Hello Detriot Lions fans,

About a month ago, a member of your board posted on dawgsports.com (the UGA blog) about what to expect from Matt Stafford.  I've always felt that until you watch a player play a couple of times, its tough to truly understand someone else's assessment of a player.  Given that you guys have seen him play a couple of times, I think an assessment of what to expect from Stafford might make a little more sense to you guys. So here's a mid-preseason assessment of what you can expect:

You guys have been exposed to what was by far Stafford's biggest flaw in college: the stupid interception.  When I say stupid interception I mean one that wasn't really caused by defensive pressure but one that was caused by a brian fart on Stafford's part (i.e., a throw he should have known not to make).  This is probably the one element of his game which ultimately stands between him being a bust and an NFL great. 

But fear not Lions fans, there's at least two silver linings to this flaw.  The first is that Stafford has a pretty short memory.  You guys saw that in pre-season game one.  Immediately after throwing the pick six, he came right back out and marched the O down the field and into the end zone.  Thus, unlike Ryan Leaf, he's not gonna let a pick effect him mentally.  The second silver lining is that unlike Mike Vick, Stafford is a hard worker. He knows that he makes bone headed plays and he's gonna do whatever he can to reduce that flaw during practice.  Stafford wants to be great and he's willing to work to get there.   Stafford got progressively better every year he was at Georgia because of his work ethic.   

Here's another positive for you guys: I'm sure you guys have looked at this college stats and notice that save for his junior year he never had a 60% or above completion percentage for a season.  What you guys might not know is that during his freshman and sophmore years his receivers where worse than what you guys have been lining up out there during the first two preseason games.  Truth be told, during his sophmore year he would probably would have had a 60% completion percentage had his receivers (especially his dumbass tight end Trip Chandler) not dropped so many of his passes. (Sound familar?) And inspite of the many drops his receivers had during his sophmore campaign, Stafford still found a way to get the team to the Sugar Bowl.  Thus, he's not gonna over the think the drops by your receivers too much.  He'll forget them move on and do what he can to become a better QB.   Moreover, he's use to moving a team down the field with a partially underwhelming supporting cast. 

In short, the good: Stafford's a hard worker,  he's mentally tough and he's used to moving an O down the field with crummy receivers.  The bad: The brian fart INT.   Good luck Lions fans.     

Does anybody know Charlie Strong's defensive statistics pre-Meyer and post-Meyer?  There's a good chance I'm wrong on this one, but it seems like his defensive stats have gotten better since Meyer came to Gainesville. It certainly feels that way.  I mean during the Zook era, Florida's defense didn't exactly instill the fear in people that they have as of late. 

I kind of wonder if Charlie Strong gets a little too much credit for Florida's defensive success. It might have as much to do with UM and his other defensive assistants as it does with Charlie Strong's skill as a coordinator.  Hence, the stats might lend a little bit of clarity to this issue. 

1)  Most of UGA messaging universe has heard of Oklahoma State's All-American receiver, Dez Bryant and how incredible the young man is suppose to be at the game of football.  Some draft analysis are evening comparing to former Miami Hurricane great Andre Johnson.  With that said, I'd encourage every UGA blogger to go and take a look at his stats from last season. (http://oklahomastate.rivals.com/cviewplayer.asp?Player=383448).  If nothing else they show me that his praise maybe a little bit blown of out of proportion.  Why?

First, it appears that Mr. Bryant did most of his damage last year against subpar competition.  While UGA certainly had a down year last year, I guarantee you that the 08 version of our D was probably better than every D Mr. Bryant faced save for Texas and Oklahoma.  And last year was a down year for us.  This year were more experience, healthier, and more important more motivated than we were a year ago.  This year's D is out to prove their an elite D.  And proviing that starts with stopping Mr. Bryant.

The second, thing that a review of Mr.  Bryant's statistics show me is that 09 defense has faced more dangerous weapons than Mr. Bryant.  If you scroll down to Mr. Bryant's statistics against Oklahoma, you'll notice he earned a very respectable 91 yards receiving.  However, we all know who else played Oklahoma last year: Those damn Gators.  A player of theirs named Percy Harvin had 122 yards rushing and 45 yards receiving against Oklahoma on a bad ankle.  While comparing rushing to receiving yards may seem like comparing apples to oranges, the point to be made here is that Percy Harvin if nothing else was a much more dynamic weapon than Mr. Bryant is.  He can hurt you out of the back field or over the top.  And most of the players suiting for the Bulldogs this year have one or more years experience playing against Percy.  After preping for a guy that can hurt any where on the field, stopping a guy whose strickly a threat in the passing game isn't nearly as daunting.

I know what many of the doubters of this post are saying at this point? "Is he serious, stopping an All-American WR isn't that daunting? Tell that to guys who have been given the job of stopping Andrea Johnson 2.0 on a weekly basis."  Valid point, but UGA's D is given the task of stopping a much better receiver every day in practice.  Perhaps you've heard of him, his name is AJ Green. 

While Dez Bryant grabs all the head lines, there's pretty solid evidence that AJ's a better receiver.  He was unstoppable last year as a freshman.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at his stats from last year: http://uga.rivals.com/cviewplayer.asp?Player=401359.  Take a good hard look at that Florida line too.  He had 91 yards. That's much more impressive than the 91 yards Mr. Bryant complied against Oklahoma. You wanna know why? Because every member of Florida's starting secondary is a projected first round draft pick.  That means that AJ Green as an 18 year old with a pulled groin, got 91 yards against a secondary full of NFL football players. 

And while AJ and Dez's games are not identical, at very least our cornerbacks and safeties are use to going at it with a very good WR in practice every day.  Its the mass practice effect.  You play or do something enough times and it becomes easier for you to do. 

 GO DAWGS!

In the wake of the recent post by vineyarddawg about Bama's latest run with the NCAA I'd like to pose a question to you guys that has always interested me: How reflective of who is "really cheating" (i.e., the worst offenders) do you NCAA sanctions are? In other words, do you guys think that the NCAA with an unbiased eye looks all programs the same or do you think that some programs (like Alabama for example) are more heavily scrutinized?

I've always felt that their's probably some bias involved in it.  Similar to the way that school administers always came down a little more harshly on the perpetual trouble makers as opposed to those who walked the straight and narrow, I can't help but think that the NCAA keeps a stronger eye and programs like Bama and FSU b/c they have a history of violating the rules.  Look at Ohio State in wake of the Maurice Clarett saga.  I mean the kid basically said that boosters put cash in his pocket just b/c he was a big star on campus.  Granted his credibility can be questioned but had that been Bama as opposed to a program like Ohio State which has generally avoided NCAA infractions, I can't help but think that a bigger issue would have been made out of it.  USC and this stuff with Reggie Bush is another example.  I mean to me making a down payment on a house for a kid's parents is a lot more offensive than giving some student athletes free textbooks. Any way what do you guys think?

I know speculation at this point is futile, but . . . hey if one can't do it on this board where can one do it? What that said, I can't help but feel like this year's squad has a lot of similarities to that 05 team.  Obviously like the 05 team, there's gonna be a lot greats to replace.  Also like the 05 squad we've got a 5th year senior QB who has bidded his time to lead the dawgs. Things worked out fairly well for those 05 dawgs.  And I can't help but think things aren't gonna be much diffferent for these dawgs.  Why? Well this dawgs team is much deeper than that 05 team at most every position (QB, RB, WR especially).  That 05 squad was not particularly deep and Shockley's injury against Arky derailed our "potential NC hopes". [Although upon reflection I agree that the BCS probably would have screwed us out of the game to setup the Horns vs. Trojans matchup].  If Joe Cox gets hurt this year, Logan Gray is more than capable of leading us. Heck, Joe Cox is fighting like heck to keep the spot.  Moreover, our WR corps should be really good as well (with Marlon Brown being this year's AJ Green).  And while our D's performance against BAMA, UF, UK and GT certainly has to be an issue of some concern this offseason, I can't help but think that will be corrected as well. They shut down Michigan State and seemed pretty stout in spring.  With all this said, I know that unlike the 05 squad the 09 squad has an absolute monster Florida squad that according to ESPN and other programs is going to embark on a path of utter world domination the likes of which have not been seen since the days of Julius Ceasar.  Clearly this has the potential for making things a bit difficult for both UGA and the UN. However, every empire's gotta end some time right? Why  not in 09?

Hey guys,

I'm sure many of you have seen that changing the site of "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" has been a topic widely discussed/speculated this offseason.  My question to yall is, do you think CMR is making a bigger deal out of this than it really is? Personally I can't help but feel that he is.  I mean he talks about the fact that it its in the opponent's home state, but dang the ticket allotement is split 50/50. He also talks about the fact that its a little more humid for us than it is for them, but dang its late October/early November; i.e.,  isn't it a little late in the season for humdity to a factor? Perhaps his most valid point CMR has made in terms of an advantage the Gators may have is that the fact that we spend a little more time traveling than they do, but gosh, what is it two hours more at most?  I mean ultimately, I guess CMR is trying to give the dawgs every advantage possible against the gators, but there's a part of me that wonders if he's making this a bigger issue than it should be. Thoughts?

First of all, as I'm sure most of you probably know, I'm new to this board and really to the whole message board thing.  I love the dawgs, love to talk about em (and really SEC sports in general).  With that said, you guys may have seen Mark Bradley's article pondering weather UGA's advantage with in-state recruiting is slipping.  If not, here's a link to the article: http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2009/05/14/bradleys-buzz-is-ugas-recruiting-hold-getting-slippery/?cxntfid=blogs_mark_bradley_blog.  Anyways, I know its May which means we're like what, three months past signing day and thus don't have a lot of football related news going on, but I can't help but think this article is a really weak attempt at journalism.  I mean he mentions all of these prospects we've offered that have either given verbals to other schools or who have us behind other schools.  What he doesn't really seem to mention is that most of the players who have given verbals to other schools or who have other schools listed higher (according to rivals anyways) play positions we're pretty stacked at.  For instance, look at RB Mack Brown from MLK. He has UF as his front runner (a little in front of us). I'm sure UF coaches have told him that Demps and Rainey can both go pro after next year whereas at UGA, CK is the only running back that will have that will be eligible to go pro. Also, there's that safety from Neunan, Alec Olgetree.  He has "The U" listed as his front runner. What's interesting is that the Canes are very thin at safety and they had the lowest interception total in the nation last year.Thus, it would be seem that he would also have an opportunity to play early whereas, b/c of UGA's 06-07 classes, we're kind of deep at the safety position.

IMO I think the fact that these two kids would have early opportunities to play at both of those schools has to be a factor in why they are seriously considering going out of state. Again, that's just my opinion.  What do you yall think? Do you think the fact that Bama now has Saban and UM has won two natty's in the past three years has or is gonna negatively impact our ability to keep the best talent in state?