Last practice before game day, and there's actually a bunch of games being played tonight. I couldn't be more excited for football season.
In the meantime, here are your first-day-of-real-games links:
Gotta love how much national media attention the Bulldogs are getting. The Washington Post has a story on Georgia's battle plan for stopping the spread.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press has a story on Vince Vance, who, if you go by the media coverage, could be the break-out star of the offensive line this year.
A good friend of mine recently moved to Salt Lake City, and she has said the people are extraordinarily nice out there. That seems at odds with this SLC Tribune columnist who takes some cheap shots at the Dawgs.
The AJC has a story about the ticket crunch following Georgia's No. 1 ranking.
The AJC also has a nice feature on D.J. Shockley. It's hard not to wonder if D.J.'s decision to wait his turn at Georgia cost him a better chance at a more distinguished NFL career, but it certainly endeared him to Bulldogs fans forever.
The Sporting News writes about Georgia's offensive line concerns.
Dawg Bone's Chris Wilson previews the Georgia Southern game. As does the Game Day Chef.
The Red & Black gets you excited for the first game of A.J. Green's career. I'm going out on a limb here, but I say it's a 75-yard, two-TD performance for Green against Georgia Southern.
Scout has its fearless predictions for the SEC for Week 1. They are predicting a 48-7 win for the Dawgs, which is probably about the minimum spread that would keep fans happy.
Lucid Idiocy lets you know what you can do to be environmentally friendly on game day with UGA's new recycling program.
And finally, the Michael Phelps world tour begins with Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live. I think making SNL funny again would be even more impressive than those eight gold medals.
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1 comment:
David:
I think your point on national media interest in this team this year would actually make an interesting little blog post all by itself. The national pieces - - the Post article, the Times's pieces, the ESPN mag and SI pieces - - were all well-done features. Were all of them the product of special access with the coaches and team (beyond what you guys are allowed as beat reporters in the interview room or locker room)? (In Knowshon's case with the Times, he didn't seem to open up much beyond what you guys get - - maybe even less.)
Does the UGA press office go out of its way for the national pubs? Any special access that you regular beat guys don't get? (Fwiw, I notice Searles doesn't speak to those guys either!)
Maybe I'm just being too "Inside Baseball" about it, but it would be interesting to me to know whether the PR and Admin is making any special cooperation concessions for national press this pre-season. It just seems funny to read of Martinez giving away such state secrets as how the staff did special timings on all Colt Brennan's throws to try to gameplan Hawaii's spread. And to read beautifully turned phrases in quotes from players, like Dannell's: "If our defense comes out with intensity and a certain swagger, we're going to play well, of course."
Inquiring minds, and all that...
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