Georgia Southern senior wide receiver Michael McIntosh is a Florida transfer who has already played the Bulldogs in his hometown of Jacksonville, Fla. He is slated to start Saturday after having 14 catches for 191 yards and two touchdowns last season.
I spoke to him recently by phone about his memories of Georgia-Florida from his two years in the Gators program and his connections still to players from his old team.

Q: Did you go to the Georgia-Florida games when you were on the Gators teams? I think one year you redshirted.
A: I went both years.
Q: Did you play the second year?
A: I didn’t play much. I consider it not playing.
Q: Did you get in the Georgia game?
A: I got in a couple of snaps on offense.
Q: That was 2005. Florida won that one 14-10. Have you kept in touch with anyone from Florida from back in those days?

Breaking news: Clarke County is still poor. How poor? Try tied for fourth in the nation among counties with a population between 65,000 and 249,000. Try poorer than Dougherty County, poorer than Richmond County, poorer than any other county in the state.

But is it really all that bad?

Here’s a look at the four counties that rank ahead of (or behind) Clarke nationally:

Tying Clarke for No. 4 is Robeson County, N.C., at 28.7 percent.

No. 3 is Webb County, Tex., at 31.1 percent.

No. 2 is St. Landry Parish, La., at 32.8 percent.

As we projected in a story last week, Mark Richt said Tuesday that eight to 12 first-year freshmen will probably play Saturday against Georgia Southern.

Georgia hasn’t had more than six play in a season since 2003.

So who’s in and who’s out?

Let’s try to break down the 21 members of this year’s recruiting class. That's minus pro baseball signee Xavier Avery and Toby Jackson, who is spending the season at Hargrave Military.

Locks to play
Cordy Glenn--Well, considering he’s starting at right guard, this is a no-brainer.
A.J. Green--Already a second-team receiver. It might not be long before he joins Alabama’s Julio Jones among freshmen starting receivers in the SEC.

While I was watching the O-Biden rally on Saturday, I saw Biden smile and thought, "Jeez, he looks like Sammy Hagar." So I couldn't resist:

Jim Rome poked fun at Mark Richt for playing ping-pong with recruits on official visits.

The Georgia coach could be giving the nationally syndicated radio/ESPN talk host more material with his plans for more wholesome fun--Thursday night bowling.

The “Coach Richt Bowling Challenge” will be held on Thursdays for UGA students at Showtime Bowling Center at 10:30 p.m. There are signups this week and competition starts Sept. 4.
There will be 32 five-man teams for the non-alcohol event.

“Will I be there?” Richt said Monday. “Oh, yeah, I’ll be there.”

Receiver Kenneth Harris said he’s forming a team with other receivers.

Party time, excellent
Wayne Campbell: Or, imagine, being able to be magically whisked away to ... Delaware. (pauses) Hi. I'm in Delaware.

I don’t mean to make fun of Delaware … but I would bet serious money that THAT quote is just about the only thing a lot people know about Delaware.

I know a few more things (two of my college roommates were from there) like they have no sales tax and really weird looking license plates. It also was one of the shortest states (time-wise) to drive through on my twice-yearly journey from South Carolina to Connecticut. But it does have tolls, which are no fun. Oh and I actually can point it out on a map (someone once asked one of my roommates if Delaware was near Utah -- no joke).

So when I found out that Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was Barack Obama’s VP choice, I texted one of my old roommates.

In case you haven't yet read our college football preview section, I got a chance to go up to New Jersey in July for a story I wrote about Knowshon Moreno.

I really enjoyed spending time one morning with Steve Antonucci, Moreno’s high school coach at Middletown South.

I met him while the current team held a summer weightlifting workout at 8 a.m.

The school has terrific facilities that surprised Georgia recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner when he first visited the place. It has an indoor bubble for inclement weather that includes two basketball courts and a weight room with $75,000 worth of recently purchased equipment. Antonucci actually prefers to practice his team outside even in the pouring rain.

After an offseason of anticipation for Georgia fans, game week is almost here.

Georgia players wrapped up practice for the week on Saturday morning and are off on Sunday.

Here’s a few things that jumped out to me as significant after Saturday’s practice:

--Georgia’s defensive ends are getting healthier. Rod Battle, Jeremy Lomax and Demarcus Dobbs all wore white jerseys instead of those green non-contact ones.
Jarius Wynn and Justin Houston have gotten most of the first-team reps lately because of injuries, but the starters aren’t set.
“There are guys that deserve to play more or start based on their production through camp or the offseason or spring,” defensive coordinator Willie Martinez said. “We like to leave that competition going all the way through Thursday.”
Receiver Mohamed Massaquoi (knee) was back in a green jersey but is expected to play.

I know you are (fiscally irresponsible), but what am I?

Local officials often accuse the state of approving unfunded mandates that force cities and counties to raise taxes or cut popular services. That ongoing debate, which seemingly reached its peak during last year’s Great Glenn Tax fiasco, took a turn for the schoolyard this week.

“I didn’t do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can’t prove anything,” Gov. Sonny Perdue said to various and sundry mayors and county commissioners.

Perdue told the Gainesville Times Wednesday that he wants to cut the state property tax credit – $266 per homeowner on average – because it’s done nothing to curb local tax bills that are going up faster than land values in Oakey Woods.

We’ve got our college football preview section coming out in our Sunday paper and online.

One of the stories looks at Georgia’s Heisman Trophy candidates this year.
Tailback Knowshon Moreno is considered among the favorites and Matthew Stafford is also showing up on many top 10 lists.

USA Today oddsmaker Danny Sheridan lists Moreno as an 8:1 favorite. Stafford is listed as 18:1. 2007 Heisman winner Tim Tebow from Florida is listed as 4:1.

Georgia coach Mark Richt coached Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke at Florida State.

He had some insight on those guys winning the Heisman that I wasn’t able to get into my Heisman story for our preview issue.