Friday, August 31st, 2007

Countdown to Kickoff: T Minus 8

Here’s one from our 1991 game versus Auburn at Jordan-Hare stadium. We lost the game 17-32 I believe, but we still put up a good fight.

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

Countdown to Kickoff: T minus 9

Here’s an old black & white from Dave Braddy’s site … it’s tagged as GA vs GSU 4, not sure which game this is from though. This is definitely a good find though!

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Countdown to Kickoff: 10

Here’s a pre-game shot (courtesy of Dave Braddy) of Coach Sewak and Coach / Governor Sonny Perdue. Just 10 days left!

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

Countdown to Kickoff: 11 to go!

Today’s picture is actually a video from over at Bulloch Headline News, strangely we have two different stories … one is this video that says the QB position is still up in the air and won’t be announced until September 6th. However one of the posters over at TSC linked to this article and alluded to Foster being the #1 guy.

Either way, the excitement levels for seeing OUR coach and OUR new offense in action is building.

Monday, August 27th, 2007

Countdown to Kickoff: 14, 13, 12…

Sorry about this weekend, we had another ‘baby event’ which netted us nothing except a late night visit and some insomnia. The ’stadol’ (sp?) quieted down the contractions (unfortunately) and so the pregnant wifey is still miserable, but hanging in there.

Don’t forget we have two auctions still running. The Drive to Dixie poster and the 1996 Framed Baseball SoCon Champs print (link fixed!). Anyway, let’s play catch-up with 3 more pictures from Scott.

Friday, August 24th, 2007

Countdown to Kickoff: 15 to go

TNEagle posted this letter to the editor over on the Southern Connection! It really gets your blood going, here’s a snippet!

For starters though, we need to find that lost swagger again. That attitude that says ?we ARE Georgia Southern, and we are going to knock your block off, old school style?. And get out on the field and do it, while snagging a couple more national titles along the way to FBS transition. Then we can start talking about greener pastures, and taking on the likes of Furman, as a 1-AA tune-up, before our (C-USA??) conference season gets under way! Wouldn?t that be sweet?

EDIT: Also, here’s a link to Opie’s “part two” about the NCAA moratorium. Opie, never one to miss calling someone out on their actions, has a heck of a lot to say in that piece.

Anyway, here’s the countdown picture of the day (Two weeks and a day!):

Boy how I miss seeing those trophies! :)

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

The Thursday Thousand: No Comment

The news around Georgia Southern football this week had a little to do with Jayson Foster working at quarterback with the first team offense, a little to do with a rapidly improving defense and a little to do with the “no comment” heard around Eagle Nation in Sunday’s Statesboro Herald.

The season can’t start fast enough, can it, Eagle fans?

Before this goes any further, I want to get right to the point and go on the record by saying that I think Bruce Grube has been a top-notch president for Georgia Southern. Not only has he made visible and defining changes to Georgia Southern as an institution, he has always treated me well personally. I worked for several months in 1999 as the Herald’s higher education reporter, sitting down with Grube once a month to discuss his agenda for the university. Grube always had a set of “talking points” but also gladly answered questions away from topic or referred me to another member of the administration—certainly a time-biding move in most cases, but any public figure worth their salt would rather do this than look like a mook by talking out of school, so no hard feelings.

I have always reserved the right to disagree or question policy decisions by Grube when I felt informed enough to have a strong opinion, but I have also grown to respect the man’s cagey approach to putting the best face on GSU, both in practical matters and as a matter of public relations.

Needless to say, I was more than a little surprised to learn of Grube’s gaffe when he told Herald reporter Alex Pellegrino that he doesn’t “do sports interviews.” Uh, yes he does. In fact, using his preferred method of communication with reporters—email—Grube actually discussed the goings on inside the Division I Board of Directors with The Sports Network. Telling a local reporter—also via email—that he didn’t comment on such matters was far more damaging than telling her he wouldn’t comment.

There is, of course, much conjecture that strain between the university and the newspaper has been building for some time. I know, for instance, that Grube fired an angry email off to the Herald’s offices recently after a poll the newspaper ran concerning concealed weapons on campus. The FBS/FCS issue, obviously, has similar hot-button potential (although with far less real-world gravity than gun issues, obviously).

The dance between journalists and public figures is like waltzing naked with a partner made of broken glass. On one hand, the institution needs publicity outside of advertising. On the other, putting lots of raw information into almost any journalist’s hands invites misinterpretation—either by a journalist without all the facts in front of them or by readers who don’t have the critical thinking skills and media savvy to interpret the construction of a news story. Or both.

Plus, journalists and public figures alike make mistakes. It’s an imperfect world.

So why would anyone—especially someone as well-versed as Dr. Grube in the steps of the public relations Dancing With the Stars—open himself up to so much criticism by emailing a statement like the one he sent to Alex Pellegrino? This wasn’t an offhand remark made in the heat of battle, the kind we all make and then hear our brain groaning something like: “you are really, really going to sleep on the couch tonight.” This was an email: composed, typed, reviewed and sent.

Possibly there was an “oops.” We do that sometimes, too, don’t we.

Because Grube is the head of a public institution, Eagle Nation has a right to expect some degree of transparency from their school’s president. This doesn’t mean Grube should be expected to give a blow-by-blow account of every argument made inside the DI Board of Directors’ meeting. What his position does entail, however, is the expectation that he will give an account of Georgia Southern University and expound on how national decisions might impact the school. Since there is little way to immediately assess just how the recent moratorium on moves between divisions and subdivisions might affect Georgia Southern, a “no comment” or statement to that effect would have been appropriate. A referral to another administrator—perhaps Sam Baker—would have been both an adroit and familiar move.

In fact, when I wrote a series for the Herald about the I-A/I-AA debate at Georgia Southern, Grube declined to be interviewed on the matter, sending me instead to Baker. Following that series of articles, the paper announced an editorial stance of “wait and see.” I penned that response. The key point in the “wait and see” stance was to see how I-A standards enforcement, I-AA enhancements and GSU infrastructure development played out in the coming years.

Two years passed. The NCAA continued to play fast and loose with I-A membership standards. Their enhancements to I-AA were minimal or horrendous, including a name change that was meant to help fans recognize that FCS schools were part of Division I that only removed any mention of DI from the common-use name of the subdivision. Meanwhile, the university’s overall positioning was only improved by facilities expansion. On top of that, a few fans got motivated enough to form a loose-knit coalition of I-A/FBS advocates, the Southern FACTion, as I like to call it.

So what makes questions about GSU and the Bowl Subdivision suddenly out of line?

Look, despite my own insistence that GSU needed to take the time to introduce a public study of the FCS/FBS possibilities for the school and the mere appearance of this weekly blog on this site, I understand that where Georgia Southern positions itself athletically has a very real impact on the overall health of the university. If nothing else, Grube has earned some degree of trust in his ability to do what is best for the university.

The playing field has changed, Georgia Southern as an institution has some say-so in the shaping of that playing field and as a public institution, the administrators at Georgia Southern are expected to display a degree of transparency concerning issues that concern the institutional growth and well-being of the university. Football is such an issue.

I would implore Dr. Grube to set the wheels in motion for a frank public discussion about how Georgia Southern is going to move athletically in the new and uncertain climate of Division I athletics. And if that discussion is impinged by the wild variables, so be it—just don’t fan away interest in future developments by pro-FBS or pro-FCS onlookers (who are curious, too) with a dismissive email that contradicts prior statements. This university has come too far for that kind of rhetoric.

In other news, Foster and Clarke both look good under center. Soon, that will be what Eagle fans talk about more than anything else.

Thank goodness.

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

Countdown to Kickoff: Sweet 16!

We’re down to 16! As a buddy of mine said, this anticipation should be illegal! :)

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

Countdown to Kickoff: 17 days remain

Seventeen to go! Anyone care to guess at the name of #12? Highlight the following for the answer: Ryan Hadden

Truly one of the great safeties we’ve had IMO!

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

Countdown to Kickoff: 18 and life again…

Site update: We updated the donations / spending page today so you can see where we stand on things. The $500+ from the D2D poster auction (we still have 3 left!) has been a great help. We are purchasing some hand fans to give out at the West Georgia game (if kennesaweagle can come meet me for lunch one day). But either way you can see that we’ve refocused our spending on gathering signatures and raising awareness.

We’re down to 18 days left till gameday! This picture reminds me how long it’s been since we made it to ‘Nooga.

Additional personal / site update: My daughter is being stubborn so we still have the hospital trip on standby, so to help out with the lull I’ve brought on a couple of new writers. Scott Garner (Statesboro Blues) & Jim Radcliffe (gatadotcom) will be posting on the site over the next days and weeks (and hopefully for a long time to come!). They will be tasked with keeping us all informed about GSU, the I-A issues, and anything else you might want to read about.