“That was a heiney spanking.”

Good times in Death Valley, as remembered by a key participant.

An 11th-ranked Georgia team coming off its first SEC title in 20 years went on the road and thumped Clemson 30-0 to open the 2003 season in the team’s last meeting before a crowd of 83,000. Those Tigers were coming off a 7-6 season.

“All I remember is it was 900 degrees,” said David Greene, Georgia’s starting quarterback in back-to-back wins against the Tigers in 2002 and 2003. “Other than the score.”

That pretty much sums it up, other than the fact that Georgia, in true Casey Clausen fashion, played the game one-armed.

The visit to the “Death Valley” was a potentially dangerous one for the undermanned Bulldogs, who were without several key defensive starters, including star defensive end Will Thompson, who will miss the season with a knee injury. Coach Mark Richt also suspended eight players.

Enjoy.

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Thursday morning buffet

Come and get it.

• Bill Snyder says college football “was in a bad place”, then goes on to claim that the sport can self-correct.  That makes him half-right.
• “Recruiting is still all about relationships.”  Some relationships make me want to fwow up, I guess.
• The 2012 Charting Project takes a look at fourth down plays.
• Vandalism at Williams-Brice!
• Today’s wait, what? moment comes from Auburn WR Sammie Coates, who claims “… we’ve got the best wide receivers group, I think, around.”
• Sammie, here’s what a good receiving corps looks like.
• Mike Leach says the conferences are all the same, except for one thing about the SEC.
• Mark Sanford uses football as an excuse to trespass on his ex-wife’s property.
• For an undefeated team, Ohio State was kind of meh in conference play last season.  (Of course, you could say the entire conference was kind of meh in conference play last season.)

Tuesday morning buffet

The line is open, so grab a plate.

• SEC Network announcement is postponed in the wake of the Boston Marathon tragedy.
• I don’t know what it is about Les Miles and head coach rankings, but Athlon, it’s real simple:  any head coach with a national title and a program that’s a perennial contender in the SEC West is a better head coach than Dan Mullen, for starters.
• Another weird list.  I mean, Jeremy Hill is one of the top ten players to watch in the SEC?  Good player and all, but still…
• Texas State’s move to FBS football has its costs.
• Georgia Tech decides it needs to go shopping for recruits out of state, while Vanderbilt keeps adding on Georgia kids.  I guess James Franklin agrees with the Genius: “I certainly think there’s people in Georgia that can meet the academics.”
• Year2 looks at how technology is running ahead of NCAA recruiting rules.  No surprise there.
• He also maps SEC historical series here and SEC East historical series here, if you’re interested.
• Possible opening day note:  Clemson loses its starting TE to ACL tear suffered in spring game.

Spies in the house

Tajh Boyd and a couple of his Clemson teammates donned hats and sunglasses, “threw some red on,” and made an undercover visit to Sanford Stadium for the G-Day game.

If you’re worried that secrets were gleaned that will make a difference in the opener… well, you can relax.

Boyd said he realizes the Bulldogs have speed on the defensive side of the ball.

For that level of insight, they could have saved themselves a trip, found a sports bar carrying the CSS broadcast and read a couple of blog posts.  Of course, it was a nice day to be outside, so there’s that.

Tuesday morning buffet

Here are a few tasty tidbits to nibble on:

• Stewart Mandel argues that the canning of the Big East commissioner is proof that school presidents have too much say… over a guy they hire.  No, I’m not kidding.
• I don’t care which side of the playoff debate you fall, this piece by Bill Connelly about college football’s historical tap dance with a playoff is a must read.
• Welcome to the SEC, Missouri and TAMU fans.
• Speaking of fans, I’m always a sucker for posts categorizing a school’s fan base.  Here’s one from Shakin the Southland.
• For those of you who think Georgia may go into the 2012 season with the best depth at running back in the SEC, Paul Myerberg makes a case for Texas A&M’s depth.
• If you want to know what the conference commissioners who are opposed to a conference champs-only playoff format are arguing, Tony Barnhart’s “memo” is there for you.
• Jarvis Jones has made the Lott Trophy watch list.
• One more way that SOD is special:  “At a meeting of the University of Tennessee Athletics Board on the morning of the Vols’ spring game, it was announced that season ticket sales were down for the third straight year…”