Dear Coach Richt: Don't shave your goatee

There is one, and only one, set of circumstances under which I'd advise someone to wear a goatee. And that set of circumstances is "Your evil twin is needed."

Coach Richt, your evil twin is needed. Do not shave your goatee.













See the difference? Get it done.

The clock just will not stop: Thinking of Munson

Thinking about Munson on a Sunday afternoon.

My favorite Munson call.

The man recorded a eulogy for himself.

Double Caprices point to pimptitude

I apologize for the soft focus here from my camera phone, but those are identical 1990ish Chevrolet Caprice Classics parked together at a house near my neighborhood. And I thought: You just know at least one badass lives there.

Richard Samuel as the punisher

We got offensive line problems, and Isaiah Crowell's departure, more than anything else this summer, just reminds me of them. And as much as I'm looking forward to seeing our freshman get in the mix, for me, hope's name is Richard Samuel. Says Mike Bobo:

“I know after the spring game he was running the ball and had some success running and he was like, ‘Don’t forget about me at tailback.’ He was punishing people and getting yards tough at the end of the game. He has a role for that.

I'm looking forward to more of this in 2012:

 

The song that kept getting us invited back to parties

Do you think you can tell? Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze? Cold comfort for change? Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

Apropos of nothing further, that's beautiful.

Good on ya, C-WASH

Now these are the words of a grown man and a leader:

To: The Dawg Nation I have gotten word that my post on Facebook has gotten a lot of buzz over the past week or so and there are a few things that I would like to say: Although everyone is entitled to their own opinions (even all the people who had negative things to say), I am at fault because no matter how I felt I should never have let those feeling get control of my better judgment. I should have kept it to myself and let the entire situation die down. My biggest regret about the whole thing is that it has cause so much disruption amongst the team. I forgot for a minute that I am here to get an education and play football and that pretty much is the extent of my responsibilities. I am not here to complain about the fanatics and for that I do apologize. I am a leader and I care about the guys that I lead. Believe me, I do know and understand that my teammate made a very bad decision and had to face the consequences, but I rather support him than be negative toward him. I rather help him succeed because I saw all the work that he had put in since spring and I was looking forward to seeing him play! The bottom line is that he has moved on and I’m happy he has found a place to continue his career, but the best thing for UGA football is to let this go and move forward positively. I would like to ask all the fans and supporters out there to help us with this by letting it go also. We have to continue to work hard and do our very best to get to Miami like we planned and I want all of you along for the ride. #beblesseddawgnation

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Go Dawgs.

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Go Dawgs.

Because something's happening, and you don't know what it is

I like how Mark Bradley debunks his question before he even asks it. It's a time saver.

So no, Georgia players aren’t alone in messing up. Pick another campus — Florida, Auburn, LSU — and you’ll find similar examples of excess. In sum, it’s not only Georgia.

That said … Why is it always Georgia?

Another home run, Mark. And just think of the time you saved yourself, not combing through any old reports, not putting together any, you know, numbers to compare UGA football arrests to those at other schools.

It must be wonderfully freeing not to have to do any actual reporting, and finding yourself free to roam with perception toward a lack of conclusion.

Saturday memorial set for Sky

From his family's submitted obituary:

A memorial service is planned for Saturday, June 2nd at 1:00 pm with visitation immediately following at Lord and Stephens, WEST. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Craig Hertwig, "The Sky Spirit Award" to be given to a UGA student. The fund is at the Oconee State Bank, PO Box 205, Watkinsville, Georgia 30677 or can be dropped off at any Oconee State Bank. Lord and Stephens, WEST, is in charge of arrangements.

The Athletic Department also has a nice announcement up, with some comments from Coach Dooley:

"Because of his size, he was not ready to play as a freshman and we redshirted him," Dooley said. "One of the things I remember most about Craig is how big a fan he was during that season he redshirted. He loved to get in the stands with the students and cheer for the team. I don't know if I ever had a player who was as big of a fan as Craig. He matured and became a great player – an All-American – played professionally and came back to Athens. He always continued his support of Georgia football and all Georgia sports in that social way. He was so well known all over Athens and will be missed."

I question James Franklin's judgment

Not only does "do they have a hot wife or not" strike me as a poor metric to use in hiring your football staff, I'm not sure I'd classify most of the wives in Vanderbilt's football media guide (pdf) as hot.

Bulldog, and Athens, All American Craig "Sky" Hertwig: 1952-2012

Craig "Sky" Hertwig, the towering man who was an All American offensive tackle for the University of Georgia in 1974 and became a well-known character in the tapestry of downtown Athens, has died.

He was 60, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Sky owned the iconic Nowhere Bar on Lumpkin Street, catty-corner from the Georgia Theatre. Before that he owned the Fifth Quarter and Sky's Place, which, for my generation, was the diviest dive bar in a town of dive bars.

Sky lettered for the Bulldogs in 1972, '73 and '74 and served as an offensive captain. He played several seasons for the Detroit Lions and had a role in the film "North Dallas 40," the 1979 classic about the pain and wonder of NFL football.

I met him at Sky's Place in the mid 1990's, I suspect. Things were hazier for me then.

Sky was proud to be a Georgia Bulldog, and he was faithful. He took a series of older model RV's, and at least one red and black limo, to road games. I know for a fact that one of his RV's burned to its frame on the side of a highway headed into Lexington, because we saw him there and stopped.

He got in the car, rode with us to Lexington, paid for our hotel rooms and went about the very normal business of beating Kentucky.

Sky was a kind man, but different, and his size set him apart. He was 6'8", according to various reports, and surely far north of 300 pounds after his playing days. I think some people were uneasy around him, and I often thought of what that must of meant in his life.

I will miss the simple knowledge that, should I go to Athens, I can count on seeing Sky. He was as much the city for me as any number of landmarks, and I expect I'm not the only one who feels the town lessened for his passing.

I saw a simple, anonymous and perfect short story about Sky on Twitter as news of his death spread. Some guy said he broke a pool cue in Nowhere Bar.

"Sky put his giant hand on my shoulder," he wrote, "and told me shit happens in pool halls."

That was some of Sky. Friend to the students. Gentle giant. Georgia Bulldog from coat to core. He was a good man, and he is gone too soon.

Image: Bulldawgs Illustrated.

KUBLANOW, KUBLATOMORROW, KUBLAFOREVER

Damn I love football players with awesome names.

Aaron Murray is our best qb, idiot

In which I take some of the dumber thoughts emanating from Bill King's readers and respond to them as if this were my own "fan talk."

I know there’s a segment of Bulldogs fandom that’s very down on Murray and convinced that Mark Richt and Mike Bobo are blindly letting him hold on to the starting quarterback’s job despite the obvious talents of backups Hutson Mason and Christian LeMay. Some folks even believe there’s some sort of “conspiracy” to keep Murray in a job he doesn’t deserve.

Let me stop you right there, Bill. Those people are morons. They should be deprived of water, oxygen and seats in Sanford Stadium. All three are too valuable to waste.

Billkingisatroll: Anyone who thinks bill king’s articles are insightful or interesting are probably as trollish as he is- George, Blindog. Are ur also bearded trolls?

Pay close attention, idiot, because I'm going to get into subjects you're probably not comfortable with. The first is math. As of now, there are 38 comments on this particular Bill King post. You made five of them. That's more than 13 percent. Second: Have you ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Or subject-verb agreement? Reconsider your life.

Stephen A.Dogg: Still no real changes for UGA in 2012. Nothing has changed but a few names on and off the roster.

Holy shit. You are too dumb to breath.

gadawgs: In my opinion Mason or LeMay could put up those kind of numbers right now and they would atleast have an excuse due to experience and so forth. Murray has no excuse. I have been off the Murray train for the past two years telling my fellow Dawg fans such.

Let's set aside the fact that you haven't seen a single UGA practice and are basing your opinion on Mason and LeMay on ... nothing, more or less. You've been "off the Murray train" for two years? So, since the spring of 2010? When he hadn't played a down of college football? When he would still, by your logic, "have an excuse due to experience and so forth?" Please have a fifth grader in remedial English read your comments before posting. You'll learn something.

Game Changer: WHY IS MARK RICHT PROTECTING MURRAY AND NOT PROMOTING COMPETITION? This question has still not been answered, Murray stats actually suck. Take away touchdown passes, he is terrible. Aaron Murray would not start at any school in the SEC East other than Georgia. Just the facts.

Congratulations. You are king of the morons.

Every jump of the General Lee

Someone put together a video of all the jumps from Dukes of Hazard, seasons 1-6.

It's only half as impressive as that shot General Lee owner, and UGA man, Bubba Watson hit out of the woods yesterda to win The Masters, but it's still pretty cool.

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.