The education of Georgia’s starting quarterback continues

ATHENS – Georgia coach Mark Richt commented after Wednesday’s scrimmage in Sanford Stadium that Aaron Murray “could have made a better decision” on a couple of occasions.

One such occasion sprung to mind for Murray: “a screen where I should have just thrown it out of bounds and instead I tried to scramble and got sacked.”

The education of Georgia’s starting quarterback continues.

“He’s still learning. He’s still a freshman,” Richt said. “It wasn’t really bad, but there were a couple of times where he could have made a better decision. I’m just thankful we got into those situations and it happened today. Hopefully, the point will be driven home a little bit better because it was more of a real situation. Hopefully, he’ll learn from it.”

Richt went to some lengths to make the closed-to-the-media scrimmage as real as possible –- a pregame coin toss, SEC officials, etc. –- and Murray admitted he “had a little jitters” beforehand.

“Whenever you go into Sanford Stadium,” he said, “your jitters are going to be running a little more than when you’re just out on the practice field.”

Even if, as he noted, there are “93,000 less [people in the stands] than there’s going to be in a week and a half.”

Murray felt he shook off the jitters and made progress as he and team inched closer to the Sept. 4 season opener against Louisiana-Lafayette.

“The main thing is . . . I’m feeling more comfortable,” Murray said. “I feel like I definitely took a little step forward today.

“I feel like I’m making my reads better. I know where I’m going with the ball. … I feel like my knowledge is getting better. I just got to make the throws and the right plays.”

He completed 9 of 17 passes for 127 yards and one touchdown (to A.J. Green) in one half of action against basically Georgia’s scout team. He threw no interceptions.

Georgia’s offense continued to work without two starting linemen, center Ben Jones (knee) and left guard Cordy Glenn (mono). Both are expected back next week.

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Richt said the scrimmage produced no “earth-shattering” developments that will alter the depth chart. It did reveal where the assistant coaches will be stationed on game days.

Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and defensive line coach Rodney Garner will be at field level, while inside linebackers coach Warren Belin and secondary coach Scott Lakatos will be upstairs in the coaches’ box. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, who moved from the box to the sideline midway through last season, will remain on the field, as will offensive line coach Stacy Searels and running backs coach Bryan McClendon. Receivers coach Tony Ball and tight ends coach John Lilly will be in the box.

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For stats and more details on Wednesday’s scrimmage, please click here.

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Links to other UGA news:

Offensive lineman Owens’ career is over.

Will UGA extend sellout streak into 10th season?

Georgia athletics in a construction zone.