UGA lifts Ealey’s suspension (updated with comments from Richt)
(Updated 9 p.m. Saturday)
ATHENS — Washaun Ealey’s suspension lasted less than three weeks.
The Georgia tailback, suspended indefinitely from all team activities by coach Mark Richt on Feb. 8, has been “reinstated to full team standing,” UGA said Saturday.
That makes Ealey, Georgia’s leading rusher the past two seasons, eligible to participate in spring practice, which begins March 10.
“He’s done a very nice job of doing what I asked him to do,” Richt said Saturday night, “to take care of his business what I call the Georgia way, staying on top of things and being punctual and being prepared. . . . He’s done it with a very good attitude, and now I think he’s ready to integrate back in the rest of what’s going on at Georgia. I’m happy for him.”
Earlier Saturday, Richt said in a statement that Ealey will rejoin team activities Monday.
Ealey, a rising junior, was suspended after failing to report on time for an early-morning punishment run.
The incident was not Ealey’s first brush with trouble at Georgia. He was suspended from last season’s opening game because of an arrest for hit-and-run of a parked vehicle and driving with a suspended license.
“I didn’t think he was handling his responsibilities as well as he should,” Richt said Saturday night, referring to the Feb. 8 suspension. “When I felt like he was back on track, I was going to have him go back to doing what everybody else was doing.”
Ealey played in 12 games for Georgia last season, starting seven and rushing for 811 yards and 11 touchdowns. He rushed for 717 yards as a freshman in 2009, when he played in nine games.
His role could diminish with the arrival this summer of Carver-Columbus tailback Isaiah Crowell, a prized recruit who signed with Georgia this month. Richt said on signing day that he expects Crowell to play “heavily” as a freshman and possibly to get the first carry in the Sept. 3 opener against Boise State in the Georgia Dome.
– Staff writer Ken Sugiura contributed to this report.
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534 comments Add your comment
schmeckdawg
February 28th, 2011
1:50 pm
@ DawginLex, Thanks brother! You da man!
Go DAWGS!!!!!!!
bENSON
February 28th, 2011
1:52 pm
JIM, I’M WITH YOU, I’M GOING TO RIP RICHT UNTIL HE OR THE ADMIN GET THE TEAM BACK IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. TIRED OF THE LOSIGN TREND.
bENSON
February 28th, 2011
1:53 pm
YOU HAVE TO RIP APART RICHT’S DECISIONS, THEY’LL WRONG 90% OF THE TIME OVER LAST 8 SEASONS, HE LOSING MORE GAMES THAN THE YEAR BEFORE, AND ALL HIS PLANS TO FIX IT, FAILED.
Jim
February 28th, 2011
1:55 pm
Agree, Richt decision making is inept.
Richt simply does not know how to win more games than the year before. He got lucky 1 time out of alst 8 seasons, but 7 out of 8, he lost more games than the year before. Richt doesn’t know how to fix his stuff.
Ed
February 28th, 2011
1:57 pm
Jim-
Absolutely true. If Richt knew how to reverse his losing trend (7 out of last 8 seasons gets worse than previous season), then he would have fixed it. But since Richt hasn’t fixed, that means at least 90% of the time, Richt doesn’t know how to fix his losing trend.
Jim
February 28th, 2011
2:01 pm
Richt has tried a lot of stuff to try and beat his last year’s win totals:
Less penalties
Less turnovers
Top 10 recruiting classes
New assistant coaches
Prayer (one would assume)
New QB’s
New RB’s
Suspending or kicking off players (Richt has a strong tendancy to blame players for his losing trend)
Unfortunately, all of these plans failed.
Ray Goof
February 28th, 2011
2:02 pm
Give him til the end of may, he’ll do something stupid again.
Washaun Ealey suspended - VolNation
February 28th, 2011
2:15 pm
[...] Dude has 9 lives. UGA lifts Ealey’s suspension (updated with comments from Richt) | UGA sports blog [...]
BulLDawg Graduated
February 28th, 2011
2:49 pm
This deel with Richt is making me sick and I don’t car if he can’t get his players to stay out of jail and in the clasroom he needs to make ‘em do it the Georgia way. Doing it the Georgia way may seem sillie to some people but its the way we like to do it and that way is why we are so succesfull when we get out of Georgia and go on with our carears whatever they might be while we run this state the way only Georgian people can do with our UGA educations and our pedigreas from UGA. Washwan was never really a Dawg because he couldn’t stay out of jail and out of truoble enough to make it to practices and to games because he was a jailbird on a team of jailbirds and that is not the Georgia way as much as it is the Tech way and everybody knows that because we run this state and thats because we have the best educations and pedigress from UGA.
Buckeye
February 28th, 2011
2:57 pm
kb,
Here’s some relevance for you. Funny, the only team with “Georg” in the top 25 ain’t “Georgia”.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/02/28/ap.top.25.ap/index.html?eref=sihp
Dawg Gone
February 28th, 2011
3:16 pm
Buckeye anyone busted this week at Free TAT’s U ? Yet…
WIN WITH RICHT
February 28th, 2011
3:27 pm
Glad to see Ealey back on the team. Ealey is a very good rb that the team needs to be successful.
Buckeye
February 28th, 2011
3:29 pm
Nope!
Tell me, any progress toward the 2011 Fulmer Cup yet?
Buckeye
February 28th, 2011
3:32 pm
Dawg Gone,
Tell me, what’s the going rate at Athen’s finest parlor?
Buckeye
February 28th, 2011
3:38 pm
Dawg Gone,
FYI, no crimes were committed.
Tell me, what about this case?
http://www.redandblack.com/media/2010/08/ealey.pdf
Dawg Gone
February 28th, 2011
3:47 pm
Buckeye since I hit that exposed nerve let’s be real shall we ? You can go on and engrave the Fulmer Cup with OSU for 2011 you have what 4 guys sitting 5 games. I think that 20 game total wins the Fulmer this year and you have over 6 months till kickoff and news flash the number won’t go down. . Your a 5-1 favorite in Vegas for the Cup right now by the way. But you did let them play in the Bowl Game you are so dedicated to doing what’s right and all..
bENSON
February 28th, 2011
3:56 pm
Richt has tried a lot of stuff to try and beat his last year’s win totals:
Less penalties
Less turnovers
Top 10 recruiting classes
New assistant coaches
Prayer (one would assume)
New QB’s
New RB’s
Suspending or kicking off players (Richt has a strong tendancy to blame players for his losing trend)
Unfortunately, all of these plans failed.
Jim
February 28th, 2011
3:57 pm
YOU HAVE TO RIP APART RICHT’S DECISIONS, THEY’LL WRONG 90% OF THE TIME OVER LAST 8 SEASONS, HE LOSING MORE GAMES THAN THE YEAR BEFORE, AND ALL HIS PLANS TO FIX IT, FAILED.
schmeckdawg
February 28th, 2011
4:01 pm
The ****eyes with Jim Tressel and OHOHO State, Jim Calhoun and Connecticut gets suspensions for the the following year, yet AJ Green gets kicked to the curb for the first four games of this year! Am I missing something?
Dawg Gone
February 28th, 2011
4:11 pm
schmeckdawg why you are Sir…money…they didn’t want to impact OHOHO’s and the bowl’s revenue due to rightfully making those starters sit..Nope they care sooooo much about upholding lofty standards at OHOHO . They dropped their knickers faster than a San Diego Hooker on a Saturday night when the fleet is in. But they reserve the right to cast darts at kids drinking underage or guilty of driving misdemeanors. But its OK to systematically break NCAA and University rules and play in a Bowl game just to protect the bottom line. And before they start howling to the moon we got rid of the serious offenders without the NCAA handing out penalties.
schmeckdawg
February 28th, 2011
4:23 pm
@ Dawg Gone, It was kind of a rhetorical statement; however, I still loved you response!!!
Go DAWGS!!!!!!!!
schmeckdawg
February 28th, 2011
4:23 pm
sorry “your”
schmeckdawg
February 28th, 2011
4:24 pm
@ Dawg Gone, I also forgot to mention that you are 1,000% correct!
Mobile Dawg
February 28th, 2011
4:25 pm
todd @ 1:08, and you can explain why the only choice we had as a QB last year was a RS Freshman right? If Richt is such a “great” coach….
Dawg till I die
February 28th, 2011
4:26 pm
Atlanta…Imagine if we could buy alcohol on Sunday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TOM_UuQzc0
Buckeye
February 28th, 2011
4:31 pm
Dawg Gone,
Zero, repeat, zero arrests regarding Tattoogate. No progress, therefore, to taking YOUR Fulmer Cup.
WIN WITH RICHT
February 28th, 2011
4:33 pm
Jim
I think you forgot to take your medication. You keep repeating yourself. Give it a rest.
Buckeye
February 28th, 2011
4:37 pm
Dawg/Schmeg ( or whatever you name is),
Root on for the unranked ( sans girls softball and gym dogs) . You are loyal fans of mediocre programs. Can’t fault you for loyalty albeit unrewarded.
Taking no shots, merely looking at public records.
I enjoyed the Sugar, and the Rose and the NC’s, by the way.
And Schmeg, it’s O H I O.
Buckeye
February 28th, 2011
4:39 pm
Schmeg,
Seen several mock drafts with AJ going to Cleveland/Cinncinnatti. Boy, won’t that be fun!
John
February 28th, 2011
4:40 pm
Why won’t McGarity extend Richt’s contract?
Mike
February 28th, 2011
4:42 pm
Ealey will transfer, probably to Butler, rumor has it, he and Mett been textin a lot bout Butler and it’s pretty much a done deal.
Buckeye
February 28th, 2011
4:43 pm
Dawg and Schmeg,
So, speaking of Vegas odds, what’s the line on reducing the number of games to 3 or 4?
Steely Hank
February 28th, 2011
4:44 pm
I heard about the Butler thing, and then about Ealey and a whole bunch of Georgia guys heading to Butler, then on to LSU to join Mett. It’s going to happen.
Steely Hank
February 28th, 2011
4:45 pm
Why won’t McGarity extend Richt’s contract? Seriously, 3 straight years of decline, less wins every season for 3 straight years, losing 2 more games a year last 2 seasons? That’s why. Richt’s in a freefall and can’t figure out how to stop losing more games each year..
A Train
February 28th, 2011
4:50 pm
Dude, it’s all over the discussion boards about the UGA gang, they callin themselves R2DT (Real Dream Team 2012). Ealey, Figgins, Malcome, about 7 others they all transferring on Richt.
bruce mac
February 28th, 2011
4:53 pm
Another Tech Thug athlete arrested. This time baseball player DUI. Will it never end?
Justin
February 28th, 2011
4:59 pm
Funny, Mark “John Smith” Richt, Capt of the Titanic, cuz his ship is going down. This team just loses more and more games every year with Capt Smith at the helm.
Justin
February 28th, 2011
5:00 pm
Heard TKing transferring too. The dude is so mad about not getting reps last year even though he led the team in yards per reception.
UGASlobberknocker
February 28th, 2011
5:08 pm
Im not surprised by Bama QB McElroy’s high Wunderlich scores..I thought he was outstanding in his interviews on ESPN.One day he was on about 4 shows and was smoother than his interviewer on 3 of em..Dont know if thats gonna mean a lot if he cant throw..He is considered only the 11th best QB proscpect per Keiper. If he doesnt make it, he needs to go that TV broadcasting route.
UGASlobberknocker
February 28th, 2011
5:10 pm
I have a great plan
Let’s assume that Tech and Georgia have an equal amount of crime breakers..call it even and not spend the nxt 100 posts blasting the kid at tech who got a DUI. Let the first person who never had a beer before the age of 21 cast the first stone.
WIN WITH RICHT
February 28th, 2011
5:12 pm
Mark Richt is the man. The Dream Team is the first step back to the SEC title. All those Fire Richt hosers will be eating crow after next season.
Rick
February 28th, 2011
5:13 pm
I head Tavarres King was the angriest cat on the team. He’s hot about averaging @20 yards a catch, almost 5 more than AJ super hero, and yet not getting the reps. He earned it, but Richt ignored him.
JW
February 28th, 2011
5:14 pm
hEARD SAME THINGS ABOUT tAVARRES TRANSFERRING.
Gator Gus
February 28th, 2011
5:15 pm
Murray is a great QB. Hope Georgia sticks with him.
Wilson
February 28th, 2011
5:18 pm
Dude said ESPN blogging about all the future Georgia transfers. Man, biggest story of off-season, will Richt get fired before the season starts?
dawg gone
February 28th, 2011
5:20 pm
Buckeye well if there is money in it its 2-1 for reduction…without money on the line they will uphold their lofty standards. And try an spin misdemeanor arrests as worst than cold bloodied “give me give me give me cause I’m a ball player” is just lame even for a Buckeye.
Wilson
February 28th, 2011
5:20 pm
Aron White ain’t happy. Logan got the shaft, and then White got what 9 or 10 passes? He’s the #2 ranked TE in America man, averages bout 16 yards a catch at Georgia, that ain’t right.
dawg gone
February 28th, 2011
5:21 pm
Gator Gus he brought us back from being down 2 TD’s to take your bunch to O.T as a freshman….smile your going to get your wish.
Wilson
February 28th, 2011
5:21 pm
Does anyone know, is Hutson Mason or Lemay with the R2DT crew?
South Carolina Sam
February 28th, 2011
5:23 pm
Man, ya’ll go easy on Murray, he’s a great QB, played us really tough man. We hope Georgia sticks with Aaron Murray for 3 more years.