Knowshon Moreno is a superstar in Georgia. “A lot of guys get spotted,” Moreno said. “I do, but not that much. It’s the same old, same old.” That’s just him being modest. Knowshon can’t walk the streets of Athens without getting swarmed, similar to Tim Tebow in Gainesville. These athletes are larger then life.

So much so that Moreno decided to take a couple of weeks off and head back hoe to New Jersey where he could rest and gather himself before the 2008 season. “There’s just so many things coming so fast,” said Georgia defensive line coach Rodney Garner, who recruited Moreno. “People are pulling him in a million different directions. He’s trying to accommodate everybody. He just needed some Knowshon time.”

After consulting with Moreno’s grandmother, among other people, the decision was made that Moreno could benefit from a couple of weeks back home in New Jersey in May.

“We just felt that it would be good for him to go home where he could just be a normal person for a minute and not be Knowshon,” Garner said. “He could go out and go to the movies. He could go bowling. He can just do some normal things that we felt that we needed. After talking to him since he got back, it was just refreshing for him to go home.”

Said Knowshon Moreno: “Everyone was excited to see me. My friends, my coaches. I haven’t changed.”

Knowshon Moreno is a trouble maker! At least according to some university officials he is. No, Knowshon wasn’t caught with drugs and no he wasn’t caught with a gun. Nor was he in a street fight outside of a club at 3 a.m. In a recent Red & Black online article, it is stated that Knowshon Moreno and his teammate Akeem Hebron were cited in October 2006 for noise violation. Apparently they were cranking the stereo too loud on a Saturday night in their apartment!

The punishment for such a heinous crime? Knowshon Moreno was assigned to write a 2 page essay on noise and noise pollution. Thank god students have access to Wikipedia. I’m sure Knowshon was able to knock this paper out in a couple of minutes, or at least have his in-house tutor help him.

It’s a funny story and I’m glad it’s the worst we’ve heard of Knowshon. All indications point to him being a good kid and solid citizen. It’s been almost 2 years since this happened and in that time we’ve never heard his name come up for any other off the field issues.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution posted a question to their reads on their website. Do you think UGA should utitlize a two-back system? You can read the entire article here. Basically it starts with a mention about how the Dawgs fullback Brannan Southerland had foot surgery and will miss the first 5 games of the season. It’s a big loss because Sutherland is probably the best fullback in the country. So do the Dawgs rely on a backup fullback, or do they use both Knowshon Moreno and Caleb King on the field at the same time?

The overwhelming response from the fans was “no” to the two-back system, but a few people suggested UGA run Moreno and king similar to what Auburn did with Cadillac and Brown in 2004. I think that the Dawgs will be fine running their backup fullbacks. Chapas has been playing very well and should be able to fill the roll for the first few months.

I would expect Knowshon Moreno’s statistics to drop some because of the lack of quality blocking he’ll receive, but that just means he’ll have to make more plays himself.

Taking a look at the 2008 Georgia Football Schedule (which I need to post on this website soon), you can see that Georgia has a VERY tough schedule following their Homecoming game on October 18. They have 4 road games in a row.

• At LSU
• At Florida (Jacksonville)
• At Kentucky
• At Auburn

That is going to be one hell of a road trip.

So how does this affect Knowshon Moreno. Well it could be seen as a positive or a negative for those of you wanting him to win the Heisman. One, if Georgia is playing good football, Knowshon will be in the spotlight and given a ton of props because the Dawgs tore up 4 opponents on the road. The Heisman voters won’t overlook this. On the other hand, because it will be such a hard road trip, should the Dawgs lose one of these games on national TV it will hurt his chances.

Ultimately, we’ll have to wait an see what happens. I like to think of this stretch of games as an opportunity for Knowshon Moreno to show what he’s made of.

Even though we are several months away from the start of the college football season, many of the major publications have released their lists of early Heisman candidates. Our favorite Bulldog Knowhon Moreno is on every one of them. In today’s post, I’m just going to do a quick run down of where different websites rank Knowshon Moreno on the list.

Sportsline - They don’t have their Heisman candidates ranked in any specific order, but they do list Moreno. They mention that the Bulldogs should be preseason ranked #1 and that gives Moreno a great shot at winning a Heisman.

Rivals - They list Knowshon as the #4 ranked Heisman candidate. The only problem they mention is Coach Richt often likes to split the workload, and that could hurt Moreno’s numbers.

Sport Projections - They also have Knowshon listed at #4. I don’t really know much about this site to comment.

Scout - Scout.com did an early prediction a couple of months ago and had Knowshon Moreno listed at #14. A lot of things have changed since then, so once they get a new ranking out we’ll be sure to post it.

So there you have it. A list of some top Heisman Candidate rankings. I couldn’t find one for ESPN or Fox Sports, but I’m sure they’ll be out soon enough. It’ll be interesting to see how far Knowshon Moreno moves up the rankings as the 2008 season begins.

The AP opened up a story last week with the following two sentences…

Caleb King spent the 2007 season watching Knowshon Moreno prove the value of a productive redshirt year.

Now it’s King’s chance.

What?! Now, I know Caleb King is going to be good and all, but coming off the year Knowshon Moreno just had, can we really expect him to lose carries to King? I’m sure he’s just excited about getting to play since he has stepped on the playing field in over a year. Any young running back would be that way.

I don’t mind seeing King come in when Knowshon needs a breather, but I don’t want to see him getting a big load so soon. Make him work for it.

AthensOnline.com is reporting that Knowshon Moreno could be limited this spring. UGA is worried that he might injure himself in practice. It’s no secret that the Dawgs are out for a National Championship and will take any precautionary measures necessary to make sure they’re ready in September. Here’s what AthensOnline.com had to say:

“Hopefully, these young backs are going to provide competition for him,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “That’s one of the main reasons he was good last year. …Thomas (Brown) and Knowshon were constantly competing in practice for that playing time in games.”

Moreno will get some contact work this spring, but Richt isn’t sure how much after a breakout redshirt freshman season in which Moreno rushed for 1,334 yards and was a first-team All-SEC pick.

“Knowshon doesn’t have a lot to prove to us but he also is a part of this team and he needs to be working like the rest of the guys which he likes to do,” Richt said. “He loves to compete. We’re going to have to be pulling him out of drills because he really does enjoy the competition phase of this whole thing.”

The Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote an interesting article about whether or not the Bulldogs should be ranked #1 in the Preseason Poll. It included quotes from many different AP voters, a lot of whom mentioned Knowshon Moreno being the staple of the Bulldogs attack. “Knowshon Moreno has the talent and personality to build an offense around.”

You can read the entire thing here.

A lot of people will probably pick USC or Florida to be #1 in the Preseason polls, but I’d like to hear what you have to say about it.

Knowshon Moreno has been very quiet this off-season. We haven’t heard much about him at all since Georgia whooped Hawaii in the BCS game. Odds are, Knowshon is getting back on track in his spring classes and hitting the off-season workout programs pretty hard. He’s not small by any means (5′11″ 207 lbs) but don’t be surprised if the coaching staff tries to get him up to 215 this year. Some added muscle will give him more power without taking away from his quickness.

As soon as we hear something, we’ll be sure to post about it.

Knowshon Moreno had an amazing freshman year. He burst on the scene early and caught the UGA nation (and opposing SEC teams) by surprise. Let’s take a look at his 2007 numbers before we discuss what he is capable of in 2008.

In 2007, Knowshon Moreno carried the ball 248 times for 1334 yards (5.4 ypc) and had 14 touchdowns. He also caught 20 balls for 253 receiving yards. If Moreno is supposed to be a Heisman Trophy candidae in 2008, he’ll need to improve his numbers by a big margin. To put things in perspective, Darren McFadden had 1800 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns, and it wasn’t good enough for him.

But Moreno has one thing that McFadden didn’t. He should be playing on a winning team and a National Championship contender. Being on a contender can help even out the scale with production on the field.

Going into 2008, Knowshon’s sophomore year, I think it’s safe to assume he’ll increase his numbers across the board. Something along the lines of 260 carries, 1500 yards and 15-16 touchdowns. Whether or not those numbers are good enough for a Heisman push will depend on Georgia’s BCS ranking.