Lots of goodies on this morning’s buffet line to sample:
- There’s never a bad time to quote Lewis Grizzard.
- Vegas is seeing money move towards Georgia and the BCS title game. I’m not sure why, though.
- Sadly, Ed Gunther is making this the last year for his terrific blog. Ed, you will be missed.
- Bill Connelly appreciates what Ed is leaving behind for us.
- Evidently if you’re God-fearin’ and living in Nashville, you don’t have much room for Vanderbilt football in your life.
- Here’s a recipe for some monstrous ratings numbers. Still, you’ve got to appreciate the effort.
- This might be fun.
- Back to Bill C., who looks at the effect of returning starters on a defense here.
- Brent Benedict says he left Georgia because of Coach Tereshinski, but has no hard feelings about it.
- Chris Brown takes a neat look at the old Houston run and shoot offense.
- Fun fact about Georgia’s secondary: “A year after allowing an SEC worst 25 touchdown passes and intercepting only 10, Georgia gave up just 15 scores and picked off 16 passes (13 by defensive backs).”
- And here’s a 2011 Georgia preview from Auburn Country.
- Mississippi State wasn’t an offensive juggernaut last year: “The team was held to 14 points or less in half of its SEC games last year. It rushed for nearly 40 fewer yards per game than in 2009. The 4.9 yards per play they gained was ahead of only the hapless Vanderbilt offense in league play.” Exactly how did Georgia lose to these guys?
Get The Picture 
“Brent Benedict says he left Georgia because he’s soft.”
/fixed.
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I once was a big fan of Searals, but based upon results one has to be happy he’s moved on. I wish Joe T and Coach Friend much success. if they feel they have to ditch every O-line player who doesn’t see eye-to-eye and start from scratch, then so be it.
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“There are no hard feelings.” There ARE hard feelings–you can bet on it.
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I was impressed with how Benedict handled the questions designed to ignite a controversy, so I am impressed with him for that. But I really don’t understand why he thinks a program should make itself subservient to his trainers’ opinion of how to prepare him. Frankly, this not getting worked out to both sides’ mutual satisfaction is puzzling; just should not have happened. With several qualified advisors to help CMR with this it seems the Benedict family/entourage may be the issue here. The university stood behind him when he was injured, he didn’t get his way, he walks. Sounds like this may be best for us in the long run.
Arky survived the Mustain family, I feel more confident UGA football will find a way to get along without Benedict better than a player wanting everything to go according to his demands. Athletics, and life is full of examples to support that.
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I wonder if the new “tough” training wasn’t bad on his knee and that may be the problem?
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Unquestionably that seems to be the issue at hand. Whomever Benedict has advising him unlikely to know more than the collective wisdom of the UGA training staff, and doctor advisors. Which would you guess has seen more football related injuries? The UGA group has Benedict’s best interests at heart (why wouldn’t they), and I would bet more experience. I don’t question that doctors can have conflicting opinions, they often do. There is no way CMR relied soley on Joe T on this issue, he had more input than that over an issue this large. Why would Bendict be so convinced about his guy? A relative perhaps? Something just looks odd for him to dig in his heels and throw away a year, uproot his life, etc., over a conflicting doctor’s opinion.
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“And he’s finally washed out the “90” imprint on his jersey that Nick Fairley left after the two met — repeatedly — last year.”
No, that imprint would be from the crown of Fairley’s helmet. But thanks for noticing.
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Again, I expect nothing less than an outstanding year from our defense. The addition of Jenkins, Jones, a revamped Geathers, and a renewed Tyson should spell success.
Special teams should be excellent.
Offense? Adequate would be my guess.
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Jax, I will say right now that if you’re correct on all three points, Georgia plays in the SECCG this year.
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ie, the opposite of 2008.
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Dawgs D should be much tougher up the middle. It’ll be interesting to see if Lattimore can still run up the middle on us against a wall of Jenkins/Geathers/Ogletree. If J. Jones can bring pressure from the outside, the D could be very tough.
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I read “God & Football” just before last season. I am not one given to hyperbole, but it really did change my life. I feel silly talking about a mostly humor book like that, but it did. I got my priorities in order which (gasp!) is no longer Dawg Football #1. (Probably more like #3!) I sure would not have handled the 6-7 season as well as I did.
P.S. please don’t ban me from the blog for admitting that it’s no longer #1
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Exactly how did Georgia lose to these guys?
And Dan Mullen is a genius because why?
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I don’t think beating last year’s team is necessarily a sign of coaching genius. Unless you think Dan Hawkins and George O’Leary qualify as well. 😉
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Touche, but I was thinking of his press clippings from Florida days.
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PS: O’Leary is more of a conditioning genius anyway.
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$10,000,000.00 worth of Ouch
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/college/knights/os-ereck-plancher-trial-0701-20110630,0,2406237.story
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How did Georgia lose to those guys? Really awful officiating bordering on criminal. The rule is that when the ball carrier’s helmet comes of the play is dead. Period. No exceptions. The ref on top of the play blew his whistle, too, marking the play dead on about the 1 foot line, UGA’s ball. How can the TV ref, given 10 minutes of mulling it over, reverse the call on the field and award the ball to Miss State as a touchback? Either the refs don’t even know the rules or there was hanky panky. Either way the TV ref should have been suspended a la Marc Curles and crew in ’10 but–nothing. Stuff like this happens all the time, too. The SEC is the only conference in college football that uses the TV replay to get the call wrong.
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“The SEC is the only conference in college football that uses the TV replay to get the call wrong.”
That’s beautiful.
It just goes to show that the SEC is the #1 conference in technological innovation.
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“How did Georgia lose to those guys?”
Mississippi State? From what I watched, they just beat the shit out of us.
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Yep, that call was totally blown by the officials. Not sure that is a great rule, but it is absolute, no room for ambiguity, nothing at all subject to a ref’s interpretation. The replay was clear. I caannot say we would have won if the correct call was made but it is fair to say that changed the dynamics of the game so it could well have cost us the game.
The call that absolutely changes a big game outcome was the blown call by the refs on AJ’s touchdown against LSU. It was a terrible call, the man did nothing wrong, zero, yet was flagged. In fact, he handled a huge play in a textbook way, he acknowledged the fans, celebrated briefly with teammates, and moved directly to the bench so the game could proceed. That mistaken whistle cost UGA the game and there was no excuse for the call.
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Say what you will. Miss. St. plays physical. Georgia has been soft the last few years. Hell, they made Lattimore look outstanding. Clemson and Auburn shut him down. Greig Reid sent Lattimore to the oral surgeon. It is an attitude. What does Mullen have to wotk with? Wonder what the recruiting budget in StarkVegas looks like? You put Mullen at a school with money and he will kick Richt’s ass even worse than he did last year at MSU. I wonder what Mullen would do with Branden Smith? Would he have 5 scholorships tied up in the kicking game? Or how about Carton Thomas up the middle? Texas has the money to buy any D-coordinator, and they bought the one Mullen picked to be with him. Beats the hell out of firing Martinez doesn’t it?
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