Thursday, August 9
(Photo by UGA Sports Communications)
Georgia fans who spend time on Twitter or follow the Tweets of the Day in our Morning Coffee segments have grown to realize that offensive lineman Watts Dantzler is one of the best tweeters on the Bulldogs' team.
Typically funny and thoughtful, Dantzler will definitely tweet out some keeper lines.
Last year during preseason, Dantzler said he stayed away from Twitter while trying to learn the offense and get accustomed to college football. He's back on there this preseason.
"A lot of my tweets are usually satire, just joking around," Dantzler said. "I hope no one takes it too serious."
The practice of social networking among college athletes has been a hot-button issue of late. Certain coaches have banned the practice among players. In UGA's case, there have been scattered instances of fan interaction that weren't so positive, most notably after an 0-2 start to last season and the Isaiah Crowell dismissal this past summer.
Nonetheless, Mark Richt has been clear for a while now that while UGA's staff will monitor tweets and issue warnings or bans if needed he thinks it's a good thing for players to learn responsibility in such a way.
Dantzler, for his part, doesn't disagree with that.
"One thing that I really enjoy is you can have a tough practice and you get back to the locker room and check your phone and you have two or three fans that have tweeted at you, 'Keep pushing' or 'Hope you had a good practice.'" Dantzler said. "That's the kind of stuff I really enjoy. There's a lot of fans out there that are behind us. There are going to be negative things with that. It comes with responsiblity.
"Coach Richt has laid down rules what we can tweet and can't tweet, and I think most of the guys know that. I look at as my mom follows me on Twitter and my high school coaches. And Coach Friend follows me on Twitter. They're going to look at it. When I'm going to put a tweet out, I like to read it and make sure it's not bad."
Dantzler also brings up another point when it comes to social networking and an increased interaction with the public.
"I think that helps fans realize that, you know, we're players, we're kids, we're college kids. We're out here playing football, but there's a lot more to us than just football," Dantzler said. "I think it helps them grasp that we're college kids and we do the same stuff they do. It helps show that we're humans. We're not just football players. We're actually just normal students too."
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ON THE AGENDA
Thursday is an interesting day for the crew of UGA beat writers, since freshmen will be made available for interviews after practice, which gets going at 8:45 a.m.
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LINK(S) OF THE DAY
Quickly around the SEC ...
Tony Barnhart checks in with South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore.
Tennessee QB Tyler Bray is dealing with more off-the-field headlines.
And former Auburn coach Pat Dye has some interesting comments on various topics as usual.
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TWEET(S) OF THE DAY
Dawgs edged 94-90 by Atletas Kaunas today in Italy.
Georgia basketball feed
Great lesson tonight IF we will learn from it. If you do not defend, you cannot win. We scored 90 & lost to a team that made 16 3's.
UGA hoops coach Mark Fox
In times of tribulation your true friends make themselves known and your "fake" friends reveal their true colors
OL Kolton Houston
Thanking God this morning! Bout to go cheese in this scrimmage!
#UGA TURN UP!!!
WR Tavarres King
Big day, first scrimmage. Seize every opportunity that presents itself you never know if its going to be your last. #gata #noregrets
TE Arthur Lynch
Its Kinda quiet in this locker room. They say it's always calm before the storm. Time to tee it up between the hedges. #scrimmage #GATA
LS Nathan Theus
I wake up excited that I made it thru the night.
DB Bacarri Rambo
Thank God for seeing another day. Now time to show out in this scrimmage. #noflyzone
DB Shawn Williams
Some of y'all really get a kick out of being social media celebrities.
DB Damian Swann
Hopefully Tyler Bray's next step is a public urination charge. Then he'll have the perfect frat-daddy resume. #BroSoHard
I hope T-Pain was with Tyler Bray on the jet ski.
GoVols247 writer Wes Rucker
Where has our summer gone?
OL commit Brandon Kublanow
- Gentry Estes
- Georgia Insider - Dawgs247