The football equivalent of the rubber chicken circuit is underway – the Bulldog Road Tour kicked into high gear last night in Jacksonville. The recaps will be so full of fluff and baby pictures that they’re hardly worth mentioning, and Richt isn’t the kind to throw out the red meat quotes that get attention. Still, it’s a summer rite and a sign that practice isn’t far away.

Upcoming Road Tour Dates:

July 16th – Valdosta (Valdosta Conference Center)
July 17th – Macon (Macon Centreplex)
July 28th – Greater Atlanta (Cobb Galleria Centre)
July 29th – Columbus (Columbus Convention and Trade Center)
July 31st – Chattanooga (The Colonnade)

Ticket cutoffs are out, and it’s not pretty.

The report yesterday about first-time orders was true. A cumulative score of 10,651 points was necessary to become a new renewable season ticket holder. Additionally, we learn today that improving seat location took in the neighborhood of 20,000 points.

The reason for the high cutoff is simple scarcity. With the hype building for the 2008 season, all but 800 out of 53,000 season tickets (98.5%) were renewed. On top of that scarcity, many renewing season ticket holders sought to add seats up to the maximum allowed by their donation. Ticket manager Tim Cearley provided additional details to UGASports.com:

Of (the 800 available season tickets) only 698 were in pairs or groups as the other seats were scattered throughout the stadium by themselves. This is a continuation of a trend seen over the last few years as seat turnover has gone down from 1000 tickets in 2006 to 900 in 2007 and now down to 800 this year. With the season’s expectations being so high, many new contributors were trying to get tickets and many current donors were trying to add seats.

Point levels for away game tickets were also announced, and they are predictably steep. This is the first season where all games come with a cutoff. Usually UGA can fill all orders for a game like Vandy or Kentucky, but tickets for Georgia’s 2008 trip to Lexington will require a cutoff on par with Florida tickets.

• South Carolina – 22,000 points
• Arizona State – 27,007 points
• LSU – 30,415 points
• Florida Club 42,500 points
• Florida – 8,460 points
• Auburn – 25,850 points
• Kentucky – 8,405 points

UGASports.com also shares how the 92,000+ tickets are distributed within Sanford Stadium.

• 53,000: Season tickets
• 18,000: Students
• 10,000: Opponents*
• 4,000: Faculty/staff
• 1,000: Sponsors
• Remainder: Athletic department use – recruiting, player’s families, etc. Each player can request four tickets.

* – They say that 10,000 tickets are reserved for opponents, but we know that figure can vary based on reciprocity. Some schools probably get more and some surely get fewer than 10,000 based on how many tickets they make available for Georgia fans.

The numbers get a little fuzzy towards the bottom. If you do the math, that’s around 6,000 tickets available for the football team, and that seems like a lot even accounting for recruits, players, and families.

Anyway, read the whole thing. There are some very interesting insights into the ticketing process, information on when and how tickets will be mailed, and also a discussion about Sanford expansion.

According to an unconfirmed report on the DawgVent this afternoon, the Hartman Fund cut-off for first-time season ticket orders was 10,651.

If you are renewing your season tickets, this cut-off doesn’t apply to you. But for recent alums, your first-time season ticket application will be refunded if it didn’t come with a donation of over 10 grand.

Official cut-offs for season tickets and road games should be out later this week. This is the price of success, my friends.

But for those who will receive refunds, this isn’t necessarily bad news or the end of your chances of watching Georgia football in person. Tickets will be easy to come by for half of Georgia’s home games. Georgia Southern, Central Michigan, and Vandy tickets should be floating around on game day at less than face value. And for the rest (Alabama, Tennessee, Tech), you should be able to find tickets for a premium, yes, but I doubt your total would go over a few hundred bucks for those three games. Contrast that with a $10,651 donation on top of the cost of a ticket, and those who are forced to take the scalper route should come out well ahead.

If obtaining season tickets down the road is a priority but the one-time donation is too rich for your blood, contribute at whatever amount is comfortable and scalp your way in for a few years. Either your total will catch up to the cut-off, or the cut-off will drop if there’s a decrease in demand down the road.

The Washington Post looks at the ACC 5 years after expansion, and the reviews are, to put it kindly, mixed.

The Post does well to point out the biggest unintended consequence of ACC expansion – the rise of the Big East. Faced with losing Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College, even the Big East commissioner saw bad times ahead for that conference. But the result has been the rise of football programs like West Virginia and Rutgers. While Virginia Tech and Boston College have done relatively well in the ACC, their arrival hasn’t done much to boost the overall quality of the conference.

And in one of the most critical and unforeseen byproducts of the realignment, the rival Big East Conference — forced to expand in response to the flight of three of its schools to the ACC — has strengthened its standing as a big-time football conference and fortified the depth of its basketball programs to an extent the ACC has yet to realize.

The Post mentions the turnover among ACC football coaches as a factor that has held back progress on the gridiron. Some feel a similar upgrade in coaching talent is necessary to restore ACC basketball.

It is important to note though that while the ACC might be struggling in its competitiveness they are still, for now, bringing in the cash. The conference “has signed a seven-year, $258 million contract with ABC and ESPN — which nearly doubled the annual income of its previous TV deal.” From 2001-2002 to 2006-2007, the average revenue paid out annually per program has increased by over $2 million. There’s even a glass-half-empty reaction to that news. Outgoing UNC chancellor James Moeser said, “(The financial impact of expansion) has been positive, but not overwhelmingly.”

I can’t say it’s a surprise: Michael Lemon is off the team. He had been suspended indefinitely while facing a felony aggravated battery charge, and Coach Richt took the extra step to dismiss Lemon over the weekend.

“He’s been dismissed as a result of some poor decisions and conduct that is not in line with standards we have in place at Georgia,” said Richt. “I have had discussions with Michael and he understands the decision.”

Richt isn’t one to close doors, and he left open the (ever-so-slight) possibility of Lemon returning to the team.

“(Lemon) expressed a desire to find a path back to the team at some point but that’s a decision that will depend on several factors and will come at a later date.”

Whether “several factors” means a year away somewhere else and a favorable resolution to the criminal charges, I don’t know. If the University expels Lemon, it’s a moot point. I doubt we’ll see him back in a Georgia uniform for quite a while, if at all. But, pending the outcome of the criminal charges, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Coach Richt is working to help Lemon find as soft of a landing as possible.

For a team counting on defensive improvement, particularly in the secondary, to carry them back to the top, this isn’t good news.

University of Florida rising junior safety Dorian Munroe has suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament that will require surgery. The injury to his right knee will force him to miss the 2008 season.

Meanwhile, fellow defensive back and rising redshirt senior John Curtis also suffered a season-ending ACL injury to his left knee. Curtis will miss at least the 2008 season. This is the third tear in Curtis’ left knee and he has had two prior surgeries on the same knee.

Munroe was projected to start. It’s likely that a true freshman will take his place.

We wish both men a complete recovery.

Georgia’s starting cornerbacks are juniors, so developing the depth at the position is on the to-do list for the 2009 recruiting class. UGASports.com reports that Jordan Love, a 6’0″ cornerback from Virginia, made his commitment public today and became Georgia’s 12th pledge for the upcoming class.

According to UGASports.com, Georgia coaches offered Love after viewing a single workout back in the spring. Love had 22 offers, but his top three became Georgia, Florida, and Penn State. A visit to Athens in early June put the Dawgs over the top, and he’s spent the past few weeks thinking things over.

With Love on board, you’d have to think that Atlanta’s Branden Smith would be the top remaining target at cornerback.

Can someone please keep him away from the kids? This time it’s in Thailand. (h/t Deadspin…welcome aboard to Clay Travis!)

David Greene had plenty of accomplishments at Georgia, but his NCAA-record 42 wins as the starting quarterback is probably the most impressive. Sure, it’s ultimately a team accomplishment, but quarterbacks usually end up – deserved or not – with exaggerated credit for wins and blame for losses.

Getting to 42 wins is tough. First you have to be in a program strong enough and consistent enough to win over 10 games per season over your career. That eliminates most people right there. But most programs that strong rarely have to go into game one with a freshman at such a key position as quarterback. Tim Tebow didn’t start until his sophomore season. Peyton Manning started his freshman year at #3 on the depth chart until injuries cleared the path.

Greene’s record took not only the good fortune to be here during one of Georgia’s best runs in program history; it also took the unusual opportunity to start out of the gate and hold the job for four seasons. Let’s not forget that he also took plenty of beatings and stayed healthy. The combination produced a career for the record books.

When it took nearly half a season to establish Matthew Stafford as Georgia’s starter, Greene’s record appeared safe. But after a successful 2007 season and some promising years ahead, it’s now a somewhat realistic question: could Stafford break Greene’s career wins record?

The numbers tell us that it’s theoretically possible, but it would take consecutive seasons on the level of 1980 and 1981 to do it.

Greene’s record is 42 wins. Stafford currently has 17 as a starter. There are 28 possible games for Georgia over the next two seasons (including possible SEC Championship games and bowl games). To tie Greene’s record, Stafford would have to start in 25 more wins. That could be a perfect 14-0 season and another 11-2 year, a 12-2 season followed by a 13-1 campaign, or any other combination. The feat seems nearly impossible without winning SEC titles and major bowl games.

Of course back-to-back 14-0 seasons would put Stafford at 45 wins and shatter Greene’s record. And the rapture will come and take us all.

The catch is that an ultra-successful 2008 would likely make Stafford a prime NFL draft candidate. If Georgia wins 13 or 14 games in 2008 to put Stafford within striking distance of the record, does he stick around?

So what do you think? Your answer has a lot to do with how high you see Georgia’s ceiling over the next couple of years. With "only" ten wins per year, Stafford won’t even sniff the record. Does he even break 40 wins as a starter? Georgia would have to win more than 11 games in each of the next two seasons just to get Stafford to 40 wins. Does he come up just short of Greene? Or do the Dawgs have their most successful consecutive seasons ever and push Stafford to the 42-win mark?

Offseason attrition continues for the Georgia basketball program. Freshman forward Jeremy Jacob will leave the program and transfer. (Note that this is not Jeremy Price. Price was a regular starter on the frontcourt.) Jacob was injured early in the season and did not play in any SEC games. His injury qualified him for a medical redshirt, and he will have all four years of eligibility remaining.

If you want to stretch for a silver lining, it’s this: Jacob apparently doesn’t see much of a future for himself at Georgia. “Jeremy has expressed an interest in playing for a program where he can play a more prominent role than he believes he will play at Georgia,” said coach Dennis Felton. That’s a somewhat positive statement about the rest of frontcourt talent if playing time really is Jacob’s motivation. Still, he was a talented prep player and at least was going to provide some depth.

If a guy wants to leave, he wants to leave, and you can’t put this or Billy Humphrey’s DUI arrest on Felton. But the guy just can’t escape this kind of bad luck when it comes to his roster. Losing an obvious project like Singleton is one thing; now Georgia has lost its starting shooting guard and a four-star small forward.

If you had to guess the home of the SEC’s largest and shiniest HD video board, Mississippi State probably wouldn’t be in your first 10 guesses. With a capacity of 55,082, Davis Wade Stadium is the SEC’s second-smallest football venue behind only Vanderbilt. But by October 2008 the Bulldogs will have a 111 foot by 47 foot HD screen on a new scoreboard in the south (fieldhouse) endzone that will measure 152 feet by 135.5 feet in total.

The LCD technology used on the HD display will allow MSU to split the display as they like during the game for stats, announcements, advertising, etc.

By contrast, Georgia’s main video board installed in 2005 is 46′ by 25′ on a scoreboard of 76′ by 52′. It is not high definition.

MSU’s new board is even bigger than the 107′ by 30′ "Pig Screen TV" that was the centerpiece of Arkansas’ 2000 expansion. Only Texas, with a 134′ by 55′ main display, will be larger.

This is almost too pathetic to ridicule.

** Edit: As seen on TV! FOX5 News Atlanta ** I’m a 20 yearold GA Tech student who has never kissed. I have been going out with a girl online for the last 5 years and she’s finally coming down to see me on the 11th. She tells me it’s a big turn-off if a guy doesn’t know how to kiss, and she even dumped her last boyfriend because of this. I want to make a good first impression, but I’ve never kissed before! Please, I need a girl to practice kissing with, nothing else!! Just kissing lesson

Some have asked if I have terrible oral hygiene or something of that sort, so I included a picture of me showing my teeth!

Please help,
Never been kissed

I really hope it’s a hoax, but several people saw this on the news last night. Just damn.

UPDATE: Here’s more from FOX 5 Atlanta including video. The last sentence from this article is just unfortunate.

UGA started selling season parking passes this morning at 8 a.m. to four University-controlled parking decks. Spaces are available at the South Campus Parking Deck, North Campus Parking Deck, Carlton Street Parking Deck, and limited spaces in Hull Street Parking Deck.

From experience, passes sell quickly especially in the South Campus deck next to the Georgia Center. Hull Street spaces should also go quickly. A season pass will set you back $120, and passes are not available for individual games.

UPDATE: As of 12:30, parking deck passes remain only for the Carlton Street Parking Deck (behind Stegeman Coliseum) and the North Campus Parking Deck.

Georgia fans have been waiting to see how Mark Richt would react to this week’s arrests, and they got some answers this afternoon. Richt discussed the arrests and announced suspensions for some, though not all, of the players recently arrested.

"I’m certainly disappointed in a few of our players who have made poor decisions during the off season," Richt said. "It is of great concern and we take it very seriously. They will be dealt with accordingly and will pay a price. Each one will be disciplined based on the severity of their actions."

He went on to highlight the positive activities and behavior of the vast majority of the team which included everything from mission work to volunteer activities.

So for those keeping score at home, here are the suspensions and results of the offseason incidents as they stand now (in order of severity):

• DE Michael Lemon (felony battery): suspended indefinitely (per athletic department policy)
• OL Clint Boling (alcohol-related): two games
• FB Fred Munzenmaier (alcohol-related): two games
• DB Donovan Baldwin (alcohol-related): one game
• OL "Bean" Anderson (simple battery): no suspension announced (yet)
• OL Trinton Sturdivant (simple battery): no suspension announced (yet)
• DE Jeremy Lomax (concealed weapon): charges dropped, no suspension

You can get better legal analysis here, but “not good” more or less sums up the current state of affairs for Bulldog reserve DE Michael Lemon.

Misdemeanor battery charges against Michael Lemon have been upgraded to include a felony aggravated battery charge, and Lemon turned himself in this morning.

If the charges stand, any discipline from Mark Richt is the least of Lemon’s concern. He’ll be facing some very serious charges with potentially severe punishment from the court and the University. The alleged victim seems determined to press on with the charges, and that’s certainly his right if the facts of the case support his claims.

Meanwhile, Bellygate is into its third day, and there’s not much new to report on the cases of Sturdivant and Anderson.