Georgia coach Mark Richt confirmed Tuesday that the Bulldogs will be three receivers down again for the Tennessee game. But there is reason to believe most if not all of them will be back in the next week
Malcolm Mitchell (knee) and Jonathon Rumph (hamstring) will sit out their fourth consecutive game with injuries. Meanwhile, Justin Scott-Wesley will be sidelined for the fourth consecutive week as part of what’s thought to be a disciplinary suspension. However, neither coach Mark Richt or any of the Bulldogs will acknowledge that and Scott-Wesley is also coming off a knee injury that sidelined up for the second half of last season.
“You just keep hammering away at that, don’t you?” Richt, smiling, said to a reporter who asked for clarification on Scott-Wesley’s absence. “I’ll say this: He’s getting close to being ready to play. But I appreciate your persistence.”
Scott-Wesley, a junior from Camilla, was arrested for misdemeanor possession of marijuana in his dorm room last October. At the time, he was recovering from an ACL tear suffered against Tennessee. Scott-Wesley’s arrest counted as a violation of UGA’s marijuana-use policy. But it was not known at the time if it was a first or second infraction for Scott-Wesley. A first violation brings calls for a suspension of 10 percent of competition dates, or one game in football. A second calls for a 33 percent suspension, or four games. A third means dismissal.
Of course, it’s Mitchell, the junior flanker, who the Bulldogs miss most. Mitchell re-injured his surgically-repaired right knee four days before preseason camp opened and had arthroscopic surgery on July 30. Expected to be back by now, Mitchell did his first running on the practice field in weeks on Monday but has yet to run even a half-speed pass route.
“We were hopeful for sooner, but you’ve just got to go that he can go,” Richt said. “… It’s going to take a bit. We’re just trying to get him in as good of shape as he can be.”
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