>Not much is going on in Athens these days…..yeah right. Let’s get into it…
– Today Georgia Pres Michael Adams named UGA grad and current Florida Gators Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director Greg McGarity as the new AD effective September 1st. He will replace Damon Evans, who did a good job, but ultimately made some very poor and embarrassing decisions (red panties anyone?). McGarity was a candidate originally when Evans was given the position. McGarity has been at Florida since 1992 so he has seen and helped Florida under Jeremy Foley become one of the most dominant sports programs in the land (man it hurt to write that). McGarity will now take that experience and use it against the dark side.
– News popped up recently that Georgia X-Factor Branden Smith was having some academic difficulties and was pulled from practicing until he was cleared. Luckily after missing 8 practices, Smith was declared ready to go and is currently back with the team.
– Incoming freshman LB Dexter Morant made the decision a few days before fall practice that he didn’t want to play football and quit the team. A few days later he rethought his decision and has now joined the team. Morant is a DE that is projected to play OLB in the Dawgs new 3-4 defense. Apparently these things happen more than you think but you hear about it today in the information age alot more than in the past. Glad to have him back and hopefully he can make an impact over the next few years.
– Speaking of Freshmen here are the freshmen that are getting a positive buzz from the coaches and in the blogs: DB Alec Ogletree (made the only interception off of Aaron Murray in the first scrimmage), his brother FB Zander Ogletree, CB Derek Owens, and OL Kenarious Gates.
– Speaking of the first scrimmage…here are some of the stats from Coach Mark Richt:
QB Aaron Murray 12 for 21 for 237 yds, 2 TD, 1 INT
QB Hutson Mason 9 for 23 for 78 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT
QB Parker Welch 1 for 3 for 41 yds
QB Greg Bingham 0 for 3
RB Washaun Ealey 5 attempts for 66 yds
RB Caleb King 14 attempts for 63 yds
RB Carlton Thomas 9 attempts for 26 yds, 2 rec for 28 yds
WR AJ Green 5 rec for 141 yds and 2 TD
WR Logan Gray 2 rec for 45 yds
WR Tavares King 2 rec for 33 yds
TE Arthur Lynch 1 rec for 3 yds 1 TD
S Shawn Williams and LB Akeem Hebron each has a sack
Brandon Boykin and Alec Ogletree each had an interception
– Who is showing the Dawgs some love? Let’s start with College Football News, which has Georgia as the #3 team (in the COUNTRY not just in the SEC East). Wow. They list the OL, LB corps, backfield, AJ Green and the best kicking game in college football for their ranking. Next up is SI’s Stuart Mandel, who in an interview with Pre-Snap Read listed AJ Green as the player most worth the price of admission in college football.
– Let’s get to the award watch lists.
Biletnikoff Award- WR AJ Green
Bronco Nagurski Award- OLB Justin Houston
Chuck Bedarnik Award (Best Defensive Player)- OLB Justin Houston
Jim Thorpe Award- CB Brandon Boykin
Maxwell Award (Best All-Around Player)- WR AJ Green, RB Washaun Ealey
Outland Trophy (Best Interior Lineman)- OL Clint Boling, C Ben Jones
Rimington Trophy (Best Center)- Ben Jones
Ray Guy Award- P Drew Butler (won the award last year)
Walter Camp Award (Player of the Year)- WR AJ Green
So lots of Bulldogs are on the “watch lists” and some (like TE, K and RB- which I’m sure we will have 1 on each) are still to be announced.
– Mega recruit James Wilder Jr, of Plant High School (formerly home to Aaron Murray and Orson Charles) will announce his verbal commitment on August 18th. He’s down to FSU, Florida and Georgia. 4-Star recruit CB Nick Waisome will make his commitment known on the same day.
– Todd Grantham says that the defense is on track in terms of picking up the new 3-4 defense. That’s good news, it will be interesting to see what happens when the real whistle blows.
– Here’s the new video that will apparently be playing after the third quarter during home games. Great stuff. AJ, Caleb and Washaun look absolutely fantastic in this video. This gets me ready for the season.
Some Non-UGA/Non-Football Stuff:
TV: The best show on Television is coming back on September 7th(if you guessed Dexter or Breaking Bad then you are close but no cigar). Sons of Anarchy! If you haven’t seen this show yet then run to your local Best Buy, or wherever you get your DVDs from, and buy the first two seasons and watch it over the next 24 hours.
Movies: What’s in my Net-Flix queue? The last movie was Kick-Ass. It was pretty much what I thought it was. Decent action, not bad. I was a little surprised at the little girl slaughtering people but what are you going to do. Nick Cage surprisingly wasn’t horrible.
Music: Been listening to a lot of stuff lately but one song has really grown on me. It’s The Felice Brothers “Radio Song” (you can listen to or download a version of the song at that link- sounds pretty gritty on the site but that’s all I could find right now). I’ve mostly seen them described as “folk rock”. They also have a really good song called “Frankie’s Gun” that I am digging as well.
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