Georgia's Caleb King blames arrest on ‘miscommunication'

By Andy Johnston

For the AJC

ATHENS – Tailback Caleb King thought the fine for his speeding ticket had been paid and said a miscommunication was to blame for his Oct. 11 arrest for failure to appear in court.

Speaking to the media for the first time since the arrest, King wouldn’t name who he thought had paid his fine for a speeding ticket in Walton County on June 20. Subsequently, he didn’t attend his Aug. 6 court date.

“It was a miscommunication, and unfortunately I had to get in trouble for it,” King said Monday. “I thought it was taken care of.”

Georgia coach Mark Richt suspended King for the Vanderbilt and Kentucky games, and he returned to lead the Bulldogs with 64 yards on 12 carries in Saturday’s 34-31 overtime loss to Florida.

“It was a bad time to get in trouble and end up in the newspaper with everything that’s happening,” King said. “And not having the year that we wanted to have, I wasn’t mad at [Richt’s] decision.”

King has missed parts of five games this season – 2 ½ with a sprained right ankle and two for the suspension. The toughest part, he said, was watching the Vanderbilt game from the sideline.

“The day after [the arrest], everybody came to me and said it was going to be OK and went out and worked hard,” King said. “I was still working alongside them in practice. If anything, it helped my focus to go harder every practice, every work out, so I can go out there and try to prove something.”

When asked if it’s been tough on the Bulldogs to play nine consecutive games with two more to go before an off week, King joked, “I’ve had a lot of bye weeks. It’s kind of fine for me.”

CBS picks up Auburn game

CBS will televise Georgia’s game at Auburn at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 13, opting to show the two rivals instead of South Carolina at Florida in a game that could decide the SEC East title and berth in the conference championship game.

South Carolina-Florida will start at 7:15 p.m. on either ESPN or ESPN2.

Georgia has won four consecutive games against the Tigers and haven’t lost at Auburn since 2004. The Tigers, led by quarterback Cameron Newton, are 9-0 and No. 2 in this week’s BCS standings.

Auburn, which holds a 53-52-8 advantage in the series with Georgia, plays Chattanooga (5-3), a FCS (formerly Division I-AA) team, on Saturday.

The Bulldogs didn’t play on CBS this season until Saturday’s loss to Florida.

Stats update

Georgia fell from first to third in the SEC against the run (113.9 yards a game) – and are 18th in the country -- after Florida rushed for 231 on Saturday.

The Bulldogs are fourth in total defense (322.7) – 28th nationally -- and remained first in the conference in kickoff coverage (45.9).

Individually, Justin Houston still leads the SEC in sacks with nine after gaining 1/2 sack against Florida. He actually had his season total adjusted last week and had a 1/2 sack from the Kentucky game taken away from him and credited to nose tackle DeAngelo Tyson.

Akeem Dent is second in the SEC with 90 tackles, just seven behind Kentucky’s Danny Trevathan, and punter Drew Butler is second to Florida’s Chas Henry in punting.

Henry, who played at East Paulding, is averaging 48.8 yards to Butler’s 45.5 yards, but Butler has 38 punts, 10 more than Henry, who is the SEC’s co-special teams player of the week after his game-winning, 37-yard overtime field goal against Georgia.

Henry was 2-for-3 on field goal attempts and averaged 46.8 yards on six punts, dropping two inside the 20.

Moore like Kentucky’s Cobb

Idaho State’s Tavoy Moore is a versatile threat who is used much like Kentucky’s Randall Cobb.

Moore is the Bengals’ leading receiver with 27 catches for 323 yards and a TD and second leading rusher with 180 yards.

But, at 5 feet 7, he makes his biggest impact on special teams with two punt returns and two kickoff returns for TDs this season. Moore is the first player in Big Sky history to return both a kickoff and punt return for touchdowns in two games.

Moore leads the Big Sky Conference in kickoff returns at 27.5 yards and in punt returns at 20.2 yards, and is second in all-purpose yards with 192 a game.