ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart often talks about the importance of managing injuries during the month of August, as the Bulldogs usually conduct their most strenuous practices during the hottest time of year.
And while most of the team was competing in full pads for the first time this fall, a handful of key Bulldogs were off on the side of practice working with an unidentifiable staffer.
Among those who were just doing conditioning — light running — in full pads were running back Kendall Milton, linebacker Smael Mondon, cornerback Kamari Lassiter, wide receiver Rara Thomas, safety Dan Jackson and defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins. Cornerback Chris Peal was wearing a boot on his right foot and riding a bike during the 15 minutes the media was allowed to view practice.
Milton is reportedly dealing with a hamstring injury, while it was previously known that Mondon, Ingram-Dawkins and Jackson were all dealing with foot injuries. Lassiter’s injury is unknown but Georgia’s starting cornerback was not spotted at Georgia’s first practice last Thursday. Smart had mentioned that a few players were dealing with hamstring injuries coming out of summer conditioning. The status of Thomas is also not known at this point.
Georgia did have some encouraging injury news at Tuesday’s practice, as running back Branson Robinson was back practicing with the running backs. He had been dealing with a foot injury dating back to spring practice. His return comes as Milton picked up his injury, leaving Georgia with four healthy scholarship running backs.
This was Georgia’s first full-padded practice of the fall.
“Today is practice six. It’s the first official day in full pads although we’ve been in shells, we’ve been in shoulder pads,” Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann said. “The game changes when pads come on. It changed a little bit when we went from spiders to shells and it’ll change more today. Consistency decides who is able to help us.”
Below are some further observations we learned from practice on Tuesday. Georgia will open the 2023 season on Sept. 2 against UT-Martin.
Georgia football practice report
- Earnest Greene was repping with the first-team offensive line at the left tackle position. Greene is battling with Austin Blaske to replace Broderick Jones at left tackle. The rest of the first team offensive line was Xavier Truss, Sedrick Van Pran, Tate Ratledge and Amarius Mims
- Once again, defensive line coach Tray Scott was giving some extra attention to freshman Jamaal Jarrett. The freshman defensive tackle is massive and it’s clear through Scott’s coaching that Georgia wants to get him in a place where he can help the team this season.
- The outside linebackers were working on dropping into coverage and attacking a spot, with the intent of tackling. Freshman Damon Wilson did not look as comfortable as veteran Marvin Jones Jr. in the drill, which likely speaks to the fact that Wilson wasn’t asked to do it much in high school. Georgia wants its outside linebackers to be versatile.
- While quarterbacks were throwing routes on air to Georgia pass catchers, Smart was pushing back-up tight ends Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie. Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley spoke about both players extensively on Thursday and what the Bulldogs need out of them this season: “Obviously Luckie had a very good spring, took advantage of the reps that he got and was able to make some plays and show that he was able to potentially do something for us in our offense,” Hartley said.
- As for the quarterbacks, it’s hard to gauge too much from seeing them throw on air. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo did give some praise to quarterback Gunner Stockton for his ball placement on a fade to Brock Bowers in the endzone.
- While we were leaving practice, Georgia began working on its dime package look, with six defensive backs in formation. Those six defensive backs were Nyland Green and Daylen Everette at the cornerback spots, with Tykee Smith, Malaki Starks, Javon Bullard and David Daniel-Sisavanah making up the other four spots.
- Of note, comedian Jeff Foxworthy was on hand to watch practice.
