Georgia notebook: Murray looks good

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATHENS -- Aaron Murray enjoyed a perk of playing quarterback for Georgia as the Bulldogs held their first full scrimmage of preseason practice Tuesday: throwing to A.J. Green.

The star wide receiver caught five passes for 141 yards, including touchdowns of 63 and 50-plus yards, according to unofficial statistics from the closed scrimmage.

"When in doubt, throw it to No. 8," coach Mark Richt said afterward, not for the first time.

Overall, Richt seemed pleased with the scrimmage, which matched the No. 1 offense vs. the No. 2 defense and the No. 1 defense vs. the No. 2 offense. As you would expect, the No. 1 units controlled the day.

"Some nice plays on both sides of the ball," Richt said afterward, "and if you're an optimistic guy like I am, you're, like, ‘That's what we can be,' so that was encouraging to me."

On offense, Richt said Murray "made a lot of very good decisions and good throws," although his one interception "was not a very wise decision." Murray completed 12 of 21 passes for 237 yards, highlighted by the two touchdown throws to Green.

"It's fun, man, just to get back out there and have a couple of long balls and just get my feet back under me," Green said.

Throwing to Green makes the quarterback job "a lot easier," Murray said with a smile.

In the running game, Washaun Ealey had 66 yards on five carries and Caleb King 63 on 14.

As for the defense, Richt said defensive coordinator Todd Grantham "felt like there were a couple of big plays given up that weren't good, but overall thought they did a nice job."

Akeem Hebron, vying for playing time at linebacker, had a scrimmage-high six tackles, including one sack.

"We've got a long ways to go on both sides of the ball, really," Richt said. Toward that end, the Bulldogs will scrimmage again Saturday.

The Smith case

Cornerback Branden Smith remained absent from the team Tuesday, awaiting resolution of what Richt has called "academic issues."

A person familiar with the situation told the AJC that the issue is not related to Smith's grade-point average but to him needing a higher score on a "placement test" in order to enroll in fall-semester classes. Further details were not available. The person did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Richt had little to say about the matter Tuesday.

"I would just say, ‘I will tell you when I know,'" he said. After earlier saying the issue would be resolved by the end of this week, Richt amended that: "I'd say end of the week or early next week."

Fall-semester classes start at UGA on Monday.

The NCAA case

Green remained mum on whether he has talked with NCAA investigators as part of their multi-school probe into possible improper contact between football players and sports agents.

"Can't answer that yet," Green said.

When will he be able to answer it?

"Whenever Claude [Felton] gives me the thumbs-up," Green said, referring to Georgia's associate athletic director for communications.

Game time changed

The starting time for Georgia’s Oct. 2 football game at Colorado has been changed to 7 p.m. ET (5 p.m. Mountain time), the schools announced Tuesday. The game was originally scheduled to be played 2 1/2 hours earlier.

As before, the game will be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net.

The reason for the change: TV contracts.

ABC is televising the Oklahoma-Texas game at 3:30 p.m. ET on Oct. 2. Shifting the Georgia-Colorado game preserves ABC’s Big 12 exclusivity in the 3:30 p.m. window.