Okay, you knew I had to comment on the new fashion in College Football. The "Coach in Waiting." I have only one comment. And it is this: Please! Look at it this way. Let's says next year, or over the next two years, the Texas defense gives up big points. And let's says they continue to lose to Oklahoma, and the Sooner score BIG each and every Red River Shootout. Do you think that old former UGA walk-on Will Muschamp will still be the coach in waiting? The answer is no. College football may think they're fooling someone, but it ain't me. Texas AD James Vilade will morph into Dave Housel and Muschamp will be out of Austin as fast as you can say Bobby Petrino.

And while we're at it, what in the world has Joker Phillips done to earn "coach in waiting" status at Kentucky.

All this bunk was brought to the limelight by that living monument to great football owners everywhere: Jerry Jones. Jason Garrett is the Dallas Cowboys coach in waiting. And after Wade Phillips is fired at the end of this season, Garrett will take his place and the King Almighty of Coaches In Waiting. Good luck, there, Jason. If you're lucky, Jones will bring in Odell Thurman and then DeAngelo Hall to go with the likes of Pacman and T.O. Great bunch of guys.

So during all this talk of Joker this and Jimbo that and now Muschamp this AND that, a though has occured to me. We ALL are coaches in waiting. The only difference between us and the current crop is a vast lack of experience and the fact that we have not been lied to by overzealous AD's. Oh, and also the fact that when Texas defense crumbles and Kentucky can no longer score points, that our record will still be unblemised.

Hello from Athens, Georgia! I thought I would take a few minutes to let you nutty football fans know that life in the UGA Athletic Department is going just fine. Oh, I was like you at one time. If the football team lost to that nothing-happening-self absorbed-worst school and fan base of all time-Florida, then I was pretty bummed out too. But then I started to pay attention to the other sports on campus. The soccer team upsets Florida, goes to its second straight SEC Championship game and is edged out by Tennessee. They then advance to the NCAA Tournament. The volleyball is having a fine year with a recent upset of the Gators, then is making strides in the SEC and has one of the talented and youngest teams in the conference. Both the men's and women's swimming and diving team are ranked in the top 10 in the nation, and their head coach, Jack Bauerle, is one of the finest ever. He was also the coach of the U.S. Olympic Women's Swim Team in Beijing. The golf teams are ranked in the top ten, and now that a successful fall season is behind them, they are looking ahead to the spring. The baseball team just finished second in the college world series and had one of the best recruiting classes in the nation. Look for great things from the Diamond Dogs. The equestrian team is defending national champion. Coach Manuel Diaz and the men's tennis team are two time defending national champs. Coach Jeff Wallace and the women's tennis team are coming off another SEC Championship season and another year of being one of the top programs in the nation. The softball team is coming off a 46 win season and a berth in the NCAA Super Regionals. In track and field, Coach Wayne Norton continues to mold some of the top athletes in the world. Distance runner Natalie Picchetti was SEC Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year. The Men's Basketball team is young and talented and coming off an amazing run in winning the SEC Tournament and going to the NCAA's. Andy Landers just secured one of the top five recruiting classes in all of women's basketball, and has, year after year, one of the top programs in the nation. And the UGA gymnastics team under Coach Suzanne Yoculan is going for another national championship, and if successful that would be FIVE titles in a row and 10 overall! So...here's the cold, hard fact. This is not only a great school, but it has one of the top athletic programs in the entire nation. The next time the football team gives up more points than you would like as they make their way to yet another 10+ win season and another top level bowl game, just remember this is the UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA! The greatest student-athletes in the nation go here.

Two seasons ago, I stood in the endzone at Commonwealth Stadium and watched as a large number of otherwise basketball fans tore down the goalposts after Kentucky got an Andy Bailey induced 24-20 win over the Georgia Bulldogs.

It's a scene I will nary forget, and one I hope Dawgs fans don't either. However, since that time it should be pointed out this football team has been on a roll.

It was November 4, 2006, and it was one of the low points in Mark Richt's stellar tenure at the helm. Matt Stafford's face was bruised and bloodied. The scene in the post game press conference was surreal. I remember leaving Lexington that weekend thinking: "Boy, are we in trouble."

How wrong I was.

The Dawgs upset Auburn on the road the following week. Dumped Tech on Thanksgiving weekend and then had a rousing comeback at the Georgia Dome over Virginia Tech to win the Chick-Fil-A-Please-Call-It-The-Peach-Bowl.

2007 brought wins over Florida (DAMN STRAIGHT, BABY!), Alabama, Auburn and Kentucky, a birth in the Sugar Bowl against Hawaii and a season ending number two ranking.

This season the team stumbled only once before the Disaster In Jacksonville. Now with the lopsided loss to the jerks from Gainesville, many are saying the program is down again.

To this I point again to November 4, 2006. Just when we think the Dawgs were knocked to the mat, they seem to somehow get up off the deck.

I have a feeling that even though the SEC Championship game has passed us by, that we are going to see quite a response from the Red and Black beginning this Saturday.

It's what well coached teams do. And if you don't agree with that statement, then I suggest you spend your time on another website.

Everywhere you turn all they seem to be talking about is the Dawgs' touchdown celebration last season in the win over Florida.

It's time to get over it.

Urban Meyer has issued a gag order on the play. But as most of us know, it's impossible to shut up a Florida Gator.

It has gotten so bad that Terrance Moore of the AJC had the hair-brained idea that the celebration of last season was the main reason the Dawgs had so many penalties this season. I'm not making that up.

So as we head to Jacksonville this weekend, we will attempt to put the scene of last year behind us and forge ahead.

And to do this we must remember what REALLY happened last year in Jacksonville. Tim Tebow was sacked over and over again. Knowshon Moreno ran over the Gator's defense repeatedly. The fact is the Dawgs kicked Flordia all over the field. Something that is hard to swallow in Gainesville.

Earlier this week, in trying to rationalize the loss to UGA, Florida coach Urban Meyer said:

"We were very soft, a very selfish outfit a year ago, and we didn't protect the quarterback and we dropped the ball twice. That's how we lost that game."

No, how they lost the game was they played a better team.

The fact that the Dawgs won 42-30 and the fact that the "Gator Stomp" celebration is all anyone is talking about will make for quite an atmosphere for Jacksonville on Saturday. Gator fans will be stoked, and they should be.

I have seen many great battles between the two teams over the past years, but this one has more on the line than the others. The winner will keep their SEC East title hopes alive as well as their hopes for a birth in the BCS Title game.

The loser will be knocked out of a chance to go to the Georgia Dome in December. And if it's Florida. look for the excuses to begin again. It's one of the things that makes the rivarly great, and one of the things that makes it so easy to be a Gator Hater.

In late 1968, John Fogerty wrote that great rock and roll tune, Born on the Bayou:

Runnin through the backwood, bare.
And I can still hear my old hound dog barkin,
Chasin down a hoodoo there.
Chasin down a hoodoo there.

I am not sure what a hoodoo is, but I think it could be a drunk LSU fan on a Saturday night.

Well let's hear it for good ole CBS! I know they take more commercial breaks than God himself should allow, but at least they had the good sense to schedule the Dawgs and Tigers at 3:30 p.m. (2:30 in Louisiana), and keep us away from late night hell on ESPN.

I'm not saying you can't win on a Saturday night at Baton Rouge, it's just I prefer to take my chances in the day. Which brings me to another song on CCR's Bayou Country album:

Maybe you don't understand it.
But if your'e a natural man,
You got to ball and have a good time
And thats what I call chooglin.

Yes, they have a good time in LSU during football season. Much of that has to do with the landscape. Tiger Stadium is a magnificent deep bowl. The sound bounces off each side and pounds down on your head like the chorus of Fortunate Son. Legend has it the sound registered on the Richter Scale during a 1988 win over Auburn.

So its going to me loud and, as coaches like to say: "a hostile environment." But I remember what Alabama did to a hostile environment dressed in back about a month ago. The fact is if the Dawgs play well they will win.

The football team will survive. Those of us who will go to the game as either fans or employees of the Georgia Bulldogs, we'll let's just hope we get out alive.

As college football fans, we hate the polls.

But each Sunday, we will break our necks to find out who's number one and where our favorite team is ranked.

I am the same way to a point. I love to look at the rankings and laugh. Ball State, Boise State, Utah? Please. The next thing you know a team like Hawaii will get a BCS bid. Wait. Never mind.

But I must say college football polls are okay. They are a fun pastime. On the other hand, anyone who has anything to do with a National High School Football Poll should be flogged with a wet copy of Urban Crier's book.

Now back to my point if there was one.

The information age has actually dumb-downed the members who vote in the AP Top 25 when it should have smartened them up. It's too easy now. Don't worry about reading or watching a game. Just turn on the Evil Empire and let Mark May, Lou Holtz, Lee Corso or Kirk Herbstriet tell you who you should rank.

I firmly believe that members of the media...or press if you are old school...know nothing. And that's me included. Now there are a few like Tony Barnhart and Chip Towers of the AJC who are top notch, but most are just like me. Sticking a wet finger in the wind and coming up with a ranking.

And with that in mind, here is my biased TS Top 25. Drop me a note and tell me how far off I am:

1-Alabama
2-Florida (Boy that ranking pains me)
3-Texas
4-Southern Cal
5-Penn State
6-Oklahoma
7-UGA
8-Oklahoma State
9-Texas Tech
10-LSU
11-Missouri
12-Vanderbilt
13-Ohio State
14-Kansas
15-Michigan State
16-South Flordia
17-Pittsburgh
18-Virginia Tech
19-North Carolina
20-Wake Forest
21-Georgia Tech
22-Pittsburgh
23-Minnesota
24-South Carolina
25-Flordia State

Your first reaction probably will be. Hey, with the exception of Southern Cal, there are no teams from out West.

And your point is?

I am going to take a different, possibly unpopular, view here.

I am tired of the black jerseys. I know times change, and, as they say "we must change with them," but I ask these questions. Did Hershel Walker ever wear a black UGA jersey? No. Did the Dawgs win their national championship of 1980 in black jerseys? No.

So I say let's get back to the red and the tradition. If you are one of those fans that think black jerseys had anything to do with winning or losing, then come back to earth. Oh, it was exciting last year when the Dawgs ran out in the black and beat Auburn. But the Dawgs were a much better team. They won the Sugar Bowl in black jerseys in January, but let's face it. They could have beaten Hawaii in helmets and shorts.

This brings me to superstitions and stupid things we do to try to help the team win. I present as my evidence the story of my son, Chris.

Chris, like his brother Matt, is a diehard Dawg. He helps us here at the GBRN on game days by recording post-game sound for this website.

When it comes to being a son and a young man, Chris is great.

When it comes to being a superstitious fan, Chris is a nincompoop.

And here's the story. On Saturday, the Dawg Walk was incredible. The biggest I have ever seen. Chris has this "thing" where he has to be on the SAME SIDE of the Dawg Walk each game or somehow the Dawgs might lose. On Saturday, he had trouble getting on that SAME SIDE. So as the event was beginning, he ran...he tried to take a shortcut...and fell. Chris tore up his face, broke his cellphone, and yes, fractured his right foot.

Oh, Chris got on that SAME SIDE alright. But the Dawgs still lost.

Afterwards, I asked him what he thinks now about getting on the SAME SIDE of the Dawg Walk each week.

"It probably would have worked if I had not fallen down," he said.

Some kids never learn.

If you are one of the fans like Chris who think you must go through the same routine every week, or think the Dawgs draw some mystical power from black jerseys, or think that some higher power is looking down on your team, let me close this blog with a sharp reality check.

The team who wins the battle at the line of scrimmage is going to win the game. That's why Alabama won, and we lost.

Not since Forrest Gump was recruited out of Greenbow, has there been so much excitement about Alabama football.

The Crimson Tide arrive in Athens this weekend with a legendary head coach (just ask him) a vaunted running game and all the history of quite possibly the all time best program ever in college football. That's right, I'll repeat. Quite possibly the all time best program ever in college football. I know that comes as a shock to you Gator fans that I would make a statement like that, but there was football before Steve Spurrier in the swamp. Check the record books. Ya'll sucked.

Anyway...

Here come Alabama! And as much as we give Bama fans and their passion for the game a hard time, it's difficult not to respect how they have turned things around. Since Gene Stallings left the program the revolving door of head coaches would have made George Steinbrenner scratch his head. There's been Mike Dubose, Dennis Franchoine, Mike Price, Mike Shula, Joe Kines and now St. Nick. Why? Because they have all lived in the shadow of the Bear who led the Tide to six national titles in the 60's and 70's and in the shadow of Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas before Bryant. All in all, Alabama has won 12 national championships.

To best understand how things work in Tuscaloosa, consider this: Here in the great state of Georgia (and we are the best in the nation by far, in by biased view), we have the Georgia Bulldogs, Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Hawks and another team that I heard plays football off of North Avenue in Atlanta, but the name escapes me right now.

In Alabama they have the Crimson Tide and Auburn. That's it.

With all due respect to Auburn, Alabama is the premier program. The Crimson Tide are the New York Yankees of the state. So if the t-shirts that says "Got Nick?" make you snicker, then keep in mind this is the biggest thing going in the state. And there is nothing wrong with that.

So combine, the legend of Alabama, the passion of their fans, the fact that College Gameday will be in Athens, the Dawgs wearing black, two top 10 teams, and a night game at Sanford Stadium...and you have all the makings of what should be a memorable night between the hedges. Let's just hope its good memories for the Dawgs. And if that is the case, celebrate long and hard and intervene with any Alabama fan who contemplates committing suicide.

TEMPE, AZ---Our AirTran Airways flight touched down at 8:15 p.m. local time here in Phoenix Friday night.

"Welcome to Phoenix," the captain said. "It's 95 degrees."

A moan rushed through the plane full of mostly drunk Georgia Football Fans.

So here we are. The South has arrived out West. We bring with us a passion for college football that is second to none as well as the ability to swill beer with the best of 'em. Oh, we also, as always, bring a group of beautiful women. Girls who attend Georgia games are...well, let's just say next to watching the game, watching them is my favorite Autumn Saturday afternoon pastime.

It's hard to say how the Dawgs will fare here in the desert. But one thing we know for sure, Pac Ten football, as we say in the Deep South: "Just ain't it."

I will go to my grave believing that football in the western part of the US--except for Southern Cal--is far inferior to the football we play in the SEC. Despite the orange-clad hillbillies from Knoxville to UCLA on Labor Day, our type of football is superior. The Dawgs games against Boise State and Hawaii over the past few years have supported that idea. I know the WAC teams are not like Pac Ten teams, but the margin of difference is not that much.

Let's face it: if you're an Arizona State fan, you look forward to the USC game, the Arizona game and, on occasion, the game against Oregon. That's it. There is no regular battle with the likes of UGA, Florida (gag), Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Tennessee.

Last weekend, after the Dawgs pounded and bled their way to a win over South Carolina, a friend of mine was told by another fan that, "the SEC is down this year."

Hmm...last time I checked...the SEC had five of the top ten teams in the nation.

Mind you, I am not the type to want to: "Win one for the SEC." I want to win one for Georgia. I could care less about how many games the other teams in the SEC win. As a matter of fact, I want every other team in the conference to LOSE every weekend. But the fact is SEC football is superior.

Don't need a "moron" at ESPN to tell me otherwise. Don't have to have a Dawgs win to prove it.

If we lose, then our National Championship hopes will take a hit. That's the bad news. The good news, win or lose, we get to return to the South where the women are beautiful, the beer is cold and the football is still in the best in the nation.

Central Michigan defensive back Vince Agnew has become the modern day Bill Bates.

It started out innocently enough. The sophomore seemed to have a good position to take down UGA's Knowshon Moreno during his third quarter run on Saturday at Sanford Stadium. But Moreno gave him the hip, Agnew bit and WOOSH!

Oh...my...God!

It happened so quickly even ESPN missed it.

From that moment on, the final score of the bludgeoning of Central Michigan was irrelevant. The leap or The Hurdle was the story of the day.

Moreno, who understates and shrugs off everything, said The Hurdle was nothing special. Yeah. Right. Keep in mind, Moreno is the most modest running back you will ever talk to.

Most interviews with Moreno on media day go something like this:

"So, Knowshon, talk about that 52 yard run and the touchdown."

"Great downfield blocking and the offensive line really did their job."

"Okay, how about the 75 screen pass where you spun six times and ran past six players for your third touchdown of the game?"

"The offensive line did its job. Had it not been for them, the play would have gone nowhere."

Alrighty...one final thing. You were seen in Kroger on Sunday buying Yogurt. Is that a major staple of your diet?"

"I could have never made it to the dairy case if it wasn't for the blocking and my teammates..."

I think you get the picture about the talented lad from New Jersey.

If this would have happened in the 60's or before, The Hurdle by Moreno at the end of his 29 yard run in the third quarter would have taken a life of its own. Dawgs fans that day in attendance would have become novice Larry Munsons. "Bob, I swear, he jumped 200 feet in the air, did a pirouette and landed like a ballerina on the head of the defender. The fans were so stoked the stadium started to crumble!"

But since we are in the too-much information age, we can view The Hurdle again and again and again.

Now on Saturdays at Sanford Stadium, during the Battle Hymn of the Georgia Bulldog Nation, there will be two landmark plays to watch on the video board. Herschel Walker running over Bill Bates invokes the cry of "BOOM" from the Sanford Stadium crowd. Knowshon Moreno leaping Vince Agnew will invoke much the same response. Count on it.