SB Nation User Blog: donkeydawg

2009 Competition Improves

donkeydawg — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:03:18 -0000

I've been bullish about the Dawgs for 2009, but in an effort to curb my enthusiasm, I've been looking at the dark side, with some help from Phil Steele (though he is also relatively bullish about Georgia this year).

The thing that really jumps out at you when you survey the schedule is how many opponents are expected to be better than they were last year.

By Steele's assessment, no fewer than eight of our twelve opponents (Okie State, Arkansas, Arizona State, LSU, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, and the Dirt Daubers) are likely to improve this year. Three (Arkansas, Tennessee and Auburn) make Phil's Most Improved Teams list. And LSU ranks eighth in Steele's Power Poll of the best teams (above Georgia, which ranks eleventh). This is probably why Steele rates our schedule--which is generally regarded as significantly easier than last year's, certainly once we leave Stillwater--as the seventh toughest in the country. Given the teams on last year's schedule who wound up more or less imploding--notably Arizona State, Tennessee and Auburn--this may actually be the toughest schedule the Dawgs have faced in a long while.

Moreover, one of the teams that isn't expected to improve--SC--has been a difficult team for GA since Spurrier arrived; just ask the 2007 Dawgs whose loss at home to SC ultimately cost us a national title shot, or the 2008 Dawgs who nearly lost in Columbia.

Yes, even an improved Arkansas on the road will be easier to beat than last year's Alabama team, and yes, the pace and home/road profile of the schedule are better than in 2008.

But the Dawgs really do need to step it up to beat an improved competition in and out of the SEC. In looking back at last year, there's a tendency to focus on the two blowout losses and the frustrating loss to the Daubers. But we also won three games (SC, KY, and Auburn) that could have easily gone the other way.

The 2009 schedule doesn't provide a lot of room for "letdowns;" the closest thing to an early gimme is Vandy in mid-October, and that's on the road where we damn near lost to the 'Dores in 2007.

So there's my one--and I hope, the last--expression of pessimism for 2009.

Grounds for (Limited) Optimism Against Gators

donkeydawg — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:09:56 -0000

I hope I'm not violating some sort of unspoken taboo against early discussion of some of the stuff in Phil Steele's new preview. In case there is, I'll avoid spoiling too many things for those who haven't gotten mitts on it yet, and limit this to one issue: are there any grounds for optimism in the 2009 Georgia-Florida game, given the Gators' scary return of talent from a championship team, and the results of that horrid contest last year?

There appear to be two, aside from Steele's positive assessment of Georgia's potential this year. One, of course, is the bye week before the Gator game; the Dawgs are 10-2 in regular season games after a bye week since 2002, and one of those games was the big win in Jax in 2007. The second is that Florida had a positive turnover margin of 22 last year. And as Steele always argues, such large margins, positive or negative, have a tendency to reverse in the next season. Given the role of turnovers in Florida's one loss last season, that's worth remembering.

As I've said here before, some of us old alumni remember when Georgia used to own Florida as much as Florida has owned us since the arrival of Spurrier. I have no superstitious awe of the Gators; just the realistic awe based on their performance last year and the players they have coming back.

Fan Base Questions

donkeydawg — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:54:06 -0000

Charlottedawg's post on in-state recruiting got me thinking about a related question: the health and breadth of UGA's fan base.

I recall hearing some Dawg brass worry twenty years ago that the distribution of alumni wasn't keeping up with Atlanta's explosive population growth. Then in the 90s the big leaps in admissions requirements at UGA created some talk that the school's small-town fan base might be affected, since lots of good ol' boys might be forced to go to Georgia Southern or Valdosta State.

I don't live in-state anymore, but I get the impression that Atlanta's a pretty big Bulldog town these days (and it really didn't use to be), while the few small Georgia towns I've visited lately are as red-and-black as ever.

Our out-of-state fan base has certainly grown by leaps and bounds, but are there any other trends worth knowing about?

Blogs Versus MSM--Sports Edition

donkeydawg — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:29:36 -0000

As we kill time before G-Day--which, in a rare inversion of the usual handicap of being a Dawg fan in California, I will get to enjoy over a late breakfast in my jammies--I have a basic and probably naive question that's been nagging at me: how big is the talent/cultural gap between sports blogs and what passes for MainStreamMedia sports coverage these days?

I'm a political blogger by trade (and no, I won't talk politics here), and am familiar with the many arguments between bloggers and MSM types in that arena. But as a relatively new consumer of sports blogs, I'm getting the impression that the divide is, if anything, larger in sports journalism and discussion. By and large, sports blogs seem to have more expertise, better writing, and a vastly greater sense of style and humor, than sports pages or electronic media, even though sports blogging, other than in media-sponsored sites, seems to be almost entirely uncompensated. And I also gather that print-based sportswriters are more likely to have completely atavistic attitudes towards this Internets Thing than their non-sports counterparts.

Yes, there's the WWLS with enough money to produce occasional nuggets (just as there's the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and the television networks in political news--though ESPN is sort of like a combination of all of them), and some of the better newspaper sportswriters do their better work online (viz. David Hale, whose writing makes you wonder how the Macon papers manage to keep him), which is also the case with most political reporters.

But by and large, conventional sports coverage is often so bad, and online sports coverage is often so good, that I really do wonder if the balance of power is about to shift in some fundamental way. I'm really interested to hear what other Dawg fans have to say on this subject.

A Heretical Thought About the BB Coaching Job

donkeydawg — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:37:19 -0000

Like most Dawg fans, my main interest in the NCAA basketball tournament has been the potential impact on our prospects for hiring a top-notch coach to revive our sadly depressed program. Now that the dominoes are finally beginning to fall in Lexington and Tuscaloosa, I, too, hope Damon Evans can land Jeff Capel or Mike Anderson, though I'm very skeptical that either will come to Athens or stay there for long.

So: if those easy calls fall through, it's time to back up and ask what we most need, and that's even easier: a strong recruiter (Felton's main shortcoming in this prospect-rich territory) who knows how to rebuild a fallen program, and who won't be looking around for an opening elsewhere after that first trip to the NCAAs.

And if you're objective about it, the very available coach who most fits that profile is--think about it before you scream--Billy Gillispie.

Yes, I know, you hate to resort to a fired coach from another SEC team, but even Gillispie's detractors in Lexington keep saying, accurately, that his main problem there was that he was a "poor fit" for that insane atmosphere. Stands to reason he might be a "good fit" somewhere else.

And it well might be in Athens. The man is without a doubt a great recruiter; his recruiting had a lot to do with Bill Self's success at Tulsa and Illinois, and he had nationally ranked recruiting classes at A&M and at Kentucky.

Gillispie also has one of the best "rebuilding" records around, getting a completely moribund UTEP program into the NCAAs in two years, and lifting one of the most consistently underperforming programs in the country, at Texas A&M, to consistent excellence. He was Big 12 Coach of the Year twice; think about the competition he had for that. Clearly UK was too hasty in hiring him (after stupidly running off Tubby), but it's not as though his record didn't merit it.

In terms of how he'd act in Athens: Gillispie is 49 years old, and would likely consider Georgia his last stop; he's just been humiliated by UK, and I suspect he'd love nothing more than the chance to coach at a competing SEC school. The factors that made him a "poor fit" at Kentucky--crazy expectations, and an imperious group of big donors--won't be an issue at all at UGA. His occasional over-zealousness as a recruiter worries me a bit, but he's never gotten a team on probation. And his work ethic is undoubted by anybody.

So think about it, Dawg BB fans. Yes, it's nice to hope that we can outbid other schools for the current Big Names, but if that doesn't work out, we could almost certainly hire someone without a lot of trouble whose Big Name may have gotten tarnished for reasons partially beyond his control, and for other reasons he can correct.

And as a bonus, it would be nice to have UK subsidize a basketball revival at Georgia with that buyout they are going to eat.

Just thought I'd throw this out for brainfood and as a conversation starter as we wait for the Spring Game.

Will Dawgs Give Up 1000?

donkeydawg — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:51:13 -0000

I follow women's basketball only sporadically, but did see that Pat Summit failed to get win #1000 at Oklahoma tonight. That means her next shot is at home, on Thursday, against Georgia.

Over at GSB, Paul Westerdawg has a good post alluding to the brilliant career Andy Landers would have had if not for Summit's virtual ownership of Georgia over the decades. It would be painfully fitting if he had to give up #1000 to her.

Maybe he'll pull off the upset as a late gesture of defiance. Sure would spoil a big party at Thompson-Boling, eh?

Can't Help It--Enjoyed the Sugar Bowl

donkeydawg — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:34:27 -0000

I know as a Georgia fan I'm supposed to support every SEC team in every bowl game. I know that the University of Alabama is not one of our Certified Rivals (though us older Dawgs have some residual resentment left over from the Bear Bryant years).

But still, during tonight's Sugar Bowl I found myself cheering for Utah. And upon examination, my attitude was based on how much I enjoyed watching Nick Saban's unhappiness on the sidelines, much as I enjoyed the Ball Coach's displeasure during his Iowa beatdown.

Saban's a great coach, to be sure. But he's one of those great coaches who is an admitted, outfront, unapologetic a-hole. One of the abiding pleasures of being a Georgia fan is that we haven't had this kind of coach, well, ever.

I also admit that I've been worried that Saban would have five straight #1 recruiting years and dominate college football for a long time on sheer talent.

Since Urban Meyer is another admitted, outfront, unapologetic a-hole who could easily dominate college football for a long time on sheer talent, by logic I should probably hope the Okies beat the Evil Gators in the MNC game. But I won't, since we're talking about the MNC, which needs to stay down South.

So my attitude is: win every game, a-hole SEC coaches, or accept the opprobrium you have earned from your regional landsmen.

Who Else Could Bolt?

donkeydawg — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:46:55 -0000

Like a lot of you who were at Sanford Stadium yesterday, I'm taking precautions against the onset of pneumonia, and looking forward to a year of well-earned taunting from Dirt Dauber fans.

And like a lot of you, I wasn't really surprised at yesterday's outcome. After the first Tech TD in the second half, I turned to my fiancee (or to my fiancee's shivering, cloaked form, to be more exact) and said: "This feels a lot like the Tennessee game two years ago." It wasn't quite that bad, but it was close.

In any event, to use this year's reigning cliche, it was what it was, and for that matter, the future lies ahead. But I do have a question for the better-informed-than-me readers out there:

I gather the Rookie Salary Cap speculation guarantees that Stafford and Moreno are gone. But on the Kevin Butler post-game radio show, someone (my teeth were chattering too loudly to be sure who it was) said that any player who could go in the first three rounds of the draft will probably bolt. So who else could we lose in an untimely manner? And will the entire SEC have a season next year bereft of very talented seniors and/or redshirt juniors?

Coming Home

donkeydawg — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:18:38 -0000

With the Delaney and Bonnie classic playing on the IPOD in my brain, I'm "Comin' Home" to Georgia for Thanksgiving, and to Athens on Saturday for the Dirt Dauber game.

I've now watched the Dawgs from four different times zones this year. For the Kentucky game, I had to rely on radio via GeorgiaDogs while impatiently waiting for the local sports bar to open. The Raycom feed of the Auburn game was available at Yahoo, which was nice, since much of what I had to say during the game was best said in the privacy of my living room.

Like most Dawg fans, I have no idea what to expect Saturday. I suggest the PA announcer at Sanford Stadium distract the Bees by frequently announcing scores from the UVA-VaTech game, which will determine their fate in the wretched ACC.

My fiancee and I have already decided not to order bowl tickets--not because we are disappointed with the team or the season, but simply because we don't want to spend a weekend in Orlando, our least favorite city in our least favorite state. My line about Orlando is that it's what you'd get if the Mormons had built Las Vegas (no disrespect intended to LDS folk; I just can't personally stand a big cup of tackiness without a dollop of decadance).

While I'll bark and yell with the best of them Saturday, I'm already looking forward to 2009, which I had always figured, even during the pre-season Number One hype, would be Our Year. Let's hope Stafford and Moreno feel the same way in January.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all, and Go Dawgs!

Big Trouble in a Small Paradise

donkeydawg — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:21:02 -0000

As a self-proclaimed Diaspora Dawg, it seemed appropriate that I watched the Georgia-Florida game in the strangest place yet: the small but beautiful Caribbean island of St. Kitts, where I was attending a wedding on Friday.

Since both bride and groom were from Georgia, a big chunk of the hungover wedding party was interested in a different Cocktail Party. We were going to watch the game in the hotel bar, but extremely loud steel drum music made audio impossible. So we piled into one hotel room, fortified with food, local rum and beer, and Tennessee sipping whiskey.

Our actual game experience probably wasn't that different from yours, aside from the slight dissociation involved in looking away from the disaster on the screen and seeing blue waves and green mountains. About half our group were knowledgeable enough to understand the early, familiar portends of a bad Dawg Day: the red zone ineptitude, the key dropped passes, the missed field goals, the beatdown of Stafford, the stupid penalties, the once-too-often predictable playcalling. The other half drank, looked at wedding photos, and gradually drifted off to the beach.

All in all, it was environment that encouraged philosophical shoulder-shrugging rather than angry teeth-grinding. But personally, I found myself watching the Texas Tech-Texas game, in an effort to reinstitute some sort of experience of good college football. It was probably a better choice than my first impulse, which was to wander down to the casino and engage in a few hours of masochistic losses at the blackjack table.

From a philosophical shoulder-shrugging point of view, I told a few of my fellow Dawg fans that maybe next year was intended to be Our Year after all, given the exceptional youth of the team, the folks who will be back from injury, and the increasing probability that Stafford and Moreno won't have the sort of season that guarantee immediate NFL riches. But we all got seduced by the preseason number one ranking, and even down in the hazy and illusory atmosphere of a small Caribbean paradise, the illusions died quickly.