How about this performance by an offense:

212 total yards.
208 yards passing.
4 yards rushing (net of 35 gained, 31 lost).
2 fumbles, 1 lost.
2-11 on 3rd downs.
4 sacks surrendered.
5 drives of 3 plays or less.
Avg. starting position: own 29.
No drives started in opponent territory.

Sounds like they went up against pretty good defense, doesn’t it? That’s what Georgia was able to do to Arizona State in last year’s game at Tempe.

The defense isn’t magically going to turn it around, but something approximating last year’s effort shouldn’t be too much to ask especially since we’re back on home turf. Of course last year’s defense started out much stronger with a big outing at South Carolina and Arizona State before the wheels came off against Bama. Can this defense come up with anything close to what they were able to do in the last meeting?

It’s also worth noticing that Arizona State had to start every drive last year on their side of the field. Georgia had zero turnovers and didn’t allow any kickoffs back across the 50. The Dawgs, meanwhile, blocked a punt and recovered a fumble in opponent territory to put the game away in the 2nd quarter. More of that would be nice, too.

The big news would have been a decision to disrupt the tradition of the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville, but the UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors approved Damon Evans’ recommendation to negotiate for a continuation of the series at its current location through 2016.

The ABH also notes via its Twitter feed that “the team will begin flying direct from Athens to Jacksonville,” cutting out the bus trip to Atlanta and making the overall trip that much shorter.

In addition to the WLOCP news, funds were approved “to develop plans for two facility enhancement projects.” Both fit into a master plan outlined by the Athens Banner-Herald a year ago.

Basketball fans will be glad to hear that one of the projects was “a Stegeman Coliseum concourse renovation and expansion.” Anyone who’s been inside the Coliseum could tell you how badly this project is needed. The inside seating area has been addressed over the years and isn’t all that bad, but the concourse and entryway haven’t received much more than a coat of paint and new signage. The rationale behind the project is laid out well by PWD here – note the use of glass walls in the conceptual drawings that will widen and brighten up the concourses.

The project is also a sign that a tear-down or major renovation of Stegeman isn’t coming any time soon, but we knew that. This news follows through on Dennis Felton’s claims last year that “Damon Evans wants to renovate Stegeman sooner rather than later.”

The other project is “a project behind the north stands of Sanford Stadium that would provide a multi-function amenity supporting both the game day event and the campus on non-event days.” The idea of “Reed Alley” has been talked about for over seven years now, and it was part of the plans for the 600-level expansion of Sanford Stadium earlier this decade. The idea involves improving the area between the stadium and Reed Hall, using it as a wide pedestrian mall connecting East Campus Rd. and the Tate Center during the 359 days without football, and then using it as a wide open lower-level concourse on game days with vendors and such. The 600 level was built with this area in mind, and this project will be finishing off the vision.

Location of Reed Alley

The University is taking steps to address the North Campus trash problem, but it’s still going to come down to people doing the right thing:

The university plans to distribute 12,000 trash bags in parking lots and around campus this Saturday before the Georgia Bulldogs play host to the Arizona State Sun Devils in a 7 p.m. kickoff. Volunteers from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes will walk through tailgating areas distributing trash bags and encouraging tailgaters to bag their trash and deposit it in an appropriate receptacle. The number of disposable trash boxes on North Campus will be increased to 400 from the previous 250, and over the entire campus to 1,500 from the previous 1,200. Several large roll-off dumpsters will be placed strategically around campus for tailgaters to dispose of their bagged trash.

Additionally, the firm that contracts to clean the campus on Sundays following a football game – American Stadiums – will send crews on an initial sweep through North Campus during the first quarter of remaining games this season to pick up trash already collected and set aside by tailgaters.

The number of Port-a-Johns available on campus also will be increased, particularly in the North Campus area, which has been problematic.

Those are necessary and welcome actions – there really won’t be much excuse for people not to clean up after themselves. You can be certain that every media outlet is standing by to do a story on the state of campus come Sunday morning, and a lack of significant improvement will just bring more scrutiny and tighter restrictions.

The real test of these measures will come the following week when LSU visits. Fortunately that’s a 3:30 kickoff. Arizona State will be a decent first run, but it should be a lower-key tailgate than South Carolina or LSU especially if the predicted rain materializes this weekend.

Yes, it’s kind of late for postgame thoughts, and most everything has been said. We’ve been dealing with a little bit of rain over the past couple of days, but we’ll go ahead and wrap this up.

1: What kind of a weekend was it where a 10-point loss is a triumph, and a double-digit win by a road underdog leaves the victors grumbling?

2: Is everyone who was waiting for the Arkansas game to provide some clarity satisfied? What if, all along, the identity of this year’s Georgia team was there in the first two games? The only twist has been the health of Joe Cox in the opener. At this rate, I almost expect to head to Jacksonville and find at least one article proclaiming that now, finally, we’ll get a chance to see what this Georgia team is made of.

3: How many preseason assumptions have been shaken? Are the offensive line and defensive tackles the strengths they were supposed to be? Is Joe Cox able to do anything beyond the dreaded “manage the game”? Are the kicking woes sorted now after signing a Californian with a big leg?

4: Was anyone else surprised that Arkansas chose the field goal in the 4th quarter? The strategy was sound; it brought the game back to a one-possession defecit for the Razorbacks. Put the decision in the context of this post last week from the Senator. Petrino has a track record of not only going for it on 4th down but getting a fair number of his touchdowns on those attempts. Mallett, ridiculous whining about a late hit aside, had scrambled to put Arkansas in a 4th and 4 situation from the Georgia 6 with nearly 8 minutes left.

5: Was Miami or LSU the bigger beneficiary from the weekend’s biggest upsets? Miami, doing just fine on their own, looks even better after FSU’s drubbing of BYU. LSU’s struggles at Washington in the season opener raised a few eyebrows, but the Huskies handed Southern Cal the Trojans’ annual upset loss. Washington isn’t turning the clock back yet to 1991 (or even 2000), but a tough win over the Trojans makes a competitive showing against an SEC school seem like much less of a fluke or as big of a red flag for the Tigers.

6: How big were Richard Samuel and Caleb King in pass protection? It gets a little lost in the offense’s fireworks and the results they had carrying the ball, but several times the Georgia tailbacks stood their ground as the last line of defense for Joe Cox. The line, again, didn’t have its best day (and we’re not just talking penalties), but some big blocks from the running backs helped to ensure that Cox often had enough time to make his reads and throws.

7: Is “pooch kickoff specialist” now a scholarship position at Georgia?

8: Was there a more overblown play from the weekend than Eric Berry’s impact with Tim Tebow? Everyone else calls them “tackles”. It was the solid kind of hit you’d expect from an all-American safety. It wasn’t a decleater or anything that would leave Tebow or anyone else eating through a straw. From the reaction you’d have thought the collision produced antimatter, and the world can now enjoy free and limitless energy thanks to a T. Boone Pickens consortium founded to harvest the results of the play. Berry’s interception was a much tougher and more impressive play.

9: What did Georgia do differently on defense in the 4th quarter? It might’ve been an odd quirk that Arkansas was kept from scoring in the second quarter, but Mallett and the Arkansas offense in general were much less effective towards the end. Certainly Georgia had an advantage of an opponent in come-from-behind mode, and that meant even more passing. Whether it was the effect of Arkansas pressing, conditioning, or even Georgia being more battle-tested, the Dawgs were able to get more pressure. The sequence of Butler’s punt, a sack, and a three-and-out put Georgia in position to seal the win. We’ve seen plenty of examples, even from this game, of the offense, defense, and special teams combining for spectacular meltdowns. That set of events late in the game was an example of what can happen when it all goes right. It was a nice change and a great way to end the game.

10: Was that the upper bound for “Fluless Joe” Cox? TSK has some thoughts about Cox’s progression and concludes that the efficient performance against South Carolina is probably more in line with what we can expect from Cox. One thing that has helped Cox and the offense in general is the emergence of a diverse set of options beyond A.J. Green. Michael Moore has proven that his strong finish to 2008 was no fluke. King adds a speedy option to stretch defenses. Now the tight ends are getting in on the scoring. The backs aren’t as involved in the passing game, and there are depth concerns behind the trio of Green, Moore, and King, but those are quibbles at this point with what has become an effective passing game.

Joe Cox is in for one heck of a welcome from the home fans this weekend.

Arkansas got 38 of their 41 points in the 1st and 3rd quarters. They managed just a combined 3 points in the 2nd and 4th quarters. Is that depth? Conditioning? Dumb luck?

UGA President Michael Adams gave fans what amounted to a stern talking-to this morning and warned Bulldog fans to clean up after themselves in the wake of another trashed campus following Saturday’s game.

“There are other things we can do [if the situation doesn’t improve],” Adams said. “I don’t want to start arresting people or have a heavy police presence. We simply ask people to spend a little more time to maintain our campus.”

Adams’ warnings sound menacing, but “a heavy police presence” is already noted in everything from open container citations to parking enforcement. If UGA and Athens-Clarke County police are going to be so involved in those other areas of game day crowd control, why isn’t it appropriate to include them as part of a solution to a chronic littering problem on campus?

His plea is definitely called for and appropriate, and he’s correct that “the students and alumni of the university are demanding some changes in behavior.” Whether the problem is alumni, students, or nonstudents just coming to Athens for the party, the reaction of disgust this week has been pretty universal. But why shy away from enforcement on this issue with so many fans, students, and alumni in your corner?

Photo: AJC

“The star of the team is the team” might’ve been a useful approach to the offseason for Mark Richt, but reality is that every top-level team, Georgia included, has its standouts who come through and shine during the season. Stafford and Moreno might be gone, but the 2009 Dawgs are starting to show that they aren’t bereft of exciting playmakers.

The young talent on the team has definitely been given the chance to shine, and the emergence of the Brandon and Branden show on Saturday was a nice glimpse into the future. As Tim Tucker wrote, “Stars were born.”

“Around campus, people [are] asking for autographs and everything,” Smith said Tuesday. “It has been kind of weird.”

The fresh faces aren’t the only star power on the team. The South Carolina game was full of big plays and huge swings in the momentum, but Rennie Curran’s deflection on South Carolina’s final pass sealed the win. Plays don’t come much bigger, and Curran’s reaction and tip should rank right up there with Witherspoon versus LSU or even Hoage against Vanderbilt.

Georgia’s red zone defense made the difference in the game. Though they surrendered tons of yardage, the ability to hold South Carolina to field goals after the first quarter helped the Dawgs withstand several mistakes. Elsewhere on the field Georgia’s linebackers were often used to blitz to compensate for the lack of pass rush and left quite a bit of the middle of the field open. South Carolina exploited that opening all night. But after getting burned on a blitz for South Carolina’s second touchdown, the Bulldog defense began dropping its linebackers in the red zone, and the Gamecocks didn’t find the endzone again. Curran’s game-saving play saw the Dawgs rush only four and drop the linebackers into coverage, and Georgia’s defensive star was in position to make the play.

And speaking of stars, anyone who can levitate like this is in a galaxy occupied by few others…

Photo: Kelly Lambert/ABH

Blutarsky points to a Chip Towers’ post gathering the reaction of recruits to Georgia’s use of Branden Smith. When you add that kind of element to a team, you tend to find your way on the field quickly. If Smith’s jaw-dropping speed on his reverse did anything, it was to instantly answer the question “why the heck to they keep trotting him back out there?” Now we know.

Be sure to read the excerpt Blutarsky has up about how Smith was greeted when he got back to the bench after his costly fumble. It got Smith pumped up to make a big play when he saw the field again, but it also had an impact on a VIP recruit watching from the sideline.

Khairi Fortt is one of the nation’s top linebacker recruits and was on his official visit. UGASports.com has a great two-part interview with him following the visit, and he had this to say about Smith:

“I liked the fact that there was a freshman player on Saturday in Smith that fumbled the ball on the kickoff return. Normally you do something like that you get down on yourself, and you start thinking that coach is going to bench you. But actually Coach Richt put him back in there on offense, and he scored on a 61-yard reverse, and he also put him back out there on kickoff return. I liked the fact that he had faith in his players, even true freshman. At other schools if you make a mistake it cost you playing time,” said Fortt.

You kind of wish some people were charged much more for the privilege of parking and tailgating on campus after seeing these results. Disgusting and embarrassing.

Yesterday’s declaration that Joe Cox will start Saturday’s game was supposed to be the final word on rumors about Cox’s status, but Cox himself has now admitted to ESPN’s Joe Schad that Cox has an injured throwing shoulder.

The rumors about Logan Gray starting might’ve been shot down, but Cox’s health was always the key part of the story. And now, after countless dismissals and Mark Richt joking around about resting Cox during the week, we learn that there’s a legitimate injury story here.

Whether Cox is able to perform and is still the best option going forward is of course still in question and up to the coaching staff, but maybe now we can see that there was more than a shred of truth to the talk of getting Logan Gray ready to lead the #1 offense.

For many of us, the home opener is about getting back to Athens and reconnecting with the town, campus, and friends that make the whole experience much more than just a sporting event. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the campus and town continue to change between our visits, and there has definitely been some work done since the end of last season. As always, we recommend visiting the Gameday Gameplan site for specifics about enjoying Saturday in Athens, but here are a few of the highlights of some of the changes:

Tate Center Expansion

We mentioned this over the summer, but the opening of the Tate Center expansion will be a big change for the fans who like to gather and shop around the central campus in the shadow of the west side of Sanford Stadium. It will also make for a slightly different Dawg Walk, but more on that in a second.

In addition to being a boon for current students, the space added by the expansion will provide a lot more indoor space for fans on game days. The best part of the addition, at least from a fan’s point of view, might be the 24-foot projection TV screen in the third-floor lobby. Hang out there and watch other games or even the Georgia game if you don’t have a ticket. There’s also a parking deck underneath the structure, but that’s not an entirely new feature.

The new buildings and the loss of the open parking lot means that the corridor for the Dawg Walk will be a bit narrower than it’s been in recent years. One big plus of the new buildings is multiple levels from which to line the walkway and get a good look at the Dawg Walk. The expansion might even serve to shift the focus of the Walk from the original Tate Center back closer towards the Lumpkin Street end.

East Campus Construction

If you haven’t been on East Campus since last season, it’s quite a dramatic change. A new Greek Park has been opened along River Road not far from its terminus at East Campus Road around where the ATO house used to be. It currently houses four fraternities. Unfortunately the complex took out a lot of the older landscape of that part of campus to go along with the older house, so it’s a pretty stark place for now.

More construction is taking place further down River Rd. Buildings in the new Performing Arts Center have taken most of the open surface parking in that part of East Campus, and work is underway for a new parking deck to be located back behind the Performing Arts building. That deck is expected to be completed in November. There is still some surface parking available in the area, but it might not be as available or as accessible as you remember it.

Gameday Experience

Not much has changed this year with regards to campus tailgating regulations. It’s still the same 7 a.m. start time. One thing that caught my eye was a specific prohibition on “low country boils.” I remember deep fryers being prohibited, but the low country boil regulation is a new one I think. Apparently the boiling of water is something best left to the professionals. (Thank goodness we tailgate off-campus.)

One small change I noticed on the parking maps: the small North Campus lot behind Baldwin Hall was a hidden gem for several of my friends – a free lot close to the stadium. That lot is now controlled by the Athletic Association and will require a permit.

Perhaps overshadowed by the quarterback story, the Dawgs might have to shake things up on both sides of the ball due to injuries.

Contrary to reports earlier in the week, David Hale isn’t optimistic about Caleb King’s chances of playing on Saturday. It could come down to a game-time decision, but the coaches aren’t going to play him without some good practices this week. That window of opportunity is closing quickly.

Starting OLB Darius Dewberry is “doubtful” with a groin injury.

Trinton Sturdivant’s knee injury meant that a change was coming along the offensive line, but there will be an additional change up front. Vince Vance will take over for Sturdivant. He played a good bit on Saturday, and he also filled in for Sturdivant last year before his own season-ending injury. Hopefully Vance can finish out the season as the left tackle. In addition to Vance, guard Justin Anderson will start over Chris Davis. The move is more tactical than anything; Anderson’s larger size and brawn make him a better match against a large South Carolina defensive front.

It was also interesting to note that Tavarres King will start over Michael Moore. Mark Richt said on Sunday that “King earned himself some more playing time,” and it looks as if he’s earned a start.

Lots of “news” coming out of Athens this morning about Georgia’s quarterbacking situation. Best to just go down the list.

What we know:

• Logan Gray was seen working with the starters last night during the few practice periods observed by media.

The backstory:

• Rumors about Joe Cox dealing with a tired or “dead” arm surfaced last month. They weren’t helped by his performance in the season opener.

This morning’s developments:

• Anthony Dasher of UGASports.com (subscription required) expanded on his practice observation of watching Gray with the starters and reported that, according to sources, Gray “took all the snaps with the No. 1 unit Wednesday”.
• Dasher never claimed that Gray has been named the starter but concluded that Gray “could start Saturday’s game.” Dasher cited a source who says, “That’s the way it looks now.”

Muddy Waters

• David Hale followed up and reports that “Joe still took the vast majority of the first-team reps (on Wednesday).” Hale has also spoken with “multiple players who told (him) that (Gray taking all of the snaps) isn’t true.”
• Buck Belue chimed in on 680 AM in Atlanta to speculate that Cox is simply being rested during the week but will start.
• ESPN’s Joe Schad countered that “Georgia is likely to start” Gray. We don’t know if his source is Dasher or someone inside the program.

Got all that? The misinformation can’t be all bad in terms of what South Carolina has to prepare for. At the same time, you don’t waste valuable practice time on a smokescreen. If Gray was working with the starters above and beyond the usual time given to the backup, it was for a reason. If Belue is right and Cox is missing practice time to rest his shoulder, that’s not a positive angle to this story considering the problems in execution that plagued the offense last week. If Cox is going to start and play most of the game, the offense needs all of the practice time with him it can get.

Regardless, Hale notes that “we’ll find out for sure when we meet with Mark Richt around 4 p.m. today.” That should be fun.

UPDATE: Steve Patterson, publisher of UGASports.com, posted that UGA Sports Information released a statement saying that “Joe will be the starter Saturday.”

There’s enough blood in the water after a disappointing loss, and it’s easy to panic over the perception of a program in disarray that makes for good column and sports talk fodder. The coaches (and even the players to some degree) seem fine with chalking a lot of problems up to execution, but getting the coaches on the same page, even in analysis after the fact, has been a story that won’t go away.

It wasn’t just the first start in three years for Joe Cox or the debut of Branden Smith; it was also the first game in which Tony Ball served as Georgia’s receivers coach. Not much went well for the offense, but Ball in particular seemed to have a rough go of it. Georgia struggled to get production through the passing game, and leaving two promising receivers on the bench for the entire game didn’t help matters.

“Coach (Tony) Ball’s in the box and he didn’t have direct contact with us,” (Michael) Moore said of Georgia’s receivers coach. “He kind of didn’t realize that until the end of the game. … We didn’t know what the rotation was going to be and we ended up sticking with basically three guys.”

“He said the game was moving so fast and he was trying to find out what plays worked and what didn’t work, and he said he just forgot, it slipped his mind,” (Marlon) Brown said.

It should be pointed out that this isn’t Ball’s first rodeo as a receivers coach. He’s had the job at before at a major program (Virginia Tech). Position coaches at Georgia have a lot of freedom to set their rotations. It’s possible that Virginia Tech handled things differently when Ball was there. Still, it was an embarrassing oversight, and I don’t blame the players for bewilderment over the news that a position coach with only six scholarship players available forgot about two of them.

This isn’t just Ball’s failure though. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo is sitting right next to Ball in the booth. With playcalling resting with Bobo and position coaches deciding on their own rotations, an experienced coach of offense like Mark Richt should be able to have a better big picture view of the offense and speak up when those in the booth get bogged down in the details.

I’m not the first to raise the communication issue, but it goes beyond getting a couple of freshmen on the field. Take another example from the game. Oklahoma State DB Perrish Cox, who was assigned to A.J. Green most of the day, was out of action for a series or two. Many fans noticed it, and the broadcast team did too. Georgia didn’t do much, if anything, to test that side of the field. It makes sense now – if Georgia’s coaches in the box didn’t have a good grip on their own personnel, how could they ever note the absence of a key defender and come up with a plan to test a possible weakness?

From player rotation to playcalling and even down to the approach to kickoffs, Richt delegates and yields to his assistants. That’s not necessarily a bad thing of course; you hope to hire a staff of professionals with the experience and skills to do their jobs, and the head coach cannot hope to micromanage every aspect of the program and game plan. I don’t mean to suggest that Richt is well down the Bobby Bowden path to oblivion. This is still his team though, and it does seem that some of the pieces are disjointed. We joke about Evil Richt and his various personalities…right now, the team could use a good kick from Assertive Richt.

For all of the offseason talk about how different things were going to be, Georgia’s flaws against Oklahoma State seemed all too familiar. After a season in which miscues by Georgia’s offense and special teams led to an average of nearly 10 points per game, Bulldog turnovers and poor coverage led to 17 of Oklahoma State’s 24 points.

Unfortunately the Bulldogs don’t seem to have the offense to overcome such charity. Joe Cox, flu or not, had a very inauspicious debut and helped a ragtag defense under a first year coordinator turn into the big story of the game.

Now the big question entering the SEC opener: do you chalk this up to the flu (if so, where was Gray?), or are there systemic problems with an offense that managed but a 53-yard field goal after its opening drive? For the leadership and poise that Cox was supposed to bring to the offense, he showed little of either.