ATHENS — Georgia coach Mark Richt was fielding several questions about the depth problems facing the Bulldogs at various positions in 2011 when he was taken back to the summer of 2002.
“Kentrell Curry had some kind of leg injury, and we just didn’t have enough safeties,” Richt recalled during Thursday’s preseason media day at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall. “The coaches are sitting there in the locker room going, ‘what in the world are we going to do now?’ So we said, ‘well, let’s move Thomas Davis to safety.’”
Davis at the time was a somewhat slender redshirt freshman linebacker. He left as an All-American and one of Georgia’s most decorated safeties of all-time.
“That might have been the best thing we ever did, and it turned out to be great for him, too,” Richt said. “He’s a linebacker now in the NFL, but he was one of the greatest safeties I’ve seen in college football. Sometimes [depth problems] just force a guy into a situation, and it turns out to be a great thing.”
Richt went on to discuss another position change they executed prior to the 2002 season. That’s when they moved David Pollack from nose guard to defensive end.
“We signed him as a fullback,” Richt said with a laugh. “A month before [the 2001] camp we made him a nose guard because of attrition there. And then by Year Two a bunch of defensive ends left the program and we’re like, ‘what are we going to do now?’ And we’re like, ‘well, let’s throw Pollack out there; he’ll play hard.’ Then he became the SEC Player of the Year.”
It seems Richt has spent a lot of time lately talking to his team about the 2002 season. That was the year Georgia broke a 20-year drought and won its first SEC Championship since 1982. It won another in 2005, but none since.
Now the Bulldogs are coming off a 6-7 season, the first losing year in Richt’s 11-year tenure. But Richt claims there are many similarities between that 2002 squad and this one, including an up-and-coming quarterback, a hungry defense and a lack of national respect.
Richt shared that observation in what players are describing as an extremely rousing team meeting Wednesday night.
“That’s probably the best speech Coach Richt has given in the three years I’ve been here,” quarterback Aaron Murray said Thursday. “He was pumped up, energized, motivated. I went out of the room thinking, ‘Wow!’ I wanted to play Boise State right then, at 10 o’clock at night.”
Georgia certainly shares the depth concerns of 2002, chief among them on the offensive line. But, as was pointed out, the Bulldogs played the entire season with the same five linemen nine years ago.
Meanwhile, they’ve made personnel moves to address other shortcomings. Alec Ogletree moved from safety to linebacker, Richard Samuel from linebacker to tailback, DeAngelo Tyson from nose guard to defensive end and Justin Anderson from nose guard to offensive tackle, to name a few. Others, Richt hinted, could come in the next few weeks.
Long illness
Richt confirmed offensive tackle Austin Long will be sidelined for the start of preseason practice, but possibly not as long as originally thought. “What [director of sports medicine] Ron [Courson] is wanting us to call it now is a ‘mono-like’ illness,” Richt said. “We’re not entirely sure that’s what it is.” Richt said Long will be monitored day-to-day with the hope he’ll be able to join practice before the season opener.
Etc.
Richt said Georgia has completed its investigation into issues that could possibly affect the eligibility of linebacker Jarvis Jones. UGA declined a Freedom of Information request for copies of that document, claiming it is protected under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. ... Highly touted junior-college transfer John Jenkins was unable to make it through the Bulldogs’ first practice. The 350-pound nose guard was overcome by heat and had to be helped off the field midway through Thursday’s 90-minute workout. No other details are known. ... Richt said discipline for wide receiver Israel Troupe is “being handled internally.” He would not say whether Troupe will suspended for the first game or miss any playing time as a result. Troupe, who will graduate Saturday, was cited for urinating in public and then missed his court date this week. He’s expected to be part of the Bulldogs’ six-man rotation at wide receiver. ... Outside linebacker T.J. Stripling, who was sidelined most of last season with a knee injury, practiced without limitations.
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