Georgia Football: Bulldogs Conclude Spring Practice

Mark Richt, Photo by Danny Bishop

The Georgia football team wrapped up spring practice on Thursday with a 90-minute session on the Woodruff Practice Fields.

The Bulldogs typically complete spring practice with the G-Day Game, which was held last Saturday. However, inclement weather forced postponement of two of the 15 practices, giving Georgia the chance to go on Tuesday and Thursday this week.

“Well, spring is over,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “Now, we’ll move into the next phase, which is exit meetings, coaches getting on the road recruiting, the players finishing up strong academically and basically just getting ready for the summer months.”

Richt said the Bulldogs have developed depth at positions, meaning players are having to battle for starting jobs and playing time.

“There’s a lot of competition right now, and I think that’s really good,” Richt said. “If you’re working out this summer thinking you’ve nailed something down, you’d better recheck your thinking. We’ll have 29 practices in the fall, and it will take 20 of them before we decide who will start across the board.

“Coming out of this spring, we still don’t know who will play where and who will start. We have a good idea who is getting ready. But in terms of starting positions, I can’t think of a year where we’ve had more uncertainty. I feel like we’ve got the right ingredients and the right talent base. It’s just a matter of who wins it and if they’re mature enough to play well early enough with the way the season begins.”

A prime example, Richt said, is on the offensive line.

“It’s not a question of, do we have enough we have enough?” Richt said. “A year ago, we were hoping for five to be able to line up. Now, we’ve got more guys and it becomes, which five will it be? We’ve got six, seven, eight, maybe nine guys who can play.”

Richt said it also was fortuitous that the Bulldogs had 13 members of their signing class enroll early enough to go through spring drills.

“That was very big,” Richt said. “I don’t know what kind of spring it would have been without them here. It would have been tough. We needed them in here and it was important that they were here. I’m glad the class was broken up. It was good for us in terms of managing the class and it was big for them in terms of earning credits toward graduation and learning the system.”

Asked what he expects when the Bulldogs reconvene this summer to start pre-season camp, Richt answered, “Intensity.”

“I know we will have a bunch of guys who will work hard to try to earn jobs and who want to play fast,” Richt said. “But until we start playing another team, we don’t know how good we are. It’s just hard to tell.”

Georgia will open the season Aug. 31 at Clemson. The game will kick off at 8 p.m. and will be televised by ABC.