News and notes

Today it is official, Kirk Olivadotti is the new inside LB coach at UGA. Here is a link to read a few quotes about the hiring.

http://dogbytesonline.com/georgia-makes-olivadotti-hiring-official-42406/

Course this looks to be a great hire, it does leave you to wonder why a guy that spent 11 years in  the NFL would leave to take a lateral looking position. As far as I know, Olivadotti has no ties to Georgia, I know he was a HS athlete in Florida as his Dad worked for the Dolphins. He went to college at Purdue. Former UGA player and current Redskin Phillip Daniels said this was a great hire-this guy has worked with a lot of good defensive minds, of course his Dad was a longtime NFL defensive coach/coordinator. LB is a key position for us this upcoming year, we have talent there but not a lot of experience. Hopefully this guy can coach those guys up because they are going to have the chance to make a LOT of plays this fall.

Baseball team opens up today at Stetson, as I mentioned before, Stetson is no light weight team. They annually make the NCAA tourney and have a solid program-most programs in Florida are good because there are so many good baseball players in that state and the surrounding states, the weather allows them to play almost year around. Below I have posted a series of articles from the Athens paper so you can check them out to catch up on what is going on with the baseball team. They have some good players returning and signed a good looking class that is coming in, hopefully they will revert back to CWS form and not have another dreadful season like last year.

http://dogbytesonline.com/perno-adds-to-group-of-new-players-38826/

http://dogbytesonline.com/bulldog-trio-among-top-2011-mlb-draft-prospects-40866/

http://dogbytesonline.com/bulldogs-over-last-years-nightmare-season-as-preseason-practice-begins-41701/

http://dogbytesonline.com/pitchers-put-2010-behind-them-42400/

Great job by Coach Andy Landers and his Lady Dogs, beating 19th ranked Kentucky Wildcats 69-51, improving to 20-6, and 10-3 in SEC play. Landers now has 26 twenty wins seasons in his 32 year career in Athens, the team is now sitting alone in second place in the SEC behind only Tennessee, who the Lady Dogs will play Monday in Knoxville, UT is 24-2 and 12-0 in the SEC.

Speaking of Knoxville, that is where the mens team will be tomorrow. Of course the last time the two teams met, UT got a last second put back from Brian Williams to steal the win in Athens. That play was reviewed to see if he beat the buzzer which of course gave everyone many chances to view the obvious no call of Briam Williams over the back of Chris Barnes. UT has not been playing well lately although they did win their last time out against SCarolina at home. If you look at who they have beat in conference play, the win against us was probably their best win. Other wins, home against Vandy by 3, home vs. LSU, @Miss, @AU, and then home vs. SCarolina. They have lost to Arkansas on the road, Florida at home, Bama at home, at Kentuck and at Florida. All together, they have lost 5 games at home this year, so much like us, they have not been stellar at home. Course a big key to stopping UT is slowing down Scotty Hopson, their best scorer and then also Brian Williams who got the huge put back last time. Another key for them will be the play of Tobias Harris. I can't recall the last time we won in Knoxville so let's just say I will be surprised if we win this game but certainly a win Saturday or next Thursday in Gainesville would do wonders for our team. Let's hope we can keep it close and then steal one back from the ugly orange tomorrow. Game is on CBS at 1pm.