Mailbag, segundo parte

Here, as promised, or threatened depending on how you look at it, is the second edition of the mailbag. It ended up being a little more nuts-and-bolts than the first one, although we did address "Citizen Kane" one more time, as well as Mumford and Sons and some other musical selections.

Enjoy. Or don't:

What were the coaches trying to gain from having a draft of teams? Seems like all the #1's should play together and against each other. Builds more cohesiveness and provides better competition. If you can indulge me a 2nd question..Any word on the replacement Uga?
- CalifDawg

As I just wrote for my G-Day preview (it’ll be online later today) letting the players draft could be taken as another sign that this wasn’t the most intense spring practice there’s ever been at Georgia. Most position battles are on hold until the recruits get here. There’s been some movement through practice, but for instance the secondary will depend heavily on which guys (Damian Swann, Nick Marshall, Corey Moore) can play right away. So I guess the coaches didn’t feel that dividing up the team’s strategically would accomplish a lot.

No word on the new Uga yet.

Right now there is a JT-2 fund to help pay for medical costs, and a similar one for Chance Veazy. Does the Athletic Department insurance not cover medical costs for these young men? It seems strange that we only hear about this for the baseball team and never for the football team (never heard about a fund for all the ACLs and should injuries on the football team). Just a point of clarity I believe would be helpful.
- Greg

That’s a good question, and thankfully it was addressed by the AJC’s Chip Towers in this piece on Thursday. Essentially, catastrophic injury policies by UGA and the NCAA will cover Taylor’s medical bills for the next 30 years, and the Johnathan Taylor Fund will cover any additional expenses.

I keep reading all of this about the defense being in the 2nd year under CTG and this is why they were having early success against the offense. Could you ask how many years the offense has been under CMB and why haven’t they had a year where they were dominating over the defense like the defense was to the offense?
- Anonymous

I suspect I know what you’re getting at. Honestly I didn’t get much into the “defense beat the offense today” or “offense beat the defense today” angles from practices, because a) I didn’t get to see it myself to judge, and b) much of the key personnel has been hurt or not on campus yet.

For all the Bobo haters, let’s see what happens in the fall.

What would be the biggest difference you see in Grantham vs Martinez in the choosing/recruiting of players?
- Silver Britches

I’m not the best guy to answer that since I got here after Grantham was hired. But from what I can tell, Grantham prefers bigger players at all positions. Look at this year’s recruiting class: No defensive players under 6-0, and in fact the smallest player in the entire class is Crowell (5-11). That doesn’t mean that Grantham wouldn’t have signed Branden Smith or Brandon Boykin. But they went really big in the secondary, a trend I would expect to continue. Even Quantavious Harrow, whom a lot of people consider a “throw-in” to get Crowell, is listed at 6-2 and 200 pounds.

There's a lot of talk about Crowell being "the man" at RB when he shows up this summer, but what is he (and our other big recruits such as Drew, Rome, Jenkins, Marshall, etc) doing to prepare themselves to play in the fall? Are they given playbooks, workout routines, nutrition guidelines? Are the coaches calling them every few days to check in on their progess? Or maybe even the coaches themselves are traveling down to the players' high schools to work with them? I'm not sure if any of this is allowed by the NCAA, but it would seem that if we're relying on them to contribute significantly next year that the coaches are keeping a close eye on them. Just wondering what happens with these guys between the time they sign and the day they show up on campus.
-Destin

The coaches are in pretty close contact with the players. Bryan McClendon said a few weeks ago he talks “a bunch” with Crowell. And a lot of the recruits are visiting Athens on weekends. I’m sure they already have playbooks, and the coaches are telling them what will be expected as far as working out and nutrition, and suggesting they start on it right now. But we’re talking about teenagers; they may SAY they’re doing it, but how many are? Some probably are to the hilt, some are doing it a bit, and some may be enjoying their senior slumps.

Seth, out of the QB's competing in the halftime competition (plus Bobo and Tarkenton), who would you take to lead your team to the BCSNC, and your reasoning why?

Also, with TS now lost, which freshman (if any)do you expect to make an impact on the offensive line?

And finally, Chipper hit RBI #1500 last night. Does this lock him into the Hall? I certainly think so.
- P-44 Haynes

Chipper Jones was a Hall of Famer like, what, six years ago? Especially once he moved back to third base. I remember doing a story on him in 2005 and talking to his father Larry, who was making the case for his son for the Hall. That was six years ago, and Chipper hasn’t done anything to hurt himself – and doesn’t have any taint of the steroids era. At least not now.

Oh, as for your actual UGA-related questions …

I covered David Greene, and he just had that winning aura, similar to Aaron Murray. But if you went by pure talent, Matt Stafford was a No. 1 overall pick and Fran Tarkenton is an all-timer. Then again, Tee Martin won a national title at Tennessee, not Peyton Manning. So who the hell knows.

As for the offensive line, if you mean true freshmen, my suspicion is they will all redshirt, but the most likely to play right away would be Zach DeBell or Watts Dantzler. I also wouldn’t rule out David Andrews as a backup center if Chris Burnette is moved full-time to guard.

The Spring Game is usually #1 offense against #1 defense. Why a draft this year? Are the coaches conceding that nothing is really learned from the G-Day game?
On the movies, good choices, but best of all time? I gotta go with Animal House and The God Father with Jeremiah Johnson a really close third.
- NC Dawg

Obviously I addressed the G-Day draft earlier, so let’s tackle the movies: I like your first two choices – I make sure to watch Animal House once every six months, and The Godfather movies once every year. You could make a good case for each as respectively the best comedy and best drama of all time.

How is Ken Malcome progressiong?
- PI0we

He had kind of an “eh” spring because of injuries. I thought he had a chance to jump in there, and he still could. But Caleb King appears to be the only tailback who has truly helped himself, and he will still have to beat out Crowell.

Much has been spoken about our current scholarship situation with the basketball team and signing hopefuls such as Kevin Ware or John Cannon. While 2011 may be somewhat of a transition for the team, it seems that the recruiting class of 2012 could be the key for continued success in Basketball during the Fox Era. With a number of departing seniors from the team next year, do you know if Fox has made good strides on recruiting the wealth of talent in state for 2012? How many prospects would we expect to sign? I also hear were are making good strides with several Oak Hill prospects as well as a player from Alabama. Just wanted to see if you had any good information.
- Barb

The No. 1 target for 2012 is Tony Parker (not the former husband of Eva Longoria), who is also being recruited by Duke and North Carolina. Parker is a power forward from Miller Grove High School. But that’s going to be a tough get for the Bulldogs, considering the competition. Right now, the other main targets also appear to be post guys, but I’m sure they’ll sign some perimeter players too.

Citizen Kane is crap. I realize it was ahead of its time but I actually saw a documentary about Citizen Kane that was more enjoyable than the movie, that is automatic disqualification for best movie of all time.

It seems like a large portion of the defense has been concussed this spring. I know in past years Richt said they took it too easy in practice because of injuries and that showed up on the field in the fall with weak blocking and bad tackling. In your experience, does it seem like coaches are always “training to fight the last war” or is UGA more likely to be reactive vs. innovative compared to other programs?
- NewYorkDawg

First off, you can’t call a movie “crap” while also saying it was “ahead of it’s time.” If they made “Gone with the Wind” now it would probably bomb because it was too long and the cinematography wasn’t good enough. But they’re both considered great movies for good reason.

I think they’re being cautious with concussions this spring, and that’s a good idea. Brandon Boykin has been in there drafting a G-Day team, and seemed perfectly lucid when he spoke to the media, but he may not play because of a concussion. So really, I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions from that. Plus, they began practicing more physical halfway through last year.

Alright Seth, lay it out there......what's your prediction for G-Day? I'll say Red team, 17-14.
- Regular Guy

I liked the Black team when I saw it, because it had more starters, and it has Murray and Orson Charles. But they are weaker at tailback. Still, I’ll go with 28-14, Black. As Wesley Snipes would say, “Always bet on black.” (A free subscription to the blog to whoever names what movie that’s from.)

Seth- A lot of quotes from Bobo and Richt refer to 'the system' as in Murray 'learning the system.' I understand what this means only as a rather nebulous principle, so I was wondering if you could sort of explain our offensive 'system' in a couple paragraphs with regards to the specific personnel at UGA (coaches and players) and the goals of 'the system' within a single game or possession? Elucidate our offensive strategery for me, please.
- Anonymous

Well, it’s basically a pro-style offense. The system is the playbook, and when they talk about “learning the system,” most of what they mean is what reads to make on individual passing plays. You have to, as a quarterback, be able to decide in a matter of seconds whether the first read (say, the flanker) is open, and if not you go down to the second read (say, the other receiver) and on down the list. And you only really get used to that with experience.

That’s putting it very basic, but it’s the best I can do in one paragraph.

Could you write a brief summary of where our Baseball team now stands? I'd like to know overall record, SEC record, record over the last 10 games, how many games are left (presumably all conference games), and anything else you feel is relevant.Thanks!

P.S. - best movie line ever has to be "It's the one that says BMF on it" from Pulp Fiction.
- Bulldawg

Entering this weekend’s series against No. 4 Florida, the Georgia baseball team is 18-16 overall and 8-4 in the SEC. And with a current RPI rank of 17 (according to Boydsworld.com) the Bulldogs are actually in good shape to make the NCAA tournament. If they can pull that off, that would be a huge success for a team that didn’t have very high expectations.

Here's one for ya. You have mentioned hailing from Maryland, so you must have an opinion on the 2nd greatest college sports season of the year (after college football, of course). So who takes the college lacrosse title this year? Who wins the UMd/Hopkins game this weekend?
- Anonymous

Wow, I honestly have no idea. I’ve been gone too long, and don’t keep enough track of lacrosse. But did you know the official state sport of Maryland is actually jousting? True story.

One question comes to mind, especially with our OL depletions. Do you see CMR looking to find snaps during the season for Mason or LeMay should either (or both) show promise? We have been down this road before with other QBs waiting in the wings.

As a fellow Mumford and Sons fan, you have not lived until you have listened to their entire Pukkelpop performance on YouTube: five videos listed in sequence, great sound quality, phenomenal performance. No better background music while you're typing out the mailbag answers, you carpetbagger.
- Oberg

Increasingly, it looks like Mason will be the backup and LeMay will redshirt. Don’t hold me to that, but right now they like how Mason has looked in spring ball. But with only three scholarship quarterbacks, especially with Logan Gray gone, even if they decide to try to redshirt LeMay, he’ll get reps throughout camp and the season, just in case.

Thanks for the tip on Pukkelpop, I'll put it on the Youtube list. Even if you did have to nail me with that carpetbagger line at the end there. Who are you, Paul Feinbaum?

Seth,
Would it have been more beneficial for the basketball program to have made a longer run in the NIT (like Alabama) or go one and done in the NCAA?
I feel like tournament experience and winning could have outweighed the buzz of being in the NCAA (although the taking heads were giving us a lot of love prior to the selection), but with the bulk of that team now gone, maybe not.
- Joel

No, you always want the tournament bid. These days, that’s how most programs are judged. The only way a long NIT run would have helped more is if they had known Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie would be gone, and they played guys like Marcus Thornton, Donte’ Williams and Sherrard Brantley extensive minutes. And in that case, I doubt they would have made a long NIT run.