Bobo turns down VA Tech

Evidently there was an offer from the Hokies to be their offensive coordinator. Schlabach says he turned it down.

Countdown to NSD - 25 days

So we started our annual trek towards National Signing Day a couple days ago. Here's a quick update to go along with those weekend chores.

• We talked briefly about Montravius Adams on Wednesday. He is visiting Clemson this weekend while the Tigers appear to have a slight lead over the others trying to gain his signature. Clemson has swayed some big time recruits recently but don't expect a surprise commitment as Adams hits Tuscaloosa next before finishing his official visits in Athens on the 25th.
• But...Georgia coaches visited Adams yesterday morning at Dooly Co. High School and included in that visit was new defensive line coach Chris Wilson. Word is that the visit went well and that Wilson made a good first impression.
• Reuben Foster is also scheduled to visit on the 25th and would undoubtedly provide instant help at a position of need, inside linebacker. Although he's in Washington this weekend the battle is truly between Georgia and either Auburn or Alabama. May come down to who Foster is better friends with, Auburn commit Dee Liner (who is also considering Bama) or Georgia's early enrollee Tray Matthews. Matthews likes the Dawgs chances.
• One visit Georgia isn't going to have to wait on is Devondre Seymour, Richard Seymour's younger relative that he has adopted as his son. The Seymours will be in Athens this weekend and word is Georgia is very much interested in the somewhat raw offensive lineman (Devondre is fairly new to football, but has great size - 6'6" and 320 lbs - and upside). Now that the elder Seymour is done with his season, the concentration will be on finding his son a place to further his skills at the college level. There's a chance he may not qualify for 2013, but the Dawgs are interested in adding him to their roster regardless.
• Lastly, one of the things about recruiting that never ceases to amaze me is how much the practice of it has changed over the years as well as how much more attention it gets from fans. This look back by Ching in his interview with Scott Woerner is pretty cool in that regard. So close to being a Longhorn, and never becoming Woerner the Returner!

Disagreement over Harvey-Clemons' position?

Maybe I'm reading between the lines too much, but when reading this I can't help but wonder if there is more than a little disagreement over where the talented Josh Harvey-Clemons will end up playing in 2013.

–Sophomore Josh Harvey-Clemons’ position on defense? Richt wasn’t ready to say.

“That’s one thing that I want to make sure that our coaches are all in agreement and Josh knows exactly what we’re going to do before I would say anything,” Richt said. “That’s something that we’ve all got to get on the same page on and make sure that all parties involved know what we’re going to do before we say anything public.”

Is this like last season's tug of war over Malcolm Mitchell? Or maybe the player has a different idea than the coaches on the matter. I don't know. But the fact is that this needs to be settled now. In all honesty it is past due. Because now is the time that decisions have to be made about how much weight gain to target for this off season.

So this is certainly a subplot to watch for this winter and especially on G-Day.

Irish eyes...are black and bloody

Don't let the media that is still fawning over Notre Dame's epic season fool you. They are not a top tier program. They are in terms of money, support, exposure and money. But in terms of talent, they can not compete on the stage that they were thrust upon Monday might.

So what happens to them now? Again, no reason to feel sorry for them. They are Notre Dame. They'll be back towards the top of the rankings in August. They still print their own cash. And it appears as if they have sufficiently smothered those pesky sexual assault allegations. They'll sign a bunch of recruits and reload for more televised, second tier, overly endorsed football games. So all is good.

But maybe you can't convince Brian Kelly of that. After all, he knew before he got into the locker room the other night that his team was done. To paraphrase, he told the television audience that the only way they could win would be if Alabama didn't come out for the second half.

Whoa nelly!

And now he's interviewed for the Phildadelphia Eagles job. So he knows. He understands what the media will apparently never get. As good as his defense was compared to previous years in South Bend, it's not ready for those types of football games. I heard Saban say Tuesday that people shouldn't be mistaken, the Fighting Irish are a "great team". That's what I heard him say, just as I heard countless other announcers, broadcasters, radio jocks, print jocks, and every employee ESPN bothered to put on a camera say leading up to the BCS game.

But what I saw was totally different. I'm not going to say Notre Dame will never be able to compete at that level. Never is a long time and even a blind squirrel finds a nut from time to time. But "America's team" isn't ready for SEC teams. That defense isn't better than most of the teams in our league, as many had protested last month.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are what WE knew they were: a suspect offense and an average defense that together made up a good enough team to beat their average schedule. I think Kelly ends up back in South Bend. He'll coach another good Irish team this fall. Millions will tune in each Saturday and slowly build them back up into a program that is ready for glory again. The networks and the newspapers will boost them over better teams in the rankings.

And their fans will say that they've got things turned around. Again.

h/t AHD

Kwame's counts as two scholarships right?

Now that it's official, Geathers scholarship counts as two for the next year right? I mean if we weight his scholarship proportionally since he was a little heavier...plus he had an extra year that he's leaving behind...PLUS he played multiple positions while on campus.

Yes. His is at least a 1.5 scholarship. At least.

As for his decision, if you ask me Kwame has known he was hopping out of Athens ASAP right after this play happened in Nashville. Defensive tackles only get so long to make their scratch in the NFL.

Murray knew all along

Once the clock hit zeros in the Georgia Dome on December 1st, quarterback Aaron Murray knew he'd be back for his last year of eligibility. But as he has become a better quarterback during his time as a Bulldog, he's also become a mature young man. So he also knew he'd better make sure it wasn't just raw emotion he was reacting to.

“I obviously didn’t want to base my decision off emotion. I really wanted to let that SEC game go by a little bit before I really made my decision. After that game, I’m like `I’m coming back, I’m coming back.’ I really needed to let that game go, play another game and great to get a win, clear my head, write down the pros and cons of everything, of staying and leaving, talk to my parents, talk to some other people who I know have my best interest at hand, but at the end of the day, I still felt deep down inside that I needed to come back for another year.”

As we talked about earlier, Murray is very competitive. There's a fire inside that drives him and that is what compelled him to return to Athens; at this point in his life he'd rather compete for an SEC championship than for a spot on a roster. And in the end he might be better off for it, both in terms of collegiate hardware and his NFL career. Georgia returns practically every starter on offense, and has a talented albeit inexperienced defense. That could add up to a lot of good opportunities in 2013 for the team that the fifth year senior will lead.

As for the NFL, some are saying that going into next season Murray will be the top prospect at quarterback for the 2014 draft. He might not be any taller then than he is now, but if he gets to stand on a podium (or two) everyone will be looking up to him anyway.

Johnson raises Roof

So Tech's head guy has hired a new defensive coordinator...Ted Roof!

"I've known Ted for a long time and I'm excited that he has decided to come back to Georgia Tech," coach Paul Johnson said in a prepared statement. "He's one of the most respected football coaches in the nation."

Well, he does have that ring Cam bought him. So there's that.

But seriously, I don't know why everyone is so surprised Roof left Penn State, or that Johnson made the offer. This is Roof's 14th coaching position since he started in the late 1980's. Plus he's from outside of Atlanta and went to Tech. He spent four years on North Ave. with O'Leary.

As far as Johnson extending the offer...who else was he going to get?

Countdown to NSD - 28 days

This won't be a daily thing, at least not yet. And there stands a reasonable chance that I'll be able to get away from work to bring you updates live from Butts-Mehre for the fourth year in a row. This promises to be a big class. And now that the on-field action is complete, I'm started to get excited about how the committed and targeted recruits are shaping up.

For today lets just hit a few updates.

Norcross High's explosive playmaker, Alvin Kamara.

Alvin Kamara. A lot of buzz about possibly committing to Bama immediately following their win Monday night as well as taking in the action down in Miami firsthand. Now, I can't confirm he was in South Beach over the long weekend, but I have it on pretty good authority that he wasn't in school on Monday or Tuesday. He tweeted that he in fact had NOT committed to Alabama. So take all of that for what it's worth...

The fact is that this is down to the Crimson Tide and Georgia, and pits a head to head recruiting contest between two former Georgia players; Kamara has said that he is close with both Kirby Smart and Bryan McClendon. The shifty and explosive ball carrier could add a lot to either backfield, even though both schools have established running backs. I suppose junior Eddie Lacy might go pro, but even if he does there is TJ Yeldon and a host of hungry young guys behind him, including Dee Hart who's coming off a knee injury.

At Georgia things might be even more stable with Gurley and Marshall. But if there is one thing that is clear about Kamara, he's not afraid of competition. And both programs would find a way to use the talented Norcross High School star. He's a great down field runner than has the versatility an offensive coordinator dreams of adding to his depth chart.

Davin Bellamy. Losing Jarvis, along with upperclassmen like Cornelius Washington and Abry Jones, means Georgia needs to add some edge pass rushers. And until recently one of the nation's top guys at defensive end was out of reach on the recruiting trail, even though he's from Chamblee GA. Bellamy committed to FSU back in August, but after Auburn brought FSU assistant and former Tiger Dameyune Craig back home to Opelika, Bellamy decided to open things up a bit.

Turns out the main reason Georgia is back in it is because former recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach Rodney Garner has changed zip codes as well ($). Kipp Adams goes into some specific reasons why the relationship between Bellamy and Garner (and consequently Georgia) never blossomed, but the end result is that a top pass rusher from our own soil will give the Dawgs a second chance, as well as an official visit later this month.

Bellamy sticking with the Seminoles certainly isn't out of the question. However, he wasn't happy new FSU assistant Sal Sunseri didn't offer him while the coach was the defensive coordinator at Tennessee last year. That may or may not be Sunseri's doing and he has since said that they indeed want Bellamy in Tallahassee. Other programs of interest are NC State and (the new and improved) Tennessee.

Lastly, Montravius Adams. With the depth at Grantham's nose tackle position in serious limbo, Adams is a key part of the 2013 recruiting class for Georgia. This is one we'll look at closely and update as much as necessary, but at this point we appear to have made the final cut. It's a shame the 5-star DT couldn't participate in much of the Under Armour practices or the all-star game after re-aggravating an injury from the Class A championship game last month. But as a 6-3, 290 lb prospect from Dooly County High School, Adams has plenty of interest. Other programs closing in are Florida, Alabama and Clemson.

Look for him to visit Athens later this month which will help him get to know our new defensive line coach and hopefully close the deal.

EgginDawg takes Festivus4theDawgNus

It was a close call. And much like the actual BCS game, it was decided well before Alabama finished beating Notre Dame. EgginDawg ended up edging out Evil Richt's Goatee after Arkansas State defeated Kent State late Sunday night in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Everyone...yes, all 60 entrees had Bama winning. So much like Monday night's contest, the results of that game were a perfunctory matter.

As for me, I rallied. Having back-loaded all my confidence points on the later bowl games I was able to work my way up from 60th at one point to 13th where I finished. But like everyone else, fell short of the impressive 519 points that EgginDawg put up. So he will get the Festivus t-shirt to wear proudly next bowl season as he defends his title...and while he airs his grievances.

Kudos to Evil Richt's Goatee for entering the final stretch in the lead; Morton and rtdew for staying in contention much of the three weeks, JaxDawg for an impressive late run...and La Jolla for being at or near the top the entire time. As well as bothering me daily about who was cheating.

See y'all in December when we'll get the pole out of the crawl space for the fourth year!

Humpday Hilarity - of cows and tequila

Bruce, are you drunj?