Dawgs and Rebels, flashback to 1980

Really appreciate Mike Moss sharing this, a clip from the game Herschel missed in the 1980 championship season. This is from the now released DVD set The 1980 Dawgs - The Inside Story of The National Championship Season.

What a great game that brought out the spirit of a true championship team. Overcoming a big obstacle in losing Herschel, and getting the job done on the field.


Go Dawgs! Beat the Rebels!

SEC Video: Georgia vs Ole Miss

Rebels without a clue

In case you haven't checked the pulse over in Oxford, folks...it's bad. Real bad. Georgia fans are riding a wave of unparalleled excitement compared to to our friends at Ole Miss. Their collective toddys ain't so hotty.


Let me preface the remainder of this post by typing I have no idea what's going to happen Saturday night afternoon late morning. That being said, Ole Miss is a bad team. And I'm not talking step on your quarterback's head after sacking him for a 10 yard loss bad. I'm talking poor, not good...crappy.


They sport the 110th ranked offense in college football. That's good enough to be ahead of teams like Miami of Ohio and Kent State, but not quite as good as Louisiana-Lafayette or North Texas. They're in such disarray that their president and AD Pete Boone has already thrown ol' Nutt under the bus for having a team that lacked "passion" and is currently doubling back to take another shot should his tackle football coach lose another one at home.


I mean, you know things are bad when Pat Boone's brother is calling the shots.* 


But what's worse is the fans felt the need to buy advertisements in local papers to voice their displeasure and anger. The group Forward Rebels! is pissed. Understandably so. Back in Georgia we just have fans that are starting to agree with the AJC Sports department. Actually, maybe that's worse. I don't know. Close call.


Anyway. It all adds up to a road win that seems ripe for the picking. And truthfully, that's what worries me. If this Ole Miss football team has any talent backed by a few ounces of intestinal fortitude they'll come out ready to play 60 minutes, more if needed. It won't be a matter of which coach needs the win more. It'll be decided by the players that came to play.


When I get right down to it, I know these things to be factual: Georgia has the better players, but Georgia hasn't proved it knows how to win much of anything lately. I'm sure I'll have more misery tomorrow, but suffice it to say I'm not feeling as comfortable as I should be feeling.


*Actually, Pete Boone is of no relation to Pat as far as I know. But a couple more losses and he might take on the "No More Mr. Nice Guy" persona as well.

Burnette hurt, Houston ineligible

The other day I wrote that the offensive line may be the only true positional concern I have of this year's team. Well, now we've reached def com 3 panic.

Starting right guard Chris Burnette left practice Wednesday when he “tweaked a knee,” coach Mark Richt said. His status for the game is uncertain.

Kenarious Gates, who started the first game of the season, is trying to return this week from an ankle injury.

Kolton Houston, expected to factor in at guard this preseason, can’t help now.

Richt revealed on Wednesday that Houston “right now is not eligible to play. We hope he’ll be eligible soon. It’s an NCAA issue.”

The redshirt freshman from Buford has not played this season and has not even suited up for games. The issue arose this summer, Richt said.

“It’s an individual case that we’re not going to get into details about, but it’s NCAA-related,” Richt said. “We think it’s going to get cleared up, but we just don’t know when.”

I'll admit the Houston thing caught me a little unawares. I was suspicious the other night when the question on Kolston seemed to be ignored. But figured I might be reading too much into it. 


I'm all for young guys getting some experience. But when we're faced with shuffling guys around to cover holes, it has a certain feel of using a bone thin index finger to plug them.

SEC Video: Coach Richt

Talks about the upcoming road game against Ole Miss.

SEC Video: Houston Nutt

Coach Nutt talks about his team and the upcoming game against the Dawgs,

SEC Today - 9/21/11

Hannah Chalker preps us on some of the weekend's games.

In the case of Murray v Mason

I was hardly willing to give the idea of Hutson Mason getting much playing time this year even a casual glance. That is, until this:

On whether Hutson Mason will see more playing time…

“Right this second I wouldn’t want to make a comment on that. We haven’t really gone any further with that discussion, not to say we won’t before the week is over. I’m talking about Mike Bobo and myself. But Hutson is practicing well, he’s playing well. He really runs our system well, and he’s earned playing time in my mind. How we’ll manage that, I’m not ready to make any promises I can’t keep.”

Now we all know Mason can play. He's looked good making reads as well as making throws. But even the most ardent of Murray bashers have to admit it's been against ho-hum competition.

Nevertheless, I'm sure that quote will only fan the flames today. However the reality is that Murray's the starting quarterback. That's not changing barring some catastrophic event (ie. a Zack Stoudt-like performance Saturday, an injury, or AC Police finding Murray emerging from an alley on a scooter with a cardboard case of Milwaukee's Best in one hand and Isaiah Crowell in the other).


So the real question is, how would you like to see a David Greene/DJ Shockley type 9:1 split between our 1st and 2nd string QBs?

Locker Notes - Rebel Nutty Bears

In one corner you have Mark Richt, once successful coach that now can't seem to adjust his Ford F-150's seat without burning a finger. And in the other you have Houston Nutt, coach whore to Adm. Ackbar, Nevin Shapiro and the occasional news achorwoman.


Only one can survive the tilt. Let's hand out some locker notes for the good guys.


Isaiah Crowell - Show em some things Deuce never could.
Aaron Murray - Grab that no huddle by the scruff of its neck and let's see those boys get after it!
Jarvis Jones - Don't even bother asking if Stoudt prefers paper of plastic.
Michael Bennett - Love the way you play! Hope to see more gutsy catches and clutch plays from OchoDos.
Brandon Boykin - This kid likes to sling some picks. Heads up!


Big implications in this SEC contest. So an all call for some road quality locker notes. Please bear down hard with that Sharpie.

Pass the broom

Pardon this bit of house keeping. And if you can spare some time, hand me that dust pan.


So on Sunday we hosted a baby shower for my sister and brother in law. Once the guests had trickled out I looked at my phone and I had 707 new emails! Seven hundred and seven!! All but one was courtesy of a  s p a m b o t  that had attacked my blog offering  L e v i t r a  for one simple click.

YGTBFKM!!

Luckily few if any of the rogue comments sifted past blogger's filter, but it was a pain to go through all those emails and delete them. I didn't want to accidentally delete something important. Not to mention some of you readers probably got an email from blogger if you had previously commented on one of the many posts that were harassed.


So I set out to join the 21st century. Discus offers a better              s p a m  guard and incorporates most everything I want in a commenting system; things I've been begging Blogger to implement for some time.


So all that to say there's yet another change here at BDB. I apologize if you received any suspicious emails regarding comments here. And I appreciate those of you who helped bring it to my attention.


Going forward it should be easier to interact with each post; easier to sign in and share your thoughts. If a previous comment you made isn't there that's likely because Discus is still importing the old comments. Unfortunately I didn't choose the best time of day to import.


Oh well. Remember to take your Levitra. And now back to your regularly scheduled impotence.




- Posted using BlogPress from Bernie's iPhone

SEC Today - 9/20/11

What's Hot and What's Not this week in the SEC.

Bulldog Hotline Redux, post cupcake

Two things stuck out to me in last night's hotline. Well, two things other than the fact that Mike and Joe never seem to get put on hold too long.


First, this quote:

“You know receivers they like to run routes and catch balls. You know, just like running backs like to run. But running backs have to pass protect and wide receivers have got to block downfield. That’s just the way it is.“

That's just classic Mark Richt right there. I think that shows his offensive mentality that every play should go the distance if everyone does their job. I'd love to take this further with him in terms of how much they've "bent" this philosophy this season with the emergence of players like Crowell and Mitchell. Sometimes in order for a play to go the distance you just have to go with personnel that can get it that far.


Secondly, the answer to the Orson Charles question desperately needs to go deeper in more ways than one.

Another FB question from Brent Alexander: asks why Orson Charles was only thrown to twice Saturday. Richt – Wonders if that is right or not. He did have two catches but the ball may have been thrown to him a little more than that. Loves Orson and loves seeing him catch balls. Points out that you have few plays in football where a pass is going to a certain guy no matter what. You can’t hardly predict where the ball is going to go with a lot of these plays. Orson is definitely in the progression of reads. Sometimes it goes to the tight end sometimes it doesn’t.

Maybe he was thrown to more than twice, but most people bring this up because the tight ends are being under utilized. Between Orson and Aron the TEs have 9 catches for 165 yards. Charles spent the entire game blocking against South Carolina. He's a mismatch for every team we play. Let's get him downfield more running routes against LBs with half his speed. Or simply on the field at the same time as White, maybe flexed out where we can force the opponent to commit a safety.


To close that thought with a bow, of Charles' 8 catches on the season...2 are TDs. So why keep the silver bullet chambered?

"It's a trap!!"

As the Senator pointed out yesterday, Georgia's the only SEC team to hand out a goose egg each of the last three seasons. Also there's the matter of Vandy getting pretty giggety on the ol' Nuttster Saturday. 


But that's no reasons for hope Dawgs...

Back in 2006 we were 4-0 heading into Oxford. Richt's post-DJ Shockley SEC Championship team cruised to their first three wins (including two cupcakes and a shut out of South Carolina) before eking one out against Colorado. On the other hand, Ole Miss was 1-3 and coming off an embarrassing lopsided home loss to Wake Forest. Rebel fans believed they were going to get their hats handed to them. And by the time the game kicked off, I had let several of them talk me into that scenario.


Come to think of it, the beer they kept handing me could've had something to do with that. Because the fact was we were still waiting on Stafford to mature into the starter under center and as a result there was little consistency in our offense. Meanwhile Ole Miss used future NFL picks BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Patrick Willis to maintain control of the game. That and Brent Schaeffer was good enough to keep us honest on defense.


Of course we eventually came away with a win, but by the narrow margin of 14-9. So in the unlikely event that a trap game could exist for a program that is 7-10 in its last 17 conference games and hasn't won one since beating Kentucky last October, I sure hope Coach Richt's troops take their briefcases to Oxford.


As Mike said, there are two things Nutt does well: ruin his team's season and ruin other teams' seasons. A loss Saturday afternoon would do more than ruin my weekend.

SEC Today - 9/19/11

A look back at the weekend's games.

Weekend Wrapup

No time for the meatloaf today. I apologize. I was absolutely exhausted last night. I settled in to write during the Falcons game, then realized when I woke up and the 2nd quarter had just started that it just wasn't going to happen. I managed to stay awake for a couple Vick fumbles then the next thing I know the alarm was going off this morning.

I'm not as young as I once was and I'm not as old as I soon will be. Nevertheless, here's some thoughts from the weekend that I missed yesterday, as well as some thoughts as we move towards our first SEC road trip.

• Had some people ask about what my 9yo's comment was regarding Ben Jones Saturday. She was looking through the program and saw a picture of him in action, then it went something like this: "That's how big Ben Jones is? Oh my gosh!" I guess she didn't see the one of Kwame. Double oh my gosh!
• Blair Walsh. Like most of us I was more than a little concerned when he missed another attempt Saturday. Less worried after the 56 yarder though. My gut feeling is that Walsh (among some others) is pressing, trying to do too much to help the team. The veterans have to feel some amount of pressure to put the 6-7 season behind them, as well as help their coaches get off the hot seat. Nailing a long one like that should help going forward.
• I'm hoping that Aaron Murray's issues are a result of pressing too hard as well. I'm not able to break down or pinpoint exactly he's doing wrong, but I can easily see he's missing throws we've seen him make before. Saturday he over threw a long out pattern then made a beautiful touch pass on a screen to Crowell. More than anything, going into Saturday I thought he was just overly (and understandably) conscious of the pass rush. But against CCU he should've been at ease back there.
• Regardless, it's asinine to call for Murray to be benched. And there's some people clammoring to see LeMay. Really? Hope those people noticed two things Saturday: Mason is more than a capable backup and Parker Welch was third off the bench. Say hello to your redshirt Christian LeMay.
• Before we leave the game against the Chanticleers, I had a chance to speak to Reader Jim yesterday. He tells me there's some growing support for Coastal Carolina to be the 14th member of the SEC. Stay tuned.
• Was also thinking (again) last night that it sure would be nice to have Kent Turene on campus. But after watching some more highlights, Shawn Williams exceeded a lot of expectations.
• Saw about half of the meteor game between Florida and Tennessee. Tyler Bray must be frustrating to cheer for. For every brilliant throw he made there were at least 6-7 balls that were amazing displays of ineptitude. Wow.
• Some housekeeping notes. I've made an effort to clean up the right column. You may have noticed I've moved the links to a separate page, and the pages are now tabs across the top there. I think this will help with page load times. At least I've noticed a difference.
• Also, I've really enjoyed the gameday live blogging. I'm hopeful I can do it from Oxford this weekend. A lot of it will depend on 3G availability. Ole Miss is an experience every true college football fan should enjoy. And I'd love to provide some of you a taste of the sights, sounds and the atmosphere. However, the state isn't necessarily known for it's grasp of the modern times the rest of us enjoy. The last time I was there my flip phone was state of the art technology. Nevertheless, if Nama and I can find enough signal (or even a wifi hotspot in the Grove) we'll get some stuff up here to enjoy.
• The other real headache with the liveblog is approving comments. I wish this were easier to do from my handheld. But I may have a way around that so that you don't have to wait so long to see your comments/questions/amusements published. More later.

If nothing else, we really need to get to the bottom of who the hell Ole Miss' mascot really is.

Rising to meet expectations

In his teleconference last night Richt told reporters he feels the team is "on the rise".

“The thing I like is we’re a team that is getting better as we go. We do have a lot of room to grow yet. I thought the last couple of performances minus the huge mistakes—the four or five plays that got us (against South Carolina)-I thought that we were making a lot of progress. I thought we were doing a lot of positive things. As you watch tape, it’s still pretty obvious we’ve got some youth and inexperience that needs to continue to improve. Just overall, I think we’re a team that is on the rise. We’ll see.”

One thing that has been frustratingly consistent the past few years is Georgia's inability to put less talented teams away, and in some cases beat them altogether. The schedule just took a turn towards easy street. Ole Miss was steamrolled by Vandy Saturday afternoon. And MSU looks even more beatable after Thursday night's game. Tennessee...well, they have Tyler Bray as their quarterback.


However, most teams (at least ones that don't fall apart during the season) get better as they go. Can Richt's squad accelerate faster? Can they surpass the rest of the schedule's opponents on the learning curve? After the off season headliners of new attitudes and hard work...and after an 0-2 start against two top ranked teams...can the Dawgs rise above their competition?

- - - - - - - - - - - 

UPDATE
Here's a link to the ESPN replay of Saturday's game. h/t HumDrummer

Sunday Thoughts on the Chants

Hey, it's been awhile since we've won. Let's rejoice and be glad in it.

- Kudos to a good crowd that showed up despite the record of the team and the stature of the opponent. The seats were never completely full, but it was much better than I anticipated.
- Shawn Williams ladies and gents! Wow! Playing with maturity and a hard nose. Sure will love go have Crob and Tree back. But that kind of performance in relief is really nice to see.
- The defense. They did exactly what they were supposed to do against a weak opponent. CCU only crossed midfield once I think. Lots of pressure. Plenty of balls thrown to the sideline. Most of all, good tackling.
- Crowell got a little taste of what it's like to be the work horse. Thomas stood tall on the TD. Malcome even got a carry.
- I heard Richt say post game that he liked seeing the maturity of the team, playing hard against a lesser opponent. I would add that it was nice to see the coaches approach this game with a business like attitude as well.
- Offensive line may be the only true positional concern I have about this team.
- Nice to see Ray Drew getting that hand in the dirt.

Picking nits:
- First non-sellout in 11 years I believe.
- Three games into the season and we've had some costly penalties. TD erasers. 6 point wipeouts.
- Orson Charles...can run routes? Since when is that legal?
- My 9yo was super impressed by Ben Jones' size at the Dawg Walk. Oppositely, I practically had to peer over the railing to even catch a glimpse of Carlton Thomas.
- Aaron Murray had a great day statistically. But he's still locking onto receivers and struggling with consistency."
- They played the frickin nerd song AGAIN despite my letter last week. That means everyone breathes deeply, then emails McGarity Monday. THERE'S NO PLACE FOR THE KERKRAFT ENGINERD SONG IN SANFORD.

Sorry that was a little more than a nit I picked, but some things need to be said. Tune in later this week when I prepare for my return trip to the Grove.

- Posted using BlogPress from Bernie's iPhone