The site Lost Letterman has a list up of the top 10 football players in Major League Baseball. None of them were Bulldogs, but it did make me think of the relationship between Georgia football and the game of baseball.

When you mention the nexus of baseball and Bulldog football, the name George Lombard probably comes to mind first – at least for fans of my generation. Lombard was a top tailback prospect out of Lovett in 1994 but opted for baseball when the Braves took him in the second round. The Bulldogs ended up turning to freshman Hines Ward at tailback in 1994 before Robert Edwards emerged at the start of the next year. Lombard eventually made it to the majors and played for four big league clubs between 1998 and 2006. His best year was probably 2002 where he played in 72 games for the Detroit Tigers. Lombard has been out of the majors since the end of 2006 and was released by the Cleveland Indians organization in 2009. He’s currently the hitting coach for the class-A Lowell Spinners of the Boston Red Sox organization.

Older fans of course remember Buck Belue who himself was a second round pick in 1978. Buck is most famous for his role on the 1980 national championship football team, but he was also an All-SEC baseball player who initially chose baseball after leaving Georgia.

The most recent Bulldog football player to choose baseball was Xavier Avery. He signed with the Dawgs in 2008 but opted for baseball after the Baltimore Orioles drafted him in the – wait for it – second round. Avery hasn’t made it to the majors yet, but he’s working his way through the Orioles organization in the two years since being drafted. He’s currently playing in the outfield for class-A Frederick.

Georgia’s even seen a baseball player come back to football. We’ll leave it for you to debate how that worked out.

Any others?

The buildup and reaction to the buildup of Arkansas can’t be avoided this week, so we’ll look at the Razorbacks this way: will their schedule help or hurt a team with such increasing expectations? Last season we looked at the Arkansas schedule and saw a stretch where survival was the best they could hope for:

They’ll start the season 1-0, but delivering on the hype surrounding Ryan Mallet and finishing 7-5 or better might require them to come out of that stretch at no worse than 3-4.

That’s just what happened. Arkansas emerged from their gauntlet at 3-4 thanks to wins over Texas A&M and Auburn and then proceeded to run off a string of wins that was only interrupted by an overtime loss to LSU. The friendlier second half of the season helped them rebound and build the kind of momentum that has people talking entering the 2010 season. Will their 2010 schedule be as tough? It’s not as bad, but it presents a similar challenge.

Sept. 4: Tennessee Tech
Sept. 11: Louisiana-Monroe (Little Rock)
Sept. 18: at Georgia
Sept. 25: Alabama
Oct. 9: Texas A&M (Southwest Classic – Arlington, Texas)
Oct. 16: at Auburn
Oct. 23: Ole Miss
Oct. 30: Vanderbilt
Nov. 6: at South Carolina
Nov. 13: UTEP
Nov. 20: at Mississippi State
Nov. 27: LSU (Little Rock)

Non-conference

It’s manageable. The games with Texas A&M and UTEP stand out. Texas A&M should be improved and looking for payback after last year’s big loss to Arkansas. The game in Arlington isn’t exactly an Aggie home game, but it’s still Arkansas’ only trip away from home outside of the SEC. UTEP could put up enough points to make things interesting.

Conference

It’s not that road games at Georgia, Auburn, or South Carolina are easy, but the conference slate lines up about as well as it could for them. Florida drops off the schedule, and they pick up Vanderbilt. They get to play the Alabama-LSU duo within the state of Arkansas.

The challenge

The schedule is once again pretty front-loaded though it’s not as daunting as last year’s grind. They’ll have the chance to run off some wins starting with the Ole Miss game, but in what shape will they arrive at that game? They’ll have to upset Alabama or win on the road at Georgia to avoid starting 2-2 overall and 0-2 in the SEC. More road challenges against A&M and at Auburn present opportunities to pick up another loss. What would a 3-3 start do to this preseason momentum?

Arkansas was an outstanding 8-1 last year at home and neutral sites (making that Georgia win all the more incredible). That 0-4 road mark is what will have to change in order for the Hogs to take the next step this year. Of course each of their four road games last year was against a team who spent time in the Top 10, and that won’t be the case in 2010.

If the Hogs can get through the first half of the season at no worse than 4-2, the schedule affords Arkansas a chance to get to nine wins. South Carolina and Mississippi State are potential pitfalls if only because they’ll be road games. The season finale with LSU is usually interesting, and the unknown direction LSU will take this year adds to the buildup. Will it be, as it was in 2002, a game between two good teams to decide who goes to the Dome? Or will Arkansas have a chance to bury Les Miles?

Getting to the midpoint of the season in good shape will depend on how well the Hogs can do outside of their state. If they can’t get past Alabama in Fayetteville, they’re going to have to win 2 of 3 on the road against Georgia, A&M, and Auburn in order to emerge at least 4-2 with hopes of a breakthrough season more or less intact. Their 7-5 regular season a year ago was progress, but just maintaining that kind of record would be a disappointment this year. If they leave Auburn at 3-3 or worse, they’ll have very little room for error down the stretch to come out of the season with a record to match the preseason hype.

Yes, Logan Gray has decided to remain at Georgia.  It’s good news in that Georgia’s quarterback picture won’t have to include someone like Bacarri Rambo.  With Gray’s return settled, his ambition to play receiver is the interesting part of this story.

I’m also looking forward to getting some work at receiver and am going to work hard to make the best out of my opportunity at this position as well.

Georgia might only have six receivers, but they’re all pretty good (at the very least), and they’re all experienced. (The six are Green, King, Durham, Brown, Wooten, and Troupe if you need a refresher.) That doesn’t include situations where Branden Smith lines up at receiver or Charles or White flexes out or Georgia goes with a two-TE set to make use of its depth there.  I don’t doubt that Gray could earn some snaps despite all of that, but I also don’t see a relative newcomer to the position suddenly becoming more than a very occasional contributor.

None of that matters – he wants to give it a shot, and the coach seems fine with it. That opportunity might be all that Gray desires, and it would definitely get him on the field in more interesting situations than mop-up QB duty or fair-catching punts. More power to him if he’s able to contribute there.  The question then is how much this news changes a shaky quarterback depth chart.

Few expected Gray to come back and win the QB job once Murray was named the starter, and Mark Richt only emphasized that on Wednesday evening.

“I think (Gray) wants to make a position move and try to see if he can help us in that spot. The chance of that really becoming a QB race, right now it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

A “position move” implies more than just a quarterback sneaking in a few plays at receiver. If Gray is intent on trying his hand at receiver, that’s fine, but it still leaves Georgia in the position of turning to either a true freshman or someone who won’t be as prepared as your typical backup quarterback. It’s good that Gray might be able to help the team in some way, but the quarterback position specifically isn’t much better now than it was with Gray in transfer limbo. It will be telling if the August depth chart lists Mason as the #2 QB – I don’t see why it shouldn’t.

UPDATE: David Hale has more on this story which makes it sound as if Gray will be focusing most of his attention on the receiver position. If Mason – and of course this is a big condition – shows a fair amount of competence in August, he just about has to be named the #2. I’d take an inexperienced guy who’s in the meetings and getting the reps every day over someone more familiar with the playbook whose repetitions and preparation are mostly at another position. It’s not just a matter of Gray stepping back in to QB if the need arises; even ARod needs to take batting practice and stay sharp. Either way, here’s hoping the backup QB is an afterthought this year.

As most suspected when Mark Richt dismissed Zach Mettenberger last month, there was more to the story than Richt overreacting to yet another alcohol-related incident. At the time of the arrest, the initial five misdemeanor charges read like a checklist for your run-of-the-mill fighting drunk: underage possession of alcohol, disorderly conduct, obstruction and two counts of possession of false identification.

Mettenberger reached a plea agreement today, but that agreement was for none of the charges listed above. Instead, Mettenberger pled to “two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery” according to Marc Weiszer of the Banner-Herald. (The AJC has more details about the nature of the “battery” if you really care to know.) All other charges related to the incident were dropped, and Mettenberger will face 12 months of probation, fines, and banishment from alcohol, bars, and the city of Valdosta.

The plea was a smart move by Mettenberger – it essentially ends the story and avoids the ugliness of a trial with potentially more severe charges. If these charges are any indication of the direction in which things were heading, a trial wouldn’t have been pleasant for Mettenberger or – more importantly – the victim.

To Mettenberger’s credit, the apology printed by Weiszer is about as up-front and unambiguous as it gets, and we hope Mettenberger earns the opportunity to rebuild his character wherever he ends up.