Final Spring Practice

FOOTBALL

Georgia’s football team practiced for the final time of the spring at the Woodruff Practice Fields during an hour session on Thursday afternoon.

This was the Dawgs’ 14th and final practice of the spring. The team will square off against each other at the annual spring G-Day game on Saturday afternoon.

“It was a short practice today, but everyone did pretty well,” said head coach Mark Richt, adding that steak and lobster will be the dinner of the victors at G-Day and Beanie Weenies will be the dinner for the losing team. “There was not a lot at stake between the offense and defense out there today since there was no conditioning after the practice. But both groups wanted to keep score anyway and the defense came out on top.”

Following a lettermen’s dinner on Thursday night, Georgia will have several more events in conjunction with the spring game. Many lettermen from the past are penciled in to compete in a flag football game at 11:15 a.m. in the morning on Saturday.

“Our lettermen’s dinner is a chance for the current players to meet and get to know former players, which makes for a really nice event,” Richt said.

Richt mentioned that he does not think junior tailback Washaun Ealey will play because of a hamstring injury suffered earlier in the spring. Decisions on several of the other injured players for G-Day has yet to be made.

One of the assistant coaches who will be helping to guide Georgia’s defense for the coming season is Kirk Olivadotti. Coaching the inside linebackers, Olivadotti came to Georgia from the Washington Redskins and brings a wealth of knowledge regarding the 3-4 defense.

“I have a different approach to some of the fundamentals, but the expectations on the guys haven’t changed,” said Olivadotti. “Understanding the 3-4 defense is the No. 1 goal. If you don’t know where to be on a certain play, make sure you go 100 percent and we will figure out the problem later.”

Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham is continuing the defense’s transition to a 3-4 for a second year. One of the players who he will be counting on during the 2011 season is redshirt sophomore Jarvis Jones. Jones, who transferred from USC and redshirted the 2010 season, is expected to be lining up at outside linebacker for Georgia in the fall.

“You have got to have playmakers at outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense for it to be a success,” Grantham said. “One advantage of having the bowl practices was that we got to practice Jarvis and some other guys a lot who we knew weren’t going to play in the bowl game. (Jarvis) played in the middle during those practices and he could probably play there too. But he’s very athletic, has good hands and is a fluid outside linebacker and should be able to make a difference there. I think Jarvis is ahead of the guys last year at linebacker just from the standpoint of understanding the linebacker position.”