Seriously, the timing suggests they’re both leaving, and given the money at stake, it’s hard to blame them.
I wish them the best, appreciate their contributions and expect the program to roll on.
*********************************************************************
UPDATE: They’re gone, God bless ’em. They showed a lot of class at the presser, but this little tidbit from Moreno kind of blew me away:
Moreno said he missed the deadline to send his paperwork to the advisors.
That is evidence of either supreme confidence or supreme obliviousness. For his sake, I hope he signs with an agent who will look out for him.
Get The Picture 
The timing???
Come on. Both pay sites have pretty much confirmed they are gone.
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Timing, as in the day before classes start.
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I understand that, and maybe you don’t bother looking at the two sites anymore, but both places have confirmed through their sources they are gone and have written articles pretty much declaring it. I’d say that’s a better indication than the timing.
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It figures.
I can’t say that I could turn down a couple mil in signing bonuses and endorsements over finishing up my degree and playing college ball another year.
I’ve enjoyed my share of ups and downs with the 24/7 Express. They weren’t all wins…but they were always Bulldogs. So I can’t hate.
To steal a line from Chris Rock: “I ain’t sayin’ I’d do it–but I understand.”
Can’t wait to watch the NFL combine this year–if the pay sites are right…
Well. Hasta luego amigos. Thanks for the memories.
Go Dawgs!
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I hate to see them go but UGA football will go on without them. We’ll continue to compete for championships like we did before they got Athens. I hope both of them succeed in life as well as football. They are and will always be DGD’s.
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As Richt said about Garner, UGA football is bigger than anyone one or two people. Our past suggests we can have a very good year, even when we lose superstars.
1983, we lost Herschel and still almost won the conference and a national title shot for a fourth straight year.
2005 we lost Greene, Pollack, Thurman, Davis, Brown, Gibson. That’s a ton of talent gone right their. The three biggest playmakers we had on each side of the ball and we won the conference the next year.
Football is a team sport. If our defense gels, we don’t get hit by the injury bug and Cox can be as good as the coaching staff has said, we should be very competitive.
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kckd, I agree.
Over time, I think losing key coaches hurts a program more than key players. Georgia survived losing Herschel a lot better than it did losing Erk.
The key to 2009 will be if both lines solidify. On offense, that should offset the losses to a fair extent and on defense, it’ll make a huge difference.
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Just taking the delusional approach – maybe the “email” was designed to throw people off about Stafford? Seriously though, looking at the people he talked too, I’m a bit surprised that they would say that he should go. I’ll say this, yes Stafford has the “gifts” to play, but is he “ready” to play? That list of people like Aikman or talking to the Mannings, I’m just speculating, but I can’t imagine them telling him to go. It seemed that the general consensus would be that one more year would be good for polishing up his game. Or given that Sanchez and Bradford seem to be the hot picks lately, is he sure that he’ll go #1? Though I know they haven’t announced. But I haven’t looked at who all needs QBs but just wonder if there is a chance that he could slip like Leinart or Rodgers. I’m not saying I’ll be surprised if he goes. And honestly, I don’t worry about it much if he leaves. I think Cox behind an experienced line will do just fine.
Knowshon is gone, I hold no delusions about that. But he is the one that will hurt more. I think King and Samuel are more unknown, though again a healthy line probably makes a big difference. But how many times this year did Know turn a 1-2 yard loss into a 2-3 yard gain? Him behind an experienced, healthy line? He’d hit 2000 yards.
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Agreed… Joe Cox isn’t chopped liver. I think we’ll be fine. He’ll be a David Greene kind of QB I think.. effective..not flashy, but the variable is his head for the game. Hopefully, he’ll pull a DJ Shockley, despite not getting any real playing time.
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The wait is over.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft09/news/story?id=3815504
Sources: Stafford, Moreno to leave Georgia for draft
-Michael
Muckbeast – Game Design and Online Worlds
http://www.muckbeast.com
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Joe Cox NEVER lost a single game while the QB at Independence High School in Charlotte. Agreed, he’s not chopped liver and may be the next Tee Martin or DJ Shockley.
I’m sad & disappointed, but I’ll be an immediate fan of whichever NFL team is lucky enough to get ’em. Congratulations to both of them for amazing careers as Dawgs and for giving all they’ve got the last 3 years.
Can’t wait to see what Joe & Caleb can do next season! Go Dawgs!
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The Tee Martin experience is out of the question, but I think Georgia ’09 could be as good as Georgia ’05, as long as the lines shore themselves up. Only problem is…the SEC was sorta in transition mode in ’05, while SEC ’09 will most likely (as in, assuming you-know-who stays) have a very, very dominant Florida team at the top.
The key will be to get good, quick. Schedule’s pretty strong at the start of the year.
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Maybe so, but you never know DN.
And of course Timmy’s gonna stay – he’s not projected anywhere near where HE thinks he should be.
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I dunno. I was reading up on some truly stupid mock draft sites and saw the home-schooled crybaby projected on several of them at #16 to the Jets.
HA!
Given their reputation on draft day, I’m sure the Jets fans would have lil’ Timmy weeping bitterly before he reached the stage.
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It’s an interesting mix. The scouts loathe Tebow, but the crew at ESPN/ABC/Disney/DynaGloboCorp. think he’s the second coming. So you’ll see a projection showing Teebs to be like the 7th best QB in the draft, while Musberger’s spouting off during the Rose Bowl that the Lions should pick him at #1 (!!!!!).
So does he listen to his fawners at the Worldwide Leader? Or is he actually smart?
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I kinda hope they both do go. I think that Joe Cox deserves a year to run the show. Unlike ole Terishenski(sp like it even matters) Cox has experience and has proven to be a solid QB. The main reason I think it will help will be the ole “UGA aint gonna do crap talk” all the players will get to hear the whole off-season since our only players are gone. UGA tends to step up when hated on. Also we get the week off before Fla next year, plus we don’t have to play LSU right before them either. Next years schedule will be tough. Either way good luck to both of them in the NFL.
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Stafford should stay – to polish some things up – but he won’t … and frankly, I can’t really blame him. Why not work on polishing those things up while making $35 million?
Moreno, I hate to say, really has no good reason to stick around.
Good luck in the NFL, boys. Here’s hoping neither of you end up as a Detroit Lion.
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i think that the offensive production we loose without them can be nearly net-offset by not kicking off out-of-bounds as a result of less offensive scoring. . . .
(that’s a joke, but not by a lot.)
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Anyone know if the press conference is being televised or broadcast at all?
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Stafford and Moreno both gave us some great memories. They will be missed. I think Moreno is definitely making the right choice, and possibly Stafford as well. Look at Pollack’s injury. If that had happened in college, no signing bonus payday, and no ability to say “I played in the NFL.”
… however …
Is there anyone else with a strange, hard to explain, sense of relief? The last 3 years have been, imho, the most frustrating of Richt’s 8 year tenure. Something just hasn’t been right. I am *NOT* blaming Stafford or Moreno whatsoever. I am just pointing something out. Maybe people expected those guys to do it all, maybe Georgia was just another school to them – they loved it, but didn’t die for it, or maybe they didn’t have an “it” factor in the locker room, or who knows what. But something was never right the last 3 years. While it may have nothing to do with those two players, I think the overall “weirdness” of the last 3 UGA teams makes it so I’m not as bummed as I thought I would be.
I am actually a little relieved that we are finally going to move forward into the next era.
The David Greene (w/ DJ Shockley) era was awesome.
The Stafford (w/ Tereshinski/Cox) era….. not so much.
Here’s to our next era being more like Greene’s and a little less like Stafford’s.
-Michael
Muckbeast – Game Design and Online Worlds
http://www.muckbeast.com
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Eh. If I were to list Georgia seasons under Richt from most enjoyable to least enjoyable, I’d go:
2002 (Pro: 13-1, SEC Champs, Sugar Bowl Champs; Con: Loss to Florida)
2005 (Pro: SEC Champs, significantly overachieved; Con: The Shockley injury and resulting loss, loss to WVU)
2007 (Pro: Sugar Bowl Champs, slapping around Florida/Auburn; Con: Early-season swoon, hypocritical ESPN politicking)
2003 (Pro: SEC East Champs, that D, overachieved; Con: Lost a very winnable Florida game, zzzzzzzz offense)
2004 (Pro: Nuked LSU, finally beat Florida; Con: Continual indifferent offensive gameplanning, the UT loss)
2006 (Pro: The three games at the end of the year; Con: Coaching staff acting like they were managing a completely different team)
2001 (Pro: Hobnailed Boot; Con: That team kinda sucked)
2008 (Pro: The preseason hype; Con: The season)
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The 2007 team did finish #2 in the final AP poll, Georgia’s best finish since 1980. So I wouldn’t lump that team in as a disappointment. I think the fact that the Stafford/Moreno era could be characterized as disappointing in any way is because of the overall raised expectations of the Richt era, not because of Stafford and Moreno’s performances per se. Stafford did fine — sure he had his share of mistakes, but so did Greene and Shockley. And who could argue with Moreno’s performance and effort? He’s our best RB since Hearst at least, and maybe since Walker.
Best of luck to them, and especially, good luck to next year’s QBs and RBs.
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If this season was a disappointment to anyone, including myself, it sure as hell wasn’t because of Stafford & Moreno.
For God sakes, these kids busted their collective asses for UGA, set records, lit up the score board in ways we hadn’t seen in a long time, and did their very best with the crappy situations they were handed (a busted up, young Oline, 2 dozen season ending injured players, & a historically bad year on D).
Neither one of ’em have a damn thing to prove to a single Dawg “fan” that doubts them. Watching both of them choose to play in silver britches was one of the best highlights in my 30 years as a fan.
Best of luck to them both and GATA Joe Cox!
Go Dawgs!
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Tradition never graduates and never leaves early for the NFL. I would like nothing better than for some extraordinary high school athletes watching football on Sundays thinking that they want to be the next Stafford or Moreno and where they need to play to do it. The glass is half full: Joe Cox has never lost a game he has started, we have quality backs returning, super backs we have recruited, a more experienced and healthy O-Line, and will be paying #24/#7 nothing for some fantastic brand-name, prime-time, advertising for UGA.
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BTW, concerning loyalty…I finished Grady College in three years because I wanted a faster track to a job. Glad no one questioned my loyalty to UGA. 🙂
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i’m glad to see no one here seems all that worried about next year. i don’t have any fears of uga football cliff diving as a result of stafford’s and moreno’s departures, as substantial as their contributions have been. i think improvement in some rather obvious areas (special teams, dl, ol) with the players we *will* have next year can make up for whatever slack is left behind. but i’ll definitely miss watching moreno in red and black.
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It’s now official, they’re gone. Per georgiadogs.com
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“That is evidence of either supreme confidence or supreme obliviousness. For his sake, I hope he signs with an agent who will look out for him.”
Eh. No bigee. This is the same kid who didn’t know when the Super Bowl was played and knew nothing about UGA or the SEC when he came to Georgia.
You didn’t have to be a genius or file paperwork to know those two were projected in the first round. Its been said before every game this season & proclaimed ’round the clock on espn for months.
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Moreno had Stafford’s family friend, the scout for the Chiefs give him advice about where he would go in the draft.
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I think we will be fine at QB.
I am worried about TB. Neither King nor Samuel have given me much to build faith and hope upon after one year.
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squarebush –
We’ll be fine at tailback. If you look at most of the Richt era, we had a stable of good backs that would collectively provide balance to our offense. I expect King, Samuel and whoever’s next to do the same. Even though I think the production will be there, it really kills me to see Moreno go. He’s been the highlight of the last couple years for me and I think we’ll all miss his attitude and enthusiasm, even if we still get the yards.
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Moreno did it himself this year. If King or Samuel had played behind this line, I have a feeling they would have been Tony Milton-esque, at best. However, with the OL we’re supposed to have next year, it makes me less concerned. I will say they both made me a bit nervous at times this year, but they will definitely have holes to run next year.
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