Somebody to root for

We’re all hoping for the best for Trinton Sturdivant this season, but for my money, here’s this year’s forgotten Dawg:

Injuries and Quintin Banks have been near constant companions at Georgia the last couple of years, so it’s understandable if the fifth-year senior safety might get confused when he’s talking about them.

“My last injury was a PCL injury,” Banks said. “No. I’m sorry. I’ve had so many. It was a meniscus injury to my right knee.”

How sad is that?

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Duking it out at outside linebacker

I know that it’s dangerous to parse every little development in fall camp – especially early fall camp – but I can’t tell you how much pleasure I take from this bit of news:

… I asked Todd Grantham where the hottest battles for starting jobs are being waged on defense, and the first one he mentioned was a bit of a surprise:

“Outside linebacker. You got [Darryl] Gamble and [Cornelius] Washington. I’ve been pleased with both those guys’ progress. Both of those guys have improved.”

Justin Houston is entrenched at one OLB spot, and Washington came out of spring practice a solid No. 1 at the other. But Gamble, who moved from inside linebacker to outside in the final week of spring, “has had an excellent camp,” Grantham said. “And literally Cornelius has improved the last couple of days. So we’ll see how those guys go when we start playing.”

If you’d have told me in the spring that this would have developed, I would have laughed.  Healthy competition means less complacency (note the “Cornelius has improved the last couple of days” comment).  More importantly, it also means better depth – in this case, at a crucial area that desperately needs it this season.

Yeah, this could all turn out to be a bunch of smoke being blown up our butts.  We’ll see when things get going in a month.  But for the moment, I’ll just smile, thanks.

A philosophical question

Is it worse for a coach to be considered dirty or on the hot seat?