Archive for March, 2012

Georgia and Clemson haven't met in football since 2003. (Associated Press)

Keep an eye on the mailbox if you’re a Bulldog Club member, because those 2012 football season ticket applications went into the mail Friday. Hartman Fund contributors have until March 31 to return their order to the Athletic Association ticket office. Or you can renew your tickets online.

Now, let’s get to some of this week’s Junkyard Mail. …

Hal Lincoln writes: I read where the expanded ACC might be going to nine conference games as early as 2013, which could put the 2013-14 Georgia-Clemson home-and-home series in jeopardy. The problem is that Clemson already has four nonconference games scheduled for those years — their in-state rival South Carolina, Georgia and a pair of cupcakes. The thinking is Clem & Son might decide to keep the cupcakes and unload the series with the Dawgs. As someone who thinks Clemson was one of our best rivals and misses them being on our schedule every year, this is really …

Continue reading Fan talk: Georgia-Clemson, fight song heresy, Erk’s hangout and more! »

Orson Charles can catch the ball, but his NFL draft stock may be falling. (Associated Press)

It hasn’t been a good week for former UGA tight end Orson Charles.

Once considered likely to be the top tight end in the NFL draft after having decided to forgo his senior season with the Dogs, Charles now seems to be compiling a model for how to damage your own stock in the draft.

First he skipped the 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine because, he said, he got started late training. Then, on an admittedly blustery day at Woodruff Practice Fields, he ran a pair of relatively slow 40s both into and with the wind before a host of pro scouts as part of UGA’s Pro Day.

Going from bad to worse, early Friday morning Charles was booked by Athens-Clarke County police on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.

That’s not going to help.

Justin Houston found out last year that off-field issues can drop you in the draft as he fell to the third round after testing positive for …

Continue reading Orson Charles demonstrates how not to improve your NFL draft stock »

Do the Dogs need more leverage to land Robert Nkemdiche? (AJC file)

Although Bulldogs recruitniks are encouraged that UGA made the latest “Top 5″ schools under consideration by Robert Nkemdiche, the nation’s consensus No. 1 overall college football prospect, most recruiting handicappers still consider Alabama the overwhelming favorite to snag the defensive end from Loganville, with some giving Ole Miss a shot because that’s where his brother Denzel is playing and it would make his dad happy to have both boys on the same team.

That’s what’s called a “package deal” in the recruiting business.

But there’s another potential package deal that might allow Georgia to get a little more leverage with Nkemdiche than just being the home state school. Some recruiting observers think UGA could perhaps ace out Bama and Ole Miss if it were to offer a spot to cornerback David Kamara, Nkemdiche’s teammate at Grayson High and his best friend since sixth grade.

As Nkemdiche told the AJC’s …

Continue reading Should Dogs try a ‘package deal’ to land top recruit Nkemdiche? »

Not enough of these guys are showing up at Sanford Stadium. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

The Red and Black reported this week that the athletic board, school officials and student representatives have been discussing the increasing problem of empty seats in the student section at Sanford Stadium during even big games.

The student section never reached capacity last season, the R&B report noted, with more than half the 18,000 student seats going unused at one game. But while it shouldn’t be that surprising to have 10,000 students deciding to ditch the Coastal Carolina game, it’s shocking to read that there were 3,000 empty student seats for Auburn.

Wells Ellenberg, the student representative on the athletic board, put it bluntly: “Students, for whatever reason, don’t feel the need to go to the football game. We lack the appropriate culture here for an SEC football school.”

While some older fans are quick to conclude that all those scholars with the high SAT scores drawn to UGA by …

Continue reading Fan talk: Empty student seats, ‘Battle Hymn’ soloists, backup QBs and more! »

Malcolm Mitchell doesn't want to come off the field. (Associated Press)

One thing to keep in mind when parsing the comments of college football players about their program in the offseason is that you can nearly always expect to hear that everyone’s working harder than they did last year and the whole team is more focused.

Keeping that in mind, there still were nuggets coming out of Thursday’s interview session by several players worth noting — some that are encouraging, even taking the Everything’s Better This Offseason Syndrome into account, and even a couple of comments that were downright revealing.

On the encouraging side, you have to admire the attitude of current wide receiver and possible future wide receiver/cornerback/kick returner Malcolm Mitchell, who, when asked about former UGA iron man Champ Bailey playing 100 snaps in a game, replied: “I want 101.”

“I don’t want to come off the field,” Mitchell said about possibly going three ways in games. “I will …

Continue reading Dogs don’t have to ‘drag’ Crowell to workouts this season »