Off-field behavior exemplary for Bulldogs . . . so far
Georgia has a clock in its weight room counting down the hours and minutes until its football season opener at Oklahoma State on Sept. 5. It should have another one that started counting up from the end of spring practice.
Traditionally that is about the time when football players start getting into trouble. You may recall that the Bulldogs had a ton of trouble last year. By the end of football season there had been 11 arrests involving players (not all the charges stuck, by the way). The majority of those arrests took place between this point and the start of preseason camp in August, when players typically have more free time and a less structured schedule.
That’s why quarterback Joe Cox got up before the team after this past weekend’s G-Day Game to urge his teammates to be extremely diligent about staying out of the police blotter.
“We’ve had problems, as well as a lot of teams across the country have had problems starting at this point, with guys getting in trouble,” Cox told the Athens Banner-Herald. “We don’t want to make it where we tell guys, ‘Hey, stay in your room, lock your door, don’t have any fun.’ But at the same time, you need to be careful and need to know the difference between right and wrong. Find ways to have fun doing the right thing, staying out of trouble. I think we’ve done a great job of that so far. We haven’t had anybody do anything stupid.”
For those keeping count — and the guys that run the website everydayshouldbesaturday.com do with the annual “Fulmer Cup” bad behavior tally — Georgia has not had a player arrested in 2009 (fans advised to knock on wood here). At this point last year the Bulldogs had four arrests. That number rose sharply over the summer.
“Am I going to sit here and say that these guys are never going to make a mistake again?” Richt told reporters. “That’s very unrealistic. But I think at least we’ve had a very good start and guys, as a whole, want to do the right thing. But, shoot, who knows what tomorrow brings, right?”
Some pointed to all those arrests last year as a sign of the team’s lack of internal discipline, which was further exposed during a 10-3 season that was expected to be much more successful. Do you believe there is a direct correlation between player behavior and on-field success? Does the Bulldogs’ off-field performance thus far bode well for 2009?
In the meantime, here are some links that may interest you:
Here’s the story I referenced from Athens’ Mark Weiszer about Georgia’s focus on off-field behavior this offseason. . . .
There are some reports out there that quarterback Matthew Stafford was blabbing to teammates during the G-Day this past weekend that it was a “done deal” that he’d be the No. 1 draft pick of the Detroit Lions. Personally I don’t believe Matthew said that. He’s way too sharp for that. But I do believe a deal could actually be done. . . . And speaking of Stafford, apparently he’s going to be a guest of Jimmy Fallon on the show “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” Thursday night. . . .
Here’s a nice little diddy from Macon’s David Hale on the emergence of Georgia’s Justin Houston at defensive end. . . .
Not only is Alabama following Georgia’s lead by having its spring game broadcasted by ESPN, the Crimson Tide has also added an alumni flag-football game to the undercard.
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148 comments Add your comment
D.Ellis
April 14th, 2009
8:29 pm
Big Bug-I would agree with Hunker Down-LSU was our best game of the year. At their place and pretty much dominated from the first play of scrimmage….put up 50+.
However our annual rivalry game was one of the best OVERALL games I watched all year….that was a great game from start to finish. Look forward to another one this November as well.
The Big Bug
April 14th, 2009
10:26 pm
I will be there in Nov rain or shine. It should be a doozy.
Fools Gold
April 14th, 2009
11:10 pm
Well well looks like the bugs just THUMPED the diamond dawgs.. Looks like Ga tech has UGAs number in the big three…… Let the excuses fly now mutt fans!!!!
Oledawg
April 15th, 2009
12:46 am
Chip- My apologies. I had just read every comment you referred to in the Athens Banner herald and in Dawgbone.net-referenced articles. I have gotten used to you bringing up Dawg Food for us to feast upon when we can’t find it anywhere else. I was just disappointed, but confessed that I disappoint myself sometimes also.
On a lighter note: Around 1980-81 I was working in Nap Town when a friend of mine(in another part of the country) asked if I would like ND game tickets from her alumnus brother. Went to the ND vs Purdue game and later found a seat for the ND vs GT in South Bend. The ND fans liked the Southern accent that kept taunting GT throughout the game. Made some new friends and when leaving the stadium continued with “Wreck Tech!” and “You cleaned their plow!” which gives an indication of who won the game. A Southern voice shouted behind me about 50ft away, “We know who you are and where you are from!”. The lady shouting was with her husband, daughter(about 7) and son(about 6). They all had little Tech banners and were wearing yellow. She continued to wave her fist and shout epithets at the hated rival while her husband and all the ND fans were laughing their heads off. The ND fans were laughing at two rivals digging at each other oblivious as to where they were in the country. They thought ND had a big rivalry with Michigan until they heard that good old fashioned hate. Are you a bad person when the glow comes to your heart realising that the defeat at the hands of ND took a back seat to taunts from THE rival school?
I mention this little vignette in the hopes that those little ones grew up and could be on this blog. If you are one of the interloping Nerds on this blog, I hope your little yellow hearts remember that day in South Bend with the fervor that I do now. Talk about the good ole days…
Mr. Skynyrd
April 15th, 2009
6:51 am
Football – Check.
Basketball – Check.
Baseball – Check.
m
April 15th, 2009
9:23 am
It is not ugag’s off the field behavior that is their biggest problem…it is their ON the field behavior. You are quickly becoming TECH’s biotch. Football, basketball (men’s and women’s), baseball…helle even ice hockey. TECH has beat the crap out of you hushpuppies in virtually every sport this year. I am going to sit back and laugh now. TGAG.
» SEC links: Spring football still in the air John Clay’s Sidelines
April 15th, 2009
10:20 am
[...] Chip Towers of the AJC writes that Georgia’s off-field behavior has been exemplary, so far. [...]
UGAfans=lozers
April 15th, 2009
10:36 am
Tech 11
# 1 GA 6
That’s football, men’s bball, women’s bball, and baseball this school year!!!! GO JACKETS!!!!! (Let the redneck whining begin….)
SEC links: Spring football still in the air | MrSEC.com
April 15th, 2009
11:20 am
[...] Chip Towers of the AJC writes that Georgia’s off-field behavior has been exemplary, so far. [...]
DawgsOnline » Oh, behave
April 15th, 2009
1:01 pm
[...] managed to either avoid police attention or make the right decisions when they do go out. Chip Towers notes that the program had already tallied four arrests by this point in 2008, and they’ve managed [...]
82dawg
April 15th, 2009
1:54 pm
Breaking NewsLt. Gov. Cagle out of governor’s race .UGA Sports Off-field behavior exemplary for Bulldogs . . . so far….. Or at least they are not getting caught!!! Ouch, did I really say that?
82dawg
April 15th, 2009
1:54 pm
UGA Sports Off-field behavior exemplary for Bulldogs . . . so far….. Or at least they are not getting caught!!! Ouch, did I really say that
AltamahaDawg
April 15th, 2009
2:10 pm
It as always the getting caught that cheesed me off the most anyway. It was never some deep undercover sting operation. If you cannot afford to be on the front page of the sports page, don’t be walking around with beer breath and waiving down police officers. It’s not a moral issue, it’s a thinking issue.
SugarHillDawg
April 15th, 2009
4:45 pm
M (butthead) Hushpuppies? That is the WORST derogatory term I’ve heard on here. Are you that vocabularily bereft?? You ARE a 5 year old RETARD! Keep running your pecker puffer IDIOT!
Reggie Ball
April 15th, 2009
4:46 pm
Football, basketball, baseball…..what’s next?
Bubba Gump
April 15th, 2009
4:51 pm
Georgia indeed had 11 players arrested, and some charges didn’t stick because Richt’s consigliares got them off the hook. The hoodlums who wrecked the hospital parking lot should have been charged with felonies, but His Holiness had an attorney there, probably with a sack of money, before the cops arrived. I think that Richt is monitoring police radios.
A quick rundown « Football on the Brain
April 15th, 2009
9:11 pm
[...] Joe Cox wants all of his teammates to behave themselves this summer unlike last. The 5th year senior supposively got up in front of his teammates at the conclusion of the G-day game and plead with them to be careful and to act accordingly. [...]
gte268p
April 16th, 2009
8:49 am
You know what’s hilarious? SEC fans from Georgia trying to convince an SEC fan from Alabama that their lives don’t revolve around football!! HAHAHA!!!
carmatter
April 16th, 2009
11:02 am
It’s pretty pathetic when you have to attempt to communicate through misspelled profanity. Expand your vocabulary. Is a “biotch” something from the bio-tech industry? Or is UGA going to become Tech’s “life teacher”? I’ll be interested to see how this plays out.
KNelson
April 16th, 2009
5:30 pm
The Summer break is right around the corner. This is when the mutts go into Heat . Driving drunk , getting into fights with their babies Momma. They will begin to drop around May. Oh and where was Deliverance filmed here it is straight from Wikedpedia:Deliverance was shot in the Tallulah Gorge south of Clayton, Georgia and on the Chattooga River, dividing the states of Georgia and South Carolina.
Bullpup fans get your facts straight before you comment, and NO you havenot won a NC in over 25 years. I know of 3 other SEC schools that have! maybe 4
Hunk Erdown
April 16th, 2009
7:13 pm
Amazing what you can find on ancestry.com
JJ
April 16th, 2009
8:17 pm
Hunk Erdown , I dont see as to where you Ga fans would need to use that website as Im sure all you need to do is look up your tree, I’m sure it doesn’t fork.
Hunk Erdown
April 16th, 2009
8:56 pm
Yep, home games are just like family reunion
Andre Smith
April 16th, 2009
9:01 pm
BAMA FAN when you refer to blackout are you refering to what your team did in the bowl game? Oh, wait a minute that was actually CALLED PATHETIC. When UGA lost to BAMA atleast we played two good quarters and the loss was pathetic, disapointing and unexcusable to all UGA fans, but, that being said the loss BAMA suffered in the bowl game made the SEC the laughing stock of college football. So, thank you Alabama. I think Bama is a good team headed in the right direction but Bama fans are going to be very disapointed in 2009.
Andre Smith
April 16th, 2009
9:05 pm
KNelson?????You still quoting numbers out of a media guide? You are really sad. Oh now your quoting Wikipedia?
AltamahaDawg
April 16th, 2009
9:38 pm
KNelson, you never answered my direct question to you. Why are you dismissing OSU as a patsy OOC game after predicting that we can’t beat them?
Houdawg
April 16th, 2009
10:35 pm
Hey Oledawg ….. didn’t this start ’bout the Dawgs behavior off the field this season ? Good points by YOU ; Tide Rising & others …. but who gives a flyin’ f%!%@! about who started televising spring games, etc. ?
That said ….. it may be a given that TR got a bit off the mark & he made his counter-points well …. but, your response that simply demanded attention to ” bereft ” , ” diatribe ” …. ” national science foundation ” ; ” ecology ” ; ” biology center of excellence “, etc, etc., speaks more to a need of personal recognition ……. than a sports blog . Although I don’t doubt your IQ by any means …. a short solution is ….. reel it in here …. again, we were talking about player behavior at UGA. And …. I hope we can all recognize, there are so many ( & I do mean many ) more important venues to address than a simple sports blog, huh ?
michael
April 17th, 2009
5:26 am
i hope the DAWGS stay with a pro style offense. A good spread will beat it every time. A QB running the spread will win the NC this season may not be Florida. The QB maybe want do well in the pros but who cares. It is all about winning championships. It has been awhile DAWG fans -but I am sure some of your remember how good that feels. Oh do not believe this head coach can get you there, but time will tell.
NashTNDawg
April 17th, 2009
9:45 pm
Where’s the “Tech Hasn’t Vacated Any Games…..Lately” article??
Go gators
April 18th, 2009
6:55 pm
Sugarhill, I am going to have fun with you this year
Pago Flyer
April 19th, 2009
12:34 am
The vols had 52,000 at their Spring game, more than Sanford Stadium. Not good….
WHYDO MUTTS BARK? CAUSE BEES STING
April 19th, 2009
12:45 pm
ITS SAD THAT THE JOKE DOWN BY COKE DOMINATES FOOTBALL AND EDUCATION OVER THE HICKS UP AT UGAY.
45-42
LAST NATIONAL CHAMP FROM THE STATE OF GEORGIA
1990 BUMBLE BEES
1980 UGAY MUTTS
LSU FAN
April 19th, 2009
3:53 pm
WHYDO MUTTS BARK?………………..You actually shared the title that year and attendance sucked so bad they let people in for free. GT will end up mediocre as they always do.
Mister T
April 19th, 2009
8:04 pm
PTC Dawg. You post on the dawg board? I wouldn’t have thought you had time with the 20+ posts you had on the Tech board after the T-Day Game.
Admit it. It is a rivalry again. And you and the rest are more than a little concerned. I am not one that is going to say that Tech owns uga…yet. But it is a start and there is a lot more substance to Tech going into athens against a former #1 team and coming out with a W. It wasn’t done with a “motivational ploy.” It was sound coaching. uga knew exactly what Tech was going to do and could do absolutely nothing to stop it.
uga had one of the mose prolific offenses in the country last year. You lost very substantial pieces to the offense. It showed in the spring game. The defense that couldn’t slow Tech down in November completely shut down the dawg offense in the spring game.
It was great to see so many weapons on offense. Too many fumbles, but there were a lot of different players in the mix and the OL is still not set with the starters.
With regard to Tech’s development…I think the fact that the defense, that sees this offense everyday, still could not stop it was either a testiment to the increased speed of the offense or that they are going to really miss the big three on the D line. time will tell.
Now admit it…both of our blogs would be boring if all we had were our own fans blowing sunshine up each others butts.
Mister T
April 19th, 2009
8:13 pm
I really don’t believe that there really is an LSU Fan on this board. I belive it is a uga fan that really has not comeback to an admittedly lame joke, so he shrouds himself in the handle of a team that actually beat Tech. Equally lame tothe very weak joke that was posted.
Just take your lumps. You dished them out for 7 years. Just suck it up like a min and hope your team can bring you back to glory glory. Keep Hope alive. I had to for seven years.
Judging by spring games though…you better hope willie can coach defense this year…your offense doesn’t seem nearly as effective as last year. It certainly wasn’t Matt & Knowshaun’s fault last year.
Cuz
April 20th, 2009
7:44 pm
Is there such a thing as a Beat Blog anymore? Enquiring minds want to know.
Hunk Erdown
April 20th, 2009
8:31 pm
The rumor is that we’ll only have Bill’s Blawg in the future.
AltamahaDawg
April 20th, 2009
8:52 pm
If that’s the case, less UGA topic access, they need to go ahead and bring in extra counselors and set up crisis centers at the trade school.
Hunk Erdown
April 20th, 2009
9:01 pm
Is it just me or does the announcement from the ajc that “due to the economy, we are having to cut down our circulation” sound like the dumbest marketing idea since Eastern Airlines made “Airport ‘77″ their #1 in flight movie.
AltamahaDawg
April 20th, 2009
10:04 pm
I didn’t realize that Cynthia Tucker had that much control over “the economy”.
griffdawg1
April 21st, 2009
6:15 am
CAN WE PLEASE FIND ANOTHER TOPIC OF CONVERSATION!!!CHANGE IT UP AT LEAST EVERY OTHER DAY FOR GOD SAKES!!!!!
Bored Football Fan Here
April 21st, 2009
11:53 pm
Look to all you Tech fans that keep bringing up the game in November…SHUT UP! You won…we get it. Time to move on. To the Dawg fans who keep bringin up the many years before that you won…SHUT UP! We Get It…you won! All of you bickering back and fourth…you sound like little kids…”my dad can beat up your dad”. Here’s a little video to explain my point…
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1907543
Cuz
April 22nd, 2009
10:34 am
Just stopped by for memories sake. Man used to be some great times in here. Now one big empty room.
TommyP
April 22nd, 2009
3:41 pm
This is brutal. Where’s Tim Tucker? I love what he does when Chip doesn’t post but neither one for over a week?
What’s up, AJC? PLEASE don’t let us rely on the fan UGA blog. I get so sick of hearing about an old guy reminiscing about the old days. Friggin’ terrible blog.
Mr. Green Jeans
April 22nd, 2009
3:52 pm
Yo Cuz, pass me that bottle, will you?
MiltonDawg
April 24th, 2009
3:17 pm
Does anybody know if Chip Towers is still with the AJC??
mdawg
April 24th, 2009
5:36 pm
Milton Dawg – they moved him to the news section, and made bill king the blog guy. go figure…
stendec
April 25th, 2009
3:32 am
Lions and desperate fans (Yankee scum every one) expect Stafford to produce like Ryan and that other rookie QB did in 2008. Will not happen! Stafford does not possess leadership qualities or physical/mental toughness required. If he starts he will not last out the season without an injury. Rushed passes will be off target while perfect aerials will be dropped. Why? Because Lions are anti-Red Wings. Always have been. Always will be. The Falcons have sucked for decades but, thankfully, never pitched an oh-fer (winless season). A dubious mark which CAN ONLY be matched NEVER surpassed (if that is correct word). Complete failure is its own reward. Much like revenge being a dish best served cold.