UGA will host the second annual Countdown to Kickoff tomorrow (Saturday July 7th) from 3-6 p.m. at the Woodruff Practice Fields. What started out as a little idea by Matt and Jon Stinchcomb and a few friends brought out over 1,500 fans last year and raised over $100,000 for charities. This year’s event should be even bigger. Over 50 former Georgia football players (several of which are in the NFL) will be on hand. Current players will be there too.

Tickets are $30 each. A "Family Pack" costs $100, which includes four tickets, four meals from Chick-fil-A and a special football for getting autographs. Also, free pizza and soft drinks will be available.

Countdown to Kickoff will benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Georgia Transplant Foundation, as well as the Children’s Tumor Foundation and the University of Georgia College of Education.

The weekend has expanded to include a full host of related events including a related golf tournament tomorrow morning and an auction this evening at Foundry Park Inn at 7 p.m. Check out some of these items up for auction tonight:

1. Dawg for a Day: Unbelievable behind-the-scenes access, do everything the team does on gameday (except play!), 4 people, ride bus with team to Sanford Stadium, dawgwalk with the team, pregame locker room access, and sideline access.
2. Press Pass: 2 people in Press Box for Oklahoma State game, (ESPN crew, Larry Munson) eat pre-game press meal, watch game from Press Box (no tickets needed), attend Coach Richt’s post game press conference
3. Legacy Year: 2 people spend 1/4 of game in broadcast booth with Larry Munson and Scott Howard, headphones on to listen to him call the game, and photos
4. Pre-game flyover: Thrill ride for any Dawg Fan, 2 people fly in open cockpit Red Baron Squadron bi-planes when they do their pre-game fly-over of the stadium on gameday.
5. Red Coats: Climb the Ladder to Conduct the Red Coat marching band when they perform the traditional spelling of G-E-O-R-G-I-A at halftime, scoreboard big screen shot of you doing it, and an authentic Ken Modak print to commemorate the occasion
6. UGA/NFL experience: Fly to New Orleans for the Saints/Falcons game featuring UGA greats DJ Shockley, Jon Stinchcomb, Charles Grant, stay at the 5 star Royal Sonesta Hotel, champagne brunch, dinners at finest New Orleans eateries, airfare and game tickets included (2 people)
7. Air Dawg: Two round trip tickets on your own Wings Air Executive Charter to Destin, Charleston, St. Simons, Asheville, Nashville, Knoxville – fly to go see the Dawgs play Vandy, Tennessee, or the Gators or visit the beach without the drive or the hassle of Hartsfield (www.flywingsair.com)
8. Homecoming: Gameday Penthouse w/view of stadium, entertain and enjoy homecoming weekend with fellow Dawgs in penthouse of Gameday Condominiums, includes tailgate party and overnight stay.
9. Pampered Pup: View the season opener ESPN Game in style with 4 luxury suite tickets to the Oklahoma State game, eat and drink at your leisure, keep from sweating like a dawg in the air conditioned comfort of a Sanford Stadium sky suite (on home bench side of stadium).
10. Queen of Southern Cooking: Visit Savannah and Miss Paula Deen, star of Paula’s Party on the Food Network, and highest authority of all things Southern and fried, a 2 to 3 day "Paulathon", 2 or 4 seats to taping of Paula’s show, Lunch or dinner at Lady and Sons restaurant, Lunch or dinner at Uncle Bubba’s (Paula and her brother).
11. The Outdoorsman: Experience the old southern tradition of wing shooting at Ashburn Hills Plantation, 4 hunters stay overnight at beautiful bed and breakfast in Thomasville GA, step back in time and enjoy a full day of world-class quail hunting from horseback and mule drawn carriage (www.ashburnhill.com)

Damn.

I’ve written about this before, but UGA has officially announced its relationship with XM satellite radio.

XM Satellite Radio is now the official satellite radio home of the University of Georgia Athletic Association under a five-year sports broadcasting and marketing agreement starting in 2007.

XM will have all regular season Georgia football games, most men’s and women’s basketball games, and select games from other sports. They’ll also broadcast the football and basketball SEC championships. Though all football games will be available, a satellite provider only has so many channels to use, and they can’t do both home-and-away broadcasts of all games. They commit that "a minimum of eight games will feature the Georgia broadcast crew of Larry Munson, Scott Howard, and Loran Smith." In 2007, XM will also carry games for Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee, so it’s possible that you’ll only hear the Tennessee broadcast crew when we play in Knoxville. XM also has the ACC, so the Tech game might be another instance where XM won’t have the Georgia broadcast (with or without Munson).

Part of my reason for choosing Sirius last year was that most of the SEC schools were there, and it seemed reasonable that the remaining few (Georgia, Arkansas) would follow suit. Now not only will Georgia go with XM; the SEC itself will go with XM, and the remaining schools will come on board when their current agreements expire.

Georgia fans can go to http://www.xmradio.com/dawgs for a special offer on XM radios. With the investment I’ve already sunk into Sirius, I’m going to hold out hope that the proposed Sirius/XM merger goes through.

With the 2006-2007 academic and athletic year completed, Georgia finished a respectable 12th in the 2007 Director’s Cup – not the best showing in recent years, but nothing to be ashamed of either. Two national titles (gymnastics and men’s tennis) were at the top of the highlights, and we’ll get to those top stories soon. But first, we’ll take a look back first at some of the lower points from the past year.

10. "I’m Georgia!"

OK, I understand the proceeds went to a really, really good cause. I bought a few towels myself for that reason alone. But manufactured enthusiasm always seems a little artificial and often cheesy. The "I’m Georgia" campaign was both. It became painful watching former Georgia greats trying to rally the Sanford Stadium crowd in their middle-aged monotones. "You want me to wave this towel and say what?!" But because they distributed so many towels and the kids love them – kids love anything free – the "I’m Georgia" towels are barnacles on the Georgia program that will be hanging on for several years.

9. Basketball collapse at Alabama.

It’s unfair to label any particular game as the reason why Georgia missed the NCAA basketball tournament. It’s not even clear that another win would have made the difference. Still, a double-digit lead against Bama represented a rare chance to get a quality road conference win. The questionable finish only made the missed opportunity more painful. This game wasn’t the only time that the Dawgs blew a decent lead late in the game; Western Kentucky handed Georgia its first loss of the season with a late rally from ten points down. Either one of those wins would have been nice to have. Both together might have earned the Dawgs a bid.

8. Women’s golf embarassment.

The mysterious resignation of women’s golf coach Todd McCorkle turned into an uncomfortable if not creepy story filled with charges of harrassment and other conduct inappropriate for someone in his position (and most anyone over the age of 14). McCorkle resigned his position but remains with the athletic association, an arrangement that I agree creates a lose-lose situation.

There’s another angle to the story that didn’t get much play – the spokesperson-parent. Art Leon, father of star player Taylor Leon, triggered an investigation by complaining to administrators "after his daughter said she was berated by McCorkle at the Bryan Intercollegiate (tournament)." While I consider the harassment charges very serious and worthy of the reaction they received, I am not so quick to sympathize with parental claims of "verbal abuse" that resulted because a coach got in a player’s face.

Mr. Leon comes across a bit differently in this quote from the AJC following McCorkle’s resignation: "I’m shocked, surprised, just flabbergasted…Todd’s a great coach. I just saw him at SECs and everybody was happy and jubilant." A week later, Leon told the ABH, "He’s the type of guy you feel like you’d like to have a beer with, but he has no place being a coach of women’s golf." Hm. OK.

7. UGA: home of the minor alcohol-related incident.

From Akeem Hebron to Ian Smith to Tasha Humphrey, the campus crackdown on underage drinking left its mark on Bulldog athletics. For the football team, the incidents resulted in another round of early-season suspensions, and Hebron was suspended by the University. In the case of Humphrey, her suspension led to chemistry issues on the team that weren’t really sorted out until the final month of the season. Given the climate withing the campus administration, the overzealousness of local police, and the automatic suspensions mandated by the athletic department, you’d think the message to be smarter about drinking might be getting out to student-athletes. But this next academic year hasn’t gotten off to a great start either.

6. Quarterback indecision.

A year later, it seems like a hazy dream. But a year ago, Georgia fans were debating whether or not Joe Tereshinski’s unproven ability to "manage the game" (whatever that meant) was enough to give him the nod at quarterback over less-experienced but more talented options. Ideally, the question would have played itself out in August. Unfortunately, the quarterback question ended up dragging into the middle of the season and not settled for certain until the Mississippi State game, the eighth game of the season. Along the way we had an injury to the starter, a solid debut from the freshman phenom, an off-the-bench rescue by a third quarterback, and several close calls. Eventually the job was won by Matthew Stafford, but his on-the-job training during the middle part of the season included some very harsh lessons. It’s impossible to say how the season would have turned out had Stafford started the whole time, but that doesn’t keep fans from wondering.

5. Big Three vs. Florida.

0-fer. Sweep. Georgia’s "big three" men’s sports of football, basketball, and baseball all played their part in the Year of the Gator. The Gator football team held off a second-half comeback from the Dawgs en route to SEC and national titles. Florida’s outstanding basketball team was never seriously challenged in three games against Georgia including the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. Georgia’s best chance for a win was against a struggling Gator baseball team, but even a Florida team that would finish under .500 and fire its coach managed to sweep a three-game series in Athens. Thank goodness for other sports like tennis, gymnastics, and women’s basketball which took care of their own business against Florida, but a turnaround in the "big three" can’t come quickly enough.

4. Baseball roller coaster hits bottom.

I guess we should have seen it coming. Georgia baseball has had a strange pattern of feast and famine lately, and the calendar said that they were due for another downturn in 2007. But the severity of the downturn was the news this year. The talent drain after the 2006 trip to Omaha hurt, and those expected to carry the team this year didn’t. Georgia produced no all-SEC players this season, and they clearly lacked the clutch star power they’ve enjoyed recently. Georgia finished the season under .500 with their worst record in several years and far out of contention for the postseason.

The season was in trouble out of the gate as the Dawgs dropped early series to PAC 10 members Oregon State and Southern Cal. A sweep of Auburn to start SEC play provided a small glimmer of hope, but reality set in quickly. Taking two of three games from Georgia Tech was one of the few bright spots of the season, and those two wins might have had the added benefit of keeping Tech out of the NCAA Tournament.

The odd-even schedule that seems to rule the Diamond Dawgs lately says that Georgia baseball should be back on top next year, but they’ll be looking for answers and improvement at nearly every spot.

3. Mike Mercer’s season-ending injury.

Ouch. You knew the moment it happened that Mike Mercer’s knee injury at South Carolina was severe. In fact, it was considered "good" news that the injury was only season-ending. Similar injuries have ended careers. A lot of Bulldog programs had significant injuries last year, and some like Thomas Brown’s were season-ending too. But a major injury to a basketball starter is magnified, and Mercer’s injury turned out to be too much for the fragile Georgia depth to handle down the critical stretch run. Though they fought until the regular season finale against Tennessee, Mercer’s injury gave them very long odds for a postseason bid with no margin for error. Still, the team scrapped by and were able to record their first postseason win in nearly five years.

2. Football losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

We sensed that inexperience at the quarterback position would cause problems, but few would have guessed that the defending SEC champions would fall to the traditional doormats of the SEC East. Even worse is that Georgia held the lead in each game but saw Vandy and Kentucky drive late in the game for the winning scores against a relenting Georgia defense. Following the loss at Kentucky in November, things were as bleak as they’ve looked at Georgia since 1996. How the Dawgs turned things around to beat three consecutive ranked teams is an incredible story, and I don’t think we’ll ever know just how much negative momentum the team had to overcome in order to make that turnaround happen.

1. The death of Kevin Brophy.

The Georgia basketball world was rocked in July when point guard Kevin Brophy was killed in an auto accident. The Australia native was driving to Savannah when he wrecked during a rainstorm south of Athens.

Though I consider the death of Brophy the bottom story of the past academic year, the response by the team and the fan base was far from a low point. The team embraced the memory of the popular player, and an emotional win over LSU in the presence of the Brophy family topped off a season dedicated to Kevin. Fans and the University worked together to start a Kevin Brophy Memorial Scholarship Endowment Fund, and its trademark circular "3" patch was a ubiquitous reminder all season on the court and in the stands.

The Greater Atlanta Bulldog Club will have its traditional late-July gathering again this year on Monday, July 30, but the location is changing this year.

The meeting is not at Colony Square. This year’s location is the Cobb Galleria Centre.

The program begins at 7:00 p.m. with social time beforehand.

I always feel a bit dirty after buying a Tech three-game package (hit the Georgia Sports Blog for details). But it’s not a bad slate this year, and they let you create a three-game pack from any of their home games. So I’ve got my Georgia tickets, my Tar Heel father can catch the UNC game, and I also picked up a pair for a Thursday night to see Virginia Tech who should be in the mood for a little payback.

I too was able to get into section 228 which is near the perch from which I saw Bryan McClendon write his name into my personal Bulldog Hall of Fame in 2005. Even as Tech struggles to fill their best seats, these seats (particularly those in friendly sections) will probably go quickly. You can follow GSB’s instructions to make sure that there is again plenty of Red and Black in the stands.

UGASports.com has a piece today looking back at UGA’s role in past NBA drafts. It’s a good read. But at first glance I had to think that something about UGA and the NBA draft seems as if it would rank just behind Famous Jewish Sports Legends on the "light reading" list. Hopefully that will change down the road.

Doug over at Hey Jenny Slater has done the work of combining the preseason rankings to date. Southern Cal seems to be the favorite, and the Dawgs come in around the low teens. As the senator reminds us, a lot of these early preseason rankings don’t take into account the Paul Oliver news or any injuries and suspensions that might come up between now and the season.

Chris Stassen has been tracking this kind of thing for over a decade now, and it’s interesting to look back at Georgia teams over that time and see how they did relative to expectations.

The overrated/disappointing season that most remember is 2000, and sure enough the eleven position slide from the preseason ranking is the largest drop on the chart. 2004 might also be considered a disappointment because the Dawgs were overshadowed by Auburn and even Tennessee, but a final ranking of #7 isn’t a bad year. Losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky meant that the 2006 team also turned out to be "overrated", and it took that great finish to the season to only drop seven spots from the preseason.

It makes sense that the 1997 and 1998 teams were two of the most underrated Dawg teams. The 1997 team followed a 5-6 1996 team that itself followed the unspectacular end of the Ray Goff era. A 10-2 record and #10 ranking after all that shocked many of us. The Dawgs lost a lot of key players after 1997, and it was easy and reasonable to write them off in 1998. Richt’s first three teams were slightly underrated. Doug’s work seems to tell us that pundits aren’t particularly worried by last year’s slide, but it will be worth watching if the later preseason polls include a correction for Oliver and anything else that comes along.

Since the polls play a part in determining the national champion, it’s also worth looking at where the past eleven national champs started out.

(LSU started at #14 in 2003 for those in the one-peat crowd.)

So as you might expect, you don’t have to start in the top 5 to win the national championship – just five of the last eleven did. Four champions started outside of the top 10. The teams that came the longest way to win the title (Michigan, Oklahoma, SoCal, tOSU, and even LSU) are all traditional powers who came off sub-par seasons. Of those teams, only SoCal did not have a four-loss or worse season before their national title.

I look at preseason polls a lot like qualifying for a race. You don’t have to start on or near the pole to win a race, but it does help. The further back you start, the more help you need in front of you and the more traffic you have to work through on your way to the front.

Actually, the Dawgs got yet another verbal commitment yesterday from Ft. Lauderdale DE Jeremy Longo. Longo had offers from schools like LSU, Auburn, and hometown Miami. Not bad at all. He’s a teammate of another Georgia commitment, kicker Blair Walsh. Longo gives the Dawgs three defensive line commitments.

PS…Ching’s dead-on when he says that Georgia will hear the “doesn’t close well” griping from our own when the Dawgs have just one or two scholarships left on the table in January and other programs are getting the recruiting headlines. Like clockwork.

But just look at the separated-at-birth photos of Longo and his future defensive coordinator:

6’8″ with a heart to match

While it’s usually the negative that makes headlines (see Odell Thurman’s latest), several Georgia and NFL players are getting together for a very worthy project organized by Leonard Pope.

On March 1st, a tornado broadsided Americus and Sumter Regional Hospital . The hospital is damaged nearly to the point of requiring complete replacement. Pope, an Americus native, has pulled several Georgia and NFL friends together for the Leonard Pope’s All-Star Weekend to Benefit Sumter Regional Hospital and the Community on the weekend of June 15-16. Among those scheduled to participate are Anquan Boldin, Charles Grant, D.J. Shockley, Randy McMichael, and Danny Ware. Others, including Thomas Davis and Ronnie Brown, have recently joined the list, and there might still be others.

The weekend’s schedule:

On Friday (tentatively 8 a.m-4 p.m.), there will be a charity golf tournament at Southwestern Golf Links where golfers will get a chance to golf with the aforementioned celebrities in a four-man scramble. The cost will be $100 per person ($400 per team) and there will be prizes, lunch and more.

There will be a Black Tie Charity Dinner at the Pope Center on the campus of South Georgia Technical College on Friday ay 7 p.m. Tickets for this event will be $50 per person ($500 per table). The aforementioned players will be in attendance, along with a surprise Georgia celebrity as one of the main speakers for the event. There will be food, entertainment and a silent auction with many signed memorabilia from the players and other sports teams and celebrities.

On Saturday at 2 p.m., there will be a charity basketball game that will pit the NFL players and their friends against local Americus-Sumter and Southland legends. Local children will also have a chance to sign up for Leonard Pope’s 2008 Football Camp. Tickets will be $5 for adults and $2 for children. Children under the age of 5 get in free.

Related Links:

• Sumter Regional Web site
• Make a donation directly to recovery efforts
• Americus tornado photos

No, not that Izzy.

In the excitement over commitments from two of the top receivers in the 2008 class, we forget that Georgia signed a couple of standouts this year. Walter Hill is a tall leaper who chose football over basketball and will give the Dawgs a big target. But the star receiver prospect last year in the state was Tift County’s Israel Troupe. Fans tempered their enthusiasm over Troupe’s commitment because he is considered a top baseball prospect, and we always had to consider that a lucrative MLB contract might keep him from playing football.

Chad Simmons of UGASports.com is reporting that Troupe has arrived on campus (along with nearly every other 2007 signee). Though the MLB draft is still a few days away and we won’t know his draft status for certain until then, Troupe taking the step to show up on campus is a great sign in terms of what he expects to happen. Unless something big happens on June 7th and 8th, it looks as if we can expect Troupe to play football for Georgia, and that’s great news for football fans.

Just as I noted last week that the Georgia recruiting train was picking up speed again, the Dawgs added two more football commitments over the weekend.

Cornerback Makiri Pugh started things off on Friday afternoon. Georgia again went head-to-head with Clemson for a prospect and won, and they also beat out Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. Pugh is from Charlotte’s Independence High School – a familiar name to Bulldog fans. After Robert Brannon, Mohamed Massaquoi, and Joe Cox, Pugh will be the fourth Dawg in recent years from this proud North Carolina program. Pugh is projected to be one of the top 250 players in the nation at any position according to Rivals.com, and you can get an idea of his talent by looking at his offer sheet.

I have to take a second here and single out Joe Cox. Here’s a guy who led the Dawgs to a comeback win over Colorado last year, but he ended the season positioned to be a career backup. Even though recent events have proven that Cox gets along with his teammates, Stafford’s promotion had to be a tough bit of news to take, and it might even be understandable for Cox to become a little disillusioned with the situation. But Pugh credited Cox (and Massaquoi too) with honest feedback that helped him choose Georgia. "Their feedback really matched up to the visit," Pugh said ($), and it obviously meant a lot that these two Independence alums could back up with their own experience what Pugh was hearing from the coaches.

The other commitment was a bit of a surprise. Griffin defensive lineman Toby Jackson, considered to be leaning to Alabama, announced his commitment to the Dawgs on Sunday evening. Jackson draws comparisons with former Bulldog Jonathan Sullivan for his ability to play defensive end and defensive tackle. Though Jackson committed to Georgia, don’t expect Alabama or even other schools like FSU to back off of one of the best defensive linemen in the state. With standout lineman DeAngelo Tyson already committed, Jackson would be another key piece in a potentially tremendous defensive line class.

Why is recruiting going so well? Everyone is pointing this morning to Loran Smith’s piece in the ABH about the "new Mark Richt" who is much more hands-on in recruiting this year. By cutting back on personal commitments and changing responsibilities within the program (Mike Bobo’s increased role stands out), Richt has been able to give things like recruiting much more personal attention. It’s not just recruiting, either. If you’ve been at a Road Tour event this spring, Richt seems much more comfortable talking about the bigger picture. He’s able to speak in depth about defenders. He wasn’t ever completely aloof when talking about the rest of his team, but it was clear and natural that his focus was on offense. That’s changing a bit.

And let’s face it: this time last year, Coach Richt was dealing with a very serious health crisis with his wife. The life-changing nature of cancer strikes even the most driven of us, and it is entirely reasonable and understandable that Coach Richt would have been distracted last summer.

The result is that a very solid recruiting class is coming together. There are several pieces to the puzzle. It’s a good year in-state at some key positions. Richt will also be the first to credit a very capable staff of assistants who do much of the heavy lifting. But there is no question that more and not less exposure to Mark Richt on the recruiting trail is a big plus to many of this year’s top prospects.

On the eve of Andy Landers entering the women’s basketball Hall of Fame later this month, his staff is facing some serious turnover. Assistant Brenda Hill resigned to take a local high school job which would keep her off the recruiting trail and at home with her daughters. Now we learn of another departure.

The ABH today confirms a rumor that I had heard about assistant coach Katie Gilbert not returning next season. The report claims that her contract was not renewed, and we all know what that means.

Though I don’t claim to have any day-to-day insights on the program, this move really stinks on the surface. It’s one thing for a coach to move on as Hill did, but it’s another for one to be let go. Gilbert had two primary responsibilities: scouting/preparation and guard play. From what I had seen in pregame scouting reports and shootarounds, she was more than competent at scouting and preparing the team for each opponent. Guard play has carried the team for the past several years; this most recent backcourt produced a WNBA draft pick and the SEC Freshman of the Year. Not bad.

Again, there might have been something behind the scenes that led the athletic department not to renew her contract, but from the stands it didn’t seem to be performance-related. Was the change “suggested” to Landers by Carla Green Williams or Damon Evans? It’s true that the program has stagnated recently and slipped to “only” a Sweet 16 program. It’s now been eight seasons since the last Final Four appearance. Recruiting was also getting scrutiny. In such situations, assistants are often leaned on and asked to do more. Gilbert might have had other priorities and resisted additional responsibilities or demands on her time. That’s her right, but it can also create an incompatibility with the objectives of the program. Perhaps such a drastic shakeup of the staff was necessary to give the program the kick it needs.

The reaction from the boosters will be interesting. They are the fans closest to the program and provide its strongest support both financially and in the stands. Through her pregame chalk talks, Katie was the staff to many of the boosters. She’ll be missed. As a devoted mother married to a local dairy farmer, she’s not the traditional job-hopping assistant. I believe she’s exploring other options in the Athens area.

With the Hall of Fame induction coming up, it should be a relatively light and celebratory time not only for Landers but for Georgia women’s basketball. This news casts a bit of a shadow on things for me. Let’s face it – the recent track record on the bench hasn’t been great. Gilbert was in my eyes the strongest assistant. Brenda Hill wasn’t a standout. The loss of Michael Shafer was inevitable, but his replacement didn’t last the summer. Now only the relatively inexperienced La’Keisha Frett remains, and even she might have her eyes set on the next rung of the coaching ladder. Heading into his first season as a “Hall of Fame coach”, Landers will have a short time to synthesize a new staff that must come together quickly as the window of opportunity in the Tasha Humphrey era gets smaller and smaller.

Former head football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley had a procedure last week to remove a mass – originally thought to be benign – from his vocal cords. Things became much more serious this week when the tumor was found to be malignant, but they seem optimistic. Dooley himself has fought years of coronary issues, and his wife has battled breast cancer. We hope that Vince comes through this most recent health issue as well as he has the others.

From UGA:

Athens, Ga. — Former University of Georgia Director of Athletics and head football coach Vince Dooley underwent outpatient surgery to remove a tumor from his vocal chords on Tuesday, May 22.
Lab reports this week indicated the tumor was malignant, and he will begin radiation treatments some time in June. Dooley’s prognosis for a full recovery is excellent according to his tending physician.

According to Marc Weiszer of the Banner-Herald, ESPN2 will broadcast Georgia’s first two 2007 football games against Oklahoma State and South Carolina.

The September 1st Oklahoma State game will start at 6:45.

The September 8th South Carolina game will start at 5:45.

The later starts in early September will be welcomed by tailgaters after a 2006 season where only one home game started after 3:30 and five home games started no later than 1:00. Improved campus traffic plans will get immediate tests from these late-afternoon kickoffs.

Georgia has had two high-profile season openers start in the late afternoon or evening recently. In 2005, the Boise State game kicked off at 5:30, and the Dawgs rolled to a win. Back in 2002, Georgia won a close game over Clemson that started at 7:45.

Christian Robinson Photo: Rivals.com

We’ve been over just how thin the Dawgs are at linebacker, and it should come as no surprise that the position is a recruiting priority.

After a slow period of recruiting news that actually included a few decommitments, things have picked back up in the past couple of weeks. First there was the huge pledge by WR Tavarres King. On Tuesday, Georgia got the good news ($) from Greater Atlanta Christian LB Christian Robinson.

To give a little insight into Robinson, he received his offer from Georgia while on a mission trip to Africa ($) earlier this spring. After receiving offers from Georgia and South Carolina, Robinson was a standout at the Athens NIKE camp and soon received offers from LSU, Alabama, Clemson, and several other SEC and ACC programs.

Besides addressing positions of need, the commitments of King and Robinson are noteworthy for another reason: the Dawgs were up against some big-time pedigrees. King’s father Anthony was a tight end at Clemson. Robinson’s father Ken was a linebacker at South Carolina, and Christian has had other family play at Clemson. Georgia was able to convince these two top-quality prospects to remain in-state despite their family ties, and we look forward to welcoming Ken and Anthony and their sons into the Bulldog family.