Dogs’ injuries piling up during practice

Athens — The Bulldogs on Friday held “the shortest scrimmage in the history of Georgia football,” according to coach Mark Richt.

He was being facetious, of course, but a serious manpower shortage is starting to impact what the Bulldogs can get done. Somewhere in the neighborhood of two dozen players were either sidelined with injuries or held out of full-speed contact because of minor maladies.

Among the 20 or so players in green jerseys (not including quarterbacks, who stay in them) for Saturday’s scrimmage were some of the biggest stars on the team, including tailbacks Knowshon Moreno and Caleb King, flanker Mohamed Massaquoi, split end A.J. Green, linebacker Dannell Ellerbe and placekicker Blair Walsh.

“I don’t know how much more it is than usual,” Richt said. “We’ve had guys in green jerseys before and a good many from time to time. But it seems like it was usually just two days here and three days there, maybe a couple practices. This time we’re still waiting for most of them to come back.”

The good news for Georgia is that so far only two players — tackle Trinton Sturdivant (knee) and linebacker Marcus Washington (shoulder) — are sidelined for the season.

“Mainly we just have number of guys that are a little banged up,” Richt said. “And we didn’t want to overwork the guys that are healthy. … It sets you back. It’s just a domino effect for our position players and probably even worse for our special-teams players. Everyone’s frustration is the young guys that aren’t there to get the work.”

As a result there were some unusual names on the post-scrimmage stat sheet. Fred Munzenmaier, normally a fullback, got the majority of carries at tailback with 10 for 16 yards. True freshman Richard Samuel was the leading rusher with 51 yards on six carries. Kris Durham led the receivers with four catches for 30 yards. Israel Troupe also had four catches for 25 yards and a TD.

Meanwhile, junior quarterback Matthew Stafford had a stellar day, completing 10 of 11 passes for 112 yards and 2 TDs with no interceptions.

Linebacker Akeem Dent led the defense with six tackles. Remarcus Brown had four tackles and two pass breakups. Justin Houston had three tackles and two sacks, and Akeem Hebron picked off a screen pass.

“And no one got hurt,” Richt said. “That was good.”

Suspensions remain indefinite

Two weeks ago Richt said he needed some time before deciding on definitive punishments for safety Donavon Baldwin and snapper Jeff Henson. Both players were suspended indefinitely after getting into trouble the weekend before preseason practices began.

Asked Friday if he had reached a conclusion, Richt said, “Not for any public consumption yet.

“I’ve not talked to either one of them yet about a decision that’s been made. I don’t have anything etched in stone yet, but I’ve definitely done a lot of thinking about it, and I’m getting a lot closer to making that decision.”

Etc.

Richt predicted that every skill-position freshman signee will play this season. … Georgia, ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/Coaches poll, was No. 6 in Playboy magazine’s rankings, released Friday. Florida (3), Auburn (8) and LSU (9) were also in Playboy’s Top 10. Georgia Tech was No. 25. The Associated Press media preseason poll is scheduled for release Saturday.