Georgia linebacker Washington setting good example for Bulldogs
By David Hale - dhale@ledger-enquirer.com

ATHENS, Ga. — It was the most memorable game day of Marcus Washington’s life, but he hardly remembers the game.

It was October of his senior season at Burke County (Keysville, Ga.). His team lost. He scored a touchdown. The rest is a blur.

What Washington does remember is picking up his girlfriend, Selecia, before school that morning and quickly setting aside her mild complaints about not feeling well. He remembers when a faculty member whisked him out of class later that morning. He remembers rushing to the hospital where Selecia was in labor. He remembers crying when his son, Marcus Jr., was born that afternoon.

Those things, he’ll never forget.

“The game was really just a game,” Washington said. “It wasn’t really a priority. I was ready to get back home to the little guy and make sure him and his mother were doing OK.”

From the first moments of Marcus Jr.’s life, football and family would be indelibly intertwined for Marcus Washington, who will be a senior linebacker for Georgia in the fall. The nearly five years since have been a whirlwind of responsibility but never a burden. The realities of life with a family came sooner than he expected, but so did the maturity he needed to succeed. And through a winding road, Washington has relied on football to keep him strong and his family to keep him inspired.
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Blog 6/16/09
06-16-2009 8:00 am

Georgia one of the few that isn't afraid to take chances

What better way to kick off our annual ranking of college football non-conference schedules than by introducing the SEC: the biggest, baddest conference in the land.

And the conference that, as a rule, avoids heavy lifting at all cost in non-conference scheduling.

There are exceptions -- Tennessee, LSU and Georgia annually make an effort -- but for the most part, the SEC simply does what it can to pick up easy wins.

"We're going to play some people," said LSU coach Les Miles. "But in this league, you can't over-schedule. There's just nothing productive about it."

Especially because it has been proven that a one-loss -- or in the case of LSU, a two-loss -- SEC team can find a way to the BCS National Championship game. Why risk it in the non-con games?

Here are the league's non-conference schedules, from toughest to softest:

1. Georgia: at Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Tennessee Tech, at Georgia Tech
2. South Carolina: at N.C. State, Florida Atlantic, South Carolina State, Clemson
3. LSU: at Washington, Louisiana-Lafayette, Tulane, Louisiana Tech

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