Gameday - Barn Door Boogie

UPDATE: DadCam admits he's a greed whoring douchebag, but still thinks we'll believe his son and AwwBarn are lily white. Like the Senator said yesterday, the decision is Auburn's to make. Since they've spent more time on NCAA probation than OJ Simpson has in his lawyer's office...who the hell knows whether Cameron takes a snap or a nap.

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h/t Anti-Orange Page

Time for the pre-game prep. I've read and watched as much as I can stand on this Cam Newton saga. Like most of the fans in this one (and I'm sure the players and coaches as well), I'm ready for actual football.

I think the star Tiger starts, plays, runs, passes and scores. And he likely does so a lot. The question du jour is how many points do we need to put up to stay in it? At the start of the week I would've said 35, maybe 38. But all this non-sense is either going to prove overwhelming for Auburn's #2...or it will bring out the best in him. And I think it's the latter.


But that doesn't mean hope is lost by any means. Take this nugget from the Barners' secondary:

• Alshon Jeffery - 192 yds, 2TDs 
• Greg Childs 164 yds, 2TDs

Aaron Murray has to be licking his chops. And AJ, Kris, Tavarres, Orson and Aron...they haven't suppressed this much anticipation since their 8th Christmas Eve. We'll put up some points. This game is won or lost in the battle between our front seven and the kid with the $200,000 Charmin.


Maybe Christian Robinson can cash one of Newton's checks just across the line of scrimmage.

Lemon Honors Teammates

Great story on former Dawg Michael Lemon in the Raleigh News Observer as he nears the end of his playing career at NC State (h/t Weiszer). Lemon was a freshman in Athens when his mother was murdered by her boyfriend. After making two headlines the wrong way, he went on to Georgia Military College before NC State coach Tom O'Brien gave him a second shot at D-1 football.

The lone remaining immediate family member in Lemon's life, younger brother Marquez, is a senior running back at Stratford Academy in Macon, Ga. He has a playoff game Friday night and won't make it to Raleigh on Saturday for the Wolfpack's 2 p.m. home season finale against Wake Forest.  

So N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien asked Lemon who he would like to join him on the field when he is honored before the game. Lemon's answer delighted O'Brien, who has said he has been determined to build a team-first culture ever since he arrived in Raleigh after the 2006 season. 

Lemon said he wanted defensive line coach Keith Willis and the rest of the defensive linemen to accompany him when he is honored before the game.

NC State plays Wake Forest in their home finale tomorrow at 2pm. I haven't found the game in any local listings in the Atlanta area. But I'm sure many Dawgs will be there in spirit.

Close Series, Rivalry of Minutiae

The Georgia-Auburn game is separated by a mere handful of points, considering the wealth of years in the series. And watching the 1994 game last night is the perfect example of how small decisions and big plays can make a huge difference in the overall outcome of a game. Consider these examples:

• Philip Daniels blocked an extra point on Auburn's first TD.
• Midway through the 4th quarter, with the game tied at 23-23, we had the ball in Tiger territory and called a bad screen pass on 3rd down that took us out of FG yardage.
• With less than 2 minutes left, Georgia had the ball with their eyes on the prize. But a questionable intentional grounding penalty on Zeier backed us up to second and long inside our own five.
• Tiger placekicker Hawkins' career long coming into the game was 45 yards. With 13 ticks left he lined up for a game winning 44 yarder. But little Terry borrowed some of Diddy's widerightness. Ballgame.

There's many more in the 60 minutes of that game 16 years ago. Back to present day, it's hard to see us keeping this game tomorrow close to the end. But the 1994 game reminds me that anything can happen, even when you go in as large underdogs. That and small plays can end up weighing heavily in the game's balance.

Friday Feedbag - Toomer's Cornered

Some links to throw in the microwave this morning.

• First and foremost, Groo found the 1994 edition of the Deep South's oldest rivalry in its entirety. In many ways, that one game sums up the über close rivalry as completely as any other.
• Meanwhile, Rex sums up AwwBarn football in one picture.
• Hamp has the latest installment of Pulpwood's diatribe. One of the season's finest editions for sure.
• Grantham's defense is impressed but not awed by the Auburn QB...what's his name??...oh yeh, Cam.
• Streit catches us up on a former hero from the Plains, Tra Battle. And Mackie plays off of that 2006 victory to feel a little confident about Saturday.
• Big Muddy summons his inner Ziemba in displaying his fears of Malzahn's x's and o's.

My favorite highlight from that 1994 game may be Robert Edwards' interception. Nix had picked on him all night, but went one too many times to the well. Edwards had good coverage downfield, slipped and fell on his back just as the ball landed on his chest. 

That's karma Terry Bowden. Eat it.

Trivial Update - Is this thing on?

If you follow me on the Twittah or just have simply enjoyed the trivial updates over the last year and a half, this post is for you. I feel the need to address some rumors going around.

First of all, we have NOT been suspended by the FCC. It is true they were in our offices, but it was just a routine audit. So nothing to see here. Please move along.

And no, I wasn't offered more money by Bobby Lowder. We're simply on a little hiatus. Life gets in the way sometimes and work and parenthood have kicked it up a notch here lately. The questions have been pretty easy to gather and confine into a tweet. But let's face it, it hasn't done the Dawgs much good this season.

So, we'll probably just suspend things until after the season. Of course that could come as early as November 28th the way things stand. But we'll see.

At any rate I thought I would end this post with a few highlights over the course of the first 64 episodes. There've been ups. There've been downs. But in the end, it's all just been trivial.

• First and foremost, Shan currently holds a 5 tweet winning streak. To date,that's unequaled.
• Most wins, Ally. There was a time when I thought she might be stalking the show.
• Only winner of an actual prize, Scott. He got an ACTUAL t-shirt in lieu of a fabulous prize for knowing MSUs Jameon Lewis (like Georgia's own Josh Davis) was from Tylertown MS. Scott didn't invent Google, he just pwns it!!!1
• Most difficult answer...no question, episode 5. John had to tweet in what Clint Boling's favorite dessert is, Mama's Apple Pie. I've never posted a question that had an answer so deeply buried in the Dawgosphere. John can work a cyber shovel y'all.

Thanks for the support, everyone. Episode 66 will be landing on your Tweetdeck before you know it. Let's just hope it doesn't leave any droppings.

Guess you can only coach em up so far

Was perusing back over CMRs media notes this week and discovered this quote about who's simulating Cameron Newton on the scout team this week:

“Parker Welch, just because he’s been our scout team quarterback all along, and one of the best similarities I guess I can say he has to Cam is he wears No. 2 this week. Parker is a great scout team quarterback. He throws the ball real well. He’s doing great for us, but he’s not 6-6, 250 and it’s just a little different.”

Welch is no slouch, listed at 6'3" 207. But on the other hand, I hear he's never spoken to Joe Schad.

Richt on South Beach

CMR went into a little more detail on AJs suspension earlier this season after taking questions on The Serious Case of Cameron Newton.

“The thing that happened with A.J. from the way I understand it is the young man from North Carolina (defensive lineman Marvin Austin) who was at the party in Miami, he had Twittered that he was at a party in Miami,” Richt said. “I don’t know who read the Twitter, but somebody checked into what’s the guy doing down there in Miami and then somehow it kind of grew into well maybe A.J. Green was there. Somebody said he might have been there or whatever. I think he lived near one of those guys from North Carolina that was on that team, lived near where he was from and they thought they were buddies and maybe A.J. was there. They wanted to check him out and maybe they got as many high profile kids in the South and started searching to see if he was involved. It turned out to be something completely different but it cost Georgia and it cost A.J.”

Dearly Coach. Cost Georgia dearly. And for future reference, TMZ and Justin Bieber are reading the Twitter. I think they're both against America, grits and college football.

Time keeps on slipping...into the Newton

I checked the calendar, January was like 10 months ago. So why weren't we talking about Cam Newton in the Spring? Matt Hinton explores...

The answer: Procrastination, apparently. Mississippi State admitted in a statement this afternoon that it turned Newton in to the SEC last winter, but subsequently dragged its feet on providing information the conference needed to move forward.

Year2 supplies some reasoning as to why MSU wasn't very quick to cooperate. Regardless, this isn't going to have much bearing at all on the game Saturday. Other than to possibly help Newton play the game of his life.

Kiss my Dawg ass Joe Schad!

And PWD brings it all into perspective with his thoughts, which also pose one all encompassing question: can a child predator survive a hurricane?

Bobo versus Roof

A couple months ago Auburn fans were ready to send their defensive coordinator packing. They hadn't lost a game of course, but had given up over 300 yards passing to Arkansas State in the opener. Cooler heads have prevailed, but there are very real opportunities against the SECs 8th ranked defense.

Can Coach Bobo's unit take advantage of them?

Of course, it's hard to complain about an offense that's been putting up big numbers lately. But it's what they taught me to do in blogging school, so here goes. Bobo needs:

1. to roll Murray out where he can be an even bigger weapon. This is an effective tool that we use about every game, but a little more wouldn't hurt. For every time they guess correctly with a corner blitz, there's probably another two times they don't.
2. to call some screen passes to help slow down their blitzkrieg. We used to be so good at utilizing the screen pass. With Chapas, King and our wealth of TEs...this should be a strength.
3. to call that waggle play I saw against UL-L and haven't seen since. That was the best play Bobo's called all season, perfect for Murray in that it buys the freshman QB some time, provides him plenty of options and allows him to see the entire field unhindered.
4. settle on a RB and stick with him. As I mentioned earlier, we're way too predictable with this platoon thing. This won't happen of course. But I'll keep beating the drum...

That's a start. What did I miss?

Jonesin' on the river card

I admit my respect for the Mad Hatter has grown a little this season. But he has a way to go if he wants to sit at the big boy table. Cuz while Miles is two cards short of a straight...

...Ben Jones is all in...

Let's just hope he's all in on Saturday. Fairley's a hell of a river card.

How can we possibly win this battle?

Can we make it five in a row? Yes...but...


Just like Florida was the best defense we'll face this season, Auburn is the best offense. We nearly pulled a win out against Mallett and the Razorbacks. But Newton and the Tigers are more balanced and more effective simply because they can run the ball so well.


I'll post separately on the offense and defense later, but here's a basic yet effective recipe for a deep South win:

Hell, Battle is his last name.

• First and foremost, protect the football. Georgia's TO margin on the year is a respectable +7. But take out the two patsies and it shrinks to +2. If they give the ball to us great. But we have to make sure we don't make this game any easier than it can be for them.
• Contain Cam. I don't know that he can be stopped, unless we can get to his pre-game meal. But we have to minimize the damage Newton can do. And that means covering targets and making them earn any yards they get downfield through the air. And then it means tackling...well. Newton will get his yards, but we don't have to get all Christmasy about it.
• Early success. Whether it's a big special teams play, a turnover or just a big hit, we have to be the one to set the tone. (Maybe Tra can be this week's guest speaker. We'll let Jason Campbell introduce him...) If we can shut their we're entitled cuz we were screwed in 2004 piehole early, we can create that seed of doubt in their minds and then fertilize it from there. Cuz...
• ...we'll put up points this Saturday. The hard part will be forcing kicks as opposed to endzone celebrations, being the more physical team and stopping them short of the sticks instead of giving up that extra yard. In short, we have to want this more than they do.
• Neutralize their pass rush. Let's face it, the method of operation against Georgia's offensive line this season is to blitz. And if Idaho State can force Murray into throws, Fairley and his other plainsmen will be able to as well. Waggles, rollouts, screens would be a great place for Bobo to start.

Mumme Poll - week ten

Shake it up! Woo hoo! Shake it up!

1. Oregon
2. Auburn
3. TCU
4. Boise State
5. Nebraska
6. Stanford
7. LSU
8. Wisconsin
9. Alabama
10. Ohio State

• Top three is the same. But I do think the gap was narrowed by TCU this week. These three have clearly separated themselves if you ask me.
• But then things get rather jumbled. Boise moves up on the heels of the Bama tumble. I still like Nebraska despite the fact that their loss to Texas becomes more and more perplexing.
• As usual the bottom five was a struggle, mostly in terms of where to put LSU after an impressive win over the defending champ. I ended up putting them after Stanford, who moves up based on their complete thrashing of Arizona.
• I somewhat reluctantly put OSU back in and didn't feel it was necessary to drop Bama completely out...yet
• Just off the porch - Michigan State and Utah

Congrats to Justin Houston

One of 16 semi-finalists for the Bednarik Award for top defensive player.

Three finalists will be announced on November 22nd. He's also a semi-finalist for the Butkus Award.


Official UGA release.

Monday's Meatloaf - Shivering on the Beach

I'd like to thank the student who let me borrow his seat Saturday. I was desperate to escape the reach of the voice of the girl behind me. For some reason she thought this year's special teams are far worse and wasn't afraid to share that opinion...out loud. I guess Jon Fabris has never directionally kicked her in the craphole.

Did anybody hear something?

But more than that, I was stuck in the cold shadow of a southern skybox and in desperate need of sunshine. Luckily, many students were still in Jacksonville evidently. Or at the library, I shouldn't sell them short. But suffice it to say there was plenty of aluminum to choose from over there so I grabbed a spot and thawed out.


Ironically, it was about the same time the offense thawed out...perhaps spurred along by Rambo's pick six. Or maybe from the sound of my voice from the other side of the stadium. That is, if my voice could be heard above the thousands of conversations going on around me. I guess I had forgotten (after all these decades) what it's like to sit among the students, especially for a game against a team we didn't know existed until last Monday...or Wednesday. Whenever.


Come to think of it, it's kind of like sitting on the beach. The ocean's the main attraction, but not everyone is paying attention to it. It enters into their frame of reference when something big happens, like AJ Green casting aside defenders like a wave does an empty beach chair. And then it's back to....so I told her I wasn't going with him anyway. Like whatever!


Don't read me wrong, I'm not upset about it. Not in the least. In some ways, that was me...you know, way back then. I only ask that I not be afforded the same opportunity to switch seats on November 27th. The ocean needs our full attention from here on out.




Today's Ingredients

• Murray Poole rewinds the win over the Bengals.
• I mentioned yesterday that one of my favorite parts of Saturday's game was the celebration over Figgins' TD. Well, Big Muddy has video of the TDs that were separated by three long years.
• True freshman Alec Ogletree isn't exactly cemented back there yet, but it sounds like the starting job opposite Rambo is his to lose. 
• Vineyarddawg has his weekly You're on notice, dawg!.
• Over at Bubba 'n Earl, AU Maverick isn't looking past Georgia in the least.
• Dr. Strangedawg wonders if there's more to the grass eating story than just a pinch between cheek and gum.
• Exile believes Mr. Hyde made an appearance in Nashville this weekend.
• Kim wonders what JoePa said at halftime to rally his Nittany Lions Saturday.
• Zach Mettenberger is down to two schools - LSU and Texas A&M, Jamie Newberg reports.
• Herschel Walker couldn't make it to Athens this weekend...because he's training for his second MMA bout, against Scott Carson on December 4th.
• Speaking of MMA, if you've followed Kyle Maynard's fight to enter the ring, you'll get to see fellow Collins Hill grad Takashi Dosher's documentary of him tonight on ESPN2.
• While we drawing on inspiration, here's a story by Dink NeSmith about a UGA marjorette surviving a horrible crash a couple weeks ago.
• Personally, the fact that I actually have a studio is nearly mystery enough.
• And lastly, he ain't heavy. He's just my brother. And if you're ever in the market for a portrait, you could do a lot worse than his artistic hand.

Allow me a little space here to settle an argument. My friends, bless their hearts, can be misguided and at times even deluded. Our last Supper Club was one such occasion.

It was a chili cook off and the stakes were low, but the trash talk was reminiscent of a Coach PaJammies' instructed chop block. (I can type that because the Mirandas were on a bye week.) 

Cord inexplicably used ShaNeQua's drive thru special at Wendy's, so it was really down to my superior product, Chili Willi(s) and Nama's Last Minute Pot Squat. With only eight eligible voters, I'm not sure how the poll results got so out of hand. But clearly my Big Bad Boss half-pot was the runaway winner.


Yet for some reason my dominance was still called into question. As if a pot of chili inspired by both UGAs mascot and one of it's greatest players of all time could possibly be defeated by something that cost 99 pennies at a local drive thru window.

Luckily, now the kind folks at Bulldawg Illustrated have verified those results, as you can see here in their Dawgs to the End issue. So if you're keeping count at home, that's one wine tasting victory, a beer tasting triumph and a chili cook-off for the clean sweep.


Enjoy your Monday Reader. Don't let my victory dance get in your way.

Bernie

Sunday Thoughts, like a potato cupcake

The best parts of yesterday's game:

• Seeing the former players come home. How can you not appreciate Cliff C. Kimsey? Georgia's oldest living legend. Or the 1980 Nat'l Championship team returning to their field of Glory, Glory.
• And seeing the players sprint to Bruce Figgins and maul him after his TD catch. That was just great to watch.

Other than that the game went about as expected. I wasn't surprised that we came out a little flat after last week. And I wasn't shocked at the final score, of course. It would've been nice to see the backups put up some more points, but some miscues and dropped passes prevented that. Whatevs.

So now we ready our selves for the plain men. Cash in hand? Dictionaries ready?

Abuurn...where Spleling is a Mnior.