Wednesday Links (1/27)

Yesterday I ranked my excitement level for Georgia's 2010 road games, so I figured I might as well do the same with the home dates today.

8. Vanderbilt. Yawn.

7. G-Day Game. When's the last time you were this excited about a scrimmage six months before the season?

6. Idaho State. This will no doubt be an early kickoff and a blowout win, which means easy deadlines for me. There's a good chance that me and Zach Mettenberger are really the only two people in Georgia with this one circled on our calendars though.

5. Tennessee. It will probably be an important SEC East game, but it's hard to get too excited about it now without an arch villain on the opposing sideline. But hey, maybe UGA ends up playing USC in the national championship game in the next few years, and revenge can be appropriately dished out then.

4. Louisiana-Lafayette. Hey, it's the season opener. Everybody's excited about Game 1, right?

3. Georgia Tech. I'm assuming both Caleb King and Washaun Ealey are planning to run for more than 200 yards in this one.

2. Open Date. Seriously... I gotta wait 12 weeks into the season before I get a Saturday off?

1. Arkansas. This will probably be Georgia's second-toughest SEC test of the year, and the Bulldogs' new-look secondary will have its hands full in Week 4. The funny thing is, UGA gets Stephen Garcia and Ryan Mallett back to back then won't play another established, experienced QB until the regular season finale against Tech.

Of course, looking at that slate, the one thing that jumps out at me is that this year's schedule is a whole heck of a lot easier than it has been the past two seasons. Not a walk in the park by any means, but a lot more manageable than the recent past. Outside of Arkansas, every team UGA faces at home this year should be either an easy win or has some serious question marks right now.

Winning on the road at Colorado might be a tougher task than usual, but the Buffs aren't terribly good. The date with Florida looms every year, so that's certainly no gimme. But UGA could afford to drop the game against the Gators and still win the East if they're flawless in the rest of their SEC games, so it seems to me that South Carolina-Arkansas stretch will probably define just how far the Bulldogs go in 2010. If they win 'em both, they're in good position to finish up the year at the Georgia Dome. Lose 'em both, and it'll be a long year. A split, and once again the season will effectively come down to what happens in Jacksonville.

OK, some links...

-- Mark Fox's Dawgs look to put an end to a rather dubious run on the road when they travel to Gainesville tonight.

-- Georgia Sports Blog ranks the difficulty of each remaining basketball game, and the bottom line is tonight's contest would go a long way to getting Georgia in position for the postseason.

-- The Red & Black talks to the UGA walk-ons responsible for the now famous Mark Richt trick-shot video.

-- Police had their hands full with scalpers at Georgia's game against Tennessee last weekend. That belongs on Mark Fox's resume.

-- ESPN's Chris Low has two great posts looking at the original recruiting rankings of the All-SEC performers on offense and defense last season. What the results tell me is that, while a great recruiting ranking can often mean loads of success down the road, it's even more likely that an All-SEC performer wasn't anywhere close to the top 150 prospects in his class.

-- The Red & Black looks at the potential impact of the new 3-4 defensive scheme.

-- Jeff Owens is using the Senior Bowl to chat up a few potential employers, according to the AJC.

-- Like any good directional kick, Jon Fabris has actually landed pretty far from where we all thought he was going.

-- Chan Gailey really is the gift that keeps on giving for Georgia fans. He has lured Tech's recruiting coordinator Giff Smith away to the Buffalo Bills and he has successfully lobbied the NCAA to let Reggie Ball come back and play one more season. OK, I made that last part up.

-- Mike Leach has done pretty much exactly what I would have done in this situation. Nothing like a Rum Runner at Sloppy Joe's to clear your head. (h/t EDSBS)

-- Tim Tebow made some strides during Day 2 of Senior Bowl practice, but that's all beside the point. He only struggled because he was "a little under the whether." Yup, and Brett Favre just throws killer interceptions because "he's just like a kid out there" and he "loves the game so much." Plus it's easy to overlook Tebow's fumbled snaps and trouble setting his feet (subscription) because he "continued to embrace a leadership role."

I can completely see how that works at the NFL level:

Tebow: "Come on guys, get your heads up! We're not out of this yet! We're gonna win!"

Multi-million-dollar super star: "Shut the f*** up. If you hadn't fumbled the last four snaps we wouldn't be down 30 points."

Hooray, leadership!

(And yes, I realize this sarcasm flies in the face of some Joe Cox-related posts I wrote last year. The irony is not wasted on me.)

-- Speaking of Tebow, CBS is defending the anti-abortion ad he will appear in during this year's Super Bowl.

-- Jack McBrayer is heading back to Macon for the city's annual film festival.

-- I know we've all enjoyed Travis Leslie's work this season, but there's really something missing from his dunks... beer! Check out this YouTube clip of the best Beer Pong dunks of all time. (h/t Tom)

-- I love these "Lost" party invitations, particularly the bunny one. (h/t Peter)

-- Matthew Fox says fans are going to be disappointed in the final episode of "Lost." And in other news, the role of Jack will now be played by this guy.

-- You're breakin' my heart, Hawk. You're breakin' my heart.

-- Check out these outtakes from the old "Siskel and Ebert" show in which you get the distinct impression that these two guys are giant a-holes.

-- And finally, MTV is close to a deal with the cast of "Jersey Shore" for a second season, so our long national nightmare may soon be over. Although, knowing just how much cash these people are getting for being idiots sort of makes me hate them rather than enjoying their stupidity. (Also, I really wish the "Jersey Shore" cast negotiations had been covered the same way as the Georgia defensive coordinator search.)