My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/bulldogs-blog/
and update your bookmarks.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

From the coaches' mouths: Updates on Ealey, the offensive line, Ogletree and others

The Georgia assistant coaches were available to the media after Tuesday's spring football practice. So here are some notes and quotes from them.

And feel free to chime in with any corrections or point out any typos, as I'm severely under the weather. I'd say I'm sick as a dog, but then I look over at Archie bouncing around, wondering why he's not getting a walk today. And now frankly I'm wondering where that saying ever came from.

But anyway ...

- Washaun Ealey didn’t practice on Tuesday because of a left hamstring injury. The team said the tailback was "day-to-day" (aren't we all), and running backs coach Bryan McClendon said it was "nothing serious."

The tailbacks are in an interesting spot this spring, with highly-touted recruit Isaiah Crowell set to arrive in the summer. McClendon said he speaks "a bunch of times a week", but added that the competition is "wide open."

McClendon said all four scholarship tailbacks - Ealey, Caleb King, Ken Malcome and Carlton Thomas - are getting reps with the first team.

"I tell them, let's worry about today. And the guys that are scholarship now are Caleb, Washaun, Carlton and Ken Malcome," McClendon said.

- Cordy Glenn and Trinton Sturdivant are playing both tackle spots, according to new offensive line coach Will Friend. Glenn shifted from guard after last season, and Sturdivant, who has had two knee surgeries, has only played left tackle in his career.

But for depth reasons, Friend says one or both of them will have to be able to play both tackle spots. Since quarterback Aaron Murray is right-handed, the left tackle spot is considered the most important.

“That’s his blind side, but at the same time the right tackle he’s got the same blocks and the same amount of time to get it off and all those things,” Friend said. “I think it can get overrated a bit, but that is the quarterback’s blind side.”

- Justin Anderson has moved back to offense after one year at guard. The year on the other side of the ball has Anderson catching up a bit, according to Friend, and the rising senior also isn’t completely healed from his turf toe injury.

Brent Benedict, who is also competing at guard, is also getting back up to speed after knee surgery 19 months ago.

Friend wouldn’t say that Anderson or Benedict was guaranteed one of the guard spots.

Chris Burnette appears to have made a big leap in Friend's eyes so far. Burnette, who has been the backup center, has been working with the first team at right guard. Kolton Houston, who has been working at multiple spots too, has also impressed Friend.

“We’ve graded everything,” Friend said. “When you kind of come in, they haven’t played for me. I’ve watched tape on four or five that played last year. … Somebody’s gotta run out there when they says ‘ones go out there.’ But other than that it’s zero to zero in that room.”

- The shift of Alec Ogletree to inside linebacker remained a hot topic. Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said the rising sophomore is adjusting well, which he expected.

“You’re taking a guy that played in the secondary, so he kind of knows your rotations and where guys fit,” Grantham said. “I think it’ll allow him to come up to speed quicker.”

Secondary coach Scott Lakatos said he didn’t fight the move of Ogletree, saying he deferred to what made the defense better overall. Last year Shawn Williams and Jakar Hamilton couldn’t hold off Ogletree for the starting spot; now they have another shot at it.

“They just need to continue to get reps and learn,” Lakatos said. “That’s how you learn, you learn by doing things.”

- Kwame Geathers got a positive review from Grantham. Most people assume junior college transfer John Jenkins will start at nose tackle, but Geathers, a rising sophomore, has performed well thus far.

“I think like anything competition makes us all better,” Grantham said.

- Grantham was in midseason mode when asked what the defense needs to do to stop the run better.

“Tackle the runner,” Grantham said.

Then he went into a longer answer, but the first one was better.

- Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo was asked what he thought after watching the receivers for a few practices without A.J. Green and Kris Durham. He laughed before answering.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, really at all positions. But I was pleased with the work of our receivers,” Bobo said. “Our issue is there isn’t a lot of depth there.”

The Bulldogs have six scholarship receivers: Tavarres King, Marlon Brown, Israel Troupe, Rantavious Wooten, Michael Bennett and Chris Conley.

- Bruce Figgins has said that his biggest adjustment to fullback is the different blocking schemes from tight end. Not, as one would expect, carrying the ball.

“Well I haven’t given him the ball yet, so that’s probably the reason why,” Bobo said, laughing.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well here we go again... the injury bug. Why Bryan McClendon is our running backs coach I'll never understand. Hope these guys will understand that the dont have rumble, stumble and fall after the first hit. Of course our offensive line hasnt been able to run block through a wet paper bag the last couple of years.

Anonymous said...

Yeah Bobo is laughing alright. This clown wont be till the end of the year when he will be searching for a new job.

Anonymous said...

Lots of stuff cooking. Getting excited.

Pretty worried about the WR's inexperience and depth. These guys, with the tight end, need to get 200 yards a game, and some deep plays, to keep defenses honest, and from jamming the run offense with 8 in the box.

You can bet Crowell's gonna come in ready to go. The other RB's better work, cuz Crowell's gonna BRING IT.

Crowell's got the kind of speed you usually see in WR's, and his explosion through the line, if you watch his higlight films, he just is gone on long runs, before you know it.

Crowell's gonna rip some long runs against Boise & South Carolina. That will open up the passing attack.

Suomynons said...

Same dance - different music - I'm getting pumped thinking about the defense not so much the offense.

I think the OL will be dramatically better and the RB's too - TE looks like a strength but the WR's are a ? QB play should be better with Murray having a year under his belt and competition from Lemay. My problem with the offense is centered around BoBo - hopefully he will continue to get better as an OC and use ALL of the tools he has.

UGA69Dawg said...

As long as the offense can get high stats against terrible opponents but do nothing against the best opponents then we are doomed to repeat the last 2 years. Bobo is not gong to change anything because we are still running the FSU offense of 15 years ago. Only problem is that all the SEC DC's have seen it so much they can defend it in their sleep. Our only chance in the big games is to execute on offense perfectly and I just don't think we have the guys who can do that.

Anonymous said...

FIRE DAVE PERNO!

mp said...

Seth-

In the offensive line section, you say Glenn & Sturdivant are working at both guard spots. I think you meant to say both tackle spots.

Feel better.

Anonymous said...

Washed up Ealey is just that and so is King. REMOVE these cancers from the team! Boo and Crowell will carry the load.

RussDawg said...

I think the lack of depth at WR will make Bobo go back to our TE's like UGA used to. Should be alot of opportunities for Charles and White. I expect really good years from both of them. GATA Dawgs!!!

VAdawg said...

Seth-
First, hope you start feeling better soon. Second, what are your impressions of the new coaches, especially Friend?

Worried about our O-line and receivers. I do like the fact that we have a couple of truly great TE's who can catch. I think both Orson and White need to have big years.

I like the direction of our defense. Would love to see Shawn Williams step up this year. I think he's got potential to be a very solid player. Not an all conference kind of guy-- just a consistent guy who can count on to do his job.

Anonymous said...

I actually think Bobo is a good OC and QB coach. He did a great job scheming around an offensive line that was mostly freshmen during Staffords years.

I have no idea what happened to the OL during Cox's year and Murray's year. The OL should have been great, but they weren't. How could Bobo run an offense when someone on our OL was repeatedly driven backwards?

If the problem has been due to poor S&C, as many people have said, this should have been detected long before this last year. I hope with Tereshinski and Friend running this part of the show, then Bobo's offense can really show.

Bulldawg said...

anon 12:33-

Bobo, are you posting on our blog? Is that you?

Has to be.

No one is that delusional.

Anonymous said...

Bobo offense has no swag

ben said...

They have no swag because swag is confidence manifested. Confidence is built through winning. We haven't won enough the past two seasons to have that. Swag doesn't create wins, it helps you continue winning once you've gotten there.

meansonny said...

Seth,

Any word on the sudden disappearance of Aron White last season?

He went from 4 TDs to 0.
He went from 13 catches to 9 (and none after the overtime against Florida).

I don't even remember seeing him on offense after that INT.

Are we expecting him to play TE with Orson at HBack or flex? Are we expecting him to play TE? Or has the loss to Florida created such a big dawghouse that he won't be seen much outside of special teams?

Michael said...

Bobo is terrible. My hope is that we have a dominant defense and an offense that is only so-so. So we have a good year, but Bobo moves on somewhere else to be a HC or something.