Welcome, Georgia Bulldogs Fans! This . . . Is Dawg Sports.

Welcome to Dawg Sports!

Right about now, many of you are thinking, "Uh, thanks, Kyle, but . . . I come here all the time, dude." While that may be true enough---and thank you for your patronage and participation, by the way---there also are new folks dropping in on a regular basis, so, with college football season about to get underway, and with so much of interest going on here at the site as well as out in the world, I thought this would be an opportune time to inform new visitors and remind regular guests what we’re all about here.

This site came to be in a roundabout way. Technically, it all started in 1999, when my brother-in-law, Travis Rice, and I began our six-year run as the co-hosts of "The Dawg Show" on local cable access in Henry County. Because it was a 30-minute show that aired only locally, a lot of material was prepared that went unused or unavailable to a wider audience. Eventually, I began sharing that excess material with friends and family via e-mail, and, over time, the list of recipients grew, as friends of friends asked to have their addresses added.

Eventually, those e-mails began finding their way into the in-basket of the Georgia Sports Blog’s Paul Westerdawg, who wrote to me and said, "You should start a weblog." I replied, "What’s a weblog?" In due course, I learned what a weblog was, and, in July 2005, I started Kyle on Football. At the invitation of Burnt Orange Nation’s Peter Bean, I joined SB Nation on February 22, 2006, when Dawg Sports became the network’s sixth college site. (Of the five previously existing college blogs, three have since "gone dark" and been replaced by other blogs for those teams, so this is SB Nation’s third-oldest continuously-operating college weblog.)

A little over a year later, MaconDawg joined me here, and, after initially being added to the masthead as the resident "house mother," podunkdawg was joined by DavetheDawg, Ludakit, NCT, RedCrake, tankertoad, and vineyarddawg in being upgraded to author status, while hailtogeorgia, Mr. Sanchez, The Quincy Carter of Accountants, and Spears were promoted to serve as moderators. These latest moves were discussed on the most recent edition of "The Dawg Gone Podcast," which is hosted and produced by Kit Kitchens, and is just one of the many media by which you may enjoy what we do here at Dawg Sports. You also are free to follow us on Twitter, Facebook (which we are still in the process of getting set up, so your patience is appreciated), and the SB Nation iPhone app.

To get the short course on who we are and why we do what we do, I would direct you here, here, here, and here. If you’re confused by what appears to be an inside joke, please feel free to ask for a clarification, or try looking here for an explanation.

We meet up every fall to watch an away game together, at an event we call the Annual Sacrificial Goat Roast, though no actual goats are harmed in the course of this event. This year, we will meet at the Blind Pig Tavern in Athens for the Georgia-Vanderbilt game on October 15, and you are free to RSVP.

You also are encouraged to share news tidbits of various sorts in the fanshots, offer more detailed observations in the fanposts, join in the conversation in the comments, use the "Rec" button to express approval for quality comments and postings, and, where warranted, use the "Flag" button to call attention to inappropriate comments and postings.

If you’re unsure about something, feel free to ask. We are committed to making the Dawg Sports community your on-line home for Georgia Bulldogs news, commentary, analysis, and, perhaps most important of all, conversation. We ask simply that you keep the discourse at a civilized level, and act at all times as though your mother was going to read what was written here.

We’re glad to have you here, and we welcome all lurkers and newcomers into the fold as we prepare for another exciting autumn between the hedges.

Go ‘Dawgs!