly tired right now, so I'm only going to post a little of it, but I'll give a brief run-down on some of what I asked them about.
* I believe a commenter on here asked me about this one day this week, so I asked Richt in his press conference and later Coutu about it -- was the onside kick technique he used Saturday the one he injured himself trying last year on the Thursday before the Tennessee game? No, it wasn't. He said that one was just a different way of trying the typical pound-it-into-the-ground popup kick you so often see. Said he'd tried it a hundred times and it was just a freak injury last year. This one was about deception and a sideswipe kick that really worked perfectly...Also talked to him about the year since that happened. Seems like it's been longer, doesn't it?
* Talked to Brannan Southerland about not getting as many touches and whether defenses are more cognizant of his whereabouts this year. He said they seem to be, but he doesn't mind not getting as many touchdowns. I also asked him about whether he thinks he's a better fullback this year -- as Richt basically opined in his news conference -- and he said he thinks his blocking is better and that, yeah, he probably is. Although he added he wants to keep improving, of course. I saw on the AJC site that Carter wrote a story from some of our conversation with Brannan today, so you can go over there and read a good portion of what Brannan said. I'll probably use it in a notebook in the next day or two.
* I asked Mohamed whether he thought Stafford was throwing to him or Tony Wilson on that touchdown Saturday. He laughed and said he didn't know. Asked Stafford the same question. He said Mohamed, of course. Just kidding. I believed him. He said he didn't even see Tony when he threw the ball.
* Spoke with CJ Byrd about a question I had, or maybe it was an observation that I wanted his opinion on. I told him that it seemed to me like Georgia's defensive backs don't get their head around when the ball's being thrown their way a lot of times. I asked him if that's something he noticed and if that's important.
(And let's get this straight -- this was not a criticism, it was a question about technique. It's not my job to make value judgments about how they play their positions or how they're coached, it's to write about the players, the coaches and the games in a way that people will hopefully find interesting. That's why those idiots who say you can't write about it well enough if you didn't play the game -- although I did for a little while and I mostly got my butt kicked -- are idiots. It's not my job to diagram a cover two defense. It's to find interesting subjects and then write 600 words about them six days a week and then a gamer on Saturday. That complex inside-football stuff is interesting to about 2.3 percent of the people who read about the team, I've found. And the vast majority of those people know about half as much as they think they do).
So with that soapbox moment over, here's what he said. It's not as important for a college defensive back to get his head around as it is in the pros, although it's fine and good if he's there and has the time to do that. He thinks it's a lot more valuable for him to be there and have his hands up between the receiver and the ball. I think he called it having his hands "in the basket." That's one of the many fun things about my job. I enjoy watching these kids play football, but I'm no expert. It's fun to me to ask them or the coaches about things that happen and why they happen, just to satisfy my curiosity. I really wasn't asking CJ that stuff to write about it. It just interested me to hear what he thought, and I thought you might find it interesting as well.
All right, so I've already typed a ton. Here are a couple of thoughts from Jancek and Ball from this afternoon:
Jancek, on the probable starting linebackers Saturday:
"With Dannell in the middle and Dew at the will and Brandon at the sam, we get back to an original lineup that we started the year with, so nothing new that way. It’s just a matter of playing fast and playing hard."
On who backs up Ellerbe at mike:
"It’ll be a combination of Brandon and Darryl Gamble in the middle. I thought Darryl had a very good practice today and was pleased. And Rennie Curran is coming on (at will), so we might have a true freshman playing in Neyland Stadium, so that should be exciting."
Ball, on how Kregg Lumpkin fared in practice today:
"I thought he did everything that we asked of him. Last week he did. He’s been back and tried to do what we asked of him. Today was an opportunity for him to actually be able to handle the ball with both hands. I thought he did a good job today. I’ll go back and look at the video and be able to evaluate him closer."
Ball, on whether he's concerned about how adding Lumpkin back into the mix might disrupt the rhythm they've built with Brown and Moreno:
"You’ve got to be conscious of that. We all know that and we’ve got to be conscious of that because we’re only gonna get so many offensive reps. I’ll just have to play it by ear. We had to do that last year and we had to play it by ear. And also, I look at especially with Kregg, I look at what he can do comfortably. I have to have a gut feeling and obviously coach Richt’s got to have a gut feeling that he can handle all the things that we’re asking him to do. So what I’m looking for is how he practiced today and how he’ll practice tomorrow and Thursday. That tells me about where his mental mindset is."
On how he anticipates they might split carries when Lumpkin returns:
"It’s gonna be by feel. That’s the way I’ve always done it. That’s what you’ve got to do. Even when you’re rotating the two, you do it by feel. You’ve got the luxury of making sure that everybody’s fresh and that we’re hitting them with fresh guys full-speed. That’s the luxury that we have."
From what I could gather today, they're not 100 percent certain Kregg will get carries on Saturday, but he may. Today was his first day of contact without that big club on his hand to cover his previously broken thumb. Richt sounded guardedly optimistic about it before practice, but Ball definitely made it sound like they may hold off all week before they make the final call.
Here's what Richt said in his presser:
"First of all, I’m not sure he’s gonna be in the rotation yet. But when that time comes, I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s gonna get in it one way or another. I think all it’s gonna take is for him to break a big run and everybody’ll say, ‘Yeah that was a good idea, coach,’ just like Thomas playing big like he did. I think it makes people say well maybe he ought to be the starter and that kind of thing. But Lumpkin’s a very good player. He’s a veteran, he’s had some big games for us, he’s a bruising runner. A lot of times that’s just what’s needed at any given moment, so I’m sure it’ll be watched real closely and critiqued."
All right, bedtime.
I'm fairly tired right now, so I'm only going to post a little of it, but I'll give a brief run-down on some of what I asked them about.
* I believe a commenter on here asked me about this one day this week, so I asked Richt in his press conference and later Coutu about it -- was the onside kick technique he used Saturday the one he injured himself trying last year on the Thursday before the Tennessee game? No, it wasn't. He said that one was just a different way of trying the typical pound-it-into-the-ground popup kick you so often see. Said he'd tried it a hundred times and it was just a freak injury last year. This one was about deception and a sideswipe kick that really worked perfectly...Also talked to him about the year since that happened. Seems like it's been longer, doesn't it?
* Talked to Brannan Southerland about not getting as many touches and whether defenses are more cognizant of his whereabouts this year. He said they seem to be, but he doesn't mind not getting as many touchdowns. I also asked him about whether he thinks he's a better fullback this year -- as Richt basically opined in his news conference -- and he said he thinks his blocking is better and that, yeah, he probably is. Although he added he wants to keep improving, of course. I saw on the AJC site that Carter wrote a story from some of our conversation with Brannan today, so you can go over there and read a good portion of what Brannan said. I'll probably use it in a notebook in the next day or two.
* I asked Mohamed whether he thought Stafford was throwing to him or Tony Wilson on that touchdown Saturday. He laughed and said he didn't know. Asked Stafford the same question. He said Mohamed, of course. Just kidding. I believed him. He said he didn't even see Tony when he threw the ball.
* Spoke with CJ Byrd about a question I had, or maybe it was an observation that I wanted his opinion on. I told him that it seemed to me like Georgia's defensive backs don't get their head around when the ball's being thrown their way a lot of times. I asked him if that's something he noticed and if that's important.
(And let's get this straight -- this was not a criticism, it was a question about technique. It's not my job to make value judgments about how they play their positions or how they're coached, it's to write about the players, the coaches and the games in a way that people will hopefully find interesting. That's why those idiots who say you can't write about it well enough if you didn't play the game -- although I did for a little while and I mostly got my butt kicked -- are idiots. It's not my job to diagram a cover two defense. It's to find interesting subjects and then write 600 words about them six days a week and then a gamer on Saturday. That complex inside-football stuff is interesting to about 2.3 percent of the people who read about the team, I've found. And the vast majority of those people know about half as much as they think they do).
So with that soapbox moment over, here's what he said. It's not as important for a college defensive back to get his head around as it is in the pros, although it's fine and good if he's there and has the time to do that. He thinks it's a lot more valuable for him to be there and have his hands up between the receiver and the ball. I think he called it having his hands "in the basket." That's one of the many fun things about my job. I enjoy watching these kids play football, but I'm no expert. It's fun to me to ask them or the coaches about things that happen and why they happen, just to satisfy my curiosity. I really wasn't asking CJ that stuff to write about it. It just interested me to hear what he thought, and I thought you might find it interesting as well.
All right, so I've already typed a ton. Here are a couple of thoughts from Jancek and Ball from this afternoon:
Jancek, on the probable starting linebackers Saturday:
"With Dannell in the middle and Dew at the will and Brandon at the sam, we get back to an original lineup that we started the year with, so nothing new that way. It’s just a matter of playing fast and playing hard."
On who backs up Ellerbe at mike:
"It’ll be a combination of Brandon and Darryl Gamble in the middle. I thought Darryl had a very good practice today and was pleased. And Rennie Curran is coming on (at will), so we might have a true freshman playing in Neyland Stadium, so that should be exciting."
Ball, on how Kregg Lumpkin fared in practice today:
"I thought he did everything that we asked of him. Last week he did. He’s been back and tried to do what we asked of him. Today was an opportunity for him to actually be able to handle the ball with both hands. I thought he did a good job today. I’ll go back and look at the video and be able to evaluate him closer."
Ball, on whether he's concerned about how adding Lumpkin back into the mix might disrupt the rhythm they've built with Brown and Moreno:
"You’ve got to be conscious of that. We all know that and we’ve got to be conscious of that because we’re only gonna get so many offensive reps. I’ll just have to play it by ear. We had to do that last year and we had to play it by ear. And also, I look at especially with Kregg, I look at what he can do comfortably. I have to have a gut feeling and obviously coach Richt’s got to have a gut feeling that he can handle all the things that we’re asking him to do. So what I’m looking for is how he practiced today and how he’ll practice tomorrow and Thursday. That tells me about where his mental mindset is."
On how he anticipates they might split carries when Lumpkin returns:
"It’s gonna be by feel. That’s the way I’ve always done it. That’s what you’ve got to do. Even when you’re rotating the two, you do it by feel. You’ve got the luxury of making sure that everybody’s fresh and that we’re hitting them with fresh guys full-speed. That’s the luxury that we have."
From what I could gather today, they're not 100 percent certain Kregg will get carries on Saturday, but he may. Today was his first day of contact without that big club on his hand to cover his previously broken thumb. Richt sounded guardedly optimistic about it before practice, but Ball definitely made it sound like they may hold off all week before they make the final call.
Here's what Richt said in his presser:
"First of all, I’m not sure he’s gonna be in the rotation yet. But when that time comes, I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s gonna get in it one way or another. I think all it’s gonna take is for him to break a big run and everybody’ll say, ‘Yeah that was a good idea, coach,’ just like Thomas playing big like he did. I think it makes people say well maybe he ought to be the starter and that kind of thing. But Lumpkin’s a very good player. He’s a veteran, he’s had some big games for us, he’s a bruising runner. A lot of times that’s just what’s needed at any given moment, so I’m sure it’ll be watched real closely and critiqued."
All right, bedtime.
Should Vols be ranked?
There was an interesting give-and-take in Mark Richt's press conference today. I agreed with the general point he was making, but then he kind of stepped in it -- at least to me. He was talking about how early season polls don't mean much (I agree there. I don't think there should even be polls until at least a month into the season). He said some teams are penalized by playing good teams early, using Tennessee as an example, as the Vols lost by 14 at No. 3 Cal and 59-20 at No. 9 Florida. (They're currently 2-2, with 20-point home wins over Southern Miss and Arkansas State).
Here's what he said, which caused my eyebrows to raise just a bit:
"Scheduling and timing of when you play certain people have an effect on where you get put in the polls. You look at Tennessee. Tennessee can play Cal, who’s ranked what, third now? And Florida, who was just ranked second or third. That’s their only two losses. Tennessee, they might oughta be the 10th-rated team in the country right now, but they played two pretty stinkin’ good teams early on and didn’t come out a winner. But that doesn’t mean Tennessee shouldn’t be a ranked team. The good thing in this system is that as time rolls on, it all kinda comes out in the wash. But these early polls are not really very accurate."
That bold part is where he lost me. I know exactly where that was coming from. He's a decent guy and he doesn't want to downgrade an opponent, particularly one he's playing on the road this coming Saturday. I know part of what he meant is that if Tennessee had played five Arkansas States, the Vols would probably be undefeated and highly ranked. And Tennessee very well may be one of the 25 best teams in the country. But that's not what happened. We're talking about a team that lost by five and a half touchdowns not too long ago. I don't even think there are many Tennessee fans who think they are top-10 caliber.
So that point aroused a little curiosity in me. Considering he has a ballot in the coaches poll, I asked him if Tennessee made it into his top 25. They didn't, nor should they have. Let's remember they're 2-2 and lost 59-20 to Florida. Again, he was complimentary toward them in his response:
"I did not (vote for them), but they were right on the…the ones just sitting there. I’d have had to throw somebody else out of there. Some teams that lost were teams that probably shouldn’t have gotten knocked out of the top 25, so it wasn’t like you could add a bunch that weren’t in it. But Tennessee, I thought about it. I think they’re good enough. As you look at your own poll, you’ve gotta sit there and say, ‘Who are you gonna throw out to put them in?’ I don’t think there’s any doubt that they’ll be back in before it’s over."
Now that's something I can agree with. I think Tennessee very well might be top-25 good. We'll have to wait and see. In fact, it wouldn't shock me at all if the Vols beat Georgia on Saturday. But it's kind of silly to hint that a team that lost to ANYBODY by 39 points deserves to sniff the top 10. I figured if he legitimately thought they were that good, he'd have them somewhere on his ballot. I believe he's right not to have Tennessee on there right now, but you can't have it both ways. I understand coaches building up upcoming opponents. It's what almost all of them do and I'll almost always accept it with a smile. But let's not go overboard.
All that said, I don't think I'd particularly enjoy being a poll voter. Not in the current environment of college football where balloting plays a direct role in choosing a national champion, rather than a playoff system. Plus, you just open yourself to criticism and unnecessary headaches by participating in such a subjective process.
Here's what he said, which caused my eyebrows to raise just a bit:
"Scheduling and timing of when you play certain people have an effect on where you get put in the polls. You look at Tennessee. Tennessee can play Cal, who’s ranked what, third now? And Florida, who was just ranked second or third. That’s their only two losses. Tennessee, they might oughta be the 10th-rated team in the country right now, but they played two pretty stinkin’ good teams early on and didn’t come out a winner. But that doesn’t mean Tennessee shouldn’t be a ranked team. The good thing in this system is that as time rolls on, it all kinda comes out in the wash. But these early polls are not really very accurate."
That bold part is where he lost me. I know exactly where that was coming from. He's a decent guy and he doesn't want to downgrade an opponent, particularly one he's playing on the road this coming Saturday. I know part of what he meant is that if Tennessee had played five Arkansas States, the Vols would probably be undefeated and highly ranked. And Tennessee very well may be one of the 25 best teams in the country. But that's not what happened. We're talking about a team that lost by five and a half touchdowns not too long ago. I don't even think there are many Tennessee fans who think they are top-10 caliber.
So that point aroused a little curiosity in me. Considering he has a ballot in the coaches poll, I asked him if Tennessee made it into his top 25. They didn't, nor should they have. Let's remember they're 2-2 and lost 59-20 to Florida. Again, he was complimentary toward them in his response:
"I did not (vote for them), but they were right on the…the ones just sitting there. I’d have had to throw somebody else out of there. Some teams that lost were teams that probably shouldn’t have gotten knocked out of the top 25, so it wasn’t like you could add a bunch that weren’t in it. But Tennessee, I thought about it. I think they’re good enough. As you look at your own poll, you’ve gotta sit there and say, ‘Who are you gonna throw out to put them in?’ I don’t think there’s any doubt that they’ll be back in before it’s over."
Now that's something I can agree with. I think Tennessee very well might be top-25 good. We'll have to wait and see. In fact, it wouldn't shock me at all if the Vols beat Georgia on Saturday. But it's kind of silly to hint that a team that lost to ANYBODY by 39 points deserves to sniff the top 10. I figured if he legitimately thought they were that good, he'd have them somewhere on his ballot. I believe he's right not to have Tennessee on there right now, but you can't have it both ways. I understand coaches building up upcoming opponents. It's what almost all of them do and I'll almost always accept it with a smile. But let's not go overboard.
All that said, I don't think I'd particularly enjoy being a poll voter. Not in the current environment of college football where balloting plays a direct role in choosing a national champion, rather than a playoff system. Plus, you just open yourself to criticism and unnecessary headaches by participating in such a subjective process.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Cocktail Party ticket raffle + Did you know?
* A very nice lady who strings for the Ledger, Kathy Gierer, and whose husband Larry is one of our news reporters informed me of something today that might interest some of the Georgia (or Florida) fans in the Columbus area...or those who have friends/family in the area who can buy one of these tickets.
Mathews Elementary, where Kathy teaches, is holding a raffle for four tickets to the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville. Raffle tickets cost $10 apiece. You can buy them in person at the school through this Friday at 4 p.m. The school's address is 7533 Lynch Road, Midland, Ga. (it's not far from Bull Creek Golf Course). Call the school at 706-569-3656 for information.
The purpose of the raffle is to raise money to renovate the Pitts Chapel School, a one-room schoolhouse on the school's property. Kathy said that Mathews' late principal, Nancy Housand, died suddenly last February and it was her dream to renovate the little schoolhouse. So they're doing this in her honor. They're also going to hold a fundraising golf tournament for this purpose in October if you're interested. So help those folks out if you can. The chance for some hard-to-get football tickets is a nice bonus.
* An Auburn buddy e-mailed me an interesting little trivia item in the wake of Saturday's win over Florida. I thought it might interest Georgia fans as well:
Georgia is the only SEC East team that has beaten Auburn since the end of the 2002 season. In fact, Georgia has done so twice in that span (2003, 2006) and is 2-2. Not so good for everyone else, as the details from the e-mail show:
Auburn's record against the SEC East is 12-2 as of Saturday night. The only team to beat Auburn is Georgia (2-2) during this stretch. Auburn is 2-0 against Florida; 3-0 against Tennessee; 2-0 against South Carolina; 2-0 against Kentucky; and 1-0 against Vanderbilt.
They play Vanderbilt on Saturday and it wouldn't shock me to see the 'Dores give them a run for their money, considering all the injuries Auburn continues to deal with. All-SEC DE Quentin Groves dislocated three toes against Florida the other night, which sounds fairly uncomfortable. They don't know how long he'll be out, but I can't imagine he'd be back especially soon.
* Also, this nugget from the National Football Foundation's weekly press release interested me, as the hypothetical idea of two out-of-state teams playing a neutral-site game at the Georgia Dome came up one day last week in one of Mark Richt's postpractice interviews (he doesn't particularly like the idea, FWIW):
"Alabama, Clemson and Atlanta Sports Council officials continue to have meetings about a possible 2008 Alabama-Clemson match-up in the Georgia Dome."
Maybe that was common knowledge, but I wasn't aware of it until I read it today.
Mathews Elementary, where Kathy teaches, is holding a raffle for four tickets to the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville. Raffle tickets cost $10 apiece. You can buy them in person at the school through this Friday at 4 p.m. The school's address is 7533 Lynch Road, Midland, Ga. (it's not far from Bull Creek Golf Course). Call the school at 706-569-3656 for information.
The purpose of the raffle is to raise money to renovate the Pitts Chapel School, a one-room schoolhouse on the school's property. Kathy said that Mathews' late principal, Nancy Housand, died suddenly last February and it was her dream to renovate the little schoolhouse. So they're doing this in her honor. They're also going to hold a fundraising golf tournament for this purpose in October if you're interested. So help those folks out if you can. The chance for some hard-to-get football tickets is a nice bonus.
* An Auburn buddy e-mailed me an interesting little trivia item in the wake of Saturday's win over Florida. I thought it might interest Georgia fans as well:
Georgia is the only SEC East team that has beaten Auburn since the end of the 2002 season. In fact, Georgia has done so twice in that span (2003, 2006) and is 2-2. Not so good for everyone else, as the details from the e-mail show:
Auburn's record against the SEC East is 12-2 as of Saturday night. The only team to beat Auburn is Georgia (2-2) during this stretch. Auburn is 2-0 against Florida; 3-0 against Tennessee; 2-0 against South Carolina; 2-0 against Kentucky; and 1-0 against Vanderbilt.
They play Vanderbilt on Saturday and it wouldn't shock me to see the 'Dores give them a run for their money, considering all the injuries Auburn continues to deal with. All-SEC DE Quentin Groves dislocated three toes against Florida the other night, which sounds fairly uncomfortable. They don't know how long he'll be out, but I can't imagine he'd be back especially soon.
* Also, this nugget from the National Football Foundation's weekly press release interested me, as the hypothetical idea of two out-of-state teams playing a neutral-site game at the Georgia Dome came up one day last week in one of Mark Richt's postpractice interviews (he doesn't particularly like the idea, FWIW):
"Alabama, Clemson and Atlanta Sports Council officials continue to have meetings about a possible 2008 Alabama-Clemson match-up in the Georgia Dome."
Maybe that was common knowledge, but I wasn't aware of it until I read it today.
Monday notes and whatnots
* I think A.J. Bryant needs a hug. He came into the interview room today and is clearly down about how the season's gone for him. Really it's been that way thoughout his career -- he just can't stay healthy. Now it's a pretty serious knee injury suffered against South Carolina.
And he said that's why he doesn't want to take a medical redshirt. Why work to get ready for another season when he might just get hurt and have to deal with more rehab again:
"At times I think like that. I think what if I play next year and get hurt again, stuff like that," he said in response to a question posed by Josh Kendall of the Macon paper. "I've been thinking about everything, you can probably imagine, but I guess that has a lot to do with it also."
It's kind of sad, honestly. He's such a nice kid, you'd like to see him be able to do something before the season's up. He hopes to be back in practice by the open week preceding the Florida game. He's still walking with a crutch, though, so who knows? He did say he's a couple of weeks ahead of where team doctors expected him to be at this point, so that's a positive sign for him.
* Looks like Lumpkin will be back, maybe even carrying the ball, this week. He practiced in a soft cast on his right hand and Thomas Brown said Kregg looked good taking handoffs and contact. As per usual, Lumpkin's kind of non-committal about his medical status, so I had to get the skinny from Thomas. He didn't want to predict how they might divide carries this week, though:
"It's hard to say who's gonna get the hot hand or who'll get the upper hand on the most carries going into the week. But I'm just excited to see him back. As a fellow senior, it kind of broke my heart to see him go down early with that injury and miss so many games. But he's had a positive mindset, which in my opinion is probably the most important part -- just coming back strong. I look forward to seeing what he's gonna do."
* Not such positive news for Marcus Washington, who's another kid I've enjoyed interviewing who can't seem to stay healthy. We knew he separated his left shoulder against Ole Miss, but he revealed today he also tore some cartilage in the shoulder in a goal-line pileup. Marcus said he won't play this week and is probably out for Vanderbilt as well. I'd expect to see Dannell Ellerbe start at middle linebacker now, with Brandon Miller at strongside and Darius Dewberry at weakside. Brandon said he may get some reps in the middle too.
* Spoke with Reshad Jones today about the experience of sitting out against Ole Miss, as well as facing Tennessee. I didn't realize this until I was just putting together my practice notebook just now, but Reshad was credited with five tackles and a pass breakup against the Rebs. Considering he didn't even make it onto the field until 1:20 was left in the third quarter, I'd say he had a pretty productive afternoon. And it sounds like he's learned his lesson about practicing harder.
I guess that's it for now. More tomorrow afternoon.
And he said that's why he doesn't want to take a medical redshirt. Why work to get ready for another season when he might just get hurt and have to deal with more rehab again:
"At times I think like that. I think what if I play next year and get hurt again, stuff like that," he said in response to a question posed by Josh Kendall of the Macon paper. "I've been thinking about everything, you can probably imagine, but I guess that has a lot to do with it also."
It's kind of sad, honestly. He's such a nice kid, you'd like to see him be able to do something before the season's up. He hopes to be back in practice by the open week preceding the Florida game. He's still walking with a crutch, though, so who knows? He did say he's a couple of weeks ahead of where team doctors expected him to be at this point, so that's a positive sign for him.
* Looks like Lumpkin will be back, maybe even carrying the ball, this week. He practiced in a soft cast on his right hand and Thomas Brown said Kregg looked good taking handoffs and contact. As per usual, Lumpkin's kind of non-committal about his medical status, so I had to get the skinny from Thomas. He didn't want to predict how they might divide carries this week, though:
"It's hard to say who's gonna get the hot hand or who'll get the upper hand on the most carries going into the week. But I'm just excited to see him back. As a fellow senior, it kind of broke my heart to see him go down early with that injury and miss so many games. But he's had a positive mindset, which in my opinion is probably the most important part -- just coming back strong. I look forward to seeing what he's gonna do."
* Not such positive news for Marcus Washington, who's another kid I've enjoyed interviewing who can't seem to stay healthy. We knew he separated his left shoulder against Ole Miss, but he revealed today he also tore some cartilage in the shoulder in a goal-line pileup. Marcus said he won't play this week and is probably out for Vanderbilt as well. I'd expect to see Dannell Ellerbe start at middle linebacker now, with Brandon Miller at strongside and Darius Dewberry at weakside. Brandon said he may get some reps in the middle too.
* Spoke with Reshad Jones today about the experience of sitting out against Ole Miss, as well as facing Tennessee. I didn't realize this until I was just putting together my practice notebook just now, but Reshad was credited with five tackles and a pass breakup against the Rebs. Considering he didn't even make it onto the field until 1:20 was left in the third quarter, I'd say he had a pretty productive afternoon. And it sounds like he's learned his lesson about practicing harder.
I guess that's it for now. More tomorrow afternoon.
Georgia-Vandy to air on ESPN2
The Oct. 13 Georgia-Vanderbilt game will be televised at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.
Other SEC games to air that day are Alabama-Ole Miss (LF Sports, 12:30 p.m.), LSU-Kentucky (CBS, 3:30 p.m.), South Carolina-North Carolina (ABC, 3:30 p.m.); and Auburn-Arkansas (ESPN, 7:45 p.m.).
Other SEC games to air that day are Alabama-Ole Miss (LF Sports, 12:30 p.m.), LSU-Kentucky (CBS, 3:30 p.m.), South Carolina-North Carolina (ABC, 3:30 p.m.); and Auburn-Arkansas (ESPN, 7:45 p.m.).
Thomas Brown SEC Offensive POW
From the shock of the week department, Georgia tailback Thomas Brown was named today as the SEC's Offensive Player of the Week after his 16-carry, 180-yard, three-touchdown performance in last Saturday's 45-17 win over Ole Miss.
Official release:
University of Georgia senior tailback Thomas Brown has been named the Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week, according to an announcement by the league office on Monday.
Brown, a 5-8, 200-pound native of Tucker, Ga., registered a career high with 180 rushing yards on 16 carries during No. 12 Georgia’s 45-17 win over Ole Miss. Averaging 11.2 yards per carry, Brown also tied his career high with three rushing touchdowns, including a 50-yard score in the second quarter.
Brown’s rushing total was the most for a Bulldog since Verron Haynes recorded 207 yards against Georgia Tech in 2001 and Georgia’s 328 rushing yards against the Rebels was the most for the Bulldogs since 1991. It was also Brown’s sixth career game going over 100 yards and the first since he exploded for 144 yards versus South Carolina in 2005.
Through five games, Brown is tied for first in the SEC in scoring touchdowns with an average of 9.6 points a game. In addition, he is 10th in the league with an average of 78.6 yards a game.
The Bulldogs travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to face Tennessee on Saturday, Oct. 6, at 3:30 p.m. Georgia’s matchup with the Volunteers will be broadcast live on CBS, which will mark the Bulldogs’ first time on the network this season. All Georgia games are broadcast live on the Bulldog Radio Network on AM 750 WSB in Atlanta and on both 106.1 FM and 960 The Ref in Athens. The radio audio also can be heard worldwide on both georgiadogs.com, the official website of UGA Athletics, and on XM satellite radio.
Official release:
University of Georgia senior tailback Thomas Brown has been named the Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week, according to an announcement by the league office on Monday.
Brown, a 5-8, 200-pound native of Tucker, Ga., registered a career high with 180 rushing yards on 16 carries during No. 12 Georgia’s 45-17 win over Ole Miss. Averaging 11.2 yards per carry, Brown also tied his career high with three rushing touchdowns, including a 50-yard score in the second quarter.
Brown’s rushing total was the most for a Bulldog since Verron Haynes recorded 207 yards against Georgia Tech in 2001 and Georgia’s 328 rushing yards against the Rebels was the most for the Bulldogs since 1991. It was also Brown’s sixth career game going over 100 yards and the first since he exploded for 144 yards versus South Carolina in 2005.
Through five games, Brown is tied for first in the SEC in scoring touchdowns with an average of 9.6 points a game. In addition, he is 10th in the league with an average of 78.6 yards a game.
The Bulldogs travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to face Tennessee on Saturday, Oct. 6, at 3:30 p.m. Georgia’s matchup with the Volunteers will be broadcast live on CBS, which will mark the Bulldogs’ first time on the network this season. All Georgia games are broadcast live on the Bulldog Radio Network on AM 750 WSB in Atlanta and on both 106.1 FM and 960 The Ref in Athens. The radio audio also can be heard worldwide on both georgiadogs.com, the official website of UGA Athletics, and on XM satellite radio.
Did you know?
Tennessee put together a junior varsity team and played Hargrave Military last Thursday at Neyland Stadium? Thought that was pretty interesting. It was the first time since 1992 Tennessee played a JV game. Here's a link.
Tennessee won 37-20, by the way, thanks largely to a 20-point second quarter.
Tennessee won 37-20, by the way, thanks largely to a 20-point second quarter.
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