Friday, April 27, 2012

Bills Select Glenn In Second Round

FOOTBALL

DSC_0525Georgia offensive lineman Cordy Glenn was selected in the Second Round of the 2012 NFL Draft on Friday night in New York.

Glenn was selected by the Buffalo Bills with the 41st overall pick as the first three rounds wrapped up on Friday.

“I am happy,” Glenn said during a teleconference after his selection. “One, I get to play left tackle and two, Buffalo is one of my favorite teams. I am just happy I get to play football. I know where I am playing at now. It is a big relief.”

Glenn, a 6-5, 348-pound native of Riverdale, was selected to play in the Senior Bowl after earning Third Team All-America honors by the Associated Press and Phil Steele. The First Team All-SEC lineman was elected as one of the team’s captains and was a candidate for both the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Trophy.

Glenn, who had 32 starts at guard before switching permanently to tackle his senior season, finished his career in a tie for the all-time lead in career starts by an offensive lineman with 50 (tied with Clint Boling).

The Bills last selected a Dawg in 2001 after taking lineman Jonas Jennings in the Third Round. Glenn is only the sixth Georgia player to be picked by Buffalo since 1967.

This marks the first time since 2009 that the Dawgs have had a Second Round pick after having three First Round picks during that span. The Cleveland Browns took Mohamed Massaquoi with the 18th pick in the Second Round in 2009. The last Second Round pick before that was cornerback Tim Jennings, who was the 62nd overall pick in 2006

Saturday, April 14, 2012

G-Day Game

FOOTBALL

Outside linebacker Ricky Lowe returned a fumble for a touchdown and the Red team stopped a late two-point conversion to hold on for a 32-31 victory in the G-Day Game on Saturday in front 44,117 fans at Sanford Stadium.

Outside linebacker Reuben Faloughi knocked the ball away from quarterback Parker Welch and Lowe grabbed the ball out of midair. He didn’t break stride until he crossed the goal line 62 yards later and with 1:40 remaining. Kicker Jamie Lindley added the extra point, which proved to be critical to the Red team.

Tight end Jay Rome hauled in a 66-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Christian LeMay for the Black team with 59 seconds left. The Black team was forced to go for two in an attempt to the win the game, but LeMay’s pass fell incomplete.

“It was a great day for Georgia,” Coach Mark Richt said. “I feel like everyone enjoyed the game. I thought there were a lot of offensive plays that were made today. When you look at it, the defense was scoring points, too. I thought both sides of the ball played well. It was exciting.”

LeMay went 7-of-10 for 154 yards and a touchdown, while Welch was 5-of-11 for 48 yards. Tailback Richard Samuel rushed for 43 yards and a touchdown on eight carries.
For the Red team, quarterback Aaron Murray was 7-of-17 for 112 yards and a touchdown, while quarterback Hutson Mason played for each team and was a combined 9-of-12 for 133 yards and a score. Receivers Tavarres King and Rhett McGowan hauled in the touchdown passes. King also caught a two-point conversion pass. Tailback Ken Malcome had two touchdowns among his 32 yards, and tailback Isaiah Crowell posted 39 yards.

Linebacker Ramik Wilson paced the Red team with seven tackles, including a sack, and he returned an interception 19 yards. Linebackers Kosta Vavlas and Amarlo Herrera each added six tackles. Safety Austin Herod added an interception for the Red team.

For the Black team, linebacker Chase Vasser led the way with five tackles and a pass breakup. Linebacker Alec Ogletree, outside linebacker Cornelius Washington, safety Bacarri Rambo and cornerback Devin Bowman all added four tackles. Ogletree had a 28-yard interception return.

Adam Erickson’s 46-yard field goal for the Black team provided the only points in the first quarter.

Malcome put the Red team up 7-3 at the 11:09 mark of the second quarter as he ran in from six yards out. Lindley tacked on the PAT for the Red team, then booted a 26-yard field goal at the 9:01 mark for a 10-3 halftime edge.

Murray opened the second half with a 33-yard touchdown to King for the Red team. Lindley added the PAT for a 17-3 lead. The Black team responded with Mason’s 7-yard touchdown pass to McGowan. Kicker Patrick Beless had the extra point to make it 17-10 with 7:42 to go. Samuel’s two-yard run and Erickson’s PAT for the Black at the 2:58 mark knotted the game at 17-17.

The Black pulled ahead in the fourth quarter when defensive end Garrison Smith fell on a fumble in the end zone. A two-point conversion run by Erickson when the Red team didn’t defend the kick made the score 25-17 at the 9:46 mark. Four minutes later, Malcome scored on fourth-and-one and King hauled in a two-point conversion from Mason to retie the game at 25-25, setting up the fireworks in the final two minutes.

Several players saw action for each team during Saturday’s game.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Saturday Scrimmage Report

FOOTBALL

Georgia’s football team scrimmaged for about an hour and a half under cloudless skies at the Woodruff Practice Fields on Saturday morning, which marked the team’s third practice of the week.

“It was a pretty morning and a nice day to get a practice in,” said coach Mark Richt. “I thought we threw and caught a lot better as the practice progressed. But it’s always hard to gauge whether a quarterback would have gotten the ball off or not or been sacked. I thought the offense made more plays than they had all spring long but the defense is still pretty stout and challenging our offensive line every single day.”

The scrimmage consisted of a variety of matchups featuring the No. 1, 2 and 3 offenses versus their counterparts on defense.

On offense, junior quarterback Hutson Mason went 12-of-19 for 151 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions as junior Aaron Murray was 8-of-13 for 125 yards and a score.

Senior Marlon Brown topped the receivers with five catches for 90 yards and a touchdown, redshirt freshman Justin Scott-Wesley had five receptions for 38 yards and a score and senior Taylor Bradberry added four catches for 72 yards and a touchdown.

Redshirt sophomore Ken Malcome led the ground attack with five carries for 29 yards while sophomore Isaiah Crowell had six carries for 23 yards.

Senior Jamie Lindley also connected on a field goal during the scrimmage.

On defense, sophomore Corey Moore led with nine tackles and an interception, sophomore Ramik Wilson had seven tackles, a sack and a pass breakup and sophomore Ray Drew added five tackles, including a sack. Redshirt sophomore Connor Norman also had a pick that he returned for a touchdown and senior Shawn Williams registered an interception.

Corey Moore is coming along,” said Richt. “He’s very aggressive and is a good athlete who is learning a lot. He is going to have to play for us, he’s going to have to function on our defense.”

Richt also singled out the Dawgs’ two nose guards, junior Kwame Geathers and senior John Jenkins.

“They are probably two of the biggest nose guards around and maybe two of the best around and they are really making it tough on our centers, even when our centers doing everything right,” said Richt, adding that he has also been impressed with the other guys on the front line in Garrison Smith, Abry Jones, Cornelius Washington and Ray Drew. “We have a couple of looks where both are in there at the same time and they have continuously plugged any holes for the tailbacks.”

Richt mentioned that senior Richard Samuel (concussion) and freshman Keith Marshall (hamstring) were both held out of the scrimmage while redshirt freshman Devin Bowman “got the wind knocked out of him” but returned and Williams suffered a knee injury, although the training staff did not think the injury would require surgery.

With the completion of Saturday’s practice, the Dawgs now have three practices during the week before the annual spring G-Day game on April 14 at 3 p.m. at Sanford Stadium.

“I think the G-Day game will be a success if everybody gets to play between the hedges and in front of a good Georgia crowd,” Richt said, adding he hopes everyone stays healthy as well. “I want this game to be a celebration of Georgia football.”

The UGA Athletic Association will be teaming up with the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia during G-Day to host a canned food drive. Fans are asked to bring in a bag of canned food to be admitted to the annual game. Bins will be set up at the Main Gate as well as gates 2, 4, 6 and 9 to accept the canned goods.

All canned food and proceeds will go to assisting families in Northeast Georgia.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Thursday Practice Report

FOOTBALL

The Dawgs moved their Thursday practice up an hour due to the threat of incoming thunderstorms and then cut the session short by five minutes due to several wide receivers missing the workout.

"We went a little earlier hoping to beat the weather, which we did by a little bit," coach Mark Richt said. "It was a good day of work. We had some slight illnesses and class conflicts that were going to make it tough to have the depth at wide receiver to finish with our one-minute drill so we cut that part."

All told, the Dawgs worked out for approximately 90 minutes in full pads. "I thought it was a good day," secondary coach Scott Lakatos said. "We've got some new things that we wanted to take a look at. We got those installed and taught and got them executed. Like any other practice, we're going to go back and look at the things we kind of messed up and correct them and get them fixed before the next practice."

The afternoon concluded with walkthroughs in their multi-purpose indoor facility, which also were beneficial according to Lakatos. "You see the big picture," Lakatos said. "It's one thing when you're sitting in the meeting room with just the DBs. In walkthroughs, now they can see how it all goes together. We spend a lot of time doing walkthroughs like that. I think it's a excellent learning tool for our entire defense."

The Dawgs will take Friday off before returning to practice. "We'll scrimmage Saturday and see where we're at," Richt said. That will be the final scrimmage before the annual G-Day intrasquad game on Saturday, April 14 at 3 p.m. at Sanford Stadium.

The UGA Athletic Association will be teaming up with the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia during G-Day to host a canned food drive. Fans are asked to bring in a bag of canned food to be admitted to the annual game. Bins will be set up at the Main Gate as well as gates 2, 4, 6 and 9 to accept the canned goods. Donation stations will also be in place for monetary contributions, as one dollar equals four pounds of food. All canned food and proceeds will go to assisting families in Northeast Georgia.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Tuesday Practice Report

FOOTBALL

Georgia’s football team made use of its indoor multi-purpose facility during Tuesday’s practice after inclement weather interrupted its session.

“For about an hour and a half, we got some good work done outside,” said coach Mark Richt. “But then there was some lightning in the area and we had to gather the team up and get them indoors. I was very pleased with what we were able to accomplish once we moved inside and I thought we got some good skill work done in there.”

The Dawgs practiced for the first of three times this week after having their first scrimmage last weekend. Tuesday marked the first of five weekday practices that Georgia has left with less than five months remaining before the team’s kickoff versus Buffalo.

Richt also mentioned that sophomore Ray Drew was sick on Tuesday and that freshman Keith Marshall has suffered a hamstring injury.

Following sessions on Thursday and Saturday, there are three practices next week before the annual spring G-Day game arrives on April 14 at 3 p.m.

The UGA Athletic Association will be teaming up with the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia during G-Day to host a canned food drive. Fans are asked to bring in a bag of canned food to be admitted to the annual game. Bins will be set up at the Main Gate as well as gates 2, 4, 6 and 9 to accept the canned goods.

Donation stations will also be in place for monetary contributions, as one dollar equals four pounds of food. All canned food and proceeds will go to assisting families in Northeast Georgia.

In other Dawg news, redshirt freshman tight end Jack Loonam was recently named the Gentleman of the Year by the Network of enlightened Women (NeW). The Lexington, S.C., native was chosen from a variety of candidates nationwide thanks to his work for the UGA ROTC program and his “gentleman’s approach” to his daily life.