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First off, I hope everyone had a happy holiday and great new year. I sure did. New Orleans might be one of the best cities, if not the best, in America to go out and have a good time. I had a great time with the friends I went with and I’m thrilled I had the chance to experience the Big Easy for the first time.
The reason I was there? The Sugar Bowl: What a beatdown. I called a cakewalk and the Bulldogs’ actions backed my statement. Hawai’i showed they are great at what they do and where they do it, but until they can get linemen that are both strong and mobile, they will never be able to compete with the top of the BCS teams.
Defensively Georgia was superb. I had a feeling Colt Brennan would be on his butt a good bit, but eight times? Are you kidding me?
Apparently, Geno Atkins wanted to get his picture taken with Brennan while both teams were out experiencing New Orleans. Ironically, the alleged starstruck defensive end knocked out the stat-monster before backup Tyler Graunke came in and led the Warriors to a garbage time touchdown.
Georgia’s win, combined with USC’s monstrous victory over overmatched Illinois, and Michigan carving Florida’s secondary to shreds begs this question: Who will be No. 1 heading into next season?
With Michigan putting up 41 on Florida and with the Gators expecting to lose Derrick Harvey to the NFL Draft, you can only assume the Gators will not be in the top 2. USC loses John David Booty at quarterback but still returns a team that is arguably the best in the nation when healthy.
Then there’s Georgia. The Bulldogs return 17 starters, including Matthew Stafford who will be the most experienced quarterback in the SEC. Sure, Tim Tebow won the Heisman but the Florida quarterback IS his team. Stafford has a plethora of talent returning with Knowshon Moreno and redshirt freshman Caleb King carrying the running game. The receiving corps put it together late this season, and while they lose Mikey Henderson and Sean Bailey, the Bulldogs return a unit that rotated - it seemed - a million receivers. Add in five-star recruit A.J. Green and early enrollee Tavarres King and this Bulldogs offense appears more and more balanced and dangerous.
With that said, here is the Butt-ing In Preseason Top 5:
1. Georgia
2. USC
3. Missouri
4. Texas - yes, that’s right. Texas.
5. Florida
Prediction for tonight’s national championship
Ohio State will keep this closer than many in the South think, or at least want to think. Stubborn Les Miles will keep his Tigers from breaking it open, but in the end, the athletes on LSU’s defense will prove that when healthy, is the best defense in the country. Ohio State’s Todd Boeckman excelled against inferior competition, but crumbled against Illinois and Michigan. Chris Wells will keep the Buckeyes in it early, but LSU will pull away in the fourth quarter.
Final Score: LSU 27, Ohio State 17
I’m presently blogging from the Superdome press box watching Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan go through some preliminary passing drills with his receivers. The Georgia players are taking their first walk around the field. (Oddly enough, center Fernando Velasco is the only player in game pants.) The stage is being set for what should be one of the best bowls this postseason.
Before I go into my thoughts about the game, I’ll write a little bit about New Year’s Eve in New Orleans. In a word: ridiculous. In my two days seeing the city, it is certainly one of the most interesting cities I’ve been to. The one thing the city has going for it in its continuing recovery from Hurricane Katrina is its ability to bring in tourists with its culture. Maybe I’m just a sheltered kid from the Georgia suburbs, but I’ve never seen a liquor store in a Winn-Dixie, much less had the right to purchase alcohol on Sundays. Anyway, spending the waning moments of 2007 on Bourbon Street was, needless to say, an interesting experience that I won’t soon forget. Wall-to-wall people, daiquiri bars as far as the eye could see, beads galore…it’s a shame anyone has to work at time like this.
In terms of the Sugar Bowl, you couldn’t find two teams in the BCS less similar than the Warriors and Bulldogs. Hawaii relies on quick plays in the passing game, speed and an overall explosive offense. Georgia starts with the running game and makes plays using play-action passes and forcing turnovers on the defensive end. This game should come down to who makes the least mistakes, and with the amount of times the ball is in the air for the Warriors and how adept the Bulldogs’ secondary is at making plays on the ball, Georgia should be on top in the end.
My prediction: Georgia 34, Hawaii 28.
Be sure to check out the R&B’s recap after the game.
Greetings from New Orleans! I arrived in Louisiana yesterday evening and the photographers and I spent the night in a nursery (plants, not babies). Richard Hamm, our incoming co-chief photo ed, set us up in his cousin’s home where his family owns a plant nursery that stretches over several acres. Our lodging is about 45 minutes outside of New Orleans, and this morning we drove over the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (a whopping 25-mile bridge across the lake) to get into the city. After collecting some media souvenirs, I’m sitting in the media workroom of the Marriott Convention Center enjoying my first taste of the Internet in over a day (it’s been excruciating).
Here are some recent quotes from players and coaches about tomorrow’s Sugar Bowl:
Georgia center Fernando Velasco: “Practice has gone real well. I am proud of the guys for keeping focused. Being in a
city like New Orleans it can be real hard to stay focused. We have time to play and get away from football, but
when it has come time for football everyone has been getting after it real hard and competing. I am just proud
of the guys for staying focused and keeping their eyes on the prize. This is a business trip and the ultimate
goal here is to beat Hawaii.”
Georgia safety Kelin Johnson: “The guys are upbeat and having fun. We are enjoying being with each other and being in New Orleans. It is wonderful to be in a BCS game and wear the ‘G’ on your helmet one last time representing the state of
Georgia.”
Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan: “There is no doubt that Georgia is fast, extremely fast. I can’t even tell you how impressed I was this week with our running backs, o-lineman and receivers. They came out and practiced as if they were going against speed and although we didn’t get that look from the scout team we practiced as if someone was on our back. I watched the way the guys worked this week and they prepared for speed and it has been a great thing. We really won’t
know until game time what we are really in for.”
Hawaii offensive guard Hercules Satele: “There will be a lot of adjustments during the game. Their speed is incredible. They will come at you from the backside every play and if you don’t get the block they will hit you from behind. So we have to be ready for that and stay on our blocks.”
I’ll be posting later after the coaches’ press conferences this afternoon and after I get a chance to get a good look at a city I haven’t seen in at least a decade.
The Bulldogs make their way to New Orleans today, the first time they’ll play in the city since 2002. Sure they played in the 2005 Sugar Bowl, but that was in Atlanta, and things have, ummm, changed a bit in the Big Easy since the Bulldogs last visit.
“I’m interested to see what it looks like,” Georgia head coach Mark Richt told the Macon Telegraph. “I wouldn’t think it would look exactly the same. How could it?”
Meanwhile, throngs of fans met up the Warriors at the airport as they headed on their lengthy flight to New Orleans. Amid the hoopla, Hawaii head coach June Jones was asked about the speculation of him moving to Southern Methodist to become their new head coach.
Jones said: “I’m just interested in the University of Georgia.”
And this . . . the Bulldogs get some BCS sympathy from the Honolulu newspaper
The Bulldogs won’t be missing any players on the sidelines for the Sugar Bowl, as the team didn’t lose any for not making the grades this semester.
“Everybody is in. It is awesome,” head coach Mark Richt told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The same can’t be said at other schools across the nation, most prominently at Florida State. The Seminoles lost 23 players, including 11 players with starting experience, for the Music City Bowl. Many of those players were suspended in an academic misconduct case.
And up in Knoxville, Tennessee will be without three starters for the Outback Bowl - wide receiver Lucas Taylor, linebacker Rico McCoy and defensive tackle Demonte Bolden. The three starters were among six players not making the grades for the semester.
Perhaps they could find some volunteers to help them study.
It’s a thought.
It’s still a few weeks away, but a small battle of words is brewing leading up to the New Year’s Day clash between Georgia and Hawaii. Former Red & Black Sports Editor Tyler Estep inflamed some readers by saying Hawaii was undeserving of a BCS bid, causing one reader to write:
You are the result of a drunken night gone bad. Writing for a publication doesn’t give you the right to take credit away from a group of players who fought hard to be where they are at . . . I can bet that your sally of a head coach would have declined an invatation to play the Warriors in Hawaii. Terrible. Have fun getting fat and dumb. You can’t get any uglier Pork Chop.
Not sure what pork has to do with all of this, but it makes me hungry for bacon.
Look for Sugar Bowl updates in the next few weeks, including some live blogging from the French Quarter and the Superdome.
Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for his role in a felony dogfighting ring ithat took place in his hometown of Newport News, Va.
This means Vick, who is missing this entire season, will miss the 208 and 2009 seasons. The earliest he will play is 2010.
My take? Vick is done. His NFL career is finished. He better rehabilitate himself and learn how to become a public speaker and motivate some people not to follow his path because no team will take a chance on him as a starter with all the baggage. Maybe Arthur Blank can give him a pay cut and let him play for the Georgia Force.
Vick doesn’t deserve to ever play football again. With the amount of money he was making while playing a game - A GAME! - he doesn’t deserve the privilege of making Atlanta’s, or any city’s, fans happy ever again. Hopefully he’ll right the wrongs in his demonized past but I wouldn’t count on it based on his history of all talk, no walk.
Either Wake Forest played that bad of a game or Georgia showed signs that it will be just fine without Mike Mercer and Takais Brown.
Georgia (6-1) beat Wake Forest (5-3) 72-50, played great defense, and from the beginning of the second half on, dominated a Demon Deacons team that gave No. 23 Vanderbilt all it could handle the other night before losing 83-80.
Terrance Woodbury had his coming out party with 15 points and of course, Sundiata Gaines put up 15 as well. Gaines has shown true leadership and his never-die attitude is what this team needs. While many thought Mercer would need to step up and lead this team, it is apparent Gaines has been the guy, would have been the guy and will be the guy.
Albert Jackson, who was suspended for six games, returned to action today and had four points highlighted by a dunk that began a 15-0 run.
The main concern to take away from this game was the amount of turnovers the Bulldogs had. Georgia turned the ball over 26 times and will not be able to get away with that as the season progresses. Wake turned it over 20 times so the Bulldogs defense helped out its unprotective offense.
Georgia has East Tennessee State (will give Georgia problems) and Presbyterian before we all find out how good the Dogs really are when they travel to Spokane, Wash. to play Gonzaga on Jan. 5.
Wow. That’s all I can say. Wow.
Without Mike Mercer and Takais Brown, this Georgia basketball team is going to have a very tough season. Winning by onle seven points against Division II Augusta State is proof of that.
The Bulldogs beat Augusta State 81-74 Monday.
There are going to be a lot of growing pains without its two best players this season and hopefully this game isn’t indicative of how well the Bulldogs will be able to compete in the SEC.
“Whenever you’re a top Division II team, it’s because you have a lot of Division I players,” coach Dennis Felton said. “I wouldn’t trade any of my guys for their guys, but I certainly would take some of their guys if I had a chance.”
Translation:
“Please wake me up, I must be dreaming, right?”
OK, that might be a little unfair to Felton but he has to be upset at the sequence of events in the last month. Felton is a great coach. I haven’t seen more unfortunate circumstances happen around a coach at one school. He’s got a young class that came in this year, and like I wrote above, he is without his two best players from last year - one that can dominate on the boards inside in Brown.
Sundiata Gaines led the Bulldogs with 24 points against Augusta State, and it is evident, with his heart, he will have to carry this team.
“At the last media time-out, I just told my guys in the huddle, ‘We can’t lose to Augusta State. This’ll hurt our resume when it comes down to March,’” Gaines said.
Georgia dodged a bullet, that’s for sure.
If this were an exhibition, that would be one thing. Ohio State lost to Findlay, Michigan State lost to Grand Valley State in exhibition games and with big wins people have already forgotten them.
Kentucky lost to Gardner-Webb and that was in the regular season. However, the argument (and I don’t buy it because Gardner-Webb will not make it to the Dance) is made that there is a lot more parity in Division I these days.
Augusta State is Division II. There would have been no excuses if the Bulldogs would have lost.
This team will go as far as Gaines can take them.
So Georgia will play Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl.
I figured Georgia wouldn’t make the National Championship, and that’s fine. Georgia didn’t get snubbed out of the title game. While I think the Bulldogs are one of the top 2 teams in the country, the system is what it is, and having an SEC champion in the title game is probably the most fair.
With that said, the Bulldogs did get snubbed by the BCS. For the way the Bulldogs finished the season, to get Hawaii is absolutely ridiculous. It’s about money and it’s obvious the Sugar Bowl didn’t want Kansas, Illinois, Arizona State or another fluff team to play Hawaii, therefore making two lousy games instead of one. So they kept their host team, let the Rose pick the traditional conference matchup and now we are blessed with two extremely lousy matchups. Does Illinois even belong in the BCS? Georgia and USC in the Rose Bowl would have been a battle for preseason No. 1 for next year and it would have been a battle for the hottest team in America. Instead, Georgia and USC have cakewalks.
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