We could, if we chose, get depressed over Bubba Watson’s U.S. Open performance and console ourselves by smokin’ ‘em if we’ve got ‘em, but, instead, why don’t we take a look at other news of interest to the Georgia faithful? Yes, let’s; thus, here now, a special Friday night edition of Dawg Bites:
The biggest recent news in Bulldog Nation concerns the latest former Diamond Dog to break into the Show, as Justin Grimm is scheduled to make his first major league start for the Texas Rangers tomorrow night. With his headline-making leap from Double-A ball to a start against the Houston Astros, Grimm will become the fifth player David Perno has sent to the major leagues.
The release of the preseason football depth chart has generated some commentary, much of it centering around the fact that redshirt freshman Merritt Hall is listed as the first-team fullback, ahead of Richard Samuel and Alexander Ogletree. I would deem three other aspects of the depth chart more noteworthy than that. First of all, Chris Burnette’s status as starting right guard and backup center attests to the continued thinness of the offensive line. Secondly, in that same position group, a trio of redshirt freshmen (Zach DeBell, Caleb Drake, and Xzavier Ward) all are listed at 275 or fewer pounds, while five of the six fellows ahead of them on the depth chart are 300+ pounders. (The lone exception, starting right tackle Kolton Houston, checks in at 291.) I’m curious to know what, if anything, the listed weights of those underclassmen say about the team’s dietary and conditioning regimens. Finally, a pair of prominent “OR”s attest to the evenness of the competitions between Chris Conley and Rantavious Wooten for third-string flanker, and between Isaiah Crowell and Ken Malcome for first-string tailback. I suspect we’ll see a lot of all four of them, but I’d like to see someone step up, and, clearly, no one has.
Yeah, we run this state, but do we really have to brag about it on Twitter? Frankly, this feels like something they would do, which is reason enough for it not to be something we would do.
While we’re on the subject of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, though, I should take a moment to bid farewell to Winfield Featherston upon his departure from the SB Nation family. The first time I met Winfield in person, he opened the conversation by telling me one of his site co-authors had told him to punch me in the face if he saw me. I was curious to know why, so he texted his co-author and received the response that it was just because I was a Georgia Bulldogs fan, which disappointed me just a little, because, frankly, I think I have earned much more specific disdain from the Red and Black’s rivals than that. This was before Paul Johnson told Georgia Tech fans that they should go around punching Georgia fans in the mouth, so I guess Winfield’s co-author was ahead of the curve, but, in any case, I think as highly of Winfield as it is possible to think of someone whose first face-to-face utterance to me was the matter-of-fact statement that he was under orders to punch me in the face. I wish Winfield sufficient happiness in the rest of his life to make up for the abject misery I hope he suffers in sports.
Go ‘Dawgs!