Gear up for Glory helmet schedule

Now you have the 2012 schedule covered...one with jorts and helmets (plus a north avenue surprise)...and this one, which I think would make a beautiful desktop background.

Tennis team advances

The men's tennis team advanced to the next round of the NCAA tournament by blanking UNC 4-0 last night in Athens.

ATHENS, Ga. -- On a day that started with four SEC men’s tennis teams alive in the NCAA Championships, only Georgia remains to carry the conference banner in the tournament quarterfinals.

The Bulldogs overwhelmed North Carolina 4-0 Friday night before a highly partisan crowd of more than 2,300 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

“It felt really electric,” Georgia’s Nathan Pasha said. “The crowd is so big and it provides a lot of energy, so you have to do a good job of not getting too excited with everyone out there.”

This is the first time any of Georgia’s starters have played before an NCAA championships crowd in Athens, 40 years after Georgia first hosted the event. It has since hosted the championships 30 times thanks to the efforts of longtime coach Magill, who made the event a mainstay at UGA thanks to a carnival-like atmosphere that was highly uncommon for college tennis.

The Bulldogs gave the home crowd plenty to cheer -- and their applause undulated from polite oohs when Sadio Doumbia snuck in a crafty drop shot during his singles match to a loud roar when Pasha clinched the Georgia victory with a win at No. 5 singles.

Woodrow Clemons, with hindsight

This piece by Dean Legge looks back at the signing day drama surrounding Josh Harvey-Clemons' unsigned national letter of intent. JHC's grandfather and guardian says it was much ado about nothing.

Clemons said he does have misgivings about not talking that day with Georgia’s coaches about Josh playing for the Bulldogs.

“That’s the only thing I regret not doing was calling Coach (Mike) Bobo and Coach (Mark) Richt and letting them know (it wasn’t signed at the time),” he said. “I just didn’t want to sign it right then. It wasn’t anything against Georgia or for anyone else.”

Clemons, who works multiple jobs to support his family, arrived at the UGA Day in Valdosta with his grandson wearing a Georgia shirt, Georgia belt and snakeskin boots. He and his grandson spent about ten minutes before the event talking withMark Richt about the future. Richt could hardly stop smiling during the conversation.

Scout.com ranked Harvey-Clemons a five-star linebacker prospect. He was one of two players with that distinction the Bulldogs signed on Signing Day in February.

Clemons is well known in the Valdosta community as many in the partisan Georgia crowd knew him long before his grandson was a recruit who signed with the Bulldogs. He greeted scores of people at the event – most people recognized him before they recognized his grandson.

Fiercely protective of family, Clemons said he’s learned his lesson with the media.

“I am the parent,” Clemons said. “Have you ever questioned your parents as to why they do something? But they are the parent. Still, the media didn’t want to let my family handle it… they wanted to blow it out. The media isn’t going to be taking him back and forth to Georgia. They aren’t going to be with him the rest of his life.”

Hope Mr. Clemons doesn't read message boreds.

via Dean Legge

50 Shades of Crimson

Brian Downing, the Krystal patron with too many balls in play following the 2012 BCS Championship game, has officially been indicted.

The Alabama fan who is known for simulating a sex act on an unconscious LSU fan in a Krystal restaurant on Bourbon Street after the BCS game was indicted, according to the New Orleans District Attorney's Office.

A grand jury returned a true bill indicting Brian H. Downing, 32, with one count of sexual battery of a male victim and one count of obscenity for the January 9 incident.

The court set a bond in the amount of $50,000.

Downing, who is a native of Smiths Station, Ala., was indicted after an amateur video surfaced, allegedly showing Downing committing a sexual act on an LSU fan, who appeared to be passed out at Bourbon Street restuarant after the BCS Championship Game.

That's not what Nicky meant Brian. Not at all.

Jack Loonam: all Dawg!

You probably remember the story about Jack Loonam's many uniforms. His dad reached out yesterday and shared this video from Meanganuga5 as well.

Jack's dad Dr. Tim Loonam also shared that while he was deployed in Iraq, it was Coach Richt that "adopted" his family. Jack bleeds red and black and is making the most of his time as a student-athlete. Just reading about how he manages his duties in the ROTC and on the football team is inspiring. 


He's living proof, Once a Dawg always a Dawg, how sweet it is!

Jack back in 1997 at Picture Day. Later that season in Jacksonville he would score 3 touchdowns
in beating floriDuh 37-17. (or maybe that was Robert Edwards...)

Jenkins Co. duo "coming in to win"

Jonathan Taylor and James DeLoach graduate tomorrow and will be in Athens on June 4th ready to join Georgia's defensive line.

“It’s going to be kind of hard, kind of brutal,” Taylor said. “I’m going to get in a flow and start rolling with it and get ready to do what it takes to get on the field.”

He said Georgia said he could play nose guard or defensive end.

Taylor prefers to play end.

“I’ve got speed and quickness,” he said.

The 6-foot-5, 290-pound Taylor will join an experienced defensive line.

“If I go in and hit it right and stay in shape, I can play this year as a freshman,” said Taylor, rated as a top 76 overall prospect by Scout.com, Rivals.com and ESPN.com

Taylor and DeLoach are good friends who committed together in June 2011. They will be roommates at Georgia.

They work together on weight training in the final period of their school day.

“We’ll be in there pushing each other,” the 6-3, 255-pound DeLoach said.

DeLoach, who won the Class A discus with a throw of 156-5 last week in Jefferson, says he “loves rushing the passer, but I’ll get that running back, too, when he comes through.”

DeLoach said a family member has worked with him on speed training to get ready for college.

“We’ve got a bunch of good recruits coming in,” Taylor said. “Everybody knows we’re good. We’ve got good four-star, five-star prospects. We’re coming in to win, get this ring for Georgia.”

DeLoach (left) and good friend Taylor

Another bone from Grantham's yard

Given some of the discussion the other day I decided to lay things out a little with some comparison statistics to see how Grantham's defense is stacking up against the big boys in the SEC - LSU and Bama.


Before you dig in, some explanation. As usual, all stats come courtesy of CFBStats.com. I started this wanting to level the playing field as much as possible and pull out all non-conference games. When I looked at the schedules and results for the three teams I suspected doing so wouldn't clarify the picture anymore significantly. So in the end I started with the full slate and feel this pretty much nails where the three teams performed last season. Obviously Chavis and Grantham had one more game averaged in there with the SECCG. Overall, I doubt that changed things significantly either. Also, I decided to break down the turnovers; the number in parenthesis is the total number of fumbles by opponents. The last two columns show how efficient the defense was in those circumstances. I took the value Marty had on his site and then subtracted from 100% to get a value directly attributed to each defense. For example, if opponents were 45% on 3rd down, the defense grades out at 55% efficient.

2011 Season	Points Allowed	Avg Pts Allowed	Turnovers	INT/Fum	3rd Down eff	Red Zone eff
UGA	288	20.6	26	14/12 (32)	71.07	9.37
Bama	106	8.2	15	8/7 (18)	75.54	41.18
LSU	158	11.3	17	5/12 (29)	66.03	11.54

Clearly Bama has the better numbers. That much we expected. And Smart's stat line is bolstered by the one column that arguably matters most, Red Zone efficiency. A whopping 41% of the time Bama's opponents entered the red zone they were leaving the field without any points. No wonder the Crimson Tide only allowed 106 points all season.

Some other notes:

• Clearly the South Carolina game and the SECCG hurt Grantham's overall numbers; two games that were largely not in his control given the offensive and special teams mishaps. However, the Boise, Vandy and MSU games can certainly counter-balance that some.
• I left the total fumbles in parenthesis partly just to be able to see that 32 in there. That's impressive. A lot of active hands in Grantham's scheme.
• Grantham's defense is impressive on 3rd down, but clearly has some work to do in the red zone, where Georgia was 116th nationally. (By comparison, LSU was 106th and obviously Bama was 1st...by a wide margin, very wide.)

Now let's go one step further and compare Georgia's 1st and 2nd season under Grantham just for kicks and giggles.

	Points Allowed	Avg Pts Allowed	Turnovers	INT/Fum	3rd Down eff	Red Zone eff
2010	287	22.1	18	8/10 (22)	58.14	18.42
2011	288	20.6	26	14/12 (32)	71.07	9.37

Some of you that were pounding on Grantham are about to take that RZ number and run. And overall I would say I'm surprised there wasn't a bigger statistical difference step forward from year one to two of Grantham's defense. After all, he had some key cogs in place last season that were not around in 2010.


However, stats only get you so far. I'll wrap up with something I alluded to in that post the other day. In past years those stats would be used in the off season to hide complacency in the corner. Even as mediocrity became too big of an elephant not to talk about, the coaching staff would entrench themselves in whatever haphazard analysis helped prove whatever overused excuse they were grasping onto. 


You don't get that sense from Todd Grantham. My feeling is that he's just as pissed about every last one of those 575 total points allowed as he is at James Franklin's douche quotient. He's not going to just pat some 5th year senior on the back, thank him for sticking around and send him in to faceguard on 1st and 10.


In short, we're making progress. How much? We may know the answer to that as soon as September 8th.

UGA vs FSU tennis highlights

Little bit of a different feel since it was indoors, but it didn't affect the players as they took the Seminoles down 4-1.

Action resumes Friday against UNC. Click here for individual match tickets and other bracket information. Should be a great weekend in Athens. 

Ben Jones, officially a Texan

I hope the Texans' field turf agrees with his stomach.

The Malcolm Mitchell PR Campaign

It's kicked into high gear.

Mitchell, Georgia’s leader in receiving yards per game last year, will be playing cornerback for the Bulldogs depleted secondary this fall. He still can be a weapon in the passing game, too.

“He’s a very good football player obviously as an offensive player,” coach Mark Richt said. “He may be just as good or better on defense. We’re going to have our first true two-way player. (Brandon) Boykin was a two-way player and Branden Smith was, but they really couldn’t run every single play in the offensive system. Malcolm will know every play offensively. He’ll know every defense defensively so he’ll have a chance to play a lot of football for us.”

In all seriousness, don't discount that "first true two-way player" under Richt quote. There's a lot to that. I would imagine the head guy is carrying at least a few ounces of regret at not using Boykin more offensively. But the larger point is that Mitchell has something working in his favor that even the great Champ Bailey didn't: he has all of the offensive playbook in his working knowledge already. It will be easier to become a "true two-way player" by adding a defensive huddle as opposed to vice versa. 


It's a point I tried to make earlier in the spring. The defensive side will be an easier adjustment at this point in Mitchell's development. Once the suspensions are over the coaches should have a clear idea of the best way to use him. The fact that he's only grasped parts of the offensive playbook won't get in the way like it did Boykin and Champ*.


Bonus reading: HERE I looked at Champ's numbers and projected onto Mitchell a bit.


*the Branden Smith side of that debate adds to it the "nuances" of managing a roster with two #1's on it. That's something we've delved into before. So I'm not dismissing Smith as part of the discussion. Just avoiding getting sidetracked by the brain numbing decision to let two explosive players wear the same number.

Monday's Meatloaf - customer disservice distress signal

I've listened to Clark Howard. I should know better...

ring.....ring..."Please hold for the next availa...

Bernie: "Shit! YGTBFKM!"

Please hold while I finish surfing.

(29 minutes 54 seconds later...) Hello! Who do I have the PLEASURE of speaking with today?

Bernie: Itsmedamnit! STFU and listen! You've had my whole damn yard marked for digging. If you break my dog's invisible fence, his first unyielded stop will be in the very close vicinity of your ass! 

"So you're saying you'd rather us not F--- up the underground pet fence you've just spent hours and hours re-installing to protect your cherished family pet from wandering outside of your yard. Is that right?"

Bernie: Of course dip$hit! What the hell else would I have held the line for 30 frackin' minutes for? Just to hear your dumba$$ voice tell me the same damn thing I just told your sorry, minimum waged, oversized double Whopper and a super-sized order of onion rings eating ass tell me?

...2 weeks 3 days later..."Hello! Who do I have the PLEASURE of speaking with today?"

Bernie: IT'S ME DOG$HIT FOR BRAINS! I'M THE ONE THAT WARNED YOU TWO WEEKS AGO NOT TO EFF UP MY DOG'S FENCE AND YOU JUST EFF'D IT UP SOMETHING GLORIOUS, DUG THE $HIT OUT OF MY FRONT YARD...AND DIDN'T EVEN BURY THE GODDAMN CABLE YOU CAME TO BURY IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! W...T...F!?!?!?

Someone please tell me the logic in digging up a yard in order to bury a cable...then!...leaving the aforementioned cable in the exact same damned spot it has been in for over two frickin' weeks (hint..in the middle of the street) before replacing the patches of sod hap-eff'n-hazardly and then re-sticking one's index finger up their butthole?


I'll hang up and listen...


Today's Ingredients

Wil Spencer

• Florida State making headlines, but are they making a move?
• ecdawg looks at who will be the better pro QB, Murray or USCs Matt Barkley.
• Meanwhile Groo found Jarvis Jones on the cover of Phil Steele.
• Kyle wraps up the weekend action as usual.
• The men's tennis team barely broke a sweat over the weekend in getting to the round of 16.
• Kimberley finds Orson Charles still hating the gators, just in a different zip code.
• Blutarsky reminds us that if the first rule of coaching is to win, a very close second is don't piss off the boosters.
• Lastly, this was my first car. If you want to find yours, click here. (h/t Mac)

Where the hell are we going? I feel like we're a lost ship whose rudder is steering us in circles. It's mid May and football is not only barely visible on the horizon, it's a speck of an island on a map that is three folds over from our compass rose. We're doomed. I give it two weeks before we resort to all out cannibalism. Chaos is opening her welcoming arms. Feel her chilling embrace and eye your neighbor as if he'd been basted in a butter cream sauce.

There's no way we make it to September. Every man for himself. If you can get onto a dinghy then you might catch a glimpse of an albatross, or get taken as a lunch by a great white shark. Your flare gun is useless here in the dog days of May. Shoot one off and no one within two days and 2000 nautical miles (whatever the hell that is) will see it. You'd have just as much luck at getting some attention by dropping your shorts and giving the relentless Sun the full monty. 

No one's coming anyway. You're like a drunk Dana Holgerson, at a craps table without a come out roll. We're lost. Desperate. Doomed. College football is the only satiating antidote, both thirst quenching and sinewy satisfying, that can save our souls from a salty, desperate eternal death. You might as well take a second helping of meatloaf. It's not like we'll ever see a college football kickoff again.

Bernie

Todd Damn Grantham and Kirk's ghost

I shy away from over using the words love and hate as much as 90% of America does. But I truly love the way Coach Grantham goes about his business. His fire and brimstone approach has my old, tired ass ready to lay the wood mydamnself. I think most Dawg fans feel the same way. Sure, there's been bumps along the way: those that were offended by the use of f-bombs on a tackle football sideline, the choke sign and making little Jimmy Franklin piss his pants just a little.

But for the most part I think the Bulldog nation has taken to our defensive coordinator like a mallard takes to water. He develops players, puts players in positions to make key plays, attacks the line of scrimmage, recruits better than Hugh Hefner, couldn't care less about seniority...doesn't smile. In the Cliff Notes version, he's awesome.

However, let's slow our roll. There's a laundry list of reasons why we shouldn't be clamoring to kiss his feet so quickly.

1. Boise scored 35 after an off season of preparation.
2. Michigan State scored when they had to.
3. He drinks Bud Light.

Ok, well that's all I could really come up with after 16 and a half minutes of thinking. But my point is this: does Todd Damn Grantham really want all this praise and adoration we're falling over each other to give him? As many sacks, turnovers and highlights as his defense created last season, what do you think is the one thing he keeps replaying over and over in his mind this off season? My money is on Kirk Cousins marching all over his guys.

Last season was like a really nice steak...with an unfortunate bite of gristle at the very end. No matter how much we chew, it's just not at all palatable. Kirk Cousins' ghost is haunting Grantham this off season. But by now we've at least come to expect that he is cooking up something bigger and better for our next meal.