The SEC announced the television schedule for the first three weeks of the season today. We already knew that the Clemson opener would be a night game (8:00 p.m. on ABC). We weren’t so lucky with the SEC opener. The September 7th game against South Carolina in Athens has been slotted for a 4:30 p.m. start, and ESPN will televise the game.

If you’re wondering why ESPN wouldn’t take such a big game for a primetime night slot, the invaluable lsufootball.net comprehensive TV listing tells us that ESPN has already scheduled Notre Dame-Michigan for the 7:00 p.m. night slot on September 7th. ABC is tied up with NASCAR that night, so that isn’t an option either. CBS, as usual, won’t have a game until the third week of the season when they launch their 2013 SEC coverage with Alabama-Texas A&M.

The Bulldogs have a bye in the third week of the season.

Georgia and South Carolina engaged in their own Battle of Who Could Care Less last week when each school announced that it would not actively promote its star player for the Heisman trophy. Georgia SID Claude Felton said that the media would do most of the talking for Aaron Murray, and the Gamecocks cited Georgia’s precedent in their own lack of a preseason push behind Jadeveon Clowney.

Both schools’ decisions reflect the reality that the Heisman is a fluid process. If you go back a year ago, the names you saw at the top of many preseason Heisman lists included Matt Barkley, Denard Robinson, Landry Jones, Marcus Lattimore, and Montee Ball. Geno Smith became a favorite after West Virigina’s explosive start. None of those ended up in the top 5 of Heisman voting.

I think a key is that both schools left themselves a hedge. South Carolina admitted, “we’ll let it play out some.” Felton said, “We’ll see how things stand at the end of September.” The teams will have a good sense of where they and their stars stand after a month. The Gamecocks will have had a pair of SEC games and a fairly high-profile nonconference game under their belt. Georgia will have faced three top 20 teams, and Murray’s offense will have tested themselves against Clowney’s defense.

Now if either Clowney or Murray can navigate an undefeated September and play at the level we expect of them, I’d hope the schools would begin to take a more active approach, especially as we get closer to November. The circumstances of 2012 that saw a freshman emerge to win the Heisman were unique, but it should be noted that A&M’s campaign behind Manziel didn’t start until mid-November, and there was no Notre Dame campaign behind Te’o when the South Bend Tribune launched its own promotion in mid-October.

It’s true that the media will do a lot of the heavy lifting if either player has a season worthy of Heisman consideration. SEC players have advantages over someone from, say, Northern Illinois who must spend effort on name recognition and basic awareness. That said, there still will be a role for Felton and his counterpart at South Carolina. Voters, particularly those outside the region, won’t be focused on Murray and Clowney even if they know the names. They might see a highlight or be roughly aware of a team’s rise and fall in the rankings. But they’ll also need the case for any favorite to be distilled down to a few comparables that they’ll weigh against players from their own backyard – players with whom the voters are much more familiar. A gimmicky introductory campaign behind Murray or Clowney won’t be necessary, but when the time comes we would expect an SEC SID to shine along the lines of the informational site that A&M did behind Manziel last November.

We’ll let it play out some…

Recently junior receiver Malcolm Mitchell was named to the Paul Hornung Award Watch List.

Is it me, or is Mitchell one of the least-discussed stars on the Georgia team? I don’t mean he’s unknown or even underappreciated – it’s just that you don’t hear much about him when talking about Georgia’s keys to success this year. I’m sure a part of it is that he’s known and established and we know what we’re going to get, and it’s also possible that his injuries have tempered expectations for him to stand out.

There’s also a question of production. Mitchell’s catches and total yardage were down from his freshman season, but he missed three games due to injury. He was also pressed into service as a cornerback to start 2012, so the fact that he only posted 6 catches for 74 yards in September isn’t an indictment. He ramped up his production in October and had at least three catches in every remaining SEC game. But he only had one 100+ yard game in 2012 and ended the year with as many touchdowns – 4 – as he had as a freshman.

I’m not down on Mitchell – this December article explains a lot of what was going on. Between the injuries and the position uncertainty, he really hasn’t had time to focus on being a receiver. Despite that, he’s maintained an outstanding catch rate over his two seasons and has come up with brilliant plays like this one against Florida that have earned him a reputation as a star receiver. Now he’s a full-time receiver and expected to be a standout as a starter in the passing game.

Steele has Mitchell as a preseason 2nd-team All-SEC pick. That’s about right (and the first-teamers are good choices), but the potential is there for a healthy Mitchell to really make a move this year. The “healthy” part is easier said than done, but if Murray has the kind of year we hope for, someone is going to be catching some passes. Murray began to diversify his targets in the last third of 2012, but there are still going to be primary targets. Mitchell’s consistently high catch rate makes him a likely choice to shine as that primary target.

We’ll also have to see if Mitchell will have a chance to add to his impact again with special teams. He’s the returning kickoff returner, but his results were hit-and-miss last year. With him atop the receiver depth chart now and injuries either a predisposition or an unlucky coincidence, Georgia might take more care to have their top receiver available to catch the ball.

One of the more interesting members of Georgia’s 2013 signing class is Brendan Douglas. Douglas was a late addition to the class, committing in the week before Signing Day. He got the conversation going for a couple of reasons: first, it was a chance to take a commitment away from Tech at the 11th hour (that phone call with Paul Johnson must’ve been pleasant.) But there was also the curiosity over the interest in a running back unknown to all but the most hard-core of recruitniks.

We didn’t even know what position Douglas played. Many initial reports had him as a fullback, and Rivals had him pegged as the nation’s #5 fullback. The offer of another fullback seemed strange. At the time, Zander Ogletree was still on the team, and Georgia also had underclassmen Hall and Hicks with experience at fullback.

But as the spring went on, coaches made it clear that Douglas is slotted to play tailback. Certainly that has to do with Georgia’s tailback depth – Bobo admitted that a true freshman – either Douglas or A.J. Turman – could see time this year out of necessity. Whether a fullback or a tailback, Douglas seems like the kind of guy who can find a role somewhere, even if it’s initially on special teams. He made news at an Augusta-area combine back in March, and we’ll let the Columbia County News-Times fill in the details:

The star of the day was Aquinas standout and University of Georgia signee Brendan Douglas. He won nearly every competition, posting some astonishing numbers such as a 40.5 inch vertical jump (Michael Jordan’s was 44 inches), a 10 foot, 2 inch broad jump (the top broad jump at UGA’s Pro Day this year was 10 foot, 3 inches), and he powered out 37 repetitions of 185 pounds on the bench press.

All of that is to set up a link to this post over at Football Study Hall (FSH): The run game renaissance and the return of the fullback. Now the fullback has never been marginalized in Mark Richt’s offense to the extent that it was elsewhere, but the points about finding new uses for “versatile” and “hybrid” players apply. Georgia has experimented with some of this versatility, but it’s mostly been with the tight ends. We’ve had Charles flexing outside, and Figgins moved to the backfield, and the H-back concept goes all the way back to the Shannon Mitchell days. But as FSH admits, finding these kinds of players at tight end isn’t easy. While Georgia has relied, and still does rely, on walk-ons at fullback, we’re also seeing an increased use of scholarship players at the position.

It caught my eye in May when Mark Richt mentioned the possibility of Gurley and Marshall in the backfield at the same time. Richt also emphasized that they’d have a fullback in as a lead blocker. That got more than a couple of people wondering how it would look. Certainly the wildcat is a possibility, and it’s a familiar set for Georgia. In a callback to the Shannon Mitchell days, the lead blocker could also be an H-back allowing for a traditional two-back shotgun set.

FSH identifies another possibility: the diamond. The diamond allows for a quarterback and three backs, including one or more fullbacks. It could certainly work with two tailbacks and the fullback that Richt described. Georgia used the pistol formation at times in 2012, and the diamond wouldn’t be a huge stretch from there. We don’t know exactly what the coaches have in mind for the backfield, but we’re encouraged to at least see the wheels turning. As the Bulldogs (and everyone else in the SEC) ponders how to deal with someone like Clowney, FSH identifies a role for the fullback:

As a response to spread tactics, defenses are playing quick and powerful athletes at defensive end but playing lighter and less physical players at linebacker. Consequently, while the defensive ends can be a load for the tight end to block, it’s not as difficult for a physical fullback with any meaningful size to cut block or lead block into those defensive ends. It’s certainly not that difficult for a good fullback to open lanes against the smaller, anti-spread linebackers and safeties when leading through a hole.

Now we don’t expect Douglas to be put out there right away by Game 2, but signing a player like that makes more sense down the road when you look at defensive trends. As FSH puts it, “These fullback/halfback players can free up an offense to feature explosive offensive weapons without losing physicality and committing the cardinal football sin of being ‘soft.'” We’ll be watching how a player like Douglas (whether nominally a tailback or fullback) fits in alongside the backfield of Gurley and Marshall and, later, alongside Chubb and Michel.

As long as Mark Richt has been Georgia’s coach, I realized that I hadn’t seen a ton of film of him actually coaching. We’ll get the occasional B-roll footage from practice of Richt or another coach supervising a drill, and the coach’s show will occasionally allow Richt to explain what happened on a certain play. And as Georgia’s offense isn’t one of the fashionable spread derivatives that earns much of the study and analysis

Chris Brown gives us a rare look today at Georgia’s passing game. First, there’s all-22 footage without narration showing some passing concepts used by Georgia’s offense (and many other offenses). Then there’s a clip of Richt explaining (and explaining how to teach) these concepts at a coaching clinic. It might be more useful to watch the second clip first to know what to look for in the all-22 montage. Good stuff.

Baseball

Former Kent State skipper Scott Stricklin was confirmed as Georgia’s new baseball coach. The case for Stricklin seems to come down to three big selling points:

• He’s made Kent a fairly regular participant in the postseason, building a successful small program in the neighborhood of some larger schools.
• He’s used to providing an environment of academic success, and that should be a strong cultural fit at Georgia.
• The Tech ties might bother some Georgia fans, but let’s give credit where it’s due: Tech knows how to recruit Atlanta, and Stricklin was a big part of that as their recruiting coordinator. Getting an accomplished coach who knows his way around East Cobb and the other youth baseball hotspots is a big plus.

Stricklin is still a risk in terms of major program experience, but he’s no less risky than a top assistant with no head coaching experience. It goes without saying that a coach’s success depends on hiring a solid staff, managing the game, and developing players, but Stricklin has two additional key factors for success. The first is recruiting. There’a a reason why Georgia is considered a top 10 job. Playing in the SEC is part of it, but the amount of home-grown talent makes some very lofty goals achievable.

As little as most of us know about the college baseball coaching scene, I tend to put more stock into what others are saying. I haven’t read much negative about the hire, and a lot of the reaction has been positive to gushing:

“Scott Stricklin is a tremendous hire for the University of Georgia; he is a guy who has had a lot of success as a head coach, taking Kent State to the College World Series and perennially has had one of the best and most talented teams in the Midwest,” said Baseball America executive editor Jim Callis. “He’s got a background coaching in Georgia and in the SEC at Vanderbilt. As a Georgia alum, I was thrilled by the hire as well.”

Men’s Hoops

Mark Fox has announced the promotion of former Bulldog starter Jonas Hayes to assistant coach. Hayes had been serving in an administrative role as Basketball Operations Coordinator, and the departure of Kwanza Johnson for TCU opened up a vacancy.

I have a soft spot for Jonas – not only was he part of some very entertaining teams a decade ago, he also posted his career high of 25 points in that 2004 upset of Tech in Athens, one of the most enjoyable Georgia basketball games I’ve attended. He’s a blank slate though as a coach, and a lot will be expected of him. Fair or not, this opening was a chance for Fox to improve the program’s lackluster recruiting, and he chose an internal promotion. Fox needs to sustain and accelerate the improvement we saw at the end of last season, and he is putting a lot on the line at a moment when his program could benefit from the shot in the arm that comes with a new assistant.

Kwanza Johnson wasn’t an especially strong recruiter of southeastern prospects. Most of his experience was further west. That helped with a player like Cameron Forte, but it didn’t do much to stop the exodus of talent from the state of Georgia. Hayes doesn’t have a strong recruiting resume yet – this is his first major college coaching gig – but hopefully the native Atlantan will help Georgia’s standing among local prospects.

One area where Johnson was strong was as a post coach. Georgia hasn’t had tremendous frontcourts, but with the exception of Thompkins, there hasn’t been a ton of talent to develop. It’s fair to say that Johnson helped Georgia get more with less up front. His departure leaves a need on the coaching staff, and Jonas Hayes will likely have a role continuing the development of the post players.

Fox isn’t done – Hayes’ promotion opens up an administrative position. Will Fox look to another former player, someone from his past, or will he explore the high school and AAU ranks to strengthen the program’s local relationships?

Here’s where procrastination pays off: I had something about 90% done about the relatively quiet offseason as we passed the 100-day mark last week. I guess just thinking it was enough to jinx things:

There is a chance Georgia will be without starting safety Josh Harvey-Clemons when the Bulldogs open the season against Clemson on Aug. 31.

Some disciplinary action seems likely, but a suspension isn’t a given yet. Harvey-Clemons hasn’t actually been charged with anything. The police didn’t file charges, but the UGA Office of Student Conduct will get their turn. It would be a big surprise if Harvey-Clemons weren’t tested as a result of this incident, and a positive test would of course change things. We’ll hear more about this after Richt and the university review the story.

In the meantime, Harvey-Clemons seems to have some judgement issues to work through. It was less than a year ago that he was in the car that featured in the incident that got Isaiah Crowell dismissed from the program. Last year’s traffic stop was the last straw for Crowell, and now Ty Flournoy-Smith, implicated with Harvey-Clemons in this dorm incident, is leaving. While Harvey-Clemons wasn’t charged in either case, it’s not a good for longevity to keep ending up in these kinds of situations – especially if he has eyes on a starting role.

UPDATE: Mark Richt was reached for comment at the SEC meetings in Destin, and Richt stated that Harvey-Clemons will indeed be suspended for the Clemson game. Suspensions for the 2003 opener at Clemson gave walk-on Tra Battle an opportunity to step up at safety, and the Dawgs will have to be as resourceful in their next trip to Death Valley.

Not long after Georgia wraps up its home-and-home with Clemson in 2014, another ACC school could take Clemson’s place on the schedule for the 2016 season.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, FSU athletics director Randy Spetman said that “talks between the schools about a neutral-site 2016 game are ‘moving along.'” That game would likely be the season opener at the Georgia Dome.

The fate of this game might hang on what happens with the SEC schedule. The possibility of a nine-game conference schedule has been discussed for a while and could heat up during SEC meetings later this month. If a ninth conference game is added, it’s less likely that Georgia would agree to 1) give up another home game in order to play this neutral-site game and 2) add a team like FSU to one of the two available nonconference slots. As Mark Richt put it, “if we have nine, plus Tech and then if we want to do something like Clemson like we did this year, you’re talking about 11 out of 12 games that are pretty stout.”

Georgia and FSU last met in the 2003 Sugar Bowl, but there are still ties between the programs. Coaches Richt and Lilly had long stays in Tallahassee.

Looking at another angle, does a possible future date with Georgia make FSU that much less likely to release highly-touted linebacker Matthew Thomas? Georgia is one of the schools Thomas would consider if he were released. FSU’s reluctance to release Thomas to a school like Georgia takes on a slightly different light if the Dawgs are a possible future opponent.

If (and it’s still an “if”) this turns out to be David Perno’s final season at the helm of the Diamond Dawgs, there will at least be one very bright spot. Georgia fought back from an early 7-0 deficit to take a 14-13 extra-innings win at Georgia Tech on Tuesday night. With the win on top of the earlier 17-0 rout ar Turner Field, Georgia took the first regular season series from its rival since 2007.

It’s been a long season for Georgia baseball fans, but there’s something to smile about today.

Graduating linebacker Christian Robinson had signed a free agent deal with the St. Louis Rams last month, but he revealed yesterday that he’s hanging up his cleats.

Robinson announced today that he’ll be returning to the Georgia program as a graduate assistant. He’s been one of our favorites to follow over the past couple of years, and we’re glad he’ll still be around the program for a while longer.

The SEC and ESPN introduced the SEC Network this afternoon in Atlanta. As word of the announcement had been leaked for some time, neither the announcement nor many of the details were a big surprise. There will be a lot of games and a lot of money, though specific financial terms and other specifics were not discussed. We got a few minor details:

• The deal will run for 20 years, through 2034.*
• The network will not mean additional Thursday night football games. Commissioner Mike Slive declared, “we’re a Saturday league.” Amen.
• CBS will still have the first pick of games with the rest to be distributed by a “content board.” But while CBS will still have the big game, the SEC Network will run games that overlap the 3:30 time slot.
• AT&T U-verse is the only carrier currently signed on to carry the network, but negotiations are underway with everyone else. You can be sure that more agreements will be worked out over the next year.
• The aim for distribution is nationwide, but initial emphasis will be on widespread coverage in the SEC footprint.
• There will be 1,000 sporting events broadcast each year – 450 on the network and an additional 550 online. The network will carry 45 football games – three per week.

Additional coverage:

• Official SEC Release
• Coverage from the Athens Banner-Herald
• Coverage from the Macon Telegraph

* – this is way off-topic, but you start to wonder what the product will look like in 20 years. Will athletics be one of the few physical remnants of universities that will have otherwise moved online? Will safety concerns transform the game of football into something far different? Will some of this money begin to trickle down to the student-athletes and bring a whole other set of equity questions that reshape college athletics? Will the success of these major conference networks further pry apart the top schools from the rest of the NCAA?

The 2013 football game at Georgia Tech occupies its traditional spot at the end of Georgia’s regular season on November 30th. But basketball fans used to seeing the Tech game played in December and beyond will get to move the clean old-fashioned hate up a couple of weeks this year.

Marc Weiszer reports that the 2013-14 men’s basketball game against Georgia Tech in Athens will be on Friday November 15th. As Weiszer notes, it’s the Friday before the football game at Auburn. It’s very close to the beginning of the season which usually tips off in the first week of November, but Weiszer notes that Greg McGarity doesn’t expect the Tech game to be the season opener. The teams last met in November on Nov. 27 2002, an 83-77 Tech win. Of course the following Saturday was a much happier day for Georgia fans.

We’ve also learned that the women’s game against Tech will likely be on Sunday November 24th, the day after the home football game against Kentucky. This game was usually an early December contest, recently played the day after the SEC football championship game. Andy Landers’ squads are a little more used to big home games in November, hosting teams like TCU, Texas, Oklahoma and Rutgers in recent years.

When the Stegeman Coliseum renovation was completed in 2011, the $13 million project brought the exterior and concourse out of the arena out of the ’60s. It was a significant improvement that went along with earlier work to the seating bowl and the addition of the Coliseum Training Facility to all but eliminate talk of a new arena.

But as soon as 7 months after the completion of the project, several of the large glass panes that made up the stunning exterior of the renovated coliseum < a href="http://onlineathens.com/breaking-news/2012-08-10/officials-want-know-why-glass-panels-break-stegeman-coliseum">began cracking. Though the broken panes were replaced, the north and south entrances to the arena have remained covered with unsightly scaffolding and protective barricades while the contractor figured out the reason for the broken panes. Though the protective structures have kept patrons entering and exiting Stegeman Coliseum safe since the problem was discovered, the centerpiece of the Coliseum improvements has looked like a perpetual construction zone.

The good news is that there are signs of progress. The Red & Black reports that the scaffolding could come down “in the next few weeks.” Choate Construction, the contractor responsible for the renovation, believes that they may be close to proposing a solution. At worst, it seems as if the scaffolding will be down before basketball season comes around again.

The not-so-good news is that there is still uncertainty about the safety of the glass going forward. The Red & Black added, “Choate said he thinks they have narrowed down what caused the glass to break in the past but they are still trying to determine if the glass is a risk to students and patrons in the future.”

The SEC had a record 12 players selected in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft, and Georgia had two of them:

• LB Jarvis Jones: Selected with the 17th pick by Pittsburgh
• LB Alec Ogletree: Selected with the 30th pick by St. Louis

Georgia’s first defensive players selected in the first round in eight years came as no surprise. Jarvis Jones and Alec Ogletree were the stars of a talented defense, and both were projected as high draft picks well before the 2012 season.

It might’ve been a mild surprise that both dropped into the bottom half of the round, but each had areas of concern. Jones is a little undersized, he didn’t test well during workouts, and there’s the longterm uncertainty over his neck injury. Ogletree had plenty of off-field issues from the suspension to the poorly-timed DUI leading up to the draft, and there’s a twinge of doubt about a converted safety thriving as an NFL middle linebacker. Still, those concerns pale against the obvious talent and production each of them showed at Georgia. They’re the best prospects at their positions, and each should expect to play right away.

For an organization so closely tied to its defensive identity and 3-4 scheme, Jarvis Jones had to leap off of the Pittsburgh draft board. Jones was drafted to replace James Harrison, a veteran Pro Bowl linebacker and team leader that was released earlier in the offseason. With Harrison’s role open, Jones has the opportunity to become as important to the Pittsburgh defense as Hines Ward was to the Steeler offense. Jones joins former Georgia punter Drew Butler in Pittsburgh.

Ogletree’s immediate future is a little less clear. The Rams might be set at middle linebacker with former Buckeye James Laurinaitis. Ogletree would be a big speed upgrade at the position, but it’s also possible that he could move to a weakside linebacker role in St. Louis’s 4-3 system. He’ll be the only Dawg in St. Louis.

Orson Crowded Out?

One of the picks with implications for a former Bulldog was Cincinnati’s selection of Notre Dame tight end Tyler Eifert. Eifert was the top tight end on the board, but the Bengals already have Pro Bowl TE Jermaine Gresham and, of course, Orson Charles. The selection of Eifert doesn’t mean that Charles is on his way out; teams carry at least three tight ends. But with Gresham firmly established as the starter and a highly-paid first round pick coming in, it’s going to be a fight for Charles to remain on the roster, let alone find much playing time. Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden wasn’t terribly reassuring. “Orson (Charles) was coming along, but we need another tight end.”

What’s Next

Round 2 kicks off Friday night at 6:30 p.m. with Round 3 to follow. The draft concludes on Saturday with Rounds 4-7 beginning at noon. Several other Georgia defenders, including John Jenkins and Cornelius Washington, could be selected on Friday evening before the end of the third round.

I try to avoid linking most paywall content here, but in addition to Dasher’s interview with McGarity below there’s another piece from ESPN ($) I hope most people are able to read. It’s fantastic.

Certainly most of the recruiting process comes down to athletics – will I play, will I go pro, will we win titles? For some prospects that might even be enough. But most prospects, and especially their families, have a lot more on their minds. They’ll be going off to school for three or four years where they’ll be expected to take classes as well as play ball. To help families understand that environment, most schools have prospects meet with professors and other people outside of athletics. Georgia is no exception.

What is exceptional about Georgia is one of the people Mark Richt prefers to seek out for that role. As Radi Nabulsi puts it, associate professor Dr. Gary Green of the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources is “a high school dropout from England with zero knowledge of football.”

He’s also, according to parents, prospects, and current players, “genuine.” Prospects can get their fill of football from their contacts on the coaching staff. Green’s role is to prepare the prospects for success in the environment in which the student-athlete will be immersed for the next several years – whether or not it’s at Georgia. Green points to Mark Richt’s open and honest style and has tried to incorporate that both into his teaching and in his dealings with recruits.

Give the whole thing a read if you can, and you’ll see why one of the more important people in the recruiting process wore yellow to his first Georgia game.