It's a long way 'til September and now that the G-Day game is over the only way we can collectively get through this thing we call The Offseason is to, quite simply, stay caffeinated. With this in mind, show us your mug. No, not the one from the set of mugs you received as a wedding gift. That special, favorite mug you proudly display on your desk at work (or school, or home) that tells everyone who walks by, "Hey, I'm a Georgia Bulldog and there ain't no decaf in this here Georgia Mug." Think of this as the pictorial next step in the evolution of the "Dawgography"; this is about fan passion, and it implies no association with the school beyond our own fanaticism. (Yes, the SB Nation legal team made me include that disclaimer. Oh, sure...they can give solid editorial advice but can they fix a speeding ticket?) My Mug is proudly displayed on the edge of my desk. where ALL THREE of my Florida Alum co-workers can view it, unobstructed and in full living Red 'n Black. (I also have a nice photo of Uga for good measure.)

You didn't think this post was about something else, did you?

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Last week started out well enough. Sure, the typical back-to-work blues actually began about 7:30 last Sunday, but you deal. Then, the alarm sounds on Monday (5:15, usually) as you fumble with the clock as to not disturb the wife who really doesn't have to wake up for another hour. Your attempt at a stealthy exit from the bedroom is betrayed by the popping and cracking of well-worn knees (Church League Softball, FTW) and creaking door hinges. You enter the kitchen and curse the fact that you didn't set up the coffee pot only hours before. The fact that you haven't bought a Keurig yet just emphasizes how much of a domestic loser you truly are. The high-tech bread maker you spent 400 bucks on that has been used exactly once just reinforces everything. Coffee automation is here to stay. Get with the program.

You drinks your coffee, eats your bagel and heads out the door. An 8:30 meeting awaits in front of the Division Director and you have to do the PowerPoint. People will hate you because they hate PowerPoints, especially on Monday. So, there you are in front of 30 bleary-eyed colleagues and you're about to press the big red button to advance the slide show to image #13...then WHAM!

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The NCAA National Indoor Track and Field Championships will be held this upcoming weekend (March 9-10) in Nampa, Idaho just outside of Boise (yes, that Boise). This past weekend, at the Virginia Tech Last Chance Meet in Blacksburg (kinda' reminds me of a package store on 441 at the Clarke/Oconee County Line in about 1979...), Senior triple-jumper Colleen Felix improved enough to earn a #14 national ranking, earning her a spot in the Championships. Meanwhile, two other Georgia women will accompany Felix to Idaho: Junior high-jumper Saniel Atkinson and freshman pole-vaulter Morgan Leleux.

The Georgia men's side will be well represented in Boise, sending 6 Dawgs to the event:

• Torrin Lawrence, 4x400 relay, 400 meter dash
• Aaron Evans, 800 meter run
  
• Philip Adams, Waymon Storey and Chris Foster, 4x400 relay
• Cory Holman, heptathlon

via grfx.cstv.com

Torrin Lawrence. He runs real fast.

Torrin Lawrence, a senior from Jacksonville, is a two-time SEC 400 meter dash champion and is the national leader in this event. He is also the anchor of the 4x400 relay team. Lawrence has posted a national best time in the 400 meter dash of 46.01 seconds. His main competition will come from Mississippi State's Tavaris Tate (46.10) and Florida's Tony McQuay (46.11). Ess Eee See Speed, baby!

ESPN3 will carry Day 1 events (Friday, 7:30 P.M.) and Day 2 (Saturday, 8:00 P.M.) Live and in Living DSL. For all preliminary events, check out ncaa.com.

Prior to this nationally televised matchup (ESPN2) between the Georgia Lady Dawgs and the LSU Lady Tigers, the potential for some high-drama existed as SEC Tournament seedings were at stake. Coach Andy Lander's squad could potentially grab a first-round bye with a victory and a 3rd or 4th overall seed, or lose the bye altogether with a loss to the Tigers from Red Stick and an unfavorable outcome of another game in another city. The drama never materialized by virtue of a 53-47 South Carolina victory over Arkansas earlier in the afternoon, and the successful head-to-head outcomes that Georgia and LSU held over both Arkansas and USCe. Georgia (22-7, 11-5 SEC) now prepares to play in Nashville on Friday night as the #3 overall seed. Kentucky won the Conference crown and is the #1 seed, Tennessee #2 and LSU #4. Anyway you slice it, it's been a pretty darned good 24+ hours in Stegeman Coliseum.

The Lady Dawgs are Hot. And they play pretty good hoops, too.

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In the penultimate game of the 2011-2012 regular season, the Georgia Lady Dawgs (21-7) triumphed over the Ole Miss Lady Ackbars Rebels (12-16), scorching the nets in the second-half of very important late-season game. The Lady Dawgs showed no ill-effects from their February 19 defeat against Florida, although the team started a bit sluggish in the early going and only held a 36-34 lead at halftime. Georgia pulled away early in the second half and never looked back, outscoring their opponent 51-18 after the intermission. Georgia was led by Meredith Mitchell's 20 points. The Lady Dawgs shot a blistering 52.7% on the night, including a respectable 8 of 21 from 3-point range (38.1%). Valencia McFarland led the Lady Rebs with 22 points.

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I received a late Christmas gift last week. The twin-DVD documentary, 1980 Dawgs The Inside Story of the National Championship Season, directed and filmed by Lenny Daniels along with executive producer Mike Moss, arrived with much anticipation. I actually bought it as a present to myself, after getting the green-light from Mrs. DavetheDawg. Turns out, the Christmas credit card bill wasn't so bad this year...so I was allowed to indulge in this bit of Georgia history, which isn't cheap at $50 bucks. Is it worth the price? It is, at least in my mind. This is a delightful trip down memory lane, and for the older fan who remembers how this particular season played out, it belongs on your shelf. The harder sell might be the younger generation of Dawg Nation. The production of the film is not flashy, but it doesn't need to be. It's strengths are not necessarily the film clips of each individual play, but the stories. The wonderful, wonderful stories. These guys obviously put in a great amount of time in researching and writing for such a niche-specific audience, and it shows.

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Finally, mercifully this long, arduous journey is nearly over. And I'm just talking about my writing. It’s the Allstate BCS National Championship Game, the ultimate contest to decide the best college football team in the land. Is it me, or does this game seemingly creep closer and closer to being played in February every year? Nevertheless, Alabama and LSU finally get their rematch; the SEC wins another National Champion to the chagrin of the other 11 conferences (as of this writing) and 108 non-SEC schools in Division I College Football, and Paul Finebaum, no matter the outcome, becomes the most listened to man in the history of spoken word.

This game will be a sequel, and 98.7% of the time, these things don't turn out so well.

I've never been so miffed after leaving a theater than I was at the conclusion of this turkey...

Will Bama vs. LSU II live up to the original? Yes. And here's why:

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I've lived in south Florida since 1993 and I can tell you that we generally get a pretty good cold snap or two down here every winter, particularly in the month of January. A few years ago, when Georgia Tech played in the Orange Bowl, people were buying pizzas in Joe Robbie, Pro Player, Landshark Dolphins Stadium not to necessarily eat, but to hold on their laps to keep warm. The FedEx Orange Bowl will be played in similarly cold conditions on Wednesday evening, when the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Clemson Tigers tangle in an ACC/Big East showdown. A word of caution to anyone thinking of driving down in their own car or parking underneath what you might believe is an innocuous palm tree: On a really cold night, some weird stuff happens down here in Dade County. Actually, really weird stuff happens every night down here, but this is a bit unique to our neck of the Carribbean woods.

Iguana? I thought that was one of Georgia's offensive linemen...

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I wasn't going to post this on the front page but I couldn't help myself. Apologies to Kyle as well. Please read his excellent post regarding Isaiah Crowell if you haven't had the chance.

Let's face it: We love our football. This is an important game because it's probably the last pure College Football Game left and it's a great way to honor the men and women of these two branches of the military who make tremendous sacrifices for us each and every day.

Except for the bowl games, and Division II and III playoffs, this is it. The season is effectively over, and it has flashed by in the blink of an eye. So join in the discussion, friend or foe. Cheer on the Navy Midshipmen and the Army Black Knights. They deserve it.

Go Dawgs and God Bless America.

First things first:  Godspeed, Larry.  We love you.

One cannot revel in one of life's best guilty pleasures that is schadenfreude unless your team actually takes care of business and wins.  On Saturday, your Georgia Bulldogs truly dominated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets by the tasty score of 31-17.  The margin of victory does not reflect how dominant the Dawgs truly were, especially in the second half.  Mark Richt has never lost a game at Grant Field, a.k.a. Bobby Dodd Stadium, a.k.a. "Georgia's Atlanta Practice Facility," compiling a 10-1 record and rendering many of the Tech faithful to wonder if it's time to turn yellow (as in Jacket) and bolt:

Posted: Today 2:50 PM
TampaBayJacket
Time to end the series against UGA
Every year this game ruins our season so why play it anymore? We dont have the horses to compete with UGA and never will, not with the uneven recruiting playing field we face against UGA and all other teams. Lets just cut our losses and concede. This game hurts us more than any benefit.

(h/t Ed Wilson...Dawgsports unofficial interweb spy).

This is the kind of talk that puts the 'freude' in 'schaden.'  Expect Tech to forever live vicariously through our competition because they can't beat us. 

Tech got some yards in the first half, mostly a by-product of constant chop-blocking (first play of the game drew a flag for this) and Tech was grabbing red-colored jerseys throughout the game, especially when forced to throw.  And once again Todd Grantham made the necessary adjustments after the half, forcing Tech out of their comfort zone quickly the 3rd quarter commenced, which basically means throwing the forward pass; a novel concept nearly perfected by Reggie Ball in the mid 2000's for those of you too young to remember.  The result was two quick interceptions, and a quick Murray to Tavarres King touchdown which essentially put the game out of reach.  Mike Bobo called a solid game, and considering we were again without the services of Isaiah Crowell, mixed and matched enough running backs to set up play-action.  Murray was accurate for most of the day, and Orson Charles was our biggest weapon on a day where Murray went 19 of 29 for 252 yards, 4 touchdowns and an interception.  Hopefully Isaiah gets healed up for the SEC Championship next week.  But I've got to give a shout-out to Ken Malcome who ran tough, grinding out key yardage on the last coup de grace drive at the end of the game and Zander Ogletree's 21 yard full-back trap:  A perfect play-call at a perfect time in the game.  We can run the full-back?  Who knew!  My only criticism of the gameplan was not heeding ESPN's Ed Cunningham and not pulling Aaron Murray after we got up by 21. 

Dude.  Shut up.

Now, on with the schaden-fest...

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The Dawgs prevailed over Georgia Tech 31-17, once again claiming the State, The Governor's Cup and bragging rights for the next 365 days.  There's a ton of football left today, so join in the fun and get your post-game celebration on.

It's Great to Be A Georgia Bulldog! 

Tech?  Wrecked!

One cannot enjoy the delicious vanilla, cherry and slightly-oaken tones of Schadenfreude unless your team actually wins.  Georgia did what they had to do in beating the Kentucky Wildcats 19-10 to claim the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division title.  On with the show...

Tennessee is on the upswing.  Beating Vanderbilt in Neyland Stadium will do this for a program. 

The result was a victory that Dooley called "a big step for our program."

That tells you how far UT has slipped in the last few years. Since when is beating Vanderbilt — at Neyland Stadium, no less — a big step?  h/t David Climer, The Tennessean.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt may not become bowl eligible after all.  They play at Wake Forest next week in the battle of like-looking uniforms.  I never thought I'd live to see the day when Vandy earned the title of the dirtiest team in the Southeastern Conference.  That is quality coaching.

I missed last night's Oklahoma-Baylor finish.  It's just as well because reliving the trauma of anything coached by Willie Martinez is enough to last a lifetime.

Florida over Furman in front of hundreds thousands.  Charlie Weis is a genius.

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As it turned out, Vegas was correct.  What was the line prior to kickoff, anyway?  I think it was something like 12.5 points over the Auburn Tigers, and that turned out to be just a little bit of an underestimation.  Every time I see the Vegas line come out, I wonder to myself, "Just who is this oddsmaker?"  Well, I made a few calls and called in a few poker chips to exact a favor and I'd like to introduce you to the single most influential soothsayer in all of Clark County, Nevada:  The one, the only...Nostradamus.

Nostradamus.  He sees things.

Here's the excerpt from my exclusive interview with the man himself.

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And here we are, in control of our own destiny...the proverbial Driver's Seat.  I have to admit that I'm not too terribly surprised.  After the effort the Georgia Bulldogs put forth in the loss to South Carolina back in September, we could see real talent and potential.  The fact that the path to the SEC East glory is paved in mediocrity didn't hurt, either.  And you know what?  That ain't our fault.  That's how things sometimes work out in this or any conference and the fortunes of the "East" vs. the "West" are as cyclical as anything, I suppose.  Right now, the West is dominant and this gets no argument from me.  However, to win the East one must still get from point A to point B without tripping up somewhere along the way, and we aren't there quite yet.  We've still got some big issues on this team; special teams, personnel (personal?) decisions and such.  To date, we still have not played a complete game in all three phases.  At times, play calling has been questionable.  At other times, the play calling has been perfect, but the execution hasn't been there.  This team - for all of it's faults, warts, hiccups and occasional bouts of derpitude - is trending in the right direction.  The defense is, without a doubt, our strength and the foundation for which any future greatness will be built.  Our offense still lags behind, but there is some serious talent on that side of the ball, too.  However, defense wins championships, or at least over-hyped 8:30 CBS kickoff times.  Bama and LSU pretty much confirmed this last Saturday.  Defense, baby.  (And, in 'Bama's case, a kicker.)  Back on point.

Driver's Seat.  Oooh ooh, Driver's Seat.  Yeah!

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