Georgia Football has a chance this week to blood some youth

Opportunity to build depth on the OL:

Watching Cade Mays blow through South Carolina last week has to make UGA fans feel good. They saw their potential All-SEC tackle Andrew Thomas go down to injury at yet Mays stepped in and played well. Was he as good as Thomas? No, of course not, but his nasty run blocking sure did work well in the third quarter.

Thomas has been diagnosed with an ankle sprain although we don’t know how bad it is. I don’t think I would play him even if he said he was fully fit this week. The Dawgs don’t need him to beat Middle Tennessee and it’s important for their season for him to get healthy.

That means that we can expect to see Mays at left tackle again this game. I would also expect to see several other young offensive linemen see plenty of time as well. Thomas’s injury is a reminder that depth does need to be built at that position group. UGA has a lot of young talent there, but they do need some seasoning going into the rest of the season.

I’ll be looking for Trey Hill to get some snaps both at center and right guard in the second half. I would also like to see Jamaree Salyer get a bit more work in this week. Salyer has all of the talent to become a force at guard, but he does need some more reps to keep getting better. This game would be the perfect opportunity to see exactly what he can do.