Dawg Sports

Anybody remember the scene in The Big Kahuna where Larry and Phil ask Bob to serve as bartender in the hospitality suite they rented at a convention? Bob, a researcher and a teetotaler protests, "what if someone wants something I don't know how to make? What are the forumulas?" Phil and Larry laugh and Phil says, "they're called recipes Bob, and don't worry, we'll get you a book."

Remember? Crickets from internet....well trust me it happened....

Yesterday morning my wife, while trying to do something in a spreadsheet, "what's the recipe in excel for adding up a column of numbers?" To which I responded outloud, "equals, sum, open parenthesis, highlight stuff you want to add up, close parenthesis, enter." We have this conversation fairly often. In my head I think "they're called formulas hon, and don't worry, we'll get you a book."

My wife, Bob, and now our friend Michael Carvell at the AJC have all done the same thing. They've touched on a point that isn't totally wrong, but demonstrated that they don't understand that of which they speak beyond a very basic level. In the case of Bob and my wife, that's no problem at all, they aren't bartenders or accountants, and what's more they have convenient access to those who are. Michael Carvell on the other hand.....

So with Apologies to Fire Joe Morgan, let's take a look at some of (not all, I got audits to review) our favorite recruiting correspondent's calculation of how Georgia did on signing day....

Grandpa had nothing against UGA, the story goes, he just wanted Josh to go to Florida because of convenience and thought it would be a safer commute for everyone. Grandpa liked FSU also but felt the two-lane roads to FSU weren’t as safe as the 100-mile drive on I-75 from Valdosta to Gainesville. Note: FSU is 80 miles away, and UGA is 250.

Before Harvey-Clemons turned in the letter-of-intent, he got some helpful advice from Bobo, the UGA offensive coordinator who is also the Bulldogs’ chief recruiter for South Georgia, according to a person close to the situation:

“Bobo told him UGA would not intervene between Josh and his grandfather, and told Josh his God should always be first in his life, followed by his family, and his school of choice third. He reportedly told Josh hopefully he would choose the college he most wanted to attend, but he had to work that out with his Granddad, and that he and UGA would stand by him and respect whatever decision he made.”

So let me see if I can summarize the relevant facts in these three paragraphs.

1) Grandfather needs time to think about major decision in grandson's life.

2) Mike Bobo politely stays out of family matter

3) Grandfather makes decision

4) Write story titled Mike Bobo to the Rescue in periodical of note

5) ?

6) Profit

Moving on:

Bobo’s actions may have helped UGA save face on a tumultuous 2-for-9 signing day.

This hurts my head. This sentence is so wrong that we are going to have to go in one to two word increments:

Bobo’s actions

Mike Bobo explicitly took no action. You just said, like two lines ago, that Bobo told him UGA would not interfere between he and his family.

may have helped UGA

or they may not have, either way. Lookif Mike Bobo had done something else, like pressure the kid, he could have hurt UGA, but let's stick to the facts here. Mike Bobo backed off, the family made a decision, that helped UGA.

save face

save face? ESPN said that UGA recruited a top five class in the country. Other outlets had them as low as 19 or 20, but on average it's a pretty solid effort regardless of JHC. The class contains one of the best lineman in the country, one of the best tailbacks, one of the best fullbacks, on of the best end/linebackers....you get the point.

a tumultuous

The Harvey Clemmons affair was dramatic I grant you, for about 8 hours. Avery Young could have committed to Georgia but didn't; that's about all that happened on NSD for the dawgs other than the expected people turning in their letters.

2-for-9 signing day.

A which? Explain yourself sir....

The Bulldogs flipped Tucker DE Josh Dawson from Vanderbilt

Also Sheldon Dawson the day before signing day...I understand not the actual day, but we should probably count him right?

but watched on TV or live blogs as seven UGA targets holding scholarship papers put on baseball caps from other schools

That sounds horrible, tell me more:

OL Avery Young (Auburn), WR Cordarrelle Patterson (Tennessee)

I'll give you that. Would have been great to get a second elite tackle and a receiver never hurts. Those guys were uncommitted before signing day. So with the Dawsons and JHC Georgia is 3 for 5 so far...what else you got:

DE Kenderius Whitehead (NC State),

OK, UGA did not sign him....but he committed to NC State several weeks ago (1/18/2012) Not sure if I'm going to give you that one....3 for 5 still by my count.

DT Dalvin Tomlinson (Alabama),

Sure. I'm not sure Georgia was ever really in it for him and they recruited several other players at the OLB/DE position. But sure 3 for 6. What else you got?

WR JaQuay Williams (Auburn), OL Brandon Greene (Alabama) and ATH Will Redmond (Mississippi State).

JaQuay Williams has been committed to Auburn since June 15, 2011, Brandon Greene to Alabama since 3/15/2011 and Will Redmond since 8/1/2011. I know UGA continued to recruit them but come on....if we're scoring long time committments of other schools sticking with that commitment as a signing day miss, then we have to score long time UGA commitments sticking to the pledge as a positive don't we? In that case bro, UGA kept 17 of it's commitments as of 1/31 picked up a five star and a four star player, missed on at most three serious contenders and did not sign five players who had already made commitment decisions. That's more like 19 of 27 by my math.

Look, if you want to make the point that UGA missed opportunities to add players to its class that's fine, and I think that's a legitimate argument. But it makes no sense to create this double standard for retaining and flipping long time committments. You can't say that missing on Avery Young is the same thing as failing to turn Brandon Greene; the situation and the expectations are too different. I give this column two stars; might play at a mid major, but a strong red shirt candidate in the SEC.