ATHENS — Georgia coach Mark Richt pronounced wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell “ready to play” Wednesday. What the Bulldogs do now is another question.
Mitchell has been out the past four weeks with a pulled hamstring. On Wednesday, he practiced full speed for the first time since pulling up lame on a long reception against Tennessee on Oct. 8.
“He practiced a lot,” Richt said after the Bulldogs’ two-hour practice Wednesday evening. “He ran full speed, in my mind. He may not have been full speed, but he looked pretty close to full speed, changing direction, jumping, catching balls. I’m convinced he’ll be ready to play.”
A half-hour or so later, Mitchell concurred with his coach.
“I’m encouraged,” said Mitchell, who still leads the Bulldogs with 438 yards receiving despite missing three games. “Today was a good day. I opened up a little bit today, started cutting more. I’m just ready to see how it goes.”
Mitchell tried to come back the week of the Florida game and aggravated the injury. That set him back another two weeks.
“I took it a little bit too fast last time,” he said. “I came out trying to sprint the first day and I aggravated it pretty bad.”
As a result, Mitchell remained in Athens when the Bulldogs made the trip to Jacksonville. He watched that game and the Vanderbilt game before it on television.
“The Florida game was horrible,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t like that at all. That was probably one of the worst feelings I had.”
Missouri wanted Richt
Missouri, which became the SEC’s 14th member earlier this week, tried to hire Richt as its football coach 11 years ago. Richt interviewed for the Tigers’ head coaching job before he accepted the offer to become Georgia’s coach in December 2000.
“My wife and I thought a lot about going to Columbia and what the city was like and what life might be like there for our family,” Richt said Wednesday. “We had a lot of positive thoughts and feelings about the possibility of going to Missouri. We thought it might be a real good fit. So we got a pretty good taste of it 11 years ago.”
The Tigers ended up hiring Gary Pinkel, who remains their coach. He is 81-54 in his 11th season. Richt is 103-36.
No carries for fullbacks
Nine games into the season, Georgia’s fullbacks have not recorded a rushing attempt. That’s unusual for the Bulldogs, who over the years have produced top-shelf fullbacks such as Brannan Southerland, Shaun Chapas, Fred Munzenmaier and J.T. Wall.
However, the Bulldogs entered the season manning the position with Bruce Figgins, a converted tight end, and Zander Ogletree, who was primarily a defensive player in high school.
“We’ve been a little reluctant to hand it to them,” Richt admitted. “We were a little leery of doing that. In hindsight, if I had camp to do over I probably would have worked Bruce and Zander harder on some fullback runs.”
Figgins does have six receptions of 81 yards.
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