Update from UGA football practice
(Updated 9 p.m.)
ATHENS — Classes are back in session at UGA. And so is football.
Classes resumed Monday after spring break, and the Bulldogs returned to the field on a beautiful, sunny Tuesday afternoon for the second session of spring practice -– 12 days after the first.
“I thought the boys were kind of rusty. I guess you would expect that coming off spring break,” coach Mark Richt said. “But they are very eager to learn, very eager to prove to the coaching staff they deserve to play. They’re really working hard at learning what to do. I’ve got no issue with their effort at all right now or the attitude of the group. It’s pretty encouraging, actually.”
Notes from practice:
- There were fewer players in green non-contact jerseys, signifying injuries, for this practice than in the first session of spring ball March 4. In fact, the only green jersey Tuesday was on fullback Fred Munzenmaier (shoulder). (The quarterbacks were wearing black jerseys, signifying non-contact but not injury.)
- In the secondary, Shawn Williams was working with the No. 1 unit, along with Brandon Boykin, Vance Cuff and Bacarri Rambo. Branden Smith was working with the second unit.
- Richt said Carlton Thomas practiced “extremely well.” Thomas is the No. 3 tailback behind Caleb King and Washaun Ealey. Richt said Thomas is determined to compete for playing time. Thomas also is working on kickoff and punt returns.
- The quarterbacks — Logan Gray, Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger — again shared reps equally. Richt said he’ll decide by the end of the week how to discipline Mettenberger, including how many games the recently arrested QB will be suspended to start the season. Click here for more on the Mettenberger situation.
- If Gray doesn’t win the starting QB job, he likely will continue his special-teams role of fielding deep punts, Richt indicated. “In the fall, I think he will either be the guy [at quarterback] or he will be a very strong candidate to do what he did last year on the punt team,” Richt said. “We’ll just see what the future holds. I’m not counting him out for any other special teams, either. Just depends on how this QB race goes.”
Georgia practices again on Thursday and Saturday.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
70 comments Add your comment
Tim Tucker
March 17th, 2010
10:17 am
UGA Forester: Good question about Aaron Murray’s glove. Here’s a blog on that very topic: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/2010/03/17/why-is-georgia-qb-aaron-murray-wearing-a-glove-on-his-throwing-hand/?cxntfid=blogs_uga_sports_blog
Bazooka Joe
March 17th, 2010
10:19 am
The heck with the black pants and helmets – wear red pants on road games, and MAYBE black jerseys once every few years (but not anytime soon, Im still trying to get that bad taste out of my mouth from the last time we wore them !).
Tim Tucker
March 17th, 2010
10:19 am
Like to know:
I’ll try to talk with the new defensive coaches after the next practice (Thursday) and write about their early impressions. Thanks.
1eyedJack
March 17th, 2010
10:27 am
Sorry Tim, didn’t mean to call you Chip. Had his blog open also. Hope you don’t consider that an insult.
Gary
March 17th, 2010
10:28 am
Maybe if we lowered the drinking age back to 18 like it used to be it would not be such a big deal for the college students to get drunk.
Gratefuldawghead
March 17th, 2010
10:34 am
Bazooka Joe…I think we almost lost to Miss State with Red Pants on in the late 80’s and haven’t wore them since. Walker did wear them against Tenn to open the season in 80 though. I like the Silver Britches!
Go You Silver Britches!
Dawgs73
March 17th, 2010
10:34 am
Well I am glad to see that Mark Richt will be making the very astute decision to potentially leave your third string qb returning/fair catching punts…sounds like REAL solid decision.
Maybe Richt will come up with another ingenious plan to get Mettenberger to be assistant water boy.
ARdawg
March 17th, 2010
10:39 am
Gary, it’s not a big deal now for college students to drink. It doesn’t matter the legal age they are going to drink anyway. Mett screwed the pooch. All he can do is man up and deal with it. I mentioned the other day when this story broke, Remerton Police Dept is the biggest bunch of Keystone Cops in the state. Totally engulfed by Valdosta, Remerton’s revenue streams are pretty limited and depend highly on the bogus charges like Mett’s. Likely he was sober, having a beer and opened his big mouth. Trust me, thats all it takes in Remerton.
Tim Tucker
March 17th, 2010
10:51 am
1eyedjack:
An insult? Heck no. I’ll take that as a compliment.
Logan Gray still might be fielding punts? Really!?! | The Junkyard Blawg
March 17th, 2010
10:56 am
[...] Will we see improvement in that aspect of the game in 2010? Hard to tell from the way Mark Richt was talking Tuesday as spring practice resumed in Athens. [...]
STEINER
March 17th, 2010
11:11 am
POWERDAWG:
Thanks for all those great insights….They should hire you as a coach just off of this brilliance that you put on the blog….Glad you don’t work in my office…..
CHIPPED TIRES: Most people do other things on spring break besides play DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS…
LIZARD KING: nice try at humor, sound like a GT working on a Walmart Management Degree–Definitely not an engineer….
How2fish
March 17th, 2010
11:34 am
Tim any word on how the O line looks..who’s on the No.1 unit etc ? Thanks!
SEC East Headlines – 3/17/10 « MrSEC.com
March 17th, 2010
12:01 pm
[...] Aaron Murray is experimenting with a glove on his throwing hand this spring.3. Here are some notes from yesterday’s practice in Athens yesterday.4. UGA held their Pro Day yesterday, too.5. ETSU has overcome a lot for the [...]
shane#1
March 17th, 2010
5:10 pm
Murray isn’t a very big man so I wonder if he has small hands, like Joe Cox? I have heard it said that Joe’s small hands could have made it difficult to control the ball in wet or cold conditions. Of course, small hands don’t matter when you see an unblocked defender directly in the path of the ball and throw it anyway. Joe threw ints like that, twice! “I saw the guy there and said hmmmm….”. Would that Willie had said “hmmmm…, an unblocked defender, that’s a neat idea!”
raleigh
March 17th, 2010
5:15 pm
the dawgs are the only team in the SEC who has a freakin second string quarterback fielding punts. I say put Thomas, Branden Smith, or Boykin back at punt returner and let em lose. They couldn’t be any worse then Grey could they?
oledawg
March 17th, 2010
6:29 pm
Alt- your 11:09 comment should go further. Most of these hardliners and naysayers are NOT BULLDOG FANS. I can’t get over the fact that no one can recognize BuLLdawg uses historical data and every one thinks it’s correct. He is somewhere on another negative rant now against Richt. He accumulates more and more in his computer and the stream of invectives get longer and longer. Anyone that types that drivel can’t be a fan. Everyone! Now! Go to the dictionary and look up the word,”fan”. Please.
All this last week I’ve posted to those blogs that dropped Zach’s name from the QB discussion–like he did something terrible to them. High profile guys like Belue (saw today that he went back and amended yesterday’s article) and others. These judgements are for the coaches on Zach and you do the team an injustice by trying to name the QB ahead of time and not wanting competition to continue. Some not-so-UGA fans from other schools have infiltrated the UGA fan talk and with subtlety squeeze negative comments into “Fire Willy!”. They continue to do this across many UGA blogs and get their jollies by noting the ensuing nonfan-like rants that hurt us. Just be careful to note that these clowns are there and try to recognize them. The AJC calls this an open policy that gives free flowing info and comments and they won’t police it. We have to be able to spot it or cease blogging and greeting our favorite fellow fans here. I don’t advocate letting any of these idiots run us off our blogs. Saw one earlier today that advocated the term “Disney Dawg” to fans that are positive of our program. Like criticism is the purpose of a fan blog. NOT! It is to enjoy and appreciate more what we have with our team by reading knowledgeable input from other views that enhance our proud feelings. If you like negative trolling by writers then take those comments to other team sites. You will only need to change the names of the coaches, team and players, but you can publish the same negative trash because it is generic for all teams.
Think with pride like the Dawgs we blog about before you blog. Now, let Spring Practice ensue! Just sit back, read the practice reports, keepin z mittensoff and vatchin z blinkin lights! WOOF!!WOOF!! if you are drinking green beer. Got a bottle right here and it says “AJ” on the label (right above “Green”).
Joltin J's
March 18th, 2010
9:34 am
6-5 UGA loses
Smokewagon
March 18th, 2010
10:41 am
I am amazed at the cowards here who want our young men (18 yrs. old) fighting their wars for them and calling for their heads if they even look at a beer. Ok have it your way and hang anyone under 21 caught drinking but get off your butts and fight your own damn wars. I bet your are too scared to die.
DawgBuzz
March 18th, 2010
11:20 am
I really hope Mett comes back and wins the QB job. Incredible how people take cheap shots at a kid who got in trouble. Remember a guy named Brett Favre?? Pretty wild in college at Southern Miss. Favre began his freshman year as the seventh-string quarterback and took over the starting position in the second half of the third game of the year against Tulane on September 19, 1987. Favre, despite suffering a hangover from the night before and vomiting during warm-ups, led the Golden Eagles to a come-from-behind victory with two touchdown passes. Seems he turned out to be a pretty good QB from there on.
Boston Dawg
March 18th, 2010
12:03 pm
Smokewagon:
What the crap are you talking about? I personally have no problem with an 18-year-old having some drinks responsibly, but what does UGA’s spring practice have to do with fighting wars and being too scared to die? Dude, I think you may have some issues.