Welcome to Good Day, UGA, your (former) one-stop shop for Georgia football news and takes. Thanks to all our readers who have checked us out every weekday morning for everything you needed to know about Georgia football, recruiting, basketball and more for the last two years.

2 simple words

This is my last post for DawgNation and thus the final edition of the Good Day, UGA blog. For the last two years, I’ve written more than 400 posts bringing you the latest in Georgia sports news every morning — with more than a smattering of my own takes thrown in for good measure. And I enjoyed writing every single word.

In those 400 or so posts, I tried to write for Georgia fans from the perspective of a Georgia fan. Between Chip Towers, Seth Emerson, Jeff Sentell and others who have come and gone during my time at DawgNation, you could get all the hard reporting and beat work you needed around here. I wanted to write about what your average Georgia fan was talking about on a given day, whether that be the latest football game, a big-time recruit, a hype video, Greg McGarity, a coaching search or one of a million other things that go on in the crazy world of UGA sports.

Not to brag, but this always came pretty easy to me simply because I am a Georgia fan.

If I’ve done my job — and I’m pretty sure I have — that is the first time I’ve mentioned my rooting allegiance to the Dawgs. DawgNation is a reputable journalistic enterprise giving unbiased coverage of Georgia sports, so I thought it would be untoward to explicitly cheer for Georgia in this blog. Keeping some distance and remaining objective and critical helped me maintain some level of credibility. But anyone who visited the blog frequently enough could read between the lines. However, remaining objective got harder as the Dawgs got better. Last season was especially difficult, as I watched what I consider the best Georgia football team of all-time — don’t @ me, old-timers — re-establish the Dawgs as a national force.

So to make sure I never crossed the thin line between blogger and fan, I established two rules. First, I never referred to the team or UGA as a whole as “we.” I made it a habit to CTRL+F “we” every night when I finished writing the post, and I must admit that much more often than once did I find myself subconsciously slipping in a “we.”

To make the obvious clear, no, I don’t consider myself part of the Georgia football team. However, I do consider myself part of the UGA community. I graduated from Georgia and spent six of the most formative years of my life living, studying and working in Athens. I met most of my best friends at Georgia, and some of the fondest memories of my life happened before, during and after Georgia football games. I got engaged to my wife, a fellow alum and lifelong fan, under the Chapel Bell and I rang that sucker like we just wrecked Tech when she said yes. I’m a Georgia Bulldog through and through. I hope someone might even refer to me as a Damn Good Dawg one day, although I’m not audacious enough to bestow that title on myself.

Which brings me to my second rule. There were two words that I knew if I ever wrote in Good Day, UGA would give my allegiance away in a heartbeat. I made sure never to write them even though I wanted to do it so badly after Davin Bellamy’s strip-sack vs Notre Dame and J.R. Reed’s touchdown against Florida and D’Andre Swift’s 64-yarder in the SEC Championship Game and Sony Michel’s Rose Bowl winner and so many other moments.

But seeing as this is my last post, I’m going into uncharted territory and writing the two words — two simple words — you never write in Good Day, UGA …

GO DAWGS!

I can write it in bold, too. GO DAWGS! How about italics? GO DAWGS! What if I did it in bold and italics? GO DAWGS! How about in red? GO DAWGS! Why don’t we do it in big-ass letters?

GO DAWGS!

What about big-ass, red letters?

GO DAWGS!

What about bigger, bolder, italicized red and black alternating letters because HUNKER DOWN YOU HAIRY DAWGS! SIC ‘EM! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

GO DAWGS!

Man, that was cathartic. I should say GO DAWGS! more often.

On a serious note, I’ll be taking a break from writing about Georgia for a while, but when the season starts again you should be able to find what I have to say about Georgia every week over at Flagpole, where I’ve written the Flag Football column for the last three years. I also write about soccer for Forbes, and I should have some college football stuff for them as the season gets closer, and that probably means some stuff on the Dawgs, too. If you want to talk about the Dawgs, hit me up by email or on Twitter. I’m always happy to chat with (former) readers.

Other than that, look for me on Saturday in Athens this fall. I’ll be the one wearing red, getting drunk and barking like mad. Just like the rest of you. Just like the rest of us.

Miss a previous edition of Good Day, UGA? Get caught up here.

ICYMI: Good Day Edition

Here are a few of my favorite Good Day, UGA posts from the last two years.

And since I won’t be around to give you a proper season preview over the next few months, here are links to my post-spring depth chart series, in which I discuss nearly every player on the team, and my way-too-early look ahead from January.

Depth Chart Breakdown: Quarterback | Running Back | Wide Receiver | Tight End | Offensive Line | Defensive Line | Linebacker | Defensive Back | Specialists

A Way-Too-Early Look at 2018: Schedule breakdown | Top 10 players | Early enrollee rankings | Top redshirt freshmen | Top sophomores | Top juniors | Top seniors | Potential breakout players | Most important games | 6 burning questions for offseason

Good dog

Every single edition of Good Day, UGA has featured a good dog, and I’m not breaking that streak at the end. Our final good dog is my dog, Penny. Click the link in the tweet to read more about her if you want.

Well, it’s been real. Thanks again for reading. And GO DAWGS!

MORE: Want to keep up with me on Twitter? Follow me here!