You know how it went on Saturday. Tonight, we see if Jurgen Klinsmann's men can sustain that kind of possession and pressure against one of the best teams in the world. Brazil is missing a few of their best players (most notably Dani Alves and Kaka), but they will still have Thiago Silva, Neymar, and some guy named Hulk. And, you know, they're still Brazil. Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey are rumored to be available as subs, though we won't know for sure until the lineups are announced shortly before kickoff.

(Via)

The match starts at 7:30 PM Eastern, and will be televised on ESPN2. The indomitable Ian Darke will be doing play-by-play. (The very domitable Taylor Twellman will be the color guy.) Join us in cheering on The Stars and Stripes!

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Ed. note: Kyle is away on vacation, so you know what that means. ALL SOCCER ALL THE TIME, Y'ALL. Ok, well, not really. But I will be doing a couple of posts related to soccer this week. And we all wish Kyle the best on his well-deserved vacation with his family.

Maybe the coin is turning for the guys in red in Jacksonville, after all. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you are a U.S. Soccer fan, it just don't get any better than this. Sure, sure, we beat Italy back in February, and if the stars align, it's possible we could get a special result against Brazil on Wednesday. This past Saturday, however, I was privileged to be present at one of the most transcendent experiences I imagine I will ever witness as a soccer fan.

In front of the largest crowd ever to witness a U.S. international soccer match in the southeast, the United States Men's National Team (USMNT) thoroughly crushed a solid European soccer team.

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(Via)

As one might expect, with the level of traffic we regularly receive at Dawg Sports, we show up in a lot of search results. Generally, most of our search-result visitors have entered something fairly predictable, like "Georgia Bulldogs football," "did Georgia win last night," "Urban Meyer is a big dumb jerk," or something like that. (Ok, not that last one. But still.)

And then, we have the outliers. Any comments by me are in (parentheses) below, and I have excluded all of the NSFW results. All of the following search terms have been used to reach a page or picture on the dawgsports.com website within the last 7 days:

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Or, in other words, "Open Comment Thread for Sports that Kyle Doesn't Like."

Don't get me wrong... there are Georgia sports today. Baseball is wrapping up their series with Alabama, and there is a veritable cornucopia of NCAA postseason competitions today in Athens, with the softball, tennis, and golf teams all taking the field of play in the Classic City.

But for the soccer world, today is the conclusion to the most prestigious club competition in the world... the UEFA Champions League. Coverage starts at 2:00 Eastern on the Fox Network (yes, that's the "real" Fox, not Fox Soccer Channel, so pretty much everybody should be able to get it). The contenders in this match are Chelsea and Bayern Munich... so let's all start learning soccer chants in German, y'all! (I suspect "Chelski" is unchanged when translated.)

The UEFA Champions League also has the benefit of having the most elegant, beautiful anthem in all of the sports world. Only "Glory, Glory" is better, and only because it's Georgia. Just take a listen:

The lyrics are in English, French, and German, and can be located here. It's also worth noting that the tune is an adaptation of Zadok the Priest, one of the anthems composed by Handel that has been played at the coronation of English monarchs for centuries.

There's also some horse race today that, I'm told, will probably confirm the fact that we will not have a Triple Crown winner in 2012.

So whether you're watching soccer, horseys, or following the Dawgs via the internet or radio, join us for a little Saturday sports discussion in the thread below!

(Via)

As one might expect, with the level of traffic we regularly receive at Dawg Sports, we show up in a lot of search results. Generally, most of our search-result visitors have entered something fairly predictable, like "Georgia Bulldogs football," "did Georgia win last night," "Georgia has more national championships than Alabama," or something like that. (Ok, not that last one. But still.)

And then, we have the outliers. Any comments by me are in (parentheses), and I have excluded all of the NSFW results. All of the following search terms have been used to reach a page or picture on the dawgsports.com website within the last 7 days:

Continue reading this post »

This is the final series of 3 posts from the 1897/1898 era of Georgia football. In my first two posts, I studied the tragic set of circumstances and aftermath of Von Gammon's death. For this edition of History Learnin', though, I'm lightening the mood a bit and sharing a few articles that outline the state of Georgia athletics during this time.

I'll just go ahead and give you the primary takeaway from today's lesson: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I'm so excited about this first item that I can't wait to share it, so let's just jump right in:

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Since the folks at the SB Nation mothership have declared it to be "college football relegation week," I figured I'd participate in the discussion by revisiting the proposal I made 5 months ago for a promotion/relegation system in college football. It was originally a two-post series, and the first post, in which I stated the benefits of such a system is located here. (I saw no need to re-post that entry.)

The bottom line is that conference realignment has gotten so crazy and out of hand that a new, simpler solution is needed. As is often the case, though, a simple solution might seem wildly radical at first. All I ask you to do, though, is look at the maps, and then I think you'll be convinced. (Well, convinced to listen to the whole argument, at least.)

The promotion/relegation system I have proposed is 99.9 percent geographically-based. Such a system is impossible, however, with our all-over-the-map conferences arranged as they currently are (not to mention how crazy it will get in 2013).

As a result, I have rearranged the top-tier BCS conferences to align them with a specific geography. Basically, instead of having multiple conferences overlapping every state, each state is assigned to only one "stack" of conferences in the promotion/relegation system. I attempted to preserve historical rivalries in the initial organization of this system, but was forced to break a few. For example, LSU is no longer in the SEC, and Georgia Tech and Clemson are cut off from basically the rest of the current ACC.

Because there are far more teams in the eastern and central part of the U.S. than the west, the Pac-12 stack has fewer teams than all the others, but if there's one thing the current system has shown us, it's that it is virtually impossible to draw a completely clean line between conferences. The ACC has also taken over much of the Big East's old footprint, and because there aren't a lot of Division IA/FBS football teams in the northeast, it covers a large number of states. (In fact, I had to promote two I-AA/FCS teams to the second tier just to complete a 12-team second-tier conference.)

For reference purposes, here is the current conference alignment as it will look for the 2012 football season:

And here is the new conference/stack map for the promotion/relegation system:

Have I piqued your interest? Then, please, read on...

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Welcome back to our own little private History Learnin' classroom. Have a seat, why don't you? Please remember that there is no gum chewing or sticking-your-tongue-to-the-flagpole allowed. Thank you.

On Sunday, I paid tribute to Rosalind Burns Gammon, the mother from Rome who saved Georgia football, and who in my mind is the mother of Georgia football. Her son, Von Gammon, tragically died as a result of on-field injuries in the 1897 Georgia/Virginia game, and her actions in his name literally preserved the sport of football at every institution in the state of Georgia.

It is not possible, however, to fully discuss the Von Gammon tragedy in just one post. As a result, I will be reviewing the media backlash and aftermath of Gammon's death on the game in this story. I will also have another follow-up posting on Thursday discussing the general state of college athletics (not just football) in 1897, primarily because I love how it illustrates that some things just never change in the world.

So... let's get to it! Mr. Bissinger, you have the stage:

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Recently, we have witnessed a lot of debate regarding the safety, or lack thereof, of football as a sport. In the wake of studies regarding brain damage suffered by longtime veterans of the sport, and punctuated by the self-inflicted death of one of the recent great players who was a household name, some have called for the banning of college football as a whole.

I am critical of recent attempts by certain journalists who clearly have a preexisting agenda to call for the abolition of college football. While it's true that college football is a step towards the pros, I am not aware of any men who only played college football that have been found to be suffering from the same brain-related medical issues that have been seen in high-profile cases of professional players over the last 10 years. I'll leave those arguments for another time and another place, however.

Today, for a Mothers Day version of History Learnin', I want to review an event that was discussed briefly at Team Speed Kills recently: the tragic death of Georgia football player Richard Vonalbade Gammon.

Von Gammon in his UGA football uniform (Via)

(Fair warning: This is a long entry)

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Ed. Note: Apologies for this feature's recent absence/inconsistent appearance. We're now back in all our glory (with an added bonus at the end!) through the remainder of the offseason.

(Via)

As one might expect, with the level of traffic we regularly receive at Dawg Sports, we show up in a lot of search results. Generally, most of our search-result visitors have entered something fairly predictable, like "Georgia Bulldogs football," "did Georgia win last night," "Michael Adams resignation after-party," or something like that. (Ok, not that last one. But still.)

And then, we have the outliers. Any comments by me are in (parentheses), and I have excluded all of the NSFW results. All of the following search terms have been used to reach a page or picture on the dawgsports.com website within the last 7 days:

Continue reading this post »

I just read a very interesting article by Jen Chang at SI.com regarding the use of analytics to prepare for matches. Everton's extensive use of analytics might not be news to some fans of the Blues, but I had no idea how vital it was to Moyes' game strategy planning.

We have seen many times across many sports that the effective use of analytics can give one team an advantage over its opponent by being better prepared to anticipate their strategies and tactics, most famously in baseball with Bill James' Sabermetrics. I'm wondering, though, if this isn't a contributory part of the reason the Toffees have typically started so slowly and then come on strong at the end of the season under Moyes.

Certainly, there is a limited set of data from which to draw early in the season, which could theoretically give a less accurate prediction of teams' tendencies (especially since rosters tend to change significantly in the offseason), leading to the use of less effective tactics in a match environment. Conversely, as the season marches on, the sample size grows ever larger, which would presumably provide a much more accurate prediction of a given team's tendencies.

I'm not faulting Moyes or Everton for using analytics at all... quite the opposite, in fact. If this is his secret behind "doing more with less," I think it's a magnificent use of technology to get more out of the game, and I'd love to know if more players besides just Landon Donovan and Tim Howard have been extensively using the information available to their advantage. Now, if we could just figure out how to make it through the first 10 or 15 weeks of lean data... then we'd really be on to something!

(Via)

As one might expect, with the level of traffic we regularly receive at Dawg Sports, we show up in a lot of search results. Generally, most of our search-result visitors have entered something fairly predictable, like "Georgia Bulldogs football," "did Georgia win last night," "Michael Adams is a huge disaster," or something like that. (Ok, not that last one. But still.)

And then, we have the outliers. Any comments by me are in (parentheses), and I have excluded all of the NSFW results. All of the following search terms have been used to reach a page or picture on the dawgsports.com website within the last 7 days:

Continue reading this post »

As a reminder, the Gym Dogs are competing in the first round of the NCAA Championships tonight at 6:00 at the Arena at Gwinnett.

Loath as we are to link to a certain news source in Atlanta, this article is particularly noteworthy. The following quote from Jay Clark stuck out to me most:

We're not going to ‘out-difficulty' anybody; we know that. We're not going to do some of the crazy big skills you'll see some of the other teams do. But we're going to concentrate on being a super-clean team. Hit every handstand; stick all our landings. Every year that's what decides championships.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the difference between Jay Clark and Suzanne Yoculan. Yoculan's teams shot for the moon, and their degrees of difficulty were often the highest in the competition. Not only that, but they nailed those routines more often than not.

Jay Clark is taking the "safe route." And at the top levels of intercollegiate competition, the safe route gets you fired.

It's Thursday once again, Dawg fans, and you know what that means... EUROPA LEAGUE SEMIFINALS!

Who will play for the giant levitating prehistoric wine goblet?? Find out LIVE on a secret channel available only to DirecTV subscribers!! (Via)

LOL... no, seriously, there is an item of note or two actually happening in the world that we actually care about. (Just so you know, though... some soccer players give great fishing advice, too. Just saying.) There's not a ton of relevant Georgia news that has broken since Tuesday, honestly... but good stuff nonetheless. To wit:

- Mark Richt is saying... well, pretty much exactly what you'd expect him to say about UGA's discipline policies. The most relevant part of his statement? "I'm not gonna change the way I discipline"

(Tankertoad is totally surprised.) Actually, he gave a very thoughtful, insightful answer to a question posed to him at a Bulldog Club event recently in Augusta. To me, it just confirms that we have the right guy on the hot seat at the helm of this program. #MarkRichtHotSeat

- Georgia is apparently not the only school that would be interested in scheduling an inter-squad games in the spring against other nearby teams. David Cutcliffe addressed the issue and boiled it down to the bottom line for us. (Cutcliffe's Duke team is, as you might be aware, located in close vicinity with other schools in their area that they enjoy competing against.)

- Arkansas is expected to announce a decision in its coaching search soon... and Phil Fulmer has thrown his Krispy Kreme-stained hat into the ring. PLEASE NOTE, Arkansas fans: If you hire Fulmer, every award and football facility in Fayetteville will be renamed in honor of Clint Stoerner.

- How do we know that the SEC's equal-distribution of money is really having an effect? Vanderbilt is building a massive indoor practice facility. Of course, this being Vanderbilt, their official press release points out that this facility will be available for use by regular students and club teams. Personally, I can't wait for the day when James Franklin is forced to practice outside during a driving Nashville rainstorm because some snotty rich kid from Vermont had already scheduled the field for his intramural lacrosse team and wouldn't give up his spot.

- IMPORTANT NAVIGATIONAL INFORMATION FOR PILOTS: The planet Venus is not an airplane. Please make note of this for future reference.

Have a great Thursday, everyone... and

Go Dawgs!

Good Thursday morning, Dawg fans! I'm currently hopped up on painkillers, so now seems like the perfect time to write about the dangers lurking on the Sanford Stadium turf on this upcoming Saturday. The denizens of spring (football) in Athens are a surprisingly elusive lot, preferring to perform their subterfuge silently. Not many people know this, but their preferred meal of choice is defensive backs. In a pinch, though, they have been known to feast on the flesh of much-heralded freshman running backs. I'm most worried, though about that polka-dotted elephant that is currently riding a rainbow-colored scooter through my man cave/home office. He'd better not hurt any of our players on Saturday. (Did I mention that I was hopped up on pain killers?)

But I digress. Spring practice is winding down, which means that an entirely too lengthy football-free desert is just around the corner. Fortunately, however, spring practice culminates in an open-to-the-public intra-squad scrimmage in Sanford Stadium that we call the G-Day game. Therefore, I'm letting the following people know that, for G-Day 2012, You're on Notice, Dawg!

(Via)

In no particular order:

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(Via)

As one might expect, with the level of traffic we regularly receive at Dawg Sports, we show up in a lot of search results. Generally, most of our search-result visitors have entered something fairly predictable, like "Georgia Bulldogs football," "did Georgia win last night," "Bobby Petrino is a lot like Mark Richt but with more women," or something like that. (Ok, not that last one. But still.)

And then, we have the outliers. Any comments by me are in (parentheses), and I have excluded all of the NSFW results. All of the following search terms have been used to reach a page or picture on the dawgsports.com website within the last 7 days:

Continue reading this post »

(Note: There are no April Fools' jokes within. I hope.)

The Georgia Bulldogs held a scrimmage yesterday, signifying the official midpoint of the Dawgs' spring practice. There has been a lot of news coming out of Athens since spring practice started on March 20, and very little of it has been encouraging. In fact, just thinking of commenting on the state of Georgia football right now makes me a little nauseous.

As such, I should probably stop beating around the bush and just let the following people know that, for the rest of spring practice, 2012, You're On Notice, Dawg!

(Via)

In no particular order:

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As are many, I am excited about the upcoming premiere of Season 2 of the HBO series Game of Thrones. Apparently, though, unlike many, I have already read most of the books from which the series is taken. (I'm currently about 20% through Book 5, A Dance with Dragons, which is the most recent book released.) As such, I'll try to avoid any spoilers in the following post. (Update: Anything that happened in Season 1, however, is totally fair game.)

I was recently thinking about how closely many of our current SEC coaches actually resemble certain characters in the Game of Thrones universe, however. As a result, I decided to put together a compendium of how each SEC coach would map into the universe created by George R. R. Martin (and, of course, HBO).

And he died in Season 1. So nobody is him, obviously. (Via)

So, first, let's get the obvious one out of the way...

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Note: This started out as a semi-periodic e-mail from me to the Dawg Sports contributors with funny search term updates, and we got such a kick out of it that Kyle suggested I turn this into sort of an offseason replacement for "You're On Notice, Dawg." And even though there is a special mid-spring-practice edition of "You're On Notice, Dawg!" coming out tomorrow, I decided to continue posting this week. So... blame him. :-)

(Via)

As one might expect, with the level of traffic we regularly receive at Dawg Sports, we show up in a lot of search results. Generally, most of our search-result visitors have entered something fairly predictable, like "Georgia Bulldogs football," "did Georgia win last night," "Why is Michael Adams a disaster," or something like that. (Ok, not that last one. But still.)

And then, we have the outliers. Any comments by me are in (parentheses), and I have excluded all of the NSFW results. (And, what with this being the internet, you would not believe some of the NSFW stuff that manages to bring people to our relatively family-friendly site.) All of the following search terms have been used to reach a page or picture on the dawgsports.com website within the last 7 days:

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(communicator chirps)Vineyarddawg to Dawg Sports: After tonight's news, just about the only thing I'm capable of doing right now is curling up into the fetal position and quoting bad Star Trek movies. So I'm just going to run with that. Vineyarddawg out. (communicator chirps)

(The camera dissolves from the title page into the scene of a barren field. We can see a stranger, Rambok, approaching a shiftless hobo.)

(Rambok dismounts)

Rambok (to hobo): Your stash runs deep.

Hobo: What do you know of my stash??

Rambok: Each man hides a secret stash. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light! Share your stash! Share your stash with me, and gain strength from the sharing!

Hobo: (produces stash)

(Camera cuts away - triumphant orchestral interlude)

(Camera returns - Rambok begins to walk away from Hobo)

Hobo: Where... did you get this power?

Rambok: Hey, man, it was your stash.

Hobo: It feels... as if a weight has been lifted from my pocket!! How the hell am I going to get some more?

Rambok: Join my quest.

Hobo: What is it you seek?

Rambok: What you seek. What all men have sought since the beginning of time. Shakari... the source... Heaven... Eden... call it what you will. To find it, I'll need a scooter and an alley to emerge from.

Hobo: But there are no people who emerge from alleys on scooters in A-CC!

Rambok: Have faith, my friend. There are more of us than you know. (unzips jacket, reveals a football jersey underneath)

Hobo: You're a football player!

Rambok: (nods) (laughs maniacally)

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