Wednesday Practice Report

FOOTBALL

Due to severe weather and heavy rain, the Dawgs moved indoors Wednesday, practicing approximately 90 minutes at the Ramsey Center on campus.

Working out in jerseys, shoulder pads, shorts, helmets and tennis shoes, the Dawgs (4-4, 3-3 SEC) continued preparation for this weekend's annual showdown with Florida (4-3, 2-3 SEC) in Jacksonville.

"I would've rather been outside, but we had a walk-through inside and everybody was focused, and we got about as much out of it as we could have," head coach Mark Richt said after practice.

Georgia spent about 25 minutes on kicking/special teams work and the rest of the time the offense and defense worked in separate gyms.

"We're not going to change anything in our routine Thursday, it will be our normal work tomorrow," Richt added. "We'll go to the stadium and work with the crowd noise."

Richt said sophomore cornerback/punt returner Branden Smith, who has missed the past three games with a concussion, has been cleared to play. He will see action Saturday.

When talk turned to tailback, Richt said the starter has not been determined between sophomore Washaun Ealey and junior Caleb King. Ealey has a "bone bruise" and did take part in Wednesday's walk-through. He is coming off a record five-touchdown rushing performance in the road win over Kentucky last Saturday.

Also, Richt said he was proud of the latest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) released by the NCAA Wednesday as the Dawgs ranked second in the SEC among football teams, trailing only Vanderbilt for the highest graduation rate. Football's latest GSR came in at 68 percent.

"That's great news and outstanding for all the guys that graduated, for our support staff including our academic people," said Richt.