Practice 9: Dawgs don't go for long

ATHENS – On a day where the Georgia Bulldogs were supposed to practice indoors, the team ended up going outside to the practice.

Rain earlier in the day made Georgia Head Coach Mark Richt think about holding practice in the University’s Ramsey Center. However, the head coach thought better of it and decided to work outside. Georgia has not missed a practice this spring and to this date has not yet been forced inside due to weather.

The Bulldogs will host scores of high school juniors tomorrow at the school’s annual Junior Day. The event takes place at Sanford Stadium, but is closed to the public. Only recruits and their coaches are allowed at the facility.

Today the Bulldogs had a light workout which consisted of only 12 periods of practice after the initial stretching period. Kedric Golston was at practice, but did not participate due to his turf toe.

Darrius Swain will move into the number one defensive tackle spot for tomorrow’s scrimmage. He said Richt took it easy on the team today because of the amount of work that went into Wednesday’s full pad practice.

“He really liked what we did on Wednesday and he said that he didn’t want to push us too much today. It was pretty much a walk through for tomorrow,” said Swain.

Richt called Wednesday’s practice one of the best, along with last Wednesday’s, since he arrived at Georgia.

Saturday’s scrimmage will be Georgia’s second official scrimmage of the season. The Bulldogs’ final scrimmage – and practice – will occur one week from tomorrow with the annual G-Day. This year’s G-Day is benefiting the Athens YMCA.

NOTES: Green Jersey report (Injured players and all quarterbacks) – Jarvis Jackson (DNP), Jemario Smith (back), Steve White, Olaolu Sanni-Osomo (DNP), Kregg Lumpkin (Knee), Tra Battle (DNP), Kedric Golston (turf toe), and Tyson Browning (shoulder).

Georgia thought practice was going to take place at the Ramsey Center today, but after the rain tailed off Richt decided to practice on the artificial surface at the bottom of the Bulldogs’ practice facility.

Today’s practice was one of the shortest in recent memory. The 12-peroid workout lasted about only one hour and twenty minutes. The team met with their position coaches following the practice session.

BAD TIMING: Tra Battle missed his third straight practice Friday and isn’t expected to participate in today’s scrimmage. The junior from Forsyth injured his back in a car accident early in the spring and aggravated the injury in a scrimmage last week.

“He can’t help it, it’s not like he’s trying to get out of anything,” said secondary coach and defensive coordinator Willie Martinez.

Still, Battle is having to sit and watch while promising sophomore Kelin Johnson gets almost all the first-team reps at the safety spot he and Battle are competing to fill.

“It hurts the player when he can’t go out there and improve,” Martinez said. “When he was in there, he was doing a good job.”

INJURY UPDATE: Quarterback Joe Tereshinski missed his second straight practice due to a leg injury he suffered while sliding into second base during a pickup softball game. Tereshinski has developed a slight infection and has a swollen foot, Richt said.

Until the injury, Tereshinski wasn’t having much trouble holding off freshman Blake Barnes for the backup position, but Barnes had a good practice on Wednesday while Tereshinski sat out.

“It’s never really good to miss practice,” Richt said, “but I don’t think that’ll be a deciding factor in the race. A lot of it depends on how Blake reacts to the time.”

Richt has no plans to ban his players from recreational sports or any other reasonable activity, he said. Tereshinski’s injury was worse than it might have been because he was wearing flip-flops at the time it happened, Richt said.

“If there’s just a rash of softball sliding accidents, I might make them wear shoes at least,” Richt said.

Defensive tackle Kedric Golston missed his third straight day due to turf toe and still is using a single crutch for support.

“It doesn’t look real promising on him getting any more work this spring,” Richt said.

Darrius Swain is working with the first team in Golston’s absence.

PRACTICE REPORT: The Bulldogs practiced for about 90 minutes Friday in shorts and shoulder pads.

“I just wanted to make sure everyone was fresh for (today’s scrimmage), and I wanted to reward them for fighting through it Wednesday,” Richt said.