Buck Belue offers college football, recruiting insight on 680

I'm guessing Buck Belue, shown here throwing out of the end zone for Georgia in some game against Florida in 1980, has made some better connections over the years than with me. (UGA Photo)

For just the third time in the last 21 years, I am not going to be required by my employer to cover a college football game every Saturday in the fall.

Now that might not sound like a good thing to those of you who have religiously spent great sums of money and traveled great lengths just for the right to attend to such games. And, to be sure, there will be times that I will sorely miss viewing a meaningful contest from my convenient perch in a press box high above the field. What I won’t miss is the crush of blogging live throughout a game and trying to make an 11 p.m. deadline with three separate stories off a 7:55 p.m. kickoff.

As the AJC’s resident recruiting dude (my official title), my job now is to keep up with all things recruiting by blogging in this space at least three times a day Monday through Friday. I follow the exploits of the top prospects in Greater Atlanta and the state, get out to see as many of them as I can as often as possible and bring you the news whenever one of them commits, de-commits, visits or actually signs with a school. That leaves little time left over for traveling to such outposts as Stillwater and Starkville and killing a whole weekend for one three-and-a-half-hour contest.

No, for once I’m looking forward to actually kicking back on my basement couch and actually soaking in the pomp and circumstance and revelry that is college football for a whole day. That’s not to mention enjoying the absolute genius that is the modern-day DVR and slow-motion instant replay.

Buck, here with regular weekday cohort Jon Kincade.

But that’s not to say I won’t still be involved with the coverage of college football this fall. Thanks to Buck Belue and Atlanta radio station 680 The Fan (WCNN-AM 680), I will still get to share my expertise on the greatest sport in these United States (as least to most of us Southerners). Buck asked me to join him and Steve West on his weekly show, “Buck Belue’s College Football Today,” each Saturday morning from 9 to noon. Buck’s been doing the show for about the last six years, previewing all the day’s game and focusing intently on Georgia, Georgia Tech, the SEC and ACC and all the local teams.

Former Bulldog Matt Stinchcomb did the show last year but has moved on to big-time TV with ESPN. Filling Stinchcomb’s considerable shoes aside — I wear 9 1/2 halfs, his are twice that size at least, literally and figuratively — Buck thought I’d make good replacement and the folks here at the AJC were kind enough to oblige. I’ve known Buck for years and have been fortunate enough to call him a friend the last decade or so. But he thought injecting some recruiting news and information would be a nice addition to his lineup. I do, too.

Anyway, I’m very much looking forward to the first show, which gets underway this Saturday. And what better way to start off than at Chick-fil-A College Kickoff Game between Alabama and Virginia Tech being played right here in our backyard at the Georgia Dome!

Buck and I — “Westy” has other duties this weekend — will be doing the show live from Centenniel Olympic Park. In case you haven’t heard, there will be quite a few things going on there Saturday. ESPN’s College Game Day will be there and 680 The Fan, along with Bud Light, Q100, Rock100.5, 99X and Jezebel magazine, is sponsoring the “Bud Light Downtown Touchdown Free Concert” featuring Collective Soul at 3 p.m. The AJC’s Jamie Gumbrecht runs down the lineup of events going on Saturday HERE.

So come on down and check out the scene and be sure to listen to Buck and me wax eloquent about all the day’s games. Well, at least tune in to listen to Buck.