We learned today that Georgia will be without a permanent mascot for its season opener on September 4th. Russ, the dawg who stood watch over Georgia’s season-ending wins against Georgia Tech and Texas A&M, will continue to fill in during the first few games of the season. Sonny Seiler told the Athens Banner-Herald that “we will use (Russ) for the first two or three games.” It’s true that Russ has yet to be tested against an SEC opponent, but he’ll get his shot in Columbia.

Since it’s unlikely that a new Uga would make his debut anywhere other than Sanford Stadium, the first opportunity to introduce a new mascot would be against Arkansas in the third game of the season. It’s not unprecedented that an Uga would make his debut for the SEC home opener; Uga V gave way to Uga VI before the 1999 South Carolina game, and that turned out just fine. The problem is that a new mascot might or might not be ready by the third game.

Seiler is waiting to see how a few young pups develop over the summer. It’s even possible that the next mascot will come from a litter that won’t be born for another few weeks. We know that selecting a mascot is a long, solemn, and thorough process, and a lot of thought will be put into the decision. As Seiler explains, it would be “at least two months” to determine whether or not any new pup has the stature and other characteristics needed by a dawg that can reign for the 8-10 years Seiler is hoping for.

If a replacement isn’t ready by the Arkansas game, Georgia’s next two games are on the road. Georgia wouldn’t return home until the October 9th game against Tennessee. By that point, Georgia could well be 5-0 with a seven-game winning streak under this interim mascot. Seiler admits that “it could be homecoming before (he) picks a permanent mascot.” Do you mess with that kind of a streak at the midpoint of the season?

I know that Russ is considered too old to become a permanent replacement, but giving him a Shockley-esque one year in the sweater isn’t too much to ask, is it?

From the news-to-me department…I happened to flip to the ACC baseball tournament over the weekend and caught Virginia Tech’s nod to the classic Houston Astros uniform. Just outstanding.

While most of us spent the weekend next to the grill, the pool, and hopefully mindful of the reason for the long weekend, many of the remaining Bulldog athletes in action decided that winning was the best way to enjoy the holiday weekend.

Softball

The Georgia softball team completed an impressive sweep of Cal on Saturday to earn a consecutive trip to the Women’s College World Series. Can’t blame the ESPN crew for trying to build up as much SEC vs. Pac-10 drama as they could, but Georgia made sure that the series was as far from dramatic as you can get. The Bulldogs won the series by a combined 17-1 score, and they had each game more or less in hand by the second inning. LF Megan Wiggins was the star with a fantastic diving catch in the field and a grand slam in Saturday’s clincher. With Taylor Schlopy and Alisa Goler, I can’t imagine a more potent top third of a lineup in the nation.

Georgia gets to face a familiar postseason foe in the WCWS. Top seeds Alabama and Michigan were upset in their super regionals over the weekend, but third-seeded and defending champion Washington avoided the upset bug and will be Georgia’s opening opponent in Oklahoma City as they were a year ago. The Huskies lost their first super regional game to Oklahoma but stormed back with consecutive shutouts.

Georgia lost their opener to Washington last year but battled back through the loser’s bracket to earn another shot at the Huskies. Georgia won 9-8 in a thrilling extra-innings game to setup yet another game against Washington with a trip to the national title game on the line. Washington proved to be too much and went on to beat Florida for the title. If Georgia can take one positive from last year’s experience, it’s that they got to untouchable Washington pitcher Danielle Lawrie for ten earned runs over those final two games. They were also the only team to defeat Washington in the WCWS. Georgia’s offense is every bit as potent as it was last year, and they’ll have a bit of confidence going up against a familiar and talented foe.

Georgia faces Washington at 9:30 on Thursday evening, and the game will be on ESPN2.

W Tennis

The weekend was topped off with an individual national title: sophomore tennis player Chelsey Gullickson pulled off upset after upset during the women’s singles tournament and defeated Cal’s Jana Juricova 6-3,7-6(7)to claim the program’s third individual championship. Her quest to add a doubles title fell just short as her team fell in the national semifinals.

Though Gullickson was ranked a respectable 12th in the nation, her path through the field included four matches against higher-ranked players.

Gullickson’s road to the national championship featured six wins including over top-ranked Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech), second-ranked Juricova, fourth-ranked Hilary Barte and eighth-ranked Allie Will (Florida).

A national title that included wins over Florida and Tech? Chelsey Gullickson accomplished every Bulldog’s dream.

…and Bass Fishing?

How good of a weekend was it? Georgia’s Ben Cleary and Bo Page even claimed the 2010 BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship. (h/t David Hale)

With pretty much every other spring sport over, Georgia softball is still going strong. The #6 seed Bulldogs open a best-of-three super regional series with Pac-10 power and #11 seed Cal on Friday in Athens with a trip to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City up for grabs. All three games will be on either ESPNU or ESPN.

If the case can be made for Oklahoma to come out on top in 2010, do the Bulldogs dare to dream about returning to championship-level football this year? After all, the Dawgs are coming off an 8-5 season just like the Sooners. Georgia’s losses to the NFL Draft were mainly in the later rounds; Oklahoma will have to replace four first-round picks. Georgia returns tons of proven talent on offense, some of the nation’s best special teams personnel, and expectations are sky-high for the new defense.

Phil Steele tips his cap to this line of thinking by naming Georgia one of his possible surprise teams for 2010. Steele doesn’t go all the way and predict Georgia to be a top-10 team, but that’s understandable. Many are the preseason polls who went out on a limb for Georgia in 2008 and 2009 and were rewarded for it with consecutive seasons that finished below expectations. But Steele is at least acknowledging that the potential is there for Georgia to make some noise this year if a few questions get answered affirmatively.

There are enough differences between Oklahoma and Georgia to see why pundits like Steele aren’t as bullish on the Dawgs as they might be on the Sooners. It starts at quarterback where Landry Jones earned enough playing time last season to be considered a returning starter. Aaron Murray is pretty much where Jones was a year ago, but Murray at least has the advantage of knowing he’ll start as a freshman.

There’s also the difference in how each team got to 8-5 last year. Oklahoma lost four games to top-20 finishers by a combined 12 points. Georgia got routed by Florida and a middling Tennessee team and lost to unimpressive LSU and Kentucky teams. Oklahoma was missing its Heisman candidate quarterback and all-star tight end. Georgia had some injuries along the way including a key left tackle, but they came by their 8-5 honestly. Both teams can claim a certain amount of unluckiness – Oklahoma’s injuries and close losses and Georgia’s improbable turnover margin – but that’s football.

We can’t forget about the schedule. Georgia might have traded Oklahoma State and LSU for La.-Lafayette and Mississippi State, but they’ll still face four of Steele’s top-25, only one of which will be in Athens. We have no qualms with Oklahoma’s very respectable schedule, but they’ll face just two of Steele’s top-25 along the way, both of which will either be a home or a neutral game.

Stability is probably the biggest difference. Oklahoma had a small change on their defensive staff (welcome Willie Martinez!), but coordinator Brent Venables has been in place since 2004. Georgia will undergo a wholesale transformation of the defense, and it could be cause for concern that Georgia will be one of the few SEC teams to play three conference games in September – two of which will be on the road, and two of which will be against a Steele preseason top-25 team. The defense won’t have much time to find its legs.

Oklahoma will be a highly-ranked team heading into the Texas game if they can get through September and a decent nonconference slate unscathed. Georgia likewise should be on the rise and prove Steele right if the defense can survive September and head to Boulder without a blemish.

Let’s face it – it’s been a disappointing year for most Georgia sports programs. For most fans it all begins and ends with football, and the 2009 season wasn’t won of Georgia’s best. The men’s basketball program took a step forward and has us excited about the future, but the best they could do last season was to play spoiler. The baseball team just wrapped up a season whose futility was historic. Even stalwarts like gymnastics faltered during the past year. Michael Adams summed it up at today’s Athletic Association Board of Directors meeting: “It’s not been our best year on the field.“

While the Bulldog nation has been fending off bored columnists talking about the temperature of Mark Richt’s seat, Damon Evans hasn’t received much scrutiny. Much of that has to do with having a lot to like: the program remains financially strong, the APR results are worth bragging about, and Evans’ first high-profile hire, Mark Fox, seems to have been a good one. We looked at this topic last year on the occasion of Evans’ fifth anniversary as athletic director. There has been a downward trend in Georgia’s national Directors’ Cup standing, and I can’t imagine that the overall performance of Bulldog programs will improve that this year. The summary remains the same: everything else is stellar but actual athletics aren’t doing so well, and the trend remains downward.

It’s probably a surprise then to learn that Georgia finished second in this year’s SEC All-Sports trophy. The Bulldogs finished a distant second behind Florida, but there was also a healthy margin between Georgia and third-place Tennessee.

How did they do it? It should shock no one that Georgia’s women’s programs led the way. The gap between the Florida and Georgia women’s programs was much narrower than the overall gap, and Georgia’s women’s programs finished on average over two places higher in the SEC standings than the Georgia men. Despite that, it wasn’t as bad as you might think for the Bulldog men. Even with the major sports having sub-par seasons, Georgia’s men’s programs finished tied for fourth with Tennessee.

Here’s a look at how the Bulldogs did against the rest of the SEC this year. We use regular season standings where possible, but some sports like golf and swimming use a season-ending tournament or meet to decide the champion.

• Football: T-4th (T-2nd SEC East). Champion: Alabama
• Men’s Basketball: 11th (6th SEC East). Champion: Kentucky
• Women’s Basketball: 5th. Champion: Tennessee
• Baseball: 12th (6th SEC East). Champion: Florida
• Softball: 4th. Champion: Alabama
• Men’s Tennis: 3rd (3rd SEC East). Champion: Tennessee
• Women’s Tennis: T-2nd (T-2nd SEC East). Champion: Florida
• Men’s Golf: 1st (SEC Tournament). Champion: Georgia
• Women’s Golf: 4th (SEC Tournament). Champion: Alabama
• Women’s Soccer: 5th (3rd SEC East). Champion: Florida
• Women’s Volleyball: T-5th (4th SEC East). Champion: LSU
• Gymnastics: 3rd (SEC Championships). Champion: Florida
• Men’s Swimming/Diving: 3rd (SEC Championships). Champion: Auburn
• Women’s Swimming/Diving: 1st (SEC Championships). Champion: Georgia
• Men’s Track & Field: 5th (SEC Outdoor Championships). Champion: Florida
• Women’s Track & Field: 5th (SEC Outdoor Championships). Champion: LSU
• Men’s Cross Country: 5th (SEC Championships). Champion: Alabama
• Women’s Cross Country: 4th (SEC Championships). Champion: Florida

Note: Equestrian is not an SEC sport, but c’mon – they’re national champs.

Other than men’s basketball and baseball, most Georgia programs finished at least in the top half of the conference. Those results probably buoyed Georgia’s place in the All-Sports competition versus programs who might have done well in a few sports but poorly in most of the others.

While maintaining second place in the SEC All-Sport standings might be a nice surprise, it’s very possible that Georgia, for the first time in well over a decade, could dip out of the national top 20 in this year’s Directors’ Cup. Georgia was 25th after the conclusion of the winter sports, and they’ll be helped by several postseason appearances among the spring sports. It’ll be close.

Still, most fans just consider the strength of the football team a proxy for the state of the athletic department. What’s your verdict?

Phil Steele has credibility to burn among the college football punditry, so his preseason placement of Oklahoma at #1 has us all scrambling today to justify the pick. Oklahoma? Not Alabama or Texas or Ohio State? In a season that seems as up in the air as any since 2007, there’s not much conventional wisdom to tell us otherwise. Matt Hinton looks at some of the factors that led to an 8-5 season last year in Norman and concludes that “a healthy, rejuvenated Oklahoma makes about as much sense at No. 1 as anyone else.”

Oklahoma doesn’t have to be a great team; they only have to be better than everyone on their schedule. Here’s their path:

Sept. 4 — Utah State
Sept. 11 — Florida State
Sept. 18 — Air Force
Sept 25 — @ Cincinnati
Oct. 2 — Texas (Dallas)
Oct. 16 — Iowa State
Oct. 23 — @ Missouri
Oct. 30 — Colorado
Nov. 6 — @ Texas A&M
Nov. 13 — Texas Tech
Nov 20 — @ Baylor
Nov. 27 — @ Oklahoma State
Dec. 4 — Big 12 Championship (Dallas)

The nonconference schedule is respectable but not ridiculously daunting. The visit from FSU will tell us a lot, but it will be a home game for Oklahoma and still early in Jimbo Fisher’s turnaround project. The trip to Cincinnati looks interesting, but it’s not last year’s Bearcat team.

Hopes for a championship season, as usual, come down to the Texas game. Both teams will have been tested by some quality opponents by that point. The Longhorns are the best team on the schedule, and claiming that win after an undefeated September would have the Sooners shooting up the Top 10.

If Oklahoma can make it past Texas, the rest of the schedule becomes a challenge of avoiding the upset. Several of those teams will have fair seasons, but none should be favored over a top 15 team. Yes, A&M should be better, and it’s a road game. A visit from Texas Tech could prove interesting if only for the Tuberville factor. The rivalry game with OSU is another challenging road game, but this Cowboy team doesn’t come into 2010 with nearly the expectations of the 2009 squad. They wouldn’t have to face Nebraska until a potential meeting in the Big 12 championship game.

We’ll know by the end of September whether or not Oklahoma is able to claim contender status. There are several potential pitfalls along the rest of the way, but a team with Top 10 aspirations should be able to circle the FSU and Texas games and then take care to not get caught asleep on the road. Even a loss to Texas doesn’t necessarily sink the Sooners. If the season proves to be as wide-open as 2007, a single loss could still leave them in good shape to win the conference and rise to the top of the rankings.

Yes, the 2014 Super Bowl will be at the Meadowlands, and the two teams playing won’t get nearly as much attention during the buildup as the weather forecast.

Weather has played a large part in NFL regular season games and even playoff games, but by and large the choice of Super Bowl locations has served to minimize the weather factor. There have been a few Super Bowls where rain has come into play, but more often than not we’re talking about a game in a dome or a temperate climate.

 I agree with Pat Forde and others who say that this is how it should be. Football is no more a cold-weather sport than it is a broiling-sun-of-September sport. Waxing nostalgic about the Frozen Tundra or the Ice Bowl is a nice way of saying that weather, rather than the players on the field, was the story of the game. We can put up with that en route to the Big Game, but the star of the Super Bowl itself needs to be Brady or Manning or Brees and not Jim Cantore.

This is one thing the SEC gets right – weather has never been a concern for the SEC Championship since the game moved from Birmingham to the Georgia Dome. It’s going to take a tornado to make the biggest game in the nation’s premiere conference anything but a test of elite coaches and players. The Dome has helped the conference showcase its best teams in ideal conditions, and it’s also allowed the associated Chick-fil-A Bowl to become about as successful as a second-tier bowl game can.

The future of the SEC Championship came up a week or so ago when Atlanta Falcons officials stated a preference for a new open-air stadium in downtown Atlanta. A new stadium wouldn’t necessarily mean the end of the Dome, but the management of two large facilities could reasonably strain resources. A Georgia Dome in disrepair might not remain the ideal location for the SEC Championship, and everyone from the Superdome to open-air facilities across the Southeast would be lining up to host the game.

Falcons officials might or might not care about the future of events like the SEC title game, but anyone involved with Atlanta government or sports management should. Had the Falcons pursued an open-air stadium rather than a dome to replace Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Atlanta would have missed out on the Olympics, several Final Fours and conference tournaments, and it might not enjoy its exclusivity with the SEC football championship.

If public money and oversight is going to be involved in any new stadium for the Falcons, state and city officials can’t accept anything less than a multi-use facility with a retractable roof. Tony Barnhart nails it:

A big part of what has made the SEC championship game one of the great success stories in sport is that weather is not a factor. Weather has been a factor for the Big 12 and the ACC and the results on those championship games has been mixed at best. The SEC, in my opinion, will not play this game in an open air stadium…. My recommendation: Do exactly what Indy did. It kept the RCA Dome in place and built Lucas Oil Stadium right next to it. The transition was pretty seamless and now Indy has one of the best setups in the country. If there is a Big Ten championship game in the future, it’s a pretty good bet that it will be in Indy.

A city like New York might be able to get away with hosting a Super Bowl in its open-air stadium, but even that’s controversial. New stadiums in Phoenix and Dallas have raised the bar in attracting prime sporting events. If future SEC expansion does end up including schools like Texas and/or Texas A&M, Dallas would instantly become a rival to host SEC events that by default have gone to Atlanta. Barnhart’s suggestion is the blueprint for Atlanta remaining the focal point, if not the headquarters, of the SEC.

So bad that it’s even bringing down Gordon Beckham.

Beckham had a solid rookie year in 2009 with a .270 average and an OPS of .808 after being called up by the White Sox. He finished fifth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting and looked to be on the fast track to major league success.

This year hasn’t gone as well for Beckham. He’s hitting just .191, and a lack of power at the plate in 2010 has sent his OPS plummeting to just .524. His struggles have gotten to the point that some are wondering whether he might benefit from a trip down to AAA.

Man – when it turns south for the Diamond Dawgs not even its alums are safe.

This is already bordering on the ridiculous, but Auburn is not next in line should the 2004 title become vacated. In every other competition this side of fantasyland, the title would pass to the runner-up of the championship game. That’s Oklahoma – you know, the team chosen to play in the game over Auburn (and Utah).

Georgia’s not exactly a stranger to the national semifinals of men’s tennis, but they were a darkhorse to advance that far this year. Georgia’s impressive run continues tonight at 5:00 on the Henry Feild Courts in Athens against #2 Tennessee. Tennessee beat Georgia by a convincing 6-1 margin during the year, but the Bulldogs’ strong play of late plus the partisan home crowd should have the team ready to give their best effort with a shot at the national title on the line.

Follow the scoring and watch live video from this page at Georgiadogs.com.

Few Georgia programs found much success against the Gators this year, and the men’s tennis team was no exception.  Florida was 2-for-2 against the Dawgs during the season, and the sixth-seeded Florida team had to be favored over eleventh-seeded Georgia in Friday’s round of 16 matchup in the NCAA Tournament.

Georgia had two things on their side: the home court and the home fans. The homestanding Bulldogs dug deep and came out with a huge 4-2 win over their SEC rivals and move on to the national quarterfinals on Sunday.

Georgia was set up in good position by taking the important doubles point.  Florida won two of the first three singles matches to finish and knotted the score at 2-2. The focus shifted to the ongoing matches at No. 1, 2, and 3, and whichever team won two out of three of those matches would advance. As it turns out, all three of those matches went Georgia’s way.

Nate Schnugg at #2 gave Georgia their third point with a 7-5, 6-4 win. #1 Javier Garrapiz clinched the win by taking a dramatic tiebreaker to upset the nation’s #7 player, Alex Lacroix, 6-4, 7-6(5). Georgia even had a bit of breathing room as Jamie Hunt at #3 was close to completing a furious comeback and led 3-6, 6-1, 4-0 when Garrapiz ended things.

Georgia will face unseeded Oklahoma on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. The Sooners themselves pulled a huge upset by taking down #3 Texas 4-2.  Oklahoma’s coach is no stranger to Athens and these courts: John Roddick was a four-time All American at Georgia from 1995-1999 and was named UGA Athlete of the Year in 1998.

It was shocking enough that the Diamond Dawgs pounded Kentucky 20-0 on Friday night.

Consider that Georgia didn’t score more than 20 runs combined in all but one of their SEC series this year.

The Diamond Dawgs have clinched their first SEC series win of the year, and they go for the sweep on Saturday.  Another win would give them six conference victories, and they’d avoid the ignominy of tying the record-setting futility of the 2000 Vanderbilt club who only won five SEC games.

Former Georgia guard Ashley Houts has earned a place on the roster of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. WNBA roster spots are hard to come by – each team only has 11 players, and there’s not much turnover. The cut list contained many of the best players to come out of college in recent years, and Houts had to have that in mind when she was traded from New York to Washington just two days before last weekend’s season opener. She made the cut though, and the same toughness and conditioning that she showed during four years in Athens are big reasons why she has found a role playing at the next level.

Houts gives the Lady Dogs four active players in the WNBA. Kara Braxton’s Detroit team moved to Tulsa this year (and picked up Nolan Richardson as head coach!). Bulldog legends Kelly and Coco Miller are playing pro ball together for the first time as both signed with and made the cut for Atlanta. Deanna Nolan decided to sit this year out after Detroit moved to Oklahoma, but she’ll likely play again down the road.

Marcus Thornton, the 2010 Mr. Georgia Basketball, announced on Wednesday that he will play for Georgia ($).  Thornton, originally a Clemson signee before their recent coaching change, chose Georgia over Georgia Tech, Alabama, and Texas.  Thornton had also drawn interest from programs like Kentucky and North Carolina over the past couple of weeks.

The commitment of the 6’7” forward is a huge exclamation point on Mark Fox’s 2010 recruiting class.  Not to diminish the importance of the rest of the class, but coming out on top in a highly-visible recruiting battle for a top Atlanta talent is just what the Fox program needs to build momentum on the recruiting trail for the critical 2011 class. The results on the court last season demonstrated that Georgia has the coaching to be competitive, and they just need the players in order to take the next step.  Thornton is the kind of player Fox needed to get in order to make the kind of impact on recruiting that he had on the court last season.

Georgia’s 2010 class is now complete.

• Cady Lalanne – 6’8” F from Florida
• Sherrard Brantley – 6’2” JUCO guard
• Donte Williams – 6’9” F from Lithonia (Miller Grove)
• Marcus Thornton – 6’7” F from Atlanta (Westlake)

And let’s not forget that next year’s team will also add transfer shooting guard Gerald Robinson.  David Hale has more on the impact Robinson is expected to have next season.