No Duke in this year’s preseason coaches’ poll. Was it oversight? Enough is enough? Or…lets make up some completely unsubstantiated rumor: was it a little Spurrier-Tennessee thing with Cutcliffe? Yeah, that sounds sufficiently plausible.

Yeah, that’ll sound pretty good coming over the Sanford Stadium PA on August 30.

Uga VII will debut as the mascot of the nation’s #1-ranked team according to the preseason USA Today coaches’ poll. Next week we’ll begin to see how the Dawgs go about staying on top of the mountain.

At least one AP voter agrees.

Every year there are a few teams that end up on those "teams to watch" lists that I just don’t get. What’s worse is that I usually don’t have much reasoning for doubt; it’s just more of an "O RLY?" reaction when I see these teams popping up over and over again. It’s not that I expect these teams to bomb. I just don’t see as much upside in them as others.

• North Carolina. I have to say this every so often, but before my conversion I grew up a North Carolina fan. I watched Lawrence Taylor and Amos Lawrence and considered Kelvin Bryant a worthy contemporary of Herschel Walker. I still follow the program. That said, I’m not yet sold on the Butch Davis + time = lots o’ wins formula just yet. It’s not that the team won’t improve on their win total - the schedule is favorable, and I know how close they were to more wins last year. It’s just that I don’t see them jumping suddenly to an ACC contender and a Top 25 team. It might be a year too soon for that. Steady progress is fine.
• Pitt. The win vs. West Virginia was an upset, not a sign of things to come.
• Mississippi State. Great job to get to where they finished last year, but eventually you need offense. 2007 might be a peak instead of base camp.

I’m tempted to add: Texas Tech, Clemson, and Fresno.

There are two topics that seem to get Georgia fans going more so than other fans: 1) identifying our biggest rival and 2) agreeing on the optimal start time for a home game.

We’ll leave the biggest rival (Tech) for another day, but a news item from Mississippi has stirred the kickoff time pot and has started the discussion back up once again. It doesn’t take much.

Ole Miss has announced that it will move its season opener against Memphis to 6 p.m. It’s not a huge change - the original start time was 5:00. The school mentioned the heat as a driving factor behind the change.

"The heat factor played a major role in this decision," said Ole Miss Athletics Director Pete Boone. "We have experienced exceptionally hot weather in Oxford this summer, and we hope to provide as much relief as possible for our fans in the early-season games."

Not paying $50 to see Ole Miss vs. Memphis would seem like a good starting point for fans seeking relief. There are still tickets remaining - surprised?

Anyway, the news from Oxford was enough to get the attention of Georgia fans who are facing a 12:30 kickoff for their opener against Georgia Southern and a 3:30 start for the Central Michigan game a week later. It’s easy to see why many Georgia fans are steamed. The graph below from the National Weather Service shows a typical summertime temperature forecast. The hottest part of the day is between noon and 6 p.m. (no kidding!) with a peak temperature and heat index around 3:00. After 3:00, the temperature and heat index drop gradually and then begin to fall off after 6:00.

If there’s one weather benefit to an earlier start time, it’s that we should miss any rain. Summer storms usually develop later in the afternoon and into the evening. A 12:30 start should keep things dry unless there’s an organized weather system.

A 12:30 start puts fans in the seats at the beginning of the hottest part of the day and then turns up the heat as the game goes on. A 3:30 start puts fans in the seats at the hottest part of the day and provides only slight relief towards the end. A 6:00 start keeps fans out of the stadium for most of the hottest part of the day, and there’s quite a bit of cooldown by the game’s conclusion. If heat is a concern, Ole Miss’s decision seems to make good sense.

But things are never that simple at Georgia. TV is almost always a factor. Ole Miss’s opener is not televised, so the kickoff time is much more flexible. Georgia’s opener is televised pay-per-view, so you’d still think there could be some flexibility. The Central Michigan game has been picked up by FSN.

Even when you take the heat out of it, there’s still plenty of disagreement about the optimal starting time. It usually breaks down along the lines of age and geography. Older fans are used to the traditional 1:00 kickoff before television began putting games at all hours of the day on every day of the week. There’s also a good chance you’ll be home at a reasonable hour. Younger fans like night games and the all-day tailgate, but the University administration doesn’t appreciate the condition of campus after those late games.

Fans who live in south Georgia have been very vocal in opposition to later kickoffs, and the athletic department does listen to them. That bloc is probably the reason why Georgia has showed restraint in moving kickoff times, but can you blame them? Unless you shell out for a hotel room, you’re arriving home just a few hours from sunrise.

Personally, I’m still of the age where I appreciate a later start. I’m not going to follow up a 7:45 game with a trip downtown anymore, but there’s nothing wrong with a nice, long tailgate. On the other hand, I’m starting to see how tough it is on families the later a game is. I wouldn’t want to keep up with a gaggle of kids through a day-long tailgate and a game that ends after 11:00. It seems as if CBS has it just right with their 3:30 starts…I’ve rarely seen complaints about games starting in the mid afternoon.

Don’t count on Ole Miss’s change to affect any Georgia start time. We’re stuck with 12:30. We’re not the only ones - Florida’s game against Hawaii is also set for 12:30 (due to TV), and they’ll likely have it even worse than we will.

Media Days got it going last week, and tonight’s Greater Atlanta Bulldog Club meeting is the unofficial start to the season for most of us. We’re less than five weeks to kickoff, practice starts next week, and it’s time to start talking about this season in detail. We’ll start with a reminder of the important dates over the next month:

Greater Atlanta Bulldog Club: July 28
Road Tour in Columbus: July 29
Road Tour in Chattanooga: July 31
Practice begins: August 4
Two-a-days: August 9-15
Tickets mailed: First week in August
Picture Day: August 16 (3-5 p.m., Sanford Stadium)
First college game: August 28 (Thurs.)
Georgia Season Opener: August 30 (12:30 p.m.)

Note: if you’re getting a refund on tickets, they’ll be mailed by July 31. We got ours over the weekend.

You’d have thought that the first two days with the high profiles of Richt, Meyer, Saban, Miles, Tuberville, Fulmer, and their players would have stolen the show at SEC Media Days. But nope - the SEC saved its best for last.

New Columbus beat writer David Hale is off to a strong start following in the footsteps of David Ching with this legendary account of Kentucky’s Dickie Lyons Jr. time in front of the microphone. If I were Matthew Stafford, I’d somehow sneak up behind Lyons before this year’s game in Lexington.

Also today Anthony Dasher reports over on UGASports.com that Bobby Petrino got more than slightly bent out of shape over a rapid-fire stream of Atlanta Falcons questions. Can’t wait to read more about that.

Again, only in the SEC, where Phil Fulmer now says, “oh, you mean that subpoena.”

The coaches’ preseason selections were announced earlier in the week, and this morning the media named its All-SEC teams.

Georgia had five players on the media’s all-conference teams: Knowshon Moreno and Dannell Ellerbe (first team), and Mohamed Massaquoi, Matthew Stafford, and Asher Allen (second team). Geno Atkins, a second-team selection by the coaches, did not make the media’s list. It’s a little odd that the media announced their All-SEC defenses according to a 3-4 format when the 4-3 is the prevalent alignment in the conference.

LSU had the most All-SEC selections by the coaches, but Auburn led the way among the media with nine players. LSU had eight, and Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina each had five players selected. All five of Florida’s selections were first-teamers.

There were no unanimous first-team selections, though Percy Harvin came close with 68 out of 70 votes. This guy will surely be calling for an investigation after his bold prediction earlier in the week:

What’s the biggest certainty at SEC Media Days? That Tebow will be a unanimous first-team pick at quarterback this week at SEC Media Days….The names of the voters aren’t released, but they do have to put their name on the ballots they submit. No one would risk the embarrassment of being ratted out as the person who omitted Tebow.

Make that six persons, slick.

Georgia might be at the top of several preseason national polls, but the SEC media says that the Bulldogs aren’t even the best team in their own conference.

Florida was the media’s pick for SEC champion, getting 36 of 70 votes. Georgia was the projected SEC champion on only 18 ballots. Florida’s advantage was even greater when it came to picking the SEC East champion: 45 ballots picked Florida while 23 named Georgia. Tennessee was a distant third with two votes.

Auburn was the overwhelming favorite to win the SEC West with 48 votes.

As Marc Weiszer notes though, Georgia fans might not mind so much that the media have anointed the Gators.

The SEC preseason poll hasn’t usually been a good barometer. Until LSU won last year, the media swung and missed in the previous 11 years on their pick. Only three times in the past 16 years has the favorite won the SEC title.

What I want to know is who the one media member was who picked Ole Miss to win the SEC. Whether that’s an honest mistake or a cute Spurrier-voting-for-Duke gag, some public ridicule is in order.

Tennessee head football coach Phillip Fulmer was served with a subpoena Thursday during SEC Media Days to appear for a deposition on improper recruiting by the University of Alabama.

They even have a copy of the damn thing.

Anyone else scheduled to speak at SEC Media Days this week can go ahead and book another round of golf…this one story should just about take care of the Alabama and Tennessee media.

Yes, it’s all QB, all the time here this week.

Aaron Murray isn’t just tearing up the national camps on the field, he’s even mastered the electronic version of the game. Murray won the highly-competitive EA SPORTS NCAA 2009 videogame tournament, and he had to knock off a future teammate to do it.

Mettenberger’s status as a favorite was short-lived, however, as his similarly Georgia-bound roommate Aaron Murray scored a huge upset in the first round, knocking off his confident confidante 27-24. It was the start of just another winning effort for Murray, who took eventually took home the NCAA 09 title with three more victories, just four days after leading his Tampa Plant team to victory in the NIKE 7ON championship in Portland, Oregon.

Best part: Murray, playing with the Georgia team, beat Richard Brehaut’s Florida squad in the championship round.

Heh….as the media wait for the start of SEC Media Days, Steve Patterson of UGASports.com guesses the vehicles that will transport each school’s representatives to Hoover.

He asks for suggestions on Georgia’s ride, but there is only one correct choice: Mudcat Elmore’s 1988 Chevrolet Caprice.

With only three members on the 2007 postseason All-SEC teams, Georgia might have been one of the most anonymous teams in recent memory to finish the season ranked #2 in the nation.

The 2008 preseason All-SEC teams have been announced. Georgia might start the season ranked #1 in the nation by many polls, but according to the SEC coaches the Bulldogs are just third-best in the SEC when it comes to All-SEC selections. Nine Bulldogs received some mention, trailing defending champion LSU’s 14 and Florida’s 10. Here are Georgia’s selections:

First Team

• So. RB Knowshon Moreno
• Sr. LB Dannell Ellerbe

Second Team

• Sr. WR Mohamed Massaquoi
• Jr. QB Matthew Stafford
• Jr. DT Geno Atkins
• Jr. CB Asher Allen

Third Team

• Sr. DT Jeff Owens
• So. LB Rennie Curran
• Sr. P Brian Mimbs

It’s interesting that not even Trinton Sturdivant made the list from Georgia’s accomplished 2007 offensive line. Only three of the selections were from the offense, so are the coaches hinting that Georgia’s strength is once again on the defense?

Last season no Georgia player named to the preseason team made it onto the postseason team. I doubt that scenario will play out again this year. Brandon Coutu and Brandon Miller were Georgia’s only 2007 preseason All-SEC picks, and Georgia was the only SEC team without a preseason first team member last year. The season turned out pretty well regardless.

No offense to the many Bulldogs who will be so honored over the next few weeks, but are there many more meaningless things than the preseason award watch lists? They’re basically an acknowledgment that a player is an upperclassman with a pulse.

Urban Meyer’s “syrupy” book, Urban’s Way, will be out in early September. Gene Frenette has a few words on it in today’s Florida Times-Union where he alternates between descriptions like “interesting” and “compelling” and saying the book “reads more like a recruiting pitch.” News about the movie rights can’t be too far away.

According to an excerpt from the book, Georgia fans should know that Urban Meyer will forever remember a certain incident. Urban Meyer is not amused.

That wasn’t right. It was a bad deal. And it will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team. … So we’ll handle it. And it’s going to be a big deal.

Got it? Urban Meyer says what was a bad deal is a big deal to Urban Meyer and Urban Meyer’s team. It’s not quite what Urban Meyer told Terence Moore though.

On a completely unrelated note, Frenette has some encouraging words for the Georgia fullback position.

Georgia fans who are worried because starting fullback Brannan Southerland might not return from a foot operation until the Sept. 27 game against Alabama would breathe easier if they watched film on backup Shaun Chapas, a Bolles School graduate. Chapas might not be the blocking machine that Southerland is, but he’s more versatile. Chapas’ value will become evident as he gets more plays.

Versatility is fine, but a “blocking machine” is more of what’s required from that position in Richt’s offense. Southerland has shown plenty of versatility himself in the passing game, and there is no Bulldog with a better nose for the end zone.

Earlier this week Doug pointed to this handy quiz where you could find out if you were "that guy". Other than letting the occasional "my bad" slip, I think I came out of the quiz OK. Since Doug also brings us the Friday Random Ten+5, we’ll steal borrow heavily from his format to present 5 ways to tell if you’re "that Georgia fan". Yes, we’re only six weeks from kickoff, and pretty soon we’ll be face-to-face with…that fan. At one point or another, this has probably been most of us.

You wear red pants.
Admit it: you don’t wear the red pants hoping that you go unnoticed. They look pretty damn sharp, and you’ve embraced your inner attention-whore. The red pants are widespread enough now that the pants by themselves aren’t enough to make someone "that fan". Not everyone rocking the red pants is a tool, but tell me you’re surprised by what this guy is wearing:

Red pants - check. Black polo - check. White hat (possibly mesh, possible reading "Herschel for Heisman") - double check.

You start the "drunk obnoxious Georgia fan" cheer.
Calling the Dawgs is as much a part of the pregame ritual as being, well, drunk and obnoxious. Put them together and you should have the perfect cheer, right? But the novelty tends to wear off when it’s 11:30 a.m. and it’s already the 29th time this morning you’ve heard some lush with no rhythm take three or four minutes to slur, "Whut’s that comin’ down thuuuu track?" Bonus points if your version includes "all dressed up in red and black."

You’re the tailgate emcee.
We all have our game day playlists. Division of labor at a tailgate is a good thing - you need someone who knows how to work the grill, someone who could zero in on a satellite signal from the deck of an Alaskan crab boat, and good tunes help too. Your friends might love your clever mix of David Allan Coe and acceptably mainstream hip-hop played at 130 decibels, but the guys three cars down who are just trying to watch Gameday wish you’d catch bird hepatitis.

You get involved in sit down / stand up arguments.
I’d like to think we live in a world where standing and sitting at a ballgame is less scripted and regulated than a Catholic Mass. By God, if I want to jump up when Rennie Curran adjusts someone’s spine or if I want to kneel in fervent prayer on 4th-and-1, I will. But there is a give and take here. The only thing worse than the "down in front" nazi is the guy who stands on principle knowing there’s an elderly fan or kid behind them who can’t see.

You provide play-by-play and color commentary to everyone sitting around you.
We all talk about what’s going on, but I can see that the last play was a Southerland run that gained 4 yards. Why, yes, the defense is in man coverage. If you could only run down to the sideline and get some info on that injury, I could turn my radio off. Bonus points if you a) ever put on the Munson voice or b) launch a rant on the wrong player or coach. (Um, dude, Chandler was on the sideline for that whole series.)

Have a great weekend! Only six of them left until we have better things to do.