Richt speaks, I blog

We just heard from Mark Richt after Georgia's second football practice. Some highlights:

- A couple small injury updates. Junior guard Tanner Strickland was in a green jersey after a shoulder injury flared up. But the staff just wanted him to avoid contact for now.

Meantime, junior tackle Trinton Sturdivant's return is going "so far very well," according to Richt. The training staff said Sturdivant's knee has not had any swelling yet.

- The defensive players are picking up the 3-4 pretty quickly, the coach said, relaying word from defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. The players have clearly been studying, and Richt quoted Granthamas saying "there's a lot of recall."

"That's a tribute to our guys, they want to win," Richt said.

- Richt singled out Shawn Williams, a sophomore strong safety, for praise:

“He probably dropped about 10 pounds. He is much quicker and you could tell he really studied. He’s gotten the attention of our coaching staff. And he’s just one example of that. There’s a lot of guys that it looked like they got very serious about learning as much as they could so they could compete better.”

Last month was tough for Williams and his family, whom lost their home in Early County to a fire.

“I hope the Georgia Bulldog nation is helping him any way that we can," Richt said. "And we’ll be keeping up with that situation to make sure that the family recover him … So we can help him within the rules.”

- Richt did have a senior moment, for a second straight day, blanking on Williams' name before offering up the praise. On Monday it was walk-on quarterback Greg Bingham. On Tuesday Richt started by saying he wanted to praise someone, then sheepishly had to ask for a depth chart.

"Cut all this out, will you?" he said, smiling. Then he saw Williams' name on the sheet. "Oh yeah, lemme start over."

Richt turned 50 earlier this year. Of course, in the interests of full disclosure, as I was writing this note, I had to ask my fellow scribes what Bingham's first name was.

- Richt also had good reports on several freshman, highlighted by offensive lineman Kenarious Gates.

“He looks like he’s gonna be a good one down the road," Richt said. "He’s certainly got a long ways to go, but he’s got a chance, if he works hard.”

Here's what Richt said about some other freshmen:

Quarterback Hutson Mason: “You could tell that kid studied all summer long.”

Brothers Alec Ogletree (a defensive back) and Alexander Ogletree (a linebacker): “You could tell that they’re just football players, and I like what I see there.”

Cornerback Derek Owens. “He’s very, very quick. And he’s made some good breaks on the ball.”

- As for the team as a whole, Richt said the team is in good condition, handling the heat well.

“It’s been a good start, been a very good start. I think it was very evident that a lot of guys worked very hard physically, but also worked hard mentally. A lot of guys made progress from a mental standpoint. So you know they were studying playbooks and just improving.”

- Finally, Richt said starting quarterback Aaron Murray has done a "fantastic job" of helping the three true freshmen quarterbacks.

“When they showed up at the meetings they had a pretty good working knowledge of what we were trying to do. Hutson has done a good job of taking a lot of information and being able to process it pretty quickly.”