Matthew Stafford is outta here.

Soon the picture of Stafford on the left that goes with this Hedge Clippings blog will need to be replaced by someone else—a Rennie Curran or an A.J. Green.

In case you were wondering why Joe Cox was sticking around to be a back-up instead of transferring, how smart does he look now?

Here is his D.J. Shockley moment.

Cox told me during Capital One Bowl practices that he planned to pick Shockley’s brain if and when Stafford entered the draft.

Shockley, of course, replaced David Greene for his senior season and led Georgia to the 2005 SEC title.

Stafford made his decision public today, but offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said he called Cox about four days ago when he got final word of Stafford’s decision.

Matthew Stafford's father and Knowshon Moreno's high school coach told me Tuesday that the Georgia stars have made their decisions and will announce them on Wednesday. They did not want to reveal what those decisions are until the players make them public.

Here's our story.

Besides talking about keeping Rodney Garner, Mark Richt answered questions during his teleconference today about quarterback Matthew Stafford and running back Knowshon Moreno, who both could jump to the NFL.

Q: Have you heard anything from Knowshon or Matthew on their decision?
A: I have not. I would think it would be within a week’s time or even less that they may know what they’re going to do.

Q: Have you continued to talk to Matthew and Knowshon or is it a waiting game at this point for you, too?

A handful of Georgia football underlcassmen submitted paperwork to the NFL’s college advisory committee.

During the past month, quarterback Matthew Stafford, tailback Knowshon Moreno, cornerback Asher Allen and safety Reshad Jones acknowledged they were seeking an evaluation of their draft stock should they choose to leave after this season. Defensive tackle Geno Atkins told me after practice Wednesday that he did as well.

Just like Dannell Ellerbe, Jeff Owens and Brannan Southerland last year. All three returned to Georgia.

Stafford is a likely top 10 draft pick if he leaves and Moreno a likely first-round pick. Atkins has been rated high among the underclassmen on the interior line but has insisted he plans to return.

“Right now, in my mind, I’m coming back for next year,” Atkins said.

There is much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Georgia freshman A.J. Green can be thankful that he plays on an offense that includes quarterback Matthew Stafford and running back Knowshon Moreno.

For at least two more games.

Georgia’s offense is already losing playmaking receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, a senior, and underclassmen Stafford and Moreno have decisions to make about if they will enter the NFL Draft.

Both are projected as first-round draft picks, but Green isn’t in their ear with any pleas to stick around.

“Nah, not really. I’m just going to respect whatever they do,” Green said. “It’s a decision that’s going to stick with them.”

Stafford to Green has been such an effective combination that Green tops the SEC in receiving yards. He leads Georgia with 51 catches for 887 yards and seven touchdowns.

Matthew Stafford admits it’s crossed his mind that Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech could be his last at Sanford Stadium.

Stafford, a junior quarterback projected a top five overall draft pick, could be gone to the NFL after this season, which could make for an emotional pregame for Stafford.

“Maybe for a second,” Stafford said. “Other than that, it’s game time after that. It’s football once again, and I’ll treat it like that.”

Stafford will play in his 38th game for Georgia on Saturday when the Bulldogs will honor 20 players on Senior Day.

Stafford made his Georgia debut in the fourth quarter of a rout against Western Kentucky in 2006 following Joe Tereshinski and Joe Cox.

With two regular season games to go for Georgia, the Bulldogs seem to have at least four players on track for first-team All-SEC honors.

Running back Knowshon Moreno, linebacker Rennie Curran, wide receiver A.J. Green and offensive tackle/guard Clint Boling look to me as likely first-team picks.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford would need a big close to his season to jump ahead of Florida’s Tim Tebow, who is still in the running for a second Heisman Trophy.

Receiver Mohamed Massaquoi is having a terrific year, but if there’s only two first-team spots, that’s plenty of competition. Besides Green, there’s Florida’s Percy Harvin, LSU’s Brandon LaFell and Alabama’s Julio Jones. Would Massaquoi get some votes over Green because he’s a senior who has paid his dues?

Matthew Stafford’s 376 passing yards against Kentucky gave him a new career-high and was the second biggest output this year by a Southeastern Conference quarterback.

Nationally, how did it rank?

“Probably not even close, probably not even top 50,” Stafford said.

Bingo. Try 52nd.

And the Georgia quarterback said he was just guessing.

No surprise that eight of the top 16 passing yardage games this year are by Big 12 quarterbacks.

That 42-38 Georgia win over the Wildcats would have easily been confused with something like a Texas-Oklahoma game.

“Yeah, that was a shootout,” said Stafford, who completed 17 of 27 passes for 376 yards and three touchdowns. “That’s probably what it feels like every week to play in the Big 12. It was fun to play in it. I had a good time.”

Penalties in practice are already being felt by Georgia players.
“I’m wearing them out physically for penalties—team and individuals,” coach Mark Richt said Tuesday. “My strategy and my thoughts were wrong. Penalties have not slowed down and have cost us. I did a poor job on the front end of it.”

The price for penalties in practice is a player having to do dreaded “up-downs,” and there apparently will be a price to be paid if Georgia doesn’t reduce it’s most in the nation penalty ways.

“As a team, we talked about it,” linebacker Darryl Gamble said. “I think no more than four is the maximum. That’s what the team is saying. No more than four or we’ll have to deal with it in the next week’s practice.”

The last time Georgia hit that new target was against Kentucky last November when it had four penalties for 30 yards.

In case you missed it, I wrote a column in Wednesday's paper about childhood friends Matthew Stafford and Clayton Kershaw, a rookie phenom with the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was fun to listen to these guys, who are both so full of unreal potential, talk about growing up with the other one.

Since I couldn't fit everything from the two of them into the story, here's my Q/A with Kershaw about growing up with Matthew. I'll tag a couple leftover quotes from Matthew onto the end.

On his first recollection of playing sports with Stafford:
I started playing soccer with him in second grade. We played all the sports growing up. We started going to school together in like fifth grade. We just started playing soccer, baseball, football, basketball, all those things together. We were pretty good buddies all the way growing up.

On whether he knew even as a kid that Matthew was a special athlete: