People, you need to calm down

Look, I'm as worried as you are about the Missouri game and all these suspensions. But some of you bloggers need to find a little more perspective before you take to the Internets.

Or better yet, seriously consider whether every redundant little screed that enters your head is really worth posting at all.

Let's just play Mizzou with half our guys

Don't worry, guys. The Missouri game is only the initial key to the season in a year when we've got a legitimate shot to to fulfill all your championship dreams.

So go nuts.

Bold predictions for 2012

Is it just me, or is already time to get fired up?

Prediction 1: Dawgs win the SEC East going away.
Even in another down year for the East, that's a scary thing to say, because we lose to Florida like it's a career. But this defense will be nasty. Yeah, we got cornerback issues, but quarterbacks taking a dirt nap will make even the thinnest secondary look strong. The offensive line is obviously a question (and when was the last time it wasn't?), but you have to feel good about Aaron Murray's third year under center, the promise our receiving corps showed last year and the talent stacked at running back. The tools are there to run an efficient offense, and efficient offenses, combined with nasty defenses, are deadly.

Prediction 2: Malcolm Mitchell plays a lot of defense.
You'll see him on offense. You might even seen him return a few punts. But I believe it will just be too hard to move him too far from cornerback. Plus ...

Prediction 3: Tavarres King has an All-America type season.
Maybe not first team All-America, but a turn-people's-heads, merit consideration, Biletnikoff-watch-list type season. Sure, it'd be nice to have Mitchell on the other side, stretching the field. But we've got solid WRs all around in Conley and Bennett. If the offensive line can give us a running game and we can throw Malcolm in the mix from time to time, the sky's the limit.

Prediction 4: Malcolm on defense opens doors for the tight ends.
It's not the logjam we had last year at the position, but we've got two talented guys in Artie Lynch and Jay Rome. They're both gonna play, and they're both gonna play a lot. This is going to be a multiple offense with a balance we're not used to seeing.

Prediction 5: Isaiah Crowell does not win the Heisman.
Isaiah, I love you for aiming high, my man. And I got no problem being wrong about this. You've got Heisman-potential talent and, if I have my way, you're going to be a very big part of the best running game this side of the triple option. But you're going to split time with at least two other guys. Plus, how can you win the Heisman when Malcolm Mitchell's going to?

Joe chimes in: I predict 10-2, 1,400 yards from Crowell, defense second best in the nation. I'm banking on Bama or LSU at No. 1. We win the east, Missouri second. Oh, and Tebow screws up the Jets, Dooley gets fired, Kirby Smart takes over UT.

AJC: Kasyn Olivadotti doing "quite well"

Sometimes it only takes a sentence to lift your heart a little. Third item:

Nine months ago, not long after new Georgia linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti and his family arrived in Athens from Washington D.C., his 4-year-old daughter Kasyn was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (A.L.L.). Little Kasyn has been going through treatment since and actually is doing quite well. But the wives of the Bulldogs’ coaches, in conjunction with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, got together to plan a fundraiser for cancer research in Kasyn’s honor.

Tuesday night at the Gwinnett Braves’ Coolray Field in Lawrenceville, Georgia and Kennesaw will face off in the Gwinnett Baseball Classic. All proceeds will go to the “Kasyn Cares Fund” at the Aflac Cancer Center. Individual tickets for the 7 p.m. game are $12 and they are being sold in packages up to $1,000. If you have more questions or would like to find out what else you can do, contact Renee Fraley at 404-785-7315.

Dream Team: A football team of movie characters

At some point last season, no doubt with help from my friend alcohol, I started working on football lineup made up only of movie characters. I stumbled across it recently, and, voila.

Please note: These characters have to be human, at least in the movie sense. You start putting Superman at running back and the Rancor monster at defensive end and this whole exercise gets ridiculous.

OFFENSE

Quarterback: Capt. James T. Kirk. Fearless. Leader. Bangs green chicks. So he's got the arm and the intangibles. Back up quarterback: John Wayne, for when we run the option.

Running back: Indiana Jones. He may not be the fastest guy on the field, but he's undefeated versus Nazis, may be immortal, seldom fumbles and is damn sure hard to tackle. You could also go with Han Solo here. I understand he made the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs.

Fullback: John Rambo. A kid on a tricycle could run behind him.

Flanker (WR): A.J. Green. I'm sure he'll be in a movie eventually. Also, I think the Batman movies are loosely based on his life.

Split End (WR): Roger Moore's James Bond. Deceptive speed/dry wit. Nobody does it better. When we go three-wide, I bring in Capt. Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He is the Wes Welker of movie characters, if Wes Welker was an insane nonexistent pirate. Point is, the guy gets open.

Tight End: Liam Neeson's character from Taken. As an aside, have you noticed that Liam Neeson's entire career these days is based on killing people/wolves with his bare hands? What ever happened to Schindler's List? Also, dude's like 6' 4".

Left Tackle: Any Steven Segal character. They're all the same, they're always knocking people down and, these days, the guy weighs like 300 pounds. Second stinger when fat boy tires out: Jaws. He'd probably start, except I feel like his tendency to bite people to death would lead to penalties.

Dear Coach T. ...

My name is John Fain and I am 3 weeks old today. I know you're a busy man, particularly with your new-and-improved mat drills and several important hires to make - so I'll get straight to the point.

When is the proper time for Daddy to start me on a self-improvement regimen of kettle bells and punches to the face? Five weeks? Six?

I don't want to wait too long and turn into a whiny little punk.



















Yours in future Dawgliness,

John

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.