Jones firing up UGA offense, doing ‘everything I can to get this program back on the right foot’
ATHENS — Ben Jones is entering his fourth season as Georgia’s starting center, and he’s determined to make the most of it.
Jones
With both amusement and respect, teammates tell the stories of how Jones has taken it upon himself to fire up the offense this spring. After the unit’s worst practice of the spring eight days ago, Jones “got on us a little bit,” quarterback Aaron Murray said. Well, apparently more than a little bit. He was “screaming, yelling, pushing, going crazy, being Ben Jones,” Murray said.
By all accounts, the offense has performed much better since then, culminating with its best practice of the spring on Tuesday, when it won three of five head-to-head competitions against the defense.
On the day of Jones’ tirade, the offense lost all six drills against the defense.
“You go out there and lose every competition drill — that’s not acceptable,” Jones said Tuesday. “I wanted to make a point to the offense that we’re not going to sit out there and take a loss. We need to come out and change that. I wanted to make sure I got my point across to everybody.”
The main point is, Jones does not want his UGA career to end with a season like last year’s.
“I don’t want my senior year to go to waste,” he said, “so I’m going to do everything I can to get this program back on the right foot.”
A couple of other interesting observations from Jones after practice Tuesday:
- On Murray: “He’s going to get better every year. Quarterback is a lot mental, and he works harder than anybody on the team. He’s probably about to watch film right now. He always watches film before meetings, after meetings, and he watches right before he goes to supper. He’s going to put the work in to get better.”
- And on nose guard Kwame Geathers, whom Jones sees close-up in offense-vs.-defense practices: “Geathers has really been doing good. He’s really coming off the rock on the defense. That’s really all I see — big Geathers right there.”
– Tim Tucker, AJC
And if you missed it, here’s an earlier story on Jones changing his jersey number this year to honor his late father.
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123 comments Add your comment
Otis for UGA
April 6th, 2011
11:28 pm
drbasic1– no way we lose 6 and you are correct– we will not lose to the ramblin terds!
ckgator
April 6th, 2011
11:28 pm
His mother should have given him a comb before that photo was shot. Maybe Richt should have, now that he has more time to focus on football.
Bodda Getta
April 6th, 2011
11:30 pm
ck,
Do you really think Richt uses a comb?
Otis for UGA
April 6th, 2011
11:31 pm
Bodda & CKgatta,
FL,LSU,AL,AU next UGA Mark it down now!
Bodda Getta
April 6th, 2011
11:38 pm
Otis,
Have you been drinking again?
Jayson
April 7th, 2011
7:47 am
You have to look at what these players actually DID last year, not what they SAY or SAID.
What did Ben Jones actually DO last year?
His O-Line got manhandled. Finished next to last in the SEC in rushing yards, and gave up dozens of sacks.
It’s one thing to yell and scream in April, it’s another to go out and actually DO something in Spet-Nov, when it matters.
01HAWK
April 7th, 2011
8:29 am
Georgia Coach Mark Richt signed yet another five-star running back this year in Isaiah Crowell of Carver-Columbus, Ga. But Richt has a habit of signing stars — like Reshard Dudley, Kregg Lumpkin, Thomas Brown, Caleb King, Dontavius Jackson, Carlton Thomas, Richard Samuel, Washaun Ealey and Ken Malcome — who sort of under-perform, to say the least, over in Athens. Of the 10 four-star running backs that Richt has signed since 2002, only one has rushed for more than 1000-yards during a season. That’s 10 running backs ranked in the top 25 of their position across the nation and only one has reached 1000-yards during a season. Georgia’s running game has averaged 149.3 yards per game during his tenure on 4.09 yards per rush.
Louie Kablooie
April 7th, 2011
8:57 am
Ben Jones is a pud.
Whisky Breath
April 7th, 2011
9:18 am
Didn’t this cute kid try to light up CMR in the middle of a game. Didn’t this result in CMR suspending Jones for disciplinary purposes? Now the kid some kind of cheerleader and a great guy. Leave it up to the media to help CMR to motivate the team. So funny. I guess the readers are just fools. Remember GA people, CMR makes 3 million dollars. Isn’t that enough for him to figure out how to motivate his players? Now go blame Bill King for telling the truth.
Mobile Dawg
April 7th, 2011
9:19 am
Ben Jones came here “highly regarded”. He played lights out as a Freshmen, he was like a “pit bull”.
I’ve been beating the drum now for a while as to the root of the problem. Great players have come here only to get mired up in the quagmire UGA football has become. The problem at UGA has been a lack of “focus” and “performance” by the “Coaching Staff”, no other explanation for it.
Has it changed? Only time will tell. IMO Richt should have been released for his woeful performance over the last several years, I know ya’ll know how I feel. I hope he rights the ship and gets his focus back but right now we have more important things to worry about.
Everyone needs to get out and let the politicians hear our voices, loud and clear and help regain “control” of our country.
It Ain't Rocket Science
April 7th, 2011
9:54 am
I think CMR will be a lot more involved in the offense this year and I believe he has learned to be a lot less CEO and a lot more coach. He is a great coach but the last couple of years he has depended on his assistants to manage the game too much. UGA has a lot of talent and if they play with some spirit and purpose, they can be very good. This will be CMR’s main job. Bring out the feelings of a true DAWG from this bunch of very good atheletes and they will be hard to beat. Get involved in the offense more and help oput Bobo, when some of the tough decisions have to be made. He spent too much time on the sidelines last year, just looking discouraged and he has to become more involved. If there is one place UGA will have to improve to be truely good, it will be at defensive secondary. They are young at that position but there is a lot of time between now and opening day for them to get coached up and step up. I believe they will. Having some strength at nose tackle will also help to put a little less pressure on the secondary. It is hard to throw when you are running your butt off to get away from DE’s and blitzing linebackers.
As for So. Carolina losing or possibly losing Garcia. I think that he is one of the worst QB’s in the conference when it comes to playing good under pressure. Not sure they are any worse off with him out of the game. If there second year quarterback reacts and steps up to the game, they will be just as tough as they were last year. As long as Latimore is healthy and doing his thing, the Quarterback is more of a caretaker than the key to their offense anyway. Look what happend when Lattimore got hurt. Garcia drops back to pass, Garcia throws an interception. He just is not a good QB under pressure. Spurrier likes to think they are a pass first team, but I am also sure he recognizes that running wins games in the SEC more than passing most of the time. UGA has learned that painfully the last few seasons. He could win at Florida with good QB’s but he had a whole bunch of great atheletes to support that QB. SC seems to be one great runner, one could be great WR, and one servicable QB on offense. Defense looks pretty stout but they can’t be on the field 45 out of every 60 minutes and not have some problems.
UGA has the players on the team. Team leadership from some of the seniors and more agressive coaching from the coaches will be the key to their success this year. GO DAWGS.
Bodda Getta
April 7th, 2011
10:06 am
Jayson,
Don’t forget all the ThUG moves, putting Fletcher Cox out for the season on a blind side chop block after the whistle and the cheap shots on Nick Fairley, for which he and his guard were never suspended.
ThUGA’s lines pull this crap when they get dominated. They got called for a half dozen of them last year and should have been called for at least a half-dozen more against Colorado, UCF, and South Carolina.
ThUGA is Chop Block U.
Bodda Getta
April 7th, 2011
10:16 am
Keep in mind that Georgia’s offensive line is losing every competition drill this spring against the worst defensive line in the SEC.
Mumbai
April 7th, 2011
10:58 am
कुत्ते के चूसना । उन सभी चूसना ।
DawginLex
April 7th, 2011
11:06 am
bodda, UGA has the worst defensive line in the SEC?
Really?
I know you are a hater but come on, you can’t be serious.
Are you at practice every day? Did you notice the offense won tuesday’s drills?
Love and coddling has got us NO WHERE
April 7th, 2011
1:07 pm
All the CMR/Van Halanger/ Martinez Sunday school class stuff and the “I love my boys” stuff and the “we love you right or wrong”, has f-a-i-l-e-d for CMR and UGA. Now, we need to try “let us get it done or we are all expendable”. This is CMR’s final year short of defeating Florida AND at least strongly competing for the SEC East title. 7-5 or 8-4 ain’t it folks. He must defeat Florida and at least end up in the Cap One to indicate REAL PROGRESS. I suspect that 88% of the UGA alumni do too. I certainly do.
LIfe is that way, unless you are a union Postal worker thug, union thug teacher or GM/Chrysler union assembly line worker thug or a government paper pusher in DC or downtown Atlanta.
Hampton Inn Mgr-Opelika, AL.
April 7th, 2011
1:09 pm
FBI is about to chop block AU football and their coaches. AU will soon forfeit their last two or three years.
It is a coming.
Mobile Dawg
April 7th, 2011
1:28 pm
I have to ask Rocket Science, why you think CMR is a great coach? What single thing has he done to indicate he is a “great” coach? I don’t want to see him fail but I’m tired of the status quo that’s been going on. I haven’t seen one single indication since he’s been Head Coach that he is “great”.
It Ain't Rocket Science
April 7th, 2011
2:32 pm
Mobile DAWG,
Quite simple for me to answer. Whether you agree or not of my assesment is your business.
He runs a clean honest program. The kids want to play for him. He has had one losing season in ten years. He has won the SEC twice, and he has a fair amount of folks that go on to the PROs. if they so desire.
He honestly cares for the kids who play for him and he is a good ambassador for UGA. He has only lost 2 bowl games in ten years.
The above qualifies him as a great coach in my mind. Coaching is not all about winning and losing records.
A-Ville Ranger
April 8th, 2011
2:27 am
With all due respect to Ben. If he wants to get the team back on track, try blocking. We had absolutely no inside running game last year. I can’t recall a really solid blocking play that went thru the center all last season. I know Richt loves his attitude and he seems like a good kid. As a football player he needs to start worrying more about Ben Jones and let Richt do the job he’s paid way too much to do.
Mark, Mark-TheHairLipDog
April 8th, 2011
8:42 am
Let’s see. Big mouth has been a starter for 4 years and is now wanting to get the program on the right foot? Yeah buddy!! All this rah rah is pure horse manure. Still ain’t jack.
I-DOG
April 8th, 2011
6:22 pm
I Still don’t know why the line was so bad last year, but we certainly seem to have the talent to have at least a “good” OL this year. Jones, T. Sturdivant, and Glenn are all very talented and experienced and with Anderson, Burnette, and Gates you have another 3 that should be able to step up and if they don’t there are another 2-3 guys behind them that will push for playing time.
I guess what I am saying is that I don’t see any reason why our OL shouldn’t be able to be top 6 in rushing in the SEC and top 5 in preventing sacks at the very least. Of course, I said the same thing last year.
Why were we so bad on the OL last year?
It Ain't Rocket Science
April 9th, 2011
9:19 am
I-Dog,
I think it was a combination of not being in the best of shape and techniques both. I hope this new coach teaches them how to stay on a defender and not always worry about trying to best him every time. It is great to have the mentality of thinking you can beat the D lineman across from you on every play, but I think it is more important to be able to impede him on every play and provide a lane for the runner or time for the QB to find his ones and so on. Physically, I think they just weren’t ready to play 60 minutes but also I think you need to add in the fact, that the defense did not control the game so the o line was out there a bit more than they should have been. If the kids on the o line are coached better this year, I think they will be fine. If not, at the very least, they should be physically fit, and technique poor. I expect though that they will be much better this year.