It hasn’t been Reggie Ball’s month. A month ago, he was the senior quarterback of the team on top of the ACC standings. His team was expected to end the losing streak to Georgia and win the ACC title.

In that month since, Ball has:

• Turned in a 6-for-22, 2 INT performance against Georgia to finish with an 0-4 career record against the Dawgs.
• Followed that up with a 9-29, 2 INT performance in the ACC title game loss to Wake Forest.
• Become academically ineligible for Tech’s Gator Bowl appearance against West Virginia.

I would never pull for Ball on the football field, but this complete fizzle to the end of his career just makes you cringe. Four years of eligibility was just too much to ask for Mr. 4th Down.

Vince Vance…all 6’7″ of him

It’s been a while since Georgia has signed a junior college football player, but that has changed in a big way. Today is the first day that JUCO transfers can sign with a program, and Georgia has received three signatures so far.

OG/OT Scott Haverkamp, DE Jarius Wynn, and DT Corvey Irvin signed with the Dawgs today. Two other JUCO offensive linemen, Vince Vance and Joe Blaes, are also expected to sign within the next day or so. All will be enrolled for spring semester and will be able to provide depth during spring practice. The Dawgs needed some immediate help on the offensive line particularly, and these junior college transfers give the Dawgs some older and more physically-mature players than the typical true freshman at a position where that really matters. Now they have about eight months to get up to speed and hopefully contribute to Georgia’s depth for the 2007 season.

UPDATE: Chad Simmons of UGASports.com is reporting tonight ($) that Blaes will not sign with Georgia at this time because the Dawgs apparently ran out of room for mid-year enrollees. It is possible that Blaes still could sign with Georgia in February and enroll in the summer, but he is weighing his options and considering a couple of other schools where he could enroll mid-year..

The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics has proposed a ban on the use of male practice players for women’s teams. You might or might not know that it’s a common practice to augment the practice squads of women’s teams (mostly basketball, but others do it also) with men, usually volunteers, in order to improve the level of competition in practice.

That’s apparently an abomination.

The thing about this recommendation is that the committee seems so rabid about the gender issues involved that they completely missed how these practice squads are used. Coaches and players from across the country have chimed in over the past week setting the record straight. The opposition is nearly unanimous. Did the CWA even research the issue?

I’ve seen Georgia practices where there were only eight or so scholarship players, and the managers and coaches – male and female – had to be pressed into service while the starters and reserves rotated in and out. Even when there are enough players for two squads, you want your starters and reserves running your plays while a practice squad simulates the opponent. You also have to consider that you often won’t have a full squad able to go full-speed in every practice because of injury or fatigue. This isn’t football where you have entire practice squads of freshmen and walk-ons. Either the reserves must take time away from their development to be the practice dummies, or you can get outside help. Why not use women volunteers? Quick – find a female on campus to simulate Candace Parker. You won’t find many men who can do what Parker does, but at least you might find a few 6’4" guys with decent basketball skills. Any female who fits that bill is probably already on the team.

Don’t take my testosterone-clouded word for it. How about two women who have been advocates of the game for decades? Ask All-American Ivory Latta. "Love ’em. That’s how they make us better. They give us attitude. They give us the killer instinct." Even the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, hardly timid when it comes to sticking up for the women’s game, is opposed to the proposal. "It’s mind boggling that this is what’s getting all the focus,” said WBCA president Beth Bass. But of course they’d oppose the proposal. The WBCA represents the coaches – the people who understand how these practice squads are actually used.

The CWA’s response to the criticism is hilarious. "There are many ways (training, nutrition, etc.) that female student-athletes can work on getting faster and stronger," they replied. Sure. You can also build strength by chopping wood, but most student-athletes prefer the weight room. Coaches and players in the women’s game have found a technique which they feel best trains them. The CWA continues, "Athletes at every level have continued to evolve through drills and practice without including bigger, stronger and faster opponents in these drills." Right again. But when those "bigger, stronger and faster opponents" are available, you’d be a fool not to make use of them.

For the sake of gender purity and not equity this committee would retard the growth and development of female athletes and women’s sports. This is what happens when you have academics and social scientists making uninformed policy decisions for athletics. They’re willing to deny a proven and valuable training tool in order to address a problem that doesn’t exist – as if there were scores of female student-athletes sitting wistfully a few rows up in the gym every day wondering if this might be the day that Coach lets them practice. Of all of the issues facing women’s sports, they’ve chosen to attack a positive force helping the development of those sports. Michigan State coach Joanne McCallie is exactly right: "It’s absolutely absurd. It’s short-sighted. It’s got nothing to do with equity and everything to do with politics." It makes you wonder what kind of research and thought went into some of the other regulations that govern college sports.

In a move that doesn’t surprise many people, Mark Richt has promoted quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo to offensive coordinator. Richt had already turned over the playcalling reigns to Bobo, and this move was an expected progression in Bobo’s career. The departure of offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Neil Callaway to UAB opened up the position.

The coordinator position is a lot more than playcalling. He’s responsible for installing and executing the offensive package for each game including scouting, practice schedule, play scripting, and so on. While Richt called the plays, the coordinator still had a large role. Now it looks as if both that role and the playcalling role will go to Bobo. For everyone who has been critical of Callaway and for Richt holding on to too much control, it’s now Bobo’s show.

Marc Weiszer of the ABH reports that Smith, arrested for his second alcohol-related offense, won’t be suspended by the University. The next offense would result in expulsion though, and any Code of Conduct violations not alcohol-related could result in suspension.

That leaves the ball in Mark Richt’s court. Smith has already been suspended for the next six football games which includes the Chick-fil-A bowl and the first five games next season. Smith had been expected to move into the starting center position next year, but Georgia will have to find an answer.

The question remains what this will mean for Smith’s career. After five games next year, Georgia will have a starting center established and probably won’t be likely to move him aside for someone with Smith’s experience level. Then would he be good enough to supplant that starter in 2008? This great opportunity has been slammed shut for now, and it will be a long road back to the starting lineup.

Hopefully the end result of the suspension and everything else is for Smith to get straight and finish out his college career. Whether that includes meaningful contribution to the football program is up to him now.

Dennis Felton has had several big wins at Georgia. He has beaten Georgia Tech twice. He’s beaten Kentucky in Rupp Arena. Last season’s win against an Alabama team that went deep into the NCAA Tournament is very underrated. So to immediately label Saturday’s win over Gonzaga as the biggest in Felton’s four years at Georgia or to claim it as a sign that Georgia has arrived might be getting ahead of things. The thing about those other impressive wins was that they stood out in seasons of frustration. Nice wins were followed by puzzling losses or even slumps that went on for weeks. We even got so impressed with ourselves early last year that a trip to the postseason seemed a foregone conclusion. Oops.

That’s not to downplay Saturday’s win. It was magnificent. Gonzaga didn’t play poorly. Georgia did so many things well – the biggest of which was keeping up the intensity. Scoring droughts have killed many a promising Georgia game, and the Dawgs more or less avoided them in this game. A Gaines layup in the midst of a Gonzaga run ended the Zags’ biggest push of the second half, and the Dawgs didn’t let them get on another run the rest of the way. It’s possible that we might not have even seen Georgia’s upper limit on Saturday – the three-point shooting wasn’t that good – but at the very least we know that Georgia is capable of some very good basketball against quality opponents.

The story is as it has been for a couple of years now. Georgia will play as its guards play. The three top guards combined for 65 of Georgia’s 96 points. Stukes ruled the first half, Gaines took over in the second, and Mercer was…well, just watch this:

The difference this year is that the rest of the team isn’t a liability. Whether it’s Jackson’s incredibly clutch back-to-back baskets down the stretch, Newman’s five assists, or Brown and Bliss playing strong under the basket, other players are finding roles and not killing the team with mistakes. Make no mistake – the Dawgs still need those three guards to play at that kind of level to have much success this year. The guards just won’t have to do everything.

The question the team has to face is, "now what?" It’s great that we’re not sitting here on Monday knowing that Georgia can’t compete with good teams and hoping they can salvage something from the season. Georgia can play. Now with games coming up against Tech, Clemson, and Wisconsin, we’ll see if the Dawgs use the opportunities opened up by this win to go into SEC play with a head of steam and take a real step forward on the program’s path back.

Otherwise, it was just another isolated upset win.

It’s official – Neil Callaway will become UAB’s new football coach. Congratulations to him. If you have to lose assistants, you want to see them moving on to better things instead of having to fire them. It’s a sign that you’ve hired well. That’s certainly been the case with Georgia’s last few departures. Van Gorder and Smart both went to the NFL, and now Callaway leaves for a head coaching opportunity.

Callaway’s a Blazer.

Callaway, fairly or not, has been somewhat of a lightning rod for fans during his entire time here. Fans have projected their distaste for Richt’s offense or the zone blocking schemes onto Callaway. His role as offensive coordinator has never really been understood fully when Richt calls the plays. When Greene was sacked mercilessly in 2003 or when Georgia’s “three-headed monster” of tailbacks didn’t run wild, fans pointed the finger at Callaway.

The results speak for themselves though. Callaway’s line has won the SEC East three times and the SEC twice. He’s done that at other schools too. It’s run-blocked for Verron and Musa, and it’s pass-blocked for three of the most exciting quarterbacks to come through Athens. Even this year with very little depth and some polarizing starters, the Dawgs ended up with the second-fewest sacks allowed in the SEC. Not bad at all. The OL under Callaway has taken a lot of shots, probably far more than their share. Now his detractors have their wish.

Callaway’s replacement will be starting over in many respects. Not only will the offensive coordinator position and the very nature of the offense be in question, but it will be a fresh start in terms of personnel too. There are a handful – only about three or four (depending on Ian Smith’s future) – returning with any experience next year. There are at least nine newcomers on the way from junior college down to true freshmen. There are several redshirting freshmen who haven’t seen playing time yet. New coach, new players. He’ll have a fresh start in terms of the fans too, but we’ll see how long that lasts.

People are already putting together wish lists of who should replace Callaway. Is it someone with an FSU connection or a UGA past? Is it a well-known name? Knowing Richt, it’s just as likely to be someone no one mentions until the connections are put together after the fact. In many repects, this new offensive line coach will be coming into a much better situation than Callaway inherited. He will have a group of about 13 or more with which to work, and the classes will be somewhat staggered. Georgia also has a stronger position in terms of prestige and recruiting.

This really is a great opportunity for the right coach. Best wishes to Coach Cal, but it will be exciting to see how the new guy puts together the incoming talent and keeps the pipeline open. Job #1 is keeping the current commitments on board, and then it’s time to start building. The bar has been set a bit higher than most people realize.

Anyone familiar with – scratch that – anyone who has heard of Arkansas football knew four things were true about the Razorbacks entering this season:
1) They were absolutely loaded in the backfield with Darren McFadden – the SEC freshman of the year – and Felix Jones.
2) Arkansas ran the football because they could.
3) Their returning quarterbacks weren’t very inspiring. The job might be handed to a true freshman right out of the gate.
4) When they did throw the ball, there was a very capable (and very tall) guy named Marcus Monk already established as the go-to guy.

Now armed with that information, any drooling ward of the state could figure that Arkansas would probably still run the ball a bit this year. Yes, they had a nice haul of receivers and a QB in the most recent recruiting class. Usually, it’s understood that it takes a year or two for most newcomers, even potential stars, to make an impact. Not so with three Arkansas freshmen. Now all three played as true freshmen which says a lot in itself. And it’s not like they didn’t contribute. Mitch Mustain started more games than any other Arkansas quarterback. Damian Williams was second on the team in receiving…as a true freshman. But that wasn’t good enough. The players grumbled because Arkansas won with their strengths in the backfield and not on recruiting promises. Williams will transfer, and the parents of the players have embarassingly inserted themselves into the story.

Coach Nutt wonders if he can be in charge for a while.

Two of the parents opened their mouths and showed us the real source of the problem here.

• Rick Cleveland. He’s the father of tight end Ben Cleveland. His greatest contribution to this story? This line: “Our boys are used to catching 60 passes a year.” Do you know how many SEC receivers caught 60 passes this season? Five. Total. Marcus Monk, the junior already established as Arkansas’ leading receiver, caught 49 passes this year in 13 games. Rick Cleveland believes that these incoming players were sold “a bill of goods” as a result. Yes, Mr. Cleveland…Arkansas will shelve the Heisman runner-up to have a true freshman throw the ball 60+ times to your son and some other true freshman.
• Finally, we have Beck Campbell, Mitch Mustain’s mom. She makes a very profound statement that will surely affect the coach-parent relationship everywhere. “It was agreed by all parties involved that the head coach has the valid right to determine the direction of the program and the manner in which the team would develop.” I’m glad the parents had that meeting to iron out what every other coach, player, and parent has accepted throughout the history of organized football. In the words of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, ” Well thank you very much! Can I be in charge for a while?”

With parents like that, is it any accident that their children are throwing tantrums?

Exams are over, many Georgia student-athletes are graduating (congratulations!), and it’s time to catch up with the three sports getting back into action this week.

Football

The big stories:

• Coutu might kick in the Chick-fil-A bowl
• Callaway emerges as a candidate at UAB
• Danny Ware, Charles Johnson, and Paul Oliver test the draft waters
• Mid-year enrollees won’t go through bowl practices
• Surgery likely to end Pollack’s football career
• Dawgs to take a bit tougher approach to bowl practices this year

Coutu kicking is pretty significant. We need Ely-Kelso to focus on punting which was sub-par against Georgia Tech and has been shaky for much of the season to be honest. Virginia Tech is known for nothing if not special teams, so any advantage we can get in that area is meaningful. It’s likely to be a ball-control field position kind of game, so we need Ely-Kelso 1) getting the punts off in the first place and 2) hitting them well enough to be a strategic weapon in that style of game.

Men’s basketball

The Dawgs aren’t messing around – Gonzaga is their first opponent after the exam week break. The problem with Gonzaga is that you can’t really talk about one player. You might mention point guard Derek Raivio. Freshman Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin have contributed right away, and Bouldin is a matchup nightmare for a Georgia defense that has been very generous to opposing wings. Those are just the guards. Forward Josh Heytvelt is versatile and quick and will severely test Georgia’s young interior defense.

The game at the Gwinnett Center will be a homecoming of sorts for Mike Mercer and Billy Humphrey. The two guards are among Georgia’s top three scorers, and they’ll need big games to beat Gonzaga. The key is consistency from Stukes, Mercer, and Humphrey. All are capable of getting hot, but all are equally capable of disappearing for long stretches. The Dawgs will have to get the right ones in the game when they’re hot and get steady contributions from Bliss, Brown, and Singleton inside.

They should have a relatively easy game against Jacksonville next week, and then they’ll face Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Friday. Tech is loaded with some good young talent, but they’ve dropped a few games lately. The series has been pretty even since it went home-and-home over ten years ago, and Georgia’s 75-70 win in Atlanta in 2000 was the sole road win by either team.

Women’s basketball

The Lady Dogs have had to stew over their first loss of the season for over a week. They are essentially starting over by trying to work Tasha Humphrey and some other players back into the rotation. A team that was only six deep a few weeks ago and learned how to prosper in that situation now has eight or nine players to deal with.

Georgia will have a painfully easy game against Savannah State in Savannah on the 15th and then they’ll have a bit of a test against TCU on the 17th in Athens. TCU rose to become a moderately strong team a few seasons ago when they had star center Sandora Irvin, and they’re trying to sustain something in her wake. They have a quality squad this year that just knocked off Florida. With the exception of a rout of a bad Memphis team a few weeks ago, Georgia has been pushed pretty hard recently by teams like Davidson, Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech, and of course MTSU. How they handle a challenge from TCU will say a lot about their progress and cohesion since the return of Humphrey.

With the news that Tra Battle has been named third-team AP All-American, Georgia has now produced an All-American safety in each of the past four seasons (and hopefully defensive backfield recruits are paying attention). Battle contributed right out of the gate as a redshirt freshman when he started the 2003 season opener at Clemson. Everyone expected him to give way to some higher-regarded scholarship players, but Battle became a two-year starter and cemented his All-American status with a three-interception game at Auburn. Not bad for a walk-on. Congrats, Tra! Congratulations also to DE Quentin Moses for joining Battle on the third team.

2003: Sean Jones

2004: Thomas Davis

2005: Greg Blue

2006: Tra Battle

I’ve only been marginally paying attention to the offseason coaching carousel. It’s reason enough to stop and appreciate Mark Richt. Wasn’t he a sure thing to run off when Miami came calling? Oh, nevermind.

• Arizona State will retread Dennis Erickson. He’s had success at other schools, and we’ll see if he can sort through the mess in Tempe. The Dawgs will face Erickson’s Sun Devils in his second year, so we’ll keep an eye on his rebuilding job next year.
• How often do we see a coaching search where the main criteria seems to be "the exact opposite of the last guy?" The last coach was too dull, so let’s get a personality in here. The last guy was married to the option, so let’s open up the passing game. That seems to be the case at NC State. Chuck Amato was quirky, eccentric, flashy, erratic, and his teams were known for their undisciplined play. Tom O’Brien might or might not be the right coach for the Wolfpack, but the former Marine major projects an image that’s everything Amato wasn’t. Will that matter when it comes to bringing a higher level of consistency to Raleigh?
• Count me among those unimpressed with Miami’s hire. Shannon’s biggest job will be to convince the local goldmine of talent to believe that a coach from the former failed staff can restore the image and attitude of "the U".
• So Alabama is still without a coach. When Georgia was looking for a coach after the 2000 season, I wrote that firing the existing coach was the easy part. The decision to replace the coach can’t be evaluated until we see how the replacement does. Everyone now looks back on the decision to replace Jim Donnan as a no-brainer, but that’s only because we hit a home run with Mark Richt. The Dawgs could have likely ended up with Ray Sherman or even, yes, Chan Gailey. Every coaching change is a big risk from replacing a guy leaving on his own terms to getting rid of someone not performing to expectations. The saving grace for Bama is that as messed up as things appear now, the next coach won’t be judged based on how smooth the selection process went. If he succeeds, no one will care about the public process. If he fails, it wouldn’t matter if Bama ran the model coaching search.

Finals week brings the college sports world to a grinding halt. Football is in hibernation, and both basketball teams won’t play again until this weekend. Once exams are over, here’s what we have to look forward to:

• Men’s basketball really gets going with games upcoming against Gonzaga and Georgia Tech. There aren’t many more preseason cupcakes left. A road win over Wake Forest was nice
• The Lady Dogs try to recover from their first loss of the season and try to find chemistry and rotations that work now that Tasha Humphrey is back.
• The football team will start practicing for the Chick-fil-A Bowl. It’s not quite summer two-a-days, but the semester break gives the team a chance to go through some of the more intense workouts they’ve had since August.
• Early enrollees will join the football team. These include recent junior college commitments as well as high schoolers graduating early. I believe that offensive lineman Tanner Strickland is the first to arrive. These early arrivals will be able to practice with the team during bowl preparations, though they won’t play in the game. Going through bowl practices and spring practice is very valuable to incoming freshmen (Stafford and Durham made the most of it last year), but it’s infinitely more important for junior college players where the eligibility clock is already ticking.

Good luck on exams, and we’ll see what interesting topics we can come up with until the Dawgs start making news on the field and court again.

University of Georgia Head Coach Mark Richt will join Virginia Tech Head Coach Frank Beamer on Thursday, December 14th at the Chick-fil-A Bowl Coaches Luncheon presented by Russell Athletic. Coach Richt will discuss the Dawgs big wins over Auburn and Georgia Tech as well as give his insights into the December 30th match-up against the Hokies. The luncheon will be held in the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. The event starts at noon and tickets can be purchased for $35 by calling 404-586-1923.

A sloppy and anemic performance all around from Georgia led to an upset 70-62 win for Middle Tennessee Wednesday night.

Georgia committed a season-high 22 turnovers and gave up 15 offensive rebounds in the loss, and MTSU attempted nearly 20 more field goals as a result. Point guards Ashley Houts and Janese Hardrick combined for 4 assists, 11 points, and 12 turnovers. They were completely ineffective against pressure, and Megan Darrah was not able to pick up the slack as she did Sunday at Georgia Tech.

Things weren’t that good on defense either. MTSU had two main scoring weapons, Amber Holt and Chrissy Givens, and Georgia was able to stop neither. Holt scored 21 and Givens 25.

Even more frustrating is the fact that Holt originally signed with Georgia last spring as a junior college all-American. She wasn’t admitted to Georgia but apparently was qualified to enroll at MTSU. She torched Georgia tonight, and the Lady Dogs had no answer.

Georgia’s post trio of Robinson, Rowsey, and Humphrey managed a combined 19 points, ten of which came from Robinson. For whatever reason, centers Robinson and Rowsey played a total of 23 minutes between them. So with the game left to the guards and the wings, only Chambers (23 points) did some damage.

They looked confused and frustrated trying to get into the offense. Transistion was non-existent. They simply must get more from Houts and especially the senior Hardrick. Georgia had flirted with upset losses to Davidson and Georgia Southern, so perhaps they were due, but they didn’t look much better – and it might be argued they looked worse – with Humphrey in the lineup. They weren’t exactly meshing at Tech on Sunday either but got enough plays to win that game.

Exam week means that they will have over a week to stew on the loss and hopefully come back and close out December looking much better.

After several seasons without a single JUCO football signee, Georgia added offensive linemen Vince Vance and Joe Blaes a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, they received commitments from two additional junior college defensive linemen, Corvey Irvin and Jarius Wynn from Georgia Military College. Chad Simmons at UGASports.com has the scoop ($).

Four junior college transfers in a single season isn’t a recruiting strategy used by Richt in the past, but the need is definitely there at those positions next year. These four are all able to provide some degree of help right away. Some will even be able to enroll and begin working out with the Dawgs during Chick-fil-A Bowl practices. With two years of eligibility remaining, in most cases, getting them in the program and through a bowl and spring practice is very important to making sure they can contribute out of the gate.