G-DAY AT A GLANCE
What: Georgia's annual spring intra-squad football game
Where: Sanford Stadium
When: 2 p.m. Saturday (preceded by an alumni flag-football game featuring former UGA players at 12:05 p.m.)
Tickets: Admission is free, but UGA asks that fans bring canned goods to donate to the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia.
TV/Radio: The G-Day game will air on SEC Network-plus, which is available on smartphones, tablets and computers through the WatchESPN app or WatchESPN.com. It also will be broadcast on the Georgia Radio Network and GeorgiaDogs.com.
For the first time in five years, Georgia’s football team will enter its annual G-Day spring intra-squad game Saturday with an open question about who’s the No. 1 quarterback.
It last happened in the spring of 2010, when Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger, both redshirt freshmen at the time and both in the NFL now, carried their competition for the Bulldogs’ starting job into G-Day.
Mettenberger was dismissed from the program soon thereafter, eventually resurfacing at LSU, and the past four G-Days have carried no suspense regarding the quarterback position. Murray was entrenched as the starter in the springs of 2011, 2012 and 2013, and fifth-year senior Hutson Mason was the clear starter last year.
On Saturday afternoon in Sanford Stadium, however, three quarterbacks aiming to be the Bulldogs’ 2015 starter will command the attention of tens of thousands of fans.
Brice Ramsey was Mason’s top backup last season. Faton Bauta has shared first-team snaps pretty evenly with Ramsey this spring. Jacob Park was the scout-team quarterback last season.
Their G-Day performances doubtlessly will be dissected by fans, just as Murray’s and Mettenberger’s were five years ago.
The game, which starts at 2 p.m., will be Georgia’s third and final scrimmage of spring practice. In the first two, both closed to the public and media, the strong-armed Ramsey and the mobile Bauta got almost all of the snaps with the first- and second-team offenses, suggesting that, for practical purposes, the quarterback competition is now a two-man race.
Over the two scrimmages, Ramsey completed 33 of 60 passes (55 percent) for 451 yards and three touchdowns, while Bauta completed 34 of 58 passes (58.6 percent) for 497 yards and four touchdowns, according to statistics provided by coach Mark Richt. They threw two interceptions apiece.
Park, working mostly with the No. 3 offense and sparingly with the No. 2 unit, completed six of 15 passes (40 percent) in the two scrimmages for 223 yards.
In the second scrimmage, which was last weekend, both Ramsey and Bauta “had some good moments and a couple of bad moments,” Richt said. In Thursday’s practice, the last before G-Day, apparently none of the quarterbacks had a great day.
“When the offense did it right, it was beautiful, but there were too many mistakes, too many penalties, too many decisions by the quarterbacks that put the ball in harm’s way,” Richt said afterward. “But I’ll say this: The last two Thursdays have been like that, too, and they came around on Saturday in the scrimmages and did a pretty good job. Hopefully, they’ll do that again.”
Georgia wouldn’t make any of the quarterbacks available for interviews leading to G-Day. New offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Schottenheimer also was unavailable.
Players who were available offered mixed takes on the spring game. Center Isaiah Wynn called it “nothing but another scrimmage to us.” But outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter noted, “It’s the closest thing we have to a game day coming up any time soon, so we’re going to feed off the crowd.”
Whatever the performances in this high-profile scrimmage, the competition for starting jobs at quarterback and many other positions is expected to continue into preseason camp in August.
It can be difficult to glean much from G-Day performances. Because the event is open to the public and TV cameras, the coaches are careful not to show much that might help early-season opponents prepare.
“The calls will be pretty minimal from both sides,” assistant defensive coach Kevin Sherrer said. “It’ll be pretty vanilla.”
It’s doubtful the game will feature much, if any, of star tailback Nick Chubb running the ball. Guarding against injury, the coaches have limited him to three carries in the first two scrimmages.
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