UGA sports blog

If you missed it -– and if you did here’s the story -– there was a pretty interesting meeting of the UGA Athletic Association board of directors yesterday at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall.

The board got another upbeat financial report and voted to spend almost $4 million on several facilities projects (details in story), but the two topics that might interest you the most pertained to Mark Richt’s contract extension and a college football playoff.

UGA President Michael Adams pronounced the parties “in 98 percent agreement” on Richt’s contract extension and said the remaining 2 percent “is just minor details.” Adams said the executive committee of the athletic board could reconvene by teleconference to approve the deal when it is done.

As for a playoff, Adams added to the recent indications that momentum is finally building toward one, telling the executive committee: “My best guess is we’re going to end up with either a four- or eight-team playoff by the time we get to ‘14.” That …

Continue reading Two hot topics from UGA Athletic Board meeting »

With an 8:05 p.m. tip, Georgia’s basketball game against Arkansas Wednesday night was one of those slam-it-in-for-print kind of games. So following is a recast of my game story on the Bulldogs’ impressive 81-59 win updated with quotes from players and coaches, some minor tweeks and some addition quotes at the end.

ATHENS — Two teams on divergent paths met at Stegeman Coliseum on Wednesday night. But it was the one supposedly heading downward that came out on top.

Georgia, which won one of its eight games during the first half of the SEC schedule, started the second by doubling its conference total with a 81-59 victory over Arkansas. The Razorbacks (16-8, 4-5 SEC) came in with wins over three ranked teams but searching for their first SEC road victory.

The Bulldogs (11-12, 2-7) got a career-high 27 points from senior guard Gerald Robinson — including 17 in the first half — along with five assists and SIX rebounds as the SEC’s worst offensive team trumped the league’s worst …

Continue reading Georgia finally puts it all together in win over Arkansas »

The dismissal last week of three Georgia football players coupled with the legal trouble facing Sanders Commings has left put the Bulldogs in a pinch in the secondary.

Initially thought to be a team strength heading into the 2012 season, Georgia’s defensive backfield is suddenly left precariously thin and extremely vulnerable after head coach Mark Richt booted off the team Nick Marshall and Chris Sanders. Including the departure of three other defensive backs since the start of last season — Jakar Hamilton, Derek Owens and Jordan Love all left, allegedly of their own volition — that leaves the Bulldogs with just nine scholarship defensive backs heading into spring practice next month.

Included in that number is senior and starting cornerback Sanders Commings. However, Commings is not expected to be available for at least the first couple of games next season due to his arrest on a domestic violence/simple battery charge last month. Unless those charges end up getting dropped, …

Continue reading Recent dismissals, arrest leave Georgia with secondary concerns »

Georgia coach Mark Richt and recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner introduce the Bulldogs' early enrolles (L-R) Keith Marshall, Faton Bauta and Mark Beard. (AP photo)

Q&A WITH KEITH MARSHALL

Lost in all the craziness of last week’s national signing day drama and shocking player dismissals was the introduction of Georgia’s three early enrollees. Quarterback Faton Bauta, offensive lineman Mark Beard and tailback Keith Marshall had been shielded from interviews by UGA since arriving in Athens to begin spring semester in early January. But the three players were made available on the afternoon of national signing day. I’ll be sharing a little about each of them in a story that will run in Tuesday’s printed edition. In the meantime, I don’t think there is any question that Marshall, the five-star tailback from Raleigh, N.C. , is one of the most anticipated addition of the early enrollees and really of the entire 2012 class. So here’s some of what I heard from him this past …

Continue reading Q&A: UGA freshman TB Keith Marshall says ‘competition is a good thing’ »

ATHENS — Three players have been kicked off the Georgia football team for an undisclosed violation of team rules.

UGA coach Mark Richt announced this morning that defensive back Nick Marshall, wide receiver Sanford Seay and  defensive back Chris Sanders have been dismissed from the team. All three are freshmen and were members of Georgia’s 2011 “Dream Team” recruiting class.

The school did not address what precipitated the dismissals.

“It’s a privilege to play college football and to be a part of this team and University,” Richt said in a statement. “Along with that privilege comes certain responsibilities. Mistakes were made, and part of our job is helping them learn from mistakes. Going forward, we are committed to assisting them find opportunities where they can continue their education.”

Marshall’s high school coach,  Mark Ledford, was reached by the AJC this morning.

“I don’t want to comment on what Nick did,” said Ledford, head football coach at Wilcox County High.  “All …

Continue reading 3 players dismissed by Georgia for team rules violations »

ATHENS — Georgia will have to report an NCAA secondary violation regarding its recruitment of Josh Harvey-Clemons. But as far as secondary violations go, they don’t get much more secondary than this one.

Jim Booz, UGA’s senior associate athletic director for compliance, confirmed to The AJC Thursday that coach Mark Richt ran afoul of NCAA bylaws when he commented on Harvey-Clemons shortly after the highly-touted prospect announced on national television his decision to sign with the Bulldogs on Wednesday. Harvey-Clemons’ signing ceremony at Lowndes High School in Valdosta was televised live by ESPN and the sports network also had a reporter and camera crew with Georgia coaches in Athens.

Shortly after Harvey-Clemons made his announcement in Valdosta, ESPN reporter Cara Capuano asked Richt for his reaction and for his thoughts on prospect’s athletic abilities. Turns out that violates NCAA bylaw 13.10.2, which states that no one from a member institution can comment on a …

Continue reading UGA has to report NCAA secondary violation due to comments on Harvey-Clemons »

Videochat with CineSport about Georgia’s 2012 recruiting class . . .

Continue reading Video: UGA recruiting class even more impressive with Harvey-Clemons secured »

ATHENS — Josh Harvey-Clemons said he never wavered on his decision to sign with Georgia. He just had to convince his grandfather that it was the best move.

“I just had to sit down with my family and get everybody on the same page,” said Harvey-Clemons, reached by phone Thursday morning in Valdosta. “He was looking at it as Florida was closer. I’ve got a cousin who still plays at Lowndes and my little brother is going to be in high school next year. Florida is only like an hour and 20 minutes away, so he was thinking about going to games on Friday and being able to drive down to Gainesville easy. That’s why he liked Florida.

“Georgia’s a little farther away but I told him that’s where I wanted to go.”

Harvey-Clemons said he sent over the letter-of-intent via fax Thursday morning at 8:05 a.m. He said Georgia’s coaching staff never panicked and helped him through the dilemma.

“They were fine,” he said of the coaching staff. “They were just telling me to let them know what was …

Continue reading UPDATED: Harvey-Clemons never wavered on UGA, just had to convince granddad »

ATHENS — Greetings from Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall. Yeah, I’m still here.

Been an interesting day, as you may have noticed. It looked like it was going to be a nice smooth national signing day and a largely positive one for Georgia. The Bulldogs had gotten good news on two of their main targets early in the day, missed out on a couple of other targets later, and coach Mark Richt and Rodney Garner told us all about what was right about the 2012 recruiting class early in the afternoon.

The plan then was to breakdown the class, disseminate all the information, write it up for our readers and get home in time for a late supper.

But then that letter-of-intent for Josh Harvey-Clemons went AWOL. Apparently the young man’s grandfather and legal guardian did as well. And though we all watched the highly-touted outside linebacker from Valdosta tell a national television audience he intended to sign with Georgia, the Bulldogs’ couldn’t announce him as a signee and we haven’t been able to …

Continue reading Despite Harvey-Clemons drama, Georgia brings in strong class »

Juggling a bunch of things at the moment so haven’t had much time to craft a comprehensive report for you. But in the meantime here’s is a raw transcription (please forgive typos) of some of the main points Mark Richt and his assistants made while briefing UGA fans in Heritage Hall a little while ago. About to have a session with richt and recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner so I’ll have more information coming soon. . . .

Richt on how many Georgia might sign . . .

“I don’t know for certain because the day’s not over yet. I know I’, thrilled about the ones we’ve already signed on the dotted line. The biggest issue we thought we had was at the tackle position and I feel like we did a tremendous job there.”

Offensive line coach Will Friend on his newbies . . .

“We’re real excited about the guys we’ve got signed. Mark Beard is already on campus and we’re real excited about him. We thought we did a good job with guys that are athletic who will start out at tackle but could be …

Continue reading Richt: O-line recruiting not an issue, happy with ‘guys we got’ »