UGA wasn't a very gracious host today, beating the visiting Troy University Trojans 66 to nothing.

Honestly, I left after UGA scored on their opening drive in the 3rd quarter, making it 52-0. I decided that I had better things to do than sit in the sun and wait out the game clock.

Biggest thing of note in the game was the presence of the blue Allstate net strung up in the far endzone. Don't think I've seen that in Athens before. (We also had a visit from former Dawg Terrell Davis, but I have seen that in Athens before!)

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No. 16 Clemson came to No. 12 UGA to start the season, and UGA was determined to avenge last year's 38-35 loss. Mission accomplished!

Clemson is still a good team, and they might have been better on the line than Georgia to start the game. However, they weren't as deep. Eventually, in the 4th quarter, the Bulldogs broke the game open, beating Clemson into submission with our relentlessly pounding running game.

Three things of note:

1. Todd Gurley. I mean, great balance, great strength, great vision. He scored 5 touchdowns, including one 100-yard kickoff return. In years to come, this is probably the game that we will all remember as Gurley's signature performance.

2. The crowd. I mean, people everywhere. Maybe because it was a 5:30 kickoff and no one felt compelled to wear white (red, red, red), or maybe it was because the game was a tie into the third, but there was a huge crowd with great energy. In years past, when the crowd has been excited, there's been an undercurrent of desperation or anxiety. Not tonight. Whether because expectations were low after Murray, or because we were playing a non-SEC opponent, whatever the reason: excitement without the fear. What a great way to open the season!

3. The heat! Hotest game I've ever been to. Kickoff temp in the mid-90s, humidity you could see, no breeze, and the sun hiding behind clouds so that your sweat didn't evaporate... brutal. I'm sure the heat is the main reason Clemson folded in the 4th, and I commend UGA trainers and coaching staff for getting our players ready to play and mostly cramp-free.

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We probably should have seen it coming. After the injury-plagued season the Bulldogs have had in 2013, it shouldn't surprise anyone to see Senior quarterback Aaron Murray be carried off the field of his final home game with a knee injury.

Otherwise, the game was all Georgia. Kentucky never put up anything amounting to a fight in this 56-10 rout. The biggest obstacle for the Dawgs was the cold. Boy was it cold!

The fans turned out despite the cold (and wind) to say goodbye to the departing seniors, including Aaron Murray. Poor kid. Friend Brian insisted on blaming Murray's knee injury on his decision not to slide on a play near the end of the first half with the score already out of reach. I prefer to blame a conditioning staff who have seen a disproportional number of kids in their care leave games with knee injuries this season. I'm no doctor, but when I see the top 6 offensive skill players miss playing time on the season with knee injuries, it seems to me that you're doing something wrong, guys.

(In fairness, there was a rule change this year that penalizes players for hitting helmets. I've heard that this has caused players to start tackling much lower, endangering knees. Maybe Georgia coaches have just been slow to adjust to this new style of defensive play. In any case, I expect better next year.)

Perhaps I should add that I overheard many fans lamenting the fact that UGA didn't wear black jerseys for the game. I didn't hear this rumor until the broadcasters discussed it on the pregame radio show. Who knows who started it. I'm glad the team wore their regular red jerseys. I don't think you should celebrate four years of hard teamwork by wearing someone else's jerseys.

With the 2013 home schedule in the books, I'd like to go on record as saying that this was probably the most talented Georgia team I've ever seen. If we hadn't been hit so badly by injuries, if the defense had managed to give up just one fewer touchdown per game, if the special teams hadn't played like retarded teams.... Oh, well. It was an exciting season anyway, with the game against LSU standing out as among the best I've ever seen in person.

Here's hoping that today's game won't be the last time we see Murray behind center for the Bulldogs. He'll be hard to replace.

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No game has the happy, fraternal feel of Homecoming. It's always a lot of fun. Today marked the 40th anniversary of the alumni joining the active band on the field, and nearly 1,000 Redcoats were on the field together at halftime. It's good to know that no matter how old they are, no member of the Redcoats Marching Band can march in a straight line.

It was also good to have the halftime distraction, because the Bulldogs only led a 2-win Appalachian State team by eight points after the second quarter. App State took advantage of the Dawgs porous secondary early and owned the first quarter. It was a familiar sight for the Bulldogs this season. Fortunately, the Bulldogs made all the right changes at halftime and were ultimately the victors, 45-6.

For the record, kudos to Appalachian State fans. They traveled well and made a lot of noise for a school expected to lose by 31.5 points. Some SEC schools don't bring students or a band. App State brought both and more. It was a pleasure to host them.

Next week for Georgia: #9 Auburn. Gulp.

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There's not a lot of good things I can say about this game other than it's over. Not unexpected, but still very disappointing.

Our injuries on offense caught up with us. So far this season, we have lost the #1 and #2 tailbacks and the #1, #2, and #3 wide receivers on our depth chart from the start of the season, all to knee injuries.

It really didn't help that our defense played true to form, giving up 41 points. So far this season, UGA's defense has surrendered an average of 34 points per game. That is terrible by any standard, but is recipe for disaster in the SEC.

All that proved too much to overcome against undefeated Missouri, which remains undefeated after beating us 41-26 (in their very first trip ever to Athens, GA). I like to say "the exodus has begun" when the crowd starts to leave Sanford Stadium in bulk each week. I suspect after the injuries and continued porous defense, the exodus may have begun on the season.

Congratulations, Coach Bobo, you're no longer the worst coach on the team. That honor currently belongs to the four Strength and Conditioning coaches (Joe Tereshinski, John Thomas, Sherman Armstrong, and Justin Lovett), all now worse than you are. Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham's mess on defense for 2 straight seasons is putting him in the doghouse, too. But don't think the failure of so many other coaches lets you off the hook, Bobo. Your offense wasn't spectacular this week, either. Missouri seemed to have a good idea how to slow down your offense. I'll say it one more time: if everyone in the stands can predict the next play, so can the coaches on the other teams. You don't have the talent left to bail out your predictable play calls.

No more home games until after we play Florida in November. Here's hoping that UGA can right the ship next week against Vanderbilt in Nashville before our chances at an SEC Championship appearance evaporate completely.

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This LSU/Georgia game was probably the most exciting game I've seen in Sanford Stadium in the past decade.

I mean, I've seen some great games. Back when Tennessee was still the team to beat in the early 2000s, the atmosphere was electric. Before Cam Newton destroyed them, Auburn games always had a great atmosphere. I seem to recall that Steve Spurrier's first year as coach of the Gamecocks was a fantastic game. This one beat them all.

ESPN's College Game Day was in town for the game (the third time since I've had season tickets), and the fans were really worked up hours before kickoff. The crowd was on its feet making noise almost continuously for all for quarters. I screamed my head off, and I thought I was going to be sick when LSU got the ball in the final 2 minutes down by 3 points. (The Georgia offense scored nearly at will, but the secondary couldn't stop anything. It was terrifying!) I don't know that I've ever been so exhausted after a game.

In fact, the whole night was just crazy. UGA head basketball Mark Fox dressed in body paint to hang out with the student section. Former UGA golf star Bubba Watson tried not to upstage his wife, former UGA basketball star Angie Ball Watson, as she was celebrated between quarters. Olympic gold medal winner Allison Schmitt was among feted members of the SEC champion UGA swimming/diving team. After the game, David Pollack danced with his kid in the end zone as Mark Richt sought out and hugged his wife. When Aaron Murray came out of the locker room for an interview with ESPN (on the northwest corner of the field after the game), the rest of the team came with him. They lined up single-file to hi-five the crowd still trying to leave the stadium. I've never seen anything like that.

It was all pretty damn awesome. This is why I attend football games.

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On Friday, I debated whether to replace my 10-year-old, worn and torn poncho with a medium weight poncho I could keep in my pocket, or heavy-duty poncho that could double as a tent. I settled on the heavy-weight and wondered if I would regret it.

On Saturday, the rain started light, a mere drizzle from 9AM until the 12:21PM kickoff. It incrementally got worse as the game went on until by the 4th quarter it was like a typhoon had hit Athens. I no longer question my decision to buy the heavy-weight poncho. Good choice, Walter.

The two people sitting next to Mom (not the usual season ticket holder) were malcontents: fiercely negative about everything Georgia did. They might have had a point. Georgia special teams were bad, and as a result the North Texas Mean Green and the Georgia Bulldogs were tied at 21 in the 3rd quarter. That's a pretty good performance for a team that was a 34-point underdog.

UGA ultimately came out ahead 45-21, and a good — if soggy — time was had by all.

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This year's home opener pitted #11 UGA against #6 South Carolina. Kickoff was at 4:30 PM, which would have been great if I didn't have a poison ivy rash on my chest. Let me tell you, 4 hours in the sun and heat with a poison ivy rash is no fun. Thankfully, watching the Dawgs beat up on the Gamecocks was more than enough fun to make up for it.

I had my doubts about the new Nike font and numerals on this year's uniforms, but I have to say that it looks pretty good. (You can see the font in the end zones in the picture above.) Even better was the fact that the Georgia "G" has returned to the goal lines! After being gone for the past few years, I'm super stoked to see it return.

Hopefully this week is a sign of good things to come.

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For the eleventh time in 12 years, UGA beat Georgia Tech in our annual grudge match. Tech looked as ineffective as I've seen them all season, and that's saying something. If a team this bad can end up in the ACC Championship game, the ACC needs to give up on football.

Note to self: traffic after this game was the worst I've ever seen, which is especially odd as the cold weather and runaway score caused most fans to flee the stadium long before the game was over. Keep this in mind when planning for the game in 2014.

Twice in the past decade, I've thought Georgia would be in for a terrible season. The first time was in 2005, when I had doubts about D.J. Shockley as the team's quarterback. Turns out I was completely wrong then. The Bulldogs finished with a 10-3 season and the title of SEC Champions. The second time was this year. Again, I was wrong, and another SEC title is within the team's sights. If the Bulldogs win the SEC every time I am wrong, I could learn to live with that.

The only team left standing between UGA and the SEC Championship is Alabama, which beat Auburn 49 to 0 earlier today. We beat Auburn 38 to 0 two weeks ago. Hopefully, that means that Auburn is getting worse, not that Alabama is 11 points better than we are. I guess we'll find out this Saturday.

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For the second time in two home games, the scoring didn't start until after I went to the concession stand. Ole Miss was up 3 to nothing when I went to buy a Coke and popcorn. By the time I returned to my seat, it was 10-7. I probably would have been back in my seat sooner, but the dude running the concession stand had to use a calculator to add $3.50 to $3.50, and he still gave me the wrong change for a $20. He must have been a Georgia graduate.

It was a strange afternoon. During an absolutely wild second quarter that saw 4 turnovers over the course of 5 consecutive plays, two separate groups of people were thrown out of our section for intoxication. No one ever gets thrown out of our section! That led to this overheard exchange:

Guy 1: "Did you tell on them?"

Guy 2: "Hell, no. I'm just glad they didn't see my shit."

Once Georgia was finally on the way to their eventual 37-10 victory, the crowd collectively exhaled and spent the final two quarters joking about how clueless the radio announcers are about the names of the players and how bad Mike Bobo's offensive play calls are.

Guy 3: "I've been watching Bobo call plays for years, and he sucks at it."

Guy 4: "I remember watching Bobo play, and let me tell you, he sucked at that, too."

I think in the end, a good time was had by all, probably even the people who got kicked out in the first half.

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