Saturday Practice Report

FOOTBALL

The Dawgs completed a nearly two-hour practice on Saturday afternoon to cap the second of three two-a-day sessions during preparation for the upcoming AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

"It was cold out there," coach Mark Richt said. "So far we've practiced in the snow, we've practiced in the rain, we've practiced in the sunshine and we've practiced in the overcast skies of Athens, Georgia. It's been a lot of fun."

The Dawgs concentrated on special teams play during an earlier morning session before returning to the Woodruff Practice Fields in the afternoon. It marked the fifth of eight days of bowl practice in Athens for the Dawgs which will include a total of 11 practice sessions. The remainder of the on-campus practice schedule features a single-practice on Sunday, another two-a-day workout on Monday and concludes with a Tuesday morning session before breaking for the holidays. The team will reconvene in Memphis, Tennessee, for final preparations starting on December 26.

Richt noted that the Saturday afternoon workout was the first practice where the Dawgs installed more scout team work.

"I thought that went well," Richt said. "I think we are, little by little, progressing towards finishing up our game plan. Offensively, we are getting close to the finish of the plan. We probably won't implement everything, red zone and third down stuff, until Monday. We will have practice tomorrow, but I think things are moving in the right direction right now. We are having good practices so far. The biggest focus now is getting back to being fundamentally sound and installing the plan."

Richt also announced that senior fullback Shaun Chapas will miss the contest against UCF after having undergone ankle surgery earlier this week. With Chapas out of the Liberty Bowl, Richt indicated that senior Fred Munzenmaier, freshman Alexander Ogletree and redshirt freshman Dustin Royston have been getting repetitions at fullback in addition to junior tight end Bruce Figgins seeing some snaps at the position.

"That's not necessarily a full time change but we are getting him some work there because of depth issues" Richt said of Figgins' work at fullback. "He's had a little experience at this. This isn't the first time because if you have a tight end that can also do some of the fullback type things, it's a little bit tougher for the defense to really know what personnel grouping you might be in. You could be in two-tight end sets, but if one of them can learn the fullback then all of a sudden you could be in a Pro-I or you could be in a one-back set, so it gives you versatility."