Knowshon Moreno is getting some much deserved publicity so far in 2008. Dawg Post has selected Knowshon Moreno to grace the cover of their 6th annual season preview magazine. This is Moreno’s second Dawg Post cover, but first appearance on the cover of a season preview edition. His previous cover came of the first-annual Next Big Thing edition last fall.

There’s no doubt that Dawg Nation has high hopes and enormous expectations of Knowshon this season. Anything short of a Heisman-type season will be a disappointment.

I think as we approach the opening of the football season throughout the summer, we’ll see Knowshon Moreno gracing the cover of several more magazines.

Red and Black posted an article the other day about a couple of UGA students who are making a website dedicated to selling Heisman merchandise. They hope on of their top sellers this season will be the “Knowshon For Heisman” hats that resemble the old “Herschel for Heisman” hats of the early ’80s.

Here’s a quick excerpt:

The Web site address is www.heismangear.com and will be launched within a month, according to Pritchett.

Neither Pritchett nor his friend and co-founder, senior Matthew Molony, are the typical business majors.

In fact, for the genetics and English majors, respectively, the Web site was born out of a love for Georgia football and later turned into a business venture.

“It came about one day when one of our good friends had the old school Herschel hat, and we’re both huge Dog fans, so to get the backing for Knowshon, we decided to get the Knowshon hats.” Pritchett said.

“We really want Knowshon to win the Heisman, so that’s was our main point to get people rallying around Knowshon at Georgia.”

After a SEC Freshman of the Year season in which he amassed 1,334 yards, Moreno is considered one of the early candidates for the 2008 Heisman. Pritchett said that he isn’t worried about a sophomore slump.

One of the biggest concerns for the site owners is that fans will be buying Tim Tebow merchandise too. It’s a tough pill to swallow for any UGA fan.

The Orlando Sentinel is predicting that Tim Tebow’s toughest competition for a Heisman trophy in 2008 is none other then our favorite Dawg, Knowshon Moreno. Here’s what they had to say:

He’s going to have serious competition for that award within his own division of the SEC.

Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno is a ‘Dawg to watch.

CBS Sportsline columnist Dennis Dodd has a good profile of Moreno, who to me looks like a reincarnation of Carnell “Cadillac” Williams without all the injury baggage. He even wears No. 24 like Caddy. I covered Williams when he was a star at Etowah High School in Attalla, Ala., and followed him closely through his days at Auburn and now with the Tampa Bay Bucs. I loved the way Carnell attacked the line of scrimmage and wasn’t afraid to take on larger defenders. He was fearless.

Moreno, for my money, may prove to be even better.

He’s my pick to take the Heisman because I expect Georgia to win the SEC and play for the national title in 2008.

Those are nice words for Knowshon. Being only a sophomore, he will have a lot of criticism. Will there be a sophomore slump? Can a sophomore win a Heisman again (Tim Tebow being the first and only to do that last year)? Avoiding injury, I think Knowshon Moreno has just as good of a chance to win the Heisman as anyone else in the country. All eyes will be on him.

I know keeping your starting running back off the field in spring practice is a good idea so he avoids injury, but I wonder if coaches think about how it affects the morale of the player. Based on the comments below, it sounds like Moreno is a bit frustrated with the lack of playing time in practice. He is an ultra-competitive athlete and doesn’t like seeing other running backs tearing it up in practice.

Here’s what was said in a Macon Telegraph article:

Georgia is keeping a tight rein on its starting tailback this spring to limit the chance of injury and to give its young tailbacks more work, but the inactivity, combined with Owens’ playful needling, clearly bothered the ultra-competitive Moreno.

“I don’t know how many plays they gave me,” he said. “I just hate sitting out there, but I guess I have to do it a little bit.”

No matter how bad you don’t want him to get hurt, the coaches will have to play him every now and then. You must keep your star players happy.

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.”

Does anyone else think Knowshon Moreno and the Georgia Bulldogs have the hardest schedule in college football. For a team ranked in the top 5 last year, and possible preseason #1 this year… this is a damn hard schedule. Looking at it makes me sick, especially when I see teams like LSU with 8 home games and Florida with a JOKE of a non-conference schedule.

Georgia has to play 4 away games in a row starting on October 25 and finally playing a home game again 1 month later on November 29. That’s just insane.

08/30/08      Georgia Southern Eagles
09/06/08     Central Michigan Chippewas
09/13/08     at South Carolina Gamecocks
09/20/08     at Arizona State Sun Devils
09/27/08     Alabama Crimson Tide
10/04/08     Open Date     N/A
10/11/08     Tennessee Volunteers
10/18/08     Vanderbilt Commodores
10/25/08     at LSU Tigers
11/01/08     Florida Gators (Jacksonville, FL)
11/08/08     at Kentucky Wildcats
11/15/08     at Auburn Tigers
11/22/08     Open Date     N/A
11/29/08     Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

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.