More and more, Jim Donnan looks like garbage

The Ponzi case against former UGA Coach Jim Donnan just keeps getting uglier. From The Banner-Herald:

The Donnans were among the first investors, putting about $5.4 million in GLC, then getting $14.6 million back, according to documents filed by Bell’s lawyers.

Donnan got a commission of 15 percent to 20 percent when he solicited other investors to invest in or loan money to GLC, according to court documents filed by lawyers for Bell and for GLC.

The Donnans themselves filed for bankruptcy protection in July, proposing a plan in which the Donnans would repay some of the money they received from GLC. But some of those who lost money have objected, including the widow of Athens physician Stephen Fennell.

Lawyers for Valerie Fennell say Donnan persuaded her husband to invest $450,000 in GLC to buy inventory at a time when Fennell was dying of leukemia and unable to make sound financial decisions, the lawyers said. He only got a fraction of his money back.

So, either you were cheating people out of their money and knew it, or you thought the discount furniture business enabled you to turn a 170 percent profit over the course of a few years. Either way, you gotta go down.

More background on the case here, from ESPN. There are more details of Donnan's bankruptcy case here, also from ESPN, including a link to legal documents.

The second link confirms the profit estimate for the Donnan's:

"There is no dispute that the Donnans [including their immediate family members] were the largest net winners of all investors in GLC as they received from GLC approximately $9,157,000 more than they invested," the settlement agreement states.

UGA great Conrad Fink, dead at 80

Conrad Fink, who in his life was a U.S. Marine, foreign correspondent, vice president of the Associated Press, newspaperman, University of Georgia professor, husband and father, died Sunday, according to numerous media outlets and the Grady College of Journalism.

He was something else, as his Facebook page today makes clear.

Just to give you an idea: Go to the 1:02 mark.



Update: A much longer version of his obituary.

I'd like to know our plan in the secondary

With Jordan Love leaving, and word on the street that we're "full" at corner next year, I'm curious about what I don't know with our secondary.

Shawn Williams, Bacarri Rambo and Branden Smith are all said to be weighing their NFL draft options, though my money says only Rambo bolts. Brandon Boykin is a senior, Paul Hornung award winner and NFL bound. Sanders Commings is back, giving us a solid man at one corner.

After that, there are a few high-profile recruits (Nick Marshall, come on down, at pretty much any position), but it's not a roster position that stikes me as fully taken care of.

Luckily, what I don't know can fill a warehouse.

Where are you, Bulldog friend Anthony Logan?

I'm not sure what made me think of this tonight, but did anyone ever find this guy? I'm assuming Herschel didn't. I have a feeling I would have heard about that.

"At the end of my eighth-grade year, I got beat up by this kid named Anthony Logan," Herschel said.

Laughing, he added, "Believe me, I'm still Googling him."

"But that was the last straw. I started doing 5,000 push-ups every day. I started doing 5,000 sit-ups every day. I would get up at 4:30 in the morning and run four miles. In the afternoon, I would run another three miles. I would find tree limbs and do pull-ups. I started going to the library, checking out books, reading in front of the mirror, and my speech impediment went away."

That's good work, Mr. Logan. Hide, before Herschel thanks you.

Even I don't wish that on you, Clemson

Clemson fans, you've never been anything but nice to me. Sure, I disdain you on principle. But what I saw Wednesday night, on national television, was enough beat-down for the lifetime of any man, team or university athletic program.

You let me know where to send those flowers.











Images: The Orange Bowl Committee.

Love for Shawn Williams

Glad to see Shawn getting some of his due. It's no secret how legitimately worried I was about the safety position when the season started. I know Rambo had a good year, but Shawn was the dependable cog that kept the crushing machine running.

“He put fear in a lot of receiver’s hearts,” senior cornerback Brandon Boykin said. “He was known as a big hitter and somebody who was gonna bring the wood, I guess you could say. Him not making a (postseason) team, I guess you could say that would motivate him for next year to try to be better and try to correct things that he needs to get better at. But he knows that he’s a good player, and everybody else does too.”

I heart Jarvis Jones

Seriously, Jarvis, you are fast becoming one of my all time favorite Bulldogs.

From The Banner-Herald:

Outside linebacker Jarvis Jones, a consensus All-American, said “there’s no reason” for him to send in paperwork. He’s maintained for weeks that he’s returning for his redshirt junior season.

“I love being here,” Jones said. “I love the guys I play with. I love my coaches. I don’t think I’m ready to let that go yet.”

Higgs Boson for Linebacker

"We observe an excess of events around mass of about 126 GeV."






















Starts alongside Jarvis Jones. Wears No. 124~126.
Gives things mass/destroys. Causes "an excess of events."

With Munson, it was the waver

I've thought, many times, "What is my favorite Munson call?"

And I keep coming back to 1978 Kentucky. "The bench is unconscious."

It's the waver in his voice, as he counts it down. Twenty-five, Twenty-four.

There is no font for that.

Of all of Munson's emotions, hyper intensified in the moment, I must say the fear was the most important. His explosive joy was more fun, obviously, but could it have been so sweet without the investment?

Not a chance.



















By the way, Joe and I agreed, while Munson's own eulogy stole the show at today's memorial, Coach Dooley's story about the day Georgia decided to hire Larry was the best individual story. It was one I had not heard.

Dooley and others were listening to Munson call a Vanderbilt game, and the kicker missed a field goal. Larry says, "The S.O.B. missed it."

Then without missing a beat he tells his color man, "Scott, you can’t talk like that, we’re on the air.'"

Said Dooley: "Anybody who could think that fast, we wanted him."

Photo Gallery: Munson ceremony at Sanford

Pictures courtesy Joe Petersen and Shawna Pile.

Munson: A part of the people, that's how I'd like to be remembered

Larry recorded a message a few years back, and they played it at his memorial service today. It was moving stuff, my friends. An excerpt:

"Some people have called my homer style 'old school.' I think I'd call it a will to win. ... I've pulled my insides out trying to win. Being a part of the fans and a part of the people, that's the way I'd like to be remembered. ... I hope Bulldog fans remember I was always looking out for them."

Thank you, Larry. Thank you.



















Image: Joe Petersen.

Update: The Athletics Association has video of Munson's eulogy up now. It's not to be missed.

Not enough Frijoles

But next year, my friends, next year.

All propers to LSU. A great team as expected.

Suck it, Auburn, Florida, Georgia tech, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Clemson.












This just in: perfect tweet is perfect.

LSU: All they do is win, win no matter what

This piece from And the Valley Shook is flat out excellent, in the pattern of the LSU football team itself:

This has been one of the most remarkable years of LSU football. We are nearing the close, and this team absolutely has to beat Georgia to validate this season -- winning the SEC means so much -- banners fly forever.

My only quibble is with the title. Because "delusional optimism" makes me think of Georgia.

You're not fooling anyone with that mask, Joe Cox

People, this product doesn't need to exist.













Ginger Batman? Click to enlarge, weep.


We certainly don't need it available from "The Official Online Store of the Georgia Bulldogs" for $41.95. You want to dress like a Bulldog super hero, put on a Jarvis Jones jersey.

Come off it Bradley, ESPN. The BCS doesn't render the SEC anything

This is just an awful column, Mark Bradley.

I don't want to overstate things. Obviously there is a shit-ton amount of drivel on the Internet. And granted a small amount of it comes from The AJC's sports writers, all most of whom are talented.

I know I'm going to turn on ESPN and hear Rod Gilmore whine about Alabama getting a "bye" while LSU has to play "another game" 36 days before the BCS championship.

But do I have to hear it out of Atlanta, too?

I get that people don't like the BCS. I get that they're using this SEC Championship Game won't factor into who plays in the BCS championship situation as an argument against the BCS.

I get that these people don't, I guess, like that the BCS and the SEC are separate, if partnering, systems. But that doesn't change the fact that they are different things.

That it's already obvious LSU and Alabama are the best two teams in the country does not render the SEC Title Game "moot." That they will meet in the BCS Championship Game means the BCS actually worked this year, despite needing to be replaced.

None of this makes the SEC Championship "just an exhibition game." They give a big ass trophy. The game generates tens of millions of dollars. They will keep a record of who wins it, probably for just about as long as there are people living in southeastern United States.

You don't have to exaggerate to make your argument. The BCS sucks. We get it.

That makes the SEC Championship more important, not less.

Update: Groo makes a point that derails the "meaningless championship meme" even more effectively:

Can we expect a similar column the next time the ACC and SEC basketball tournaments come to Atlanta? ... There is no greater set of moot exhibition games than during conference championship week in March.

LSU: If it bleeds, we can kill it

In this video metaphor, I am Billy, the normally unafraid Indian tracker. The unseen alien enemy is LSU, embodied by any number of individuals on that team, some of whom may in fact be named Barkevious Mingo.



It is my sincere hope that Mark Richt and this 2011 Georgia team turn out to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. Because as bad ass as LSU clearly is, I promise you, they bleed.

tech over-matched, a puncher's chance v. LSU and hope for 2012

I am surprised how weak Georgia tech looked Saturday. I really thought they'd give us all we could handle, but they looked over-matched from the start. Their decision to repeatedly throw us the football instead of committing to the run merely hastened their doom.

I'm proud of this Georgia team, this program and this coaching staff for getting it done this year. A 10-2 season is impressive, even with a weak schedule. It takes something to reel off win after win in college football, I don't care who you're playing. See the last decade of Boise State football if you doubt that.

That said, I think any fair analysis of this upcoming game against LSU must predict something approaching a crushing. That's not a jab at us. It's recognition that this LSU team is phenomenal. Having 11 defensive starters likely to play in the NFL has that kind of effect, and the Tigers have firepower on offense, too.

We're not going to Atlanta just to get the shit kicked out of us, though. We have what you always have at kickoff: A chance.

This Georgia defense turned a little nasty this season, and it's not unreasonable to expect some turnovers. If we can bottle up the run and keep this a low-scoring affair, the game could turn on special teams play and steady contributions from our offense, which will face its biggest challenge of the season by far.

Of course, if Isaiah Crowell's not at 100 percent Saturday, it's hard to see us rising to that challenge. Nothing short of our best game of the season in all phases will even keep this thing close.

Win, and all questions are answered with a resounding WE ARE AWESOME NOW. Lose and the over-riding question for the coming off-season seems clear enough to me. Was this season the start of an upswing, or an outlier due to what was obviously a down year for the SEC east and Auburn, plus a generous schedule from the SEC West?

Has Richt got us going again or not? Personally, I think he has. And hopefully we'll draw a good bowl opponent, keep the momentum going and douse the easy-schedule meme going into next year. But I also think it's fair to be afraid that Coach Richt just caught an astounding confluence of scheduling breaks this season.

Seriously, review our schedule. Who was the best team we beat? I'm going to go with "none of them."

Look at the Florida game. That team is terrible, didn't have its best quarterback healthy against us, and we barely pulled it out. So, while I'm pretty damn optimistic about next year, what with the talent we have coming back, the defense's gains under Coach Grantham and the litany of recent examples that show how quickly teams can go from pathetic to mediocre to champions, I fear my optimism is misplaced.

Call it a gnawing fear, banished to one small corner of my stomach by a 10-game winning streak. Banished, but not fully uprooted.

It's simple: I want tech to fail. Always.

I've seen a few Dawg fans over the last week say they cheer for Georgia tech until we meet the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

The idea is that they cheer for all the state's teams, that they want the nation to take note of Georgia's football prowess in general, or they want the strength of schedule boost, or they just want to prove that the best tech teams still lose to Georgia.

Now, I'm all for taking as much from Georgia tech as we can. But the years we'll have a shot at ruining a techie National Title run are very few and very far between. So let's set that aside and try an exercise I typically find useful: Say it out loud.

As a Georgia fan I want Georgia tech's football program to do as well as possible, except when we play them, of course.

Does that really sound like a good idea? The top high school football talent in Georgia, you want them to have two legitimate in-state options? The national media attention that helps land recruits out of state, you want Georgia tech getting some of it?

No, I think one of our long-term goals should be forcing Georgia tech to end their football program and apologize to the state. Let's work toward that, and allow clean old fashioned hate to fester on its merits all year long.

Keith Marshall, come on down

From The AJC:

Richt seemed to be talking to Marshall directly when he spoke of Georgia’s need for more tailbacks on Wednesday.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity at the University of Georgia for running backs in this class to come to Georgia and make a big impact,” Richt said. “I hope that’s not breaking a rule, but there’s tremendous opportunity, I can say that. If I was a running back, if I was a great running back, I would want to come to Georgia. I would be so excited about my opportunity at Georgia.”

The message reached Marshall. He retweeted Richt’s comments after they were circulated on Twitter by reporters.

SEC Champ tickets cutoff: $12K

The Athletic Association just sent out point cutoffs for SEC Championship Game tickets:

Hartman Fund Contributor Tickets - in an attempt to provide tickets to as many Hartman Fund contributors as possible, the following ticket limits were implemented.

• 6 tickets: All contributors who ordered with a cumulative score of 100,000 and higher will receive up to 6 tickets.
• 4 tickets: All contributors who ordered with a cumulative score between 52,500-99,999 will receive up to 4 tickets.
• 2 tickets: All contributors who ordered with a cumulative score between 12,050-52,499 will receive up to 2 tickets.

Tickets will be mailed to Hartman Fund contributors on Wednesday, November 23 via USPS

I'd say that's fairly high demand.