Case for Cox

I'd rather have cox than Stafford. Forget the nubmer one draft pick. History backs this up. The majority of succesful college football teams do not have an nfl star guy at QB. College is not as fine tuned as the NFL and QB serves a very different purpose in the college game. Its easy to point to guys like David Greene and Shockley as examples. What about Pat White, Ken Dorsey, Krenzel, Mauck, and Wuerffel. QB's in college are not as important. Sure a bad QB can kill a team (see:reggie ball), but a fantastic one cannot take you all the way (see: manning). Heart wins in college. With the QB being less important, it makes everyone else on the field much more importnat. What about the 5 nameless guys on the o-line??? extremely important. I'd rather have a 5 solid trenchmen than a star qb (see: 2008 season). Thats why i'm extremely optimistic about this '09 campaign where we are solid up front on both sides of the ball, deep at RB and receiver, and improved in the secondary. Let's not forget also that some think in terms of talent Cox was better in some areas than Stafford. If he can hit guys in stride this year it would be huge. I'll take Cox any season.

Until next time

I played baseketball last night with a douchebag. Other than reinforcing my already held conception that all Notre Dame fans are compete morons and are out of touch with reality, he reminded me of the time i last saw him. That time was this past years Sugar Bowl watching Utah stun/humor our small, all male, hangout by beating the Tide in convincing fashion. I chuckled to myself in delight as I watched JP Wilson run for his life without Andre Smith there to protect him. The ND fan commented how surprised he was that fans of a team would root against teams in their own conference in bowl play. Altough I usually root for SEC teams, this was not one of those times.
Now, I question that decision (because i know it had enormous impact on the outcome of the game). Were we foolish to pull for the Utes? Reading about their whining and complete rejection of reality and logic this week makes me think that I may be better off now had Alabama pulled through. Just as it seems the "mid-majors" of college football are done for, Hawaii in 2007, Utah has to go and do something like this. And before them it was Boise State against Oklahoma. This year I bet we see a BYU or TCU face-off against a Texas or LSU and get a thumping and then the whining will die down untill the next time an "undefeated" team gets left out of the national championship.

Reverse Psychology

Maybe, just maybe, some dawg fans have an ingenious plan of their own...and its working.
This post goes into an issue raised on the podcast, "the dawgcast", about coaching issues involving strength and conditioning coach Dave Van Halanger. What if this rumor about slack workouts and lazy players was just completely made up? I think its possible because i doubt that thats the case in reality. However, one thing it will definitely do is actually motivate the players and coaches to work even harder in the weight room. Who knows where this rumor came from. Truth or not, Its good news that its being talked about because it is free motivation for our underrated dawgs.

Glass Half Full

Much has been made of the UGA schedule this year, and rightfully so. But one thing that I haven't seen touched upon this year are certain positives to our difficult schedule.
Our schedule is good for the fans. We have the privledge of seeing some very entertaining games. Let's be honest, who really has a fantastic time baking in the September sun watching a punding of central michigan? This year we have to opportunity to see all kinds of teams come to town as well as some great away games.

Ok State:one of the most interesting games of the year in my book. Fun college town, ability to travel, also passionate about their team unlike az state fans. That is sure to be a fun one.
Arkansas: pretty far, but will be a good team next year and hey its SEC ball.
Tennesee: always a fun trip and not much more needs to be said about this program.
Vanderbilt: not far and why not.
South Carolina: Night kickoff, Spurrier, oblivious to reality fans, always a slugfest with the Gamecocks
LSU: always good, serious/trashiestinhistory fans
GA/Fl: Funnest three days of the year for every fan, even if we lose
Az state: who doesn't want to talk trash to some west coast gweeds? I'm really looking foward to giving them a dose of real football.
Kentucky: SEC, gave us quite a game last year, who knows what we're in for by the time this game rolls around.
Tennessee Tech: lamest game of year, but hey everyone needs at least one
Auburn: deep south's oldest, new coach, SEC, and who isn't getting ready to rib all your Auburn friends
Tech: not fun to beat, sucks to lose to, extremely bitter about their plot in life which consits of calculations, dormrooms, foreigners, dudes, recent history of bad football, city of atlanta, more dudes, plus an overly confident fan base especially this year. We'll beat them, especially after they flash some pictures of jackets with hedges in their mouthes.

Sure we could lose 6 games easily, which no one would enjoy. but at least no one can accuse us of not being man-enough with our schedule. There is no way Florida fans will have as much fun clobbering D-1AA schools as we will throwing everything we've got against a slew of touch opponents. As a fan, I'm going to know just exactly how good this team is, what we learned from last year, and what direction the program is headed. Heck, who knows, I think we could easily win 11 games too. Glad to be a Bulldog fan in '09.

bowl outcomes

This kind of stuff makes me scratch my head. Was I the only one that watched bowl games last season? One of my most vidid memories happens to be the LSU complete and absolute trashing of a yellow jacket team that look completley unprepared for their game. I can't think of a more severe beating in a college football game of a supposedly good team. Let's see where tech finishes the season.

OOC scheduling

Imagine as a fan (which is, afterall, why college football is God's greatest gift to man), its the first week of the season, and you are ready for some football. There you are firing up the grill, tail-gating, taking a raod trip, or sittin' on the couch; whatever your style. The only problem with this is the games...they're boring. In fact most of them completely suck. Auburn takes on La Tech, Florida plays Charleston Southern, Ohio State plays Navy, Texas gets La Monroe, Tennessee get Western Kentucky, Uga goes to Stillwater in easily the most interesting matchup of the week. Now as a fan, aren't you bored/confused/a little pissed off??? Why is Florida not playing Texas? Why doesnt Tennessee take on the Buckeyes? Now those would be some games. The entire country would get to see what those teams were made of right off the bat.
This problem (yes its a problem) is not due to the coaches or players or even AD's. The problem is with the system. Its a system that does not enocurage top matchups, or s.o.s. if you will. Currently, its much more beneficial for a team, both financially and for their ranking, to play weak OOC opponents. Would a playoff system fix this? Nope. That would give fans decent matchups for the final 2 weeks maybe. I don't just want to see 2 weeks of solid matchups, fans want 4 or 5 weeks of Clash of the Titans syle OOC games...let's keep dreaming because the system isn't changing (at least for the better) anytime soon.

Da'Rick Rogers: Challenger

Come fall, the "coolest name on team" title may be switching hands. Recent bulldog verbal, Da' Rick Rogers, poses a real threat to seize the title. Surprisingly, Baccari Bambo remains confident. He cites the the fact that the ever lurking mastermind at Tennessee would not be deterred by verbal commitments, much less NCAA recruiting rules and regulations in his attempt to snatch Rogers away from Athens.

Ben Jones declined to comment.

Optimism

From the UGA weight room

Stretching for Hope?

Florida is returning 11 starters on defense (as noted here, here, and here to cite only a few who have pointed this out). The many benefits are obvious. They are a mere shoo-in for sec champs and national champion favorties. Sounds awfully familar to a Buekeye team from a couple years back. Granted those Buckeyes didn't have near the defense Florida had last year, but they did have a much softer schedule. This begs the question, "if all these guys are so good, why aren't they in the NFL?" I know the NFL is a different game and scouts look at potential, playing styles, etc., but there has to be something to the fact that Florida is returning their entire defense. Maybe NFL teams don't see much more potential in those players. Maybe the same Gator defense from last year won't improve at all and will be facing improved offenses with better schemes that will give them a much better chance to do some damage to that vaunted defense in '09.