Bruce Pearl

Funny stuff here - great quote from Bruce Pearl...

In a press conference today, he was quoted as saying," I've made mistakes, I clearly did, but what I was hoping for was that some other dumbass would get on the front page and take me off the hook. I miss Lane Kiffin."

Classic

Boise in the Dome? Yessssir - Here's Why...

Playing Boise in the Georgia Dome to kick off the 2011 season is a move I would love to see happen. My only major concern is having to play South Carolina the next weekend.

-- McGarity would love to get out of playing @ Louisville in 2012. With one of our home games already in Jacksonville that year, and 1 of our OOC games on the road in Louisville, we would only have 3 SEC home games and 3 OOC games in Athens. McGarity has been on record as saying he wants to juggle the schedule so that we can play 7 home games every year. If we can get rid of Louisville the next 2 years, it sets up like this:

• Odd years: 4 SEC games in Athens, 3 OOC games in Athens and 1 OOC game at the massive stadium in Atlanta vs. the Geeks
• Even Years: 3 SEC games in Athens (the 4th home game in JAX), 4 OOC Games in Athens

-- Next year, we would only get 6 games in Athens, but 2 of our Away games would be in Atlanta. The biggest challenge we face with a road OOC game is the long travel back and shortening our week after travelling back east from Oklahoma or Arizona. And, while this game vs. Boise will be a neutral site on paper, it will be a home game in reality. Everybody knows that 85% of the crowd will be barking like crazy.

-- We need to get some national juice going with our program again. We have fallen far off the national radar with our substandard performances in 2009 and 2010. Opening the season vs. Boise State and South Carolina will get us back on that radar as both Boise and USCe could both be top 10 pre-season. GameDay will be there and we will be in the prime-time 8:00 slot nationwide on ABC.

-- This is one final sales pitch to the in-state 4 and 5 star recruits that we are battling Bama, Florida, Auburn, and FSU for --- You can have your coming out party playing in front of Herbstreit, Corso, Fowler and a national TV audience vs. a top 5 team in the GA Dome. 17 and 18 year old kids love this stuff.

-- It keeps Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin, Urban Meyer, Les Miles, etc out of our city and away from all the HS talent in Georgia.

-- We have everything to gain and nothing to lose -- we might be playing a team coming off of a BCS title game. If Boise doesn't make it to the big game, we are playing against a team that will have played in 2 consecutive BSC bowl games. IF we lose, as much as I hate to say this - it's what is expected - we will be underdogs. But, WHEN we win, it could catapult us into a great season and into the national spotlight. Can you imagine what Sanford stadium will be like when we kick it off vs. South Carolina the next week after beating Boise State?

-- Hopefully, opening up with these strong 2 opponents will grab our players attention in the offseason and keep them out of trouble. Nobody will want to be suspended for the national game of the week with GameDay there. This is certainly a double-edged sword as we could very well be without a key player or 3... But, nothing else is keeping our kids out of trouble - maybe this finally will.

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Cam is "Son of the Preacherman"

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Very Interesting Tweets

I am working late tonight and have no idea why these rumors started or why Richt and McGarity are being asked about playing Boise St in the GA Dome next year. Just passing the info along.

@ajcuga: UGA AD Greg McGarity on rumors of a possible Georgia-Boise State game in the Georgia Dome next year: "I just can't comment at this time."

"@marcweiszer: Richt no comment on Boise State game. "I'll tell you Monday," he said when asked about wanting to get in game since other SEC teams have."

"@Dawgs247: Richt on possibly playing Boise State in Ga Dome: "Hypothetically, no comment. ... I'm not making any comment."

Time to Laugh at a Good Joke

Even if the Dawgs take a few hits from the author of this video, it's pretty damn funny.

More on Cam

For those of you that are curious about the saga going on over at AU with the FBI getting involved, there is a really good read out there on the Internet at tigerdroppings.com. This article may or may not be true - only time will tell. But if 25% of what this article says is truth, AU is going to really, really hurt when this investigation is all said and done. This article introduces all the major players behind the scenes and takes us all the way back to the Pat Dye days to show the chain of events that have led us up to the current scandal allegedly taking place. If you have a chance to get away from the desk/boss/wife/kids, click on the link below and take your Blackberry/iPhone/Droid and go sit on the toilet for a really long, good read. Click here to read the full article with all the details. If you don't have the time or for a quick preview, here is an excerpt from the conclusion of the article...

"The FBI has been investigating Colonial Bank and Louder for a number
of possible violations in the financial market crash which are
unrelated to AU. Part of the investigation involved gambling fraud
between McGregor and Colonial Bank. Something called the Rico Stature
allowed the justice department to set up wiretaps on Colonial Bank.
On the wiretaps the FBI found major AU recruiting infractions involving
Louder, McGregor, Dye, Trooper, boosters and others.
Here’s what they say the FBI has on tape and can prove AU did:

• The people above are on tape explaining who they paid and how they did it.
• It involves many AU players
• Providing unmarked Colonial Bank ATM cards to players to withdraw
money from secret accounts.
• Giving “slot machine cards” to the players, which now involves the
Alabama Gaming Commission.
• Provided improper loans to some of the families in our last and
current recruiting class.
• The NCAA “strongly” recommended that AU sit Cam for GA game because
of the mounting evidence.
• President Grogue wanted to sit Cam but was overruled by Louder and
the Board of Trustees.
• Coach Chizik knows none of this and has been lied to by Jacobs.
• The people named above know the S%#& is going to hit the fan “big
time” and have decided “we’re going down” so lets win the title even
if they take it away later.
• Slive knew about this early and sat on the information and is also
in the “crosshairs” of the FBI."

Auburn Has Moved Up...

I never really hated AU before this past weekend. I know several Dawg fans that hate Auburn with a passion and put them right up there with Florida, Tech and Tennessee as far as hated rivals go. I always felt like AU was a "friendly rival", if such a thing exists. Well, I waited 4 days to type this out to see if I was just feeling differently in the heat of the moment. Turns out, Auburn has moved up my list of hated teams. They now sit with Florida at the top of my list.

What Auburn did to move up the list so quickly....

-- Signed a freak athlete that makes Tim Tebow look like a normal dude. No problem with that at all, but the problem comes in when the kid was allegedly shopped around as Dad demanded 6 figures for his son's signature on Signing Day. It's starting to make sense how the new HC with a career record of 5-19 was able to recruit so damn well as soon as he arrived on the Plains.

-- Nick Fairley's hits on Murray drove me up the wall...

• 1st - he grinds facemasks with Murray and opens up a gash on AM's chin.
• 2nd - he damn near breaks Murray in half as he spears AM in the back drawing a flag for roughing the QB.
• 3rd - the shot on Murray's knee in the final minute of the game. If this guy didn't have the history of cheap shots on QB's, I would give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. But, after watching him play, he is a dirty SOB and I can't assume he wasn't trying to take AM's knees out.

-- Trooper Taylor, with his hat turned around backwards, waving flags and jumping into players arms is a damn thug (is he a coach or an overpaid cheerleader?) . Especially when he goes out to high-five his thug player as Fairley is acting as if he is putting on his heavyweight belt after nearly causing a bench-clearing brawl. Dude has been rumored to be a dirty, cheating recruiter and he certainly passes that eyeball test.

-- I have no problem with Chizik pumping his fist and trying to fire up his players and fans from the sidelines. In fact, I think it's cool when a coach is that into it. But, not when you are doing that in the final minute of a game leading 49-31 and 2 fights have just broken out. Not to mention the fact that he put #90 back in the game after the 1st skirmish. When you do that stuff, you are encouraging a fight to break out.

As for my thoughts on UGA post-game:

-- I absolutely love Ben Jones for starting the fight after Fairley's final hit on Murray. Gotta protect the franchise. Make no mistake about it - Murray is our franchise right now.

-- Speaking of our franchise, Aaron Murray is one the the toughest SOB's that will ever play 'Tween the Hedges. He has taken some big licks this year and Saturday was no different. But, he just keeps finding a way to get back up and take the next snap. Apparently, he was telling Richt to put him back in after limping off with the gimpy knee. Oh, yeah - he is a pretty good QB too. Check our these stats courtesy of David Pollack's twitter account....... WOW

• Greene's best season.......... 2508 yds,20 TD, 4 INT, 148.4 Rating
• Stafford's best season.........3459 yds, 25 TD, 10 INT, 153.54 Rating
• Murray thru 11 games........2580 yds, 21 TD, 6 INT, 156.8 Rating

-- Make no mistake about it - Richt and McGarity were pissed off about the late hits and how the game was handled by the refs on Saturday. I guarantee you they have been bunring up the phone lines of Mike Slive and the entire SEC office. Would we love to have seen Richt go nuts in the post-game press conference? Absolutely - but that is not his style and it never will be. But, there is no doubt in my mind that this was handled by our HC and our AD the proper way through the proper channels.

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Bulldog Hotline Call-in Show with CMR

Click here for another great summary by Jim in Duluth.

Great read on Cam's eligibility chances

Click here

Bring It On

Dawgs win 31-21 as they begin to turn this series around and make it 2 out of 4 in JAX today.

FLA's lack of a kicker will hurt them and force them to turn it over on downs when they would have normally taken the 3 points. We also get 7 points on a defensive TD (or a really short field set up by our D) and 7 points from our special teams.

Leave your prediction in the Comments section.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

2 great videos below. The 1st video takes you from the early 80s to the mid 2000s. The 2nd video has a lot of Stafford, MoMass and Knowshon. Enjoy - if these don't get you fired up, you might already be dead.

Another Take on FLA's Injury/Suspension Report

Everyone knows by now that Chris Rainey is going to play in tomorrow's game. The sports talk hosts are loving Urban for making it an easy day to host and generate conversation. But, what is lost in all of this news is the fact that Florida's K Caleb Sturgis is out for the game, leaving the FL punter Chas Henry as the Gators' best option for FG's. He is 2/5 on the year with a long FG of 39 yards. I think that news will have a bigger influence of the outcome of the game than FL getting a (hopefully) rusty RB/WR back in Chris Rainey.

Pulpwood talks WLOCP

Warning: Turn the volume down if you are in the office or around your kids and don't want the profanity to be heard.

LINK: Pulpwood on WLOCP

Good Stuff

Funny video with CUM and his offensive coordinator - I have to give credit to the Georgia Sports Blog for finding it first.

Knowshon vs. Gators in '07

I swear if I ever have a 3rd kid, I might name him/her Knowshon. Doesn't matter if it is a boy or a girl. The 2007 WLOCP was the most fun I have ever had at a sporting event.

Debate of the Day.....WLOCP Edition

If you are Mike Bobo (or Mark Richt, depending on who you believe is actually calling the plays these days), how would you open the game as far as play-calling/gameplan goes?

OPTION #1 -

Punch the Gators in the mouth and run the ball all over them from the beginning. This is what we did back in '07 with Knowshon. I am not sure what the exact #'s were, but I think we ran every single play of that opening drive that culminated with the Celebration in the Endzone. If I had more confidence in our OL run-blocking, I would do this in a heartbeat. I would love to start the game with a 7 Minute drive with Ealey pounding the Gator's young defensive front. But, if we get stuffed in the backfield on the opening drive the way that Knowshon did in '08 (by Brandon Spikes) and go 3-and-out, nobody is going to be happy. The positive of this gameplan is obvious - send a message to the Gators that we are the more physical team and we are going to push you around all day long. My problem with this gameplan is 2-fold: a lack of complete confidence in our run-blocking AND I don't want to see us getting back to running such a conservative offense when Murray is proving to be a playmaker and with some dude named AJ as our WR.

OPTION # 2 -

Open the playbook up early - get the quick score and let the Gators know that we want to get into a track meet with them. Because we know that the Gators offense can't keep up with our offense. Just throw a little wrinkle that we never see BUT it has to be in our playbook somewhere. Do we not have anything in our playbook that involves Logan throwing a pass off a reverse or some kind of a trick play? I wouldn't be opposed to that sort of a low-risk, high-reward type of play early on hitting AJ deep and getting everyone fired up on the field. The positive side of this is making FL feel a little nervous that they can't possibly score at will with the mess that is their offense right now. On the negative side, the play blows up in our face, we look desperate playing FL again and it sets a bad tone for the rest of the game.

MY TAKE -

I think I am leaning toward Option 2. I am just worried that we won't get the push up front that we will need to sustain a long drive against a fresh set of defensive legs. As the game goes on and we wear them down, I think we can move that direction, but I want to see AM sling that ball around and open up our offense and turn this into a track meet. I don't care what changes that scumbag Urban Meyer makes, I don't think their offense can go toe-to-toe with our offense.

What do you think? It is easy to complain about our play-calling (hell, I have ripped Bobo many times in the past) after the gameplan doesn't work. But, if you were setting the gameplan before kickoff, what do you think we should do with our opening possession? Leave your thoughts in the Comments section.

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DIRECTV Customers

For all the Dawg fans that don't have Charter or Comcast, you have to order tonight's game via ESPN Gameplan. I just hung up with DirecTV and the game will be on channel 790 and will not be blacked out. The bad news is the game is only being offered in Standard Definition. If you order ESPN Gameplan for just 1 day, a charge of $24 will be added to your next bill. There is also a service fee of $1.50 if you order through the automated phone system and a $5.00 fee if you order it through a customer rep. You are not able to order the 1 day Gameplan on the internet - But, if you want to order the rest of the season of ESPN Gameplan, you may do so on DirecTV's website for $73.

You can call DirecTV at (800)GET-SPORTS to get to the automated system or to speak to a customer rep if you have any questions.

UGA-Kentucky

Prediction Time -

On offense, Aaron Murray continues his march towards greatness and will begin to make people re-think their SEC Freshman of the Year ballots. As of Sunday morning, Marcus Lattimore is not the shoo-in that everyone thought he was after he ran over us. Dawgs put up 30+ today.

On Defense, the players continue to show they they "get it" as Kentucky is held to under 20 points for only the 2nd time this year. Todd Grantham is going to look like a better hire every week that the season goes on.

Final Score - Dawgs 31, Cats 17. What say you? Leave your prediction in the Comments section...

Greatest Sports Calls

Here is a list of Sport's Greatest Calls, complete with YouTube videos. Munson's "Run, Lindsay, Run" checks in at 10th on the countdown.

Do You Remember 2007???

Heading into the Florida game, we had already lost to South Carolina in Athens, gotten absolutely thumped in Knoxville, and barely escaped Nashville with a last second win over lowly Vanderbilt. Then we turned into (in my opinion), the best team in the country and finished with a #2 national ranking. I am certainly not saying that we are going to do the same thing this year, but we can still make it to the Georgia Dome if we can build off last week's blowout win over UT. I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out...

- first things first, we need to win out. That part is obvious. But, not as daunting a task as we once thought, considering that Florida looks very average.

- we need Kentucky to knock off South Carolina this weekend in Lexington. It should be very interesting to see how USCe handles prosperity.

- we need Florida to beat South Carolina.

- That would leave us in a 3-way tie for 1st in the East with SC and Florida. The 1st tiebreaker is head to head competition, which would be thrown out since we beat FL, FL beat SC, and SC beat us. The 2nd tiebreaker is record of the tied teams within the division. UGA and FL would both be 4-1, while SC would be 3-2 (thus eliminating SC from the GA Dome). Next up would be head to head between FL and UGA.

- the other scenario would involve SC winning vs. Kentucky but finding a way to lose 3 other SEC games (after Lexington this weekend, they still have to play @ VAN, vs. UT, vs. ARK, and @ FL). Yes - that's an enormous collapse, but this is still South Carolina we are talking about.

I'm not saying we have a great shot, but stranger things have happened. And I will definitely be tuning into the SC-Kentucky game this Saturday night.