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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.
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.
In a column I wrote last Monday I wrote “Pittsburgh has about as good a shot of beating the Mountaineers as I have at winning the lottery and quitting school tomorrow.”
Well, to my surprise it happened. But to Georgia’s dismay, LSU won. With that, there’s a chance Georgia will be the odd team out. Here’s my BCS projections at 12:30 p.m. Sunday:
BCS Championship Game: Ohio State vs. LSU
Rose Bowl: Georgia vs. USC (the real national championship with the two best teams at the moment? possibly?)
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Arizona State
Sugar Bowl: Missouri vs. Hawaii
Notes and thoughts: Two things: Don’t be surprised if Georgia gets snubbed in the Rose Bowl to Illinois, which in my opinion, would be absolutely horrible. USC-Illinois would be the worst game of the bowl season, but the Rose Bowl committee was looking forward to a Big 10-Pac 10 matchup. Let’s see if they decide to take a legitimate team over tradition.
There are some media pundits saying Kansas might play Oklahoma in the Fiesta, which would move the last at-large to the Sugar Bowl. Two teams from the same conference playing in the same bowl is not good for college football. I refuse to believe it. I also think Missouri deserves to go to a BCS game over Kansas. How can you demote Missouri for losing to the same team twice after beating Kansas on a neutral site?
What a wacky weekend this turned out to be.
You could have given me a million dollars to bet on Pittsburgh and I would beg you to put it in a mutual fund instead. Now the national championship race seems to be up for grabs. However this may turn into a popularity contest like last year, when No. 4 Florida jumped No. 2 Michigan, and unfortunately for the Georgia Bulldogs, this may go against them.
In some degree it is Georgia’s fault that it didn’t play for the SEC Championship. Beat South Carolina at home and the embarrassing loss to Tennessee is a non-factor. However, only USC can compare with the Dogs right now as the nation’s hottest team.
LSU looked unimpressive last night and, honestly, got lucky on a poor read and throw from Erik Ainge that was returned for six. Keep in mind, this is a defense that couldn’t stop unranked Arkansas in the red zone a week before. However, LSU has what Georgia doesn’t and that’s an SEC Championship. And that holds a lot more weight in the pollsters minds.
So here we are. Hours away from the BCS Selection Show. Who is it going to play Ohio State in the national championship? Georgia or LSU (I’m assuming Virginia Tech is nixed from the conversation as it should be and that Oklahoma has too big of a hill to climb)? Here are the pros and cons for both:
Georgia: Pros: The Bulldogs are arguably the hottest team in the country. Georgia has won six in a row including wins over Florida, Auburn, Kentucky and Georgia Tech. Knowshon Moreno has turned himself into a potential Heisman candidate for next season and the offense is as balanced as I’ve seen since 1992. Georgia’s last loss was to Tennessee in Knoxville during the first week of October and the Vols had a bye the week before. Because of that loss, Georgia lost a tiebreaker in the SEC East, allowing the Vols to go to the SEC Championship instead. An argument can be made that if Georgia goes to the SEC Championship, it beats LSU. Also, why punish Georgia this late for climbing back this high into the rankings. If it were the middle of the season Georgia would be sitting at No. 2.
Cons: Georgia did not make it to the SEC Championship and doesn’t have the ring to show for it. The Bulldogs were embarrassed at Tennessee and lost at home to a South Carolina squad that finished 6-6. How can you put one team in the national championship when it didn’t win its conference, while another from the same conference has the same record? Fact is, you have to win when it counts and Georgia didn’t do it against two teams it should have beat. The entire season’s body of work must be taken into accountability and Georgia’s two losses are not good losses.
LSU: Pros: LSU is the SEC Champion. The Tigers may have two losses but both were in triple overtime in the best conference in football. LSU just won the SEC Championship with a backup quarterback that only started one game this year. LSU’s defense, while shaken at times this year, came through big. The reason its defense suffered in run support against Arkansas was because Glenn Dorsey was hurt. Defense wins championships and LSU’s defense - when healthy - is one of, if not the best, in the country. LSU also has a 48-7 win over Virginia Tech on its resume.
Cons: This team lost to an unranked Arkansas team the week before. In every sport, collegiate or pro, it’s about how you finish. LSU lost its regular season finale, but since LSU was the only team in the West to lose two games and clinched the spot before the Arkansas game. LSU needed an incredible pass from Matt Flynn as time ticked down against Auburn to beat them. Les Miles can be aggressive - too aggressive sometimes, and if the Tigers don’t score and time runs out, Les Miles and LSU look like a big joke.
Who do I take?: Georgia, and it’s not because I go to school here. If there is no SEC Championship game, like in the Pac 10, Big 10 and ACC, then Georgia is co-champions with Tennessee and LSU. There needs to be some consistency in this system - either all conferences have a championship game or all don’t. It’s not fair to Georgia that Ohio State doesn’t have the same opportunity LSU was blessed with.
It doesn’t matter who I would take, so who goes? LSU, and it will be the same way it played out last year. Georgia sat at home and had to wait while the nation got to see LSU win a conference title. That will be fresh on the voters minds and LSU will edge out Georgia and play Ohio State in the national championship.
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