Earnest Greene ruled out against Alabama, forcing Georgia to look at other right tackle options
Georgia will be without one of its top offensive linemen for this Saturday’s game against Alabama, as right tackle Earnest Greene was ruled out on the SEC’s availability report.
Greene has been dealing with a back injury that first became a problem in the season-opening win against Marshall. He did not play against Austin Peay the following week before returning to action against Tennessee.
Greene was unable to finish that game, with Georgia sliding Michael Uini in for the redshirt junior.
Injuries have been a consistent issue for Greene during his time at Georgia. He missed most of his freshman season because of a back injury. Then, after making the SEC’s All-Freshman team in 2023 as a redshirt freshman, Greene battled an upper-body injury that kept him out of the lineup for three games last season.
Georgia does have options at the right tackle position. Uini filled in against Tennessee, but he was ultimately pulled in the fourth quarter in favor of Bo Hughley.
Georgia scored touchdowns on both drives with Hughley on the field.
“The idea is to continue to get better, and to execute at a high level, and do things that they can be successful at,” Smart said of Hughley and Dontrell Glover. “People around them have to play well. It’s not just them. So we want to play well around those guys and give them a great opportunity to play well.”
The Bulldogs could also sprinkle in freshman Juan Gaston at right tackle. Gaston started the season at right guard before sustaining an injury against Marshall.
Like Greene, he didn’t play against Austin Peay. Gaston did rotate in at right guard against Tennessee, but Dontrell Glover got the snap and played the majority of snaps.
“It is what it is,” Smart said of the injuries on the offensive line. “It’s a part of being tough. We instill that all offseason, and it carries over. I mean, it’s next man up. We’ve got all kinds of linemen that go over there on the right side on the scout team, and they get better. And if we have to go to one of those guys, we’ll go to one of those guys. We just want good fighters.”
Georgia did have the week off before the game against Alabama, giving Georgia more time to experiment with lineups.
Making things more difficult for Georgia is that Alabama is expected to get talented defensive lineman Tim Keenan back from injury. He missed Alabama’s first three games because of an ankle sprain. Keenan began the week as probable on the SEC’s availability report.
Georgia’s game against Alabama is set for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff.
Georgia football injury report
- OL Earnest Greene — back — out
- CB Ondre Evans — knee — out
- TE Ethan Barbour — ankle — out
- OL Malachi Toliver — ankle — out
- WR Thomas Blackshear — unspecified — out
About the Author
Connor Riley has been covering the University of Georgia since 2014 before moving to DawgNation full-time before the 2018 season. He helps in all areas of the site such as team coverage, recruiting, video production, social media and podcasting. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 2016.
