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.