Committee of tailbacks

I think it's poll time y'all.


In his media session yesterday Bobo evaluated the running back position post-Crowell. Here's my rundown:

• Samuel. He's fluid, week to week. But he's likely here to stay. Despite what most say, I think he can be extremely effective when used properly.
• Boo. Gotta lot of love for his work late last season, and ended up at the top of the chart. Was it just because the star was either tapping his helmet or on the trainer's table? Don't know. But let's face it, he's not an every down SEC back. If he was he would've already put these questions to rest.
• Harton. Should get plenty of work cutting cupcakes. But in the meat of the schedule I fear for his life.
• Karempelis. Fun to say isn't it?
• Gurley. ?
• Marshall. ?

So now it's your turn. Poll's up there on the right. Who gets the most yards this season? For the record, I voted Marshall. But I'm pulling for DickSamIV.

Flashback: 1988 WLOCP

Emmitt Smith returns from an injury, but wasn't able to help his Gators do much of anything against Georgia and the "Blitz from Biarritz" in the 67th WLOCP. So Dooley's last trip to Jacksonville was a fun one with a 26-3 win.

Bonus - did you remember that SEC football was once on TBS?

via Dawg19 with a H/T to AthensHomerDawg

Team chemistry via Heisenberg

I'm a little caught up in my favorite tv show and how all the freshmen in Mudcat's car Crowell's ride are doing these days. So if you don't watch Breaking Bad, my apologies. But you're missing out. Walter White has a lot to say about chemistry. And on Sunday he comes back for a final run.

You clearly, don't know who you're talking to...

Of course college football has a lot to do with positrons and shit as well. It's a topic that has percolated to the forefront of the recent headlines with Crowell's dismissal. I still say the kid's worst transgression was sleeping through a meeting with Herschel. And Artie Lynch never minced words when it came to his "me first" mentality. Although Dooley's thought that this is the kind of thing that unifies a team might hold some water, things have changed a LOT since his our day.


If there's anything to learn from that Bookface war of words between Corn and Bobby F-bomb it's that today's college athlete isn't living in the 1980's where many of us are a lot more comfortable. And yet social media brings us all together to mix and mingle. It can get a little too far north of awkward.


Yet I digress.


The main point is that no matter how much some of you enjoy reading players' (and future players') twitters, no matter who we're "friends" with on Bookface, and no matter how often you ask SoCrow "gimme a RT bruh cuz it's my bday!!!"...team chemistry is out of our hands. It's better left to experts.


I mean, do you want Skylar cooking your crystal? Do you want Prez Adams chaperoning your defensive ends on a trip to the Globe for a tall glass of chardonnay? No. I tend to criticize Coach Richt for several items, but team discipline isn't one of them. Did he wait for a conviction on the gun charge? Nope, he was out of hugs. I have no doubt he still loves his roster's second #1, but it was time for some tough love. Adios bruh!


In Albuquerque, Richt is Mike. No more half measures.


After that you need a real hardass. Maybe more. You gotta have someone that just by walking in the room changes the demeanor of the entire audience. Four hunnerd fifty pound weights clank to the floor and treadmills grind to a stop with just the hint of his aura. Someone who's not afraid to make a 300lb lineman wish he was sitting next to his momma in church. Someone who's probably more than a little excited about the idea of getting up at 4am the rest of this month and probably next month too, just so he can chew Blake Tibbs, Sheldon Dawson and Josh Harvey-Clemons' ass a couple hours.


Enter Joe T, aided by a supporting cast of Aaron Murray, CRob, Mrs. Bernie, Jarvis, my 9th grade Biology teacher, Le Sack, Shawn Williams' mouth, Artie Lynch, UGA policemen's wives, ShitMyDadSays, Winston Wolf, the head janitor where I work, DickSamIV, Kosta Vavlas....they kick some ass in shape. 


In the heat of the desert, we need Heisenberg.


You see...they don't wait for you to Call Saul. We don't need a bunch of prima donnas that think they're Kevin Costner. We need some freaks that know they're dancing with wolves! They don't have time for a PTA meeting. They're not Mr. Clean. They're ready for any plane with any destination in the SEC. They're ready for whatever lameassshit the old friggin' moobass'd visor can bring. You think we're gator bait? Well, meet these dudes in a dark alley of Jacksonville and (summoning my inner Jesse Pinkman) see Hell first hand bitch. These dudes aren't grading papers. They're not hoping to not get caught. They're one step ahead. Forever. Always. They ARE!!...


...the one who knocks.

Floyd and Atkins appear to be headed to Hargrave

After completing a summer course a couple weeks ago Leonard Floyd's family threw him a going away party, expecting the young linebacker to ride off towards Athens. On Tuesday he received official word from the NCAA Clearinghouse that an earlier online class on his transcript would not qualify him for enrollment this Fall. His aim is to rejoin the other recruits from the 2012 class in January.

Floyd got word on Tuesday and has been in touch with Georgia coaches to talk about a possible prep school for him to attend. He hopes to enroll at Georgia in January. Dodge County coach Rex Hodges said earlier today that Hargrave Military in Chatham,Va.,  would be a possibility.

“I’m disappointed, but I know after this I should be up there,” said Floyd, who did not report to Athens while the clearinghouse provided an answer. “It’s not anything but a few months.”

The clearinghouse has made a concerted effort in recent years to police these online courses more closely. Not to make any judgment on the one Floyd took, but many fly by night and illegitimate organizations have sullied the waters for a lot of high school students that look to gain credit this way.


Meanwhile, John Atkins may also end up at Hargarve Military Academy in Virginia. Officials are looking into his transcript and most recent ACT test scores before allowing him to enroll. Atkins is awaiting word which they hope to get soon.

“We’re still waiting,” Thomson coach Milan Turner said today. “He’s going to be at Georgia. It’s just whether he’s going to be there in August or December.”

Turner said that Atkins is still awaiting word from the NCAA clearinghouse.

Turner said Atkins fallback plan would probably be to attend Hargrave. Turner said the clearinghouse is looking at Atkins transcript and test scores. Atkins retook the ACT last month in hopes of being able to qualify.

“I think he was within like one or two points,” Turner said. “It was that close. They’ll go back and look to make sure. There’s always a chance of error where it could be a good one or two points. You never know.”

Another award for Kyle Maynard

I'm not much for award shows. But I saw this come across the wire last night. We've followed Kyle's achievements here for awhile. Glad to see him again recognized for his achievements so that he can continue to spread his message to millions of people.


I mean, the guy climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Who else could top that for an ESPY?

Kyle Maynard -- the Collins Hill graduate and congenital quadruple amputee -- has won another ESPY, an award given out annually by ESPN for sports excellence.

#Maynard, who won the same award in 2004, won in the "best male athlete with a disability" category on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

#The award came after his crawling up Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro in January with a team of wounded veterans, friends and professional climbers.

#Maynard tweeted shortly after winning the award on his @kylemaynard Twitter account.

#"WE JUST WON THE ESPY!!!!!! Thank you so much!!! You helped make it happen!!!"

#His summit at Kilimanjaro's 19,341-foot peak was the first by anyone crawling up the mountain, and likely the first period by a quadruple amputee.

Congrats Kyle! Can't imagine what's next.

Grantham > boy wonder ??

I remember the day like it was eleven and a half years ago. We were at Nama's place and he was showing us some kinda super computer. It connected to this internet doohickie, without even tying up his phone line. A story pulled up (probably on Groo's site since he practically invented the Dawgosphere) on who this Coach Richt kid was bringing on staff. Some dude named Van Gorder was coming down from a state that snows. Couple other names we didn't recognize. Scroll...scroll...

And then Mike Bobo. We all cheered the move. This kid Mark needed some Georgia blood on the staff. Someone that had seen the SEC field. Could laugh when everyone else talked about their days coaching/playing in the ACC, MAC, or whatever the hell.


Fast forward to yesterday. Todd Damn Grantham has assumed the title of Associate Head Coach. What does it really mean? Well, nothing much. If Mark Richt calls in sick one Friday this fall then one would assume that it's the defensive coordinator that takes over the "good" headset until the antibiotics kick in. If Prez Adams needs a ride to get more unsweetened tea from goddamnedConnecticutPennsylvaniaCanadia and he tells Kathryn to hand the phone to Mark, well then, we're gonna see Grantham sprint out with the team from the tunnel.


As my kids say, Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.


My question to you is, does this mean anything to Bobo? Does he even give a fart that the "new kid 'tween the hedges" has the title? And, does it mean anything to you? Is it a big deal that one of the two coaches still on staff and the only coordinator that's been with the regime since before Bin Laden smirked gets passed over as the newest Associate Head Coach since Eason was fitting AJ into his #8?


(breathe)


In other words, is Bobo even the Sec. of State? Does it even matter? Cuz I don't think so. Or maybe I hope not.

Kwame: plugged into the heart of the defense

I've been enjoying DawgNation's Around the Hedges in 80 Days series. You might have to be a member there to see them, but basically it's a daily snapshot of different players as we grind through these dog days in the off season. Ching gives some background, and then what the projection is for this season. Yesterday's was on Kwame.

Geathers has always been an intriguing player. If I remember correctly he always wanted to play defense, even though Spurrier (Richt's chief competition for the Kid's signature in February 2009) and staff were directing him more towards offense. There's been times when that possibility was still on the table in Athens, but he's clearly a difference maker at the nose position.

As big as Jenkins was late last season it was Geathers that made the transfer earn every snap. With the two of them battling it out (as well as lining up side by side in some sets), Garner and Grantham have tremendous size and talent to put into the heart of their defense. That's nearly 13 feet and over 700 pounds of beef to plug up the middle.

There's no doubt that the Georgia defense is going to be a formidable challenge for opposing offenses this fall. Their nose tackles are a big part of the reason for the excitement. Kwame Geathers could have a big BIG season.

(picture via 247Sports)

Burrows pulls a Boo

Welcome back Brandon.

"I owe it to myself to be be here. It would be some kind of an injustice to myself to walk away at this point."

After changing his mind, Burrows spoke with coach Mark Richt after returning to the team. "I'm so happy he was kind enough to take me back," Burrows said.>

Don't see that Richt had much choice to take him back, but glad for the cozy picture. In all seriousness, most will hardly glance at this as news. Burrows is an often injured, somewhat misplaced body in a 3-4 system that has yet to see the field. But when drills hit full force next month, and the wear and tear of a season in the SEC drags on into October....November...

More bodies = more better.

Dooley summons his inner Corn

Not much more to add in response to Towers' piece on Coach Dooley rubbing Crow's nose in it than what Blutarsky already did here. That's pretty spot on, especially the revisionist Jake Scott history portion.

But I will add that reading Dooley's words reminded me a lot of Washington's Bookface post. If you'll separate for a moment that Corn was coming to the defense of the former teammate and the former coach was coming around to run over the former player's once bum ankle, I think you can see that both are gut responses to the situation. Towers even mentions that he spoke with Dooley on Monday, which I presume meant the Monday following the arrest.

The entire piece comes off as awkward if you ask me, even more so for Dooley than Towers who at least gets paid to drum up page views.

“Bad apple” was the second term Dooley used to describe Crowell’s effect on the team. The first was more effective but he asked me not to use it.

Ok. Weird.

I think in the end Dooley will look back on that and feel much the same way we hope Washington felt (and truthfully the way we've all felt at certain times in our lives): sometimes the best things are left unspoken.

SEC images of the year

Another big year in the SEC. Great work by SEC Digital Network putting this together.


And make sure you don't miss the UGA men's tennis team with the "Big Machine" cheer about 30 ticks in.

Monday's Meatloaf - an old friend through young eyes

For my 10 year old, because she lost a dear friend this past week.


They never met, but she had whistled along with him many a morning on the way to the fishing hole. Despite the dangers these days of leaving a remote control unattended in a child's hand, I never worried about her visits to his office chair, or Aunt Bea's table or Otis' cell. I remember telling her once that she could visit Mayberry as often as she wanted as long as her homework was done and her chores were taken care of before supper.


I suppose later this month when we're near Manteo we'll go see "The Lost Colony" where the man cut his teeth into acting. Later we'll go on by the church and lay a flower down. We'll whistle a bit, maybe sit a spell. All while cherishing a time when things were much simpler.


RIP Andy. Around our house you'll always be remembered fondly.

via Jay Blakesberg

Today's Ingredients
- Hope you got a chance to grab a t-shirt or two while sending a few bucks towards the Kasyn Cares Fund this weekend. Also, here's a story by Ching on how Georgia players got a chance to soak in some Sunshine recently.
- I always get a kick out of how many people find my blog by typing in "camo wedding dress" into their computer. Well, vineyarddawg compiled some other doosies.
- Garbin took the time to look back on some other SEC teams that faced measly schedules.
- Mr. Sanchez wonders how low we can go with our scholarship limitations. 
- As The Opening wound down Mason Kelley looked at the tale of two running backs whose decisions could easily affect each other.
- The Lady Sportswriter found some interesting quotes coming from the Nike camp.
- Also while in Beaverton. Chad Simmons grabbed an interview with UGA commit Tramel Terry.
- Danny looks at Jarvis Jones' selection as a Preseason All-American.
- Travis has a nice musical interlude in case you missed it yesterday.
- Lastly, them Aggies, they alright. Some may say it turned out to be much ado about nothing, seeing as the Westboro idiots never showed up. But in truth, it was much, much more than that. 


I mean, is there a finer man than one that can take the time to expand Ernest T Bass' working geographical knowledge beyond Old Man Kelsey's creek?

YOU AIN'T SEEN THE LAS' OF ERNEST T BASS!! Short and sweet this week I know. But it's aim was just as good as that bullet in Barney's shirt pocket. Y'all have a great Monday.

Bernie