As feared, Owens gone for the year

From Coach Richt's Sunday teleconference, per David Hale.

As excited as I am about our young tackles, that is a big whammy.

UPDATE: Jeff Owens is the freaking man. And the only silver lining I see in losing him on the field is knowing how hard he's going to work off the field to make this defense better. From David Hale:

On whether he's angry about the injury:
"It's all in the game. It's football. It's going to happen. I take a risk of getting hurt every time I step on the field. I know there's a risk, and I know that injuries happen. I've just got to come through it, fight through it and get back healthy. Injuries are going to come. I'm not looking down on myself thinking, if this is gonna happen, if that had happened. It's football."

On how well Corvey Irvin will replace him:
"No doubt in my mind he can do it. As a matter of fact, I look up to Corvey. He might not know it, but he pushes me. We both motivate each other. I know he's going to take over my role and be a leader of this defense."

On how well the D-line will do without him:
"They're still great. I was just a small piece of the pie. They're way bigger than me, and they're going to blow up this season."

Sanford: In red and pretty hot

I made a complete circuit around the stadium yesterday, which I think is a first for me. I regret not taking a picture of the cups.





And a good red one from Chris:

Go Dawgs: 1-0 edition

"Don’t get me wrong; I’m not displeased with this afternoon’s effort. I’m not even not pleased in any meaningful way, if that makes sense."
- T. Kyle King

It does.

USC is the No. 1 team in the nation.

I'd loved to have been in the planning meeting when someone said: "You know what we should do with the cups this year? Make 'em black." Yeah, and put a panoramic picture of the stadium and Uga VI on them. Untoppable.


Uga VII: Pimp. But I repeat myself. Image: The Banner-Herald.

Knowshon Moreno was by far the best player on the field today.

Losing Jeff Owens would be huge. Can you lose arguably your best offensive and defensive linemen before the first conference game and really win a national title?

My "give it a few games before I fall for the A.J. Green hype strategy" is officially suspended.

Great photography from The Banner Herald today. Kris Durham in Sanford Stadium picture.

With all apologies and good luck to Jon Richt, Clemson was terrible Saturday. I'm not looking forward to watching their season.
















Clemson and Tommy Bowden: One doesn't constantly fail to meet expectations or charge you $2.25 million a year.

Arkansas: Couldn't have happened to a better guy. Wait, they won? Virginia Tech lost?

The ACC: Will further lower expectations for another Wake Forest BCS bowl birth.

Bama fans are talking about how they could win a National Title this year. They can't.

The mythology of the Uga mascot line is something else. How is it we've convinced ourselves that the dog is winning games?

Phrase used by Stadium Announcer Tom Jackson during Uga VII's collaring ceremony: "The transfer of power."

Also injured: Macklin at Missouri? Beanie Williams. The concept of "Beamer Ball."

Introducing Uga VII

Destined to be a damn good Dawg.







Image and story: georgiadogs.com

A last farewell to Uga VI

The Athletic Department has released Uga VI's epitath:

UGA VI GEORGIA MASCOT (1999 – 2008)

KIND WITH A BIG HEART THAT FINALLY PLAYED OUT

• TWO SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS
• NINE BOWL GAMES
• FOOTBALL RECORD 87-27
• 19 NATIONAL TITLES
• 34 SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS

“A BIG DOG FOR A BIG JOB, AND HE HANDLED IT WELL”

Beat the rush: The perfect option

Is there another college football program in America that consistently puts out stuff that its fans apparently take seriously, but their rivals just make fun of?

Imagine what a pair of "Georgia tech rappers" would look like. Then click here.

I feel legitimately sorry for old school Georgia tech fans. How often must they just shake their heads in embarrassment?

UPDATE: I gotta tell you, though. That song is catchy.

1 day to go: Let's go get more of these

It's football season

I think I hope Lou Holtz gets hit by a truck tonight.

South Carolina and N.C. State's offenses are just terrible.

Oregon State-Stanford is on, allowing me to flip between two college football games on a Thursday night. I'd forgotten how glorious this is.

Barack Obama's speech: "Meh."

Steve Spurrier: Still a jerk.

Chris Fowler: "Haven't seen a game in Commodore Stadium. Looking forward to it."

Uh, OK.

2 days and counting

2005 South Carolina.


Blackout.

2.5 days and counting: Real time photo edition

Lucid Idiocy Athens Correspondent Chris Brusko checks in: The field is painted... the chair backs are in place... all that is missing is us.



UPDATE: Clearly letting the prestigious L.I. Correspondent title go to his head, Chris has started a blog. If he gets our tailgate on ESPN, I'll let it go. Wait, would that be a good thing?

7th Year Senior.

3 days and counting: Moving pictures edition

Madhouse -> The Take Out -> Gov. Perdue -> Coach Richt -> Madhouse

Anyone looking for actual football highlights in their videos today should go here now.

Tailgating readiness: Checklist edition

A friend of mine made a gameday checklist. And if I can help just one person not forget the flagpole stand by publishing her list, my work here will be a success.

Personal Items:
___ Red & Black attire
___ Gameday skivvies
___ Comfortable shoes
___ Georgia face “G’s”
___ Toothpaste/toothbrush
___ Toiletries
___ Gold Bond (Medicated)
___ Pajamas
___ Blankets, pillows, sleeping bags
___ Funny movies

Tailgating Essentials:
___ Food and beer or money for food and beer
___ Money for tickets (if applicable)
___ Coolers
___ Cups & koozies
___ Cigarettes and other health-depleting items
___ Beer (keg or BYOB), Andre, water
___ Gameday music (pre-mixed)
___ Chairs
___ Tables
___ Miscellaneous games and other bad ideas
___ Cameras
___ Advil
___ Georgia flag, flagpole
___ American flag, flagpole
___ Flagpole stand
___ Tent
___ Trashbags (including one for recycling)

Game time Necessities:
___ Tickets
___ Student IDs (if applicable)
___ Diet Coke
___ Whiskey
___ Wins

Alcohol: On there three times for a reason.


Flaming Steve Spurrier pinata: optional, but recommended.
Awesome friends: a must.

Uga VII: male, 3 years old, 56.5 pounds

"An excellent dog."

Ed Grisamore here at The Telegraph has the details this morning:

"It wasn't a beauty contest," he said. "We had three to choose from, and we took our time. We've got an excellent dog. We're not going to put a puppy out there to fill that collar. He is 3 years old. He is Uga VI's son. And he is almost full-grown (56.5 pounds)."

The world won't see his mug until this weekend. In the meantime, the best sneak peek is a picture of his famous daddy.

"He's the spitting image of VI," Sonny said.

So something like this:





Uga VI as a young Dawg. Image: The Telegraph.

If Lewis Grizzard was a blogger they'd have to invent a new word for it

At last count there were 517 Georgia blogs. Including this one, and this one, both of which I recently discovered.

But any blog that pays tribute to Lewis Grizzard right there in the title deserves special mention. Bubba 'n Earl Sittin' on the 50.

Georgia tech at the Orange Bowl. Riiiiiggghhhht.

Oh, techies. You buy one 3-game ticket package and they send you emails to make fun of for years. From "Georgia tech Athletics." Yahoo! put it in quotes, not me:

ORANGE HAS NO LIMITS...win a trip to the 75th FedEx Orange Bowl

Enter now for a chance to win a trip to the 75th FedEx Orange Bowl - Home of the ACC Champion.

One (1) Grand Prize winner will receive:

-3 night hotel stay
-2 FedEx Orange Bowl tickets - Jan 1, 2009
-1 parking pass for FedEx Orange Bowl
-2 Tailgate Party tickets - Jan 1, 2009
-2 roundtrip airline tickets
-1 rental car

For FedEx Orange Bowl Ticket Package information, contact 305.341.4701 or visit www.orangebowl.org.

On an unshocking related note, tech still has tickets available to Thursday's season opener. They'll run you $12.

4 days and counting

Sometimes it gets blurry in the 4th.

Tailgating readiness: Save the Earth and campus edition.

The University will be running a pilot gameday recycling program on North Campus this year.

That's good news, considering the recyclables generated at the average tailgate could probably power downtown Winterville for a year*. There have been some unofficial efforts in the past to recycle on gamedays, but since they were volunteer efforts the follow through has been spotty.

American Stadium Services, which has the contract to clean Sanford Stadium and campus after the games, will have staff on North Campus during the tailgates this year, according to co-owner Bill Fox. They'll be picking up recyclables and trash to get a jump on things before kickoff and up til about half time, he said.

When it comes to recycling, it'll be dual stream. That means paper products in one bag and cans, bottles and plastics in another, he said. I didn't ask about Solo Cups (you know, the red ones), but generally those aren't recyclable. Clear plastic cups and plastic water bottles, though, are.

If you're not on North Campus, you can still recycle. I know we plan to this year. All you really need is an extra trash bag and a little sign telling people to use it.

The University has recycling bins on campus, and this map shows the locations. Again, this is dual stream - one bag for paper products (including cardboard) and another for glass, cans and plastic.

Stuff with a lot of food residue should probably just be thrown away.

Hell, you might be able to just bag the stuff up, mark it, and leave it. George Stafford, the University's associate vice president for auxiliary and administrative services, said one of the biggest trash problems comes from people going through trash cans looking for aluminum cans. They end up dumping out all the trash in the search.

If you just leave your recyclables marked, maybe they won't do that anymore.

* Completely made up statement.

5 days and counting

Can you believe it? It's here.


Vs. Oklahoma State last year. Yes, we played Oklahoma St. last year.

6(:09) days and counting

From the 2004 tech game. We beat them 19-13 on a cold and rainy day.


Self portrait.


Had we been playing Tennessee, this sky would have been a problem.

The Herschel Walker envelope

For $7 you can get a special U.S. Post Office envelope adorned with The Goal Like Stalker's image and accomplishments. Who knew?




Image and story: The Macon Telegraph.

7 days and counting

Everyone else does a countdown to kickoff, why not me?

Dedicated to Sanford Stadium.


Under construction. I'm guessing the long rectangular structure is the creek after it was piped. Image: Hargrett Library.

City of Athens, circa 1909

One of my favorite little known University services comes from The Hargrett Library, which maintains an archive of old pictures and maps of Athens and the University of Georgia.

They will even make and mail you prints of old pictures and maps for a reasonable fee. Very cool.


Bonus points if you can identify where Sanford Stadium would be built some 18 years later.

Tailgating readiness

I don't know about you, but it's difficult to explain to people where we tailgate. You can download campus maps from the university.

I turned this one into a jpeg, but the pdf's are a lot more usable.















Being too dumb to place an "x" on this anywhere, it doesn't do me much good. But I still think it's cool looking.

That's all I got today

"It's like there's no room to drink."

Unbelievably, you can watch every episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia online at hulu.com. I read about it on Keith's blog, which is a good one to check for movie reviews.

If you've never seen It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, it's kind of like Seinfeld, but with binge drinking and occasional drug abuse. Or to put it another way: Danny Devito on acid.

It's not for everyone.

Business time

I hear The Dawgs purchased a trophy case for pre-season honors.

Georgia Southern should start running.

The bell is home

Athens Lucid Idiocy Correspondent Brian Huff was good enough to take a camera to campus today and film the first rings of the refurbished Chapel Bell. Long may she ring and often.


That's just good for the soul.

And here's a bit of speech making before the ringing


I believe we have here a 100-year tower. And I'm looking forward to winning all our Bulldog games this year so we can ring this bell.

Follow the Olympic medal count

The New York Times is just awesome. They've got an interactive medal count map, going back to 1896.

"Our entire team became known by his 'get down, get right back up, never quit' personality."

As Westerdawg predicted, The Dawgs are going to be on the cover of ESPN the Magazine.

And this is just a fantastic story about Knowshon Moreno:

When the team ran stadium steps, at 6 a.m., Moreno bounded the stairs two at a time, passing his half-asleep teammates and hollering all the way to the top. His intensity caught many teammates off guard and plain pissed off some upperclassmen. But when they realized Moreno wasn't going to back off or slow down, their attitude changed. "He works every play at 100%, and eventually that rubs off on you," says fullback Brannon Southerland, a senior. "I'm three years older than Knowshon, and I look at him as a leader."

You should read the whole thing.

They scheduled the wrong bunch of idiots

What, you don't have 7 sets of Arizona State season tickets?


On a related note, I have 7 sets of Arizona State tickets, minus the Georgia game, for sale.

Three awesome Georgia things

Words nearly fail me on this first one. Though "Someone buy me this," sounds about right. Stadium history + mascot line =


Available from Ballies Art Center in Augusta.

Then there's the Bulldog clock:





"Awesome" is now officially a time. From this guy, but it might be an older link. I'm checking to see if there are any left. If you buy the last one before I have a chance I will kill a Georgia tech family that attends your church.


Finally, I guess this was a short-lived blog back in 2006. The slogan says it all: "A blog devoted to analyzing Georgia football in painful detail while disparaging Georgia tech mercilessly."

Yes, yes, and yes. I think this post, about the often ridiculous Fifth Quarter call-in show, was my favorite:

Dantzler: “Dr. Football, you’re on the air.”

Dr. Football: “Oh, uhhhhh…. Coach Eason, uhhh… well, I noticed today that you had the receivers in cover 2, and I just can’t figure out why you wouldn’t use the nickel package.”

Eason: [Confused] “I’m not sure I understand the question.”

Dr. Football: “Well, I’ll tell you right now that if you keep lining the receivers up in a stunt there ain’t no way we’re going to beat Tennessee next month. See last year in the semi-finals of the Habersham County Rec. Department 8 and under football tournament I put my receivers in press coverage and…” [call abruptly ended by technicians]

Dantzler: “Let’s move on to the next caller."

Could Uga VII be a female?

In the latest issue of Bulldawg Illustrated, which is now available online by subscription, Murray Poole has an interview with the Seiler family. It contains the most information I've seen about the selection of a new mascot.

The Seilers say there are three puppies, all of Uga VI, to choose from. The family has already made their decision, and the new Dawg will be announced August 29, the day before the season opener.

And then there is this quote, from Sonny Seiler:

There's no written rule that the Georgia mascot has to be male or female, white or brindle. We've always been fortunate to have a white male and have been able to keep that tradition going, but if we had to change, it wouldn't bother me at all.

What are the chances that's a hint? I think it'd be cool to have a female mascot. Herschel and Munson aside, our women have typically been the best thing about us.

Can't say I'd like a brindled bulldog instead of the traditional white. But surely I would come around.

Each Uga is different. That's one of the things that makes them so cool.

Bulldawg Illustrated is available for free in bars and restaurants all over the state, and there are several items worth reading this month.

For example: Jeff Dantzler picks Georgia to beat Florida and win a National Title, then ranks the Dawgs 4th in his top 25 and puts the Gators at 2.

Church sign wisdom

South of Milledgeville on Ga. 18, near a place called Coopers.

The Georgian confilct

I did not know the country of Georgia had troops in Iraq. From the bottom of an AP report:

The Pentagon said it had finished flying some 2,000 Georgian troops back home from Iraq on C-17 aircraft at Georgia's request.

It said it had informed the Russians about the flights before they began in order to avoid any mishaps, but Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin harshly criticized the step, saying it would hamper efforts to resolve the situation by reinforcing Georgian assets in a "conflict zone." ...

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the U.S. flew the Georgians out of Iraq as part of a prior agreement that transport would be provided in case of an emergency.

The New York Times has several slideshows up that show how very real this war is.

Married to my roots here

Six years Sunday since Mikey died. Time sure does fly.





My name is tree top,
and I'm higher than you'll ever be,
I am married
to my roots here,
Still I feel like I am free



Image: Athens Banner Herald.

More same than different

Go Olympics.


China Daily.com

A 129,600 degree view inside the stadium, from The New York Times.

Although it is "fingerprint proof," which is important when it comes to garbage disposal.

Can someone please tell me how we got to a point in this country where there is a mainstream market for $179 metal trashcans?

















From a company called SimpleHuman. I couldn't make that up.

The Red & Black March

The Red & Black March, the 1908 Georgia fight song lost for close to a century, has now been arranged for a larger band. Follow the link from The Anti-Orange Page to listen.

You have to expect this tune is coming to a halftime show near you in 2008. For the story of the song's rediscovery check out this piece in The Banner-Herald.

And thanks to Georgia Sports Blog for, as they so often do, calling my attention to this.

Use a little less, give a little more

You know those people who have 5 kids and they're on welfare and you think, "Why do you keep having kids you can't afford?" Sometimes I look around at all the stuff we have and I wonder: Are we those people?







likely unrelated.

Memory road

There are a lot of great Bulldog videos on Youtube. This is apparently a compilation of a lot of the 2007 ones.

And it's pretty good. Sent to me by a man named Goober.


**** you, Mark May.

Sports Illustrated confirms the obvious: Dawgs are awesome

It's official: We're Sports Illustrated's pre-season No. 1.

But does it count as a curse if you're only one of several regional covers? And doesn't having the No. 34 on the cover cancel out any bad mojo?

Image and information courtesy The AJC.









So I guess we're 1/5 boned.

Dewberry suspended, too

From The AJC:

Dewberry, a junior from Peach County High in Fort Valley, admitted to being the person responsible for damaging a parking lot control device and four plant container pots in the wee hours of Saturday morning at St. Mary's Hospital in Athens. Dewberry will be suspended for the Georgia Southern and Central Michigan games and will be responsible for paying for the damages.

I'd love for this to be over now. But I don't think it is.

Super Whammy: Player arrests

Well that lasted nearly 24 hours...

Look for more information as the weekend continues, but at the very least we're going to need a new long snapper. From The Red & Black:

A wild weekend of drinking and thrown beer bottles sent two football players to the hospital, two to the Athens Clarke-County jail, and two off the team indefinitely.

Georgia junior free safety Donavon Baldwin and senior snapper Jeff Henson were suspended indefinitely by Bulldog head coach Mark Richt as a result of separate incidents early Saturday.

Word on the street is that more players, including a couple of starters, were involved. But we'll see.

Nothing like celebrating being named the pre-season No. 1 team in the country by blowing it.

UPDATE: It gets dumber. From The Banner-Herald:

Saturday morning's events also did not end well for (Michael) Lemon, a former defensive end, who was kicked off the team last month for a more serious aggravated battery charge stemming from a fight in June.

Lemon, 20, was arrested about 3 a.m. Saturday outside St. Mary's, after two hospital security guards told police that Lemon had kicked over some trash cans near the hospital's parking garage, according to police.

Another man damaged a parking control arm at the garage entrance, but then ran away, the guards told police, adding that surveillance cameras captured the events.

Someone also turned over four large potted shrubs nearby, police said.

As police approached Lemon, he tried to stand and nearly fell, then sat down and told an officer he was only at the hospital because of his hurt teammates, according to the officer's report.

A small group of people, including two other Georgia football players, told police Lemon didn't do anything wrong, according to police. When an officer asked Lemon for his ID, Lemon said the officer just wanted to get football players in trouble in the campus newspaper, according to the report.

While officers handcuffed Lemon for the alcohol offense, some of the bystanders accused the security guards of causing his arrest, police said.

No one in the crowd would identify the person who damaged the parking device and fled, police said.

Brilliant. Forget football. Michael Lemon needs help.

Blackout over China

I was not aware that Georgia's linebacking corps was in China today.


Image: Associated Press

Lots of information about today's solar eclipse, viewable only in certain parts of the world, from NASA. That includes this map, which shows the timetable for future non-Richt related blottings out of the sun.


2017 is looking good.

Honoring Larry Munson

Larry Munson's family sent an open letter to the press today. Hale published it on his blog, but the bottom line is that Munson plans on calling home games again this year.

Munson's like the soundtrack to Heaven for me. I want him to call Georgia games as long as he'd like. But I think it's clear we've dodged a bullet this year, and tomorrow is promised to no one. So I want a grassroots push to honor Munson this year in Sanford Stadium.

And I think this is how we should do it, courtesy of Paul WesterDawg:

The Echo Cheer (I have no idea what else to call it) is the back and forth call from the North Stands to the South Stands of "Georgia/Bulldogs." In my life, I've heard the stadium call only two things..."Georgia/Bulldogs" and "David/Pollack" (vs. Kentucky his last year). I never heard the legendary "Herschel/Walker" or "Terry/Hoage" back and forth calls. And I don't remember it ever happening for Zeier or Vince Dooley.

But it should happen for Larry Munson. And it should be deafening.

Amen. Munson's birthday is, I believe, September 28. That's the day after the Alabama game this year.

More information about coordinating things later. Go Dawgs.

Coaches' poll out: Dawgs No. 1

Honestly, I expect to be there at the end of the year, too.

USA Today:

1. Georgia
2. Southern California
3. Ohio State
4. Oklahoma
5. Florida
6. LSU
7. Missouri
8. West Virginia
9. Clemson
10. Texas
11. Auburn
12. Wisconsin
13. Kansas
14. Texas Tech
15. Virginia Tech
16. Arizona State
17. Brigham Young
18. Tennessee
19. Illinois
20. Oregon
21. South Florida
22. Penn State
23. Wake Forest
24. Michigan
25. Fresno State