Sports Page Atlanta

Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford was named to the Davey O’Brien watch list. The junior from Texas was 1 of 31 quarterbacks to be honored. The award is given to the nation’s best college quarterback who inspires student athletes to triumph on and off the field.

The award will be announced on December 11th at the Home Depot College Football Awards Show on ESPN.

No Georgia player has won the award, but a former Georgia Tech player has (Joe Hamilton in 1999).

Last year, Tim Tebow won the award.

Click on the following link for more information about the Davey O’Brien Award Watch List or for a complete list of nominees.

Decisions were made on the recent Georgia Bulldogs that were arrested this offseason. 

Defensive end Michael Lemon was hit the hardest and is suspended indefinitely.  Lemon was arrested on two counts of battery from an incident at a party last week.  UGA Athletic Department policy specifies any felony arrests results in immediate and indefinite suspension pending an investigation.

Other decisions were made on Clint Boling and Jeremy Lomax.  Boling, the sophomore offensive lineman was suspended 2 games for his DUI that occurred last spring.  Lomax, the senior defensive end had his charges dropped for carrying a concealed weapon.

Georgia Baseball head coach and 2-time SEC Coach of the Year, David Perno signed a new 5-year/$2.25 million dollar contract with the Bulldogs this morning.

The contract goes through 2013 and will earn him $450,000 per season compared to his old contract that had him through 2011 and would have got him $300,000 annually.

Perno has led Georgia to 3 College World Series appearances in his first 7 seasons as the Georgia skipper.  Last season, the Dawgs got to the NCAA Championship before falling to Fresno State 2-games-to-1.

Last night in his Savannah home with the Seiler family by his side, Uga VI, the University of Georgia mascot suffered a heart attack.  He was just under 10 in human years and has been the mascot since the middle of the 1999 season.

He had been on the sideline for more wins than any previous Uga’s and was part of 7 bowl winning teams.

He will be buried in Sanford Stadium with the rest of the Uga’s on Monday.

Here are some more photos taken of Uga VI taken by probably the greatest photographer of Georgia Bulldog sports, Radi Nabulsi and the rest of the ugasports.com staff.

A few days after Georgia guard Billy Humphrey was arrested for the 3rd time, coach Dennis Felton dismissed him from the basketball team. 

Felton said, “I am disappointed in Billy, we’ve worked really hard with him in the past to see that succeeds, but I feel that it’s now best for our program to move forward without him.”

Humphrey would have been a senior next season.  He started 28 games last season and was 2nd on the team averaging over 12 points per game.

The Georgia baseball team lost to Fresno State 6-1 and the other Bulldogs became champion of the college baseball world (can’t wait to read it on sportspage fresno.com).

Unlike Tuesday, pitching wasn’t the problem.  Nathan Moreau and Dean Weaver did not make too many mistakes, but the ones they did proved costly.

On the other side, Georgia could not figure out Fresno State’s Justin Wilson.  The lefty only allowed one single run which was courtesy of a solo blast by Gordon Beckham.  Georgia failed on opportunity after opportunity with runners on base and for the most part, the lefty batters looked totally lost.

Beckham along with Ryan Peisel were named to the All-Tournament team.  Beckham batted .522 with 2 home runs, while Peisel batted .407 with 2 home runs as well during the College World Series. 

Fresno State’s Tommy Mendonca was named the College World Series’ Most Outstanding Player.

The Georgia Bulldogs fell short last night in the College World Series.  The Dawgs were aiming for their 2nd title in team’s history.  They were the first SEC team to win it all back in 1990.  Since then, the LSU Tigers became champs in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 2000.

Georgia is not the only SEC team to finish runner-up in baseball’s title game, he is that list…

2008: Georgia loses to Fresno State

2005: Florida loses to Texas

2002: South Carolina loses to Texas

1997: Alabama loses to LSU (only time 2 SEC teams have met in final)

1983: Alabama loses to Texas

1951: Tennessee loses to Oklahoma

South Carolina and Arkansas played in the finals as well before they became members of the SEC…

1979: Arkansas loses to Cal State Fullerton

1977: South Carolina loses to Arizona State

1975: South Carolina loses to Texas

Georgia Bulldog shooting guard Billy Humphrey was arrested early Tuesday morning for drunk driving.  He was admitted to a Gwinnett County jail after officers arrested him for a DUI, failure to maintain a lane and purchasing alcohol while underage.  Humphrey blew a .02 which is more than the under 21 limit.  He turns 21 in October.

Head Coach Dennis Felton has yet to decide on future matters involving Humphrey. 

This is Humphrey’s 2nd alcohol related arrest and university policy would have him suspended for at least half of the team’s regular season games if found guilty.

For all the good that the Georgia Bulldogs started with early in the game yesterday it became really really bad.  Georgia got destroyed 19-10 by Fresno State in game 2.  It was the most runs they allowed all season.

The pitching staff pitched terribly giving away too many big hits and walks.

Tonight Georgia will go with Nathan Moreau, who has been a hit or miss pitcher the last few outings.  He might be asked to just go a few innings tonight.  After Moreau, Georgia will probably also go with Dean Weaver, Alex McRee and Joshua Fields.  Fields might go more than normal, maybe 2 innings, maybe more.

Fresno State should go with a lefty named Justin Wilson (not the cajun cook).  Wilson is their workhorse.  He has thrown 116 innings this year.  He last pitched on Saturday when North Carolina defeated Fresno State and threw 5 1/3 innings allowed 2 earned runs.  He struck out 6, but he also walked 6.  He record is 8-5 with a 4.34 era and he also gives up a lot of hits and walks.  So Georgia needs to take advantage of that.

Well last night’s Georgia game seemed to go on and on.  Fresno State just pounded the ball en route to a 19-10 win.  Those 29 runs were a lot, but they wouldn’t have been the most on a deciding NCAA Championship game in College World Series history (only for the last few years they have been playing the best 2-of-3 in the finals).

Here are the highest scoring final games in College World Series history…

35 total runs in 1998: Southern Cal defeats Arizona State 21-14

19 total runs in 1997: LSU defeats Alabama 13-6

18 total runs in 1994: Oklahoma defeats Georgia Tech 13-5

18 total runs in 2002: Texas defeats South Carolina 12-6

When Georgia defeated Oklahoma State back in 1990, it was one of the lowest scoring finals when they won 2-1.  (there were two 1-0 games earlier in CWS history).