Archive for July, 2011

Losing Caleb King means Mike Bobo is going to have to get creative. (Associated Press)

So, after a weekend in which Caleb King leaving the team dominated just about any discussion of Georgia football, it seems there’s a prominent split in opinion among both fans and college football observers in general over whether Georgia losing King was a Very Big Deal or No Big Deal at All.

On the one hand are those who feel the lack of his solid, if unspectacular, running and his better-than-average pass blocking will be severely missed by the Dogs, especially in the first couple of games. On the other side are those who look at the body of his work at UGA and his continuing off-field problems and think we likely would have been in for just more of the same. They’ve labeled King a bust and feel moving him out of Isaiah Crowell’s way that much quicker will likely just accelerate the true freshman’s development.

I’d love for that to be true, and who knows, Crowell may have the same sort of …

Continue reading Who’s the key to Georgia’s offense, Isaiah Crowell or … Mike Bobo? »

Caleb King in better times. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

So now that UGA has made it official that Caleb King is academically ineligible, where does that leave the Dogs’ running game?

Awfully shaky at best. Yes, incoming “Dream Team” member Isaiah Crowell is expected to be the next great Georgia tailback, but the odds are long against him being fully ready to shoulder that mantle right from the start.

And with Boise State and South Carolina as the opening games, there won’t be any chance for tune-ups.

While Crowell’s running chops might be in fine form early on, chances are he’s going to have a hard time picking up the considerable pass protection duties that tailbacks have in Mike Bobo’s offense. And considering the questions surrounding the offensive line, that’s likely to be crucial.

So we might see quite a bit of the somewhat more experienced redshirt freshman Ken “Boo” Malcome in the mix to start with.

In terms of the running attack, hopefully we won’t see Bobo trying to make …

Continue reading From ‘Dream’ spring to nightmare summer (UPDATED) »

While we cross our fingers and hope that the widespread rumors of academic casualties prove to be nothing more than midsummer fan paranoia, let’s check some Junkyard Mail …

UPDATE: The bad news about Caleb King is official now. He’s been declared academically ineligible. I’ll have more to say later. …

How many wins do the Dogs need to save Mark Richt's job? (Associated Press)

Frank Johnson writes: Seems like every time I get together with my Bulldog buddies, the subject comes up of Mark Richt being on the proverbial “hot seat” and just how many wins this season it will take to keep his job. Looking at the Dawgs’ schedule, I think anything less than 10 wins will be disappointing and grounds for dismissal. What say you?

Only Greg McGarity can possibly say what number of wins would assure Richt’s return and he might not even have made up his mind at this point. Some folks think an 0-2 start could make it tough for Richt to survive the whole season, but I frankly don’t think …

Continue reading Fan talk: How many wins gets Mark Richt off the ‘hot seat’? »

Crunching numbers gives some of us a headache. (Stanford University)

Mathematics is something I’ve generally spent my life avoiding whenever I could and surviving when I couldn’t, as in high school. Generally, you want to send me scurrying away in the opposite direction, just drop a term like “pythagorean theorem.”

But while I wouldn’t go as far as several teachers tried in vain to convince me many years ago and say that math can be your friend, I will grant that it can at least be used to serve a purpose.

Which brings me to an interesting CBSSports.com blog post by Jerry Hinnen citing some recent numbers-crunching that offers hope to fans of Mark Richt’s Bulldogs.

He notes that viewed through a mathematical prism, the general idea in college football is that if you win or lose an unusually high number of close games in a season, the odds are that you’ll do the opposite the next season to get back to the mean.

Citing Phil Steele’s tracking of “net close wins” and the Alabama …

Continue reading Dawgs look good playing the numbers »

Simply Saturday: David Greene left college as the winningest quarterback, but didn't achieve NFL stardom. (Associated Press)

ESPN.com spent the past week trotting out its Simply Saturday series, a countdown of the 50 greatest college players who didn’t go on to become great NFL players.

Ohio State’s Archie Griffin topped the list, which was heavy on names from Notre Dame, Nebraska, Oklahoma and FSU. Strangely, only five SEC players were included, and three of them were from Auburn.

No Georgia Bulldogs made the list, possibly because many of UGA’s best-known players have gone on to long and occasionally even stellar careers in pro football. But ESPN SEC blogger Chris Low did include a couple of Bulldog defensive legends on his own Simply Saturday list: David Pollack, whose NFL career was ended prematurely by a neck injury, and Scott Woerner, who played mainly in the USFL after a brief stint in the NFL.

I’m not sure it’s really fair for a list of Simply Saturday stars to include …

Continue reading Simply Saturday: Adding some Dawgs to list of college-only legends »