David Hale and Anthony Dasher both had conversations this week with starting left tackle Trinton Sturdivant about his personal progress since his season-ending knee injury. There’s also some good information about the composition of the starting offensive line. From left to right, the current first team line is:
LT: Trinton Sturdivant (RSo.)
LG: Vince Vance (Sr.)
C: Ben Jones (So.)
RG: Cordy Glenn (So.)
RT: Clint Boling (Jr.)
If you’ve heard Mark Richt speak at any of the Road Tour stops, this is pretty consistent with how Richt had the line. The only real question was at guard and whether Justin Anderson would work his way into the starting lineup, and he still might – there’s still plenty of time for things to change before September.
Regardless of the ultimate lineup, if everyone stays healthy (always a big “if), we’re left with two statements we haven’t been able to make about the Georgia line for years: every Georgia starting lineman returns with starting experience, and the Dawgs are going to be able to bring in guys off the bench with multiple starts under their belts.
The biggest unknown with the line has been whether the injured players will be able to step back in at a high level of play. That might be more of an issue with someone like Chris Davis whose more recent hip surgery still leaves him in a likely reserve role. But for Sturdivant, it’s going to be less of a concern. Sturdivant “no longer has to wear the brace on his knee and doesn’t even have to go through treatment any longer,” according to Dasher.
If Vance and Sturdivant are able to return anywhere near full strength, the composition of the line will also allow the Dawgs to bring along newcomers at a more normal pace. In the past two years freshmen like Austin Long, Chris Burnette, and Dallas Lee might be forced into starting roles. Now, if injuries can be avoided, many of them will have the opportunity to redshirt and not hit the field as starters until 2011 when they’ll have had 2+ years of development.
Though the return of Sturdivant is one of the most important developments of the preseason, the depth situation at tackle is still a big concern relative to the strength of the interior line. Sturdivant and Boling are solid starters. After that, Josh Davis was able to step in last year, and Anderson is able to play right tackle. Vance stepped in for Sturdivant last season at left tackle before Vance’s own season-ending injury. Austin Long is an incoming tackle, but he will redshirt after back surgery earlier this year and isn’t an option. Kiante Tripp is back on defense. So there are options in the event, God forbid, of injury, but they’re largely the same as last year and better interior linemen than answers at tackle.
The ability of everyone to stay healthy through the summer and into the season is meaningful not just for depth but also cohesiveness. Though everyone on the starting line has starting experience, this combination of players has never taken the field in a game. “We’re focusing on getting used to the player beside us because last year everybody was mixed up, switching positions every so often every week,” explained Sturdivant. A line full of experienced players is great, but it’s less of an advantage if the quarterback, tailback, and even the other linemen don’t know how the unit will work as a whole. The more time the guys have to get to know each others’ game and the more time Cox and the other members of the backfield have to get comfortable, the bigger positive impact the line will have on the season.
Why doesn’t the athletic association do the right thing and spread the wealth this contact (sic) will provide? …it won’t cost the association a dime. This new contract provides “found money,” and it’s only appropriate that a portion is returned to those who have helped make the program what it is today.
I’m sure this guy has also fired off a letter to Matthew Stafford reminding Stafford of the role of Hartman Fund donors in providing a place where Stafford could hone his skills and land such a lucrative pro contract. If we’re going to pander for a handout, let’s not stop at the Butts-Mehre building.
The Sept. 12 Georgia-South Carolina football game in Athens and the Sept. 19 game between Georgia and Arkansas in Fayetteville will both be televised at night by ESPN and/or ESPN2.
The Georgia-South Carolina game will be televised by ESPN2 at 7:00 p.m. ET. The Georgia-Arkansas game will be on either ESPN or ESPN2 at 7:45 p.m. ET.
Also, Lady Dog point guard Ashley Houts was one of 12 players named to the USA national team representing the country July’s World University Games. She and Trey Thompkins, named last week to the USA Basketball U19 team, will bring back valuable international training and playing experience against some of the world’s toughest competition.
I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this Monday afternoon post from David Hale. It’s nothing to do with Hale’s writing but rather the “star of the team is the team” approach taken by Mark Richt.
Chemistry is a very real issue with any organization, and we’ve all seen otherwise talented teams that just didn’t click. In that sense, Richt’s observation that the players “really decided that they have to come together as a team and work their tail off and get after it” is very positive. We’ve been treated since the end of the season to dozens of hazy accounts about leadership and chemistry on last year’s team, and most everyone has been quick to point out how different things are this year. I’ve said my peace about that, but we’ll go along with it.
I don’t get the connection though between all of that and the downside of “relying on a Stafford or a Moreno to carry the team.” If we’re talking about the Patrick Ewing Theory here, fine. Sometimes teams do have successful seasons when stars leave, and sometimes teams can get caught up waiting for the stars to take over. I can even see where that can have an impact on chemistry if others resent the attention. Is that what Richt is really getting at?
But was leaning on Stafford and Moreno really near the top of the list of last year’s shortcomings? The Georgia offense was 3rd in the SEC in scoring and 2nd in yardage. It seems as if they were up to it, even behind a patchwork line. Of course the Dawgs won’t have those two to lean on again this year, and that’s where comments apply about a stronger offensive line taking some of the pressure off.
Teams lean on, single out, and promote stars all the time. Of all of the things that made “last year one of the toughest years,” I’m having trouble seeing how “the Bulldogs fans and the media (focusing) on those two guys” was unfair or misplaced attention. They deserved it, and they much more often than not delivered. What did too much attention on Stafford and Moreno have to do with the SEC’s #10 scoring defense or a secondary whose interception total was challenged by the defensive line?
Here’s another thing: fans and the media are going to continue to focus on certain standout individuals even on a team that claims that “the team is the star.” It’s what we do. Fans and media focused on Stafford and Moreno last year, and they’ll focus on A.J. Green, Rennie Curran, and the Owens/Atkins tandem this year. We’re going to expect Green to make incredible catches and big plays – he’s going to have to with so little returning production at WR. We’re going to be looking for Curran to fly all over the field because someone has to be the spark on the defensive side.
The team-first approach is important, and whatever gets these guys ready to play together can only be a good thing. But few teams, especially at this level, succeed without bona fide stars. Successful teams have players who understand and embrace their roles whether they get top billing or are among the supporting cast. The trouble with last year’s team wasn’t so much leaning on some of the biggest stars ever to suit up for the Bulldog offense; it was that not enough of the rest of the team rose to that level of play.
With the recent announcement of three verbal commitments from the Jacksonville area, Georgia’s recruiting success in the state of Florida is getting some notice. They’re not just finding recruiting success in Jacksonville; the incoming Bulldog class contains three high-profile prospects from further down the peninsula, and two more from the Orlando area have pledged to sign in 2010.
Is it the Georgia-Florida game’s proximity to Jacksonville? Proponents of keeping the game in Jacksonville (of which I am one) sometimes claim that a game in the area helps the program stay on the mind of prospects and high schools in south Georgia and north Florida. I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. As the Times-Union points out, these three recent commitments are more than Georgia’s landed from the Jacksonville area in seven years (Chapas and Evans). Besides, it’s not as if the WLOCP has been the best advertisement for Georgia football lately.
There’s a simpler explanation.
“You look at Georgia’s staff, and they have strong connections here,” Sullivan said. “Assistant coach John Lilly was at Florida State for 13 years, so he’s recruited here for a long time. Coach Stacy Searels recruited this area when he was at Auburn. Their recruiting coordinator, Rodney Gardner, also has strong ties here.”
That’s just the start. Defensive coordinator Willie Martinez grew up in, played college football in, and coached in the state. Even John Jancek has coaching experience in Florida and was just this year offered the chance to join the Univ. of South Florida staff. Lilly wasn’t only an assistant at FSU; he also served as recruiting coordinator with impressive results.
Under Lilly’s direction, four of FSU’s recruiting classes between 2002 and 2007 were ranked in the top four in the nation. The Seminoles’ 2001 and 2005 classes were ranked number one nationally in some polls.
There have also been shifts in the college football landscape. Those of us with a little gray in our hair likely have a much different perspective about the in-state choices for the Florida prospects. They weren’t alive during Miami’s glory years in the 1980s. Current recruits were in the second grade when Steve Spurrier won his last SEC title and FSU last finished in the AP top 10. Urban Meyer has guaranteed Florida’s relevance for the near future, but what about the other programs?
Since the arrival of Mark Richt (and the third grade for current prospects), Georgia has won 10 more games than Miami and 15 more games than FSU. Since these recruits entered high school in the fall of 2006, FSU has gone just 23-16. Miami is just 19-19. Georgia is 30-9. South Florida, Wake Forest, and even troubled programs like Michigan, Tennessee, and Auburn have won more games than FSU and Miami during the high school careers of the current class of rising high school seniors. Certainly most of these recruits aren’t without a sense of history, and they’re not oblivious to the legacies of success at FSU and Miami, but those schools’ relative performance during these formative years has opened the door not only for in-state competition at Florida but also for schools like Georgia.
It’s natural that some will question whether too much emphasis is being placed on out-of-state prospects especially after so much talk about “closing the borders” earlier in Richt’s career. But offering top out-of-state targets early is a pretty common tactic, and sometimes you have to go where the talent is if a certain position is a little soft in the home state. Both Florida and Georgia currently have five out-of-state commitments (though Florida has six more pledges overall). Make no mistake – Georgia’s top in-state prospects know who they are and are getting plenty of attention from the staff.
“This is a proven broadcast team,” said Evans. “Scott is a Bulldog calling Georgia Bulldog games. He’s been one of our radio personalities going on 20 years and has done an exceptional job with all the Bulldog sports he has broadcast over a long period of time. Eric gives us not only a former Bulldog player but the special analysis that a former quarterback can bring to the table.”
I think this was the best possible outcome. Short of someone like Brad Nessler, I wasn’t too keen on someone with few ties to the Dawgs coming into the broadcast booth. People might have stylistic issues with Howard, but he’s a comfortable and familiar voice to guide us through Saturdays. Zeier’s taken to the role of analyst quickly and definitely adds something to the broadcast that had been missing.
Evans’ announcement still leaves some questions unanswered. The personnel for the pregame and postgame shows, sideline reporting, and crews for other sports are still unannounced.
There has been a major fire at the landmark Georgia Theatre in Athens this morning. No UGA alum or even casual acquaintance of the city has to be told of the punch in the stomach that comes with that news. Too many concerts, crush parties, and games watched there to recount them all, but my highlight had to be seeing Wynton Marsalis many years ago. The night ended with a New Orleans-style parade out the door – one of those things that can only happen when you mix a legendary artist with the wide-eyed joy of a college town crowd soaking it all in, and it happened all the time at the Georgia Theatre.
Hopefully it can rebuilt soon, though the roof has collapsed and the damage inside is surely devastating. Selfishly, I can’t (and don’t want to) imagine what a football fall would be like without the Theatre.
Make no mistake, ISP is going to make their money back somehow. If you haven’t become numb to the barrage of advertising at Sanford Stadium yet, you won’t like what’s ahead. At least with Cingular becoming AT&T, there should be less orange and blue around. The additional time (possibly 9+ hours of total broadcast time on a football game day) added to the pregame and postgame shows will surely be advertising-heavy. I’d also expect the enhancements to online and mobile content to come with a price tag. If they can make it more reliable than G-Xtra, it might be worth it.
For many fans, the most interesting development to watch will be this one:
With the ISP deal in place, Georgia expects to announce its radio broadcast teams for the coming season soon.
Scott Howard called the football and men’s basketball play-by-play last season. Eric Zeier provided football color commentary.
“Certainly we look forward to working with the stable of folks that have been working with us before and potentially adding others into the fold,” Thomas said. “You will continue to see a lot of those that you’ve seen involved in the broadcast.”
The last line gives us a bit of hope, but I’m a little apprehensive at the direction this could take. Howard and Zeier were never going to be a permanent arrangement, but I’d be just fine leaving that intact. No one is going to replace Munson, but Howard is at least competent and, most important (to me at least), a homer and comfortable bit of continuity from the Munson days. I dread the day when some polished outsider is brought in who is bland and detatched or, worse, from the cheeseball Mick Huber mold. There are so many ways it could go bad and so many people who would be worse for the job than Scott Howard. It could have a silver lining – the broadcast team could end up being bad enough to force fans to leave the headphones at home for once and actually get into the game.
Of course there’s more to it than the guys in the booth. Sideline reporters and pregame and postgame hosts will have to be sorted out, so we’ll have to see what the announcement brings and where the changes will be made. Basketball and baseball could also see a shakeup – will Jeff Dantzler still be a part of the picture?
I also wonder about Hondo and the guys managing the broadcast network for WSB. WSB will still be the Atlanta broadcast affiliate, but the network is managed by ISP now instead of Cox/WSB. Hopefully they’ll still have a role in the new arrangement after the great work they’ve done.
Atlanta and Nashville were the big winners when the SEC announced upcoming sites for the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Through 2014, the 2012 men’s tournament is the only event that won’t take place in the Nashville or Atlanta areas. It’s great news for Georgia fans – Atlanta and Duluth are obviously convenient, and Nashville is a 4-hour drive and an enjoyable place to spend a March weekend. If Mark Fox can build a competitive team, traveling to follow the Dawgs into the first stages of the postseason isn’t going to break the bank.
The Georgia Dome was the (initial) site of the legendary 2008 SEC men’s tournament, and the conference will tempt fate (and weather) by bringing the tournament back in 2011 and 2014.
The news is even better for Lady Dogs fans: the women’s SEC Tournament will return to Duluth’s Arena at Gwinnett Center for 2010, 2013, and 2014. Though the SEC is typically the strongest women’s basketball conference, Atlanta is the only SEC-area city with a WNBA franchise. The SEC has to hope that an increased awareness of women’s basketball in Atlanta (not to mention the short drive from Tennessee) will help to fill the seats.
I’m not exactly sure what constitutes “football revenue”. Bowl money surely counts. Hartman Fund donations were less than $30 million, and ticket sales can’t account for more than a couple million dollars per game. Is the SEC distribution figured in? It would be interesting to see the breakdown…I’ll have to check the Hartman Fund annual report.
Though football revenue is among the best in the nation, overall revenue is “only” 13th among all programs. Football revenue accounts for 80% of what the Athletic Association brings in. Football at a school like Georgia is always going to lead the way, but it also demonstrates the problems with and potential for the other men’s sports.
Basketball is a big moneymaker for a lot of schools, but Georgia hasn’t been in a position to do much with its hoops programs lately. Demand is barely palpable, the Coliseum doesn’t offer much in the way of generating revenue (suites, sponsorship, etc.), and no postseason money is coming in. Hopefully Mark Fox will begin to change all of that; it’s certainly an expectation that’s implied by any major college coaching job. Even baseball has potential. The product is quality, but the media deal is negligible (a single local AM station), and the facility is among the smallest in the conference and becoming more outdated by the year.
It’s great that football is doing so well, but any business person knows the dangers of relying too much on a single product, vendor, or customer. In addition to increasing revenue from the other sports that have been poor performers, the Athletic Association is looking at other ways to bring in more cash.
Georgia is nearing a lucrative deal with North Carolina-based ISP Sports, which currently holds the school’s marketing and sponsorship rights. Contracts have been drawn up for the extended rights deal. The deal would include radio, TV, Internet and digital content.
Under the deal with ISP, the pregame show would increase to four hours in length, and, including the game and postgame show, “the broadcast programming window would grow to at least nine hours.” That might sound like great news to those who tune in to the pregame show, but that deal’s going to have to be paid for somehow. If you think the current broadcasts and Sanford Stadium experience have become commercialized, ISP has a reputation for making that seem like an interruption-free PBS broadcast by comparison.
Congratulations to Georgia sophomore basketball player Trey Thompkins who was one of 17 players invited to the 2009 USA U19 National Team Trials. Following the trials this week, the group will be pared down to a roster of 12 for the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship in New Zealand this July.
We should also learn in the next few weeks whether Ashley Houts will make the U.S. National team headed to the World University Games in Serbia. International experience and training with some of the top college players in the nation is invaluable, and we hope that both of these Georgia stars will get that opportunity.
cocknfire over at Team Speed Kills has a look at the 2002 Sugar Bowl – an improbable matchup that turned into a high-scoring track meet. cocknfire’s post focuses on the Big Ten / SEC Sugar Bowl, but that 2001 SEC championship game he mentions might have been one of the bigger turning points in the conference this decade. It was a huge stamp of legitimacy for Nick Saban’s LSU program and was also the last time a Phil Fulmer Tennessee team would play a part in the national title picture.
It’s hard to imagine Nick Saban’s LSU program “on the brink”, but that’s where they were midway through 2001 after a loss to Ole Miss. They recovered (read the link at TSK for more), got back on track with an impressive upset win over Alabama, and went on a run to win their last six games of the season. Within the span of about six weeks, Saban went from 4-3 and still unproven as an SEC coach to the head coach of the SEC champions.
Tennessee, despite the upset home loss to Georgia early in October, had risen to #2 in the nation. They had survived trips to Tuscaloosa, South Bend, and Gainesville. The game with Florida, delayed until the end of the season by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was a thrilling 34-32 win that wasn’t just a showdown for the SEC East title; the winner would also become the presumptive favorite to earn the #2 spot in the BCS rankings. That game in itself was a bit of a turning point – instead of playing for another SEC and national title, Steve Spurrier’s Gators had to settle for an at-large bid to the Orange Bowl. Spurrier announced his decision to leave for the NFL a few months later, and it was the beginning of a few lean years for Florida fans.
After surviving those road tests and Spurrier’s last stand, a win over #20 LSU was supposed to be a formality for Tennessee, and Vol fans were making plans to head to Pasadena for a Rose Bowl clash with #1 Miami.
The 2001 SEC championship game opened with a first quarter LSU touchdown, but the Vols exploded for 17 points in the second quarter to take a 17-10 lead into the locker room. LSU inched closer with a pair of third quarter field goals but still trailed by a point entering the final period. Freshman quarterback Matt Mauck’s second rushing touchdown of the day put the Tigers up for good less than a minute into the fourth quarter following a critical Travis Stephens fumble. Domanick Davis sealed the win a one-yard touchdown run with just over two minutes left after a long six-minute drive.
The story of the game, other than Mauck’s just-good-enough relief of injured starter Rohan Davey, was LSU holding the SEC’s top rusher, Travis Stephens, to just 37 yards on the ground. The Vols did some damage through the air, but the inability to convert on the ground cost them when they missed out on a chance to answer LSU’s go-ahead score. Tennessee drove down the field and set up a 1st-and-goal at the LSU 4. No longer trusting the ground game, Tennessee’s coaches called three passes, and quarterback Casey Clausen threw three straight incompletions. Instead of tying the game with a touchdown, the Vols had to settle for a short field goal and still trailed.
The game remains the only instance out of eight opportunities since 1992 where an SEC team in line to play for the national title lost the SEC championship game. Since that pivotal game, LSU went on to win three more SEC West titles, two more SEC championships, and two national titles. They even survived a coaching change along the way. Tennessee managed to return to the SEC championship game in 2004 and 2007, but they were clear underdogs each time and couldn’t upset the 2004 undefeated Auburn team or the 2007 national champion LSU team. The Vols never again finished in the top 10 under Fulmer and were even left out of the final poll in three of the next seven years.
Can you think of many other games in recent SEC history that sent the two teams in such different directions? The 2006 Florida “jump pass” win over LSU was certainly a key moment in the rise of Urban Meyer’s Florida program, but LSU rebounded to beat Florida and win the national title the following year.
Offensive line coming together
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