Usually, as the temperature rises and the preseason magazines hit the newsstands, I have to temper my expectations regarding the coming season. This year, I find myself in a different place entirely; the closer we get to football season, the more dour I become. If you forced me to make a prediction right now, I’d say the Georgia Bulldogs are going to go 8-4 this fall, and the odds of that prognostication going anywhere but down are slim, indeed.

Accordingly, I regarded this Twitter update from David Hale as no better than neutral:

Josh Davis says Boling should be back practicing today. Bean Anderson has practiced w/ D line. Trinton making good progress.

Likewise, I became concerned when I read this statement:

Murray doing "shoulder maintenance" work to make sure his arm doesn't get hurt again and won't overload his arm by throwing too much now.

I proceeded thereafter to become downright worried by this declaration:

Murray says Gray is "mixing (receiver) in between" workouts. Says Gray not favoring one or the other right now between QB and WR.

Nevertheless, I managed to find this report reassuring:

Murray says he plans to get together with David Greene to learn how to handle life as a freshman QB.

Even so, the only news of the day I found genuinely encouraging came not from David Hale, but from Doug Gillett:

I'm back . . . and you may all consider yourselves iced.

I’m glad to have you back, Doug, but, really, since your collegiate eligibility has expired and your prospects as a Division I-A quarterback probably were pretty meager even when you were an undergraduate, I’m basically just taking solace in having a fellow blogger with whom to commiserate in the fall. It probably ought to depress me that I find that thought uplifting.

Go ‘Dawgs!