Yes, amid all the hoops, spring football practice also starts today
About an hour after the Georgia men’s basketball team finishes its SEC tournament opener against Auburn at the Georgia Dome this afternoon, the Bulldogs’ football team will hit the field in Athens for the start of spring practice. I’ll be at the Dome, and Andy Johnston will be covering football practice. There’s much SEC tournament coverage on AJC.com today, but I know some of you might be looking for football fodder on the first day of spring ball. So here, culled from a full preview of Georgia spring practice that ran in Sunday’s paper, are three key issues facing the Bulldogs:
1. Rebuilding the receiver corps: While A.J. Green trains for the NFL draft, Georgia faces the daunting task of replacing arguably the best receiver in school history. The Bulldogs also must replace last season’s second most productive receiver, Kris Durham, who completed his eligibility. Rising junior Tavarres King, the leading returning receiver with 27 catches last season, will line up at flanker “to have an opportunity to do some of the things A.J. was doing,” coach Mark Richt said. Coaches will look for others to emerge this spring from a group that includes Marlon Brown, Rantavious Wooten, Michael Bennett, Israel Troupe and early enrollee Chris Conley. “I think there are plenty of guys who can make plays for us,” Richt said, “and young guys coming in [this summer] who are going to be hungry.”
2. Shoring up the offensive line: Expected to be a pillar of last season’s team, the unit underachieved. With the graduation of starters Clint Boling and Josh Davis, the departure of coach Stacy Searels to Texas and the hiring of Will Friend from UAB as Searels’ replacement, the offensive line bears watching closely this spring. Ben Jones is back for his fourth season as the starting center, and Trinton Sturdivant and converted guard Cordy Glenn are the almost-certain starters at left and right tackle, respectively. “The guard spots are really up for grabs right now,” Richt said. Rising sophomore Kenarious Gates, who started three games last season, is a leading candidate for one of the spots.
3. Filling the holes at linebacker: Georgia must replace three of last season’s four starters at the position — Justin Houston, a possible first-round NFL draft pick who started all 13 games at outside linebacker; Akeem Dent, the team’s leading tackler who started 13 games at inside linebacker; and Darryl Gamble, who started seven games on the outside. The linebacker group also lost a coach with the departure of inside linebackers coach Warren Belin to the Carolina Panthers; he was replaced by Kirk Olivadotti, hired from the Washington Redskins. At inside linebacker, the Bulldogs will count on Christian Robinson, who started 10 games last season, and converted safety Alec Ogletree. At outside linebacker, the leading candidates to start are Cornelius Washington and USC transfer Jarvis Jones. Prized signee Ray Drew will join the OLB competition in August.
- For the AJC’s full preview of UGA spring football practice, please click here.
- And for 10 players to watch this spring, please click here.
– Tim Tucker, AJC
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163 comments Add your comment
Mark
March 10th, 2011
7:28 pm
If the people who run the blog let people like Dutch take it over, the other readers will gradually quit clicking on it!!! Oh yeah I only got half the way through before I gave up
to many a$$e$ here
March 10th, 2011
8:57 pm
congratulations idiots,the dawgs will rise back up , it’s ironic bringing up history in a bad sense, yet there has been good . stick it baby
sports
March 10th, 2011
9:28 pm
Hey! “techie” Tucker we know your pulling hard against the UGA basketball team, but their already in the NCAA tournament. Also, and much your demise the men’s football team is loaded in every position. Why to you always paint such a dark attitude toward UGA every chance you get? Does the jealousy burn that much?
bad brad
March 10th, 2011
9:47 pm
Worst thing I’ve read in a while is the piece today that said Caleb King intended to take Isaiah Crowell “under his wing”. Please keep your fumbling wings off of Isaiah. One sure thing he doesnt need is the influence of King and Ealey.
bucket
March 10th, 2011
9:56 pm
Where are all the people with “inside” information that King wasn’t go to class and Ealey was transferring? Guess the haters didn’t know as much as they pretended to know. I was personally disappointed in those 2 last year, but if Ealey has truly had a change of attitude he can help the team. I agree with bad brad that I’m not sure I would want Crowell under King’s wing.
Cam Cam
March 10th, 2011
10:57 pm
http://mobile.al.com/advbirm/pm_31143/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=57CA80A5435CC083DE0157313A8EA8C1?contentguid=ojlwUVAj
The Associated Press
Posted: 03/10/2011 12:24 AM
ATHENS, Georgia — Georgia has acknowledged breaking NCAA rules in its recruitment of linebacker Ray Drew.
^^^ Where there’s smoke there’s fire!!!! ha ha. guess cheaters on the field, bitter clingers on the blogs and violators off the field. shame. shame. shame.
Lets see, if this news was about Auburn and if I was a leg humpin gawga fan, I’d scream death penalty!! you’re upcoming 5-7 season will be vacated!
wait. thats to your benefit. dang, even your losses are covered up by your suckiness.
on topic how will those dogs do this fall? they’ll battle out to be the suckiest sucks that ever sucked. boi- big loss. usc- bigger loss. ut- blowout statement win for ut. uf will suck and still blow out the leg humpers and Auburn will destroy them at home. so it’ll be by the end of the season 2 full years with no wins over a team with a winning record. And deep down, gawga fans know it. go ucf? ya’ll makin the sec look bad.
ToHellWithGeorgiaTech
March 10th, 2011
11:09 pm
I hate to wish my life away every year, but damn i can’t wait until September.
big o
March 10th, 2011
11:39 pm
Congrats to bb team !! But on to the real …ish I said it earlier and Im saying it now please put B. Smith out there we begged him to come here as a 5 star recruit hes the fastest guy on the team hes a junior let the kid play wtf
Patrick
March 11th, 2011
1:06 am
Dutch
March 10th, 2011
11:43 am
What teams do, is force murray, who is ranked #119 in accuracy against winning teams, to make hard passes. You really can’t fail with that plan, you have the least accurate passer in the NCAA, why not force him to be accurate to beat you? Georgia’s easy to beat, everybody beats Georgia, I think every single winning team beat Georgia last year. Good move by Boise to schedule Georgia, it’s an easy win.
………………………………………………………………….
In promulgating your esoteric cogitation’s or articulating your superficial and sentimentalities toward UGA beware of platitudinous ponderosity.
Let your conversational communications possess a clarified conciseness, a compact comprehensibiliness coalescent consistency and a concatenated cogency
.
Eschew all conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, jejune babblement and asinine affectations.
.
Let your extemporaneous descantings and unpremeditated expatiation’s have intelligibility and veracious vivacity without rodomontade or thrasonical bombast.
.
UGA fake fans rely on floccinaucinihilipilification (an act or instance of judging something to be worthless or trivial) when describing UGA/Murray and their accomplishments
Patrick
March 11th, 2011
1:10 am
Cam Cam
March 10th, 2011
10:57 pm
http://mobile.al.com/advbirm/pm_31143/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=57CA80A5435CC083DE0157313A8EA8C1?contentguid=ojlwUVAj
The Associated Press
Posted: 03/10/2011 12:24 AM
ATHENS, Georgia — Georgia has acknowledged breaking NCAA rules in its recruitment of linebacker Ray Drew.
==========================
Learn to read. UGA didnt break any rules. Drew did. He was unaware that inviting Pollack to speak was a MINOR violation. In fact Pollack does not own season tickets and is therefore not a boaster and can attend any press conference he wants. Also, he (Drew) signed his letter of intent BEFORE he met Pollack and is in fact NOT a violation
Paddy
March 11th, 2011
6:24 am
Spend time learning how the o-line is playing this spring and summer. That will be the true indicater of the fortunes of this team. And pray they play nowhere near last years level, or we will be scaring .500 again!
Destin Dawg
March 11th, 2011
6:36 am
S & C program will produce great results… especially O line… we were out of shape last year… plain and simple…. win the 1st 2 huge games… it could be a special season… Junkyard Dawg DDDD EEEEEE !!!
woebegong
March 11th, 2011
8:22 am
Just,
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Upstate Dawg
March 11th, 2011
8:51 am
It’s football PRACTICE! Get off your butts and head to the Dome to support a really good hoops team!
Those gloves
March 11th, 2011
8:53 am
I am one UGA grad that sure hopes to see Aaron Murray jettsion those Batman gloves used in the ugly Liberty Bowl game. His team mates had to be giggling prior to that game. His performance was a giggle too.
Go Dogs.
Pago Pago DAWG
March 11th, 2011
9:20 am
Let’s see…king wants to take Crowell “under his wing”..do you people really want that?!
Those fumbles last year on the 5 yard line etc., was the “fix” in…think about it people.
Cam Cam
March 11th, 2011
10:53 am
Any one who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour, before he allows himself to be tempted by the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid.
For instance: 6-7 last year. much worse in 2011.
@patrick
March 11th, 2011
11:19 am
I hope for your sake you don’t gamble. Georgia is a horrible match up for Boise, anyone with a football IQ over 2 would see that, UGA wins by 14+.2010 was just a bad year for UGA .
woebegong
March 11th, 2011
11:25 am
Those Gloves,
Gotta agree with your on that point. Not sure the increase in grip on throwing the ball is worth the loss in sensitivity when handing it off.
If our lines doesn’t do any better though than last year, I might suggest he consider the gloves of about 8 ounces, as in boxing gloves. I think our O line will be much better this year, both as a group and for each individual. More lean and mean, and more mobile with the increased emphasis on weight training and a new perspective on thier position with the new coach.
GOOOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSS
dawg777
March 11th, 2011
11:36 am
AUBURN WILL DESTROY GEORGIA AT HOME, WHAT A JOKE. YOU HAVE NOT WQN IN ATHENS, SINCE 2005 ,THAT WAS BY 1 POINT 31 TO 30 .GEORGIA WILL BEAT AUBURN FOR THE 5TH TIME IN 6 YEARS AND MARK RICHT WILL BE 7 -4 AGAINST AUBURN . MARK IT DOWN!
Nachos the barn burner
March 11th, 2011
3:46 pm
Once again…. UGAy chokes & loses to ALABAMA.
woebegong
March 11th, 2011
4:00 pm
These negative bloogers on here are so funny. If B.S. was money, we might be in the presence of a lot of millionaires, LOL.
GOOOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSSSSS
Nachos the barn burner
March 11th, 2011
4:13 pm
too bad mark fox didn’t call a timeout on his hair loss
Buckeye
March 11th, 2011
4:18 pm
Nachos,
Care to post your picture so we can see what a physical speciman you must be?
dean
March 11th, 2011
4:20 pm
Hey CamCam,
Ok, so GA had a couple of former players attend an announcement.
At least they are are HOME INVADERS like your dam eagles: http://www.ajc.com/sports/4-auburn-players-dismissed-868962.html
Nice
dean
March 11th, 2011
4:21 pm
mean to say “..are not..”
PTCDAWG
March 11th, 2011
4:24 pm
If there are two of those Dutch characters, they desire each other. Absolutly know nothing about the dawgs or their or their T E’s!
Buckeye
March 11th, 2011
4:30 pm
dean,
And the Tatt 5 got some discount Tattoos.
Hmm, discount tattoos and not forwarding an email …….multiple felony robbery and buglery charges.
The AJC reports, you decide.
Good for Chizik in not messing around with these lost souls.
Buckeye
March 11th, 2011
4:33 pm
Woe,
Does these mean Auburn takles an early and commanding lead in the 2011 Fulmer Cup competition? Multiple players, multiple felony charges? Those are Cup qualifiers aren’t they?
Buckeye
March 11th, 2011
4:34 pm
Hey Nacho,
What say you?
(Still waiting to see your picture, you stud, you.)
woebegong
March 11th, 2011
4:45 pm
Buckeye,
I think the only thing they qualify for is jail time, with armed robbery. The Fulmer cup is usually reserved for offenses that a lot of kids are prone to do. If they expand the Fulmer Cup boundaires, Auburn has UGA by 5 at the moment, but remember, the season is young. Lots more time to add to that total.
I remember when I was just barely over 21, had returned from Viet Nam, and thought I was invincible. Did some dang dumb things for a couple of year, most all of these involving booze. I wonder how many of those involved at Auburn, were Georgia High School players. I sure hope they weren’t but Auburn recruits so many Georgia H.S. players, it might be a fact.
Oh Well,
GOOOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Buckeye
March 11th, 2011
5:04 pm
Woe,
As did we all. One things back and wonders how we didn’t end up dead or in jail. Who was it that said ” youth is waste on the young”?
I sure hope you make the field. I would hate for Howard’s last game to be remembered for pedicures.
Don’t blame him at all for the treatment – they beat the hell out of their feet – I’m just not sure I would have made it public!
Tough loss. I don’t blame Fox for the time out. I am surprised he didn’t take it earlier. He had at least 4.2 seconds.
We go at it at times but I want to thank you for your service. I’m a few years younger and didn’t have to register for the draft but looking back, I wished I would have served. My dad was in the Navy, spent two years in Nebraska and never saw a ship!
See you on the next blog.
DOG
March 11th, 2011
5:16 pm
GGGGOOOOO DDOOGGGSSSSSSS HEA
woebegong
March 11th, 2011
5:24 pm
Buckeye,
Thanks for the Kudos, but I would not wish Viet Nam on anybody. Heck of a way to be my first time overseas in my life, LOL.
On a more sobering note. I could not find any of the players for Auburn listed as incoming freshman. I think they must have been either RS for last year, or actually on the team.
That is funny about your dad and the Navy assignment. I was born in Annapolis Maryland. I got appointed to the Naval Academy but I needed a year to go to prep. school to qualify. Didn’t have a means of getting the money to go, so when push came to shove, went with the Air Force. Signed up to be a chopper pilot, got disqualified for a bad eye, and ended up a meteorologist, after I dabbled around in a few other fields for the first 7 years of service. Looking back on everything now, I am glad I made it a career, as the retirement benefits are not great but pretty decent.
Oh Well,
GOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSS
Auburn thugs
March 11th, 2011
5:25 pm
4 Auburn football players kick off team today for 1 degree robbery !!!!!!!!
A.J. finished the drill by running out of bounds
March 11th, 2011
5:45 pm
`
Hope over-rated A.J. Green
is also training for his first ever 1,000 yard season.
woebegong
March 11th, 2011
7:49 pm
Sad to say, but two of those Auburn criminals were from the Atlanta area. I guess they should have stayed home and played for Tech.
Oh Well,
GOOOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSSS
Cam Cam
March 11th, 2011
8:13 pm
First off, unlike Gawga we kick players off our team. Richt can learn a thing or two.
Second, even if we have 4, there is no way we lose to Gawga, they will win the Fulmer cup again.
Third, Auburn is the defending national champs, theyre loaded with winners that won it all. Gawga hasnt had that in 31 years! UGA hasnt beat a team with a winning record since 2009, blow out win in Athens for Auburn, they top last year, 51-24. With the 24 coming after Murray is replaced due to multiple sacks.
Last, I’m not sure we’ve heard the last of the Ray Drew recruitment story. Before we know it will have Thayer Evans down in Athens writing stories about how a desperate and out of control doormat of a team, Gawga, was breaking more than just the NCAA rules they admitted to. Where there’$ $moke there’$ fire and there is a lot of flamin in Athens that needs investigating. But I doubt it’ll lead to any vacating wins, cuz there wont be any against a division 1 team this year. You shouldnt cheat Gawga, just because you can’t win doesn’t mean you $hould cheat.
Cam Cam
March 11th, 2011
8:15 pm
whoops, meant even with 4 we still lose the fulmer cup to gawga. dang iphone. but hey, its something auburn grads can afford to buy.
Tech Man
March 11th, 2011
8:18 pm
Who cares, they still suck!!!
woebegong
March 11th, 2011
8:31 pm
What, you mean Auburn fans get paid by the alumni also? Who woulda thought. Nice Iphone by the way.
There is big difference between a player drinking a little too much, than robbing a person by gunpoint. misdemeanors versus felonies. Yeah, I would say they are about even.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Tech Man
March 11th, 2011
8:33 pm
A.J finish the drill…I don’t think A.J. Green is over-rated at all and I’m a big Tech Fan. Without him in 2010, Tech would have blown the mutts away. Over 500 yards of offence Tech had and we got beat by a missed pat, man that still gets me fired up thinking about that.
Cam Cam
March 11th, 2011
8:51 pm
Yeah the difference is, Auburn kicks them off the team. How many of gawgas players who contributed to gawgas big fulmer cup win are still on the team? Hard to find a list while typing on an iphone at the airport. What is it? 11 was i thought caleb king, were there more? i mean 11 is awful enough! does that count your ad?!
in a way, a team cant hold the hands if 80+ players 24/7, byt at least we know youre kicked off immediately at Auburn while gawga keeps you playing. or gives you 2 weeks off in feburary?!?!! ha ha.
woebegong
March 11th, 2011
8:58 pm
Now I get it. They saw that A.J. Green only got a four game suspension for selling his game jersey to get some extra money for spring break. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, they figured, we will just go and rob a family by gun point and then we will have money also, and it should only result in a 4 game suspension. The logic of it all.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
JDAWG
March 11th, 2011
9:14 pm
http://isportsweb.com/2011/03/11/georgia-football-5-biggest-questions/
A.J. finished the drill by running out of bounds
March 11th, 2011
11:00 pm
If you can’t produce ONE 1,000 yard season in three years,
it means over-rated.
jerry
March 11th, 2011
11:06 pm
Do you dawgfans not see simplesimen ls amongst us
jerry
March 11th, 2011
11:16 pm
Sorry about the spelling im drunk, but im not too drunk to know that BB and Patrick are simplesimon.
Nick Fairley
March 11th, 2011
11:19 pm
woebegong
March 11th, 2011
8:58 pm
Now I get it. They saw that A.J. Green only got a four game suspension for selling his game jersey to get some extra money for spring break. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, they figured, we will just go and rob a family by gun point and then we will have money also, and it should only result in a 4 game suspension. The logic of it all.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
—–
Uh, they’re kicked off the team. Period. End of story. AJ Green came back after breaking the rules, two totally different issues. One wasn’t a crime one was. Are you still in middle school?
Now Cam Cam, my friend, here is your list. There were 10 players arrested, 3 were dismissed, 2 either elected to leave or just disappeared from the 2011 list and the other 5 are there. Of the 3 dismissed, 2 were nobody freshman. The stars from the list include Ealey (hit and run) and King (failure to show to court).
And I’d be careful about putting Ray Drew on the field if his recruitment was as sleazy as it’s shaping up to be. Who else was down there? When did he meet Pollack and why was Pollack there anyways? That’s a pretty big deal. Do you see Bo Jackson or Cadillac Williams hanging out with a kid as he’s signing? Nope. Maybe after making his sales pitch Pollack thought it was okay to hang around?
I mean are we to believe Pollack knew not to hang out with this Drew kid prior to or as he was signing but didn’t know he couldn’t be on a stage with him? That’s hard to swallow.
I’d be very nervous if I were a Georgia fan because Ealey’s short stint in the dog house smacks to me of trying to prevent a David Stanley from SMU issue. We shall see.
I’ll be interested to see how long until the NCAA shows up to ask more questions. I think it’s fair to say it could get ugly on the dream team and they’ll just turn out to have been the dogs wet dream team turned into a “squeal like a pig!” nightmare.
jerry
March 11th, 2011
11:21 pm
Sorry real Patrick i meant em-poster PATRICK.