Georgia might be at the top of several preseason national polls, but the SEC media says that the Bulldogs aren’t even the best team in their own conference.

Florida was the media’s pick for SEC champion, getting 36 of 70 votes. Georgia was the projected SEC champion on only 18 ballots. Florida’s advantage was even greater when it came to picking the SEC East champion: 45 ballots picked Florida while 23 named Georgia. Tennessee was a distant third with two votes.

Auburn was the overwhelming favorite to win the SEC West with 48 votes.

As Marc Weiszer notes though, Georgia fans might not mind so much that the media have anointed the Gators.

The SEC preseason poll hasn’t usually been a good barometer. Until LSU won last year, the media swung and missed in the previous 11 years on their pick. Only three times in the past 16 years has the favorite won the SEC title.

What I want to know is who the one media member was who picked Ole Miss to win the SEC. Whether that’s an honest mistake or a cute Spurrier-voting-for-Duke gag, some public ridicule is in order.

Back in April, I mentioned the upcoming book Top Dawg: Mark Richt and the Revival of Georgia Football written by accomplished author and Georgia fan Rob Suggs. (Pre-order the book here…it should be out soon.)

Rob has started a blog in support of the book, and he dives in by talking about the book’s first chapter – the 2001 Tennessee game. Head over to read a great entry and add your own memories from the game.

Somehow I think this book will be just slightly better than Urban’s love letter to himself.

Both of Georgia’s 2009 quarterback commitments, Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger, got some big-time recognition at the end of the Elite 11 national quarterback camp.

Camp “counselors” that included Matthew Stafford, Chase Daniel, Mark Sanchez, and Colt McCoy named Murray the camp’s MVP. Leadership is a crucial trait for a successful quarterback, and Georgia fans have got to love that Murray also picked up the camp’s Best Leader award.

Mettenberger wasn’t left out of the awards. He took home the Strongest Arm honors, and Georgia coaches have to be excited about having yet another big thrower to work with.

But Murray stole the show, and for the second time in a week he has gone against the best quarterbacks in the nation and came out on top. The guy even plays video games better than anyone else. Here’s just a little of what people were saying:

“He has it all,” Elite 11 QB coach Tee Martin, a former standout at Tennessee and quarterback with the Steelers, told ESPN.com. “He needs to continue to work on playing under center and taking his drops. We’ve been working with him on making faster decisions and he has improved a lot there. He’s just a very gifted player.”

“As soon as I saw him last week at the Nike thing I was like, man, this school from Florida is going to win it all because of the quarterback,” said (Bengals WR T.J.) Houshmandzadeh.

Via Anthony Dasher of UGASports.com, Mark Richt announced this morning that neither Justin Anderson nor Trinton Sturdivant will miss any game time for their offseason simple battery arrests. Richt mentioned that in-house punishment was possible (i.e., a whole lotta running), but they will be in the lineup for Georgia Southern.

Given the news and what the media wants to focus on these past few days, this calls for…wait for it….

Yep.

Yes, it’s all QB, all the time here this week.

Aaron Murray isn’t just tearing up the national camps on the field, he’s even mastered the electronic version of the game. Murray won the highly-competitive EA SPORTS NCAA 2009 videogame tournament, and he had to knock off a future teammate to do it.

Mettenberger’s status as a favorite was short-lived, however, as his similarly Georgia-bound roommate Aaron Murray scored a huge upset in the first round, knocking off his confident confidante 27-24. It was the start of just another winning effort for Murray, who took eventually took home the NCAA 09 title with three more victories, just four days after leading his Tampa Plant team to victory in the NIKE 7ON championship in Portland, Oregon.

Best part: Murray, playing with the Georgia team, beat Richard Brehaut’s Florida squad in the championship round.

Aaron Murray has been all over the news this week with some standout performances at two major national prep events. Kirk Herbstreit gushed over Matthew Stafford yesterday at the Elite 11 camp. It’s a good time to be a Georgia quarterback.

Greene and Shockley proved to be a productive and popular tandem, but they might end up being the opening act for an unparalleled level of quarterback talent at Georgia. With Moreno, King, Samuel, and others Georgia’s traditional strength at tailback is as solid as ever, but now the quarterback position looks to be just as deep and talented. At the very least, Georgia might soon have its first first-round draft pick at QB since Johnny Rauch in 1949.

Whenever a high-profile position gets loaded with talent, the depth chart always generates a lot of interest. Who plays, who sits, and – sometimes – who transfers? That will certainly be the case at the key position of quarterback. Stafford is set as the starter for as long as he’s in Athens and healthy, but at some point in the next two years we will once again be looking for a new starter.

The big wildcard of course is Matthew Stafford’s senior season. Does he stay or does he go? His name is all over the mock drafts, and Herbstreit isn’t the first to consider Stafford first round talent. On the other hand, Georgia’s accomplishments and Stafford’s stats in 2008 will have a lot to do with his potential draft position. He’ll have to put up better numbers as a junior of course, but it’s not out of reach. JaMarcus Russell became a top draft pick by throwing for nearly 2,800 yards, 26 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions as a junior. Stafford threw for 2,523 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions last year. A few more touchdowns, a bit more protective of the ball, and he’s right there.

It’s impossible to know Stafford’s decision at this point, so we’ll look at the question from both possibilities.

If Stafford Stays

If Stafford returns for his senior season, the 2009 season is taken care of. The only questions will be further down the depth chart. With two seniors and a legitimate redshirt sophomore on the depth chart, it seems a near certainty that the two incoming 2009 freshmen quarterbacks would redshirt.

Things would become more interesting in 2010. Stafford and Cox would have moved on, and the contenders for the position would be:

• Logan Gray (RJr.)
• Aaron Murray (RFr.)
• Zach Mettenberger (RFr.)

Gray would seem to have the advantage. He’d have seen at least limited action in 2008 and 2009, and the other two would be coming off of redshirt seasons and have only scrimmage experience.

If Stafford Declares for the NFL Draft

A quarterback competition in 2009 would involve the same three guys with one key addition.

• Joe Cox (RSr.)
• Logan Gray (RSo.)
• Aaron Murray (Fr.)
• Zach Mettenberger (Fr.)

At first glance, it almost seems like 2006 all over again. You have a career backup who suddenly rises to the top of the depth chart as a senior. Fans, perpetually attracted to that new recruit smell, will be likely more interested to see a pair of promising freshmen.

But I suspect that Joe Cox would do more to hold on to the job than Tereshinski did in 2006. The presence of Gray also complicates things, and it’s possible then that at least one of the true freshmen would redshirt. If you asked the Georgia fans who pay attention to these things, I suspect most would expect Gray to win the job if only on the basis of what they remember from G-Day. I would just hope that the situation doesn’t mirror 2006 in that the position is unsettled – to the detriment of the team – into the middle of the season. The depth chart at the end of the 2008 season will at least tell us who the favorite is going into spring.

The "cleanest" scenario seems to be if Stafford stays for his senior year. Gray would be ready to step in as a redshirt junior, and Murray and Mettenberger would continue to develop until their turn to fight it out as juniors. It might seem absurd to think that we’d have to wait until 2012 to see a quarterback as promising as Murray take the reigns, but isn’t that preferred to having to turn to a new freshman every four years or so? We value depth and the ability to turn over experienced players every few years at positions on the offensive and defensive lines, and Mark Richt looks to be setting up the quarterback position to do the same.

We mentioned Aaron Murray’s impressive outing at the Nike 7-on-7 event last weekend, and now Murray’s on to the Elite 11 QB camp. He’s keeping a journal for his hometown paper, so this should be something to watch during the week.

Murray notes today that he especially enjoyed working with Georgia quarterback and possible 2009 teammate Matthew Stafford.

…it’s unbelievable to be working out with [Georgia quarterback Matt Stafford]. He gave me pointers. I was in his group today and he was pointing little things out to me throughout the day and helping me out. If we were running a route, he would say “this is what we call it at Georgia.” He was very, very helpful today.

Other instructors include Chase Daniel from Missouri, Colt McCoy from Texas, Curtis Painter from Purdue, Bobby Reid from Texas Southern(formerly of Oklahoma State of course), and Mark Sanchez from SoCal.

With only three members on the 2007 postseason All-SEC teams, Georgia might have been one of the most anonymous teams in recent memory to finish the season ranked #2 in the nation.

The 2008 preseason All-SEC teams have been announced. Georgia might start the season ranked #1 in the nation by many polls, but according to the SEC coaches the Bulldogs are just third-best in the SEC when it comes to All-SEC selections. Nine Bulldogs received some mention, trailing defending champion LSU’s 14 and Florida’s 10. Here are Georgia’s selections:

First Team

• So. RB Knowshon Moreno
• Sr. LB Dannell Ellerbe

Second Team

• Sr. WR Mohamed Massaquoi
• Jr. QB Matthew Stafford
• Jr. DT Geno Atkins
• Jr. CB Asher Allen

Third Team

• Sr. DT Jeff Owens
• So. LB Rennie Curran
• Sr. P Brian Mimbs

It’s interesting that not even Trinton Sturdivant made the list from Georgia’s accomplished 2007 offensive line. Only three of the selections were from the offense, so are the coaches hinting that Georgia’s strength is once again on the defense?

Last season no Georgia player named to the preseason team made it onto the postseason team. I doubt that scenario will play out again this year. Brandon Coutu and Brandon Miller were Georgia’s only 2007 preseason All-SEC picks, and Georgia was the only SEC team without a preseason first team member last year. The season turned out pretty well regardless.

Aaron Murray might not see game action at Sanford Stadium until 2010, but recruitniks are buzzing today about an ESPN report from the past weekend’s Nike 7-on-7 event. Though neither has played his senior season in high school yet, the event offered an opportunity to compare Georgia commitment Aaron Murray with Southern Cal pledge Matt Barkley. Though both Rivals.com and Scout.com rate Barkley as the top overall prospect in the nation, Murray showed out just as well.

To sum up the scout on Murray: shorter than you’d like, but an “explosive” release with great speed and footwork. Throws hard, takes risks (sometimes too many risks). Needs work on his mechanics.

Bonus: Georgia’s other quarterback commitment, Zach Mettenberger, gets a nod for his arm strength.

Phillip Daniels is relatively anonymous among Bulldogs in the NFL. Most run-of-the-mill Georgia fans could list Ward, Seymour, Champ Bailey, Thomas Davis, and several others, but by now most of us have forgotten that Daniels, himself from a relatively anonymous time in Georgia football history, has been a 12+ year veteran of the NFL. He is well-respected around the league -especially for his workout routine and upper-body strength, and his 59 career sacks rank 17th among active players.

Daniels suffered a season-ending knee injury on the first day of summer camp for the Washington Redskins. At the age of 35 and his speed already waning, you have to wonder if he can come back from this. There’s only speculation now, and there’s still surgery and rehab ahead. Even if Daniels has played his last down, he’s had a full and successful professional career.

On a related note, another Bulldog, Demetric Evans, stepped in at Daniels’ spot in the drill.

Linebacker Derrick White was the Michael Lemon of the 2005 season. Just months after a bar fight earned White a suspension, he was arrested for DUI and dismissed from the Georgia team. White finished his college career at Clark Atlanta.

Fortunately the rest of the story is mostly positive for Derrick. Marc Weiszer points to a feature on White that tracks his progress in arena football and, more importantly, the turnaround in his life.

White is now married and a key defensive member of the AIFA’s Mississippi MudCats. He has also spent some time in the Arena League. He’s now focused on “setting a good example, being a good teammate and putting himself in a position to leave every game with no regrets.” That’s quite a turnaround for someone who was described by Coach Richt as having “a past history of behavior that does not represent (Georgia’s) program in the proper way.”

Not surprisingly, White speaks well of Richt.

The release of NCAA 2009 has lots of people excited, and it’s no surprise that the guys around whom the game is built are among those lining up to buy the game. When you think about it for a second, it’s at once flattering and bizarre that your identity could be boiled down to a few numerical ratings and controlled by thousands of couch potatoes across the nation.

Marc Weiszer talked to some of the Georgia players about the game and Georgia’s #1 ranking in the game. Coach Garner says thank-you-very-much for the recruiting edge of being the #1-ranked team and notes, “Anything like that with today’s kids, they’re all about electronics and the games.” It can’t hurt that every prep tailback can choose to be #24 in a black jersey for the nation’s #1 team.

I love reading the comments from the players when they see how they translate to bits and bytes. You’ll have freshmen and reserves tweak their ratings to make sure they’re in the starting lineup. It’s a very serious and hilarious business. There’s always bound to be this poor guy:

Linebacker Rennie Curran isn’t thrilled about one aspect of the game. He says they left out No. 35, which just happens to be his number.
“I think they messed up with my number,” Curran said.
Ellerbe knows the feeling.
“I got shafted last year,” he said. “They gave me Akeem Hebron’s number.”

I feel Dannell Ellerbe’s pain about needing a new system. “I’m probably going to go buy the Playstation 3 just so I can play the game on Playstation 3,” he said. The game isn’t available for my ancient X-Box, so I’m going to have to upgrade the hardware myself.

The shockingly high ticket cutoffs announced yesterday led many in message board land to ask the obvious question: is it time to expand Sanford Stadium?

There seem to be no immediate official plans to increase capacity. Ticket manager Tim Cearley told UGASports.com, "I have seen no mention or plans for a stadium expansion. I have not been given any indication from the Development Office that there is a plan or study for doing so."

That doesn’t mean we can’t kick the idea around. It’s a discussion worth having. You’ll see below that my view on expansion is generally negative in the "do you realize what it will take to do this?" sense. Any expansion worth considering will likely be the single most expensive undertaking in the athletic department’s history. It would also place significant additional stresses on the campus and city of Athens. Those concerns don’t mean that there aren’t solutions, and we might even be willing to live with some of the discomforts.

Pros

• Revenue. At $40 per game, adding 5,000 seats means $1,200,000 in revenue over a six-game home schedule. That’s before any additional Hartman Fund contributions to secure the right to buy those tickets. The costs of expansion will be great, and it will take some time to recover those costs, but eventually an expansion should become a revenue generator if demand remains high.
• Status. Sanford Stadium still trails only Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium among SEC schools in terms of capacity, but the neighborhood has become a bit crowded lately with recent expansions at Alabama and LSU. Would an expansion make Georgia the largest stadium in the SEC or the nation? Likely not. But it might get Sanford close to 100,000 seats. This might seem like a silly point, but college football – especially in the South – is all about the big. Coaches salaries are big. Even mundane facilities like offices and weight rooms are now caught up in the arms race. Bigger is better, and that applies to the stadium as much as anything else.
• Accessibility. With a point total of over 10,000 necessary for first-time season tickets, most recent alumni won’t sniff season tickets for years. Alums from my era in the early 1990s never had this problem (there were even such things as non-renewable season tickets!), but Georgia football is now accessible to fewer young alums and families. There’s no right to watch Georgia football in person, but you hate to turn away fans who want to support the program and start their own traditions of bringing their families to Athens for game day.
• Fixing what’s broke. I’ll bring this up again in the cons, but expansion will force improvements in existing areas of the stadium such as concessions, entry gates, and concourses. These areas need work even at the current capacity.
• The view is changing anyway. Almost everyone speaks wistfully of the view out of the open end of the stadium whenever expansion comes up. It isn’t special because of what you see (I mean, is Baxter Hill really that scenic?), but the sense of open space is what makes it work. Between the Student Learning Center and work going on around the Tate Center expansion, that view is changing on its own. If, as planned, a mirror of the SLC is built on the southeast corner of Baxter and Lumpkin, you’ll be looking at a lot of brick.

Cons

• Additional costs. Whether Sanford Stadium is expanded by filling in the west (bridge) end zone or extending the Tech Deck around to the east, there will be some very expensive consequences. Either option will require rerouting or tunneling a main campus artery. Construction on the east side would also have to deal with an active rail line. Construction on the west side would affect not only the bridge but also the Tate Center and the improvements currently underway for Tate 2. This extra work before actual stadium work begins will add significantly to the cost of the project.
• Parking. As recently as ten years ago, free parking was the norm on game day. One could park as close as the corner of Baxter and Lumpkin for no cost. The combination of campus construction, stadium expansion, and the expansion of Athletic Association-controlled lots has put a price tag on much of the parking on and close to campus. Free parking remains in nooks and on the campus’s southeastern fringes.
• Finances. Though the Athletic Association continues to operate in the black and bring in record revenues, it still carries close to $90 million in long-term debt. The last major expansion in 2003 cost $21 million, and it didn’t involve much of the extra work that the next expansion would. Would the fiscally conservative athletic department be willing to take on that additional debt with other projects like the Butts-Mehre expansion still ahead?
• Campus concerns. The state of campus after big games has drawn the attention of President Adams and other campus leaders. Their suggestions and proposals for dealing with a trashed campus have only added to the friction between Adams and the football fan base. Will the University administration be receptive to adding several thousand more fans onto crowded streets and a crowded campus?
• Stadium bottlenecks. The Gate 6 improvements showed how much has to be done around the rest of the stadium. Concession and bathroom lines are long, concourses are narrow and cramped, and it can take a while to get through the gate if you arrive close to game time. Those are problems that would have to be addressed before another major expansion.
• Tickets can still be had. The record-high cutoffs have led to a bit of overreaction, and I admit I contribute to that above by implying that Georgia football is somehow accessible to all but the loyal and the wealthy. That’s not really the case. Half of Georgia’s home games each year are more or less throwaways. Tickets for Georgia Southern, Central Michigan, and Vanderbilt will be easily available on game day and you’re almost certain to pay less than face value. Tickets for the other home games will be a little more difficult to come by, but they can still be had even if you have to use a broker like StubHub. The same applies to road games. If a $10,000 donation is too rich for your blood, I would be willing to bet that you could get into every regular season Georgia football game – home and away – this season for less than $1,000. If all you want to do is see a few games at Sanford Stadium with your kids, you can do it and pay less than face value for the tickets if you aren’t picky about the games.
• Demand is cyclical. Paul is right on. Times are good now, and they’ll be that way for the short term (wait til you see next year’s home schedule!). But reality is that it won’t be that way forever. Demand for Georgia football will probably always be strong, but the peaks will ebb and flow. Planning for stadium capacity according to those peaks will end up leaving a lot of excess capacity. If you don’t believe me, look at the stands during the second half of the season opener.

What do you think? Is expansion inevitable? Is Sanford at ts optimal size? Are the parking problems and other concerns exaggerated? Is preserving the view and aesthetics of the stadium overrated? Are there other considerations or benefits everyone else is overlooking?

The football equivalent of the rubber chicken circuit is underway – the Bulldog Road Tour kicked into high gear last night in Jacksonville. The recaps will be so full of fluff and baby pictures that they’re hardly worth mentioning, and Richt isn’t the kind to throw out the red meat quotes that get attention. Still, it’s a summer rite and a sign that practice isn’t far away.

Upcoming Road Tour Dates:

July 16th – Valdosta (Valdosta Conference Center)
July 17th – Macon (Macon Centreplex)
July 28th – Greater Atlanta (Cobb Galleria Centre)
July 29th – Columbus (Columbus Convention and Trade Center)
July 31st – Chattanooga (The Colonnade)

Ticket cutoffs are out, and it’s not pretty.

The report yesterday about first-time orders was true. A cumulative score of 10,651 points was necessary to become a new renewable season ticket holder. Additionally, we learn today that improving seat location took in the neighborhood of 20,000 points.

The reason for the high cutoff is simple scarcity. With the hype building for the 2008 season, all but 800 out of 53,000 season tickets (98.5%) were renewed. On top of that scarcity, many renewing season ticket holders sought to add seats up to the maximum allowed by their donation. Ticket manager Tim Cearley provided additional details to UGASports.com:

Of (the 800 available season tickets) only 698 were in pairs or groups as the other seats were scattered throughout the stadium by themselves. This is a continuation of a trend seen over the last few years as seat turnover has gone down from 1000 tickets in 2006 to 900 in 2007 and now down to 800 this year. With the season’s expectations being so high, many new contributors were trying to get tickets and many current donors were trying to add seats.

Point levels for away game tickets were also announced, and they are predictably steep. This is the first season where all games come with a cutoff. Usually UGA can fill all orders for a game like Vandy or Kentucky, but tickets for Georgia’s 2008 trip to Lexington will require a cutoff on par with Florida tickets.

• South Carolina – 22,000 points
• Arizona State – 27,007 points
• LSU – 30,415 points
• Florida Club 42,500 points
• Florida – 8,460 points
• Auburn – 25,850 points
• Kentucky – 8,405 points

UGASports.com also shares how the 92,000+ tickets are distributed within Sanford Stadium.

• 53,000: Season tickets
• 18,000: Students
• 10,000: Opponents*
• 4,000: Faculty/staff
• 1,000: Sponsors
• Remainder: Athletic department use – recruiting, player’s families, etc. Each player can request four tickets.

* – They say that 10,000 tickets are reserved for opponents, but we know that figure can vary based on reciprocity. Some schools probably get more and some surely get fewer than 10,000 based on how many tickets they make available for Georgia fans.

The numbers get a little fuzzy towards the bottom. If you do the math, that’s around 6,000 tickets available for the football team, and that seems like a lot even accounting for recruits, players, and families.

Anyway, read the whole thing. There are some very interesting insights into the ticketing process, information on when and how tickets will be mailed, and also a discussion about Sanford expansion.