Greetings from Shreveport, La., after a Christmas morning drive through some icy conditions around the Dallas area. Along for the ride was a stranded David Hale from the Macon paper. He couldn’t get on his connecting flight.

Lo and behold, a holiday gift was delivered before Georgia’s first Independence Bowl practice. Center Ben Jones was made available for the first time this season to those that cover the team (I think it’s been that long). He was permitted to speak to a paper from his home state of Alabama a couple of weeks back.

It wasn’t such a great day for several Georgia players who ran the Independence Stadium steps for discipline. Read below for more on that.

Anyway, here’s some of the rare Q&A that Mr. Jones, who still watched what he said, had with reporters.

Q: How much attention have you gotten from friends and Georgia people for the way you reacted to beating Georgia Tech?

The plan was for me to be in Shreveport, La., tonight to write about the Georgia football team visiting Barksdale Air Force Base after arriving for the Independence Bowl.

It didn’t work out that way. My flight from Atlanta to Dallas was diverted to Houston because of a Christmas Eve snowstorm.

Go figure. Matthew Stafford goes to Detroit and Stafford's hometown gets Detroit weather.

By the time, my flight finally arrived in Dallas late this afternoon, the roads were pretty bad. It was still snowing, and visibility was poor because of gusty winds.

I’ll make the drive to Shreveport instead in the morning.

At least all of Georgia’s football players made it to Shreveport by this afternoon.
Good thing they had a travel day on Wednesday.

Here are details from Christopher Lakos of Georgia’s sports communications staff:

Georgia is heading to the Independence Bowl to play Texas A&M on Dec. 28 in Shreveport, La., in a game that could have the makings of a shootout.

The matchup against the 6-6 Aggies should test a Georgia defense that will be without three departed assistant coaches, but should excite a Bulldogs offense that will have a chance to put up big numbers three days after Christmas.

Texas A&M, under second-year coach Mike Sherman, leads the Big 12 and is fifth in the nation in total offense (465.3 yards per game), but is last in the conference in total defense (431.33) and scoring defense (32.7 points per game).