September 2000: Vol. 79, No. 4September 2000: Vol. 79, No. 4 |
 2000 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE Sept. 2—GEORGIA SOUTHERN
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Here's a football trivia question whose answer explains why the Georgia Bulldogs are a pre-season top 10 pick:
Q: What do Eric Zeier, Payton Manning, Tim Couch, Danny Wuerffel, John Elway, and Dan Marino have in common?
 Carter's passing yardage in his first two years (5,197) is fifth-best in history. And two of the QBs ahead of him won the Heisman. |
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In fact, only four quarterbacks in NCAA history have passed for more yardage than Carter has at this point in his career: Ty Detmer of BYU (5,812), Charlie Ward of Florida State (5,679), Kevin Sweeney of Fresno State (5,618), and Randall Cunningham of UNLV (5,392).
What's interesting about that list is that two of the four—Detmer and Ward—went on to win the Heisman Trophy, which may also figure in Carter's future.
Opting out of professional baseball after two years in the Chicago Cubs' farm system, the Decatur native—who originally signed with Georgia Tech coming out of Southwest DeKalb High School—has completed 58 percent of his passes for 29 touchdowns.
Bowl games are his forte
The Dogs are 16-7 in Carter's two years at the helm (17-6 if the refs get it right at Tech last year), and his post-season heroics include two extraordinary bowl-game comebacks: from a 21-0 deficit to a 35-33 victory in the 1998 Peach Bowl and from an NCAA record-setting 25-0 deficit to a heart-stopping, new century-starting 28-25 overtime victory against Purdue in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 2000.
Carter's knack for making the big play at the right time—coupled with the return of 19 starters (including kickers)—is why Georgia's overall pre-season ranking in six prominent college football magazines was No. 10. Florida, which graded out at No. 8 in the fall magazines, figures to be the Dogs' toughest competition in the SEC East. Alabama, which finished a composite No. 3, is favored in the West.
Schedule favorable
The schedule is as favorable as any in the SEC can be. The Dogs play home games against perennial power—Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi, and ACC foe Tech, plus the annual neutral-site border war against Florida in Jacksonville on Oct. 28. How the Dogs fare a month earlier—at Arkansas on Sept. 30—should give both the team and Georgia fans a clue as to whether Georgia will make a run at the SEC title.
Speaking of running, for the Dogs to make it back to a New Year's Day bowl they must augment Carter's passing ability with a potent running attack. Junior Jasper Sanks averaged 81 yards a game last year, and he enters this season a much fitter athlete, having dropped 20 pounds since his freshman year and shaved nearly .2 off his 40-yard dash time.
Is there a breakout frosh?
With 19 starters back, the Dogs are a veteran team with a solid defense. But they could use another breakout freshman season like the one they got last year from split end Terrence Edwards, who caught 53 passes for 772 yards and nine TDs. It was Edwards' 74-yard touchdown run on a reverse that started the Dogs' comeback in the Outback Bowl. And he will be joined in the receiving corps by two of the nation's most sought-after prep receivers in recent years—freshman Reggie Brown and sophomore Durell Robinson. Other freshmen who could be a factor on offense this year include running backs Albert Hollis and Musa Smith.
Head coach Jim Donnan posted a 96-36 (.789) record in the 1990s that was fourth-best in the nation, and his biggest fan is his quarterback.
"Coach Donnan is more than a coach to me," says Carter. "On the field, he makes sure that I fulfill my potential. And he's like my dad off the field—always looking out for my best interest and doing anything he can to help."
New coaches debut in soccer, volleyball
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 Carolyn Cayard scored both goals in the soccer team's first-ever televised game—a 2-1 victory over Tennessee. |
Two new varsity coaches—in women's soccer and women's volleyball—will make their debut this fall.
"Both Sue Montagne-Patberg [soccer] and Mary Buczek [volleyball] are proven winners," says athletic director Vince Dooley, "and we expect great things from them."
Soccer seeks return to NCAAs
Montagne-Patberg comes to UGA from a highly successful program at Minnesota, where her teams made five consecutive NCAA tournament appearances—and won two Big Ten championships. She was the Gophers' first coach when they added a soccer program in 1993, and her seven-year record was 97-42-9. She was a four-year starter as a collegian at U-Mass, where she participated in three NCAA tournaments, twice making it to the final four.
Georgia finished 13-6-2 last year, but missed out on a third consecutive trip to the NCAAs. The Soccer Dogs welcome back the core of a team that was ranked No. 12 at one point last season—the highest in school history. One of those returning standouts is Carolyn Cayard, a freshman All-America from Spring, Texas, who scored both goals in Georgia's first televised soccer game, a 2-1 overtime victory against Tennessee in Athens.
Montagne-Patberg will coach her first home match against College of Charleston on Aug. 25, following a home scrimmage against FSU on Aug. 18.
Volleyball bouncing back
In Mary Buczek, ACC Coach of the Year in 1999, Georgia has someone who, as a player at Kentucky and a coach at Wake Forest, has been involved with four conference championships and four NCAA tournament teams, one of which made it to the final four. Her Wake Forest team improved from 10-23 to 24-8 in one year, and she will be looking to accomplish a similar turnaround with the Lady Dogs, who finished 10-16 last season and haven't made the NCAA tournament since 1995.
Buczek needs another big year from Marietta junior Stacy Buerger, who led the team in both kills and digs—and finished second in service aces. Buczek will coach her first home match against Furman in the Georgia Invitational on Sept. 15.
Georgia is No. 12 in Sears Cup standings
The news wasn't quite as spectacular as last year, when Georgia finished second in the Sears Cup standings. But athletic director Vince Dooley has high praise for this year's 12th place finish in the competition which ranks the nation's best overall athletic departments.
"Any time you win two national championships in one year, you're very happy," says Dooley of the NCAA titles won in women's tennis and women's swimming-diving. "We're also proud of gymnastics, which finished third in what was admittedly a rebuilding year; of women's basketball, which ranked fourth; and of women's golf, which ranked seventh."
It was a banner year for the UGA women, but five men's teams—football, golf, tennis, swimming-diving, and outdoor track ranked in the top 20, along with women's outdoor track.
Georgia also had a great year in conference play with four teams winning SEC titles, counting the two NCAA champs in women's tennis and women's swimming-diving, plus women's basketball and men's golf.
Stanford did win this year's Sears Cup competition for the sixth straight time, but look out for the Dogs next year!
Construction alters football parking plan
Football fans need to be aware of changes in campus parking. The Student Learning Center is now under construction, meaning 375 spaces in the bookstore and military building lots previously issued to GSEF contributors have been reassigned to the following lots:
Permits for these lots will be issued first to those losing their previous parking. Remaining spaces will be issued according to yearly GSEF contributions. Cumulative scores will be considered if requests for a lot outnumber available spaces.
In addition, all roads inside a perimeter bordered by Lumpkin, Baldwin, East Campus, Cedar, and Green streets will be restricted to persons with athletic association or special housing permits.
UGA police recommend that fans without permits use parking spaces around the Ramsey Center and in the North, South, and East parking decks. Motor home and recreational vehicles will be allowed only in the Stegeman Coliseum and Ramsey Center lots.
