I was so pissed yesterday with the whole Kirby Smart situation that I was wondering just what good the interwebs were for my blood pressure and overall mental state. And my beloved college football, my religion as a member of the Church of Uga, was riding in a very close second for things I was going to give up for a few weeks. And then Lane Kiffen, Uga bless his heart, gives me reason to smile and something he never had: perspective.

I got a text from my buddy at 2112: “Lane Kiffin just took the SC job.” My first reaction was simply, “What??????? I though Mariucci was taking it.” Then, remembering my dance with the devil just yesterday, I reminded him, “Don’t believe it until the presser. Like we did with Kirby.” And I went back to what I was doing. Then I got done and fired up the evil, demon interwebs and found this as breaking news on Yahoo. And the message boards, they were a burnin’.

So it turns out that, really, honestly, Kiffykins is headed back to where it started. ESPN reported it, so I tended to believe it (more than say, Rivals and footballcoachscoop.com and Pollack’s Twitter feed). And then came this (h/t: BusterSports.com). Wait, did he just zing Fulmer on his way OUT THE DOOR with that “leaving here 14 months later with a lot better team than we were 14 months ago” comment? Wow, first you took the man’s job and now you’re saying that in 14 whole months you made that much improvement? Dude, you went 7-6 and got it handed to you in the Chick-Fil-A bowl.

I’ve just got to wonder if it had something to do with the NCAA sanctions. Not the minor violations he’s managed to rack up at UT, along with the hostesses that he “didn’t have knowledge of” and one of his prize recruits just pleading guilty to attempted robbery. No, what I’m saying is that in 14 months at UT that wasn’t good enough for Lane “Sanction Express” Kiffin. He needs a school with a foundation and tradition in that particular area.

Oh, just so nobody’s worried about the Kiffykins Crew, Daddy and Orgeron are packing up to. And like the hotel guest that takes a towel or two, they’re going to try to sneak a few amenities out in their luggage. Like all 8 recruits that enrolled early and are were set to start classes tomorrow. Well, that’s ballsy for sure. I’m not sure if that’s smart considering this happened (NSFW pics in the link). But that’s all water under the dam, right? Right??

Well Vol Nation, even though we (for the most part) cordially detest each other I’m not here to rub it in. I didn’t get any real grief from you guys on the Kirby thing, except for that one goober, so I’m going to give you insight into this Dawg fanatic’s mind. I’m going to tell you how to scare the Silver Britches off of the collective Bulldawg Nation: Hire the right guy this time. I’m not being flippant. Last year’s shellacking aside, I was never really worried about UT as long as Lane and his reanimated DC Daddy were at the helm. Your program was being run by an entire pack of blind squirrels. At least you didn’t have to wait 3 years for the problem to get rectified (ahem).

I know a lot of names are already being thrown around for the vacancy and that time is SO of the essence, what with National Signing Day right around the bend. Your need has finally taken over the spotlight in the SEC, so I thank you.

• I know a lot of folks want Muschamp, but I think it’s a pipe dream – his gig is too sweet down at the other UT.
• I’ve heard Mike Leach – WTF-ever. Yeah, the only thing to counter the drama and crazy you just had is with MORE crazy….
• Gruden – not likely. He’s got ties to the program, but those were a long time ago. He’s an NFL guy now. Your chances of getting him are about as good as us getting our now-NFL guy, Van Gorder.
• Patterson – DECENT chance, but the timetable is too short for you. He might like to come to a AQ school, though. If you weren’t concerned with trying to keep or replace those 8 guys following Pied-Orgeron’s flute it might be worth a shot.
• Calhoun from Air Force – I believe he was a finalist when you hired the last guy. I think the time table works against you again. And he wouldn’t scare me much.

Here’s an idea that would scare me to death: Look to your tree and get a guy who’s come home several times. A guy with SEC ties and a successful track record as a HC in the conference. A guy who coached up your golden calf and his brother. He’s a head coach in the basketball conference (ACC) right now. Some guy named Cutcliffe.

Look, the man can coach. Period. He took a pretty rank Ole Miss squad and did some pretty good things. In 6 seasons, he had 5 winning seasons and never had a losing record until his last. He was 4-1 in bowl games (counting his first when he took over when TTubbs ran to Auburn), including a Cotton Bowl win in 2003 when he tied for a share of the West with eventual BCS champs LSU. And it’s not like he left that team in shambles – Houston Nutt brought his heavy run offense to the table and took them to the Cotton Bowl the following year.

His next, and current, HC gig took him to Durham. They’re not awful. In his first year Duke won the same number of games as they did in the last 4 years COMBINED. They improved another win last year, against a pretty tough schedule. I’d bet that he takes them to a bowl in the upcoming season. The man can flat out coach. Oh, don’t forget about the last SEC guy that took Duke from the crapper, whipped them into respectability, then came back to the SEC. Here’s a hint –

So maybe Cutcliffe isn’t the second coming of Darth Visor. Maybe we have that already in Meyer and Saban. Maybe I’m pulling your collective Rocky Top chains. Maybe I just wanted an excuse to post a pic of Erin Andrews (that would be a good guess if I actually NEEDED an excuse). All I’m saying is that Cutcliffe would make UT, in my silly little mind, relevant in the SEC East discussion.

Sorry for missing the first series – I was handling some arrangements for a business trip next week. Things went awry at the last minute, but that’s my life.

1st Quarter

- Nice stop on UT, liked the pass rush there.
- WOW! Did you see Knowshon lower his shoulder and hit that safety? What injury??
- I’m a little concerned with the passing game right now. Stafford appears to have a case of the nerves right now, but I guess I’d be a little apprehensive too. After last week, and he’s 0 – 2 against UT. Big 4th down coming up.
- Well done. First down. Rolling a little bit here, let’s see if we can keep this long, grinding drive going.
- Here come the hankies again. Guys, we just can’t keep this up. Even False Start is too much today.
- A beautifully run screen pass. And it looks like Chapas is getting motivated now that Southerland is back.
- TD, UGA: 7 – 0. Speaking of Mr. Southerland, welcome back. And that’s the first rushing TD against an allegedly good UT defense. I’m sorry, I don’t buy all the hype about a team or one of their units until they face competition. Speaking of that, how about that super duper Chokelahoma defense that gave up 45 in a losing effort in the Red River Shootout? Uh huh.
- I’m seeing good aggression, but uncontrolled. We should have put Crompton on his ass on that play. That’s okay, that comes with time. And we’re owning the passing lanes on this drive.
- I hate my server. I just lost about 10 lines of content because the update puked. Stupid server. I made comments about the nice tribute CBS did to Munson, and that we’re seeing some inspired football by Georgia right now.
- Another WOW moment there – AJ dropped a pass. Maybe he was surprised at how open he was.
- Knowshon takes a 2 yard loss and gains 4. I love that kid.
- Well, I could make a case for holding or pass interference on either guy there. Let’s get the 3 and head back to the sidelines.
- FG, UGA: 10 – 0. I think this Walsh kid is going to be another Georgia kicking legend. Good leg, just needs to work on long distance accuracy. He’s a freshman, he’ll be fine.
- Error Correct here – I thought Crompton got the start at QB for UT today, but I’m wrong. The youngster Stevens (sp?) is on the field.
- Another sack for the defense. Like I said, inspired football. Granted, UT hasn’t found their offense all season, but we’re taking out some aggression on UT.
- Okay, what is all this happy, fancy shit? Coach Bobo, all we need to do is line up and attack them. It’s worked for the last 2 drives, just keep it going. I know, it’s setting things up for later but we won’t need to worry about later if we score 2 or 3 more times. I don’t think their young QB can lead a comeback.
End of the quarter. UGA 10, UT 0. read this entry »

Well, Georgia is without a game this week so we’ll do a quick wrap up of the Bama debacle and what’s ahead for the By God University of Georgia Bulldogs. Then lets do a quick overview of the rest of the country and take a look at a couple of good matchups this week.

Talk about a tale of two halves last Saturday. I will still give Bama all the credit in the world – they came out and punched us right in the mouth FIVE STRAIGHT POSSESSIONS and left us for dead. And I’ll give them Dawgs a lot of credit – they didn’t roll over and die like they did last year in a similar situation at Tennessee. I tell ya – one more defensive stand on Bama’s field goal drive in the second half, or one missed tackle on the ensuing kickoff and we would’ve had ourselves a brand new ball game.

For that matter, take away that roughing penalty on the first drive (the one that deleted that fumble) and maybe things are different. And ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have ourselves a merry Christmas…. Kill yourself with penalties, have a few bad breaks (missed catches and the fumble by AJ) and that adds up to a momentum killer. Knowshon wasn’t much of a factor, either, at least not after the first drive. Give Bama’s D-line the credit there, and for keeping pressure on Stafford.

All in all, a spectacular first half by Bama and nearly the same from Georgia in the second. The difference came down to the Dawgs not being able to keep the game from getting away in the first and Bama being able to put the game away in the second. But like I said way back before the season started, I expected a loss before the break. There’s still plenty of time and the schedule is favorable, especially if the season keeps to the same script as last year (remember the last week of September last year?), to book that trip to Miami. Now that we see that we’re not the titans we thought we were, I hope that there’s some soul-searching and retrospection that leads to some quality wins for the rest of the season.

So let’s see here, what teams lost last week? USC (Oregon St); Clemson (Maryland, who lost to Middle Tennessee St earlier); Florida (a choker to Ole Miss at the Swamp); Wisconsin (Michigan, who gutted it out); Weak, I mean Wake Forest (Navy, a true system program); Georgia (Alabama, the most complete team I’ve seen play); Illinois (Penn St, probable Rose Bowl participant). Those last two weren’t REALLY upsets, although the Bama game could have been seen that way. Penn St was the higher-rannked team. Oh, and UT lost to Auburn in the TO bowl. Sorry, had to include that one…. read this entry »

Folks, I have just received some sad news. It is the end of a tremendous era in Georgia Football today. Larry Munson, the man who has been the “Legendary Voice of the Georgia Bulldogs” for 42 years has decided to retire. I’m not much of one for reporting the news, so you can read about it on Rivals.com, the Rivals page on Yahoo!, and from the hometown Athens Banner-Herald.

Basically, after consulting with family, friends and his doctors, Larry Munson decided to hang up the microphone today. His abrupt retirement caught everyone, I dare say, off guard. Since he cut out road games last year, everyone knew that this day would come sooner rather than later. One might think that he could have waited until after the season, or at least not decide to retire during the week of a pivotal home game against Alabama (with a Black Out on). Well, I say this: The man has given over 40 years to the Bulldog Nation, become a stanchion of the Georgia football, and he’s earned the right to retire whenever he damn well pleases. read this entry »

Ok, weekly updates weren’t really that important up til now (Georgia had tuneup games). So, I’ll do a quick recap and look at this week, all before kickoff (an hour and a half from now). Obviously, the most important thing is Georgia Football but I’ll touch on a few things that struck me as odd and beat up the media and BCS a little bit, too.

Week 1 was more shocking that 2. With the exceptions of Pitt and Virginia Tech, all the Top 25 teams did what they were supposed to. Pitt wasn’t that good, in my opinion, and Va Tech is having an off year. And I think that East Carolina IS that good, at least as long as they can keep their focus. Kudos to Skip Holtz, and I hope he stays at ECU and turns them into a powerhouse that turns the BCS on its ear for years to come.

The only shocker was the injury of OSU’s Beanie Wells. What the hell was he doing in the ballgame in the 3rd quarter with the game no longer in doubt? Well, padding his stats for his run at the Heisman, that’s what. And I don’t think you can blame Jim Tressel for this. Beanie was probably dying to get more yards and there’s huge pressure on the coaches from the schools to get that recognition. So, he’s still out this week for their alleged “game of the year” against Southern Cal. B-double-O H-double-O.

MY big gripe after Week 1 is about the polls. It’s not that UGA getting bumped down a notch after they covered the spread and USC beat down a BCS conference team in Virginia. It’s how much juggling they did throughout the poll. There has been a call for years to not rank teams until the end of September, but the media has always said that things are okay the way they are. Well, you idiots jumped USC over both UGA and OSU (who both covered) based on the lunacy that because they played FCS teams and USC beat a BCS conference team (that returned a whopping 2 all-ACC players) that played in a New Year’s Day bowl last year. Whatever. Hey guys, how about the brilliant preseason ranking of Clemson at 9? read this entry »