We are two weeks away from the start of the Georgia Bulldogs’ 2012 season, and today’s picture day in Athens got the athletic juices flowing for the fans. Before you upload your picture day photos to the Dawg Sports Facebook page as part of our image bank initiative, you’ll want and need to be brought up to speed on all things Red and Black, which I will proceed to do for you now in this special Saturday sports summary:
The preseason sportswriters’ poll has been released, and the AP also has Georgia ranked sixth, behind No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Louisiana State but ahead of No. 9 South Carolina, No. 23 Florida, and de facto No. 28 Auburn, No. 31 Georgia Tech, No. 33 Tennessee, and co-No. 38 Missouri. (The Bulldogs’ twelve-game regular-season slate includes six of the top 40 teams in the 120-member Division I-A; put differently, half our games are against the top one-third of the FBS. Imagine what the Red and Black’s schedule would look like if the Athenians actually played anyone!) For what it’s worth, voters from SEC country tended to vote the Bulldogs lower than writers from other regions.
We are approaching the end of the maddening time during which we are obliged to pay attention to coaches’ comments as our only measure of player performance and team chemistry, but, until actual football occurs, we have no choice but to make ersatz issues out of Mark Richt saying Jay Rome hasn’t “practiced as hard as he needs to really become a great player.” Though this was portrayed in the media as Coach Richt calling out the redshirt freshman tight end, I considered the most eyebrow-raising part of that statement the split infinitive. As we eagerly await the end of the need to parse the minutiae of benign comments by coaches, no denizen of Bulldog Nation more eagerly anticipates the autumn than Kolton Houston, whose status remains uncertain.
While we are waiting for American men’s college football to get underway, we should not forget that the 25th-ranked Georgia women’s soccer team got its 2012 season underway with a 1-0 double-overtime win against UNC Greensboro in Athens on Friday night. The contest’s lone goal came in the outing’s 104th minute when Alexa Newfield found the back of the net with a penalty kick. Next up for the Red and Black is a game against Furman in the Classic City on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
Over at Foley Field, Diamond Dogs Zach Cone, Johnathan Taylor, and Chance Veazey have been featured in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated, while the men’s golf team, fresh from sending five Bulldogs to the U.S. Amateur and having two of them advance to match play, sent Harris English to the Wyndham Championship, where the Georgia linkster finished Saturday’s third round in a three-way tie for fourth place. At a twelve-under 198, English enters Sunday’s final round just two strokes off the tourney lead.
Finally, the University of Georgia fishing team is hosting an intercollegiate tournament at Lake Lanier next weekend. For details, you may visit the Wackem College Open website or the tournament’s Facebook page. Support our Bulldog Bass Anglers!
Go ‘Dawgs!