While much of Tuesday was focused on what four Georgia players did wrong, much went right for the Bulldogs on the practice field.
The Bulldogs conducted their first of 15 practices for the spring session on the Woodruff Practice Fields. Many more players were present and participating than originally expected, including the four offending players. Tray Matthews, Uriah LeMay, James DeLoach and Jon Taylor all dressed out and fully participated in the 90-minute workout.
So did star tailback Todd Gurley, whose availability was uncertain because of offseason leg issues. And to varying degrees, other players recovering from major knee injuries participated on the first day, including wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell, cornerback Reggie Wilkerson and tailback Keith Marshall.
“Todd was able to practice today, and he made it through the whole practice pretty good,” said Georgia coach Mark Richt, the only player or coach made available afterward. “We’ll see how it goes once we put pads on and all that. I don’t know if we’ll have any limitations or not.”
Gurley played in only 10 of 13 games last season and missed big chunks of three others because of ankle, thigh and knee injuries. Nevertheless, he rushed for 989 yards and 10 touchdowns and added another 441 receiving yards and six touchdowns.
There were conflicting reports about how much Gurley (a 6-foot-1, 232-pound rising junior) would participate in spring practice. He missed the Bulldogs’ famous mat drills last month because of his undisclosed leg problems. But Richt said Gurley will have to make up the missed mat time.
“He was there every morning (at 5 a.m.) just to help everybody understand if you can’t do that mat program, everybody’s still got to be there,” Richt said. “Ron has some type of exercises that guys can do that will push them and all that. But in the summer time we’re allowed to have up to eight hours of mandatory work. So anybody who missed our mat-drill time — we had nine mat drills — then they’re going to make them up in the summer.”
New energy abounds: Four new defensive assistant coaches — led by defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt — got their first action on Woodruff Practice Fields, and the new energy was palpable.
Less than a half-hour into the first workout, Pruitt slammed his hat to the ground and tore into the defensive backs that he coaches for not doing a receiver-jam drill with enough authority.
“You put your hands on him like you mean it!” Pruitt shouted to cornerback Sheldon Dawson. Turning his attention to the whole group, he continued to yell. “I want you to jump through him; explode through them! Understand?!”
Interspersed in that tirade were several other words that can’t be printed. Richt heard it, too.
“Yeah, Jeremy, will get after it,” Richt said with a grin. “Hopefully there was no audio out there when y’all were there. But, yeah, he’s got energy, and he’s got passion. But I think all of our coaches do. We’re coaching hard, I’m telling you.”
Mike Ekeler (inside linebackers), Kevin Sherrer (strongside linebackers/nickel backs) and Tracy Rocker (defensive line/weakside linebackers) also made their UGA coaching debuts.
O-line takes shape: Center David Andrews, a senior who has been a starter each of the past two seasons, wasn't present for the first part of practice. It was learned later that he has a class conflict that will affect him throughout the spring,
In the meantime, the starters that will be around him this spring were junior John Theus at left tackle, senior Mark Beard at left guard, sophomore Brandon Kublanow at right guard and senior Kolton Houston at right tackle. Junior Hunter Long filled in Andrews’ absence.
It appears senior Watts Dantzler will be “the putty guy” who fills in at either guard or tackle.
“He’ll learn both,” Richt said. “Going into this season, I think his best shot’s gonna be at guard, but the fact he’s gonna know both is gonna be valuable because you never what happens injury-wise, and all that type of thing. So we’ll see.”
Etc.: Richt said the goal for special teams is for every starter on defense to be on at least two units unless a non-starter is clearly better. … Georgia retooled its practice routine. Instead of everything taking place in five-minute increments, periods were separated into three-, five-, seven-, eight- or 10-minute periods. … Tight end Jay Rome, who had offseason foot surgery, was unable to run, but worked out on the side with his position group. … Junior Quayvon Hicks worked with the tight ends, as expected. He started at fullback last season.
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