According to an unconfirmed report on the DawgVent this afternoon, the Hartman Fund cut-off for first-time season ticket orders was 10,651.
If you are renewing your season tickets, this cut-off doesn’t apply to you. But for recent alums, your first-time season ticket application will be refunded if it didn’t come with a donation of over 10 grand.
Official cut-offs for season tickets and road games should be out later this week. This is the price of success, my friends.
But for those who will receive refunds, this isn’t necessarily bad news or the end of your chances of watching Georgia football in person. Tickets will be easy to come by for half of Georgia’s home games. Georgia Southern, Central Michigan, and Vandy tickets should be floating around on game day at less than face value. And for the rest (Alabama, Tennessee, Tech), you should be able to find tickets for a premium, yes, but I doubt your total would go over a few hundred bucks for those three games. Contrast that with a $10,651 donation on top of the cost of a ticket, and those who are forced to take the scalper route should come out well ahead.
If obtaining season tickets down the road is a priority but the one-time donation is too rich for your blood, contribute at whatever amount is comfortable and scalp your way in for a few years. Either your total will catch up to the cut-off, or the cut-off will drop if there’s a decrease in demand down the road.
I can’t say it’s a surprise: Michael Lemon is off the team. He had been suspended indefinitely while facing a felony aggravated battery charge, and Coach Richt took the extra step to dismiss Lemon over the weekend.
“He’s been dismissed as a result of some poor decisions and conduct that is not in line with standards we have in place at Georgia,” said Richt. “I have had discussions with Michael and he understands the decision.”
Richt isn’t one to close doors, and he left open the (ever-so-slight) possibility of Lemon returning to the team.
“(Lemon) expressed a desire to find a path back to the team at some point but that’s a decision that will depend on several factors and will come at a later date.”
Whether “several factors” means a year away somewhere else and a favorable resolution to the criminal charges, I don’t know. If the University expels Lemon, it’s a moot point. I doubt we’ll see him back in a Georgia uniform for quite a while, if at all. But, pending the outcome of the criminal charges, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Coach Richt is working to help Lemon find as soft of a landing as possible.
Georgia’s starting cornerbacks are juniors, so developing the depth at the position is on the to-do list for the 2009 recruiting class. UGASports.com reports that Jordan Love, a 6’0″ cornerback from Virginia, made his commitment public today and became Georgia’s 12th pledge for the upcoming class.
According to UGASports.com, Georgia coaches offered Love after viewing a single workout back in the spring. Love had 22 offers, but his top three became Georgia, Florida, and Penn State. A visit to Athens in early June put the Dawgs over the top, and he’s spent the past few weeks thinking things over.
With Love on board, you’d have to think that Atlanta’s Branden Smith would be the top remaining target at cornerback.
David Greene had plenty of accomplishments at Georgia, but his NCAA-record
42 wins as the starting quarterback is probably the most impressive. Sure, it’s
ultimately a team accomplishment, but quarterbacks usually end up – deserved
or not – with exaggerated credit for wins and blame for losses.
Getting to 42 wins is tough. First you have to be in a program strong enough
and consistent enough to win over 10 games per season over your career. That
eliminates most people right there. But most programs that strong rarely have
to go into game one with a freshman at such a key position as quarterback. Tim
Tebow didn’t start until his sophomore season. Peyton Manning started his freshman
year at #3 on the depth chart until injuries cleared the path.
Greene’s record took not only the good fortune to be here during one of Georgia’s
best runs in program history; it also took the unusual opportunity to start
out of the gate and hold the job for four seasons. Let’s not forget that he
also took plenty of beatings and stayed healthy. The combination produced a
career for the record books.
When it took nearly half a season to establish Matthew Stafford as Georgia’s
starter, Greene’s record appeared safe. But after a successful 2007 season and
some promising years ahead, it’s now a somewhat realistic question: could Stafford
break Greene’s career wins record?
The numbers tell us that it’s theoretically possible, but it would take consecutive
seasons on the level of 1980 and 1981 to do it.
Greene’s record is 42 wins. Stafford currently has 17 as a starter. There are
28 possible games for Georgia over the next two seasons (including possible
SEC Championship games and bowl games). To tie Greene’s record, Stafford would
have to start in 25 more wins. That could be a perfect 14-0 season and another
11-2 year, a 12-2 season followed by a 13-1 campaign, or any other combination.
The feat seems nearly impossible without winning SEC titles and major bowl games.
Of course back-to-back 14-0 seasons would put Stafford at 45 wins and shatter
Greene’s record. And the rapture will come and take us all.
The catch is that an ultra-successful 2008 would likely make Stafford a prime
NFL draft candidate. If Georgia wins 13 or 14 games in 2008 to put Stafford
within striking distance of the record, does he stick around?
So what do you think? Your answer has a lot to do with how high you see Georgia’s
ceiling over the next couple of years. With "only" ten wins per year,
Stafford won’t even sniff the record. Does he even break 40 wins as a starter?
Georgia would have to win more than 11 games in each of the next two seasons
just to get Stafford to 40 wins. Does he come up just short of Greene? Or do
the Dawgs have their most successful consecutive seasons ever and push Stafford
to the 42-win mark?
Offseason attrition continues for the Georgia basketball program. Freshman forward Jeremy Jacob will leave the program and transfer. (Note that this is not Jeremy Price. Price was a regular starter on the frontcourt.) Jacob was injured early in the season and did not play in any SEC games. His injury qualified him for a medical redshirt, and he will have all four years of eligibility remaining.
If you want to stretch for a silver lining, it’s this: Jacob apparently doesn’t see much of a future for himself at Georgia. “Jeremy has expressed an interest in playing for a program where he can play a more prominent role than he believes he will play at Georgia,” said coach Dennis Felton. That’s a somewhat positive statement about the rest of frontcourt talent if playing time really is Jacob’s motivation. Still, he was a talented prep player and at least was going to provide some depth.
If a guy wants to leave, he wants to leave, and you can’t put this or Billy Humphrey’s DUI arrest on Felton. But the guy just can’t escape this kind of bad luck when it comes to his roster. Losing an obvious project like Singleton is one thing; now Georgia has lost its starting shooting guard and a four-star small forward.
UGA started selling season parking passes this morning at 8 a.m. to four University-controlled parking decks. Spaces are available at the South Campus Parking Deck, North Campus Parking Deck, Carlton Street Parking Deck, and limited spaces in Hull Street Parking Deck.
From experience, passes sell quickly especially in the South Campus deck next to the Georgia Center. Hull Street spaces should also go quickly. A season pass will set you back $120, and passes are not available for individual games.
UPDATE: As of 12:30, parking deck passes remain only for the Carlton Street Parking Deck (behind Stegeman Coliseum) and the North Campus Parking Deck.
Georgia fans have been waiting to see how Mark Richt would react to this week’s
arrests, and they got some answers this afternoon. Richt
discussed the arrests and announced suspensions for some, though not all,
of the players recently arrested.
"I’m certainly disappointed in a few of our players who have made poor
decisions during the off season," Richt said. "It is of great concern
and we take it very seriously. They will be dealt with accordingly and will
pay a price. Each one will be disciplined based on the severity of their actions."
He went on to highlight the positive activities and behavior of the vast majority
of the team which included everything from mission work to volunteer activities.
So for those keeping score at home, here are the suspensions and results of
the offseason incidents as they stand now (in order of severity):
DE Michael Lemon (felony battery): suspended indefinitely (per athletic department policy)
OL Clint Boling (alcohol-related): two games
FB Fred Munzenmaier (alcohol-related): two games
DB Donovan Baldwin (alcohol-related): one game
OL "Bean" Anderson (simple battery): no suspension announced (yet)
OL Trinton Sturdivant (simple battery): no suspension announced (yet)
DE Jeremy Lomax (concealed weapon): charges dropped, no suspension
You can get better legal analysis here, but “not good” more or less sums up the current state of affairs for Bulldog reserve DE Michael Lemon.
Misdemeanor battery charges against Michael Lemon have been upgraded to include a felony aggravated battery charge, and Lemon turned himself in this morning.
If the charges stand, any discipline from Mark Richt is the least of Lemon’s concern. He’ll be facing some very serious charges with potentially severe punishment from the court and the University. The alleged victim seems determined to press on with the charges, and that’s certainly his right if the facts of the case support his claims.
Meanwhile, Bellygate is into its third day, and there’s not much new to report on the cases of Sturdivant and Anderson.
Hopefully none of us have any illusions about the role of money in the modern major athletic department. But what does it say when there’s a pretty good indication that the pursuit of that money puts one of the teams at a competitive disadvantage?
By itself this might sound like sour grapes. But grumbles about the Nike equipment isn’t a new issue. Certainly Georgia has had plenty of success despite the bats, and Peisel’s missed grand slam opportunity stands out because of an otherwise outstanding pitching performance by Fresno.
It’s a bigger issue than one series or at-bat. It’s one of the most powerful athletic departments in the nation telling one of its teams that inferior equipment is “good enough” because Nike says so.
David Perno, who recently led the Georgia baseball team to its third College World Series appearance in the last five seasons, has agreed to a new five-year, $2.25 million contract, Director of Athletics Damon Evans announced on Wednesday.
The new contract amounts to an annual increase of $150,000. Playing for the national title always makes those postseason evaluations a little more pleasant than usual:
“First of all, I’d like to say that I really enjoyed my discussions with Damon after the College World Series, and we’re excited about the future of the Bulldog baseball program,” Perno said. “I’m very pleased with the opportunity to be at Georgia and hope to be here a long time. The support we’ve received from our administration is very much appreciated.”
That support from the administration will be tested soon as the future of Foley Field becomes more of an issue. Georgia baseball continues to set attendance marks, and everything from concessions to practice space could use improvement. At the same time, Foley’s location doesn’t necessarily lend itself to much expansion.
It seems odd to say after Perno’s seventh year on the job, but there are those who up through this season questioned Perno’s fitness for the position. This new contract is a sign that Georgia baseball has its man. Now let’s do something about those odd-numbered years.
Georgia football player Michael Lemon is a suspect in an alcohol-related battery incident Saturday night that sent a University student to the hospital with a severe eye injury, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
Read the whole thing. It’s not a favorable account.
It gets better…Trinton Sturdivant and Justin Anderson were apparently booked on “simple battery” charges. (hat tip to Steve Patterson of UGASports.com) It’s unknown at this time whether those arrests were related to Lemon’s incident. Way too early to make heads or tails of this story yet, but for those of you keeping score at home that’s over half of Georgia’s projected starting offensive line (when you include Boling) that has been arrested over the offseason.
UPDATE: It seems as if the incidents are not related. More information on the Sturdivant / Anderson incident is available from ESPN. Still doesn’t look good for Lemon, but I wouldn’t be surprised if charges are ultimately dropped against the two offensive linemen.
Uga VI will be laid to rest inside Sanford Stadium this afternoon. It says
something about Georgia fans that the Athletic Department has had to make it
clear that this is a private ceremony. Still, given that they have
made the time and the date of the interment public information, I really hope
that a crowd doesn’t gather on the bridge. There’s a fine line between paying
your respects to Uga and becoming one of those Barbaro freaks.
After Uga is buried, the process of naming a successor will begin. This is
no small job. It’s not just about looks. The ideal Uga must also have the personality
and the temperment to handle the job week in and week out in front of SEC crowds.
Just any white bulldog won’t do.
The last transition was public and smooth. Uga VI of course was selected and
introduced while Uga V was still alive, and Uga V had a chance to retire before
passing away. But now we face the scenario of an active Uga passing while in
office, and an interregnum is a new experience for many Georgia fans. It’s been
a while since we’ve gone through this process, so I’m here this morning with
a look inside the process.
The process begins this week after the burial of Uga VI. Living members of
the University’s Circle
of Honor and football players with retired numbers will arrive in Athens
beginning this afternoon, and they will sequester themselves on several floors
of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education (Uga’s Athens residence during
a home game). They will take several days to become familiar with the candidates
and deliberate. Most of the day will be spent in seclusion in their Georgia
Center rooms reflecting on the qualities of Uga while consulting "Best
of Munson" DVDs and the 2008 Phil Steele.
During this time the Circle of Honor must decide what kind of mascot they want.
Uga VI was large and playful with a sense for when it was time to play ball.
The Circle might decide that they want a more hard-line, no-nonsense mascot
to keep the team on task during this difficult season ahead. They might want
a young, smaller pup who has a little more animation than his father. Less-conservative
members of the Circle might even support a mascot with some carefully-hidden
brown patches as a sign of inclusiveness and an appeal to widen the growing
Georgia bandwagon.
Then they will vote. Each day the members of the Circle of Honor will cast
a ballot with a single name. Damon Evans, whose duties as Athletic Director
include administrative oversight of this process, will read aloud the result
of each ballot. If no candidate receives two-thirds of the votes, the Circle
of Honor will retire for the evening, and the ballots will be shredded and used
to line the cages of the various candidates.
Once a candidate gets at least two-thirds of the votes, members of the Seiler
family will remove the other candidates from the room. The Uga-elect will be
presented with a dummy of an Auburn player (an actual Auburn player may be substituted)
and a television cable. If the Uga-elect correctly lunges at both items, Sonny
Seiler will immediately place the bulldog on a bag of ice and speak the name
of the new mascot while proclaiming him Defender of the End Zone and Protector
of That Big Air-Conditioned Dog House. Seiler may choose any appropriate name;
there is some speculation that Uga IV was nearly named Herschel I. But it’s
expected that this year’s new mascot will be named Uga VII.
Seiler will then place a custom-made red sweater on the new mascot. The Chapel
Bell will ring. Finally, Seiler will emerge from the lobby of the Georgia Center
and announce, "Habemus canum y’all" (we have a dawg). The new mascot
will emerge and make his public debut as he is taken for a walk around the Georgia
Center grounds, possibly stopping to anoint the vegetation along Carlton Street.
The Seilers and the new mascot will return to Uga’s summer residence in Savannah
to prepare the mascot for his first public appearances. His
first big foray into the public world will be at Picture Day in August, and he’s only two months
away from his first game when he will lead the Bulldogs into action against Georgia
Southern.
Eager Georgia fans wait outside the Main Library for news of the next Bulldog mascot.
According to the Savannah Morning News and Josh Kendall, Georgia’s mascot Uga VI died last night. He would have turned 10 in June, and that’s pushing the life expectancy for a bulldog. There was some speculation last summer about his retirement, but Uga VI remained in place for the entire 2007 and went out a winner. He presided over 114 Georgia football games and 87 wins – records for both wins and longevity for a Georgia mascot.
Georgia under Uga VI
87-27 (76.3%) career record
Made a bowl in each of his nine seasons, winning seven
$10,651
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