Thursday Night Dawg Bites

Egad! It's Thursday night already and spring is busting out all over, with plenty of news to report for all you sports fans out there and, frankly, I don't even think there's time enough to slow down and offer a proper introduction, so just buckle up, hang on, and dive in, because here's what you need to know for now:

• The Bulldogs' spring football awards have been announced, headlined by Quintin Banks, Rennie Curran, and Knowshon Moreno winning the Coffee County Hustle Award. When two defensive players and a tailback are taking home the Coffee County Hustle Award, the Red and Black are in for a good season, as I have argued and Fanblogs has noted.
• As you know, everyone in Bulldog Nation was flabbergasted by the news of Herschel Walker's multiple personality disorder. I'm going to follow Paul Westerdawg's lead on this one, except to say that (a) this sounds extremely reasonable to me and (b) we wish Herschel always and only the best.
• Which Yellowhammer State school features the most egregious spellers? Auburn fans broke out the big guns on this one, but Alabama fans came back with the nuclear option. It's a pretty entertaining back and forth, although it raises the question why we're the ones who are accused of being "spelling-challenged" just because we write the word "dog" phonetically.

We can spell it correctly; we merely choose not to do so.

• Georgia fans want the Bulldogs to play U.C.L.A. U.C.L.A. fans want the Bruins to play Georgia. This summer, we're going to do what we can to make this happen. Stay tuned.
• Dawgaddict asked about it a while back, but the F-Bomb will keep his promise and shave his moustache tomorrow, prompting questions about the efficacy of facial hair as a means to victory. You know where I stand, but Bulldog Nation begged to differ: when asked what sort of facial hair they would be sporting for the 2008 football season, 39 of 103 respondents (37.9%) insisted upon being wholly rational, unimaginatively concluding that their faces would remain follicle-free because it wouldn't affect Georgia's national championship chances. 32 others (31.1%) went all in, opting for a full beard, and another 14 (13.6%) went with the mirror-universe Spock-style goatee. Seven voters (6.8%) declined to grow facial hair by reason of being female and four more (3.9%) reached the same decision by virtue of being too young, leading me to believe I had overestimated the youth of my readership while underestimating the distaff representation among Dawg Sports regulars. Natty-looking sideburns were the preferred form of facial hair on five ballots (4.9%), whereas the moustache and the soul patch garnered one vote each (1.0%), which probably says something about the relative lack of hipness of frequent visitors to this weblog.
• I don't know about you, but I'm gearing up for a Sugar Bowl win, an N.C.A.A. tournament bid, and a College World Series appearance all in the same school year and DarinSmith is, too. Meanwhile, Georgia currently is seeking a third national equestrian title, is ranked No. 1 in men's golf and No. 7 in women's golf, has placed five swimmers and divers on the S.E.C. all-freshman teams, has produced five all-conference players from a men's tennis team that holds the top seed in the S.E.C. tournament and four all-conference players from a women's tennis team seeded second in the league tourney, and is gearing up for a run at a fourth straight national gymnastics championship. See? I told you this was the premiere athletics program in the S.E.C.! (Also, my thanks go out to reader Andrew for the e-mail alert informing me that we are not alone in thinking Georgia has the best football coach, too.)

Mark Richt is the best coach in the conference? That gets a thumbs-up from me.

• You already knew about the fate that met the Gators' national championship trophy and how a would-be Florida recruit broke the crystal football with his behind, but did you know how the Orange and Blue fixed their damaged bauble? Now you do.
• I'd already spotted this on the Dawg Sports sitemeter, but my thanks go out to dawggone for pointing out the fact that we got a mention at Sports Illustrated's On Campus. You'll have to scroll down past the U.S.C. Song Girls to see it. No, seriously, scroll down past the Song Girls. Yeah, O.K., I get it; they're good-looking college girls in midriff-exposing cheerleading uniforms, now scroll down, already! Ah, to heck with it; just go look at the Song Girls for all I care.
• Randomterrace thinks David Pollack's jersey ought to be retired. Should No. 47 be placed alongside Nos. 21, 34, 40, and 62? No, really, I'm asking.

Everybody who wants to retire Pollack's number, raise your hands.

That's all the news that's fit to print, so I'll let you go for now. I'll be back tomorrow night with the first game of the Diamond Dogs' series with L.S.U. in Baton Rouge. Have a good weekend.

Go 'Dawgs!