Hope

My wife: Do you have any hope at all for the South Carolina game?

Me: No. None.

It's OK. We have plenty of 5-star o-linemen

You know what, Summer? You're a real bitch.

Brent Benedict, a redshirt freshman offensive lineman from Jacksonville and a former five-star recruit, left the team due to “personal reasons,” head coach Mark Richt said in a news release on Sunday. Benedict (6-foot-5, 312-pounds) was slated to back up Chris Burnette at right guard.

Columbus AAU accusations sound very bad

Son of a bitch. From The Ledger-Enquirer:

Police records show that an unauthorized bank account controlled by Adams and Porter was used to pay for flights to and from Los Angeles for Jarvis Jones, a two-sport star at Carver High School who played football for one season at the University of Southern California, and for the cell phone bill of the mother of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a five-star shooting guard from Greenville High School.

NCAA rules do not allow amateur sports organizations to provide expenses for athletes in excess of actual and necessary travel, room and board, apparel and equipment for competition and practice.

The story is solid, well-sourced, based on a local police investigation and gives an example of how the NCAA responded in a similar case.

It's hard to see how this doesn't lead to suspensions for players we were absolutely depending on.

Update: I don't expect rationality from the NCAA anymore. This is from Jarvis' USC bio:

Overall in 2009 while appearing in the first 8 games, he had 13 tackles, including 1.5 for losses. He suffered a neck sprain at Oregon and was sidelined for USC's last 5 games.

The most recent flight paid for was Oct. 9, 2009, just after the 5th game that year. So it would be possible to "suspend" him for 3 games he played for USC in 2009.

Again, I default to "NCAA will screw us."

Run down, lied to

Losses are usually the result of a lot of little things. In the past, in the good years, they stemmed from various small and difficult-to-define things. And, watching, you didn't feel like they'd repeat themselves in generally the same combination the entire season.

Now we can see clearly what the problems are, and they're intrinsic to the current program. And there are so many of them that it's less time consuming, and appropriate, to just say "we're terrible" and blame Coach Richt.

Joe: Who on earth is a better coach than Nick Saban and Urban Meyer?

Wrong about so much

That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout?

Let me start with apologies to The Orlando Sentinel. While I stand by some of my complaints, it is clear that your decision to rank Georgia the 62nd best football team in the nation was not only reasonable, but impressively prescient.

And to Andrea Adelson, who I did not call by name here, but certainly called names in my head, I was wrong. Suddenly ESPN's decision to hire you from The Sentinel seems brilliant, and I'm beginning to doubt a great many things.

Is Lou Holtz a talented broadcaster? I just don't know anymore, because my world is broken.

Now, Coach Richt. Good grief, man.

You were hired to be Georgia's head football coach because we believed in you. But you were also hired to believe in yourself, and to do what you think is right. You need to quit this crisis of confidence shit and do what you need to do. Return to awesome. I think you can do it, but do you?

I have some thoughts on what's wrong, and words for individual players, coaches and staff members. But that's a long and futile list. But what really bothers me, more than play calling ever will, is that our team looks like a bunch of pansies.

That reflects the head man, the assistants, the strength and conditioning program and recruiting.

But most of all, it reflects the players in uniform. And I want to know why no one is standing up and saying "My name is _____ ____, and I'm not going to put up with this shit any more."

Joe: There is way too much fat to trim. I don't know how you run an operation like that.

Starnes: The strength problem is just so obvious now. If you can't kick ass on the offensive line ... maybe they shouldn't have taken a day off to go swimming.

Huff: On second, more sober thought, heads don't need to roll yet. But I'm still really pissed off.

This is how I feel about the last 3 years of Georgia football.

Sunday Shocker: Mettenberger kicked off team

Announced via press release, David Hale reports.

Me: Come the fuck on. What can you even say to this?

Joe: One less thing to worry about? So now we're one injury away from Logan Gray being your starter?

Recovery through music

David Hale reporting:

Head coach Mark Richt said the team would have to wait for the results of an MRI before knowing the severity of the injury, but Sturdivant was wearing a cast down the length of his leg and was on crutches after the game.

Georgia girls and Sanford Stadium: Your only guarantees in 2009

And Rennie Curran.
...
A couple of years ago I think Ford had a commercial: "The only guarantee on Gameday? Tailgating."

My tailgate isn't even guaranteed this year. A parking deck is under construction and the University has temporarily destroyed my tailgating spot to execute what looks like a bad ass master plan.

There are a lot of questions about this season, and we're going to have answers very soon. And that is what I think about this team. I think I was more confident about the opener 2 weeks ago.


Note the new red bridge, and yellow riverwalks.

...

JOE: What about Joe Cox, man?

ME: For all our talk about the o-line, here we are at the end, we're talking about the quarterback.

JOE: Can he complete 60 percent of his passes?

ME: That's the question.

JOE: Nah. Too many questions. But, shit, I guess that's what happens sometimes.

I think these are reasonable questions about The Dawgs on Aug. 29, 2009:

• Starting corner opposite Prince Miller
• Safety
• Defensive end
• running back
• Quarterback
• Offensive line
• Defensive coaching

Now, the question is, how many of those do you really feel confident in? And, if you have six or seven questions heading into a season, how reasonable is expecting great success?


Yes, I'm happy to announce that, one week before kickoff, my supreme confidence has turned to organ-gnawing worry. Worry with confidence at its foundation, colored by an excitement for Sanford Stadium. Now it's football season.


Not even guaranteed this year.

I say we truck these fools in their renovated stadium. Otherwise, what the hell are we doing?

One other thing: The University of Georgia Master Plan is to destroy my tailgating spot this season. But it's to build something better in the future.

I expect a 10 win season like anyone else. And if Tebow gets hurt, a path opens through the SEC East.

But that's a big if to add to 7 questions.

Widespread Panic, why are you still trying to kill me?

Athens Bureau Chief Brian Huff reports that Widespread Panic will tour this summer with The Allman Brothers Band.

The amalgamated schedule is on jambase. It looks like the closest they'll get to Georgia are stops in Charlotte and Raleigh on this swing of the tour:

10.03 Charlotte, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
10.04 Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
10.06 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
10.07 Portsmouth, VA nTelos Wireless Pavilion
10.11 Raleigh, NC Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion @ Walnut Creek
10.13 Knoxville, TN World's Fair Park

October 3 is the LSU game in Athens. October 10 is against Tennessee in Knoxville.

Band members should be beaten in the street for their continued disregard of the University of Georgia football schedule. Simply switch the Raleigh and Knoxville shows and add a date at The Landing in Jacksonville for the night before the Florida game and we'll be in business.

UPDATE: I absolutely continue to believe this schedule will continue to be filled in and there will be some crazy show in Georgia.

You hate the sun, right Matt?

Mel Kiper's latest draft board. Or, as my buddy Joe likes to call it, "The Detroit Whammy." I hate it for Stafford, but it is nice to see two Dawgs in the top 16.

The Wheel of Whammies

Since life has little to no meaning until two Saturdays when we can (damn well better) beat Tennessee, I don't get any particular joy in posting this. But I've long considered my friends and I something of innovators in tailgating.

Chances are, if you've ever seen girls on campus swinging a stick at a pinata filled with whiskey, that was us. Or it was someone who got it from us. Secretly, my parents are proud of that.

I invented whiskey fishing, which is just like fishing for Bible verses, which maybe you did in Vacation Bible School. Except there are airplane bottles of bourbon wrapped with metal wire wrapped and thrown in a big pool of water.

This weekend debuted The WHEEL OF WHAMMIES! which sounds cooler if you say it in like a gameshow voice.

Now, a whammy can be a lot of things.

There are various whammy theories and kinds of whammies. The Boomerang. The Super Whammy.

But generally there is one truth, with a few exceptions keeping us from A Unified Whammy Theory.

And that truth is this: All whammies are self whammies.

The idea of the wheel, while dependent on that rule, is more fun than that. Because there are more good things on the wheel, or W.O.W., than bad. And, just as the one SUPER WHAMMY! must be pretty damn unfortunate for the spinner, so must the prizes be an equal enticement to make people want to play.


There's stuff written under those silver triangles. And on one of them.

So the wheel is spun, and the whammy is "revealed." Boomerang! means another person gets to spin the wheel, but whatever it lands on, happens to you.

The Sack! is much better than it sounds, since it's grab back of various small Georgia prizes.

Which brings us to The Super Whammy. That can be the hardest one to think of, and is clearly the most important.



On Saturday, when we hit Super Whammy on the first ever spin, I should have known we were doomed. The Florida loss made me worry. The USC loss probably should have warned me, but I was too damn stupid.

Oh, we could be No. 1 after this weekend. Oh, we're so good.

I read Coach Richt's comments, and I saw him at Gameday and he looked so relaxed, I just figured he knew something the rest of us only suspected: That it was on, baby.

But it was hung up in a spider web, perhaps not unlike the economy. Like my buddy joe said, in paraphrase, A lot of plans were built on 'hope toos.'



If the o-line could gel (which isn't unreasonable, since there should be talent), if we could avoid injuries for the most part (which is harder when you don't block), if the D-line stepped up (It's not time to lose hope on that)...

And then Bama showed up and whipped our ass. Hats off to them, they played great. Like my buddy Mike Donila said, they'll be crying before the year ends, but they flat out destroyed us.

When I was younger I used to write "Humility" on my forearm before games, particularly when a season was going well. My friends make fun of this, and I don't blame them.

I actually thought about doing that Friday night, but didn't. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have helped.

But that's not to say humility isn't key to a lot in this world, to say nothing of the next.

My friends, peace be with you. And if you see some idiots spinning a Red and Black wheel, come on by.


----
Is it a self-whammy for writing it, or reading it?

Worst half of Georgia football. But not a season.

There's a Munson line from a few years back, after the '99 Auburn game, that I think is appropriate.

A lot of people lost this weekend that would come under the heading of a surprise, but how many of them got embarrassed?

That may very well have been the worst half in Georgia football history. I'm pretty certain it's the worst I've ever seen, and the feeling is very similar to that 1999 Auburn game.

But there were some positive things in the 2nd half, including the crowd support with recruits looking on. The students did not leave. This picture was taken with 1:59 to go in the 4th:


Thanks, guys.

The team fought in that second half. Everything else... it just pales in comparison to the absolute vomit sickness that was that first half. I blame simply everyone.


Charley Trippi: Basically the only Dawg who saw the field Saturday I wasn't disappointed with.

Even so, we absolutely can still win the Southeastern Conference, and I suggest we re-dedicate ourselves to the fundamentals that will be needed to reach that goal.

Thank you, rest of the world

Rivals' story on The Knowshon Moreno Highlight Controversy is the top story on Yahoo! right now.



It's the same piece based out of Richt's teleconference, but surely we're going to hear, eventually, about this from Herbstreit, Corso, Fowler or some other top personality or official at ESPN.

What I would call the "main" YouTube of the highlight is up to more than 133,000 views.

UPDATE: Something I just said: "Baby, what is it about bourbon you think makes me forget where I put it?"

UPDATE 2: A buddy of mine, a huge Dawg fan who already has plans to go to Arizona State and Jacksonville, is facing the prospect of extended jury duty soon. Jury selection alone could take weeks, the judge said.

The idea of him being sequestered during The Historic Season of 2008 is just tragic enough to be hilarious. Said Silver*:

This one's gonna be a dozy either way. Either with me threatening a superior court judge, or missing the greatest football season of our time, when our running back is hurtling men.

*Due to Lucid Idiocy policy of changing some people's names to the school colors, this name has been changed to one of the school's colors.

Gameday newspapering: Dangerous

Woody Marshall, the photo chief here at The Macon Telegraph, has a big scar on his face today. Turns out a colision involving Ramarcus Brown and possibly a Georgia Southern player broke one of The Telegraph's long lenses in half at the end of a long incomplete pass Saturday. Woody was trying to take a picture of Uga VII at the time.






Woody: "You're not supposed to be able to see that part."


Woody said the prevailing opinion nearby was that he was dead after the collision. He also said Ramarcus seemed very concerned when he came back to check on him after the play. Except for the cut and knot on his upper cheek, he was.

As for the lens; whammies come to us all on Gameday.













Central Michigan, I fear, will fare much worse.

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."

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.

Whammy! Season ticket cutoffs announced.

As DawgsOnline reports, it ain't pretty. But that's the price of success.

Brother, can you spare $10,651?

Congratulations to Fresno State. They're awesome.

Fresno State: 102 in offense heading into the tournament, 60th in pitching,* and it looked like we ran into the Yankees.

Congratulations to them, they looked like champions. Tough loss for the Dawgs. God bless 'em.

Next year will be another odd numbered dip, but I expect the following year to return us to the NCAA Tournament and beyond.

If I'm Damon Evans, I make Coach Perno one of the highest paid coaches in the SEC, and I start addressing our facilities. We've got the coach that can take us to Omaha with regularity. Once you get here on a regular basis, it becomes easier to figure out how to close the deal.

* according to Leonard Hershiser


Thanks for the memories.