Georgia sports for Monday, December 17th

The Atlanta Falcons played their first game since the sudden departure of head coach Bobby Petrino last week. With Emmitt Thomas at the helm as interim coach, the result for the Falcons was the same that it has been most weeks this season--defeat. The Falcons were blistered at Tampa Bay Sunday afternoon, 37-3. On the third play from scrimmage for Atlanta, QB Chris Redman was intercepted by Ronde Barber, who returned the mistake 29 yards for a touchdown--the Buccaneers never looked back. The Falcons with the loss saw their record fall to 3-11, with only 2 games left in the season.

5 high schools are celebrating state football championships from the weekend. Lowndes was the winner in class 5A; Northside-Warner Robins took the 4A crown; Carver-Columbus won the 3A title game; Buford rolled to victory in 2A, and Emanuel County Institute took the championship in 1A.

On the college gridiron, there is celebration in Valdosta as well, after the Blazers of Valdosta State won the Division-II national football championship Saturday. VSU defeated Northwest Missouri 25-20 in Florence-Alabama--it was Valdosta State's second title in four years.

Safety-conscious schools getting students 'Connect-ED'

Georgia's public colleges and universities are investigating an emergency alert system to warn faculty and students of impending dangers.

The board began considering security options after the shooting spree at Virginia Tech on April 16. A student gunman killed 33 students and faculty in that attack.

The "Connect-Ed" system can simultaneously call thousands of telephone numbers and leave a text-message alert.

Albany State University Police Chief Roberson Brown told GPB News that the system works very quickly:

"Connect Ed has this system they demonstrated, where, everyone in a room he got the phone number for, in less than ten seconds the message was sent out to thousands of cellphones... You have the ability to call into this database, and in return it calls every number in the bank.”

Valdosta State University is implementing the system:

"Valdosta State University recently initiated the VSU Campus Alert system through the Connect-ED communication service. The new system provides campus leaders and security professionals the ability to reach all students, faculty and staff with time-sensitive information during unforeseen events or emergencies, within minutes, through a single phone call.

"VSU Campus Alert enables campus leaders to schedule, send, and track personalized voice messages, and can also send text messages to cell phones and email addresses."

The Board of Regents is weighing installing the $435,000 system at all 35-member schools statewide.