Life officially = Joe Cox

Part of me thinks I saw this coming.
Image: Daniel Ussery.
...

"I guess the point I’m making is that is where we are right now is a culmination of everyone. I’m not pointing the finger at any one individual. I’m pointing the finger at all of us as a whole. We must all improve, period.”

- Coach Mark Richt Sunday teleconference (Hale).

Mikey Moore in The AJC:

"The way I feel is we're playing for the fans right now. I know they're getting beat up, they're torn up and I just feel like we've got to put on a better performance for them."

Richt Saturday, in The ABHDN:

“My only true concern right now is to get back home, watch the film, see what the heck happened and make corrections and move forward getting ready for Vanderbilt. That’s what I’m worried about.”

We're at a moment where we're worried about Vanderbilt. And not Munson worried. Actual worried, and telling people.

Recovery through music: Merle Haggard

Dan: I suggest you find video of Merle Haggard's "Are the Good Times Really Over" and post it.



Stop rolling down hill like a snow ball headed for hell.
Stand up for the flag and let's all ring the liberty bell.

The Tennessee game is the season

Beat Tennessee or quit the game.

Update: Well, that didn't go well.

Michigan cop "overdoses" on marijuana

This is the funniest thing that has ever happened in law enforcement.

Normally, Eric Berry would destroy Lane Kiffin

Eric Berry for Heisman . com would be funny, if it were possible to laugh at Eric Berry.

EDBS is the best sports blog, possibly because they're from Florida.

That is one of several videos on berry4heisman.com. Note that the "label" is KIFFIN RECORDS.

Me: A.J. Green is better than Eric Berry.

Joe: (Silence).

Joe: A.J. is gonna get his. Don't worry about that. I'm just saying the chances (deleted) are going up exponentially.

Joe: Our backs are against the wall. Either you're going to do it or you're not.

Me: I think this is a pretty good team. Good enough to beat Tennessee, then Vanderbilt.

Also, Washaun Ealey.. opinions reserved but, you know he was a Bulldog in high school too, right?

Hale quoting Bobo from Tuesday:

“We wanted his first time out of the box put him in a situation where he could be successful and not rattle him with something where he wasn’t successful and would lose confidence,” Bobo said. “But he’s very capable.”

Also Hale:

This week’s meeting between Georgia and Tennessee marks the first time the two teams have faced off while neither was ranked in the top 25 since 1937.

See also what Rennie Curran thinks of Washaun Ealey.

What's wrong with this picture?

I could have left this town this morning..

...

If you answered, "those markers show the locations of Saturday's Widespread Panic / Allman Brother's concert, the gun show at the Birmingham civic center that same day, the Sheraton Hotel bar where you plan to watch the Georgia game and the SEC's headquarters building across the street," you are correct.

Recipe for disaster.

Update from Joe: "Why wouldn't you watch the game at SEC Headquarters? Seriously, what happens at SEC Headquarters on a game day?"

Throw my ticket, let the green grass fool you

All I'm sure of is that Bob Dylan, Wilson Pickett, A.J. Green and Rennie Curran have all been badasses.

Dan: This punt return situation is pissing me off more as I think about it. Why would we not try to return the ball, or try to block the punt, especially when they're backed up near their own end zone? Why would we just concede that kind of yardage?

Dan: I still want Coach Richt to stay there forever, but I really want him to coach differently.

Dan Starnes is head of Lucid Idiocy's football analysis division because he's the most reasonable person I know on the subject. If Coach Richt is starting to lose him a little, and people are throwing the word "stubborn" around ... well, I guess it's not the first bad sign.

Me: I don't need to hear about how great Joe Cox is. We had no business throwing that last pass, except that it was to A.J. Green.

Joe: Well, you're the one who.. you know. I think he's mediocre, still.

Let me add that Soulsville, USA, is a great place to claim as home, that I'm hoping the new "V" remake on ABC is even better than I remember the original being, and that I didn't really know until last night that this Bob Dylan song even existed.

Some people are like that. They did so many things that you turn around a corner and think, "Man, you did that one, too?"

What am I trying to say here? Beating Tennessee is really important if you want to be better than 7-5, and it's pretty damn important if you want to be 7-5, period. That's not a good place to be in. But Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You.

And Bob Dylan knows his stuff. I love that YouTube takes pirated music and offers to sell it to you. That is the art of taking your weakness, and making it your strength.


You do have to click twice for the ad, though.

That is a two way street in life. Right now Coach Richt and his staff, bless them, ain't going the right way on it.

Update: But of course that can change quickly. Beat Tennessee.

Botching that kickoff: What kills you, kills you

If you do something badly, eventually it does you in. Eventually a ref calls a B.S. celebration penalty and exacerbates it. Eventually you lose your freaking mind, kick from the huddle for the first time in the game and get an illegal formation penalty.

Eventually, everything you do wrong goes wrong all at once, because you're dumb. Like a skipping record that scratches.

I think that's the lesson from this piece by David Hale:

By my count, that's 22 miscues on kickoffs following either crucial Georgia scores or to start a half in just the past 18 games. Twenty-two! In 18 games!

Georgia football as a 3-2 501c3

This season is brutally tantalizing. Thoughts from the Lucid Idiocy Division of Analysis:

"I don't know that we gave the game away. I mean, we didn't have any turnovers. At least until they announced that, after further review, you could clear out of Sanford Stadium. How close are we to being 0-5? Not as close as we are to being 5-0."
- Dan Starnes

"If we got points for being in 3rd and 8, we'd be off the charts."
- Brett Unzicker

"Did you enjoy watching Kevin Butler play football? The only thing you can say about the defense is that they saved us from losing worse. If the offense plays good the defense can't. And if the defense is good the offense sucks. Were lucky to be 3-2. Count your blessings on that."
- Ryan Mohs

We're unranked for the first time since December 2006. Auburn looks fast. Tennessee's defense looks like a real problem.

We put as much speed and talent on the field as I can remember us having in the last 10 years. But if we don't take care of the little things soon, this season will slip past mediocrity into territory I'd just as soon not discuss.

A.J. Green for Heisman goes online

A.J. Green for Heisman is now a blog. No word yet on whether, if you visit it, you get stuck and score 6 points.

There's also an unrelated Facebook group.

What happened to our vaunted defensive lines?

These are the last two sentences of David Hale's main Georgia football story Tuesday:

Sophomore defensive end Justin Houston was named the SEC's defensive lineman of the week. Houston had four tackles, two for loss and a sack to become the first Bulldogs player to win the award since Charles Johnson in 2006.

Why not just stab me in a cheek bone?

Update from David Hale:

That's my bad -- should have said first DEFENSIVE END to win the award since Charles Johnson in 2006.

That changes things a bit. Now I'm just back to freaking out about our defensive end play, instead of the whole line.

A.J. Green always gets a foot in bounds

Photographic proof that we were shorted a touchdown against ASU Saturday.

Hat tip to Mr. Hale.

UPDATE: Not everyone agrees. And, after staring at the picture some more ... who knows.

The rain and A.J. Green

Those would be the main stories.

Richt teleconference notes from David Hale:

Both of Cox's interceptions came on the exact same play call.

Cordy Glenn played every snap at left tackle against Arizona State.

The A.J. Green for Heisman campaign starts now

Rather, it started earlier this year.


Jason Vorhees, The Telegraph.

Dawgs 20, Arizona State 17. ESPN box score.

Tailgating: Recycling bag donations get free beer*

*Where free beer = good will.

University of Georgia business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi will be distributing garbage and recycling bags this season. They're also taking donations for the recycling bags, which will be clear.

Chick-fil-A Beechwood and Jittery Joe's have already made generous donations, the fraternity reports.

Donations can be made online with a credit or debit card via PayPal. Click here then click on the logo. Athens Bureau Chief Brian Huff, a member of AKPsi, notes you may also physically send bags or checks to the fraternity at 545 S. Milledge Ave., 30605.

Clear recycling bags make sense because you can see through them, yo.

For more information: melanielfoster@gmail.com.

From AKPsi:

“UGA fans are a people of pride,” said Thorne Brown, President of Alpha Kappa Psi. “We can show that same pride in the way we treat our campus. You don’t show your pride just by wearing UGA’s colors—you show it by keeping your campus clean.”

"Or, if you play defense, by destroying things, being in the right position and making sure tackles."

UGA on trash: pick it up

More details on the University's game day trash plan:

The university plans to distribute 12,000 trash bags in parking lots and around campus this Saturday before the Georgia Bulldogs play host to the Arizona State Sun Devils in a 7 p.m. kickoff. Volunteers from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes will walk through tailgating areas distributing trash bags and encouraging tailgaters to bag their trash and deposit it in an appropriate receptacle. The number of disposable trash boxes on North Campus will be increased to 400 from the previous 250, and over the entire campus to 1,500 from the previous 1,200. Several large roll-off dumpsters will be placed strategically around campus for tailgaters to dispose of their bagged trash.

Additionally, the firm that contracts to clean the campus on Sundays following a football game - American Stadiums - will send crews on an initial sweep through North Campus during the first quarter of remaining games this season to pick up trash already collected and set aside by tailgaters.

The number of Port-a-Johns available on campus also will be increased, particularly in the North Campus area which has been problematic.

Joe Cox: National Offensive Player of the Week

My mind is just blown.

Cox named Walter Camp player of the week.

David Hale: "It was as if Georgia was playing with eight defenders."

Get The Picture: "To win by eleven on a night when you go -2 in turnover margin and rack up an astounding 14 penalties ... is amazing."

Box score.

Who knew our quarterback was a fearless gunslinger? Outstanding. And 2-0 in the SEC is so much better than 1-2 overall.

Ashley, soldiers, deserve to be remembered

Three years ago my friend Ashley was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq. She was 23. She was a soldier and a University of Georgia ROTC graduate.

You may remember her story, which ran in most of the state's newspapers. Brian Huff, a regular contributor here, was her husband.

Ashley was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery across from Sanford Stadium. I'm told you can hear the crowd noise there on gameday.

A ceremony in Ashley's honor is planned Friday at 2 p.m. at the University Chapel on North Campus. After that, the University ROTC program will dedicate a plaque in her honor in the newly renovated ROTC lounge on campus.

They based the plaque on one of the more iconic pictures Ashley sent home from Iraq. It shows her smiling with a little Iraqi girl.

But, then, all the pictures showed her smiling.

The plaque is not the world's only monument to Ashley. When the Iraqi government opened a new police academy in Erbil, a bust of Ashley was placed outside.



The Inscription reads:

Operation Iraqi Freedom
First Lieutenant Ashley L. Henderson Huff, USA
19 December 1982 – 19 September 2006
Friend of Kurdistan
Advocate of Irbil Police Academy
Died in the Defense of Freedom
Remembered always with fondness

I know not everyone can be on campus Friday afternoon. But, if you would, will you think of my friend Ashley this weekend? And of her family and of Huff, and all the soldiers and families out there.

So many never make it home.

And if you do happen to be near campus Friday, the University's ROTC liaison assures me the ceremony is open to the public. The online guestbook from Ashley's funeral is still up as well. All 68 pages of it.











1st Lt. Ashley Laine Henderson Huff with Iraqi police trainees.


Update: After some contemplation, I've decided the looks on those guys faces translate to "Wow." Agreed, gentlemen. Ashley, may you rest in grace and peace, and may the Iraqi people flourish.

Uh-oh. Adams gets involved on tailgate trash

He called a press conference today to issue a warning. Chip Towers has the basics.

The University will put out more trash bags and Adams doesn't "want to start arresting people."

Obviously the trash bags will help. But there are more bedrock problems. Just because it's in a bag doesn't mean it's not a ridiculous amount of garbage.

I'm also a little surprised how up in arms folks have gotten over the trash this year. I guess not everyone strolls through campus at 2 a.m. the way I tend to, but the trash on North Campus isn't noticeably worse than it has been in years past.

I'm glad to see it, but it's interesting the way issues reach tipping points.

Funniest show on television back Thursday

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Thursday nights on FX at 10 p.m.