”It went real fast,” Mark Richt said. Not sure his players would agree with that assessment of time, but spring practice is almost over at Georgia. There will be a brief session in shorts today, then the G-Day game on Saturday, and that’s it.
Here’s my list of top five things I’ll be watching on G-Day:
1. Carlton Thomas at tailback. Ask a Georgia player which teammates have impressed/surprised them the most this spring, and you’re likely to hear about Thomas, the small, shifty tailback. It’ll be real interesting to see what he does against the No. 1 defense on Saturday and maybe a bit surprising, given all the talk, if he doesn’t dazzle a bit.
2. The debut of the freshmen quarterbacks. It’ll be the first time playing in Sanford Stadium – not counting a couple of closed scrimmages with no one in the stands – for Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger. Bulldog Nation is eager for a first glimpse of them between the hedges, and they know it. Will one or both seize the moment?
3. The development of the defense. The tribulations of last season left some scars on the defense, and this spring has been about restoring “attitude and edge, whatever you want to call it” – Richt’s words – as well as sound fundamentals. “I see a defensive team that is very unified right now and has got a little bit of a chip on their shoulder,” Richt said a couple of days ago. “They feel like they’ve got something to prove.” Word is, DT Geno Atkins has been absolutely dominant in closed practices, so his play surely bears watching Saturday.
4. The crowd. With this being Easter weekend, with the Masters going on, and with G-Day on television, how many people will show up at Sanford Stadium? Georgia has been pushing hard for a huge turnout, partly because empty seats aren’t telegenic.
5. The obvious. With apologies for a quarterback-heavy list, I’m of course very interested to see Joe Cox in his long-awaited role as the program’s clear No. 1 QB and to see how Logan Gray plays as he tries to stay in front of the freshmen for the top backup role.
Please share your lists.
132 comments Add your comment
More of the Same
April 11th, 2009
2:25 pm
Well our offense just plain suxs ,it making the defense look better than it really is. 7 – 5 here we come to the weedeater bowl.
Disgruntled Dawg
April 11th, 2009
2:37 pm
Not too impressive today. Gators are gonna stomp us again. When are we ever gonna get over the hump? Maybe UGA should join the ACC.. Im really disappointed today. Too many drops….
Disgruntled Dawg
April 11th, 2009
2:40 pm
Only passes being completed is to the tight end. Stop that and Georgia is stopped.
More of the Same
April 11th, 2009
2:43 pm
Instead of a post “Catching up on the receivers” should be “Can the receivers catch?”
beanuga
April 11th, 2009
2:51 pm
Dropped passes! Nothing has changed! Wow!
BS Patrol
April 11th, 2009
2:52 pm
I have been watching since the 3rd quarter & one thing is obvious. the doggies are trying to make their opponents think they will be cupcakes & that they really suck this bad.
beanuga
April 11th, 2009
2:53 pm
Nothing has been accomplished this spring.
More of the Same
April 11th, 2009
2:55 pm
what a waste of a beautiful Saturday afternoon…..
beanuga
April 11th, 2009
2:55 pm
This is an embarrassing on espn
More of the Same
April 11th, 2009
2:57 pm
I guess Boo Boo has making more offspring on his mind instead of real spring practice.
beanuga
April 11th, 2009
3:02 pm
Same as last year. NO execution on offense. dropped passes. QB? Defense B-. uga needs some motivation coaches. Go dawgs.
Cuz
April 11th, 2009
4:55 pm
The sky is falling, the sky is falling.
dawgystyle
April 11th, 2009
6:58 pm
you fake uga fans make me freakin sick go and find another team to cheer for if you are so unhappy with our team.
your competion
April 11th, 2009
7:19 pm
Soft, soft.
AltamahaDawg
April 11th, 2009
7:34 pm
FIRE coach ball now?
Matt
April 11th, 2009
11:27 pm
Thank You dawgystyle!!! I said the same thing last night. People wake the hell up. It’s SPRING. We are not 0-6 during the middle of the season. If it’s that big of problem drive down to Atl and cheer for those morons. For those of you blaming Martinez use your head. We had a tackling problem last year. He cannot be on the field and tackle as well. Can’t blame him for AA and others not open field tackling last year.
BuLLdawg
April 12th, 2009
4:33 am
As for your 5 things to watch for Tim Tucker,sir, I would say we didn’t do a thing on all 5 things to watch you came up with.
Kirk Herbstreit reports that UGA will not be in contention for anything this year.
Well thanks a lot ESPN Kirk Herbstreit.
That was some miserable football, today.
Everyone knows our Defense is no good, and that we recruited one defensive end to add to a team desperate for 4 DE.
And, everyone knows that we spend all of our scholarships instead on quarterbacks, linebackers, offensive linemen and kickers.
Carlton Thomas, if not for him, this would have been one wasted Spring Practice, for what Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN saw.
Where did they get those guys ?
Matt Stinchcomb, sir, you got caught up in their banter and failed to name the players who did make a play.
I shut down the volume and turned up WSB-AM 750.
We did a poor job on a beautiful day to get a crowd to Sanford.
We are in a funk.
Don’t give me this injury bunk either. No more graphics of this guy is hurt or that guy.
We threw 1 pass to AJ Green on the first play.
Not one thereafter.
The entire rest of the game, no passes to AJ Green.
Logan Gray looked significantly ahead of the two (2) more freshmen quarterbacks signed.
Why did we need instead of another defensive end, 2 more scholarship quarterbacks ?
Our secondary doesn’t look any good at all. It’s like basketball, where one team loses because the other team played better free throw defense against them.
We have no offense.
And, yet what ?
What everyone knows is no defense, watched pass after pass after pass after pass after pass after pass after pass after pass, dropped.
Then, we finally give the ball to Carlton Thomas at the end of the game where we called timeout after timeout, and he shreds the defense for the lone touchdown of the day.
Miserable.
We are a makeshift football team trying to win 10 games in a 13-game season, every year.
Why not kick the ball off, when your single biggest item to work on is kicking the ball off ? You don’t have to return it; our problem is we kicked the ball out of bounds 10 times and into the end zone once all season long. Blair Walsh needed to work on his kickoffs. And, so now, we have yet another scholarship tied up not at defensive end, but as kickoff specialist.
AJ Green, now, is going to return punts.
Marcus Washington, now, is going to play Defense End.
Logan Gray, now, is no longer going to play Special Teams.
Caleb King, now, continues to show that he is struggling.
Tight Ends, now, show that they continue to be nothing with the majority of the passes dropped to begin the game, to wide open tight ends play after play after play after play.
Then, they caught a few.
When the guys thrown to did catch the ball, they then fumbled it.
We beat a miserable Michigan State team, who beat not one team in the Final AP Top 25 Poll.
Besides them, we Lost to Every Final AP Poll Top 25 team, ourselves.
And, this is what we show.
National TV Audience.
Not being ranked high, is NOT GOOD.
Were it not for being Number 1 to begin last season, our final ranking would not have been in the Final AP Poll Top 25 for the first time since 1996.
Not that we deserved to be ranked at all in the Final AP Poll Top 25 in the 2006-2007 season either.
And, so Mark Bradley announces that nothing is ever learned in any Spring G-Day Game, or anyone else’s Spring Game.
Oh, yes it is.
We learned quite a bit.
We have a miserable defense, who watched as every walk-on receiver was wide open all day long.
Only to drop every pass.
Recruits will bail us out ?
They say we have a Top Recruiting Class under Coach Richt and Rodney Garner, every single solitary year. Top Half a Dozen Recruiting Class in the Nation, they tell us every year. And, then what ? Well, for starters, then they every one are arrested and suspended. And, then, they get on the field and purposely injure our other players who were not arrested.
Mettenberger ? We needed Mettenberger this year too ?
17 Offensive Linemen are on Scholarship at UGA. Did it look like we have a Max Pass Protection Offensive Line ? There were 6 sacks. Did it look like we have a Max Run Offensive Line ? There was nothing done on the ground until the last 2 plays in the game by Carlton Thomas. And, those were both totally individual efforts.
There are 12 Scholarship Linebackers in this program. Now, we have to play Marcus Washington, clearly a top linebacker, at defensive end.
There are 8 Safeties in this program. We are 4-deep at these positions, and cannot field bookend scholarship defensive ends.
Tailback ? There is a tailback on this team ? We are playing fullbacks as secret weapons as tailback.
Tight End ?
If we didn’t recruit a Tight End who steps on the field against Oklahoma State and catches, instead of dropping the first 3 passes thrown to him as we did today, we don’t have one.
Now, we have to hear all off-season how Blair Walsh is going to fight to keep his kick-off duties being handed to Bogoaty.
Sorry Joe Cox, but that was not impressive.
Caleb King, sir, you are a big disappointment. 7 rushed for 22 yards zero touchdowns and a huge big dropped pass. Uh, can you say ZERO ? Nada. Nothing. As per usual for Caleb King since the day he got on this campus. He is a Our Co-Starting Tailback ?
The only tailback we have would be 3rd string anywhere else. And, we rave about him and he isn’t that fast, nor does he block well. Who are we trying to kid ?
We have 13 Wide Receivers and Tight Ends on Scholarship and we threw 1 pass to AJ Green all game long and all the rest of them dropped every pass thrown to them.
Critical Passes. Receptions that had to be made.
To WIDE OPEN RECEIVERS ALL DAY LONG.
Where are the cover corners ? All I saw was wide open receivers and no pass defense in sight. Only to watch every pass drop or be fumbled, if it was caught.
And, no running game.
Aaron Murry should have been intercepted.
Zach Mettenberger was. He and Murray are not close to Number 2 Logan Gray. Zach not only did not complete a pass, he also threw a miserable interception. We don’t play quarterbacks like that in any game, all season long. The Defense Dominated, because Bryan Evans, at Safety, intercepted that pass ?
Our Quarterbacks stood back there like they have all day long to throw the football. We are not a very good football team.
All we have is a Defensive Tackle position. And, they are all seniors.
This is a young football team, in a transition year.
10-3 ? Never prove it to anyone, including Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN, by what we showed yesterday.
I’m damn disappointed.
Aron White dropped the passes to begin the game, all of them. Then, Caleb King dropped his pass, then Israel Troupe dropped his, then several more receivers dropped theirs. All Wide Open. All on possession plays. Then, one caught a pass, and he fumbled it.
And, we better not spend the entire Summer, now, in Jail being Suspended like the 104 Suspensions Coach Richt has already had to dole out in just his first 8 years here.
Oklahoma State, was salivating.
College Football is ruled by Offenses that do something. Uh, we don’t have 1 of those. In fact, we never have had in the entire 9-Year now Coach Richt Era.
AltamahaDawg
April 12th, 2009
8:01 am
Happy Easter BuLLdawg.
Gen Neyland
April 12th, 2009
8:41 am
BuLLGraSShoPPerDawg – Every pair of Silver Britches has a lining…maybe.
SugarHillDawg
April 12th, 2009
9:13 am
Hey Buzz! I’m looking you up. I didn’t know you were the spelling Queen on here!!!
SugarHillDawg
April 12th, 2009
9:27 am
BULLdawg, I hate to disagree with a fellow fan BUT, college football and pretty much all levels of football are ruled by DEFENSE. You can have an average offense with a GOOD defense and go a LONG way!!
DirtyDawg
April 12th, 2009
9:37 am
I’m sorry but the format for G-Day football – restrictions, the appearance of it being at 3/4 speed – doesn’t lend itself to good TV. At least we won’t have to worry about pre-season number one rankings.
By the way bama-fans. If you do pull another 80K for your game, then the truth is fully out – you don’t have a life beyond toilet-paper rolls on sticks and hounds-tooth hats. But I will give you credit for one thing…after the Sugar Bowl game (you remember that one don’t you?) it’s admirable that you still are blindly loyal even in a nothing, spring scrimmage.
BUZZ
April 12th, 2009
10:23 am
I watched the entire game. Yawn. Instead of 45-42, I think it will be more like 45-2 next November.
SugarHillDawg
April 12th, 2009
10:39 am
Hey Buzz,I hope we don’t even give up a safety to you LOSERS next Nov..
BUZZ
April 12th, 2009
10:41 am
Yet again, Georgia and all of their 4 star recruits find themselves in another (29th straight) rebuilding year. You think one year they could put it all together with veteran offense/defense/kicking game and not have to beg to get into the BCS Championship game. I’m hear to tell all of you, Georgia will NOT play in the BSC or SEC Championship games next season. And they will NOT beat Tech either. I don’t care how much Rivials.com and the AJC sportswriters convince you otherwise, expect another frustrating season folks (I.E. start collecting your excuses early).
yellow fuzz
April 12th, 2009
10:43 am
Ouch
Buzz
April 12th, 2009
10:48 am
SugarHillDawg,
hey little man, you may want to check the record books.
YOU are the current LOSERS. 45-42!!LOL.
Buzz
April 12th, 2009
10:52 am
Not only will this Georgia team lose to Tech again, it will lose 3 of it’s first 4 games next season. I’ll bet money on it.
BadgerDawg
April 12th, 2009
2:48 pm
yards? That sounds about right.
BadgerDawg
April 12th, 2009
2:50 pm
My comment was to Bill Cleary stating that Tebow would “run for 2 and throw for 3 in the first half.” That guy should have turn pro just so he could have an extra year to learn to be a tight end.
bigron04
April 14th, 2009
12:04 am
if anybody know anything is that coach richt did not want to show to much on tv if your so call bulldogs nation so quick to jump the gun on caleb king and write him off carlton thomas ran the ball on the second string defence and last year caleb had more yards than knowshone and please stop hating and relax in spring game you do not go all out is a chance you get hurt and be out for the year
Tampa Dawg
June 12th, 2009
7:59 am
If you could keep only one QB, who would it be….start him, give him the ball, and make it his team