BULLDOGS’ ANNUAL DIVE STARTED EARLIER THIS SEASON: Thanks to an affinity for Svedka vodka and sleep, we ended up attending summer school twice at the University of Georgia, while living in un-air conditioned dorms.

So our hearts were warmed when we read that Georgia football coach Mark Richt postponed practice for our Bulldogs yesterday, and instead treated them to a dip inside the school’s natatorium.

But that’s not all he treated them to, according to the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: “(Kelin) Johnson didn’t expect to see was coach Mark Richt sitting in a chair atop the 10-meter (that’s 33 feet to you and me) high dive platform. And Richt soon proved he wasn’t there for show. With his players cheering and jeering around the pool beneath him, Richt proceeded to execute a perfect back flip in the layout position. By the time Richt hit the water, his players were going wild and diving in from every angle. It was quite a hit.”

Georgia swimming coach Jack Bauerle, who was a young whippersnapper back when we covered the team for the student newspaper (yes, it’s true), said Richt hadn’t practiced the move. And in typical Richt style, the Georgia coach credited god for his atypical muscle memory: “Actually I was thinking about sneaking in last night and practicing because I knew there’d be a lot of cameras and people here. But I couldn’t get the time, so I did a lot of praying and positive visualization and it came out pretty good.”

We wonder if Greg Louganis was in those prayers?