Six weeks.

The AFCA has forwarded a proposal (h/t Get the Picture) to conference commissioners for an early signing period for college football. The proposed signing day in the “third week of December” would come approximately six weeks before the current signing day on the first Wednesday in February.

There’s an early signing period in sports like basketball of course, but the difference between those signing periods is closer to six months rather than six weeks. What’s so important that the coaches can’t wait until the February signing period? “What we’re seeing is oversigning and late switches,” claims Notre Dame’s Rob Ianello.

I’ve written plenty before about why I’m suspicious of the coaches’ motives with an early signing period, and Ianello’s comments do little to show me that those concerns are unfounded. Even as the coaching ranks shuffle as staffs are assembled into December and January, coaches would rather that prospects give up the last bit of leverage and unrestricted choice they’ll enjoy for the next three-to-five years. Six measly weeks.

Ianello’s flippant question, “Is it a reservation or a commitment?” might be better asked of the highly-paid coaches that are so put upon by the current recruiting timetable.

While I’m on a little NFL kick here…

I’m generally a playoff proponent and don’t have much of a problem with the two lowest seeds still alive for a shot at the Super Bowl.

Is it necessarily a good thing that so often this time of year the weather is as much of a story and a factor in these playoff games as the teams themselves? The Super Bowl gets it right and is played in warm weather (or at least a dome), but the pros seem to take such pride in the fact that occasionally some of its most important games are played in weather that neutralizes or handicaps its best players and teams.

How many big BCS games have really been impacted by weather?

A rare kind word about a player about to redefine the word "overexposure"…

When I see the headline in the AJC that the "NFL doesn’t know what to do with Tim Tebow," that comes across to me as a bug with the NFL and not a flaw with Tebow.

I get why certain things don’t work in the leap from college to the NFL. The mismatches in talent that are exploited and punished in a variety of collegiate schemes aren’t there in the pros, so every team more or less runs its own variation on the same West Coast-y system used by every other team, and the blandness has persisted long enough for us all to understand what a "pro-style" quarterback or offense means – and what they don’t mean.

It’s not just Tebow of course, and it’s not just football. Every incoming tailback now would love to be "the next Reggie Bush", but the real Bush is close to becoming little more than a punt return specialist at the next level. There are questions about Tyler Hansbrough’s ability to play in the NBA. It’s still fundamentally football or basketball, but at times like this the college and pro games seem like very distant cousins.

There are many reasons why a college player might not excel in the pros just as most of us could name a few local high school stars who faded in college. But if NFL teams are struggling with the "risk" and "uncertainty" of how to use a player like Tebow while peers Stafford and Bradford are can’t-miss top picks, that’s not exactly a positive comment on the imagination of NFL front offices.

An NFL general manager’s comment that, "It’s not like you’d be taking Joe Flacco," kind of says it all, doesn’t it?

You probably didn’t expect news about coaching changes to come from the offense, but that’s what we have tonight. UGASports.com is reporting that, effective June 30, receivers coach Dr. John Eason will step into the Director of Football Operations position left vacant by the retiring Steve Greer. In this administrative role, Eason will no longer be an assistant coach but will still be around the program to share his experience and mentor the student-athletes.

Running backs coach Tony Ball will slide over to coach receivers, and graduate assistant Bryan McClendon will join the staff full time as an assistant coaching running backs.

You might ask why they’d move the running backs coach to receivers and put the former receiver McClendon over the running backs. There are two reasons on the surface. First, Ball had coached receivers at Louisville and Virginia Tech since 1995 before he joined the Georgia staff in 2006. He has more career experience coaching receivers than running backs. That experience will be very important in a year in which the Dawgs will go through some big changes in the passing game.

Second, running backs coach is often seen as a position for a recruiter. There’s still plenty of coaching to do, but running backs might be a better “entry-level” position for a new assistant, especially one who shows such promise as a recruiter. McClendon is a product of Atlanta, and he’ll no doubt help to strengthen Georgia’s presence in the metro area. Everything I’ve heard about him since he began as a graduate assistant indicates that he’s an up-and-comer, and I’m glad that he’s able to continue his career at Georgia. By catching the 2005 game-winner at Tech, he’s already several credits up in my book.

Mark Richt said after the season that he didn’t expect any changes on the staff during the offseason, but here we are. Of course this isn’t exactly a house-cleaning, and stability was one of the attributes that kept Garner and Searels at Georgia. But with the door open now, is this the end of the changes?

So at least there’s that. After an inexplicable 7-point jump in the coaches’ poll (that Cap One win must’ve been more impressive than I remember), Georgia finishes the season ranked at #10. (#13 in the AP.)

That’s little consolation when you’re living in #1’s subdivision.

The Bulldogs fielded a pretty good team before Stafford and Moreno and will do so again next year, but that didn’t stop this headline from appearing on the Arizona Republic site:

Path to winning season easier for ASU football

By any measure, Louisiana-Monroe (for BYU) and QB Joe Cox/TBs Caleb King-Richard Samuel (for Stafford/Moreno) will make it easier for ASU to avoid a second straight losing season.

Arizona State hasn’t had consecutive losing seasons since 1946-1947 (impressive), and Dennis Erickson has never coached a college team to consecutive losing seasons. In fairness, the author isn’t chalking the Dawgs up as a win. “Of course ASU still has to play at Georgia on Sept. 26 with a new starting QB of its own so winning that game will be a stretch no matter what the Bulldogs personnel,” he cautions. Stafford and Moreno are the least of Erickson’s concerns when the Sun Devils make their return visit. For starters, they’ll have to improve on an offense that managed just 10 points against a Georgia defense that ended up averaging more than twice that.

Oh, and this guy will still be here.

I should admit straight off that I am of a like mind with other Georgia fans when it comes to how I *hope* the game turns out. I’d be giddy for days if we saw another 1995 national title game. I am also free of any confusing loyalties based on conference affiliation (though take what I wrote there about Ole Miss and Bama and reverse it, please). Tonight the SEC can rot. I think we’ll survive.

Bias can work both ways. It would be easy to jump from Georgia fan -> JEAN SHORTS -> Florida will lose. But the other side of bias is that we’ve seen, traumatically, what Florida can do. We’re not observers; we’re survivors. Victims. So it would be pretty easy to assume that every other school would kneel before Zod just as the rest of the SEC did in the second half of the season.

When so much of the attention is on individuals (Tebow vs. Bradford), it’s usually something else that will prove to be more important. We saw that in our own bowl game. It was all about Moreno vs. Ringer, but the difference in passing games is what ultimately separated Georgia from Michigan State.

Take the running game. Oklahoma will be absent DeMarco Murray, but Chris Brown is more than capable of carrying the load. A defense just can’t sit back and pick on Bradford; there’s a 1,100 yard rusher to worry about. Similarly, Florida isn’t just Tebow. They’ll use a cocktail of five or six players to move the ball on the ground from nearly every position and formation. Better defenses have slowed the Oklahoma running game, but Florida can hit you in more unpredictable ways.

The most interesting matchup tonight will be Florida’s defensive pressure against Oklahoma’s heralded offensive line. Brian Orakpo was able to break through, but the Gators, while talented, don’t have an Orakpo. We’ll see how creative Charlie Strong and company can be in creating pressure.

I’ve seen it mentioned a few times that Oklahoma didn’t see anything comparable to the Florida defense. That’s true, at least in conference play. Florida ranks high in both scoring defense and total defense. But the Sooners did play TCU with a defense that finished above Florida in both catagories. TCU showed, in games against Utah and Boise State, that their defense ratings weren’t flukes. The fact that TCU held Oklahoma to “only” 35 – their lowest total of the season – leads me to think that the score predictions I’ve seen with Oklahoma scoring in the 20s to low 30s just don’t hold water.

Who wins? I still have to go with Florida. Call it survivor shock. It might be their defense, running game, punt block unit (watch out for that), return teams, or even boring old Tebow, but they’re a complete team with the mindset to win. Doesn’t mean I won’t be hating life, especially when a blare of trumpets from the clouds heralds the announcement that the core of the team will be back next season.

Moreno and Stafford are gone, but every Georgia fan could see this coming. Have a trash can nearby. (h/t The Wiz).

Florida’s Tim Tebow, Brandon Spikes and Percy Harvin will announce whether they will leave school early for the NFL Draft within a week after Thursday’s BCS national championship game against Oklahoma.
The three, however, have already had discussions about possibly doing something the Gators’ ’04s basketball stars did in 2006: returning as a group.
“We have a lot of conversations about that issue all the time,” Spikes said.

Well of COURSE Florida’s Axis of Awesome will be back next year – intact. Could it go any other way?

Sure, Tebow says, “We’ll have to look at it and sit down after this game and really pray about it and try to figure out what’s best.” Fans of any other SEC school will tell you that “what’s best” will turn out to be touring and ministering on unicorns to impoverished nations in the offseason, putting the brakes on a global recession, releasing an album featuring John Legend and Beyonce, earning ATP pilot certification, representing Illinois in the Senate, and producing a library of 63 segments about themselves and their impact on humanity for ESPN’s use during the 2009 season that make us recall wistfully the understated and tasteful senior season of Joakim Noah.

Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford today announced their intention to enter the NFL Draft. Each had nothing but good things to say about their Georgia experience.

“It’s been an amazing run here,” said Stafford. “I’ve had an amazing time at Georgia. There is no better place for me to go to school. The way the coaches and fans treat you makes it feel like home. There is no better place in the country. This program has done a lot for me. I’m glad I got a chance to wear the “G” on my helmet and represent it the best I could.”

Moreno added: “Coming to Athens has been like a second home to me. It’s been wonderful. The coaches have been there for me with open arms. We have great fans. It was like a dream come true coming here and playing in front of 92,000. Running out of the stadium and having them cheer for us really means a lot. They are great fans and the best in the world.”

Want to hear an incredible stat? Given Georgia’s rich history of tailbacks, it took Moreno only two years to become Georgia’s #4 all-time leading rusher with 2,734 yards. Stafford also re-wrote the record book this year. His 25 touchdown passes sets the Georgia record for a season, and his 3,499 yards of total offense in 2008 is the highest ever for a season at Georgia.

David Hale reminds us today that we aren’t necessarily free from the aftermath of this season’s injuries just because the calendar has flipped. 14 players will be limited or absent from spring practice due to recovery from 2008 injuries. I’d say about half of them are players you’d consider likely or possible starters in 2009.

• TE Bruce Figgins, shoulder
• DE Rod Battle, shoulder
• LB Darius Dewberry, shoulder
• DT Jeff Owens, ACL
• OT Trinton Sturdivant, ACL
• OG Vince Vance, ACL
• OG Chris Davis, hip

Put another way: anywhere from a quarter to a third of Georgia’s 2009 starters are expected to miss spring practice due to injury. The impact on the offensive line is especially acute. With new starters at tailback and quarterback likely in 2009, the play of the offensive line will become even more important. The good news is that depth and experience are finally in place, but our ideal starting line which would include Sturdivant, Vance, and perhaps Davis won’t get much work together before August.

Though all of the injured are expected to be back in plenty of time for the season, the Southerland factor has to be given at least some consideration. By that I mean we should consider that the road to recovery might be rocky for at least one of the injured. Whether it delays their return altogether or impacts their conditioning, there is at least the possibility that we will still be paying for these injuries into next season. Injuries that linger into summer and even into August make it very difficult especially for someone who is trying to earn his way up the depth chart. I think back to Tony Wilson who had to miss spring ball last year, struggled to get back into the rotation for this year, and then went out with another injury which, according to the ABH, might keep him out of yet another spring practice.

Missing spring practice isn’t the end of the world, but they wouldn’t be practicing if it didn’t matter.

Not the best of nights for Bulldog fans.

It started as the basketball team blew a double-digit second half lead to Georgia Tech (sound familiar?). The Dawgs, up by 13 earlier in the half, couldn’t manage but 24 points in the second half and wilted under Tech pressure before losing 67-62. Tech gave Georgia every opportunity to put the game away, but Georgia wasn’t good enough to take advantage of the opening.

You can go down the box score…19-of-31 from the line. Outrebounded by 15. 12 Tech steals. 18 turnovers – most of which came in the second half. 8 Tech blocks on glacially slow moves to the basket. And it’s not like Tech was much better. 1-for-11 from outside. Around 60% from the line. Neither team shot better than 36.1%. It was Tech’s night, but this will likely be a bright spot in their own long season.

I think it’s the first time Tech can claim wins in football, women’s basketball, and men’s basketball in the same year, and that doesn’t sit well.

Now we learn that Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno are expected to announce their NFL intentions on Wednesday. UGASports.com is reporting that both are expected to declare for the NFL draft. It won’t be official until we hear it from the players, but don’t plan on either being back next season.

While Dawg fans aren’t happy to see either go, hopefully we can leave the bitterness out of it and wish both of them well. Both should be great ambassadors for the program at the next level, and it will be good publicity for Georgia to have two draft picks of that stature. Stafford is poised to become Georgia’s first first-round quarterback selection since Johnny Rauch in 1949.

Moreno is expect to become Georgia’s highest draft selection at tailback since Garrison Hearst in 2003.

It’s a good time to remember that players like Geno Atkins and Jeff Owens along with coaches Rodney Garner and Stacy Searels WILL be back next season.

And I say that as someone who watches a good bit of local high school ball on CSS.

Sportscasters have been making up words for years. There is a website dedicated to awful announcing. How many times have you heard “defensed” instead of “defended” or “get untracked” instead of “get on track?” This is football, not English class, right?

One of the FOX crew, Matt Vasgersian I believe, went into new territory last night. While pointing out the statistical advantage Ohio State had at one point in both yardage gained and time-of-possession, we were told that the Buckeyes had “out-yardaged” and “out-time-of-possessioned” the Longhorns. I almost expected to be told at the end of the game that Texas had out-touchdowned Ohio State.

I wonder if he was the same guy who later was unsure whether Ohio State would go for two after a touchdown closed the Texas lead to 17-15.

• Missouri goes to overtime with double-digit underdog Northwestern
• Oklahoma State can’t keep up with underdog Oregon
• Ole Miss shreds favored Texas Tech
• Even “split title” Texas in a win looks nowhere near as good as SoCal did against the Buckeyes.

Prior to the bowls, Oklahoma was the only Big 12 contender to play a decent nonconference schedule with opponents like TCU and Cincinnati. The rest sure are looking a lot like paper tigers now. The conference overall is 4-2 in bowls, but the mighty Big 12 South is 1-2 heading into the BCS title game.

Colt McCoy, though…wow. What a clutch player. If the coach-in-waiting’s defense could have held in Lubbock, we’d be talking about McCoy’s game-winning drive there that planted the Longhorns in the national title game. Even with the split title argument shot now, he was able to lead his team back again tonight from the brink of an upset. Tremendous player.

I don’t know and probably don’t want to know what went on to make it happen, but Rodney Garner finally said, “no, thanks” to Tennessee and will remain on the Georgia staff. For now, anyway….

Plane-gate is over. N111UT is gone from Athens with little more than an order of rings from the Varsity for its trouble.

Now hopefully Marlon Brown will make the same decision…the Memphis receiver looked pretty good last night in the Under Armour game.

As expected (and hoped), five-star cornerback Branden Smith committed to Georgia live on ESPN during the Under Armour All Star game on Sunday evening. Smith, of Washington High School in Atlanta, chose Georgia over, well, offers from just about everyone in the nation, but his decision came down to Florida, FSU, Alabama, and Georgia. He is rated the #4 cornerback in the nation and the #31 prospect overall by Rivals.com.

Greg Reid of Valdosta was one of the standouts in the Under Armour game, and he recently rescinded his commitment to Florida. Georgia is among those he will consider, but his academics are a concern.