Florida is raising their home football ticket prices by $5 per game next year. The increase is expected to bring in over $3 million annually in additional revenue, and that should go a long way towards paying a new corch and his staff. They’d also like to get a little more money out of their trip to Jacksonville:

Ticket prices for the Florida-Georgia game will rise $10, if Georgia approves.

Anyone expect Georgia to put up much of a fight on that one?

Run-of-the-mill Florida tickets have been around $40 for a while, so an increase wouldn’t be completely outrageous. For context, Georgia fans can expect to pay at least $65-$160 for their other 2011 neutral-site game against Boise State if the LSU-UNC ticket prices were any indication.

– It’s OK, Julian Royal. I’m sure Mark Fox can still find room for you on next year’s team if you ask nicely this spring.

– Is it me, or is Urban Meyer’s approach to discussing Steve Addazio starting to resemble the he’s-not-off-the-team-but-he’s-not-with-the-team language he used when talking about Chris Rainey?

– Of course the current state of the Tech basketball program had a lot to do with the empty seats last night, but it’s also a consequence of charging 50% to 100% more than the $20 Tech is charging to see its other nonconference opponents. This isn’t football; Georgia fans weren’t going to buy up a few thousand discounted tickets. But the inflated prices did do a good job of keeping all but the most committed of Tech fans at home. I’ve been to games against Georgia and ACC opponents over the past 20 years where the “Thrillerdome” effect was in full force. Those days are long gone. Scenes like that will be what forces the Tech administration to stomach a large buyout and make a change.

– Finally, if you read nothing else today, read this story about the connection between a group of Georgia football players and one special 16-year-old fan.

It wasn’t Georgia’s best showing on either end of the court, but a 7-of-9 night behind the arc from junior point guard Dustin Ware gave the Dawgs just enough to secure a 73-72 win on the road at Georgia Tech Tuesday night.  Ware’s final three-pointer came with just 15 seconds left and broke a 70-70 tie, providing Georgia’s final points in a game that surprised no one by coming down to the wire.

A sluggish start meant that Georgia played catch-up for most of the night.  Travis Leslie spent most of the first half on the bench with two fouls, and the Bulldog inside game was generally ineffective early on.  Thompkins, Price, and Barnes combined for just eight first half points, leaving the guards – minus Leslie – to take up the load.  Ware and Robinson were up to the task, and Georgia reduced a double-digit deficit to a manageable six points at halftime.

Tech was able to keep Georgia at arms’ length for the first part of the second half, but the Dawgs finally drew even at 43 on a pair of Trey Thompkins free throws.  The sizable Georgia contingent had been pretty subdued to that point, but erasing Tech’s lead brought them to their feet.  Georgia soon went ahead for the first time on a pair of Sherrard Brantley three-pointers, and a 13-5 Bulldog run established a six-point Georgia lead inside of eight minutes left.

Georgia missed an opportunity to extend the lead to eight when a Price layup fell short, and a three-pointer on the other end got the hosts right back in the game.  Tech went on a late 10-0 run to turn a five-point Georgia lead into a 70-65 Yellow Jacket advantage as the Dawgs went cold on offense.  Thompkins picked Georgia up with a huge three-point play, and Ware’s final jumper with 15 seconds left capped an 8-0 run by the Bulldogs to win the game.  Tech had a final chance to win after Gerald Robinson missed two free throws, but a long pass was intercepted, and Georgia held on as the clock ran out.

It’s always great to beat Tech, but as I said it wasn’t a terribly good showing – it was much like the football game in that respect. Georgia’s a better team, and it would have been an upset to lose.  Despite having a stronger inside presence with Thompkins, Barnes, and Price, Georgia was outrebounded 43-30 and only had two more points in the paint.  Thompkins eventually heated up in the second half with 15 points in the final 20 minutes, but Barnes and Price never found much success on offense.  Another thing keeping Tech in the game was Georgia’s free throw shooting.  The Dawgs were a wretched 7-of-15 from the stripe, and Robinson’s missed pair at the end opened the door for Tech to win.

Neither team was especially strong on perimeter defense.  Georgia, led by Ware, shot an amazing 55% from behind the arc.  The Dogs were well over 50% from outside but only 44% overall and 46% from the free throw line.  Tech wasn’t much worse from outside at 40%. They cooled off though only hitting 33% of their three-pointers in the second half, and that helped to fuel Georgia’s comeback.

The win is Georgia’s second in Atlanta since the series left the Omni for the respective campuses in the 1995-1996 season.  Georgia’s last road victory against Tech came in 2000 when another Bulldog guard, D.A. Layne, dropped 28 points on the Yellow Jackets.  Meanwhile, Tech has yet to win in Athens since the series went home-and-home.  Thanks to those two road wins, Georgia enjoys a 10-6 advantage over Tech in the post-Omni era.

The Bulldogs are a respectable 6-2 now and will be off for the next ten days during exams.  Chances are good that the Dawgs will be at 11-2 when SEC play begins.  There are four winnable games in Athens during the latter half of December, and a December 23rd game at Mercer in Macon is the only road game left before the conference schedule.  

Three years ago, with the all-time series record at 28-2, Andy Landers used the occasion of a close win in Athens to remind Georgia Tech where they fell on Georgia’s hierarchy of women’s basketball rivals. The series record remains lopsided, but Sunday’s convincing 69-53 loss at the hands of Tech suggests that the Lady Jackets need to become a much higher priority for Landers’ program. Though the Lady Dogs have managed to hold serve in Athens, they’ve not been as fortunate on the Lady Jackets’ home court:

• Georgia has now dropped three of the last four to Tech in Atlanta.
• They’ve lost the last two in Atlanta by a combined 31 points.
• They haven’t managed more than 53 points in any of the three losses at Tech, averaging 48 points in those games.
• The series record might stand at 29-4, but Georgia is only 5-3 against current Tech coach MaChelle Joseph and is now just 1-3 against Joseph’s teams at Alexander Memorial.

That’s not the tale of a lopsided rivalry. Joseph wasn’t out of line for exclaiming postgame that, “It would be an upset if they beat us here.” That certainly seems to be the takeaway of the last eight years. To say that Georgia still at least maintains the advantage in Athens is a pretty feeble claim in what used to be a one-sided affair on any court.

Georgia isn’t losing to bad Tech teams. Tech has become a consistent NCAA Tournament participant and has knocked off other strong programs like North Carolina and Maryland along the way. But whether it’s a question of Tech’s program elevating or Georgia’s stagnating (or both), the Lady Dogs have to recognize a credible challenge both on the court and on the recruiting trail. Georgia might have had the higher-rated class last year with national recruits Ronkia Ransford and Khaalidah Miller, but it was Tech freshman Ty Marshall who stole the show with a game-high 20 points.

Once again there will be a Wilkins on the court for the Atlanta Hawks. Former Bulldog basketball player Damien Wilkins has signed a contract (undisclosed terms) to return to the Peach State. He’s managed to stick in the NBA as a journeyman for six years after leaving the Georgia program following the 2004 season.

Georgia’s new strength program had a conference call with the media on Friday, and he gave several clues as to the direction his program will take.

One of the key points in Tereshinski’s approach will be nutrition. “We’ll have a nutritionist and graduate assistants at the meals and record what they’re eating, and we’ll have counseling. We’re going to record weights, chart their performance, body-fat percentages and weight training,” he explained. Georgia currently does not have a dedicated nutritionist, but that could very well change soon.

He also promised to extend the use of technology in weight training. If you’re not familiar with Georgia’s video program, it’s incredibly involved and impressive. Players and coaches can get on-demand video of any opponent in any situation you can imagine. Tereshinski plans to record workout sessions, and “see what we can correct” after reviewing the sessions. He also emphasized hands-on training in smaller groups which would imply the need for additional staff.

Tereshinski indicated that any additional changes or new staff would happen after the bowl game.

Georgia’s strength and conditioning coach Dave Van Halanger has been with Mark Richt since the FSU days, and no man is as tied to the concepts of Mat Drills and “Finish the Drill” as Coach Van. You won’t meet a more inspirational man, and his motivational tactics were key to changing the culture of the Georgia program during its rise in Mark Richt’s first years. But strength and conditioning has become a focal point of criticism during this year, and several opponents noted an advantage over Georgia in this area. The Georgia Sports Blog demonstrates that the team got outplayed and outscored at the end of games, and that’s not a good trend.

A post to Kelin Johnson’s Twitter page this afternoon makes it sound as if Van Halanger is leaving his position. Mark Richt indicated over the weekend that he wasn’t considering or expecting staff changes, but Van Halanger technically isn’t an assistant coach. If he is stepping aside, we join Johnson in thanking Coach Van for all he’s done for the program and wish him the best.

UPDATE: And the changes are now official. Van Halanger will remain with the program in a position that deals with character development, and it’s hard to imagine many people better suited for something like that. Joe Tereshinksi, father of recent quarterback Joe Tereshinksi III, will step into the role of director of the strength program. Tereshinski, a letterman in the 1970s, has been part of the Georgia staff in some form since 1982.

I’m not sure what to make of the move. I don’t disagree that a new approach was necessary, but I’m also skeptical when I hear that the solutions to problems were already in the organization all along. When I heard that Tereshinski and John Kasay were going to be involved in the conditioning program, I thought I had woken up back in the early ’90s. Not many of us know what all goes into the strength and conditioning and player development programs; it’s much more of an I’ll-know-it-when-I-see-it thing. We know that getting pushed around down the stretch of many games this season is a pretty good sign that the players weren’t in a condition to finish the drill. Whether it takes state-of-the-art techniques or throwing tires around, the proof will show up in a 2011 season that could make or break Mark Richt’s future.

Of course this isn’t the end of the story. The program won’t be just one or two men, and we’ll see over the next few months what additional resources and people are brought on board to help. Tereshinski is already talking about a revamped approach to player nutrition, and that alone will require some specialized professionals.

We knew that the cancellation of the Louisville series would mean an additional home game in 2012. Reports today indicate that Florida Atlantic will be that opponent, and they will reportedly receive a guarantee of around $1 million for the trip.

That’s right – Howard Schnellenberger (and his suspenders) between the Hedges. The game sets up a potential reunion of coach and player as Mark Richt played for Schnellenberger at Miami. FAU is currently 4-7 with their season finale upcoming this weekend.

With this announcement, Georgia has traded a home-and-away with Louisville for a neutral-and-home with Boise State and FAU. The Bulldogs’ non-conference schedule in 2012 now consists of Buffalo, FAU, Georgia Southern, and Georgia Tech. In addition to those four games, Georgia’s 2012 home slate will include Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.

Members of the Georgia Bulldog Club can begin pre-ordering football bowl tickets today. All Georgia Bulldog Club members will be emailed an online application today and Hartman Fund contributors will also be mailed a football post season ticket application by the end of this week, so keep an eye on your inbox and your mailbox. The priority deadline will be 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 10.

As in previous years, all possible bowl destinations will be listed on the ticket application, and you can request tickets to any of them to which you’re willing to travel. You’ll only be charged for Georgia’s eventual bowl destination if that’s one of the games you pick. Once Georgia’s bowl is known, tickets will be first assigned based on Hartman Fund cumulative score and then opened up to other Georgia Bulldog Club members and then the general public.

Photo: Radi Nabulsi/UGASports.com

Yes, Georgia still runs the state. About as efficiently and wisely as a third world military dictatorship runs their state. Georgia maintained their hold on power as any despot does – through sheer dumb luck, the resistance being even more inept, and the exploitation of a wealth of natural resources.

During a game in which both teams looked every bit the frustrating 6-6 programs they are, the difference turned out to be that Georgia had a Justin Houston to make plays on defense, and Tech didn’t. If that turns out to be the final Sanford Stadium performance of his career, Houston leaves knowing that his two huge second half takeaways won’t soon be forgotten by a grateful Bulldog Nation.

It was the dark cloud to the silver lining of Mark Fox’s debut season last year: Georgia still couldn’t win a road game. Not even at Auburn. Going back several seasons, Georgia’s road woes have been beyond parody. So it’s no surprise that Saturday’s buzzer-beating win at St. Louis got a lot of Bulldog fans talking during the football bye weekend.

We shouldn’t kid ourselves that winning at St. Louis is anything like winning at Tennessee (or Ole Miss for that matter). But St. Louis was the opponent, and they were a quality early road test for a team learning how to play and win without Trey Thompkins. It looked as if it would be just another Georgia road game after the hosts took a 10-point lead into halftime. Georgia held St. Louis to just 22 second half points and had reduced their deficit to just one point with ten minutes left. St. Louis managed to pull back in front by six points but only scored four more over the last five minutes of the game. The Bulldogs had the final possession, and Gerald Robinson handled the situation with a lot of composure. With the clock winding down, Robinson drove, drew the defense, and delivered a nice pass to an open Jeremy Price under the basket in the final second for the game-winner.

The one big area of concern from the St. Louis game was bench play: Georgia got only two points from its reserves. Some of that’s to be expected: we’re talking about a number of young guys getting their first road experience. Still, the lack of much bench production put a ton of pressure on the starters, and the Dawgs got just enough from their first five. Four Bulldog starters ended up in double-figures with Travis Leslie’s 19 leading the way. Jeremy Price continued an impressive start to the season with 16 points.

The win in St. Louis improves Georgia to 3-0. All three wins have had their moments of anxiety, but they’ve also provided useful experience for those conference games that always seem to come down to the wire. The team is learning how to play, and win, close games. They’re doing it without their leading scorer. In the case of the Colorado game, they had to find a way to close out a game without Travis Leslie too.

We’ll soon find out if that experience can pay off against tougher competition. Georgia heads to Orlando this week for the Old Spice Classic. The tournament features eight programs that should be familiar to any basketball fan, and Georgia will face three of them throughout the weekend. They open with Notre Dame on Thursday (7:00 p.m., ESPN2), and the opponents and times for games on Friday and Sunday will be determined by the bracket. All games should be on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPNU.

Lady Dogs also improve to 3-0

Andy Landers marked 1,000 games as Georgia’s coach on Friday night, but visiting Chattanooga . Chattanooga, a perennial contender in the Southern Conference, tested Georgia’s perimeter defense by hitting 13 three-pointers. The visitors led as late as the final two minutes of the first half. The Lady Dogs gained control of the game with a 25-9 run in the second half and opened up a 71-53 lead with eight minutes left. Georgia cooled off and scored only six points in the final six minutes, but it was enough to emerge with a 79-69 win.

The Lady Dogs rebounded from Friday’s shaky start with their best performance of the young season with an 84-51 rout of Indiana on Sunday. Jasmine James helped Georgia control the game from the opening tip by scoring all but three of her 21 points in the first half. James might have easily gone for 30, but she began to get her teammates involved. Before exiting the game midway through the second half, James had a team-high 21 points and 7 assists. Anne Marie Armstrong and Jasmine Hassell joined James in double figures, and all ten Lady Bulldogs played and scored in the game.

Georgia will see their first action away from Stegeman Coliseum this week as they head to the west coast for three games. They’ll face USC on Tuesday night, and then they’ll participate in a Thanksgiving tournament at Loyola Marymount.

My position on Georgia adding a second neutral site game to the schedule is pretty clear. It’s not a good idea, least of all because the state’s biggest and best football facility is in Athens. Georgia would have to give up a home game in order to play at the Dome, and Greg McGarity has made a priority of playing seven home games each season.

So I was a little surprised to read tonight that Georgia was possibly part of a deal that would break up the scheduled Boise State vs. Ole Miss season opener in 2011.  Ole Miss would play BYU instead, and the Broncos would come to Atlanta to open in the Georgia Dome against Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. The Dawgs are currently set to open the 2011 slate in Athens against Louisville. Surely McGarity wouldn’t take a home game away after all of the talk this fall about a new scheduling philosophy. 

There’s one way though that a game with Boise State would make sense:  Georgia must cancel the home-and-home with Louisville.

When you look at the impact of the deal over two seasons, it begins to make sense.  In 2012, the Dawgs are scheduled to return the game with Louisville.  If that deal is canceled, the game gets replaced with a home game against a team more in line with McGarity’s preferences (i.e., a non-conference cupcake). So you’d gain back the home game you gave up in 2011. Instead of a home-and-away with Louisville, you’d have a neutral-and-home with Boise and whichever team fills the 2012 spot.

Georgia would actually make money in this scenario.  The buyout for the Louisville series is $600,000 per game.  UNC and LSU each took home around $2 million by playing in the 2010 Chick-fil-A kickoff game.  That’s at least a net of around $800,000 to Georgia to play what would have been a road game with zero revenue in 2012.

There are still some negatives.  This would arguably be one of the biggest games on Georgia’s 2011 schedule, and it wouldn’t necessarily be accessible to all season ticket holders. Next year’s season ticket holders will get to see teams like Coastal Carolina and New Mexico State while the Boise game would be an extra just as Florida is. The crowd would still be predominantly Georgia fans, but a similar disadvantage didn’t bother the Broncos much in their 2010 opener.

Georgia also wouldn’t be able to host recruits since it’s not a home game.  Top prospects usually find their way into games like this, but they’ll have to have a ticket or watch from home. Ideally, you’d like to show off your campus and stadium for a big national game; Georgia would pretty much just have Auburn and South Carolina as marquee home games next year.

I’m not as down as I was on this idea before I understood the role of the Louisville series.  Would I rather the game be played in Athens?  Yes. I also understand that it’s not 2005 and a home game without a return visit probably wouldn’t happen.  There’s also no harm done getting out of a pointless series with Louisville; a single game against Boise State would be much higher profile for the program without the cost of a return visit.

Coach Richt hinted that we might find out more on Monday. At any rate, it’s nice to have a rumor to talk about that doesn’t involve Georgia’s previous opponent. 

They played hard. They really did, and that’s what makes the outcome disappointing. After four straight wins in this series, putting up a good fight (literally, as it turned out) isn’t much solace. Yes, it would have been worse had the Bulldogs accepted their role and come in scared of the #2 team, and it would have been worse to look as outclassed as Florida did on Saturday. So there’s that. It felt a lot like the Blackout game did in 2007. Georgia had hit its stride after the Florida game, and there was no way that they were going to lose in front of the frenzied home crowd. Auburn shook off a close call at Kentucky, shifted to the next gear on Newton’s long touchdown run against LSU, and no one has come close to touching them since.

In that context, I understand why a lot of Georgia fans are patting the team on the back for a decent effort. The Dawgs ran into a good team and a great player on a roll. It’s a little depressing though to think back to when Georgia was that team. It wasn’t long ago, but it’s getting longer. Georgia might be better than their record indicates, but there are some very good reasons why they are a 6-loss team. You can start in the trenches – neither the offensive or defensive lines are bad, but that’s not what we expected. The offensive line was billed as one of the top units in the nation. It’s not. The defensive line just doesn’t have the size and depth it needs to be effective, and that’s shown up in a lot of these close games where a stop against South Carolina, Mississippi State, or Auburn might have made a difference.

Shrugging off the Auburn loss as a valiant effort against a juggernaut is fine – it was overall a pretty good effort, and the team didn’t quit. There are a lot worse things you can say about a team. You’d hope that some wins come from that resolve, but that takes something more. Even little things like the disappearance of the return games make a difference, and it explains why some teams are better than others in close games. Take the final series of the first half. The decision to run out the clock changes (we hope) if the drive starts on the 35 rather than the 21. Auburn’s secondary is getting roasted in post-game analysis, but did Georgia’s fare much better? Rambo was fortunate to be out of position on his interception, and did the unit make another significant play all day?

The “play” of the game? There were a number of big plays in the game, but a misfire on two similar play calls served as turning points. I need to set aside a separate post for this, but Georgia just isn’t good at executing the screen pass. I don’t know it it’s a skill Murray has yet to refine, something to do with blocking, backs who aren’t the best receivers, or something being telegraphed that allows defenses to read the play. As with most plays, a screen isn’t intrinsically a bad call. A lot of teams run them against pressure or in long-yardage situations. A screen is a bad call though when 1) you’re not particularly good at them, and 2) you have better options. Georgia’s two attempted screens were disasters and killed significant drives. Throwing to a triple-covered A.J. Green would have had a higher chance of success than throwing it off the back of Caleb King’s helmet.

Speaking of Green, his performance on Saturday was at once breathtaking and heartbreaking. Did Georgia get away from Green? His receptions were split pretty evenly – five in the first half, four in the second half. The yardage tells a different story. At halftime, Green had 114 yards and two touchdowns. He finished with 164 yards and two touchdowns. Facing a secondary on its heels, the offense gave Green four catches and 50 yards in the second half. Certainly other receivers became involved as Green opened up opportunities: had Georgia won, Kris Durham’s third quarter catch would be one of the biggest plays of the season. For whatever reason, Green just had far less of an impact the later the game went. Is it a coincidence that the Dawgs managed only 10 points after the first quarter? The heartbreaking part? The best Bulldog receiver of all time is playing during a stretch of years we’d just as soon forget.

There have been enough words wasted on Nick Fairley, and if that outrage gets the players good and fired up over the next two weeks, great. Otherwise – yes, he’s a cheap shot artist, and none of it changes the scoreboard. I do want to say something about an incident from the game that’s getting slightly less play – the injury to Reuben Faloughi. If your memory needs jogging, it’s the only injury you’ve seen outside of Philadelphia that got booed by the crowd. As much as we like this CBS crew, we all know of their propensity to go over the top with the cheerleading. But it was a reach even for Gary to lavishly congratulate the Auburn crowd for its savvy in booing the hurt Georgia player – as if it were a calculated bit of gamesmanship (by a former walk-on) to slow down the momentum of the Auburn offense. The crowd at least has the excuse (though not much of one) of not having ready access to replay. Faloughi did go to the turf a ways from the play after trying to walk it off. Verne and Gary, if they had looked at their monitors, would have seen the same replay we all did – Faloughi, coming off the bottom edge, taking a legal cut block from #32, Eric Smith. The left knee takes most of the impact. Watch this segment and pay special attention to what the replay is showing right as Verne claims that the injury occurred on the opposite side of the field.

I won’t waste much more time on Auburn because my most important game of the year is next. Justin Houston’s ominous quote about assignments is going to bother me for the next two weeks. If there’s one trait you want in a defense going up against an option attack, it’s attention paid to assignments. Tech doesn’t have Cam Newton; they don’t even have Josh Nesbitt. But what they do have is a similar offense that can use numbers and misdirection to hurt a defense that isn’t playing its assignments. If you got tired of seeing Onterio McCalebb go for big yardage on the sweeps, wait until Paul Johnson runs the toss to his A-back over and over.

We’ll finally get some use out of the Sanford Stadium lights this year.

The ACC has announced that the November 27th game against Georgia Tech will be at 7:45 PM. ESPN will broadcast the game.

Georgia hasn’t had a home game start later than 12:30 this season. The unpredictable late-November weather makes a night game at this time of year less attractive than one in September or October, but we’ll take it. We’ll also finally get to see a real test of the new tailgating policies put into place after night games in recent years left North Campus full of trash.

North Campus has pretty much been vacated during this football season, but tailgating all over campus has been subdued thanks to the early starts. It’s not worth it for many fans to make the effort of an elaborate tailgate just for a few hours in the morning. In fact, downtown business have had a pretty decent football season, thanks in part to increased traffic from fans who might have tailgated if the game times were later. That’s the case for our group – we’ve found it easier just to meet up at a downtown restaurant until 11:00 or so rather than try to set up and take down a decent tailgate within the span of 2 to 3 hours.