“Had Georgia beat them last year they probably would’ve won the national championship, they would’ve at least played for it and this year its time to take care of business. They have had our number for a while now and it’s time to put a stop to it.”

– Incoming Bulldog freshman Thomas Flowers on the Florida game

Georgia’s top men’s basketball signee for 2003, Mohamed Abukar, is exploring seeking a release from the letter of intent he signed with the Dawgs. Without the release, he would have to sit out for two seasons before becoming eligible to play elsewhere. Another signee, Corey Gibbs, has said that he will honor his letter of intent and come to Georgia.

Georgia will come under pressure to grant a release to Abukar and anyone else who might want one, but acquiescing now would be very premature. Even those conducting this investigation don’t know what the result will be. Will there be a coaching change? Will there be sanctions? Possibly. Probably.

Should Harrick be fired or Georgia ends up with sanctions (self-imposed or otherwise), then it might be appropriate to offer the option of release to the incoming signing class. But Georgia would be doing itself a great disservice by forcing these kids into an uninformed decision. Only when it is known who will coach Georgia next season and under what restrictions (if any) the team will play will the signees have all of the cards on the table.

It might sound cold, but simply playing for a program with a black eye isn’t a valid reason to release a signee from his letter of intent. Should the investigation produce a coaching change or sanctions, then it will be time to consider such requests. But given the way this has been handled so far, look for UGA to cave early.

“There has been this growing trend in the last decade, at least, of fan behavior getting worse. We’re not going to totally solve the problem, but hopefully we can turn the corner a little bit.”

– Vince Dooley on a Sportsmanship Summit he will chair to address unruly fans

It’s gotten to this point. Vince Dooley will chair a discussion on fan sportsmanship after unruly fans dominated the headlines in 2002, especially late in the season.

When Iowa fans (the visiting team) carried off Minnesota’s goal posts from inside a domed stadium, things reached an absurd head. This discussion is a good first step, but real change will only come after campus authorities start handing out real penalties for unruly behavior and treating these fans as the hoodlums they are.

“The main ingredient of mat drills is mental toughness, but the second is team unity. We are all working together. There are no stars, no heroes, there are no great players, we are all a team. We are all dressed alike, we are all doing the same exact drills, we are all getting treated alike, and then the unity comes.”

– Coach Dave Van Halanger on the philosophy behind the infamous mat drills

“Right now, I plan on coming back. College is fun. I love it here. I still need to work on some things.”

– Jarvis Hayes on his plans for next season.

Although lots can change, Jarvis Hayes sounds as if he’ll be back in Athens next year. It makes sense – with the (relative) struggles this year and a mid-season injury, he would have been in better shape leaving after last season.

Should Jarvis stick to this and return, the Dawgs appear to be loaded next season. Ezra Williams is the sole loss among the regulars. The Dawgs welcome in a class big on size and talent. Jarvis’s return will mean that Georgia will still have a proven outside threat while they develop a strong post game.

Hayes’s return also means that Mohamed Abukar, perhaps the top recruit coming in next year and Georgia’s future at the wing position, can spend a year learning as the understudy to one of the best wingmen in the game.

Jay Bilas: Georgia is 2-5 on the road, but four of its losses have come against RPI top 50 teams — and all have been nail biters. Plus, two of those losses came without Steve Thomas and Chris Daniels. That has to be factored in when the selection committee meets during the second weeken of March.

Very true, and it’s good to have national recognition for the quality of Georgia’s schedule (again). But sooner or later you have to win some of these quality matchups on the road. The biggest remaining road game for Georgia is Tuesday evening at Alabama. The Tide has been even poorer on the road with a lower-quality schedule, but like Georgia, they have proven nearly unbeatable at home.

Win in Tuscaloosa, and the Dawgs have a very impressive road win to pretty much lock up an NCAA bid. Lose, and Georgia can point to all of the tough, marquee road losses they want as they drop dangerously close to wrapping up a finish in the lower half of the SEC East.

“I think they can win a national championship in a year or two and I want to be on a national championship team.”

– LB Marcus Howard on his decision to commit to Georgia

1980:

The Dawgs show nothing on offense and face a 15-2 deficit until Herschel is unleashed. Georgia struggles to a 16-15 win in Knoxville against a Tennessee team that would finish 5-6. It took a fumble (caused by Nate Taylor) on the goalline to prevent a Tennessee win. Georgia bumbled to four fumbles (two were lost) and ten penalties in a sloppy opener.

1998:

Tennessee travels to Syracuse in a tougher-than-usual opener, but Cuse was no national power…they’d finish win an OK 8-4 record that year. New QB Tee Martin showed he was no Peyton, going 9-of-26 on the day. Syracuse took the lead with a few minutes left, and the Vols needed to orchestrate a last-minute drive to set up a game-winning FG. The Vols defense was shredded by McNabb and the Orangemen for 445 total yards.

I saw a lot of predictions for a long season for the Noles based on last night’s opener. Fans of those two undefeated national champions profiled above probably also didn’t make Jan. 1 reservations after those openers.

Make no mistake, the Noles have a lot of concerns…the lack of a pass rush down the stretch from the DL left their zone defense wide open. They say the most improvement comes between the first and second games. I’d wait a little while to write off the Noles yet.

So the Ole Miss chancellor has suggested that the SEC police itself concerning violations of NCAA rules. It would be a good start, but the membership and direction of such a body would have to be very closely scrutinized.

In the current climate of the SEC, only South Carolina and Vandy have been without an NCAA investigation or sanction concerning the football program since 1987, and several have been nailed multiple times. Fair or not, the prima facie implication with that kind of track record is a conference out of control, an administration ineffective to reign in its membership, and a climate where a win-at-any-cost mentality rules.

The conference is at a crossroads. The impending retirement of Roy Kramer gives the chance for reform in a truly positive and different direction in terms of academic and regulatory reform. While the performances on the field have been the best in the nation and the conference is among the best in nearly every sport, the core is rotting away from the inside. Academic integrity is an oxymoron, runaway boosters threaten to derail the legitimacy of entire universities, and fans incapable of separating the contests of sport from real life are relishing the next program to go down. The hint that the SEC may promote from within indicates that the conference membership is content with the status quo; bulging purses have made it easy to reenlist for more of the same.

The SEC is nothing but its membership. If the twelve schools and its presidents, chancellors, and athletic directors believe that things are OK as-is, that will be reflected in their choice for the next commissioner and their lack of support for Robert Khayat’s initiative for reform. Cynics among us see that as the exact course of action we can expect over the summer as Kramer retires and a great chance for a new direction is missed.

Dawgs and Gators in prime time. People are already correctly predicting the ugly scene that will be inevitable when the Cocktail Party gets extended by three or four hours.

UGA Softball heads for the NCAA Regionals. The program has come a long way in just a few years of existence. On Sunday, the team (which began play in only 1997) reached a level that the mighty football program has yet to see since the SEC went divisional – the SEC championship game.

A really interesting concept from Major League Baseball. For $4.95 per month, users will be able to download 20-minute videos almost immediately after games which feature all hits, runs, and relevant plays in a game. These condensed games are not just highlights – all of the game’s action is preserved. You can still see how a game develops, check and see how your roto players are doing, and watch the games of contenders in your team’s division in about an hour.

I would love for the SEC to offer something like this. How much of a football game is actually action? Again about 20 minutes. The rest is huddling or cleaning up after a tackle, etc. For $4.95 per month, would you pay for a service which offered every minute of football action in the SEC for a given weekend (about 20 minutes per game or a few hours total) and not miss a play? I know I would. Bring it on.

Gym Dogs just miss a miracle
After a season of injuries and setbacks, the Gym Dogs survived from meet to meet, won the SEC championship, and last night came within a hair of taking the national championship. As it turned out, Alabama turned in a great performance of their own to place first, but Georgia left it all on the mats. Pulling things together this year might have been one of Suzanne Yoculan’s best coaching jobs, and the story of the 2002 gymnastics season is one of the better ones to come out of Athens in some time.