Caleb King, Two Others Ruled Academically Ineligible for Liberty Bowl
by Anthony Pace on Dec 27, 2010 6:49 PM EST
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PrintWith 2010 hanging on by a thread, this is totally unsurprising:
The Georgia Bulldogs arrived in Memphis on Sunday without three players, including tailback Caleb King, who are academically ineligible for Friday afternoon's Liberty Bowl against Central Florida.
King's absence caps a subpar year for the 5-foot-11, 217-pound junior, who missed four games during Georgia's 6-6 regular season. An ankle injury caused him to miss September losses to South Carolina and Arkansas, and he was suspended for October victories over Vanderbilt and Kentucky as the result of missing a court date this past summer to address a speeding ticket.
"We've played some games without him before, and we'll do it again," Bulldogs coach Mark Richt told reporters in Memphis.
The Bulldogs are scheduled to practice this morning at Memphis University School.
Also ineligible for the bowl are redshirt sophomore offensive tackle A.J. Harmon and freshman cornerback Derek Owens. Harmon played in four games this season, the four Georgia won by 25 or more points (Louisiana-Lafayette, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Idaho State).
Owens saw action in all 12 games, mostly on special teams. His biggest play was recovering an Eric Gordon fumble midway through the first quarter of the 41-14 win over the Volunteers.
Harmon and Owens failed to meet the NCAA's requirement of passing six semester hours in order to compete in the postseason. Richt said King's ineligibility is university-related, specifically that he violated class attendance policy as well as academic appointments.
"Caleb had missed his fifth academic appointment," Richt told reporters. "He won't be at the bowl. He won't be here."
All three have a chance to be in good standing by the start of spring practice.
Festivus is over, but I won't hold it against you if you want to air your grievances. It should be noted that King wasn't overwhelmingly featured in the offense this year, being handed just under 19% of the team's carries and pulling in 430 yards with a pair of touchdowns. Indeed, he was clearly relegated behind Washaun Ealey as the season progressed, but having our second-leading rusher out against the nation's 10th-ranked rush defense isn't a good thing.
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Agreed, but . . .
. . . I’m much more worried about the loss of Shaun Chapas than I am about the loss of Caleb King. Despite having had ample opportunities to do so, King never made the tailback spot his own, but Chapas’s absence as a lead blocker is apt to be felt.
You’re right about UCF’s rush defense, but the Knights’ pass defense is significantly worse. If we win this game, we’re going to win it throwing the ball. We don’t need Washaun Ealey to hit triple digits; we just need to be able to run the ball well enough to keep the defense honest.
Go 'Dawgs!
It doesn't matter. We won't be able to run the ball with or without these players.
We haven’t all year. Why would that change now? I’m more concerned with how Air Force held GT to 7 pts. I find that fact a nice mixture of interesting and pathetic.
The Pillar of Pessimism, the Narrator of Negativity, and the Dictator of Doubt is here to rain on your Utopian Parade.
I wouldn't read too much into it.
To the extent that the triple option succeeds in 2010, it is because it is an unconventional offense that teams see very infrequently. Think about how well Georgia Southern runs the ball on Georgia when the Bulldogs play the Eagles; that game almost never indicates how well or poorly the Red and Black will fare against the run.
Air Force runs the triple option and plays annual rivalry games against Army and Navy, who also run the triple option. If there’s any team in America that knows how the option works, and how to prevent it from working, it’s the Falcons.
Also, Georgia Tech turned it over umpteen times, which can have a pretty big impact on a team’s scoring.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Dec 29, 2010 10:33 AM EST up reply actions
Well, as usual, you did a great job of making me feel better. I'd say you wrapped up the interesting part...
of the mixture really well. Now, if someone can just help me deal with the pathetic part. No matter how pretty we dress it up, the deodorant isn’t working and the smell is getting louder every game.
The Pillar of Pessimism, the Narrator of Negativity, and the Dictator of Doubt is here to rain on your Utopian Parade.
Don't get me wrong; we did a poor job . . .
. . . of playing defense against Georgia Tech. I’d be more worried about that fact if (a) Todd Grantham hadn’t spent the last decade or so coaching in the NFL, and (b) we didn’t have a good recent example (in Alabama) of an SEC team improving dramatically between years one and two of a shift to the 3-4. Our defense showed considerable progress this year, but, unfortunately, after a four-year free-fall, progress initially involves merely arresting the decline. The Georgia D is not good, but, for the first time in a long time, it is moving in the right direction. We aren’t there yet, but we’re getting there. The 2008 and 2009 Bulldogs weren’t as good as their records suggested; the 2010 Bulldogs are better than their wins and losses indicate.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Dec 29, 2010 11:10 PM EST up reply actions
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