WR Tavarres King: Bulldogs in great shape, eager start preseason camp
Georgia flanker Tavarres King gets behind the Michigan State defense for 80 of his 205 yards in his final game of last season. He's eager for more of the same. (AP photo)
ATHENS — For Tavarres King, the football season can’t get here fast enough. The last time we saw him in game action, he was running up and down the field at Raymond James Stadium to the tune of 205 receiving yards with an 80-yard touchdown. However, his personal highlights got lost in what ended up being a gut-wrenching loss to Michigan State in triple overtime.
“I’ve been extremely eager all off-season to get back out there to continue where I left off,” said King, a senior flanker for the Bulldogs. “It was an extremely high note personally, but not as a team. So we’ve been getting after it this summer. Guys have been participating in drills and workouts. We’ve had pretty much perfect attendance all summer. Everybody’s eager to get back on the field and tackle this thing.”
King and his teammates don’t have much longer to wait. Players report for preseason camp on Tuesday.
Of course, none of them really ever left. According to King, the Bulldogs had 100 percent participation during summer workouts from returning lettermen and incoming freshman. Seventeen of Georgia’s 19 signees enrolled in classes in June and have worked out with the team all summer. Two others — defensive lineman John Atkins of Thomson and defensive end Leonard Floyd of Eastman — were unable to attain freshman eligibility and will attend prep school.
But about 100 players — 75 on scholarship and another 25 walkons — have remained in Athens to attend classes and participate in the Bulldogs’ revamped offseason strength and conditioning program. Program director Joe Tereshinski added added longtime Penn State strength and conditioning director John Thomas and speed and agility specialist Sherman Armstrong to his staff after last season.
“It’s very different, and different is good. It’s definitely good,” King said. “We’ve adapted to the changes that have been made and everybody’s on board with what those guys bring to the table.”
King said he and the other skill players have been drawn particularly to Armstrong. The former track All-American at Illinois has been in Tampa training players for the NFL combine since 2008.
“Sherman’s a guy who knows how to run and runs well himself,” King said. “He’s a guy that us skill guys, we want to imitate his moves and learn everything we can from him because it makes us better.”
The Bulldogs’ summer routine included running and lifting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and doing boxing and agility drills on Tuesday and Thursday mornings with team runs on those afternoons. They also run pass skeleton and position drills at least two days a week.
“Tuesdays and Thursday are long days because you wake up and do that boxing, then you go to class, eat lunch, come back over here, do speed and agility, then pass skel or position drills,” King said. “So those are long days, but they’re definitely beneficial.”
After first official team meeting of the season on Tuesday, the Bulldogs will undergo medical and physical testing on Wednesday and have the first practice Thursday on the Woodruff Practice Fields.
King said he is in the best shape of his life. He said he can speak for the entire team when he says there is no dread and nothing but anticipation for the opening of Georgia’s preseason football program.
“We’re ready to go,” King said. “This is what we train for. We train to play football. So we’re ready to get out there and compete with each other and make each other better.”
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210 comments Add your comment
@JIM
July 27th, 2012
4:09 pm
Obviously you don’t keep up with Georgia football. Think Jay Rome (# 1 TE in his recruitng class nationally) and Arthur Lynch(#2 TE nationally in his recruiting class) will continue the Georgia tradition of great TE play. Let them double Tavares, Brown, Bennett, Conley, Wooten, Wesley will get their share of catches.
Joey
July 27th, 2012
4:12 pm
“I’m no apologist for Murray, he had a few bone head plays but the OL last year was atrocious”
***********************************
ARdawg, that’s true about the O-line. But Murray is now a 3rd year starter, and he’s got to tuck the ball and take the sack, or throw it in the stands. His “bone head plays” cost us dearly last year.
His 4th quarter vs SC was amazing – TD pass for us – fumble for SC TD. TD pass for us – pick-6 for SC, etc, etc.etc. I don’t know if UGA would have been in that game without him – 42 offensive points – but in the end, he gave it away with the fumbles and Ints.
Hopefully, he cleans that up – if so, we should roll . . .
Joey
July 27th, 2012
4:24 pm
Hollywould, you do realize that the “Honey Badger” didn’t play against our D, right?
Go watch the game again. Most of those yards came after the fact, after our offense had about 10 straight 3-and-outs in the 2nd half.
The D didn’t lose that game, or the SC game, or the MSU game. Even in the Boise game, the D played well, even without our two stars (Ogletree and Rambo), until our short punts and offensive 3-and-outs took its toll.
Ask Paul Johnson, Gene Chitzik, Spurrier and Muschamp about our D.
bham dawg
July 27th, 2012
4:27 pm
Franklin is a very good qb. But even peyton manning can’t win games on his back. Mizzou’s o-line will have a very hard time blocking our boys on the D-line. Mark it down 8 sacks vs Mizzou.
TDawg
July 27th, 2012
4:31 pm
Getting about that time when the Dawgs take the field and GATA!! Mitchell is going to great and our receivers are really stout and experienced along with good experienced QB. OL needs to come together and DB’s but our front 7 on D will make DB’s better. Fun to talk about anyway
LogicalUS
July 27th, 2012
4:39 pm
“But even peyton manning can’t win games on his back”
Hate to rain on the fantasy parade but the other side of the coin is wide open WRs streaking unmolested across the field are easy to hit before the lumbering UGA DL are able to make it to that QB and with the huge problems which UGA will have in their secondary for that game.
Expect UGA’s much hyped DL to be a non-factor in this game until it comes down to Missouri bleeding down the clock to preserve victory.
Joey
July 27th, 2012
4:45 pm
Hey, logicalus, look in your crystal ball and tell us what in the world PJ is gonna do, now that Grantham knows how to defend his brilliant offense.
Thanks in advance . . .
ARdawg
July 27th, 2012
4:53 pm
Joey
I disagree with anything you said. It should be noted that the Sophomore curse is alive and well. Yes he cost us dearly with the picks and turnovers. But, IMHO, as I stated, it wasn’t all on his shoulders. An atrocious line, shackled with some very weak play calling and add to this his own missteps it was a disaster. He put us in a position to win and to lose a number of times
With that said, 3rd year starter, much more mature, experienced and overall better in every facet. We can and should expect more from him this year and I believe we’ll get it. Yes, he should have tucked and took the sack much more than he did and it cost us. He’s much more prepared for that this year. Will the OL perform, will the play calliing improve?
bham dawg
July 27th, 2012
4:54 pm
@LogicalUS… considering sanders commings is going to be the only guy to miss the game and coaches have already stated the malcolm mitchell is the best corner on the team… i think we will be ok. Not very logical
ARdawg
July 27th, 2012
4:54 pm
Joey
I meant I don’t disagree with anything you said. my bad
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
4:55 pm
LogicalUS, are you really that dumb? Missou’s QB is going to be dusting himself off after every other play from our front 7. He won’t have time to look for a WR. UGA does not have a huge problem in it’s secondary. Damian Swan was a top corner coming out of high school and played in some games last year. Brandon Smith will miss the first game and not the second, Lakatos and Grantham are already saying that Mitchell is probably the best CB and that’s including Commings. They’ve also had some good things to say about Devin Bowman at CB. Corey Moore will be filling in for Rambo. Moore was one of the top safeties in the country out of high school and he had playing time last year. UGA’s secondary is more than enough to handle anything that Missou will throw at them. Especially with a true freshman WR. Now, try to talk about something you may actually know something about. It’s not football.
bham dawg
July 27th, 2012
4:58 pm
@kerryb… rambo will be playing at mizzou
bham dawg
July 27th, 2012
4:59 pm
ogletree will be playing too
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:00 pm
bham dawg, has it been announced. Last thing I was hearing was that he will probably miss 4 games because of being suspended in the past.
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:02 pm
Here’s something funny. Did you guys see where this sports agent went off about Nick Saban?
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/07/pittsburgh_sports_agent_accuse.html
kingdaddy
July 27th, 2012
5:02 pm
M.C. got his thong twisted about something I said. Who would have thunk it???
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:06 pm
We’ll lose to Missourri, as Mitchell won’t be there, teams will blanket King.
bham dawg
July 27th, 2012
5:06 pm
it has not been announced neither has a suspension just keep that in mind. rumblings are that the suspensions are not as bad as people that have no clue what they are talking about have reported. also a thing to keep in mind is that these are the universities rules to enforce and they can do so accordingly or not. There is an appeals process for every suspension.
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:07 pm
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:06 pm
We’ll lose to Missourri, as Mitchell won’t be there, teams will blanket King.
______________________________________________
Another moronic troll
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:07 pm
The run game will suffer miserably until Mitchell returns, just jack 8 in the box, and blanket Tavarres King, and we got no other consistent deep ball receivers. Murray will start pressing, turnovers, then losses will mount.
bham dawg
July 27th, 2012
5:08 pm
@Sam Dawg… If they double team king that would be a huge mistake. Chris Conley, Michael Bennett, Marlon Brown, JSW will have a field day. It’s not like King is our only WR.
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:09 pm
I wondered about Rambo’s suspension because last years suspension against Boise didn’t involve an arrest or anything. I figured that he violated some team rule. If that’s the case I could see him getting just one game along with Brandon Smith. What Smith, Ogletree, and Rambo got in trouble for is usually just a one game suspension.
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:10 pm
No one but Mitchell and King are consistent deep threats, teams will be happy to have UGA throwing all day to unproven guys wihout deep threat consistency who Murray has limited reps with, timing wise.
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:11 pm
Like I said earlier on this blog. I believe they won’t really need Mitchell on offense. They will probably use him for a play here and there like they do Brandon Smith. The guy to watch this year is Justin Scott- Wesley who is a track guy. I believe he will be the Malcolm Mitchell of the offense this year.
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:12 pm
In the LSU game, I didn’t see all these deep threat guys making deep ball catches, where was Brown, Conley, Bennett, against LSU if they’re so wide open and such reliable receivers, what were their stats against LSU?
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:12 pm
SAmDawg, take the Dawg off your name. You are obviously not a Dawg fan just trolling.
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:13 pm
Smith or Scott are fast, but have no consistent deep ball experience. Teams would love for UGA to have to go to those 2 guys to beat them.
kingdaddy
July 27th, 2012
5:14 pm
Why do they want to put dawg in their name? I know there are a few unhappy fans but nobody’s making them stay around. Plenty of schools looking for fair-weathered fans. Support your team or find a new team. Really simple…
Joey
July 27th, 2012
5:15 pm
You are so right, SamDawg. We may as well cancel every game.
No need to try to play a season with “unproven guys.”
By the way, how do unproven guys become “proven guys?”
Just wondering . . .
LogicalUS
July 27th, 2012
5:15 pm
“UGA does not have a huge problem in it’s secondary”
Look I can appreciate if Richt decides to overlook the actions of his players to suspend them against Buffalo instead of against a teams like Missouri. It would be true to form.
Just mark this post…Got exactly same response last summer when I predicted the huge problems that UGA would have vs Boisey and they all virtually read like your post..
Then it was that a small school would be overmatched, Grantham had a summer to prepare and they had lost all their decent WRs along with so and so was great in Pop Warner ball.
So like last season and with UGA huge problems with early season road games, this game looks to be a disaster in waiting.
kingdaddy
July 27th, 2012
5:16 pm
Jay Rome will make them pay…
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:18 pm
2011 SEC Championship game receiving stats. Charles 4-42 yards, Mitchell 4-32 yards, King 3-59 yards, Conley 3-40 yards. There’s the stats. Yea, Conley was just standing around doing nothing. Also, don’t forget about Jay Rome this year. The coaches said that he could have started for a lot of teams last year. The ONLY reason he was red shirted was because we were stacked at the position.
kingdaddy
July 27th, 2012
5:19 pm
Also we will have a running game. No way to stop this offense…
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:23 pm
LogicalUs, give it up dumba**. If a player is going to receive a one game suspension for something it is usually for the next game. would any coach in America wait to play some tougher opponent then suspend his players? That comment shows how stupid you are. Everyone knows that last year is different than this year. Boise was a team mostly made up of Seniors where UGA had a lot of new starters on defense. We saw how far that defense came along during last season. Now, it is all together for one more year. Off course it didn’t help that our best safety was suspended and one of our best LB’s broke his foot on the first series. Go away and stop showing your stupidity.
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:24 pm
The run game has been between 7th-10th in the SEC last 4 years in a row. We will NOT have a running game, Marshall and Gurley have never blocked a passrusher, Samuel averaged 2.9 yards a carry, Malcome has only scored 1 td in his UGA career. Take Mitchell out, and that leaves 1 consistent deep ball threat, King, double him, cram 8 in the box, and Murray will start panicking.
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:25 pm
Conley–Brown-Bennett, combined for 15 catches in the 4 big games last year against Boise, S Caro, LSU and Mich St. Combined for 3 catches against LSU.
Smitty
July 27th, 2012
5:28 pm
samdawg….so you are saying we go 0-12 you don’t even need to watch the games….Dawgs don;t have a chance …right? gees I thought we were a little better than that.
bham dawg
July 27th, 2012
5:28 pm
If anyone thinks we have a problem in the recieving corp they obviously have no clue what they are talking about. ESPN just ranked our recieving corp 2nd best in the SEC behind tennessee, and they took in account that Mitchell moved to corner.
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:29 pm
SamTroll, take the Dawg off your name. You’re just a trolling dumba**.
Smitty
July 27th, 2012
5:29 pm
SamDawg….I just hope they don’t invite you for team pep talk
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:29 pm
We have no experience at tight end, Lynch or Rome have never caught a pass in agame, or blocked a rushing defender. Neither are proven and Murray has limited timing with either.
bham dawg
July 27th, 2012
5:30 pm
Rantavious Wooten and JSW will be the deep threats along with King. And Bennett doesn’t have the speed but he uses his body so well to shield defenders. Look at the catch in the florida and auburn game got behind the secondary both times and made incredible catches.
Smitty
July 27th, 2012
5:30 pm
way to go keeryb….tell him like it is
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:31 pm
Yea, we just won’t have a passing game. ESPN ranked our receiving corp the second best in the SEC and our QB the second best QB in the SEC. How are we going to be able to pass the ball?
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:31 pm
Our receiving corp of Bennett-Conley-Brown, combined for an average of 1 catch a game vs. Boise—S Caro, LSU and Mich St, anyone who thinks an average of 1 catch a game is 2nd best receiving core in SEC is clueless.
SamDawg
July 27th, 2012
5:32 pm
Actually, ESPN named Murray the 2nd most overrated player in the nation, yesterday, KC Joyner.
Smitty
July 27th, 2012
5:32 pm
samdawg tight ends are the least of our issues
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:32 pm
I’ve also been reading some good things about Marlon Brown. They say that they expect him to have the kind of season we’ve been waiting for him to have. Last year he had a chronic ankle injury and never got on track.
bham dawg
July 27th, 2012
5:32 pm
Jay Rome will be freshman of the year in the SEC
kerryb
July 27th, 2012
5:33 pm
Quit saying OUR or WE’LL. My guess is that you’re just a jealous Tech nerd.