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Friday, April 9, 2010

Everything You Need to Know for G-Day

G-Day is just 24 hours away. Here's the down-low on everything you'll need to be prepared for the big day...

Rosters:

You can find the full rosters for the Red Team and the Black Team HERE. Keep in mind, Georgia's three QBs will rotate between both teams to give roughly equal reps with the No. 1 unit offense.

Injury Updates:

The following players are out or unlikely to play tomorrow: Caleb King, Justin Anderson, Trinton Sturdivant, Austin Long, A.J. Harmon, Josh Murray, Richard Samuel, Tanner Strickland, Israel Troupe, Jeremy Longo and Fred Munzenmaier.

More Background Info:

-- You can read all the major details, including information about the alumni game which precedes G-Day HERE.

-- You can catch up on much of what you might have missed this spring by listening to podcasts with both myself (HERE) and Fletcher Page (HERE).

-- And don't forget to bring a canned good or 10 for Georgia's canned food drive. Last year, the event took in more donations than ever before, and head coach Mark Richt said he's hoping to top that number this time around.

Game Rules:

G-Day should be handled pretty much the same as past years.

There will be four 12-minute quarters, with clock rules mirroring that of a normal game.

There will be no live kickoffs. Instead, each new possession will begin at the 25-yard line of the offensive team.

There will be live field goals, PATs and punting, but the defense will not rush.

And, as I said, the QBs will rotate between teams.

Stars of the spring:

Check out the full list of spring award winners HERE.

Check out my recent stories on two of the stars of the spring -- Jakar Hamilton HERE and Reuben Faloughi HERE.

I asked a number of the defensive players for who they thought was the most improved on that side of the ball this spring, and the resounding answer from every single one was the same: Vance Cuff.

On offense, I got a lot of votes for Carlton Thomas -- which is pretty much the same answer I got last year -- and a few others. Here's what Mike Bobo had to say:

On Shaun Chapas: “I can’t say enough about Shaun Chapas. Every day, the way he approaches practice, he’s our fullback and he’s not in there on every personnel group, but just the energy he brings, he’s in there on every play in every huddle and does a great job of leading those guys. He’s probably the leader of our offense. He’s a very unselfish player, and that’s what you want in a fullback.”

On Cordy Glenn: “Cordy Glenn has had an outstanding spring. He’s just outstanding the way he’s worked, the way he’s competed. Sometimes that’s tough for guys to do with us being so thin at certain positions when you know somebody behind you is not going to take your job. You’re out there knowing I’m pretty much going to start, but he’s had the right mind-set every day. He has tremendous talent, but just to see improvement in him, the knowledge of what we’re doing, early on as a freshman he had to depend on a lot of guys next to him to help him out and now he pretty much knows what we’re doing and he’s able to execute and then use his God-given ability to dominate. He’s had an outstanding spring.”

On Carlton Thomas: “Carlton had a great spring last year, and this year, he’s had an even better spring from the standpoint of his physicality – not just in how he runs the ball because he’s always run physical for his size, but in his pass protection, he’s done an outstanding job, and he’s done a good job of protecting the football. That’s the one thing that got him a little bit last year was protecting the football a little bit early on. He’s done a nice job of that this spring, so he’s just got to continue to do that and keep showing us in practice he can hold on to the football and play physical and do everything as a back that we ask of him.”

Answering some questions:

Anonymous writes: I am from Massachusetts but I am a huge Georgia fan. I am wondering though if G-Day is going to be streamed on ESPN360.com or some other website. Do you know if it will be?

David: You can watch the game on ESPN360.com, view highlights on GeorgiaDogs.com or watch it live on television on CSS starting at 2 p.m. And, of course, if you're in Athens and you can tear yourself away from watching Tiger for a couple of hours, the game is free to attend in person.

Andy writes: Tragically, I will be at a wedding (Saturday). Totally inexcusable considering the bride and groom are Dawg fans too. I will be relying on a live blog from you, David. Don't let me down!

David:
If you promise to swipe a few drinks from the open bar at the wedding for me, it's a deal! (Oh, and please, no Electric Slide.)

JFerg writes: For G-day…will we go ones vs ones or ones vs twos?

David:
The Black Team is the No. 1 defense and No. 2 offense, and the Reds are the No. 1 offense and No. 2 defense, so yes, the 1s go against the 1s, and the 2s play the 2s. Of course, if you inspect the rosters a little closer, the 2s are more like the 3s at a number of positions where the coaching staff has allowed two players battling for the same job to both run with the No. 1 unit.

Josh writes: Longtime blog reader and it's a must read for me pretty much daily. Any info about parking for GDay? I saw nothing on the association's website

David: Well normally I wouldn't answer this question, but since you complimented me so well, OK. It's open season for parking. There are no reserved lots, so it's pretty much first come, first served, according to UGA's sports info department.

Chris writes: Will the press box be open for Saturday's game? I know general admission is free but I wasn't sure if they are going to use the press box or not.

David: Press box will be for working media, same as a regular-season game, from what I understand. Although if you want to transcribe my interviews for me after the game, that will free Fletcher Page up to get to the bar early.

(*Note: I know I promised a mailbag today, but I just don't have time. Monday though...)

What to expect in the game:

-- First off, for those of you who think G-Day means nothing, you may be right. But Brandon Spoon's reviews of the past few years shows that there may be a bit of correlation between how well the offense performs Satuday and how well the team will do this fall. Check it out HERE.

-- As for how watered down the schemes will be, here's what Mark Richt has to say about just how much the fans will see Saturday: "I know the fans are probably waiting for a lot of this, that and the other. We might do this, that and not the other. We'll do some things, but we don't want to show too much. And we've put in a few things offensively that we don't want to show. Sometimes the more the offense does with formations and shifts and things like that, the more it shows how our defense would react to it. We don't want to do things offensively that's going to make the defense show how they might adjust to certain things. I don't want to say it's going to be vanilla, because it won't be. We'll be doing some blitzing and stunting defensively, and there'll be plenty of plays offensively we think we can run that we'll have a chance to score. But as much of the strategy, the nuts and bolts of how we operate, we're going to try to keep other people from learning too much about our defense, I would guess."

So, bottom line, they'll be answering some questions a little at a time, but for the big reveal, you'll have to wait a while longer.

Also, between each quarter, there will be scenes from an alternate dimension where Logan Gray is the incumbent starting quarterback and Willie Martinez is still the DC, but no real explanation will be given to what we're watching.

(*Note: If you don't watch "Lost" that last joke went over your head completely.)

Richt on how important G-Day is for the players: "It's very much like a scrimmage, and maybe a little more (important) because there are fans there, they are on TV. Those are some of the things that the quarterback has to be able to deal with. And hopefully, he's not thinking one thing about that. It shouldn't affect him in any way, but sometimes it does. So I'd say (it's more important) for the QB position, but I think everybody. I think they all know they're going to be on TV and they all know a lot of people will be in the stands. You just don't know how that affects a guy."

Aaron Murray on what G-Day means in the QB battle: "I think it's big for all of us, but I don't think whoever goes out there and has the best game is going to end up being the guy. We've had three or four weeks now where we've all put in good work and improved day in and day out, so I think it's a whole body of work. The practices are like the quizzes, the other two scrimmages were the tests and this could be like the final. But the final's not your whole grade, it's just part of it. It's most of it, but I think everything we've done so far in the practices and scrimmages goes a lot in these coaches' eyes. So we've just got to look at it as another day to go out there and get better."

And finally, here's some video of Todd Grantham giving the low down on what he's expecting to see at G-Day...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

David, I saw a subscriber-only article at http://uga.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?ReturnTo=&sid=&script=content.asp&cid=1072315&fid=&tid=&mid=&rid= but alas I do not subscribe. I don't see Akeem's name listed in any of the LB depth charts. What do you know about his ankle injury and his prospects for contributing in the fall?

Anonymous said...

David- Any idea if ESPN3.com archives the games so you can watch later?

Unknown said...

You can also listen to game on the radio on 90.5 FM or wuog.org. I, personally, along with 2 others will be calling the game from the press box tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

i've been lite on my UGA reading this week...what has happened to Troupe to hold him out?

David Hale said...

concussion in the last scrimmage.

Kathleen said...

What happened to Samuel? Did I miss that somewhere?

opsomath said...

Mr. Hale, will you be personally covering G-Day? Where will you be? I feel that, given your consistent feeding of my Georgia football habit, I owe you a beer or something.

Schlagdawg said...

@ Anon 4:53

If you check out the "Replay" section of ESPN3, they usually keep games for about a week and a half.