Lots of things going on this morning in Dawgnation. Among the things you should know while you're taking a break from googling pictures of Hayden Panattiere (yeah, I'm talking to you). . .
Norcross stars Brice Butler and Devonta Bolton will announce their respective decisions on Saturday afternoon at a press conference at the school. Bolton had been flying under the radar until recently, when he's become a hot commodity. It looks like Bolton will choose from among Alabama, Auburn and Florida, though some reports have him also considering the Dawgs and Boston College. As to Georgia, it appears that we're focused in on Joe Adams, and may have felt that Bolton would be better at linebacker (he wants to play wide receiver). Really, nothing Bolton does would surprise me, but I'm guessing Florida. Where Butler will go is anybody's guess. Could be FSU, Southern Cal, Notre Dame, LSU or Georgia. We'll really just have to see.
Don't forget that Picture Day is August 18th.
Tony Taylor appears to have his foot in the door with the Falcons. Making it in the NFL as an undrafted free agent is incredibly difficult. You go undrafted because teams aren't sold on you to begin with. Then you sign a low dollar contract which makes you far more expendable than,for example, Joey Harrington. As for those rumors that Taylor got into it with Keith Brooking over some rookie hazing? Not likely. Taylor specifically lists the former Georgia Tech star as his biggest role model on the team.
96 tackles and 7 interceptions don't make themselves . . .
As I noted yesterday, University of Georgia football signee Vance Cuff has received a special waiver from the NCAA and can enroll at Georgia this year. Hooray sanity! The thing to keep in mind is that this kind of thing is only going to happen more often in the future. Starting in 2008 the NCAA will be requiring 16 core courses instead of the current 14. That means that kids who thought it would be ok to slack off by taking Wood Shop or Weight Lifting are going to be going to junior colleges, unless they get solid academic advising up front and avoid failing classes as freshmen and sophomores. Don't say I didn't warn you, Tubs.
Speaking of Barners, you may or may not be aware that Sports Blog Nation finally has an Auburn blog, Track 'em Tigers. Principal author Jay Coulter has a feature called "Buy, Sell or Hold" up analyzing all the SEC teams from a stock jockey's perspective. I was a bit uneasy about the whole thing (mostly because the bit was first done by pompous and lazy ESPN talking schmuck Colin Cowherd), but Jay won me over. I think I agree with basically all of his selections. Check it out if you get a chance.
And while we're touring SBNation, I want to go on record saying that I haven't spent nearly enough time reading Talking Chop, the Atlanta Braves blog. Talking Chop has done a bang up job of analyzing all the Braves trade deadline deals and is definitely going to be required reading for me going forward.
Now get to work!