Archive for March, 2009

Top-ranked Georgia held off Clemson in a 6-5 victory over the Tigers at Foley Field tonight. Dean Weaver got the final out with the tying run on first.

All in all Coach Perno thought the Dogs did just enough.

“We were good enough to win tonight,” Georgia coach David Perno said. “They had better pitching; he was a weekend starter for them, but I was proud of our guys. We need more out of the offense in the future. I didn’t see the fire.”

The Diamond Dogs push their record to 23-3. Clemson will get another shot at the top team in the land tomorrow night at 7:00pm. The game will will be televised by CSS.

Any win over Clemson is always more than just a win.

Mike Anderson has agreed to stay at Missouri.

Missouri has signed head coach Mike Anderson to a new seven-year contract, athletic director Mike Alden told ESPN.com Tuesday night.

“We are excited Coach Anderson is going to be at the University of Missouri for a long time,” Alden said in a statement. “He’s done a tremendous job rebuilding our basketball tradition and is poised to lead our program to new heights in the coming years.”

What next? Sicemdawgs has some thoughts.

With the money Georgia is offering, hopefully they will attract attention from Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel, unless a private denial has already been issued. Other top coaches to consider should be Xavier’s Sean Miller, Villanova’s Jay Wright and Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon. Some “realistic” candidates include UNLV’s Lon Kruger, Baylor’s Scott Drew and Butler’s Brad Stevens.

Let’s hope Evans and company surprise everyone and haul in a name from the first part of that list.

LINKS:

• Mike Anderson to stay at Missouri – AJC
• GEORGIA BACK TO CAPEL – FOX Sports
• Where Do We Go From Here? – Bulldogs Blog

UPDATE 2: The AJC has spoken to Anderson’s agent and he says that Anderson has not been offered the job.

“Georgia hasn’t offered him the job,” Sexton said. “I wish they had. They haven’t said the job is his.”

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UPDATE: @ajcsportseditor has tweeted:

ESPN is wrong: Anderson has not been offered the UGA job, his agent says. Details coming on ajc.com/sports.

If it’s true I hope this isn’t hurting our chances.

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ESPN is now reporting that Georgia has extended an official offer to current Missouri Tiger basketball coach Mike Anderson.

Georgia officials have offered the 49-year-old Anderson a multiyear contract that would pay him more than $2 million per season, according to sources. He would replace Dennis Felton, who was fired Jan. 29 after going 84-91 record in six seasons at Georgia.

Now, the ball is in Anderson’s court.

Anderson, who led the Tigers to a school-record 31 victories and the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament this season, spoke to Georgia athletics director Damon Evans on Monday, according to multiple sources, and is back home pondering his future.

Chip Towers most recent piece on Georgia’s search for a head basketball coach isn’t exactly positive. Essentially when UK got the hatchet out for Billy G. it dropped a big blue turd in Georgia’s punch bowl.

Kentucky’s late entry into the competition for candidates —- it fired Billy Gillispie on Friday —- appears to have cast a Big Blue shadow on the proceedings. Numerous reports Monday had the Wildcats zeroing in on Memphis coach John Calipari. If that happens, that creates another formidable competitor for Georgia in the marketplace. The Tigers reportedly were paying Calipari about $3 million per season.

Despite their recent slide Kentucky is now demonstrating their commitment to climb back up onto college basketball’s top shelf. That means they’re going after a proven winner at big time program, like Calipari, which creates formidable competition for the Dogs in their quest to land their coveted coaching prospect.

It seems what’s being said by the article is “get ready for a coach who isn’t Mike Anderson or Jeff Capel.”

David Hale has a nice update on his blog that suggests that scenario may be more likely than most Georgia folks want to believe.

The other rumors… well, until they can be classified as something more than that, I’m not going to print them. I will say, however, that there is at least one name out there that I’m fairly certain has gotten attention from UGA that isn’t Jeff Capel or Mike Anderson.

The question moving forward is… “Who is the mystery man?”

University of Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans was in Atlanta meeting with agent Jimmy Sexton, who just happens to be the agent for Missouri Coach Mike Anderson.

Jimmy Sexton, Anderson’s agent, is in Atlanta visiting with Damon Evans, Georgia’s athletic director. Sexton told FOX13 Sports that he had no comment.

Apparently UK is pulling no punches in the pursuit of Calipari and he will be Lexington bound sooner rather than later. That will leave Memphis and Georgia to compete for Anderson’s services.

Good news for Georgia is that Anderson is likely to consider the move to Memphis, a Conference USA program, a lateral move at best.

It appears that this will all be unfolding rapidly this week so stay tuned for a week of drama.

To catch the news as it breaks be sure to follow @gabulldogdotcom on Twitter.

Via Georgia Sports Blog.

Image: Mike Johnson

Georgia barely held on 4-3 in Knoxville today to complete their second straight conference sweep.

Top-ranked Georgia used a four run fifth highlighted by a two-run home run by Joey Lewis to complete a sweep of Tennessee with a 4-3 victory Sunday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Bulldogs improved to 24-3 overall and won their seventh straight SEC game to move to 7-2 in league action.

A sweep, on the road in the SEC is always an achievement. There will be no time to pat themselves on the back though as the Diamond Dogs will play a quick home and home against the Clemson Tigers starting on Tuesday at 7:00pm at Foley Field.

Image: Eric Eley

After defeating Tennessee 11-9 the Diamond Dogs are one win away from their second consecutive sweep of a conference opponent.

It’s looking like Jonathan Crompton will be the number one quarterback for Team Kiffin.

Football on the Brain doesn’t see what’s so awful about playing the Georgia-Florida game in Atlanta once every four years. I know it’s unpopular, and will probably never happen anyway, but I agree. Let the Gayturds endure the logistics of an away game and have it called “neutral” every now and then. Sheesh.

Nick Montana, son of NFL legend Joe Montana, told the AJC he is serious about playing the for the Dawgs. There are lots of reasons but he really likes the Georgia’s style of offense and it doesn’t hurt that we’re about to be able to lay claim to the first selection in the 2009 NFL draft.

The Macon Telegraph knows that despite losing two first rounders off of the offense, in 2009 it will be all about the defense.

In a conversation with the AJC’s Jeff Schultz former UGA basketball coach Hugh Durham talks about the great opportunity Georgia hoops represents for the next man to occupy the top job.

On the subject of basketball, Georgia Sports Blog profiles the new favorite to be leading the Dogs onto the hardcourt next year, Missouri’s Mike Anderson.

Jeff Owens is back in a blogging mood lately. His latest post, an ode to the Bulldog Nation, is well worth a read.

While 49ers legend Joe Montana was cruising around Athens with his son, his former team said they’d probably pass on Stafford based on some cockamamie psychobabble. Bizarre.

Bubba ‘n Earl have a great post on restoring the Clemson rivalry. I say “no thanks”. We’ve already got a permanent ACC opponent and a neutral field game gumming up the schedule. One every ten years or so for the novelty is just right.

Have a great Sunday. Enjoy the sunshine and Go Diamond Dogs!

Georgia caught fire in the early innings of Friday night’s series opening win versus the Tennessee Volunteers.

Thanks to a spate of early home runs, Georgia jumped out to an 11-0 lead against Tennessee on Friday before settling for a 12-6 win in the opener of a three-game series.

What is there to say about the Diamond Dogs? They’re on quite a tear. Based on what we’ve seen since the last game of the Alabama series I tend to thing the Vols have about as much chance as my bracket has in the office pool.

It’s just too bad the game against the hearts of darkness got cancelled on Wednesday.

It appears that we fans weren’t the only ones who felt the frustration of the lackluster kickoff coverage last year. It seemed like If they didn’t give up excellent field position the ball was going out of bounds for the flag.

Apparently it was irking the big guy as well.

Georgia announced Thursday that it had signed kicker Brandon Bogotay, a junior college transfer from San Diego, who only began playing football midway through his senior year in high school.

But what I like most about Richt is that he isn’t too stubborn and gets aggressive in the off-season about the problems from the previous campaign. In this instance, he has two kickers on scholly and he went out and got a third because they weren’t getting the job done.

“My goal as head coach is to make sure that we’re better than we were a year ago, and we feel he gives us a chance to do that,” Richt said. “If we get the exact same production that we got a year ago, did we really get better? I felt like we saw enough that this guy can help us be better, and that’s what you want.”

DawgsOnline and Marc Weiszer have additional info on the story.

Well, life has done it’s thing and slowed down the pace of the blog so keep an eye on the GeorgiaBulldog.com twitter feed for all of the latest Georgia Buldogs info. You can see the latest updates (or tweets) in the right margin of the site also.

What is the deal with Anthony Grant? Looks like he is probably stringing out UGA and Alabama until UK figures out if they are going to move beyond the Gillespie era in Lexington. My guess is that they are and that’s why Grant is so determined to know that piece of the puzzle before he makes his move.

Lane Kiffin keeps popping up everywhere, thank God. After being told that the Tennessee “T” was plastered throughout the locker room as a reminder of his insults, he responded by saying that he was happy to get the free advertising. He needs to ask the Dogs what it feels like to have been the target of Urban Meyer’s off-season motivational obsession. Oh, and check him out in this video… he even looks like a tool. Nice visor Lane!

Macon.com’s Daid Hale has been busy churning out the content. Most recently he reports on Georgia’s “luke warm” Tuesday practice. He also has some breaking info on Anthony Grant and Alabama.

Jeff Owens has been busy tapping away on his iPhone screen and produced a nice post on how much he missed being on the field with his teammates.

The young Georgia corners feel they’re being tested by the top receiver in the land. I agree.

When it’s Georgia and Georgia Tech rankings don’t matter.

Bernie has a great post that Dad’s everywhere will appreciate.