Practice notes: Focus on freshmen kickers, Theus update, and more
ATHENS -- The first of Georgia’s two practices Tuesday was devoted to special teams, where the Bulldogs’ kicking game is in transition with freshmen Marshall Morgan and Collin Barber seeking to establish themselves as the placekicker and punter, respectively.
“They’re good. They’ve got leg strength. They’ve got everything you could want in a freshman kicker and punter,” said Ty Frix, Georgia’s senior long snapper, who worked with Morgan and Barber three or four days a week all summer. “But with everything, they’re freshmen; we’ve still got to keep working and maximize the next three weeks to get where we need to be.”
Blair Walsh was Georgia’s placekicker the past four seasons and Drew Butler its punter the past three. Walsh and Butler now are in NFL training camps with the Vikings and Steelers, respectively.
Freshmen “are not going to come in and fill those shoes right away, but they’re darn good, both of them,” Frix said of Morgan, who is from Fort Lauderdale, and Barber, from Cartersville.
At Tuesday morning’s closed practice, Morgan made about 75 percent of his field-goal attempts, according to Richt, who noted “in a drill like that, you always want to hit them all.”
“I thought our extra points and field goals were not where they need to be yet,” Richt said. “… There was a little inconsistency there, not as deadly accurate as you’d want. A lot of it is just getting used to going full speed with live pressure and a new holder and just being in Sanford Stadium.”
It was the Bulldogs’ first practice held in the stadium this preseason.
Senior Jamie Lindley, a walk-on who has been in the program for four years, also kicked, Richt said.
Barber showed “some outstanding hang time” on his punts, Richt said.
Jarvis Jones tests Theus
Highly regarded freshman offensive tackle John Theus has been going up against Jarvis Jones, the All-American linebacker, in practice.
“I’m trying to make it my business to have him ready from Day 1,” Jones said. “… He’s doing great. He’s young, but he’s definitely learning.”
(Note: Between practices Tuesday, Jones also had some interesting comments about his decision not to enter this year’s NFL draft and about the future. Click here for that.)
Richt said Theus “is right there in that battle” for a starting job.
“John has not gotten to the point where we’re going to name him the starter yet, but I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s going to play,” Richt said. “And he knows that.”
Scrimmage on Wednesday
Georgia will hold its first scrimmage of the preseason Wednesday morning in Sanford Stadium. The scrimmage will be closed to the public and, except for the warmup portion, closed to the media.
The competition at tailback among veterans Richard Samuel and Ken Malcome and freshmen Keith Marshall and Todd Gurley will continue to play out.
“I’m not too worried about the depth chart at tailback after the scrimmage. I’m really mostly just concerned how many of these guys can get ready to play SEC football,” Richt said. “I know Richard can. I know Ken can.
“The other two, we’ve got to just see how ready they’ll be. I’m already convinced they both can run the ball. They seem to have outstanding habits as far as their ball security. But they’re still learning how to pass-protect. No matter how many drills you put them in … the scrimmages are the best gauge of how ready they are.”
Veterans on special teams
Jones said he is currently working on the punt-coverage team, and senior safety Shawn Williams said he wants to play on “all” of the special teams.
This is a reflection of Richt’s plan, declared in the spring, to use more veteran players on special teams.
“In the past, you’d say, ‘Hey, if your heart is not in it, don’t get on the [special] team.’ You want guys whose heart is in it,” Richt said Tuesday. “But this year, we’re saying, ‘If you don’t want to be on a special team, you change your heart to get where you want to be on a special team.’”
Etc.
Cornerback Damian Swann was in a green non-contact jersey at Tuesday afternoon’s practice because of a neck sprain. . . . . Offensive lineman Chris Burnette returned to practice after missing two days (illness). . . . Defensive end Abry Jones (knee contusion) resumed practice, while DE Ray Drew (concussion) remained sidelined. . . . Outside linebacker Dexter Morant was out with a right shoulder sprain. . . . Safety Shawn Williams has high goals for his senior season. “I want to be an All-American,” he said, adding that his goals include leading the SEC in interceptions… . Richt said coaches are looking at “a bunch” of potential punt returners, including Malcolm Mitchell, Branden Smith, Bacarri Rambo, Swann and Rhett McGowan. On kickoff returns, coaches are looking at Smith, Mitchell, Justin Scott-Wesley, Marshall and Gurley, according to Richt.
RECENT REPORTS FROM UGA FOOTBALL PRACTICES:
- Jarvis Jones wants to ’seize the moment’
- UGA changes policy on injury info
- Rodney Garner talks roster management, Penn State and recruiting character
- Malcolm Mitchell all-defense for now, but double-duty starts soon
- Georgia clears Branden Smith to play in opening game
- Aaron Murray spends summer honing craft with football’s finest
- The Kolton Houston case
- The top five priorities of preseason camp
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167 comments Add your comment
UGA 2012 SEC CHAMPS
August 8th, 2012
8:38 am
Tide Roll you are an idiot and stop idolizing young black boys that play football at Bammer.
Tide Roll
August 8th, 2012
8:40 am
Thank goodness your center is only 5″11″. Your 5′11″ qb won’t have trouble seeing over him. Now it maks sense.
dawgfan
August 8th, 2012
8:44 am
“I’m already convinced they both can run the ball. They seem to have outstanding habits as far as their ball security. But they’re still learning how to pass-protect.”
So in other words, even though they are perfectly capable of running the ball and even though we are in desperate need of a running game they are going to be wasting away on the sidelines until they can learn to pass protect. What a waste. I’ve never understood this. We lost a year of Knowshon Moreno because of this thinking. Running backs run the ball. Offensive linemen, fullbacks and tight ends can do the blocking. Why are we relying on tailbacks to do so much blocking in the first place? Its all about the QB in this offense. Herschel freaking Walker wouldn’t see any playing time in this offense if he couldn’t pass protect. Its absolutely absurd.
Thanks.
Tampa Gator
August 8th, 2012
8:45 am
JB….
The main focus of my general posts on this article has been about playing freshmen as starters on a SEC OL…as not being a good roster status thing for a given SEC program. But I do speak directly to some posters that do respond to my posts….and many do…..FYI. I usually try to avoid speaking back to those who just want to throw out insults, etc. I prefer intelligent, college football and college football recruiting on line conversations. But….those are hard to find on here for sure. SEC Fact Finder is one…..and there are others….WDE…..for example.
Tide Roll's Tutor
August 8th, 2012
8:50 am
Some may wonder why a tutor would call out the tutoree publicly, thinking it would maybe embarrass him. Well, how embarrassed do you think I am, when after all this tutoring, Tide Roll is still publicly posting drivel? The gloves are off, Tide Roll, as long as I am tutoring you, and you are putting out unreasoned rants in the public domain, I will call you out in public.
Mini-lesson 1 for today: For board purposes, you are a “Bama fan.” Therefore, you should not be getting upset over what you think are negative happenings in Athens. That is for UGA fans to fret about. Any problems UGA has is good for Bama. Got it? Its not that hard, but it does require some logical thinking.
Mini-lesson 2: For Bama fans it was/is a good thing that James Carpenter and Chance Warmack left the state to play for the Tide. From your posts, the average reader would think you were royally ticked off that they did not go to UGA. Keep this up, and some people may get the idea you are not a real “Bama fan.”
JB
August 8th, 2012
8:51 am
hum, I would of swore the topic story was UGA Sports practice notes. I’ll go back and reread it.
JB
August 8th, 2012
8:53 am
Maybe the writer took out Bama and Gator practice notes since the original story came out this morning?
DawginLex
August 8th, 2012
8:56 am
Shutup tide roll you pathetic racist idiot Tech fan
Just shut your piehole
Your OL evaluation from last year still rings in my ears:
“It will be the best OL ever in Athens.”
Why?
Because you thought having black guys outnumber white guys on the OL would make it good.
I guess Grambling has the best OL in America huh?
Just shutup
DawginLex
August 8th, 2012
8:59 am
Tampa
Theus is good. Theus has great technique. Theus is coachable. Theus is manchild big.
Sturdivant started as a freshman and plowed people.
Nowadays, it is a luxury to redshirt freshmen and while it would be great to do, the reality is this kid can play and I’m not sure he would redshirt even if we were real deep on the OL.
Tide Roll's Tutor
August 8th, 2012
9:00 am
Let’s do a “carrot and stick” approach. The stick was the above post where I called Tide Roll out. The carrot is this: Put together a couple of thoughtful reasoned posts, and maybe I can arrange for you to attend a Tech practice(not for certain), then chow down at the Varsity afterwards.
Tide Roll, you would be in hog heaven, so to speak, as I understand Tech is 4 deep in black quarterbacks. How can you top that?
All you have to do, is meet the contingencies above.
Mudcat's Impala....
August 8th, 2012
9:00 am
Since we do not get any opponent info on this blog…
FWIW…Mizzou is having serious OL injury issues…(echo’s of UGA ‘08)
1. Starting TE Waters reinjured his surgically repaired knee. Severity unknown.
2. Starting LG Ruth’s injury is a torn tricep. Will have surgery…he’s out for season. A walkon has been named the starter.
3. 2nd string RT Chappelle who has been filling in for starter Britt (whose out with a foot fracture) has torn his ACL…he’s out for the season…
Their offensive line is really taking some serious hits…
DawginLex
August 8th, 2012
9:02 am
Tutor
Paul Johnson has a restraining order against tide roll.
He tried to crash the fish fry 3 years ago
AltamahaDawg
August 8th, 2012
9:06 am
dawgfan, surely you have watched enough UGA football, to have seen the many example of how a blown pass protection by a freshman RB can and HAS cost us ballgames in the past. Even so, Richt has had a long history of playing freshman Rb all the time, despite always making the obvious and simple comment that they need to know what to do out there.
Perhaps, the reason you never understood this is because you are mistaking what he said. He never said a thing about blocking, as in what a Lineman does. He is talking about picking up a blitzing LB, who will at best blow up the play (in which case, what does it matter who is on the bench), and at worst, rip our starting QB head off.
And we did NOT lose a year of Knowshon Moreno because of that. I would be glad to debate that, if you really believe it.
CHDawg
August 8th, 2012
9:11 am
The whole argument about true freshmen not being able to help a team win a championship should be laughed to scorn here–’Ole number 34 comes to mind. Many would argue that it takes a few great freshmen to make it happen. They do make a difference.
JB
August 8th, 2012
9:16 am
Tampa Gator writes that his main focus on this article is about play freshman……But in his 8:24 he tells us that out OL line will be our downfall this year and that frankly, we can’t hold a candle to LSU or Bama……………That is a direct insult to our program……….And frankly, it’s nice to see the Gators sitting in the back of the bus and a after thought with the National press. I know it’s tough adjusment for them. They use to tell us that all we did was “talk” about what we were gonna do. Lot of talk coming out from that program now.
AltamahaDawg
August 8th, 2012
9:19 am
KNowshon was lost in the playbook, not in the best of shape, and sitting 4th string behind THREE future NFL RB’s. Not to mention, it was almost certain we were going to have a Freshman QB in there pretty early in the season, who didn’t always know what he was doing either.
It was very late in his RS year before you even heard who KNowshon Moreno was.
And a guy leaving after playing 2 years is the rare exception, not the rule. If anything RS’ing Moreno was to GAIN a year on not waste one. The decision to redshirt him was never about keeping a freshman over on the bench wasting away because he can’t “block” as good as a Linemena or TE. Its was the obvious and correct thing to do in the circumstance of our RBs that year. It would be today too. It will be 5 yrs from now.
RxDawg
August 8th, 2012
9:25 am
Sounding good. If we can keep those injuries down and learn how to run the football some then look out!
Wallace Butts
August 8th, 2012
9:27 am
Tide Troll and JB are having a love fest.
CHDawg
August 8th, 2012
9:35 am
Tide Roll has always impressed me as having been rejected by CMR in some way. Maybe UGA passed over one of his relatives for a line scholly offer, or maybe he wasn’t hired for a job, but his deep resentment of CMR is barely under the surface of 100% of his posts.
DawginLex
August 8th, 2012
9:35 am
Game Changer
August 8th, 2012
7:22 am
J Jones is now coaching the o line for UGA? This article reeks of what is wrong in athens ga.
No Worries = the new drug policies are now effective making marijuana legal for UGA players on a daily basis:
th-UGA’S win another issue inside Butts Mehre —– BMIOF
******************************
In a long list of dumb statements made by you, this ranks at the top of the list
AltamahaDawg
August 8th, 2012
9:36 am
JB, I do not believe Theus would be RS in any circumstance. He might not be so immediately “needed” or pushing to start day one, but from all accounts this guy is an eventual starting OL on any team in the nation, and no way does he not get at least some PT his first year.
We needed OL last year too, and still the guys that weren’t ready got RS’ed, so this is probably a poor example to use of not doing thier job correctly.
JB
August 8th, 2012
9:37 am
Wallace………”our” check cleared to the Hartman fund and “our” diploma from 1976 is on the wall. Just tired of mixed results over a 3-4 year period by this staff. Just my opinion. Lot’s of them more direct than me on here on the shortcomings.
Mobile Dawg
August 8th, 2012
9:38 am
I’m not surprised that ST’s were made up of mostly volunteers, Mark Richt has always been a CEO that managed by concensus. This philosophy could work if he were surrounded by competent people. A CEO has to learn to make tough decisions if that’s not their natural temperament. Richt’s pattern has been to make a tough decision, after the fact, only when pretty much forced to do so.
dawgfan
August 8th, 2012
9:40 am
Mark Richt himself said that he regretted redshirting Knowshon. Nuff said there.
“dawgfan, surely you have watched enough UGA football, to have seen the many example of how a blown pass protection by a freshman RB can and HAS cost us ballgames in the past.”
I sure have. I’ve also watched enough college football to know that great teams don’t put themselves in a position where a blown pass protection by a freshman RB, or any RB for that matter, costs them ballgames. I question the wisdom of an offense where that is even an issue. That’s my point. Sure, running backs have to block sometimes. I get that. But saying that their inability to block costs us ball games isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of Richt and Bobo’s offensive philosophy. That shouldn’t happen.
bucket
August 8th, 2012
9:42 am
If Houston’s issues had been resolved, Theus would not be vying for a starting spot from Day 1. However, there was no way Theus was being redshirted this year regardless of who was available. But I do remember the last time UGA rolled into Jacksonville, FL with a true freshman tackle as being a great day for UGA! Maybe history repeats itself!
JB
August 8th, 2012
9:43 am
AltamahaDawg…………Pretty obvious that Richt and Company have not recruited “numbers wise” in the area of OL very well. You would think they would correct it….and till last week when that JC player committed, we only had 3 OL commits out of like 22. This paper reported last week that the Dawgs ( Can’t use our anymore) will sign 34 with 10 or so coming in early. Hope we get 4 or 5 more OL.
JB
August 8th, 2012
9:48 am
We will have 3 less scholarship players than Southern Cal this year, the most heavy hit team of player reductions this side of D1 teams this side of Penn St. Guess that’s the fans fault….or the police, or Dr Adams or maybe the weather……. Giving walkons scholarships is a feel good story, but won’t help win many games in the SEC in the fourth quarter.
Wallace Butts
August 8th, 2012
9:51 am
JB – if you have been sending checks to the Hartman Fund since 1976, you have most certainly seen poor performance during that stretch. So why are you bashing the current staff who have produced a higher winning percentage than all the other coaches during that period?
Good fans support their team during good and bad, so I am left to assume that you have long stretches of being a fan of other teams (because even the mighty Bama program has had the same stretches of poor performance).
1eyedJack
August 8th, 2012
9:52 am
dawgfan, if we had Herschel in the backfield he wouldn’t need to know how to pass protect, and neither would our linemen.
AltamahaDawg
August 8th, 2012
9:53 am
No he didn’t. Richt jokes about a lot of stuff at his own expence. That’s his style. Not to mention, he was obviously asked about that in hindsight. It was the right call, the only call, at the time.
I don’t really know where you are now going with all that what “great teams” do arguments. I know that was not your point, or at least it was not what you were saying, back there.
I stand by my opinion that mentioning that our RB havent’t quite managed to learn everything there is to know, 4 days into camp, is hardly “in other words…..they are going to be wasting away on the sidelines”.
As I pointed out, that certainly has never been true before.
Mobile Dawg
August 8th, 2012
9:53 am
I read that so far nine Penn State players had left the program for other schools, two were OL.
Kerryb
August 8th, 2012
9:55 am
Did anyone see what happened to Missou yesterday? They had two starting O-linemen go down in a scrimmage yesterday. Their LG went down with a torn tricep muscle and their RT went down with an ACL. Their backup at LG is a walk-on and a true Freshman. Their RT is backed up by a redshirt Sophmore. Our front seven will be running through them all night.
Kerryb
August 8th, 2012
9:56 am
I guess we should hold our breath. We have a scrimmage that starts in 5 minutes.
Mobile Dawg
August 8th, 2012
9:58 am
Amen on the 9:56. We’ve been there before. Hopefully not again.
AltamahaDawg
August 8th, 2012
9:58 am
Well first off, We have 19 Olinemen on the roster. “numbers wise”. And look back over the years and see how many OL are recuited by various schools. 3-6 is typical. So the numbers argument does not hold water. Number are not the issue.
But I wasn’t making that point. You said Theus would RS if Richt had done his job. That is simply false.
Mobile Dawg
August 8th, 2012
10:00 am
Altamaha, how many of those on our roster were “recruits” vs walk ons? Just asking, I don’t know?
JB
August 8th, 2012
10:00 am
Wallace, I have watched Florida win 2 titles, LSU,Bama(2) and Auburn win one while this state has more talent and this program has more money than most etc etc……..I’m stunned by people who won’t look past the shortcomings of this staff ( and yes, I’ve met Mark, like him, respect him etc) but we aren’t sniffing one…and won’t. Most of this staff could not get a job at a FOOTBALL POWER school if let go. If it take 10 things for a coach to win one, Mark has about 7 of them.I’m mad because I used to show up and think we could beat anyone we played. I can’t say that now. And yes, the next guy might be worse, but college football coach’s are fired right and left every year FOR NOT WINNING. 10 wins and an Orlando bowl is the satisfaction mode most Dawg fans have landed in. I just don’t think Mark can get us there. 11 years is a long time with all the assets at his disposal
AltamahaDawg
August 8th, 2012
10:01 am
Don’t worry guy. We have been told for several years now by the locals, that no amount of critical injuries could possible affect a team’s season in any way.
injury bug starts today!
August 8th, 2012
10:06 am
Yep I expect some depletion in our roster beginnig today because of our fledging ineptness of our coaching staff with injuries. That for some strange reason UGA seems to get more than our share when uga dons the full pads every year. Stay tuned for more excuses.
Mobile Dawg
August 8th, 2012
10:06 am
I would think JB’s statement that his check has cleared would be enough to know that he’s supported the program, and anyone has the right to speak their mind. I don’t consider it bashing the program if you speak the truth.
Where is ..........
August 8th, 2012
10:07 am
A couple of years ago true frosh LB/DE TJ STRIPLING really blew out his knee vs Colorado. How is he doing? Last season, he took a red shirt year and so, with the training the conditioning, he ought to be around 275 now and healthy. I was looking forward to him playing for UGA.
How is TJ STRIPLING?
Go Dogs.
JB
August 8th, 2012
10:07 am
And think about the comments made the last 2-4 years when we go to play Kentucky and Vandy. We act like we going to play the Packers and hope we can stay on the field with them. Where the Hell did that come from?
injury bug starts today!
August 8th, 2012
10:08 am
Altamaha is correct…numbers aint the issue , its the quality which we aint got due to this coaching staff and CMR!
JB
August 8th, 2012
10:10 am
Thanks Mobile. Hell, I’m mad because everyone is not mad. We lost the only 4 games that really counted last year outside of Tech, and someone give me a signature win in the last three seasons.
Kerryb
August 8th, 2012
10:10 am
Where is ……….
August 8th, 2012
10:07 am
A couple of years ago true frosh LB/DE TJ STRIPLING really blew out his knee vs Colorado. How is he doing? Last season, he took a red shirt year and so, with the training the conditioning, he ought to be around 275 now and healthy. I was looking forward to him playing for UGA.
How is TJ STRIPLING?
Go Dogs.
______________________________________________________
The reports I’ve seen is that Stripling is up to about 260 lbs and is 100 percent healthy. I saw some pictures of him at practice and he looks a lot bigger. All the reports say that he is looking really good.
AltamahaDawg
August 8th, 2012
10:10 am
Not sure. I counted a few of them,that I didn’t recall knowing/reading much about (not that I am really the word on that). But (i think) IF we recently added some walk-on just to bump the number up, they would be in addition to the 19 I was counting.
I do see at least a 12, 15 maybe, that I would think are 1-2-3 deep type guys. IMHO.
The problem is that our starters are not a bunch of 3L guys. But raw number is not the issue.
Mobile Dawg
August 8th, 2012
10:11 am
We were laughed at locally here in Mobile yesterday. Apparently Sports Ilustrated is writing an article about the “curse on the SEC” showing the Dawgs, Alabama, and LSU on the cover with voodoo pins sticking in us. The butt of the joke was why is Georgia on the cover. Maybe that changes, but i’m not convinced.
Kerryb
August 8th, 2012
10:11 am
JB
August 8th, 2012
10:10 am
Thanks Mobile. Hell, I’m mad because everyone is not mad. We lost the only 4 games that really counted last year outside of Tech, and someone give me a signature win in the last three seasons.
___________________________________________________________
Quit worrying about the past. Every indication I’ve been hearing is that this will be a big season for us. The team has been working really hard in the off season and is completely focused on the goal.
JB
August 8th, 2012
10:13 am
OK, I’m done.. Let’s go 14-0 and shock the world.
Kerryb
August 8th, 2012
10:16 am
JB, I saw an interview with Jarvis Jones and he said the Crowell thing caught most of the players by surprise. They said that he had been working hard all off season and was focused and becoming a leader. After it happened Jones and some of the guys that came back instead of going to the NFL got the guys together and told them that they did not come back for this kind of stuff to happen and ruin their season. It sounds like the leaders on this team are going to hold team mates accountable to them if they screw up.