Final Feelings: G Day Arrives!
ATHENS - The Dawg Post crew gets you ready for another G Day with their thoughts about the Dawgs, Easter and Game of Thrones.
Matt’s Final Feelings
Spring is here, and so are Final Feelings. It’s good to be back.
Spring was pretty solid on my end. I started the final year of my 20s, I’m trying to get my ass back in shape and my Atlanta Braves currently have a winning record. Then there’s Game of Thrones. February and March dragged on a little bit, but April has been great. Life is good.
Like the greatest show of all time, Georgia football is also back. There is no quarterback debate, but there are still plenty of storylines. Which veteran receiver will take that next step? What will the insanely deep offensive line look like? Who will replace Mecole Hardman in the return game? How are the young defensive backs coming along? Georgia fans are hoping they’ll have some of those answers after G-Day on Saturday.
Then there’s the freshman. Everyone loves the freshman. The highly touted early-enrollees, some of them former five-stars, will have high expectations placed upon them this fall. Guys like Nolan Smith, Nakobe Dean, Tyrique Stevenson, and so many others will have their opportunity to finally strap it up and play between the hedges. It may be just a spring game, but it’s important for so many of these younger players.
While the spring game is important to the progression of the team, it’s also a giant recruiting tool. This Georgia staff, full of elite recruiters, will be hosting at least seven five-star prospects this upcoming weekend. Kirby Smart has done an excellent job of marketing the spring game since his arrival in Athens, and he knows what the impact of a great atmosphere will do for some of the out of state recruits. Five-stars Kelee Ringo, Kendall Milton, Mekhail Sherman, Paris Johnson and Jordan Burch are all visiting from outside the state of Georgia, and most of them have never seen a spring game atmosphere like they’ll see on Saturday.
For Kirby Smart, the fun has already started. The Bulldogs were able to land four-star cornerback Jalen Kimber Wednesday morning, and the fun might not be over. G-Day is always a big weekend for recruiting, and with so many 2020 and 2021 prospects on campus, there’s a good chance one or two more guys make a public commitment to Georgia this weekend.
My Birds have a big draft coming up, and I’m praying they don’t screw it up. They need some help in the trenches on both sides, but if they draft some edge player in the first three rounds I might lose my mind. Vic Beasley is one of the worst professional football players on the planet, and Tak McKinley hasn’t lived up to the hype yet, either. No more of these edge rushers. I’d love to see the Falcons draft Ed Oliver or Christian Wilkins, but Jonah Williams wouldn’t be a bad pick either if he’s available. So there’s my quick pre-draft rant.
Anyway, it’s Easter weekend, and I hope everyone gets to spend quality time with their family and friends at some point this weekend. I’ll be praising Jesus in the morning and watching crazy cousins yell and scream all afternoon during the Easter Egg hunt. I remember the good ole days when I used to fight my brothers for those last few eggs. It wasn’t about the candy inside, it was about winning the hunt at all costs. It was a war out there during the early DeBary Easter Egg Hunt days.
Anyway, Happy Easter everyone. See ya’ll in Athens on Saturday.
Dylan’s Final Feelings:
Hello, hello everyone. The title above says final feelings, and they are my final feelings, but they’re essentially my initial feelings as well. I’ve been away from Georgia football for some time. I’ve done my best to stay in the loop, though. I just haven’t gotten to see what I was hearing and reading with my own eyes until this week.
On the recruiting front for this game, I’m horribly out of date. The only thing I know is that every time I check the site, it seems like Matt has some new story about another kid who’s coming into town for G Day. If anyone asked me how many recruits were going to the game, I wouldn’t be able to give an answer. I’d just say a shit ton (I think).
G Day is always fun because it’s a tease for next season. We get to see a smidgen of how the coaches want to use personnel next season. And with what we see Saturday we will take and speculate through the entire summer only to realize we were all wrong in the fall. Still, it makes the summer more entertaining. So, here are the things I’m excited to see this weekend so we can chat about them all summer:
Matt Landers: For the past two seasons I’ve heard on several occasions about how talented he is. Also for the past two seasons, I’ve heard about how a lack of focus has minimized that talent. Now though, it sounds like things are beginning to click at least a little bit more.
The offensive line: Honestly, who doesn’t love the offensive line? When I play NCAA 14 (RIP), they’re always my main focus. I’m like Sam Pittman when it comes to that. We already know who the big players are. What I’m more excited about is to see the guys behind the starters and where they’ll be at. People like Cade Mays and Jamaree Salyer - I’m curious how they’ll be used. I also want to see Clay Webb in action. I’ve heard that he’s been doing well when it comes to straight blocking. The only issue has been his snapping, which apparently has been a biggg problem. I’m interested to see if they will at least look half-decent on Saturday.
The secondary: Obviously J.R. Reed will be there. Eric Stokes, too. What I’m wondering about is the status of a few people - Tyrique Stevenson, Tyson Campbell, Richard LeCounte and Otis Reese (who likely won’t be playing). Has Campbell made any noticeable ground since last year, or is Stevenson going to be pushing him for time? Same with LeCounte. Are we going to see a safety who can wrap up and tackle players when they come his way, or is UGA going to have to rely on Reese for that this fall?
As for me, and I guess the board, a lot has changed since I’ve been active in the Dawg Post community. I pet a kangaroo, got a new pair of shoes, started running (trying, at least).
I guess things aren’t that different, never mind. But y’all, well when did the jokes about Matt’s girlfriend start popping up? I just noticed that a few days ago. Not that I’m against them or anything. In fact, I’m all for ‘em. Let’s open up the flood gates.
Dean’s Final Feelings
I’m actually “excited” for this year’s G Day. I’m not sure why. I might have too much pollen in my sinuses. I spent the first two weeks of April dealing with/suffering from a throat situation that made it tough to eat.
Worry none readers - I am still overweight. If you think a debilitating throat condition is going to stop me from overeating Reeses Eggs you have gone full Dan Mullen.
I expect a full Sanford Stadium for Saturday’s game. Having talked with other folks about their expectations for the crowd maybe I should adjust my expectations some. No one thinks it will be full that I have talked with, but I do. I might be delusional.
I want to see the new kids I’ve seen some of, but heard more about. Nolan Smith. Nakobe Dean. Tyrique Stevenson. I want to see both backup QBs. Is Stetson Bennett as good as folks inside the program suggest, or is that whistling past the graveyard? What about Dwan Mathis? What are the real expectations there?
Again, I don’t ever look forward to G Day, but I am this spring for some reason. I think, too, that Kirby has been far more optimistic about this team than I have expected. Sure, he’s mixed in some of his piss and vinegar, that’s what he does.
Kirby: “If I get up here and talk about piss and vinegar, y’all are going to write about piss and vinegar being the next Outland Trophy winner.”
Speaking of piss and vinegar - I want you to know that I watched every pitch of UGA’s 3-2 win over the Taters until the 19th inning. By then I had enough. How many strikeouts am I, a non-baseball person, really supposed to have to sit through?
As Nirvana said: Here we are now… entertain us.
Daddy ain’t entertained by watching three half innings of scoring in 40 half innings of a game. But, true to from, UGA students stormed the Bastille that is Foley Field after midnight to experience something live we don’t see anytime soon. See, this Homeland Generation does want to experience things live… so they can Instagram being there live.
It was a cool moment to watch the next morning, but I had to get to sleep. We’ve got Easter on Sunday. My wife is unhappy about the timing of Easter and Christmas on Georgia’s football and recruiting calendar.
Meanwhile, I have started watching Game of Thrones for the first time ever. A few thoughts…
1. I’m only nine episodes into this thing, and there’s a lot of killing
2. I’m only nine episodes into this thing, and there’s a lot of sex
3. I mean there is a lot of throat sliting
4. What looks like a child about the age of 12 is now the king…
5. The food isn’t looking so great on the show
6. Right now I have the show well behind Homeland, Mad Men, The Wire, 30 Rock and The Office (don’t @ me). But it is an interesting show that seems to build on itself. It isn’t afraid to kill folks off, and that’s a good thing.
7. Still, you can’t kill the entire cast off, so they are going to have to keep some of these folks around.
8. Frankly, I am having a hard time keeping up with who is who/what. I didn’t realize the Queen was sleeping with her twin brother - that’s because something like that would never have entered my head… why did those two think of it?
Nonetheless, I’m wrapping this up “report” as I watch Georgia’s baseball team play Missouri. The Spike Squad is here… that’s all you need to know about the momentum at play with this program. They actually called the Dawgs during Emerson Hancock’s first pitch.
By the way, Hancock is pretty well amazing. I, again, know nothing about baseball, but its clear he’s a star. That UGA has him for some time in Athens really does matter.
So look for everyone at G Day. Its a good event to take in for the family, and leave at halftime.
Oh, and favorite Easter Egg hunt story? My freshman year we all came back home for Easter, and had an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard. There was one special egg that had money in it. Needless to say I can’t remember who won the egg, but that was the final Easter before my mother had to fight through Leukemia in 1996. She was diagnosed a few days later.
She’s still alive today screaming at the screen while watching some form of trash TV (Judge Judy, etc) and looking for Matt’s comma placement mistakes… of which there were many this weeks.