Georgia’s RB legacy takes another hit with suspension
Carlton Thomas is the latest Georgia running back to find trouble. (Brant Sanderlin/AJC)
Back on the Left Coast, USC was referred to as “Tailback U” for its rich history of running backs. Among them: Marcus Allen, Mike Garrett, Charles White, Anthony Davis, Ricky Bell, Reggie Bush and a certain alleged double murderer.
Georgia’s history may or may not be equal to that, but with the likes of Herschel Walker, Garrison Hearst, Charley Trippi, Frank Sinkwich, Rodney Hampton, Robert Edwards and Knowshon Moreno, it has an argument.
So what happened?
The Bulldogs just lost their third running back of the offseason. At least for one game. Junior Carlton Thomas, who only last week spoke of taking on a leadership role with the team, has been suspended for one game for unspecified violation of team rules during spring football, according to our Chip Towers. That’s one less body available for the season opener against Boise State.
Thomas’ suspension follows Caleb King being declared academically ineligible (again) and ultimately leaving the program, then declaring himself for the NFL supplemental draft (good luck with that). And King’s exit followed Washaun Ealey being released and transferring to 1-AA Jacksonville State.
Ealey had a series of off-the-field incidents in Athens. So did King (who also was ineligible for last season’s bowl game and was suspended two games earlier in the season). Now, Thomas falls in line. Or maybe that should be out of line.
When and why did the Georgia running back position become such a parade of knuckleheads?
I’ve stated in this space before: How the Bulldogs perform next season will be based largely on the success of the offensive line and freshman back Isaiah Crowell. The Dogs’ best hope is that Crowell is a departure from his recent predecessors.
By Jeff Schultz
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289 comments Add your comment
DawginLex
July 18th, 2011
4:34 pm
http://dogbytesonline.com/16-uga-football-players-graduate-friday-including-te-a-white-and-ol-t-strickland-both-rs-juniors-former-wr-fred-gibson-also-graduating-40174/
Dawg'88
July 18th, 2011
4:34 pm
Go Dawgs!
Parade of Knuckleheads
July 18th, 2011
4:35 pm
Knuckleheadedness seems to be contagious in Athens.
Please do not trash the grounds of the Georgia Dome during Boise State vs UGA.
DawginLex
July 18th, 2011
4:36 pm
No trash in the GA Dome for the opener?
I guess that means you aren’t coming
Dawgaholic30286
July 18th, 2011
4:36 pm
You forgot about Orlando Gary and Terrell Davis
Stinger2
July 18th, 2011
4:36 pm
The Truth: Agree that this blog by Schultz was completely unnecessary since Chip Towers had already wrote the same thing today. However, I don`t think the AJC deliberately
covered up the GT story. They just slept through the investigation without a clue.
SleeplessinAtlanta
July 18th, 2011
4:38 pm
How does losing Carlton Thomas for 1 game have ANYTHING to do with UGA’s RB legacy? completely unrelated concepts. stop reaching for headlines.
SSIgator
July 18th, 2011
4:38 pm
Jeff -
“Georgia’s RB legacy”
????
In their own minds I guess.
Hey Bear, Try to recruit OJ down there pretty soon
July 18th, 2011
4:39 pm
He’s on his way, Ya’ll should have a pretty good team down there.
DawginLex
July 18th, 2011
4:40 pm
SSI
You really want to compare running backs when the best running back you ever had other than E smith was a QB???
shane#1
July 18th, 2011
4:42 pm
Oh no, there goes our short yardage back!
Dawg'88
July 18th, 2011
4:43 pm
let the young men play:
Uh…UGA football is 2nd only to Vandy in graduating its players and also academics as a whole. They are one of the top programs in the country. Georgia owns the Southeastern Conference’s second-best Academic Progress Rate in two major sports — including football — according to data released by the NCAA. Graduation is a top contributor to the score.
Thanks to a perfect score of 1,000 for the last academic year, Georgia’s football team posted a multi-year score of 976 was only one point behind Vanderbilt.
Also, the last graduation saw a UGA starter give the commencement speech for the student body!
Georgia TE Aron White got the rare honor from university to do so.
For only the third time in school history, a Georgia student-athlete gave the commencement speech during the Bulldogs’ graduation ceremony.
Yech on the other hand is one of the worst. Does that answer your dumb question?
Beast from the East
July 18th, 2011
4:44 pm
DaginLex,
Neal Anderson? James Jones? Fred Taylor? C’mon man!
Evansdawg
July 18th, 2011
4:45 pm
Dawgs best hope that Crowell is better than Herschel every was….and that isn’t going to happen. If Herschel had been asked to perform the pass protect to the level that the Richt/Bobo system calls for, he probably would not have played in that now famous game against Tennessee.
goldwreck
July 18th, 2011
4:45 pm
Pulpwood Smith would have been a great one but he couldn’t stay eligible
and out of trouble.Unbelievable talent that was ultimately wasted.
Why don't you leave?
July 18th, 2011
4:46 pm
GA was so much better before you moved here from your punk a$$ state.
UGA will always be better than your punk a$$ state school.
And cause your here just bashing away, you must be jealous and have major penis envy.
Remember YOU idiots came here to get away from YOUR pitiful place.
We win.
Druid City
July 18th, 2011
4:47 pm
I hear UGA is finally changing the “Dawg Walk” to “The Parade of Knuckleheads”.
Be sure to arrive early.
Parade of Knuckleheads
July 18th, 2011
4:48 pm
UGA football fans are 2nd to nobody,
when it comes to throwing trash all over campus during home games.
Lamont
July 18th, 2011
4:48 pm
Dawg fan here since 1969. I am so tired of picking up the paper or reading ESPN and always seeing something amiss at Georgia. This one left and this one transferred and this one got upset and left and a former coach was in a Ponzi scheme and another alumni is arrested and an official is caught with red panties and on and on. Why can;t we get it together?
SSIgator
July 18th, 2011
4:50 pm
Beast from the East -
You forgot about Ericht Rhett, but don’t question DawginLex, he knows everything.
Texas Dawg
July 18th, 2011
4:50 pm
With a 245 pound tailback and a 280 pound fullback we should be able to pound the heck of the ball and then play action pass.
If we don’t manhandle Boise st at the line…if we can’t get 4 yards a pop…..we UGA fans are in for a long season…..no excuse whatsoever that we can’t win the line of scrimmage and pound them with that size fullback and tailback!
Druid City
July 18th, 2011
4:50 pm
Lamont,
It’s because your coach is Mike Shula with a butt cut.
Matt Skole
July 18th, 2011
4:50 pm
At least were not cheaters like Tech …… Hic ……. Hic …..
Parade of Knuckleheads
July 18th, 2011
4:51 pm
Beast from the East
DawginLex forgot to take his medication again.
Dawg'88
July 18th, 2011
4:53 pm
To JS:
(from Pat Forde): “If you want to know how far the AJC has fallen, lack of reporting on Tech case is a great indicator”
(from thevictoryformation): How did the Media Completely Miss the Ga. Tech Story?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This collection of individuals is by far the biggest offender. The AJC sports staff includes Jeff Schultz and Mark Bradley as columnists, Tony Barnhart, Tim Tucker, Ken Sugiura, Doug Roberson, Chip Towers and Bill King as college football bloggers, and Michael Carvell as a recruiting blogger. How did 9 (nine!) people that are assigned to cover college football miss a story like this that was happening in their backyard? Furthermore, former AOL sportswriter Terrence Moore used to be on staff at the AJC (prior to taking a buyout), and was one of the people that convinced Calvin Booker, the former Tech player with sports agency ties mentioned in the NCAA report, to stay at Tech for his senior season under new head coach Paul Johnson. I’m not saying that Moore necessarily knew anything, but he has known Booker personally since Booker’s high school days, and has a personal relationship with him. None of the nine people listed above could pick up a phone and call him, or send him an email? What does the AJC pay their Tech beat bloggers, Sugiura and Roberson for? It’s not exactly news that the AJC staff has been lacking in their reporting. Before his departure for the Orlando Sentinel (to cover Florida State), Coley Harvey was the Tech beat writer for the Macon Telegraph, and he was more of a go to for news and insight than the guys whose offices are a five minute walk from campus. Bryan Fischer made a great point about how this shows just how far the AJC has fallen. Pat Forde agreed. I guess someone out there in twitterland thought that the recently broken Atlanta Public School scandal absolves the AJC of its many sins, but I don’t recall seeing a byline by any of the nine individuals I listed earlier on any of those reports. To give you another example of the rampant incompetence that rules the day at the AJC, check out the fourth paragraph here. The link there takes you to the front page of From The Rumble Seat, the SB Nation blog run by and for Georgia Tech fans (full disclosure: I have written for From The Rumble Seat in the past). Scrolling to the earliest story posted about the investigation, you see a post that was updated multiple times throughout the morning, and while said post does mention Bay Bay Thomas and Morgan Burnett, it does so by displaying a tweet from Zach Klein, the sports director at WSB-TV in Atlanta. I imagine that in the mad rush to put something on AJC.com, the names of the players came up, and somebody asked “where’d you see that?”, and the response was “on some blog”, and they never even bothered to find the actual post, or where the players names originated. That’s just out and out laziness. The AJC should be ashamed of themselves.
I do want to take a moment here and give kudos where they’re due. Zach Klein was in front of this story for the entire day, and had information before anyone else. We need more people like him, and less like the gaggle of incompetents at the AJC.
SSIgator
July 18th, 2011
4:54 pm
Parade of Knuckleheads -
“DawginLex forgot to take his medication again”
No he didn’t. He is having another glass of KoolAid right now. It helps fight off reality.
Message Board Surfer
July 18th, 2011
4:54 pm
You UGA fans are hilarious for the most part, most of you have common sense, but some like 2001 are just ignorant.
Claiming other campus police or city police at other institutions are on the take is easy when you live in your mom’s basement and play video games all day. Get some facts.
Jeff wrote a column based on the facts, not one time did he misspeak about those facts. The situation at UGA is unlike any other in the SEC, and there are NCAA investigations going on at 2 of our schools and one is awaiting penalties from their previous coach. The number of players leaving, suspended, flunking out, or being dismissed this far into the summer is unheard of. That is what is the root of this. Players are supposed to responsible student-athletes who are afraid to make poor judgements this close to the season beginning. Look at Arkansas, even Petrino kicked off a player who decided for the second time in a year he would drive drunk. Besides that one we have had less than a half dozen dismissals since spring practice ended and half of those have come from UGA.
The root of the problems with UGA is not the coach, not the school, but with the type of players being brought in to hurry up and right this ship and the changes CMR made during the past off season and those players are now having to live with those changes.
No matter how you spin it, life as a Football Dawg is not good and until a game is played and UGA gets a win against a team that has a winning record, we will continue to view this UGA program as a failure with all the talent that abounds this state.
Matt Skole
July 18th, 2011
4:54 pm
You forgot about Ericht Rhett, but don’t question DawginLex, he knows everything.
No comparision between Florida RB and UGA RB over the years.
Florida has had some good ones. But not nearly as many as Georgia.
Dont they have newspapers in Orlando or something???
Obviously you guys are obsessed with UGA football.
Not Impressed
July 18th, 2011
4:57 pm
Everybody wave goodbye to CMR – he is on his way out and then maybe Georgia might start recruiting some intelligent football players – these guys that wear the Red and Black are complete idiots and it all starts at the top with CMR. Good bye Mark and Good Riddance!
Man up a-holes
July 18th, 2011
4:58 pm
Bunch of pansies talking trash from other states.
They’re showing their ignorance and jealousies.
All UGA fans here man-up and don’t worry about these pu$$ie$ from FL and other garbage dumps.
We’ll sic Goldberg on all your a$$es.
Druid City
July 18th, 2011
4:58 pm
Yes. It is the AJC’s fault that Georgia runs an undisciplined program.
Message Board Surfer
July 18th, 2011
4:58 pm
I would rather have the AJC and its staff than the one owned and operated in Birmingham by Auburn Alumni who will not print anything negative about Auburn. Even four players arrested for armed robbery was kept off the front page and hidden in the back pages.
The AJC is 100% better than what is being used by the al.com or many other markets that cover the SEC and ACC.
Druid City
July 18th, 2011
5:01 pm
It’s not the players that Georgia recruits. We all recruit the same players.
It is the fact that none of the players at Georgia respect their coaches or fear for their scholarship.
It’s been that way since Coach VanGorder left.
Message Board Surfer
July 18th, 2011
5:01 pm
Lets ask a question, if Auburn were located in Atlanta and the AJC covered it, do you think that the investigative reporters or columnist would have done a better job than what is being done by our brothers over in the Auburn area?
I think and believe so.
Parade of Knuckleheads
July 18th, 2011
5:02 pm
“Man Up” and use a trash can during UGA home football games.
Message Board Surfer
July 18th, 2011
5:02 pm
Druid City
July 18th, 2011
5:01 pm
It’s not the players that Georgia recruits. We all recruit the same players.
It is the fact that none of the players at Georgia respect their coaches or fear for their scholarship.
It’s been that way since Coach VanGorder left.
AGREE!
dogcatchergeneral
July 18th, 2011
5:04 pm
I would excpect an ignoramus THuga fan to try to say something stupid like claiming to be the Taiback U or Tailback U East…..but an AJC sports writer???????? Boy you guys are digging so far up that doggy butt now you’ll never find your way out!! Believe me…BELIEVE ME…when I say as a matter of FACT that no one outside the little fandom of THUGA would in a million years consider the toiletlappers as “Tailback U” under ANY circumstances. Tailback U belongs to Auburn University. And yes, sometimes folks out west call the Trojans the same, which is okay by AU fans. But don’t you stupid mutts EVER think you’re RB history comes anywhere close to Auburn University’s or that you can self-appoint yourselves Tailback U. I’m absolutely amazed at the jealousy and ignorance in this state!
Spike 80DF
July 18th, 2011
5:04 pm
probably been said already but no Terrell Davis on that list?
Not the AJC?
July 18th, 2011
5:05 pm
Yeah all these idiots want to talk about are arrests for TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS at UGA.
Not the robberies, rapes, even murders at other schools living in their glass houses.
HELLO FL and AUB
Message Board Surfer
July 18th, 2011
5:05 pm
How much would you give to see a Head Football Coach in the SEC give the player a perp walk to jail or out the door for violating rules or breaking a law?
Priceless, but ain’t gonna happen…
Casey Anthony being recruited at UF
July 18th, 2011
5:10 pm
Need to add to their criminal quota.
Druid City
July 18th, 2011
5:12 pm
At other SEC schools, the head coach leaves the dismissals and the perp walks and to the assistants and law enforcement, and this happens only if the player is not on the two-deep. If the player is on the two-deep, then the punishment is doled out in conditioning work on the field, where it helps the team.
These situations are managed. They don’t bark it to the press and they don’t give players free weeks off.
Bada Bing
July 18th, 2011
5:13 pm
Proof that all UF people are morons. When they open their pie hole.
Bada Bing
July 18th, 2011
5:16 pm
Listening to anyone from FL is like listening to the Peanuts teacher…….waawaaawaawaaa.
Bada Bing
July 18th, 2011
5:17 pm
Or listening to nails scratching a chalkboard.
GDAWG65
July 18th, 2011
5:18 pm
Did Bobo get some offensive coach training this off season.
GO DAWGS and GO AWAY BOBO!!!!!!!!
Beast from the East
July 18th, 2011
5:18 pm
“Proof that all UF people are morons. When they open their pie hole.”
Pot meet kettle.
just goes to show that
July 18th, 2011
5:19 pm
dumb asses who live in glass houses in athens shouldnt cast stones.
Bada Bing
July 18th, 2011
5:20 pm
Again, WAAAAWAAAWAWAAAWAAA.
Larry
July 18th, 2011
5:21 pm
Add Terrell Davis to Georgia’s list and it is more impressive than USC.