UGA fans get inside dish from coaches

By TIM TUCKER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It is a rite of summer — and a harbinger of fast-approaching fall — in Bulldog Nation: the convocation of the Greater Atlanta Bulldog Club to kick off the hype for another year of University of Georgia sports.

About 1,000 UGA fans poured into a ballroom at the Cobb Galleria Centre for the annual event Monday night, munching on morsels of information from Georgia coaches in several sports and often barking in response.

Call it the first woofs of a new season.

Football coach Mark Richt, the event’s headliner, fed the crowd these tidbits:

● He said he’ll go into the season with the assumption that no freshmen will be red-shirted at skill positions, excluding quarterback. “We have declared [that] every skill guy we have, not counting quarterbacks, we plan on playing them,” he said. After the meeting, Richt said he was referring to these positions: tailback, receiver, tight end, defensive back and linebacker. He said those players can help on special teams, as well as at their positions.

● Richt reiterated that he doesn’t know who will be the starting tailback in the season opener but observed that Caleb King has the best shot by virtue of being No. 1 on the depth chart entering preseason practice. He’s No. 1 “for a reason, not just because we like him,” Richt said. Richt’s comment about not red-shirting skill-position freshmen is further indication that incoming tailback Washaun Ealey also is expected to play.

● And Richt confessed that he, like South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier, did not fill out his own ballot for the preseason All-SEC team. Spurrier was engulfed in controversy last week when he acknowledged that his ballot — filled out, he said, by an aide — did not include Florida’s Tim Tebow as the quarterback. Richt said his ballot was cast by UGA’s sports information director. “Claude Felton voted for Tim,” Richt said. “I’ll admit it: Claude voted for me.” Later, Richt said he looked over the ballot after Felton filled it out.

The Bulldog Club also heard from Georgia men’s basketball coach Mark Fox, gymnastics coach Jay Clark, equestrian coach Meghan Boenig and athletics director Damon Evans.

Fox got a strong ovation for this line: “There’s 50 stars on the flag. There’s one for Georgia. It’s not for Georgia Tech or Georgia State or Georgia Southern.”

Referring to his goal of growing the Bulldog brand by making football trips such as last season’s to Arizona State, Evans said: “I think we showed the people out in Tempe, Ariz., what football is about. When you have 25,000 Georgia Bulldogs invade the Phoenix and Tempe area, it is something else.”

Richt told the crowd he has enjoyed the summer, minus last year’s stresses of a preseason No. 1 ranking and off-field incidents.

“It’s really been a restful summer,” Richt said. “I’ve really got a lot more juice than I did a year ago, to be honest with you.”