The Tea Leaves

Yesterday marked the second scrimmage for the football team ($$$) (here's the AJC article if you want the free version) and we got what we should expect out of those kinds of things. There were no injuries to speak of, at least no new injuries, and it looks like the Offense fared a tad bit better against the Defense than they did the last time they scrimmaged. Other than that, here are some other tidbits from yesterday:

• Jakar Hamilton, who's missed nearly all of fall with what was thought to be a hamstring issue, is lost for the year after it was discovered he had a broken ankle. He will most likely redshirt and will be a fifth year senior next year.
• Isaiah Crowell and Richard Samuel saw no action in the scrimmage. One thing that I noticed was Richt's comment about Crowell was that he should definitely be ready by gameday. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but perhaps his groin issue is worse than originally thought? Being ready by gameday should be a no-brainer if it wasn't the big deal like everyone said. 
• Rambo is still in some sort of jail in regards to the media and apparently playing time. Word is that he's been rotating out of his starting spot more and more and it looks like Sanders Commings will be the benefactor in the end. With Jakar Hamilton now out, Commings is probably a lock to stay at Safety, particularly with Branden Smith having a great fall. So, you're starting two until we hear a peep from Rambo should be Sanders Commings and Shawn Williams. I'd love to know what's going on with Rambo, but if the UGA coaches are avoiding the issue for whatever reason, then it's probably for the best. 
• In better news, another word is that Alec Ogletree is going to show people this season how much of a natural fit he is at Linebacker. If I'm being honest, the guy is a natural football player and so the coaches made, in my opinion, an EXCELLENT call to put him there. I know the lion's share of the attention goes to Jarvis Jones and John Jenkins, but by season's end, my guess is that we are going to be downright giddy to know we have one more year of Alec Ogletree on the field.
• Some odd stats came out of the Wide Receivers today, with Troupe, Wooten and Mitchell all getting some decent yardage. I'm not sure if the other guys' stats were held back on purpose, but it's good to see the second group of pass catchers get a little bit of love on the field. Maybe we're not as razor thin with depth as we once thought?
• Finally, Orson Charles was cleared by the NCAA after being named in the Miami Death Machine that's going on down in South Beach. I never worried about this for a second, truthfully. From everything I've heard, Orson isn't that kind of guy and since he didn't sign with Miami, he never had the opportunity to be. Quickly about Miami, though; why is everyone so sure Miami's going to burn for this? You do realize we're talking about the NCAA, right? I don't care what the evidence says...WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE NCAA.

Other than those nuggets, there wasn't much to expound upon. As long as we have somewhat healthy bodies and guys are progressing, I'm pleased. All that said, I know we need the practice time, but if I could go "toe meets leather" today, I would. I'm way too ready for football to start.

Until next time kids.

Be safe.

Benedict comes clean...sort of.

A little while ago, Brent Benedict "confirmed" to Chip Towers that he left the UGA program mainly due to a difference in Strength and Conditioning philosophies between where he thought he was in his recovery versus what JT2 wanted out of him. Here's an excerpt:

Q: I understand this mainly had to do with not seeing eye-to-eye with new strength and conditioning coach Joe Tereshinki about training techniques with respect to your injury. I know he’s employing some old-school philosophies with a lot of lower-body work. Is that what this was about?

A: “Coach Tereshinski came in and he has his own philosophy and he and the coaching staff believe that it’s going to work and there’s no reason not to believe that. So,  there were a few things going on and I wasn’t able to resolve that (emphasis added). Of course I hope Georgia does well, extremely well. I’ve told all my buddies back there I wish them the best of luck and I really believe it will be successful.”

So where does this leave the saga? Well Benedict is going to Virginia Tech, so in my mind, the saga is dead. It seems as if the split was indeed mutual, he didn't end up at Florida and I'd bet $100 that says Richt called Beamer and told him to take a chance on the kid if he wanted to be patient. Why? Well, that's the kind of guy Richt is and it also opened up a scholarship in an area where patience wasn't a virtue.

Benedict had his chance(s). We stuck by him when no one else would and we wanted progression, whereas, legitimately or not, we couldn't get it from him. It made sense to move on and I'm glad that Benedict found a home in a place where he wouldn't have to go up against this team. In my opinion, everyone wins.

Look, I didn't like Benedict leaving just as much as anyone did, but that's where we're at. This season is going to be defined not by the hole the players put us in as much as the hand we're dealt. Benedict leaving was a personal choice because we went too hard in the weight room (the horror). King left because he couldn't cut it in the classroom. Ealey left because he couldn't cut it anywhere, from being responsible to buying in. I'm not saying it's addition by subtraction, but if we're going to begin a new culture at Georgia, it's got to start with eliminating the old culture, right?

I know I'm a Richt apologist, but I tend to believe that when a man has delivered some of the best UGA teams we've seen in the past 40 years, he deserves a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. Those '02, '03, '05 and '07 teams were flat loaded with playmakers. That doesn't happen if SOMEONE doesn't know what they're doing. Should Richt have acted sooner in regards to firing Martinez? Probably. However, how many people right now would accept Grantham as the next guy to be the head coach of this program? My guess is that it's pretty high. If that's the case, shouldn't we as a fan base give Richt a little bit of the benefit of the doubt for hiring Grantham in the first place? So, shouldn't he deserve one more go-round?

My thought is let's ride this train and see where it takes us. It could lead to change or it could lead to championships. The only way we're going to know is to buy a ticket and take the bumps in the road as they come. We don't know the destination, but when we get to the final stop, we'll find out if this was worth it or not. Until then, let's just ride this thing out.

That's just my two cents. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't lie to you, buttercup, would I?


Until next time kids.

Be safe.

I Must Break You

I'm not a person to slam someone else's work, in the sense of saying that they're a bad writer. In my opinion, even bad writing is still writing and putting something out there for others to critique, so just doing the exercise deserves a certain amount of respect.

That being said, nothing infuriates me more than a baseless article that forms a controversial opinion, which spends more time tossing out red herrings (it's a term. click the link if you don't know what it is...it'll make all this easier to understand), than backing up their opinion.

Take example this article from Chuck Oliver's site. Now, I could go on and on about how, in my opinion, Tony Barnhart runs journalistic circles around Chuck Oliver, but that's another post for another day. Let me just put it like this, I'd rather spend an entire day talking to Wes Durham about the Georgia Tech schedule than to spend an hour listening to Chuck Oliver promote himself as "King College Football."

Anyway, Chuck Oliver didn't write the article to which I'm referring. A fellow named Will Newton did. Now, I don't know anything about Newton, other than he's of the mindset that Georgia Tech will be good this year (although everything points to them struggling to be bowl eligible). Then again, I'm a UGA apologist, so I'm biased. He does mention that he was in Athens for six years, but from the way he writes, he sounds like he's totally against Georgia succeeding in anything.

The main problem I have with articles like this though, is the incessant "making news where there isn't" syndrome that seems to be growing among those who want Richt out. There's no doubt Richt is on the hot seat, but instead of giving him the final chance to right the ship that HE DESERVES, it seems many want to keep kicking the man while he's down. For example, in another one of Newton's articles, he suggests that Richt is too nice of a guy to get the job done. Something that I think it's ridiculously stupid and The Good Senator echoes my statement.

The real key to making me think you're full of hot air though, is (after mentioning names like Akeem Hebron, Darius Dewberry and Kade Weston) to have sentences like the following:

"I’m sure somewhere Paul Johnson is wishing he could have had a crack at developing some of those players. "

Because THAT'S what Paul Johnson does. I'm sure somewhere inside of Paul Johnson's own mind, he thinks he could've developed them better, but there's no evidence to suggest that, AT ALL. Chan Gailey did a better job of developing players than Paul Johnson has. Let that one bake your noodle a bit. Also, let's point out that those names were all players on the defensive side of the ball, with two of them having been coached by John Jancek, and we all know how that turned out.

Plus, the added shot he took at Isaiah Crowell is a nice kick in the bag. Let's make sure not to cite any sources, or even allude to how you heard that one. Even if I do play devil's advocate and say it's true, I like hearing it. Yes, I like hearing stuff like that. It means he's getting broken by the upperclassmen. I had a friend explain to me one time how Phillip Fulmer was wildly successful at building recruits up and then breaking them once they got on campus. If Crowell's getting broken, I'm fine with that. Just don't get injured.

Look, Caleb King had his moments where he was an excellent player (think of in 2009 against LSU when he played with a broken jaw), and times where he made me throw things (Colorado 2010). The end all be all, though, is that he could not get it done in the classroom. It was said when he was found ineligible for the Liberty Bowl that he would have a VERY hard time getting back on track for the fall. But he was given EVERY opportunity to succeed. The blame falls squarely on him.

UGA has had plenty of misses, but they've had plenty of hits as well. Let's look at Thomas Davis, Tony Taylor, Kris Durham, Musa Smith, Ben Jones, Greg Blue, Sean Jones, Rennie Curran, Kenarious Gates and many others. Notice that I didn't just name heyday players as well. There are plenty of guys throughout Richt's time at the helm that have thrived while wearing the Red and Black. What it all boils down to is improved strength and conditioning, and those steps have been taken to rectify the problem. To give Newton credit, he pointed that out but that was another red herring in the bigger scheme of somehow placing the King situation on Richt. It's all very reminiscent of the Adam Krohn Gainesville Times article that linked the Columbus-Carver recruits' stealing of UGA players' property to Richt recruiting guys with questionable character. I'd link to it, but the newspaper site is down and I can't get it to pull up. Sorry.

One thing that I think is interesting to note is that there's no mention of Paul Oliver in this article. To me, there's a much better connection to King's story than Oliver's. Both were expected to contribute heavily in their final seasons as players, but after not getting it done in the classroom, both went on to enter into the supplemental draft. King's in much worse shape than Oliver was as a draft pick, but the stories are very closely related.

The point is that I'm tired of the far-reaching ways to expose failures in the UGA program. There is ONE failure right now and that is the inability to win close games. You fix that one, and you're going to Atlanta. It doesn't get easier than that. Yes, there are plenty of issues right now in the UGA program, but can we just take a second to stop making news and allow it to happen? We're less than two months away from kickoff.

So save your hit-job articles for the end of the season when you'll either be vindicated or vilified. Until then, you look just like every other person who is trying to get a rise out of a fan base that really just wants a time machine and BC Powder.


Until next time kids.

Be safe.

The high price of low grades

Undoubtedly, you've heard the news that Caleb King, UGA's "starting" RB for 2011, is academically ineligible and his career at Georgia is most likely over. If he were a redshirt freshman or sophomore, maybe he takes a year and gets things back on track, but as a senior, it just doesn't make any sense for him to stick around.

So what does that mean? Well, the reviews are mixed. Some say that it's something that most within the know had a feeling was coming. Others say that it's a kick in the bag, and even others say that it wouldn't matter because Isaiah Crowell was going to be the guy from the moment he stepped on campus. I say it's a little bit of all three...

How big is Benedict's transfer?

Yesterday, UGA announced that Brent Benedict was leaving the program for "personal reasons." It had been speculated that said personal reasons were injury related, but rumors were also floating around that his decision was also based upon his attitude.

ECDawg, who writes over at Leather Helmet Blog, stated in a post today that he'd heard Benedict's decision was a little bit of both scenarios. Benedict felt he was physically unable to do some of the summer workouts with CES (who was hired to help with conditioning), and UGA thought he was either ready to workout or needed to take a medical hardship. Benedict decided that it was best for him to move to another school, sit out the necessary year to help repair his knee (which was injured two years ago) and then get playing time.

ECDawg also makes the excellent point that Benedict had not been practicing 100% with the team and wasn't expected to play this year, regardless of whether or not he was wearing a "G" on his helmet. So, his transfer really doesn't mean anything in regards to UGA's season in 2011. It just creates depth issues for later on this season should his knee be ready ahead of time, and creates serious depth issues for 2012.

Not everyone agrees with ECDawg that Benedict wouldn't have played this season, but everyone is in agreement that Benedict wasn't feeling like he was ready. It's a pretty simple truth that no one's playing if they don't want to play, and it was evident that Benedict was fearful of his knee. I can't say I blame him, because it happens with every player who has blown out his knee. Physically they may be ready, but mentally, it's very tough to make that comeback. It happens to a lot of players, so you can't blame Benedict in the slightest over what happened.

There's a bottom line here and that is UGA cannot afford any injuries on the Offensive Line. Not only that, but how does Richt tell his Line to hit hard, hit often and hit through pain when you're so thin that you can't afford to lose a guy to injury? Belue made this point and as much as I hate to admit it, he's right. This kind of fear towards physicality is what got this team in bad shape a few years ago. Now, whether we like it or not, the dichotomy is back again.

If you're tall, fat and physical, Coach Will Friend would like to have a word.

Until next time kids.

Be safe.