Category: UGA Football

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

When the Georgia football team is off this Saturday, outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari plans to head home to Marietta, Ga., for some family time and some relaxing hours spent watching the games on TV.

The 6-foot-3 and 240-pound junior leads the fourth-ranked Bulldogs with 6.0 tackles for loss, including 3.0 sacks. During a Quick Chat after practice Tuesday, Ojulari talked about putting last week’s loss at Alabama behind him, enjoying the Saturday off, Halloween and much more.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

Frierson: How quickly can you move on from the previous week’s game, whether it’s a win or a loss? Over the years have you developed a way to put it in the rearview mirror and move forward?

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The Georgia Bulldogs conducted a two-hour practice Wednesday, Oct. 28, in preparation for Southeastern Conference opponent Kentucky, in Lexington, Ky.

Georgia travels to Kentucky to face the Wildcats on Saturday, Oct. 31. Kickoff is set for 12:00 p.m., ET on the SEC Network. Before practice, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart participated in the SEC Football Weekly Media Teleconference. Following practice, Tre’ McKitty and Trey Hill offered these comments on the contest with Kentucky.

Selected comments from Smart and the student-athletes follow:

Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement
“Our guys are practicing hard. I thought we’ve had a good couple of days getting ready and prepared for what’s often a physical game, like we play all year. These guys are really big up front and do a great job across both offensive and defensive lines, especially in the power running game and as they have been for a while—the quarterback run game. We’re getting ready for the Kentucky Wildcats, ready to go.”

On how he gets a defense ready and prepared to face different style programs…
“In terms of defense, we just try to improve on fundamentals. We took the off week and just really tried to work on block protection, tackling, a lot of circuit work. It’s not really scheme, it’s more being able to execute at a high level and tackle people. You don’t get a chance to do that very often so we try to work really hard on that. This week, we worked on all the different things they do. They create a lot of issues in their run game, and they’ve got really athletic quarterbacks that can hurt you when they break out of the pockets and things.”

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By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Not only did former Georgia baseball player Alex Wood help the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 2020 World Series on Tuesday night, pitching two perfect innings with three strikeouts, he also kept alive a streak every Bulldogs fan will love.

In February, former Georgia football receiver Mecole Hardman capped off an excellent rookie season in the NFL by helping the Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV, beating San Francisco 31-20 in Miami. Hardman had three kickoff returns, a 2-yard reception and a rush in the Chiefs’ victory.

Earlier this month, from the NBA’s bubble at Disney World in Orlando, former Bulldog basketball standout Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 17 points in the Los Angeles Lakers’ NBA title-clinching victory, 106-93, over the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

When the Dodgers got the final out of their 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 6 of the World Series, playing in Arlington, Texas, that meant that a former Georgia Bulldog was one of the champions in each of the big three American team sports — no other school in the country had a former player on all three title winners in 2020.

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Game & Broadcast Info

On Saturday, Georgia will make its second appearance of the season on the SEC Network. The Bulldogs traveled to Fayetteville, Ark., and took down Arkansas 37-10 during UGA’s first appearance on the SECN this season. While Georgia did not appear on the SECN at all in 2019, the team played on the network three times in 2018 (Vanderbilt, Massachusetts, Georgia Tech).

Also on SECN this week will be a re-air of the 1980 Georgia vs. South Carolina game as part of a year-long celebration of the 1980 National Championship. This game will air on Tuesday, October 27th beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET. The following week Georgia fans can watch the re-broadcast of the 1980 Georgia vs. Florida game and later in the season the 1980 Georgia vs. Notre Dame National Championship game will be shown. The SECN will be showing our 1980 S Carolina game on Tuesday, October 27 in the 10p-midnight window.

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Included below are comments from head coach Kirby Smart and defensive linemen Travon Walker and Malik Herring following practice Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Head coach Kirby Smart (Full transcript)
On the progress of his offensive line this season and whether he plans to shuffle any players around…
“In spurts, we have played better. Certainly, the production has been better. I think they are a little more comfortable. I can’t really explain the Arkansas game other than we didn’t move guys and didn’t execute really well. It turned into a passing game it seemed like—we threw it a lot. There wasn’t a lot of run-game there in the second half. I thought they did some good things in each game. We have some guys that have played, between Trey [Hill], Ben [Cleveland] and Jamaree [Salyer]. They’ve played a lot of football, even [Justin] Shaffer has played a lot of football for us around here. They are playing at a better level, probably not what we need in terms of being elite, but they work hard each day. We shuffle guys in practice. We have to be prepared for an injury. The second five have all worked, and each one of those guys in the first five have doubled up at a second position as an emergency situation. Right now, it’s really about developing the younger guys and continuing to get them better and trying to get our first guys to execute at a higher level.”

On Stetson Bennett’s goal going into the bye week in regards to practice…
“The first goal was to do a better job of protecting the ball in terms of two hands while in the pocket, while also when running. If you have noticed he had the one against Alabama, and he scooped it up. He runs with the ball in one hand. We have made an assertive effort to improve that. Second was decision making on down-field throws and check-downs. The third thing was putting us in the right play and making good decisions. He has worked really hard on those things. Some of it is movement in the pocket—which is awareness. I thought that he could learn a lot from Jake [Fromm] in terms of pocket awareness. Where are the holes in the pockets? Where is the rush? Where can [he] step up? I think he has done well with that. It is hard to simulate that because we don’t have games. We try to do it with competitive third down and pass periods.”

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By John Frierson
Staff Writer

You hope to learn something new every day, right? Georgia running back Zamir White introduced me to something new during our Quick Chat on Monday, though it may not be something I’ll be first in line to eat.

When asked what meal he always looks forward to eating when he goes home, the redshirt sophomore from Laurinburg, N.C., a town of about 15,000 located 90 miles or so east of Charlotte, included “hog maws” in his answer. In 48 years of living around the South, I’d never heard of hog maws.

During our Chat, White, who leads the fifth-ranked Bulldogs with 266 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 64 carries heading into Saturday’s game at Kentucky, also talked about taking it easy at home last weekend, when he knew he might have a bright future in football and much more.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

Frierson: How did you spend your off weekend and how happy were you to get a break after four games?

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Game & Broadcast Info

On Saturday, Georgia will make its second appearance of the season on the SEC Network. The Bulldogs traveled to Fayetteville, Ark., and took down Arkansas 37-10 during UGA’s first appearance on the SECN this season. While Georgia did not appear on the SECN at all in 2019, the team played on the network three times in 2018 (Vanderbilt, Massachusetts, Georgia Tech).

Also on SECN this week will be a re-air of the 1980 Georgia vs. South Carolina game as part of a year-long celebration of the 1980 National Championship. This game will air on Tuesday, October 27th beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET. The following week Georgia fans can watch the re-broadcast of the 1980 Georgia vs. Florida game and later in the season the 1980 Georgia vs. Notre Dame National Championship game will be shown. The SECN will be showing our 1980 S Carolina game on Tuesday, October 27 in the 10p-midnight window.

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University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart offered the following comments on Monday.

Head Coach Kirby Smart

Opening statement … 

“Our guys are coming off an off-weekend, and we are looking forward to preparing for Kentucky. We got to get a little bit of a jumpstart on some of our future opponents last week as well as one day spent on preparation for Kentucky. Coach [Mark] Stoops has done a tremendous job with their program. They play with great physical toughness across the offensive and defensive lines. They are really big and stout. I thought they did a really good job against us last year in terms of their defense, and their defense is one of the best in our conference. They’ve done an excellent job of preparing for teams. We’ve got a lot of respect for them in the kicking game — one of the best punters in the country that’s able to flip the field and do a lot with that. With that, we will open it up.”

On his assessment of Zamir White’s performance so far and an update on Kenny McIntosh … 

“I won’t know much on Kenny until I get back out there today. He was not able to practice last week in terms of rehab, but we are hopeful that he we will be able to go today. We will find out more.

“In terms of Zamir, I think his leadership qualities have taken a major step forward in terms of his energy, his enthusiasm and just the way he prepares himself. You look across our games — some of our best special teams plays have come about because of Zamir. No. 1 — he is the off-returner on kick-off return. He does a tremendous job of selecting who to block to spring Kenny [McIntosh] and Kearis [Jackson] on a lot of their returns. He blocked a punt. He’s been one of our most consistent players on punt return in terms of making sure his man does not make the tackle and kind of control him. He’s also been a backup on our punt unit. I think Zamir has been very productive, he’s better conditioned. We are fortunate we were able to play a lot of backs, so he doesn’t get probably as many carries, but that never seems to frustrate him. He does a really good job of knowing his role and helping our team.”

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The Georgia Bulldogs continued bye week practice Wednesday, Oct. 21.

Georgia’s next contest will be in Lexington, Ky., at 12:00 p.m., ET on the SEC Network versus the Wildcats. Before practice, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart provided an update on the Bulldogs during the SEC Football Weekly Media Teleconference. Following practice, Jake Camarda and Justin Shaffer offered these comments.

Selected comments from Smart and the student-athletes follow:

Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement
“We got some good work done yesterday. We had a really good practice. I thought that there was good energy and enthusiasm out there, especially for an off week. The weather was great, and I thought the kids really competed. We haven’t been able to really rep a lot of our younger players having just played a conference schedule, a tough schedule so far. We got some extra reps for our twos and threes, and tried to work on some really specific things for our ones, and give each kid kind of a goal and objective for the week that they could improve on. We’re going to go back out there today and try to get better today.”

On Kendall Milton’s performance so far this season…
“Yeah, he is earning some playing time. I think you saw that probably at the last game. He played a little earlier than he has been playing. He makes really good cuts, has good vision. Every opportunity he has gotten he’s taken advantage of it and grown with it. It’s really unfortunate that he hasn’t been able to contribute more until now because he had a two hamstring [injuries]. He had a hamstring [injury] early in camp then when he came back he pulled it again. He’s such a intense worker that a couple of times we had to slow him down because we felt like that’s why the hamstring bothered him. We would be trying to do walkthroughs, and he would be going full speed and pulled it. I have been really pleased with what he has been able to do. He is a physical, downhill runner. He is really trying to protect the ball better, and that is something all freshmen have to get used to. Obviously, the protections in the last games is something he has improved on as well. But, I have been proud of him. We have asked him to do some things with special teams that he had never done, and he learned them really quick—between punt return, kickoff return. He is learning how to compete in those drills and that is carrying over to his confidence at running back.”

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