There will be no black-out this time around, but Georgia coach Mark Richt likes the idea of a red-out for Saturday’s game against LSU.
Right called for the red-out — essentially asking all Bulldogs fans attending the game to dress in red clothes — in a tweet he sent on his Twitter account late Wednesday morning.
“We are wearing red jerseys Saturday. To show the unity of the DawgNation I’m asking everyone to wear Red!” was the message delivered from @MarkRicht.
Richt was asked about it after Wednesday’s practice.
“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “We are wearing our red, our players are, and our fans traditionally wear red most of the time. I’d like to have it 100 percent. I think it’d be a great sign of unity for our Bulldog Nation.
“If everybody buys in and gets to the stadium and see that everybody’s bought in before we even kickoff, I think that just adds a little energy to the day. I’d really like to see that.”
Organized color themes are a touchy subject at UGA, especially when ESPN’s “College GameDay” is in town, as it is this week. The last time Georgia called for a blackout for a home game came in 2008 when the No. 3 Bulldogs played host to No. 8 Alabama. The Crimson Tide grabbed a 31-0 first-half lead and cruised to a 42-30 upset victory.
Saturday’s game features the No. 9 Bulldogs (2-1, 1-0 SEC) against the No. 6 Tigers of LSU (4-0, 1-0). For Georgia it is essentially a BCS championship playoff. Having already lost a game, it would be virtually impossible to reach the title game with a loss Saturday. Either way they will remain in the hunt to play in the SEC Championship game.
“I think there’s a sense of urgency. I think there’s a sense of excitement,” Richt said of the team’s practices, which have all been in full pads. “I think you can see a really strong focus. Some days you’ve got to get better attention, and I don’t think we’ve had to do that this week, which is good. Hopefully we’ll finish up well tomorrow.”
Getting after it: For the third day in the row, Georgia held a full-contact practice in full pads. That's highly unusual for this time of year. The Bulldogs normally hold a full-contact practice once a week — on Tuesdays — when the season gets underway. But they went twice in full pads last week preparing for North Texas and all three days so far this week for LSU.
“It was just mainly to try to keep the right kind of tempo, the right kind of mental edge,” Richt said. “The goal wasn’t to splatter everybody and get everybody hurt. The goal was to keep a good frame of mind in practice.”
It was a tough day to get anything done on Woodruff Practice Fields. The majority of Wednesday’s workout was conducted in steady rain with high winds. But Richt chose not to bus the team to practice indoors somewhere. They finished the workout with scout-team walk-throughs in the multipurpose facility at the Butts-Mehre football complex.
“We came through it well is the best I can tell you,” Richt said.
Rumph out, Rome questionable: It appears that wide receiver Jonathan Rumph is going to miss another game, and the junior college transfer is venturing closer to a redshirt season. Rumph, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound midyear transfer, has been unable to overcome a hamstring strain that has dogged him since preseason came.
“I don’t think we’re there yet,” Richt said of redshirting Rumph. “He did well enough for us in camp that if we can get him healthy, we’d like to get him going if we can.”
Meanwhile, tight end Jay Rome still hopes to play Saturday. He aggravated a high-ankle sprain on his left leg in the first quarter against North Texas. “He’s doing his best right now,” Richt said. “If he had to play today it would’ve been tough. But I think he’s got a chance.”
Other injury news from Wednesday, outside linebacker Davin Bellamy sat out with an illness, outside linebacker James DeLoach remains sidelined with concussion and receiver Justin Scott-Wesley was under non-contact status because of a shoulder sprain.
Etc.: Richt said the Bulldogs are considering a way to honor former Bulldog Paul Oliver, who died Wednesday in Cobb County at the age of 29. "That'd be a fitting thing to do," Richt said. "If we can get something going quick enough we'll probably do that." … The competition between Nathan Theus and Trent Frix to handle deep-snap duties for the LSU game continued through Wednesday and remains undecided. Punter Collin Barber said the players have alternated in practice and that he notes no discernible difference. Frix replaced Theus during the North Texas game after a high snap from Theus led to a blocked punt recovered for a touchdown.
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