Revisiting a Dawgy theme or two

For your lunchtime reading pleasure, here are a couple of links to pieces that touch on subjects I’ve just blogged about.

The Albany Herald reports on Richt’s Bulldog Club meeting in Albany yesterday, and has two quotes from the man relevant to that “Preseason of If” vibe I discussed:

“I really believe Joe is going to benefit from the mature offensive line,” Richt said. “He will probably have better protection than Matthew ever had in his career. Our runners will probably have a little more space than Knowshon ever had. If that is true, we could end up being as productive even though those guys are gone.”

I think he’s right about that. Offensive line play will be one of the two biggest keys to the season. Now if we can just get the starters sorted out, we’ll have something.

“Bottom line is if people build up inside we will go outside,” Richt said. “If we can’t make plays outside when people are determined to stop the run, then we will have big problems.”

For that, he will rely on freshman receivers Marlon Brown and Rantavious Wooten to instantly contribute, admitting the chance of either redshirting to be “very, very slim.”

No real surprise there. Let’s hope the talent comes through – quickly.

On another front, one that stirs plenty of passion among Dawg fans, Bulldawg Illustrated makes a good point about where fans’ attention should be drawn with regard to the Georgia-Florida game.

… If a fight absolutely must be picked, then lets pick one over the schedule. I’ll argue all day long that the schedule is more of a liability than the plane ride, the heat, the name of the stadium, or any reason given for moving the game.

Over the past 20 years, we’ve only had 3 open dates prior to the Florida game, whereas the Gators have had 13. Georgia is 4-16 over that time frame. Break it down over the last 4 years (Richt vs. Meyer) and Georgia won the game in which we have had an open date but Florida didn’t (2007). Florida won the two games in which they had the open date and we didn’t (2005, 2006). Florida also won when we both had games the week prior, but they played Kentucky at home and we played LSU on the road (2008).

If you want to bitch about something, how about this?

P.S. Take a look at our future schedules and, as they sit right now, 2009 is the last year Georgia has an open date before the Florida game until at least 2017.