Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come, but the Dawgs looked absolutely dismal last night in a 76-58 loss to ETSU in the Rainbow Classic. Yes – the same ETSU team that was 4-5 with a 50-point loss to Syracuse just five days ago. Georgia hadn’t played since their win over Wake Forest nearly two weeks ago, and it showed. Freshmen Jeremy Price was the only Dawg in double-figures with 10 points, and Sundiata Gaines managed only four. The Dawgs had 24 turnovers and shot under 35% for the game.

Georgia led 13-7 but quickly fell behind and trailed 32-23 at halftime. They trailed by as many as 21 in the second half and got no closer than 10. It was the team’s worst outing since they laid down at Air Force to end last season.

The Dawgs play Tulane today in a consolation game. We’ll see if they can salvage anything from this trip.

Steve Spurrier’s official site (spurrierhbc.com) is reporting that South Carolina will hire former Georgia defensive coordinator Brian Van Gorder. A press conference is set for this afternoon.

Brian Van Gorder will be announced as the new defensive coordinator for the University of South Carolina in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. Van Gorder, most recently a linebackers’ coach with the Atlanta Falcons, held the defensive coordinators’ postion with the University of Georgia from 2001-2004. Video from Coach Steve Spurrier will be available this afternoon.

I’m sure Spurrier appreciates the chance to tweak the Dawgs while getting himself a capable coordinator. Van Gorder left Georgia in pursuit of a head coaching opportunity after the 2004 season, and the quest has taken him to the Jacksonville Jaguars, to Georgia Southern, to the Atlanta Falcons, and now back as an SEC coordinator in Coulmbia.

No doubt the Chicken Littles and Willie Martinez detractors out there will declare this move as a death knell for the Dawgs, but it’s setting up as a rather interesting experiment. Much of the Martinez vs. Van Gorder discussion centers around the talent level of the Georgia defense from 2002-2004. South Carolina will have an adequate level of defensive talent, but it won’t be on the same level as what Van Gorder had at Georgia. I guess we finally will get to see how much of Van Gorder’s genius was coaching and how much of it was right-place-right-time.

Grambling coach Rod Broadway has turned down an opportunity to take the vacant Florida A&M head coaching position, and the Tallahassee Democrat is reporting that Georgia receivers coach John Eason might be considered.

With Broadway now out of the picture, Florida A&M President James Ammons may now pursue John Eason, the associate head football coach and wide receivers coach at the University of Georgia. Eason, a standout wide receiver and a 1969 graduate of FAMU, has been with the Bulldogs since 2001.

Eason has caught criticism in the past from Georgia fans for drops and sub-par receiver play, but the receivers have generally been outstanding this year. Eason has also been instrumental in getting verbal commitments from two of the nation’s best receivers for the 2008 class.

From today’s AJC:

Tech played better than in most, maybe all, games so far, but Kansas’ talent and experience were enough that until the final five minutes or so, the biggest roar came at halftime.

That’s when new football coach Paul Johnson was introduced and said over the PA, “The one thing I have learned in the [first] seven days is, ‘To Hell With Georgia.’ “

Watching a loss in front of a crowd of 9,000 – he should learn to get used to that too.

The Dawgs are in Hawaii this week to play in the Rainbow Classic, and they get back into action on Thursday against East Tennessee St. Though the Dawgs have started 6-1 after dismissing two key players, the competition takes a step up over the next couple of weeks.

Mark Schlabach has a very nice in-depth piece on the Dawgs over at ESPN, and it’s currently featured on their main basketball page. There’s not much new for anyone who has followed this story, but it’s a good summary for those who haven’t. It also gives a deeper look at how the team has faced the situation, and there are some insightful comments from the players about dealing with the academic requirements on top of their basketball obligations.

In a move that’s a little surprising, if only for the timing, quarterback Blake Barnes is leaving the Georgia program and will play his final season at Division II Delta State in his home state of Mississippi.

Blake Barnes Photo: UGASports.com

Barnes has always been the subject of transfer rumors during his Georgia career. When it became clear early in 2006 that he was destined to be a career backup, fans wondered if he would head elsewhere for his final two years of eligibility. His decision to remain in Athens for the 2007 season gave the Dawgs three veteran quarterbacks, and it allowed them to redshirt promising freshman Logan Gray. As it turned out, the depth he provided wasn’t a factor in 2007, and he only saw mop-up duty in the Western Carolina game and didn’t attempt a pass.

Barnes entered Georgia as one of the standouts in the 2004 recruiting class. In August we discussed how Barnes was part of a trio of quarterback prospects considering Georgia that included Oklahoma State’s Bobby Reid and Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell. Landing Barnes was somewhat of a coup – he was considered among the top ten pocket passers in the nation by Rivals.com right up there with guys like Harrell, Longshore, Glennon, and Ainge. As a high school senior, he was named the Gatorade Mississippi player of The Year.

He was the first high-profile quarterback signed by Georgia with an eye towards the post-Greene and Shockley era, but the subsequent signings of Joe Cox and Matthew Stafford clouded the order of succession. With Gray added into the mix for 2008, the prospects for playing time are even slimmer.

At Delta State, Barnes will have to beat out a returning starter. He’ll remain with the Dawgs for the Sugar Bowl, and one wonders if he’d get the nod if the situation presented itself late in the game. We thank him for his contributions to the Georgia program, and we wish him well back home.

On a chilly December morning…

Think about the playmakers coming back next year on defense and then add in Akeem Hebron who is on his way back to Athens.  Hebron was projected to be a starting linebacker last year before a semester suspension for alcohol-related violations.  Go ahead and picture it…Curran, Washington, Ellerbe, Hebron, Dewberry, Dent, and Charles White.

It looks as if the Dawgs won’t have to worry about juniors declaring for the NFL Draft this year.  Ellerbe, Southerland, and Jeff Owens have all submitted the paperwork to see what their draft status might be, but no one is seriously considering leaving.

Anthony Dasher of UGASports.com spoke with the three last week and confirmed that none of the three has plans to leave.  Owens in particular had an interesting quote:

“Herschel said he regretted coming out early and that he should have come back for his senior year,” Owens said. “I happen to agree. It’s a great experience to be here with my teammates. I love them all to death.”

Finally…there’s recruiting.  It’s just going to get better.

For six and a half years, we had to deal with the perception, even among our own fans, that Mark Richt was a dull, unimaginative coach that lacked fire.

Now, according to Honolulu Advertiser columnist Ferd Lewis, Richt is a "motivational master." I’ll take it.

They have a ways to go to catch up with East Cobb schools, but with over 100 applicants to the University of Georgia this year, Highland Park High School is turning Red and Black. Over 20% of the senior class has applied to follow Matthew Stafford 850 miles east to Athens. That puts UGA third in number of applications behind Texas and TCU and ahead of such in-state options as Texas A&M.

In a statement probably not quite endorsed by UGA admissions, Stafford explains, “I think people realize Georgia is a good school to watch football and have a good time, just like in Highland Park.”

Exams are over, bowl practices are about to get going, and thankfully the lull in the news is about over.

I’ve been able to watch Hawaii several times this season thanks to their late starts. One thing that has struck me about them is their ability to pull out wins under any circumstances. In five of their games, they trailed in the second half. Four times they’ve required either overtime or last-minute heroics for the win. And yet in each game they’ve found the resiliency to bounce back and win. Their comeback against San Jose State was good background noise on a Friday night in Nashville – even a two-touchdown deficit with four minutes left wasn’t enough to bury them.

I understand the level of competition we’re talking about. Still, this is a team used to being able to turn games around. In short, assume that no lead is safe.

This game could go a lot of ways, but if Georgia finds itself with a second-half lead of any size, there is almost no appropriate time to let off the gas either on offense or defense. We can debate the best way to defend their attack, but I think we can all agree that a prevent-style defense that gives Brennan all day to pick apart the coverage isn’t going to be effective.

St. Mary’s, a possible second-round opponent for Georgia in the Rainbow Classic later this month, has just entered the Top 25. With their season to date which included a convincing win over Oregon, the Gaels seem the early favorite to win the Rainbow Classic. If this matchup does materialize, the Patty Mills vs. Sundiata Gaines battle should be worth watching.

Thomas Brown, Knowshon Moreno, Dannell Ellerbe, and Brandon Coutu were among those honored Friday night at the 2007 football gala.

Fernando Velasco was named the team’s overall permanent captain. Brown was the offensive captain, Kelin Johnson was the defensive captain, and Coutu was the special teams captain.

For a complete list of honorees, go here.

The big news from the gala was the $10,500 bid for Knowshon Moreno’s black jersey. Damn.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Georgia have its way with Wake Forest on Saturday. In what I’d consider the Dawgs’ first significant win of the year, they used a run early in the second half keyed by six consecutive points from Terrence Woodbury to open up a close game.

Wake isn’t going to challenge for the ACC title this year, but they are a decent team that beat Iowa and nearly knocked off Vanderbilt in Nashville earlier in the week. Georgia was able to play good defense and pull away from a quality opponent. After surviving a scare from Division II Augusta State a few days ago, it was relieving to see the team play towards the upper end of its abilities. Woodbury in particular had one of those games that reminds us why everyone is so high on his potential, and his level of play will have a lot to do with Georgia’s success this year.

The newcomers continue to impress. Swansey looks more and more comfortable on the court, and he’s a solid sub for either Gaines or Humphrey now. In fact, given Humphrey’s streakiness, Swansey might be considered a steadier option at times. Big Jeremy Price continues to make the most of his minutes. It’s unfortunate that Jeremy Jacob will be out for several weeks with a stress fracture, but the return of Albert Jackson helps keep the frontcourt depth up.

Turnovers remain a problem, and it’s to Georgia’s good fortune that they were able to limit Wake’s ability to convert so many turnovers into points. When Georgia reduced the frequency of turnovers in the second half, Wake lost any opportunity of coming back. 16 of Georgia’s 26 turnovers came from the starting backcourt – these are veteran players who should be better with the ball.

A second area for emphasis is on the defensive glass. Though Georgia outrebounded Wake Forest by a comfortable margin overall, the Deacons managed 19 offensive boards. That’s not a blip – the Dawgs are giving up over 16 offensive rebounds per game over their last four contests. Offensive rebounds mean second-chance points and fewer possessions for Georgia. Fortunately only Wisconsin has proven capable enough to make Georgia pay for such generosity on the glass. Gaines shouldn’t lead the team in rebounding, but he did on Saturday.

After a week off for exams, Georgia at 6-1 will head to Hawaii for the Rainbow Classic. The Dawgs start play on Thursday December 20 against ETSU. Looking over the rest of the Rainbow Classic field, Georgia has as good of a shot as anyone else at winning this event, and we should expect them to have a good showing. It would be interesting if Georgia and Hawaii faced off on the court before the schools meet in the Sugar Bowl. The hometown teams are known for getting every possible break in these Hawaii tournaments.

Lady Dogs

Andy Landers’ team is 9-0 as things begin to wind down for the semester. After a comfortable win over Davidson on Sunday, the Lady Dogs have a single game against Mercer between now and a year-end tournament in Florida.

Though the team is undefeated and in the top ten, they’ve hardly looked dominant. Near-misses against unranked Temple, Southern Cal, and Georgia Tech have raised some questions about Georgia’s ability to challenge better teams for an SEC title. Unlike recent seasons where the team has faced national powers such as Rutgers, Stanford, and Texas, the non-conference fare is relatively light this year, and the Lady Dogs have yet to be tested by a ranked opponent. A game against FSU should be the last significant challenge before the team begins SEC play in January.

The biggest concern so far is bench production. In some of Georgia’s closest contests this season, they’ve gone the entire second half with just a single substitution. One consequence of this development is that some of Georgia’s most explosive scorers are out of the game. Christy Marshall, who proved to be a spark off the bench last year, has struggled so far and only recently showed signs of life with 12 points against Davidson. Heralded freshman Brittany Carter hasn’t seen more than spot duty so far.

We’ve become used to the Lady Dog backcourt being full of playmakers and scorers, but that really hasn’t been the case this year. Ashley Houts is a fine point guard of course but usually doesn’t look for her shot. Senior wing Megan Darrah can be streaky. Landers is starting freshman Angela Puleo as the shooting guard, and her offensive production has been sporadic. As a result, the Lady Dogs have been in a number of tight games where the totals are closer to 60 points than the 80 points that Georgia typically prefers. To their credit, Georgia has won every one of them so far, but the quality of competition hasn’t been close to what they’ll start seeing in a month.

It’s our first football-free weekend in over three months. It’s supposed to be in the 70s here in Georgia, so get out there and get reacquainted with things like your yard (and spouse).

The main event in Athens this weekend is a basketball game against Wake Forest (2:00 Saturday, Fox Sports South). The Dawgs will try to get their first significant win of the season against a Wake team that took Vandy to the wire earlier in the week in Nashville.

In other news, it looks as if Paul Johnson is Tech’s man. Though we won’t see as much of the triple option as personnel forces him to use at Navy, Josh Nesbitt is still probably a very happy quarterback. As with most college coaching jobs, his success will ultimately come down to recruiting. Tech still has the question of Jon Tenuta in front of them. Does Johnson convince Tenuta to remain on the Tech staff, or does the defensive mastermind head for LSU or other pastures?

Johnson’s deal is reportedly worth $2.3 million per year. Mark Richt, by comparison, earns about $2 million per year and isn’t actively seeking a raise. Will Tech get the same return on investment?

Otherwise, have a great weekend.

Keyframe, a division of score/video board maker Daktronics, produced the videos we saw on the video board this year including the crowd favorites before kickoff and the fourth quarter. They have a gallery of their video productions, and Georgia has several in there. Follow the link and select the video you want to see.

My personal favorite is the “tunnel video”. How about you?