UGA assistant Searels talking to Auburn

Athens — Auburn is pursuing Georgia’s highly regarded offensive line coach, Stacy Searels, for a possible position on new coach Gene Chizik’s staff.

“They’re talking to him,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said Friday. “So we’ll see [what happens].”

Searels, in his second season on Georgia’s staff after four years as LSU’s offensive line coach, has deep ties to Auburn.

He played for the Tigers under coach Pat Dye from 1984-87, earning All-American honors as an offensive lineman in his senior season. He has undergraduate and Master’s degrees from Auburn.

Searels, 43, has been often praised by Richt and others for his work with Georgia’s young, injury-depleted line this season.

“We’d hate to lose Stacy,” Richt said Friday, “or any of our guys.”

Despite constant shuffling up front, Georgia is No. 2 in the SEC in total offense and tied for second in the league in fewest sacks allowed.

Searels was not available for comment. He has a policy of not doing interviews with the media.

There also have been rumors that Auburn might pursue Rodney Garner — Georgia’s assistant head coach, defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator — for a spot on Chizik’s staff. However, Bulldogs defensive tackle Jeff Owens, who announced Thursday he will return to Georgia next season rather than enter the NFL draft, said Garner told him he’s staying.

Richt said Auburn has not asked permission to talk to Garner about an assistant’s job. Auburn interviewed Garner for its head coaching position before hiring Chizik.

Williams surgery

Backup safety and special-teams standout Andrew Williams underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair damaged knee cartilage this week.

Richt said he expects Williams, a senior from Blairsville, to be able to play against Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando on Jan. 1.

At the Bulldogs’ annual awards banquet last weekend, Williams was named special teams MVP, permanent special-teams captain and co-winner (with fullback Brannan Southerland) of the David Jacobs Award for courage, spirit, character and determination.

Etc.

• Georgia will hold its final Athens practice of the season this morning. Then the team will disperse for the holiday break, reconvening in Orlando by 6 p.m. on Dec. 26. The Bulldogs are scheduled to practice there that night.

• Players will travel to Orlando on their own. They receive NCAA-set travel allowances.

• Richt said he might not know until Monday if all players are academically eligible for the bowl. Some fall-semester grades weren’t available as of Friday, he said. Players must earn six fall-semester credit hours to be bowl-eligible.

• Eleven current Georgia players received degrees at graduation ceremonies Friday: Benjamin Boyd, Ramarcus Brown, CJ Byrd, Dannell Ellerbe, Demiko Goodman, Kenneth Harris, Corvey Irvin, Wes Jacobs, Mohamed Massaquoi, Brian Mimbs and Southerland. Former players Thad Parker and Darrius Swain also graduated.