Andy Katz of ESPN.com has a somber look at how the death of Kevin Brophy has affected coach Dennis Felton and the Georgia basketball program.

You’ve probably already read about the progress Brophy had made during the offseason. "He was such a leader for this team," Felton said. "He was going to be a team captain. He was taking control of our team." That’s a tremendous impact for a former walk-on who had played sparingly last season. That kind of improvement had to come from a deep source of character and commitment, and that had to leave an impression on the team. It obviously did on the coach.

Felton and the team remain shaken. Plans are in the works to memorialize Brophy with something as enduring as an endowed scholarship. Whatever outward steps are taken to remember Kevin this season, Katz’s piece makes it clear that Brophy is already very much a part of the soul of the team.

The Red & Black joins in today with my suggestion to move the "family-friendly" tailgating areas to the Intramural Fields. The idea continues to make sense: there is less impact on the Intramural Fields, and huge tracts of tailgating greenspace in the middle of campus won’t go underutilized.

I have a feeling this is all going to come to a head at the Tennessee game. Even for the season opener there were stories of overcrowding on some North Campus areas near the Main Library. If more people are added to that area and the "family-free" "family-friendly" area on North Campus is sitting there as an empty alternative, there will be conflict.

One of the biggest differences that separates head coaches from assistants is that you have to deal with people. You’re not just the guy who calls the plays; you’re also the chief executive of the organization. You are the public face of the organization, and you must manage your staff as closely as you manage your 85 scholarships and your playbook.

It’s an underrated and often overlooked aspect of the job. Much of the coach’s success depends on surrounding himself with the right people. Jim Donnan made poor choices in this area at Georgia as the successful assistants he trusted eventually left the program as their careeers progressed. Tommy Tuberville has come back from the precipice by reevaluating his staff and making tough decisions that have looked brilliant. When Chizik, Borges, and Petrino come through your program, you’re making good personnel decisions. Chizik to Texas, Stoops to Florida – would there be national titles in Austin and Gainesville without those moves?

That brings us to Sylvester Croom. Life is tough at Mississippi State, and Croom is lashing out a bit at the criticism. That’s bad enough – fans are usually more patient with coaches they like – but it’s not necessary to be liked so long as you win. Charlie Weis and Bill Parcells aren’t especially friendly or receptive of questions, but they’re supported so long as they win. I even agree with Croom’s statement about the call-in show. They’re so often inane and uninformative because of the dreadful and repetitive questions, and a coach’s time is much better suited doing other things. But it’s still his responsibility.

The quote from Croom that would have me even more concerned were I a Mississippi State fan is this:

I don’t want to hear about getting rid of my coaches, because I’m never going to fire a football coach. I’m not. If it comes to that, I’m going to fire me.

On the surface, it seems like a loyal statement of support for his staff. But when you consider the coach’s role as executive, it’s shocking. Imagine an executive going before her board of directors and stating flatly that no employee, underperforming or not, would ever be replaced on her watch. How long would she last? Such a stance is extremely irresponsible. It causes the board of directors (or in this case the athletic director) to have to make wholesale changes where only one or two smaller changes might have done and preserved investment in the organization.

It’s not that it’s an easy or pleasant part of the job, and it might be that Mississippi State’s assistants are all doing a good job considering what they have to work with. It’s that Croom is abdicating a key responsibility of the executive. He doesn’t get that choice. It is a sign to me that he wasn’t professionally prepared for a head coaching position. Assistants get to toil in their area of the program to make the team better. If that’s all Croom wants to do without any of the other overhead and responsibilities that come with the big paycheck, he should have remained an assistant.

Greetings from the cellar. A 6-4 record picking last week’s games straight-up is shameful, but that’s where I sit in the UGASports.com media pick ’em after expecting some road teams to do a little better than they did. I need to pick games next to Lou Holtz instead of these guys so I seem smarter.

First the ones I got wrong in descending order of error:

Ole Miss over Missouri: The Ole Miss offense proved to be not so nearly healthy and balanced as it looked against Memphis. They ran into a buzzsaw in the Missouri defense and emerging Mizzou QB Chase Daniel did the rest. Given the state of the Big 12 North this year, why not Mizzou?

Minnesota over Cal: I thought the Gophers had figured out some things in their opener. They had, but defense apparently wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t so much down on Cal, but I thought a decent Big 10 team could at least hang with Cal on the west coast. Wrong.

Texas over Ohio State: This was a close game most of the way, but Texas couldn’t figure out a way to convert yards into points. Ohio State has a good, solid team on both sides of the ball.

Clemson over BC: Leave it to a missed XP to ruin this pick. Clemson seemed like the better team, but they do miss their injured defenders, and they don’t yet have that swagger and killer instinct to win the games that would justify their ranking. Georgia fans can empathize with letting one get away to Boston College.

OK…with that cathartic penance out of the way, here are the correct picks that I managed to back into in descending order of "duh":

Kentucky over Texas State: The ESPN ticker said this game was delayed. Were they waiting on the ticketholder to show up?

LSU over Arizona: it was never going to be close.

Oregon over Fresno State: I’m not surprised that Fresno gave the Ducks a tough time, but Oregon is experienced enough now as a program to know how to win these games.

Colorado State over Colorado: The most interesting thing related to this 14-10 yawner wasn’t Colorado’s 0-2 start. It’s that 1-AA Montana State beat Colorado only to lose to Division II Chadron State. Transitivity is a bitch, Buffs.

Georgia over South Carolina: Georgia was clearly better, and the only question was whether South Carolina could make it the usual fourth quarter nailbiter. They nearly did, but the Georgia defense rose to the occasion to keep the Gamecocks off of the scoreboard and protect a lead that looked shaky for a while.

Notre Dame over Penn State: If I got one thing right last week, it was that Notre Dame would make Penn State’s 2005 season seem 20 years distant.

Hopefully better voices in the head and better results this week.

A few weeks ago I said that the 2006 schedule might do more this season to mute tailgating than any policy change the University could come up with.

Today we learn that the Lincoln Financial TV crew will be back in Athens for the September 23rd game with Colorado. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m.

The Tennessee game might be the single shot for a decent home tailgate scene this season. Just hope it doesn’t become the noon CBS game that day.

tOSU has it 2nd and 12. 12!!! You’re lucky we don’t cut away entirely!

During the 1990s, there weren’t many more marquee time slots for college football than the ESPN national 7:45 broadcast. Ron Franklin and Mark Gottfried were as good as it got in the booth. The late Adrian Karsten defined a new role for the sideline reporter. It was a great product.

How times have changed.

Mike Patrick is the face of the generic ESPN play-by-play guy. Women’s hoops, college football…send in Patrick. Todd Blackledge is spot-on as always with his sharp analysis, but it seems to have less impact alongside the bland Patrick than it did next to the lively Verne Lundquist.

But there’s another problem. Instead of holding on to its position as the place to see the best game of the week, ESPN’s Saturday night game has become second-fiddle to whatever ABC has on at 8:00, and it’s more than happy to bend over and advertise that fact.

Using such innovations as the “Primetime Pulse” and the “Red Zone Alert”, those of us who lack remote controls and/or motor skills to change the channel if we want to watch another game get forcefed the game that ABC/ESPN/Disney really wants us to watch. It was such a transparent plea to get ESPN viewers to change the channel that Patrick and Blackledge had to half-seriously remind people to check back in on the game they were actually broadcasting. ABC wasn’t so kind – I’m told there was no Primetime Pulse to give viewers a look at the interesting South Carolina – Georgia game. We shouldn’t be surprised. All of the ads on ESPN’s own Gameday show were for the ABC game and not for the game actually on ESPN later that night.

We know that ESPN and ABC serve the same corporate masters, so of course they want eyeballs where it serves them best. #1 vs. #2 is a huge game and brings in a lot of ad money. But isn’t it kind of sad that the game everyone used to tune in for now just serves to go through the motions and pimp something on another channel?

The north endzone at Williams-Brice Stadium doesn’t look particularly imposing. It is the only side of the stadium that isn’t enclosed by multiple seating decks. But in each of the last three Georgia-South Carolina games in Columbia, this innocent-looking endzone has been the site of the key Gamecock meltdown that shut the door on their hopes of winning.

It’s not that the south endzone hasn’t had its moments. That’s where Pollack worked his magic, and it’s where the Gamecocks clanked a field goal off the upright last night.

But that north endzone has a much more sinister history.

2002: Gamecock tailback Andrew Pinnock drops a pitch at the Georgia goal line. A touchdown gives the Gamecocks a win, but Thomas Davis recovered the fumble to secure the Bulldog victory. It happened on the doorstep of the north endzone.

2004: On fourth-and-one inside the Georgia ten yard line with less than five minutes remaining, the Bulldogs stuffed Gamecock quarterback Dondrial Pinkins and held on for a 20-16 win. South Carolina had just fumbled on its last possession inside the Georgia 20 on the same end of the field. Which end? The north end, of course.

2006: Georgia’s 15-0 lead looked less solid as South Carolina drove the field in the third quarter. They seemed likely to take a big chunk out of the lead when they faced third and goal from the Georgia one. On third down, the Bulldogs stuffed Cory Boyd at the one. A video replay overruled a call that said that Boyd had fumbled, leaving the Gamecocks with fourth-and-one. The Gamecocks attempted to send Mitchell over the top, and as he reached the ball forward over the pile, Jarvis Jackson knocked it loose. The ball rolled into the endzone, that mystical north endzone, where by rule it became Georgia’s ball at the spot of the fumble. South Carolina seemed poised to pin the Dawgs against that goal line, but a 23-yard quarterback draw by Stafford on third down kept a drive alive that would eventually lead to Georgia’s final score of the day.

The north endzone strikes again.

For the first time in nearly 20 years, a Steve Spurrier-coached college team was shut out. It doesn’t quite make up for the 51 points in 1995, but it is a nice twist of the knife to have the 18-0 shutout come at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs.

The Dawgs grabbed control early and built a 15-0 halftime lead on a wild swing of events at the end of the first half. South Carolina missed a field goal that would have cut Georgia’s lead to 10-3. Georgia drove the field and appeared poised to extend their lead before a tipped pass was interecepted on the one yard line. South Carolina ran a slow-developing play out of the end zone which was abruptly ended by Charles Johnson for the safety. Georgia then drove quickly into field goal position and ended the first half by tacking another three points on to the lead.

The game was ugly and tough, but unlike 2002 and 2004 it wasn’t close. The Georgia defense played a magnificent game, stepping up several times at the goal line to deny South Carolina. The linebackers in particular had a wonderful game, and the defensive line was active all night – often applying sufficient pressure with just three or four men. Jarvis Jackson had another strong game in Columbia, and he was responsible for causing the game’s pivotal fumble in the third quarter as South Carolina quarterback Blake Mitchell tried to dive forward for a touchdown on 4th down at the Georgia one yard line.

The resourcefulness and the determination of the Georgia defense could be summed up in a play by Jeff Owens. Mitchell had eluded the Georgia rush and had scrambled forward into Bulldog territory for a first down and much more. Owens, a defensive tackle, tracked Mitchell down from behind and caused a fumble that was recovered by the Dawgs. Plays like that were made all night across the board.

The offensive line also played much better. Velasco, Jones, and Shackleford noteably had good performances. When Georgia was able to bust a nice play up the middle, Jones and Velasco were often out in front. South Carolina’s pass rush wasn’t overwhelming most of the time.

And the quarterback…Matt Stafford stepped in as a true freshman at one of the SEC’s most intimidating road venues and performed as you might expect a talented freshman: lots of glimpses of excellense but lots of shaky play as well. His overall line would get a veteran starter crucified by fans. But his especially strong second quarter was enough to get the job done. The pass he threw to Massaquoi late in the half to get the Bulldogs inside the Gamecock five was a thing of beauty.

He was much less effective in the second half – a nice pass to Ware was the exception. Timing was off on deeper passes, and you’d expect that when Stafford hasn’t worked much with the first team offense. The prognosis on Tereshinski’s ankle notwithstanding, Stafford should have three weeks or so to work on that timing and decision making with the first team before the SEC schedule resumes. He has plenty of work to do. I believe we saw last night why he wasn’t starting outright but also why he will start eventually.

Lots more to talk about later, but this is a great win for the program. The defense did what it should have done against a below-average offense, and the offense gritted out what it needed. With this win and the Spurrier drama behind them for another year, the season and its possibilities begins to open up for Georgia. How much can they improve before their next SEC game at Ole Miss?

WTOC in Savannah is reporting that legendary Georgia and Georgia Southern coach Erskine “Erk” Russell died this morning of a stroke.

There aren’t many more iconic figures in Georgia Bulldog football history. His loss is devastating to the Bulldog football family.

Erk was the head coach at Georgia Southern from 1981 to 1989 and led the Eagles to three Division 1-AA national titles. Prior to 1981, Erk had been Georgia’s defensive coordinator for seventeen years.

He was a great man for many reasons, but the biggest might be because he made those he came in contact with better. His players wanted to play better so as to not let him down. Fans he met in life came away feeling better for having met and spoken with him. Even recent Georgia players who weren’t even alive when Erk stalked the Georgia sideline wanted to be better Bulldogs after hearing a brief motivational speech from the master motivator. In his ideals, actions, and attitude on and off the field he leaves us an example any Bulldog player or fan can only hope to live up to.

GATA, Erk.

Kelly was the only guy who kept me out of last place in last week’s UGASports.com media pick ’em. 7-3 straight-up isn’t terribly good, but at least I’m in good company with ESPN’s Mark Schlabach. Mark Weiszer of the ABH needs to hop a plane to Vegas. This week is the on-the-road edition where I pick six of ten road teams to win.

Georgia at South Carolina: Georgia’s the better team, but South Carolina has plenty of tactics it can use to make this game close.

Ole Miss at Missouri: I think the Rebels will continue to settle in behind the new quarterback, but one of the nice surprises last week was the play of tailback BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Ole Miss will need to play better defense, but they should have enough firepower to hold off a lukewarm Missouri team.

Colorado State at Colorado: Colorado will rally around this game as they try to forget the humiliating loss to Montana State. If they can’t win this rivalry game, stick a fork in their season. They’re still searching for answers on offense, and I think they won’t find them for a while.

Ohio State at Texas: Much is being made of Ohio State’s losses on defense, but I’m not entirely sold on their offense yet. Ginn and Smith are fine talents, but they will need the balance of a running game. My money is on Texas and Gene Chizik whose last loss as a defensive coordinator was in 2003 to Georgia.

Clemson at Boston College: This is the first test of Clemson’s lofty ranking. Lose on the road to BC and stay out of the Top 20 for the next year or two.

Texas State at Kentucky: Many states have "State Universities" with decent sports programs. N.C. State. Ohio State. Mississippi State. Louisiana State. Montana State. Texas is not one of those states.

Arizona at LSU: Arizona isn’t as bad as they used to be, but they’re not as good as LSU.

Minnesota at California: This is the one game where I really go against the grain this week. I believe that Minnesota has every bit the amount of scoring potential that Tennessee did. The real question is Cal’s offense. We know Lynch is legitimate, but can the quarterback duo settle into this new offense? It’s a lot asking the Gophers to go on the road and beat a mad and talented Cal team, but I’m saying they can do it.

Penn State at Notre Dame: Penn State begins to realizes that last season was like the movie Awakenings where catatonic patients left for dead wake up and experience a brief period of vitality before slowly slipping back into their vegetative states.

Oregon at Fresno State: The Ducks looked mighty impressive against Stanford. Fresno becomes an early scratch from the "BCS Buster" list.

It’s easy to forget sometimes that Mark Richt is one of the least-accomplished coaches in the UGA Athletic Association. That’s not a criticism of Richt; it’s a testament to the incredible coaching talent assembled in Athens. Yoculan, Diaz, Landers, Haack…it’s solid all around. But one of the best is Jack Bauerle who coaches swimming and diving. Bauerle’s excellence will be rewarded today when he is named as the coach for the United States women’s swimming team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. It’s a big job, a lot of work, and a tremendous honor – one that is well-deserved. Many of Bauerle’s swimmers have participated in the Olympic Games, and now it’s his turn as coach.

This could be a close game if South Carolina has its way. Without a flurry of defensive or special teams scores, the Gamecocks shouldn’t put up more than 20 points. South Carolina’s strategy should follow much like this: keep the game close, keep the clock moving to shorten the game, hang on to the ball, and get to a point in the fourth quarter where it’s anyone’s game. It’s a familiar underdog strategy and one we’ve seen before. Remember last year’s South Carolina game?

We can look at all sorts of matchups and fret over Spurrier’s bag of tricks, but the more I think about it, the game comes down to something in Georgia’s control.

It’s all on Georgia’s passing game.

Since 2002, Georgia has scored at least 20 points against the Gamecocks twice (2003, 2004).

In the two games (2002, 2005) where the Dawgs didn’t score 20, they averaged 140.5 yards of passing. In the two higher-scoring games, the Dawgs had over 200 yards passing in each. Rushing totals had a lot less correlation with scoring.

Last year Georgia was a pitiful 8-17 through the air for 112 yards. With Shockley. Those are JT3 vs. Florida numbers. I know…Ko Simpson, good secondary, etc, etc. Georgia’s inability (unwillingness?) to move the ball through the air kept that game within South Carolina’s reach.

When the Dawgs routed the Gamecocks in 2003, they "only" threw for 213 yards, but it was a somewhat efficient 17-29 58.6%. The Bulldogs were also able to run a lot after Reggie Brown put on a show to build an early lead. In the other three games with SC since 2002, the Dawgs have done no better than completing 50% of their passes.

There is less and less doubt in my mind that Georgia’s passing game is why we’d be looking at a close game on Saturday that plays into South Carolina’s preferred strategy.

Now that we know what the key to Georgia’s success is, the question becomes "can they muster a passing game?" That implies a few other questions:

• Can a thinned-out offensive line without Daniel Inman hold back a South Carolina defense that showed a good ability to pressure the passer in their last game?
• How much of a dropoff is there in the South Carolina secondary without Ko Simpson and Johnathan Joseph? Mississippi State didn’t have the talent to test the Gamecock secondary; the few deep passes they threw were 1) dropped or 2) wounded ducks that were intercepted.
• Does Georgia have the personnel to execute this strategy? Shuffling the receiver depth chart and an uncertain quarterback rotation makes the issue questionable. We’ve yet to see a gameplan with Tereshinski where the strategy is to come out firing, and I believe we saw the upper limit on his range last weekend (around 30 yards). Is the answer more Stafford? That’s a lot to ask of a freshman in his first road game. Will the receivers even catch the ball?
• How will the Georgia run and pass feed off of each other? If the running game is constantly stuffed, long-yardage passing situations will be much easier for South Carolina to defend.
• Turnovers. South Carolina’s best offensive play in the past two games has been returning an interception for a touchdown. It’s a risk you take when you throw the ball, but it’s one that Georgia needs to take. Can the quarterback avoid making the disastrous mistake that Richt has talked about so much this preseason?

Celebration or physics experiment?

Talk about a nightmare scenario for Georgia’s season. From yesterday’s Georgiadogs.com practice report:

“Meet you at the quarterback” is a phrase often repeated by defensive ends during practice and games. During an 11-on-11 drill in Wednesday’s workout, Georgia’s Quentin Moses and Charles Johnson did just that except the quarterback saw them coming, stepped up in the pocket, and the two Bulldogs smashed in to each other and then remained on the ground for a few moments.

“We had a real, sickening, frightening feeling at that moment,” Georgia coach Mark Richt recounted after practice. “We thought we lost both of them on one play. I wondered if Coach Fabris was going to go in to cardiac arrest. However, they both got up and we were all relieved. It just shows they were practicing hard.”

In Switzerland, physicists are building a large circular underground tunnel to study what happens when particles collide at extremely high speeds. I think yesterday’s Georgia football practice could have saved them a lot of money. The only worse scenario is the two of them colliding with Stafford and all three obliterating each other in a flash of antimatter.

Much is being made of the decision to sit MoMass and Kenneth Harris in favor of starting Mario Raley and AJ Bryant at South Carolina. The reason given was drops, but there has to be more to it than that (Martrez Milner is still starting after all).

The more important point is Eason’s intent to send a message to Massaquoi. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if this were a one-game thing.

I didn’t make a big deal out of it at the time because it was just the spring game, but I only recall one catch from him at G-Day too. Oliver shut him down for much of the game.

He’s proven he has the hands, and that should make him our best receiver. A drop or two won’t change that; we’ve seen what he can do, especially against Auburn. Because of his hands he’s now drawing attention from defenses. If he can’t make an impact and get open against that kind of extra attention, he might as well be a third-down possession receiver.

The message is much more than a reaction to a drop or two against WKy. It’s more along the lines of "if you’re the #1 receiver, start making plays."

Playing time for and development of other receivers will only help Massaquoi in the long term. If someone – Durham, Raley, Bryant, Goodman, whoever – can turn into a dependable and consistent receiving option, teams won’t be able to focus on MoMass, and he’ll have more room and freedom to make those plays.

I have to give full credit to Paul over at Georgia Sports Blog for a brilliant brief documentary of the “family-friendly” tailgating areas. Watch the video and listen for the wind blowing across the deserted plains. Most of the time these blogs just talk about what other people have done or wrote, but kudos to GSB for creating some original journalism that cuts right to the point.

Tailgating in general was a bit down with the early start and poor opponent; I didn’t notice much traffic when I arrived around 8:30. We’ll see if these areas remain as desolate in coming weeks.