- There  is a  vocal and mentally ill minority of the Georgia fan base that think Aaron Murray should be on the bench.  The blog Lucid Idiocy calls them and the AJC troll out for their, well their idiocy.  (h/t The Senator)

-  Steve Spurrier is still bitching about Georgia’s schedule last year.

- Hey Texas A&M has already produced a bad rap video. Talk about SEC Speed!

- Arkansas AD Jeff Long’s handwritten notes on his  personal investigation of Bobby Petrino are simply fascinating.

- An ad agency is mad at New Belgium for the ad campaign touting their new lager “Shift,” which is very tasty by the way.

- Shock gives a wrap up on what was an amazing beer weekend in Athens Ga last week.

- One of my all time favorites, Levon Helm died this week. I have been on a “The Band” bender ever since here are some gems:

The Night They Drove old Dixie Down from The Last Waltz. Hellagood

King Harvest

The making of Cripple Creek. Simply Fascinating

Levon Helm’s mini movie “only Halfway Home” to promote his wonderful album Dirt Farmer

FRENCH BROAD IPA – Where are the hops?

FRENCH BROAD RYEHOPPER PALE – OK at best.

WILD HEAVEN LET THERE BE LIGHT – Super session beer. According to owner, Nick Purdy, six pack of bottles coming soon.

SOUTHERN TIER OAKED UNEARTHLY – Fantastic. Everything this brewery does kicks ass.

TERRAPIN EASY RIDER SESSION ALE – Didn’t have it.

MOON RIVER APPARITION ALE – Very good, a little hoppier than I anticipated.

MOON RIVER WILD WACKY WIT – A very solid wit. Great tartness.  Tartness, is that word?

TWAIN’S GOLDEN ALE – Didn’t have it.

TWAIN’S HELL FOR SOCIETY STOUT – Solid, not spectacular. Pretty straight forward stout.

TWAIN’S MAD HAPPY PALE ALE  – Very drinkable. I’ll have another.

TWAIN’S TROPICALIA IPA – Awesome. lots of citrus flavors as the name would imply. Hoppy,  but very balanced.

FINCH BEER CO. CUTTHROAT PALE - Underwhelming.

FINCH BEER CO. GOLDEN WING BLONDE – Blah.

The cask tent had some great beers. The highlight in the cask tent was a Sweetwater  Exdous Porter that had some extra hops. Lots of praise was heaped upon the Lazy Magnolia blueberry cask, but it had a strong aftertaste reminiscent of Pledge. Abita had a bourbon barrel aged ale that was phenomenal. New Belguim La Folie was a hit, the standard bearer as sours go, in my opinion. Meads debuted their meed brewed right here in Athens, it was tasty but a little to sweet to have more than a few ounces. Clown Shoes Tramp Stamp was good , but not worth the hype.

Beer of the day: Twain’s Tropicalia.

It was an awesome day with friends. Looking forward to next year. I dare you to go to a beer festival that has live music other than a Celtic or bluegrass band. I dare you.

FRENCH BROAD IPA

FRENCH BROAD RYEHOPPER PALE

WILD HEAVEN LET THERE BE LIGHT

SOUTHERN TIER OAKED UNEARTHLY

TERRAPIN EASY RIDER SESSION ALE

MOON RIVER APPARITION ALE

MOON RIVER WILD WACKY WIT

TWAIN’S GOLDEN ALE (K)

TWAIN’S HELL FOR SOCIETY STOUT (K)

TWAIN’S MAD HAPPY PALE ALE (K)

TWAIN’S TROPICALIA IPA (K)

fINCH BEER CO. CUTTHROAT PALE

FINCH BEER CO. GOLDEN WING BLONDE

- Lots of scoring but as Marc Weiszer tells  us, nothing to worry about defensively.

- By all accounts the Running Backs have had a nice spring. Yesterday confirmed that as Ken Malcome got the start and looked good gaining 32 yards on 8 carries. His Touchdown run was legit SEC stuff. Isaiah Crowell looked good too. Even though he was doing it against the reserves I thought Richard Samuel looked rather beastly in his second half performance at running back.

- The offensive line still has some work to do as expected. However I thought the #1 unit held their own against the #1 defense.

- I was interested in seeing how Christian Lemay looked and he has most definitely improved from last year. That being said Hutson Mason looked really sharp.

- Justin Scott Wesley had a nice day catching the ball  O(3 catches for 46 yards) and Jay Rome showed some serious wheels for a big guy on his late game touchdown.

- Special teams are probably the hardest thing to judge during the spring and not much to report from G Day other than we need a real punter. Miss you already Drew!

Really not too much to day other than that. The first team defense looks like a legitimate championship unit and Aaron Murray looked confident.

Only 19  more Saturdays without football you guys.

“I don’t know, I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended”

Back in the day this would have riled me up, but I have come to learn that it is just Spurrier being Spurrier. In an odd way I have to come appreciate ol Stevie. Maybe it’s because Georgia has beaten him a few times more than when he was at Florida. It’s good to see Spurrier feeling his oats a little bit, must mean he feels good about his team. A compettive Spurrier is a good Spurrier because he has always been a bit of a sore loser.  So my advice to fellow Dawg fans is don’t get too upset over this little jab, that’s exactly what he wants,  plus as my friend Justin points out, just remind any Carolina fans about their oft-suspended former QB Steven Garcia or the traditional late season losing streaks Carolina usually suffers. Happy Saturday.

- The offseason got off to a great start when a bevy of underclassmen announced they were staying for a championship run in 2012. Then….

- Several of those guys started to get in trouble and they continued to get in to trouble.

- Due to unanticipated attrition Georgia’s leading receiver from 2011, Malcolm Mitchell,  is moving to corner back. It sounds permanent-ish. I am still on the fence how I feel about it, but you need your best players on the field and he is one of Georgia’s best.

- Richard Samuel has moved again, this time to fullback.

- The offensive line has been shuffling around, but it sounds like  a top 5 are emerging. Also good to see Kolton Houston finally getting a shot after being in NCAA purgatory.  The top 5 in rotation is likely to change when uber-recruit John Theus gets on campus this summer.

- Jay Rome is emerging as the heir apparent to Orson Charles, who is going pro and driving  drunk.

- Joe Tereshinski has a new group of assistant strength and speed coaches.

- Jarvis Jones is basically the baddest of asses. Bad Ass

As for  G Day tomorrow :

- No super frosh Keith Marshall and maybe no preview of Malcolm’s defensive skills.

- Isaish Crowell has by all accounts been doing the right things this spring, I am interested to see what he looks like.

- Christian Lemay looked really raw last year at G Day, I am curious to see how far he has progressed.

- The rosters appear to be #1 offense vs #1 defense. To me that means G Day may be a decent litmus test to see how the new OL fares against a legit SEC defense.

- DawgSports.com has your guide to G-Day 2012 here.

- Tyler from Georgia Sports Blog has three items for your G-Day viewing pleasure.

- Remember that G Day, like all spring games,  is just one scrimmage and is by no means and end all be all indicator of how things will go in the fall so don’t get to excited or get your panties in too much of a bunch. Just relax and enjoy a day between the hedges. Cheers

Since we last spoke numerous UGA players have found trouble, Bobby Petrino lost a fight with a motorcycle and lost his job, Malcolm Mitchell has moved to defense, Kim Jong Il and Furman Bisher have died, a dude named Bubba won the Masters and I have a sweet new kegerator. Lots to catch up on. Stay tuned!

- The Outback Bowl is tomorrow between my Georgia Bulldogs and Michigan State.  On paper these teams seem pretty even and Michigan St is better on offense than most give them credit for. I think Georgia is more explosive and more talented. UGA should be motivated so I think Sparty’s mental state is the key. Spartan Nation felt they should have been an at large BCS team and instead saw their arch rival Michigan get the nod, so if they are still feeling sorry for themselves Georgia could win big.

- The 2012 SEC football schedule is out. Georgia again has as favorbale a schedule as one can have in the SEC. No Bama, no Arkansas, no LSU.  Not  until the SEC Championship game that is . Cue the Carolina moaning and groaning.

- The bowl games have been pretty entertaining, none more so than the Alamo Bowl. On the other hand the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl set football and hunger prevention back about 70 years.

-  Beer! Best Beers I had in 2011:

• Cigar City Marshal Zukov Imperial Stout
• Stone Cali-Belgique IPA
• Bell’s Hop Slam
• Avery 18th Anniversary Dry Hopped Rye Saison
• Bear Republic Racer No 5 IPA

- Everybody loves music,  here are my top albums of 2011 in no particular order:

• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – “Here We Rest”
• My Morning Jacket – “Circuital”
• The Decemberists – ” The King is Dead”
• Iron and Wine – “Kiss Each Other Clean”
• Centro-Matic – “The Candidate Waltz”

- I also got to see some good live shows in 2011 highlights – Ryan Bingham, Iron and Wine,  and The Avett Brothers.

Here’s to looking forward to  2012 looking forward to doing some more home-brewing, blogging more and counting the days until college football starts again. Cheers

Dropped passes were the culprit. Georgia left  at least 14 points on the field in the first half while holding LSU to zero as is NO first downs. The defense was awesome but the offense and special teams couldn’t keep pace with LSU.

Everybody points to the 62 y rd punt return by Tyrann Matthieu as the back breaker and it was. He had another huge return in the third quarter that put LSU in the red zone and set up a TD that opened the flood gates. But it is worth noting that out of eight punts to Georgia LSU gave up zero as in NO yards on returns. For the season  the LSU punt team has given up six yards on punt returns, SIX! All season!. That is insane and is good example of why special teams are so huge and LSU is dominant in special teams.

LSU is dominant period. They are as complete a team as I have seen in a long time. I think they have 56 running backs on scholarship and they are all beasts.

We will see how the BCS shakes out but it looks like LSU vs Bama in the title game. Georgia looks destined for the Ourback bowl against some middling Big 10 team. There is an outside shot at the Cotton which would be nice. Either way it beats Memphis or Shreveport.

Georgia has come a long way since Sept 3rd,  but there is work to do to get to the top. The future is bright at Georgia and LSU showed the world Georiga isn’t elite,  but they are close.  On to Bowl season…

- Tech got their yardage on the ground but never really got their triple option going.  Garrison Smith stepped up big time when the Dawgs lost D’angelo Tyson early. Smith will be a starter next year so it was good to see him step up and not miss a beat.

- Shawn Williams’ interception of Reggie Ball Tevin Washington was a thing of beauty.

- The only negative I saw on the defensive side of the ball was some poor tackling. Other than that another solid day for the Dawg D.

- Special Teams were huge and Georgia made plays; Two great punts by Butler pinning Tech deep, Boykin’s kickoff return to open the second half and Blair Walsh making The Fish Fry Genius pay for icing him late in the first half.

- Aaron Murray was sharp again, his only pick came on a play where he got leveled. The O-line protected him well and he found the Tight Ends all day long. I love Al Groh’s let the Tight End run free defense.

- Give Bobo credit. On a day where Georgia was thin at running back again he got creative and found ways to move the ball on the ground. He got Mitchell involved on a reverse, Murray was a part of the running game and Branden Smith played exclusively on the offensive side of the ball.

- Michael Bennett; All he does is catch Touchdown passes. (He also threw a great block on the reverse run by Mitchell).

- Murray’s 2nd qtr touchdown pass to Chris Conley was a thing of beauty. Play fake, pump fake, wide open in the corner.

- I hate to pick on announcing crews but Ed Cunningham is horrible.  He makes me long for Bob Davie.

-  I also usually don’t get in to schadenfreude, but when Tech is involved it is too good to pass up.

- More so than in previous years against Tech there was a very obvious gap in talent level between the Dogs and Jackets. Tech just doesn’t have the horses, particularly on defense.

- On to the Dome to play LSU, who is pretty good. Go Dawgs