John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader writes,

Q: If UK does need seven wins, where might that seventh come?

A: Maybe Georgia. Any team that requires a last-minute touchdown to nip Colorado at home is vulnerable. Mark Richt has quarterback problems. The Bulldogs were blitzed in the fourth quarter Saturday night by Tennessee. No telling what the Dawgs’ mindset might be by the time they arrive in Lexington Nov. 4. It’s a long shot, but a shot.

Ever popular AJC columnist Mark Bradley opines,

For the first time since 2000, Tech has a better football team than Georgia…it’s hard to imagine Gailey’s best team losing to maybe Richt’s worst. It’s hard to imagine anything, even a statewide executive order, denying Tech this time.

I don’t know that you can say either opinion is wrong at this point, but it’s good stuff to have in the bank when those games come around.

Georgia governor Sonny Perdue probably thought he was scoring some low-hanging political fruit with Dawg fans by taking the AJC to task over a headline about the Georgia football team. After all, he’s a former Georgia player, a Georgia fan, a reasonably popular governor, and everyone loves to dump on the newspaper guys.

The ploy seems to have fallen flat among the Georgia fans I’ve seen comment. Most recognize it as a cheap attempt to score political points. Many don’t forget the lack of leadership shown by the Governor when it came to the Board of Regents fiasco a few years ago.

Personally, I’m a bit nervous any time a government official sees fit to meddle with the press. Even in a lighthearted (I hope) case like this, it’s not particularly appropriate for the governor to weigh in. He’s entitled to his opinion as a citizen, but a letter sent from the governor’s office about such a trivial matter isn’t a very judicious use of the position.

I write this as a Perdue voter and a Georgia alumnus myself. This is one item that should have been left off the “Sonny do” list.

Unfortunately, it’s in the wrong direction.

Odell Thurman was arrested on a DUI charge early this morning and tested twice the legal limit. He’s already serving a suspension for violation of the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

He really needs to turn it around. I can’t imagine what would happen after a third strike.

Here’s the really interesting part:

Thurman was with two other Bengals players, but police declined to release their identities…Thurman was released to a companion who was sober to drive him home, police said.

He’s with two teammates who know he’s currently suspended and already has a strike against him. They let him drive? Was he in the best shape of the three of them? Someone was sober enough to drive them home from the checkpoint but not from the bar?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Clay Travis asks why shakers are so popular at Southern football games even among the manly men who otherwise wouldn’t be caught dead with something so sissified as a thunderstick or some other cheering implement.

The reason is so simple that I’m amazed it escapes Clay. What else are you going to use to mix your drink?

The recipe for the "gameday special" has been passed down from generation to generation. Step one: get a souvenier-sized soda. Drink a little bit to make room. Step two: empty flask or airplane bottles into the cup. Step three – and this is critical – stir. You don’t want all that high-octane stuff floating on top. Enjoy. The typical shaker with its foot-long plastic handle makes the perfect straw to stir this most perfect of drinks.

The next time you see an entire SEC student section using its shakers, just remember that 1) the shakers are probably still damp and 2) those using them are probably in a much more comfortable state than you are.

There is talk that Cody Hawkins, Colorado freshman QB and son of coach Dan Hawkins, might see playing time tomorrow. The plan was to redshirt Cody, but that might change.

I understand the coach’s hesitance. He surely remembers how the Georgia defense had Jared Zabransky in a fetal position by halftime last year. Like any good father, he wouldn’t want to put his son in harm’s way.

Ralphie triple-dog-dares Georgia to win.

If this were a more attractive matchup, this could be a great storyline Saturday. First we have Colorado offensive tackle Tyler Polumbus saying, “They aren’t superhuman. Anyone can score on them.” as he dismisses the Georgia defense.

Georgia’s defense has a pretty good representative living in Colorado named Champ Bailey. Champ has his own take on the game:

“They can’t go between the hedges and get a win,” the Pro Bowl cornerback predicts. “Matter of fact, they can’t go get points. Period. It’s not going to happen.”

Nice. Way to represent, Champ

He thinks he can leave after a year.

The Banner-Herald follows up on Georgia Sports Blog’s bit of original journalism showing the empty family-free family-friendly zones. PWD promises an update from the UAB game. I can’t imagine things will be much better/different this week with another early start.

The kicker comes courtesy of officer Tim Stewart. “(Stewart) said the alcohol rules aren’t strictly enforced. Police aren’t checking cups, but if officers see someone who obviously is drinking alcohol from a can or bottle, they will tell him to pour it out or leave the area.” So the main rule behind these separate areas is only causally enforced. (Meanwhile, people crossing the street from one private lot to another get open-container tickets.)

In other parking news, the ultimate frisbee crowd has a bit of egg on its face after last weekend. The intramural fields did not, in fact, turn into one big mud-boggin’ pit. They’re just fine. Kudos to the Red & Black for calling them on it. "If no damage was done and the fields were left clean, then why not give credit to the administration." Indeed. Jerrytown and the Womynists can still play the championship game this week. The SGA still promises to watch for tell-tale bent blades of grass in future weeks.

And this seemed inevitable. Given the parking crunch, it was a matter of time until the parking scams started.

NFL.com reports that former Bulldog and current Cincinatti Bengal David Pollack suffered a neck injury in today’s game with the Cleveland Browns. We certainly hope the best for him.

Pollack hurt his neck while tackling running back Reuben Droughns on Cleveland’s second play. Pollack, a first-round pick last year, hit Droughns with his right shoulder, then lay face-down on the field.

He remained conscious and gave a thumbs-up sign with both hands as he left the field on a back board. The team said he had full feeling in his extremities. Pollack was taken for precautionary X-rays.

First he lashed out at his "dumbass" players over last week’s loss to Georgia. Then he came down hard on starting QB Blake Mitchell over a midweek bar fight.

What’s next? Steve Spurrier puts in on the refs.

This calls for a trip down memory lane. Remember 1996? FSU beat Florida 24-21 in the regular season, and it seemed as if an undefeated season and shot at the national title was down the drain. Spurrier went off on the refs claiming that FSU was allowed late hits on his quarterback. As fate would have it, a series of upsets brought about a rematch in the Sugar Bowl, and Spurrier’s whining turned out to be to his advantage: FSU’s defense was less effective the second time around, and Florida won their national championship.

So he’s gone back to this well of complaining about the refs. Poor Steve.

Spurrier concluded, "If it’s OK to hold, we need to start teaching it or we’re at a disadvantage." From what I saw Saturday night, his team already has that stuff down pretty well too.

In 1996, he at least had the team to back up his whining. This was a shot at the national title we’re talking about. Now, it just smacks of pathetic desperation as he seeks whatever leg up he can get for this South Carolina team. If not for Chuck Amato, this might be the saddest display by a head coach we’ve seen in a while. Welcome to the coaching graveyard of the SEC, Coach.

UPDATE: Spurrier’s comments might have violated SEC policy against criticizing officials. “All I can say is that the conference is dealing with this as an internal matter,” (SEC supervisor of officials Rogers) Redding said Friday. “The conversations we have with coaches on matters like these are confidential.”

By now you’ve probably heard that South Carolina starting QB Blake Mitchell was arrested and suspended for a bar fight this week. Standard stuff. Spurrier wasn’t kidding about his “stupid” team. Have you seen the guy Mitchell was trying to hit?

As our friends from ESPN remind us,

It’s not the first time a starting South Carolina quarterback has gotten into trouble. In 1993, Steve Taneyhill was arrested for underage possession of beer at a party the night after the Gamecocks defeated Georgia 23-21 in Athens.

It’s amazing that Anthony Wright is still an upstanding member of society.

Maybe it’s the hair…we all remember Taneyhill’s championship mullet, and Mitchell has a pretty good mop on his head. So we suggest that the longer the hair of the goofy Gamecock quarterback, the more likely they are to do something stupid involving alcohol after the Georgia game.

Bart Hubbuch has this very strange swipe at Georgia in today’s Jacksonville paper.

First, I’d like to congratulate Bart for breaking April’s news. Can’t wait for his mid-December piece on the preseason top 25.

The “inferior product” line is techically valid (the NFL plays at a higher skill level than college of course), but it’s a very crude way to phrase it…especially since many in the South feel that college football is a superior product to the NFL. The Falcons, Bucs, Dolphins, and Jags all have nice followings, but someone writing in Jacksonville knows that college football comes first in this part of the world.

But his last line is a keeper. “Will the players ever see a cent of that? Of course not. Any sweatshop owner will tell you it’s hard to make money without free labor.”

I guess schools down his way pay their players quite comfortably.

Oh, and the second item of his column is a pretty clear rip-off (and a poor one at that) of Clay Travis’s brilliant tribute to JP Sports that made the rounds earlier this week. C’mon Bart…at least attribute.

I happened to catch yesterday’s PTI, and the topic of the college football rules changes came up. I shouldn’t be so naive as to expect an ESPN show to point the finger back at the networks, but they could have at least acknowledged television’s role in excessively long football games. Of course they didn’t head in that direction. They focused instead on why all of the complaining coaches should get over it. It’s not like they have time to get more than an inch deep on an issue given that show’s format, but that makes it that much more important to get to the root of the issue, and they didn’t in this case.

Wilbon even mentioned the long Rose Bowl broadcast but failed to connect the dots and see the obvious reason why the Rose Bowl (and any BCS bowl) lasts so long. As pointed out clear as can be in this analysis by Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic, there were 161 plays in the BCS title game and 96 commercials.

Bickley’s analysis had one surprising stat – the SEC has the shortest games at 3:15 on average. With the interminable CBS broadcasts, I expected that number to be a bit higher. That might mean that the SEC is more of a run-based conference with fewer changes of possession (and consequently fewer chances for commercials). It might not mean anything since we’re talking no more than thirteen minutes’ difference among the conferences.

Maurice Clarett…traffic stop…weapons…police chase…mace…stun gun…hatchet. bulletproof vest.

In other words, Wednesday.

In the Palm Beach Post. Not so sure about the addictive bit, but there are a lot of regulars on the boards I’ve seen. In 10+ years of the DawgVent, you get a pretty tight-knit group of folks talking about the hobby they love above all, so I can see why people keep coming back. Now that the sites associated with the message boards update so frequently with team and recruiting news, there is an impulse to check it frequently just to keep up.

“Yet enough solid information has been offered that the boards can’t be ignored.”

Very true. There’s a lot of crap slung, but most developments in the Georgia program that I can remember have been mentioned on the boards first. The problem is knowing not to jump and overreact at every rumor and see how the facts play out. But I’ve seen enough to know that we just can’t be outright dismissive of them.

All I can say is that you’d be surprised who reads (and posts) on these things. The experiences mentioned on the FSU and UF boards have played out on ours several times over.