Ye Olde Mailbag

No small talk. No jibber-jabber. Just time to get right to your questions, my answers and -

Wait, can we talk about "Mad Men" yet? Has everyone caught up?

No? Sigh ... OK, maybe next week.

On to the questions.

Branden Smith gonna play against UF? Rest of season?
- Dylan Stafford (via Twitter)

Smith was jogging on the side the last few days of practice this week, so he’s getting closer to returning. It would be hard for me to guess whether he’ll play, and suspect it will be tough-and-go next week. Given all the (deserved) attention that concussions are getting, don’t be surprised if Georgia plays it extra cautious with Smith.

What are your postseason coaching changes predictions? (Or lack thereof)
- John Younker (via Twitter)

I still think it’s too early to speculate. We’re going to have to let the season play out.

What do you make of CMR telling the coaches to simplify the gameplan and then CTG stating that they hadn’t done that?
- John Younger again(via Twitter)

I’ll get to the question, but am I the only one extremely annoyed by the ‘CMR’ abbreviations and the like? It’s become the du jour think to do everywhere. I guess I understand it on Twitter, but elsewhere it’s a bit unnecessary. But anyway …

I’m addressing the ‘simplifying’ issue a bit in a story for Friday’s paper. It’s not the first time Richt has said one thing, then a coordinator has another. (Witness Bobo and the idea of opening up the offense for Murray.) In this case, I’d be speculating if I got too much into it, but Grantham’s answer was that the players are probably understanding it a bit more because of repetition. Richt agreed with that. It’s possible that Richt meant the defensive play-calls themselves were simplified, not the schemes. Grantham was pretty adamant that nothing schematically has been altered.

What is your honest opinion of the Chris Rainey situation and what are your thoughts about Urb's " 1% of 1%" only when it is convenient for him?
- Tripp Kearley

I suspect we’ll be hearing a lot more about this issue next week. I don’t know Rainey well enough to be able to comment on Meyer’s statement that Rainey is not a violent person. (Even if he did say, or text, a violent thing.) Really, neither Georgia or Florida fans have much room to defend the off-field behavior of their teams.

Has UGA ever had 2 players on All-SEC 1st team in basketball either
pre or post season? If so, when was the last time?
- Bryan Grantham

Whoa, a basketball question! I don’t think they keep any definitive list of the preseason All-SEC teams. I do know that Georgia has NEVER had two players on the AP’s first team at the end of the season. The coaches All-SEC team, which usually takes about 10 players, last put two Georgia players on there in 1990: Litterial Green and Alec Kessler. (That year Kessler made the AP’s first team, and Green was second team.)

Is Arthur Lynch redshirting?
- Bryan Grantham, getting greedy

Yup, and it’s a smart move for the sophomore. Third-stringer Bruce Figgins is having trouble getting on the field, with Orson Charles and Aron White ahead of him, so this probably would have been a lost year for Lynch.

Is there really a photographer at the Telegraph named Jason Vorhees? That’s unfortunate.
- Peter Sanford (via Twitter)

Yes but Jason’s last name is spelled differently. Voorhees was the killer.
That reminds me of the “Seinfeld” episode where one of the plot premises was Elaine dating a man with the same name of a serial murderer. I thought it would've been funnier if they'd gone with Jeffrey Dahmer, but instead they went with the less-renowned Joel Rifkin. (Dahmer was more famous nationwide, while Rifkin was localized to New York city. East Coast bias.)

"Seinfeld" was still a great show, however.

With all the talk of concussions it seems my question (has UGA redesigned their helmets because it seems that a lot more helmets are coming off after hits this year than in years past) a week or so ago provided a bit of foreshadowing. It seems though the answer is that maybe opposing players are aiming higher.
- Anonymous (via le blog)

You know, I’ve seen this mentioned before, and I’ve actually seen it at other schools too. It doesn’t seem limited to just Georgia. But I'm not sure that helmets coming off are the biggest sign of worry. When’s the last time you saw a guy knocked out on the field with his helmet off? I don't know, I'm not really sure.

This has nothing to do with Georgia football, but what are your thoughts on the Georgia Sports and Music Halls of Fame leaving Macon?
- Anonymous (also via le blog)

I don’t know how close any of that is to happening. I’m told the music hall of fame is more likely to move. Macon seems like a good central location in what’s a very big state, but Atlanta is obviously where most of the people are. As I live in Athens, I guess I’m good either way.

With the hot topic of hard hits and concussions, I curious to hear what Murray had to say about his hit during the Vandy game. The video look bad, and then I saw the picture showing his helmet nearly coming off.
- David not Hale(yet another via le blog)

(I’m not David Hale either, as many of you keep pointing out.)

Honestly, Murray wasn’t asked about it this week, at least while I was with him. I do know that Bobo said it was “alarming” how many times Murray is putting himself out there to get hit, although Bobo said it with a bit of a smile. It seems Georgia’s coaches are still getting used to the idea of Murray being a dual-threat quarterback; They need him to be able to run and open up the field, but with only Hutson Mason behind him, they’re going to cringe every time a defender comes near him.

Fair to say Bobo lacks grace n dealing w/ media, his comments are often obtuse and this adds to his lack of favor among fans?
- Amy Elizabeth (via Twitter)

I guess fans would have to speak to that. Is that your impression? My dealings with Bobo have been pretty positive. He answers pretty much every question directly, and has come up for interviews every week, knowing he's under fire from fans and some media members. Believe me, I've dealt with some obtuse coaches who made it clear they thought the media and anybody questioning them were vermin; I haven't gotten that impression from Bobo.


What’s the deal with Dexter? He’s a serial killer, right? He IS Kyle Butler?
- Detective Joey Quinn

I’ll let you figure that out. When this storyline began, my first reaction was ‘Hey we’ve been through this one already, with Doakes in Season 2. Are the writers officially running out of ideas?’ But I’ve reconsidered, and now believe the writers are making it more realistic: It makes sense that, working around detectives all these years, a serial killer would arouse the suspicion of more than one person in that office, right?

Also, very intrigued to see the Julia Stiles storyline, and happy she’s on the show. Is her character going to fill the void left by Rita? Hmmm...