GrillTopper Open Issues

Alrighty, folks.

I got an email response back from my contact at GrillToppers who was in charge of operating the GrillTopper Open. As it turns out he has taken a new job, he's no longer with the company, and nobody was willing to run the group in his absence.

I'm sorry the game got cut short, but unfortunately that's the end of the GrillTopper Open for the 2010 season. Maybe next year I'll take the bull by the balls and run one myself.

Sing Along, Dog Nation.

...because sometimes you just want to take a walk in outer-space and sing about feelings with your short, effeminate, perm-haired friend.



Go Dogs!

...and one more thing.

We lost our right to be the "Dawgs" this year. Please mail your card to:

Dan Mullen
c/o Athletic Dept.
Mississippi State, MS 39762

Play like dogs, get called Dogs.

This sucks.

Quinton hit the nail on the head...and I read:

To borrow a metaphor from nineteenth century European history, Georgia is the "sick man" of the SEC. A former power that has run into hard times due to repeated setbacks, relevant only because of its reputation, size and affiliation with other great powers. Georgia is withering before our eyes. When a team that has won championships in recent memory begins to lose battles with State, Kentucky, Arkansas, and South Carolina, none of whom have won a championship in longer than recent memory, the only conclusion is a degenerative, sustained illness. An illness consuming the patient, who is condemned to a slow and painful death.
I am still hesitant to jump on the Fire Coach Richt bandwagon...but this team isn't making that decision easy. What I'm experiencing is a sense of questioning, and that doesn't bode well for our current coaching staff.

My biggest concern is that football (pro and collegiate) is an ever-evolving sport. In this arena of SEC competition you've ALWAYS got to be 1 step ahead of the other guys. I used to think it was important to have a consistent staff for recruiting and coaching purposes. Perhaps the regular turnover of coaching staffs in the SEC is due to necessity rather than an irrational fanbase running these guys out of town.

I love Coach Richt, he is a great guy and has a history of quality coaching. But he's got to prove that his gameplan is still relevant in this conference. Otherwise the barking will continue to get louder until Greg McGarity's will be forced to make a career-defining decision.

I'm still holding out hope that this team won't throw in the towel and start phoning it in on Saturdays. But when I enjoyed watching the Falcons more than the Dawgs our team is in a sad state of affairs. Our fanbase is hurting, we want to believe in you, Coach...please get it together.

GrillTopper Open

I've received a lot of emails saying the GrillTopper Open booted you out. I tried to sign in today and it wasn't even appearing on my Fantasy League board anymore. Once I figure out what's going on I'll let you know. Until then, I'm working on it.

Bubba Sparxxx

Since bringing back the old Gameday theme didn't work last week, we'll try a different Bubba Sparxxx jam.


GO DAWGS!

UGA Husband, BAMA Wife

I am a Georgia fan. I bleed red & black. I married a girl who went to Alabama. I've already covered the concept of "team-in-law" but I'm a little unsure about the following:

I don't think the Razorbacks will beat the Crimson Tide this weekend, but who exactly should I cheer for? Do I love Georgia so much that I would actually root against my team-in-law so to not make our loss look that bad? Because obviously if the #1 team in the country couldn't beat Arkansas either then perhaps Georgia's loss wasn't really all that unexpected...right?

I was pondering the above and then I saw this little piece of magic.


Now everything seems so clear!

WOOOOOOOO PIG SOOIE!!1

Rush Concert

I figured it would be worth a shot at asking, but do any of you guys have some extra Rush tickets for next Wednesday? I can find tickets, but I'm looking for 2 good seats. I've never been to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Alpharetta so I don't know much about the venue, but I'm a HUGE Rush fan. Shoot me an email if you're trying to get rid of a couple of tickets and we'll work something out (email listed in the column to the right).

I saw them back in mid-2000 for the R-30 Tour but it was at that crap-hole Lakewood. That venue (and area) is so awful I refuse to see concerts there anymore.

But like I said, I'm a huge Rush fan. I have all their albums (live and studio), I went to see their limited release documentary in theaters, and my wife hates my 2112 t-shirt...help a brotha' out. There are few things more spectacular than hearing the opening "BBZZZZZZZZYYYYYYUUUUUUUUU" of Tom Sawyer live and hearing the crowd go nuts.

Missy State

Dawgs win big. We lost to two unusually talented Arkansas and South Carolina teams. There is a talent gap between Mississippi State and Georgia that gives me confidence we take care of business this weekend. The players know we've given away all our freebies, it's time for the lines to gel, players to step-up, and errors to disappear.

Dawgs 34 - Dogs 10

I plan on sitting down and watching UGA football with the volume turned off. I just saw on The Senator's page that Bob Rathbun is calling this one. This clown used to call Braves games and if I'm not mistaken still does the Hawks play-by-play. He is by far my #1 most hated voice in sports, I'd rather listen to Pam Ward than Bob Rathbun if that puts this into perspective.
The voice matches the face...think about this picture when you watch the game tomorrow night.

Dunphys at the Rose Bowl

If you love Modern Family as much as I do, you watched the season premier last night. Phil and Claire were going to sell the station wagon they drove to the Rose Bowl in, and began to reminisce about the good times of that trip. When asked by their son "what happened?" Phil stated the outcome of the game was "...we got pummeled by Penn State."

Well, I did a little research and apparently Phil and Claire Dunphy attended the Rose Bowl in 1995 (for the 1994 season) and if "WE" got pummeled by Penn State, that means THEY are Oregon fans...which is unfortunate.

Penn State is 1-2 all time in the Rose Bowl, and the only time they won was in the mid-90's. If in fact Angela Lansbury was the grand marshal in the Parade of Roses (as Phil stated), then "good times, she wrote" indeed.

Thoughts on the Dawgs

I've been pondering how exactly to approach the status of UGA football. I don't want Coach Richt fired (ftr I didn't want Jim Donnan fired at the time either) but I don't want to settle for mediocrity. If this just another rebuilding year? The best possible outcome from here is for us to run the table and watch South Carolina and Arkansas play in the SEC Championship Game...(yawn).

I'm not hopping on the FIRE RICHT/BOBO/RUSS bandwagon quite yet. I'm giving this season a chance. I thought Aaron Murray fought valiantly to get us into a tie game after we came out sluggish. I thought the defense made some great stops. I also think Arkansas and South Carolina have some superstar athletes and right now Georgia is struggling to identify a leader while AJ Green is on the sideline.

I think the season can turn around, I really do. Seeing what Paul wrote about the improvement from last year on Defense was a ray of hope toward that. More than 2 TDs and 2PAT cut from the totals against each of the MUCH improved Arky and USC teams is a step in the right direction.

You can say I'm settling for mediocrity and that under Richt Georgia will never win the big one. But right now I don't see any viable options that WILL win the big one. Chris Petersen?!? Bitch, please. Even Dan Hawkins says you have a weak argument.

I'm giving the Dawgs until 2012 to get 10 wins and beat the Gators at least once. If they don't, it doesn't matter because the Mayan calendar says we're all screwed by then anyway.

Time to go on a 5-game tear Dawg fans. Mississippi State is next, time to step up because you can't afford to drop this one! GO DAWGS!

Tight Ends

...BTW did anyone ever discover why exactly our Tight Ends were a non-factor last weekend? Were they covered THAT well or did we just avoid them like the plague. Orson Charles is RARELY contained which makes me assume he didn't return Aaron's copy of Halo: Reach and that pissed him off.
Halo: Reach, your game-time may depend on it.

...sigh

Yeah, I'm officially killing the Thursday Homeless 3. That segment has been nothing but bad luck. I'd probably have much better luck with slot machines and online video poker than assuming one of those stinkin' bums would correctly pick a Georgia opponent to lose.

Thoughts and more later this week...busy at work.

It's Gameday!

...and because ESPN won't change the damned theme song back, I will.



Georgia loves Bubba Sparxxx. GO DAWGS!

Homeless Thursday 3

After a surprising turn of events, last week our homeless panel of experts went 1-2 on their picks. Unfortunately for the Bulldog Nation the bum who picked South Cackalacky was correct.

This week, we've got a whole new set of urban outdoorsmen to assist us in picking 3 of the SEC's biggest conference match-ups!

Looks like Sam Walton III picks the Razorbacks.

Nu'Keese Richardson likes Derek Dooley's chances this weekend!

Ol' Jackie Sherrill could use some work...ON HIS PICKS!

Oh Noes Teh Dawgs Iz Failxorz!!1

Yep, Georgia lost an ugly game Saturday. Somehow Carolina found a way to stop runs up the middle, and Georgia didn't. However, that is NOT intended to devalue the run-away pantie-magnet that is Marcus Lattimore. Seriously, I don't think any SEC team is looking forward to trying to stop that kid. Aside from our missed tackles (taking no less than 3 defender's touches to get the kid down) I would love to ask Stephen Hawking what kind of physics based, time-space continuum allows a human who is 2 yards tall to fall forward 7 yards.


But Lattimore or no Lattimore, if Orson Charles catches the TD pass and Washaun Ealey doesn't fumble in the red zone and we score, we've got a tie ball game. Also, if "IF's" and "BUT's" were candy and nuts...then we'd all have...candy and nuts...or whatever.

I would have liked to see Mike Bobo call some non-running plays when our backs were against the wall, but he didn't and I'm not the OC so really all I can do is bitch about how much losing sucks. I will say I was amazed how quickly it seems everyone has bought into Paul Finebaum's Fire Mark Richt campaign. The best retort to this I can find comes from Lucid Idiocy who argues,

"Misspell "lose" once, and it's not worth mentioning. Do it three times and it discounts your opinion considerably."

Claiming he doesn't "want it" enough doesn't really mean anything to me. I'm pretty sure if not "wanting it" equaled losses then Bobby Johnson was skipping practices to smoke weed and listen to Panic. The better team won Saturday, blame whomever you want...(like you needed my blessing).

If you're looking for a blog to support opinions like this: ...then you might want to take Blogging Pantsless off your RSS feed.

Perhaps I'm too patient (hell, I thought Jim Donnan should have gotten another year) but realistically I expected Georgia to go 9-3 regular season. Freshmeat QB and a new defensive package isn't going to give you an undefeated season in the SEC. That being said, if we don't OBLITERATE the next 6 opponents I'll be a little nervous about where we're headed. If I'm wrong and we screw the pooch over next few weeks I'll dim my outlook, but for now I think South Carolina will surprise some folks this year. Will they win the East? Well...not quite ready to fit them with that crown just yet because they've got Auburn, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Florida to get through.

Don't jump off the bandwagon just yet, Dawg fans. We've still got some good opportunities to get back in the race. Hopefully we've breaking down film, learning to wrap-up, and REMOVING THE SHOULDER TACKLE from our habits. GO DAWGS!

Has the NCAA seen our Trapper Keeper?

Lets just pretend, instead of asking the NCAA for an appeal on AJ Green's excessive celebration suspension that we're asking them about our Trapper Keeper...

...either way, the response is probably the same.

Making Green Lemonade

By now you've probably heard AJ is suspended 4 games for selling a jersey. I don't know anything about it you haven't heard already but I'm here to provide a little sunshine.

#1. Georgia Tech is lucky, they never have to worry about athlete/agent interaction.

#2. If we had to lose AJ for a sequence of 4 games, I would rather it be the first 4 (ULaFa,USC,Arky,Miss St) than the middle 4 (Col, Tenn, Vandy, KY), or GOD FORBID the last 4 (UF, Idaho St, Auburn, Nerds).

#3. When the best receiver in college football is eligible again, he will be 4 Saturdays fresher than any of his defenders (assuming they haven't also been suspended).

#4. The Senator reminded me, we beat a Top 10 opponent (Tech) last year without AJ Green.

#5. Should Georgia run the table on South Carolina, Arkansas, and Miss St without #8, by the time AJ returns we should be getting some serious love from the polls. What do you think a mid-season boost by adding a playmaker like AJ Green is going to do?


Stay limber, #8. We are going to expect the world out of you in October...it's kinda our thing.

The Homeless Thursday 3

I'd like to institute a new segment here at Blogging Pantsless called the Homeless Thursday 3. These bums will give you thoughtful insight into which picks to make on the 3 biggest upcoming SEC games of the weekend. If you choose to tip the homeless for their sports expertise you might get your car windows cleaned with a spraybottle full of urine and wiped off with a Creative Loafing...God bless.

First up, Homeless Bill:


Our next bum is Ice T Bowman:


Our last expert requested to go by the name DJ X-fatty:


There you have it. Some bold predictions from our panel of urban outdoorsmen, but we will see how their picks unfold next week. Until next time, that's our expert's two cents...which they're going to need back if you can spare it.

Georgia Defense: The Joy

Easily my favorite part of the opener against ULaFa was watching Todd Grantham chew out Bacarri Rambo. I only enjoyed this because I knew the win was ours (even before the first half) and because I knew Bacarri Rambo knows better and he just wanted to make a big hit...which didn't pan out and left him looking foolish for getting burned. Hopefully, lesson learned.

Lucky for me, The Grit Tree posted this video yesterday by Ghostoferkrussell:


Also, this could be completely unrelated, but if you're anything like me and you were wondering how Utah State was able to hang in with Oklahoma to a final of 31-24...you need look no further than here.

New Tailgating Toy

It appears I'm going to be getting a new toy for this year's tailgating season. I've had several cool goodies in the past, but this one might take the cake. I'm not talking about new grill toppers or dutch ovens (click the link, I promise they aren't what you think).

Once I've officially received my new toy I'll do an indepth post regarding its awesomeness! Until then, GO DAWGS!

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!

Watch a Nerd Get Hurt

If you live in the metro-Atlanta or Macon area, you probably can pick up the The Regular Guys show on Rock 100.5. There is a snotty little douche named Sebas on the show who went to Tech and does nothing but brag about how smart he is. Lucky for us, they did a bit where we get to see him get blasted with a pressure washer...enjoy.



I love watching nerds get hurt being stupid, it makes me happy.