“If the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech got together to compete in mumblety peg, it would draw a crowd and there would be lots of emotion displayed by the fans of both teams.”
– Andy Landers

All was right with the world when Georgia’s football team emerged with a win last Saturday night over Georgia Tech. The football Dawgs earned a good measure of payback for last season’s disappointing loss in Athens, and sitting back to watch the fallout this week has been extremely satisfying. What has Georgia done since 1980? Only beat the Tech football team 21 times.

Georgia has another program that’s experienced even more success than the football team against Tech, but that dominance has also been challenged recently. Andy Landers’ Lady Dogs won every one of the first 24 meetings in the series with Tech. But since 2002 Tech has won 3 of the 7 games against Georgia and emerged as a top 25 program that’s an annual participant in the NCAA Tournament. An ugly 57-42 beating at the hands of Tech last year in Atlanta was a harbinger of a disappointing season for the Lady Dogs.

The Lady Dogs look to be much improved this year, and they’ve already beaten a few teams that have spent some time in the rankings. Georgia has raced to a 7-0 start and are as high as #13 in the polls. The core of Houts, Robinson, and Phillips is as strong as expected, and freshman Jasmine James looks to be a significant upgrade at the shooting guard. Fellow freshman Ann Marie Armstrong is starting to click, and sophomore Meredith Mitchell has been a nice surprise so far in the backcourt.

But Tech has another quality team this year and have started 5-1 while hovering around the bottom of the top 25. They’ve just added back their best player – junior wing Alex Montgomery who had been recovering from a knee injury suffered at the end of last season. Montgomery’s return addresses Tech’s primary weakness: scoring from the perimeter. They’re able to generate a tremendous amount of offense out of turnovers and transition, but they can bog down in halfcourt. Montgomery gives them a legitimate scorer who can fill the basket outside or inside.

Sunday’s game against Tech (2:30 p.m., Stegeman Coliseum, CSS TV) will be a great test for both teams. These are both teams bound for the postseason, and Tech isn’t coming into these games anymore just hoping to be competitive. The Lady Dogs have a good bit of pride at stake after last year’s awful showing, and they have at least managed to defend the home court in the series with Tech.

If you’re still enjoying last Saturday’s payback win, come out to Stegeman on Sunday afternoon – at the risk of getting punched in the face – and help the Lady Dogs experience that same feeling.

I hope no one was seriously hung up on this idea, but it’s past time to come to grips with the fact that we’re not getting back together with the ex.

Congratulations to sophomore punter Drew Butler who earned AFCA All-American honors in his first year as Georgia’s punter.

1. You have someone in mind who’s the obvious choice to head up Georgia’s defense.
2. There’s someone else who thinks that would be a worse hire than Mike Locksley at New Mexico.

I’m not even going to bother with a list because there’s a good chance few will be familiar with the coordinator (and definitely the assistants) Georgia ends up hiring. Mark Richt hasn’t had to make a lot of staff changes, but I don’t recall seeing names like VanGorder or Jancek or Searels before they were brought on. The world of college football is a much bigger one than the same three or four names you’re seeing everywhere.

Well, it’s official. Mark Richt has announced that three defensive coaches – coordinator/DB coach Willie Martinez, linebackers coach John Jancek, and defensive ends coach Jon Fabris – will not return for the 2010 season.

“I cannot express enough my thanks to all three for their contributions to our program,” said Richt. “However, in the final analysis I’m charged with providing the leadership and direction for the Georgia program and sometimes that means making difficult decisions. This was one of them.”

I can’t say it was unexpected, but I question anyone who doesn’t respect the human angle to this story. It had to be excruciating for Mark Richt and it goes without saying that everyone from the coaches to their families to the student-athletes under their direction are in a very bad place today. The news is especially tough in the case of Martinez and Fabris. The case can be made against either professionally, but both men made key contributions to the elevation of the Georgia program during this decade, produced some incredibly successful units at their respective positions, and both were in Athens long enough to put down considerable roots.

It doesn’t escape notice that there was one defensive coach who will apparently be retained. Mark Richt made it a point to keep Rodney Garner when Richt took over the program at the end of 2000, and it seems as if Richt will again turn to Garner as a source of stability. The question is whether Garner is interested in serving in that same role this time. Garner continues to make no secret of his ambition to become a head coach (and we certainly don’t begrudge him his ambition). He’s courted offers from rival programs recently, and comments by Damon Evans over Garner’s lack of a contract don’t seem to indicate the best of working relationships. Garner might not be let go, but it remains to be seen whether Mark Richt will be looking to replace the entire defensive staff anyway.

One conclusion is that Garner might be promoted to defensive coordinator, but I doubt it. First, you’d expect that to be part of today’s announcement in order to minimize uncertainty about the future of the defense. It would also be tough to sell an internal promotion when the last one brought us to this point (twice, if you count Jancek’s offseason promotion to “co-coordinator”). Garner likely won’t even get a chance to be interim coordinator as all three departing coaches have been asked to remain on through the bowl game.

Now the tough part – getting the right people in place. There will be immediate comparisons to the disastrous changes made at Auburn and Tennessee that ended up bringing down the head coach. This is a slightly different situation – it’s not just a new coordinator being added to the staff. There will be the opportunity to assemble an almost entirely new defensive staff, and you’d expect that the new coordinator will have a say in the composition of the staff. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Georgia’s transition will be smooth or the new defense successful. There is risk involved, and we can’t get away from that. At the same time, this is a bigger task than just hiring that one coordinator. You’ve got to find (at least) three coaches who will work well together, work well with Richt, work well for Georgia, and do it while most candidates are preparing for their own postseason.

There’s also recruiting. Georgia already has a solid class with some quality defenders committed, and they’ve targeted a few more to close things out. Keeping the class as intact as possible has to be a priority. It’s unavoidable that those prospects will now get the full court press from Georgia’s recruiting competition. Garner could certainly have an impact on this situation if he decides to remain on the staff. It’s already started – key commitments like safety Alec Ogletree are already having to answer questions, but, at least in Ogletree’s case, the commitment seems firm.

PS…although today’s all about the defense, there are rumors about the other side of the ball. David Pollack tweeted within the past week about possible Texas interest in offensive line coach Stacy Searels. Searels was approached by Auburn during last offseason, but he chose to remain at Georgia. Hoepfully he’ll do so again.

David Hale mentioned this morning that Georgia quarterback Logan Gray would be moving to receiver. Though there’s been no official word about that, Georgia’s actions on the recruiting trail this week indicate a sudden interest in beefing up the depth chart at QB.

Georgia has offered scholarships this week to two quarterbacks: Devin Burns of Carver-Columbus and Hutson Mason of Lassiter. Hutson has been breaking state passing records this year and led his team to a perfect regular season and into the state playoffs.

One interesting side note is that Georgia has offered two scholarships this week to two players from Carver-Columbus, the high school whose coach banned Georgia earlier in the summer. Burns was at the center of that story. The ban itself didn’t last but a few days, and now it looks as if those fences have been mended.

ESPN’s Joe Schad tweets that Georgia defensive coordinator Willie Martinez will not be retained.

So after yesterday’s fun it looks as if Shreveport and the Independence Bowl are the most likely postseason destination for Georgia. There’s enough griping about that, but it’s really not worth getting worked up over. I’ll still eat at Chick-fil-A (mmmmmmmm…Peppermint Chocolate Chip milkshake…..). Of course nothing’s official now until the conference allows bids to go out after the championship game, and it’s amusing to read all of the disclaimers and denials taking place since the announcements started breaking after Auburn and the Outback broke the logjam. “We haven’t extended an invitation to anyone yet. In fact, we’re still researching at this moment exactly which teams are in the SEC and ACC. Of course we’re still VERY interested in – what team are you calling about again?” said Chick-fil-A Bowl spokesman Gary Stokan.

So, at the risk of going against protocol, we’ll still assume it’s Shreveport for the Dawgs. And that’s life. As Texas Dawg noted in the comments yesterday, it could mean an interesting opponent from the Big 12. With teams like Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas A&M in play a decent matchup does seem to be a possibility. I’m about over playing the Big 10 at this point. And at the very least, Georgia will be an answer to a trivia question as the bowl will sever its tie with the SEC after this season.

Still, Shreveport remains a bit of a punchline among SEC fans, and people seem in agreement on what this destination offers as a lesson for Georgia: take care of business next time against Kentucky. Actually, that’s not the lesson. Auburn lost 5 of its last six games against FBS competition including a home game with Kentucky but still finds itself headed for a New Year’s Day bowl. That’s the thing about a glut of 7-5 teams: we can beat ourselves up for losing to Kentucky, but any of our peers can be singled out for their blunders and missed opportunities too. The lesson is something Mark Richt has said many times in the past. When you don’t take care of the things you can control, you leave your fate to the whims of others. It’s not about what one team or another deserves or has earned. The same whims can set you up on New Year’s Day in Florida or banish you to Shreveport, and either fate can be justified.

There’s another lesson, though. Would Georgia, at 8-4, be a more attractive to a bowl than a herd of 7-5 teams? Well, yes, that’s the point of the “just beat Kentucky next time” lesson. But Georgia is also the only one of the SEC’s six 7-5 teams to face three BCS conference opponents in their nonconference schedule, two of which were ranked. Where did that get us?

Tennessee and Georgia both finished the season with identical overall and conference records (7-5 and 4-4). The other four SEC teams with 7-5 records all were 3-5 in the league and got to seven wins with perfect nonconference records. Of those teams, only South Carolina played more than one nonconference opponent from a BCS conference. Would Tennessee or Georgia be more attractive bowl teams had they swapped UCLA or Oklahoma State for a generic mid-major to get to 8-4? It didn’t hurt Ole Miss, did it?

There’s another way to look at it of course. These trips to Tempe, Boulder, and – I suppose – Stillwater can be their own bowl trips within a season. Anyone who made the trip to Tempe can tell you that the scene felt just like a bowl (and a major bowl at that). The upside in a situation like 2008 is that you get a nice midseason bowl-like trip and get the win that builds your resume for a better postseason bowl bid. We saw the downside this year when a nonconference road loss to a quality opponent probably contributed (along with the whole losing 4 conference games thing) to missing out on a more attractive bowl game.

Damon Evans’ consistent message in his approach to scheduling is to “build the brand”. That brand took enough damage this year thanks to the results on the field, but the aggressive scheduling won’t be doing the brand any favors this bowl season.

We learned earlier that the Outback Bowl had selected Auburn. Now the Knoxville News Sentinel is reporting that the Chick-fil-A Bowl will pair Tennessee against Virginia Tech.

Is the Music City Bowl the next best option? Georgia might face strong competition from Kentucky where local sources are playing up the Wildcats’ chances.

“I think from all I know and am hearing, Kentucky will be in the Music City Bowl,” said a bowl source Monday.

The bowl’s preferences might have shifted during the course of the day as the Outback and Chick-fil-A Bowls made their moves. Kentucky has traveled well to Nashville, but they’ve been to that bowl after two of the past three seasons. Will fans be as enthusiastic for a third trip to Nashville since 2006?

South Carolina is another remote possibility for the Music City Bowl – a potential North Carolina vs. South Carolina matchup has been mentioned.

If Georgia slides past the Music City Bowl, they’ll be looking at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, or the PapaJohn’s Bowl in Birmingham. Paul thinks Arkansas is a lock for the Liberty, and we won’t argue with that. Shreveport seems most likely in that scenario.

WVLT in Knoxville is reporting that the Outback Bowl will select Auburn, and the Cotton Bowl will welcome back Ole Miss. If true, that would mean that the top five SEC bowl slots are now settled:

BCSC: Alabama/Florida
BCS: Alabama/Florida
Capital One: LSU
Cotton: Ole Miss
Outback: Auburn

There are six SEC teams with 7-5 records. Auburn is one of them. They are 1-3 against the others. But of course bowls aren’t about the best teams; the Outback is banking on Auburn fans traveling and selling tickets.

What does that mean for Georgia? Tennessee and Georgia, both at 4-4 in the conference and 7-5 overall, look to be the best remaining teams on the board. But as the Outback just demonstrated, the records don’t really matter now. Granting that the bowls could pick South Carolina, Kentucky, or Arkansas too, you’d expect the Chick-fil-A Bowl to pick between the Bulldogs and Volunteers. The outcome of the ACC Championship will have an impact since the availability of either Clemson or Georgia Tech will change things.

It’s true that a Clemson-Georgia matchup would sell tickets and draw a lot of regional interest, but I doubt that’s weighing on the committee of the CFA Bowl. This bowl is one of the few that rarely has trouble selling tickets, and Tennessee fans excited over this season would likely be able to fill the Dome as well as Georgia fans regardless of the opponent. It’s really a toss-up, and I don’t see it being settled until after the conference championships are played this weekend. It’s anyone’s guess what happens after the Chick-fil-A Bowl decides, but the Music City Bowl would seem to be the most likely destination for the team not selected to play in Atlanta. Again, though, there are still five SEC teams with 7-5 records from which to choose, and it will come down to which program and fan base is likely to sell the most tickets and generate tourism and interest for the host cities. Kentucky has traveled well to Nashville in the past, so Shreveport, Memphis, and Birmingham are still very much on the table for Georgia.

Since no one asked, my preference is for the Music City Bowl in Nashville. I know Atlanta’s a great town, but I live there. Nashville’s a fun town (even if the last visit to the Music City Bowl was frigid), and it’s an easy trip. The projected opponent in the MCB is North Carolina. I know some have a preference for a traditional rival like Clemson in the bowl game, but Georgia also has tradition with the Tar Heels though the teams haven’t met since 1971. Georgia holds a thin 16-12-2 advantage in the series that includes a 20-10 Georgia win in the 1947 Sugar Bowl which featured the great Charley Trippi.

I’m sure none of you are surprised by my preference to play the Heels.