ATHENS — We have reached the halfway point of the Georgia Bulldogs’ preseason camp. That’s depending how one counts it, though.
Just looking at the calendar, which flips to Aug. 15 on Thursday, the Bulldogs are at the midway point of preseason practices. The season begins Aug. 31 against Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, so it would follow that there are roughly as many days remaining as they will have practiced by Thursday.
Then again, fall semester for UGA students began Wednesday. Traditionally, the start of classes always meant the end of preseason “camp.” But not for Georgia coach Kirby Smart.
He won’t consider the Bulldogs’ camp portion of the preseason concluded until Saturday, when the team conducts its second full scrimmage at Sanford Stadium. That – the second scrimmage that comes at the third week of preseason practice – always has marked the end of “camp,” such as it is nowadays. In fact, Smart still has local farmers bring in watermelons for a celebratory post-scrimmage treat at the end of that second scrimmage each year.
“When we get through Scrimmage 2, I would consider that the close of our camp,” Smart said at his second press conference of the preseason Tuesday. “Unfortunately, our academic calendar doesn’t match up perfectly with what we’ve got going on, so school will start for the players (Wednesday). They’re getting their books, they’re back to being student-athletes, and it’s hard to do that in camp.”
So, for all practical purposes, Georgia football’s camp is over. The players no longer are bunking two to a room in the Georgia Center’s hotel, and with classes officially underway, they no longer can conduct unlimited practices and meetings. The start of the semester kicks in the NCAA’s 20-hour rule, which mandates that athletes can devote no more than 20 hours a week to training for their respective sports. From now until the holiday break in December, UGA and all other football programs must file a weekly report with the NCAA detailing their practice routine.
That part seemed somewhat fretful to Smart because, from his vantage point, his team has a lot of work to do to get up to competitive speed.
“We are nowhere near or close to where we need to be,” said Smart, who is entering his ninth season at the helm of the program. “I feel like we have less depth than we’ve ever had. That’s kind of a common theme talking to other coaches. I call it the ‘deterioration of football.’ Every year we’ve been here, I feel like we’ve had more players capable of going in and play winning football, and every year that (number) goes down. So, we have to keep working to increase that number.”
Some of those other coaches might take issue with Smart’s deterioration theory. The Bulldogs have managed to win 47 of their past 49 games despite this alleged dissipation of talent. Perhaps it’s just that all things are relative.
However one adds it up, following are some things we’ve learned about the Bulldogs toward the end of camp and at the midway point.
Sky-high expectations
Smart may be able to spot a lot of flaws in his team, but college football pundits certainly don’t. For the second consecutive year, the Bulldogs will open the preseason as the nation’s consensus No. 1 team.
This week, Georgia pulled 46 of 62 votes as No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. Two weeks ago, the Bulldogs received 46 of 55 first-place votes from college football coaches who participate in the USA Today preseason poll.
That’s also where Georgia, winners of the 2021 and 2022 College Football Playoff championships, opened last season. That, of course, didn’t work out great. The Bulldogs went 14-1, with a loss to Alabama in SEC Championship game, and missed the playoff for the first time in three years.
As one might expect, there has been nary a peep about such grandiose expectations for 2024 in the Bulldogs’ locker room.
“It came up as a notification on my phone, and it was just another notification to me,” junior linebacker Jalon Walker said of finding out Georgia was preseason No. 1 this week.
Otherwise, there has been no discussion in camp or warnings from Smart.
“I don’t think coach Smart needs to preach to us,” Walker said. “We come out here to play football. That’s other people’s opinions.”
Breakout players
As always, there are players everybody expects to have big years – like quarterback Carson Beck – and then there are those who might come into camp and unexpectedly turn heads.
Nate Frazier has been one of those players.
It’s not that Frazier was an unknown coming to Athens. Rivals.com rated him the No. 1 running back prospect in America when he signed with Georgia out of Mater Dei High, the famous football powerhouse in California. But Frazier didn’t arrive until late May rather than as an early enrollee in January like the majority Georgia’s 2024 recruiting class.
Apparently that has not held back Frazier. Coaches and teammates rave about the 5-foot-10, 210-pound back’s quick burst and ability to find daylight.
“He is an explosive kid,” Smart said. “He’s got good track times, good speed. He’s got great toughness, and he’s a little ball of energy. But there are a bunch of guys in that (group) that are doing a great job.”
Frazier’s addition to a backfield corps that includes junior transfer Trevor Etienne, sophomore Roderick Robinson, the healthy return of Branson Robinson, plus walk-on Cash Jones and freshman signees Chauncey Bowens and Dwight Phillips has alleviated a preseason concern.
Other breakout players in camp include transfer wideout Colbie Young, a senior, freshman offensive lineman Bo Hughley, sophomore receiver/returner Anthony Evans, freshman safety KJ Bolden, outside linebackers Quintavius Johnson (freshman) and Damon Wilson (sophomore) and sophomore defensive lineman Jamaal Jarrett.
Injury concerns
The midway point of camp typically is when injuries start to pile up, and that has been the case with the Bulldogs.
To date, the most significant setback Georgia has encountered has been another knee injury for Jordan Hall. A 6-4, 320-pound defensive tackle from Jacksonville, Florida, Hall was just completing his recovery from a tibia stress fracture in one leg when he suffered a similar injury in the other leg. Now, rehabilitation is expected to keep Hall sidelined well into regular season. He had 10 tackles in 11 games as a reserve as a freshman last season and expects to be a regular in Bulldogs’ rotation this fall.
“We don’t know the exact timeline, but he’s been in great spirits,” Smart said of Hall. “I’m just glad they found it when they did.”
Another injury setback has kept starting center Jared Wilson sidelined and out of action because of Achilles tendinitis. That has left Wilson working on the side and had a ripple effect on the No. 1 offensive line. Right guard Tate Ratledge is taking the majority of snaps at center, which has moved Micah Morris into Ratledge’s spot. Redshirt freshman Drew Bobo is the backup center.
The rest of Georgia’s injury news mostly is encouraging. Linebacker Smael Mondon just returned after a long rehab from foot surgery, and defensive lineman Warren Brinson is “dealing with” an Achilles issue. Also, linebacker CJ Allen (ankle), running back Roderick Robinson (toe) and outside linebacker Chaz Chambliss (hamstring) all are trying to manage minor injuries.
Still unresolved
Some of Georgia’s more important objectives for the preseason remain unresolved.
The Bulldogs hoped to create some depth in the defensive line and perhaps see some down lineman take their games to another level. That objective hasn’t been helped by injuries to Hall and Brinson. For whatever reason, there hasn’t been much buzz created surrounding South Carolina transfer Xzavier McLeod. Georgia is intensely working with freshmen Joseph Jonah-Ajonye, Nnambi Ogboko, Justin Greene, Nasir Johnson and Jordan Thomas. But it is highly unusual to get major contributions from first-year defensive linemen.
Smart also has expressed reservations about Georgia’s secondary, which is replacing three of last season’s five starters. Again, the Bulldogs have a number of highly recruited prospects poised to step, some of whom have a year or more as backups under their belts. But Smart hasn’t been impressed so far.
“Got a long way to go,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of proven playmakers. They have to prove it by how they play. They’ve got to have better eye control. We’ve got to tackle much better. We did not tackle very well (in last Saturday’s scrimmage). We didn’t run to the ball and punch the ball out at the level we need to. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the players in the secondary, but they have to go do it live action.”
Also unresolved is a few players’ availability for the season opener. Smart still has not declared whether Etienne, Mondon and a few other players who have had to deal with legal issues will be allowed to play in the opener against Clemson.
Still students
Though name, image and likeness compensation, the transfer portal, expanded playoff and conference realignment have severely altered the landscape of college football, for now at least the players remain students. And while the Bulldogs have dominated on the football field in recent years, they’ve been pulling up the rear academically.
In the latest Graduation Success Rate cycle completed in December, Georgia football posted a rate of 41. That lagged far behind other SEC programs. The next lowest GSR in the SEC was LSU at 69.
Improving their academic performance has been a point of discussion inside Georgia’s Butts-Mehre football complex. The Bulldogs are being told they must find a way to balance the alternate demands of being great in football and performing well classroom. That becomes more challenging once the season begins.
“It shouldn’t be nothing new to us,” said Walker, a junior majoring in communication studies. “We take classes all year round. We have summer classes as well. The key thing is it’s still ‘student-athlete’ and student comes first. So we hone in on our academics, of course. We all won’t have the opportunity to play football (after college), so we need to have great academics, too.”
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