UGA 5-star LB Ray Drew injured in Sunday scooter accident
Ray Drew poses for his AJC Super 11 photo last summer. (Photo by Jason Getz)
ATHENS – Another weekend, another scooter crash.
The latest victim is linebacker Ray Drew. The star freshman from Thomasville apparently wiped out on his scooter Sunday coming home from church and suffered a sprained shoulder as a result. UGA announced the accident in a two-sentence news release sent out at 9:01 a.m. Monday morning. The exact extent of Drew’s injuries is unknown but availability for practice is “day-to-day,” according to UGA director of sports medicine Ron Courson.
Drew was a five-star-rated recruiting prospect and high school All-American coming out of Thomas County Central. He’s currently running second-team weakside (or Will) linebacker behind junior Cornelius Washington.
Drew was not available for comment but sent out a tweet on Twitter.com indicating his was going to be OK. “I’m so glad I don’t look like what I’ve been through . . . praise God.”
Defensive end Derrick Lott suffered a gash on his right leg in a scooter accident earlier this summer and was sidelined for a month. Linebacker Chase Vasser had an accident with injuries in the spring of 2010. And, of course, baseball player Chance Veazey was paralyzed after a scooter accident in 2009.
Dozens of football players and other UGA athletes use the small, motorized scooters to zip around campus because they’re easy to park and inexpensive to operate. An area next to the Butts-Mehre football complex is known as “scooter alley” because of the dozens of scooters parked there daily.
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328 comments Add your comment
RedandBlackDAWG
August 15th, 2011
10:49 am
Accidents happen. Perhaps the athltic Dept. needs to conduct some type of safety class before allowing these scooters to be ridden by the guys. hopefully, the young man will be back on the field soon and helping the team get prepared fot the season.
jarvis
August 15th, 2011
10:50 am
“I only want right-thinking journalists working at the school”. Where exactly are those found?
Pound Dawg
August 15th, 2011
10:52 am
No big deal–he’ll be ready to inflict pain on the boise st. offense in the dome.
AltamahaDawg
August 15th, 2011
10:52 am
Coming home from church guy. We don’t own these kids.
AltamahaDawg
August 15th, 2011
10:52 am
guys
schmeckdawg
August 15th, 2011
10:52 am
Cynthia Tucker SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a malignant b yatch!!!!
Nothing Could Be Finer
August 15th, 2011
10:53 am
He did play DE in high school, but in the 3-4 defense, the “Will” LB is positioned a few feet behind where he’d normally line up.
———————————————-
Is that a good move for him?
Or is it that Ga coaches are yanking their players around again?
Bulldog38
August 15th, 2011
10:53 am
To “Nothing Could Be Finer”. Because Georgia runs a 3-4 defense. A kid that plays DE in a 4-3, plays OLB in a 3-4. A player that would play DT in a 4-3 plays DE in a 3-4. Then, you have to have a mountain of a man at NT like Mount Cody. Georgia has two of those this year.
Cell phones and scooters
August 15th, 2011
10:54 am
I suspect that the problem is not scooters alone. I am guessing that cell phone uesage AND driving a scooter is THE problem. I see pedestrians talking on two cell phones often, I see motorists driving with a cell at their ear and see cells in use all over, even on golf courses.
I suspect that UGA football players are no different than these examples and that in Athens scooter accidents are happening often ………………… some plain UGA student will not garner the news like a 5 star frosh would.
For accuracy …………..sure would like to learn the total accident number for UGA students, including jocks. UGA campus police keep these stats as does the Athens PD. Merge the numbers and there you have it.
DawginLex
August 15th, 2011
10:55 am
Ray Drew was recruited by Grantham to play OLB in the 3-4.
Lowcountry Bulldawg
August 15th, 2011
10:55 am
24/7 access to these kids gives us much more access than we had to athletes 30 years ago. Athletic dorms may haved curbed it to a degree but if you are 20 and wanna go get into some stuff in downtown Athens you would be able to find a way. They just did not have Twitter, Facebook or TMZ back then to update your status at that juncture. Young men today are just like they where 30 years ago, they just cant sneak by with 85% of the B.S. they try and pull like they could in the past.
rduck
August 15th, 2011
10:55 am
Gees… might be time to think about trading the shoulder pads in for Hans Devices like the Nascar boys wear… just kidding of course. Glad to hear the kid is ok. as a tech fan i wish no harm on any player. hopefully he will have a speedy recovery and will be back soon. best of luck Ray, except the Sat after Thanksgiving… go Jackets
DougsMugs
August 15th, 2011
10:56 am
Everyone talks about Richt having to have a great season to save his job, but regardless of season, if one of these young men gets killed on a scooter, he will loose his job and will likely be sued by the young man’s family.
There has been enough warnings through incidents, that this is now negligence on the Athletic staff.
Nothing Could Be Finer
August 15th, 2011
10:56 am
Ray Drew was recruited by Grantham to play OLB in the 3-4.
———————————-
Does he have mobility?
DREW GODWIN
August 15th, 2011
10:57 am
PLEASE TAKE THE SCOOTERS AWAY FROM THE ATHLETES!!!!!!!!!!! THERE HAVE BEEN TOO MANY ACCIDENTS AND NOW IT HAS CAUSE ONE OF OUR BEST ATHLETES TO GET HURT. PLEASE TAKE AWAY THE SCOOTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Lowcountry Bulldawg
August 15th, 2011
10:59 am
NCBF,
He is 6′5 253 and runs a 4.7. His athletiscm is not questioned. He was recruited by several colleges that run a 3-4 to specifically play wis his hand off the ground.
DawginLex
August 15th, 2011
11:01 am
NCBF
Trying to find a chink in the armor of Mr Ray Drew is a waste of time
Nothing Could Be Finer
August 15th, 2011
11:01 am
He is 6′5 253 and runs a 4.7.
——————————————-
Can he handle a speedy slot receiver that runs a 4.4?
Vince Dooley
August 15th, 2011
11:02 am
Was he driving on a suspended license?
DawginLex
August 15th, 2011
11:02 am
Hey lowcountry
I went back and looked on the Friday blog about IC’s injury and saw where Chip took down the comment from the idiot troll about my kid
Then the idiot troll turned me in to the moderator for my comments.
Brainiac(Dawg for life)
August 15th, 2011
11:02 am
Mike Adams hiring Cynthia Tucker-McKinny was a natural for move bird-brain Adams. We can all recall Adams’ booting Vince out the door and hiring Egghead-Evans(Better known as Red Panties Evans). Given enough time Adams will do to the UGA what Obama is doing to the USA.
Lowcountry Bulldawg
August 15th, 2011
11:02 am
Yeah he has five yards to put him on his arse if he comes across the middle.
Devil's Advocate
August 15th, 2011
11:03 am
Safety class? Really? So are we suggesting that anyone who has ever passed a driver’s education course has never had an auto accident? And to the guy who said he made it through his time in Athens on a bike without incident, no one else has ever wrecked a bike in Athens?
This is along the same lines of people who favor not hitting in practice because a player might get injured in practice. Remember how that worked out for us in 2008? Accidents and injuries happen people.
Patrick
August 15th, 2011
11:04 am
Nothing Could Be Finer… you’ll find out the answers to all of these questions on 9/10…
Lowcountry Bulldawg
August 15th, 2011
11:04 am
DawginLex,
I believe it should have been made public by Chip.I also would like to know the other handles that guy has used.
AltamahaDawg
August 15th, 2011
11:04 am
And let’s ban overly minty toothpaste while we are at it.
Brainiac(Dawg for life)
August 15th, 2011
11:05 am
Oops. Make that “a natural move for”.
Lowcountry Bulldawg
August 15th, 2011
11:05 am
Altamaha,
On the mint kind with Crest.
Lowcountry Bulldawg
August 15th, 2011
11:06 am
*only*
Nothing Could Be Finer
August 15th, 2011
11:07 am
you’ll find out the answers to all of these questions on 9/10…
——————————————————————————————-
I’m thinking that he can’t handle WR Damier Byrd, who has been clocked at 4.26.
Indian Dawg
August 15th, 2011
11:07 am
We have a bus transit system that covers virtually every street on campus and quite a bit of off-campus terrain. Be like Kwame Geathers and ride the freaking bus! Sure the man takes up two seats, but at least he isn’t injured!
DawginLex
August 15th, 2011
11:07 am
Since Drew’s primary job will be to sack your drunk QB, I’m thinking he will do ok with that.
JB
August 15th, 2011
11:08 am
This is pretty boring. Where can we go read about Tech’s probation troubles ( again) and how Florida’s lost about 15 players since the cheerleader took over…..and how about a list of the 94 offers Bama has out. You know, something interesting !!!!!!!
JDawg1785
August 15th, 2011
11:09 am
I was fine taking the bus when I was at UGA. I don’t see why they need these dangerous things.
farawaydawg
August 15th, 2011
11:09 am
The reason the football team members ride scooters is that there is NO PARKING at the Butts-Mehre for the team. The only way to get there is the bus or scooters. Given the number of hours and odd hours they are there, the bus is very inconvenient. Hence the scooters, which are DANGEOUS! Wake up, UGA and give those kids some parking!
Lowcountry Bulldawg
August 15th, 2011
11:10 am
Yeah but whats 5 yard 40 time? Thats how long it will take for him to be picking himself up off his backside by getting slammed trying to go get that slant route pass.
I will give you props though you try your digs, but they really are funny.
Wait till next year...
August 15th, 2011
11:11 am
the scooter is the official vehicle of the dream team!
Nothing Could Be Finer
August 15th, 2011
11:12 am
Since Drew’s primary job will be to sack your drunk QB
——————————————–
I don’t see him making too many sacks vs SC.
He’ll still be adjusting to the new position on the field.
Plus, he’ll be missing valuable practice time after this scooter accident.
Brainiac(Dawg for life)
August 15th, 2011
11:12 am
How many 4.4 “speedy receivers” are you going to see in the SEC on any given Saturday? Hopefully our LB’s won’t have the coverage on those guys.
AltamahaDawg
August 15th, 2011
11:14 am
I’m pretty surprised we haven’t heard the suggestion that a ban on traveling to church would have prevented this.
Alabama Jack
August 15th, 2011
11:16 am
The scooter – one of Georgia Tech’s greatest inventions.
JDawg1785
August 15th, 2011
11:16 am
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if most of the players live on campus these days? When I was at UGA (2003-06) a lot of them lived in East Campus Village, which is a pretty convenient walk to Butts-Mehre.
NC-Dawg
August 15th, 2011
11:17 am
Enter your comments here You guys are getting too slow. This has been out since early this morning. Come on AJC get it togeather!!!!
AltamahaDawg
August 15th, 2011
11:17 am
Good thing Ogletree loaned him a helmet.
Patrick
August 15th, 2011
11:18 am
Nothing Could Be Finer… you may be right about not being able to cover that WR. But, I’m not sure he’ll be asked to do that since his main job will be to get into your backfield. I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks…
UGA Insider
August 15th, 2011
11:20 am
Does anyone have a email for Mike Adams? We must voice our opinion on Cynthia Tucker.
PMC
August 15th, 2011
11:20 am
sigh…..deep gashes, sprains, paralysis….
It’s an epidemic, when are they going to address the scooter crisis in Athens?
Get a freaking motorcycle license or WALK.
WDE
August 15th, 2011
11:21 am
Ray glad you weren’t hurt badly, the rest of you Ban the Scooter movement need a life..if the kid was on a bike you’d want to ban bikes..if he has gotten hurt on a bus it would be “why was in on a bus in the first place he should have had a scooter..if he was walking to class, you’d pointing out that UGA has the money to pay for cabs for players…your knuckleheads but you do make me smile…bless your hearts..
PMC
August 15th, 2011
11:22 am
Bicycles work too. Cheap, no gas, park anywhere, relatively fast and convienent.
Pound Dawg
August 15th, 2011
11:26 am
Bikes in Athens? Forget that—too many steep hills.