I’m a 5-foot-5 blonde college female trying to shove my high heel in the door of an industry filled with quote-hungry dudes sporting their loafers and mustaches.
At most press conferences, I stand out like Tim Tebow at a Playboy Mansion party.
But thus far in my young career, I’ve been able to crash the party.
My older brother commandeered the TV remote growing up and watched every show from Cold Pizza (now First Take) to PTI to NFL Live. And I caught his love of sports.
Now I find myself analyzing Georgia’s new 3-4 defensive scheme, spewing out the differences between "Mike" and "Sam" in said scheme and brainstorming the next feature I’ve been assigned.
I’m in my second year as a college journalist and fifth year in the business and I’ve worked my way up to being the sports editor at "The Red & Black," a five-day, independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia community.
That puts me smack dab in the middle of the Bulldog Nation, reporting every flinch I see.
IS MURRAY FIT TO LEAD? …
As quarterback Aaron Murray sports a seamlessly stress-free attitude about leading a Bulldog squad that is returning 10 offensive starters from last season’s lineup, the freshman has the task of putting together Georgia’s voluntary summer workouts.
That means the Tampa, Fla., native will be in charge of more than 80 teammates, most of whom are older and have put more hours into the program than Murray.
Simply put, where’s the fire, Aaron?
Of course, it’s good to be cool, calm and collected, but Murray’s inheriting perhaps the most highly-publicized and highly-scrutinized job at UGA, outside of the head coaching position.
Murray’s inheriting a physically healthy squad. But it’s a mentally tattered team who’s seen four teammates arrested, three kicked off and one indefinitely suspended – all in the matter of a few months. All the while, Murray was battling two others for the post-spring No. 1 quarterback slot.
The Bulldogs are searching for an in-house leader who will provide the motivation for teammates to keep their noses clean, stay out of local strip clubs (see Trent Dittmer) and get comfortable in the film room dissecting opponents.
Murray is going to be under a microscope, even more than he already is.
Welcome to the big stage, my fellow classmate. It’s going to be a tough road, to say the least.
Though Murray has his job cut out for him, he has A.J. Green down field just waiting for the touchdown passes to start pouring in like a Peyton to Marvin combination.
The 6-foot-4 flanker headlines a young receiving corps that was injury plagued for the most of spring practice, leaving just four scholarship receivers available for reps.
The rising junior is the oldest of the wideouts that dot Georgia’s roster and must accept the leadership role to push his teammates in practice and on the field.
His playmaking ability is endless and his potential to dominant cornerbacks and safeties is infinite. Green and his counterpart Tavarres King make for dangerous weapons in the Georgia offense that Murray must utilize from the first kickoff between the hedges to the last down of the end of the season.
OBEDIENCE SCHOOL …
Mark Richt must hate the color yellow.
The number of punishments handed out for causing penalty flags to fly last season must have been too high to count.
But the Bulldogs did it to themselves. Georgia made that little yellow flag fly 105 times, giving away 878 yards to opponents. Those less-than-mediocre statistics stuck the Bulldogs at No. 107 in yards penalized last season.
Here you go (insert opponent here), we’ll just give you a few precious yards and a yellow flag as a parting gift.
The Bulldogs have to clean up their play. They can’t flinch at the line of scrimmage. They can’t play sloppy football. They compete in the toughest league in the country and if they give an inch, the Floridas and the Alabamas of the country will knock them in the mouth and make them look like a high school JV squad on ESPN’s Not Top-Ten Plays.
Georgia’s off-the-field issues have been piling up since ex-Bulldog Montez Robinson was dismissed at the beginning of April.
Hopefully, those issues have come to a halt because the Athens jail hasn’t housed any Bulldogs as of late.
While Richt heads into the summer trying to make sure workouts are in order and his players are getting in game shape, he must be getting worry lines on his forehead the size of the Grand Canyon because of these off-the-field problems.
The 50-year-old head coach, just like most other coaches in this day and age, has had his share of bumps in the road with his players, but this spring has been like a feeding frenzy on his players’ mistakes.
Maybe he said enough is enough and decided to crack the whip.
But these distractions have got to be eliminated come September. They will do nothing but cause the Bulldogs to lose sight of finishing the drill.
While the Bulldogs work out the kinks and clean up their acts ─ hopefully before the big and bad Louisana-LaFayette Ragin’ Cajuns come stomping into Athens ─ I will continue to crash this whirlwind of an industry and try not to lose my high heels in the midst of those loafers and mustaches.
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Absolutely fantastic article!