We guessed yesterday that we’d see Urban Meyer back on a college football sideline, but we didn’t see it coming this quickly:  instead of going through with his planned resignation, Meyer will accept an offer to stay on as head coach and take an indefinite leave of absence.

It’s going to take a lot of work to keep this from becoming a messy situation.  As it was phrased in the press conference, the head coach is now also the coach-in-waiting.  To what extent will he have oversight of the program during his leave?

A question about Meyer’s role in hiring Florida’s next defensive coordinator seemed to catch Meyer off-guard.  To be fair, this is a decision that was made in a day’s time, and Meyer was quick to point out that the details still have to be sorted out. 

It was a good question, though.  By changing his resignation to a leave of absence, Meyer will still have some presence around the program.  He admitted that the tough part of this process will be figuring out how to “fix” the things that have led him to this point.  That involves stepping away from the program to get well, but was this morning’s change of heart a sign that he’s going to have trouble distancing himself enough to get well?

Athletic director Jeremy Foley made it clear at the press conference that Meyer is still Florida’s head coach, and he just happens to be taking an indefinite leave of absence.  His role in the hiring of the defensive coordinator is just one detail to be worked out.  Recruiting is heading into the home stretch, and Meyer deflected a question about whether he was now off the recruiting trail. 

Meyer talked about being back in time for the start of the 2010 season.  He’s going to coach in the bowl game.  He’s not likely to drop recruiting cold turkey.  Other than spring practice, exactly what is he stepping away from?

The answer – it doesn’t matter.  It’s not our concern.  As everyone wrote up their resignation stories, the consensus was that the SEC was better with Meyer in it.  That’s still true.  We’re going to snipe at the minutiae of the story, but Meyer’s the one to know his limits and has to face his family with the decision.  I’ve already seen the “guess it couldn’t have been that serious” comments, but Meyer’s under no obligation to justify that.

Speaking of medical conditions though, I hope no one gagged or got diabetes from the conversation on the podium.  Meyer spoke of the amazing place that is Florida, and Jeremy Foley swooned along, but I doubt they would have made this arrangement for someone who hadn’t won two national titles in the past three seasons.  Not many of us get the opportunity Meyer is getting, but he’s earned it.

Rivals has information this morning about which conferences will be assigned to referee the 2009 bowl games. Officials from the Mountain West conference will work Georgia’s Independence Bowl matchup with Texas A&M. The piece also looks at how conferences go about assigning their various crews to work the bowls – it’s as much a reward and merit-based system for the officials as it is for the teams.

After grading each official’s work during the regular season, each conference sends its top officials at each position to NCAA national coordinator David Parry, who assembles bowl crews by conference. Parry then assigns each bowl game a crew of neutral conference officials.

We offer our condolences to the teams playing in the Alamo, Champs Sports, Orange, and St. Petersburg Bowls. They’ll be getting SEC refs, and it will be interesting to see who the conference sends as its best officials.

Independence Bowl tickets are selling well, according to the Shreveport Times, with one exception. Local tickets have sold out for the 49,180-seat stadium. Texas A&M has nearly distributed all of its 12,000 tickets. What’s keeping the game from selling out?

The University of Georgia has sold approximately half of its 12,000 tickets. Georgia went into the weekend with 5,500 tickets sold.

I’m not going to berate Georgia fans because I’m one of the bad fans who’s not going to make the trip. I understand that Shreveport is much closer to College Station, Dallas, and all of east Texas than it is to Georgia. Not feeling it for this postseason isn’t an indictment of Georgia fans – bowl organizers will need only look at our showing in Tempe, Stillwater, and Boulder to know that Georgia fans will travel in force for a quality game. To be honest, that 5,500 is a pretty big increase. I’ve heard that I-Bowl preorders numbered in the hundreds before Georgia was officially announced less than two weeks ago.

Will Georgia sell out its allotment? It’s possible, but I’m not going to hold my breath. Point the finger at the fans if you like, but that’s not going to fix the disappointing season or the failure of the athletic administration to position the team for a better bowl. I hope the Dawgs end up being as well-supported in Shreveport as they were in 1991. I also hope that disinterest in this game stops with the fan base and at the gates to the practice field.

Mark Fox’s team got their first opportunity on national television last night, and the best we can say is that they didn’t give up or get embarrassed in such a setting.

Georgia fell 66-56 to a decent St. John’s team at Madison Square Garden in the SEC-Big East Invitational. Georgia held their own in the first half and trailed by only three at intermission despite not being able to hit from the floor or the free throw line. It didn’t take St. Johns long in the second half to push the margin near double-digits, and the game remained an 8-to-12 point affair for most of the rest of the second half. Georgia made a small push near the end to cut the Red Storm’s advantage to just six points, but St. John’s put the game away from the foul line.

Trey Thompkins did well on the national stage by tallying 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocks. He and Travis Leslie (14 points) were the highlights on offense for Georgia, but they got little help. The frontcourt was especially disappointing: Jackson and Price failed to score, and Chris Barnes – who ended up with 7 points – wasn’t used nearly enough. Leslie’s 10 free throw attempts were more than the frontcourt had combined.

It’s not much use to pick this team apart – we know who they are, and it’s no surprise that they’re going to have trouble scoring. Still, there are things like free throws and carelessness with the ball that can be corrected and keep the team competitive. There’s no question though that Georgia needs scorers to complement Thompkins. Leslie is a fine role player – and did you see the alley-oop at the end of the game? – but he’s not consistent enough to be your traditional scoring wing. We’ll see these issues again and again this year. Fox can get what he can out of the current group of players, but the chief imperative (and often the Achilles’ heel) of the Georgia job is turning around recruiting.

The Dawgs are off for exams until a December 19th game at the Gwinnett Area against Illlinois.

The AP All-SEC teams were announced yesterday, and Georgia placed seven on the lists including Curran, Butler, and Green on the first team. The good news for Georgia is that as many as six of their seven all-conference players could be returning for 2010 (depending of course on what juniors like Curran and Boling decide to do).

It’s usually interesting to go back to the preseason all-conference teams to see which assumptions were closest, who emerged during the season, and who didn’t live up to expectations or had to deal with the heartbreak of injuries. We’ll start with the offense:

Quarterback:

Preseason 1st Team: Tim Tebow
Preseason 2nd Team: Jevan Snead

Postseason 1st Team: Tim Tebow
Postseason 2nd Team: Ryan Mallett

Comments: That Mallett would win postseason honors isn’t a big surprise. He was expected to have a big season in Bobby Petrino’s second year, and he delivered this year’s Tim Couch performance – nice stats on an average team. He led the league in passing as well as total offense. There’s not much to say about Tebow holding on to the first team spot – it was his to lose, and he didn’t slip up.

The story at quarterback was Snead. Few players were hotter at the end of 2008, and, contrary to the circus at SEC Media Days, it wasn’t heresy to suggest that Snead was a worthy challenger to Tebow’s supremacy. Signs of trouble were there in the opener when he threw two interceptions against Memphis. Preseason hopes were finally dashed at South Carolina where the flaws of the Ole Miss team were laid out bare on national television. On the year he threw for 20 TD against 17 INT. Ole Miss still won 8 games, but it wasn’t the season that the Rebels or Snead expected.

Running Back:

Preseason 1st Team: Charles Scott, Michael Smith
Preseason 2nd Team: Mark Ingram, Anthony Dixon

Postseason 1st Team: Mark Ingram, Anthony Dixon
Postseason 2nd Team: Dexter McCluster, Montario Hardesty, Ben Tate

Comments: The preseason first team gave way to the second team. Ingram built on a solid freshman season to emerge as a legitimate Heisman candidate, and Dixon was the primary weapon on offense for a Mississippi State team that claimed a few scalps and scared several others in an impressive debut for Dan Mullen.

McCluster’s inclusion on the second team is another way of recognizing the SEC’s most versatile player. He also shows up on the postseason first team under “all-purpose.” In the preseason he was listed as a 2nd team all-SEC receiver (see below). That all should tell you what he meant to the Ole Miss offense and how enjoyable he was to watch this year. Hardesty and Tate became dependable workhorses that led their first-year coaches to bowl eligibility. Despite sharing time with other capable backs (Brown at Tennessee and Fanning at Auburn), Hardesty and Tate stood out enough to merit recognition.

Injuries took down the preseason favorites. But for a wonderful 145-yard outing against Auburn, Smith never got going this year and finally had to hang it up after struggling with a hamstring injury all season. Scott likewise never got going during the season, and the two touchdowns he scored at Georgia remain the only points he put up against SEC competition. He put up 100 yards only once: 112 yards against Tulane. Scott’s season came to an end after he suffered a broken collarbone against Alabama.

Tight End:

Preseason 1st Team: D.J. Williams
Preseason 2nd Team: Aaron Hernandez

Postseason 1st Team: Aaron Hernandez
Postseason 2nd Team: Colin Peek

Comments: Hernandez was enough of a known entity to rate a preseason mention, and his stature rose as he became one of Tebow’s favorite targets. He was effective either in close quarters on the shovel pass or downfield as a dependable receiver who could move the chains. Alabama’s strategy to disrupt the shovel pass on Florida’s opening series was a tip of the cap to the impact Hernandez has had. Peek likewise became one of his quarterback’s preferred targets. The Alabama offense seemed tailor-made for a traditional tight end, and Peek flourished after his transfer from Georgia Tech.

Preseason first-teamer D.J. Williams had a good season by tight end standards, but his chances to earn postseason honors were probably hurt by the performance of other Arkansas receivers like Greg Childs and Joe Adams. Williams had as many touchdowns as he had in 2008, but he had nearly half the receptions and yardage while battling a nagging ankle injury.

Receiver:

Preseason 1st Team: A.J. Green, Julio Jones
Preseason 2nd Team: Brandon LaFell, Dexter McCluster

Postseason 1st Team: Shay Hodge, A.J. Green
Postseason 2nd Team: Joe Adams, Riley Cooper, Brandon LaFell

Comments:

A.J. Green was good enough over the first half of the season that he managed only three receptions in November (due to missing the better part of four games due to various injuries) and still earned first team honors. Through the Florida game Green had at least three receptions per game and had no shortage of highlight-quality plays. Hodge meanwhile became the dependable and productive star of the Ole Miss offense. He might not have been as electrifying as McCluster, but you can’t ignore the SEC’s only 1,000 yard receiver.

The second-teamers are all solid choices. Adams was a big part of Mallett’s success. Cooper seemed headed for a future in baseball, but he returned for one more year with his roommate Tebow to lead the Gators in receiving yards and touchdowns. The LSU offense was unspectacular for much of the season, but LaFell remained one of the few bright spots.

As for Julio Jones, he didn’t have a disappointing season, but he was slowed by an injured ankle early in the season. He tallied only one touchdown and 175 yards through Alabama’s first seven games before coming to life with 7 receptions against Tennessee. He’s posted 398 yards and 3 TD in the final six games of the season. His highlight of the year had to be the short reception he turned into a 73-yard go-ahead touchdown against LSU. The play reminded everyone that, while his numbers might be down this year, Jones is still one of the most dangerous and explosive players in the SEC.

Offensive Line:

Preseason 1st Team: Ciron Black, Mike Johnson, John Jerry, Mike Pouncey, Maurkice Pouncey
Preseason 2nd Team: Clint Boling, Trinton Sturdivant, Lee Ziemba, Zipp Duncan, Josh McNeil

Postseason 1st Team: Mike Johnson, Ciron Black, Mike Pouncey, John Jerry, Maurkice Pouncey
Postseason 2nd Team: Clint Boling, Chris Scott, James Carpenter, Mitch Petrus, Ryan Pugh

Comments: I hope most honest fans would agree that line play is the toughest area to get a read on. There are few individual stats to compare other than the meaningless pancake block. So if the postseason first team is identical to the preseason line, I’ll take it.

Injuries cut into the preseason second team line. Sturdivant and McNeil were lost to knee injuries. Duncan and Ziemba didn’t have sub-par seasons; each received honorable mention on the postseason teams. Boling had another All-SEC season despite changing positions during the year for the second time due to injury elsewhere on the line.

Reuniting with Ron Franklin.

The defensive staff might not be the only change when we meet up for another season of Georgia football in 2010. The editors of the Athens Banner-Herald have put their support behind the idea of charging a fee to tailgate on North Campus as a response to the ongoing trash problem.

In general outline, setting up some sort of fee for tailgating access to North Campus, presumably through some sort of permit system, seems to be the most workable option.

To be clear, there is currently no plan to implement such a fee. It’s just an idea floated as a possible solution to the problem that received much negative media coverage during the 2009 season. President Adams stated last week that he would “recoil a little bit” from the idea of a tailgating fee.

A fee/permit/registration system would have the benefit not only of keeping numbers down; it would also, in theory, help to identify those leaving the mess behind. Of course in practice that would also mean that some poor schmuck who holds a tailgating permit would be on the hook for trash left in their designated spot by friends-of-friends or passers-by on the heavily-traveled route from downtown. There’s also the question whether those who dump trash on North Campus would simply move to another area of campus or the surrounding town. Is it less of a problem if a less-scenic part of campus ends up looking like a landfill?

While a fee would bring certain obligations and responsibilities by tailgaters, tailgaters should also expect something for their money. Better access to portable restrooms, even more trash containers and dumpsters, and even things like access to electricity should be considered.

The idea isn’t without precedent. Auburn has implemented a fee to tailgate at a certain area, and their experience would be worth studying if UGA considers the idea. It’s not an exact analogue – Auburn’s space is prime real estate next to the stadium and carries a price tag to match.

It’s official – the Dawgs are going to meet the 6-6 Texas A&M Aggies in the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl on Monday Dec. 28 at 5:00 ET.  The game will be televised on ESPN2.  Georgia is 1-3 all-time against the Aggies.  Georgia dropped the first three meetings – including a postseason loss in the 1950 Presidential Cup Bowl.  But the Dawgs took the most recent game – a 42-0 win in Athens in 1980.

If you wanted to find the least ideal opponent for a team that was short three defensive coaches, it would be a team that was near the top of a major conference and rated among the top 5 nationally in total offense.  That’s just what Georgia is getting in Texas A&M.  Through all games, the Aggies led the Big 12 in total offense and were third in scoring offense.  Isolating only conference games A&M was second in total offense and still third in scoring offense.  They got there primarily behind a rushing offense that was second-best in the league with 180 YPG, and they also averaged 245.4 YPG passing against Big 12 competition.

The Aggie running game is led by a duo of backs Christine Michael and Cyrus Gray.  The two have similar stats, but Michael leads the team in touchdowns and has been getting the bulk of the carries lately.  The running game is augmented by a mobile quarterback.  Jerrod Johnson is an efficient passer who torched Texas for 342 yards passing and 97 yards on the ground.  For the season Johnson has an impressive 455 net yards and 8 touchdowns rushing along with 28 TD through the air against just 6 INT. (By contrast, the Georgia record for passing touchdowns in a season is 25.) 

The Georgia defense and its hodgepodge of coaches will have a tough job first containing the triple running threat while paying attention to a diversified passing game that has seen nine Aggies (including both featured tailbacks) record at least 15 receptions during the season.  They convert third downs at nearly a 50% clip, thanks no doubt to Johnson’s ability to create.

There’s a silver lining of course and a reason why such a potent offense led to a 6-6 record.  The Aggies were the Big 12’s worst defense in terms of scoring defense and total defense.  They gave up over 460 YPG to conference opponents.  They were dead last in passing defense, and their rushing defense is also among the bottom quarter of the Big 12.  Against bowl-eligible Big 12 teams, the Aggies gave up an average of 42 PPG. 

As you might expect, that volatile combination of potent offense and toxic defense has led to A&M being on both sides of some lopsided scores.  They got blown out by Arkansas and Kansas State but rebounded to put up at least 35 points in wins over bowl-bound Texas Tech and Iowa State.  They followed those wins up by losing to a bad Colorado team and getting destroyed 65-10 by an Oklahoma squad that limped to a 7-5 record. 

Many saw A&M’s most recent outing – a 49-39 loss to Texas on Thanksgiving night.  The Aggies, led by Johnson’s incredible performance, kept pace with the #2 team in the nation but had their back broken by a 95-yard kickoff return.  The Aggies put up a prodigious 532 yards but allowed 597 (plus 186 return yards).

There are common opponents. Two weeks after losing to Georgia in Fayetteville, Arkansas put a 47-19 beating on Texas A&M at a neutral-site game in Dallas. Arkansas trailed after the first quarter but put up 23 points in the second quarter to break the game open.  The Hogs were able to move the ball on the ground as well as through the air, and their dominance of the game let Mallet have a relatively reserved 17-27-271 day with 4 TD passes.

The Aggies fared slightly better against Oklahoma State.  The Cowboys won by a close 36-31 margin in College Station. Georgia lost 24-10 in the season opener at Oklahoma State.

Georgia’s defense will have its work cut out, but the offense will be under pressure to put points on the board and keep the ball away from a potent Aggie attack.  The Dawgs led their conference in scoring (in conference games), but they’ve also done themselves in with turnovers. They’ll need the strong running game we saw at Georgia Tech to control the clock and keep the Aggie firepower on the bench.  There should also be opportunities in the passing game, and the return of A.J. Green could provide a big spark for Georgia.

“If the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech got together to compete in mumblety peg, it would draw a crowd and there would be lots of emotion displayed by the fans of both teams.”
– Andy Landers

All was right with the world when Georgia’s football team emerged with a win last Saturday night over Georgia Tech. The football Dawgs earned a good measure of payback for last season’s disappointing loss in Athens, and sitting back to watch the fallout this week has been extremely satisfying. What has Georgia done since 1980? Only beat the Tech football team 21 times.

Georgia has another program that’s experienced even more success than the football team against Tech, but that dominance has also been challenged recently. Andy Landers’ Lady Dogs won every one of the first 24 meetings in the series with Tech. But since 2002 Tech has won 3 of the 7 games against Georgia and emerged as a top 25 program that’s an annual participant in the NCAA Tournament. An ugly 57-42 beating at the hands of Tech last year in Atlanta was a harbinger of a disappointing season for the Lady Dogs.

The Lady Dogs look to be much improved this year, and they’ve already beaten a few teams that have spent some time in the rankings. Georgia has raced to a 7-0 start and are as high as #13 in the polls. The core of Houts, Robinson, and Phillips is as strong as expected, and freshman Jasmine James looks to be a significant upgrade at the shooting guard. Fellow freshman Ann Marie Armstrong is starting to click, and sophomore Meredith Mitchell has been a nice surprise so far in the backcourt.

But Tech has another quality team this year and have started 5-1 while hovering around the bottom of the top 25. They’ve just added back their best player – junior wing Alex Montgomery who had been recovering from a knee injury suffered at the end of last season. Montgomery’s return addresses Tech’s primary weakness: scoring from the perimeter. They’re able to generate a tremendous amount of offense out of turnovers and transition, but they can bog down in halfcourt. Montgomery gives them a legitimate scorer who can fill the basket outside or inside.

Sunday’s game against Tech (2:30 p.m., Stegeman Coliseum, CSS TV) will be a great test for both teams. These are both teams bound for the postseason, and Tech isn’t coming into these games anymore just hoping to be competitive. The Lady Dogs have a good bit of pride at stake after last year’s awful showing, and they have at least managed to defend the home court in the series with Tech.

If you’re still enjoying last Saturday’s payback win, come out to Stegeman on Sunday afternoon – at the risk of getting punched in the face – and help the Lady Dogs experience that same feeling.

I hope no one was seriously hung up on this idea, but it’s past time to come to grips with the fact that we’re not getting back together with the ex.

Congratulations to sophomore punter Drew Butler who earned AFCA All-American honors in his first year as Georgia’s punter.

1. You have someone in mind who’s the obvious choice to head up Georgia’s defense.
2. There’s someone else who thinks that would be a worse hire than Mike Locksley at New Mexico.

I’m not even going to bother with a list because there’s a good chance few will be familiar with the coordinator (and definitely the assistants) Georgia ends up hiring. Mark Richt hasn’t had to make a lot of staff changes, but I don’t recall seeing names like VanGorder or Jancek or Searels before they were brought on. The world of college football is a much bigger one than the same three or four names you’re seeing everywhere.

Well, it’s official. Mark Richt has announced that three defensive coaches – coordinator/DB coach Willie Martinez, linebackers coach John Jancek, and defensive ends coach Jon Fabris – will not return for the 2010 season.

“I cannot express enough my thanks to all three for their contributions to our program,” said Richt. “However, in the final analysis I’m charged with providing the leadership and direction for the Georgia program and sometimes that means making difficult decisions. This was one of them.”

I can’t say it was unexpected, but I question anyone who doesn’t respect the human angle to this story. It had to be excruciating for Mark Richt and it goes without saying that everyone from the coaches to their families to the student-athletes under their direction are in a very bad place today. The news is especially tough in the case of Martinez and Fabris. The case can be made against either professionally, but both men made key contributions to the elevation of the Georgia program during this decade, produced some incredibly successful units at their respective positions, and both were in Athens long enough to put down considerable roots.

It doesn’t escape notice that there was one defensive coach who will apparently be retained. Mark Richt made it a point to keep Rodney Garner when Richt took over the program at the end of 2000, and it seems as if Richt will again turn to Garner as a source of stability. The question is whether Garner is interested in serving in that same role this time. Garner continues to make no secret of his ambition to become a head coach (and we certainly don’t begrudge him his ambition). He’s courted offers from rival programs recently, and comments by Damon Evans over Garner’s lack of a contract don’t seem to indicate the best of working relationships. Garner might not be let go, but it remains to be seen whether Mark Richt will be looking to replace the entire defensive staff anyway.

One conclusion is that Garner might be promoted to defensive coordinator, but I doubt it. First, you’d expect that to be part of today’s announcement in order to minimize uncertainty about the future of the defense. It would also be tough to sell an internal promotion when the last one brought us to this point (twice, if you count Jancek’s offseason promotion to “co-coordinator”). Garner likely won’t even get a chance to be interim coordinator as all three departing coaches have been asked to remain on through the bowl game.

Now the tough part – getting the right people in place. There will be immediate comparisons to the disastrous changes made at Auburn and Tennessee that ended up bringing down the head coach. This is a slightly different situation – it’s not just a new coordinator being added to the staff. There will be the opportunity to assemble an almost entirely new defensive staff, and you’d expect that the new coordinator will have a say in the composition of the staff. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Georgia’s transition will be smooth or the new defense successful. There is risk involved, and we can’t get away from that. At the same time, this is a bigger task than just hiring that one coordinator. You’ve got to find (at least) three coaches who will work well together, work well with Richt, work well for Georgia, and do it while most candidates are preparing for their own postseason.

There’s also recruiting. Georgia already has a solid class with some quality defenders committed, and they’ve targeted a few more to close things out. Keeping the class as intact as possible has to be a priority. It’s unavoidable that those prospects will now get the full court press from Georgia’s recruiting competition. Garner could certainly have an impact on this situation if he decides to remain on the staff. It’s already started – key commitments like safety Alec Ogletree are already having to answer questions, but, at least in Ogletree’s case, the commitment seems firm.

PS…although today’s all about the defense, there are rumors about the other side of the ball. David Pollack tweeted within the past week about possible Texas interest in offensive line coach Stacy Searels. Searels was approached by Auburn during last offseason, but he chose to remain at Georgia. Hoepfully he’ll do so again.

David Hale mentioned this morning that Georgia quarterback Logan Gray would be moving to receiver. Though there’s been no official word about that, Georgia’s actions on the recruiting trail this week indicate a sudden interest in beefing up the depth chart at QB.

Georgia has offered scholarships this week to two quarterbacks: Devin Burns of Carver-Columbus and Hutson Mason of Lassiter. Hutson has been breaking state passing records this year and led his team to a perfect regular season and into the state playoffs.

One interesting side note is that Georgia has offered two scholarships this week to two players from Carver-Columbus, the high school whose coach banned Georgia earlier in the summer. Burns was at the center of that story. The ban itself didn’t last but a few days, and now it looks as if those fences have been mended.

ESPN’s Joe Schad tweets that Georgia defensive coordinator Willie Martinez will not be retained.