Morning update: New injured players replace old ones for Bulldogs

ATHENS — Greetings from steamy-hot Woodruff Practice Fields. It’s considerably warmer out there today as the Bulldogs went through Practice 9 of 29 they’ll have during preseason camp. It was seven degrees hotter at the start (87) today than it was for the last regular practice.

Today Georgia is in “shells,” as in shoulder pads and helmets and shorts. The good news is a lot of injured guys are getting back on the field. The bad news is there are some new injured guys.

CB Brandon Boykin (hamstring), OLB Cornelius Washington (hamstring), FS Jakar Hamilton (hamstring), OLB Sterling Bailey (shoulder), TB Brandon Harton (concussion), CB Derek Owens (neck) remain in green jerseys, signifiying no contact, but were dressed out and running through drills and participating in teamwork. That’s not surprising since the Bulldogs are entering the second third of camp, which is the point they start to settle on personnel for the opening game. Boykin and Washington are starters, of course, and Hamilton used to be.

Unfortunately, some new faces joined the sidelined crew. It looks like they might have finally shut done TB Ken “Boo” Malcome and his troublesome groin. He was joined by CB Jordan Love and CB Nick Marshall. We’ll have to wait until after practice to find out the nature and extent of their injuries.

Also, outside linebacker T.J. Stripling was riding an exercise bike very slowly on the sideline and occasionally extending the right knee he had surgery on last season. He was not in green, however, indicating it probably started bothering him this morning. We’ll keep a close eye on that as Stripling is a player that figures to contribute in several areas.

The big buzz around the football complex is today is the first day freshmen will be available for interviews. They’re starting off by letting us talk to defensive rookies today, and I plan to catchup with Ray Drew, John Jenkins and Damian Swann, to name a few. Tomorrow we get the offensive guys, which of course will mean Isaiah Crowell and Malcolm Mitchell will get a lot of attention.

In other news this morning, recruiting outlets everywhere are reporting that wide receiver C.J. Curry of Flowery Branch de-committed to UGA and committed to Oklahoma State. And Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald, who’s always over Georgia’s future schedules, reports that the Bulldogs have picked up Louisiana-Monroe for the 2015 season. So get your tickets now!

Here’s some good video from my pal Guy Prokay over at DawgTime.com (check out their magazine, in stores now) of Crowell working on his pass blocking with coach Bryan McClendon. LINK HERE.

Check back all day for continuous updates.