Mark Bradley

Oblivious to traffic customs, Auburn fans eagerly await the Tiger Walk. (Photo by M. Bradley)

Athens – If we had to rank the five biggest wins of the Mark Richt Era, two would involve Auburn. The breakthrough clincher at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 2002 would be No. 1, natch, and the upset of the fifth-ranked Tigers four years later would be, I submit, No. 5. (Behind the Verron Haynes game in Knoxville, the Gator Stomp game in Jacksonville and the 2005 SEC championship over LSU.)

I mention this because a victory tonight would be huge for Georgia. It would make no impact on the BCS standings, but it could serve to jump-start the end of a season gone flat. And it would be huge because to lose to Gene Chizik in Year 1 after losing to Lane Kiffin in Year 1 would be unthinkable.

This is one of those games I figured Georgia would win when I made my predictions back in May, but Georgia isn’t as good as I thought it would be and Auburn is a tad better than I assumed. I’ll stick with the …

Continue reading Live from Athens: Another big Auburn game for Richt »

Still think Horfy isn't a center? Still think the Hawks can't play? (Boston.com)

Not to say I told you so, but …

The Hawks just beat the Celtics on the parquet of the new Garden. Yes, it was a regular-season game, but it was as significant as a regular-season game can be in November. The Hawks proved to the NBA — and, more important, to themselves — that they can leave Philips Arena and outslug one of the league’s heavyweights. Armed with this knowledge, who knows where they might wind up?

The world at large has no idea how good these Hawks can be. Heck, until Friday night I’m not sure the Hawks had a clear notion. But they should have an inkling now. They should know they have as many good players — not a superstar, no, but good players across the board — as any team anywhere. They’re 7-2 with victories in Portland and Boston. They’re big-time.

And they’re still relatively young. This is no small consideration. The Celtics and Shaquille O’Neal (Cavs) and Vince Carter (Magic) …

Continue reading A breakthrough in Boston for the big-time Hawks »

Black shirts seemed tres chic back then. No longer, alas. (AJC photo by Pouya Dianat)

Big game. Night game. South’s oldest rivalry. Between the hedges. Time for a blackout!

Hey! It worked once!

Actually, it worked once and stopped working. It worked once — technically it worked twice, if you count the Sugar Bowl against Hawaii, which nobody should — and it gave the Bulldogs the cockeyed notion that what they wore mattered more than how they played.

It worked on the night of Nov. 10, 2007, when Georgia wore black jerseys beat Auburn 45-2o. It worked less well on the night of Sept. 27, 2008, when a reappearance of those black shirts enabled the Bulldogs to work themselves into a 31-point halftime hole against Alabama. And Georgia hasn’t been the same since.

The mojo, if that’s what it is, was gone. The color-coordination thing had been exposed as a gimmick. And that was what was so pitiful about Georgia’s unveiling of black helmets and black pants in Jacksonville on Halloween. …

Continue reading UGA needs to get back to basics, not back in black »

PJ tells Roddy Jones, "Just spin the dial." (Photo by Stephen Jensen, Tallahassee Democrat)

There comes a moment in everyone’s life when decision-making becomes just too difficult. You weigh the pros. You weigh the cons. And still you can’t make a choice because, to be frank, choosing is just too hard. Door No. 1? Door No. 2? Buy a consonant? Buy a vowel? Oh, Mr. Kotter, I’m so confused!

At such a moment, there’s only one recourse. We need to ask ourselves: What would PJ do?

(Something daring, surely. I mean, the man only went for it on fourth down five times against Wake Forest. And never mind that the first four didn’t work. The fifth turned out OK.)

As fate would have it, a shadowy figure who goes by “Fireball” has created a practical aid to bolder choice-making. He first posted it on The Hive, where it was discovered and forwarded to me by (cough, cough) a highly placed Georgia Tech source. And with the help of another clandestine operative — OK, Timothy Briley, a Tech fan …

Continue reading Now you, too, can make decisions like Paul Johnson! »

This might be the best 15 grand Smitty will ever spend. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)

As a rule, it’s not good when a head coach gets fined $15,000 for an incident involving another team’s player. But rules, as we know, have exceptions. DeAngelo Hall is an exception marked in yellow Hi-Liter. DeAngelo Hall is the exception to pretty much everything.

It was announced Thursday that Mike Smith must pay 15K for his tete-a-tete with D-Hall. It wasn’t as bad as it might have been — Smitty could have gotten suspended — and in the grand scheme it wasn’t bad at all. Because Mike Smith just stopped being the amiable career assistant who looks vaguely like Steve Martin and became the ultimate players’ coach. And that, in the NFL, is a great thing to be.

The guys in the Falcons’ locker room already loved Smitty. We know this because they play hard for him every blessed week. But now they have even more reason for their ardor. Not only did their coach mix it up in an altercation …

Continue reading Market report: Smitty gets fined, but his stock surely rises »

Nov. 12, 2008: Pierce hits the gamer over Horfy. (AP photo)

The Hawks were playing  Boston when Tree Rollins bit Danny Ainge’s finger (1983) and again when they were outscored 36-6 in the third quarter of an elimination game (1986). They were playing Boston when they had a chance to oust the Celtics and Cliff Levingston hoisted the running lefty hook (1988), Boston yet again when the top-seeded Celtics were taken to a Game 7 by an opponent that wasn’t sure it could win one playoff game (2008).

And now the Hawks are set to meet Boston again. Officially it’s one game, one of 82. Actually it’s much more.

The Hawks are off to another fast start. They’re 6-2. But they were 6-0 last season when they went, inevitably, to Boston and played the champion Celtics off their feet. They led after 47 minutes and 58 seconds. They lost because Paul Pierce hit, as Paul Pierce does, a contested shot while off-balance. The Hawks of 2008-2009 would  finish 47-35 and win a playoff series for the …

Continue reading For the ever-improved Hawks, it’s time to win in Boston »

What happened when Georgia last played an ACC team? (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)

A screaming comes across the sky. (Props to Pynchon.) Much of the sound emanates from the rejoicing of Georgia Tech fans, but the real wails stem from the anguish of Georgia Bulldog backers, who have just learned that their beloved team would …

Rank fourth in the ACC Coastal, second in the ACC Atlantic, fifth in the ACC overall.

That’s my opinion, anyway. I’d put Georgia behind Tech, Miami and Virginia Tech in the Coastal; behind Clemson in the Atlantic; behind all four in the overall power rankings.

A word of explanation: This whole thing got started, as whole things will, when I posed the question: Where would Tech rank in the SEC? (Fourth behind Florida, Alabama and LSU, I said.) One or two of you suggested an even better idea would be to ask the same of Georgia and the ACC. So I have. And here it is.

My rationale: I consider the 2009 Bulldogs a shade above mediocre. (Subject to change with …

Continue reading Hot Button, Part 2: Where would UGA rank in the ACC? »

Here's the churnin' Michael Turner we're used to seeing. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)

Flowery Branch – Napoleon Bonaparte, not to be confused with Napoleon Dynamite, famously said an army travels on its stomach. A good NFL team travels via its legs, and for a while there was concern the Falcons’ legs — meaning Michael Turner — had been sapped by an expanding midsection.

Put simply, there were those who believed the big back had gotten too big. Turner insisted Wednesday such was never the case. “My weight was the same as last season — 244, 245,” he said. “I get bigger in the offseason, but I work the weight off … You notice [increased weight]; you feel sluggish. But that wasn’t the issue.”

But there was no denying the dip in production. The man who’d rushed for 1,699 yards in 2008 was, through six games of 2009, on pace to gain 1,075. He was averaging 3.4 yards per carry, down from 4.5 last season. He’d managed 30 yards in a narrow victory over Chicago and 50 in a loss at …

Continue reading Turner the Burner returns, and the Falcons breathe easier »

There's a difference between ACC speed and SEC speed. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)

It’s clear – to me, if not to C.J. Spiller and Dabo Swinney — that Georgia Tech is the class of the ACC. But the ACC is often described as the least of the six BCS leagues, and another conference in the neighborhood is regarded as the best. So now, today’s question:

Where would Tech rank in the SEC?

My first inclination is to say the Jackets would finish wherever Mike Slive’s refs got together and decided they should be, but that’s my little joke. Getting serious, I’d say …

Second in the East behind Florida. Third in the West behind Alabama and LSU. Fourth overall.

That wailing you hear are the cries arising from the confluence of North Avenue and Techwood Drive, but hear me out. As good as Tech is — and it is very good — there’s still a difference between the personnel of a top-shelf SEC team and of everyone else. (Ask Jim Tressel.) This doesn’t mean Tech couldn’t up and beat Florida or …

Continue reading The Hot Button: Where would Tech finish in the SEC? »

Are the long-suffering Hawks the flagship of Atlanta sports? (AJC photo by Elissa Eubanks)

I’m fairly certain they’ll never play a game against one another, but it’s one of those rainy-day topics — and today is a rainy day — I find irresistible. The Falcons are good. The Hawks are good. Who’s better?

I know. Apples and oranges. Still, there are ways to measure. The Hawks, who are 5-2, are No. 6 among 30 NBA teams in both Marc Stein’s power rankings on ESPN.com and Chris Mannix’s similar list on SI.com. The Falcons, who are 5-3, are No. 12 in Peter King’s Fine Fifteen on SI.com.

King on the Falcons: “The Falcons will be a tough out in January. And yes, they’ll be playing football in January.”

Stein on the Hawks: “Honestly can’t remember the last time Atlanta looked this credible.”

I’d agree with both sentiments. I believe the Falcons will finish 10-6 and will make the playoffs. (That has been my longstanding prediction, but I’ll concede my forecast of an NFC South title is in …

Continue reading A rainy-day question: Who’s better, the Falcons or Hawks? »