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Friday, December 31, 2010

Gameday blog

3:15 p.m.: If you're reading this from home ...

Then you're not alone. The Liberty Bowl is less than half full about 20 minutes before the scheduled kickoff. And as I gaze out onto the parking lots, I don't exactly see a crush of cars waiting to get in.

2:50 p.m.: Weather, player updates

It's still overcast here, but the rain has held off. So the conditions at kickoff, at least, will be normal. I'm not a weather man, but judging by the skies I'd say it's 50-50 that serious weather hits the stadium at some point during the game.

Georgia is warming up right now, and there's no major personnel news. Rantavious Wooten is out of uniform, so Georgia is down at least one backup receiver. Good news for Israel Troupe and Logan Gray.

Vance Cuff might be starting at cornerback, judging by the warmup lines. Shawn Williams was also with the starters, in place of Alec Ogletree, but Ogletree was working with the first-team in the ensuing pregame drills. Cuff I could see starting as a nod to his senior status. Not really sure why Ogletree wouldn't start.

2:20 p.m.: Uniform, dog updates

Central Florida's specialists have come out in that team's uniform of choice: Black shirts and gold helmets. Along with a white helmet, I don't know, it kind of makes for an odd, mish-mash combination. Kinda clunky.

Georgia will be in its more traditional white shirt and gray pants, along with the red helmet.

The Bulldogs also have their backup mascot, Russ. If you haven't heard, Uga VIII is being held out of the game with a gastro-intestinal condition. If he's anything like my dog, Archie, he probably has been spending too much time in the cat litter box.

1:25 p.m.: Mr. Blog Man arrives in his press box seat

You are looking live, well at least I'm looking live, at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, which is kind of cool in a throwback, dinky kind of way.

The stadium slopes in a double-circle fashion, with the press box sides the peaks, and then dipping in the middle. The scoreboards are at the middle parts, and aren't exactly new and flashy.

The end zones are interesting: Half of each one is blue, with the team name painted in white, while the other half are red and white block stripes.

We're high enough up here in the press box so that if there is a tornado, we'll be able to see it coming - unless it forms behind us. If that happens, someone warn me, OK?

MEMPHIS - I just completed a mid-morning jog, and can officially report that the weather outside, well it looks a bit ominous.

They're calling for a 60 percent chance of rain, and possible tornadoes around the Memphis area. Lovely. The good news is the temperature is tolerable, after the week started with it appearing we could be playing a game on the frozen tundra of the Liberty Bowl field.

I've also noticed a lot more Georgia and UCF fans around town as the week went on; they dominated the breakfast area at my hotel, with about even split. But I still suspect more Georgia fans will be around.

(Still, there's about a zero chance of a sellout, or anything approaching it today. In a conversation with a Liberty Bowl official earlier in the week, the official was practically begging me to get word back to Georgia that tickets were still available.)

Perhaps, when Georgia and UCF take the field later today, we can avoid an officiating calamity, unlike a couple bowls on Thursday. Poor Derek Dooley, whose team is now 6-2 in games it won this year.

And how about North Carolina, not only getting away with winning in questionable fashion, but getting away with calling a run play, and one in which it had to change personnel before a simple spike play. Even Les Miles was watching that play and saying, "You know, that's bad clock management."

As for Kansas State-Syracuse ... Yeesh.

Today's NCAA college football: You're free to play in the bowl if you sell stuff and break the rules ... but you better not salute!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr Blog Man- Do the players look excited or asleep?

Anonymous said...

If Cuff is starting and UCF has done their scouting the first play they will run will be a deep throw to the WR he's attempting to cover.

Seth Emerson said...

The players seem like any game. I wouldn't worry about that, as I've thought Georgia hasn't laid an egg in any game this year. The lack of a crowd, however, could have an impact.

junkdog said...

When are we gonna do something about special teams,,,,,geeezzz

steve said...

There were a lot more UGA fans there than what the AJC would've had us to believe. Looked like 17 to 18 thousand which isn't all that bad given the bad season. More fans than UCF had and it was supposed to be a huge game for them. Its obvious that the local community does not support this bowl, otherwise it would've been in the 50 to 55 thousand range like most bowls of this size.