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Herschel Walker should be next when it comes to getting honored by the University of Georgia

Thursday was a big day for the University of Georgia. It made the move to rename the field at Sanford Stadium after legendary coach and athletic director Vince Dooley. The official ceremony will take place on Sept. 7 for Georgia’s home opener against Murray State. It’s been a long time coming for Dooley who would have to be on the Mount Rushmore of the University of Georgia.

Related: Georgia’s Vince Dooley ‘completely surprised’ to learn of field-naming honor at Sanford Stadium

Once the initial happiness of the news subsided, a number of Georgia fans turned their attention to their next cause. Plenty made it clear they want to see something done for legendary running back Herschel Walker.

Walker is pretty easily the greatest player in school history and has an argument for being the best college football player of all-time. He still holds the school’s all-time rushing mark with 5,259 yards. And he did that in three seasons.

He’s the last Georgia Bulldog to win the Heisman Trophy and was the best player on Georgia’s last national championship team. If there’s any Georgia Bulldog that deserves to be honored like Dooley, it has to be Walker.

Of course, there is already a statue of Walker. As DawgNation’s Chip Towers documented almost two years ago, Stan Mullins built an 8-foot tall bronze statue of the Georgia running back.  But the statue has bounced around from home to home. A lot of people now want Walker to be better honored in some way by the school.

Walker is the most iconic Georgia football player. The school still shows Walker bowling over Tennessee linebacker Bill Bates before home games. Real estate in Sanford Stadium might be hard to come by, but there’s a number of spots around Sanford Stadium where Georgia could possibly put up a statue.

A number of SEC schools do a better job of honoring their football legends than Georgia. Tim Tebow has a statue at Florida. Bo Jackson has one at Auburn. Nick Saban already has one at Alabama. There’s no real reason why Georgia can’t come up with a better way to honor perhaps the most iconic Georgia Bulldog of all-time.

Of course, this whole process might not have a quick resolution. It took some political maneuvering regarding the Board of Regents just for Dooley to get his statue.

Walker was one of the people quoted in the press release put out by the school announcing the renaming of the field. That goes in part to show just how important Walker is to the fabric of Georgia football.

“It’s a great day for the University of Georgia and its football program,” Walker said. “Coach Dooley was such a great mentor to me during my career at Georgia and beyond. Congratulations to Coach on this well-deserved honor.”

Hopefully someday soon Dooley, Georgia coach Kirby Smart and everyone else connected with the Georgia program will get to say something similar about the best player to ever put on a Georgia uniform.

Todd McShay pumps brakes on Georgia football NFL draft hype

We’ve written at length this week about the 2020 NFL Draft will be a big one for the Georgia football program. Most people seem to agree that offensive tackle Andrew Thomas and quarterback Jake Fromm will be first round picks this time next year. Running back D’Andre Swift and safety Richard LeCounte have also been mentioned as possible first-round draft picks that will be playing for the Bulldogs in 2019.

But one draft expert has a different take on the Bulldogs. ESPN’s Todd McShay put out his 2020 NFL mock draft on Thursday. And the noted NFL draft guru did not have a single Bulldog in his first 32 picks. McShay did have the Alabama duo of Tua Tagovailoa and Jerry Jeudy going first and second overall.

McShay also had Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley going in the first round, which hasn’t been as popular a pick as Fromm.

McShay has stated in the past how much he hates doing these way-too-early mock drafts largely because they’re so hard to predict. The ESPN draft analyst did point out that for his way-too-early 2019 NFL mock draft, he only correctly predicted 13 of the 32 first round picks.

Right now, I’d feel pretty safe in saying that should Fromm and Thomas play well, stay healthy and decide to forgo their final season of eligibility, the two will likely be taken in the first round. Thomas was one of the best offensive linemen in the country as a sophomore. Meanwhile, all Fromm has done since he arrived at Georgia is throw touchdown passes and win football games.

Georgia baseball to be without Emerson Hancock once again

For the second straight Friday start, Georgia will be without its best pitcher. Sophomore Emerson Hancock will not pitch on Friday against the visiting Florida Gators. Georgia is once again holding Hancock out due in part to soreness.

Hopefully, this Friday will go better than last Friday when Hancock didn’t pitch. The Bulldogs suffered their worse loss of to Mississippi State, falling by a score of 19-3. The Bulldogs ended up getting swept last weekend, which dropped them from first place in the SEC.

The Bulldogs have a pivotal series against the visiting Gators. If No. 8 Georgia is going to earn a top-8 seed — and potentially host both a regional and super regional — it needs to get back to its winning ways in SEC play. Georgia did snap a four-game losing streak on Tuesday when it beat The Citadel 9-0. 

First pitch for Friday’s game is set for 7 p.m. on Friday night. All three games against Florida will be played at Foley Field.

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