The north endzone at Williams-Brice Stadium doesn’t look particularly imposing. It is the only side of the stadium that isn’t enclosed by multiple seating decks. But in each of the last three Georgia-South Carolina games in Columbia, this innocent-looking endzone has been the site of the key Gamecock meltdown that shut the door on their hopes of winning.

It’s not that the south endzone hasn’t had its moments. That’s where Pollack worked his magic, and it’s where the Gamecocks clanked a field goal off the upright last night.

But that north endzone has a much more sinister history.

2002: Gamecock tailback Andrew Pinnock drops a pitch at the Georgia goal line. A touchdown gives the Gamecocks a win, but Thomas Davis recovered the fumble to secure the Bulldog victory. It happened on the doorstep of the north endzone.

2004: On fourth-and-one inside the Georgia ten yard line with less than five minutes remaining, the Bulldogs stuffed Gamecock quarterback Dondrial Pinkins and held on for a 20-16 win. South Carolina had just fumbled on its last possession inside the Georgia 20 on the same end of the field. Which end? The north end, of course.

2006: Georgia’s 15-0 lead looked less solid as South Carolina drove the field in the third quarter. They seemed likely to take a big chunk out of the lead when they faced third and goal from the Georgia one. On third down, the Bulldogs stuffed Cory Boyd at the one. A video replay overruled a call that said that Boyd had fumbled, leaving the Gamecocks with fourth-and-one. The Gamecocks attempted to send Mitchell over the top, and as he reached the ball forward over the pile, Jarvis Jackson knocked it loose. The ball rolled into the endzone, that mystical north endzone, where by rule it became Georgia’s ball at the spot of the fumble. South Carolina seemed poised to pin the Dawgs against that goal line, but a 23-yard quarterback draw by Stafford on third down kept a drive alive that would eventually lead to Georgia’s final score of the day.

The north endzone strikes again.

For the first time in nearly 20 years, a Steve Spurrier-coached college team was shut out. It doesn’t quite make up for the 51 points in 1995, but it is a nice twist of the knife to have the 18-0 shutout come at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs.

The Dawgs grabbed control early and built a 15-0 halftime lead on a wild swing of events at the end of the first half. South Carolina missed a field goal that would have cut Georgia’s lead to 10-3. Georgia drove the field and appeared poised to extend their lead before a tipped pass was interecepted on the one yard line. South Carolina ran a slow-developing play out of the end zone which was abruptly ended by Charles Johnson for the safety. Georgia then drove quickly into field goal position and ended the first half by tacking another three points on to the lead.

The game was ugly and tough, but unlike 2002 and 2004 it wasn’t close. The Georgia defense played a magnificent game, stepping up several times at the goal line to deny South Carolina. The linebackers in particular had a wonderful game, and the defensive line was active all night – often applying sufficient pressure with just three or four men. Jarvis Jackson had another strong game in Columbia, and he was responsible for causing the game’s pivotal fumble in the third quarter as South Carolina quarterback Blake Mitchell tried to dive forward for a touchdown on 4th down at the Georgia one yard line.

The resourcefulness and the determination of the Georgia defense could be summed up in a play by Jeff Owens. Mitchell had eluded the Georgia rush and had scrambled forward into Bulldog territory for a first down and much more. Owens, a defensive tackle, tracked Mitchell down from behind and caused a fumble that was recovered by the Dawgs. Plays like that were made all night across the board.

The offensive line also played much better. Velasco, Jones, and Shackleford noteably had good performances. When Georgia was able to bust a nice play up the middle, Jones and Velasco were often out in front. South Carolina’s pass rush wasn’t overwhelming most of the time.

And the quarterback…Matt Stafford stepped in as a true freshman at one of the SEC’s most intimidating road venues and performed as you might expect a talented freshman: lots of glimpses of excellense but lots of shaky play as well. His overall line would get a veteran starter crucified by fans. But his especially strong second quarter was enough to get the job done. The pass he threw to Massaquoi late in the half to get the Bulldogs inside the Gamecock five was a thing of beauty.

He was much less effective in the second half – a nice pass to Ware was the exception. Timing was off on deeper passes, and you’d expect that when Stafford hasn’t worked much with the first team offense. The prognosis on Tereshinski’s ankle notwithstanding, Stafford should have three weeks or so to work on that timing and decision making with the first team before the SEC schedule resumes. He has plenty of work to do. I believe we saw last night why he wasn’t starting outright but also why he will start eventually.

Lots more to talk about later, but this is a great win for the program. The defense did what it should have done against a below-average offense, and the offense gritted out what it needed. With this win and the Spurrier drama behind them for another year, the season and its possibilities begins to open up for Georgia. How much can they improve before their next SEC game at Ole Miss?

WTOC in Savannah is reporting that legendary Georgia and Georgia Southern coach Erskine “Erk” Russell died this morning of a stroke.

There aren’t many more iconic figures in Georgia Bulldog football history. His loss is devastating to the Bulldog football family.

Erk was the head coach at Georgia Southern from 1981 to 1989 and led the Eagles to three Division 1-AA national titles. Prior to 1981, Erk had been Georgia’s defensive coordinator for seventeen years.

He was a great man for many reasons, but the biggest might be because he made those he came in contact with better. His players wanted to play better so as to not let him down. Fans he met in life came away feeling better for having met and spoken with him. Even recent Georgia players who weren’t even alive when Erk stalked the Georgia sideline wanted to be better Bulldogs after hearing a brief motivational speech from the master motivator. In his ideals, actions, and attitude on and off the field he leaves us an example any Bulldog player or fan can only hope to live up to.

GATA, Erk.

Kelly was the only guy who kept me out of last place in last week’s UGASports.com media pick ’em. 7-3 straight-up isn’t terribly good, but at least I’m in good company with ESPN’s Mark Schlabach. Mark Weiszer of the ABH needs to hop a plane to Vegas. This week is the on-the-road edition where I pick six of ten road teams to win.

Georgia at South Carolina: Georgia’s the better team, but South Carolina has plenty of tactics it can use to make this game close.

Ole Miss at Missouri: I think the Rebels will continue to settle in behind the new quarterback, but one of the nice surprises last week was the play of tailback BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Ole Miss will need to play better defense, but they should have enough firepower to hold off a lukewarm Missouri team.

Colorado State at Colorado: Colorado will rally around this game as they try to forget the humiliating loss to Montana State. If they can’t win this rivalry game, stick a fork in their season. They’re still searching for answers on offense, and I think they won’t find them for a while.

Ohio State at Texas: Much is being made of Ohio State’s losses on defense, but I’m not entirely sold on their offense yet. Ginn and Smith are fine talents, but they will need the balance of a running game. My money is on Texas and Gene Chizik whose last loss as a defensive coordinator was in 2003 to Georgia.

Clemson at Boston College: This is the first test of Clemson’s lofty ranking. Lose on the road to BC and stay out of the Top 20 for the next year or two.

Texas State at Kentucky: Many states have "State Universities" with decent sports programs. N.C. State. Ohio State. Mississippi State. Louisiana State. Montana State. Texas is not one of those states.

Arizona at LSU: Arizona isn’t as bad as they used to be, but they’re not as good as LSU.

Minnesota at California: This is the one game where I really go against the grain this week. I believe that Minnesota has every bit the amount of scoring potential that Tennessee did. The real question is Cal’s offense. We know Lynch is legitimate, but can the quarterback duo settle into this new offense? It’s a lot asking the Gophers to go on the road and beat a mad and talented Cal team, but I’m saying they can do it.

Penn State at Notre Dame: Penn State begins to realizes that last season was like the movie Awakenings where catatonic patients left for dead wake up and experience a brief period of vitality before slowly slipping back into their vegetative states.

Oregon at Fresno State: The Ducks looked mighty impressive against Stanford. Fresno becomes an early scratch from the "BCS Buster" list.

It’s easy to forget sometimes that Mark Richt is one of the least-accomplished coaches in the UGA Athletic Association. That’s not a criticism of Richt; it’s a testament to the incredible coaching talent assembled in Athens. Yoculan, Diaz, Landers, Haack…it’s solid all around. But one of the best is Jack Bauerle who coaches swimming and diving. Bauerle’s excellence will be rewarded today when he is named as the coach for the United States women’s swimming team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. It’s a big job, a lot of work, and a tremendous honor – one that is well-deserved. Many of Bauerle’s swimmers have participated in the Olympic Games, and now it’s his turn as coach.

This could be a close game if South Carolina has its way. Without a flurry of defensive or special teams scores, the Gamecocks shouldn’t put up more than 20 points. South Carolina’s strategy should follow much like this: keep the game close, keep the clock moving to shorten the game, hang on to the ball, and get to a point in the fourth quarter where it’s anyone’s game. It’s a familiar underdog strategy and one we’ve seen before. Remember last year’s South Carolina game?

We can look at all sorts of matchups and fret over Spurrier’s bag of tricks, but the more I think about it, the game comes down to something in Georgia’s control.

It’s all on Georgia’s passing game.

Since 2002, Georgia has scored at least 20 points against the Gamecocks twice (2003, 2004).

In the two games (2002, 2005) where the Dawgs didn’t score 20, they averaged 140.5 yards of passing. In the two higher-scoring games, the Dawgs had over 200 yards passing in each. Rushing totals had a lot less correlation with scoring.

Last year Georgia was a pitiful 8-17 through the air for 112 yards. With Shockley. Those are JT3 vs. Florida numbers. I know…Ko Simpson, good secondary, etc, etc. Georgia’s inability (unwillingness?) to move the ball through the air kept that game within South Carolina’s reach.

When the Dawgs routed the Gamecocks in 2003, they "only" threw for 213 yards, but it was a somewhat efficient 17-29 58.6%. The Bulldogs were also able to run a lot after Reggie Brown put on a show to build an early lead. In the other three games with SC since 2002, the Dawgs have done no better than completing 50% of their passes.

There is less and less doubt in my mind that Georgia’s passing game is why we’d be looking at a close game on Saturday that plays into South Carolina’s preferred strategy.

Now that we know what the key to Georgia’s success is, the question becomes "can they muster a passing game?" That implies a few other questions:

• Can a thinned-out offensive line without Daniel Inman hold back a South Carolina defense that showed a good ability to pressure the passer in their last game?
• How much of a dropoff is there in the South Carolina secondary without Ko Simpson and Johnathan Joseph? Mississippi State didn’t have the talent to test the Gamecock secondary; the few deep passes they threw were 1) dropped or 2) wounded ducks that were intercepted.
• Does Georgia have the personnel to execute this strategy? Shuffling the receiver depth chart and an uncertain quarterback rotation makes the issue questionable. We’ve yet to see a gameplan with Tereshinski where the strategy is to come out firing, and I believe we saw the upper limit on his range last weekend (around 30 yards). Is the answer more Stafford? That’s a lot to ask of a freshman in his first road game. Will the receivers even catch the ball?
• How will the Georgia run and pass feed off of each other? If the running game is constantly stuffed, long-yardage passing situations will be much easier for South Carolina to defend.
• Turnovers. South Carolina’s best offensive play in the past two games has been returning an interception for a touchdown. It’s a risk you take when you throw the ball, but it’s one that Georgia needs to take. Can the quarterback avoid making the disastrous mistake that Richt has talked about so much this preseason?

Celebration or physics experiment?

Talk about a nightmare scenario for Georgia’s season. From yesterday’s Georgiadogs.com practice report:

“Meet you at the quarterback” is a phrase often repeated by defensive ends during practice and games. During an 11-on-11 drill in Wednesday’s workout, Georgia’s Quentin Moses and Charles Johnson did just that except the quarterback saw them coming, stepped up in the pocket, and the two Bulldogs smashed in to each other and then remained on the ground for a few moments.

“We had a real, sickening, frightening feeling at that moment,” Georgia coach Mark Richt recounted after practice. “We thought we lost both of them on one play. I wondered if Coach Fabris was going to go in to cardiac arrest. However, they both got up and we were all relieved. It just shows they were practicing hard.”

In Switzerland, physicists are building a large circular underground tunnel to study what happens when particles collide at extremely high speeds. I think yesterday’s Georgia football practice could have saved them a lot of money. The only worse scenario is the two of them colliding with Stafford and all three obliterating each other in a flash of antimatter.

Much is being made of the decision to sit MoMass and Kenneth Harris in favor of starting Mario Raley and AJ Bryant at South Carolina. The reason given was drops, but there has to be more to it than that (Martrez Milner is still starting after all).

The more important point is Eason’s intent to send a message to Massaquoi. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if this were a one-game thing.

I didn’t make a big deal out of it at the time because it was just the spring game, but I only recall one catch from him at G-Day too. Oliver shut him down for much of the game.

He’s proven he has the hands, and that should make him our best receiver. A drop or two won’t change that; we’ve seen what he can do, especially against Auburn. Because of his hands he’s now drawing attention from defenses. If he can’t make an impact and get open against that kind of extra attention, he might as well be a third-down possession receiver.

The message is much more than a reaction to a drop or two against WKy. It’s more along the lines of "if you’re the #1 receiver, start making plays."

Playing time for and development of other receivers will only help Massaquoi in the long term. If someone – Durham, Raley, Bryant, Goodman, whoever – can turn into a dependable and consistent receiving option, teams won’t be able to focus on MoMass, and he’ll have more room and freedom to make those plays.

I have to give full credit to Paul over at Georgia Sports Blog for a brilliant brief documentary of the “family-friendly” tailgating areas. Watch the video and listen for the wind blowing across the deserted plains. Most of the time these blogs just talk about what other people have done or wrote, but kudos to GSB for creating some original journalism that cuts right to the point.

Tailgating in general was a bit down with the early start and poor opponent; I didn’t notice much traffic when I arrived around 8:30. We’ll see if these areas remain as desolate in coming weeks.

I know this is stale now, but there are a few leftover comments from the game I wanted to get down. I am one of those who thinks that you can tell a great deal even against poor 1-AA competition – tackles are tackles, catches are catches, and so on. Some things you can’t evaluate fully, but many things can be.

Defense. The starting defense was scary good. Even against a 1-AA team it’s easy to see how good this defense can be, especially along the line. The best part about the defense might have been the depth. Georgia started subbing reserves from the third series, and some like Dewberry made an immediate impact.
Did the defense have its questions? Sure, but they were few. Allen and Miller were thrown to the fire and looked lost at times in the secondary, but they’ll be fine. The defense was occasionally open to counter plays that ran the ball outside. The blown coverage that led to the touchdown has to be addressed. There were probably lots more little things that the coaches will tweak, but you’ve got to be pleased with the play of the defense.

Offense. I’m not concerned about the low yardage. When your defense and special teams sets you up at midfield for most of the game, you’re not going to put up gaudy yardage. I’m not sure whether or not it’s a good sign that the Dawgs were able to coast without much production from their offensive stars: Thomas Brown and Mohamed Massaquoi. MoMass only had one reception, and Brown looked pretty ordinary at tailback (again). At the very least, can we please stop the platitudes about Thomas Brown being the strongest or best this or that? Run for 100 yards a couple of weeks in a row, and we can talk.

Quarterbacks. I disagree with Ching when he says that "I don’t feel comfortable saying (Tereshinski) played well or poorly". While it might be premature to gush over Stafford, I think it’s perfectly valid to question Tereshinski’s performance, and I think we can. It’s pretty clear that Joe T. has made improvements from even last season, but I wonder if that improvement will be enough.

To my eyes, Tereshinski had four really nice passes: the TD pass to Raley (on which he made a nice audible), the in-stride crossing pattern to Goodman, 30-yard pass down the sideline to Harris, and a perfect throw to Milner that was dropped. Other passes, including the incompletions and drops, were either behind the receiver, underthrown, or late. The late passes were of special concern. They allowed defenders to read the pass and get a jump to make a play. Other than Milner’s drop of a sure touchdown, I think that coaches and observers are being generous with the "dropped pass" label. For the most part, they just weren’t good passes or were made more difficult by timing or requiring an adjustment from the receiver.

The most important thing to remember is that Richt isn’t an idiot and can see the same things we do. It’s been pretty funny how many fans have twisted and turned the comments and events to fit their own fantasies of how the quarterback position should and will shake out. Does anyone honestly think that Richt is playing JT3 simply out of some sense of obligation and loyalty? This "token pat-on-the-back start" theory is as messed up as it comes. Can we just be rational and see that Richt is sticking with "just good enough" while he brings a young talent along? The "throw them to the fire" approach might be fine for Arkansas where you have to pull out all of the stops to save your career, but Richt is grooming a starter for the next several seasons, and he’s not going to screw that up by putting an unprepared freshman out there for more than he can handle.

Nothing like it. All of the analysis, anticipation, anxiety….none of it matters much anymore because we live for this. We get precious few days with the Dawgs, only seven in Sanford Stadium, and each one is special and unique. Can’t wait to see what this year brings.

GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!!!

You can hear me on this week’s UGASportsLIVE broadcast (towards the end)…just talking football and going down memory lane.

I’m also a part of the UGASports.com media pick-em where a few of the folks covering the Dawgs put in our two cents about the games of interest each week. Should be interesting, and hopefully I can hold my own. I think in future weeks we’ll be commenting on the picks too.

Do yourself a favor and check out these two articles in today’s Red & Black. Some students are pretty ticked about the University parking cars at and on the intramural fields for football games.

• Tailgaters to invade intramural fields, city
• Students blast new Univ. policy

I can understand not wanting to play ultimate frisbee on shards of glass. But we’re not talking about the fairways at Augusta National either; they can deal with parking cars on the grass. What gets me is the palpable hostility of some towards football. Jeez…put down the hacky sacks and get inside Sanford Stadium.

One person did mention something I’ve suggested before.

Travis Storin, a senior accounting major from Marietta, playing football with friends (said…)
“Since we’re making the changes to accommodate family tailgating, they should be the ones forced to relocate.”

That would make too much sense…alcohol-free "family" tailgates would be much less likely to get out of control and leave behind trash and especially broken glass.

Admit it…you’re wondering what toli is.

Georgia freshman cornerback Asher Allen is the focus of a USA Today story on the trend of freshmen graduating early from high school to enroll in college early. They spend the spring semester settling in to the college routine, taking classes, going through spring practice and summer workouts, and are more prepared to begin the football season as true freshmen.

Georgia always has a couple of these freshmen, but this year they have an NCAA-leading six early enrollees. It’s to their advantage – Allen is a possible starter at nickle corner and will certainly see playing time.

There are two sure signs that the season opens this week. First is that players are slowly but surely coming back from injuries. Fans wring their hands over the day-to-day injury reports during preseason camp, but the truth has been that the Dawgs (seriously knocking on wood here) are relatively healthy. Besides the knee injury to Coates, there aren’t many long-term injuries on the squad. You have guys like Gant and Elmore and a few of the offensive linemen fighting nagging, sometimes chronic injuries, but most of them should be ready for action soon.

The second sign that the season is right around the corner is the last-minute shuffling and solidifying of the depth chart. Some positions have been set since the end of last season, but many others continue to be up for grabs. We heard about the quarterbacks weeks ago, and now the final few pieces are coming together.

• The guys over at UGASports.com told us yesterday that Danny Verdun-Wheeler had earned a starting strong (SAM) linebacker position over Brandon Miller. Everyone in the world seems to think that Miller is a better fit at defensive end, but so far the coaches haven’t made that move. Whether he’s a linebacker or defensive end, he’ll be starting the season on the second team. It should be noted that he was injured a good bit last year and has also been banged up this preseason, so it might just be a consequence of Verdun-Wheeler being more prepared at this point.
• Ching reports that Asher Allen and Prince Miller are both candidates for nickle cornerback – a very key position in passing situations. Both have ridiculous talent and speed, but they are still freshmen and prone to the occasional freshman mistake. It’s really up in the air which will start, but each will see time on Saturday. So two true freshman are battling for a rather important position. Interesting. Bryan Evans will also see time at cornerback. Oliver and Ramarcus Brown are the starters of course.

So we’ll have a starting defense of Moses-Owens-Dixson-C Johnson, Verdun – Taylor – Jackson, Oliver-Battle-K Johnson-Brown. Great lineup there, especially when you consider that there are names like Byrd, Miller, and Weston coming off the bench. About the only real question marks as far as the depth chart goes are at the return positions – kickoffs and punts. Flowers’ suspension has put the punt return job up for grabs, and there are still several likely candidates for kickoff return.

A recap of the Athens Touchdown Club meeting from last night also has some interesting tidbits. Among them: the true freshmen who will surely play are Durham, Atkins, Dewberry, Allen, and Miller. Others might play too – Crawford seems most likely. It was surprising to see the harsh words about Moreno at tailback. All indications we had to this point were that he had really worked his way into the mix. As an aside, this is more or less a repeat of something we see every year: ans drunk on recruiting videos are certain that 15+ true freshmen will play, and it always ends up that only 6-8 do.

Finally, Ching mentions something really interesting:

But I will say this: Joe T was throwing the ball a lot of places in the early part of practice we watched, when he and Cox were working on pass routes with the receivers. One of those places was rarely the receivers’ hands. He didn’t look too good. And of course, my opinion on the subject means very little. I’m just saying what I saw.

You might write that off as one guy’s opinion, but the UGASports.com writers posted the exact same observation on the DawgVent last night. Scary stuff. You’ve got to wonder what the plan is.