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Fall Camp, Aug 16, 2011

From the editor : vance leavyWell just in case you didn’t know it, the start of the 2011

season for our beloved Georgia Bulldogs is oh so close now.It’s crazy how long the wait is, but equally nuts how quicklyit all goes by once it cranks up.

I know that’s certainly been the case the last few weeksof pre-season practice. It began with Media Day at the be-ginning of August and with a blink of the eye, I found my-self this past Saturday taking photos of the players andcoaches at the Watermelon Cuttin’ (page 20) that signifiedthe end of Fall Camp, which in the old days was two-a-days.

While that time period is roughly a dozen days, theprogress that must be achieved towards a successful seasonis paramount. And after covering a fair amount of those prac-tices, I am digging how things are looking for the upcomingseason.

First and foremost, Coach T has done a tremendous jobof adding and taking away mass where it was needed for eachplayer’s specific needs. Tavarres King has put on 20 lbs ofmuscle that will certainly help him fend off the big corners ofthe SEC. And although we love our offensive lineman big,the weight Cordy Glenn has shed is sure to make him evenbetter and more durable this season. Call it what you want,but the physical look of our players going into this seasonhas certainly passed my sight test.

And while each new season is always filled with opti-mism, I have to say I’ve been equally impressed with themental fortitude of these young men. From the veterans tothe members of the Dream Team, you can tell these guys arebuying into the vision that Coach Richt and company arestressing.

And as you will read in Murray Poole’s story about Richt(page 15), the energy and passion he is showing has certainlycaught on company-wide. He has a renewed fire in his belly,which is a must if this program hopes to regain its placeamong the nation’s best.

Still, we all know it takes spe-cial players to create special out-comes. And by all accounts, itappears the Dream Team is as goodas advertised. Late last week, BIwriter, Travis Ragsdale and I were inattendance the first day the fresh-man spoke to media members. Thetwo of us agreed that what we likedthe most was the confidence all the

youngsters possessed. They weren’t cocky, but you got thefeeling that if they continue to learn their prospective posi-tions, great things will follow.

And the leadership being provided by the likes of AaronMurray, Ben Jones, Orson Charles, Christian Robinson andBrandon Boykin is beyond stellar. These guys are keepingthings fun for the entire team, but aren’t letting up on the im-portance of finishing the fourth quarter better than they didin 2010.

Despite all of these great things happening this pre-sea-son, there’s no denying there’s plenty to worry about as a hostof positions have some holes in it. From running back, to re-ceiver, to linebacker, to our offensive line, there are in factbodies that provide depth, but experience is what is lacking.

For that reason, I’m still very cautious to predict a mag-ical season. Yes, it could happen, but I’m thinking 9-3 soundsabout right for the 2011 season with losses to South Car-olina, one of the Mississippi teams and Auburn.

However, our own, Jeff Dantzler in his column (page 4),thinks this year’s team will yield one more victory (10-2) thanmy prediction which he thinks will be enough for the Bull-dog Nation to return to the SEC championship game in De-cember. He’s usually fairly accurate with his seasonprediction, although he did predict a trip to the GeorgiaDome last year as well.

We shall soon see and boy I’m counting the days. For now, enjoy our Fall Camp issue of BI. From looking

at the players who have turned heads thus far in practice(page 10) to how the offense is striving for more continuity(page 18), both Travis and Murray deliver some excellent in-sight that’s sure to satisfy your fix for the few remaining daysuntil kickoff.

And on the picture front, our cameras have been every-where from Gainesville to Atlanta to sorority rush in Athens.The many faces and names that we capture in each issue per-sonifies the joy of what being a Georgia Bulldog is all about.

Wow, I was about to wrap things up and forget to men-tion the return of our armchair bandits Gruff and Grump onpage 22. This is my favorite time of the year with these guysbecause they are always optimistic. I’m with them in hopingthat their message can remain that way because if that’s thecase then our coaches and players are doing their job. Onlytime will tell.

See you in a few weeks with our Boise State issue. Ticktock … tick tock.

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It’s tough putting a finger on thisGeorgia team. Just how good will theBulldogs be? There are a lot of questionmarks but an extremely manageableschedule.

Last season was one of, if not themost disappointing in Georgia annals.The Bulldogs were armed to make a run at10-plus wins and the SEC ChampionshipGame. Florida wound up losing fivetimes. Tennessee and Tech both lost sevengames. LSU and Alabama, which hadwon two of the last three national titlesweren’t on the schedule. But Georgiacame up empty in a bunch of close games,including an embarrassing 10-6 LibertyBowl loss to Central Florida to culminatea head-banging 6-7 campaign – the Bull-dogs first losing record in 14 years. Theloss in Memphis pushed many Bulldogfaithful over the tipping point. The Geor-gia people reached a point of disgruntle-ment not seen since the early to mid1990s.

But there is a great deal of optimismfor Georgia moving forward to 2011.

There are a lot of question marks,and the Bulldogs have lost a lot more thanusual the last two years. So why are thereso many smiles and such high hopes for abig fall in America’s greatest college town?

Following Georgia’s last game, theBulldog nation was about as warm andfuzzy as a famished Great White.

But hope and some desperatelyneeded positive energy was delivered withan outstanding recruiting class, regardedamongst the country’s top five and theSoutheastern Conference’s three best.Highlighting the haul were a slew of thePeach State’s best in “border towns” wherethe Bulldogs have struggled to get astronghold. Tailback Isaiah Crowell ofColumbus, Thomasville defensive endRay Drew and the dynamic Valdosta duoof Jay Rome and Malcolm Mitchell allcommitted late in the process to giveGeorgia a delicious haul. The oversizedcherry on top came three afternoons laterwith the landing of jumbo junior collegenose tackle John Jenkins.

There was suddenly some sizzle inthe Bulldogs steak.

The class combined with the returnof arguably the conference’s best quarter-back Aaron Murray and the presumed im-provement of a defense in the second yearof coordinator Todd Grantham’s base “3-4” scheme should mean a better Bulldogsin 2011.

And then there is the schedule. Every year the Bulldogs must face

Tennessee, Florida, Auburn and Tech.Not that it will be easy by any stretch, butyou’d have to go back to 1979 to find thelast time that all four of these programshad this many question marks.

Phil Fulmer’s final two recruitingclasses at Tennessee were relatively weakand Lane Kiffen’s one year turned into adisaster. Derek Dooley is rebuilding, butthe Volunteers are still at least a year awayfrom serious SEC title contention.

Florida has won two of the last fivenational championships. But UrbanMeyer is gone. Former Georgia walk-onsafety Will Muschamp, who had a fast riseas defensive coordinator at Auburn andthen Texas’s head coach-in-waiting, takesover in Gainesville. The Gators have tal-ent. No doubt. But not like when SteveSpurrier (1990-2001) and Meyer (2005-2010) were leading the Gators to three na-tional championships and eight SECcrowns. Ron Zook was in between. If theGators falter for a couple of seasons, youcan bet the comparisons will be made.Muschamp has essentially burned hisGeorgia alumni card with off-season com-ments. As a player, he was a part of fourstraight losses to the Gators. Since 1990when Spurrier was hired at Florida, theyear after Georgia hired Ray Goff, theGators are 18-3 against the Bulldogs.Georgia needs this one. Badly.

Auburn is the defending nationalchampion, but lost a boat-load of talent,including Heisman winner and No. 1overall NFL Draft choice Cam Newton,BCS Championship Game MVP and de-fensive line terror Nick Fairley, and an

outstanding offensive line. There are stilla lot of good players on the plains. Butnot like last year.

Tech, on the heels of the 2009 ACCtitle, slumped a year ago, has lost somefrontline talent over the last two years, andhas the embarrassment of being put onprobation – popped as a repeat offenderand ordered to vacate their league crown.

Georgia last beat these four schools(keep in mind the Bulldogs and Volun-teers didn’t play annually until SEC ex-pansion in 1992) in the same season in1981.

These games won’t be easy, but it’s notTech from ’09, Florida from ’08, Ten-nessee from ’98 and Auburn from last sea-son.

And the West couldn’t break better.Alabama, LSU and Arkansas are widelyconsidered the three best teams in the Di-vision and all have been picked in variouspreseason top ten polls. The Dogs don’tplay any of them.

Again, it’s never, ever easy in the SEC.It’s always going to be tough. But with thequestions surrounding Florida and Ten-nessee and the break with SEC West foes,it couldn’t be more manageable.

South Carolina is the favorite in theSEC East. Spurrier led the Gamecocks tothe school’s first ever SEC ChampionshipGame last season, and South Carolina re-turns and brings in a lot of talent. Geor-gia fell 17-6 in Columbia a year ago andthe ‘Cocks will try and make it twostraight over the Bulldogs. History is ontheir side. South Carolina beat the Bull-dogs in back-to-back seasons in 1958-59,1978-79, 1988-89 and 2000-2001.

Georgia’s first two games againstBoise State in the Georgia Dome and theGamecocks in Sanford Stadium will paintthe picture of just how good the Bulldogscan be. The Dogs should be able to han-dle Boise. South Carolina will be thetoughest game of the year. Even if theBulldogs fall to the Gamecocks, Georgiacould still recover and make it back to At-lanta for the SEC Championship Game.South Carolina has a much tougherschedule.

The key stretch for Georgia are gamesfour through six – at Ole Miss, home vs.Mississippi State and at Tennessee.

If the Bulldogs can win all three andthen beat Vanderbilt, a 6-1 overall and 3-1 SEC mark will give Georgia a great shotat a special season. It would come down,as it has so many times over the past cen-tury, to Florida, Auburn and Tech.

There are so many questions forGeorgia.

Can Crowell be an instant star at tail-back? Can the receivers produce? Canthat rail thin offensive line stay healthy?Can a defense that should be greatly im-proved with a talent infusion vastly im-prove, especially against the run, whereGeorgia got downright gashed andpushed around in the big games? Can theBulldogs line up on third and short andget the tough first down on the ground?Can the Bulldogs, hit by attrition and in-jury, overcome low scholarship numbers?

These are a lot of questions for a con-tender.

But most of the big boys on Georgia’sslate have a bunch of questions, too.

If Georgia had LSU’s schedule andthese questions, a double digit win seasonwould seem a stretch. If Alabama hadGeorgia’s schedule, 11-1 would be theminimum.

Four of the last five seasons havebeen disappointing. The Bulldog faithfulare hungry for a big year.

My esteemed talk show co-host ChrisBrame asked for my minimum for an out-standing season. My answer was 10-2with wins over Tech and Florida.

When I look at all the question marksand the number of freshmen that willhave to help, 10-2 seems to be aiming toohigh. When I look at Georgia’s potentialwith Murray, those great kickers DrewButler and Blair Walsh, the talented newfaces on both sides of the ball and themanageability of the schedule, the Dogscan absolutely do it - playing their bestfootball in the second half of the season.

Dogs will get back to the Dome in ‘11

jeff dantzler

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“Seven come Eleven,” familiar words togamblers when they roll the dice.

But in the case of two of the GeorgiaBulldogs’ brightest stars, the No. 11 came firstand the No. 7 followed.

Aaron Murray was already one of the na-tion’s top prep quarterbacks at Tampa’s PlantHigh School before Orson Charles, one of thecountry’s leading tight end prospects, wit-nessed Murray in a seven-on-seven competi-tion prior to Charles’ senior season atRiverview High. Observing Murray’s obviousstrong passing arm, outstanding footworkand his work ethic in general, Charles justbegan thinking how great it would be to be onthe end of Murray’s passes in his upcomingsenior season.

Thus, No. 7, Orson Charles, followedNo. 11, Aaron Murray to Plant High Schooland the rest, as they say, is documented his-tory. The two quickly became one of the topprep passing tandems in America while lead-ing Plant to the 2008 Class AAAA state cham-pionship. Overcoming a broken leg sufferedearly in the season, Murray passed for 344yards and three touchdowns in the state titlegame to finish the season with 1,927 yardsand 33 touchdowns. That, after Murray threwfor an incredible 4,013 yards and 51 touch-downs in his junior year at Plant, while alsorushing for 932 yards and 12 touchdowns.

And one of the biggest reasons Murrayhad such phenomenal success throwing theball all over the lot was Charles, who lived upto his billing as the top tight end in Florida bycatching 75 passes for 1,440 yards and 21touchdowns. Needless to say, Murray andCharles were honored on most of the highschool All-America teams.

And, then, their high school careersstamped solidly in the record books, No. 7would follow No. 11 once again. After Mur-ray signed, as expected, with Georgia on Na-tional Signing Day in 2009, Charles strung hisdecision out a little but also inked his schol-arship with the Bulldogs a month later, onMarch 6.

“I definitely made that move because ofhim,” Charles said of his decision to join hisformer teammate in Athens. “In the end,Aaron said he just wanted me to go where Iwanted to go. He said, ‘I'd love for you tocome to Georgia, but this is your life. You can’thave any regrets.’”

One thing’s for sure, as Mark Richt’s Bull-dogs zero in on their 2011 season openeragainst top-10 ranked Boise State in the Geor-gia Dome, the entire Bulldawg Nation does-n’t have any regrets over Murray and Charlesbeing in the same football uniform for a fourthstraight year. While Murray underwent a red-shirt year in his first season at Georgia in ’09,the 6-3, 241-pound Charles earned bothfreshman All-America and freshman All-SEChonors while catching 23 passes for 374 yardsand three touchdowns.

Then came the 2010 campaign whenthe 6-1, 211-pound Murray took control ofthe Bulldog offense and simply had a dazzlingseason as a redshirt freshman, passing for3,049 yards and 24 touchdowns (tying for2nd best in school history) while throwingonly eight interceptions. And reunited withhis old buddy back on the playing field,Charles enjoyed a sophomore season that sawhim snare 26 passes for 422 yards and a pairof scores.

Now, as the polished Murray embarkson his redshirt sophomore season andCharles enters his junior campaign, both havebeen picked for preseason All-SEC first teamhonors as well as being in the running for aslew of coveted national awards at their re-spective positions.

And with Richt and offensive coordina-tor Mike Bobo both talking about Charlesbeing a much bigger receiving target for Mur-ray this season – especially with All-AmericaA.J. Green having migrated on to the Cincin-nati Bengals – Georgia fans can only rub theirhands in anticipation with the thought of theMurray-to-Charles duo once again becomingthe deadly pass-catch combo they were inhigh school.

Murray, himself, can’t wait for this tohappen. He, of all people, knows the damagean Orson Charles can inflict on an opposing

team’s secondary.“Orson is a tremendous talent,” said

Murray. “I don’t think there’s a linebacker asbig as him in the SEC – I know that there’snot one as fast as him so the way he can beused in our offense is a blessing to me, I wouldsay. He’s worked hard this off season. I knowhe’s ready to go. I know his knowledge of theplaybook after two seasons has growntremendously and I think the coaches trusthim now a lot more to use him in a lot of dif-ferent situations, in a lot of different ways, andI think that’s only going to increase in the fall,the number of times the ball is going to be putin his hands,” said Murray. “I feel comfortablereading him, understanding when he’s goingto make a certain break or if he’s going tobreak a certain route high or if he’s going tobring it downhill, stop in a zone. We’veworked extremely hard since we were at Plantuntil now and that goes with all the guys. Allthe guys have been working hard this offsea-son, understanding what needs to be donewith certain routes and timing with me and asa whole offensive unit, I think we’ll be great. Iknow the camaraderie on this team right nowis great.

“I’m going to be looking for Orson allyear, just the way he’s been able to get openand create mismatches with defenders,” Mur-ray said. “I think he’s definitely going to havea tremendous year. My goal is to get him intothe 50s (total catches) this year. I think he def-initely has the talent to do that.”

Murray added that he wants Charles toset a new Georgia record for catches by a tightend this season.

Shannon Brown holds the currentrecord with 49 in 1993.

Charles also realizes how fortunate he isto still be catching passes from the deadly ac-curate (61 percent completion rate in 2010)Murray.

“That’s definitely a blessing,” Charles said.“I played in my state game with Aaron, Iplayed in my (U.S.) Army game with him, Iplayed high school ball with Aaron and mycollege games with him so I don’t know manypeople out there that can say that. So just asAaron knows what I’m doing, I know whathe’s doing and all that comes with hard work.After practice, we work on stuff we missed inpractice so, like I say, all that comes with hardwork.”

It’s also a blessing to Mike Bobo to havethese two guys lining up in his starting of-fense.

“Obviously, there’s a connection betweenthose two,” Bobo said.” They’re on the samepage on certain routes that will help. Orsonhas done a great job of making plays for usand will continue to make them and we’vegot some things in the offense this year, we’regoing to try to get the ball to him more.”

And says Bulldogs tight end coach JohnLilly: “I think it even goes beyond that (thetwo’s long-time connection). Both are experi-enced a little bit more at this level so certainlythey’re experienced a little bit more in our of-fense. You’d like to think that would meansomething and would help their unspokencommunication, or whatever you want to callit, be a little bit better.”

Lilly isn’t about to make a prediction ofCharles catching something like 50 passes thisseason but at the same time he says thereshould be plenty of opportunities for his tal-ented tight end as the year unfolds.

“You never know how things are goingto play out,” said Lilly. “We’ve got some verytalented wide receivers, I think our backs arecatching the ball really well also but certainly,there are going to be opportunities in thepassing game at the University of Georgia forthe tight ends. That’s probably the most nat-ural position to try to create mismatches withbecause you can kind of hopefully keep cer-tain defensive personnel in the game and dothings with that. But I guess it remains to beseen (on Charles getting the ball a great dealmore).”

So, for Georgia fans, they’re hoping“Seven come Eleven” will roll up big on theSoutheastern Conference playing fields in thisnew football season and help pace the Bull-dogs back to the Georgia Dome a second timethis autumn. Uh, make that “11-to-7.”


Old high school buddies set to shine

poole shotsBy Murray Poole

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eorgia’s second-year defensive coordinator, Todd Grantham, is a no-non-sense kind of guy.

He shoots straight from the hip in discussing how he wants his Bull-dog defenders to perform and get things done out on the playing field.

And, in a way, that’s most refreshing this day and time … people telling you ex-actly what they think and not beating around the bush and giving you just what youmight like to hear.

For instance, when asked by Bulldog Illustratedto list the top five goals for his defense this fall,Grantham said he has only one goal that matters.

“The first thing, I want to win,” declaredGrantham. “I don’t think there’s any more after that.Whatever the situation is we’re going to win. If we’reup 6-3, we’re gonna hold them, if it’s 30 to 30 in over-time, we’ve got to stop them,” Grantham said. “If theyget in the red zone, you’ve got to make them kick fieldgoals. If they’ve got the ball on third down, you’ve gotto stop them. But really the most important goal is toimprove wins so whatever it takes to do that, that’swhat we’re going to do.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter to Grantham somuch how his defensive players go about it, at the endof the day his only concern is that the opposing teamhas less points than Georgia has.

After the Bulldogs have had a full season to buyinto Grantham’s 3-4 defensive scheme, the Georgiacoordinator believes his unit is miles ahead of whereit was last August at this time but still, as the Bulldogsbegin preparing to slow down Boise State’s explosiveattack in the Sept. 3 season opener at the GeorgiaDome, Grantham continues to look for more com-petitiveness from his players.

“The guys that have been here and been in oursystem, they know what we expect and I’ve beenpleased with what they’ve done,” said Grantham.“And you can tell they’ve busted their tails in the off-season. I think that the guys (Dream Team class) thathave come in are talented but you know it takes morethan talent. It takes knowing our system, knowingwhat to do and how to do it, it takes playing fast andit takes 11 guys on the field at the same time. So ifyou’re on the field and you’re wearing a defensive jersey for us, you better understandthe things we want and be ready to perform,” he said. “We’ve got some players whoare competing and some players that need to learn how to compete.”

The Bulldogs’ starting inside linebackers, junior Christian Robinson and soph-omore Alec Ogletree, feel the defense has made great strides and will be a vastly im-

proved unit this season, after giving up 22 points a game and being last in the SECat stopping teams on third down in 2010.

“We need to be aggressive in attacking, be disciplined in executing and ulti-mately win,” said Robinson, the duly appointed leader of the Georgia defense. “Thosewill be the things we need to do to get to where we want to be. The big differencethis year over last year will be just reacting instead of out there just thinking.

“Basically, everybody knowing what to do andgetting to the ball is our biggest thing,” said Ogletree."We need everybody to the ball every time. If we cando that we have a shot at being a pretty good de-fense. It’s a whole lot different on the field than itwas last year. Everybody’s attitude is totally differentas far as wanting to get to the ball. Everybody wantsto be playmakers so we’ve taken it upon ourselves towork hard this year.”

An important cog in the Bulldogs’ overall de-fensive production this year will be senior All-Amer-ica punter Drew Butler. Once again, Butler’sbooming kicks will be vital in backing up the op-posing team’s offense and thus giving the Georgiadefense excellent field position from which to work.

“You can tell definitely those guys are reactingmore than thinking out there on the practice fieldand have really grasped what Coach Granthamwants them to do and they’ve brought it every dayin practice,” said Butler. “Our defense has got a lotof speed, they’ve got a lot of fire and they’re makingplays which is the most important thing. So I thinkthat’s what Coach Grantham wants to see and like Isay, there’s a lot of time between now and Sept. 3but hopefully things can come around and they canreally make an impact on game day.”

After averaging a nation-leading 48.1 yards apunt in 2009 when he won the coveted Ray GuyAward, Butler, the son of Georgia all-time kickinglegend Kevin Butler, came back with a 44.5 averagein his junior season last fall. He’s shooting for hismost effective season yet in 2011, which will onlybe a greater plus for the UGA defense and the teamas a whole.

“I think my main goal this year is to try and takethe year I had in 2009 and the year I had in 2010 and kind of bundle them together,”Butler said. “I feel like I was a better team punter last year, got a lot more hang time,limited return yards a lot, and I just kind of want to take that power and finesse I’vehad the past two years and put them into one, have a complete season that will kindof catapult me the rest of my career.”


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Fall Camp: Grantham’s ultimate goal No-non-sense, defensive coordinator wants wins no matter the situation

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hen they all first signed, everyone in theBulldog Nation anxiously awaited the ar-rival of the Dream Team recruiting classof 2011. Now that they have made their

arrival in Athens, the Dream Team is living up to itsbilling as one of the best classes Mark Richt has eversigned.

Since June, rumors abounded about a freshmanreceiver who was lighting it up during 7-on-7 drillsthis summer. Most of the time, success during thesummer without pads and without coaches does nottranslate to success once real practice starts the firstweek of August. But for Malcolm Mitchell, summersuccess has led to fall fruition and he isn’t looking backnow.

“I’m just out there trying to work hard, get bettereveryday. We’ve been competitive so I’ve just wantedto show the team I was all in and work as hard as Ican,” said Mitchell.

The gushing over Mitchell began back in Julywhen Aaron Murray said that the freshman from Val-dosta could start for any team in the country at SECMedia Days. The quote was taken with skepticism bymost of the media considering the fact that Mitchellhad yet to even practice at the college level yet. Nowthat he has practiced, his coaches are seeing some ofwhat Murray was seeing this summer but they aren’tready to crown him the next A.J. Green just yet.

"If you go by what happened today, you say he'sgoing to be really good," Richt said after one of the twoscrimmages held this Fall Camp. "During the scrim-mage he had some typical freshman mistakes in re-gards to assignments he missed. Of course, he hasn'tplayed in a game that counts but he's got the play-making ability about him to help you win."

With the lack of depth along the offensive line, O-line coach Will Friend was hoping he would get at leastone member of the Dream Team to help provide depthto his starting five. He’s been lucky and gotten two.

“Watts [Dantzler] and [David] Andrews are theguys I’ve been impressed with. They’re the guys work-ing with the second group. So much of that [playingtime] depends on what happens to the guys in front ofthem. But they’re both backing up two pretty goodplayers so that helps,” said Friend.

Of course there’s that running back that goes bythe name of Isaiah Crowell as well. Crowell was ex-pected to turn heads but even he has exceeded the ex-pectations of the coaching staff.

“Isaiah’s come in and very much exceeded whereI even thought he was going to be. He can very good,just really really good. Very eager. You’re very excitedabout it when you see him out there. He’s a guy thatyou have to make sure you keep him out of there be-cause he’s going to want to jump in there and get extrareps and things like that,” said running back coach,Bryan McClendon. While many on the Dream Teamhave gone above and beyond what has been expectedof them thus far in practice, freshmen aren’t going tobring the Dawgs back to competing for SEC Champi-onships; it’s going to be the veterans on the team thatlead Georgia back to former glory.

One veteran player that nobody can stop talkingabout is junior wide receiver Marlon Brown.

“If I had to say one that’s really impressed me thiscamp is Marlon Brown. He’s done a tremendous job.Turning everyone’s head.” says Aaron Murray, “A lot ofthe guys on the team have come to me and been like,‘man, he’s looking awesome out there.’ Coach Richtasked me the other day the same question and I told

him the same thing. I don’t think he’s had a bad dayyet.”

Brown can impress his fellow teammates all hewants but it’s the coaches that will ultimately make thedecision on his amount of playing time. Good thingfor Marlon, the coaches are impressed as well. Withouthesitation, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo namedMarlon as the number one guy that has caught his at-tention this camp.

“I’ve been really really pleased with how he’splayed, his condition. He’s more flexible, he’s runningharder, he’s in shape and he’s making a ton of catches,”said Bobo.

On the other side of the ball, the ever versatileBranden Smith has cemented himself as a very capa-ble cornerback opposite of Brandon Boykin. Boykinhas once again had himself a great Fall Camp in spiteof missing a few days with a slight hamstring injury.For Smith all indications are that he’s a completely dif-ferent player from a year ago.

“Branden is a new player from last year. He’s fo-cused himself,” said Richt of Smith’s days at practicethus far. “He worked real hard this off-season to get hisbody where it needed to be and he’s playing morephysical. It’s been great to see it from him because weall knew he had the ability.”

Another player that has caught the eye of coachesin the defensive back field is another dream teamer,Damian Swann. Many believed that Swann would nothave developed physically enough to play a large roleon an SEC defense. Apparently, that’s no longer thecase.

“Damian has done a really good job of learning.He’s got a better feel at this point in time for what’sgoing on. He’s got more work still but he’s playing big-ger than he is and that’s encouraging,” said defensivebacks coach Scott Lakatos.

With Aaron Murray at the helm on the offensiveside of the ball, Georgia was hoping a leader wouldstep up on the defense to fill that void. Enter ChristianRobinson. Robinson appeared in all 13 games in the2010 season making 11 starts. But now, the coachesare expecting even more out of him with another sea-son under his belt.

“Christian has done a great job in his ability to rec-ognize things, to communicate things, to get guys linedup quickly, to allow everybody to be ready faster sothey can play better and faster,” said Coach Richt. “He’sreally done a nice job.”

Of course there is also USC transfer Jarvis Joneswho will stand along side Robinson in leading theDawg defense. When asked about the importance ofJones being cleared by the NCAA to play, ToddGrantham looked up at reporters and said, "What doyou think? Put yourself in my shoes." Any player togarner that reaction from the stone faced Grantham issure to be an All-SEC caliber player.

Georgia has never had trouble bringing players infrom high school with plenty of talent. That wasproven once again this past recruiting cycle with the ar-rival of the Dream Team class. The problem for Geor-gia has been getting the most out of that talent oncethey arrive on campus. This season though, it lookslike the talent from the Dream Team class is being uti-lized the way that it should; by getting those guys onthe field and in the position to make plays. Combinethat with the emergence of some of the veteran play-ers and you have a formula for success. Fans will see ifthat formula provides the answers they’re looking forSeptember 3rd against Boise State.

By Travis Ragsdale

W

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hen Mark Richt walked out of Liberty Bowl MemorialStadium on Dec. 31 of this past year, following a dis-appointing 10-6 setback to Central Florida, one could-n’t blame the Georgia head coach if he had gone out

and purchased dark sunglasses and a black suit and entered an ex-tended period of mourning.

After all, Richt and his Bulldogs didn’t expect to lose this foot-ball game to the upstart Knights and end the 2010 season on sucha downer. And, too, they most assuredly didn’t expect to end theseason with a dismal 6-7 overall record … the first losing season forRicht in his 10 years at the Georgia helm.

But that session of mourning and Richt wringing his hands indespair on what had just transpired didn’t happen. Just the oppo-site as the Bulldog coach left Memphis that New Year’s Eve day withhis jaw firmly set toward getting the Georgia football train back ona championship track. Richt knew he had his program in place,knew he had the athletes to return to the upper echelon of theSoutheastern Conference and, yes, knew he and his staff were ca-pable of winning the conference championship again … the wayRicht’s early Bulldog teams did in 2002 and 2005.

And Richt’s positive mindset concerning his football programgained even more momentum in early February of this year whenthe Georgia coaching staff inked one of the top six recruiting classesin the country, “The Dream Team,” if you will.

Bottom line, Mark Richt has been re-energized in a big way asthe Bulldogs fast approach the 2011 season opener against top-10ranked Boise State Sept. 3 in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in theGeorgia Dome.

Said Richt on National Signing Day: “I feel revived as a coach.I think coaching football at this level can wear anybody out and cer-tainly coaches get worn out pretty good sometimes. But a lot of thereason I talked about feeling that rejuvenation is because of Mr.(athletic director Greg) McGarity coming in and the way he hasjust constantly been talking to me about what can we do, what doyou need coach to succeed? And we’ve already been implement-ing a lot of things we feel like we need to have success. So that’s beenexciting for me and for this (recruiting) class to come through theway that it did, I think the Bulldog Nation is excited, our currentplayers are excited and I know this class is excited.”

Georgia AD McGarity sees his head coach being re-energizedthrough not having to deal with non-football related issues asmuch.

“I think Mark has been able to spend more time on footballthis summer because of the conduct of the team this summer,” saidMcGarity. “When you don’t have to expend a lot of energy, go to alot of meetings, have a lot of discussions on what to do … Mark andI have not had one conversation this summer about student con-duct. So just doing that would allow somebody to focus. It wouldbe like you and me, if we had things going on in our personal livesthat were causing us problems, it would take away from things thatwould help us get our job done.

“So I think,” said McGarity, “the conduct of our football teamin the summer has really allowed him to focus all his energy onfootball and player development instead of worrying about who’sgoing to be eligible, who’s in trouble and things of that nature. So Ithink that the support system that is in place has allowed him toreally focus more on X’s and O’s rather than having to worry aboutother things that consume so much energy.

“I think Coach Richt has been more pro-active with his staff,I think he’s been more demanding and I just think he’s been ableto devote more time to it because we just have not experienced anyproblems this summer.”

Certainly, the Georgia players and coaches have taken noticeof their head coach’s personal rejuvenation and they say it’s broughta feeling of excitement that has spread throughout the entire team.

“Coach Richt gave us a speech last night during our first teammeeting and I told Coach (Mike) Bobo afterward that was my fa-vorite speech Coach Richt has given in three years,” said sophomorequarterback Aaron Murray, speaking on the opening day of fallpractice. “He was pumped up, energized, motivating. I walked outof the room like ‘wow.’ I know players are ready to go but CoachRicht is ready to go fight somebody right now,” declared Murray. “I

talked to some of the players and they loved it too. I know he hasthe right mindset, I know he’s ready to work just like the rest of thecoaches are. Coach Richt’s speech was a little bit of everything. It wasa good 20-minute speech and I know I walked out of there readyto go play Boise State, at 10 o’clock last night.”

Commenting on Richt’s fiery opening speech to the team, jun-ior wide receiver Marlon Brown quipped, “I was like, ‘whoa Coach,the game is a month away, we’ve got time.’ When coach is fired up,we’re fired up even more. Coach Richt, to me, is more vocal thisyear,” added Brown. “At practice, he’s like, ‘you’ve got to do this onthis play or you’ve got to do this on that play.’ I’ve definitely seen alot more fire in him.”

Redshirt sophomore tight end Arthur Lynch said Richt in-jected a great deal of motivation into the Bulldogs prior to springpractice and on through the off-season workouts.

“We’ve got this thing from Coach Richt, ‘getting on the bus,’”said Lynch. “Everyone read this book called “The Energy Bus” andguys were saying ‘what’s this?’ but when you think about it, it’s true.We have to come together as a group, it’s not about individuals, it’sabout coming together and trying to win ballgames and if not winballgames, make sure we have no regrets when we leave the field.And I think we will see the results.

“I’ve seen this new energy level from everybody,” Lynch con-tinued. “I’ve seen it from Coach Richt, Coach Bobo, Coach Lilly, thedefensive coaches. And especially from Coach Bobo. It’s funny be-cause I always joke with Coach Bobo how we come from oppositeends of the world, he being from South Georgia and I’m up in Mas-sachusetts. But I’ve got so much respect for Coach Bobo becausehe always stays motivated. And his passion for Georgia football isunparalleled from anything else I’ve ever seen. Yesterday morning,or the day before, in a team meeting he was just so passionate. Thehairs on my arm stand up when I’m talking about him.

“And Coach Richt is the same way,” said Lynch. “I know hedidn’t play at Georgia but his heart and devotion to this school andthis program, it gets me excited because one of the things I camein here I was like, I love my teammates and I want to win no mat-ter what but I was never like the ‘G,’ the ‘G,’ red and black. It’s notto say that I don’t love it but I didn’t grow up around it and nowI’ve met people in the program who really invest in this team andhave their hearts in this team and to me, it’s cool. I love being a partof it and red-shirting helped me see that. It helped me see the otherperspective and just to see those coaches so excited, it gets me ex-cited, not only for the first game but every game. From the first tothe last and hopefully Atlanta again. Hopefully,” said Lynch, “we’llgo to Atlanta three times this year (for Boise State, Georgia Techand SEC title game) and we’ll see how it goes.”

The Bulldogs’ assistant coaches have witnessed Richt’s new-found enthusiasm first hand.

“I just think Coach Richt is ready for some football,” declaredoffensive coordinator Bobo. “Anytime you go through what wewent through last year, as a competitor it’s disappointing. It’s nowkind of like when we first got here, hey, we’re starting over fromscratch, we’re establishing all the rules over, all the expectationsover. Coach Richt came here to win championships and that’s howhe expects everybody to work and go about their business and youcan just see it coming out of him.”

Georgia tight ends coach John Lilly thinks Richt’s new energylevel has spread all across the coaching staff.

“I think everybody has had that kind of energy,” he said. “Ithink it’s one of those things probably for all of us. You take a stepback and you’re not satisfied with what you’ve done and certainlywhen you have a year like the ones we’ve had particularly the lastcouple of years. And when you start looking at why you haven’tgotten it done, it’s a little thing here, a little thing there, maybe wecoach a little bit better, coach a little bit harder, do this, do that,whatever, and I think you also realize the great opportunity thatyou have just to do what we do every day and what a blessing thatis.”

Most definitely, if the Georgia Bulldogs themselves show thefire and energy this football season that has been rekindled in theirhead coach, then there are going to be a lot of smiles around thisprogram at season’s end.

By Murray Poole

W

photo by Rob Saye

photo by Ryan Scates

Fall Camp: A re-energized RichtPlayers and assistant coaches following the lead of UGA’sheadman who enters his 11th season with fire and energy

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he Georgia offense certainly played wellenough to win more than six footballgames during the 2010 season.

Under offensive coordinator MikeBobo, the Bulldogs averaged 32 points per gameand in 10 of their 13 games, tallied at least 24points or more. Georgia put up such gaudy in-dividual-game point totals as 55, 41, 43, 44, 31,55, 31, and 42.

But, that said, the Bulldogs’ offensive unitwas hardly a smooth-operating machine last sea-son. A team doesn’t finish 6-7 without havingproblems on both sides of the ball. With AaronMurray starting his first SEC game at quarter-back, Georgia could muster only two Blair Walshfield goals in a 17-6 loss at South Carolina. TheBulldogs could score only 12 points in a 24-12setback at Mississippi State and could tally justa measly six points in a bitter 10-6 loss to Cen-tral Florida in the Dec. 31 Liberty Bowl.

And even when Georgia lit up the score-board frequently in games against Arkansas, Col-orado, Florida and Auburn, costly turnovers,failure to cash touchdowns in the red zone (onlya 62 percent conversion rate) and just an inabil-ity to finish strong in the fourth quarter wouldspell defeat for the Bulldogs in those high-scor-ing affairs.

Now, as the Georgia offense stands just overtwo weeks from the Sept. 3 season openeragainst Boise State in the Georgia Dome, Boboand his players are striving to put the inconsis-tencies of 2010 far into their rearview mirror. In-deed, the Bulldogs are harping mightily on thetwo C’s for the 2011 campaign – consistency andcontinuity. In order for Georgia to become a realplayer once again in the Southeastern Confer-ence championship race, members of the Bull-dog offense know that, scoring-wise, they haveto be just as productive at the end of games asthey are at the start of them.

“We just need to finish games, especially inthe fourth quarter,” said Murray. “If you look atour production in the first three quarters ofgames, we were moving the ball great and thenthe fourth quarter we died down a little bit.We’ve just got to keep that intensity goingthroughout the game. Also, make a lot less men-tal mistakes at all positions. We just need to staymentally focused throughout the games and Ithink we’ll be fine. One play can change an en-tire game. A play here and a play there last sea-son, we could have been a 10-win team,” saidMurray. “We’ve just got to come up with thementality you’ve got to focus playing and playout and be ready when that big play comes ourway.”

Junior tight end Orson Charles and redshirtsophomore tight end Arthur Lynch say there’s noreal secret to the Georgia offense having successthis season. The Bulldogs just have to go out andfight and execute and do whatever it takes toscore more points than their opponent, they say.

“We just need to win, do whatever it takesto win,” said Charles. “As an offense, we’re goingto put the team first. Whatever Coach Bobowants us to do … jump off a bridge, run into awall, that’s what we’re going to do because wewant to win. We need to just have fun doingwhat we’re doing. We say, ‘ah, we’ve got to cometo practice, we got to do this,’ but we just haveto embrace it, thank God we’re doing it. We justneed to go out there and have fun. This offensehas got a lot of talent and I can’t wait to see whatwe’re going to do.”

“I think the offense’s goals, No. 1, is to wingames,” echoed Lynch. “I think last year we wereliterally this close in some games to being a 10 or11-win team and that’s what we’re striving to be.We’ve got the talent, you can see it out there. Thefirst few days of practice, I’ve never seen thismuch excitement coming from a team. Whetherit’s a walk-on or a starting quarterback likeAaron, everyone wants to compete. I just thinkeveryone’s excited. We want to put Georgia backwhere it belongs. We’ve got great coaches, a greatstaff, great players and we do have good kids.”

Newly-converted junior tailback RichardSamuel thinks the team’s new strength and con-ditioning program and grueling pre-seasonworkouts are going to pay big dividends this sea-son.

“I think our offense really has a good chanceof reaching our goals this year,” Samuel said.“We’re out there fighting, out there playing hard,practicing hard every day. I know everybody onoffense is determined. We have our mindset

we’re going to buy in when we get on the busand do what it takes to get to that one goal.”

That’s exactly the same thoughts owned bysophomore guard Chris Burnette.

“I feel like the conditioning we’ve done istrying to train us to finish at the end,” Burnettesaid. “I think that we’re trying to just drill it inour minds to finish the drill. That’s our marqueequote we’ve been using, we’ve been using forabout 10 or 12 years. We’re really trying to focuson that and use that and do that because that’swhat they did when they won the SEC champi-onship in ’02 and ’05 and, hopefully, we can usethat same mindset where we can go out and fin-ish in the fourth quarter.”

To a man, all of the UGA offensive playerspoint to those fourth-quarter lapses of a yearago.

Senior center Ben Jones: “This year we justwant to finish the fourth quarter. I know we lefta lot of points out there and made a lot of men-tal errors in the fourth quarter. I know somegames we had a great first- through-third quar-ters. This year we want to finish the game andget some wins in the fourth quarter.”

Senior tackle Cordy Glenn: “Just need to fin-ish. We lost a lot of games in the fourth quarterlast year, just learning how to finish, just fightingthrough and trying to win in the fourth quarter.We just have to play as a unit and get after it.”

In Hutson Mason’s mind, one can talk allabout consistency, finishing the game … whathave you. But he says it all comes down to theoffense making plays when the game goes on theline.

“Basically, besides our offense losing A.J.(Green) which was a huge loss, I think with a lotof things we did last year, football comes downto just making plays,” said the Bulldogs’ No. 2quarterback. “The coaches can coach us up but,ultimately, it’s about making plays. Making playswill enable us to finish and win ballgames.”

As for offensive coordinator Bobo himself,he doesn’t think the Bulldogs were that far awayfrom accomplishing their goals last season. Butagain, he says Georgia simply has to take betteradvantage of its scoring opportunities this fall.And, he believes the Bulldogs’ talented freshmanclass is capable of providing a great deal of helpin this area.

“As far as finishing in the red zone goes,”said Bobo, “Coach Richt has done a great jobstructuring practice, where we’re working onsome of our deficiencies where we didn’t finishlast year. We were pretty good statistically in thered zone last year but if you look at our losses,we left some opportunities on the board in thered zone so today’s practice (in camp’s openingdays) was focused on finishing in the red zone.Obviously,” added Bobo, “you always want to getpoints and field goals aren’t the end of the worldbut when we have opportunities to make touch-downs, we’ve got to score them, especially in thisleague in tight games. So today was finishing inthe red zone and we did a pretty good job.

“Among our freshmen, we’ve got some veryathletic guys at the skill positions,” Bobo said.“They’ve got a chance to be some of the mostathletic guys we’ve ever had at Georgia since I’vebeen here. All of them are green, all of them arelearning and their heads are spinning but theycan make plays. I feel good about those guys.(Malcolm) Mitchell, Christian Conley, ChristianLeMay and over on the defensive side, DamianSwann, Nick Marshall, Chris Sanders … thoseare some athletic jokers and are making plays.

“Richard (Samuel) has done a really goodjob coming over,” Bobo pointed out. “He’s runextremely hard and picked up things kind ofwhere he left off. There’s a little bit of knowledgegap but he’s done a good job of picking it up.Isaiah (Crowell) has done a pretty good job for afreshman understanding what to do a little bet-ter than we thought and hoped and he’s a littlebit ahead of the curve. He’s still got a long way togo to learn. It’s tough for any freshman to comein when you throw everything on them but we’rehappy with what we see. Both of those guys haveshown good signs of making really good runs.I’ve seen speed at the tailback position withRichard and Crowell and (Brandon) Harton hasstill made a lot of plays. Those three have gotmore speed to be the one difference, and KenMalcome ran the ball hard today, which wasgood to see. In the red zone you get a littletighter and he ran hard and physical. He’s a dif-ferent type of runner.”

T

Fall Camp: Offensive continuityFinishing the fourth quarter a must in 2011 for Bobo’s unitBy Murray Poole

Photos by Rob Saye

Aaron Murray

Orson Charles

Richard Samuel


ake no mistake about it, there are tons of questionmarks all over the field for the Georgia Bulldogs 2011season. There are only a few positions that have so-lidified returning players at them and generally speak-

ing, that does not usually translate to a winning season. Thedifference for Georgia is that while there may be question marks,there are also boat loads of talent. And that’s something that Bull-dog fans can hang their hat on.

QuarterbackBy now, everyone and their brother knows that Aaron Mur-

ray will be Georgia’s starting quarterback for the 2011 season. Bar-ring injury, this is one of the few positions that coaches can havetotal confidence in going into the game against Boise State. Mur-ray has continued to look strong through all of Fall Camp, show-ing his strong work ethic day-in and day-out on the practice field.In case of injury, Murray is backed-up by Hutson Mason who, likeMurray, brings a determined attitude to practice everyday and hasproven to coaches that he can handle the offense if somethingwere to happen to Aaron Murray. Following those two on thedepth chart is highly touted freshman Christian Lemay. Lemay isand will be the quarterback of the future.

Mark Richt - “Murray, just the fact he was a quarterback,was a leader a year ago, but now he's much more comfortable inhis role. He knows that he's experienced SEC football for a year.He knows he's had enough success for the team to have confi-dence in him and he knows that if he keeps preparing the way hedoes he's going to have success.”

Running BacksIt’s been an interesting off-season in the offensive backfield to

say the least. With the departure of Washaun Ealey from the teamand the news that Caleb King was academically ineligible, Geor-gia fans began to worry about who was going to tote the rock forthe Georgia offense. Enter Isaiah Crowell; rated by many as thebest prep running back in the country, Georgia got a good one inCrowell. He has lived up to his reputation and will receive a largeamount of carries for the Dawgs this fall. Sharing those carrieswill be Richard Samuel. Yes, this is the same Richard Samuel whowas moved away from the running back position a year ago sothat he could play linebacker. He is now back at the running backposition and looking better than ever.

Richard Samuel - “Just going right back to offense, I camehere the first two years and played offense so I’ve learned the com-plete playbook. I’ve learned what to do. So it’s just going back tothe same thing I started with.”

Tight Ends If you ask the tight ends on Georgia’s roster they’ll tell you that

they call UGA “Tight End U.” Considering the depth that UGAhas at this position, that’s a pretty apt name. Orson Charles andAron White have cemented themselves as two go-to players atany point in any game. Add the physical speciman Arthur Lynchand freshman phenom Jay Rome and the Bulldawgs have oneheck of a rotation at the tight end position. Charles and Whitewill get the majority of the snaps in 2011 with Orson being thenumber one on the depth chart. Lynch will prove to be a greatasset in short yardage situations much like Bruce Figgins was lastyear (Figgins is now at fullback). There is a good chance you willsee Jay Rome get some touches as well. He’s an extremely giftedathlete that will certainly push for playing time as the season rollsalong.

Tight end coach John Lilly- “I think it’s important offen-sively to spread the ball around and that you involve everybody.Whoever is in at a given time at the tight end position I think it’simportant that they get their shots.”

Wide ReceiversGeorgia is obviously losing a lot from last season with the

departure of the two leading receivers from the 2010 squad. A.J.Green was one of the best receivers to ever play at Georgia andKris Durham provided a nice balance on the other side of the of-fensive line of scrimmage. That’s going to be tough to replace forCoach Richt and company but the talent is surely there to do it.Tavarres King is the top returner of the group and has greatly ma-tured physically from where he was this time last season. Theother receivers are somewhat of a question mark for the Dawgs.The logical other choice for starting receiver is Marlon Brown whohas received rave reviews from everyone during Fall Camp. Otherplayers that will look to get in the mix include Rantavious Wooten,Michael Bennett and of course, the freshman sensation MalcolmMitchell. Mitchell is another player who has gotten a stellar reviewthis Fall Camp and will see the ball in his hands a lot because ofhis ability to make things happen. The receiver position may looka little unstable now, but there are too many playmakers to notgive Aaron Murray some great targets to throw to in 2011.

Tavarres King- “Marlon is tremendous. He’s come a longway from that skinny basketball player that was here when we firstgot here. He looks awesome, he’s making plays. I feel like he’s theleader on the other side of the ball opposite of me. So it’s awe-some to have him and I’m excited to see what he’s going to do.”

Offensive LineThe bane of every Georgia fans existence for the last four

or five years. It’s tough to say but the offensive line might be infor another long year in 2011 as well. The starting group whichwill likely include Cordy Glenn (LT), Chris Burnette (LG), BenJones (C), Kenarious Gates (RG) and Justin Anderson (RT) is agood group. It’s what is backing them up that has some of thecoaches worried. Dallas Lee didn’t get to play all spring due toa respiratory issue, Kolton Houston has yet to live up to hisbilling as a top prospect and Austin Long is out currently witha case of mononucleosis. Those are the top three backups alongthe offensive line right now. After that, the Dawgs begin dip-ping into freshmen with Watts Dantzler and David Andrewsshowing out amongst the Dream Team offensive linemen. Theseboys may be big but the depth is thin.

Offensive line coach Will Friend- “I like what I see withthe first group as far as playing together as a group and they’vedone a good job with executing and they’ve got to keep that up.We’ve just got to challenge the guys behind them, some of theyoung guys.”

Defensive Line

The 3-4 scheme that defensive coordinator ToddGrantham employs calls for two defensive ends and one noseguard to occupy opponents offensive linemen allowing the line-backers to roam free and make plays. The 2010 version of theGeorgia defense did not have the personnel along the defensiveline to achieve this objective. Now, with the emergence of noseguard Kwame Geathers and new addition John Jenkins, theDawgs are in a position to have one of the most dominating de-fensive lines in the SEC. These two behemoths of men are book-ended by veterans DeAngelo Tyson and Abry Jones. Whether it’sJenkins or Geathers who is in the the game, the Georgia defen-sive line will have over 900 pounds of pure power to pusharound opposing teams offensive lines.

John Jenkins - “I look at Kwame and I like a one-twopunch. I’m working with Kwame, Kwame’s working with me.I don’t care who is in front of me just as long as we win. That’swhat I care about. I’m trying to be a part of a winning program.”

Linebackers Just like at wide receiver, Georgia lost a lot of talent at line-

backer this offseason. Justin Houston, Daryll Gamble andAkeem Dent all are gone to the NFL and Marcus Dowtin wasdismissed from the team. Lucky for the Dawgs, they gained acouple of potential star players in the linebacker corps as well.Alec Ogletree moved down from safety this offseason and willlook to be a force opposite Christian Robinson in the middle.Another addition (and possibly the most important to Georgia’sseason) is outside linebacker Jarvis Jones. Jones, a transfer fromUSC, sat out last year as per NCAA rules. Recently, there wassome question whether he would be eligible to play this yearbased upon a possible recruiting infraction that occurred whenhe was in high school. Thankfully, Jones was cleared of anywrongdoing just recently and is set to go as one of the startersat outside linebacker. On the other side will likely be CorneliusWashington. Washington, who may have the best measurableson the Georgia roster has yet to come into his own as a footballplayer yet. Coaches are hoping that he has developed into thepass rushing force that everyone has been hoping for this pastyear.

Linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti - “They’re lookinggood. They’re all working. The guys are running around tryingto play the right way. Sometimes they don’t necessarily do theright things on every play but they’re trying to play the game theway it should be played.”

SecondarySimilar to quarterback, the defensive secondary is all but set

in their starters and it appears the Dawgs have four good onesto put back there. At corner, Brandon Boykin will once again oc-cupy one spot. And Branden Smith seems to be the likely can-didate to start opposite of Boykin as coaches were veryimpressed with Smith this Fall Camp. Coach Richt even wentso far as to call him a “completely different player.” Behind thesetwo players will be the versatile Sanders Commings, who willalso see time at safety, and freshman Damian Swann who is an-other one of the Dream Teamers who will receive a lot of play-ing time in 2011. At safety, the free spot will once again beoccupied by Bacarri Rambo who will look to improve upon hissecond half in the 2010 season. The strong safety spot will beoccupied by Shawn Williams who has really stuck out as some-one who has worked hard and is playing with a new intensity.Sanders Commings will back up both of these players alongwith Jakar Hamilton and freshman Corey Moore.

Mark Richt - “Branden (Smith) is playing great on defense.He’s competing. I just see a guy that’s serious about wanting tohave a great season. I really love the way he’s been competing.He was doing that in the spring too. You could see a differencein the Spring but in the fall, he’s locked in.”

By Travis Ragsdale

M

photos by Rob Saye

Fall Camp: Position by PositionDepth chart far from concrete as talented players make their case

John Jenkins

Michael Bennett

Hutson Mason


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Let’s get it on ... Dawgs

Gruff & GrumpBy Chad White and Al Hickson

The time has come and the missionis near. Maybe due to the NFL lockoutand the fact they couldn’t get their acttogether for so long explains why itmay seem even later than some thinkin this scorching hot month of August.Though, for others, it surely seems likeyears have passed since the guts of ourfalls, The University of Georgia footballteam, last suited up.

Loud rings of optimism permeatethe air in many camps from Athens andother parts scattered around this world.

These are the thoughts: revampingthe strength and conditioning program,the best quarterback in the SEC, thebest group of tight ends in the entirefifty states, two of the best offensivelinemen in the land, a new front endloader at nose tackle, a new outsidelinebacker rumored to play like a Tro-jan warrior, the best kick returner andone of the best cornerbacks in the con-ference, and a bumper crop of fresh-men led by a guy some have called thebest back at Georgia since HerschelWalker, even before he has made itthrough two weeks of practice, willcause to dance in the heads of the faith-ful.

Other BBQs have chatter aboutwhat a tough year we could be lookingat in 2011. These thoughts are: an of-fensive line that has only two playerson the two deep that have been oncampus longer than this calendar yearand neither has ever played a snap, twonew offensive linemen and one is backon the OL after playing the ball to thepaddles of the offensive and defensivecoaches, a tailback situation relying onanother ping pong ball, a true fresh-man, a player that has terrible luckwith his health and a very undersizedplayer that has struggled to carry theevery down role, the loss of the greatestwide receiver this school has knownand a group of replacements that, whilecapable, have not really done much atthis stage of their careers, an outsidelinebacker group with less depth thanthe offensive line and a group of defen-sive backs that have real talent andsimilar depth woes will cause.

Where do Gruff and Grump standon the whole matter? Well, here goes.Grab a drink. We will give it to you inits entirety. There is a much from eachcamp we buy into.

Removing the mask from thestrength and conditioning program ap-pears to have created an improvedwork ethic and accountability by theadults and the youth, with much morefrequency, this off season. Certainly,the tremendous reduction of off seasonincidents is very encouraging. Theplayers are talking a big game on the“we are in better shape” front. Thecoaches claim we are much more men-tally tough than in years past. In gen-eral, a newfound enthusiasm is claimedto be hovering over the entire program.We believe the change at strength andconditioning has a lot to do with this iftrue. A lot. Like tons to do with it.Discipline is an everyday deal. It allstarts in this department.

Some are concerned about theflexibility of our team. Why do wehave so many hamstring and groin in-juries in the fall camp? It happensevery year. It sure seems like this hap-pens with alarming frequency. Has tomake one wonder about the abovequestion. That all starts in the strengthand conditioning department also.

Aaron Murray is the best quarter-back in the SEC in August. Quarter-backs win games. After the offensiveline, we think the quarterback is themost important position on the team.Makes us about the same as the rest ofthe world. Aaron Murray has to be thebest quarterback in the SEC in Decem-ber also if we are going to get it done.

The tight end group is deadly. Orcould be. At least, should be. Can we

use them properly? Have we ever? Ifwe do, this group will cause trouble forevery team we face. Orson Charles is aproblem for opposing defenses and willbe a killer in the red zone if the head-sets play it right.

John Jenkins arrives to the shad-ows of Sanford Stadium with about asmuch fanfare as any recruit we can re-member in a long, long time, includinghis recruiting mate on the other side ofthe ball. He is a giant man. He is amighty man who has caused a mightystir. When it comes to the trenches, gi-ants are good to have on our side. Willhe magically take our defense to thelofty heights we once knew? Only if heplays like a giant on the field. There isa big difference in community collegesand the SEC. He knows that. Weknow that. Let us see what happens.

According to some, Mark Richt’sjob hangs in the balance of this season.According to others, all that matters ismoving this ship forward in the rightdirection until we finally get to our goalof college football’s big fish, just likefour other SEC teams accomplished,winning the past five BCS champi-onships. Everyone agrees this is a crit-ical, critical year for the Dawgs. Thatgoes without saying.

Author’s note: Ever notice howmany times people write or say some-thing and then say “that goes withoutsaying.” Of course, it never does inthose cases. It was always just said.Were it truly to go without saying, asmany things have and will in this par-ticular article, it would not have beenbrought up in the first place.

Ultimately, we are very concernedwith the upcoming season. We like thenew attitude and apparent accounta-bility. But is it real? We have heard itall before. The fact one of the adults, inparticular, seems to have stepped up inthe verbal leadership department isvery encouraging and welcomed. Canhe get everyone in line in time?

We want to believe in the offense.Bobo has led us to some excellent sta-tistical seasons but it is tough to thinkabout. Last year, AJ Green disappearedfor long stretches. Who replaces him?For the third time in Richt’s career, theoffensive line depth is in pure sham-bles. We are going to have to rely heav-ily on a player that has gone from abroken back to mono. Or, we have torely on multiple true freshmen. This isvery concerning. An injury on the OLcould be catastrophic and there isnothing dramatic about that statement.And, again, who are the playmakers?

We want to believe the defense isgoing to step up and pound people.The nose guard we mentioned and hiscounterpart, and we believe starter,Kwame Geathers are drawing all theraves. The defensive line is ourstrength. That is a good place to bestrong. Ogletree is a future NFLer atmiddle linebacker we think. But whatabout outside linebacker? This is an-other place an injury is catastrophic.

We are trying to stay optimistic atthis point. Boise early is a blessing ifyou ask us. Gets us focused right outof the shoot. South Carolina next willnot be easy. From there, we have as fa-vorable a schedule as we have seen inyears. But again, the depth at so manyspots is troubling. We will not be sur-prised to see a fast start and a verytough middle and end.

But, let us all hope for the fast startand fast finish that so many are pre-dicting. This is the best way to keepthe angry mob at bay. Hopefully, we donot need to take our turn in the futuregrabbing at those we find responsible.Hopefully, we take care of filling theshoes that are required to bring homethe success we all can get behind. Let’sget it on, Dawgs. Show us what we arereally working with.

Go Dawgs.

fall camp 2011

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