Practice Report

UGA Sports Communications

After two days of working in their Indoor Athletic Facility, the 13th-ranked Dawgs returned to the Woodruff Practice Fields Wednesday for a two-hour session in full pads.

Earlier in the day, head coach Kirby Smart took part in the SEC Football Coaches Weekly Media Teleconference and said the Dawgs (2-0) are looking forward to playing again at Sanford Stadium against Samford (2-0) following last week’s road win over No. 24 Notre Dame.

“Our fans are excited to have another home opportunity and to play at night,” said Smart. “Samford has a great football team with a very explosive offense. We’re excited to play Samford, Chris Hatcher is a good friend of mine, he gave me my first job as a full-time coach down at Valdosta State, and we’ve been good friends ever since.”

Samford enters the contest averaging 38.5 points per game while junior quarterback Devlin Hodges has passed for 558 yards and seven touchdowns this season. He was named the Southern Conference 2016 Offensive Player of the Year and the preseason favorite for the honor this season.

“Offenses now throw the ball so well with such a high success rate, there’s lot of completions within five to 10 yards of the line of scrimmage so it’s not so much the pass rush, it’s the ability to tackle the guy when he catches it so there’s no yards after the catch,” said Smart. “They do a really good job in their screen game. You have to get them on the ground when they catch it and not give up extra yards. The ball comes out really quick. They’re really efficient at what they do, and it’s an extremely different style of play than what we’ve played the last two weeks.”

D'Andre Swift

After Wednesday’s workout, selected players met with the media and discussed their preparation this week and fielded questions regarding the play of freshman tailback D’Andre Swift. He had a 40-yard scamper that helped set up the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter against Notre Dame last Saturday.

“D’Andre is a big play waiting to happen,” said senior wide receiver Javon Wims. “He’s very shifty, and he’s willing to do anything to help the team.”

“He (Swift) has been super good at practice and a good blocker too,” said sophomore tight end Charlie Woerner. “He’s unselfish and filling a role to get on the field.”

Kickoff Saturday for the Georgia-Samford contest will be 7:39 p.m. and the game will air on the SEC Network Alternate channel. Follow this link to find your channel for the Georgia-Samford game. http://getsecnetwork.com/channel-finder