Head north toward Cedar St.

For what it's worth, my cell phone just gave me directions from Sanford Stadium to a brewpub in downtown Winston-Salem.

Now, I'm in Winston-Salem. And my phone was in Sanford Stadium Saturday. But I didn't ask it for directions then, and I certainly didn't just ask it for directions from the stadium.

4 hours and 37 minutes, "in traffic," by the way.

UGA AA: Don't drop ball on the big screen, Florida

Marc Weiszer reports that the UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors will take up two items today: replacing the jumbotron in Sanford Stadium and raising Florida ticket prices by $10.

The big screen probably needs to be replaced. It looked pixelated during the past season, with some sections distractingly lighter than others. It wasn't like that in previous years, so something's probably wrong with it.

According to Weiszer, we installed that screen in 2005. I hope when we install this next multi-million-dollar television, we get one that lasts longer than five years. Arkansas' far superior screen, for example, was installed in 2000. So it can be done.

As for the Florida tickets; yeah, please make me pay $10 extra to watch the most profitable program in the SEC (and No. 2 in the nation) get reamed by the University of Florida.

Update: Weiszer says the board voted to delay the Florida increase to 2012, and to spend $1.4 million on a video board upgrade. They're sticking with the same company that did the current board, though, Daktronics. Here's hoping it gives us a better result this time.

The National Anthem: Meant to be sung

If you tuned in for the very beginning of the U.S. - Ghana match yesterday, you heard an incredible rendition of our National Anthem, sung by Americans out numbered and thousands of miles away from their home.



This video doesn't really do it justice. But, Georgia Bulldogs, when Tom Jackson says "Please join in the Sanford Stadium tradition of singing our national anthem," that is what you are supposed to sound like.

Except you've got 92,000, standing on their own free soil.

Stab Auburn, cue the riot police

Georgia Sports Blog:

If you're thinking of going to the game Saturday you have a choice to make. Are you going to support the Dawgs and be part of the solution, or are you going to throw gas on an open flame?

Ordinarily I endorse throwing gasoline on an open flame. And if you can do that in a positive way this weekend, well you already know what you're doing.

1-1, 1-0 in the SEC. Excitement.

What a game. What an absolute hell of a game in Sanford Stadium.

From my friend Ryan Mohs, who made his first return to Sanford Stadium in 12 years:

"I was gritting it out in the end. I was thinking, 'we could really lose this game.' But then Spurrier was crying in his milk."

...

Image: Grant Blankenship, The Telegraph. Gallery here (scroll).

ME: A.J. Green is Batman.

JOE: In Batman's dreams.

Dear Coaches: Thank you very, very, very much for kicking off deeper. Like Apollo said in Rocky III, it takes a real man to change. Now, please run the ball more.

p.s. You have proven Joe Cox can shoulder the load in an SEC win. You do not have to keep trying to prove this the rest of the year.

I liked the way Richard Samuel ran. He could be coming into his own, discovering his game as a running back.

I got no problems with the way the defense played. That short passing game has always been the hole we leave, but if you can make goal line stands consistently that's OK, and we can. The defense plays with heart, the refs are afraid of Reshad Jones and I think we've just about developed a good pass rush.

Biggest play in a big-play game? DeAngelo Tyson blocking that extra point.

Gameday text message: CMR just asked the ESPN reporter who blocked that PAT. "Do you know who that was? That was tremendous."

South Carolina's 3rd down conversion rate? Six of 17, or 35 percent.

Branden Smith sleeps in Brandon Boykin pajamas. From Georgia Sports Blog:

"It appears that any time Smith touches the ball, he is steadfastly attempting to break the sound barrier on the way to the end zone. ... If he is in there when the ball is kicked into the end zone, Chapas should tackle him."

Finally, I have no idea whether we're a good team. I'm inclined to say Yeah, we're not bad. We've sure got some speed.

Tony Barnhart spoke to Munson

“I talked to somebody the other day who told me that when they retired they missed every blade of grass at Sanford Stadium,” Munson said. “That’s the way I feel right now. I’m going to miss everything about that place.”

Blackouts compared

These videos are from roughly the same place as the team took the field.

2007 vs. Auburn:


2008 vs. Alabama:


I don't think I'm trying to prove anything that isn't obvious.

This must be the place

18 days is tantalizingly close.

I can't tell one from another
Did I find you or you find me?
There was a time, before we were born
If someone asks, this is where I'll be ... (sound)


Share the same space for a minute or two ... (lyrics)

Sanford Stadium from the air, aboard the Georgia

While returning home from this story on a military flight, one of our photographers took this shot of Sanford Stadium:


Image: Jason Vorhees, The Telegraph.

The military plane Jason and reporter Joe Kovac flew on? An Army C-23 named Georgia, shown below at the Athens airport.


Image: Joe Kovac.

Sanford, as silver as I've ever seen her

Someone sent this to me over the Internets. If you took it, please let me know.

Peace in our time

Always remember the people in harm's way.


Courtesy the United States Army.

From Georgia Sports Blog:

Amen Paul. Absolutely right. I am sick of the negativism as well. I spent 9 months in Iraq in 2003. All these whiners here need to get a life and understand that there are lots of things in life worse than being 9-3. Constructive criticism is justified....whining whimpism is pathetic. Spend a day at Hartsfield Jackson Airport and meet and greet those Soldiers and Marines on their way back to Iraq and Afghanistan. No whining there and they have a hell of lot more reason to whine than some of these spoiled Georgia "bandwagon" fans.

The renaming of East Campus Road

In lieu of talking about not tackling.

It's been on my mind for a while. Current possibilities:

1980 Boulevard
Dooley-Walker Road
Walker-Dooley Road
Steel Chair Street

Considering the world's agreement that Herschel Walker might be The Greatest College Football Running Back of All Time, it's pretty staggering that there is no statue of the guy at the stadium.

It's not like everyone can't think of a good pose. He could be doing this. Or this. Or this. Potentially this. Or this. This might be over the top. But maybe this.

Or this, which has sound.

We might have to name the entire campus after Munson.

The Dooley garden seems nicely done. Tim Tucker at The AJC had this at the bottom of a piece he did last week:

A noted lover of plants, Dooley... accompanied renowned horticulturist and former UGA professor Michael Dirr and Atlanta landscape architect Alex Maddox to a nursery in Hickory, N. C., to personally select many of the trees and shrubs that have been planted in the plaza.

Maddox said visitors “will see plants they don’t normally see — weeping plants and variegated pines,” among others. And plenty of Dooley’s beloved Japanese maples.

The center of attention, though, is the bronzed Dooley, held aloft by players wearing Nos. 64 and 88. The numbers represent the first (1964) and last (1988) seasons that Dooley coached the Dogs. On the back of the bronzed jerseys, the players’ names are “National” and “Champions."

I'll tell you a secret about reporters: We like to put cool stuff at the end.

The Dooley Garden is fine. Until President Adams leaves and we can move the statue to the stadium and keep the park, too. The Michael Adams Athletic Complex Dawg Park. That has a certain ring to it.

Pulpwood and Sanford expansion

You gotta check out Pulpwood Smith's latest game prediction. Watch the language, though.

I'll break this down some more after we take care of business this weekend, but Georgia Sports Blog and The Banner-Herald have a bunch of information today about the University's future plan for athletic building, including an expansion at Sanford Stadium.

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.

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:

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

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.

4 days and counting

Sometimes it gets blurry in the 4th.