Matter Of Degrees

The good thing about the offseason in football is that it gives bloggers like myself time to write more human interest posts involving the student-athletes to whom we obsess. Too often we get caught up in following the stats our players rack up on Saturdays and forget to focus on the high grades they’re earning during the week. Personally, I’ve always been more interested in the player than the playbook anyways. And fortunately the last couple of days there’s been some noteworthy buzz that, let’s face it, doesn’t typically top the headlines in Fall nor garner near the attention it deserves.

Coach Richt anounced on his blog Friday that Ricardo Crawford, a rising Junior DT will be spending a couple of weeks in June across the pond. Ricardo was selected to participate in the prestigious Oxford Study Abroad Programme through UGA. As most know, Oxford is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading academic institutions and is the oldest University in the English-speaking world. Oxford has also been the home, for more than a quarter century, to the Rhodes Scholarship which brings exceptionally accomplished students worlwide to study as postgraduates. As a point of pride two of last year’s Rhodes Scholars were from the University of Georgia. And UGA was the only school in the country to produce more than one Rhodes honoree – that includes Ivy League Schools as well. *So suck it Yech!* But I digress… According to CMR’s blog, Ricardo will have the opportunity to select from courses such as 19th century British Literature, Shakespeare, and Tudor-Stuart history during his stay. He’ll also have the opportunity to travel during his weekends to places like London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and other major cities on the main continent of Europe while he’s there. This is an incredible honor and amazing opportunity for Ricardo, to say the least, and I know his family must be so proud. I hope he knows that all of Bulldog Nation is proud of his accomplishments as well. Congratulations to Ricardo & bon voyage!

As Ricardo heads for England another great student will be moving to Athens. Incoming freshman Georgia signee Chris Burnette (OG) of Troup County has received a great deal of press lately, especially before signing day. Chris, as you may have already heard, is a candidate for Valedictorian of his graduating class. His final class standing won’t be determined until the completion of his class’ spring term, but right now he holds a 5.012 GPA and a slight lead over 2 other students. And it should be noted that Chris has earned straight A’s since kindergarten, so it’s probably a safe bet to assume he’ll continue his dominance in the classroom.

After Chris committed to Georgia, Coach Richt promised that he would attend Chris’s graduation to hear his valedictory speech. However, the NCAA unfortunately will prevent Coach Richt from fulfilling that promise. Apparently celebrating the academic achievements of a signee’s graduation is prohibited. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the bureaucracy that is the NCAA. I’m sure some will claim there is a method in the madness, but it’s hard to overlook the hypocrisy. First of all, the graduation is set for the month of June – well after National Signing Day (which was 2 weeks ago) and well after the last day for seniors to decalre (which is April 1st). Chris not only will have signed his letter of intent 4 months prior to his graduation, but the date for any possible recruiting for next year’s class will have passed by 2 months as well. The larger issue here though is the conflicting messages from the NCAA. On the one hand the NCAA pushes the banner of “academics first!” yet on the other hand they limit a coach’s ability to celebrate those accomplishments. I’m sure you’ve seen the commercials with this famous tagline: “There are over 380,000 NCAA student-athletes and just about all of them will be going pro in something other than sports.”

 

The NCAA spends a great deal of time & resources peddling the importance of an education, at the same time allowing red tape & technicalities get in the way of truly setting that example. What a shame. Hopefully the Burnette family will film Chris’s big day so that Coach Richt and the staff can view it. Surely that won’t be a violation. Most importantly though, congratulation to Chris Burnette from Bulldog Nation and welcome to Georgia – we’re thrilled you chose to be a Dawg! 

The academic news isn’t just limited to present & future students though. In case you didn’t see it, the AJC is running a story this week on several former players that left UGA early to pursue their NFL career and are now back on campus to finish their degrees. Randall Godfrey, former Georgia ILB, left school after the 1995 season and spent 12 years as a badass linebackerfor the Cowboys, Titans, Chargers, Seahawks, & Redskins before retiring. Point of fact: He was famously a part of one of the NFL’s best defenses EVER – the 2000 Tennessee Titans. Randall & his D allowed the fewest yards in the league & was even statistically better than the famed 1985 Chicago Bears Defense. His senior year was my freshman year (1995). I remember what a monster he was on the field (probably because we haven’t seen that kind of defense in a few years thanks to Willie) that year & was sad to see him go. He was just a mean sumbitch, and consequently a Damn Good Junkyard Dawg!

He’s now settled outside Atlanta with his wife Rhonda and their 4 children. When he left Athens years ago he was just 10 courses shy of his Bachelor’s Degree. Through the years Randall’s always had the desire to finish what he started at UGA but the demands of the NFL & a growing family made that an impossibility. But thanks to a promise he made his mother that he’d earn his degree and the flexibility of retirement, he’s finally back on campus. He’s taking 4 classes this term & will finish his final 2 classes this summer.

“I’m just waiting for that moment that I can walk across that stage and pick up my diploma,” Godfrey said. “That’s something I’ve been looking forward to doing for a long time.”

And Godfrey isn’t the only athlete returning for unfinished business. There are 4 other former players also currently enrolled at Georgia as well: Chester “Big Cheese” Adams, Terreal Bierria, Kelin Johnson, and Ken Shackleford. You may remember that Kelin also teamed up with GXtra this past season providing sports commentary, interviews, and game breakdowns for Georgia football as well as other UGA sporting events. And two other former players were among the 11 Dawgs that graduated this past December. All together 102 former & current players earned degrees since December 2004, a tremendous improvement from years prior.

It’s a great time to be a part of Georgia football. Thanks to our AD Damon Evans, and of course Coach Mark Richt, academics are not only on the frontburner, where they should be, but a top priority. Graduation rates are on the rise and athletes are working harder in the classroom than ever, as evidenced by the more than 50 players with GPA’s of 3.0 or higher last term. In addition, we’re recruiting not only some of the most talented athletes in the country, but scholar students as well. A degree from the University of Georgia is more valuable & prestigious than ever before, a fact that is evidently not lost on future, current, and former players alike.  

Go Dawgs! 

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