Is Aaron Murray ready for the road and the SEC?

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATHENS -- By late Saturday afternoon, Georgia fans will know a lot more about their football team and, particularly, their quarterback.

The SEC opener at South Carolina will reveal whether the Bulldogs are geared to contend for a division title and whether their redshirt freshman quarterback, Aaron Murray, is poised to lead the way.

Is he ready for the road in the SEC? Is he ready for the test of a sophisticated and talented defense? Is he ready, at age 19 with one game of college experience, to be a big-time SEC quarterback?

This is Murray's moment, or at least his first shot at one.

"First SEC game. First away game. I'm definitely excited," Murray said. "We're ready for the challenge."

He encouraged Georgia's fans and coaches in his debut Saturday, completing 17 of 26 passes and accounting for four touchdowns (three passing, one running) amid a few rookie mistakes. But that was against Louisiana-Lafayette before a supportive crowd, and this will be against South Carolina before a daunting crowd.

"No matter what you tell him about the road, he's going to have to experience it for himself," offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo said. "It's going to be interesting to see how he handles that situation.

"But I think he's going to handle it well. He's a confident guy, and he plays with confidence, and those guys usually do well."

Murray "absolutely" is ready, in the view of fifth-year senior wide receiver Kris Durham.

"He prepares harder than any quarterback I've been around," Durham said. "We were in the film room on Sunday, and he already had written stuff down about basically every player on defense. He's like a seasoned veteran. I'm ecstatic to see what he does."

A young quarterback's first game in such an environment is "usually a shock to the system," coach Mark Richt acknowledged.

"A lot of what we do [involves] the quarterback being able to make a change at the line of scrimmage, whether it's in the run game or [pass] protection," Richt said, but "we'll look for as many plays as we can where we don't have to do a lot of that because it will be extremely loud."

Murray long has practiced "hand signals and things of that nature" for such situations, "but until you live through it, it's just difficult," Richt said.

Murray thinks he'll benefit from having traveled to road games with the Bulldogs while redshirting last season.

"I got to experience some unbelievable crowds, like at Tennessee," he said. "I got to see how we work against it, I guess you'd say." But he realizes: "It's going to be different on the field."

The crowd probably won't be the biggest challenge. That would be South Carolina's defense. Highly regarded coordinator Ellis Johnson has had months to plot how the Gamecocks will attack Georgia and its young quarterback.

"They're extremely fast, and they have some great playmakers on defense," Murray said. "I've got to try not to force balls in there because they're fast enough to cut in and take it for six [points]. It's just [a matter of] me being smart and understanding the speed of the game."

Although this is just Murray's second college game, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier noted that he has been in the Georgia program since January 2009 -- "long enough to not be a freshman-type guy.

"He's ready to play," Spurrier said after watching video of Murray. "He knows what he's doing. ... He has good players around him. That's what helps all quarterbacks."

Georgia running back Caleb King senses that Murray is a "game player" who shows his best on Saturdays. For instance, King said, Murray "shocked" him last week with the running ability he flashed against Louisiana-Lafayette.

"He waited for the game and turned it on," King said. "I didn't know he was that fast."

Murray showed a bit more of his running ability than Georgia coaches preferred, particularly on that ill-advised but captivating 16-yard touchdown run as time expired in the first half. Throwing the ball out of bounds and settling for a field goal would have been the veteran move.

"There are going to be times we're, like, ‘What are you doing?'" Bobo said. "But that's who the kid is. We've got to just bring him in under reins a little bit, but we don't want to take his playmaking ability away.

"There are going to be some mistakes he's going to make. ... But the pluses are going to outweigh the minuses."

The trip to South Carolina has been on Murray's mind since he was named the No. 1 quarterback in April. He watched a lot of film on the Gamecocks throughout the summer and watched their season opener on television.

"By the end of our last practice Thursday and after walk-throughs Friday," Murray said, "I think I'll be as prepared as I can be."