Saturday Afternoon Dawg Bites: Preseason Anticipation Edition

Much as MaconDawg brought you the news on Georgia's latest football commitment, so too did I feel moved to alert you to these items of interest:

• "Dawg Days" are coming to the Cobb Galleria Centre on July 30. The social hour gets underway at 5:30 p.m. and the program of the evening is scheduled to commence at 7:00 p.m. Among those slated to appear are Mark Richt, Damon Evans, Suzanne Yoculan, and Manuel Diaz.
• While we're on the subject of Coach Richt, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer's top-notch Georgia beat reporter, David Ching, has an extended interview with Coach Richt up on his weblog. It's long, but it's worth taking the time to read. Also worth noting is Jay Holgate's recent piece on Coach Richt at the S.E.C. Sports Report.

For my money, there's no such thing as too much media coverage of Coach Richt.

• Whether you park behind Stegeman Coliseum or in downtown Athens, there's no excuse for arriving in the Classic City on a game day not knowing whether there will be a space waiting for you. For the price of $20.00 per game---which you'd probably pay anyway---you can order yourself a season parking pass in one of the parking decks. I did this last year and it worked out extremely well.
• I picked up my 2007 Street & Smith's at the newsstand (O.K., it was actually the Wal-Mart) and I was disappointed to find it shot through with errors. While thumbing through the annual in the checkout line, I read that last year's Vanderbilt game was "Georgia's first loss to the Commodores since 1993," that the Bulldogs redeemed their season with "[t]wo wins in Atlanta---at Georgia Tech and over Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl," and that "Georgia can't win the SEC East without beating Florida." In reality, the Red and Black's last previous loss to Vandy was in 1994, the win over the Yellow Jackets was in Athens, and the 'Dawgs have won the Eastern Division three times in the last five years without defeating the Gators in any of their championship seasons.

All right, last time . . . the pass out of bounds on fourth down and the game-sealing interception were in Athens, whereas the "concussion" (sustained while shoving a Georgia trainer out of bounds, coinciding with a temper tantrum that devolved into a complete emotional meltdown, and treated by allowing him to remain on the sidelines while cheering and waving a towel) and the other game-sealing interception were in Atlanta. Try to keep Reggie Ball's gaffes straight, people!

One thing Street & Smith's got right, though, was an advertisement in the front of the magazine from Maple Street Press, which publishes in-depth football annuals on particular teams. Unfortunately, Maple Street does not yet offer a Georgia-specific preview, but the publisher's Texas Longhorns yearbook was edited by Burnt Orange Nation's Peter Bean, who graciously asked me to author a chapter on Mack Brown's non-conference scheduling. If you're interested in checking it out, you can order The Eyes of Texas here.

That should get you up to date. Please feel free to resume the enjoyment of your Saturday afternoon.

Go 'Dawgs!