G-Day Update
Georgia’s annual G-Day Spring Game is right around the corner on Saturday. But Mark Richt has an interesting new twist planned for this year. Usually it’s the first team offense against the second team defense or the first team offense against the first team defense. Instead of the usual, Richt will allow the players to pick the teams. Tonight he will have two offensive and two defensive players sit down and pick who they want to play on their team. This could be wildly entertaining or completely disastrous.
Update: The captains have been named for the G-Day teams. ILB Christian Robinson and C Ben Jones will captain one team against QB Aaron Murray and CB Brandon Boykin.
Injuries Are Mounting Up
We already told you about Trinton Sturdivant’s crushing injury this past Saturday. Going into their scrimmage on Saturday Georgia held out 18 players due to injury. What does this mean? It means that Georgia is trying to get it’s edge back by having a very physical spring practice. In addition to that, Richt is declaring winners and losers of each drill so everybody is fighting harder in the spirit of competition. I love the continuation of “building a tougher bulldog” that started with the change in the Strength & Conditioning program but I also would like to see the guys get more reps. It’s a double edged sword.
Leadership Council Trying To Clean Up Off-Field Issues
Mid-way through the 2010 season an informal players-led leadership group was started to fix some of the off-the-field problems the Dawgs were having. It’s an advisory group that is player driven and not led or dictated by the coaching staff. The panel includes upperclassmen Christian Robinson, Brandon Boykin, Aron White, Ben Jones, Orson Charles, Tavarres King and under-classmen Aaron Murray, Hutson Mason, Michael Bennett and Kenarious Gates. It’s a huge positive to see the guys come together like this and hopefully this will be a good sign of things to come in terms of keeping guys heads on straight and providing needed leadership on and off the field for Georgia.
Commings Moving To Safety?
Sanders Commings was a very pleasant surprise last year. He worked his way up the depth chart and mid-season he was starting and performing pretty well last year. With Commings, Brandon Boykin and Branden Smith at corner (along with soph Derek Owens and some really talented incoming freshman) Georgia has some depth at corner. With Alec Ogletree’s move from safety to ILB this opened up some competition at the safety spot opposite Bacarri Rambo. The combination of an open spot and some injuries that have happened (Rambo, Jaker Hamilton and Marc Deas have been sidelined recently with various injuries) has opened up the idea of moving Sanders Commings to safety. The defensive staff said they were thinking of doing this before the injuries but due to the injuries they moved Commings over to safety for a couple of weeks to fill in. We will have to wait and see how this turns out but it could be the best thing for the long run for both Commings and Georgia.
Boykin To Return Punts?
Yes please. Boykin is one of the most dynamic kick returners in college football so if he wants to try his hand at returning punts then I am all for it. In the last two years he has returned 72 kick-offs and 4 of them have gone back for TDs. So every 18 times he gets a return out of the end-zone he’s taking it to pay dirt. I like those odds. Let’s get the ball into the hands of our play-makers and Boykin certainly qualifies as one of those.
Smith Commits
A couple of weeks ago Ty Smith from Colquitt County verbally committed to play football at Georgia next year. Smith is a 6’3″ 228 pound TE who grew up a Georgia fan. He’s compared to Orson Charles in that he’s a versatile TE. He put up some good stats last year as a junior (42 catches for 576 yards) while playing for Rush Propst (yes, THAT Rush Propst). Smith also had an offer from Florida but no word yet on if Smith is truly following in Orson Charles’s footsteps and if he was able to smash one of the National Championship trophies on a visit to Gainesville.
Saturday’s Scrimmage Stats
Here are some of the stats from the scrimmage this past week as provided by Mark Richt. It should be noted that a ton of guys were held out on the defensive side of the football.
QB
Aaron Murray 11 of 16 for 125 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT
Huston Mason 12 of 19 for 192 yds, 3 TD, 2 INT
Christian LeMay 2 of 2 for 67 yds, 1 TD (including a 66 yd TD pass to Michael Bennett that was called a “broken play” by Richt)
Parker Welch 4 for 10 for 33 yds
RB
Caleb King 6 carries for 17 yds
Carlton Thomas 8 carries for 26 yds
WR
WR Michael Bennett: 3 rec 94 yds 1 TD
WR Tavarres King: 3 rec 77 yds 1 TD
WR Marlon Brown 4 rec 57 yds 1 TD
TE Orson Charles 3 rec 45 yds 1 TD
RB Brandon Harton 4 rec 33 yds
TE Arthur Lynch 2 rec 21 yds
Defensive Leaders
LB Richard Samuel and S Shawn Williams had 7 sacks
LB Brandon Burrows 6 tackles, 2 sacks
LB Chase Vasser had 4 tackles, 1 INT, 1 sack
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