It turns out that Kiante Tripp’s move to the offensive line isn’t the only positional shuffling going on. Ching has the details and a transcript of Richt’s press conference.

Tripp Update

I asked last night whether the move would be temporary in response to the injuries on the line, and it looks as if Tripp’s position change is more or less a permanent thing. That makes sense when you go back to the recruiting process. Tripp, as I mentioned yesterday, was rated the 9th-best offensive tackle in America in 2006 by Rivals.com. He was (is) an athletic and smart guy and also a basketball standout. The agility and leaping skills of a basketball player also made Tripp an attractive prospect at defensive end where he might be able to do some damage against less-agile offensive linemen.

As a result, he was recruited both as an offensive tackle and defensive end. Though rated higher as an offensive tackle, Tripp preferred defensive end, and Georgia promised him a chance at that position. True to their word, Tripp was a defensive end during his freshman season. An injured knee made redshirting a certainty, and he joined the competition at the defensive end this season as a redshirt freshman.

But, as Coach Richt said, Tripp "sees the opportunity" at offensive tackle and seems to have embraced it. "He was ready to move." Richt was upbeat. "It’s like getting a commitment from a top two or three tackle in the United States, so that’s pretty exciting for us." It was illustrative for Richt to contrast the position move with the case of Dale Dixson. You might have a grand plan where a player might fit in, but you can’t force a guy into a position that he just doesn’t want to play. Fortunately, Tripp was more receptive.

Richt made another, more subtle, comment about recruiting later. "I don’t know if I can talk too much about a recruiting class — I guess I could, I’m not mentioning names — but like I said, it’s like getting a signee at tackle right there." Is that a veiled comment about A.J. Harmon’s commitment to Clemson or Tyler Love’s commitment to Alabama? Georgia was in on both of those line prospects (and possibly is still recruiting Harmon as a defensive tackle).

Brandon Miller, Brandon Miller, Brandon Miller.

After a trumpeted move to middle linebacker, it seems as if Miller is back outside. Coach Richt praised Miller’s play at strongside (SAM) linebacker, but I have to be skeptical. Why? Miller was the starting SAM linebacker last season too. He lost the job midseason to Danny Verdun-Wheeler. That’s no knock on Verdun-Wheeler, but it does help to paint the picture of Miller’s prospects as an outside linebacker. Then you consider that Miller has spent the spring and summer to this point working in the middle (at a position where Coach Richt called him "the key to the defense"), and you have to wonder where the improvement has come from to make the SAM linebacker outlook that much better. Richt stated that Miller is "just comfortable there (at SAM)," but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll be productive.

Jarius Wynn

Wynn, according to Rodney Garner, was "probably the most highly recruited" of Georgia’s three signees from Georgia Military. He was considered a possible impact player at a questionable defensive end position. There was a question about Wynn possibly moving inside to defensive tackle. Garner used the Phrase of the Week, "cross-training", to explain that Wynn was indeed working some inside, but he gave no indication that it was a permanent move. Garner went on to explain the similarities between the end and tackle (5 and 3) positions where Wynn was cross-training.

He definitely has the frame for the OL. Photo: UGASports.com

Yes, it must be that bad.

Just a few days ago, Mark Richt was asked whether defensive linemen might be used to shore up an inexperienced offensive line dealing with a slew of minor injuries. Richt’s reply?

Well…I just don’t think it would help us. I don’t think it would help us. They’re not gonna know what to do and they’re probably not gonna be too thrilled about it. The combination of those two things is not very good…I don’t think we’ll (do that). If we had some season-ending injuries, if every guy hurt now was for the season, we’d probably have to do something like that.

Today Chip Towers reports that 6’6″ redshirt freshman defensive end Kiante Tripp has started practicing with the offensive line. Since he signed in 2006, Tripp’s huge frame has led many fans to wonder whether he would make a nice Chris Terry-like conversion to offensive tackle. UGASports.com even mentioned Tripp over the weekend as the most likely guy to make the switch if it became necessary.

Tripp was rated the ninth best offensive tackle in the country by Rivals.com as a two-way lineman at Westlake High School.

We’ll wait for the evening post-practice news cycle to see if Richt or Tripp have comments on the move and whether it’s a temporary measure. With the recent injuries to linemen, the Dawgs had been using a couple of walk-ons on the second team line. As Richt implied in his comment above, Tripp will likely be lost and would just be a warm body at this point. But with his frame and athleticism, Tripp might be a better option than a walk-on or true freshman even if he is new to the position.

When asked in March about the possibility of moving to offense, Tripp told UGASports.com, "if they want me to play it I will because I will do anything to help the team out." He’s also a bright guy with a 1260 on the SAT, so that could also help speed the transition.

You saw them all over the news: a destitute people barely able to go on from one day to the next, ravaged by one of the worst disasters to hit the area in recorded history, and wondering just when they’d begin to see a glimmer of hope at the end of their long nightmares.

But enough about the Mike Shula era.

Surprisingly, tsunami aid has dried up in Tuscaloosa

Real estate investment money is flowing into Tuscaloosa, and it’s because of tax breaks intended to help recovery in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Though 200 miles from the coast, Tuscaloosa was included in the "GO Zone", an area designated along the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama coasts offering special incentives for redevelopment of these areas most affected by Katrina. Most importantly, the GO Zone "also allows real estate investors who buy condos or other properties in the GO Zone to take accelerated depreciation on their purchases when they file their taxes."

What’s the big deal about tax breaks on condos? If you’ve been in any major football town in the South lately, you’ve seen an explosion of condo development – mostly targeted at the wealthy alumni looking for a second home around the corner from the old alma mater. Athens itself has several, and the market is competitive enough to pull out big guns like Herschel Walker for endorsements. But the condos are also potential investments for real estate groups who can turn around and rent the units.

Since the tax break is not available to people who would buy the units for their own use, the condos are much more attractive to investors. For investors with large portfolios, the tax savings in Tuscaloosa could be used to offset higher taxes in other investments. As a result, the Tuscaloosa market is supporting ten such condo projects right now. Local experts estimate that the tax break is responsible for "10 percent of all recent condo sales in the city." With the breaks due to expire next year in Alabama, investors are getting into the markets while they still can.

Why was Tuscaloosa, several hundred miles inland, included in the recovery area?

Locals say Tuscaloosa was included in the GO Zone through the efforts of Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who is from Tuscaloosa, graduated from Alabama and sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee. But Shelby aides said Tuscaloosa made the cut because it was classified as a disaster area by the government after Katrina, not because of the senator’s influence.

Riiiiiight. Meanwhile, as Tuscaloosa gameday condo developers and investors put the horror of Katrina behind them in Sen. Shelby’s hometown, the areas without football teams where redevelopment is most needed haven’t quite seen the same impact.

State reports reviewed by the AP and interviews show that the most ballyhooed part of the GO Zone bill — $15 billion in tax-exempt bonds — has had relatively little effect so far.

Via the wonderful Double-A Zone blog…

• The text-messaging ban sticks. The Division I membership will get to vote on the proposal in January, but it will take a 5/8 majority to override it now.
• Baseball financial aid will be revised. Because baseball student-athletes share 11.7 scholarships among them, the portions can vary widely. The original proposal was to limit an individual’s share to no less than 33% of a scholarship. That has been changed to 25% of a scholarship. The size of a baseball squad will ultimately be capped at 35.
• The Final Four will be played in aircraft hangars soon. Instead of the current half-arena configurations we see when basketball tournaments are played in football domes, the Final Four in 2009 will begin using entire-arena configurations that will allow for more than 70,000 seats. Though I think the change will have some problems as the intimate 94-foot sport of basketball gets swallowed by these giant arenas, I like that students will have easier access to tickets in the future. Ever been to a basketball game at a dome? Lifeless is an understatement.

The 2007 Bulldogs have a lot of questions to answer, but the offensive line and linebacker positions have been at the top of the list from the beginning. On the offensive line, the issues are experience and depth. At linebacker, the Dawgs are replacing all three starters and a ball-hawking playmaker in Tony Taylor. It’s not a surprise that those two positions highlight the reports from Saturday’s first scrimmage. Reading into a scrimmage this early is about as useful as paying attention to the scores of preseason NFL games. We dwell on the areas that get attention in the recaps and questions, but they don’t always capture everything that went on in the scrimmage. So we’ll avoid getting too picky at this stage and look at these two general areas of concern.

Offensive Line

Injured linemen Haverkamp and Adams take in Monday morning’s practice Photo: UGASports.com

Injuries were the story along the offensive line. Though no injuries seem to be long-term, they still come at a time when the unit is trying to build cohesiveness and familiarity. The lost practice time from even minor injuries can be frustrating. "There won’t be any group of five working together this week, not all week, maybe as early as Wednesday, I don’t know. I can’t even predict," explained Coach Richt after the scrimmage. With all of that uncertainty up front, it’s hard to expect the offense as a whole to run smoothly.

Starters Chester Adams and Scott Haverkamp are both sidelined with ankle injuries, and reserve Tanner Strickland joined them on the injury list. Chris Little has a hurt wrist, but he’s out of shape and unlikely to play this year anyway. The result was a bit of chaos along the line. Freshman Clint Boling was forced to play with the first team at tackle. Coach Bobo’s comment that "(Boling)’s all we’ve got" is hardly an endorsement of the true freshman, but but it’s to Boling’s credit that he has done well enough in such a short time to impress the coaches to move up to the first team as Adams recovers.

It was kind of under the radar that despite the OL woes Stafford was able to complete over 60% of his passes, Moreno was able to rush for 7+ YPC, and the offense was able to have some success in goal line situations. We focus on the critical and even tend to be alarmist about the line, but there were some good things happening.

Linebacker

Things are a bit different at linebacker. Injuries aren’t the concern here. Personnel and positions are. The phrase of the weekend was "cross-training." It’s a useful concept where players at similar positions (such as linebacker) swap positions to improve depth and versatility across the unit. Danny Verdun-Wheeler was a master of this training and was at one point considered the top backup for all three linebacker positions before he moved into a starting role during the 2006 season.

That’s fine, but here’s the thing: Brandon Miller already has experience not just practicing but starting at outside linebacker. Based on Miller’s move to the interior this year, Coach Richt has said, "he’s the key to our whole defense." With all that at stake, wouldn’t the first objective be to get Miller as much work as possible at his new position? About a week ago, Richt called Miller "the key to our whole defense." Now we don’t even know how the linebackers will line up. "By the time the second, third scrimmage rolls around, we’ll know how to line them up," Richt said following Saturday’s scrimmage. "I would say it’s not etched in stone right now how we’ll line up at linebacker."

That’s not cross-training. That’s still an audition. Cross-training is a luxury you have only after the starters are certain and competent in their primary roles. If we don’t know how the linebackers will line up yet in the first place, worrying about cross-training at this point is very much cart-before-the-horse stuff.

Miscellaneous

• With the departure of Paul Oliver, who made his NFL debut last night, the cornerback battle is an area of interest. Prince Miller is getting first-team work as Bryan Evans nurses a hamstring injury, and Thomas Flowers is giving Asher Allen all he wants at the other position. These are all talented guys, and the competition is very healthy.
• The numbers don’t quite add up. In the limited stats released from the scrimmage, the quarterbacks were credited with a combined 22 completions. Yet only 13 receptions were recorded. Henderson and Massaquoi didn’t land a reception between them?

This announcement came from the UGA ticket office today. Season ticket packages will still be mailed today. Single-game and out-of-town tickets will be delayed though – they are a separate mailing from season tickets.

Tickets for the first home game versus Oklahoma State on 9/1/07 will be mailed to contributors and faculty/staff who ordered tickets no later than August 20th. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the remaining single home and out-of-town tickets will be mailed no later than September 6th. Cumulative score requirements, as they are determined, will be posted for Florida and Georgia Tech on the official athletic association website, georgiadogs.com. We appreciate your patience and thanks for supporting University of Georgia Athletics.

Once again we look at some of the more popular search keywords people are using to get here:

• "shaun chapas": Chapas is a redshirt freshman fullback from Jacksonville. He and Fred Munzenmaier are in the mix behind established starter Brannan Southerland. You never know how much time a reserve fullback will see, but I imagine that we’ll see Chapas and/or Munzenmaier on the field this year, especially in jumbo or "wham" situations.
• "georgia football suspensions": I had a recent summary of the off-season suspensions, but we’ve since added two more to the list. Tripp Chandler and Blake Barnes each received one-game suspensions. With the offseason departures of Akeem Hebron, Ian Smith, and Seth Watts, Chandler and Barnes are the only active players who will miss the first game.
• "ian smith uga football": We learned before practice began last weekend that Smith had decided to leave the Georgia football program for "medical reasons". We don’t know if those medical reasons are related to Smith’s two alcohol-related arrests, but we hope that Smith got or is getting whatever help he needs.
• "uga spying va tech": This was a nice distraction from the first weekend of practice. Frank Beamer never came right out and claimed that Georgia cheated, but his message was clear enough. Coach Richt of course denied any spying and even offered some empathy for coaches who are concerned with leaks from practices. I thought about this issue when photos and descriptions of formations from Arkansas practices hit the Web earlier this week. At what point does fan interest (and fan ego) become a disadvantage to our teams?
• "vance cuff": The saga of Vance Cuff ended last week when the NCAA granted Cuff a waiver, essentially overruling an NCAA Clearinghouse decision concerning one of Cuff’s core high school classes. With the waiver, he is eligible by NCAA standards and has enrolled at Georgia. The freshman cornerback is now practicing with the team (and will likely redshirt).

It’s not every day that a consensus All-American lands in your program. Former prep All-American Porsha Phillips will transfer into the Georgia women’s basketball program.

Phillips was a consensus All-American in 2006 at Redan High School in Stone Mountain and played in the McDonald’s and WBCA All-American games. She played her freshman season at LSU in 2006-2007 where she had lukewarm stats (3.8 points and 2.9 rebounds) but played significantly, including all 38 games and six starts, for a very good LSU team. LSU’s program was thrown into turmoil at the end of last season with the resignation of coach Pokey Chatman. We don’t know the extent to which the transition affected Phillips’ decision to transfer, but both Phillips and LSU maintain that Phillips "is interested solely in playing closer to her family in Georgia."

Phillips will sit out the 2007-2008 season per NCAA transfer rules. She will be eligible to play in the 2008-2009 season and have three seasons of eligibility remaining. The 6’2" forward will likely be favored to step into the big shoes at the forward position left by Tasha Humphrey after Humphrey’s graduation in 2008.

The last meta-topic we’ll touch on before this season starts is the ultra-subjective group of "elite" or "national power" teams. Stewart Mandel waded into this territory last week and fumbled around, and he really whiffed with his "what does someone in Montana think?" attempt this week.

Many getting involved in this discussion are dwelling, like Mandel, on the related but different question of being nationally recognized. Yes, everyone knows Herschel Walker. Uga is an icon. "Between the Hedges" means something to most knowledgeable football fans. The "G" is sharp and distinctive. None of that makes Georgia a national power on the football field. A powerful brand? Sure..probably even in Montana.

The question of actual power has to be fluid and kept in the current context because it wanes and waxes. History is full of teams and individuals that were once powerful and relevant but aren’t any longer. How a team has done since 1976 doesn’t really have any relevance to me. Power, though not a one-season thing, is still pretty short-term. Personally, I think we use the "elite" label a little too loosely in an everybody-gets-a-trophy kind of way. There are only a handful of programs each season who belong in the national title picture, and it doesn’t make sense to continually be on the outside of that picture and still be considered a national power.

Some will use historical criteria. Others prefer averaging wins over a reasonable period. Championships matter more to some. A coast-to-coast schedule impresses others. I think it’s much simpler and can be boiled down to three guidelines:

• You must show some level of consistency. FSU set the bar in the 1990s. One phenomenal season doesn’t make you a power.
• You should be considered at least peripherally in some recent national title discussions. Winning it really helps.
• You cannot consider yourself a "power", especially in the national sense, when you’re under someone’s thumb.

Georgia fans will recognize right away that I played the Florida card. It’s plain silly to talk about national power status when you’re on the wrong side of such a one-sided series. That means you too, Alabama. It also held a team like Texas up before Vince Young came along. It held Ohio State up under John Cooper. This point alone settles Georgia’s "national power" question for me, but we’ll look at the other guidelines anyway.

Has Georgia’s success been consistent? Last season was the first year since 2001 in which the Dawgs didn’t win at least 10 games. Not bad. But that ten win threshold, particularly in the 12-game era, still means at least two losses per season. They’ve won three divisional and two major conference titles over the same span and haven’t gone more than a single season without a trip to the conference championship game. That’s outstanding in a conference like the SEC. By itself, Georgia’s consistency seems enough to merit national power recognition.

Georgia hasn’t been a part of the national title discussion since 2002. Yes, they started 2004 ranked #3. That faded after a scare at South Carolina and a loss to Tennessee. It was nearly impossible to get above the noise of Southern Cal and Texas in 2005, and Georgia’s chances ended when D.J. Shockley crumpled to the turf against Arkansas. Georgia has certainly been relevant over that time and probably competitive with any team, but it’s hard to make the case that they belonged among the teams mentioned as title contenders.

The Bulldogs aren’t far from national power status. 2007 is very important in terms of consistency- they cannot slide lower than the 9-win total of last season. The national title discussion is already crystallizing around a handful of teams – LSU, Southern Cal, and Michigan with teams like Texas, Florida, and your choice of Big East teams on the periphery. Most importantly, the Dawgs must find a way soon to turn the Florida series. I don’t mean that Georgia must begin dominating the series. Just get it competitive again.

If you forced me to stick to these criteria to say who the elite teams are in college football, here we go: Southern Cal. LSU. Texas. Ohio State. Florida depends upon the consistency they show this year. Maybe Oklahoma (waning?). That’s it. No Notre Dame. No Tennessee. No Georgia. No Cal. Michigan? You’re close, but work on the consistency thing and on beating Ohio State.

There’s no shame to be where Georgia is right now. Most programs would kill for it. Let’s just not call it what it isn’t. Deep down, we know that there is a next step that Georgia has yet to take.

Coach Richt addressed the inference that Georgia spied on Virginia Tech practices before the Chick-fil-A Bowl.  As you might expect, Richt denied the inference and was empathetic to a coach’s concerns about secrecy.

I can assure Coach Beamer that we did not know anything about what was going on, but I can understand why he would want to close a practice.

…I cannot tell you how many times we felt the same way. You wonder what happened. Sometimes you get the right call at the right time and if that happens enough times coaches begin to wonder if you somehow have their signals…It is natural and I do not blame him for wanting to close it or even feeling that way. To my knowledge we have no idea what was going on in their camp.

HacksawDawg from the DawgVent reveals Georgia’s spy

You’ll read several articles with some excerpts, but it’s really interesting to read the entire transcript with Richt’s comments on the subject.  UGASports.com has it for subscribers.

Richt, like most coaches, restricts access to practice.  The general public is almost never allowed in.  Media are asked to leave after positional drills.  It’s a common policy.  But would he like to go further?

I wish I could close it down completely, but it is kind of hard to do with our set up. I can see why any coach would want to close everything that they do, especially with the Internet.

Before you get on Richt for being paranoid, consider the value of information to these coaches.  It’s everything.  From plays to injury reports, every bit of information released is a possible advantage for an opponent.  Even if there’s no malice, that information can be costly.

Even if we let our fans come in who love us, they would just talk about everything that happened and then people would read it and be able to find decipher some things that would help them win.

Of course Richt can’t completely cut off access.  The team must play the game with the media – access in exchange for for coverage and publicity.  But Richt admits that he is more conscious of this issue than he was when he first took the job and more cautious as a result.

I have seen enough things and people cannot help themselves. Like if you (TV) guys had a camera rolling on stuff all day long, you would be thinking that you are getting b-roll (footage) for the eleven o’clock news, but when you show the b-roll, you show something a good defensive coordinator could say, “oh I like that. I did not know they were doing that. They did not do that last year.” I do not think anyone is purposefully trying to sabotage Georgia.

Usually I avoid taking issue with Clay Travis columns, because doing so would require me to take the position that college football, Saturday afternoons in the South, extravagant tailgates, and the beautiful women that go with it all are wholly unenjoyable.

Against my better judgement, I’m going to respond to something he had earlier this week.

His idea is straightforward: set up a series of conference challenges among the six BCS conferences during the first week of the season. Settle the conference superiority debates on the field. OK so far – it more or less sounds like a week of bowl games before the real season starts.  But I think he goes off the tracks when he claims that resistance to creative ideas like this one comes from aloof “powers-that-be” in college football.

Ask yourself this — why is it that alone among all major sports, college football’s powers-that-be never listen to what their fans want and consistently list reasons why things wouldn’t work instead of why they would? In a globalized sports world, isn’t this truly the height of arrogance? The non-responsiveness of college football leagues to their fans is sickening.

Could this be why? Demand for college football is through the roof according to most any metric from attendance to dollars to television ratings. As much as I have my problems with the regular-season-is-our-playoff approach, I have to admit that the “height of arrogance” is suggesting that a wildly popular (and growing) sport needs such a drastic shot in the arm. Is it really sickening non-responsiveness to think twice about overhauling something that’s working? Will Georgia games go from “sold out” to “really sold out?”

It might be true that college football fans claim that they want things like a playoff and better inter-conference games. I wouldn’t mind seeing Georgia play Texas and Michigan and Southern Cal…as long as Georgia wins. But that want is a little down the list of priorities for most of us who are partisan fans of a particular school:

• Wins
• Championships
• Wins…especially over rivals
• Enjoying the soul-crushing losses of our rivals
• Claiming a better recruiting class, co-eds, stadium, mascot, and head coach’s wife vs. our rivals
• Finding a place to park and tailgate within the same area code
• Giving a damn about the rest of college football

It might be just me, but I have no interest in adding yet another difficult game to Georgia’s schedule just so some Ole Miss fan can show his ass on an Oregon State message board. (SEC RULZ!1111!) Chances are I’d be pulling for the other conference in these games anyway. Oklahoma vs. Auburn? Boomer Sooner. If it means that the timeless debate of conference superiority goes on into another summer, so be it.

The Gameday Gameplan site has been updated for the 2007 season. There don’t seem to be many new restrictions. Some key points:

• Parking information and maps are here. Some season parking passes remain for the North Campus and Carlton St. decks. (Incidently, if anyone has information on a South Campus Deck/ Georgia Center parking pass…drop me a line.)
• There is a new direct on-ramp from the East Campus area to the Athens Bypass. You won’t have to fight campus traffic anymore. We touched on that improvement earlier this year.
• Tailgating rules remain similar to last season: nothing before 7 a.m., use your own power source, etc. We’re told that people will still be able to park cars in legal spaces in advance…just don’t get things set up before 7:00.
• UGA will provide portable restrooms across campus (never enough it seems), and they will open the public restrooms at the Boyd Graduate Studies Building, Tate Center, Student Learning Center, Main Library and East Village Commons.
• The "family-friendly area" has shrunk to a small section of the North Campus quad. There is no longer a "family-friendly area" on South Campus.

Every season brings its share of new faces, but for some reason this year’s Georgia team seems to have more than usual. With so much of the two-deep sophomores or younger, it’s likely that there are several 2007 contributors we haven’t seen much of – if at all.

It’s a good time to become familiar with some of the names we’ll be hearing about in the next couple of weeks. This is by no means an exhaustive breakdown of the entire team, but these are several guys who could be thrust from obscurity into key roles this season.

Offense

• Tailback Knowshon Moreno (RFr.): If there’s a newcomer who needs no introduction, it’s Moreno. The New Jersey native had a strong year of practice and turned heads at G-Day. Though the running back depth chart seems solid with Lumpkin and Brown returning, Moreno will push for carries.
• Offensive tackle Trinton Sturdivant (Fr.): Some are calling him one of the keys to the season, and that’s an awful lot to put on a true freshman’s broad shoulders. But the job of protecting Matthew Stafford from the important left tackle position will likely fall to Sturdivant.
• Offensive guard Scott Haverkamp (Jr.): Haverkamp is another newcomer to the program (via JUCO) who might find himself in a starting role. He chose Georgia over Arizona State, Illinois, and also had interest from FSU.
• Offensive guard Chris Davis (RFr.): Davis will be new on the field, but he at least has a year in the program. That experience gives him the edge over several of the other young linemen.
• Tight end Tripp Chandler (Jr.): Chandler takes over the legacy of Georgia tight ends from Martrez Milner. Chandler had 2 receptions for 37 yards and a touchdown last season. His first career catch was memorable: he caught a 21-yard touchdown pass in traffic on a 4th-and-1 play against Mississippi State. Chandler will be suspended for the first game of the season, so Coleman Watson and NaDerris Ward will get an opportunity.

Defense

• Defensive end Marcus Howard (Sr.): Howard is hardly a newcomer, but it couldn’t be easy to make a splash alongside former defensive ends Moses and Johnson. Howard began his career at linebacker but has since made the move to the line. He might still be considered undersized at 235 lbs., but he has speed and strength to compensate. It’s true that Howard might be used situationally, but that will depend on the progress of the younger ends.
• Defensive end Roderick Battle (So.): Battle is the other likely starter at defensive end. He, too, is a little undersized for the typical SEC defensive end. JUCO transfer Jarius Wynn could push Battle before long.
• Defensive tackle Geno Atkins (So.): Atkins saw limited time as a true freshman last season, but he’ll be placed in a much larger role this year as a possible starter on the defensive front. Sophomore Kade Weston and JUCO transfer Corey Irvin will compete here.
• Linebacker Akeem Dent (RFr.): Though Dewberry, Miller, and Ellerbe seem established as the starting linebackers, Dent might be the reserve most ready to step in if necessary. I see him in a "Danny Verdun-Wheeler" role where he might be the first off the bench at any linebacker position.
• Safety C.J. Byrd (Jr.): Byrd is a known name to more serious observers of the team. He has contributed for several seasons on special teams and saw more time at safety last season. He’ll step in as a starter this year replacing Tra Battle.
• Safety Reshad Jones (RFr.): Everyone saw Jones at G-Day, so he’s hardly a secret anymore. The only question will be finding a spot and playing time for this playmaker.

Which other new faces will you be watching during the preseason?

I can’t remember it happening before. Usually, there are at least one or two signees (sometimes many more, unfortunately) who fail to qualify academically.

Not this year.

For once, we can say that all 23 men from Georgia’s 2007 signing class are eligible. We learned today that safety John Knox had made a qualifying test score. The news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that cornerback Vance Cuff had met eligibility requirements.

Vance and Knox join a deep defensive backfield, so neither was counted on for immediate playing time. Regardless, the value of a freshman year spent developing inside the program is far greater than the alternatives.

Hopefully years like this will become the rule rather than the exception.

Just a couple of months after leading Georgia to the collegiate national title, it didn’t John Isner long to find success at the professional level.

In just his second professional event, Isner reached the finals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic before falling to superstar Andy Roddick. He beat three top-ten seeds along the way with his dominant serve and clutch performances in tiebreakers. His finish earned him a $43,700 paycheck, and he will move up into the top 200 in the ATP rankings.

The finals had a decidedly Georgia flavor. Roddick’s brother John was a former Bulldog standout himself.