Mailbag time

First off, here’s my story from this morning’s papers on Georgia’s tight ends. Each of these guys is worthy of a story themselves, which may happen eventually if one of them emerges. But the way the coaches are talking, don’t count on it, it’ll be a committee approach unless there’s a rash of injuries.

I’ll also have a report later today after Georgia’s “practice game,” which will be as close to a preseason game as they can make it. (Except for letting them perform in front of the public and, er, media. But oh well.)

Assuming the stats they give us are accurate, you will want to see good performances from, well, everybody, or at least everybody that expects to play. It will essentially be Georgia’s first- and second-teamers against the scout teams, so if anybody struggles … Well that’s not good.

In the meantime, I thought I’d answer a few of your questions on the blog. At least those that were a) free of profanity, and b) in English.

(And by the way, thanks for all the suggestions on fantasy team names. So far "Favre Dollar Footlong" is the leader in the clubhouse, but I'm still open to suggestions.)

Got a lot of comments about the ranking of most important games. I couldn’t respond to all of them, so I picked a few out.

- It's SEC football. Ranking the games is like ranking methods of execution: there are differences, but the end result is the same. Whichever SEC game we lose is the most important.
TR

Well put.

- I'd quibble somewhat. I think you're dead-on for number one, but I'd put Tech a lot further down as I don't buy that the rivalry outweighs the fact that it's a non-conference game.
Paul

I heard a lot of this sentiment regarding the Georgia Tech game, and I definitely see the point. The reason I ranked it No. 2 was that I felt it was important this year from a state-of-the-program standpoint. For a long period, which ended recently, Georgia was so up and Georgia Tech so down, there was hardly a rivalry. And who knows, the same may happen this year, depending on how each team does. But as we sit here in August, Georgia Tech is ranked ahead of Georgia, the game figures to matter a lot.

- After the last 20 yrs, UF must be number one. After the last 10 yrs Tech has become irrelevant, except to maintain control of in-state recuiting. Win the SEC and all else follows. UF, USC & UA are the top three, TENN, ARK and UK are next then Tech.
Anonymous

Another perspective that has a lot of credence.

- Does the comment about starters mean that they've either settled on starters, or have at least settled on the two-deep well enough, even if 1-2 might switch places?
Also, with all the green we've heard about, do they have the personnel to run a full simulation like this? Will we hear any remotely meaningful stats out of this?
DevilDawg

They’ve settled on at least the two deep, while the starting positions seem to be very flexible. They plan on rotating at a lot of positions, especially safety, the defensive line, tight end, receivers not named A.J. Green, and tailback.
As for all the injuries, I’ll be interested to see if some of the green guys are held out, like Akeem Dent, Ben Jones. We’ll definitely ask after the scrimmage.

- I hope the injury bug is due to intense competition out there on the practice field.... and not the result of conditioning. Every year this happens.. our teams look winded and prone to injury starting off the season. CMR indicated he was making some changes to the W&C routine this past year...and not just changing up mat drills....What gains has he noticed this year versus previous years in fall camp?
MauiDawg

Richt has mentioned a couple times that he was happy with the team’s conditioning, especially after some particularly hot days. As for the injury bug, the good news for Georgia is everybody is on track to be ready for the opener. At least at press time.

- I’d like to do a guest blog for you, to once again brag about how the feds got everything wrong, and struck out in court, and I will have my vengeance, as well as a lot of hair. Thank you.
-RBlagojevich@aol.com

Absolutely.

- (Regarding punt returns) Hey Seth did (Branden) Smith give any indication why PR is up in the air - are they all good candidates or do they all suck :-)
Anonymous

That’s a question I plan to ask the special teams coach on Thursday. Normally when a decision like that hasn’t been made by now, it’s because no one has really earned much confidence. But they do plan to dedicate Thursday’s practice and much of Friday’s mini-scrimmage to special teams, so it could be fleshed out by then.

- Seth, please review your comma rules. Dawg fans are very particular about grammar.
Gatorhater27

Noted. I’ll also be keeping a close eye on my semi-colon and past imperfect rules.