Georgia lost four front-line players to injury during Saturday 34-31 overtime win at Tennessee. Medical tests on Sunday confirmed worse news for two of them.
Tailback Keith Marshall and wide receiver Justin Scott-Wesley sustained torn anterior cruciate ligament knee injuries and are out for the season. The extent of wide receiver Michael Bennett’s knee injury remains uncertain. The junior will undergo an arthroscopy on Tuesday to learn more, but he’ll be out at least for Saturday’s game against No. 25 Missouri.
The availability of punter Collin Barber, who suffered a concussion, will be determined this week through daily testing.
“It’s sad for our players,” UGA coach Mark Richt said. “You see them work so hard and get into position to play for Georgia and realize their dreams of wanting to play in big games like that and try to win championships and all that. …
“When you want to play like that and it’s taken away from you, it’s just very heartbreaking. I don’t know what hurts more, the pain of the injury or knowing you’re not going to get to play anymore for a while. I just feel bad for them.”
Meanwhile, the status of tailback Todd Gurley (ankle) and safeties Tray Matthews (hamstring) and Connor Norman (concussion), all three who sat out against Tennessee, remains “day-to-day.” Richt said the Bulldogs will not place any more urgency on getting Gurley back this week, regardless of the situation at tailback.
“We’re not going to push him any faster,” Richt said. “We like the two true freshmen backs (J.J. Green and Brendan Douglas) that have played recently. We think they’re good football players and A.J. (Turman) is a talent and (Brandon) Harton and (Kyle) Karempelis have played before. The last thing we want to do is rush the thing on Todd.”
Green came off the bench Saturday to give the Bulldogs 129 yards on 17 carries. Douglas (10 for 25) also played. Turman was dressed for the game but did not play. Richt pointed out that they could also turn to walk-ons Harton and Karempelis, who have playing experience.
The wide receiver position has also been decimated by injuries. The Bulldogs lost Malcolm Mitchell, their most dynamic wideout, in the season opener. Including two other sidelined first-year players, they’re down six receivers this week.
Nevertheless, Richt said junior college transfer Jonathan Rumph, who has been out since preseason camp with a hamstring injury, is “very doubtful” to play this week. There has been discussion of activating freshman Tramel Terry, who the staff wants to redshirt as he recovers from reconstructive knee surgery in January. But Richt is skeptical because “he hasn’t had a lot of reps with our offensive units.”
Likewise, Richt didn’t envision any position switches to fill gaps.
“We’ve got to dig deep, give some other guys some opportunities and get them repped up and ready to play,” he said.
In the meantime, here comes a hot Missouri team to Sanford Stadium. The Tigers (5-0, 1-0 SEC), coming off a 51-28 whipping of Vanderbilt in Nashville, are averaging 46.6 points and 544 yards per game and just entered the Top 25 poll this week. Conversely, Georgia dropped from No. 6 to No. 7 in the USA Today/Coaches’ poll released Sunday.
“They’re an undefeated team and played well against a good Vanderbilt team,” Richt said. “As far as where we are, it doesn’t matter all that much right this minute. What’s important really is to try to score some points and slow Missouri down a little bit.”
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