WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?

When you take a quick, superficial look at the upcoming football season for the DAWGS, you will either see a team riddled with holes and questions or you will see a team that should once again be considered a contender in the SEC Eastern division and therefore a contender for the SEC and national championships. We here at the BEAST can see both, depending on the day…the humidity in Dublin…the lake levels at Hartwell…and which way the wind is blowing in Toccoa. Point is no one knows how the season is going to play out…and that’s part of the fun of it…but today we encourage you to channel your inner Larry Munson as we point out just a few of the ill fates that could befall our beloved DAWGS in 2010.

Aaron Murray

How does a program like Georgia end up with no better option for a starter at quarterback than a freshman (RS)? We all know the twisting road that led the DAWGS to this point and I am not going to rehash it here, but this is the situation the Georgia program finds itself in and the tide of the upcoming season will probably rise and fall with how well Murray handles the rigors of his first Southeastern Conference campaign. Regardless of how talented Murray may be, we’ve seen what can happen when your team lacks experience at the most important position on the field. In 2006, true freshman Matthew Stafford…the same Matthew Stafford that would eventually lead the DAWGS to a #2 national ranking in 2007 and become the overall #1 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft…struggled mightily between the flashes of the brilliance that was to come and the DAWGS finished the regular season at 8-4. In 2009, Joe Cox…a fifth year senior that was a DAWG through and through and that had performed pretty well in spot duty while backing up Stafford…provided Georgia with serviceable play at the position, but failed to play up to the standards the coaches, the fans and even Cox himself expected and the DAWGS finished the regular season 7-5. Murray may be turn out to be great, he may even be great this season, but history says it will be a tall order.

Todd Grantham

Ding-Dong the witch is dead. Georgia finally has a new defensive coordinator and he has been wholly embraced by the DAWG Nation. Grantham comes with an NFL pedigree, the Nick Saban seal of approval and he’s promising a style of defense that will have both his players and the Georgia fans frothing at the mouth before the pre-game warm ups are done. Sounds great and I can’t wait to see it. But I haven’t seen it yet. None of us have. G-day served up the vanilla well enough to rival your closest Bruster’s and that just ain’t enough to make the DAWGS opponents cower in fear. Not to mention that along with this new defense come new positions, techniques and responsibilities for most every player on the unit. Heads will be spinning inside those red helmets early in the year to be sure. We’ve often wondered over the last few years how a team with as much talent as Georgia has on the defensive side of the ball can be gashed the way they have been recently…is it the fault of the coaches or have we seriously overestimated that “talent”? I guess we’ll all find out together. We’re all looking for big things from this new defensive brain trust, Mark Richt included, but until we see it on the field this will remain a much talked about question mark for the 2010 Georgia squad.

Offensive Line

What? How can an offensive line that allowed the fewest sacks in the league last season and returns all five starters…not to mention the possible return from injury of an All-American at tackle…be a downfall for the DAWGS? In this case, too many cooks could really spoil the DAWGS stew. Depth is a blessing in football, especially along the lines of scrimmage, but how long it takes the coaching staff to sort out exactly which combination of pieces allows them to put the best five players on the field could be the key to whether the 2010 season will be a success or something much less satisfying for everyone involved. You can’t win a championship in the first month of the season, but you can certainly lose one and two road trips in the first four games along with a home game against a team with a high-powered offense in Arkansas in week three will be quite the challenge. If there is still shuffling along the offensive line a month into the season, then it’s a safe bet that the very things that the DAWGS are counting on to buoy them in the early going…a productive running game and Murray not being put on the turf every time he drops back to pass…will not be there and Georgia will be lucky to get out of the first month at 2-2 with virtually all hopes of an appearance in the championship game having gone by the boards.

Wow. I know, right. What a bummer.

Good news is…that is only one side of the coin. We will be coming to you live and in color very soon with some of the reasons that this very same Georgia team could be lifting the SEC Championship trophy in early December in Atlanta so keep your eyes peeled. Or, you could always stay up to date with the BEAST by becoming a fan of the blog on Facebook or you can follow us on Twitter….with options even…HERE or HERE.

Glory, Glory.

Don't take my word for it, the DAWGS said it.

So what is the marquise match-up on tap at the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail party? Well it may be the flash and lightning that could be on display on the edges.

Joe Haden/Janoris Jenkins vs. AJ Green

5’11” 190 lbs vs. 6’5” 205 lbs

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, Gators.



A lot of the time, all the talk leading up to a game like the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party can be shrugged off as coach speak or cliché. Most of the noise coming out of the camps involved is no more exhilarating or meaningful than yesterday’s newspaper. However, given the jabs exchanged between Mark “Evil” Richt and Urban “T is for timeout” Meyer over the last couple of years, one might expect a little rancor rattled bulletin board material making it’s way out of Gainesville and Athens this week. Usually the really passionate outbursts are more likely to be found on fan blogs or message boards, but the sounds swirling around the gauntlet that is the WLOCP this week are rather tasty indeed.


Make no mistake, the Gators are feeling themselves a bit leading into the game, even with their perceived struggles of late. Meyer said Florida "had the best Sunday practice we've ever had." He added: "Everyone knows exactly what this game is." That’s all fine and good, but the DAWGS are hardly cowering in the days leading up to the game.

Don’t take my word for it, the DAWGS said it.

Joe Cox

“We know this game could change our season. This is our first step toward the rest of our season.”

I often refer to A.J. Green as Lethal Weapon 8 because he is silent but deadly from any distance. Green wasn't a part of the end zone celebration in the 2007 game, but the mild-mannered and soft spoken wide receiver is raging about the 2008 timeouts.

"That's motivation for me," he said. "That's a sign of disrespect. So I'm going to go out there and play my heart out."

LW8 remains bothered more by the outcome.

"The way they physically beat us, I feel like we have a statement to make."

Defensive end Justin Houston made a statement Tuesday when asked about Saint Timothy Tebow:

"He's like every other quarterback. I don't see anything special about him. He's a quarterback and he's a good quarterback, but nothing special."

Yep, that one’s got a little bite to it.

As for the DAWGS defensive heartbeat Rennie Curran, well he seems to be taking a very man-to-man attitude:

“That’s our main thing…..We all know how much he’s respected, the reputation he’s built for himself and Florida. If you want to stop Florida’s offense, you’ve got to stop it from the head, with their leader, and that’s Tebow. That’s our main thing. We’ve got to get that guy to flinch.”

I think Coach Richt is saying a lot in that he isn’t say too much. In the recap from his radio show on Monday night, the head DAWG is reported as saying

“This game is different in that it’s 50/50, and Richt wants the fan base to get excited and jacked up for this game, because excitement is coming.”

Last year, senior defensive tackle Jeff Owens could only watch as things unraveled on the DAWGS. That’s not the case this year and as for Tebow, well he had this to say:

“If I can get a nose-to-nose shot, it will be nasty. He’s a quarterback. He’ll try and run over the (defensive backs) and probably linebackers, but linemen? He ain’t going to do that to any defensive linemen.”

On a less heated but hopefully just as telling note, defensive coordinator Willie Martinez had some interesting things to say this week. I totally agree with his statements about attitude being the difference.

"I don't want to speak schematically, but people who have had success like when we beat them in 2007, it's really the style that you play, the mentality that you play, the attitude that you bring on every play that's going to be the difference. You've got to be physical. They are a very talented football team but we try not to make it about them. It's more about us and what we do."

Like I’ve said here before, football is not just a contact sport, it is a violent sport. The team that plays with a higher level of acute violence will most often be victorious. I hope Willie's statements are a harbinger of things to come.


In case you haven’t heard, I HATE Florida. Knowing that we GATA so often in the 70s and 80s only makes the losses of the 90s sting that much more, but it also makes the victories that much more glorious. That is why these DAWGS are dangerous. They have nothing to lose. They have no pressure on them. They have nothing to do but show up, play fast and free and GATA just like the DAWGS before them did on a regular basis back in the day. Don’t take my word for it, The Dawg-gone blog said it. But, I sure as Gainesville (HELL) agree with them.

And finally, didn’t I ask THIS question just a few days ago?

I am fully aware that there isn't much in the pregame notes or the stats that should lead me to believe that I should expect an upset this weekend, but it doesn't matter. I just have a really good feeling about how things are going based on the vibrations coming out of Athens and Gainesville this week. As irrational as it may seem, I believe. The DAWGS may win or they may lose, but I know that they are going to fight. The best part is, you don't have to take my word for it, the DAWGS said it.

GO DAWGS!!!

“…and that’s the bottom line! Cause Rogers Redding said so!”

Look, I don’t have anything against the refs in general. I would be hard-pressed to point out a single loss from my years of playing or watching football that I can attribute directly to the call of any referee (though I have witnessed some truly awful ones). Any rational fan, if willing to ignore the immediate urges of hyper-emotion and turn away from blind team loyalty, can usually admit that if his team had only taken care of business the way it should have throughout the game the end result could, should and probably would have been different. This would explain my thought process and reluctance to pin any loss solely on the actions of the Zebras. However, choosing to not use the refs as an excuse for my team’s shortcomings is completely different than not calling them like I see them and pointing out some of the blatantly obvious issues that the officials in the SEC have had this season. And that is the intent of this post.

As a DAWGS fan, I am extremely sensitive to the thought of the atrocity that was the excessive celebration penalties (yes, both ways) assessed at the end of the LSU game, the hair-trigger attitude that officials in the SEC have taken towards the DAWGS in recent years with regard to personal foul penalties and the fact that it seems the Florida Gators play by a different set of rules than the rest of the league, especially Saint Timothy. With that said, I was still reluctant to write about this topic for fear of being thrown in with those that choose to use any referee’s possibly questionable call against their team as THE deciding factor in the outcome of the game. But, once the excessive celebration call in the LSU game blew up into a national talking point, I began to think that this issue was fair game for this forum. (If you need a nuts and bolts re-counting of the incident you can find it HERE.) Then, seeing what has continually happened in games officiated by SEC crews under the supervision of Southeastern Conference coordinator of officials Rogers Redding since that game has only strengthened that view point.

The events of this past weekend only serve to further focus the spotlight on the issues with football officiating in the Southeastern Conference. I witnessed Rontavious Wooten get called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for forcefully slinging the ball to the ground at no one in particular after a big play, while a Vanderbilt player was not flagged after sacking Joe Cox and then hurling Cox’s towel high into the air in celebration. You can say that Wooten’s play was not advisable and was a coachable moment to be sure, but to equate it to the Vanderbilt player’s actions seems a bit ridiculous.

Meanwhile, in the Arkansas/Florida game in the Swamp in Gainesville, Saint Timothy and the Gators could seemingly do no wrong in the eyes of the officials while the Razorbacks were repeatedly flagged at crucial moments in the game for plays that would be iffy at best in their justification. I saw Saint Timothy spike the ball right at an opponents head, gesture at him and then turn and gesture to the bench without so much as a second look from the officiating crew. Fast forward to Florida’s game-tying touchdown drive and Arkansas is called for pass interference that was questionable at best and a down right AWFUL personal foul call that directly preceded the game-tying touchdown. You can check out the carnage more in depth HERE and HERE and HERE. As I posted on HALE’S blog the other day, “Call it how you see zebras, but for goodness sake, call it the same way regardless of which TEAM a player is on or what his name and number happen to be.”

I have just one final point. Apparently, we members of the Bulldog Nation are not the only ones taking notice of the tendencies of the officiating crews in the league this year as evidenced by the actions of the Florida players and coaches at the end of the game on Saturday. Regardless of the circumstances that may have assisted the Gators in putting themselves in position for the victory, they all acted as if they were taking no chances with the SEC’s “Russian Roulette” style of officiating either. In the immediate seconds following the go-ahead field goal by Gators kicker Caleb Sturgis, he can be seen wearing a stone faced expression and urging his teammates to not react to what had just occurred. Likewise the Florida coaching staff followed his lead by frantically wrangling the Gator players off the field of play and attempting to mute the team’s celebration so as to not draw an “LSU type” flag of their own. Look, even if this did take place in the scenario of something good happening for Florida, it is still absolutely ABSURD that any player, coach or team should have to attempt to squash the emotion of what should be an exhilarating moment in team sport out of fear of an unwarranted penalty that may drastically impact the outcome of the game.

Bad calls happen in football games all over the country, every weekend. Think back to last year when Washington quarterback Jake Locker was flagged for a celebration penalty in the end zone for tossing the ball too high in the air. Penalties are a part of the game, but things just seem to be trending in a dangerous direction in the SEC and unfortunately it doesn’t look like they will be straightened out at any point in the near future “…and that’s the bottom line! Cause Rogers Redding said so!”

DAWGBEASTS of the week, LSU thoughts and the birth of a nickname...Green, the Domin8oR

A! J! Green!!!! Are you kidding me?!?!? You don’t have to look hard at what happened at Sanford Stadium on Saturday to know that #8 was the Georgia offense. Everything else on the GO side of the ball was so disjointed it’s hard to know where to start. You also don’t have to be too bright to know that the much maligned Bulldog D played what was by far it’s best game of the season. However, great defenses can close opponents out to finish a game. This defense could not, therefore it is not. That doesn’t mean the young men did not give it their all, but it is undeniable that due to a confluence of factors a dominating unit they are not.

DAWGBEAST of the week:

Here is where I join the chorus with David Hale from BULLDOGS BLOG….AJ is absolutely amazing. I think I’m just gonna pencil him in as the DAWBEAST of the week (at least offensively) every week until someone shows me a reason not to. Green, the Domin8oR rocked the game again this week, coming up just one yard short of his third consecutive 100 yard receiving game. His final numbers: 5 receptions, 99 yards and a TD.

(It’s a shame that what could have been a storybook finish to an ugly game has been relegated to no more than a footnote in the end story that is most likely to be dominated by the “excessive celebration” penalty discussion going forward; MORE ON THIS LATER)

I’m a defensive minded guy, so here is your defensive DAWGBEAST of the week:

-- Justin Houston – Houston continues to grow and develop as a difference maker off the end for the DAWGS. Need proof? Thanks to BULLDOGS BLOG for the following info:

After having just 12 tackles for a loss in the first four games, the Dawgs have 18 in the last two, including seven sacks.

That’s impact folks. Houston’s final stat line from Saturday reads as follows: 4 solo tackles, 2 assists, 6 total tackles, 2.0 sacks for -8 yards and 2.0 tackles for loss

I chose to spotlight Houston this week, but Rennie Curran is much like Green, the Domin8oR could arguably be penciled in weekly for this honor, but for this week here is his very honorable mention: 7 solo tackles, 9 assists, 16 total tackles, 0.5 a sack for -2 yards and 1.5 tackles for loss for -3 yards

Another very honorable mention for the defensive DAWGBEAST of the week is Kade Weston. This week more than any other I can recall, we had an attacking presence from the interior defensive line and that effort was led by big Kade. His final line: 2 solo tackles, 3 assists, 5 total tackles, 1.0 sack for -8 yards and 1.0 tackle for loss.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

For all we heard about and expected from a unit that returned so many players that had real playing experience, our offensive line has sorely under-produced. Run blocking is all about execution and attitude and this bunch has displayed very little of either so far this season. The leaders of this group seemingly need to do some soul searching and find an identity….quickly.

Where is Mike Moore? In my mind, this question is nearly as important as the questions surrounding the offensive line. Moore is someone that I championed throughout the off-season as the already present option to Green, the Domin8oR in the passing game, but for whatever reason Ochodos has been absent from the final stats of consequence the last two weeks. I don’t know if Joe Cox is locked in to #8 (by comfort level or coaching), if it's the defensive schemes that are taking him away, but Moore is a proven play maker and we NEED someone that lines up wide to contribute in a meaningful way. Moore seems to be the logical answer for me. As Green, the Domin8oR draws coverage away from the middle of the field Moore (since King is the other wide starter in the two receiver set) and our TEs should be just KILLING teams with routes over the middle.

**As an addendum to the previous paragraph, it is amazing to me how effective the play-action fake still is despite our lack of an effective running game up to this point.

Many others have covered the topic of special teams in great depth so there is no need to say too much here, but there are glaringly obvious issues with the blocking, coverage and overall philosophy of these units. This is particular saddening to me because it has been my observation over the years that you can tell a lot about a coaching staff by how well they perform on special teams. This was a great point of pride for the DAWG faithful early in Coach Richt’s tenure in Athens, but things have changed. We will occasionally still make a big play with a block or random return, but when you have the level of skill that is on hand in Athens right now, that skill should be given a chance to IMPACT every game. This coaching staff has made a point of recruiting a certain type of athlete with a certain type of body over the last few years…think athletic DBs and LBs, Ramarcus Brown and Brandon Miller as examples…and it should be more effective on these teams. Yes, this generally means that you will have a lot of youth on the field in these situations, but if coached correctly that should be overcome and the results should (on the whole) outweigh the concerns of youth. Speed is great, but it is worthless if it is not put in a position to be used. These units should be feared by the DAWGS opponents weekly, but I just don’t think that is the case currently.

On a defensive note, I do believe this is the best pass coverage I’ve seen all season from the secondary….most likely tied to pass rush effectiveness. BRANDEN SMITH is really coming. His technique and recognition get better with every series he is on the field and he is quickly becoming a BALLER and a game changer. There are flashes where I would swear he was wearing a #4 on his jersey as I’ve seen him plastered on a receiver. On that same note, BRANDON BOYKIN is rapidly improving in pass coverage and will be a fine corner for us going forward. Both need to continue to work on their ball skills while it is in the air, but as they become more comfortable with “playing the game” against opposing receivers, the pace of the game will slow and they should be responsible for more PBUs and turnovers as we move forward. At the other end of the spectrum, based on his play thus far, BRYAN EVANS has not improved at all since his first real playing time as a RSFr. I was on the field for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl a few years back and Evans showed flashes of speed and ball skills (even though he was struggling a bit, I chalked it up to inexperience) that led me to believe we would be in good hands. Unfortunately, I cannot see where he has progressed. Baccari Rambo or one of the other young safeties should get every chance to prove they can get the job done.

OTHER FINAL WORDS ON LSU

The wonderfully informative GET THE PICTURE is a very good read this week and you can find it HERE.

And as always, David Hale and BULLDOGS BLOG put a nice, thought provoking bow on this Saturday’s events.

My PRO DAWG of the week is Cleveland Browns rookie and Damn Good Dawg Mohamed Massoquoi. MoMass turned in his first 100 yard effort in a losing cause as the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Browns 23-20 on Sunday. Massoquoi’s final stat line from Sunday: 8 receptions, 148 yards (18.5 ypc)

and FINALLY…..

Tim Brando…well, I just really don’t know what to say about THIS. Check it out starting around 4 minutes 45 seconds in.

GO DAWGS!!!!