Todd Gurley will continue practicing and Georgia still doesn’t know if and when he might play again.
That was news — or non-news — coming out of the Bulldogs’ camp Tuesday as selected players and their head coach answered reporters’ questions at the weekly news conference
“I just don’t have any answer for that,” coach Mark Richt said Tuesday. “If there’s something worthy of reporting we’ll report it. Other than that, we’re just focusing on the things we can control right now.”
Gurley has been indefinitely suspended since last Thursday, when UGA learned of his relationship and business dealings with a northwest Georgia memorablia dealer. The Bulldogs’ star tailback did not play against Missouri this past Saturday and his status for this coming Saturday’s game against Arkansas in Little Rock has not yet been determined.
Meanwhile, Gurley returned to practice on Monday and will be back on Woodruff Practice Fields and for the forseeable future while UGA confers with the NCAA on Gurley’s eligibility.
“We don’t have a lot of healthy backs right now, frankly,” Richt said. “As we get closer to the game I’m not sure how (the rotation might) go. It’s kind of more day-to-day. We’re figuring out as we go. Our game plan won’t change.”
Georgia quarterback Hutson Mason said freshman Nick Chubb and sophomore Brendan Douglas continue to get the majority of snaps with the No. 1 offense. Walkon Kyle Karempelis remains the Bulldogs’ No. 3 tailback.
But despite the predicament in which Gurley has left the team, Gurley’s teammates are decidely in his corner.
“It’s a completely dumb rule,” junior tight end Jay Rome said. “Completely dumb. And there hasn’t been a single ounce of negative thoughts towards Todd at all. Everybody’s behind him 120 percent.”
UGA has continued to sequester Gurley from the media and the junior tailback has remained silent on social media platforms.
“He’s handling it well,” said senior tackle Kolton Houston, who battled an eligibility issue his first three years in Athens. “He’s been quiet about it, just like I was quiet about my situation. We don’t really talk about it or anything. We don’t know any more than anybody else. Our job is just to go out there and block for whomever is running the ball.”
“I knew going into the (Missouri) game that we could still win with Chubb there,” Mason said. “You just kind of worry about how many times can he carry the ball. Going in I’d have never guessed that he’d carry it 38 times. I didn’t even realize during the game he was getting it that much. But I remember him taking some hard licks and getting back up. He’s just a tough cat.”
Georgia’s going to play Arkansas, regardless of who’s at tailback, who’s at offensive line, who’s at quarterback, who’s at defense. That game’s going to go on at 4 o’clock Saturday.
The only thing I know is we’re going to prepare like we don’t have have him. And if we do get him back, that’s just going to be a plus for us.
It was definitely a big confidence boost. We didn’t think we were going to lose because we didn’t have Todd. We thought we were going to win
Our game plan won’t change. Last year Todd had a high-ankle srpain. Last year Keith Marshall tore his ACL. But we didn’t change our scheme. We’re not going to do that.”
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