Archive for May, 2010

If you missed it,  you’ll want to hear what college football analyst/publisher Phil Steele said when asked on ESPN to name an off-the-radar team that could have a big season.

He initially mentioned Oklahoma, his pick to win the 2010 national title despite losing five games last season.

And then he mentioned someone else:

“If I was going to pick another one out of the stack there,” Steele said Friday on ESPN’s College Football Live, “I would have to say the Georgia Bulldogs. I think they’ve got a shot of even winning the SEC East and could very well run the table.”

Wow. Whoa. Run the table?

Steele doesn’t go so far as to predict the Bulldogs will do it, mind you. In fact, he has them No. 19 in his preseason rankings. But I’m pretty sure he’s the first to utter on national TV the possibility of  an undefeated season for the 2010 Dogs.

Phil Steele’s College Football Preview magazine is always packed with information. Here are a few morsels pulled from his two-page preview of …

Continue reading Phil Steele: Georgia Bulldogs ‘could very well run the table’ this year »

Hoping to capitalize on the buzz about Bulldogs basketball, Georgia plans to add 28 premium and pricey courtside seats in Stegeman Coliseum for the 2010-11 season.

The plan is to add 12 sideline courtside seats, six on each side of the radio table, and 16 baseline courtside seats, eight on each side of the basket in a second row behind the existing baseline courtside seats.

The sideline seats will require a $2,500 per seat annual donation to qualify for, and the baseline seats will require a $1,750 per seat annual donation. Potential additional revenue: $58,000 if all of the new seats are sold.

The new  seats will raise the total number of Stegeman’s premium courtside seats from 60 to 88.

*****

Georgia’s Athletic Association projects that it will bring in $18.76 million from ticket sales in the 2010-11 school year –- a whopping 92.8 percent of that from football.

The association projects football ticket revenue of $17.4 million, not including the donations made just for the …

Continue reading The UGA notebook: pricey new seats, fretting the Gators, etc. »

ST. SIMONS ISLAND – Georgia’s Athletic Board receives reports not just about the Bulldogs’ on-field and financial performances, but also about their academic performance.

Contained in the information provided to board members at this week’s meetings here was the spring semester grade point average of every UGA sports team.

The men’s and women’s teams with the highest GPAs? Swimming, in both cases.

The men’s and women’s teams with the lowest GPAs? Basketball, in both cases.

Overall, Georgia athletes had a 2.98 GPA for spring semester (2.82 for the men and 3.14 for the women). Football came in at 2.76.

Here’s the team-by-team breakdown for spring semester 2010, with teams listed in order of GPA:

MEN’S SPORTS

Sport                    # of students      Semester GPA

Swimming                     24                     3.21

Cross-country              15                      …

Continue reading Take a look at UGA athletes’ spring semester grades, team by team »

Georgia and Florida would have expanded opportunities to market their annual football game, including the right to sell the name of the game to a corporate sponsor, under terms of a contract still being hammered out with the city of Jacksonville.

The schools decided last fall to keep the game in Jacksonville through 2016, and a formal contract has been in the works for months. Although it  hasn’t been finalized, the most recent draft of  a proposed contract was obtained today by the AJC under Georgia’s Open Records Act.

One reason the contract has taken so long to complete is that it covers a wide range of potential marketing rights not addressed in previous deals between the schools and Jacksonville.

According to the latest draft, dated May 21, the schools “shall exclusively own and control all worldwide rights for promotion, marketing, sponsorships, merchandising and ancillary events . . . including without limitation the rights to enter into a title sponsorship agreement …

Continue reading Georgia-Florida contract draft gives schools right to sell game’s name »

ST. SIMONS ISLAND — Georgia athletics director Damon Evans conveyed the same message to the UGA Athletics Association board of directors Thursday that he previously delivered to the school’s coaches: The Bulldogs’ 2009-10 results were not good enough.

“I make no excuses,” Evans told the board at its spring meeting. “This has been an interesting year for Georgia athletics when it comes to a national perspective. We are not where we want to be nationally. I think our program should be much higher than it is. This is probably one of the toughest years from a competitive standpoint that we’ve faced in quite some time.”

Evans added that he is proud of Georgia’s No. 2 finish in the SEC all-sports standings, which were released this week, but displeased that the Bulldogs rank No. 25 in the most recent national all-sports rankings.

UGA President Michael Adams shared Evans’ assessment, telling the Athletic Board during its meeting at the King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort: “It’s not …

Continue reading Damon Evans sends clear message: Bulldogs must do better than in 2009-10 »

(Updated 7 p.m.)

ST. SIMONS ISLAND — Georgia’s athletics department will finish this fiscal year with about $7 million more in revenue than expenses — and will donate $2 million of it to help the university through hard financial times.

The contribution will be in addition to the $6 million over three years pledged by the UGA Athletic Association to the university’s academic programs last year.

The latest gift, which will go toward funding professorships and scholarships, was unanimously approved by the Athletic Association’s board of directors Thursday after a recommendation from athletics director Damon Evans.

Evans said the contribution was appropriate given the university’s struggle with reduced state funding and the Athletic Association’s surplus. The association is a separate legal and financial entity from the rest of the university.

“I listen to what’s going on throughout our campus,” Evans said. “When you are operating like we are and have the resources … I just …

Continue reading UGA Athletic Board actions include $2 million gift to university (UPDATED) »

Good morning from St. Simons Island, where the UGA Athletic Association board of directors will meet today and tomorrow.

The Athletic Association’s budget for fiscal year 2011, which runs from July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011, will be presented for approval this morning. The association had an $84.8 million budget for fiscal 2010. The fiscal 2011 budget is expected to be roughly the same.

The board also will get a financial report on fiscal 2010 results and a report from athletics director Damon Evans on the 2009-10 sports year.

With three major construction projects currently underway -– the expansion of the Butts-Mehre building, the renovation of Stegeman Coliseum and the addition of a plaza in the Reed Alley area adjacent to Sanford Stadium –- no new projects of such scale are expected to be approved today. However, the board likely will approve a plan to install new chairback seats throughout the baseball stadium. Foley Field currently has a combination of chairback and …

Continue reading Athletic Board convenes on St. Simons today »

The SEC baseball tournament opens today in Hoover, Ala., where it has been played annually since 1998. Might the tournament move to, say, Gwinnett County in a couple of years?

It’s possible.

The SEC’s contract with Hoover’s Regions Park expires after next year’s tournament, and the conference plans to put the event up for bid for 2012 and thereafter.

The SEC will send requests-for-proposals this summer to Regions Park and two other minor-league baseball stadiums that have expressed strong interest in hosting the tournament — Gwinnett County’s Coolray Field and Memphis’ AutoZone Park.

Coolray Field is home of the Braves’ Class AAA farm team, and AutoZone Park is home of the St. Louis Cardinals’ AAA affiliate.

The issue of a future site for the SEC tournament might come up during the league’s spring meetings in Destin, Fla., next week, but a decision isn’t expected until the fall.

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Gordon Smith –- a former Georgia tennis player, a retired partner at Atlanta-based law …

Continue reading Will SEC baseball tourney move to Gwinnett? Plus: Ex-Dog Smith enters Hall of Fame tonight »

It won’t surprise anyone that Florida was the most successful sports program in the SEC during the 2009-10 school year, but it might surprise some that Georgia was the second most successful.

Florida is the runaway winner of the SEC All-Sports Trophy, while Georgia — despite  disappointing seasons in football and several other sports — is the runner-up, solidly ahead of third-place Tennessee.

The annual award is based on a points system tied to each school’s SEC finish in each sport, men’s and women’s. Schools get 12 points for a first-place finish, 11 for a second-place finish, etc. A school’s cumulative point total is divided by the number of teams it fields. The award is coordinated and presented by the New York Times Regional Media Group, which includes 14 newspapers in the Southeast.

Florida had a total of 163 points, or an average of 10.19 per team, for this school year . Georgia had 133 points, or 8.31 per team. Here are the full standings:

2009-2010 SEC ALL-SPORTS …

Continue reading UGA No. 2 in SEC all-sports standings. Surprised? »

ATHENS –- By Georgia’s lofty tennis standards, this was something of an off season –  a 17-7 regular-season record and a No. 11 seed in the NCAA tournament. But look at the Bulldogs now, right back where they so often are at this time of year.

Georgia dominated Oklahoma 4-0 Sunday in an NCAA men’s quarterfinal match at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex to reach the national semifinals for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

“I’d been telling these guys — and they were probably a little bit tired of me saying it — that we hadn’t played our best yet,” Georgia coach Manuel Diaz said.  “I knew our best tennis was still ahead of us. And they’re proving me right.”

The Bulldogs (21-7) will play Tennessee (30-1) at 5 p.m. Monday for a berth in Tuesday’s national championship match. Tennessee defeated Baylor 4-0 in a Sunday quarterfinal.

In Monday’s other men’s semifinal, No. 1 seed Virginia (30-1) will play defending champion USC (23-3) at 4 p.m. Virginia defeated UCLA 4-2 and USC …

Continue reading Georgia dominates Oklahoma to reach tennis Final Four (UPDATED) »

For the third year in a row, Georgia’s softball team has reached the NCAA Super Regionals.

The Bulldogs (46-11) advanced by beating Radford 8-1 on Sunday afternoon in the championship game of the NCAA’s Athens regional at the UGA Softball Stadium.

Georgia will play California — winner of the Columbus (Ohio) regional –  in a best-of-three Super Regional series in Athens next weekend.  Game 1 will be played Friday at 2 p.m., Game 2 Saturday at noon and Game 3, if necessary, Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

California beat Ohio State 7-0 on Sunday to win the Columbus regional.

Sixteen teams advanced to the Super Regionals, with series being played at eight sites around the country. The eight winners will move on to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

Georgia is the No. 6 national seed and California the No. 11 seed.

Georgia swept through this past weekend’s regional play, beating Elton 10-4 on Friday, Florida State 5-2 on Saturday and Radford 8-1 on Sunday. Similarly, …

Continue reading Georgia wins NCAA softball regional, will host Super Regional (UPDATED) »

University of Georgia teams will be playing Sunday for spots in the NCAA tennis semifinals and the NCAA softball super regionals.

• Tennis: Two late-night upsets on Friday set up an an interesting pairing of Georgia vs. Oklahoma in a Sunday men’s quarterfinal at the NCAA Tennis Championships in Athens. The Dogs and Sooners are scheduled to play at 5 p.m., with the winner advancing to Monday’s national semis against Sunday’s Baylor-Tennessee winner.

Roddick

Oklahoma is coached by John Roddick, a four-time All-American player for Georgia from 1995-99 and UGA’s Athlete of the Year in 1998. This is his first year as the Sooners’ coach. This is what he had to say about going up against the Bulldogs:

“What a day it will be . . . win or lose. This is going to be a great opportunity for the kids. If you had told me in June [when he took the job] that all of this was going to happen, I would have said you were crazy. I’m just so happy right now. . . . It’s emotional.”

Both Oklahoma …

Continue reading Stakes will be high for Bulldogs on Sunday (UPDATED) »

Lots of news came in from Athens late Friday night –- all of it good if you’re a Georgia fan:

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A few minutes before midnight, Georgia’s men’s tennis team upset rival Florida 4-2 in the NCAA tournament at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

The rain-delayed victory avenged two Georgia losses to the Gators earlier this season and put the Bulldogs in the NCAA quarterfinals. Florida was the tournament’s No. 6 seed and Georgia the No. 11 seed.

Georgia’s victory marked the second time in four years the Dogs have knocked the Gators out of the NCAA men’s tennis tournament. Georgia is now 51-18 all-time against Florida in men’s tennis.

The Dogs got off to a good start in Friday’s match by winning the doubles point, but had to rally in singles after the Gators took the first set on four of the six courts.  The clinching victory came when Georgia’s 22nd-ranked Javier Garrapiz beat Florida’s 7th-ranked Alex Lacroix 6-4, 7-6(5) at No. 1 singles.

Georgia also  got victories from Nate …

Continue reading Late-night news from Athens is all good for Dogs, including upset of Gators »

College football’s preseason hype is flowing at full force.  Analyst/publisher Phil Steele’s various preseason All-America and all-conference teams came out this week. Georgia is well represented.

The Bulldogs have six players on the  preseason All-SEC first team, tying Alabama for the most, and 14 selections on the four all-conference teams combined, tying Florida for the most.

Also, Georgia has two players on the preseason All-America first team –- one of five schools with two or more — and five players on the four All-America teams.

Here are the details on Georgia’s representation on the Phil Steele College Football preseason teams:

All-America first team: Wide receiver A.J. Green and punter Drew Butler.

All-America second team: Placekicker Blair Walsh.

All-America third team: Offensive tackle Clint Boling.

All-America fourth team: Kickoff returner Brandon Boykin.

All-SEC first team: Green, Boling, Boykin (as kickoff returner), Walsh, Butler and outside linebacker Justin …

Continue reading Dogs match Tide, Gators on Phil Steele’s preseason All-SEC teams »

Mark Fox put his Georgia basketball players on Twitter restriction last week and said he wouldn’t be sending out tweets to let the world know “whether I got up and shaved in the morning or what time I went to bed. It’s just too much information.”

Landing Mr. Basketball, well, that was worth a tweet from the coach.

“Great day for the Dawgs!” Fox posted on Twitter.  “We added a great young man in Georgia’s Mr. Basketball, Marcus Thornton.”

Fox’s tweet was his first public comment on Thornton’s announcement Wednesday that he will attend UGA.  Fox expanded in a prepared statement a bit later:

“We are delighted that Marcus has decided to join our program. He is a terrific basketball player, a great student and an outstanding young man. He’s a winner in every way. He has a great family who now will be able to watch him play. Marcus was well coached in high school and is ready for the next step in his basketball career. It means a great deal to have Mr. Basketball coming to the …

Continue reading ‘Great day for the Dawgs!’ Fox says »

There’s mutual interest between the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game and Georgia about the Bulldogs playing a season-opening football game in Atlanta at some point. But no specific year or opponent has been targeted to make it happen.

“We still have a great level of interest in trying to put Georgia in that Kickoff weekend, and also Georgia Tech,” Chick-fil-A Bowl president and CEO Gary Stokan said Monday. “Both [Georgia AD] Damon [Evans] and [Tech AD] Dan Radakovich would like to play in the game, and we’re just trying to continue to work to get a matchup that works for both of them.  Obviously not against each other — we’ve  already tried that.”

Evans last year rejected a proposal to play the 2011 Georgia-Georgia Tech game at the start of the season in the Georgia Dome. But Evans said a couple of months ago that he wants the Bulldogs to open a season in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at some point against a non-conference opponent that doesn’t typically appear on the Bulldogs’ …

Continue reading Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game still seeking a match for Georgia »

Cleaning out the notebook:

• With all the turmoil at Georgia’s quarterback position of late, Mark Richt has been fielding a lot of questions on the speaking circuit about incoming freshman Hutson Mason. “I’m sure he’s very excited about what’s going on,” Richt told a group last week. “He’s been moving up the depth chart rapidly because of what happened with Mr. Mettenberger and Logan Gray probably spending most of his time at wide receiver now.”

Asked the followup question of whether he sees Mason playing or redshirting this year, Richt said:  “I don’t know.  I want to see what he can do. If we don’t think he’s ready, I’d be more apt to have Logan continue to be our No. 2 and just go from there. I don’t want to say because I have no idea how he’s going to perform until he shows up.”

• Another hot topic, of course, is conference expansion. Richt is on record against it for the SEC, mainly because “I think if you get into what would be a super-conference, you’re just not going …

Continue reading Hutson Mason ‘moving up the depth chart rapidly,’ and other notes »

Georgia lost three baseball games to Florida over the weekend, which got me to wondering: What is the Bulldogs’ record against the Gators in all sports in head-to-head competition this school year?

It’s not good, as you know. It’s awful, as a matter of fact. It’s 3-14, to be precise.

Here’s Georgia’s record by sport against the Gators in 2009-10 (includes only dual competitions):

• Football: 0-1

• Men’s basketball: 1-1

• Women’s basketball: 1-1

• Baseball: 0-3

• Gymnastics: 0-1

• Soccer: 0-1

• Women’s swimming and diving: 1-0

• Men’s swimming and diving: 0-1

• Men’s tennis: 0-2

• Women’s tennis: 0-1

• Volleyball: 0-2.

• Total: 3-14

(Note: The two scheduled Georgia-Florida softball games were rained out.)

In multi-team competitions (not included above), there were at least a couple of notable occasions when Georgia finished ahead of Florida this school year: Georgia won the SEC men’s golf tournament, where Florida tied for second place, and the SEC women’s swimming and diving …

Continue reading Dogs are 3-14 vs. Gators this school year »

Most people who follow Georgia football had figured since the end of last season that Aaron Murray probably would be the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback in 2010. What no one figured, of course, was that his competition would dissipate as it has.

But with Zach Mettenberger dismissed from the team and Logan Gray shifting part-time to wide receiver, Murray seems suddenly solidly entrenched as the Dogs’ 2010 quarterback.

“We’re thinner at QB than we expected to be at this time,” coach Mark Richt told a Bulldog Club gathering this week, “but if you want to feel good about it, just go back on the Internet and do a little search on Aaron Murray and watch Aaron’s high school tape. And I think you’ll get just as excited as you were the day he . . . committed to Georgia.”

Murray in spring practice, watched by Mike Bobo (AJC photo/Brant Sanderlin)

(If you want to heed Richt’s advice, by the way, you can find plenty video of Murray’s high school days on YouTube.)

Richt has said that …

Continue reading Richt advises uneasy fans: Just watch Aaron Murray’s tape »

As you know, NCAA rules don’t permit coaches to talk publicly about specific recruits. But speaking in generalities, Mark Richt made it clear to a Bulldog Club gathering in Macon that he thinks things are going very well on the recruiting trail for Georgia this spring.

“I think we’ve got a tremendous class started,” Richt said. “I think we have a tremendous amount of interest from the best players in this state and a lot of great players around this country, mostly Southeast but a few guys a little bit further away.

“And there are a lot of guys that I think are close to pulling the trigger for Georgia. So the recruiting front looks outstanding.”

He said he’s impressed with the recruiting work of his three new defensive coaches.

“One thing I like about Coach [Todd] Grantham and the new staff,” Richt said, “is I think they’ve done a great job of knowing exactly what they want by position and are able to look at that film and . . . make a decision: Should we or should we not …

Continue reading Richt thinks a lot of recruits ‘are close to pulling the trigger for Georgia’ »

For the third time this spring, Georgia coach Mark Richt had the pleasure of informing a walk-on player that he will go on scholarship.

Richt called senior Chad Gloer, a special-teams standout the past three seasons, into his office Wednesday to give him the good news.

“He was excited, and he felt like his mom and dad would be even more excited,” Richt said. “He was really looking forward to telling them. He said, ‘Coach, don’t be surprised if my mom gets in the car and drives over here and gives you a big hug.’”

Gloer, a cornerback from Fayetteville, joins linebacker Reuben Faloughi and long snapper Ty Frix as walk-ons who have received scholarships for the 2010-11 year.

Two scholarships became available when linebacker Montez Robinson and quarterback Zach Mettenberger were kicked off the team following arrests.

NCAA rules allow Division I-A football teams to have 85 players on scholarship each season.

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Georgia and Georgia Tech are discussing moving their annual men’s …

Continue reading Another football walk-on gets scholarship; Fox wants to play Tech earlier »

MACON — University of Georgia men’s basketball coach Mark Fox is cracking down on his players’ use of Twitter.

Fox said Wednesday night that he wants his players -– several of whom had become prolific tweeters -– to focus on improving the team and to avoid the “distraction” of communicating minutiae about themselves to the world in 140-character snippets.

“I want our players to focus on our team,” Fox said. “I told them, ‘Right now, I don’t want to hear a bunch of Twitter tweets and stuff like that.’  . . . The off-season is about getting better. We need to get better.”

Fox said no particular tweets triggered his Twitter crackdown, which he decreed to the team on Tuesday.

“It’s just that it’s just another distraction,” he said. “It’s just another thing. We’ve got to focus on going to school, going to work, getting better and earning the respect back for Georgia basketball. And I want more focus on that.”

Fox made his comments in an interview before speaking to a Bulldog Club …

Continue reading UGA’s Fox restricts players’ use of Twitter »

(Updated 6:45 p.m.)

MACON — Georgia backup quarterback Logan Gray, after considering the possibility of transferring to another school for the past few weeks, has decided to remain at UGA, where he’ll double as a wide receiver.

Gray informed coach Mark Richt of his decision by phone Wednesday morning.

Richt said in an interview before a Bulldog Club meeting here Wednesday night that Gray will have a dual role with the Bulldogs.

“He’s our second-team quarterback in my mind,” Richt said. “Logan has three years of knowledge in our system. He’s a very capable quarterback, so it’s nice to know that he’s there for that purpose.

“But he would like to spend some time at receiver. I think he feels like he might have a better chance of helping us there. So I’m fine with that, I really am.”

Gray, a junior, began considering the possibility of transferring after being listed as the No. 2 quarterback behind redshirt freshman Aaron Murray on Georgia’s depth chart at the end of spring …

Continue reading Quarterback Gray will stay at UGA, double as a wide receiver (UPDATED) »

• Demario Mayfield, who left Georgia’s basketball program two months ago in search of more playing time elsewhere, has landed at UNC-Charlotte, as expected. “He gives us good size and skill at the wing position,” new Charlotte coach Alan Major said in a news release Tuesday. “With a year to sit out, he’ll have the chance to expand his game and then have three years remaining.” Added Mayfield: “I want to come in and just work and build my way back to earn more playing time,. The coaching staff made me feel like I was already a part of the team. As a group, they just made me feel welcome.” Mayfield averaged 0.9 points and 6.5 minutes per game as a freshman at UGA last season.

• Meanwhile,  in a different sport, a former Bulldog seeking a new team — quarterback Zach Mettenberger — won’t find it at Louisville. Mettenberger, who last week pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sexual battery in Valdosta, confirmed to former Georgia player Kelin Johnson (on the website kelinjohnson.com) …

Continue reading Charlotte welcomes UGA transfer Mayfield; Louisville backs away from Mettenberger »

More than seven months after the decision was made to keep the Georgia-Florida football game in Jacksonville through 2016, a new contract still isn’t signed.

But it will get done, probably this summer, according to Georgia executive associate athletics director Frank Crumley.

“We’re moving along very nicely,” he said. “We’ve got every hurdle worked out and are coming up with a [contract] draft to distribute to all parties.”

He said the delay was caused by making the three-way contract more comprehensive than in the past and dealing with “some very small issues … in the scheme of things.”

There’s been no big hurry since this year’s Georgia-Florida game is covered by the previous contract. The major components of the new deal -– length (six years) and economics –- are unchanged from what was reported last fall, Crumley said. As previously reported, Jacksonville will pay for the Georgia team to fly directly from Athens, and back.

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This is the time of year that the NCAA …

Continue reading Georgia-Florida contract still in works »

Georgia coach Mark Richt rewarded Ty Frix for a job well done Monday, putting the walk-on long snapper on scholarship.

Frix took over as Georgia’s snapper on punts, field goals and extra points last season and consistently drew praise from both punter Drew Butler and placekicker Blair Walsh.

Ty Frix

Frix, who will be a redshirt sophomore in the fall, is a Biomedical Engineering major and a former valedictorian at Calhoun High School. He is a second-generation Georgia long snapper. His father, Dr. Mitch Frix, was the “starting” snapper on the Bulldogs’ SEC championship teams in 1981 and 1982.

Ty Frix is the second walk-on to be awarded a scholarship by Richt this spring, following linebacker Reuben Faloughi. Richt recently said that giving a scholarship to a walk-on is one of the most enjoyable parts of his job.

“Ty has done an outstanding job with all our snapping duties,” Richt said in a statement Monday. “He’s been an instrumental part of one of the top punt and field …

Continue reading Richt rewards walk-on with scholarship »

Seventy-one Georgia athletes will be among the approximately 4,000 undergraduate students receiving their bachelor’s degrees at UGA’s spring commencement ceremonies Saturday evening in Sanford Stadium.

Among them: nine-time NCAA individual champion gymnast Courtney Kupets; women’s basketball star Ashley Houts; and football player Geno Atkins, a recent Cincinnati Bengals draft pick.

Twelve football players will get their degrees Saturday, including two who will play one more season for the Bulldogs in the fall while taking graduate courses: fullback Shaun Chapas and wide receiver Kris Durham.

Here, from UGA’s sports communications department, is the full list of athletes graduating Saturday (with their majors and hometowns):

Football: Geno Atkins, Housing, Pembroke Pines, Fla.; Marquise Brown, Finance, Lanham, Md.; Shaun Chapas, Marketing, St. Augustine, Fla.; Kris Durham, Middle School Education, Calhoun; Justin Fields, Risk Management & Insurance, Savannah; Devin Hollander, …

Continue reading Commencement roster: UGA athletes who will graduate Saturday »

Georgia ranked No. 10 in the nation in attendance for its spring football game, according to figures compiled by Sports Business Daily.

Alabama again had the largest spring-game crowd (91,312), followed by Nebraska (77,936), Ohio State (65,223), Auburn (63,217), Penn State (55,000), Florida (51,500), Florida State (51,000), Texas (44,000), Virginia Tech (41,000) and Georgia (38,472).

Also topping 30,000 in spring-game attendance: Tennessee, Michigan, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Michigan State.

A full chart of the attendance for BCS schools’ spring games (except for a few on which attendance was unavailable) can be found  here.

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According to this report in the Knoxville News Sentinel, Barbara Dooley was in attendance — and in orange — at Wednesday night’s Atlanta stop of Tennessee’s Big Orange Caravan.

“There is no way I can come into this state without my mother finding me,” Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley told the audience.  “I never knew how good she …

Continue reading Dogs No. 10 in spring attendance … Barbara Dooley at Vols event … Chapas, Durham, Atkins graduate Saturday »

(Updated 5 p.m. Wednesday)

Former Georgia quarterback Zach Mettenberger hopes to play football at another college. And Louisville is one place he’ll look, according to a website that covers the Cardinals.

After pleading guilty to misdemeanor sexual battery charges in Valdosta on Monday, Mettenberger said in a written statement that he hopes for “a second chance to compete at another university in the nation.” The Scout.com site that covers the Louisville program, InsideTheVille.com, reported Tuesday that its sources say Mettenberger is expected to visit Louisville later this month.

This could get interesting, if anything comes of it.

Mettenberger would be required to sit out the 2010 season under NCAA transfer rules, but do you know who Louisville is scheduled to open the 2011 season against?

Georgia.

In Sanford Stadium.

The Dogs and Cards also are scheduled to play in 2012 in Louisville.

UPDATE: Former Georgia football player Kelin Johnson reports on his website, …

Continue reading Might Mettenberger play against the Dogs in Sanford Stadium next year? (UPDATED) »

The five former Georgia football players selected in the NFL draft last weekend already are at work this weekend in their new teams’ rookie mini-camps.

Linebacker Rennie Curran is in mini-camp with the Titans, defensive tackle Geno Atkins with the Bengals, safety Reshad Jones with the Dolphins, defensive tackle Jeff Owens with the Eagles and defensive tackle Kade Weston with the Patriots.

Curran, in an interview with reporters in the Titans’ locker room, said “it still hasn’t really hit me” that he’s now in the NFL.

“I don’t think it’ll really hit me until I get to that first game and probably get my first paycheck,” he said.

You can watch the interview on the Titans’ website here.

Curran, No. 35 at UGA, has a new number, by the way: He’s currently No. 38 with the Titans, according to the nameplate on his locker.

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Georgia’s Trey Thompkins, a unanimous first-team All-SEC pick this past season, definitely bucked the trend when he resisted the lure of the NBA draft. The NBA …

Continue reading News and notes: Curran, other ex-Dogs go to work … Thompkins would’ve made 81 … Sturdivant’s comeback »