Okay, will try to update as best as possible:

Demba Ba  -  Looks like this will either to come to fruition or fall through in the next 36 hours.  Rumor I have heard says that Demba wants to come to Everton, but wages are a sticking point at the moment.  With other clubs armed with cash like Newcastle, this might get ugly.

Leon Osman  -  So it seems that there really was an offer, but it was turned down.  Thank God.  Leon Osman is a proper blue and needs to be kept around.

Leighton Baines  -  This rumor has gone cold, but expect Baines to be linked with any and everybody because he is a bad ass.  People look at the Rooney deal and just assume that we grow talent to sell it for a profit later.  No dice!

This broke late last night, European time:

"Everton and Fenerbahce are close to concluding a €3.5m deal for Joseph Yobo. Should be done in a matter of days."  This was from Nigerian Journo Colin Udoh's twitter page. He is in the know with all the Nigerian players so it is to be trusted. As more has transpired today, I have also heard the offer could be €4.5 with the loan fee included.

*UPDATE*  Looks like the offer of 3.5 mil Euro will be accepted after a personal plea from Yobo.  It will shake out to be around 3.1 mil pounds.  Apparently Yobo spoke with the club and made a personal plea for the transfer.  Yobo has publicly stated that while he loved his time as a Blue, he has no intention of ever wearing an Everton shirt again.  Best wishes to Yobo in all his future endeavors.  

Rennie Curran is making his announcement on whether or not he is going pro today @ 4, according to a tweet from David hale about 21 minute ago.  I do hope the potential pick of a new DC swayed him to stick around one more year.  It has been a busy weekend.  Oh and by by the way, there are no inbounds to Ben Epps from 'Bama.  Just saying.  What an end to the weekend, if we had a DC announcement and Curran staying.  I would be a happy man.

Just caught this on rivals.com:

UGASports has also learned that former Bulldog defensive captain and New Orleans Saints assistant defensive line coach Travis Jones has spoken with Richt in the past week.

Jones, who is helping prepare the Saints for next week's NFC Divisional Playoff game, could not immediately be reached for comment due to a death in the family.

Prior to arriving in New Orleans, Jones spent three years with the Miami Dolphins under for coach Nick Saban, with whom he spent two seasons at LSU, where he was the Tigers' defensive line coach/recruiting coordinator.

I do wonder if he is talking to him for a position other than DC?  If he is it seems like a step down doesn't it?  If not could you imagine snagging both Jones and Smart?  I am aware of the drawbacks of hiring all UGA alum, but just the fact we are starting to see message traffic on this deal is very exciting indeed.  Enjoy your Sunday, we might have an exciting start to next week.

In an article I saw Wednesday night on Rivals.com, I saw this nice little blurb.  "Richt said he doubts his revamped staff would include a full-time special teams coach."  That worries me.  After the failings we saw on Special Teams last year, it kinda makes me wonder if we are really moving in a new direction.  Also the fact that we may not have A DC until after the New Year makes me wonder if there will be a negative effect on recruiting, or key Seniors returning(Curran).  

Coach Mark Richt and graduate assistants Todd Hartley and Mitch Doolittle will join defensive line coach Rodney Garner in coaching the defense.  The Dawgs begin bowl practices on Tuesday.  Hartley, a native of Gray, Ga., who was a graduate assistant at West Virginia in 2008, joined the Bulldogs' staff as a GA after spring practice. He was a Georgia student-assistant in 2006 and 2007.  Doolittle, from Ninety-Six, S.C., joined the staff in June following two years as a video assistant at UAB. He played quarterback, receiver and special teams at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C.(Info Note:  Presbyterian's mascot is the Blue Hose.  You can imagine the fun I had with that when I played soccer against them in college.  Too good!) I wonder how this will affect the search for replacements and also recruiting?  Hope all is well with the Dawgsports nation.  In parting I pose a question:  Who wins today in the douche nozzle grudge match of the decade?  Urbanbow(They are one in the same to me.) or Satan, I mena Saban?

I have had the pleasure to take some leave from my duties in Little Rock and head home to "God's Country" for a few weeks.  I caught the Tenn. Tech game on the radio while spending time with family.  I spent three days with my 93 year old grandmother who is on of the reasons I am no more of a trouble maker and charlatan than I am.  I was planning to depart for Arkansas on Sunday morning, very AM.  That was until I stopped in to visit with my boyhood friend of 27 years who has season tickets to the Dawg Show.   Unbelievably, he could not find anyone to accompany him to the Auburn game.  I extended my leave and was on my way.  On the drive from Alpharetta to Athens, I had some time to ponder my situation.  It had been 9 years since I had attended a game at Sanford Stadium, when we defeated the Vols and sadly the goal posts fell.  I was single and had just dropped out of classes at University.  When faced with all that has come to pass since my last visit to our beloved stadium, the troubles of our season and our program while serious, didn't seem so bad.  In the last nine years, my work has taken me far from my home(The main reason I hadn' been to a game in such a long period of time).  I have had fantastic adventures and seen the highs and lows of humanity in my service over the last 8 1/2 years.  I married, became a father twice over, said goodbye to my Grandfather who meant more to me than he will ever know.  I have to add that when I was a boy, I asked my Grandfather, R.C., if he had been in World War II.  R.C. replied that he had, and had seen action in Europe and was on a troop ship steaming for Japan when the war ended.  I said something about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and he grinned and said, "You know history has that all wrong.  The reason the war ended was that Tojo heard that R.C. and the boys who whipped Hitler where on their way, and they just gave up."  Shortly after that I went to visit a World War II monument, and the bomb came up, and I shared my Grandfather's story with my class, the teacher and the guide.  Needless to say they could not dissuade me from believing my Grandfather.  D-Daddy as I called him was never wrong.  Now I know he was just pulling my leg, but I sure believed it then, and he would tell that story to friends and family when we would all get together and laugh every time.  I am off track, but while heading up 85 North, my mind wandered as Clisby Clarke sang about the Bulldog Bite over the Car Stereo.  All the troubles of the past few seasons seem to shrink in comparison to the excitement and anticipation of a night game against Auburn at Sanford Stadium.  We all know what happened with the game, and the outcome was delightful.  I had a wonderful time, and only encountered one arrogant Auburn Fan.  After several snide remarks, I gently reminded him that while he may be a war eagle or tiger or whatever Auburn is this week, his momma was a Dog.  While our season is not what we had hoped, and our program isn't where we want it to be, it was glorious to be alive and well, with 90 somethig thousand of my closest friends last Saturday.  God rest UGA VII's soul.  He was a Damn Good Dawg.  Thanks to all the Damn Good Dawgs on this board.  This is the first place I come to when I need a Dawg fix.  I part with this last bit of wisdom, It is better to bark than buzz.  No matter win or lose.  They may win next week, but they will still be two and seven for the last nine years.  Go Dawgs!!!!!

Just so that no one forgets, I am the foul mouthed Sean Connery to Urban "Feminine Product" Meyer's Alex Trebeck in a collegiate smack down version of Celebrity Jeopardy .  So without further delay:  Suck it Meyer!  Coaching issues aside, it is time to man the ramparts, drink some fine single malt scotch, don your finest red and black, and  once again lead the gallant but futile in 16 of the last 19 years charge against the jort wearing, ass clown loving, blue and orange clad turds to the south.  We can rid ourselves of Willie another day, let us waste Gators today.  "We roll tonight to the guitar bite, yeah, yeah, Stand up and be counted for what you are about to recieve, we are the dealers, we'll give you everything you need, hail, hail to the good times cause wrong is got the right of way...for those about to rock we salute you!  I do desperately hope we are going to put a beating on old Urban "I'd rather rub a gator, and play like a champion than bark like a fool" Meyer and his boys so bad they can write it off on their taxes in January.  

 

Fun Facts:  Did you know that Urban Meyer is the only douche on the planet large enough to be visible from space?                        True statement.

Willie Martinez...He is like the cross between Keith Richards and a cockroach, the one thing that can outlive a nuclear holocaust and being the crappiest Coach in UGA History. Unbelievable.  At least with Keith Richards you get righteous tunes, and you can call Pest Control to run off roaches.  Yikes what a two week run.  Oh and by the way, we gotta go to Florida in three weeks.  I don't know about you all, but I am putting on my best red and black, tuning into Scott Howard, circling the wagons and breaking out the brown liquor.  Everyone is invited.  Damn.  How did we get here?  Better yet, how do we get back?  Anyone?  No seriously, anyone?  I would like this to be constructive.  We can at least take that much out of it.  Go Dawgs!

I have had many supervisors.  Some I liked, some were just...eh, some I HATED.  I gotta say the ones who made me better at what I do where the ones I was scared of and hated.  They got me to produce because the fear I had of failing them was a very real motivator.  I might have hated them, but I sure as heck respected them.  When the game is tight, when it gets tough, thats where you find out what you are made of.  When you are in the midst of feeling that "pinch", there is no greater motivator than fear.  It sucks, but it is true.  I am sorry, but this team has no balls.  There are guys who do, like our top three(Green, Curran, Butler).  As a team overall though, we do not.  If you were an LSU, Alabama, or Florida, would you be scared of our Defense or Offense, or dare I say Special Teams?  No.  Heck no.  We tackle poorly (most of the time), we make dumb mistakes, commit bone head penalties, and just all around poop the bed with no fear of the consequences.  There is no retribution at practice.  There can't be with the way it just keeps happening, and happening and happening.  Inflexibility or ill advised calls from certain coaches don't help either.  Even I could figure out how to beat Martinez because of his inability to adjust or abandon what was working.  Take some risks Willie!  Do you think soldiers liked Patton?  Probably not all of them,but they all respected him.  Believe that.  Look at the results he produced.  Patton ran through France like poop through a stinking goose until he out ran his supply line.  Do you think they sang kumbaya around the campfire and had "I'm okay, you're okay" talks?  Heck no.  We lack an edge, we lack a killer instinct.  These guys face no consequences, and if they do, they have no teeth, no effect to generate fear.  A lack of discipline exists from the top down.  From Richt to the practice squad.  I love this team, I love the University, win or lose.  If we don't make changes and make them fast, we will have more of the same.  We must be vicious, we must be fast.  Fleet footed and able, assassins of our opponents physical abilities and motivations.  We need to be heart breakers and momentum takers.   We need to be junkyard DAWGS!  Cold and calculated, unforgiving in our precision.  Big plays should not be celebrated excessively in shocked surprise, they should be expected based on execution and precision.  Act like you've been there before, and walk away like you knew it was gonna happen all along.  You break your opponents and walk away like it was nothing.  No swagger or smugness to give them motivation for next year, just cold hard conclusive results.  Take everything and leave nothing.  Until we find a way to instill discipline and break our opponents. the Red and Black will not be feared, we will be beaten like we have been this year, over and over again.  The team really has taken on Richt's laid back Joe Cool persona.  CMR is a great man, but he's gotta find that guy with "Patton/Erk-esque" mentality that will make people more willing to let their own momma down than that man, whoever they may be.  This post may be harsh, but I think it is exactly what his team needs.  A kick in the a#@ that will turn out to be the shot in the arm we need.  Go Dawgs!