Friday Dawg Bites: There's Not Much UGA In The News, And That's A Good Thing

Wow. When sports news blows up nowadays, it blows up nuclear-style. Fortunately, almost none of it has involved people involved with the University of Georgia, which is a very good thing. Let's recount the crazy crap that has gone down in the past two days:

- Manti Te'o. Yeah. That happened. And at Notre Dame, which despite its academic reputation, isn't exactly known for its honesty when spinning sports tales. Ain't nothing more I can say about that. We on the Dawg Sports staff have our own theory, which I will not share here because I don't repeat wild, unfounded rumors. The bottom line is that it's about as weird a story as there is. And no matter what the real truth is, nobody that's involved will ever come out looking good.

- Lance Armstrong admitted to Oprah that he is a dope had been doping throughout his entire run of Tour de France victories. Man, sportspeople from Texas are going down left and right to PED allegations. About the best that's left is Clint Dempsey, and if some drug agency starts sniffing around him... well, we won't have to worry, because he didn't seem to like the last set of folks from a drug-addled land that he encountered.

(That would be the Jamaicans, for those that don't recognize the uniform.)

- After declaring that he wasn't going to be the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Chip Kelly is now the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Wow, that sounds remarkably similar to a story we heard just a few years ago...

- There is a small bit of Georgia-related news that could blow up in a hurry, however. Todd Grantham has been disturbingly silent on all of these rumors that he's going to the Philadelphia Eagles to be Chip Kelly's defensive coordinator. Seth Emerson says that he has not yet notified Greg McGarity that he is talking to a potential suitor, which is a requirement of his contract. So, perhaps we can draw some hope from that. Or, maybe he just has a great agent who knows all the loopholes that permit him wait to tell McGarity that he's leaving until the deal is done. On the other hand, Kirby Smart is apparently interviewing, too, so there could be a bright note to this story before it's all said and done.

Fortunately, there are teams who are actually competing right now and not just being splashed across the news, and these are the events to which we're looking forward this weekend for those UGA squads:

- Gymnastics: Danna's Dawgs, who stand in 8th place in the national rankings, will be taking the mat to compete against the 24th-ranked Auburn Gym Tigleswomen tonight at 7:30 PM at Stegeman Coliseum. No word on whether senior all-everything Noel Couch is healthy enough to get back in the rotation this week, but I certainly hope she is.

- Men's Tennis: Manny Diaz's 6th-ranked Tennis Dawgs will be opening their indoor season by competing all weekend at the National Collegiate Tennis Classic in Palm Springs, CA.

- Women's Tennis: Jeff Wallace's 6th-ranked squad (yes, both men's and women's teams are ranked 6th) will be opening their indoor season by hosting the Georgia Invitational all weekend in Athens.

- Track: The UGA Track team will be competing at the Abuurn Invitational on Saturday in Birmingham. (I don't blame them for hosting it in Birmingham. I wouldn't want to ask a whole bunch of college teams to actually go to Auburn, AL, either.)

- Men's Basketball: The Foxhounds will be losing to LSU on Saturday at the Steg. (sigh)

Sorry for ending on a dour note there, but aside from that last note, it looks to be an exciting weekend of Georgia sports! Have a great weekend, everyone, and...

Go Dawgs!