WEEKEND GARBAGE

WHY IS USC BAD, BUT EVERYONE ALWAYS FORGETS ABOUT OKLAHOMA?

While I take pleasure in the USC loss, I am befuddled by the across the board reaction from pundits, bloggers, etc. I've heard so much talk about this has somehow "exposed" USC, and that they might not have ever been as good as most thought since dropping a game like this weekend's is a yearly occurrence.

While it is troublesome USC does that typically, I don't think the loss to Washington is as big of a deal as most make it out to be. They have a QB who has never started a game, potential for a down year given player losses to the draft, throw in a better Washington team coached by USC assistants, and you can have an ideal upset. Perhaps the high expectations and just basic realities are finally crossing paths, but losing one game does not diminish what USC is and what Pete Carroll has accomplished.

However, what really pisses me off about this most is that while people are lambasting USC, they completely forget about Oklahoma. Oklahoma also has a habit of consistently losing games to lesser teams. Try TCU, Boise State, BYU, and West Virginia (you could even throw in Oregon, but I don't). Yet, no one's calling them "frauds" like they are USC. In fact, people are making excuses for Oklahoma. Bob Ryan on the Sports Reporters said the BYU game can be considered a mulligan for Oklahoma. What!?! A mulligan? That's complete garbage.

Somehow, I don't think anyone will hold BYU getting thrashed by Florida State against Oklahoma as much as they would for any other team.

Oklahoma continues to be the most overrated team of the decade, and everyone constantly seems to have short memories when it comes to their foul ups.

I have USC's back in this debate, but I still don't mind seeing them lose.

MEYER vs. KIFFIN, COMPLETE DOUCHEBAG vs. NEWBIE DOUCHEBAG

Urban accuses Tennessee of not trying to win, Laney says Floriduh is simply trying to make excuses for a sub par performance.

I say, who cares! Floriduh wins in an ugly manner and their weaknesses are exposed.

Tennessee still loses, and both coaches continue to appear as massive tools.

Sounds like we got everything we could have hoped for out of this game!

POLLS - I THOUGHT WE WENT DOWN WHEN WE WON?

Georgia was ranked #21 in both the AP and Coaches Polls before the South Carolina game. We win that game, and what happens? We drop to #23 in the AP Poll, just as we won our first two games last year and dropped a spot each week. We seem to be the only team that has a habit of winning games and dropping in the polls (oddly enough, the reverse never seems to happen).

Luckily, the AP has now put us back up #21 (the Coaches Poll has us at #17).

LONG WAY TO FIND A WAL-MART: ROAD TRIP TO FAYETTEVILLE

THE DRIVE

Bubba and I ventured out Friday morning on a trip of a lifetime. Okay, maybe not a trip of a lifetime, but an awesome trip it would be.

Is there such a thing as a good rental car? Only if it's red or black!

It started off uneventful because, well, there's nothing of note in north Alabama or Mississippi. However, north Alabama does appear to be the bingo capital of the world. We counted no less than 10 bingo parlors in a 10 mile stretch.

Just after lunch, we rolled into Memphis and ate some of the best ribs I've ever tasted here:

The rest of the drive was pretty boring. There's nothing in Arkansas. Nothing.

However, once you get on I-540, the 45 minute drive to Fayetteville is awesome. You're surrounded by the Ozarks and it makes for a hell of a sight to see.

By simply listening to the radio and looking at the landscape of Arkansas, 3 things become very clear: Arkansas loves 80s music, giant American flags (no car dealership necessary), and strip clubs in awful looking, rusted out warehouses (trucker's paradise).

We also failed to see any UGA fans driving to the game (I don't blame you).

FAYETTEVILLE - FRIDAY NIGHT

We rolled into Fayetteville at about 9pm, and immediately went to the stadium. Its an impressive place, and the video screen is massive.

We continued through the campus, which also turned out to be much nicer than we anticipated.

Rolling into Dickson Street, we saw a good number of bars and restaurants.

We met up with our friend Tyler, a native of Fayetteville, and hit up a couple bars including Brewski's and the Hog Haus Brewery.

While in Hog Haus we be-friended a Bama and LSU fan that gave us some good information on the town.

The upsides to Fayetteville were the good number of bars (probably around 15-20), and plenty of good looking ladies. Again, I was worried in the mountains, but there's nothing to worry about in this town.

The downside is that most of the bars ended up having a cover after about 11pm. Pretty lame, but I guess it's to be expected. It's better than Auburn, where they have covers on all 3 of their bars.

Unfortunately, it was only after we left for the night that we found out that there is a piano bar in downtown Fayetteville.

GAME DAY

We headed out from our hotel in Bentonville, aka Wal-Mart Land, early on to get a head start.

We saw a Chik-Fil-A, and immediately stopped so that we could get something of Georgia and some decent sweet tea (real sweet tea doesn't exist in Arkansas).

Everything you could ever want.

After getting back into Fayetteville, we traveled through campus trying to figure out the parking situation. It was about 11am, and while some were out tailgating, the campus was not packed by any means.

After about an hour of driving around and talking to a cop, we finally found a parking garage that we were able to park in for free (wasn't suppose to be free, but we're that good), and that was a good halfway point between downtown and the main area for tailgating.

There wasn't much open downtown in the morning, and we ended up back at Hog Haus Brewery.

Dawg fans started to fill the upstairs bar, and we met some great Dawg fans from Atlanta and Kansas City.

Beer and football, these are things that I like.

We also met our first Arkansas fans that were really into having visiting opponents in town and approached us to talk about football.

At this point, of the Dawg fans we had encountered, we were by far the youngest around, and the Dawg ladies were few and far between.

TAILGATING

We headed out to campus about 3 1/2 hours before the game.

Arkansas' campus is beautiful, and you can tell they've got a lot of money pouring into this school (having the Walton family and Jerry Jones doesn't hurt). The arbotoreum that borders downtown is very similar looking to UGA's North Campus.

That's right, I'm too cool for your sign. Deal with it.

Tailgating at Arkansas has all the necessities, but it's just normal and basic for the most part.

One thing that pissed me off was how all the lots surrounding the stadium were permit only, but some of them half empty before the game. I would have thrown down the money for one to avoid the long hill to our parking deck.

We did stop and talk to a lot of Arkansas fans on the way to a UGA tailgate. While my motivation was mainly to mooch their television to see the Gator/Vols game, I did want to really meet their fans. Up to this point, their fans had not been outgoing for the most part.

I guess that's something to brag about? Whatever.

On the walk through campus, we did meet some undergrads outside of some dorms. These guys were real cool, and like all good college students, they were most interested in drinking (we did provide them some needed cups to hold said beer).

We did tell them the glories of Athens, and how they will need to come to the game next year to see some real partying.

One of the better parts of tailgating was where some local UGA alumni were stationed in a Gazebo in the Gardens (really just very nice landscaped green space). It was a pretty good set up, and having that Gazebo was pretty damn nice.

I'll have to give a big thanks to the Dawgs that hosted that event and allowed us to crash it. To the Kansas City Dawgs and the ex-Gwinnett Dawgs now in Fayetteville, THANKS!

That UGA tailgate was a great time, and it was a relief to finally be around a substantial amount of Dawg Fans.

THE FANS

Arkansas fans are nice people, and when we engaged them, they were great.

However, they are probably the least outgoing to meet opposing fans as I've ever experienced.

Arkansas fans can also be described as lacking in originality. The best insults we received were "Georgia Sucks," and "Fuck Georgia." Not too original there.

There was one fan that held a "This Guy Sucks" sign over Bubba and I. However, we thought it was hilarious and wanted a picture of it, but the guy ran off.

THE GAME

Stadium=awesome. Pretty good design and setup, it was nice inside, and great views of the field. Everything you hear about the scoreboard is true, and that place can get pretty damn loud (even if they're not using their PA to increase the noise).

Unfortunately, Bubba and I got to our seats just before kickoff, so we did not get to see the pre-game pomp and circumstance.

We sat in the last row of the upper deck, and that was actually a surprisingly good view:

The Dawg fans were spread out through our area, and not bunched together in a typical road game fashion (or perhaps the beer and matching colors confused me).

We did have a pretty fun group of Razorbacks in front of us that we went back and forth with the entire game. Our picture with them provides documented proof of attractive women in the Ozarks:

Wooooooooooo Pig Sooie!!!

LEAVING

We skipped out of town after game to get a head start on driving back, and we crashed in little rock for the night.

We were able to stop again in Memphis for some BBQ, and we even saw some fellow Dawgs stopping there as we pulled out.

THINGS I REGRET

Not asking everyone if they hated Target or if they secretly hated Wal-Mart, but weren't allowed to say anything.

Not getting my picture with the golden hog statue in the Gardens.

Continually telling that Kansas State fan that he was awesome for wearing his team's shirt and not selling out to his friends' peer pressure (I was in an "altered" state).

SUMMARY

Fayetteville is an awesome college town, one of the nicer stadiums you will go to, the women are good, more bars than most towns, the campus is beautiful, and it's definitely worth the trip.

If you do want to drive, don't. Maybe do it once, but that's it. Take the plane.

There is nothing southern about Arkansas. That's okay, but it's the truth.

I would drive through Arkansas again anyday to not have to drive through Alabama ever again.

Victory pics are the best!

GO DAWGS!!

SEC Players of the Year

During Saturday's broadcast of the Tennessee-Florida match up the announcers repeatedly made a big deal about the match up between Eric Berry and Tim Tebow. Berry, arguably the best defensive player in college football, and Tebow, a Heisman trophy winner, were named the SEC Defensive and Offensive Players of the Year in 2008, respectively. Verne and Gary, on a number of occasions, mentioned that this was the first time the defending offensive and defensive players of the year in the SEC had met the following season. That is quite an amazing fact, but also consider that in 2003, Georgia had the defending SEC offensive and defensive players of the year on the field for the same team.***

Pollack and Greene

***(Greene was named Offensive Player of the year in 2002 by the SEC coaches. The Associated Press awarded the honor to Artrose Pinner of Kentucky.)

Lee Corso Can't Pronounce Mallett

Below is the segment from College Game Day this past Saturday, discussing the Georgia - Arkansas game. Corso and Herbstreit picked Georgia to lose. Desmond Howard, on the other hand, picked the Dawgs to win because he thought that no matter what happened Mark Richt and the Dawgs would find a way to win. Watching Gameday over the last few years, I really have started to like some of the insight that Howard brings to the table. Corso's views are often out dated and I think it is time to replace him with someone who knows more about the game today than how it was when he was coaching. I think it is about time for Howard to take over Corso's spot and show goes back to three analysts. In the clip below, pay close attention to Corso mispronouncing Ryan Mallett's name. At about the 2:25 mark, Herbstreit corrects him and Corso just goes silent.

(Update: After reading some comments, it appears some people feel I may have been "insensitive" to the fact that Lee Corso had a stroke earlier this year. That is not the case. I have felt that Corso's insight have been outdated for a while and I feel like Howard brings more to the table. I just thought that Corso's reaction to Herbstreit correcting him was funny because he just went silent.)

Herschel Walker Will Kick Your Butt?

I swear I was misreading something this afternoon, but the AJC article confirms that 47 year old former Heisman Trophy winner and former Bulldog Herschel Walker will join the mixed martial arts league, Strikeforce, for a multi-fight deal. OK, let's break that down...47 years old, HEISMAN TROPHY, MMA, and last but not least MULTI-FIGHT. Still with me?

47 year old Heisman Trophy Winner

I know a lot of former athletes can not find the adrenaline rush they got when playing. Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, and yes even Brett Farve. But these guys came back to a sport that was familiar to them! Come on, Herschel Walker don't ruin your image here. Fifth degree black belt or not, I won't be watching this.

Bad idea kids...bad idea.

A Quick Look At Fayetteville

Bubba and I are currently working on our post reviewing the road trip to Fayetteville, but here are a few quick points:

-The best word to describe Fayetteville is UNDERRATED

-Great town, great campus, great ladies, and a great stadium

-It's one of the better college towns I've been to for a game.

-Arkansas had all the necessities for Game Day, but it wasn't too special when it came to tailgating or anything. It was good, but it didn't blow you away like LSU or Ole Miss (then again, I wasn't expecting it to).

We will provide all the details asap.

4th & 2

So, if you're facing 4th & 2 with the game on the line vs. the Ravens, wouldn't you want to at least try to block Ray Lewis...

Just sayin...

BNE Pick'Em Week 3

I don't know about anyone else, but I am having a outstanding time with the pick'em so far this year. This season has featured some outstanding matchups, complete with close games, upsets and resurrections which makes the Pick'Em that much more fun!

First off, the Canes are for real this year. After watching the U and FSU, I was skeptical (and looks like most of you were too), but after the Canes squashed the Jackets I realized this is one fast team with a nasty swarming defense. Keep an eye out for these guys when they travel to Blacksburg. And speaking of Blacksburg...Beamer Ball managed a very close win 16-15 over a resurgent Nebraska. Give Bo Pelini one more year and Nebraska may just be back in the national spotlight.

In another close game, we all got hosed by picking the SmurfCats of Kentucky who managed a come from behind win over Louisville to win the Commonwealth in a close one. Notre Dame managed to win despite their valiant efforts of doing everything wrong. Notre Dame has compiled almost 300 yards of penalties in 3 games, including almost 100 yards this weekend. It looks like they are really trying to get Weis fired.

Jimmy Clausen hates me.

From the SEC, it looks like everyone picked correctly, with the only exception of Miss. State & Tennessee throwing a cog in the works for everyone (not me though). UGA showed great improvement with their win over Arkansas as they finally found a running game while the D held Arkansas to only 77 yards on the ground. Auburn builds on an unbelievable start, going 3-0 and beating West Virginia in a muddy brawl on the plains. The Tigers, managing only 400 yards of offense, won the game on D with 24 points coming off a +6 turnover margin. UGA will host Arizona State and Auburn will take a break with Ball State at home.

Way to find the ball guys.

This kid can fly.

So, without further delay, here are our overall standings for week three:

1. Gen.Stoopangle

2. OneHairyDawg

3. bulldog91 & Donalad Eason

5. Dutch

6. dawgsman81

7. aumaverick

8. Woman...do not accost me while I'm drinking! & SilverDawg1948

10. td_dawg

From the BNE Staff:

1. aumaverick

2. BFR

3. Bubba

4. Streit

5. Earl

6. Bulldawgjosh (So was week 2 a fluke? Way to go down like a cheerleader on prom night falling 30 spots to #33 this week and a 6-7 record.)

And new this week...our bottom feeder of the pool is MACJ with a 13-22 record. Well, you went 11-2 this week, so maybe that Magic 8 Ball is working but I'm thinking all signs say "don't count on it".

Remember to get your picks in for this week. Our key matchups this week feature Miami and Va. Tech, UNC and Georiga Tech, Cal and Oregon, Florida and Kentucky and my challenge pick of Indiana and Michigan. Good luck!

Thoughts on Arkansas

Well, I might as well give up trying to figure out what this group of Bulldogs is going to do when it steps on the field on Saturdays in 2009. I knew the Dawgs would score more than most people thought (I predicted 34 points), but no way did i for see the Dawgs giving up 41 and scoring 52 of their own. Here's a run down of what I saw out of the Dawgs last night.

Let's start with the bad, because there was plenty of it. While the game plan put together by Willie Martinez did what it was supposed to against South Carolina, it failed miserably against Arkansas. The Dawgs were repeatedly beaten short, deep, over the middle, and in the flats. In other words, the Georgia defense did very little to shut down Ryan Mallett all night long. Mallett has a great arm (even better than I thought coming in) and made some great throws, but in most cases he was simply playing pitch and catch with open receivers. Was the coverage really that bad? My answer is no and here is why. Georgia's complete failure to get any kind of pass rush allowed Mallett to take his time. A good quarterback with plenty of time will find someone open, no matter how good the coverage is. I felt like I was watching a Patriots game from a few years ago where Tom Brady had all day to find Randy Moss. There are major issues with the pass defense and luckily for Georgia, there is not another big time passing program on the schedule for the next few weeks.

Once again, the kickoffs were an issue. After a good week against Carolina and some decent kickoffs in the first half, the Dawgs seemed to go back to the directional kicking. Walsh ended up kicking 2 in a row out of bounds. Georgia then brought in Bogatay and had him kick a pooch kick which gave Arkansas position ahead of the 40. Giving teams with any kind of offense this good of field position is just asking to be scored on. Penalties were once again a major problem, but at least Reshad Jones managed to avoid any personal fouls this week. Other than the pass defense, the other major concern I have for Georgia going forward is the turnovers. Once again, two fumbles inside our own 35 left Arkansas with a short field and the capitalized on both. You can't keep asking the defense to get a stop and then turn around to head back out two plays later in worse field position they were in. Losing the turnover battle 3-1 every game is not going to cut it with LSU, Tennessee, Florida, and Auburn left on the schedule.

Now, onto the good things about the win over Arkansas.

The Dawg Nation can no longer doubt Joe Cox. The performance he put up last night may have been better than ANY performance Stafford put on in 3 years at the position. For his 375 yard, 5 touchdown performance, the Ginger Assassin (or Ginger Ninja if you prefer) was named National Offensive Player of the Week. Add in the dropped pass by TK, and Cox would have had over 400 yards and 6 scores. His passes had zip, the deep balls were on the money, and the decision making was great. He found the open man, be it Mike Moore, Orson Charles, or AJ Green and never doubted his arm. What a great performance.

AJ Green turned in another amazing game and is really starting to show what a difference being healthy makes. AJ had an amazing 2008, but in '09 he looks stronger, faster, and more confident. We may be looking at the best receiver to ever come through Athens and quite possibly the best receiver in the country. Richard Samuel's 80 yard run was a thing of beauty, but overall he had a pretty pedestrian night. I was very excited to see the great effort turned in by Caleb King. King ran like a man who was ready to be a top player in the SEC and I can only expect his carries will increase in the coming weeks.

We won the game and that is all that matters. We come home to face Arizona State before LSU comes to town. Let's hope Coach Richt and the staff make some changes, or we could be in for more shootouts this season.

GO DAWGS!!!

The Pygmy Goat strikes again!

Richard Samuel broke off this 80 yard run against the Hogs last night:



Pygmy Goat Touchdown Count = 2

I'll be back later with my complete thoughts on the shootout victory over the Razorbacks.

GO DAWGS!!!