“I think he’s ready right now to play safety.”

Tell me this story isn’t dripping with irony:

When the preseason began, the given at safety was that Bacarri Rambo was a starter. That’s in doubt now.

Rambo, a junior who started every game last year, was working second-team in Wednesday’s practice. That was according to junior Shawn Williams, who said he and Sanders Commings were working first-team at safety.

And what about Rambo? Head coach Mark Richt was asked after Thursday’s practice whether Rambo was now fighting for his starting spot.

“They’re all fighting for the starting job right now,” Richt said, not saying anything more.

The situation is muddied a bit also because Rambo has not been made available to the media so far this preseason.

Two seasons ago, Rambo was the poster boy for Willie Martinez’ misguided sense of loyalty to upperclassmen starters.  Now he’s the symbol for competition.

My head is spinning.  His, too, probably.

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Friday morning buffet

The season’s only a couple of weeks away.  You need to keep up your strength, so fill up.

• I’m not sure if this means there’s one less embarrassing question for Clay Travis to ask at a presser, or one more.
• Vegas Insider is bullish on Georgia.
• Bill Connelly is one dedicated college football blogger.  (Let’s see how that holds up after his first kid is born.)
• Playoff PAC to Bill Hancock:  it’s nothing personal, dude.
• Mike Leach asks Randy Edsall about unleashing Gary Crowton and how AARP cards can make your butt sore.
• Non-football, but interesting:  Beer and Democracy.  (And check this chart out!)
• The lawyers told Mark Emmert ixnay on the ealignmentray eetingmay.
• And you wonder why I push the Mumme Poll (h/t EDSBS).

Gator stew

Don’t worry, Will.  Urban’s got your back.

“I’ve sat in that chair and I know he doesn’t want to be bothered,” Meyer said. “If Will (Muschamp) texts me and wants to talk about something, I’m there for him. I talk to some of the players, but I’m laying low. I talk to more of the guys in the NFL than the current players.

“I’ll be rooting extremely hard for the Gators. I love Florida and I always will. It’s amazing to me that so many people don’t think they will win the East. I think they have a great shot at winning the East if the offensive line comes through.”

Never mind that Corch couldn’t do that last year.

Muschamp can look forward to a year when if things don’t go swimmingly, he’ll have his predecessor looking over his shoulder, speaking both privately with his former players and publicly through the WWL’s megaphone.  Throw in Charlie Weis’ ego and you’ve got some major entertainment potential in Gainesville.

You can’t always blame the coaching.

I don’t know whether to laugh or shake my head after reading this:

“We were working them on wheel routes and you could hear the whole defense, coaches and everything yelling, ‘Watch the wheel route, watch the wheel route,’ ” Lynch said. “But I went out, ran a wheel route and caught a touchdown and it was just chaos over there. I’d heard them yelling to watch the wheel route, so I figured I wasn’t going to get the ball, but I ended up going for a touchdown.

“When I was running back to the huddle, I just looked at Shawn (Williams) and said, ‘They said watch the wheel route.’ Shawn just shook his head and said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ It was funny.”

Nah, I think I’ll stick with shaking my head.  And hoping there’s really something to this.

Always read the fine print.

I’ve seen a few upset comments in reaction to Andy Staples’ prediction that Georgia’s looking at a 6-6 (3-5) regular season.  But the folks responding are missing his qualifier:

… In the SEC, schedule matters. Which is why if my prediction about Georgia’s record is wrong, it probably will be astoundingly wrong. The Bulldogs play only three true road games in conference play (Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt). Their other two games away from Sanford Stadium (Boise State and Georgia Tech) will be in Atlanta, 67 miles from Athens.  If Richt does turn things around, the schedule could help the Bulldogs come back in a big way.

At this point, I’m convinced that you can make a reasonable argument for any total of regular season wins from six to eleven for this team.  (Florida’s a loss until they prove otherwise to me.)

I’ve been through five preseasons with the blog now.  This is the first one I’ve experienced when I honestly have no opinion about what Georgia should do in the regular season.

If nothing else, this year shouldn’t be boring.