The Junkyard Blawg

Damon Evans' pay raises difficult questions for some in the UGA community. (Curtis Compton / AJC}

It’s interesting the way folks react to the ever-escalating salaries in college athletics. UGA signs a new defensive coordinator for a whopping $750,000 and hardly anyone blinks. In fact, for some fans of the Dogs it became a sort of point of pride that the deal made Todd Grantham the third-highest paid assistant in the nation. Plus everyone knows UGA’s athletic association is one of the most profitable in the country, so they could afford to pay top dollar.

But Damon Evans, UGA’s athletics director, gets a $90,000 raise in his new five-year contract last week, going from his current $460,000 to $550,000 (with $20,000 annual hikes and a $250,000 longevity bonus built in) and UGA President Michael Adams, who also chairs the athletics board, feels it necessary to defend the move at his monthly news briefing.

Coaches are one thing, I guess, while administrators are viewed …

Continue reading Can surging athletics salaries at UGA be justified? »

Vince Dooley and the statue honoring the 1980 national championship. (University of Georgia)

Looks like we’ve entered a new Bronze Age in the SEC.

You probably saw the recent news that the University of Alabama is quickly putting up a statue of Nick Saban to mark the Tide’s most recent national championship. It’ll join statues of the other UA coaches who’ve won national titles in the “Walk of Champions” area outside Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.

Then came word that the University of Florida is looking at erecting bronze, life-size statues of the Gators’ Heisman Trophy winners, Tim Tebow, Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel.

That got me to thinking which Bulldog heroes ought to be enshrined if UGA were to go beyond the statue honoring former coach Vince Dooley and his 1980 national championship team that was unveiled in 2008 on the South Campus athletic complex named after Dooley.

Now let me say up front that I recognize there are those who question whether a university …

Continue reading Which UGA athletic heroes are worthy of statues? »

The return of Kris Durham will bolster Georgia's receiving corps. (Curtis Compton / AJC)

Coming out of signing day this week, Mark Richt admitted that Georgia’s lack of depth at wide receiver concerns him, especially after the loss of Da’Rick Rogers to Tennessee left the Dogs with only one incoming freshman receiver this year, Michael Bennett of Alpharetta.

Speaking of his receiving corps, Richt told the Athens Banner-Herald, “We don’t have, at this moment, the number that we would feel comfortable having — and that’s always give or take one or two.” Which pretty much echoes a quote from Mike Bobo last April when it was announced that rising senior receiver Kris Durham would have to take a medical redshirt year because of shoulder surgery.

Despite being thin at receiver last year, Georgia wound up with a pretty decent passing attack, mainly because of A.J. Green. Junior star Green is back this season, of course, for what many think will be his final season playing in Athens, …

Continue reading Thank goodness for A.J. Green and Orson Charles »

Richard Samuel's move to linebacker is welcome news. (Georgiadogs.com)

Some final thoughts on signing day.

First, you don’t shake up a program by getting rid of nearly half the coaches without expecting some fallout like this. Yes, it would have been great to add some depth at wide receiver and cornerback, but it’s not like the cupboard was exactly bare after those Top 10 recruiting classes Mark Richt has had in recent years. If the Dogs are going to suffer any from this subpar recruiting season, it’ll probably be a year or so down the road. And, who knows, if Richt bounces back in terms of recruiting next year, this hiccup might not matter much at all.

Secondly, this class might not be as impressive on first appearance as Richt’s others, but it’s not too shabby. Had Da’Rick Rogers not bolted, this likely would have been graded a Top 10 class by at least some of the recruiting analysts.

And as has been pointed out by MrSEC and others, if you average those much-hyped star …

Continue reading Big picture needed when it comes to UGA’s recruiting »

Georgia signee T.J. Stripling. (Jason Getz / AJC)

Recruiting isn’t the primary focus here (there are plenty of other outlets for that), but in my continuing effort to try to talk some of you down off the ledge in the face of what’s generally being perceived as a disappointing signing day for UGA, here’s a reminder that all this five-star and four-star ranking business isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.

Back in August, we ran an article by Ken Sugiura and Tim Ellerbee under the headline “Are recruiting services overrated?” It included the following about a recruit who today has become one of Georgia’s signees:

“An odd thing happened in the world of college football recruiting last week, and T.J. Stripling, the talented player from Southwest DeKalb, certainly benefited. Stripling, a 6-foot-6, 215-pound defensive end, had gone somewhat unnoticed by the nation’s top recruiting services until word circulated that he was close to choosing among Georgia and several other top …

Continue reading How much do recruiting star ratings really mean? »

Will the recruitniks give Mark Richt a thumbs-up after signing day? (Associated Press)

Today it was the groundhog’s day to provide grist for prognosticators, and tomorrow it’ll be the results of signing day.

From what I’m hearing and reading, a lot of UGA fans are feeling pretty depressed about the prospect of at least a couple of defections by high-profile recruits who’d given the Dogs a verbal commitment (which, considering these are 18-year-old kids, means about as much as an Urban Meyer resignation). Mark Richt has lost his touch as a recruiter, they’re saying. Why do Florida and Alabama get the five-star recruits? And what’s with the apparent recruiting surge of Auburn under Gene Chizik?

Of course, at the other extreme there are folks in the Bulldog Nation who think way too much is made of the annual rankings of recruiting classes. As Rex Robinson wrote recently, “The day I let a 17- or 18-year-old kid dictate the ebb and flow of my day, is when hell freezes over. …

Continue reading Will Da’Rick Rogers see his shadow? »

Fran the Man. (Minnesota Vikings)

Let’s talk about Dogs in the pros.

A lot of UGA fans follow Bulldog players’ NFL careers closely and no doubt will be tuning in to the Pro Bowl this weekend, where Champ Bailey of the Broncos will be representing UGA. (Jon Stinchcomb of the Saints also would be in the game but he’s on a Super Bowl team.)

The list of other Bulldogs who’ve been selected for the Pro Bowl in the past includes, among others, such names as Broncos Super Bowl MVP and noted Chunky soup fan Terrell Davis, Rodney Hampton, Garrison Hearst, Len Hauss, Jimmy Orr, Mo Lewis, Guy McIntyre, Richard Seymour, Charley Trippi and Bobby Walston. And I’d long forgotten this, but in his very brief pro career with the Falcons, kicker Bobby Etter actually made the 1970 Pro Bowl.

(That also brings to mind probably the most unlikely Bulldog to grace an NFL roster: Ray Jeffords, who was a basketball player for the Dogs that the Falcons decided to draft as a tight end in 1968 for …

Continue reading Five Favorite Bulldogs in the Pros »

UGA-bred Derek Dooley is a definite step up in class from Lane Kiffin. (Louisiana Tech)

As college football rivalries go, the one between UGA and Tennessee doesn’t have a lot of history (they didn’t play for many years) and it has never had the intensity of Georgia-Florida, or the sibling-like feel of Georgia-Auburn and the season-ending meeting with Tech.

And yet the rivalry with the Vols is the only one in modern memory that saw UGA fans tear down the goal posts in Athens after a win, and it produced one of Larry Munson’s most memorable calls in Knoxville.

I got to thinking about the nature of that rivalry after my son raised the question of how having Vince Dooley’s son Derek as the UT head coach might change how UGA fans view Tennessee.

Certainly, Dooley, who grew up in Athens, played and got his undergrad degree at Virginia and received his law degree from UGA, won’t be the obvious villain in fans’ eyes that loudmouthed Lane Kiffin aspired to be. By all appearances to …

Continue reading What will UGA fans make of ‘Dooley’s Vols’? »

Do you see Mark Richt growing old at UGA? (Associated Press)

It’s a given that Mark Richt’s program lost a little momentum last season, which in the knee-jerk world of college football “analysis” prompted the “hot seat” talk that reached a crescendo during the prolonged search for a defensive coordinator. After Kirby Smart decided to stay at Alabama, MrSEC.com declared flatly that Richt was “in trouble” and “his days are running out.”

The hiring of Todd Grantham calmed the waters a bit, but there’s still a contingent of pundits who seem to think that anything less than an SEC East title this fall will leave Richt with a tenuous grip on his job.

So it’s refreshing to see ESPN.com’s Chris Low opining that if any SEC coach is in it for the long haul, it’s Richt.

Low says that “Steve Spurrier told me last summer that he doubts the SEC will ever see a head coach again who endures at one place for 16 or 17 seasons the way Phillip Fulmer did at Tennessee. The money coaches are making …

Continue reading Finally, a positive spin on Richt’s future at UGA »

(University of Georgia)

Happy Founders Day! Today marks the 225th anniversary of the state of Georgia chartering the University of Georgia, and we’ll celebrate it by noting that three of the Dogs’ verbal commitments have made the 2010 edition of the much cited Parade Magazine All-America team.

Safety Alec Ogletree of Newnan, receiver Da’Rick Rogers of Calhoun and quarterback Hutson Mason of Marietta are among 58 players from 24 states selected selected by coaches, journalists, scouts, and recruiters for the 47th annual All-America High School Football Team. They are the only players from the state of Georgia to make the team.

Now we just gotta hope they indeed sign on the dotted line.

The All-America team will run in the Sunday issue of Parade but you can check it out by clicking on the above link.

BULLDOG BITES

You know Mark Fox has the basketball program on the mend when there are actually scalpers outside the Steg! The Athens Banner-Herald reports UGA police banned two men …

Continue reading Parade All-Americans and basketball scalpers! »