Bowl Preview

Enjoy the holidays to your heart’s content.

Bells ringing, children singing, lights twinkling.

The holidays are a special time for enjoying

the truly important things in life – family,

friends, love and peace. But your health

is just as important, and maybe more so.

Because without it, you wouldn’t be able to

enjoy all this wonderful season has to give.

So this year, add some wholesome, heart-

healthy foods to your shopping list. Work in

some time to exercise and de-stress. Your

heart – and your entire body – will thank

you. Happy holidays from our heart to yours.

© 2010 SGHS 12/2010

BOWL PREVIEW

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Cha Cha Cha PublishingEditor

Vance LeavyEditorial & Ad Director

Cheri LeavySports GuruJeff Dantzler

Public Relations DirectorAndrew Miller

SalesKelley Blanton, Andrew MillerHolly Stanfill, Peter Williams

SportsMurray PooleLayout/DesignVance Leavy

PhotographersRyan Scates, Rob Saye

Ad DesignCheri Leavy

Andrew Miller

Cover DesignVance Leavy

Cover PhotosVance Leavy and Ryan Scates

ColumnistsCarlton DeVooght

Al HicksonReg MurphyRob SherrellLoran SmithChad White

Bowl Preview, December 14, 2010

From the editor : vance leavyWell it’s hard to believe that the 2010

football season is almost over, but that real-ity always sets in for me when I’m sitting onmy sofa watching the Army-Navy game.

Since the game is normally not that ex-citing, I often use the time to reflect on ourbeloved Dawgs’ season. 2010 will certainlybe one that many in the Bulldog Nationwould just as soon forget. However, the op-timistic fan should look at the tough year asa necessary evil towards our program gettingback into contention over the next few sea-sons.

By now, it should be clear to everyonethat Mark Richt will remain Georgia’s coach.And I must say his success over the lastdecade has certainly earned him the right tohave the opportunity to bring the Dawgsback to the promised land once again.

Thankfully, Richt has already shown herealizes some changes needed to occur byannouncing that Joe Tereshinski will assumethe role of Strength and Conditioning coachin 2011. Obviously the decision wasn’t aneasy one because of the tremendous respectRicht has for Dave Van Halanger. The two ofthem have done amazing things while atGeorgia and hopefully Coach Van will be aneven bigger asset in his new role.

I can’t say that I really know Coach T,but I certainly know a few folks that haveworked with and under him. He alwayscomes with descriptions like no nonsenseand hard-nosed, which is exactly what Ithink our football team needs at this point.And I love that he will bring his video expe-rience into the weight-room, where all playerworkouts will be captured and then viewed

by him and hisstaff. I’m notaccusing any-one of loafing,but from hereon out thecamera won’tlie, which canonly meangreat things forthe program.

Now as you would expect, I’m hearingthe players aren’t sure what to think aboutthe changes, but that’s fine by me. I’m a firmbeliever that the Strength and Conditioningcoach should change every five years. It’svery hard to keep the attention of 18 to 22year-olds, but a new sheriff every so oftenforces the youngsters to get in line for thenew guy. Let’s hope that is the case for CoachT because surely by now everyone in theBulldog Nation realizes that it takes totaldedication to compete for a title in the great-est conference in college football.

But before I get too carried away andstart talking about next year, there’s still a lit-tle housekeeping in order for 2010.

While the Dawgs victory over the Beeswas a few weeks back, I never get tired ofcelebrating another devastating loss for theNorth Avenue Trade School. And when youspeak of Coach Richt’s resume at Georgia, it’simpossible to deny the dominance he hasachieved over Tech with his stellar 9-1record. He always has his team up for theseason-ending finale. The whole “we run thisstate” motto resonates with our players yearafter year. I get it and love that focus, but amready to also add the motto of “we run thesunshine state” which would of course meana string of victories against the Gators.

Speaking of Florida, Urban Meyercashed in his chips and has set aside thewhistle for the time being. The always, thor-ough Gator AD, Jeremy Foley only neededa few days to land the person he wanted, for-mer Bulldog player, Will Muschamp.

I guess you always want former Dawgsto have success in their careers, which hasbeen the case for Muschamp, but stomach-ing him in orange and blue certainly makesme nauseous. There’s no denying his abilitiesto coach and recruit, which is why theDawgs’ upcoming signing class must comeup big.

Speaking of Signing Day, don’t missCarlton DeVooght’s update (page 15) onwhat must happen for Georgia to land oneof the best classes in the country.

Several of the recruits were in Athens

recently for the Football Gala and I hopethey were impressed by the team’s annualtribute to the exiting seniors. Yes, 2010 was-n’t the greatest of years, but players likeShaun Chapas, Kris Durham, Clint Boling,Akeem Dent and many others certainly leaveGeorgia having given their time and efforts tothe program. And who’s to say, that thetenacity they showed by never packing it inthis season, won’t lead to an amazing ride in2011.

And unfortunately, Georgia may verywell lose some juniors to the NFL. If playerslike Brandon Boykin, Cordy Glenn, JustinHouston and the amazing one, A.J. Greenhave played their last game in Sanford Sta-dium, I certainly couldn’t blame them andhope the very best for their futures.

Either way, there is one more game forthe 2010 Georgia Bulldogs and that will beDecember 31st in the Liberty Bowl in Mem-phis against Central Florida. Don’t miss ourcoverage in anticipation of the gamethroughout this issue. Also, Jeff Dantzlerbreaks down 12 of the best bowls comingup over the next month.

For now, it’s time for this editor to bidfarewell to our last issue of this season. I hopeour readers were satisfied with our coverage.Like most of you, we too were disappointedwith the 6-6 record, but our love for theDawgs never wavered. And never will.

We will see you in 2011 with our Sign-ing Day issue in mid February. And look forour Bowl coverage on our website atwww.bulldawgillustrated.com.

Oops, one more thing before I go. Forthe Georgia fans out there who want to keepup with all the spring UGA semester sports,I encourage you to keep up with them withour Bulldawg Illustrated Athens publicationthat returns in mid January for its secondyear. We will also have a ton of fun Athensentertainment offerings. BI Athens is avail-able every other week (Jan-May) in print inthe Athens area and always available in dig-ital format on our website.

Merry Christmas … Happy New Year… Cheers …. Go Dawgs!

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Everything is in place for Georgia to beone of the premier football programs in thecountry. Georgia has the support system: tra-dition, history, enormous fan and alumni base,financial resources and an incredibly fertilehome state to recruit from. From 2002-2005,the Bulldogs won two SEC championships andwere in the consensus top ten four consecutiveseasons. In 2007, the Bulldogs finished No. 2nationally. But four of the last five seasons havebeen disappointing, most notably the last two,as Georgia has gone 8-5 and 6-6 with the Lib-erty Bowl date against Central Florida loom-ing. In fact, this season’s record breaks a nation’sbest stretch of winning at least eight gamesevery year since 1997, a stretch of 13 consec-utive campaigns.

Playing in the mighty Southeastern Con-ference - which, if Auburn tops Oregon in theBCS Championship Game, will have won anunprecedented fifth consecutive national titleby an astounding four different schools – leavesabsolutely zero margin for error. In other majorconferences, power programs can drop off, yetstill contend and win their leagues. There justisn’t the depth and strength of the SEC to con-tend with.

Prime examples are Ohio State and Okla-homa.

Jim Tressel and Bob Stoops have donephenomenal jobs, restoring the greatness atthese proud schools. Tressel has led the Buck-eyes to at least a share of six consecutive BigTen titles. Stoops has guided the Sooners toseven of the last 11 Big XII crowns. That in-cludes this season, as Oklahoma, despite losingthree of the top four overall picks to the NFLDraft, still prevailed in what will be (at least fornow) the final Big XII Championship Game.Florida by comparison, which had gone 13-1in each of the previous two seasons, had sevenplayers picked in the first three rounds. TheGators went 7-5. Defending national cham-pion Alabama lost a majority of its defensivestarters, including a quartet drafted in the firstthree rounds. Bama fell to top ten, 10-2 LSUand the two combatants in the SEC Champi-onship Game, South Carolina and top-rankedAuburn.

No margin for error. Ohio State posted a perfect regular season

in 2006 and was then blasted by Florida 41-14for the national title. The Buckeyes lost a ma-jority of their starters, including Heisman win-ner Troy Smith. The next season, they wereable to cobble together an 11-1 mark in thedown Big Ten and earn another berth in theBCS Championship Game. The Buckeyes of’07 fell to LSU 38-24 for the national title. ThatLSU team lost a majority of its starters. The fol-lowing season in the mighty SEC, a still tal-ented Fightin’ Tigers squad went 7-5. Amongstthe losses: eventual national champ Florida,’09 national champ Alabama, and Georgia,which finished No. 2 the year prior. Think therecord in the Big Ten might have been a littlebetter?

No matter how good you are, the simplefact is, in the SEC there are just too many pow-erful programs for anyone to sustain and puttogether championship runs on par with whatOklahoma, Ohio State and Pete Carroll-ledUSC (which won six straight PAC-10 champi-onships from 2002-2007) have done in the2000s.

Think about the numbers again, ifAuburn beats Oregon, that would give theleague four different schools winning five con-secutive national titles. When Bama won it lastseason, on the heels of Florida ’06, LSU ’07 andFlorida ’08, it marked the first time ever thatthree different schools had won the title andalso the first time ever that the same conferencehad won four consecutive national champi-onships.

Going back to Georgia’s 2005 SEC title,the last six league championships have beenwon by five different schools. When Floridaand Alabama met in back-to-back title tilts in’08 and ’09, it marked the first time that an SECEast school had gone to consecutive SECChampionship Games since Georgia did it in2002-2003. It was the first time an SEC Westteam had gone to two in a row since Alabamawent to the first three from 1992-94.

But it is certainly possible to be in the huntmost of the time.

Georgia should be one of those schools.

With everything in place, the Georgia jobis one of the the very best in the country – atop five job. What puts Georgia in the elite ofelite posts in collegiate football is the enormoustalent in the state. Texas, LSU, Florida, Geor-gia and Ohio State can thrive almost exclusivelyon in-state talent. When it comes to getting theBulldogs back on track, that’s where it starts,recruiting.

Including the kicker, punter and bothquarterbacks who played extensively, 20 ofGeorgia’s top 25 from the powerhouse 13-12002 SEC Championship squad were PeachState natives. Amongst the out-of-state talent:Michael Johnson, Musa Smith, Decory Bryant,Max Jean-Gilles, Kevin Breedlove and AlexJackson. Control the state, supplement fromoutside the borders. When going outside ofGeorgia’s borders and deciding to pass on anin-state talent, it’s exceptionally important to hitbig. Think if Cartersville’s Ronnie Brown, startailback at Auburn and the No. 2 overall pickin the 2005 NFL draft, had been in Georgia’sbackfield? That’s a national title or two.

The biggest reason Georgia has now gonefive consecutive years without a berth in theSEC Championship Game is that the Bulldogshaven’t been able to pull in enough of the bestplayers in the state.

Over the last three years, think about thistalent – almost all of whom signed with Geor-gia rivals. Cameron Newton (the recruitingsaga withstanding), Jared Cook, JonathanDwyer are just a few offensively. Defense iswhere it has been extremely noticeable.Cameron Heyward, Allen Bailey, JermaineCunningham, Eric Norwood, Eric Berry, Tre-vard Lindley, Greg Reid and Morgan Burnetthave all had/are having all-star careers.

Obviously, there’s no way to get them all,but as former star quarterback and coach MikeCavan – the man who signed Herschel Walker– says, “you’ve got to get your fair share, ormore than your fair share.”

This is not a new problem at Georgia.Newton is the third Peach State native since1980 to win the Heisman who didn’t go toGeorgia, joining George Rogers (1980, SouthCarolina) and Charley Ward (1993, FloridaState).

Coach Cavan points out that securingWalker was not only huge because of his enor-mous abilities, but the Bulldogs had been com-ing up short with signing big time in-staterunners. Eddie Lee Ivory, William Andrews,James Brooks, Rogers, and Lionel “Little Train”James were all from Georgia and all went else-where. And elsewhere was Tech, Auburn andSouth Carolina, meaning that the Dogs missedthem and then had to face them.

Getting the talent to Athens is the firststep, then comes development: physically, ac-ademically, socially and overall gridiron IQ.

Georgia flat out has to get better – mostnotably stopping the run defensively.

Look at any set of stats for any level, if youcan’t stop the run, you can’t beat good teams.And that was Georgia’s biggest struggle this year– see South Carolina, Florida and Auburn. Inthe NFL, by the way, the Buffalo Bills are lastagainst the run, the Pittsburgh Steelers first. Inthe SEC, the two lowest ranked teams at stop-ping the run were Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, theonly two conference teams that didn’t make abowl.

The caliber of this season’s in-state re-cruiting class has been well documented.There is an elite tailback that Georgia desper-ately needs. The Bulldogs are 42-4 in the MarkRicht era with a 100-yard rusher. A great run-ner and Aaron Murray at quarterback wouldgive Georgia an elite backfield. The bulldogsneed to get better and stronger in the trenches,most notably on the defensive front seven.

For the Bulldogs to make it to the SECChampionship Game in 2011, the freshmanclass will have to help. If Georgia is going to bein the mix for a national title under coachRicht’s watch in the near future, this class is ab-solutely essential.

Keep this in mind. No matter how downthings may seem in Athens, it’s always a rela-tively quick turnaround at Georgia because ofthe talent in the state.

Make no mistake, Georgia will be backamongst the best of the best.

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jeff dantzler

As the Georgia Bulldogs begin to practice inearnest this week for their New Year’s Eve dayengagement with the Central Florida Knights inthe 52nd annual Liberty Bowl in the land of theblues and Elvis, it is indeed time to put the mi-croscope on this 2010 UGA edition and take ahard look-see into what went right and whatwent wrong for Mark Richt’s football team thisseason.

And, also, to take a glance or two into whatthe 2011 season might hold for the Bulldogs.

Back in August, I ventured out on my boldlimb once again and declared that this Georgiateam would surge to a 10-2 regular-season markin ’10 and I was hardly alone in that way ofthinking. After all, the Bulldogs returned 10 of11 offensive starters from last year’s 8-5 outfitwith the only apparent question mark being thenew starter at quarterback, redshirt freshmanAaron Murray. And, defensively, though Georgiahad lost three mainstays in the defensive frontin Geno Atkins, Jeff Owens and Kade Weston,the Bulldogs returned a good nucleus of experi-enced performers at defensive end, linebackerand in the secondary who were excited to beplaying in the new 3-4 defensive alignment offirst-year coordinator Todd Grantham. And, too,Georgia’s 2010 lineup would include two of thenation’s very best kickers in Ray Guy Award-winning punter Drew Butler and place-kickerBlair Walsh. Likewise, the Bulldogs boasted arecord-breaking kickoff return man in BrandonBoykin.

Well, fast forward through the 12-gameregular season to the point we are today … star-ing back at a 6-6 Georgia season that goes intothe books – regardless of how the Bulldogs fin-ish in the bowl game – as the worst won-lossmark in Richt’s 10 years in Athens. Richt’s previ-ous worst Georgia season, of course, had comeonly last year, when the 2009 Bulldogs postedthat 8-5 overall finish.

So, big question is, why did Georgia ridethe proverbial see-saw all this autumn? Why didit fall considerably short of all the preseason ex-pectations and fail to become a bona fide playerin the SEC East race?

You noticed I pointed out I picked theBulldogs to win 10 games this season and theyof course fell four victories short of that predic-tion. Hey, wait a minute … didn’t A.J. Greenmiss the first four games of Georgia’s season? Youcan talk all about football teams not being a one-man team and so forth but this guy, who’s asgood or better than any pass receiver in Amer-ica, is that much of a difference maker and withthe Bulldog junior sitting out those first fourgames due to the jersey-selling incident back inthe summer, the Georgia offensive attack hardlyresembled the unit it would become in the sec-ond half of the season, once A.J. was back in thelineup and drawing double coverage from op-posing secondaries.

So, clearly, with the devastating blow thatGreen’s suspension dealt the Bulldogs, this sea-son didn’t get off to a good start – at all.

Georgia stumbled out of the gate with a 1-3 record, losing to South Carolina, Arkansas andMississippi State in succession to all but beknocked out of title contention from the get-go.Then came an inexplicable loss to what turnedout to be a weak Colorado team, leaving theBulldogs at 1-4 before they rebounded (withGreen back in the lineup) with romps over Ten-nessee and Vanderbilt. At least in the early going,that ballyhooed offensive line that had been sohighly touted coming into the season couldn’topen any holes for tailbacks Washaun Ealey andCaleb King – that is, when those two weren’tsuspended and on the field – and well, just likelast year in Willie Martinez’s final season,Grantham’s new-look defense couldn’t make thekey stops when it needed to and thus get off thefield.

In addition to Green’s playmaking abilityafter he rejoined the lineup at Colorado, Geor-gia’s offensive highlight this season clearly had tobe the play of Aaron Murray. Game-in andgame-out, the Tampa native sparkled with hispassing and running ability while becoming ar-guably as good a first-year quarterback as there’sever been at the University of Georgia. Murraywill enter the Liberty Bowl with the third mostpassing yards in the SEC, 2,851, and with his24 touchdown passes, needs just two scoringstrikes to top Matthew Stafford’s school recordof 25 in a single season. Murray, staking his claimfor freshman All-America honors, owns a pass-ing efficiency ranking of 162.7, fourth bestamong the SEC’s talented group of field gener-als.

Murray and Green and the rest of theGeorgia receiving corps (in particular, Kris

Durham), that’s the pluses in the Bulldogs’ of-fense this season. And here’s the negative – a run-ning game that could produce only 147.7 yardsa game, which puts Georgia 10th in the SEC inthat category. With the Bulldogs’ entire startingoffensive line returning from ’09, is there any-one around who thought Georgia wouldn’t eas-ily average more than 200 yards rushing pergame this year? Admittedly, Stacy Searels’ groupcouldn’t develop continuity in preseason campdue to one injury after another but then, even asthe season moved down the stretch, this Geor-gia football team couldn’t go out and control thecontest with its running game. The Bulldogs’leading rusher this season? … It was Ealey withjust 68.3 yards per game and again, that wasgood for only a 10th-place spot among confer-ence ground-gainers.

But despite the lack of a potent rushing at-tack, the Bulldogs of offensive coordinator MikeBobo got major production from Murray, Green,Durham and the passing game and certainlyscored enough points to win a lot more than sixfootball games. In fact, Georgia established a newschool record by scoring 30 or more points inseven consecutive games to cap the regular sea-son.

And what all of this tells us is that it wasdefense, not the Georgia offense, that was mostresponsible for these Bulldogs of 2010 limpingto this 6-6 thing this fall. If you don’t believe asmuch, take this into consideration: Georgia tal-lied 24, 27, 31, and 31 points in four games thisyear and, lost every one of them. Bottom line,against those particular foes … Arkansas, Col-orado, Florida and Auburn … as well as in a 24-12 setback to Mississippi State, this new 3-4defense couldn’t come up with key third-downstops nor could it stymie those guys’ runninggames.

This is not to say Grantham’s defense did-n’t render improvement this season. Whileclimbing from 38th in the nation in total defensein 2009 to 30th in 2010, the Bulldogs alsojumped to fourth in the SEC in total defensewhen they surrendered 335.8 yards per game.In scoring D, though, the Bulldogs could do nobetter than seventh place in the league with their23.1 points-allowed average.

So, it goes without question as Georgia en-ters the Liberty Bowl tilt and then embarks onspring practice in March, there must be a hugeupgrade on the defensive side of the ball, that is,if Georgia is to shake off the disappointments ofthe past two seasons and move back among theSoutheastern Conference’s upper echelon. We’vealready seen that Aaron Murray is a dynamitequarterback and you’ve got to think that evenminus Green and Durham in 2011, the Bull-dogs could be potent offensively with a re-ded-icated O-line under Searels and bigger runproduction out of the Georgia tailbacks, whocould be bolstered greatly by a certain prep All-America out of Columbus-Carver.

In order to make this 3-4 alignment work,Grantham and the rest of the defensive staff haveto recruit the guys to fit their system; indeed, ac-quiring a huge, run-stopping nose guard is es-sential to the Bulldogs being a capable defensiveforce next year.

Richt, for one, thinks the Bulldog Nationwill be seeing considerable improvement in thisarea.

“We will be better, we’ll definitely be bettera year from now defensively,” Georgia’s headcoach said. “The obvious is it won’t be brandnew. Our players will understand our coachesbetter and our coaches will understand our play-ers better, and I’m sure Coach Grantham hashad some learning experience too, playingthrough the league one time. His getting out ofthe pro game to the college game, all those thingswill come together for our improvement.”

Alluding to the Georgia staff recruiting theright kind of players to comprise the 3-4 defense,Richt said, “We need to quite frankly get a fewmore players that can be dynamic for us, thatcan make a difference. Certainly, we have lackeda ‘big beast’ in there at nose guard to demandand command that double-team.”

The way things have transpired the pasttwo seasons at Georgia, it goes without sayingthat the 2011 football campaign is going to be amost critical one for Richt and his staff as they at-tempt to steer the Bulldogs’ ship back towardthe kind of success Richt experienced in his earlyyears at UGA and in the 2007 season. And if theBulldogs can indeed find those dynamic playersthe coach referred to above, then this time nextDecember we’ll all be looking ahead to a Jan. 1bowl date, or something on an even bigger scale,rather than a bowl game featuring a team that is6-6.


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apturing a heart-pounding victory over arch-rivalGa. Tech, Georgia finally had reason to smile inthis most disappointing of seasons. The win overthe Yellow Jackets – the Bulldogs ninth in the last

10 years – pushed Georgia to 6-6 and bowl eligibility. Thoughthe impressive, nation’s best streak of registering at eight winsin 13 consecutive years has come to an end, Georgia is in abowl game for a 14th straight season.

Central Florida awaits the Bulldogs in the Liberty Bowl.The Knights are enjoying one of their greatest seasons ever,beating SMU in the Conference USA Championship Game athome in Orlando, boosting their record to 10-3.

A win over one of the storied programs in collegiate foot-ball annals in one of the country’s oldest bowl games would bea storybook ending to UCF’s storybook season.

Georgia needs a win to avoid the programs’ first losingseason since 1996. It would also be a double-dose of positiv-ity after the win over the Jackets heading into the off-seasonand full time onto the recruiting trail.

This will be the second ever meeting between the schools. In 1999, the Bulldogs held off upstart Central Florida in

a 24-23 Sanford Stadium thriller. Georgia has a history in Memphis as well. The Bulldogs

have been to more different bowl games than any other schooland have made the sixth most postseason appearances in col-lege football history.

John Kasay, still going strong as the Carolina Panthers all-time leading scorer, kicked the game-winning field 39-yardfield goal with no time remaining (following a critical CarverRussaw interception) to defeat Arkansas 20-17 in the 1987Liberty Bowl.

Two decades prior, the Dogs fell to North Carolina State14-7 in the 1967 Liberty Bowl. The Bulldogs were coachedby Vince Dooley, who was also at the helm in 1987. The Wolf-pack were quarterbacked by the game’s Most Valuable Player,Jim Donnan, college football hall-of-famer and the man whorebuilt the Bulldogs program as head coach from 1996-2000,posting 35 wins over his final four years, including that one-point win over Central Florida in 1999.

No stranger to playing teams from major conferences,the Golden Knights have gone 8-1 in their last nine gamessince losing close contests to foes from the ACC and Big XII.

In the second game of the season, the Knights fell at home28-21 to N.C. State. The Wolfpack were a win away fromplaying for the ACC title. Two weeks later in Manhattan, UCF

dropped a 17-13 decision to Kansas State. Starting with a 42-7 rout of UAB in the first

week of October, the Knights rolled through theopposition, falling only to Southern Miss 31-21on November 13.

Leading the way is true freshman quarter-back Jeff Godfrey, the dual threat weapon whohas thrived through UCF’s run to the C-USAchampionship.

Central Florida would be the Bulldogs mostaccomplished victim of 2010.

Georgia has beaten three teams that are 6-6– Tennessee, Kentucky and Tech. The Dogshung tough, but came up short against the goodteams on the schedule (and in a disappointing loss to lowlyColorado). South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi State, theBuffaloes, Florida and Auburn all topped the Bulldogs ingames that were close in the fourth quarter.

Stalking the Central Florida sideline is a familiar face tothe Bulldog faithful, former Tech coach George O’Leary. Hisfinal season at the Yellow Jackets helm was Mark Richt’s firstin Athens. The Bulldogs won 31-17 in Atlanta on the strengthof Verron Haynes running, Billy Bennett’s six field goals and aTim Wansley interception return for a touchdown that wasthe big play of the game. That was the beginning of Georgia’soutstanding success against the Jackets.

Along with the success against Tech, the Bulldogs havealso been outstanding in bowl games. Georgia is 11-2 in thepostseason during the Bulldogs aforementioned bowl streakthat dates back to 1997.

So will the Bulldogs make it 12-2 and avoid a losingrecord, as the Georgia faithful enjoy Beale Street, dry ribs fromRendezvous and maybe a short trip south just across the Mis-sissippi-Tennessee state line?

Here are a few key match-ups that will tell the story:

Georgia Run-D vs. Godfrey and WeaverGeorgia’s struggle against the run this season has been

well documented. Marcus Lattimore, Mississippi State in thefourth quarter, Colorado’s Rodney Stewart, Florida andAuburn all ripped through the Bulldogs. Godfrey is a bigthreat passing and running. He chalked up 10 rushing touch-downs. He and Ronnie Weaver, who has nearly 900 yardsrushing and 11 TD’s on the ground, will test the Georgia front.Anytime a quarterback and tailback both have running suc-

cess (see Auburn throughout the year), it’s nearly impossibleto come up with stops. Can Georgia do it in Memphis andhelp set the tone for the spring and a big improvement in2011?

Sturdivant vs. MillerAs Trinton Sturdivant, 2007 Freshman All-American

who missed two full seasons due to a pair of knee injuries, hasprogressed and logged extensive playing time, Georgia’s of-fensive line has made major progress. He and the Bulldogfront will have a test from a talented UCF defense, specificallyplay-making end Bruce Miller. So much of football comesdown to winning head-to-head battles. If Sturdivant can han-dle Miller man-for-man, this gives Georgia all kinds of offen-sive options, particularly if the tight end and fullback don’thave to be utilized to help against the Knights defensive star.Miller specializes in disruption. This trench match-up shouldbe a dandy.

Richt vs. O’LearyIn bowl games, with so much time to prepare, coaching

and preparation can make the difference. Richt of course grewto prominence as the offensive coordinator at Florida State, aposition he held for the majority of their incredible run of 14-consecutive 10-win seasons and top five national finishes.O’Leary was a defensive guru for Bobby Ross with Tech andthe San Diego Chargers before getting his head coaching op-portunities. A wrinkle, trend, tendency or trick play that thecoaching staffs discover, detect or install go a long way towardsbowl success.

Dogs vs. KnightsGeorgia must be ready for a hungry Central Florida team that will be looking for a SEC cherry on top to cap season

By Jeff Dantzler

C

Photograph by Ryan Scates

DOGS KNIGHTS

TEAM STATISTICS UCF OPP SCORING 439 234

Points Per Game 33.8 18.0 FIRST DOWNS 274 224

Rushing 142 88 Passing 118 122 Penalty 14 14

RUSHING YARDAGE 2502 1435 Yards gained rushing 2792 1759 Yards lost rushing 290 324 Rushing Attempts 572 419 Average Per Rush 4.4 3.4 Average Per Game 192.5 110.4 TDs Rushing 35 9

PASSING YARDAGE 2493 2700 Comp-Att-Int 175-266-9 237-437-15 Average Per Pass 9.4 6.2 Average Per Catch 14.2 11.4 Average Per Game 191.8 207.7 TDs Passing 16 21

TOTAL OFFENSE 4995 4135 Total Plays 838 856 Average Per Play 6.0 4.8 Average Per Game 384.2 318.1

KICK RETURNS: #-Yards 43-1215 74-1308 PUNT RETURNS: #-Yards 27-384 9-62 INT RETURNS: #-Yards 15-316 9-88 KICK RETURN AVERAGE 28.3 17.7 PUNT RETURN AVERAGE 14.2 6.9 INT RETURN AVERAGE 21.1 9.8 FUMBLES-LOST 21-8 18-6 PENALTIES-Yards 68-536 56-488

Average Per Game 41.2 37.5 PUNTS-Yards 41-1682 71-2859

Average Per Punt 41.0 40.3 Net punt average 36.1 33.7

TIME OF POSSESSION/Game 33:10 26:50 3RD-DOWN Conversions 87/167 87/193

3rd-Down Pct 52% 45% 4TH-DOWN Conversions 10/15 9/19

4th-Down Pct 67% 47% SACKS BY-Yards 29-179 20-123 MISC YARDS 0 0 TOUCHDOWNS SCORED 59 31 FIELD GOALS-ATTEMPTS 10-20 6-10 ON-SIDE KICKS 0-1 1-3 RED-ZONE SCORES (48-57) 84% (24-27) 89% RED-ZONE TOUCHDOWNS (40-57) 70% (18-27) 67% PAT-ATTEMPTS (55-58) 95% (30-31) 97%

Score by quarters 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total UCF 131 108 70 130 439 Opponents 27 73 69 65 234

TEAM STATISTICS UG OPP SCORING 411 277

Points Per Game 34.2 23.1 FIRST DOWNS 226 215

Rushing 98 102 Passing 119 95 Penalty 9 18

RUSHING YARDAGE 1772 1790 Yards gained rushing 2048 2134 Yards lost rushing 276 344 Rushing Attempts 423 481 Average Per Rush 4.2 3.7 Average Per Game 147.7 149.2 TDs Rushing 21 22

PASSING YARDAGE 2953 2240 Comp-Att-Int 197-321-6 158-287-14 Average Per Pass 9.2 7.8 Average Per Catch 15.0 14.2 Average Per Game 246.1 186.7 TDs Passing 25 15

TOTAL OFFENSE 4725 4030 Total Plays 744 768 Average Per Play 6.4 5.2 Average Per Game 393.8 335.8

KICK RETURNS: #-Yards 42-892 65-1274 PUNT RETURNS: #-Yards 20-205 12-67 INT RETURNS: #-Yards 14-160 6-102 KICK RETURN AVERAGE 21.2 19.6 PUNT RETURN AVERAGE 10.2 5.6 INT RETURN AVERAGE 11.4 17.0 FUMBLES-LOST 19-8 22-10 PENALTIES-Yards 63-510 59-438

Average Per Game 42.5 36.5 PUNTS-Yards 45-2012 60-2539

Average Per Punt 44.7 42.3 Net punt average 40.6 36.9

TIME OF POSSESSION/Game 30:17 29:43 3RD-DOWN Conversions 63/149 69/162

3rd-Down Pct 42% 43% 4TH-DOWN Conversions 6/12 6/14

4th-Down Pct 50% 43% SACKS BY-Yards 24-155 22-175 MISC YARDS 0 0 TOUCHDOWNS SCORED 51 37 FIELD GOALS-ATTEMPTS 18-22 6-9 ON-SIDE KICKS 0-1 2-2 RED-ZONE SCORES (48-54) 89% (29-35) 83% RED-ZONE TOUCHDOWNS (34-54) 63% (26-35) 74% PAT-ATTEMPTS (47-48) 98% (33-34) 97%

Score by quarters 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT Total Georgia 104 127 112 68 0 411 Opponents 38 94 57 85 3 277

Photograph by Rob Saye

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Location: Orlando, Fla.Conference: Conference USAEnrollment: 56,235Record: The Conference USA champion Knights are 10-3 on the season and finished8-1 in the conference, downing SMU 17-7 on Dec. 4 in the league championship game.Central Florida’s other wins this season came over South Dakota (38-7), Buffalo (24-10), UAB (42-7), Marshall (35-14), Rice (41-14), East Carolina (49-35), Houston (40-33), Tulane (61-14) and Memphis (37-17). The three losses were to North CarolinaState (21-28), Kansas State (13-17) and Southern Miss (21-31).Mascot: KnightroWhy Central Florida could win: The Knights could defeat the Bulldogs becausethey own the No. 25 rushing offense in the country, averaging 192.5 yards per game.And everyone is aware that Georgia’s rush defense surrendered 315 yards to Auburnthis season and 411 yards to Georgia Tech. Like the Bulldogs, the Knights own an out-standing freshman quarterback in Jeffrey Godfrey (2,042 passing, 546 rushing). Anddefensively, Central Florida ranks 11th in the nation against the run, allowing just 110.4yards per contest, and led its conference in total defense, scoring defense and pass ef-ficiency defense. Thus, more potential problems for a Bulldog offense that has beeninconsistent with its running attack this season.Why Central Florida could lose: Yes, the Knights have put up some impressive numbers this football season and have a conference titleunder their belts but then, going against the likes of South Dakota, Buffalo, UAB, Marshall, Rice and Tulane is on the other end of the spec-trum from what Georgia faced almost weekly in the rugged Southeastern Conference. Central Florida hasn’t encountered a team with the over-all power and speed of the Bulldogs (with the possible exception of N.C. State) and certainly hasn’t faced a passing combo more lethal thanAaron Murray-to-A.J. Green. It’s difficult to see the Knights being able to match touchdowns with Georgia.What Central Florida’s coach is saying:“I’m looking forward to the game and I’ve always enjoyed Georgia football and the way it’s played,” said UCF coach George O’Leary, who coachedat rival Georgia Tech from 1994-2001. “We know what we’re in for, especially I do from all of my years facing (the Bulldogs). I’ve always re-spected the program at Georgia. They get terrific athletes, they’re well-coached and they play a full 60 minutes. It’s an SEC team that’s tradi-tionally a powerhouse in that league and we’ll have our work cut out for us, no question.”What Central Florida’s players are saying:“Being a Georgia native and wanting to be a Georgia Bulldog was something huge for me and I’m really excited about getting the opportu-nity to play these guys,” said UCF senior defensive end Bruce Miller, a native of Canton, Ga. who grew up a Bulldogs fan. “I’m as excited asany other Florida guy would be to play Miami or South Florida or Florida. Hopefully, we can go up there to the Liberty Bowl and play well likewe’re supposed to.”What Central Florida’s fans are saying:“Look for Georgia to be favored by four to seven points,” remarked one long-time Central Florida fan. “They played their first four games with-out A.J. Green. They battled Auburn tough late in the season. Don’t let UGA’s 6-6 record fool you. They are loaded with talent.”“Well said,” replied another Knight supporter. “But I remember a lot of similar talk about Rutgers last year, and we all saw how that turned out.If our secondary can keep up with UGA’s receivers and especially Green, we can beat them. But this will be, by far, the toughest game of theseason.”And from still another UCF fan: “The average football fan knows Georgia, not us. It’s easier to sell this game talking about Georgiaand making them the favorite than it is making UCF a favorite. Let them talk. Come Dec. 31st, our guys will do the talking on the field.”Noteworthy:The Bulldogs and Knights have met only one time previously, in 1999 when Georgia nipped Central Florida 24-23 in a regularseason game in Athens …. The Bulldogs have made two previous trips to the Liberty Bowl, falling to N.C. State and a quarterback named JimDonnan by 14-7 in the 1967 game and defeating Arkansas 20-17 on John Kasay’s 39-yard field goal on the final play of the 1987 Liberty Bowl…. UCF coach George O’Leary won three consecutive games against Georgia as coach at Georgia Tech from 1998-2000 but lost to the Bull-dogs by 31-17 in Mark Richt’s first season at UGA in 2001 …. The Bulldogs need a victory over Central Florida – which has never won a bowlgame – to notch their 14th straight winning season, to avoid their first losing season since 1996 and to extend their streak of bowl wins to five…. This will be Georgia’s 46th bowl game, sixth most of any team in the country. The Bulldogs’ bowl record is 26-16-3.

Central Florida scouting reportBy Murray Poole #2 Jeff Godfrey, QB

5-11, 182 Fr. Miami, Fla. (Miami Central HS) One of the most explosive freshmen in the country, thisproduct of powerhouse Miami Central High School tookthe Knights to a different level this season. He’s a duelthreat, with outstanding passing and running skills. God-frey has thrown for 2,042 yards and 13 touchdowns withsix interceptions, while running for 546 with ten scores.Amongst his top single game performances were a 99-yard rushing performance against Kansas State and a 9-of-11 passing day in the Knights win over UAB. Hisbiggest showing came in a win over Houston, as Godfreyaccounted for three touchdowns, throwing for 294 yardsand rushing for 105. He has weapons around him in thebackfield and at receiver. Six different Central Florida re-ceivers have caught either two or three touchdowns.Jamar Newsome leads the team with 597 receiving yardsand an average of 17.6 yards per reception, while BrianWatters has hauled in a team-high 41 receptions.

#49 Bruce Miller, DE6-2, 248 Sr. Canton, Ga. (Woodstock H.S.)Central Florida’s top defensive player is a Peach State na-tive, so the match-up with Georgia certainly goes downas a perfect foe for his final game. Miller is tops on theteam in sacks with seven and in tackles for loss with 11.5.This play-making defensive end has two interceptions onthe season, returning both for touchdowns that were acombined 45 yards! He’s fifth on the team in tackles with55 total stops. Against Kansas State, Miller had threetackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble and pass breakup. Central Florida has solid talent behind him, includingsafety Reggie Weams, who has a team best four inter-ceptions, and linebacker Derek Hallman, who has 81 tack-les, including 7.5 for loss. Miller is the motor of thedefense, Central Florida’s version of former Georgia greatDavid Pollack.

#35 Ronnie Weaver, RB6-0, 209 Jr. Wabasso, Fla. (Vero Beach HS)One of the top running backs in Conference-USA, Weaverteams with Godfrey – the team’s second leading rusher– to give Central Florida an explosive backfield. Weaver’s890 yards and 11 touchdowns are tops on the team. Heput up four 100-yard rushing performances this season,including a 22-carry, 123-yard showing against the BigXII’s Kansas State. Weaver had a career-high 180 yardsand two touchdowns on 30 carries in Central Florida’s winover East Carolina. The fourth-year junior, who’s averag-ing 4.8 yards per carry, has made the most of his oppor-tunity as the Knights feature back. As a sophomore, hehad just 19 carries for 86 yards on the entire season.Weaver is arguably the most improved player in Confer-ence USA.

- Jeff Dantzler

Valient Knights



Totally ‘80’s New Year’s Eve Party

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December 31, 2010FRIDAY

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Call to make your reservations today to enjoy your New Year's Eve dinner in our historic Hoyt House, combined with the deluxe package. This is offered as aa combined package for only $235.00 per couple. Hoyt House seating times areavailable at 6:30pm, 7:00pm, 7:30pm, 8:00pm and 8:30pm. Afterwards, head to the Melting Point, just steps away, for your balcony seating confirmed with the deluxe package.

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JD’s Bowl PreviewThe SEC continues to show its dominance with 10 bowl invites including Auburn’s for all the marbles

By Jeff Dantzler

Music City Bowl (Nashville)North Carolina vs. TennesseeThursday, December 30, 6:40 pm

Not surprisingly, it was a tough start tothe season for outmanned Tennessee,who had an absolutely brutal first halfof the slate, including dates withFlorida, Oregon, LSU, Georgia and Ala-bama. The Vols hung tough throughthe first half in all of them – nearlybeating the Fightin’ Tigers – with theexception of the loss in Athens. But the Vols, as the scheduled soft-ened, looked good down the stretch, winning their last four by doubledigits. Derek Dooley has some impressive young skill players to buildaround and the Volunteers could be in the mix for the SEC East nextyear. This shaped up as a potential ACC championship season forNorth Carolina, but the Tar Heels were torpedoed by the agent scan-dal that absolutely ravaged their front line talent. It’s interesting aswell that the ‘Heels and Vols were scheduled to play in the regular sea-son over the next couple of years, but Tennessee got out of the series.This one will mean a lot to the fans of both schools, which aren’t thatfar apart. And Tennessee has had good luck recruiting out of NorthCarolina, pulling in stars like Carl Pickens and Heath Shuler.

Capital One Bowl (Orlando)No. 16 Alabama vs. No. 9 Michigan StateSaturday, January 1, 1 pm

Heartbreaking losses to LSU andAuburn kept Alabama out of a re-match game with South Carolina forthe Southeastern Conference Cham-pionship. Michigan State beat Wis-consin and didn’t play Ohio State –falling only to Iowa – yet was the odd team out of the trio of Big Tenonce-beatens. It’s hard to explain how Wisconsin is ranked higherthan the boys in green from East Lansing. The Spartans have hadone of those magic years, pulling off a slew of last minute wins. To go11-1 and share the Big Ten title puts the Spartans of ’10 as one of thebest teams in school history, and the most successful since their great1966 squad. This is a game that Bama should win. The Crimson Tideoffense, with Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson and Julio Jones shouldhave its way and Michigan State hasn’t seen a defense as fast asBama’s. There is some nice coaching intrigue since Nick Sabancoached at Michigan State in the 1990s, prior to going to LSU.

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, AZ)Connecticut vs. No. 7 OklahomaSaturday January 1, 8:30 pm

New Year’s night isn’t quite what itused to be, huh? Connecticut, 8-4,champs of the Big East, enjoying thatundeserving automatic bid to the BCS.That’s the only game on New Year’snight, and Connecticut is it. Rememberwhen the Orange and Sugar wereplayed at the same time and you had four superpower teams squaringoff in two great games? Now the only one has an 8-4 18-point under-dog. Bob Stoops has done amazing work at Oklahoma, leading theSooners to seven Big XII championships over the last 11 years andfour berths in BCS Championship Games. Think about this. Since2000, Oklahoma has been to eight Big XII Championship Games,while Texas has been to three. The Sooners have struggled in bowls,losing three of those national title games, and dropping those Fiestashootouts to Boise State and West Virginia. Surely Stoops won’t let histeam overlook Connecticut. The Sooners should win big.

AT&T Cotton Bowl (Arlington)No. 11 LSU vs. No. 17 Texas A&MFriday, January 7, 8 pm

Oklahoma won the Big XII Champi-onship, but Texas A&M gets my votefor team of the year in the league. TheAggies beat Oklahoma, Texas and Ne-braska in the same season. Hello!That’s some serious historic stuff. LSU fell only to Auburn andArkansas. The Tigers have some serious star power, led by cornerand return ace Patrick Peterson, who is one of the five best players inall of college football. That beast up front Drake Nevis is awesome.He and Nick Fairley of Auburn are the two premier defensive tackles inthe land. You never know with LSU’s offense, but the Tigers have ex-plosive players capable of scoring long touchdowns, highlighted byRussell Shepherd. The Aggies losses came to Texas Tech, OklahomaState and Arkansas. Mike Sherman has some explosion with his of-fense too. This proud program has been down for a long time and it’sgreat for the Aggies to be back in Dallas. This is an old rivalry. TheFightin’ Tigers and Aggies have played several regular season andbowl games through the years.

Chick-fil-A Bowl (Atlanta) No. 20 South Carolina vs. No. 23 Florida StateFriday December 31, 7:30pm

As usual the Georgia Dome willhave one of the premier gamesof the bowl season. Atlanta hasa great tie-in with the South-eastern and Atlantic Coast Con-ferences. There is greatregional interest, easy travel, thebeauty of being the lone game being played on New Year’sEve, and no weather concerns with the Dome. It’s SteveSpurrier against Florida State. The Gamecocks broke throughand made it to the SEC Championship Game for the first time,where they were blown out by top-ranked Auburn. This is achance for South Carolina to get register its second ever 10-win season (of course this would be in a 14 game season, the‘Cocks went 10-2 in 1984). Florida State had 14 straight 10-win seasons from 1987-2000. The ‘Noles then fell a couple ofrungs on the ladder. Jimbo Fisher is in his first season at thehelm, and he led Florida State to the ACC Championship Game.Marcus Lattimore is some kind of dynamic tailback, a futureHeisman Trophy winner.

Gator Bowl (Jacksonville)No. 21 Mississippi State vs. Michigan Saturday January 1, 1:30 pm

This is one of the best seasons inMississippi State history. To beatGeorgia and Florida in the sameyear is a monumental accomplish-ment. That’s not the kind of thingthat happens routinely in Starkville.Mississippi State went 3-0 against the SEC East, beating Kentucky, theBulldogs and Gators. The four losses came to Auburn, LSU, Alabamaand Arkansas. That’s an impressive hit list. The strengths of the twoteams will square off. Mississippi State’s defense is good (coordinatorManny Diaz is a rising star) and Michigan’s offense is excellent, led bysensational sophomore signal caller Denard Robinson. The Wolverinedefense absolutely stinks. They are embarrassingly bad. State will tryand pound away at the Michigan defense and keep Robinson off thefield. In 1990, Michigan wore out Ole Miss in the Gator Bowl 35-3 andthe Wolverines offensive line was voted MVP. It will be tough for theWolverines to win in Jacksonville 20 years later. Their defense justhasn’t shown up in big games.

Orange BowlNo. 4 Stanford vs. No. 13 Virginia TechMonday, January 3, 8:30 pm

Jim Harbaugh is one of the mostcoveted coaches in the country.Every major school and the NFL isbeating down his door. He’s reallytied to Stanford though. The Cardi-nal fell only to Oregon, putting up avery impressive 11-1 season. And how about two straight years withHeisman finalists? Andrew Luck, assuming he leaves, will most likelybe the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Virginia Tech has to be asking“what if” at least a little bit. The Hokies lost on Labor Day night (ifthey lose to Stanford, it will be 0-2 on Monday’s) in a heart-breaker toBoise State. Then flat Virginia Tech, five days later, lost to MickeyMatthews’ Division I-AA power James Madison. Ouch. Next thing youknow, the Hokies rip off 11 straight wins, bludgeon the ACC. Only Ga.Tech challenged them seriously in the league. Virginia Tech domi-nated Florida State to win the ACC Championship Game. There havebeen six ACC title games, and Virginia Tech has played in four of them,winning three.

BBVA Compass Bowl (Birmingham) Pitt vs. KentuckySaturday, January 8, 12 noon

Why in the world are two mediocreteams playing on January 8? Pitt islooking for a new coach. Kentucky islooking for another bowl win. TheWildcats wound up at 6-6, but reallystruggled in the Southeastern Con-ference. Kentucky has one of the most electric players in the country,the magnificent Randall Cobb. Dion Lewis of Pitt is a stellar runningback. The Panther program has put out a bunch of good ones, high-lighted of course by the great 1976 Heisman Trophy winner TonyDorsett. Curtis Martin and LeSean McCoy were stellar at Pitt andLewis is in that class. The big question for Kentucky is whether Cobbwill turn pro? Mike Hartline had a good season as the Wildcats signalcaller. Kentucky just doesn’t have the juice defensively. That’s wherethe ‘Cats got exposed in a major way in SEC play, giving up a ton ofpoints to Georgia and Florida and missing out on upset opportunities.

Outback Bowl (Tampa) Florida vs. Penn StateSaturday January 1, 1 pm

The coaches are the stars ofthis one. Joe Paterno is 84 andsays he’s coming back. UrbanMeyer is 46 and is steppingdown at Florida to spend moretime with his family. Paternohas been the head coach at Penn State since 1966. Meyer has beenthe head coach at Florida since 2005. Both have won two nationalchampionships. Penn State beat LSU in the slop of Orlando a yearago, and would love to take the Gators down. When he arrived inGainesville, Meyer pointed to dominating the Gators big three rivals -Florida State, Georgia and Tennessee – as the key to excellence atFlorida. He was 16-2 against the Seminoles, Bulldogs and Volunteers,plus 4-1 in Southeastern Conference and BCS Championship Games.Obviously Florida wants to send its incredibly successful coach out ona winning note. Penn State’s offense could have some problems mov-ing the ball against the Gators. Flroida’s offense has struggled formost of the season, most notably in losses to Alabama, MississippiState and Florida State.

Rose Bowl (Pasadena)No. 5 Wisconsin vs. No. 3 TCUSaturday, January 1, 5 pm

This is arguably the biggest game inTCU history. You’d have to go backto the championship days of DaveyO’Brien and Slingin’ Sammy Baughin the 1930s. For Texas Christian toplay in the Rose Bowl with a perfectrecord was something no one couldhave seen coming during decadesand decades of misery. The greatDan Jenkins must be on cloud nine enjoying country fried steak andbrown gravy. Joe T. Garcia’s, the greatest Tex-Mex joint in the world,is rockin’ and Fort Worth is upside down. Wisconsin has had a banneryear, losing only to Michigan State. The Badgers share the Big Tenchampionship with the Spartans and Ohio State, who they absolutelycrushed in Madison. Wisconsin has a big, strong, powerful offense.The Badgers scored at least 31 points in each of their seven straightwins after losing in East Lansing. In their last three games, theyscored 83, 48 and 70. This could be one of the best bowls of the year.Andy Dalton and the Horned Frogs offense struggled in the FiestaBowl last year. They’ll have to score a bunch to keep up with Wiscy.Gary Patterson has done an excellent job with the Horned Frogs, andBret Bielema has the Badgers back in their Barry Alvarez glory days.

Sugar Bowl No. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 8ArkansasTuesday, January 4, 8:30 pm

This could be one of the really goodbowl games. Arkansas has been tothree SEC Championship Games, butthis is their most impressive yearsince joining the league in 1992.The SEC West is absolutely loadedthis year, and the lone losses were to Alabama and Auburn. OhioState had another outstanding year. Jim Tressel has been incredible inColumbus. The Buckeyes have now won at least of share of six con-secutive Big Ten championships. Last season, Ohio State beat Oregonin the Rose Bowl, which was sweet redemption from the program’s re-cent bowl failures. If Ohio State can knock off an SEC team in theSugar, that would be another big accomplishment for this powerfulprogram. Ryan Mallett is just sensational at quarterback for the Razor-backs. And they’ve got a running game too. Bobby Petrino has donegreat work in short time with the Arkansas program. He got Louisvilleto No. 3 in the country and Arkansas to the Sugar Bowl.

BCS National ChampionshipGame (Glendale, AZ)No. 2 Oregon vs. No. 1 AuburnMonday, January 10, 8:30 pm

This is the game that everyone hasbeen eyeing as a distinct possibilitysince the middle of October. BothAuburn and Oregon were able tostave off upsets and post perfectseasons in the SEC and PAC-10.These two amazing offenses are thestory. Auburn’s incredible quarterback Cam Newton has had arguablythe greatest single season in the grand history of the SEC. These twoteams wear down the opposition and dominate the fourth quarter.The difference in the game, and what could put Auburn over the top isthe dominating Fairley. Because of this beast of a nose tackle, theTigers might be able to get a couple more stops than the Ducks. Bothteams will have to fight off some nerves of course. This is Oregon’sfirst shot at a national title. Auburn won it in 1957 and was in con-tention in 1983, 1993 and 2004, but things didn’t break the Tigers way– most notably in ’04 when Tommy Tuberville’s great undefeated SECchamps were left out of the title game. Auburn’s a little bigger andstronger. Newton is just too good. Auburn will deliver the SEC a fifthconsecutive national championship and be the fourth school from theleague in as many years to do so.


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Founders Day Lecture

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University Emeritus Professor Dr. Jeanne Barsanti will present “Animals, History, and Humans.” For more information, please

contact Wanda Darden at [email protected].

January 27, 20112:00 p.m.

UGA Chapel

recruiting newsBy Carlton DeVooght

This is crunch time

With less than two months to go until Na-tional Signing Day, this is crunch time for theBulldog coaches on the recruiting trail. The “nocontact” period for coaches begins just before theholiday and lasts until January 3. The Bulldogcoaches have been flying all over the country forin-home visits with recruits and their families. Itis likely that the Dawgs will sign 22 to 24 play-ers on signing day, and will have three early en-rollees that will not be included in this total.With the commitments that Georgia already has,this leaves about ten to twelve slots remaining.With so many high profile names still available,the big question is who will fill these slots.

Without taking anyone for granted, andsticking by my earlier predictions I think five ofthese slots will be filled by in-state “Dream Team-ers,” Isaiah Crowell (Running Back, CarverColumbus High School), Jay Rome (Tight End,Valdosta High School), Ray Drew (Outside Line-backer, Thomas County High School), XzavierDickson (Outside Linebacker, Griffin HighSchool) and Damian Swann (Athlete, GradyHigh School). The Dawgs also appear to be a fa-vorite for Tampa Jefferson High School insidelinebacker Ramik Wilson. He has become veryclose with Coach Todd Grantham and appearsto like what the Bulldogs have to offer. Assum-ing these six uncommitted blue-chip prospectsall commit to the Bulldogs, this leaves approxi-mately four to six spots in the class.

The Bulldogs clearly would like to take onemore Defensive Lineman, preferably a big bodyto play Nose. The Bulldog staff is putting the fullcourt press on Jonathan Jenkins, who just fin-ished up his season at the Gulf Coast Commu-nity College in Mississippi. Jenkins, who isoriginally from Connecticut, is currently com-mitted to Oklahoma State. He has the size (6’4”,340 pounds) that Coach Grantham would loveto have in the middle of his three man defensivefront. Jenkins is also very quick for a man of hissize. Mom may be the key to his decision. TheBulldogs have an uphill battle with Jenkins, butthe coaching staff is doing all they can to con-vince Jenkins and his Mom to switch his com-mitment and play between the hedges.

Coach Grantham is also working hard oncurrent Alabama commit Shannon Brown fromCook County High School in Adel, Georgia.Coach Grantham remained in contact withBrown, but I think it is a long shot at this point.Brown seems firm in his commitment to Ala-bama, but Coach Grantham is not giving up yet.

The Bulldogs would also like to sign aplayer that could take the outside linebacker spotfilled by Justin Houston this past year. Right now,two players are pretty high on the Bulldogs’ listat this position. They are Cornellius Carradinefrom Butler County Community College and Je-offrey Pagan from Ashville High School inAshville, North Carolina. Carradine is ranked asone of the top two overall players in Junior Col-lege this year, while Pagan is ranked as the num-ber three defensive end in the country. Paganwas previously committed to Florida, but hassince re-opened his commitment. Many FloridaState fans believe that Carradine is a lock withthe Noles but that is not as clear-cut as many ofthem think at this time. He visited Athens dur-ing the week of December 6.

There are two wild cards in the recruitingprocess, both of whom are high profile recruitsbulldog fans will recognize. Kent Turene is aninside linebacker from Boyd Anderson HighSchool in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida. Turene iscurrently committed to USC (the “Real One” inCalifornia) but is looking around. He will be tak-ing an official visit to Athens on January 21. Thisis the same weekend that Isaiah Crowell will alsobe making his official visit to the Classic City.Turene is a big run stopper who likes to meet aball carrier at the point of attack. It is has longbeen rumored that Turene was interested in theBulldogs, so it will be interesting to see how theinitial visit goes. The other wild card is defensiveend Gabriel Wright. Wright is Crowell’s team-mate at Carver-Columbus and has the proto-typical frame for a defensive end in CoachGrantham’s three-four defense. While many feelthat Wright is an Auburn lean, he has recently in-dicated he will take an official visit to Athens.There is no doubt that Wright has been enjoyingthe recruiting process, but he now recognizesthat the available slots at those schools recruit-ing him are quickly filling.

The Bulldogs are also seeking some widereceivers and playmakers. I still believe thatQuan Bray from Troup County High School inLaGrange winds up committing to the Bulldogs.One of the most electrifying playmakers in theState is Malcolm Mitchell from Valdosta HighSchool. This four star prospect is thought to be

leaning towards Alabama, but took his officialvisit to Athens for the Senior Gala on December11. Additionally, current Florida commit, Ja’JuanStory from Nature Coast High School inBrooksville, Florida will have an in-home visitwith the Bulldog coaching staff. It should benoted that this in-home visit was scheduled priorto Urban Meyer’s resignation as the Head Coachof the Florida Gators. Many close to this situa-tion believe that Story will switch his commit-ment prior to signing day and will sign with theBulldogs. The Bulldogs have also offered twoelectric Junior College wide receivers. AnthonyDenham (6’6, 215 pounds) from East Los An-geles College of Monterey Park, California hasdrawn comparisons to Alabama standout JulioJones. Rahshaan Vaughn from the College of SanMateo in San Mateo, California is ranked as thenumber two wide receiver in the JuCo ranks be-hind only - you guessed it – Denham. Anotherdark horse at wide receiver is Lee County stand-out Sanford Seay. The Bulldogs would like tosign at least two of the young men in this cate-gory.

The Bulldogs may also try to bring onemore offensive lineman into this year’s class. Thetwo most likely candidates in clued XzavierWard from Colquitt County High School inMoultrie, Georgia or Taylor Gadbois from EastPaulding High School, in Dallas, Georgia.

So who do I think we close with? Here arethe twelve individuals I think the Bulldogs willadd to the recruiting class of 2012.

1. Isaiah Crowell (Running back,Carver-Columbus High School)

2. Ray Drew (Outside Linebacker,Thomas County High School)

3. Jay Rome (Tight End, ValdostaHigh School)

4. Xzavier Dickson (Outside Line-backer, Griffin High School)

5. Damian Swann (Athlete, GradyHigh School)

6. Jonathan Jenkins (DefensiveTackle, Gulf Coast Community College)

7. Ramik Wilson (Inside Linebacker,Tampa Jefferson High School)

8. Cornellius Carradine (OutsideLinebacker, Butler County Community Col-lege)

9. Quan Bray (Athlete, Troup CountyHigh School)

10. Ja’Juan Story (Wide Receiver, Na-ture Coast High School)

11. Xzavier Ward (Offensive Lineman,Colquitt County High School)

12. Gabe Wright (Defensive End,Carver-Columbus High School)

There is also a strong possibility that LeeCounty Wide Receiver, Sanford Seay could signwith the Bulldogs or be a sign and place indi-vidual. Hopefully this electrifying Wide Receivergets the test score he is looking for and will be apart of the Bulldog’s class of 2011.

What about A.J.?

Common sense would seem to dictate thatBulldogs’ standout A.J. Green is headed to thepros. After all, draft day expert Mel Kiter hasGreen slated as the number three overall pick inthe draft. Not so fast my friend. It appears thatA.J. and his mother are intent on A.J. being thefirst in his family earn a college degree. He mayeven be looking at a Lloyd’s of London insurancepolicy should he decide to return for his Seniorseason with the Bulldogs. Fellow Junior JustinHouston will undoubtedly announce his eligi-bility for the draft after the Bulldogs Bowl Game.While everyone seems to think that A.J. will beentering the draft, Coach Richt and QuarterbackAaron Murray need to pull out all the stops torecruit A.J. Green for one more season.

Nathan Theus gets his Scholarship

Bolles Bulldog standout Offensive LinemanNathan Theus was originally offered as a grayshirt member of the class of 2011. Recently theBulldog coaching staff met with Theus and hisfamily and extended a full scholarship offer toTheus to be a part of the 2011 class. Theusjumped at the chance and will be signing withthe Georgia Bulldogs on National Signing Dayin February. He will get work at both LongSnapper and at Center. Theus is a fine youngman that comes from a great family and has theexperience of playing in one of the winningestprograms in Florida high school football history.


Senior Gala

Jessica Wood and Kris Durham

Tina Ladson, Miranda Carroll, A.J. Green, Jesse Goodwine and Dora andWoodrow Green

Brandon Bogotay, Christian Robinson, Aaron Murray, Ty Frix and Chris Burnett

Amy and Rob Sherrell and Cordy Glenn

Aaron Murray and Katherine Stroer

Clint Boling and Chris WhiteCaleb King and Erica Lamar

Erin Anderson and Orson Charles Luke Williams and Ed Williams

Ed Benedict and Brent BenedictKatharyn Richt and Rennie Curran

Donnettee Memfis and Akeem DentBen Jones and Alex Hilton

Kiel Zanone, A.J. Green and Ryan Scates

ATHENS -- Junior wide receiver A.J. Green of Sum-merville, S.C.; redshirt freshman quarterback Aaron Mur-ray of Tampa, Fla.; junior linebacker Justin Houston ofStatesboro; junior placekicker Blair Walsh of Boca Raton,Fla.; and junior punter Drew Butler of Duluth took homethe top awards at the University of Georgia football annualteam Gala Saturday night at the Classic Center in Athens.

Green was named the recipient of the Vince DooleyMost Valuable Player of the Year Award, Murray was namedthe team's Most Valuable Offensive Player, and Houston re-ceived the Most Valuable Defensive Player honors. Walshand Butler were named Most Valuable Special Teams play-ers.

Senior fullback Shaun Chapas of St. Augustine, Fla.,was named winner of the David Jacobs Award as the playerwho by example portrays courage, spirit, character, and de-termination.

Chapas was also named the team's overall permanentcaptain for 2010. Senior offensive lineman Clint Boling ofAlpharetta was elected as the team's offensive captain, sen-ior linebacker Akeem Dent of Atlanta was chosen the de-fensive captain, and Butler was named the special teamscaptain.

The Leon Farmer Award for dedication to the strengthand conditioning program was presented to Chapas andBoling. Outstanding Scout Team Awards went to redshirtsophomore defensive end Jeremy Longo of Ft. Lauderdale(offense), freshman offensive lineman Hugh Williams of At-lanta and freshman receiver Michael Erdman of Merritt Is-land, Fla. (defense), and junior tailback Wes Van Dyke ofHighland Park, Tex., and freshman safety Lucas Redd of Jef-ferson (special teams).

Most Improved Player Awards were presented tosophomore receiver Marlon Brown of Memphis, Tenn. (of-fense); senior linebacker Darryl Gamble of Bainbridge andredshirt sophomore safety Bacarri Rambo of Donalsonville(defense); and sophomore safety Shawn Williams of Dam-ascus and redshirt sophomore cornerback Sanders Com-

mings of Augusta (special teams).Newcomer of the Year Award winners were redshirt

freshman quarterback Aaron Murray of Tampa (offense),safety Alec Ogletree of Newnan (defense), and redshirtfreshman Blake Sailors of Athens (special teams).

Coaches Leadership Awards went to junior center BenJones of Centreville, Ala. (offense), Dent and senior defen-sive end DeMarcus Dobbs of Savannah (defense), and Cha-pas (special teams).

The Governor's Cup trophy for the victory over Geor-gia Tech was also officially presented by Shelton Stevensfrom Healthcare of Atlanta.

A special feature of the Gala was announcement of theTeam of the Decade (2001-2010) determined through on-line voting by more than 37,000 ballots cast online throughthe georgiadogs.com official website. The team includes:

DEFENSEDE: Charles Grant and David PollackDT: Jeff Owens and Geno AtkinsOLB: Rennie Curran and Boss BaileyILB: Dannell Ellerbe and Odell ThurmanCB: Tim Jennings and Asher AllenFS: Thomas DavisSS: Greg BlueP: Drew Butler

OFFENSEC: Ben JonesOG: Fermando Velasco and Max Jean-GillesOT: Jon Stinchcomb and Clint BolingTE: Ben WatsonWR: Mohamed Massaquoi and A.J. GreenFB: Brannan SoutherlandTB: Knowshon MorenoQB: David GreenePK: Blair Walsh

- georgiadogs.com

Weston Bell, Washaun Ealey and Jeff Bell

Shaun Chapas, Lexi Wurtz and Greg Chapas Sheryl McGarity, TLeatha and Arthur Johnson

Will Sorrells and Mark RichtSanders Hickey and Terry Stephens


Kevin Butler, former University of Georgia legendary kicker and a member of theGeorgia radio broadcast team, each week during the 2010 football season se-lects his offensive, defensive and special teams players of the week for Bull-dawg Illustrated. Here are Butler’s selections and reasons why for the Bulldogs’42-34 win over Georgia Tech on Nov. 27.

OFFENSE – Senior wide receiver Kris Durham, who caught threepasses for 90 yards including a 66-yard catch and run for the Bull-dogs’ first touchdown.

“I think Kris has been a senior leader and an offensive weapon for us through-out his career,” said Butler. “He’s fought back from a good many injuries, stayedin touch with the team and been around the players and that has helped himdevelop into a team leader. Kris’ ability to make the big catch on third down isgoing to be sorely missed after this year. His 66-yard catch for a touchdown inthe Tech game was a big, big play and not only with his pass catching but Krisshowed some speed people have not gotten to see over his career. Those twotalents will give Kris an opportunity to play on Sundays.”

DEFENSE – Junior outside linebacker Justin Houston, who had an 18-yard fumble recovery run for a touchdown and intercepted a last-minute Georgia Tech pass to lock up the win for the Bulldogs. He alsowas in on seven total tackles.

“Week-in and week-out, Justin has been the leader of our defense,” said But-ler. “And as a junior, he certainly will have the opportunity to make a decisionon whether to come back to Georgia or go pro. He showed his ability to againget to the ball and that big interception late in the game helped Georgia sealthe victory. His leadership if he chooses to go to the NFL will be sorely missedand if he does come back to Georgia for his senior season, he will certainly beon every awards watch list and will be the reason Georgia will improve defen-sively from this year to next year.”

SPECIAL TEAMS – Georgia junior punter Drew Butler who puntedtwice for right at a 40-yard average while booming the ball highenough to enable the Bulldog coverage team to prevent any punt re-turns by the Yellow Jackets.

“Nothing much happened with the special teams this game so I go with Drew,”said Butler. “Just his overall performance this year has been very consistentand his ability to flip the field has provided our defense an added advantage aswe have struggled to find our identity all year on defense. A Ray Guy finalistagain and an Academic All-American, Drew has exemplified what all Bulldogplayers aspire to be.”

-- Murray Poole

Kevin Butler’s players of the game



One team might be a 13 to 15-point favorite, as the Bulldogswere this year but when it’s Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, odds like thatmean absolutely nothing as these two ancient rivals proved onceagain Saturday night at frigid Sanford Stadium.

Despite the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets going up and downthe field the game long and combining for 937 yards of offense,it came down to several key stops at the end by the Georgia de-fense – a defense that had been bullied by Tech’s vaunted triple-option attack for nearly the entire game – to preserve a 42-34victory for the Bulldogs.

Boosting their final season record to 6-6 while running MarkRicht’s coaching record against Georgia Tech to 9-1, the Bulldogsnow await their bowl destiny.

Georgia twice had two-touchdown leads in the game, onceat 14-0 in the opening quarter and again at 35-21 near the end ofthe third, but each time the Yellow Jackets went on long scoringdrives to keep the sellout and shivering partisan Georgia crowd of92,746 clinging to the edge of their seats. But when Tech’s An-thony Allen scored on an 8-yard run with just 4:57 to play, to pullthe Jackets back within 35-34, reliable Tech kicker Scott Blairshanked his extra-point kick to prevent the Yellow Jackets fromtying the contest once more.

But the Bulldogs still couldn’t salt the game away, quarterbackAaron Murray bobbling the snap on a fourth-and-one situation atthe Tech 23-yard line with under two minutes remaining. Butthen, here came that clutch defensive effort by the Bulldogs asthey stuffed the Jackets’ hopes for victory by twice tossing quar-terback Tevin Washington for losses and then forcing Washing-ton to misfire on consecutive pass attempts.

The Yellow Jackets, with Murray then taking a knee and withno way for Tech to get the ball back, then allowed Georgia’sWashaun Ealey to run for a 20-yard touchdown with 1:29 to go.Blair Walsh’s kick boosted the Bulldogs’ lead to 42-34 and junioroutside linebacker Justin Houston then put the final stamp on theGeorgia victory by intercepting a Washington pass at the Bulldogs’33.

It was the second huge defensive play of the game for theStatesboro junior as he hit paydirt on an 18-yard fumble recov-ery run with just 16 seconds left in the third period to stake theBulldogs to the 35-21 lead at the time.

“I knew it was crunch time,” said Houston. “The coachessaid all week that the end of the game is when the players makethe plays and that’s what we are going to do. I’m really proud ofour defense.”

Houston said his game-clinching interception was the first ofhis career – at any level. “I saw the quarterback and I didn’t think

he was going to throw it,” Houstonsaid. “When he did, I knew I had tomake a play. That being my first in-terception in high school or college,it feels good.”

“It was a great game,” said Richt.“It was especially great because wewon the doggone thing. We neverquit; we kept battling. You’ve got togive Georgia Tech credit because theydid a great job, but our guys did too.We never gave up and made theplays we needed to. We haven’t donethat in the games we lost, but this timewe did.”

Again, this turned into a game in which the Georgia offensehad to have a big night and score a lot of points in order to win it.And with Murray razor-sharp throwing the ball again – he passedfor 220 yards and three touchdowns in the first half on 11-of-14completions before finishing the game with 271 yards – the Bull-dogs compiled 425 yards and actually 35 points by the offensewith Houston’s fumble recovery run accounting for the otherscore.

With the Bulldog defense being smacked for 411 rushingyards by the Jackets – well above Tech’s nation-leading 319-yardaverage – Georgia had the ball for only 2l:46 minutes while theJackets hogged the pigskin for 38:14, thus making it imperativefor the Georgia offense to cash points when it did have possession.

Still, Richt thought Todd Grantham’s unit stepped up whenit needed to.

“The defense did a good job,” said Richt. “I am proud ofthem. We didn’t do a lot of subbing in this game. A lot of guys hadto suck it up and play until the end. We didn’t stop the dive as wellas I hoped we could,” Richt added, in somewhat of an under-statement. “If you don’t stop them up the gut, it’s hard to stopthem period. But we rose to the occasion. We turned someturnovers into points. In the end, it worked out.”

What WorkedGeorgia’s passing game ripped the Jacket secondary to shreds

in the first half and could have put up similar big numbers in thesecond half as A.J. Green, who had eight catches for 97 yards inlikely his final game at Sanford Stadium, said the Tech defensedidn’t change a thing after intermission. But with Tech keeping theball and going on one long drive after another, the Bulldogs sim-ply couldn’t dial up their offensive success of the first two quarters.

What Didn’t WorkDespite having an open week to work on limiting the Jack-

ets’ potent rushing game, the Bulldogs looked helpless at times intrying to stop Tech B-back Anthony Allen, who gashed the Geor-gia defense for 166 yards on 29 carries. Three other Jackets ran formore than 50 yards each en route to the staggering 411 rushingtotal. Georgia fumbled four times in the game and lost two ofthem, one of the miscues being by Caleb King after he had rum-bled to the Tech 9-yard line on the Bulldogs’ opening possessionof the third quarter. And the Bulldogs couldn’t run the ball at allin the first half when they managed a meager 56 yards on theground … before ending the night with only 154 against a Techdefense that had been shaky against the run this season.

Top PerformersMurray, whose three TD strikes gave him 24 in his redshirt

freshman season, just one short of tying Matthew Stafford’s single-season school record, finished the evening a red-hot 15-of-19 forthe 271 yards. In addition to another big night by Green, seniorKris Durham had three catches for 90 yards including a 66-yardscoring catch and run for the Bulldogs’ first touchdown whenDurham outran nearly the entire Tech team. Tight end OrsonCharles recorded two receptions for 67 yards including Georgia’ssecond touchdown on a 32-yard pass from Murray. Ealey, with hiswalk-in, late touchdown, capped the game with 118 yards on 13carries and two scores. Defensively, due to Tech’s big advantage intime of possession, the Bulldogs had plenty of opportunities tomake tackles and three Georgia defenders did just that with sen-ior linebacker Akeem Dent, junior nose DeAngelo Tyson andsophomore end Abry Jones each in on a whopping 16 stops. And,of course, Houston (final home game at UGA also?) came up bigwith his touchdown on the fumble recovery and last-minute in-terception.

Game rewind: Georgia 42 Georgia Tech 34

By Murray Poole



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under the rimBy Ryan Scates

Get out and support Hoop teams

Men’s Schedule Lady’s Schedule

The holiday season is refreshing in that it reminds us that somethings never get old. Egg nog and cider, garland and lights, sweetpotatoes and beating Georgia Tech come to mind for this Dawg. Andjust when a Thanksgiving full of good food, Christmas preparationand another football win over the Trade School had me set throughfinals, the Hoop Dawgs’ 73-72 win over Tech in Atlanta was like anextra dollop of whipped cream on the last slice of pumpkin pie.

My first game covering the Hoop Dawgs was last year’s con-test against Tech in Athens. After months of living in relativeanonymity, Georgia Head Basketball Coach endeared himself to allDawgs with a 73-66 win over the #20 Yellow Jackets. In that game’spost-game press conference Fox famously remarked, “there are 50stars on the United States Flag. One is for Georgia, but none are forGeorgia Tech.” And one year later, Fox’s statement rang true in At-lanta, giving Georgia their first win at Tech in 10 years (aside fromthe 2008 SEC Championship Tournament) and snapping a 13 gamenon-conference home winning streak for the Jackets. Trey Thomp-kins, who is still on the mend from an offseason ankle injury, scored21 points in the winning effort, sharing top scorer honors withDustin Ware.

Meanwhile in Athens, Women’s Head Basketball CoachAndy Landers and the Lady Dawgs cruised to a 92-45 win over theMercer Bears. In what has become a trademark of Landers’ coachedteams, freshmen played a large part in the win. Freshman KhaalidahMiller led the Dawgs in scoring with a career high 16 points. Fresh-man Ronika Ransford also had a career night, notching 11 re-bounds, 6 assists and 7 steals. Ransford became the 66th freshmanto start under Andy Landers in his 32 seasons at Georgia. The winmarked the fifteenth time in the last sixteen meetings the LadyDawgs have beaten Mercer.

And while we are talking about in-state rivalries, Macon-area Dawg fans will get a chance to see the Hoop Dawgs in actionon Dec. 23rd when Mark Fox and company play at Mercer. Thatgame is set at 7pm and will be televised on CSS. Be sure to checkout the schedules below for both UGA basketball teams and makea new holiday tradition out of cheering on the Dawgs on the hard-wood.

12/18/10 vs. Arkansas State Athens, Ga.

12/21/10 vs. High Point Athens, Ga.

12/23/10 at Mercer Macon, Ga.

12/28/10 vs. Charleston So. Athens, Ga.

12/31/10 vs. E. Kentucky Athens, Ga.

01/08/11 vs. Kentucky * Athens, Ga.

01/12/11 at Vanderbilt * Nashville, Tenn.

01/15/11 at Ole Miss *Oxford, Miss.

01/18/11 vs. Tennessee *Athens, Ga.

01/22/11 vs. Miss State * Athens, Ga.

01/25/11 vs. Florida * Athens, Ga.

01/29/11 at Kentucky * Lexington, Ky.

02/02/11 at Arkansas *Fayetteville, Ark.

02/05/11 vs. Auburn * Athens, Ga.

02/08/11 vs. Xavier Athens, Ga.

02/12/11 at S. Carolina * Columbia, S.C.

02/16/11 vs. Vanderbilt * Athens, Ga.

02/19/11 at Tennessee * Knoxville, Tenn.

02/24/11 at Florida Gainesville, Fla.

02/26/11 vs. S. Carolina *Athens, Ga.

03/02/11 vs. LSU * Athens, Ga.

03/05/11 at Alabama *Tuscaloosa, Ala.

12/19/10 vs. High PointAthens, Ga.

12/22/10 at TCU Fort Worth, Tx

FIU Fun & Sun Classic12/29/10 vs. La. Tech

Miami, Fla.12/30/10 FIU/Marquette

Miami, Fla.01/02/11 vs. S. Carolina *

Athens, Ga.01/09/11 at Kentucky *

Lexington, Ky.01/13/11 at Arkansas *

Fayetteville, Ark.01/16/11 vs. Florida *

Athens, Ga.01/20/11 at Alabama *

Tuscaloosa, Ala.01/23/11 vs. Miss State *

Athens, Ga.01/27/11 at S. Carolina *

Columbia, S.C.01/30/11 at LSU *

Baton Rouge, La.02/03/11 vs. Arkansas *

Athens, Ga.02/06/11 vs. Alabama *

Athens, Ga.02/10/11 vs. Vanderbilt

Athens, Ga.02/13/11 at Ole Miss *

Oxford, Miss.02/17/11 vs. Kentucky *

Athens, Ga.02/21/11 at Tennessee *

Knoxville, Tenn.02/24/11 vs. Auburn *

Athens, Ga.02/27/11 at Florida

Gainesville, Fla.SEC Tournament03/03/11 Nashville, Tenn.


By Ryan Scates

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Gym Dogs gearing up for 2011

2011 schedule01/08/11 at Denver,

BYU, Air Force (Quad-meet)Denver, Colo. 8:00 p.m. ET

01/15/11 vs. UtahAthens, Ga. 4:00 p.m. ET

01/17/11 vs. West VirginiaAthens, Ga. 2:00 p.m. ET

01/21/11 vs. Auburn *Athens, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET

01/28/11 at Kentucky *Lexington, Ky. 7:00 p.m. ET

02/04/11 at Arkansas *Fayetteville, Ark. 8:00 p.m. ET

02/12/11 vs. Florida *Athens, Ga. 4:00 p.m. ET

02/18/11 at LSU *Baton Rouge, La. 8:00 p.m. ET

02/25/11 vs. Alabama *Athens, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET

03/06/11 at UCLA, Arizona (Tri-meet)Los Angeles, Calif., 5:00 p.m. ET

03/12/11 vs. MichiganAthens, Ga. 4:00 p.m. ET

03/19/11 SEC ChampionshipBirmingham, Ala. 5:00 p.m. ET

04/02/11 NCAA RegionalAthens, Ga. TBA

04/15/11 NCAA Championships (Prelims) Cleveland, Ohio TBA

04/16/11 NCAA ChampionshipsCleveland, Ohio TBA

04/17/11 NCAA Championships (Individuals)Cleveland, Ohio TBA

Jay Clark enters his second season with high hopesfor his team that is hungry to get back to the top

ow two years removed from an unprecedentedrun of success that included five (yes, you readthat right, five) straight national champi-onships, the Georgia Gym Dogs are gearing up

for year two of the Jay Clark era in newly renovated Stege-man Coliseum.

After winning those five national titles, in 2010Georgia placed third in the SEC tournament before los-ing a tiebreaker to Oregon State in NCAA Regionals toend the season. From the sidelines to the record book,2010 was certainly a year of change for the gymnasticsprogram.

Georgia enters the 2011 preseason poll ranked asthe #7 gymnastics program in the country. The squad re-turns nine members of the 2010 team this year, includ-ing SEC champions Hilary Mauro and Kat Ding.

Recently I had a chance to catch up with HeadCoach Jay Clark to talk about what is in store for his sec-ond year as head coach of the Gym Dogs. To his credit,Coach Clark was not shy in sharing his learning experi-ences from 2010.

“Change is always difficult, and certainly we wentthrough a lot of adjustments, both as a group and for my-self personally (in 2010)…” Coach Clark explained, “Thebiggest part for me was learning how my speech and myactions can affect every part of this program…And learn-ing how each situation demands a certain decorum fromme that maybe I hadn’t paid attention to as an assistantcoach.”

Clark’s attention to the subtleties of a college gym-nastics coach is crucial. Perhaps in gymnastics more thanany other sport, the trust between Coach and Athlete

makes a difference both in team chemistry and on thescoreboard. That’s where Coach Clark’s “x-factor” comesinto play. Enter one Julie Ballard Clark, assistant coach tothe Gym Dogs, who in her spare time doubles as CoachClark’s wife and mother to their two children.

“I think a husband and wife team lends itself verywell to this sport. It’s been very prevalent in our sport. Acouple of years ago when I was arguing that I should beable to hire my wife, six or seven of the top ten teams inthe country had husband and wife teams on the coach-ing staff.” Clark explained, “A husband and wife team al-lows for what would otherwise be sensitive issues andmoments (with the athletes) to become routine and dealtwith on a much easier basis.”

In looking forward to the 2011 season, Clark re-mains upbeat. In addition to the nine returning mem-bers from last year’s team, Clark believes that this year’snewcomers add to the team a chemistry for a competi-tive dynamic that Clark says “you just can’t coach.”

“I like being the hunter instead of the hunted.” Clarkexplains, “It’s nice to be in a different role, and hopefullywe can compete a little more freely…We are excitedabout this group…what we landed were some very tal-ented and very hungry athletes. I think we have a goodnucleus here that we can work with.”

The Gym Dogs’ home opener is Jan. 15 in the spec-tacular Stegeman Coliseum against gymnastics rival andperennial powerhouse Utah.

For the full interview with Coach Clark, be sure tocheck out the “Videos” section ofBulldawgillustrated.com.

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Auburn and Oregon were the teams that separated themselves from the middle of October on. TheSEC is still the no doubt best conference in the land, and the PAC-10 is very strong this year. The Tigersand Ducks have the two most explosive offenses in the country and the title game could potentially bea thrilling shootout. There are some other good match-ups, and BCS-buster TCU has an amazing op-portunity to play in the Rose Bowl.

1. Auburn – What an incredible end to Auburn’s season. First came oneof the great comebacks in college football annals to topple arch-rival defendingnational champion Alabama 28-27 in Tuscaloosa. Then came the Hail Mary andsecond half runaway in the 56-17 blowout of South Carolina to win the SEC title.Cam Newton is simply amazing.

2. Oregon – The Ducks were slow starting against Arizona and OregonState, but as always, Oregon closed fast and strong. Chip Kelly’s offense istremendous. The upset threat came from Cal, but the Ducks of course survived.In the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, the Ducks program was irrelevant and always in the bottomof the PAC-10. Now they’re playing for the national title.

3. Texas Christian – It’s the dream season in Fort Worth, as the HornedFrogs post a perfect undefeated record and get a berth in the Rose Bowl. TCUin Pasadena? Who would have ever imagined? Andy Dalton will have to be onhis “A-game.” Wisconsin is rolling.

4. Stanford – Jim Harbaugh is a sensational coach. The Cardinal fell onlyto Oregon this season. In four years, he’s taken Stanford from the cellar of thePAC-10 to the Orange Bowl and nation’s top five. In those four years, Stanfordhas a winning record against both Southern Cal and Notre Dame.

5. Michigan State – Yes, Wisconsin is blowing teams out. But MichiganState beat the Badgers head-to-head and they have the same record. So how isWisconsin ranked higher? Michigan State has won so many close games. Beat-ing Bama in Orlando will be mighty tough.

6. Wisconsin – The Badgers are back in the Rose Bowl, where Barry Al-varez led them three times. Wisconsin’s offense has been smoking hot. With-out question, the big point totals run up on outmatched foes pushed the Badgersto the highest ranking of the Big Ten tri-champs, which is how they get the nodfor Pasadena.

7. Ohio State – Jim Tressel delivers an 11-1 record, share of the Big Tentitle and berth in a BCS game. This has become commonplace in Columbus. Histen seasons of success put him with Woody Hayes and Paul Brown as the Buck-eyes greatest coaches.

8. Arkansas – Bobby Petrino is proving to be a great hire in Fayetteville. Injust his third season, Petrino has led the Razorbacks to a 10-2 season and berthin the Sugar Bowl. Ryan Mallett is a great quarterback, but the dangerous Hogsoffense will have its hands full with the Buckeyes.

9. LSU – There is so much talent for the Tigers, especially on defense. Sin-gle digit losses to Auburn and Arkansas are the lone blemishes this year. LSU bet-ter be ready in Dallas. The Aggies have been giant killers in 2010.

10. Oklahoma – Bob Stoops and the Sooners captured their seventh Big XIIChampionship in the last 11 years. Oklahoma should blow out Connecticut inthe Fiesta Bowl, which has been the location of Sooner misery in losses to BoiseState and West Virginia.

11. Oklahoma State – The Cowboys just couldn’t get past the arch-rivalSooners to make it to the Big XII Championship Game. Oklahoma State has alights out offense, but the defense got toasted by Oklahoma. Mike Gundy is eye-ing an 11-2 record, and that’s not the type of record Oklahoma State has been ac-customed to chalking up.

12. South Carolina – Making it to the SEC Championship Game for thefirst time ever was a great accomplishment for the Gamecocks. They were rightthere until the Hail Mary. Marcus Lattimore is a very special tailback. FloridaState in Atlanta makes a very attractive bowl match-up.

13. Alabama – It’s a season of “what-if’s” for the defending national cham-pions, who fell just short to LSU and Auburn. That incredible defense froma year ago just left a few too many holes to fill. Bama should handle Michi-gan State in Orlando.

14. Nevada – The Wolfpack beat Boise State and they have the samerecord. Nevada should be ahead of the Broncos and they are in this poll.The lone loss for Nevada came to Hawaii. The ‘Pack has an outstanding rush-ing attack.

15. Boise State – The loss to Nevada in Reno, where the Broncos let thefourth quarter lead get away, goes down as the worst in program history.Kellen Moore is a very accurate passer and he has weapons. But the loss toNevada will forever haunt the Boise State program.

16. Virginia Tech – It was not an impressive season for the ACC. Thechampion Hokies dominated the league, but they did lose to James Madi-son. Virginia Tech was impressive against Florida State. Frank Beamer’s boyswill have to play that good in Miami to have a shot against talented Stanford.

17. Nebraska –Kicker Alex Henry has some kind of incredible leg. TheCornhuskers hung around against Oklahoma because of his leg and red zonedefense. But to lead 17-0 in the last Big XII Championship Game is a mightypainful setback for the proud Big Red program.

18. Missouri – The Tigers flirted with something really special in 2007,but came up short against Oklahoma. They’ve been steady since, and thisyear got back into high cotton with a 10-2 regular season. The Tigers havean outstanding offense.

19. Texas A&M – The Aggies beat Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska thisyear. That doesn’t happen. Ever. The Texas A&M defense has played wellthis season and the Aggies have firepower at tailback, quarterback and re-ceiver.

20. Mississippi State – This is the strongest 8-4 team in the country. TheState losses are to Auburn, LSU, Alabama and Arkansas, who’s combinedrecord is 42-7, with six of the losses against one another. MSU is tough andphysical. They can had Michigan to Georgia and Florida on their 2010 royalhit list.

21. Florida State – A cold night in Charlotte didn’t go Florida State’sway. Even though the Seminoles were dominated by Virginia Tech, that winover the Gators has the FSU faithful feeling fine.

22. Utah – The Runnin’ Utes really got knocked off balance with thatblowout loss at home to TCU when College Gameday and the eyes of thenation were focused on Salt Lake City. Kyle Whittingham has done an ex-cellent job since succeeding Urban Meyer.

23. West Virginia – It has not been a good year in the Big East. Con-necticut won the league’s automatic BCS berth, but the Mountaineers at 9-3appear to be the best of this mediocre lot. Don’t forget, West Virginia hungaround with LSU.

24. Hawaii – After that incredible 2007 season and the departure of JuneJones, the Rainbow Warriors fell into obscurity for a couple of years. ButHawaii is back on the radar with a 10-3 record and win over Nevada.

25. Central Florida - The champs of Conference-USA get a shot at Geor-gia at the Liberty Bowl. The Knights losses this year are to Kansas State,North Carolina State and Southern Miss. Central Florida has an excellentduel-threat freshman quarterback in Jeff Godfrey.

Jeff Dantzler’s Top 25


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1. Get to Godfrey – Central Florida’s freshman signal caller Jeff Godfreyhas been outstanding this season, putting together one of college football’s out-standing rookie performances. His ten touchdowns rushing are second on theteam and Godfrey is an excellent passer. The Bulldog defense will have to putthe pressure on him, forcing Godfrey into plays, not allowing to have time topick and choose. Georgia’s defensive ends could be the key to this one. They’vegot to contain, but also bring pressure.

2. Stop the Run – If you can’t stop the run, you can’t win. It’s painfulto do, but in Georgia’s losses, the run defense has been absolutely gashed.Marcus Lattimore and Cam Newton did it. So did Florida and Colorado. Geor-gia couldn’t get a big fourth quarter stop against Mississippi State either. Play-ing strong run defense is at the top of the Bulldogs “to-do” improvement list.Because, unless Georgia can do this, there’s no chance of any championships.The Liberty Bowl would be a good starting point.

3. Play Crisp Offensively – You never know with extended time offhow teams are going to look. Often times, the long layoff leads to offensivestruggles. On other occasions, the extensive practice and time to get healthyhas an offense clicking on all cylinders. Central Florida has some talent on de-fense, but Georgia should be able to move the ball with success. The offensivefront should be able to impose its will. Aaron Murray should have ample shotsdownfield with A.J. Green and Orson Charles. The big question will be the run-ning game. If the Dogs lean on Ealey or King, there could be the chance for a100-yard day, and that almost always spells victory.

4. Avoid Turnovers – This is a no-brainer for any game, any day at anylevel. If you win the turnover battle – especially if it’s plus-two or more – you’rebatting between .900 and 1.000. Central Florida’s best shot to pull off a win overa royal collegiate football power, which is vulnerable at 6-6 this year, is to getsome short fields and an easy score or two. Georgia improved in the turnoverdepartment from ’09 to ’10, but the Bulldogs were negative-five in the six losses,including a minus-three in the heart-breaking loss to Florida.

5.. Want it –Georgia is a royal collegiate football program from the grandand mighty Southeastern Conference. Central Florida is the upstart from Con-ference USA. This game means a whole lot to the Knights – especially sincecoach George O’Leary used to be at Ga. Tech. To win the conference and beata program like Georgia in the Liberty Bowl would represent one of the great ac-complishments in Central Florida history. Georgia has better material though,and if the Bulldogs really want, the Dogs should get it. in a game like this whenthe Bulldogs could sleep-walk to an easy victory, Georgia doesn’t want to losea front-liner for Auburn and Tech.

JD’s keysto a victory

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