Hope everyone had a great weekend. Super Bowl set, two of the most traditional franchises in NFL history playing for the title. Green Bay-Pittsburgh. That was the matchup I expected and hoped for, I just think those are the best two teams, great D's, very solid QB's (although can't say I am a fan of Big Ben considered how he spent his off season in Middle Ga last year), great WR's. I think Pitt has the edge at RB with Mendenhall over Starks but hey, Starks has come out of nowhere to really be a force for the Pack, giving just enough of a run threat to make that passing game really click. Should, repeat SHOULD be a very good Super Bowl. I am pulling for the Pack because the Steelers have won it twice recently while the Pack have not won it since Brett Farve was maybe 2-3 years into his GB run.
From all indications, all our recruiting targets had very good visits over the weekend. Of course 1A and 1B being Isiah Crowell and John Jenkins. We need both, as both help fill a need that we were missing in 2010. Crowell is the break away back that we have not had since Moreno, and Jenkins plugs up the middle, allowing Tyson to move back to his natural DE position. Hopefully we get both these guys. A few interesting notes from the weekend, recruiting wise, Kent Turene, LB 6'3" 230, allegedly committed but then said no I didn't. He currently remains a verbal to Souther Cal. Here is his profile from Rivals-
http://rivals.yahoo.com/uga/football/recruiting/player-Kent-Turene-106363
Also making an official visit was Antonio Richardson, OT from Nashville, Tenn, made a surprise visit. I listened to his interview and he said the visit was great. Course he couldn't remember the recruit that hosted him, had trouble remembering Bobo's name etc, so I think he took the visit just to take it. I give us ZERO shot at this kid, but what was interesting was him saying that the biggest person recruiting him to Athens, was not even on campus this weekend, Ray Drew. Now, Mr. Drew continues to be a mystery in his recruitment but I will get to that later. Here is a profile on Richardson from Rivals-big kid.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/uga/football/recruiting/player-Antonio-Richardson-89115
Also, on Sunday, Mark Richt picked up the phone and offered Taylor Gadbois a schlorship. Gadbois is from East Paulding HS, didn't play football his junior year and then his recruitment caught fire towards the end of his senior season. He currently is a Miami, Fla, verbal but has admitted an offer from UGA would really interst him. I am fine with offering this kid and maybe getting him, in my mind you never have enough OL but I do find it interesting we offer him the same day Richardson is leaving town, have recently let Xzavier Ward we want him to greyshirt, and before that had said we would not be taking another OL in this class after bumping up Theus offer from greyshirt to real offer for this class. Here is a rivals profile for Gadbois.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/uga/football/recruiting/player-Taylor-Gadbois-119183
On a note about OL, sounds like Richt has a lot of options, as the currently OL recruits have all said they still will be coming to Athens, with or without and OL coach named before signing day. From what I have read, sounds like Coach Richt wants to have one named before signing day but who really knows. I have no idea which way CMR is leaning when it comes to the OL, one name I have read about and seems to make sense is Dave Johnson who did not have his contract reniewed after serving as OL coach the last three years at West Va. Of course he as a member of Richt's initial staff in Athens, leaving in 2007 for the WVU job. He was tight ends coach here before. I have also heard the names Robbie Caldwell, Hugh Nall, Sly Croom, Brent Key, Greg Adkins (another former UGA assistant under Coach Donnan), Matt Luke, and several others. Course there was also the rumor on the Dawgpost that Ralph Friedgen was spotted in Athens over the weekend. I checked his resume, from what I could tell, he has NEVER been an OL coach his entire career. More than likely, the big boy got hungry and wanted a good dinner, he lives pretty close to campus I have heard, I know he has a lake house on Oconee. I feel very confident that Mark Richt will find a very quality OL coach but when he makes that decision/hire is anyones guess at the moment. This is BUSY time for coaches and the head man this year seems even more involved with recruiting than ever before. I guess that is what happens when you truly feel the fire on your seat.
Back to Ray Drew for a minute, I am 100% for these kids enjoying the recruitment process. It is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for them, they get to be treated like royality for an entire weekend. I am sure they get great food, entertainment, get to hang with current players, get introduced to very attractive coeds etc. BUT, this kid, and I will call out all these people feeding the fire by checking his facebook page as well, is really annoying me. I do not have a facebook account and would never "friend" a high school kid I do not know, that seems very bizzare/scary to me. This kid evidently continues to stir the pot of his finalists by his comments on his facebook. One day he says sweet home alabama (although I don't even think Bama is one of his 5 finalists) now evidently he has WDE, as in the Auburn saying. One thing he constantly does is make negative statements about UGA. Now most say he is just doing that to mess with folks, that is fine and dandy but I can never remember a kid doing this so much before. This kid is a very spiritual young man and I can respect that but I think because that aspect of his character, his "playing the game" or "joking" really seems like odd behavior. Anyway, I will just be glad when Friday rolls around and he makes his decision-even if he selects another school, I am just ready to move on from the "jokes" on the recruiting trail. I guess I must just be getting too old to understand it all.
One more note, my son and I went to the Grayson-Brookwood hoops game on Friday night as he plays for the Grayson Athletic Association rec league and it was GAA night. It was my first high school basketball game in quite some time, think the last one was South Gwinnett-Brookwood at Gwinnett arena when Lou Williams and Mike Mercer were at SGwinnett. That is the rivalry game in my household with my wife being a South Gwinnett alum, myself Brookwood. Anyway, back to this past Friday night. It was a great game, back and forth, ended up going to OT and Grayson won. I actually now pull for Grayson since we are in the Grayson district, over my high school, funny how you can do that but I could NEVER pull against my college alma mater. Well, long story short, Grayson has a STUD football player that also plays on the hoops team. The kid, well, he is a soph in freaking high school and he is a MAN. Remember this name folks because this kid is going to be a national recruit his SR year, he led Gwinnett County in sacks this year as a soph with 19. His name is Robert Nkemdiche, 6'5" 260lbs, you know he is good as UGA, Bama and GT have already offered him. He was a good basketball player, the basketball looked like softball in his hands, he had a nice slam and probably scored about 10 points off the bench.
Ok, on to the UF basketball preview. Currently UF leads the SECe, with a 4-1 conference mark, 15-4 overall. Losses thus far, at home vs. #1 ranked Ohio State, @Central Florida, home vs. Jacksonville, and the conference loss at home vs. SCarolina. They have some good wins, @FSU (who just beat Duke last week btw), home vs. Kansas State, @Xavier, and @Tenn. What does that tell me, this team CAN and will play us tough Tuesday night. They have more losses at home than away. This is a very good team and this will provide us with a very difficult challenge because they have some talented guards but also a couple good big men in the middle. Let's look at the starters, first up leading scorer and point guard Erving Walker, averaging 13.7 pts per game, followed by shooting guard Kenny Boynton averaging 12.8 per game, center Vernon Macklin at 10.8, forward Chandler Parsons at 10 even, last is forward Alex Tyus at 9.3 but the two years previously he has been a double figure scorer, 12.5 as a soph, 11.8 as a junior. Besides Tyus, all other starters are averaging over 30 minutes per game, what does this mean, they don't turn to the bench very often. When they do, Erik Murphy leads the way at 5.9pts a game. Interesting to note, Walker is hitting nearly 42% of his threes, also to note, the kid is only 5'8" but VERY quick. Robinson likely will be defending him. Chandler Parson shoots at a nearly 37% clip from three point land, Boynton is about 30%. Macklin is a HORRIBLE free throw shooter, at 40%, but his FG percentage is 57%, so we need to be smart with him, don't get Trey, Price or Barnes in foul trouble but DO NOT let him have easy lay ups either-make him earn it. Three starters shoot FT's in the 70's while Macklin and Parsons are 50's or below.
The Gators are a team that can be really good or really bad. They have the inside/outside game that can give you fits but they have two guards in Walker and Boynton that like to shoot it. A big concern again will be rebounding. Tyus and Macklin are very good getting offensive boards and putting shots back up, Parsons also can be dangerous in that regard. The rebounding performance against Miss State was outstanding and that will need to continue for us to win this very critical game. Trey needs to step up and play big for us, maybe getting Macklin or Tyus in some foul trouble, certainly wouldn't hurt. We also need to make sure we defend this team well on the perimeter, getting hands in their faces on every shot because if left open, these guys will not miss. They do have size, a bunch of guys in the 6-8 to 6-10 range but they don't have anyone physically imposing like Ezeli from Vandy, Williams from UT or Sidney from Miss State. So, we need our big guys to body these tall lanky guys and prevent the offensive rebounding. They do not have big guards but Ware is going to have his hand full with Boynton, because I think we almost have to put Robinson on the quick Walker. I think a guy like Thornton can be a big force in this game defensively, also Williams can play against these guys maybe more than against Miss State because they are not so physically imposing. What they do have going for them however is experience. It is almost unheard of to have 3 seniors starting for a school in mens hoops. But, the Gators do with Parsons, Macklin and Tyus. Walker is a junior. SO, for maybe the first time this year, we will face a team as experienced as us with our 4 juniors and 1 senior lineup.
As I have said before and will say again, this game is crucial for us because of our schedule after this game. Because of the loss to Tenn at home, because we have @Kentucky and @Arkansas to follow, this game becomes a very pivotal game on our schedule. UF is sitting a game ahead of us, they pick up a win on our floor, not only does it put them two full games ahead of us in the east, it also means we have to win at least one more road game to finish 8-8 in conference play. This game also marks the halfway point in our home schedule, only 4 home games left, which means out of our last 10 conference games, we of course have 6 road to 4 home, then of course also the non conference game against Xavier. We have 14 wins, I still maintain the for us to be a lock to get in the tourney, we have to go 9-7 in what is viewed as a very down SEC. Yes, the east is pretty darn good but I just can't see the SEC getting more than 5 teams in the dance. It could be that all 5 come from the east but it could also be 4 from the east and 1 from the west. Simply put, I believe we need to win 6 more conference games and also the game against Xavier-that puts us at 21 wins, 9 losses, 9-7 in SEC play. I think that could get us in regardless of the SEC tourney but you never feel safe until your name is called.
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