Category: UGA Football

UGA Football: Smart, Lovett, Williams and Beck Talk Season Prep

ATHENS, Ga. — University of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, junior wide receiver Dominic Lovett, sophomore defensive lineman Mykel Williams and junior quarterback Carson Beck spoke with the media Wednesday afternoon and offered the following comments.

Head Coach Kirby Smart
On Ernest Green, Raylen Wilson and Branson Robinson’s health… 
“Ernest was able to go yesterday some of the time, he’s dealing with a little bit of an ankle sprain, but he worked out and ran on Monday and practiced about 50 percent of the reps yesterday. We think he’s going to be okay. Raylen is still dealing with a hyperextended knee. Branson had a significant injury yesterday. He had a non-contact ruptured patellar tendon. So, he will be out for the season. Tough, tough break for him. He was coming back from a toe injury on the other leg and he was actually not even in a contact drill, he cut, planted and ruptured the patellar tendon. He’ll make a full recovery, but he will unfortunately be out for the season, which puts us in a tough situation at back. Kendall [Milton] has actually been taking some more reps, he’s been able to do some things, but he’s not at 100 percent. Andrew [Paul] is getting a ton of reps, Roderick [Robinson II] is getting a ton of reps, Cash [Jones] has been getting a ton of work. It’ll be done by committee as it always has been here. I hate it for Branson because he had really worked hard. By the end of the spring, when he had the turf toe, he was battling back all offseason, he’s had a great summer and looked really good in the days leading up to this injury.”

On the differences between preparing the team for a full season and for a specific opponent…
“It’s very different in terms of what we do at practice. We do a lot more against each other while we prepare for the season, it’s a lot more about mental toughness – going in the heat, pushing through, developing the entire roster. When you start game planning for a game, it’s exactly that. You start game planning for a game. Now, we’re not to that point yet. We’re not working on our opponent, we take this week and work on several of our future opponents so that we have footage and material, where I would say 25 percent of the practice is focused on an opponent and 75 percent of the practice is focused on us. Because at the end of the day, we’re trying to get us better. By Friday, our focus will have turned to our opponent.”

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UGA Football: Fourteen Dogs Named To Preseason Coaches All-SEC Team

ATHENS, Ga. — Fourteen Bulldogs, including a league high 10 on the First Team, were included on the 2023 Preseason Coaches All-Southeastern Conference Team, according to a league announcement Tuesday.

Junior tight end Brock Bowers, junior receiver Ladd McConkey, junior tackle Amarius Mims, redshirt sophomore guard Tate Ratledge and junior Sedrick Van Pran were named to the First Team offense while sophomore lineman Mykel Williams, senior lineman Nazir Stackhouse, junior linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson, sophomore safety Malaki Starks and junior defensive back Javon Bullard were voted to the defense’s First Team.

Second Team Bulldog selections included senior running back Kendall Milton, senior guard Xavier Truss, junior linebacker Smael Mondon and junior defensive back Kamari Lassiter.

The Bulldogs start their 2023 campaign at home versus UT Martin in Sanford Stadium on Sept. 2. ESPN+/SEC+ will cover the matchup at 6 p.m.

UGA Football: Frierson Chats With Oscar Delp

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Oscar Delp has found a superstition hack. The 6-foot-5 and 245-pound Georgia tight end has decided that his superstition is to not be superstitious any longer.

“I feel like superstitions, if something messed up, then it’s going to mess my whole game up, so I kind of just cut all of that out,” he said.

A sophomore from Cumming, Ga., Delp was a great prep lacrosse player at West Forsyth High School. In fact, until Delp’s football career took off later in high school, he thought lacrosse was the sport he’d likely play in college.

Delp’s father, Chris, played lacrosse at Rutgers, and his son would have been happy to follow in his footsteps. But then came his junior year of high school, when Delp, being used in numerous ways similar to how Georgia has used star tight end Brock Bowers the past to seasons, caught 43 passes and averaged 17 yards a catch. As a senior, he caught 59 passes for 923 yards.

Coming to Georgia was always going to be an adjustment, especially knowing that the Bulldogs last season had Bowers, who went on to win the Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end, and Darnell Washington, the 6-7 and 270-pound beast. Bowers led the Bulldogs in 2022 with 63 catches, Washington was fourth on the team with 28, and Delp finished his freshman season with five reception. His first career catch was a 28-yarder for a touchdown against South Carolina.

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UGA Football: Smart Recaps Second Scrimmage

ATHENS, Ga. — University of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart spoke with the media Saturday afternoon after the team’s second scrimmage and offered the following comments.

Opening Statement
“First off, I want to thank the group from Operation Teammate. We had them post practice and we’ve kind of made it an annual tradition to spend some time with the military families who have been separated from their kids and serve our country. I know they’re not out there for the entire scrimmage because I don’t know that they could handle the heat and being out there that long, but they come towards the end and our players get to interact with them. Certainly, want to thank the people that serve our country and come to our practices so that’s a big plus for our players to get to thank somebody else. I was very pleased with the improvement from scrimmage one to scrimmage two. I thought that last week’s scrimmage was not really up to the standard of what we need. I thought this scrimmage two was probably behind where we’ve been the last two years on scrimmage two but a lot further than where we were on scrimmage one. The progress we made was good but we’re not where we need to be. It was not really hot out there, I thought it was warm but nowhere near what it was the week before, so the competition and the ability to sustain was much better. I was proud of that. I thought the offense started faster, made a few more explosives, but you know how that is in a scrimmage. When that happens, it means that somebody else is giving them up too. We’ve finished up camp. This marks the last of what I consider to be camp. Moving forward, I think we’ll have four, or five maybe, practices over the next eight days. So, there’s more time for recovery, but not time for relaxing. If anything, we’ve got to secure some more spots, a couple spots are still up for grabs, then really hone in on who our special teams and travel roster guys are going to be. We’re two weeks away from kickoff and we’re not where we need to be but we’re competing. I want to see some more improvement, but I did see improvement from scrimmage one to two.”On position groups that excelled this week in practice…
“I can’t say one position group stood out over another in terms of readiness. They came out ready to scrimmage today. There was a lot better energy and enthusiasm, competes, even though they had been through another grind of a week of practice, but just the overall energy and enthusiasm was better. I think it’s easier to do that when you don’t have the heat. So, I don’t think one group stood out over another.”

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