UGA hoping for word on Jarvis Jones by start of practice

ATLANTA - Two updates on the Jarvis Jones situation:

- Georgia, nearing an end to its investigation, is preparing to turn in its report to the SEC, hopefully by the end of this week. And the team hopes to have an answer on the linebacker’s status before the start of practice next week.

“Our goal is that we will have an answer early enough so we will be able to prepare properly,” head coach Mark Richt said before Monday night’s meeting of the Bulldog Club in Atlanta.

- Athletics director Greg McGarity also said that the NCAA is NOT involved yet, and right now it’s only Georgia that’s looking into it.

“I’m not aware of the NCAA (looking into it),” McGarity said. “So basically what you do on this thing is you learn of a situation. You do your due diligence. And at some point in time you file a report on your findings with the SEC, who then turn it into the NCAA.”

While that's normal protocol, recall that last year the NCAA first came to Georgia about A.J. Green. In this case Georgia found out about Jarvis Jones' case from a media report and then initiated its investigation.

McGarity said Georgia’s compliance director, Eric Bumgartner, has been interviewing the key characters. The school’s hope is that there’s nothing beyond the initial report in the Ledger-Enquirer on Jones’ relationship with his former AAU men’s basketball coach.

“You would think that the findings were conclusive. If there’s more stuff there I’m sure it would’ve been in the police report or in the findings that were reported in the Columbus paper,” McGarity said. “We’re hopeful that there wouldn’t be anything else there. Because if it was it would have been certainly in that report. Hopefully the report is conclusive and you’ve got everything there.”

Of course that doesn’t mean that you can quite pencil in Jones for the Boise State game. McGarity declined to characterize his feelings as positive or negative on Jones’ status.

“I quit trying to guess how things will turn out, because bottom line is it is what it is and you report what you find out, and try to uncover everything, try to uncover everything at one time,” he said.

The Columbus situation also involves the men's basketball team's star recruit, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Head coach Mark Fox said he hadn't heard anything new.

"You don't ever want these situations," Fox said when asked if he was worried about Caldwell-Pope's eligibility. "But I think it'll be handled appropriately. There's really not much I can do. It's not a decision I'm gonna make."