Think the Phoenix area isn’t hoping to cash in on the big football weekend here?

I walked into a store in a Scottsdale mall today that sold sports team merchandise. Front and center was Georgia gear.

Bulldogs athletic director Damon Evans would have loved it since he’s trying to spread Georgia’s brand name and logo to all corners of the nation, but I’ll bet the Bulldogs merchandise is no longer in such a prominent spot by Tuesday.

Here’s some odds and ends heading into Saturday’s game:
--Georgia’s Blair Walsh and Arizona State’s Thomas Weber are old kicking buddies.
“He’s a great guy. He’s a fantastic kicker,” Walsh said. “I’ve kicked with him many times out on Vegas. We’ll have a good pregame chat. I knew (Ryan) Succop from the same thing.”

You know Georgia’s football team is pretty good considering that one of the biggest beefs out there is the Bulldogs’ kickoffs.

Central Michigan started six of its nine possessions after Georgia kickoffs on at least the 31-yard line. One drive started on its own 40 and another on the Georgia 40.

“If you kick it out of bounds, it’s on the 40,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “If you kick it where it’s not supposed to go then they have a much greater chance of crossing the 30 or 40 yard line. I don’t know if we stopped them. We might have stopped them one time inside the 30. Some of it is the kicks and some of it is coverage issues. A lot of it is the hang time and giving our guys the ability to get under the thing.”

South Carolina seems to have a decided advantage in this aspect of Saturday’s game.

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.