Georgia's football team won't have its top receiver for Saturday's game at Vanderbilt.
Freshman Malcolm Mitchell, who leads the Bulldogs with 25 catches for 438 yards, will be sidelined at least this week because of a pulled left hamstring, coach Mark Richt said Sunday.
Asked if Mitchell will return for the Oct. 29 game against Florida in Jacksonville, Richt said, "Well, we're hopeful for that." The Bulldogs have an open date between the Vanderbilt and Florida games.
Mitchell had three catches for 126 yards in Georgia's 20-12 victory over Tennessee on Saturday night in Knoxville, including a 43-yard catch that led to a second-quarter field goal and a 71-yard catch that set up a third-quarter touchdown.
Mitchell injured his hamstring on the latter play and did not return to the game thereafter.
"It happened right after I caught the ball," Mitchell said late Saturday night. "I felt it pop. But it's not that bad. They said I just need to get treatment every day next week, and we'll see where I am."
But Richt said unequivocally on Sunday that Mitchell won't play this week.
On another injury matter, Richt indicated that freshman tailback Isaiah Crowell will continue to play through a sprained right wrist that was aggravated on a first-half hit at Tennessee.
"I know it hurts, but there is nothing that is broken in there," Richt said. "Sometimes there's a certain spot that might get hit and it's tender, and you go into the next game and get whacked there again, and it just lights it up again. ... When you're holding the ball in that hand, you're probably going to take a shot there. So we're just trying to quiet that thing down."
Crowell fumbled the ball out of bounds when hit on the wrist in the first half Saturday and came out of the game for a while before returning.
Said Crowell: "It's all right. It feels a lot better after a win. I'll be ready to go [this] week."
Celebrating No. 100
Saturday's win was Richt's 100th as Georgia's coach, a milestone marked by a postgame Powerade dousing and a deluge of congratulatory text messages.
"A lot of former players chimed in, guys I haven't heard from in a while," Richt said Sunday. "That was sort of neat."
As for the celebratory dousing he received from some of his current players in Neyland Stadium, Richt said, "It was fun. I enjoyed that one. It was not a freezing cold night, No. 1, and it was for a good reason, getting a great victory in Knoxville and celebrating the 100th. "
Richt's 100th victory came in his 136th game as Georgia's coach, a faster pace than either of the two previous UGA head football coaches to reach 100 wins.
Vince Dooley, Georgia's all-time winningest coach with a record of 201-77-10 from 1964-88, won No. 100 in his 149th game. Wally Butts, who had a record of 140-86-9 from 1939-60, won No. 100 in his 151st game.
Richt's 100th came in the same stadium where he got his first signature victory as Georgia coach in 2001 and against a team coached by Derek Dooley, the son of the man -- Vince Dooley -- who hired Richt at Georgia. The milestone provided a respite from the hot-seat chatter that has swirled around Richt since last season.
Richt said there was a "great celebration" in the locker room after the game and that he was "very humbled" by the way his players and assistant coaches responded to the milestone.
"A hundred victories is kind of hard to believe, really, but I know these victories belong to everybody who played here in that time frame and all the coaches and everybody who helps us do our thing," Richt said. "I'm a blessed man. I'm a pretty happy man right now."
Staff writer Chip Towers contributed to this article.
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