(UPDATED 11:55 A.M.)

A few quick notes this morning:

- So it has been a pretty good five weeks or so for UGA sports fans -- wins over Georgia Tech in football, men's basketball and women's basketball, and a bowl blowout of Texas A&M.

- The enduring sounds of rivalry: the "Just Like Football" chant late in Georgia's basketball victory over Tech last night and the "I Run This State" play-on-words from the football victory.

- OK, here's the latest word from Kirby Smart. Reporting from Newport Beach, Calif., where Alabama is preparing for tomorrow night's BCS national-title game, ESPN's Chris Low says Smart didn't completely shut the door on the UGA defensive-coordinator job Tuesday. Low quotes Smart, Alabama's DC and a former Georgia player:

"I haven't really talked to Mark [Richt] much. To say I said 'no' to Mark … he's not offered me anything. So that's not really accurate. To be honest, with this game coming up, I haven't even thought about it.

". . . You don't ever know what's going to happen, but I'm certainly excited about the opportunity to be back at Alabama. We've got a lot of good players coming back."

Feel free to parse those words below.

- Assuming there must be a reason -- other than the decisions by Bud Foster and John Chavis to stay put -- that the UGA defensive-coordinator search is taking so long, the best guess is that it's because Mark Richt is interested in someone still occupied by an important game. That could, of course, be the UGA alums occupied as defensive coordinators in the BCS national-title game, or it could be an NFL assistant in the playoffs. Which brings us to Todd Grantham, the Dallas Cowboys' defensive-line coach who has been on Richt's radar for weeks and seemed to move up on the rumor mill yesterday. FYI, Grantham's resume in brief: an assistant at Virginia Tech and Michigan State in the 1990s and with four NFL teams (Colts, Texans, Browns and Cowboys) since 1999. His only stint as a defensive coordinator was with the Browns from 2005-07.

- A couple of items from the transactions list if you missed 'em: The University of Louisville hired former UGA football assistant coach Jon Fabris as its defensive-line coach. Fabris was one of three defensive coaches fired by UGA on Dec. 2. He joins the staff of new Louisville coach Charlie Strong, the former Florida defensive coordinator. . . . And the Utah Jazz signed former Bulldog Sundiata Gaines to a 10-day contract, pending a physical. Gaines has been playing for the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Developmental League.

- Georgia's women's basketball team has a chance to make some history Thursday night. A win over Kentucky at Stegeman Coliseum would give the Lady Dogs a 15-0 record, which would be the best start in the esteemed program's history.

- Reshad Jones said Tuesday that he hears he's one of the top five safeties in the 2010 NFL draft and that he hopes to be in the top two by draft day. The top one, of course, is Tennessee junior Eric Berry.

- Jones is the 17^th UGA underclassman to enter the NFL draft since 2001. Waiting on word from the prospective 18^th, junior linebacker Rennie Curran. . . .

AJC