The issue of attendance – especially student attendance – seems to be on a lot of minds. We’ve been critical of student support for the football team, and we’ve been encouraged by some of the steps taken. The school has reduced the size of the student section but also introduced a well-received Young Alumni program to help bridge the transition from student to a lifelong fan.

But the issues of attendance persist. It’s not just a Georgia problem. Games are all televised now, and often there are one or two games that are as compelling (or more so) than the one going on in town. It’s tough to drag someone away from the HDTV, climate-controlled environment, and refreshments to sit in the elements with spotty cell coverage for four hours. Short of playing the game in the backyard, you’re not going to overcome the advantages of watching from home. The in-person experience needs to press its own advantages rather than trying to duplicate the amenities of home.

Granted, it’s a tough problem. The macro nation-wide trends aren’t going away anytime soon. I have to question the wisdom of any program investing in additional seating in this reality. We know why they’re doing it, but the arms race doesn’t make much financial sense in the short or long term. That’s not to argue against facilities improvements that address the fan experience (see Gate 6 or Reed Alley); you just can’t convince me that more seats is a good idea for anyone right now.

So faced with the job of trying to swim against the current, I don’t blame administrators for taking small bites around the edges. It’s not a problem that’s going to be solved in one swallow. Some of these ideas will be minor successes, and some will prove to be horrible.

This doesn’t seem like one of the good ideas. SEC rules have been relaxed to allow schools to pump in music between plays. Schools may already use recorded music during breaks; we’ve seen that at Sanford Stadium for years. The relaxed rules would apply, say, before a big third down play.

SEC administrators, including Georgia’s Greg McGarity, are optimistic about this rules change creating “more excitement across the conference” and enhancing the fan experience. Is this really what’s been missing from Georgia home games? Is the jock jam genre the siren song that will fill the student section?

McGarity cites the Clemson game last year. I admit that I wasn’t paying much attention to the in-game experience around me. There was a matter of a close game of national importance between two highly-ranked rivals to keep my focus. You know what really got the Clemson crowd going? Watching the team ride a bus around the stadium and rub a rock. Has Georgia considered exploring the entire spectrum of human-rock contact in order to fill and engage the stadium? Whatever Georgia is lacking relative to Clemson didn’t seem to detract from the experience against LSU. On the other hand, when you welcome three non-conference cupcakes to Sanford Stadium, anything short of a live Outkast concert isn’t going to bring people in.

As a former Redcoat, I admit that a large part of my concern here is the marginalization of a great spirit organization. The band is no small budget item – both in terms of its expense and also the opportunity cost of several hundred unsold seats. In this day of the arms race and the number crunchers, every dollar is on the table. I should note though that the athletic association (not to mention Coach Richt) has consistently been a big supporter in both words and funds of the Redcoats, and I’m assured that the Redcoats have a place at the table in these discussions to improve the in-game experience at Sanford Stadium. They too have a duty to keep their stands repertoire fresh and entertaining, and they’ve done so over the past several seasons. You never get optimistic when it looks as if the consultants are in charge, but it looks as if we’ll see Georgia try to take advantage of this new rule.

Athletic director Greg McGarity announced on Friday that a 2016 game with Georgia Southern would be moved up a year to 2015. The move fills a hole in the 2015 football schedule and completes the non-conference portion of the slate. After a couple of years with some high-profile non-conference opponents early in the season, 2015 will be much less ambitious.

A game against Georgia Southern has recently provided the Dawgs with an opportunity to work on the triple option in advance of the Georgia Tech game, and new coach Willie Fritz will keep some version of that offense in Statesboro.

Tech preparation aside (assuming they are still running the option), it’s a fairly lackluster non-conference schedule lined up for 2015. November in particular will offer no compelling home games. The only appealing non-conference game, Tech, will be on the road. Here’s the lineup:

• Southern University (Sept. 5)
• Louisana-Monroe (Nov. 7)
• Georgia Southern (Nov. 21)
• @ Georgia Tech (Nov. 28)

The SEC portion of the home schedule doesn’t look terribly hot at the moment either. Following the current scheduling rotation, Georgia should expect to see South Carolina, Missouri, and Kentucky from the East. There should also be a game against an SEC West opponent, but the SEC is still setting the schedule as it goes year-to-year.

The quality of the 2015 home schedule will depend a lot on that final unnamed SEC West opponent. It’s not likely to be recent visitors LSU or Ole Miss. Will it be a return visit from Arkansas? A game against Alabama or Texas A&M’s first SEC visit to Athens would improve the home slate. It’s also a remote possibility, but one worth noting, that the SEC could come out with a 9-game schedule by then. If so, which of the three non-conference games gets dropped?

Georgia signed 20 student-athletes on Wednesday to join early enrollee Jacob Park in the incoming 2014 class. The group was rated #7 nationally by Rivals.com, #12 by Scout, #9 by ESPN, and #8 by 24-7. As usual, a Top 10 class in the SEC means that you’re only keeping up – ESPN had 7 SEC schools among its national Top 10.

The class met some important needs – the tailback depth looks fantastic, the QB pipeline is replenished, the tight end position got some needed attention, there’s another outstanding pass rusher, and there is a much-needed injection of talent at cornerback. Georgia even took the interesting opportunity to sign a player specifically targeted as a return specialist.

It was a relatively small class (no SEC school signed fewer), but we expected that given a light graduating senior class. In fact, Georgia oversigned slightly and will have to have some attrition to meet the NCAA limit of 85 scholarship players. Mark Richt wasn’t concerned about that problem, and the numbers always work themselves out. 21

There wasn’t much drama on Signing Day – at least as far as the big announcements went. Georgia got their most important Signing Day target, defensive end Lorenzo Carter, and they missed out on another uncommitted prospect with whom they became involved with late.

While Signing Day itself was fairly calm, Georgia had a flurry of activity in the 10 days leading up to the big day. Georgia added nearly a quarter of its class during this late push.

• On January 27th, Tucker defensive back Dominick Sanders committed.
• On February 3rd, Shaquille Jones announced his flip from Louisville to Georgia.
• Georgia added three more to the class on Signing Day.
  • We had heard about return specialist Isaiah “The Human Joystick” McKenzie earlier in the week, and he put speculation to rest early on Wednesday.
  • If there was one big Signing Day Surprise, it was the unexpected flip of in-state tight end Hunter Atkinson from Cincinnati. Atkinson is a big, physical tight end who has the frame to develop into an offensive lineman (Adam Meadows for those old enough to remember), but Atkinson has the receiving skills to be an imposing tight end at his current size.
  • The announcement of Lorenzo Carter was the most anticipated of the day, but most pundits felt confident in Georgia’s chances. The uncertainty about Georgia’s defensive staff gave Carter a reason to seriously consider LSU, but the hirings of Jeremy Pruitt and Tracy Rocker were enough to keep Carter in-state.

Those hirings helped to smooth over what could have been a very rough time for the staff. Despite turnover of the entire defensive staff, it didn’t cost Georgia a single commitment. Not only that, the newcomers to the staff solidified Carter’s preference and helped to sway Jones and Sanders at the 11th hour. Some additional effort didn’t bear fruit, but it shouldn’t go unrecognized that the new staff made up tremendous ground with a handful of additional defensive prospects.

When you have a small class, there will necessarily be areas that come up short. That’s most evident up the middle of the defense. Georgia signed one defensive tackle, one interior linebacker, and its only safety commitment signed with Marshall. That would be a concern if those positions needed immediate help in 2014, but they don’t. It does make those positions a little more important for the 2015 class, and top defensive prospects like DT Trent Thompson become high priorities.

About $63 million in improvements are slated for Jacksonville’s EverBank Field, host site of the Georgia-Florida football game. The improvements include a reconfiguration of the north and south open ends of the stadium with giant video scoreboards “among the largest of their kind in the world”, a “party deck” fan pavilion, and even a water feature.

The work is expected to be done in time for the 2014 NFL season.

While the new video boards will be a welcome improvement for Georgia and Florida fans, the biggest change will be to the seating in the north endzone (opposite the river.) According to Jaguars President Mark Lamping, the project will require the removal of nearly 7,000 permanent seats in the 200 and 300 levels to build a platform that extends out over the lower-level seats. These seats to be removed are usually tarped over for Jaguar games but are needed for the Georgia-Florida game. To account for the lost seats, the stadium will remove temporary structures from the new platform and put up 7,000 temporary seats for the Georgia-Florida game, similar to those temporary seats currently used in the south endzone sections.

With a significant number of starters returning on both sides of the ball, Georgia has only a handful of positions that should provide much preseason drama. Replacing three offensive line starters is probably the biggest job, but the depth is there to make it an area of interest rather than panic. We’ll also be watching how a number of talented players work back in to their respective positions after injuries, but those stories might not play out until August.

One position that has come to the forefront is safety. Georgia returns everyone but Connor Norman and Marc Deas, and several of the players who ended up with most of the playing time in 2013 were underclassmen. At first glance, it’s not a position where you’d expect much turnover or recruiting emphasis.

Mauger and Matthews were thrown to the fire as true freshmen, and each had the ups and downs you’d expect. Moore is the most experienced, but he now enters his senior year without a firm grip on a starting spot. Harvey-Clemons made an impact at the hybrid “star” position in his first season with significant playing time. Matthews and Harvey-Clemons have the recruiting pedigree to suggest that they’re the future of the position, but even they have some uncertainty.

The first uncertainty is size. We saw it with Alec Ogletree, eventually with Thomas Davis in the NFL, and even with Paris Bostick, a 2013 incoming freshman safety. As defensive ends sometimes grow into tackles, big safeties can become quick linebackers. Matthews doesn’t plan on moving to linebacker, but he admits that has the frame to get bigger and will have to concentrate on adding lean muscle. Harvey-Clemons is already imposing at 6’5″ and handled some linebacker responsibilities in his “star” role. If Pruitt approaches the “star” position differently or prefers a more typical nickel back, Harvey-Clemons could find himself in a tweener spot between safety and linebacker, and the reasonable course there is to put on the size needed to move to linebacker.

The other uncertainty is more unpleasant, but it’s a reality that we also had to face with Ogletree. Harvey-Clemons will miss the first three games as part of a four-game suspension that kept him out of the bowl game. He had already missed the 2013 season opener as the result of a one-game suspension. If this most recent suspension is also drug-related, Harvey-Clemons has two strikes before he’s even started his junior season. Hopefully he’ll get the help he needs and eventually graduate, but another incident could create a tough decision for Mark Richt. As it is now, Richt and Pruitt have to come up with a Plan B for at least the first three games.

During bowl practices we learned that redshirt freshman Tramel Terry would move from receiver to safety. Terry spent the 2013 recovering from knee surgery, but he was one of the bigger signings of the 2013 recruiting class. His versatility and athleticism made him a candidate to contribute on either side of the ball, a la Malcolm Mitchell. Terry spent the regular season as a receiver during his rehab. Coach Richt indicated that the move to safety was permanent – at least as far as these things go.

About the same time as Terry’s move, we learned that JUCO transfer Shaquille Fluker would leave the program in search of playing time. Georgia’s medical staff was concerned about Fluker’s condition after a seizure and would not clear him to participate. Fluker didn’t play in 2013, but his medical status and ultimate transfer cost Georgia a more experienced option at safety.

There have also been some developments in recruiting. Georgia has a single safety commitment, Kendall Gant of Lakeland, Fla, alongside three and possibly four cornerback commitments. Gant is reported to have academic concerns and might be headed for prep school. Since the arrival of new defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, the Dawgs have turned up the heat on a couple of safety prospects. Tavon Ross is a Missouri commitment from Bleckley County who has emerged as a priority. The Dawgs are also trying to make a late push with Tampa’s T.J. Harrell but will have ground to make up against Louisville and Michigan St. Georgia just recently offered and got a commitment from Tucker’s Dominick Sanders who could play either cornerback or safety but is most likely a cornerback. Whether it’s the uncertainty of Gant’s academics or a need perceived by the new staff after evaluating the current roster, the addition of another safety to the recruiting class has become a priority.

Improving the secondary is one of the biggest tasks for Pruitt as both the coordinator and the defensive backs coach. Due to suspensions and injuries, we saw new combinations at safety in nearly every game. We’ll see more of that in the first month of the 2014 season as Harvey-Clemons serves his suspension. Beyond that, can Pruitt bring some consistency to the position and develop the kind of sustained production we’ve seen from some of Mark Richt’s better secondaries?