Before we get to some Georgia-related items, a little comparison for you this morning.

After one day on Twitter, I’m up to 82 followers. After one day on Twitter, ESPN’s Erin Andrews is up to 6,522 followers. Hmm. Go figure.

I don’t watch “Dancing With The Stars,” which will feature Ms. Andrews this season, but I gotta say how can you root against Buzz Aldrin?

OK, moving on:
--Buck Belue gives the lowdown on Remerton, where Zach Mettenberger was arrested early Sunday morning on five misdemeanor charges.

-- Sporting News Today has former UGA defensive tackle Jeff Owens going 31st overall to the Colts in the first round in their mock draft.

I’m not the most tech-savvy guy around.

I was behind the curve in the late 1990s on this cell phone thing. I still don’t own an iPod.

But it’s not like I’m a dinosaur.

I live by the DVR, rely on the GPS on road trips and like satellite radio.

Anyway, the time has come to tweet.

I know that readers aren’t always coming to the Athens Banner-Herald Dogbytes page or the Hedge Clippings blog on their own. So I figured it’s time to bring our Georgia football and basketball coverage to you on my new Twitter page.

Please follow me at twitter.com/marcweiszer

I plan to post updates there. You will still find plenty of other Georgia athletics related stuff at twitter.com/abhsports from sports editor David Ching.

You can follow me for updates from Nashville later this week when I cover the men’s basketball team, which plays Thursday night against Arkansas.

Some leftover morsels today from Georgia’s first day of spring practice yesterday.
The team won’t go again until March 16 after spring break.

--Logan Gray admitted that he wished he would have had a chance to compete for the starting job last spring. Matthew Stafford left for the NFL and coaches installed Joe Cox as the starter right away.
“After Matthew left and they named Joe the starter immediately, I kind of wished that I would have had a chance to compete for the job,” said Gray, who is competing with Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger for the top spot. “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who’s named the starter, whoever’s competing the best and playing the best is going to play. I think it’s just another opportunity for me to try to prove myself as the guy who’s going to be the next starting quarterback. I’m sure Aaron and Zach are thinking the same way.”

We’ll get our first look at Georgia’s defense under Todd Grantham when the Bulldogs open spring practice this afternoon, but it looks like it will be a brief look.

The practice is slated to be open to the media for only one period—five minutes.

Check back here late this afternoon for practice updates.

A few quick items this morning:
--In case you didn’t see this, Katharyn Richt, wife of Georgia coach Mark Richt, made the trip to Macon this week to hear Tim Tebow’s mother speak.

“I’m thankful for many things,” Richt said when she gave a blessing at the Sav-A-Life banquet at Macon City Auditorium. “I’m most thankful that Tim Tebow is graduating.”

--Former Georgia tight ends coach David Johnson has a new title at West Virginia: running game coordinator.

The National Football Foundation put out some figures this week that speak to the popularity of college football. Several caught my attention related to Georgia and the SEC.

Directly from their list:

*CBS Sports averaged its highest ratings since the sport returned to the network in 1996 with the SEC on CBS. The 4.4 rating represented a 29 percent increase over last year, and the network also landed the highest rated SEC Championship ever with the battle between No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama earning an 11.1 rating or an 18 percent increase above the previous year's game between the same two teams.

*ESPN averaged 2.1 million households, 2.87 million viewers and a 2.2 rating per game this season, making it the most-viewed season for the outlet since 1994 and the highest-rated since 1999.

*The Southeastern Conference led all leagues in attendance, at 76,288 a game.

Who says there are only 24 hours in a day to turn around Georgia’s defense?

New coordinator Todd Grantham is cramming as much into his days as he can before spring practice begins on Thursday.

“The way we structured our meetings is we’re working half days on recruiting and then the other half to three quarters of a day on football,” Grantham said. “So that’s really more than a day, right? So we’re spending a lot of time over here. That’s a day and a half, right? So basically we’re working a day and a half within a day."

Grantham is serious about doing a thorough evaluation of talent-rich prospects in Georgia and getting the Bulldogs players and the defensive staff geared up for the new 3-4 scheme.

Grantham’s family remained back in Texas, where he previously coached for the Dallas Cowboys, while he began tackling his new job. He said they will be visiting this week.

Georgia coach Mark Richt and new defensive coordinator Todd Grantham will be in the house (the Butts-Mehre building that is) to field questions on the start of spring practice.
Check back here for updates starting after 5 p.m.

Richt:
"DeAngelo Tyson will play nose and Geathers is slated to play inside."

Special teams responsibilities:
Tony Ball--kickoff return
John Lilly-punt team
Warren Belin—kickoff coverage team (former Bulldogs assistant Jon Fabris coached previously).
Bryan McClendon—punt return and block (Fabris coached previously).
Lilly--will coordinate all the special teams meeting and practice times.

On the new defensive coaches: "There’s a genuine excitement. I’ve got a great anticipation for this spring and the season to come. ...There's very good chemistry already."

Talking to Georgia football players and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo today over at Butts-Mehre.

Here are some of the highlights a week away from the start of spring practice:
--Safety Bacarri Rambo said the back and forth on Twitter and Facebook between him and Calhoun receiver Da'Rick Rogers wasn't meant as him taking a shot at the Tennessee signee who backed away from his Georgia commitment.
“I wasn’t really directly talking to him," Rambo said. "It’s like something I was saying like `I was shocked that you would commit and say you were going to one school and then you would change your mind at the last time and go to another school. It wasn’t directed at him. It wasn’t directed at no one. I was confused and curious like `Why would you do stuff like that?' If he wanted to think it was him, I can’t stop him from thinking that.”

Back in town and heading over to the Butts-Mehre building this afternoon for some football interviews.

Check back here around 1:30ish for updates. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo is supposed to answer questions later in the afternoon.

Georgia begins spring practices a week from today.

Just got an e-mail from Georgia also that Mark Richt is doing a teleconference late Friday afternoon. So there should be plenty of Bulldogs football nuggets to take you into the weekend.

OK, going to write another story. A little tired after my return trip to Hartsfield in Atlanta was delayed about three hours, which gave me more time to enjoy all that La Guardia Airport has to offer.

New Georgia assistant coach Warren Belin held a teleconference with reporters Friday morning.

The one bit of news out of it is that Belin says he will coach the inside linebackers.

Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham will work with the outside linebackers in the new 3-4 scheme.

"Todd and I both will be working together really with the linebacking corps, but I’ll be focused on working on the inside linebackers," Belin said. "There may be times in certain drills where I have to work with the outside linebackers as well.”

Belin coached Vanderbilt's linebackers for the past eight seasons and was recruiting coordinator the past two.

He also was special teams coordinator for the Commodores in 2006-07. He says he talked to coach Mark Richt about his role in Georgia's special teams.