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.

Have to wait until Tuesday night for a replay of the game, but these are a few random things I took from the weekend:

• I love the shutouts, but I view them much the way I do a no-hitter in baseball: they’re as much luck as they are about a dominant performance. A bloop single because a batter guesses right doesn’t take away from a dominant pitching performance. Greg Maddux at his most dominant still gave up three or four hits a game, but there was no question we were watching greatness. It’s the same with a football shutout. Consider that field position, a single blown coverage, or even coaching decisions (such as going for it in field goal situations) can factor into a shutout. Take the game against Western Kentucky. Georgia’s defense eventually gave up ten points, but Western Kentucky didn’t manage a first down until late in the second quarter. Which has been the most dominant defensive performance?
• Who is "Garrison Hurst"? This gaffe has been on the pre-game video since the beginning of the season, and I think one of Georgia’s better tailbacks deserves to have his name spelled correctly. Hurshel would want it that way.
• Why does a pay-per-view broadcast need television timeouts? They’re already charging folks $30 to broadcast the game; they need to show them ads too?
• Very glad to see Ray Goff on the field with his 1976 team. No one was a bigger part of that SEC Championship unit.
• I don’t think you can understand how poignient a moment it was for Bill Stanfill to be on the field Saturday until you realize that Erk Russell had planned to be out there with him.
• Stunning stat of the weekend: Miami has lost five of its last six games against 1-A competition (pointed out during Saturday’s broadcast). That the one win was at Virginia Tech is the most amazing part of it all.
• I appreciate Matthew Stafford’s improvement from a week ago. There were much fewer mistakes (aside from the much-publicized sack and fumble), and he didn’t try to force things against a zone defense. The timing is still off though. Any pass longer than 15 yards was off. Either it’s the receivers and their routes, or it’s Stafford and his delivery, but the deep threat just hasn’t shown itself yet.
• Seeing Chris Leak dive a yard short of the first down marker shows us that he hasn’t changed all that much, but there is no doubt who the better quarterback was at the end of that game. Ron Zook was fired in large part for fourth-quarter collapses and coming up just short, and now Meyer has Leak winning those games.
• It’s bad enough seeing the stadium bathed in orange-and-blue Cingular colors or seeing "Crocs" advertised at the game, but now a stupid in-stadium Chik-fil-A mascot race ad bleeds over into an actual play. Who is asleep at the switch in the promotions department?
• You’d think part of the job requirement for "mike man" would be the ability to distinguish offense from defense. It’s noticable how much bigger of an impact the band, cheerleaders, etc can have when they have a sense of the flow of the game and situational awareness of what is going on out on the field.
• Speaking of the band, can we take the word "marching" out of the name? Lots of standing around. Most fans surely don’t notice (or care) about things like this, but I’ve seen more than one or two Redcoat alums grumble about the direction of the organization. And now they want to hit us up to build a million-dollar practice facility?
• I’m very impressed by the improvement in Georgia’s linebackers, and that’s no small reason for the strong defense. Tony Taylor runs the show. He’s fully back from his 2004 injury, and it shows. Danny Verdun-Wheeler is everywhere. He’s quick, versatile, and makes tackles. Jarvis Jackson is the enforcer in the middle bringing the heavy hits. It’s looking like a great unit, and then you consider that guys like Brandon Miller, Dannell Ellerbe, and now Darius Dewberry are hungry to get in there.
• Southern Cal looked strong again against Nebraska. Even if Auburn or some other SEC team can run the table, I think only an Ohio State or Southern Cal loss could keep us from another 2004 scenario.
• Finally, about UAB. Last week the tone was all about caution. The (-17) spread was seen as easy money if you took the Blazers. They put a scare into Oklahoma. They played us close two years ago. Etc, etc. Now that Georgia won 34-0, the UAB win is forgotten as if Georgia had beaten another 1-AA team. I guess that’s what happens when you beat the teams you should, but everyone (and there are many) who said last week that "these are the kinds of games Georgia struggles with" need to take a closer look at what’s really going on with this program. They’ll start the same drumbeat with Colorado this week…tough team backed into a corner, classic let-down game, and so on.

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.

Can we finally stop pretending that Georgia has three more or less interchangable tailbacks?

It’s not that Thomas Brown is a bad football player. We’ve all seen enough to know better. But is he and the other backs being used in the right situations that best use their abilities?

In the first quarter of yesterday’s UAB game, Georgia faced a short fourth down conversion. They were already up 7-0, the offense had looked pretty efficient on two drives, and another score might have opened the floodgates. Kregg Lumpkin had a very impressive burst to the outside for the first score, and then Danny Ware had ripped off runs of 6, 8, and 14 yards on the second drive. Stafford was mixing in some passes, and the UAB defense was on its heels.

So on this key fourth down, Richt chooses to hand the ball to…not Lumpkin or Ware but to Thomas Brown. Brown to that point had been the only Georgia back to have a carry for a loss. The conversion failed, and Georgia’s offense took nearly two quarters to recover.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the Dawgs faced another short yardage situation in the second half. Again they called on Brown. Same result. At least it was only third down, and Brannan Southerland was able to salvage the drive on fourth down.

It’s hard to find something really problematic about a 34-0 win, but this is it. With a young quarterback still developing, smarter decisions in the running game are necessary. We’ve come a good ways. We’re seeing multiple back sets mixed in with good results. I’m really happy with the way Danny Ware is used in the passing game; he’s the best receiving back. But that short-yardage power “gotta have a yard” back seems to be the hang-up. Southerland and Williams did a nice job, but sometimes you have to go to the tailback. Who should be in the game when you have to have that one or two yards?

Each of the three tailbacks brings something positive but unique to the offense. We can’t treat them as clones of each other or to expect the same results from each in a given situation. I really hope this is something that gets sorted out before the same thing happens (again) in a game in which the difference between the two teams isn’t so great.

First, David Ching mentions that the Little League World Series champs from Columbus, Ga. will lead the Dawg Walk into the Stadium before Saturday’s game with UAB. The champs were also on hand for Tech’s game against Notre Dame, so let’s hope our home team puts on a better performance worthy of their accomplishment.

Second, Deanna Nolan will be honored during the first half of the game. Nolan is a former Lady Bulldog basketball player who now plays for the Detroit Shock of the WNBA (along with other former Lady Dogs Kara Braxton and Kedra Holland-Corn). Detroit recently won the WNBA title, and Nolan was named MVP for the championship series. She has been a standout guard and WNBA All-Star for several seasons. So the women’s equivalent of Dwyane Wade is a Dawg, and she’ll be recognized on the Sanford field tomorrow. Congrats Tweety!

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.”

My Sisyphean quest to escape last place in UGASports.com’s media pick ’em starts this week, and what a week. The slate of games is fantastic, and cases could be made for either team to win in a lot of these games. You’d think I would have learned something about picking road teams last week, but here we go again.

Arkansas at Vanderbilt: Vandy is decent and will make a lot of teams look ugly, but Arkansas has more in the tank. If the Hogs do lose, it’s a pretty clear sign that they were outcoached, and it wil be a big nail in Nutt’s coffin.

Ole Miss at Kentucky: Similar to the Arkansas game, Ole Miss isn’t great but should be better than Kentucky. We’ll see how badly the Rebels were shaken by last weekend’s meltdown.

Florida at Tennessee: This doesn’t have so much to do with the Tennessee-Air Force game a week ago as it does with the relative strengths of the teams. Both are strong on defense, but Florida has a more mature and potentially explosive offense. This is a game where scheme might not be overrated. Tennessee doesn’t present many wrinkles for the Florida defense, but this is the third straight unique offense the Vol defense will see. In the first three weeks, they’ll have seen Tedford’s Cal offense (run pretty poorly), the flexbone-style option attack of Air Force, and now the spread option of Florida. Will the Vol defense be ready for anything that comes at them, or will their heads spin? On the other hand, what will Florida use as a running game to prevent open season on Chris Leak? Will the misdirection and running plays to talented speedsters like Harvin be enough? Last year, this was a 16-7 slugfest as the Florida defense asserted itself and Meyer’s offense struggled. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of the same this year – perhaps a little higher-scoring.

LSU at Auburn: You have to ask yourself how far Auburn’s running game can carry it, especially as Irons begins to show signs of wear and tear in week two. LSU should be very familiar with the defensive style they’ll see from their former DC Will Muschamp. I just think that LSU has more on both sides of the ball, but I know not to underestimate Borges. Auburn has a very good chance to win this game with coaching and the home field, but I still like the all-around strength of LSU.

Michigan at Notre Dame: Finally going with a home team. I don’t think it will be quite the drubbing I saw coming for Penn State last week, but this is the kind of game where a title contender asserts itself at home.

Miami at Louisville: I struggled with this pick longer than any other. I think the obituary is being written a little too soon on Miami, and they have the talent and ability to rise up as they did at Virginia Tech a year ago. But that road win over the Hokies sticks out like a sore thumb next to losses to Georgia Tech, LSU, and FSU in other big games. This is Louisville’s annual bid to be considered in the title discussion. They came up just short a year ago in Miami, but I think they get it done at home this year. Miami won’t make it easy though.

Texas Tech at TCU: Texas Tech survived UTEP last week, and while TCU isn’t bad, the Red Raiders should win again.

Oklahoma at Oregon: Oklahoma will find out just how much Adrian Peterson can do on the road against a Top 15 team. I think Oregon plus the home field should be enough for another close Duck win. If Oklahoma wins, Texas should start sweating a bit.

Michigan State at Pittsburgh: Why not…another road team wins. Pitt isn’t bad though. This could be pretty entertaining and higher-scoring than some other games.

Tulane at Mississippi State: This might be Mississippi State’s best chance for a win, but first things first – they just need to score this season. I think they hold Tulane to a low score and eek out the win.

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.

Glad the UGA quarterback race didn’t take this turn.

The University of Northern Colorado’s reserve punter was arrested Tuesday, accused of stabbing his rival in his kicking leg.

Mitch Cozad, a sophomore from Wheatland, Wyo., allegedly attacked starting punter Rafael Mendoza in a parking lot in Evans on Monday night, Evans police Lt. Gary Kessler said.

Andy Katz of ESPN.com has a somber look at how the death of Kevin Brophy has affected coach Dennis Felton and the Georgia basketball program.

You’ve probably already read about the progress Brophy had made during the offseason. "He was such a leader for this team," Felton said. "He was going to be a team captain. He was taking control of our team." That’s a tremendous impact for a former walk-on who had played sparingly last season. That kind of improvement had to come from a deep source of character and commitment, and that had to leave an impression on the team. It obviously did on the coach.

Felton and the team remain shaken. Plans are in the works to memorialize Brophy with something as enduring as an endowed scholarship. Whatever outward steps are taken to remember Kevin this season, Katz’s piece makes it clear that Brophy is already very much a part of the soul of the team.

The Red & Black joins in today with my suggestion to move the "family-friendly" tailgating areas to the Intramural Fields. The idea continues to make sense: there is less impact on the Intramural Fields, and huge tracts of tailgating greenspace in the middle of campus won’t go underutilized.

I have a feeling this is all going to come to a head at the Tennessee game. Even for the season opener there were stories of overcrowding on some North Campus areas near the Main Library. If more people are added to that area and the "family-free" "family-friendly" area on North Campus is sitting there as an empty alternative, there will be conflict.

One of the biggest differences that separates head coaches from assistants is that you have to deal with people. You’re not just the guy who calls the plays; you’re also the chief executive of the organization. You are the public face of the organization, and you must manage your staff as closely as you manage your 85 scholarships and your playbook.

It’s an underrated and often overlooked aspect of the job. Much of the coach’s success depends on surrounding himself with the right people. Jim Donnan made poor choices in this area at Georgia as the successful assistants he trusted eventually left the program as their careeers progressed. Tommy Tuberville has come back from the precipice by reevaluating his staff and making tough decisions that have looked brilliant. When Chizik, Borges, and Petrino come through your program, you’re making good personnel decisions. Chizik to Texas, Stoops to Florida – would there be national titles in Austin and Gainesville without those moves?

That brings us to Sylvester Croom. Life is tough at Mississippi State, and Croom is lashing out a bit at the criticism. That’s bad enough – fans are usually more patient with coaches they like – but it’s not necessary to be liked so long as you win. Charlie Weis and Bill Parcells aren’t especially friendly or receptive of questions, but they’re supported so long as they win. I even agree with Croom’s statement about the call-in show. They’re so often inane and uninformative because of the dreadful and repetitive questions, and a coach’s time is much better suited doing other things. But it’s still his responsibility.

The quote from Croom that would have me even more concerned were I a Mississippi State fan is this:

I don’t want to hear about getting rid of my coaches, because I’m never going to fire a football coach. I’m not. If it comes to that, I’m going to fire me.

On the surface, it seems like a loyal statement of support for his staff. But when you consider the coach’s role as executive, it’s shocking. Imagine an executive going before her board of directors and stating flatly that no employee, underperforming or not, would ever be replaced on her watch. How long would she last? Such a stance is extremely irresponsible. It causes the board of directors (or in this case the athletic director) to have to make wholesale changes where only one or two smaller changes might have done and preserved investment in the organization.

It’s not that it’s an easy or pleasant part of the job, and it might be that Mississippi State’s assistants are all doing a good job considering what they have to work with. It’s that Croom is abdicating a key responsibility of the executive. He doesn’t get that choice. It is a sign to me that he wasn’t professionally prepared for a head coaching position. Assistants get to toil in their area of the program to make the team better. If that’s all Croom wants to do without any of the other overhead and responsibilities that come with the big paycheck, he should have remained an assistant.

Greetings from the cellar. A 6-4 record picking last week’s games straight-up is shameful, but that’s where I sit in the UGASports.com media pick ’em after expecting some road teams to do a little better than they did. I need to pick games next to Lou Holtz instead of these guys so I seem smarter.

First the ones I got wrong in descending order of error:

Ole Miss over Missouri: The Ole Miss offense proved to be not so nearly healthy and balanced as it looked against Memphis. They ran into a buzzsaw in the Missouri defense and emerging Mizzou QB Chase Daniel did the rest. Given the state of the Big 12 North this year, why not Mizzou?

Minnesota over Cal: I thought the Gophers had figured out some things in their opener. They had, but defense apparently wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t so much down on Cal, but I thought a decent Big 10 team could at least hang with Cal on the west coast. Wrong.

Texas over Ohio State: This was a close game most of the way, but Texas couldn’t figure out a way to convert yards into points. Ohio State has a good, solid team on both sides of the ball.

Clemson over BC: Leave it to a missed XP to ruin this pick. Clemson seemed like the better team, but they do miss their injured defenders, and they don’t yet have that swagger and killer instinct to win the games that would justify their ranking. Georgia fans can empathize with letting one get away to Boston College.

OK…with that cathartic penance out of the way, here are the correct picks that I managed to back into in descending order of "duh":

Kentucky over Texas State: The ESPN ticker said this game was delayed. Were they waiting on the ticketholder to show up?

LSU over Arizona: it was never going to be close.

Oregon over Fresno State: I’m not surprised that Fresno gave the Ducks a tough time, but Oregon is experienced enough now as a program to know how to win these games.

Colorado State over Colorado: The most interesting thing related to this 14-10 yawner wasn’t Colorado’s 0-2 start. It’s that 1-AA Montana State beat Colorado only to lose to Division II Chadron State. Transitivity is a bitch, Buffs.

Georgia over South Carolina: Georgia was clearly better, and the only question was whether South Carolina could make it the usual fourth quarter nailbiter. They nearly did, but the Georgia defense rose to the occasion to keep the Gamecocks off of the scoreboard and protect a lead that looked shaky for a while.

Notre Dame over Penn State: If I got one thing right last week, it was that Notre Dame would make Penn State’s 2005 season seem 20 years distant.

Hopefully better voices in the head and better results this week.

A few weeks ago I said that the 2006 schedule might do more this season to mute tailgating than any policy change the University could come up with.

Today we learn that the Lincoln Financial TV crew will be back in Athens for the September 23rd game with Colorado. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m.

The Tennessee game might be the single shot for a decent home tailgate scene this season. Just hope it doesn’t become the noon CBS game that day.

tOSU has it 2nd and 12. 12!!! You’re lucky we don’t cut away entirely!

During the 1990s, there weren’t many more marquee time slots for college football than the ESPN national 7:45 broadcast. Ron Franklin and Mark Gottfried were as good as it got in the booth. The late Adrian Karsten defined a new role for the sideline reporter. It was a great product.

How times have changed.

Mike Patrick is the face of the generic ESPN play-by-play guy. Women’s hoops, college football…send in Patrick. Todd Blackledge is spot-on as always with his sharp analysis, but it seems to have less impact alongside the bland Patrick than it did next to the lively Verne Lundquist.

But there’s another problem. Instead of holding on to its position as the place to see the best game of the week, ESPN’s Saturday night game has become second-fiddle to whatever ABC has on at 8:00, and it’s more than happy to bend over and advertise that fact.

Using such innovations as the “Primetime Pulse” and the “Red Zone Alert”, those of us who lack remote controls and/or motor skills to change the channel if we want to watch another game get forcefed the game that ABC/ESPN/Disney really wants us to watch. It was such a transparent plea to get ESPN viewers to change the channel that Patrick and Blackledge had to half-seriously remind people to check back in on the game they were actually broadcasting. ABC wasn’t so kind – I’m told there was no Primetime Pulse to give viewers a look at the interesting South Carolina – Georgia game. We shouldn’t be surprised. All of the ads on ESPN’s own Gameday show were for the ABC game and not for the game actually on ESPN later that night.

We know that ESPN and ABC serve the same corporate masters, so of course they want eyeballs where it serves them best. #1 vs. #2 is a huge game and brings in a lot of ad money. But isn’t it kind of sad that the game everyone used to tune in for now just serves to go through the motions and pimp something on another channel?