Yep, the Diamond Dawgs made a quick exit from the CWS. There’s no need at this point to run down individuals, but many of the familiar names that propelled the Dawgs to Omaha didn’t have much to say once they got there. It’s not that they played poorly or were dominated. They played two quality teams very close and had to feel good about their chances of winning at least one of them. Described by Coach Perno as a team that relied on the big inning, Georgia managed only one multi-run inning in their two games and immediately gave those runs back.

Rice and Oregon State did what many teams over the past two months couldn’t: prevent Georgia from stringing hits and runs together in overwhelming scoring bursts. Such explosive innings helped Georgia avoid elimination against FSU and South Carolina in the postseason. In the final game of the season, three double plays were key in killing any momentum the Dawgs tried to create. The double plays “ripped our hearts out,” said Perno. “We had three big double plays at the worst times.” The final double play came on the last at-bat of the game in which Georgia had the winning run at the plate. Even down to the end, they were still in the game but just couldn’t come up with the big plays. Against the level of competition in Omaha, that’s the formula for a quick trip home.

The future? Georgia will have a good bit of turnover. That’s just the nature of college baseball. There is a nice core in place, and guys like Beckham and the freshman pitchers will be experienced vets next year. While Georgia should be proud of its second trip to Omaha in three seasons, the goals for next season should be humble but very clear: return to the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. For all their success since 2001, Georgia has only made consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament once in program history (2001-2002). The CWS trip in 2004 was followed by a disappointing 2005 that was just a game or two away from the postseason. The highs have certainly been good, but it’s time to level out some of the lows and establish some consistency in the program. Even without knowing the makeup of the team heading into next season, I don’t consider those goals to be unreasonable for a program with Georgia’s recent success.

Given the limited scholarships and turnover due to the professional draft that completely changes college rosters from year to year, establishing continuity and sustaining postseason-quality success from year to year is one of the toughest jobs a college coach has, and it’s what separates the very best.

Joe Tereshinski surely knows that he’s in a very tough fight to keep the starting QB job in 2006.  But in Sunday’s interview with the AJC, he comes across as nothing but calm, humble, and everything else you’d expect a guy to be after spending a few years under Mark Richt’s guidance.

Joe T. gushes with praise for those who came before him, knows how to approach the senior-led summer workouts, and talks about playing for the Dawgs as a true honor and priviledge.  With his family’s history, you might could excuse him seeing this opportunity as routine and his birthright, but he seems to relish each snap as one of us might if we were plucked off the street and given the chance of a lifetime to lead the Bulldogs.

Without even knowing what’s going on in Athens this summer, I’m encouraged knowing that seniors like this are getting the team ready.

Chad Simmons of UGASports.com reports that Georgia has added two defensive commitments to the football recruiting class of 2007. S John Knox and DE Justin Houston chose Georgia over offers from such schools as Auburn, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, and LSU. Each is rated among UGASports.com’s top 25 players at any position in Georgia.

The pair have known each other since third grade and wanted to play together. I especially liked that Georgia held its own with a few kids who were comparing academics with Georgia Tech. Word is getting out.

Quite a day as we watched this story evolve.

First, the AJC reports that UGA relief pitcher Stephen Dodson has been arrested for underage drinking and theft. Bad, but not quite hanging out with hookers the night before the Super Bowl. But his fate will be the same.

Using data from the UGA Police Dep’t., we learn that Dodson and former UGA pitcher Johnny Dobbs tied one on over the weekend and tried to take a few souveniers from Foley Field. Their haul? Dodson got a $75 NCAA Tournament banner for his room and Dobbs got nailed for a $2 baseball. Priceless.

But as stupid as this prank was (and as we all remember that traffic sign or banner in our dorm rooms), it has cost Dodson a chance to participate in the College World Series. Coach David Perno has suspended Dodson, and he won’t make the trip with the team.

That’s a pretty harsh consequence for a drunken prank, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this decision came from a bit higher up the University food chain and might have even overruled Coach Perno. Given President Adams’ current crusade against student drinking, the alcohol part of the story probably cost Dodson infinitely more than the “theft”.

Sometime around the middle of the season the names Moreau, Holder, Dodson, and Leaver became as familiar to Georgia baseball fans as Westphal, Brown, Warren, and Fields. The emergence of those four freshmen gave Georgia real pitching depth, and suddenly they had the arms to sustain them on their late-season winning streak.

The advantage of that depth was obvious in the super regional against South Carolina. Though pitching didn’t matter much in Saturday’s game, it played a large role in the final two games of the series. Both nights, South Carolina was forced to stick too long with their starter because of a shaky bullpen. Georgia capitalized both nights as the Gamecock starters tired and then vulnerable relievers came in. Meanwhile, Georgia was able to turn to several dependable arms out of the bullpen to keep the games in hand before the Georgia offense took over each night.

I am especially happy to see the role that Bobby Felmy played in the two Georgia wins. Felmy has had his moments this senior season, including a huge game-winning RBI against Georgia Tech at Turner Field. But to be honest, he was struggling on offense by his standards. His two homeruns ignited Georgia’s biggest innings on Sunday and Monday, and his five RBIs were all critical to Georgia’s success.

11-0 all-time in Athens in elimination games for Georgia. Incredible. These cardiac canines found new life midseason after a weak SEC start left them in a big hole. From the SEC Tournament to both rounds of the NCAA postseason this far, Georgia has shown the same spirit to keep fighting and emerge on top. Now this show goes to Omaha, and there is no reason why they can’t win there also. One of the keys to surviving the double-elimination test in Omaha is having the pitching to get through that second and third game and advance to Championship Weekend. This year, that factor might finally be on Georgia’s side.

This is really an incredible time for Georgia baseball.  There have only been eight trips to the NCAA Tournament in program history, and four of those have come since 2001.  The program has made five trips to Omaha, and three of those have come since 2001.  The Dawgs were probably a single SEC win from making the tournament in 2005, so even the “down” years lately are better than the historical norms.  With a strong showing in Omaha, not many SEC baseball programs can claim as good a start to this decade as Georgia.

Very disappointing news. The ABH reports today that Georgia remains without a satellite radio deal and will remain one of the few holdouts for at least the short-term.

“We’re probably in the best position as that goes right now because we’re not locked in one way or the other,” says assoc. AD Alan Thomas from Athens, well within range of 960 WRFC AM and WGMG 102.1 FM. Thomas goes on to show how great this position is by noting that Georgia and Arkansas are the only SEC schoools still on the satellite sideline. Those foolish ten SEC schools who chose to serve their fan bases must be incredible suckers.

There are several sticking points. Will satellite deals in the future be arranged on a conference basis as TV deals are, or will they be handled by individual schools as radio deals are? Also, Georgia would like to make sure that any satellite partner carries the Georgia audio for all games instead of choosing one broadcast or the other when both schools are carried by the satellite network. That’s reasonable; we all expect to hear Munson, but it doesn’t seem like enough of a showstopper to keep Georgia off the satellites.

I’m especially frustrated because I’m in the market for satellite radio, and I am/was waiting on Georgia’s decision to influence mine. Georgia always seems to be behind the technology curve whether it be streaming media, online ticket ordering, or even Web sites (this very site was launched in 1995 partly out of frustration over Georgia’s meager online presence at the time). I guess I shouldn’t expect anything different on the issue of satellite radio. Georgia is approaching the choice of a satellite radio network as if they were signing away Herschel’s first-born.

Meanwhile, Georgia continues to pocket nice G-xtra subscription fees for those out-of-towners who want to listen in. And WSB/Cox, who look to renew their radio contract with the University soon, certainly won’t mind the lack of satellite competition for listeners for their only remaining sports programming.

TANGENT: I’ve been very grateful to the CSS network for doing a lot for University of Georgia sports. We watched with envy as the population of Florida supported the Sunshine Network, but the combination of Fox Sports South (or whatever they call themselves now) and CSS has done reasonably well to serve UGA fans. Given the passion and admitted provincialism of college fans in the South, I think a network dedicated to SEC and ACC sports could do well. I wonder what Fox has in mind with the recently-acquired Turner South network.

CFN has their Georgia preview up (written by Pete Fiutak), and of course the message boards are all over it. It’s not a bad read actually. There are a few things I’d take issue with, but many of them come from being waaaaaaaay too familiar with the team. For someone at the 30,000-foot level, he’s got it more or less right.

I appreciate that he remembers the rebuilding challenge that Richt had in the 2003 season. At some positions, the issues in 2003 were even more severe than they are now. No one can deny that Georgia is turning to some inexperienced players to fill needs, but at least there are talented players we expect to step in there. In other words, I don’t think any of these positional situations are as dire as the running backs in 2003. I’m also glad to see the national recognition starting for Quentin Moses.

One opinion he has that I question is a common one, even among our own fans. We talked about this on the DawgVent the other day in fact. It’s the notion that the three running backs “have to carry the load” this year. It’s easy to forget in hindsight, but that was the line last preseason too. It’s actually a testament to the transformation of DJ Shockley over the past year. At this point a year ago, Shockley was seen as a talented guy who had shown some flashes but was still shaky and had never shown enough consistancy to make people think he’d be anything but a dropoff (however slight) from David Greene. While Shockley got adjusted to the starting role, the trio of young backs were going to have to be the strength of the offense.

Never happened. Oh, of course the backs were a key part of the offense last year (though, as Fiutak points out, not as productive as you might think), but there was no question that this was DJ Shockley’s team from the season opener. We got a Georgia offense that was similar in scheme and flow to the 2003 and 2004 units (with the occasional Shockley run of course).

I think we’ll see more of the same in 2006. Richt’s not afraid to use a good tailback – see the explosion of Verron Haynes at the end of 2001 or the 1,300+ yards of Musa Smith in 2002. But until we see otherwise, he just doesn’t seem to trust this current group of backs to be the focus of his offense. Will that change now that they are upperclassmen? I hope so. It would make life much easier for a new quarterback. Until they show otherwise though, I expect that the new quarterback will have a much larger role in the offense sooner than many seem to think. For that reason, I hope that we settle on someone before the season starts and get him adjusted to that role as soon as possible. It might also make the receivers and the ability of Mohamed Massaquoi to become a serious playmaker much more of an issue than this preview indicates.

I say “trust” above with Richt and the running game, but it might be something else. With one clear established tailback, you know whom you want in the game. You have almost no choice about playing time. With the three capable tailbacks not really separating themselves, it’s more difficult to push the right button. There were several examples last season. In the Florida game, Danny Ware had been on a tear, and the Dawgs were moving. We put in Thomas Brown who lost eight yards on the next play, and a promising drive was over. In the Tech game, Kregg Lumpkin was playing well early and had some nice runs on the first scoring drive, but he disappeared in the second half.

My point isn’t to second-guess Richt or criticize the backs. But the trio makes the decisions more difficult. If you have Garrison Hearst or even the senior Musa Smith, the decision is made for you. Run him, run him some more, and take him out of the game only if necessary. Substituting Brown for Ware against Florida might seem like a reasonable case of interchangable fresh legs perfectly suited for the three tailback rotation, but put another way, Musa Smith or Verron Haynes probably don’t come out of the game at that point. Lumpkin and Brown seemed to be moving into a class of their own during the spring, and that’s helpful. Fewer options might be bad if the emerging choice is a poor one, but that’s not what’s happening here. One running back emerging as the best option from a good group makes it more likely that the coaches will trust that guy to “carry the load”, and he can become a focus for the offense while a young passing game gets established.

Forget onepeats – who was the last team to beat a Gene Chizik defense?

Georgia.

In November, 2003.

That streak might come to an end this year (then again, it has a good chance of standing also). It’s not uncommon for good coordinators to duplicate success from job to job, but it’s amazing to construct two separate defenses of undefeated programs. Of course he had good talent to work with and a strong offense making the difference in a lot of those wins. The guy must be doing something right though.

The Chizik defenses we saw at Auburn weren’t especially overwhelming or physical, but we did see plenty of speed. Linebackers all over the field. Agile defensive tackles. Defensive ends who specialized in the pass rush. Even in Georgia’s solid 2003 win, points were excruciatingly tough to come by, and I didn’t feel good until Odell Thurman’s back-breaking interception. In 2004, Auburn’s defense was overshadowed by the offense, but the defense led the nation in scoring defense and was Top 5 in yardage. I was especially impressed in the 2004 Georgia game how Auburn made plays to stop the few potential game-changing drives that Georgia put together.

Chizik’s Texas defense last year wasn’t quite as good. I didn’t consider them dominant against Ohio State or USC, and they were a bit shaky against the run, but they played well enough during the season to finish as a top 10 unit in scoring and total defense while giving Young and Co. plenty of support.

28 and counting. How long will it last?

South Carolina (40-23) at No. 7 Georgia (45-20)
11 a.m. (ESPN2), 4 p.m. (ESPN/ESPNU), 1 p.m. (ESPN/ESPNU)

Looks like an early morning on Saturday. Monday’s game, if necessary, would be a day game. That hurts those of us who would drive up after work.

Times, matchups, and TV for all Super Regionals

Reminder – tickets are on sale at georgiadogs.com or over the phone at 706-542-1231. Only all-session tickets are sold now. Individual game tickets, if available, won’t be sold until Friday night.

Anyone should know better than to count these Dawgs out. Facing three elimination games to win the Athens regional, Georgia put together a string of wins that had everything from power hitting to shutdown pitching. Monday’s tight 3-2 win over FSU concluded a tremendous regional and a three game series with one of the nation’s most storied programs. FSU had a lot on their side after winning Saturday night’s game, and they had never failed to advance from a regional. Typically you’d expect a high-scoring game in a situation like this, but both Georgia and FSU found strong performances waiting down their pitching depth charts. Georgia’s Trevor Holder just got better and better, and regional MVP Joey Side made FSU pay for one of their few pitching mistakes with his third home run of the weekend.

For the regional Side batted .455 with six extra-base hits and twelve RBI. Side joins Jeff Keppinger in 2001 and Will Startup in 2004 as Dawgs who used the postseason to elevate already-solid reputations to lead Georgia to success.

“I felt like I was pretty much in the zone as a hitter,” Side said after Monday’s win. You don’t say.

Side wasn’t the only story of the regional of course. You have Morris tying the single-season HR mark. You have the trio of freshman pitchers who stepped up in the final three games to make sure that Georgia was playing on top most of the time. You have Georgia fighting out of the elimination round at home for the third time this decade. So many contributions and big plays. Kudos to FSU for an ultra-competitive series.

Now it’s the super regional, and South Carolina will return to Athens. Georgia has swept all four meetings to date with South Carolina this season, but of course none of that matters now. South Carolina obviously has to be playing good baseball to advance from the Charlottesville regional, and they bring one of the more dangerous offensive teams remaining in the tournament.

Super regional tickets are already on sale at georgiadogs.com, and the series will be a best-of-three beginning on Saturday.

Many Georgia fans know that Andy Landers’ frontcourt was decimated before the 2005-2006 season even started. Four forwards and centers were wiped from the roster through injury and attrition. Out of desperation, Landers turned to Georgia volleyball player Maria Taylor after the volleyball season had ended. Taylor had been an accomplished basketball player at Centennial High School but was on volleyball scholarship at Georgia. Because Bear Bryant (and I suppose others in that era) abused athletic scholarships from other sports and stockpiled football players, the SEC (and only the SEC) has a rule that prevents football and basketball teams from using players who are on scholarship in another sport. Landers’ plan to use Taylor (who had even begun practicing with the team) was stopped in its tracks after an appeal to the SEC fell through.

Now at the SEC spring meetings, Landers is promoting a rules change that would remove women’s basketball from the rule, and the suggestion has been well-received. Landers obviously has a specific motivation for suggesting this rules change, but he also presents the idea as an issue of opportunities for female student-athletes. “To limit those (opportunities) for any reason at this point in the evolution of women’s sports is I think wrong and counterproductive,” he said.

What Landers attempted to do with Taylor last year was entirely above-board and not against the spirit of the “Bear Bryant rule”. It wouldn’t have received a second thought in any other conference. It’s a little too late to help, but I hope he’s successful in this campaign.

Marc Weiszer in today’s ABH has a nice rundown of news from the SEC spring meetings going on this week in Destin. A few comments on each item…

• It’s obvious that the drums are beating louder for the indoor football facility. The relatively minor upgrades to the Butts-Mehre facility are all necessary but are in a different class of magnitude. As the beautiful basketball and gymnastics facility takes shape within sight of the football offices, the drive to make the indoor facility our next major capital project will only increase. It’s interesting to see Richt back off his vision of the facility a bit. Where earlier reports had more of an “all-or-nothing” tone for a grandiose football office and practice facility that would also house indoor track events, Richt concedes now that “some things may be done in phases”. Is that a concession to move things along?
• Georgia can’t seem to ever get an off week before the Florida game, but at least the SEC has ensured that no team will have the advantage of a week off before the SEC title game.
• There was only one change among the SEC’s football and basketball coaches this year. You have to get a chuckle out of Phil Fulmer’s comment on that news. “That’s good,” he said. “I hope it’s the same thing next year.” LOL. I’ll bet you do, Phil. If there’s one high-profile SEC coach starting to feel some heat, it’s Fulmer.
• The mystery conference for the SEC basketball challenge is a poorly kept secret. Bring on the Big East. Better than the ACC-Big 10 Challenge? That would be something. At any rate, such a matchup would be another reason why the basketball regular season is so underrated. You’ll never see such a group of quality nonconference regular season games in football.
• Great to see that the falling-out-of-bounds timeout is on the way out. This practice was the “intentional grounding” of basketball – a bogus way of turning around a bad situation. Make plays within the white lines.

This is heartbreaking. Jody was such a good guy as anyone around the 2001 team will remember, but what really won the fans over was his family. They were truly wonderful people who really soaked in and gave plenty back to the unique flavor of a college baseball community.

We’re sure that Jody’s memory will take its rightful place in the Athens regional this weekend.

What a season. From midseason desperation just to qualify for the SEC Tournament to a national #7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Diamond Dawgs have given us a very enjoyable spring. Georgia worked hard to earn the right to host the regional, so I hope the stands are packed to reward the Dawgs with a good homefield advantage. “I wasn’t expecting us to see a national seed because they usually stiff us over every year,” said Joey Side in the ABH. That’s true, so let’s make the most of the opportunity to have the home field all the way to Omaha.

A few observations on the upcoming tournament:

• Georgia and Tech for once would not meet before the CWS. Both are national seeds (Tech received the #8 seed, rightfully after Georgia) and would host their own super regional if they advance to that stage. I have mixed feelings – it was very satisfying in 2001 and 2004 to send the annually overrated Yellow Jackets home.
• Florida State is the #2-seed in the Athens regional. The FSU program has a strong baseball tradition, and their visit to Athens in 2001 for the super regional was memorable. The raucous Georgia crowd caught FSU’s attention, and hopefully some of the same will be waiting for them this weekend.
• It’s easy to dismiss unknown programs like Sacred Heart and look ahead to sexier big-name opponents like FSU, but all Georgia has to do is look back to the beginning of their late-season winning streak and the loss to Western Carolina to know how much the name on the jersey is worth. All it takes is one hot pitcher to take control of a game, and most teams good enough to make the NCAA Tournament have that potential.
• Georgia won regionals in 2001 and 2004 by going through the loser’s bracket. Hopefully that won’t be necessary this year. The pitching staff was stretched very thin in the SEC Tournament, and it would be nice to do things the easy way for once.
• Georgia needs Mickey Westphal back. Dating back to the Auburn series, Westphal hasn’t fooled many batters and has caused Georgia to dip into the bullpen early. Much was made during the season of his injury-motivated transition from a power pitcher to finesse and location, and hopefully some unfamiliar opponents will help him recover some of that midseason success.
• I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed that Jonathan Wyatt had passed Joey Side in batting average by the end of the season. Wow. Just a few years ago, Wyatt was purely a defense and speed substitution, and any offense was gravy (making his legendary home run against Tech in 2004 that much more of a great story). Now he’s almost an even-money threat to get on base, and as a leadoff man that is pure gold.
• It’s also great to see Matt Dunn batting well. With Jason Jacobs on fire in the 6 spot, Peisel a consistently solid eigth batter, Dunn getting some hits makes the bottom of the order rather potent and turns Wyatt and Side into big RBI threats with their high averages.
• Speaking of Dunn, if Virginia and Georgia both win their respective regionals, Dunn’s Dawgs will play host to his former team in the super regional.

“This was as tough an environment as I’ve ever played in,” Seminoles coach Mike Martin said in 2001. “We ain’t ever coming back up here again.”

Wrong, Mike. We’ll see you this weekend.

The Redcoats are currently on a two-week tour of China and have done everything from call the dawgs atop the Great Wall to enjoy rockstar treatment at all of their tour stops.

The AJC has a short photo gallery up from their stop in Chengdu.