Georgia Bulldogs

Image: Lesley Onstott

Georgia defeated Wofford 13-6 at Foley Field tonight to tie the best start in school history. The Dogs will have a chance to set the record this weekend vs. Quinnipac.

How are they doing it?

“Offensively you just can’t say enough about our guys,” Perno said. “We’re playing a lot of guys and they are all coming up big for us. The depth we have really allows us to stay fresh and sharp.”

The bats are hot and everyone is getting in on it. Will they slow down? I hope Georgia is able to follow through on this early success and go deep in the post-season.

The hopes for the success of the 2009 Diamond Dogs has officially gone through the roof. They sure did get the attention of Arizona.

Image: AP

Well, well, well… the pendulum swings once again. The bottom feeding Georgia Bulldogs once again defied logic and upset the Kentucky Wildcats 90-85 in Rupp Arena tonight.

Senior Terrence Woodbury led the Dogs in the upset effort.

Woodbury’s game-high 30 points came by way of 7 of 13 from the floor, including 4 of 4 from the 3-point line, and a perfect 12 of 12 from the free throw line.

That’s the kind of night you dream about as a young baller. Going into one of the sacred temples of college hoops and nailing every three put up and being perfect from the line. Oh, and better than 50% from the floor.

No matter what the basketball future of Terrence Woodbury is he’ll always have this performance to remember his senior season by.

Coach Gillespie’s seat could now be mistaken for the surface of the sun.

Kentucky (19-11, 8-7) likely must win the SEC tournament, as Georgia did a year ago, to avoid missing the NCAAs for the first time since 1991.

So, which team shows up against South Carolina on Saturday? There will be no predictions here that’s for sure.

Image: UGASports.com

Well, after surfacing from the rarity that is two days of snow sledding in Athens, GA the first bit of news I come across is that Georgia linebackers coach John Jancek has turned down the defensive coordinator position at South Florida to remain at UGA as the defensive co-coordinator.

Linebackers coach John Jancek is the latest. A day after Jancek decided to remain at Georgia after he was offered South Florida’s defensive coordinator job, coach Mark Richt today named him defensive co-coordinator.

Willie Martinez still will run the defense for the fifth straight season and retain the title of defensive coordinator.

Didn’t see this one coming but when people want your people, they want your people. A good job by Coach Richt and the Athletic Department to do what it takes to keep Coach Jancek in Athens. Despite what anyone’s opinion of Coach Jancek is losing him at this point destabilize and/or weaken the staff.

My final bit of curiosity was addressed by the second part of the quote above. Coach Martinez will remain master of the defensive domain. The new title seems like mostly a reason for a pay bump and a nice line on the resume for Coach Jancek.

Image: AJC

In the final WTF moment of the 2008-2009 mens basketball season, Arkansas got out Daddy’s belt and gave the Dogs a good lashing.

The Dogs followed the script that was the standard for this conference season with the exception of two head-scratching games.

“I thought we got outplayed, really,” Georgia interim coach Pete Herrmann said. “Arkansas got way too many extra possessions, which means they got offensive rebounds and forced turnovers. Those are just a result of extra effort on their part.

I thought they could possibly eek out a victory against the only conference team with a record worse than their own, and be somewhat competitive in their final couple of games. It appears though, that the conference victories will certainly be capped at two.

I think everyone is looking forward to the end of this dismal chapter in the book of Georgia Basketball. Once the tourney gets going the future head basketball coach situation should really start to shake out, and we can finally start feeling good about the future of Georgia Bulldogs basketball again.

The bats stayed hot for the Diamond Dogs out in balmy Tuscon, Arizona helping Georgia deliver an impressive sweep in the three game series.

Georgia outscored Arizona 33-14 in the three games and out hit the Wildcats 49-25. The Bulldogs scored double-digits in each game of the three-game road series for just the second time ever and the first time since 1982.

The Diamond Dogs are now 8-0, one victory away from matching the best start in school history. How far back was that? How about pre-WWI era Georgia Baseball… 1911.

The Diamond Dogs will get their shot at that bit of history on Wednesday night against Wofford. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

Image: Kelly Lambert/Athens Banner-Herald

The Gym Dogs came out and gave their best performance of the year against the hated Florida Gators Saturday night to defeat them 198.200-196.650 to remain undefeated in the 2009 regular season.

Courtney Cupets sealed the deal by delivering the fourth 10 of her career.

“Courtney really grabbed a hold of that leadership role,” Yoculan said. “She really took it to heart, spent sometime thinking about it and ran all over town trying to find 15 pairs of boxing gloves. You’ve got to hand it to her. She’s definitely learned a few things from this old coach.”

With the victory Georgia tightens it’s hold on the number 1 ranking. Though, Yoculan questioned whether or not the Gym Dogs were deserving of that ranking to motivate the team for the Florida meet.

This past week, Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan challenged her seniors to emerge as leaders and voiced concern that she didn’t feel the Gym Dogs were the No. 1 team in the country, even though the rankings proved otherwise.

The Gym Dogs responded by delivering the finest performance in over a decade. Can they stay consistent and deliver a fourth straight national title to Athens?

Image: Online Athens

Chris Low over at ESPN’s SEC blog predicts Caleb King will be a break-out performer in the SEC in 2009:

Georgia tailback Caleb King: One of the most intriguing position battles next season in the SEC will be the Georgia starting tailback job. The front-runner is King, although Richard Samuel will also be a big part of the rotation. But with Knowshon Moreno gone and after so much hype about his potential, this is the 5-foot-11, 212-pound King’s time to shine and he knows it. He rushed for just 247 yards on 61 carries last season, but Moreno was the centerpiece of the Georgia running game. Here’s betting that King seizes this opportunity during his junior season and showcases what kind of back he really is behind an offensive line that should be one of the strengths of the team in 2009.

This is the second time I’ve noticed this discussion come up in the last few days. First pondered by the awesome Bubba n’ Earl a few days ago.

If King is going to separate himself in the crowded backfield early 2009 is certainly the time to do it. As mentioned in the excerpt Richard Samuel will miss the spring with a wrist injury and leave the door wide open for King to solidify his grip on the starting spot.

I really thought King would wow us a little more last year after showing such promise early on but he disappeared completely after the botched blocking assignment in the Florida game.

I like his slippery style though but I hope that he can get a little better at moving the pile forward. His moves and vision seem excellent though he often he seems to go down at first contact.

There is no doubt though, the ball is in his court. What will it be?

The Georgia Diamond Dogs ventured out west and used their bats to mete out a little punishment on the Arizona Wildcats. They defeated Arizona 11-5 Friday night.

When it came to scoring runs, lots of Bulldogs joined the party.

Nine different players had at least one hit for Georgia (6-0) including Johnathan Taylor, Rich Poythress, Bryce Massanari and Lyle Allen with two apiece. Poythress drove in three runs and Fuller and Allen had two RBI each.

Coach Perno was thoroughly pleased with the team effort.

“It was a great effort tonight all around,” said head coach David Perno. “We threw a bunch of strikes and Trevor was really good. We got off to a great start, ran their starter out of the game and got to their bullpen. (Will) Harvil was tremendous for us and (Justin) Earls got a big out for us. We did a tremendous job and I’m very proud of our team tonight. We did a good job of answering everything they had.”

Game 2 of the 3 game series will begin tonight at 8 p.m. ET.

Image: Athens Banner Herald

Jeff Owens gets into the Mount Rushmore thing by naming his Top 5 Favorite Dawgs of all-time. It’s pretty interesting because he selects two all-time greats in Herschel and Champ, but the other three are guys that he’s played with.

Check it out. I loved reading about his second-favorite dawg, Knowshon Moreno.

I’m not being biased just because I played three years with him, but he is the best running back I have ever played with. In 2005 when he came to the UGA camp, he was the best back at the camp. I did not know he would make an impact like the way he did, but he was a beast the first day he put pads on! In 2006 fall camp

Man, reading that makes you want to hop in a time machine and convince Coach Richt to throw Knowshon into the mix as a true freshmen. May have not put the Dogs in the mix for a championship but could have at least enabled them to get to ten wins. Ah well, hindsight and all.

This is good stuff on Greg Blue.

To me, the fifth greatest player is Greg Blue. I got the opportunity to play with Greg Blue my freshman year. I saw him run through people. In practice, the coach would not let him tackle because they feared he would hurt someone.

Yeah, Greg Blue had his flaws but I sure do miss that fear factor he brought when he walked out onto the field. It was awesome and is sorely missed.

Jeff’s also been busy talking to ESPN.com’s SEC blogger Chris Low and publishing a new player Q & A with Trinton Sturdivant.