The Arrival of Football

Just returning from a long weekend at Orange Beach, I've returned to the work force...yet something is different.

The work weeks will begin to fly by, the office talk will centralize around the happenings in Athens, and it is apparent that football has arrived.

The commute becomes a battle in-and-of itself. I drive the top end of the perimeter from I-75 to I-85 and back every day. My allegiance is to Georgia, should your vanity plate have anything other than a bulldog head on it...well...all I can say is hopefully someone else will let you merge from 400. The same goes for those of you with car magnets and window flags. Early on Tennessee fans will litter the roadways with their flags until they remember their spit-cups and stop rolling down the windows.

The mornings have a crispness to them. The evenings are made for eating ice-cream and watching the sunset through the trees. Thursday nights the Tech fan heads downtown for his hotdog and Coke dinner at Mark Richt Field.

Louisiana Community College, Arkansas Backwood U, Virginia Tech, and Tennessee College for the Blind have cashed their opening week paycheck to be another team's whipping boy. As long as you aren't Arkansas or ole miss (thank God) you are done with the cupcakes and ready to play some decent competition. Oh, and if the Mississippi fanbase can return their SEC membership cards to Mike Slive that'd be fantastic before Jacksonville State gets their version of this built on Hwy 78.


Football is upon us, and we've got a doozy of a game this weekend Dawg fans. I predicted a loss because it keeps the expectations of greatness slightly muted, but I will pick the Dawgs to win...you ALWAYS pick the Dawgs to win. It'll be a knock-down, drag-out because both teams looked really good. But if our defense can find a way to keep Lattimore and Garcia on their backsides we're going to win.

I wish cupcake blowouts didn't pump me up so much, but they do. Aaron Murray looked like a born leader out there and as long as we can keep him from scrambling this weekend he should remain in 1 piece. The defense shined 99% of the time, and the 1% they didn't Coach Grantham put the secondary in a human centipede with Bacarri Rambo at the #3 spot.

I love Georgia football, and it has arrived. Go Dawgs!

Pantsless Predictions: Part I of IIIIIIIIII (10)

South Cackalacky (9.11.2010)



The Deal:
Look, I'm not going to tell you this is how it's gonna be. In doing so it would do nothing but jinx the exact opposite into fruition. The best I can do is tell you what I think might possibly have a small chance of maybe happening...possibly.

What does everyone say at the beginning of every season? ALL TOGETHER:

"SOUTH CAROLINA WILL SET THE TONE OF OUR SEC SEASON."

What that means is Georgia will probably blow out Louisiana LaFa and head into Columbia, SC with little to no idea about how we'll play against SEC caliber opponents. South Carolina won't be the toughest opponent we'll play all year, at best they've been a mid-level SEC opponent since the beginning. But for some reason they give us fits.

All the big boys have lesser opponents that do this. My best friend, who happens to be a Gator, told me Ole Miss is Florida's non-division parade-raining equivalent to our South Carolina. But I've long said the biggest problem we have with the South Carolina game is we play them before they realize they aren't a good team.

Every year South Carolina fans tell themselves they're going to win the East...every year they don't. This is a big rivalry game to them, but we've got so many freakin' "rivals" out there (Florida, Tech, Auburn, etc...) South Carolina falls off the radar of importance to us.

But people are calling South Carolina a dark horse for the East this year. To be honest, this might be the first year I take the threat of South Carolina to heart, because I have ZERO idea what expect from Georgia. If Todd Grantham's rhetoric stopped the ball I wouldn't doubt we'd beat the Gamecocks this year. But Steve Spurrier finally has a decent experienced offense in addition to the same stingy defense South Carolina has been known to field.

Aaron Murray doesn't have to beat South Carolina, the Bulldogs need to beat South Carolina. I think our offense is better than their offense, but is our offense better than their defense...hell, is our DEFENSE better than either their offense OR defense?!? I have no idea if we'll be ready.

But my final call on this game is for a Loss. I don't think we should lose, I don't really think we will lose, but I'm playing this year safe and trying to keep my expectations realistic.

I think after a few serious opponents we'll know what we're dealing with, but G-Day didn't tell me anything. Nothing. I want to believe we're going to be blitzing the balls off Stephen Garcia and nailing him to the salted Earth of Columbia, SC. But that's all wishing and hoping.

Fingers crossed I REALLY hope I'm wrong on this one. I've been wrong before, and my wife will be the first to let me know. I used to think Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like a Lady" was being sung as "Do the Lucky Lady"...as if "the lucky lady" were some dance to be done. When she found this out she nearly fell out of the car as it rolled down the interstate, I'm glad she had her seatbelt on.

You'll see a more reserved approach to my picks this year. I got burned pretty severely last year with some really crappy wishful thinking. The whipped dawg in me wants to play it a little safer, that way a loss will only ruin my Saturday and not my whole weekend. Perhaps I'm finally growing up...(fart joke).

UGA/USC: LOSS

1/1 going into week 3. Go Dawgs!

UPDATE: I also wanted to note, according to the poll posted last month, only 14% of you guys thought Aaron Murray needed more snaps if we're blowing out Louisiana LaFa in the 3rd. 53% said he should be pulled for Hutson Mason, and 31% thought he should be pulled for Logan Gray. I voted to get Hutson some snaps because if Logan Gray is going to put himself at risk of injury at WR then we gotta have a solid #2 Quarterback in reserve. Now if we stumble out of the gate (big IF), Aaron better get his act together REAL quick and play the entire game. But otherwise I'd say he's too valuable to leave out there in case some Linebacker thug from a whipping boy school wants to show how tough he is.

Pantsless Preview: Part II of IIIIIIIIII (10)

9.12.2009 - South Carolina (Home)


If I was to dress up like a Hasidic Jew and take a stroll through downtown Tehran, I might still have a better time than I had in Columbia, SC last year.

If you were one of the fortunate few to make a long-ass drive to a boring-ass warehouse district on a hot-ass day to watch a pathetic-ass game AND you found a gas station that didn't charge $7/gallon (limit 5 gallons) on the ride home...then you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

Just their luck, the USC fans get to come to our campus where trees abound and the occasional breeze and/or cloud blows through. Their fans should consider this an "Away Game" as much as I should consider my trip to Disney this September as "5 Consecutive Sick Days"...it looks tough on paper, but you know they're looking forward to it.

We will be making a long trip home after our 34-10 victory in Stillwater, riding a media wave of "WHERE DID THESE GUYS COME FROM?!?!?" ...which we couldn't need LESS.

CFN doesn't tell us anything we don't already know, that USC has been a picture of mediocrity since the OBC took over. They predict the same song & dance for the offense, but sophomore QB Stephen Garcia could possibly develop into an excellent QB in the next year or two. Unfortunately another year wiser doesn't make a competent offensive line appear out of nowhere. As we all know, you can have a superstar QB...but without protection he's fertilizer.

They're defense might be their strong suit which will come as a change for our boys from the previous week. Since 2000 (with the exception of blowout victories in 2003 & 2006) the average margin of victory has been...get this...5 1/2 pts. We can poor-mouth their offensive prowess until the sun goes down, but until we can guarantee a touchdown+ against these visor wearing goons they're going to keep hanging with us and get the occasional victory.

So USC comes to an amped up Sanford Stadium for a night game September 12th. To us it'll be like playing a mid-level SEC team...which is what it is. To the Gamecock's it's the Iron Bowl - East. They care about beating us WAAAAAY more than we care about beating them...which sucks. I'm just as guilty of it as the rest of you, but I don't see this as LSU, Florida, or Auburn. However, it's the mindset that "Oh it's just South Cackalacky" that drives me freakin' nuts when it comes down to the final play in the 4th as time expires. They play with a passion we used to only reserve for Georgia Tech, so we better have our @#$% straight.

Final call? Georgia wins a nail-biter 14-10 and time expires as Stephen Garcia throws a Hail Mary from mid-field.

Here's the vid from last years game. It'll really make you wish we had #24 out there, but make no mistakes about it AJ Green will have a career day against their pass defense. If nothing else seeing Spurrier's sideline mannerisms is worth listening to Journey for 5 minutes.

We'll need pinpoint accuracy from Joe Cox to seal the deal. It'll be your typical ugly UGA/USC early season game but Dawgs will be 2-0 when we visit Patrino's Pigs out in Arkansas.

...really?!?

Yes really, I was able to find a few clips I thought were great plays. Plus the thing was burning a hole in my DVR waiting to get deleted to I went ahead and pulled it. Enjoy!


Plus, seeing some of the better plays makes me feel better about what we might see Saturday.

My thoughts on USC...

Now that its officially too late to offer any insightful commentary concerning the Dawg's performance I bring you my opinion of the game.

This was my first trip to Columbia for what Gamecock fans refer to as The Border War. Let me tell you a little something about this "rivalry".

#1. To a Gamecock, this is their biggest SEC game of the year, and the second biggest rivalry game of the year (behind Clem(p)son).

#2. To me, a staunch UGA supporter, this game is a tie for 7th with the Arizona State game as far as games I was excited/worried about (in order, 1.Florida, 2.LSU, 3.Auburn, 4.Tennessee/Alabama, 6. Tech, 7.USC/Arizona State, 9. Kentucky/Vandy/CMU, 12. Southern).

So when I walked into Willy-Brice Stadium and it was louder than most UGA games I go to, I began to think USC might want this game more than we do. I'm of the opinion two weeks ago against Vandy the 'Cocks got caught thinking ahead. Just like last Saturday we got caught thinking ahead to our trip to Arizona (and honestly Arizona St. did too, we just managed to think about it and win).

Everyone and their grandmother saw the AZ St. kids holding their Chick-Fil-A sponsored "Bring on Georgia" signs a while back. We might as well have been holding Wienerschnitzel sponsored "Our hearts are in Tempe" signs as we strolled around Columbia because our offense played like we were already members of the "Wiener Lover's Club".

Either way, we won and I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day of the week.

Yeah, we dropped in the polls but don't worry. If we keep winning that won't matter any more. If you want to blow out a team coached by Tyrone Willingham each week and expect ESPN to bless you with a golden shower every time then you've got another thing coming, Bob Stoops. When we get into the heart of our schedule and prove we deserve to be ranked as high as we were preseason, then that's where we'll make our bread. I think South Carolina is going to surprise some people this year if they can get some competent offense going because their defense wasn't going to give us any freebies.

Yeah I was pissed to be out there in the 95 degree heat index with no wind (kicker's paradise) and have my team participate in an offensive pee pee sword-fight, but the good guys won, and we'll learn from having true competition expose our weaknesses we need to work on. Unlike the guy sitting behind me (who apparently should have been out there calling plays as much as he knew about the game), I'm not quite ready to fall into the rut of calling for Coach Martinez's first-born to be sacrificed because we rushed 3 and dropped 8. Our coaches know what they're doing and soon enough we'll win a big one by a large margin and we'll all be praising Willie and hopefully forgetting our old DC Brian Van Gorder who jumped ship to begin his quest for the world record of most jobs in a 10 year period (which is going swimmingly I hear).

Perhaps if/when we lose a game from the errors we made we can all throw our collective turd-logs into the fan, but until then rest assured that practice this week will be focusing on what we lacked and improvement is sure to come. Arizona State is a pass-happy team and our Pass Defense got 'pants'ed in front of the entire city of Columbia last weekend. Chillax, we'll fix it.

Each game from here on out is do or die. If you'll recall last year it took a scare from Vandy to start us on a Tazmanian Devil style path of destruction through the SEC's toughest. Perhaps an obliteration of Rudy Carpenter will open some eyes next weekend. If that doesn't work a presumed Black Out of Alabama should light the fuse to the Dawg-Rocket.



Either way, I still think it's a great time to be a Dawg fan because we've got a 5 game win streak in SEC play, under our current mascot we're undefeated, and Matthew Stafford STILL hasn't thrown an interception. Keep the faith, there is still a LONG road ahead of us and now is not the time to throw people under the bus.

How 'bout them Dawgs?

Finally Friday.

I don't know if I've been looking forward to this weekend for so long it made the work-week drag, but I'm pumped it's finally Friday.

I doubt I'll get too much content up today mostly because I'm behind on a project, It's my warehouse guy's birthday and I'm precooking ribs, also I've got a lot of stuff to get together for the trip to Columbia tomorrow.

If you're making the trip, we'll see you there. At the game me and my buddy will be in Section 19 Row A4 (so come by and shout out "MACKIE!" and I'll wave at you we'll chat and you can tell me how great my blog is.)

I haven't figured out where our tailgate will be yet. I still need to get my directions together, but either way, have a great weekend, and Go Dawgs!

If I get caught up after lunch I'll try to throw up a post or two.

The 'Cock Quarterback Conundrum

Spurrier is obviously playing coy going into this game. He's getting freshman quarterback Stephen Garcia more snaps in practice...but still sharing time with Sophomore Chris Smelley.

So I did some looking and found something pretty interesting.

Though it is likely it will either be Chris Smelley or Tommy Beecher starting, there is a chance Spurrier would surprise Willy with Stephen Garcia. But that's not all; there is an even smaller chance Steve bursts out any one of the SEVEN quarterbacks he has on his roster.

Whom are:

#5 Stephen Carcia (Fr)
#6 Tommy Beecher (Jr)
#7 Chris Smelley (So)
#13 Aramis Hillary (Fr)
#14 Reid McCollum (Fr)
#16 Michael McQueeney (Fr)
#17 Zac Brindise (Fr)

Obviously the OBC hasn't found his golden ticket to the proverbial Wonka Factory we know as the SEC Championship that's why he's loaded up his plate with Freshmen.


I imagine Saturday afternoon I'll be sitting in a stadium with 80K Veruca Salts.

Of course this is all speculation, I doubt our defense sees more than two QBs in Columbia. But isn't it a great feeling to know your coach has it all figured out. On the other side of the field we'll have 5 QBs who could potentially go out and "win one for the Gipper" if for some reason our depth behind center gets decimated.

Just in case you were wondering they are:

#6 Logan "Don't call me a punt returner" Gray (Fr)
#7 Matthew "Dreamboat" Stafford (Jr)
#14 Joe "Don't call me a ginger" Cox (Jr)
#15 Jonathan "who?" Batson (So)
#17 Jonathan "the other Jonathan...no #17" deLaureal (So)

Of course if none of our QBs decide to make their millions a year early (following this season) we also will be at the total of 7 QBs, it's just that ours will include...
2-Freshmen Stallions
1-Very Fast Sophomore
2-Relatively Unknown Juniors
2-Quality Seniors capable of recreating CMR's playbook with Knowshon's Lego sets.

...those are two night & day football programs.