Monday Links (3/1)

Little bit of Monday housekeeping:

-- No big fanfare for G-Day this season. The game will kick off (well, OK, they don't really kick off during G-Day) at 2 p.m. and will be broadcast by CSS.

-- I wrote that Mark Richt said the staff had awarded more A's than ever before in mat drills, which begged the question from several readers -- What the heck are mat drills anyway? If you're curious, I did a feature on them last year that will give you a good primer on what players go through, and I posted additional comments from the story on the blog.

-- I'm up to 1,998 followers on Twitter... who's going to be lucky No. 2,000?

-- Pop quiz -- who is responsible for supplying this quote: "You have to give Florida credit. They spread us out and they executed very well. We weren't effective in the second half."

Of course, if you were paying attention over the weekend, you've probably guessed it was Mark Fox, whose Bulldogs staved off a late Gators rally to come away with a win. But what amused me is that I'm absolutely certain I have transcribed that exact same quote from Willie Martinez at least once.

And, it's also worth noting that, despite UGA's troubles on the hardwood, they've now beaten Florida as many times in the past 12 months as the football team has in the past 12 years.

But let's wait and see what kind of quotes Todd Grantham has after this year's game before we make too much of that little bit of trivia.

Now, on to the links...

-- I have a story in today's Telegraph on Bruce Figgins' excitement to be back from his suspension and fully healthy this spring.

-- Jeff Owens wowed some folks at the NFL combine with his strength numbers. You can find all the combine results HERE.

-- Uga8 has some video to help remind fans of just what they might be in store for with Richard Samuel at linebacker in 2010 and beyond.

-- The Dawg's View has a great synopsis of the quarterback competition, and he has a unique perspective on the issue.

-- Rennie Curran tells the AJC that the coaching changes on defense played a major role in his decision to leave school early. I'm not sure why this is a big deal, since he essentially said the same when he announced his departure. For a guy fighting an uphill battle to the NFL, it probably didn't make a ton of sense to risk reduced production in a brand new scheme as a senior.

-- I'm not sure if you should take anything at FootballScoop.com any more seriously than FootballCoachScoop.com, but this is at least a tad intriguing if true. (h/t Tim)

"Wake Forest: We are hearing former Georgia quarterback Joe Tereshinski III has accepted a grad assistant position at Wake Forest."

I'll see what I can do about confirming the story.

UPDATE: I confirmed the story with Claude Felton at UGA. JTIII is indeed going to work as a GA at Wake Forest, where he'll be working on his MBA after working for a few years in business in Atlanta. Good for him!

-- The Diamond Dogs wrapped up a weekend sweep of Stetson on Sunday.

-- Due to some quirks in the tie breakers, the Lady Dogs wound up sixth in the SEC for the regular season.

-- As a fan of "The Wire," I'd be sufficiently intimidated by this guy if I was playing in the Pac-10. I wonder if he'll write his college admissions essay on The Great Gatsby? (h/t Stuart)

-- The U of Alaska hockey team's intro may be the single craziest thing I've ever seen in college sports not named Lane Kiffin.

-- I know Atlanta traffic is supposed to be crazy, but seriously... zebras and buffalo?

-- The Chicago Tribune has a good list of the most mispronounced foods. Most of these are a little high end for me to recall from my days waiting tables, but I recall a number of not-so-bright patrons wanting "Quich-eee" rather than quiche and "Merr-lot" rather than Merlot.

-- Here's an enormously in-depth recap of the "Lost" panel at Paley Festival, which has a few intriguing bits of info.

-- I know we have a lot of "Modern Family" fans, so here's a good story about the show from the Wall Street Journal. I watched two episodes and liked the show, but didn't get into it. I'm thinking it will make for some good summer rerun viewing for me and I can start fresh for Season 2.

-- And finally, Alan Sepinwall has a run down of all the mid-season premier dates for shows coming back on the air this spring. Here's what I'm looking forward to:

* Treme (Apr 11, HBO): I've been re-watching "The Wire" for the past couple of weeks and I'm continually amazed at how brilliant the show is. If David Simon's latest project is a fraction as good, I'll be hooked.

* The Pacific (March 14, HBO): It's Band of Brothers, set in the Pacific rather than Europe. Since Band of Brothers ranks in my top five best TV series of the 2000s, I'll definitely be making time for this.

* 30 for 30 (March 14, ESPN): I didn't love all of the first batch of episodes from ESPN, but there were enough good ones that I'm in for a second dose. I'm particularly excited for the Allen Iverson and Hank Gathers episodes.

* V (March 30, ABC): I enjoyed the first run, but was sort of frustrated by how little the show progressed in its abbreviated four-episode arc. I'm hoping for much better things in the second go-round.

* Top Chef: Masters (Apr 7, Bravo): I'm not a big reality TV person, but the two shows I actually like are Top Chef and Survivor, and both are doing all-star seasons this spring, which I'm not a fan of. My guess is this incarnation of Top Chef will get DVR'd and won't exactly be appointment viewing for me.

* Glee (Apr 13, FOX): I'm 85 percent sure that I'm tired of this show, but my girlfriend will probably make me keep watching it anyway. But at least Neil Patrick Harris is making a guest appearance at some point.

* Friday Night Lights (Apr 30, NBC): I watched the first five or six episodes of the year on DirecTV, then I moved in January and was forced to switch over to Charter Cable -- thus no more FNL. But the early episodes were fantastic, and I can't wait to see how the season ends.

I'm considering renting the DVDs of "Breaking Bad" after hearing a lot of very good things about the show... but I've still got three more seasons of "The Wire" to re-watch before I make any major investment.

Oh, and one more question for you guys... I have five episodes of "24" on DVR right now, and I'm not at all excited to watch them. Have any of you been keeping up with this season? Is it worth my time?