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.

Munson: For "old timers," tech our biggest rival

I got to interview Larry Munson in 2005 for The Macon Telegraph. It was pretty cool.

Q: Who is Georgia's biggest rival?

A: Oh, I would think that the real old timers, like me and my age, I'm not saying me, but the older fans, they would show more hatred toward Georgia Tech than anybody. But as far as a rival is concerned and the student body getting up, younger people, I don't know. They have so many, so many teams that they're blood rivals with. Florida would rule, would be very close to that. But Tennessee would be close to that, too, and so would Auburn.

When it comes to hating other universities over a football game, who you gonna listen to? Students, old timers, or Jeff Schultz?

Beat tech. Beat them on every down.

His middle name was Harry

What can you say about Larry Munson after, "He was the best?" What can I add to a 40-year love affair and a tradition that somehow grew as strong as the game itself?

Not much. There are few unturned stones along the path of Larry Munson's life. Reporters have been ringing him up for years, hoping to write their part to the gravely chorus of his life.

But maybe you don't already know he was from Minnesota, served in World War II and that his middle name was Harry. Lawrence Harry Munson.

One of a kind indeed.

ESPN leveraging Corso's F-bomb

The awesomeness of Lee Corso's "F it" moment yesterday was pretty clearly unscripted. But I notice ESPN doesn't seem to be making any effort to bring down pirated videos of the moment, which surely they can do under copyright laws.

No doubt the moment will inject a little more life into next week's broadcast, and the good folks at the Worldwide Leader realize that the more people who hear about Corso's outburst, the better.

In a related note: In my eyes, Corso just justified the last two years of his career, during which he's made impressive strides back from a stroke, but hasn't been his old self. I declare him interesting again.

What a season. Now beat tech relentlessly

Way to go, guys. Weak schedule or not, slow start or not, you won the SEC East, and that's a hell of an accomplishment after last season.

In other news:

YES, awesome, suck it, die. Metaphorically(ish), of course.

Not bad for a white boy

Put me in the "doesn't buy that Michael Bennett is 'white'" category.



















Image: Tenn. Sports for The Dawgbone.

Guy's a 6'3" freshman and he's got 4 touchdowns this year, two of which I specifically remember as being holy-shit-awesome.

That is one of several reasons to believe our receiving corps is in good hands for the future. Bennett, Conley, everyone's favorite playmaker Malcolm Mitchell ...

Herschel Walker Quiz

Which of these paragraphs about Herschel Walker, from this November Playboy profile, is the most awesome paragraph about Herschel Walker?

a. Said Michael Irvin: “When Herschel was the baddest motor scooter on earth, he’d say, ‘I want to fight Mike Tyson.’ I’d say, ‘Herschel, do you know what that guy does to people? Let’s just beat the Redskins next week.’ But he believed he could beat Tyson. MMA is par for the course for him.”

b. “You can order room service at your house,” says Walker, who a mile into the run speaks with the effortlessness of someone who could do this for hours. Indeed, it is only 7:30 on a summer morning, but he has been up since 5:30, already knocking out 2,000 sit-ups and 500 push-ups and then answering e-mails.

c. Today Walker’s company consists of two divisions, including a recently purchased hospitality unit, and employs 300 people. Corporate offices are in Georgia. From three plants in Arkansas he distributes chicken sliders, chicken wings, chicken breast fajita strips and a host of other food items to clients that include the MGM Grand, Caesars Palace, the Hard Rock Cafe and ­McDonald’s. Last year his sales topped $80 million.

d. If record keepers took into account his combined USFL and NFL yardage — 13,787 — he would be the fifth leading rusher in pro history, ahead of Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson and Ricky Williams.

e. He believes he would have committed murder had he not seen a "smile, Jesus loves you" bumper sticker on the rear of his intended victim’s hauling van.

f. “By eighth grade I’d been beaten up 15 times,” he says. “On the last day of eighth grade I got beat up again. I went home and watched Gilligan’s Island and said, ‘That won’t happen to Herschel again.'

I have to go with f. Also acceptable: Holy shit, watch out for Herschel Walker.

Raise your hand if you thought we'd whup Auburn

Everyone but Coach Richt and Coach Grantham, put your hands down.

Well done, all around, Bulldogs.

Evil Richt Returns

Awesome.

Update: It sounds like the question asked was "Any suspensions that we need to know about?" Yeah. Because that would be ridiculous. Coach Richt may not have had a pleasant Wednesday.

Auburn hates America, and we got America's back

The source is lost to time and the Internet, but some years ago a Dawg fan described Auburn something like this:

"I'm pretty sure that, if a Kid Rock concert could take a shit, it'd be Auburn."

That is, I believe, roughly accurate. And yet, these people are not merely no-account losers, sleeping on their cousin's couch in a doublewide. They've been successful, largely due to to cheating.

But I digress.

We'd better bring everything on Saturday. We'd better come out focused, and throw every asset we have at this biggest game of the season. Because we're not a very good team, and Auburn isn't terrible.

Altogether, I am reminded of 1997. We beat Florida that year, albeit with a much better effort and without the special teams meltdown we saw 8 days ago in Jacksonville. We were headed in the right direction that year, then slammed into an orange-and-blue wall named Dameyune Craig.

Let's definitely not do that again.

Before the Auburn game in 1901, a sign hung in the Georgia locker room. It said, "Beat Auburn or quit the game."

The game ended in a 0-0 tie. So we did not beat Auburn, and we did not quit the game. The basic philosophy, though, is sound.

Beat Auburn, or this season hardly existed at all.

More black jerseys? No. That is a bad idea

OTA, I enjoy your blog, but any line of logic that includes "it would be similar to the way Notre Dame wears/wore the green jerseys" is a line of logic you should abandon.

Update from the comments:

I like the idea of only doing it against AU at night.

That is now official blog policy.

Glory, Glory

The beach houses are secure.

Mark Richt, Gator Hunter

A buddy of mine turned this into this:



















Brilliant. Credit: Keith McCoy.

Warning: Graphic Content

Ran into this guy somewhere in south Georgia, at a gas station on our way to Jacksonville in 2007. "That's what we gon' do to them Gators," he said.

Turned out to be prophetic. And honestly, that second picture, that says what I want this weekend better than a thousand words ever will.

Logan Stewart, you're a cheap, cheating thug

James Franklin, more and more you and your whole outfit look like trash.

From The AJC:

“I’ve played football and been around football all my life,” said Robert Geathers Sr., who played in the NFL for 13 seasons has has two other sons playing professionally, “and if you watch it you see this kid speed up while everybody else is slowing down and he’s locked in on my son’s leg. If you look closely you can see the guy give a thumbs up to the sideline and the coach telling him ‘good job.’ I was, like, ‘Wow!’ I could be sitting here today telling you how my son’s surgery went.

Grantham v. Franklin: What really happened

It amazes me that a confrontation can play out on national(ish) television, the parties involved can be interviewed about it and no one will just say "here's why we were yelling at each other."

But finally we have word from a Nashville T.V. station with video footage: James Franklin thought Georgia was rubbing Vandy's face in a loss, and he used that to draw attention to his program.

Why it was so hard to get this hashed out from the beginning instead of everyone spending three days saying, well things got a little hot and we want to be gentlemen, is beyond me.

The Senator lays it out. Case freaking closed.

Sturdivant: This man loves the game

Per The Red & Black, Trinton Sturdivant is coming back next year ... as a tight end.

GATA, my man.

Personally, I think we're pretty good

Personally, I think we're pretty good. 2011 SEC East pretty good.

Yes, it was Vanderbilt. But we were missing a couple of guys, and it's Vanderbilt. So you can't say, "but it's Vanderbilt" and not account for the fact that it's Vanderbilt.

Two weeks and beat Florida.

A top 25 team waking up

If we keep getting improved play from the offensive line, the defense keeps up its very noticeable growth, our best play makers (Crowell, Boykin, J. Jones, Malcolm Mitchell and the tight end parade) stay healthy and Aaron Murray / Blair Walsh both find their heads, this Georgia team will be pretty damn good.

Especially as we get folks back from injuries and the young guys continue to mature.

Good win today. But let's don't get satisfied.