Good morning, folks, and Happy Labor Day to all of you. We're a couple of Monday football games away from being firmly entrenched in week two of the College Football season, and it's certainly a nice feeling to know that come Saturday, we're going to get to watch our beloved Dawgs face off against a legitimate foe in Columbia, Missouri. The negative nancy in me tells me that I should be over in the corner crying thinking about how there's no way we'll return with a win if our defense plays the way they played Saturday, but then my Disney Dawg side tells me that we'll all be just fine, and that it's completely understandable that our guys looked past Buffalo in the first week. After all, Todd Grantham clearly got their attention at halftime, and the defense looked much more focused in the third quarter...so let's hope for more of that. In the meantime, we need all of our players to tighten up their approach to practice and the games, because we can't allow for another lackluster half of football against our future opponents, so without further ado, let's see if Archie Bell and the Drells can get them jumpstarted on this...
Starting things off, Kyle has a nice recap of his thoughts after the game on Saturday. Watch out for an extremely positive and jovial Kyle, ready to proclaim the Dawgs as the next national champion and stating multiple times that we have arrived, and should simply mail it in the rest of the season. (Spoiler alert: This is not what Kyle said at all).
In case you missed it, vineyarddawg wants you to know who's on notice this week, and he's looking at the folks who are calling Todd Gurley the next Herschel, in particular. I'm far from proclaiming any running back to be the next Herschel (frankly, because there never will be), but Gurley's performance was, indeed, impressive. Gurley clear has elite speed, and watching him put it into sixth gear on the kickoff return was particularly fun to watch. Seriously, click over to the video here and take a looksy...at the six second mark, Gurley clearly his the boosters and speeds though the crowd...to say I'm not excited about that would be foolish.
As usual, Senator Blutarsky has his 'Observations from the 35' posted after the showdown against the Bulls, and it serves as a great summary of where the team currently has needs and where we looked to be settled. In particular, I feel very confident about our running back situation. To be clear, that's not to say that I think the position is settled, but I'm confident that the bodies that we have in the backfield will be serviceable enough to have a legitimate running game.
Over at dogbytesonline, Marc Weiszer and company have a number of good pieces up to help jump start your week. To begin with, Marc has some quotes from Mark Richt in the weekly teleconference. Also, I'm apparently not the only one who thinks the Dawgs need to 'tighten it up' leading into week two, and there's a similarly focused Good/Bad/Ugly article at dogbytesonline as well.
Finally, as most of us would anticipate, David Paschall reports that Mark Richt is wary of the trip to Columbia this week. After the performance we all saw last week, I can certainly understand why that would be the case. The Dawgs need to tighten it up so much, I'm actually going to include a second musical selection for solely the purpose of driving home the point. Enjoy, Dawg people, and Happy Labor Day.
Oh, and, as always...Go Dawgs!