Thursday Links (1/15)

"No man is more important than the team. No coach is more important than the team. The team, the team, the team. And if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do, you take into consideration what effect does it have on my team. Because you can go into professional football, you can go anywhere you want to play after you leave here, you will never play for a team again. You'll play for a contract, you'll play for this, you'll play for that. You'll play for everything except the team. Think what a great thing it is to be a part of something that is The Team." -- Bo Schembechler

In Mark Richt's final teleconference after the Capital One Bowl, he said he didn't want anyone at Georgia who wasn't ready to put their heart and soul into winning for the Bulldogs. That meant Rodney Garner and the other coaches. That meant Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno. As we've found out, it also meant Asher Allen and Reshad Jones. This hurts Georgia's talent level on the field, no doubt. But that hunger that many players and coaches said was missing last year certainly shouldn't be absent in 2009.

-- While Jones would become the fourth UGA underclassman to leave, LSU got some good news on two of its star players.

-- Even before the news of Jones' potential departure broke, the Sporting News had already called UGA the team most hurt by early draft entrees.

-- Sam Bradford's decision to return to Oklahoma probably means good things for Matthew Stafford in the draft, but USC's Mark Sanchez could still add some competition to become the top QB taken.

-- Meanwhile, Pittsburgh's LeSean McCoy will battle Knowshon Moreno to become the first RB taken in the draft.

-- The fine folks at Every Day Should Be Saturday find the pictures do a better job of explaining "The Wann-stache's" reaction to the news that McCoy is leaving early.

-- I'd recommend checking out Bill Simmons' latest mailbag over at ESPN.com if only for this entry:

Q: If you were playing dodgeball and had first pick of anyone, who would it be?
-Blake, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

A: I'd say a QB makes the most sense, because they're used to throwing bigger balls with a quick release. So the answer should be Georgia's Matthew Stafford. That kid has a bazooka. But I'd pick Brett Favre just for the chance to make the Eric Mangini Did-Somebody-Just-Fart-in-the-Car Face after Favre singlehandedly kills my team by getting picked off two minutes in.

So at least we know that Stafford will be someone's No. 1 pick. And Dodgeball may be better than playing for the Lions.

-- Georgia women's coach Andy Landers is on the verge of his 800th win, and the Banner-Herald has a nice look at what Landers has meant to the program.

-- ESPN's Chris Low puts a ribbon on the 2008 season in the SEC.

-- The American Sportscasters Association ranks the top 50 sportscasters of all time. The fact that Chris Berman is on this list angers me to no end, but the fact that he is ranked ahead of Harry Kalas makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a fork.

-- And finally, daddies, don't let your girls grow up to be Florida fans. This is what happens.