MUMME POLL

Senator Blutarsky at Get the Picture has initiated a new, fresh poll that he has dubbed "The Mumme Poll." The basics of the poll are described here. It is pretty simple... see my ballot for this week below.

Here are my Top 5 in no particular order:

Oklahoma
Alabama
Missouri
LSU
Penn State

The next seven in no particular order:
BYU
Georgia
Florida
USC
Texas
Ohio State
Vanderbilt

Comments: I have seen all of these teams play at least once except PSU. Most teams I have seen play a few games.

The Top 5 are unchanged from last week. In the next 7, I needed to replace Auburn but the rest stayed put. I struggled with the last team I would include in the second group and decided on Vanderbilt because I have watched them play SC and AU and parts of their Ole Miss game. I know they have caught some breaks, but I think they play faster than expected and they have enough offensive weapons to lose no more than 2 games. I can't say the same about Texas Tech and Ok State so I left them out even though they have scored a bunch of points against a bunch of nobodies. I think that Vandy has beaten better competition than TT and Ok ST. I guess I am not all that swayed by "style points." I mention this because I am trying not to be a homer for the SEC, but I chose the 12th team based on that reasoning. So Auburn gets replaced by the team that beat them.

I spent about 20 minutes putting this together. It helped that only one of my Top 12 lost this week. But I didn't see anything Saturday that would influence me to drop one of the other 11 teams.

Here are the results of all 59 ballots submitted.

Half-Iron Distance - Done

So we had a beautiful day on Amelia Island for the Atlantic Coast Triathlon. It was a little breezy and warmed up to about 85, but overall, the conditions were pleasant. I finished the race and set my personal best bar pretty low for my next race at this distance. My total time was 6:58. It broke down like this - approximately...
Swim 1.2 miles = 40 minutes
Bike 56 miles = 3:07 (18 mph average)
Run 13 miles = 2:51 (13 min/mile average)
Transition time = 18 minutes (I took my time there with stretching to try and keep my back limber)

My race was going pretty close to my targeted time goals until I hit the ten mile point on the run. This was around 6 hours into the race and I was averaging about 10:30 per mile. Though I had cramping quads throughout the first ten miles, at that point my calves and hamstrings started cramping and I almost fell a couple of times. If I walked, they would not cramp, so I would walk a ways and then try to start running again. No luck. The cramps were just waiting for me to try and run some more and every time I tried, they came back with a vengeance. So I resigned myself to walking the last 3 miles. It was frustrating, but I got to the end and then did a limpy wooden soldier jog the last 50 yards to the timing mat just under 7 hours. So my race that started at 7:20 am, finished around 2:20 pm. What a day.

At no time did I worry that I wouldn't finish. But, at times, I did remind myself that I was doing this for fun and on the few occasions that I was feeling beat, I thought about Team Winter and the fundraising for prostate cancer research through Athletes For a Cure. It was easy to stay motivated.

I was happy to be done and looking forward to a cold beer. The whole family went to grab an early dinner at Beef O'Brady's so I could get a burger and beer and watch Navy beat Air Force again!

My goal for my next half-iron distance race is to finish under 6 hours. I will need to train with more mileage on the run and bike, but I am confident I can make it happen. But, before I do another one of these, I will do my first official half-marathon and I am now considering doing a full marathon which is something I thought I would never do. But after racing for seven hours, I feel like a 4:30 marathon would be not so bad. I guess it is all relative.

Tri it, you might like it. It is addicting.

FOOTIE PICKER Weekend of 10/4

Last week, figuring no one could do worse than I was doing, I let my business partner pick for me. In fairness, he doesn't watch many games and never reads about college football. He did worse than me going 3-9. Now, for the year, I am 24-39. I may shoot for a nolo this week.

Actually, I am letting my kids pick for me this week. Here are the games picked by Hampton (age 5):

Penn State 12.5 PURDUE YEP
Maryland 13.5 VIRGINIA NOPE
OLE MISS 2.5 South Carolina YEP
GEORGIA TECH 14 Duke NOPE
Auburn 4.5 VANDERBILT NOPE
MICHIGAN 2.5 Illinois YEP
Missouri 10.5 NEBRASKA YEP

And here are the games picked by Annie (age 8):

Texas 13.5 COLORADO YEP
MIAMI 2 Florida State YEP
Florida 24.5 ARKANSAS NOPE
ALABAMA 16 Kentucky YEP
AIR FORCE 5.5 Navy YEP
Ohio State 1.5 WISCONSIN NOPE
SOUTHERN CAL 16 Oregon YEP

I am confident these picks will be better than what I would have done on my won. The above picks that I like the least are FSU, Texas and maybe USC. Update: The kids went 9-5. I believe I will use them again next week.

ATLANTIC COAST TRIATHLON

Tomorrow is race day. We have over 350 participants between the Olympic Distance and the Half-Iron Distance. I am doing my first half-iron. I wrote about it here... but now it is upon me.

I recently signed on to "Team Winter" which is a fundraising effort started by an inspiring young girl in support of her father, Michael Vinecki, who is fighting prostate cancer. This is a part of Athletes For A Cure and proceeds go the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Here is a link to my fundraising webpage that also has information on the amazing young Winter Vinecki.

In a few hours, I will be heading to the race. I have checked all of my gear and now I need to get a few hours of sleep. I will be getting after their asses for about 6 hours tomorrow starting at 7:15 am.

Go Dawgs!

AT LONG LAST

BLACKOUT SMOKEOUT, WHAT NOW?

I planned to get this up on Sunday night, but got too sleepy. Then I was in Kansas City for two days. I am now finally going to be home for a few weeks with no business travel. My kids are happy about that, and so am I.

What happened? At this point, nobody wants a detailed break down of the debacle Saturday night, so I will sum it up in one sentence. We got manhandled on both lines of scrimmage. Their big uglies whipped our big uglies. This is the first game where we truly got punished for the absence of Sturdivant and Owens and Battle. We have a very young O-line that is still trying to get all of the parts of the machine working properly and effectively. The talent is there, but the three new starters need more experience and unfortunately that means OJT. The defensive line held up well against the run most of the night but again we couldn't muster any pressure on the QB - especially in the first half. The defensive scheme failed and that failure primarily snowballed from the lack of pressure. I won't bore you with any more about the negative parts of the game because I am now more concerned about the "What Now?" question.

The few positives...
In the second half, our team showed that they were not quitters. Rennie Curran and Matthew Stafford deserve medals for their fearless service above and beyond the call of duty. It seemed like Curran made every tackle. He was officially credited with 14. That can't be right, but I don't have the game on video for review, so it will have to do. Anyway, he was playing like a missile and at one point got up from a tackle stumbling like he was punchdrunk. CJ Byrd tried to convince him to go to the sideline and he shook him off then made the next tackle. After that one, he could hardly stand up and did leave the field for the rest of the series. He returned later. What a warrior. Meanwhile, on offense, in the second half, Stafford stood in the pocket waiting for downfield routes to open and threw 40 yard darts into double coverage drilling the receivers in the chest hard enough for the ricochet to be heard 53 rows up in section 127. He got pummeled time after time. Naturally never drawing a late hit flag. At other times, he moved out of the pocket and made precision downfield throws with velocity while on the run. If any doubters keep wondering why NFL draft experts say he has the most NFL potential of all the college QBs, watch the second half and note the accuracy on those long throws while under pressure. Very Brett Favre-ish. Staff took a beating but he never quit even when it was clearly too late to win the game. Curran and Stafford played their hearts out and that should not be overlooked in this colossal disappointment.

What Now? First, we need an army of doctors, physical therapists, trainers, faith healers, usui reiki practitioners, accupuncturists and ngangas to help heal our growing cadre of injured players. Assuming we can assemble enough players to take the field against Tennessee on October 11, we will have to play every series as if our backs are against the wall because they are. They will be against the wall the rest of the season. If, and this is a huge if, but if we win all the rest of our games including the SECCG, we will play for the national title. But that is the last thing that our players, coaches and fans need to be concerned with.

We now must simply focus on winning the SEC East. This will require that we beat UT, VU, UF and UK and one of LSU or AU. We can lose another game to a western foe as long as we do not lose in the east. This is not the only scenario that could permit us to win the east, but let's face it, if we can't beat all of the remaining 4 teams we face in the east, we aren't a championship football team.

It is too early to worry about the LSU trip because we must beat UT and VU to make that game carry significant weight anyway. Our coaches need to spend all of their effort figuring out how to beat UT and VU and focus on nothing else right now. UT's offense has looked anemic but their defense is solid. They are supposed to have a great o-line, but they aren't scoring many points and that is partly due to the new OC trying to throw the ball too much with a QB that has yet to look any good. That doesn't mean he couldn't have a break out game against us, because he could. We better be prepared to pressure him early and often.

I have confidence that our staff will find a way to cobble together enough players and enough game plan to hobble past UT and VU. After that? I have no idea, but as my Marine buddies always say, we can Demo that bridge when we get to it.

Other thoughts...

Florida's loss was a huge break for us. But it caused me to become uneasy knowing that USC had already lost and these things seem to come in bunches.

Alabama will never cover the 16 point spread against Kentucky this week. They are due for another flat, Tulane-like performance. Bet on it.

Many Bama fans were talking a ton of shit after the game. Their team earned it on the field, but I believe they will totally need us to help them out this season with LSU or Auburn if they want to get after it again in Atlanta. I would love a rematch. Why not?

Nobody is going undefeated this year. I am not sure who will break Oklahoma's rice bowl, but it will happen. Same for Penn State. BYU may stay undefeated, but this isn't 1984.

Moreno has fallen out of the Heisman conversation for now. And, unless we can gel on the O-line, he won't reenter the conversation this year. He can't do it all by himself, though he will certainly try.

We don't need anymore blackouts for awhile. It was fun for the fans, but I think it was a distraction for the players who were expecting the magic from last year's game to materialize from the ether and it never did (at least it only did for the 12 seconds that it took Prince Miller to return that punt on the first play of the 4th quarter and pull us within two touchdowns.)

Pundits and pollsters can have a very short memory. If we take care of business, other teams will lay their enormous stinking eggs and will become the overated team du jour. We can bounce back, but we will have to get healthier, luckier and downright better.

That is all for now.

GO DAWGS

HDD PREDICTION - ALABAMA EDITION

Last week, I correctly picked the margin of victory at 17 points. That was pure luck, because it should have been more like 24-27 points. Nevertheless, I overestimated our offensive output a little and underestimated our defense a bunch. Let's try again, shall we?

I am more worried about this game than any game thus far. Though history says I should always worry about the SCar game - I just didn't
anyway. But this game worries me because we still aren't quite firing on all cylinders on offense because of the young and reshuffled o-line and the absence of Southerland. Alabama is extremely confident and they have more than enough talent to take this game. But, we are playing the "Blackout" card and that means we, the fans, will be in a crazed mood by gametime and that will be enough to see our Dawgs to victory. Assuming, of course, that we outscore Alabama. That is what has made our previous two Blackouts so successful... we outscored Auburn and Hawaii. So, how do we outscore Alabama?

Against Bama, the yards on the ground will come with much more difficulty but we will be able to compensate by passing for chunks. Moreno will not reach 100 yards and we will rush for less than 140 yards. But, Stafford and our fleet of receivers will pick up the slack. Stafford will throw for just under 300 yards - say 288ish. MoMass will be around 100 and AJ Greene will be around 100. Moreno will also be around 50. Fly routes, out routes, screens and a possible halfback option pass (or flea flicker from Moreno back to Stafford) will be on the menu.

On defense, we will gear up to stop their potent running attack and force John Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Parker Wilson to try and beat us. To that end, he will have a decent day with underneath dink and dunk stuff courtesy of a frustrating, but ultimately successful bend but don't break philosophy. Bama will run for about 140 yards and throw for around 225. But, we will keep them out of the end zone and force field goal tries just enough to slip past them. The more pressure we put on JPW, the larger will be our margin of victory.

Despite our woes on kickoff coverage, look for our kick return team to do something special in this game.

HDD PREDICTION: DAWGS 27 - Alabama 19.

By the way... if the Dawgs happen to go off like a powder keg and light up Bama like a Chinese holiday, then ESPN and all the other wankers will shift the football fellate fest to our beloved team now that the USC Trojans have fallen. Be prepared, because it is coming. Pun intended.

GATA!

BACK FROM THE ROAD

Normally, when I travel I have my laptop and can keep up with reading all the good blogs and finding material to rip off for posting on this blog. But, since Thursday of the week prior, I have been mostly on the road and mostly without a working laptop. The old laptop became too prone to blue screens so it has been replaced faster than a Spurrier quarterback. I am now breaking in a new Dell Latitude E6500 - as of today.

TO catch up briefly with the goings on... Leslie and I had a great trip to Annapolis for my 20th Reunion and the Middies beat Rutgers to make it even better. The tailgate set-up inside the stadium was fantastic and I highly recommend it for all future football tailgates... whenever practicable. After the game I found a bar to watch most of the Georgia game, but did not see all of it. I saw the replay Monday night and then was on the road again Tuesday for Seattle and Vancouver. Cold and rainy! Got back last night at 1:00 am and was shocked to discover that USC had tubed it against Oregon State. While that gives a few other teams some room for error, the Trojans can still wind up in the title game if they don't lose again. I had previously thought that they had the best chance to finsih undefeated. Now, out of all of the BCS teams, maybe Oklahoma has the best chance but I now think that none will be undefeated. BYU might stay undefeated but so what? I now expect the MNC game to feature two conference champs with one loss apiece. I think this development helps Georgia - assuming of course, that we win. Speaking of winning, my UGA-Bama prediction is next.

Footie Picker Weekend 9/27

My picks are Bold...

Thursday
Southern Cal 25 OREGON STATE NOPE

Saturday
WAKE FOREST 15.5 Navy
DUKE 7 Virginia
MIAMI 7.5 North Carolina
FLORIDA 23 Ole Miss
NEBRASKA 7 Virginia Tech
GEORGIA 7 Alabama
AUBURN 6.5 Tennessee
Wisconsin 6 MICHIGAN
CLEMSON 11 Maryland
OKLAHOMA 17.5 Tcu
FLORIDA STATE 6 Colorado
PENN STATE 14 Illinois
LSU 24 Miss. State

Last week 6-7 (improving trend) and 21-29 for the year. No where to go but up.

Pulpwood Predicts an Alabama Ass Whipping

Pulpwood thinks John Parker Wilson ain't nothin' but a pretty boy p____.

God Bless Larry Munson

GATA!

FOOTIE PICKER - Weekend 9/20

My picks in BOLD and GOLD…

Thursday

West Virginia 3 COLORADO (Home dog covers)

Saturday

OLE MISS 6.5 Vanderbilt (I would love to see Vandy win)
GEORGIA TECH 8.5 Miss State (This should be low scoring)
Lsu 2.5 AUBURN (I don’t know why – just a feeling – the same kind that keeps me picking only 5 right each week)
Alabama 9.5 ARKANSAS (This line seems too large, but never underestimate the futility of Casey Dick)
Rutgers 5 NAVY (Please make me wrong Navy – but only by winning outright)
UNC 2 Virginia Tech (UNC over Rutgers was a misdirection – they aren’t that good.)
FLORIDA STATE 4 Wake Forest (Who knows?)
MICHIGAN STATE 8.5 Notre Dame (Irish cover but may lose)
Miami (FL) 4 TEXAS A&M (I think the Canes bounce back)
East Carolina 7.5 NC STATE (Can the Pirates win on the road?)
Florida 7 TENNESSEE (Clawfense will struggle again)
Georgia 7 ARIZONA STATE (Dawgs will win by 17)

On the year 15-22-1. Consistently picking 5 right every week. But which 5?

HDD Prediction ASU Edition

I will be on the road the rest of the week and weekend so I will give my $0.02 now and then sit back and let the game come to me.

I expect our offense to move the ball well and score over 30 points. I think we will see 40 or more rushes and about 25-30 passes. The second half should be where the running game really grinds out the yardage and puts the game away. If we catch the damn football, we will have good opportunities off of play action. We will rush for 200 yards and pass for 225 yards.

Rudy Carpenter will get his 250 yards passing. They will not be able to run the ball, so passing will be their only option. We will bring more blitzes from different angles to make him get rid of the ball more quickly than we did last week. I know Coach Richt said blitzing Rudy can lead to improvement in his performance. That is a smokescreen. We will blitz him hard early and often, a la Colt Brennan. In the ASU-USC game last year, Rudy had a great 1st quarter. But USC adjusted and started blitzing lights out the next three quarters resulting in 6 sacks. Carpenter was sacked 54 times last year. His o-line has protected him better thus far this year. We must get a rush on him and it may take blitzing linebackers to make it happen. If we get to him early on, he will rattle and then we could be in for a great ride. If he has time to throw, they will score some TDs. I think we will get to him some but not as much as we want to.

I hope all of our traveling fan contingent has a great time in Tempe and convince the ASU fans to come to Athens for the return game.

HDD Prediction: DAWGS 38 - ASU 21

GATA!

TAILGATING 9/20/2008: Compare and Contrast

NAVY-MARINE CORPS STADIUM

When I learned that UGA was going to play in Tempe, I could not wait to make the trip. But, as it turns out, my 20 Year Reunion at the Naval Academy is the same weekend. So my wife and I are headed to Annapolis for a nice get away and to see some old friends that I haven't seen in 5, 10, 15 or more years. Navy is playing Rutgers and will probably have trouble finding a way to win. But, needless to say, my true football passion will be a few thousand miles to the west. However, I will have a serious leg up on all you Dawgs going out and attempting to tailgate in Tempe for the 3 hour maximum allowed by law. Your temperatures will be soaring near 100 degress. And, if I am not mistaken, liquor is verboten on University property. In extreme contrast to that program, check out our reunion tailgate set-up:


See the gold rectangle to the far right that says '53 Pavillion? That is our reserved tailgate area which also happens to be located INSIDE the stadium. It sits on top of a hill and overlooks the endzone. It is covered, has restrooms and plenty of space to set up tables of food. Seating is located just below the Pavillion on the hill. In the picture below, you can see the Pavillion at the bottom of the image where the blue scoreboard is seen.


From our Class President, Tucker Hite:
"Join us INSIDE the stadium next to the '53 pavillion in the area called the Northeast Ring. The tailgate is being catered by Bo Brooks. Just a hint of what you can look forward to includes Hot Pit Beef, Grilled Chicken, Maryland Crab Soup, and best of all the Eastern Shore Raw Bar with Maryland oysters and clams (shucked to order) and tender steamed shrimp. And if that wasn't enough, to top it all off you can indulge in Bo Brooks Famous Nutty Buddies. Of course if there's any time left you can watch the game in our reserved 1988 section right in front of the pavillion. Beer and Wine included." The tailgate opens at 12:30 and ends shortly after the game - which should be about 7:30... just in time for me to find a TV tuned into ABC.

Oh, and the best part may be this... the temperature is not supposed to be higher than 72 degrees. So, while my thoughts will certainly be on what is happening in Tempe starting at 8:00 pm EST, I am feeling pretty good about how we will spend the 8 hours leading up to kick off at Sun Devil Stadium.

GO DAWGS and GO NAVY!

#24 Arizona State - Bringing on Georgia?

Evidently, ASU was too busy "Bringing on Georgia" to find a way to beat UNLV, losing in overtime by a field goal. Fortunately, however, most coaches file their ballots before the games are actually finished so we can still say we are playing 24th ranked ASU. So there's that.

SUCK IT SPURRIER: DAWGS 14 - Spurrier 7

ENJOY THE WIN BUT REMEMBER THIS...
THEY WEREN'T SOME POWERFUL TEAM - HAVING LOST 6 STRAIGHT SEC GAMES.

No, it wasn't pretty. But it was a win and it illuminated many areas where we need to improve. I hope we see that improvement in Tempe. We just have to keep winning. But to do that, we will need to improve from where we are right now.

The Good...

Brian Mimbs' leg was a howitzer. Mimbs had 5 punts for 261 yards with a 52.2 yard average. He stopped two inside the 20 yard line and had two for more than 50 yards. But, the play of the day for the offense came in the 4th quarter when he punted from inside the 5 yard line. The ball went into orbit before coming back to earth and coming to rest at the USC 12 yard line. This was a 77 yard punt which flipped the field at a critical part of the game. This quote from Asher Allen sums it up: ""Whew, I thought that came out of a JUGS Machine. It looked like somebody hit it with two legs. I did not know what was going on. Obviously he was making plays when we needed to."

Rennie Curran. He only registered 6 official tackles, but his sack in the third quarter ended a scoring opportunity for the Cocks. Rennie was also responsible for the defensive play of the game when USC tailback Mike Davis attempted to dive over the top at the goal line. Rennie flew over to make a hard hit at the goal line. His helmet hit right on the football causing it to come out and bounce into the end zone into the waiting arms of an alert Asher Allen. Again, another quote from Asher sums it up, ""It was about as big as a beach ball. "I ain't going to lie. It was a gold beach ball with diamonds encrusted in it. It was the prettiest thing ever."

Reshad Jones intercepted a Smelley pass at the 3 yard line to snuff out USC's final scoring threat. My favorite part of the play was his mature decision to immediately take a knee, knowing that with only 13 seconds remaining the Dawgs could snap it once and the game would be over. I have seen many other kids in that situation take off running - probably spurred on by the raw adrenaline of making the big play. But despite the fact that there was plenty of green grass in front of him, Reshad didn't hesitate to go straight to his knee. Smart. Mature. Thanks #9.

One Great Play Call and Execution. The two-point conversion ended up being a brilliant call because points were, as usual, difficult to come by against USC. Gary Danielson disagreed with the call - but not vehemently - and he was flat wrong. The actual play we ran was a beauty and the most magnificent part of the play was Moreno's block that upended the end and opened the passing lane for Stafford to hit an open Kris Durham. It was just pitchin' and catchin.'

The Bad...

Offensive Line. I am willing to concede that USC has a stout defense. But our O-Line underperformed anyway. Stafford was under tremendous pressure most of the day. The run blocking was mediocre. Overall, I think that the USC defensive line won this battle. We need to improve here - and I think we will. Although he is not a lineman, it will be a bonus to get Southerland back.

Pass Rush. We got absolutely zero pressure on Smelley with our front four. The only way weever hurried him was through blitzing linebackers. This will not be good enough to beat many of the teams that remain on our schedule. This is an area that showed some weakness in the first two games. So getting a pass rush from our defensive ends needs to receive utmost attention and show marked improvement. I am not as confident that this area will improve much. I hope I am wrong.

Picking Up the Blitz. Captain Munnerlyn was able to record two sacks on corner blitzes when he was standing on the line of scrimmage just outside the end each time. It was obvious he was coming and we neither stopped him nor burned him with a quick pass. I think Stafford missed this twice - but maybe the assignment was missed by someone else.

Dropped Passes. I saw at least three that definitely should have been caught. I will not treat this is an affliction because we always drop passes against USC. We have been catching the ball well all season until a few chances in this game. It is part and parcel of our annual worst game against South Carolina.

The Areas Most in Need of Improvement
Pass Rush
Pass Blocking
Run Blocking

As I stated earlier, I feel good about our offensive line getting better throughout the season. But, I am not so sure we will see any sort of dominance from our defensive end postion at any point this season. They are not getting off of blocks at all.

Let's go Dawgs. Get ready for the Duel in the Desert.

Ouch! and Gross!

I just finished lunch and sat down to watch a little of the Cal - Maryland game. Cal RB Jahvid Best was reaching for a pass on a flats route and got drilled in the ribs by the Maryland DB. The camera zoomed in on Best's face just in time to catch him puke up something green. Ooooh, my stomach suddenly doesn't feel so great either. Best is on his way to the locker room. I hope he is ok. Meanwhile, I think I will try to get a beer to stay down.

Goals For the South Carolina Game

Offense

1. At least 40 rushes and no less than a 5 yard average. 35 rushes and 3.0 ypc. Knowshon should get between 20 and 25 carries. 20 carries.
2. Stafford completes at least 60% of his throws. Exactly 60%.
3. We score touchdowns at least 75 % of the time inside the red zone. 50% but should have been 2 for 2.

Defense

1. Hold them under 100 yards rushing (like Vandy did.) 18 yards! Well done.
2. At least 5 QB sacks and 5 QB hurries. 2 sacks and 16? hurries - not sure how they count hurries.
3. No plays greater than 25 yards. 4 plays greater than 25 yards: 34, 25, 34,30 - all passes.

Special Teams

1. Make all field goal attempts inside 50 yards. 2 for 2.
2. Average 40 net yards per punt. Netted 44.5.
3. Allow no more than 15 yards per kickoff return - on average. 19.7 yards per return.

Overall

1. Plus 2 in turnover margin. Exactly +2 - biggest statistic of the day.

Man, Am I Ready for the Real Season

These past two weekends have seemed like pre-season games. No matter how much I tried to attach significance to the games, the plays, and the results. Still, ultimately, I had not even a twinge of doubt or fear that we could lose either game. Well, those days are over. As I write this, I am confident that the Dawgs will beat South Carolina. But... I can't say that I don't have that nervous excitement that comes from the knowledge that we could get beat if we don't play well. And that makes it more real. So, yes, I have an overwhelming sense that this is the real season opener and I cannot wait.

CMR Pep Talk

If I was Coach Richt, after Thursday's practice I would have said something like this (without trying to sound at all like crazy Lou Holtzth):

Men, you have worked hard. In two games, you have shown that you understand what we want to accomplish as an offense and defense. On offense, you have shown that we have the players to strike quickly. On defense, you have shown that you can shut down the other offense. Now, it is time to take this preparation on the road to open our SEC season. There are high expectations for what you guys can and should do this season. It all starts in earnest this Saturday against a team that beat you last year and kept you out of the SEC Championship Game and the National Championship Game. But, this is a new year. This is our year. And I promise you this... If you go into this game absolutely determined to execute on every down... absolutely determined to whip the other guy on every play... if you will do that... I will let you score 50 points if you can. If you guys want to go over there and hang 50 on South Carolina... I will not call off the Dawgs if you are giving this kind of effort on every play. Gentlemen, it is up to you. Do you want to go over there and just win this game? Or do you want to make a statement that WE are the best football team in the land? 50 points men. It is up to you. Now let's get after their asses!

HDD Prediction

What do I expect to happen? I think we will run the ball 40 times and pass it about 25 times. The result will be around 200 yards rushing and 250 yards passing. We will score over 30 points. Our defense will shut down their running game and force them to pass. They will have some success passing underneath to their tight end and running back out of the backfield, but they will have trouble sustaining drives and will struggle in the red zone. They will score no more than 17 points.

Final score: Dawgs 34 - Gamecocks 13

Placekicker with Tattoo = Badass

Ok, so I'm watching South Florida play Kansas and the USF kicker comes out for a field goal try. He weighs 175 dripping wet, sack and all. I think his name is Bananarama. He has the musculature of a chemistry professor. But, he has this barbed-wire type tattoo on his right bicep that boldly states, "I am a bad mutherfucker from Lake Wales, Florida - sucka." Are you kidding me? If I was his coach he would have to either wear an arm band to obscure the tattoo or prove his badassery in the octagon. I bet he rides a Vespa with his skull and cross bones bandanna and a leather jacket that says, "If you can read this, my bitch fell off." Nevertheless, Bananarama made a 45 yarder to win the game. Good on ya, mate.

FOOTIE PICKER Weekend of 9/13

My highly unreliable picks are in Bold and Gold…

Friday

SOUTH FLORIDA 4 Kansas YEP - barely

Saturday

DUKE 1.5 Navy (C’mon Middies – make me pay) YEP, unfortunately
VANDERBILT 7.5 Rice YEP
Auburn 10.5 MISS STATE (Will Auburn get Croomed again?) NOPE
TEXAS 24 Arkansas Postponed
Georgia 7 SOUTH CAROLINA (Dawgs win B-I-G) PUSH - though I was wrong anyway
Wisconsin 1 FRESNO STATE (The other Dawgs get it done as well) NOPE - sadly
Michigan 1.5 NOTRE DAME (You can’t win with Jimmy Clausen) NOPE, Holy Crap Blue, you really suck.
VIRGINIA TECH 7.5 Georgia Tech (Toughest pick of the week) NOPE, VT wins without the cover.
CLEMSON 18.5 NC State (Rebound game – sorry Wolfpack) NOPE, missed by 1/2 a point.
California 14 MARYLAND (Am I missing something on this line?) NOPE, yeah I missed several memos on this one!
UCONN 10.5 Virginia (UVA loses but covers) NOPE you cannot even imagine how terrible UVA is.
Oklahoma 20 WASHINGTON (Locker still reeling about celebration) YEP, this one seemed too easy.
SOUTHERN CAL 10 Ohio State (Ho hum, another beat down for tOSU) YEP and not surprised

Last week was an unimpressive 5-7. On the year: 10-15. This week 5-7-1. Consistently averaging 5 correct picks per week!

GATA!

Greatest Headline in the History of Sports Journalism...

Check it out over at Catfish and Cornbread.

It is a classic which relates to UGA vs. South Carolina.

GATA!