ATHENS -- Marcus Lattimore is on his way to town and Georgia will greet him without one of its best defensive players.
Alec Ogletree, the Bulldogs' sophomore who flourished after the offseason move from safety to middle linebacker, will miss the South Carolina game and at least a few more after going down with an injury early in Saturday night's 35-21 loss to Boise State. Ogletree broke a bone in his right foot and is scheduled for surgery Monday at St. Mary's Hospital in Athens. He is expected to be sidelined from four to six weeks.
"That's a big blow," Georgia coach Mark Richt said Sunday.
Lattimore and the No. 12-ranked Gamecocks come to Sanford Stadium on Saturday. As a true freshman tailback last season, Lattimore rolled up 182 yards and two touchdowns on 37 carries against the Bulldogs as South Carolina won 17-6 in Columbia. After rushing for 1,197 yards and 17 touchdowns, Lattimore is an even bigger and stronger back. He's up to 235 pounds from 218 last season and has drawn mention as a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Lattimore ran for 112 yards and three touchdowns in South Carolina's 56-37 win over East Carolina this past Saturday. The Gamecocks completed just 10 passes in the game, five to wideout Alshon Jeffery.
Richt said was asked how the Bulldogs would approach Lattimore this time.
"Well, you know, it's kind of a defensive-team thing," he said. "It's not just a one-guy thing. You've got to gang tackle the guy. Not many guys can just one-on-one tackle him and set him down. He's just a tremendously strong kid. He can run through tackles. ... There's probably not a better back in the nation than Lattimore at getting yards after contact. That's going to be a tremendous challenge for us in this ballgame."
Georgia knows that better than any team. One South Carolina reporter counted 121 yards that Lattimore gained after initial contact in the game against the Bulldogs.
"One- and two-yard become four- and five-yard runs, and that's huge; that's kind of what he did to us all game last year," Richt said. "He had a few long runs, certainly, but the majority of his runs were inside zone runs where he would run through or knock people back."
Ogletree plays a position that isn't very deep. Richt said junior Michael Gilliard will compete with true freshman Amarlo Herrera and walkon Jeremy Sulek to start at Ogletree's "Moe" linebacker position.
Sulek, a 6-foot-1, 209-pound senior from Dacula, took the majority of the snaps against Boise State. He finished with seven tackles, including five solos. Herrera (6-2, 231) had two and Gilliard (6-2, 220) one.
"He did a pretty good job, really," Richt said of Sulek, who was not one of the eight battlefield scholarship recipients last month. "He has the best understanding right now of what we're doing. I think that helps him and gives him a better chance to be in position to make plays."
Richt said he didn't anticipate shutting down Ogletree for the rest of the season. Teammates gushed about how well the 6-foot-3, 239-pound athlete had adjusted in moving to linebacker from safety, where he was a five-star prospect. The Bulldogs aren't considering a medical redshirt and want to get him back on the field as soon as possible.
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