Katherine and Kiffin, lolz

For your afternoon chuckle.

h/t @nick_pants

Sinatra sings "Glory, Glory"

But first, a message from AthensHomerDawg:

I guess we are now officially in the off season. The disappointment of another season without the Crystal to put in its showcase has once again forced itself into our consciousness.. This should be accompanied by endless complaints from fans,and pundits, about coaches, players, ST, S & C,Defense, OL, DL, DC,OC, HC, AD.. and even new Internet memes to mock them all. AND endless How, and WHY and BUT! And of course the inherent unfairness that we don’t have some sort of Championship because Auburn and Bama, and LSU and Florida and even the Hillbillies got theirs. Where’s ours? Why don’t we over sign, change our pot policy, buy better coaches, buy better players, buy better facilities when we can certainly afford them all. Lack of Institutional Commitment! Buck the NCAA, buck the refs, f*** the refs… call the refs out publicly. Be realistic, run off the Disney Dawgs and turn semi-pro and drop this amateur status. Grow a pair! And Win All The Damn Games! BY GAWD!
Tissue? I'm all out. 
Is it still ok to root for the Dogs? ;-)

GO DAWGS!

Thursday's thoughts on the world's smallest cornhusker cocktail party

That sucks, man. Just to go all the way down and you just give it to them. That’s 

a bad feeling right there. - Todd Gurley

• I was wrong about Gurley being the healthiest he's been in some time. Clearly not himself, he had just 28 touches for a total of 183 yards. That's a good day for most individuals, but for a team struggling to find rhythm and consistency offensively it was well short of what was needed. And I wouldn't be surprised to hear sometime soon that he's having some type of procedure to address his ankle and whatever is wrong. 
  
• Mason had a good day individually and statistically as well - 320 yards. But he never found that confidence we saw on the Flats a few weeks ago. At times he had all day to throw, and at others he didn't even have time to set his feet. At times he laid it in there with authority. At others it floated into general areas.
• Lot of people saying we missed Aaron Murray yesterday. Well, duh. Of course. But we really just needed the same Mason that beat Tech. Maybe the wet ball accounted for the drop in completion percentage (61% in Atlanta to 53% yesterday). Maybe not.
• Ditto for the offensive line in terms of consistency. Kublanow came in for Dallas Lee and I thought he did pretty well. (Reminds me some of Ben Jones once the tension reached a boil.) But it was the usual fits and starts mostly.
• Did a play go by where the Nebraska coaches weren't bitching about something? If so, I missed it.
• Conley really toughed it out. Had to be especially painful and uncomfortable on that wet turf. Other than him (and Bennett on the long 48 yarder) it was hard to find a receiver that was getting open. Other than the ones on the sidelines in sweats. *sigh*
• In the end, the offense was not greater than the sum of its parts. And how could it be really? Why exactly was I expecting everything to fall into place suddenly?
• "Marshall Morgan" is a floridian slang term for "Money". It's okay Pelini, you can keep that extra field goal as a souvenir.
• The blown coverage on the 99.9999 yard pass is a script we've seen played out too often: Defense makes a great play. Seemingly puts themselves in position to get off the field having given the offense good field position. Only to completely blow it. But I'll let the expert explain it further...
• “It wasn’t a missed assignment. There should’ve been guys there,” Grantham said.
  
  Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2014/01/01/2880994/99-yards-grantham-and-wiggins.html#storylink=cpy
• Ok then...

Probably the best summary to yesterday's finale is we went in hoping for some closure and only got more questions. Now we'll spend the next eight months bickering at each other and feeding on our own self-loathing and discontent. Was it coaching? Was it injuries? Was it rotten luck? Was it the lack of an indoor practice facility??!!?? Should the was be an is?

Or is it just an unhealthy life choice that we continually force ourselves into year in and year out? Welcome to another off season of discontent. Your reserved seat is waiting.

Saying goodbye just got harder.

More on the game tomorrow. For now, my heart goes out to this guy.

"It was one of those things, you've gotta move on," Lynch said, his eyes welling up. "You really want to go out represent Georgia, and represent your teammates the right way."

The senior tight end reached down briefly to wipe his eyes.

"I couldn't do that," he said.

Fact is, without his clutch receptions early we aren't even in the game at the end there. He may not have been born around here, but Arthur Lynch bleeds red and black y'all.

Damn Good Dawg.

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2014/01/01/2858754/arthur-lynch-thats-on-me.html#storylink=cpy

Bowl spotlight - Richt rolled

Dawgs beat Huskers. Again.

Take it away Coach!

Feliz YdosKcatorce Muchachos!

WhatsayWHAT?? 2014??!!?? Nah.

Sure, NYE always starts out with a full head of steam and with mad skillz and intentions. But you just end up flat on your face in front of people somehow less impaired than you are and that are incredibly closer to achieving their goals.

Bastards. Different number, same old year. Shit.

Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl: keys to a victory formation

Short version: Dawgs win. Unless Todd Gurley gets abducted by Manti Te'o's girlfriend. (Again, within the statute of limitations on that one.)

This is Hutson Mason's game to shine. I'll get back to Gurley in a minute, because he's definitely a key to Georgia's victory. But when I reflect on where this program is, truly in transition between one legendary quarterback and his backup who is soon to be a fifth year senior, this is the game after Mason got the jitters out. This is the game after Mason lead his team back from a 20-0 hole. This is the game after the team, the offense and the huddle became his.

Nebraska gives up 7.1 yards per pass. Georgia averages 9.0. In the season opener the Cornhuskers gave up nearly 400 yards to Wyoming. Yes, WYOMING. They buckled down after that, but it was all to teams that don't have guys like Bennett and Conley (who practiced yesterday) and Wooten (playing in his last game not far from his home town) and two other seniors who contributed a lot in the passing game - Lynch and McGowan. Add in a couple eager, younger playmakers like Reggie Davis and Jonathon Rumph, and I think Mason will keep the Husker secondary busy. Very busy.

As for Gurley, in last season's Capital One Bowl he had 23 carries for 125 yards. He's fully rested and as healthy as he's been since mid-September. He's gonna get his.

On defense things are a little trickier. Grantham won't have Josh Harvey-Clemons or Sheldon Dawson. But the key will be stopping Ameer Abdullah on the ground. He has 59% of the rushing yards for Pelini. They weren't that good through the air with Taylor Martinez. At least not enough to really scare you. And they're a shadow of what they were once he went down with a foot injury in September. So yeh, it's all about stopping them on the ground. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that this plays into Georgia's strength on that side of the ball.

Lastly, don't act the fool on special teams.

So, the keys: run the ball, catch the catchable passes, tackle them like you mean it, and don't go batshit crazy when kicking the football. Easy. Peasy. Lemon squeezy.

Bowl spotlight - $$CFA$$

It's always the best bowl game. Not sure if tonight's edition holds true to form. But one thing's for sure, the ATL strip clubs ain't ready for a "newly" "professional" Johnny FFootball Manziel after kicking a bunch of rich, smart kids' ass.

Dolla dolla bills y'all!

Bobo gonna get paid!

I think Dean about sums it up.

The Eagles’ most recent coach, Jeff Monken, just left the Statesboro school to take over as the head coach at Army. Kleinlein told the Macon Telegraph Monken made $260,000 as the coach at Georgia Southern last year.

Bobo, on the other hand, made $585,000 in 2013. Bobo made less than at least two coaches who were fired last year – Manny Diaz (Texas defensive coordinator; $650,000) and Brent Pease (Florida; $600,000).

Bobo blistered several coordinators who make more than he does including scoring at least 35 points on: LSU’s John Chavis (44 points; $1.1 million), Georgia Tech’s Ted Roof (41 points; $600,000), South Carolina’s Lorenzo Ward (41 points; $650,000), Auburn’s Ellis Johnson (38 points; $800,000) and Clemson’s Brent Venables (35 points, $800,000).

Yeh. McGarity about to cash in some savings bonds y'all.

On a happier note...

Saw two things that brought forth smiles in the car this morning. First, from AHD:

Those cute bUTtchuggers always make me laugh.

And then from @BassinDawg, this pic:

lolz engiNerds. Hotty Toddy and Go Dawgs!

So, about Nebraska.

Gonna man up and admit I've contracted an unhealthy dose if apathy for the 2014 Gator Bowl. That's at least part of the reason for the lack of posts recently. Mostly it's due to travel and time with the family though.

As fans we deserved more than this. And while I'm over it mostly, the fact that we have an athletic office that won't stand up and fight for a better post-season option than a repeat against Bo Pelini is an after taste that will linger unfortunately.

The true victims here are the players of course. And they've been working hard, first in Athens and now in Jacksonville. We've had some attrition in the secondary and at receiver with Conley's ankle injury. But it's still a matchup that favors Richt's squad. I've been working on a more detailed post looking at specific keys for the game. I'll have that up tomorrow.

For now, as I travel through southern Virginia and ready myself for the 234 mile hell of North Carolina I-85, I just wanted to say "Hey y'all!" and that I haven't forgotten where my blogging machine is. I'll dust it off tonight and plug it back in tonight.

Until then...Go Dawgs!