Odell Thurman is currently sitting out his second straight NFL season. After a DUI arrest and a missed drug test, Thurman was suspended for the 2006 season. That suspension has been extended without explanation for a second season, though Thurman has been in the news since that original suspension. Now his quest for reinstatement is trying a new tactic. The Orlando Sentinel reports,

Tampa Bay Buccaneers CB Torrie Cox and Cincinnati Bengals LB Odell Thurman have filed discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to have their NFL suspensions overturned. The players contend they have been viewed as alcoholics by the NFL, and that perception is the basis for the action imposed by Commissioner Roger Goodell, ESPN.com said.

You see? They contend that their "alcoholism" is a disability. They are leaning on a case from the 1990s where the "EEOC ruled that NBA violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it did not reinstate (Roy) Tarpley even though he apparently passed drug screenings for four straight years."

There seems to be a genetic component to alcoholism where the condition is passed through heredity, but scientists may be shocked to learn that DUIs can also be transmitted.

Kara Braxton, Thurman’s girlfriend and mother of his child, recently plead no contest on a charge of "operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol." It shouldn’t be a surprise that Braxton’s charge came as a result of "a Sept. 25, 2006, arrest in Cincinnati." Braxton’s not a stranger to the wrong kind of headlines – the WNBA all-star was dismissed from the UGA basketball program several years ago – but DUI is new territory for her. She was suspended for just two games by her league and did not seek any EEOC sanctuary.

The Offense Strikes Back

The weekend started with a bang. After the defense looked strong in the first scrimmage of the preseason, the offense showed up in Friday night’s scrimmage. Quarterbacks combined for six touchdown passes, and three of the passes went for over 30 yards. Excuse my optimism over hitting the deep pass. "You know we had a lot more success offensively today than the other day," remarked Coach Richt. He credited the improvement in part to a better effort from the offensive line. "The number one unit blocked really well," he said.

Other than a few individual plays (like Geno Atkins’ 40-yard fumble return), the big news from the scrimmage is that 1) there were no serious injuries and 2) the coaches haven’t had much time to go over and make changes to the depth chart based on the scrimmage. Any changes might come early this week, though several positions are still very much up in the air.

One-headed Monster?

I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that, despite fewer carries, Knowshon Moreno has led both scrimmages in rushing yardage and YPC. Scrimmage stats might be as relevant as G-Day stats, but no one would be dismissing these stats if it were Brown or Lumpkin putting them up. The running backs only got carries in the first half of Friday’s scrimmage.

Richt made it clear though that the tailback rotation would continue. "Whether people like it or not, they’re all very talented and they all are ready to play and they’re gonna play." Meanwhile, Caleb King’s nagging hamstring injury makes his chances of redshirting greater and greater with each practice missed.

Fine Line Between Dedication and Insanity

I consider myself a pretty big fan – I think that’s obvious, right? I’ll concede there are more devoted fans. I’ll also concede that having children can and does change your priorities. But none of that should involve camping out overnight for a chance at a picture with Uga and/or Mark Richt. Ching writes,

I always enjoy the details on picture day of who showed up first for the guaranteed tickets for photos with Uga VI and Mark Richt and WHEN. This year’s Uga winner was Athens’ Joe D’Angelo, who got in line for the first of 120 guaranteed tickets at 8 p.m. Friday night (the dog’s time at the stadium was between 1 and 3 p.m. today). Jackson’s Wayne Parker started the Richt line at 4:30 this morning. He got the first of 250 Richt tickets. Demand again was pretty high. A little more than seven minutes after UGA staff began distributing the tickets at 9 a.m., they were all gone.

There are lots of reasons to attend Picture Day even on an extremely hot day like Saturday. Kids seem to love it, and the players enjoy the interaction. But there are literally dozens of better opportunities for getting a snapshot with Richt or Uga. I hope it was worth it for those gentlemen.

Man Down

Our best wishes to D.J. Shockley for a quick recovery after sustaining a knee injury on Friday night that will keep him out for the 2007 NFL season. Shockley tore his ACL and injured his MCL against Buffalo.

Spotlight on the Receivers

Everyone in the world seems to be sensitive to (or at least aware of) the issue of dropped passes. Whether you believe it’s a question of talent, coaching, scheme, or some combination of them, it’s the 800-lb. gorrila in the room when the subject of receivers comes up.

You even have other players sticking up for the receivers. Thomas Brown said,

The receivers were making plays. They’ve received a lot of criticism in last season and in the spring about not being able to catch the ball. But they’ve made a lot of great steps. They’ve been doing it all camp long in practice, making diving catches and things like that, so they’re gonna be fine.

Matthew Stafford added,

Their effort is up. Their confidence is up. That’s what you want from any position.

We’ve seen several articles now with this slant. "Massaquoi forgets the past." "Georgia receivers have something to prove." "UGA wide receivers are sticking together."

There are two ways that this kind of spotlight can affect the situation. Right now, everyone’s happy. Us vs. the world. "We’re all in it together, no matter who is catching the ball, no matter who it is thrown to, no matter who has the touchdowns," said Mikey Henderson. That’s a great attitude, and fellow senior A.J. Bryant has echoed it. If that kind of prove-everyone-wrong approach is what it takes for the receivers to step forward this year, great.

But as Mark Richt likes to say, you never really know how good a team is until it is tested by adversity. The receivers seem focused and a close-knit group now, and I hope they can keep that attitude after the first inevitable drop and the simultaneous groan of 92,000 fans. There has been a lot of self-doubt and a lack of confidence in the passing game (and, to be fair, the receivers are far from the only group affected by drops). With an emerging star in Matthew Stafford, the receivers should have the talent, experience, and the quality passes they need to have the kind of year they are talking about. All they need now is for that attitude to show up on the field.

Picture Day descends on Athens tomorrow. Hundreds of parents will make their families suffer in the blistering heat for a chance at getting a picture of their kid with Uga. Fans with great tact will blow past reserves and other Georgia teams to hobnob with a handful of football players. The lines for Matthew Stafford, Uga, and Mark Richt started forming in June. To top it off, message board psychos will attempt to evaluate this year’s team based on how someone looks. It’s really great family fun.

Here are some of the particulars:

Saturday April 17th at Sanford Stadium

The Georgia football players and coaches will be on hand for photographs and autographs from 3-5 p.m. Uga VI will be available from 1-3 p.m. inside Sanford Stadium on the 200 Level near Section 213. Interactive events, concessions and merchandise sales will take place from 1-5 p.m. through the 100 level concourse of Sanford Stadium.

Fans will be able to enter Picture Day through Gate 6 located off East Campus Road and Gate 2 located on Sanford Drive across from the UGA Bookstore and Tate Student Center. Parking is available to the general public in the following campus lots: any lots along East Campus Road, Psychology-Journalism, Clarke Howell, Legion Field and Tate Center lots and the North Campus and Hull Street parking decks. Handicapped parking will be available in the Tate Center lots.

Fans may bring in just one item to be signed, and Picture Day event staff will enforce this number at the entrances.

The Georgia offensive unit and Coach Mark Richt will be located throughout the North side concourse of Sanford Stadium between Sections 109-101 while the defense will be located on the Gate 6 Plaza between Sections 125-121.

Other Georgia sports teams will be located between Sections 119-113 and the fan interactives, concessions and merchandise will be located throughout the event. The UGA Cheerleaders, National Champion Gym Dogs, Baseball, Track & Field, Softball, Women’s Basketball, Equestrian, Women’s Golf, Swimming & Diving, Soccer, Volleyball teams will also be in attendance.

Fans can pick up their tickets to reserve their place in line for a photograph with Uga VI beginning at 9:00am at the East End Ticket Windows located off East Campus Road. The first 120 groups in line will receive a ticket and be guaranteed a photo with Uga VI, with additional groups receiving standby tickets. The Athletic Association will attempt to accommodate as many standby fans as possible within the time Uga VI is available from 1-3pm.

Fans can pick up their tickets to reserve their place in line for the opportunity to meet Coach Richt beginning at 9:00 am at the East End Ticket Windows located off East Campus Road. The first 250 individual fans in line will receive a ticket and be guaranteed an opportunity to meet Coach Richt between 3:00-5:00 pm.

Fans’ cooperation is appreciated in not bringing other pets or animals into the area with the Georgia Bulldog mascot, Uga VI. Also, all fans are encouraged to bring your own camera to take your group’s photo with Uga VI. Groups with tickets to have their picture made with Uga VI, can enter through Gate 6 only beginning at 12:30pm. All other fans will be allowed to enter Sanford Stadium through Gates 2 or 6 beginning at 1:00pm.

Let’s just hope this preseason event goes better than the one that an English soccer team had recently:

Norwich City’s preparations for the new second division season have been hit by vomiting and diarrhoea following a social event for players, staff and their families.

Four players were among some 30 people taken ill following a barbecue at the club’s training ground on Sunday. The club said in a statement it had contacted the local environmental health authorities about the incident.

Pitchers Josh Fields and Stephen Dodson have decided to return to Georgia after being selected in June’s Major League Baseball draft. Fields has been Georgia’s closer for two seasons, and Dodson led the SEC for most of the season in ERA as Georgia’s Friday night starter.

Meanwhile, pitcher Trevor Holder was named playoff MVP in the Cape Cod summer league.

Georgia’s pitching should be outstanding next spring.

One play from the Chick-fil-A Bowl always stands out to me when I watch the game. Georgia had just scored during their second half comeback. During the ensuing kickoff, a streak of red wearing #53 got through the blocks and made a clean tackle on the Virginia Tech return guy inside of the Hokie 20. It wasn’t a game-changing play by any measure, but it was an impressive special teams play and the kind of thing that makes you ask, "who the heck was that guy?"

That guy was Chris Gaunder, a senior walk-on linebacker from Acworth. Named the outstanding scout team special teams player in 2004, Gaunder played in every game in 2006 as part of the kickoff coverage unit. Now Gaunder, along with fellow walk-on Drew Williams, has earned a scholarship. Williams, a senior safety from Blairsville, has earned outstanding scout team and outstanding defensive walk-on awards during his career and has seen playing time on special teams and as a reserve safety.

Gaunder and Williams become the second and third walk-ons to receive scholarships this season. Snapper Jeff Henson was awarded his scholarship as preseason practice started. Congratulations to these guys – the award of a scholarship in these circumstances is a recognition of special effort and attitude over an entire career.

If there is one phrase other than “Florida home-and-home” that sends Georgia fans into an endless debate, it’s “quarterback rotation.”  From 2002-2004, the merits and disadvantages of the Greene-Shockley rotation were debated endlessly with nothing to show for it except two SEC titles.

With Matthew Stafford firmly established as Georgia’s starting quarterback at the end of last season, Dawg fans might have thought that they wouldn’t see the backup again until the fourth quarter with a 20+ point lead.

But Mark Richt lit the fuse again Wednesday night, and it didn’t take long for the reaction to start coming in.

Here is what Richt actually said as transcribed by UGASports.com:

…If (Joe Cox) plays (in the opener), it is because we believe that he has earned it. Right now, we are leaning towards trying to get him into the game.

We just want to get him in the game at one point or another. It could be in the first half. I do not want to pigeon-hole ourselves because sometimes you have every intention of getting a guy in there and you do not. People will question why you didn’t and you hurt the kid’s feelings. We will not promise him anything, but the way he has been performing, he deserves to get in there. Hopefully we will find the right time to do that.

It didn’t take long for this interpretation to emerge:

We will have a quarterback rotation with Cox and Stafford splitting time.

Yes, Richt said that Joe Cox has earned some playing time, though Richt will not promise Cox anything.  Richt hopes he can find the right opportunity to play Cox.  Wow.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  Run for the hills!  Light ourselves on fire!

Actually, this is a brilliant tactic by Richt.  With so much attention on mundane things like the offensive line and linebackers, he knew that even hinting at the possibility of playing a second quarterback would distract the fans for the next two weeks while the QB rotation debate gets stoked one more time. 

It turns out that Kiante Tripp’s move to the offensive line isn’t the only positional shuffling going on. Ching has the details and a transcript of Richt’s press conference.

Tripp Update

I asked last night whether the move would be temporary in response to the injuries on the line, and it looks as if Tripp’s position change is more or less a permanent thing. That makes sense when you go back to the recruiting process. Tripp, as I mentioned yesterday, was rated the 9th-best offensive tackle in America in 2006 by Rivals.com. He was (is) an athletic and smart guy and also a basketball standout. The agility and leaping skills of a basketball player also made Tripp an attractive prospect at defensive end where he might be able to do some damage against less-agile offensive linemen.

As a result, he was recruited both as an offensive tackle and defensive end. Though rated higher as an offensive tackle, Tripp preferred defensive end, and Georgia promised him a chance at that position. True to their word, Tripp was a defensive end during his freshman season. An injured knee made redshirting a certainty, and he joined the competition at the defensive end this season as a redshirt freshman.

But, as Coach Richt said, Tripp "sees the opportunity" at offensive tackle and seems to have embraced it. "He was ready to move." Richt was upbeat. "It’s like getting a commitment from a top two or three tackle in the United States, so that’s pretty exciting for us." It was illustrative for Richt to contrast the position move with the case of Dale Dixson. You might have a grand plan where a player might fit in, but you can’t force a guy into a position that he just doesn’t want to play. Fortunately, Tripp was more receptive.

Richt made another, more subtle, comment about recruiting later. "I don’t know if I can talk too much about a recruiting class — I guess I could, I’m not mentioning names — but like I said, it’s like getting a signee at tackle right there." Is that a veiled comment about A.J. Harmon’s commitment to Clemson or Tyler Love’s commitment to Alabama? Georgia was in on both of those line prospects (and possibly is still recruiting Harmon as a defensive tackle).

Brandon Miller, Brandon Miller, Brandon Miller.

After a trumpeted move to middle linebacker, it seems as if Miller is back outside. Coach Richt praised Miller’s play at strongside (SAM) linebacker, but I have to be skeptical. Why? Miller was the starting SAM linebacker last season too. He lost the job midseason to Danny Verdun-Wheeler. That’s no knock on Verdun-Wheeler, but it does help to paint the picture of Miller’s prospects as an outside linebacker. Then you consider that Miller has spent the spring and summer to this point working in the middle (at a position where Coach Richt called him "the key to the defense"), and you have to wonder where the improvement has come from to make the SAM linebacker outlook that much better. Richt stated that Miller is "just comfortable there (at SAM)," but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll be productive.

Jarius Wynn

Wynn, according to Rodney Garner, was "probably the most highly recruited" of Georgia’s three signees from Georgia Military. He was considered a possible impact player at a questionable defensive end position. There was a question about Wynn possibly moving inside to defensive tackle. Garner used the Phrase of the Week, "cross-training", to explain that Wynn was indeed working some inside, but he gave no indication that it was a permanent move. Garner went on to explain the similarities between the end and tackle (5 and 3) positions where Wynn was cross-training.

He definitely has the frame for the OL. Photo: UGASports.com

Yes, it must be that bad.

Just a few days ago, Mark Richt was asked whether defensive linemen might be used to shore up an inexperienced offensive line dealing with a slew of minor injuries. Richt’s reply?

Well…I just don’t think it would help us. I don’t think it would help us. They’re not gonna know what to do and they’re probably not gonna be too thrilled about it. The combination of those two things is not very good…I don’t think we’ll (do that). If we had some season-ending injuries, if every guy hurt now was for the season, we’d probably have to do something like that.

Today Chip Towers reports that 6’6″ redshirt freshman defensive end Kiante Tripp has started practicing with the offensive line. Since he signed in 2006, Tripp’s huge frame has led many fans to wonder whether he would make a nice Chris Terry-like conversion to offensive tackle. UGASports.com even mentioned Tripp over the weekend as the most likely guy to make the switch if it became necessary.

Tripp was rated the ninth best offensive tackle in the country by Rivals.com as a two-way lineman at Westlake High School.

We’ll wait for the evening post-practice news cycle to see if Richt or Tripp have comments on the move and whether it’s a temporary measure. With the recent injuries to linemen, the Dawgs had been using a couple of walk-ons on the second team line. As Richt implied in his comment above, Tripp will likely be lost and would just be a warm body at this point. But with his frame and athleticism, Tripp might be a better option than a walk-on or true freshman even if he is new to the position.

When asked in March about the possibility of moving to offense, Tripp told UGASports.com, "if they want me to play it I will because I will do anything to help the team out." He’s also a bright guy with a 1260 on the SAT, so that could also help speed the transition.

The 2007 Bulldogs have a lot of questions to answer, but the offensive line and linebacker positions have been at the top of the list from the beginning. On the offensive line, the issues are experience and depth. At linebacker, the Dawgs are replacing all three starters and a ball-hawking playmaker in Tony Taylor. It’s not a surprise that those two positions highlight the reports from Saturday’s first scrimmage. Reading into a scrimmage this early is about as useful as paying attention to the scores of preseason NFL games. We dwell on the areas that get attention in the recaps and questions, but they don’t always capture everything that went on in the scrimmage. So we’ll avoid getting too picky at this stage and look at these two general areas of concern.

Offensive Line

Injured linemen Haverkamp and Adams take in Monday morning’s practice Photo: UGASports.com

Injuries were the story along the offensive line. Though no injuries seem to be long-term, they still come at a time when the unit is trying to build cohesiveness and familiarity. The lost practice time from even minor injuries can be frustrating. "There won’t be any group of five working together this week, not all week, maybe as early as Wednesday, I don’t know. I can’t even predict," explained Coach Richt after the scrimmage. With all of that uncertainty up front, it’s hard to expect the offense as a whole to run smoothly.

Starters Chester Adams and Scott Haverkamp are both sidelined with ankle injuries, and reserve Tanner Strickland joined them on the injury list. Chris Little has a hurt wrist, but he’s out of shape and unlikely to play this year anyway. The result was a bit of chaos along the line. Freshman Clint Boling was forced to play with the first team at tackle. Coach Bobo’s comment that "(Boling)’s all we’ve got" is hardly an endorsement of the true freshman, but but it’s to Boling’s credit that he has done well enough in such a short time to impress the coaches to move up to the first team as Adams recovers.

It was kind of under the radar that despite the OL woes Stafford was able to complete over 60% of his passes, Moreno was able to rush for 7+ YPC, and the offense was able to have some success in goal line situations. We focus on the critical and even tend to be alarmist about the line, but there were some good things happening.

Linebacker

Things are a bit different at linebacker. Injuries aren’t the concern here. Personnel and positions are. The phrase of the weekend was "cross-training." It’s a useful concept where players at similar positions (such as linebacker) swap positions to improve depth and versatility across the unit. Danny Verdun-Wheeler was a master of this training and was at one point considered the top backup for all three linebacker positions before he moved into a starting role during the 2006 season.

That’s fine, but here’s the thing: Brandon Miller already has experience not just practicing but starting at outside linebacker. Based on Miller’s move to the interior this year, Coach Richt has said, "he’s the key to our whole defense." With all that at stake, wouldn’t the first objective be to get Miller as much work as possible at his new position? About a week ago, Richt called Miller "the key to our whole defense." Now we don’t even know how the linebackers will line up. "By the time the second, third scrimmage rolls around, we’ll know how to line them up," Richt said following Saturday’s scrimmage. "I would say it’s not etched in stone right now how we’ll line up at linebacker."

That’s not cross-training. That’s still an audition. Cross-training is a luxury you have only after the starters are certain and competent in their primary roles. If we don’t know how the linebackers will line up yet in the first place, worrying about cross-training at this point is very much cart-before-the-horse stuff.

Miscellaneous

• With the departure of Paul Oliver, who made his NFL debut last night, the cornerback battle is an area of interest. Prince Miller is getting first-team work as Bryan Evans nurses a hamstring injury, and Thomas Flowers is giving Asher Allen all he wants at the other position. These are all talented guys, and the competition is very healthy.
• The numbers don’t quite add up. In the limited stats released from the scrimmage, the quarterbacks were credited with a combined 22 completions. Yet only 13 receptions were recorded. Henderson and Massaquoi didn’t land a reception between them?

This announcement came from the UGA ticket office today. Season ticket packages will still be mailed today. Single-game and out-of-town tickets will be delayed though – they are a separate mailing from season tickets.

Tickets for the first home game versus Oklahoma State on 9/1/07 will be mailed to contributors and faculty/staff who ordered tickets no later than August 20th. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the remaining single home and out-of-town tickets will be mailed no later than September 6th. Cumulative score requirements, as they are determined, will be posted for Florida and Georgia Tech on the official athletic association website, georgiadogs.com. We appreciate your patience and thanks for supporting University of Georgia Athletics.

Once again we look at some of the more popular search keywords people are using to get here:

• "shaun chapas": Chapas is a redshirt freshman fullback from Jacksonville. He and Fred Munzenmaier are in the mix behind established starter Brannan Southerland. You never know how much time a reserve fullback will see, but I imagine that we’ll see Chapas and/or Munzenmaier on the field this year, especially in jumbo or "wham" situations.
• "georgia football suspensions": I had a recent summary of the off-season suspensions, but we’ve since added two more to the list. Tripp Chandler and Blake Barnes each received one-game suspensions. With the offseason departures of Akeem Hebron, Ian Smith, and Seth Watts, Chandler and Barnes are the only active players who will miss the first game.
• "ian smith uga football": We learned before practice began last weekend that Smith had decided to leave the Georgia football program for "medical reasons". We don’t know if those medical reasons are related to Smith’s two alcohol-related arrests, but we hope that Smith got or is getting whatever help he needs.
• "uga spying va tech": This was a nice distraction from the first weekend of practice. Frank Beamer never came right out and claimed that Georgia cheated, but his message was clear enough. Coach Richt of course denied any spying and even offered some empathy for coaches who are concerned with leaks from practices. I thought about this issue when photos and descriptions of formations from Arkansas practices hit the Web earlier this week. At what point does fan interest (and fan ego) become a disadvantage to our teams?
• "vance cuff": The saga of Vance Cuff ended last week when the NCAA granted Cuff a waiver, essentially overruling an NCAA Clearinghouse decision concerning one of Cuff’s core high school classes. With the waiver, he is eligible by NCAA standards and has enrolled at Georgia. The freshman cornerback is now practicing with the team (and will likely redshirt).

It’s not every day that a consensus All-American lands in your program. Former prep All-American Porsha Phillips will transfer into the Georgia women’s basketball program.

Phillips was a consensus All-American in 2006 at Redan High School in Stone Mountain and played in the McDonald’s and WBCA All-American games. She played her freshman season at LSU in 2006-2007 where she had lukewarm stats (3.8 points and 2.9 rebounds) but played significantly, including all 38 games and six starts, for a very good LSU team. LSU’s program was thrown into turmoil at the end of last season with the resignation of coach Pokey Chatman. We don’t know the extent to which the transition affected Phillips’ decision to transfer, but both Phillips and LSU maintain that Phillips "is interested solely in playing closer to her family in Georgia."

Phillips will sit out the 2007-2008 season per NCAA transfer rules. She will be eligible to play in the 2008-2009 season and have three seasons of eligibility remaining. The 6’2" forward will likely be favored to step into the big shoes at the forward position left by Tasha Humphrey after Humphrey’s graduation in 2008.

Coach Richt addressed the inference that Georgia spied on Virginia Tech practices before the Chick-fil-A Bowl.  As you might expect, Richt denied the inference and was empathetic to a coach’s concerns about secrecy.

I can assure Coach Beamer that we did not know anything about what was going on, but I can understand why he would want to close a practice.

…I cannot tell you how many times we felt the same way. You wonder what happened. Sometimes you get the right call at the right time and if that happens enough times coaches begin to wonder if you somehow have their signals…It is natural and I do not blame him for wanting to close it or even feeling that way. To my knowledge we have no idea what was going on in their camp.

HacksawDawg from the DawgVent reveals Georgia’s spy

You’ll read several articles with some excerpts, but it’s really interesting to read the entire transcript with Richt’s comments on the subject.  UGASports.com has it for subscribers.

Richt, like most coaches, restricts access to practice.  The general public is almost never allowed in.  Media are asked to leave after positional drills.  It’s a common policy.  But would he like to go further?

I wish I could close it down completely, but it is kind of hard to do with our set up. I can see why any coach would want to close everything that they do, especially with the Internet.

Before you get on Richt for being paranoid, consider the value of information to these coaches.  It’s everything.  From plays to injury reports, every bit of information released is a possible advantage for an opponent.  Even if there’s no malice, that information can be costly.

Even if we let our fans come in who love us, they would just talk about everything that happened and then people would read it and be able to find decipher some things that would help them win.

Of course Richt can’t completely cut off access.  The team must play the game with the media – access in exchange for for coverage and publicity.  But Richt admits that he is more conscious of this issue than he was when he first took the job and more cautious as a result.

I have seen enough things and people cannot help themselves. Like if you (TV) guys had a camera rolling on stuff all day long, you would be thinking that you are getting b-roll (footage) for the eleven o’clock news, but when you show the b-roll, you show something a good defensive coordinator could say, “oh I like that. I did not know they were doing that. They did not do that last year.” I do not think anyone is purposefully trying to sabotage Georgia.

Usually I avoid taking issue with Clay Travis columns, because doing so would require me to take the position that college football, Saturday afternoons in the South, extravagant tailgates, and the beautiful women that go with it all are wholly unenjoyable.

Against my better judgement, I’m going to respond to something he had earlier this week.

His idea is straightforward: set up a series of conference challenges among the six BCS conferences during the first week of the season. Settle the conference superiority debates on the field. OK so far – it more or less sounds like a week of bowl games before the real season starts.  But I think he goes off the tracks when he claims that resistance to creative ideas like this one comes from aloof “powers-that-be” in college football.

Ask yourself this — why is it that alone among all major sports, college football’s powers-that-be never listen to what their fans want and consistently list reasons why things wouldn’t work instead of why they would? In a globalized sports world, isn’t this truly the height of arrogance? The non-responsiveness of college football leagues to their fans is sickening.

Could this be why? Demand for college football is through the roof according to most any metric from attendance to dollars to television ratings. As much as I have my problems with the regular-season-is-our-playoff approach, I have to admit that the “height of arrogance” is suggesting that a wildly popular (and growing) sport needs such a drastic shot in the arm. Is it really sickening non-responsiveness to think twice about overhauling something that’s working? Will Georgia games go from “sold out” to “really sold out?”

It might be true that college football fans claim that they want things like a playoff and better inter-conference games. I wouldn’t mind seeing Georgia play Texas and Michigan and Southern Cal…as long as Georgia wins. But that want is a little down the list of priorities for most of us who are partisan fans of a particular school:

• Wins
• Championships
• Wins…especially over rivals
• Enjoying the soul-crushing losses of our rivals
• Claiming a better recruiting class, co-eds, stadium, mascot, and head coach’s wife vs. our rivals
• Finding a place to park and tailgate within the same area code
• Giving a damn about the rest of college football

It might be just me, but I have no interest in adding yet another difficult game to Georgia’s schedule just so some Ole Miss fan can show his ass on an Oregon State message board. (SEC RULZ!1111!) Chances are I’d be pulling for the other conference in these games anyway. Oklahoma vs. Auburn? Boomer Sooner. If it means that the timeless debate of conference superiority goes on into another summer, so be it.

The Gameday Gameplan site has been updated for the 2007 season. There don’t seem to be many new restrictions. Some key points:

• Parking information and maps are here. Some season parking passes remain for the North Campus and Carlton St. decks. (Incidently, if anyone has information on a South Campus Deck/ Georgia Center parking pass…drop me a line.)
• There is a new direct on-ramp from the East Campus area to the Athens Bypass. You won’t have to fight campus traffic anymore. We touched on that improvement earlier this year.
• Tailgating rules remain similar to last season: nothing before 7 a.m., use your own power source, etc. We’re told that people will still be able to park cars in legal spaces in advance…just don’t get things set up before 7:00.
• UGA will provide portable restrooms across campus (never enough it seems), and they will open the public restrooms at the Boyd Graduate Studies Building, Tate Center, Student Learning Center, Main Library and East Village Commons.
• The "family-friendly area" has shrunk to a small section of the North Campus quad. There is no longer a "family-friendly area" on South Campus.