First of all, before I get to Gday, again, the baseball team couldn't rely on pitching to help them win the series against the Gators. They started in an 4-0 hole before even coming to bat yesterday, battled back to take a 7-6 lead only to see the bullpen implode and lost 14-7. I think what we are finding out about the baseball team this year, we have two pretty good starters and the rest, well, as Forrest Gump would say about a box of chocolates, "you never know what you are going to get" and that would describe the rest of our pitching staff. The offense is not like it has been in previous Omaha years but that being said, they are fiesty and capable of scrapping away at some good pitchers. But, our pitchers have to do a better job-especially in throwing strikes. I am surprised Coach Perno is not solid white hair or bald, sitting in that dugout watching his pitchers walk batter after batter. Anyway, UF is a very good team, ranked #4 and while we didn't win the series, other than yesterday all games were close late, we lost one close one and won a close one. Next up, Clemson in Athens Wed night, followed by a weekend series in Knoxville.
The Gym Dogs didn't make the Super 6, which would have allowed them to compete for the national title. Say what you want about Suzanne Yoculan but I think we are all seeing that she was a great coach. Nothing against Jay Clark but he has been coach for two years and the results have NOT been good. Last year didn't even qualify for the national title event, this year, lost out in day one so didn't even have a shot at it. The caliber of gymnast is still high so you have to look at the coaching I am afraid. Check this stat out-
Georgia had qualified for the Super Six 17 straight times before failing to reach nationals last season.
At least there was one good story on the gymnastics front, junior Kat Ding would the individual national title on the uneven bars.
The men and women's tennis teams both lost to Tennessee, while the softball team swept Ole Miss over the weekend. Ok, enough on the others sports, lets get back to Gday.
As is usually the case, I thought the game was pretty bland overall. I did however like the 4th quarter, that seemed to be when they started really playing-like the game really did matter to them and both sides really did want to win. Let's start with who I thought impressed. First of all, I would have to say Aaron Murray looked very sharp, listed as 12-17 for about 120 so yards. He also threw a beauty of a pass that our young receiver Conley let go through his hands-perfectly thrown ball. So, Murray looked really sharp and comfortable. I also though Hutson Mason played well for the most part. Completed about half his passes for just over 100 yards but really looked composed under center. If not for the last drive of the game by LeMay, I think it would have been 100% cystal clear that Mason is our solid #2 QB. I have since read that Mason is not sure if he will be headed for a redshirt year or not-that would give him a year of class seperation from Murray. I guess my thought process is this, if the coaches think LeMay is indeed the QB of the future, is it not better for LeMay to have TWO years of seperation and then Mason essentially becomes a career backup-of course that could lead to him leaving the program if he is not happy accepting that role. I am sure this is something the coaches are going to give a lot of thought to over the coming months. As for the play of the RB's, I like Malcome the best because he had some nice size/power about him. King did ok at times but was playing behind the #2 line. Carlton Thomas was the leading rusher but I continue to say, he is NOT an SEC caliber back and needs to find himself as maybe captain of the special teams. Nothing against Carlton at all, I have just seen enough of him to know he is not the answer at TB. It needs to be Crowell, King, Ealey and Malcome fighting for carries period. As for the WR's, TKing looks great, we really need someone to step up there and I think the best looking WR not named King on Saturday was named Smith-I have been saying I think he should move to offense and he backed my thought process up in Gday. He looked a lot bigger to me on Saturday-arm wise as he had a nice stiff arm on his TD run in which he just simply caught a flat pass and outran everyone to the endzone. Of course from all accounts he is playing a much better corner this spring as well but he is such a weapon with the ball in his hands-but the #1 is going to cause some issues since Crowell will also be wearing #1 in the fall. Would be nice if we could talk one of those guys into wearing a different number so we could have both on the field at the same time. I thought Marlon Brown looked pretty good as did Michael Bennett-both as possession receivers although I still think both have enough speed to run the field. Of course Charles looked great as usual and I truly suspect he will split out a lot as a hybrid TE. Lynch-wow, dude has OL type arms-HUGE. He looks like a very good football player to me, Aron White also, if we do NOT use a double TE set a lot this year, and actually use these guys, we are crazy. I also liked Zander Ogletree at FB-I think he will be a player there. As for the OL, I think our starting 5 or 6 will be solid, after that I am a little concerned. However, I do think they will do better than our group last year-I honestly do.
As for the D, what can you say about Kwame Geathers except-WOW, he had a great game and Mr. Jenkins better come ready to work or he will not be starting. We all know the Geathers name and how the other two brothers have been very good college players, looks like baby brother is going to end up being a force himself. Remember, he was on the black team, which means he was going against the bulk of the starting OL. Also, I thought Derrick Lott, Faloughi, Jarvis Jones, Richard Samuel, Chase Vasser and TREE-wow, he was cracking heads out there on Saturday. I thought the walkon safety-Connor Norman from Peachtree Ridge HS, looks to be a real help on special teams and as a reserve DB-that INT was spectacular. Bottom line, I am really encouraged about our front 7 this year, and considering a lot of our secondary didn't play in the game, I can say that I also think the secondary should be much improved-but of course it all starts with the DL and I that is where I think we will see the most drastic improvement because of the NG-Geathers and Jenkins being able to clog the middle-our DE's and all LB's are so fast/athletic and strong, I think they will really benefit from those two big guys in the middle making life tough on the C and G's.
Overall I take away from spring that our current players are fighting hard and hopefully they will stay united this summer, stay out of trouble and then our recruiting class will come in and push the current players even harder. I think our days of feeling entitled are over, 8-5 and 6-7 should get that out of your system but if not, a group of very talented kids that don't know any better than to think they can come in and start day 1 will get your attention-no way does an upperclass player want a young kid to come in and take their spot so it is going to make those guys focus and work even harder. I can't begin to predict how the season will go, those first two games will be huge in determining just how far we can go this season but let's just say, there is no way I will believe that Boise State or South Carolina has as much football talent as we have in Athens. If our coaches and players can get that talent to shine on the playing field, I firmly believe we start the season 2-0 and probably would then move into the top 10-15.
One last note, it appears arrest warrants have been issued for three kids involved in theft at the Butts-Mehre building a couple weeks back. Unfortunately, the three are from Carver-Columbus, the pipeline school in the making for UGA-same school as Jarvis Jones and Crowell, and one of the three is a talented DB that we were in the lead for the class of 2012. Here is a little more on it from the Athens paper-
Three students from Carver High School in Columbus that were “guests” of the Georgia football program were named in arrest warrants issued last week for thefts of property from the team’s locker room.
Deion Jay Bonner, Marquise T. Hawkins and an unnamed juvenile are identified in the warrants, according to information provided this morning by University of Georgia police.
Bonner,18, is a recruit named to the Rivals 250 watch list. He has offers from Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, South Carolina and others.
Hawkins, 17, is listed as a quarterback on his Scout.com profile. He is being charged as an adult. The third person accused is listed as 16 years old.
UGA police chief Jimmy Williamson wasn’t certain this morning if the accused had already been arrested. He said they were “over here visiting. They were down in the football area and they were guests of football operations.”
Seven Georgia football players said they had iPhones, IPods and other devices valued at $1,330 stolen from their locker in the Butts-Mehre building on April 7 during an open house at the renovated building. Search warrants were served in Muscogee County and some of the stolen property was able to recovered.
“I understand that we recovered all the iPods, but we didn’t recover the iPhones,” Williamson said. “They had already been sold and changed hands several times.”
What a shame but unfortunately, these three kids can be crossed off the list of UGA recruits now. They might still go to another school and have success but as far as I am concerned, they need to do it at another school and not UGA.
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