A closer look: Georgia opens spring practice

ATHENS, Ga. -- I had a chance to meet with Georgia coach Mark Richt, first-year defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and several of the players earlier Wednesday The Bulldogs open spring practice on Thursday, and here are few thoughts, notes and other nuggets: Richt said overhauling his defensive staff in the offseason and firing Willie Martinez, John Jancek and Jon Fabris was the most difficult thing he’s ever had to do professionally“I can’t think of anything else that was more gut- wrenching for me -- period,” Richt said. “They’re quality men and quality coaches, too. It just got to the point where I felt a change needed to be made to get where we wanted to go.” Richt said he wasn’t pressured by anyone at Georgia or on the outside to make the move"No, it was strictly my decision," he said.

The feeling around the SEC is that Alabama and Florida have run off and left everybody else in the league. Richt said it’s hard to argue that based on the last two seasons“They did the last couple of years, but this is a new year,” said Richt, wearing his familiar smile“You’ve got to give credit to Florida and Alabama. The last two seasons, they’ve taken it over. But again, it’s a new season. Everybody’s got to prove it again.”

Richt said he doesn’t anticipate coming out of spring practice with a starter at quarterback. Redshirt freshmen Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger will battle junior Logan Gray for the job“The goal is to get the right guy,” Richt said. “ If we can determine that after spring, that would be great to know throughout the summer who that guy is. But I think the chances of that are going to be fairly slim“The thing about the quarterback position as you evaluate it is that you’re not going to be able to play a game with him, because we’re not going to hit that guy. Now, if we decided to make every quarterback ive, we’d probably know a lot more about him at the end of the spring. But it’s not worth taking that risk.” And even when the Bulldogs settle on a starter, Richt said that could change once the games begin“You may think you’ve got your No. 1 and then you start playing the games and you’re on national TV and the bullets are flying,” Richt said. “Sometimes, you’re three, four or five games into it before you get a gut feeling of who it should be or you’re really certain who it should be.” Murray is up to around 210 pounds. His goal is to be at 215 by the time the season gets here. He came to Georgia weighing 195 pounds and said two years of participating in the Bulldogs’ strength and conditioning program has made a huge difference for him“The big thing is being able to take the pounding you take at quarterback in the SEC,” said Murray, who rushed for more than 900 yards as high school junior but only played part of his senior season after breaking his fibula.

Richt said sophomore running back Washaun Ealey has really taken off in the offseason conditioning program and is even faster and quicker than he originally thought.“Washaun will only be better next season,” Richt said. “He will be in much better condition, wil understand much better what we’re trying to do, and he’ll understand what it means to play in the eague.” Ealey was on the receiving end of the now infamous eye-gouging attempt by Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes last season. Ealey maintains that he has no hard feelings against Spikes and even said Spikes wasn’t the first Florida player to try it in last season’s game. Ealey said safety Ahmad Black also stuck his fingers through Ealey’s facemask earlier in the game.“He never got to my eyes,” Ealey said. “Those kind of things happen in emotional games. It’s not something you want to happen, but it does happen.”

As a rule, Grantham thinks the 3-4 defense will allow the Bulldogs to be more balanced against multiple formations. He said the version of the 3-4 the Bulldogs will play is very similar to what Alabama is running under Nick Saban. Grantham worked under Saban at Michigan State “It’s a little bit unusual as far as you can’t always declare who that fourth rusher is,” Grantham said“There are more ways you can easier pressure the quarterback out of the 3-4, I feel like.” One of the first priorities for Grantham as the Bulldogs make the switch from the 4-3 to the 3-4 this spring is evaluating who can actually play the outside inebacker position and who can’t Justin Houston, Cornelius Washington and Montez Robinson will be starting out as outside linebackers“Even though we have some names there, we have to find out who can do it and then the other thing is trying to find our depth in the secondary,” Grantham said. “Who can play different positions?“We’ve got a stack of guys and have to shuffle through them and see who can help us. Maybe some of those inside guys will have to help us at outside linebacker That depth chart is going to change a lot.”

The Bulldogs are particularly thin at cornerback, and it’s no secret that they will need to stay healthy there. One guy to watch is redshirt freshman Jordan Love who has looked good in mat drills. He had an injured foot last season. Grantham said sophomore Sanders Commings would also work at cornerback this spring. Junior college newcomer Jakar Hamilton, who’s already on campus, is a good bet to be one of the Bulldogs’ starting safeties in 2010. Grantham has really been impressed by what Hamilton has done during the offseason program, and sophomore cornerback Brandon Boykin said Hamilton is somebody he’s eager to see on the practice field beginning Thursday“We’ve been doing passing drills, and he’s looking good,” Boykin said. “I can’t wait to see him when we get the pads on. He’s getting it in the film room as well.” One of the things Georgia defensive end Demarcus Dobbs likes about the switch to the 3-4 is that he feels ike it’s going to free him up to make more plays“From the things we’ve been watching on film, there’s more freedom,” Dobbs said. “It’s more attack, attack attack, and you’re not sitting back. I’m excited to see what it’s going to look like when we get out there.”

First look at spring practice


A few tidbits from our first look at spring practice...

-- I think I'm going to be a big fan of Todd Grantham's style on the practice fields. Great enthusiasm, distinctive voice... a rare glimpse of entertainment during what are usually pretty monotonous drills. My favorite part? He didn't like the energy the players showed breaking the huddle before a drill, so he sent them back to do it again. "Get back in that huddle and do it right this time!" Good stuff.

-- Enjoyed Tony Ball talking to A.J. Green after he ran through one drill: "A.J. Green," Ball said. "Remember that stance. I like it. Did it feel explosive? I really liked it." Personally, I didn't notice anything special about the stance, but then again, everything A.J. does is pretty impressive.

-- Another enjoyable moment: Mark Richt tried to cover Tavarres King on one drill. It didn't end well for the head coach.

-- A good quote from Warren Belin as he worked with his guys at the start of practice: "Get used to these positions, boys. That's how you're going to be setting up as long as you're here."

-- The top four LBs working in the ILB group were Akeem Dent, Darryl Gamble, Marcus Dowtin and Akeem Hebron, along with Christian Robinson and Mike Gilliard.

-- Grantham's group at OLB included, as expected, Richard Samuel, Montez Robinson, Cornelius Washington and Justin Houtson.

-- A few more players in green that we were led to believe, although nothing that looked too serious. Kwame Geathers wore green and was riding the stationary bike for most of our time out on the fields. Kiante Tripp was in a green jersey and sweatpants and appeared to be walking pretty gingerly. Brandon Wood was also in green and jogging along the sidelines. Marlon Brown and Israel Troupe had green jerseys on, too, but appeared to be practicing fully.

(*And don't quote me on all of that, as for many of those guys, I was going strictly by uniform number, and there were a handful of walk-ons out there that meant numbers were doubled up. I'll be checking in with Richt after practice on any injuries.)

-- Ran into former Bulldog CJ Byrd out at practice, too. Beyond looking like he was ready to suit up himself, he said he just started grad school at UGA, too.

-- Oh and a few number updates in case you're curious: Washaun Ealey is rocking the No. 3; Mike Gilliard has taken over Rennie's No. 35; And while Lebron may not want it, Jakar "Hit Man" Hamilton is more than happy with 23.

Practice Notes: Speed Bumps for D on Day 1

Coming off the practice field, linebackers Darryl Gamble and Akeem Dent chatted about how much more they needed to learn before they’d be ready to fully deploy Georgia’s new 3-4 defensive scheme. They felt lost for much of the Bulldogs’ first day of spring practice.

Coming off that same field, tailback Caleb King complained to teammate Nick Williams that Georgia’s 3-4 was going to be tough to compete against in practice this season. Despite any confusion among the defensive players, King was sufficiently impressed.

All in all, it was much what players and coaches were hoping for – a day in which players learned a lot, while at the same time finding some perspective on how much farther they had to go.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been playing football, and the first day was a little rusty, but we didn’t really have that many mental errors,” said rising junior DeAngelo Tyson, who is adjusting to the new nose position on the defensive line. “So once we continue learning, we can play faster and have fun while we’re out there.”

Playing faster will be the long-term goal. In the immediate future, Justin Houston expects a bit more confusion.

A week ago, he was pretty confident that the Bulldogs would be able to execute the defense quickly after the team studied the 3-4 scheme on film – watching new defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s former Dallas Cowboys players run plays. Now that Houston has had his first chance to execute the defense on the field, he’s backtracking a bit on that enthusiasm.

“There was a lot of stopping and looking around,” Houston said. “It’s not as easy as it looks on film. Those guys in the pros make it look easy.”

While the adjustment may not be quite as smooth as Houston and his teammates initially predicted, that doesn’t mean they aren’t excited about the changes.

“This is just a fun defense to play in,” said Williams, who is moving from linebacker to safety. “You’re running around making plays. You’re not just assigned to one gap. You’re making plays. You never know who’s blitzing, the safeties are always running and moving around. It’s fun.”

ENERGY HIGH ON PRACTICE FIELD

Tight end Orson Charles said he woke up a few times during the night Wednesday with some pre-practice jitters. Each time, his roommate, quarterback Aaron Murray, was awake, too.

“We woke up and were like, boy I’m nervous and excited. We wanted to see what the coaches were going to say and just be out on the field once again,” Charles said. “That’s everybody. Everybody came out and was nervous to be back in pads, the defense had a new scheme and didn’t know what to expect. But it was very good. It was exciting.”

It may have been nervous excitement, but by the time the players and coaches got onto the field, it was simply enthusiasm about playing football again.

In his first day of practice, Grantham barked orders at his new defensive players – even making them re-do a drill when he was displeased with how the team broke the huddle. New linebackers coach Warren Belin and secondary coach Scott Lakatos made similar points during Day 1 of spring practice, and head coach Mark Richt said his new staff looked as if it had been working together for years.

“I got a chance to walk around the field a little bit and observe our new coaches do their job,” Richt said. “They were all very locked in, very decisive about what they were doing, they all looked as if they’d been working together for quite some time.”

While the finer points still left much to be desired during drills, Richt said the enthusiasm was strong, and that was all he could ask during the first practice of the spring.

“The thing I enjoyed the most was there was just a lot of energy out there, a lot of enthusiasm out there,” Richt said. “Guys were moving around quickly, coaches doing a good job of barking out instructions, and guys really working hard to do what coach says.”

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

While Georgia’s defensive players were busy learning new schemes, Thursday’s practice also marked the first day without some old leaders.

The Bulldogs are replacing six starters from last year’s defense, with linebacker Rennie Curran perhaps the most notable absence. But while Curran wasn’t there to help his former teammates through the first day of drills, linebacker Marcus Dowtin said he was there in spirit.

“Rennie set a foundation since he’s been here amongst the linebacker corps, showing them how to act and the right things to do and the people to meet and how to practice,” Dowtin said. “That’s just rubbed off on us and we’re just taking it from there. So it really hasn’t been like he hasn’t been here. We’ve taken what he’s taught us and used it to our best advantage.”

EXTRA POINTS

Here are a few more quotes that may pique your interest from Day 1 of practice...

Mark Richt on the Houston & Washington at OLB…
“A couple of guys who were excited about pass (drills) were Justin Houston and Cornelius Washington. … Now all of a sudden they’re in these passing drills they’ve never been in before.”

Houston on dropping into coverage...
“It was pretty much the same. I’m just standing up playing defensive end, just have to drop back every now and then. I like to drop back. I get tired of just banging all the time.”

Nick Williams on Todd Grantham...
"His personality, his intensity, it's like he's playing. He's coaching, but it's like he's out there playing with us. You can tell he's from The League, and you can tell he's used to coaching grown men. I like it."

AND HALE'S TAKE

Here's a quick question posted anonymously: "In your past observations of practice, do you recall Willie ever sending the players back to the huddle to do it correctly?"

We don't get to see a ton of practice, so I can't say how much more intense Grantham was than any of the previous coaches. And as I've written before, Willie was a scary guy out on the practice field, so his lack of intensity is vastly overstated.

Having said that… This is about as excited as I've seen the players after practice in a long time. I know that doesn't mean much on Day 1 -- particularly with spring break starting immediately -- but I talked to Orson Charles after we did interviews and he still had a giant smile on his face and couldn't stop talking about the energy and enthusiasm out on the field.

Obviously it remains to be seen how long that lasts, but all reports are that it was a good first day.

I went ahead and stickied this for you guys. Thanks for the updates. I'll try to have some sitewide spring updates this week if I have some extra time.

I went ahead and stickied this for you guys. Thanks for the updates. I'll try to have some sitewide spring updates this week if I have some extra time.

Thanks shank.