Christmas Eve Traditions

For as long as I can remember Christmas Eve has been my favorite day of the year. Even as a kid I enjoyed the traditions and warmth of family time on December 24th as much or more than Christmas Day itself. I hope you are having a terrific Christmas weekend. There's a lot to be proud of in the Dawg Nation. But it doesn't come close to the joy of this time of year. I'm taking a moment here to lounge and take I some football while smelling the smells coming from the kitchen. Later we'll go to church and then I'll make the traditional Christmas Eve meal, shrimp and grits. Then some readings, singing, cookies laid out. Maybe a movie. And bedtime. You just can't beat it. Hope your traditions bring a smile to your face that rivals the one on mine. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Schedule and a lump of coal

So we won't have a 2012 schedule until after Christmas which feels like a big lump of coal in the stocking. Okay. Whatevs.


PWD laid out what he's hearing, which is a good mix of what has been leaked and what is known fact (ie. the OOC games are locked and loaded). Here's what he has:

Week 1: Buffalo (home)
Week 2: Missouri (away)
Week 3: Florida Atlantic (home)
Week 4: Vanderbilt (home)
Week 5: Tennessee (home)
Week 6: South Carolina (away)
Week 7: Kentucky (away)
Week 8: BYE Week
Week 9: Florida (Jax)
Week 10: Alabama (home)
Week 11: Auburn (away)
Week 12: Georgia Southern (home)
Week 13: Georgia Tech (home)

What do you think? I definitely would like to get South Carolina later in the season and I really enjoy the off week before Jax. Other than the awkwardness of having the name Missouri up there, I think it's about what we could hope for.

About that College Station trip

Not that Georgia fans would say we told you so Aggies...but...we told you so.

Phone records obtained by Dawg Post through a Freedom of Information Act request indicate that Richt only left the state of Georgia twice the week after the SEC Championship Game: a recruiting trip to Raleigh, NC the night of December 4th; and to participate in an Outback Bowl press conference on December 8th.

Richt’s phone records, which indicate where he is when making a call and what location he is calling, show that the Georgia head coach was never in New York City or visiting Texas A&M as had been rumored on Internet websites and printed in major Texas newspapers.

According to those outlets Richt was supposedly visiting with Texas A&M AD Bill Byrne in New York City about the opening at A&M on Tuesday and was touring the facilities in College Station later that week. Richt’s phone records say otherwise.

Step up your game A&M. You're in the SEC now. Flight records are your best friend, in December and January especially.

Belue to sign 1980 Dawgs DVDs TODAY!

Because Nat Hudson gave the block of the season, Buck will be at The Varsity in Alpharetta tomorrow to sign copies of the 1980 Dawgs DVD.

For Immediate Release:

Buck Belue will be signing copies of "1980 Dawgs" tomorrow (Fri. the 23rd) at The VARSITY ALPHARETTA from 1:00 - 2:00 pm.  Copies of "1980 Dawgs" will be on sale twenty minutes early.  Address: 11556 Rainwater Drive, Alpharetta.  Just off Haynes Bridge Rd., West of 400, approx. 1 mile from North Point Mall.

Great time to pick up a special gift for a Dawgs fan and have it signed by a legend.

Buck is a UGA Football Legend and was quarterback of the 1980 National Champion Bulldogs. Today, he is co-host of the Buck and Kincade show on 680 The Fan, and a syndicated newspaper columnist.

Coach Richt - wins, loses

I'm back in the GA, ready to give my two pennies.


Coach Richt has always been the near perfect example of how you can't please everybody. He's too religious. Too nice. Doesn't show enough emotion on the sidelines. Gives sloppy, tongue happy kisses to his favorite coed.


He doesn't win enough to satisfy the fanbase; even after a 10-3 season some would jump at the chance to grab another Corch lolz. And now even when he does something out of the kindness of his heart he gets his hand slapped. While Ohio State ran out of shovels to cover up their improprieties and Penn State ran out of moral compasses, Richt's "handouts" bring the NCAA to the Butts-Mehre door.


Even when the guy wins, he gets punished.

BotW: the growlers

I have a message for craft beer drinkers and sellers of craft beer, and the message is the same for both.

Join in the growler movement or watch it leave you behind.

Regardless of whether you just haven't purchased a growler or are a retailer/tap manager and don't want to sell them, they are the way things are moving. To turn one's back on fresh beer straight from the tap is unAmerican. 

Unfortunately, this growler's empty now.

If you're unfamiliar, growlers are glass jugs that allow for "take-out" beer. You simply take your growler to a place that fills them and choose from one of their taps. The beer is generally cheaper than buying it pre-packaged since you are cutting the cost and expense of bottling. It will stay fresh for about a week, plenty of time to enjoy the labors of your favorite brewmasters.


Growlers are typically half gallons, but they come in varying sizes if you need one that's bigger or smaller. What's more important is to find a place that accepts growlers purchased from other locations. When you get your first growler you'll pay about $6 and it'll have the store's logo on it I'm sure. Most places will refill whatever growler comes into their store. Others I've heard of (ahem!....Whole Foods...) do not. That's a big beer foul if you ask me.


Unfortunately, the economy and/or other factors have slowed the impact of growlers in many areas of the United States.  In Gwinnett we've only recently gotten a local tap place for refills. Best of Brews in Duluth is new on the scene with 30+ taps. There's several places in Atlanta and a couple in Athens. I haven't been to The Beer Growler yet, but the best place I've been to by far is 5 Points West Side. Great selection with nearly 50 taps and great prices on everything I've seen in there. If you're in the Athens area check them out on the side of the store. And I've heard a rumor they have a growler station set up at the original location in Five Points.


Ok, you want an idea of what you can save and what the experience will be like. As you hopefully know, RJ Rockers' Son of a Peach is the official brew of BDB BotW. I typically pay about $12 for a sixer of it and only paid about $9 for the growler at 5 Points Bottle Shop this summer. And it was so fresh. Right off the tap you don't have to worry about the taste changing while on the shelf. It's there in all it's glory.


So grab a growler and by all means, start complaining to your local store that you need another place to get a refill.


Two quick updates:
*Speaking of Son of a Peach. Nama got a growler of it for a tailgate before the Kentucky game. Fred was cautious, just as I was because neither of us are wheat beer fans. But we talked him into it. And his reaction was the exact same as mine. You go from "There's no friggin' way I'm gonna like this." to "Holy crap this is like drinking a peach!" 
* Follow up on our reading post last week, here's some other good books about beer and brewing in addition to the ones we discussed.

1980 Dawgs on WXIA

Lenny Daniel and Scott Woerner promote 1980 Dawgs.

Charles to return, and break White's future record

I like Aron White's plan to get Orson to return for his senior season: score a touchdown and make him jealous enough to come back to break White's future record.

The big question is whether starter Orson Charles will go pro. White, who has been sharing snaps with Charles for most of the past few years, has an angle on how Georgia can get Charles to return: Get White into the end zone in the Outback Bowl. White and Charles are tied for the all-time touchdown record for a tight end at Georgia. So White, a senior, hopes that he gets one in the bowl game to take the lead, and then Charles decides he wants the record and returns for his senior year. “So everybody root for me to score a touchdown in the bowl if you want Orson to come back,” White said. “I’m doing this for you all, not for me.” White also joked - at least he was probably joking - that he didn't want Charles to go pro now and "kill my draft stock."

Everybody wins.

Humpday Hilarity: Puns for intelligent people

The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

She was only a whiskey maker,  but he loved her still. 

A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption. 

No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

A dog gave birth to puppies near the road, and was cited for littering. 

A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie. 

A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. 

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head."

I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large. 

The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

A backward poet writes inverse. 

In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion. 

If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you'd be in Seine.

Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says 'Dam!' 

Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

Two hydrogen atoms meet.  One says, 'I've lost my electron." The other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive."

Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

h/t Mac

SEC Today - Outback Preview

Hannah Chalker, with the help of Scott Howard gets us ready for the Outback Bowl with a preview.

File this under...

....would not upset me.

Veteran defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson will be the next football coach at Southern Miss, two people with direct knowledge of the negotiations said late Monday night.

A press conference to announce the hiring of Johnson, 59, could be held as soon as today in Hattiesburg.

Johnson, Steve Spurrier's assistant head coach for defense at South Carolina, was in Hattiesburg on Monday. Johnson could not be reached for comment, but he told co-workers at South Carolina he would miss the Gamecocks' Monday night practice to interview for the USM job.

Not so special teams

Special Teams have been a big let down this season. Richt ponders why.

"We know we have got to get better," Richt said. "It's two things in my opinion that it could be -- either it's what we are doing schematically or it's who do we have on those teams. I guess it could be a third thing: Are they actually doing what we are asking them to do? In all those areas we must improve."

The Bulldogs will enter next year having to replace Boykin, Butler and Walsh, but it's the guts of each unit that Richt is ready to address.

"We'll probably do more special-teams work in the spring than we've done in the past," Richt said. "We knew we had a great punter, great kicker, holder, snapper and that kind of thing, but we also knew we had some youth on some of those teams. We lost [Akeem] Dent, [Darryl] Gamble, [Demarcus] Dobbs -- they were guys that could protect, escape and run and tackle a guy in the open field. We lost a batch of those guys, and we were a little shy on linebacker depth, so we just have to keep recruiting those kinds of guys.

"If we've got to put a bunch of starters on defense on some specials or starters at wide receiver or whatever you've got to do -- tailback -- I don't care what position. We've got to get the best guys out there and understand how crucial it is."

It might also be worth looking at how duties are handed out as well. I'd like Richt to think about taking things over himself.

Crowell speaks. Will feet follow?

Good read by Weiszer as Isaiah Crowell reflects on his freshman season. It's pretty obvious he's turning into a polished interviewee. Personally, if his feet can follow his mouth then I think he can break 1000 sooner rather than later. The Dawg Nation has grown tired of his attitude. But if #1 can back up the talk with some walk, then he'll hear the cheers loud an clear.

No meatloaf today. Out of town and the phone doesn't cook too well. Y'all probably need to get to shopping for the wives' Christmas gift anyway.

Oddly confident in the Outback

How confident do you feel about the bowl game?

As I was making my selections for the bowl pool and assigning confidence points, I came to the 2012 Outback Bowl. I guess I wasn't surprised to see many internet casinos had the Dawgs as a favorite, as many 3.5 points. But I'm not sure how confident I am that the team we last saw can hold up to that.


True, Michigan State isn't nearly the behemoths we saw in the Georgia Dome on December 3rd. However they are a solid team by all means. Their defense is stout. They have a stable of running backs and an experienced arm in the pocket. If you beat them you've certainly worked your tail off for 60 minutes.


Still, I think with some solid Christmas time competition at running back we can be the team that eventually pulls away from the opposing defense. The Spartans are faster than the usual Big Ten team, but I doubt they can keep up with Malcolm Mitchell very long should we establish a running game.


With the legalization of sports betting many college football fans are looking at bowl season to line their pockets with some easy money. I just hope those that take the Georgia Bulldogs end up on the right side of the ledger.