Today's Trifecta

First, we have to defeat General Akbar on the road. No easy task for Georgia's basketball program historically. But son, this ain't your daddy's Hoop Dawgs. Let GRjr drive and dish and the rebel alliance will crumble...

Next, the Packers bring their cheesey goodness to the ATL. Step back, they're pretty wound up!

h/t comcredo

But Falcons fans are ready to Rise UP!! Project 115 is in full force TODAY!! Send the cheeseheads packing for their Wisconsin hibernation.

And lastly, every trifecta needs something to make the bet really pay off. A real longshot. Ladies and gents...Justin Bad MoFo Houston...

h/t magicbOy

Is that his last play at Sanford? That night it sure felt like it. Truthfully, it still feels like it. His paperwork would need to be in by today. It's there...right?

3 Dimes Down

Come back Baby...Rock and roll never forgets.


The Drive By Truckers play their third consecutive show tonight at the 40 Watt to kick off their Go Go Boots tour. To help with my misery at missing it...

And if you're also a fan, you can give their Thursday night show a listen here. (h/t jbyce)

Recruiting Roundup - 18 Days til NSD

A little more on Harrow. Here's a video of him, although it's a little hard to follow him on the field. He's #45...

h/t joewin25

Good skills. And as was commented yesterday, he recently got a qualifying test score so now the offers are coming late. He's probably an early special teamer that grows into a corner back role. Frankly, I applaud the quick trigger on the offer by Coach Richt. But it can be a fairly divisive question. 


Do you agree? Do you see it more as a play for Crowell's signature? Does that really matter?

Recruiting Roundup - 19 Days til NSD

Still perplexed by the lack of announcement by Justin Houston. Thought he was a slam dunk to leave. But the fact that we still haven't heard one way or the other tells me he's really considering staying. And that tells me Richt/Grantham have really gotten in his ear. Tomorrow's the deadline, so maybe we hear something later today.


But suppose he does leave (surely he will, right?)...


This Deion Barnes kid would help fill the void, especially with Dickson apparently Bama bound. Barnes is a lot closer to his other top school, Penn State. The Philadelphia native is a relentless pursuer of the football who just needs ready access to a meal hall and a weight room. He's in Athens this weekend. Y'all make sure he doesn't slip on any ice while he's there and think to himself, I can get this s*** back a lot closer to home.


The most intriguing news yesterday came from Columbus, where Carver safety Quintavious Harrow says he has a UGA offer all of a sudden. Hey, if signing Lonnie Outlaw helps us get Nick Marshall...why not, right?


Yes, Harrow is a good friend of Crowell. Since they also just happen to be visiting Athens at the same time next weekend, let's hope they spend a lot of time on the drive back talking about how awesome Athens is. 

A few simple words...

A couple people have asked, so here's a few thoughts on the headlines from this week:

• Dowtin - the bottomline is this is what is best for the football team and Marcus himself. He may not have been let go simply because of what happened in Maryland last May, but it was the icing on a pretty distasteful cake. Dowtin will regroup and take his talents elsewhere for a fresh start, he'll do well. And our locker room will benefit just as much.
• S&C - the addition of Tony Gilbert, Thomas Brown and Kendrell Bell coupled with the beginning of off season workouts has brought some more criticism and discussion among fans. And while the whole direction we've taken is pretty ho-hum...it probably makes more sense to evaluate this thing in depth once all of the hires are public. And save a thorough critique until after the South Carolina game.
• Fran Tarkenton - I didn't really find his comments all that surprising. I've read and heard him say similar things before. The only thing that's really newsworthy here is the timing of it. Coach Richt has made himself an easy target now. Which means radio stations are more likely to give guys like Tarkenton 13 minutes to make sound bytes. The more intriguing question to me is - a year from now, will 680theFan give Fran the airtime to apologize...or say he told us so?

That's two pennies, from me to you.

Congrats, Yata

You gotta give him credit, Sundiata Gaines is relentless, a worker...tireless player. Yet Dawg fans have know this for quite some time.

h/t UnitedDawg

So congrats to Gaines on signing another 10 day contract with the Raptors. I know very, very little about NBA basketball. But I do know this: He survived Felton. He survived a tornado. Surely he can survive Toronto.

Two Junior Dawgs Stay

So Boykin and Glenn have decided to stay for their senior year. This is great news. We tailgate near Boykin's parents. They're great...no, terrific Dawgs! 


But more than that, we'll have two future NFL draft picks protecting Murray and another draft pick returning both kicks and picks for six in 2011.

Georgia’s 2011 football team got a boost on Wednesday night with word that Brandon Boykin and Cordy Glenn are returning for their senior seasons instead of entering the NFL draft.

Of course, word's still out on Justin Houston. If you're an eternal optimist like me, buy some of this stock: 

He's been to all team functions this week, but has 

yet to decide. Is that a vote in our favor?

If so, I feel bad for any 2011 SEC quarterbacks not named Murray. But surely that's wishful thinking...right?

Strength and Tweeting

Jeff Owens became nearly legendary for his Waffle House tweets, and such. So I found it somewhat amusing last night when a conversation via twitter popped up between him and Christian Robinson, who had just tweeted about the difficulty of Coach T's workouts. Here's a synopsis (remember that tweets read from bottom to top):

And here's Owens' feed:

Of course, it's all "talk" right now. I'm officially reserving judgement until after South Carolina in September. But it at least sounds like a step in the right direction.


UPDATE: The latest Dawg Blawgs podcast is up and they spend a good deal of time on Strength and Conditioning. Interesting to hear their viewpoints, including a former player.

KiffyBaby..out of touch...

...color me shocked!...

University of Southern California tight end Blake Ayles has informed teammates of his intention to transfer, sources told ESPNLosAngeles.com Wednesday.

Ayles hasn't said anything publicly, however, and Trojans coach Lane Kiffin said he heard that Ayles was "contemplating some things" but was not aware of any finalized decision.

"That's all I know," Kiffin said. "I don't know that anything's happened."

Recruiting Roundup - 21 days til NSD

I can almost smell the doughnuts and coffee.


John Jenkins - The big NG is officially not going to Oklahoma State, as has been suspected for quite some time. His final four are Florida (1/28 visit), Auburn (already visited), Georgia (1/21) and Miami (1/14). Although there are no clear leaders for Jenkins, I like our chances best. He seemed genuinely excited after Coach Richt's visit, we have a 3-4 defense that is made for his talent and body and he is bringing his entire family down to Athens for his visit there. Coach Richt has always seemed to have trouble closing strong on signing day, but he does well with family.


Jenkins will announce ($$) sometime around signing day. After watching the impact of a Nick Fairley in the NCG the other night, I'm becoming more and more convinced this guy is our biggest (literally an figuratively) recruit on the board. Got. To. Get. Him.


Damian Swann - committed Saturday at the US Army All-American game. Here's my original spotlight on Swann. If Boykin does indeed go pro (which I'm hearing could happen very soon), this pickup becomes even bigger in two weeks. Swann can play just as soon as Branden Smith did in '09.


I have a feeling recruiting news is going to get very hot around Athens in the coming weeks. I'm still anxious to see how well this staff closes the deal in the final hour. But 2011 has the potential to be very, very special. One thing's for sure, CMR and staff have been working hard, very hard. Hopefully it pays off two weeks from today.