Three pillars. Two words. And one heart.

They released the video from the Gala. Many faces are changing, but the spirit will always be there.

The Gala from Frank Martin on Vimeo.

Thanks Coach. And thanks to the players, the assistants, the staff, and all their families for their sacrifices in making a great season.

SEC "fans" sleeping with the enemy

Tonight the SEC bowl season begins. So it's time for my yearly post on why it's idiotic to root/cheer/hope other SEC teams win their bowl games (or any game for that matter).

And I'd like to start with this:

If Alabama wins a national championship on Jan. 11, it helps Georgia. No, really, it does — at least according to Kirby Smart.

Smart, the Bulldogs' new coach and outgoing Crimson Tide defensive coordinator, is currently juggling both jobs. And he knows the best recruiting pitch and publicity he can use for Georgia right now involves earning another championship ring. Even if doing both jobs at once is cutting into his sleep time, and sanity.

"Obviously it's a challenge," Smart said at a pre-Cotton Bowl semifinal media availability on Monday. "It's a time-management challenge. There's only 24 hours in a day. There's only so much you can do each day. And once you accept that and know that you've got to focus on the task at hand – which the task at hand is to get ready for Michigan State – that's what we're focused on here."

Let me be frank...that's all bullshit. No, I'm not against Kirby finishing the season with his now former team. I applaud that just the way I do for Bryan McClendon. And Smart is being truthful about the whole awkwardness when he approaches it from the angle of honoring a commitment to his players.

But Bama winning Thursday does nothing for Georgia. LSU winning tonight does nothing for Georgia. South Carolina winning their bowl game does nothing for Georgia. Tennessee and Florida winning their bowl game does absolutely nothing to help Georgia.

Sure, will I get some measure of satisfaction if LSU wins tonight? Probably, as I need some real help in my bowl pool. But that's really small potatoes and I'm already losing to my wife anyway.

But don't let my logic and superior reasoning get in your way. Go on and fall head first into those ESPN segments where they put the conference records up against each other and pretend like that means something. Be a lemming while you sip your conference kool-aid.

Meanwhile I'll be perfectly happy if the SEC goes 1-9 this bowl season, as long as the one win comes at Penn State's expense.

Merry Christmas!

I truly appreciate all of you. Thanks for visiting here and reading my dribble and commenting and genuinely understanding that JASPER'S KNEE WAS DOWN!!

Go Dawgs!

BMac be gone

Well, this answers one of this morning's questions.

Bryan McClendon going from Georgia to South Carolina coaching staff https://t.co/irhOigALwQ pic.twitter.com/kEnwFLVRi1

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) December 23, 2015

On Brown leaving and others staying and then others maybe leaving too

Been on the road and although I'm now back home, I'm up against the last minute Christmas shoppers. But real quickly...

Sounds like Smart really, really wanted Thomas Brown to stay. But a significant pay raise + title upgrade + loyalty to old coach was too much. I hate it because it was great having Brown back. He was a great player turned coach that did things right on and off the field and happened to have loved the gym as much as the field. What a great role model for players...but time to move on.

And whoa! Todd Hartley is gonna be Richt's special teams' coordinator? That's result of Richt calling the plays down in Miami I'm sure. How else could he make room? Just wish he'd've chosen to do that this past January too.

I would expect the Tax Slayer Bowl to be Lilly last run as a Dawg too. Surely he's heading to Miami as well.

Rocker and Sherrer have been retained. That's something I suggested would happen last week but was a week off on the timing. Sherrer has experience with Kirby prior to Athens and Rocker is a hot commodity, both as a position coach and as a recruiter (read: he has his hands on several current UGA recruits).

What's next? Well, who will be the defensive coordinator? Again, I suggested the bowl game could be a test for Sherrer. But if so, I would think we'd already know he was being tabbed. Instead, I would expect someone Smart is close to will get the nod. Meaning, someone either already on staff or currently coaching in Tuscaloosa. The reason I say that is there seems to be less and less chatter from other teams as to who Kirby is talking to. So keep an eye on Mel Tucker, current Alabama defensive backs coach, as well as Sherrer.

Also, while we're keeping an eye on folks. How about current head coach Bryan McClendon. He seems headed for Columbia SC. But will Brown leaving open up something for the long time Bulldog? I hope so. I just can't stand the thought of him working for the 'Chump.

Is bowl game a test for Sherrer at DC?

Rumors that there might be more coaching news coming in the very near future. Maybe as soon as today. 

I’m expecting Sherrer and Rocker to be retained. Not sure if an official defensive coordinator promotion will be made public, but I could see the bowl game serving as a hands on interview for Sherrer. He and Smart have worked together and I think he'd be a good fit on the new head coach's staff from what I've read. And if I'm right about this then Rocker should be held onto as well.

That's just a mixture of tea leaves, rumors, and hopeful prognostications. Enjoy!

Related; take a look at Groo’s post on the staff turnover and transitions. He has a nice chart put together for your eyes to make some sense of things.

Here’s what I don’t understand. (And I apologize for not having a link to this, but yesterday was pretty busy and I just saw it on twitter as I scrolled quickly for some news.) Why was Glenn Schumann in Tuscaloosa yesterday? Jim Chaney and Sam Pittman observed practice in Athens. Why couldn’t Kirby’s lone defensive hire thus far do the same?

That one question is a reminder of just how awkward coaching transitions can be, which Groo’s post alludes to in detail. I’m reminding myself daily that this is something Kirby Smart has been waiting for awhile. In my mind, he can take as much time as he needs to get the right hires in place.

But you can concoct a scenario where we have current assistants who are in flux, coaching our current team, while being rumored to be heading elsewhere next year.

That makes for messy bowl practices and messy recruiting. Albeit during the dead period, but still messy. And Smart's old boss seems to agree.

Eason high fives DawgNation!!

With some serious Top Gun bravado yo!

Yes. He's re-re-re-committed y'all! All the feels! Let's hit the interwebs for some reaction.

When emotions take control over your limbs.

And YOU get a quarterback!! And YOU get a quarterback!!

Dawgventers gettin' crunk!

Coeds dig the quarterbacks man!

Down in Gainesville, McIlwain discusses with his staff

why the UF girls aren't as pretty.

Meanwhile, on the way back to Tuscaloosa, Coach 

Smart stops off for some ribs.

#ugatwitter feeling the joy

All the recruiting websites that wanted As Jacob
Eason Turns to draw out another few days weeks months.

New offensive coordinator Jim Chaney

Meanwhile, on his way back to 3rd period. Eason pauses 

to give the crowd one more look.

About Jim Chaney, and also Sam Pittman

I’ve heard for years from people outside of Athens that Georgia fans feel entitled to win. I’ve never been sure how I felt about that sentiment. But the knee jerk reactions to the Jim Chaney hire help me understand that viewpoint a little easier. Did people really think that Kirby Smart would just read the Dawgvent or Twitter for his list of candidates?

Is bringing the long term assistant a bit underwhelming? Sure. I guess. But what did we really expect? It’s situations like these - where we have days to watch plane logs and ruminate and pontificate and speculate - that make it easy to lose perspective. I think Smart wanted Enos and when that didn’t happen, he zeroed in on his next couple choices.

Chaney’s offenses may not jump to the forefront when you’ve been doing nothing but reading the rumor mill for a week. But I come back around to these two points:

1) The addition of Sam Pittman makes the Chaney hire much easier to understand. Georgia is about to get much bigger and more physical along the offensive front. These two coaches have worked well together at Tennessee briefly and then especially at Arkansas. They’ll do much greater things than Schottenheimer and Sale were (not) able to do this past season.

2) Everyone that is so quick to point to Pittsburgh being ranked just below Georgia in total offense this season...well, they have a point. But Chaney also has a track record for getting the most out of his players at key times. Jonathan Crompton comes to mind (all too easily). And so does Arkansas’ two 1000 yard rushers in 2014.

And you know, next season he’s going to have his hands full breaking in a young quarterback (most likely) while getting the most he can out of his backfield. In that frame, the Chaney hire makes perfect sense to me.

About Jacob Eason

Why are people worried? It's Athens going up against Gainesville. C'mon.

And if you need any more reassurance than what dan and Radi got out of Ben Cleveland, I just can't help you.

"Oh yeah, there were tons of females just following him around ALL NIGHT LONG. It must be nice to be a quarterback. Lineman don't get that kind of love. I thought it was funny. I was just laughing how all these girls were dying to talk to him and drooling all over him. I'd never seen anything like it."

Coaching rumors, final episode

Last week was my first time here at the blog in terms of a head coaching search. But I’ve written through many, many assistant searches. And this one is different than those others in that information is extremely hard to come by. So, I’m going to sit back and wait while hoping that the coordinator hires come fairly quickly.

Here’s some other thoughts:

• More and more it is looking like Thomas Brown will be the only holdover for Smart’s staff. (They’re pictured together here visiting with a top defensive back target in Chad Clay.) Just sounds like those we thought might stay are looking elsewhere. It’s going to upset the wife especially that Rocker is leaving. And McClendon and Lilly have been here a long time. Hope they get a proper send off at the bowl game.
• They’ll be missed. But, as I’ve said before, we want Smart to get his guys. He’s been waiting for this.
• I still expect S&C badass Scott Cochran to end up following his friend to Athens. It’ll take a fight to get him. But I would expect Smart and UGA to be ready to drop the gloves and pay the man. Cochran coming to Athens would significantly help Smart’s transition here.
• Back to the coordinators, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone come out of left field. For all the talk about Kirby not having any experience as a head coach, he’s been around enough places and enough years that he’s met plenty of folks. I bet he knows what he wants as an offense just as much as he does on his side of the ball.
• Some chatter yesterday about Alabama linebacker coach Tosh Lupoi coming to Athens. Here’s some more information on who he is from Roll Bama Roll. The short of it, another former grad assistant that became a position coach. Oh, and also a stud on the recruiting trails.

So, we wait and see. I’ll update if we start to hear something substantiative. Until then, Go Dawgs!