As soon as Dennis Felton arrived in Athens in 2003, he began recruiting…the class of 2007. Even back then when junior high was barely in the rearview mirror, it was becoming clear that the class of 2007 would be one of the best collections of basketball talent ever produced by the state of Georgia.

So while Felton made the effort to recruit well in the short-term (crowned by the signings of Mercer and Williams last season), his aim continued (and continues) to be on 2007. He hit the pavement and began developing the relationships that would be neccessary to compete for these prospects against more successful programs. Keeping as much of that in-state talent at home as possible would set Georgia basketball up very nicely.

The first fruits of that effort came yesterday as Jeremy Price, a 6’9″ 260 lb. junior PF from Decatur, committed to Georgia. Price had been getting interest from, among others, Kansas and Indiana.

Things are looking up in hoops land. Price is only one commitment, but if his pledge is any indication of the quality of Felton’s 2007 recruiting effort, watch out.

I’ve been doing some reading from the Book of Scheme lately. There are some good points of course – scheme matters -, but all religions (beginnnig with SEC football) have their fanatics. This post over at HP shines a little light on how warped the discussion has become.

If a scheme is so inflexible that a better chance of success might lie with someone who is taking his first college snaps instead of someone who can get Heisman pub with a straight face, there’s a problem. We’re not talking about Noah Brindise here. The semi-legit Heisman candidate is the one catching heat for not maybe not being the best fit for the Almighty Spread Option. The Creator coach gets a pass, more or less, for not adjusting his offense to maximize a guy who should be checking travel deals to New York. Bassackwards.

More on scheme later. This is interesting stuff.

The Spurrier issue is overshadowing everything about this game. While it’s huge for the fans, it’s not for Richt or the team.

Revenge for 1995 is paramount to the fans. That blowout loss in Athens was the lowest of the lows in a decade of dispair against Spurrier’s Florida teams. Just the mention of the name is enough to send many Georgia fans into a fetal position, and they would be nervous if Spurrier brought a Pop Warner team into Sanford Stadium.

A friend of mine said that we’d struggle with Florida until we “beat the Spurrier out of them”. That was a great way to sum up the situation – the players on the Florida sideline knew they were in Georgia’s head, and Georgia’s players knew they were owned. Georgia fans still live with that damage when Steve Spurrier’s name comes up.

Fortunately, none of that is an issue for the current Georgia team. The currently players were 12 years old or younger in 1995. Richt and his staff (except for Bobo and Smart of course) were scattered across the nation. Only the 5th year seniors have gone to battle against a Spurrier team. While the Spurrier name surely brings recognition and respect, the current team does not have the Battered Fan Syndrome that comes from years and years of beatdowns.

That’s a very good thing. While they might not have the hatred and the zeal to run it up, they are able to approach this game with a much more level head than the fans. We want them to be fired up and motivated against a decent opening SEC test, but we don’t want the out of control emotions that come with rabid revenge on the mind. More importantly, they won’t get into a funk if they find themselves behind. Georgia overcame a 16-0 deficit in Columbia last year. Hopefully they won’t find themselves in that position again, but they’re much less likely to pack it in than a team that had lost years in a row to South Carolina.

Another storyline making the rounds is the myth that South Carolina always plays Georgia close. That might be the case in Columbia, but it’s not in Athens. In the past ten years, only the 2001 South Carolina win has been a close game in Athens. 1995, 1997, 1999, 2003 – all big Georgia wins.