LSU Week: Wednesday News and Notes

ATHENS - News and notes from Georgia's practices.

BAD OMEN: Georgia will be going for its 12th SEC Championship on Saturday. If it wins, it will be just the second time the Bulldogs have won the crown following a loss at home in the regular season. That hasn’t happened since 1948, when Georgia lost 21-14 to North Carolina. Georgia lost 31-30 to Auburn in Sanford Stadium earlier this season.

NO HARD FEELINGS: Stephenson High School has been a pipeline of players for the Bulldogs of late. Cornerback DeMario Minter, running back Kregg Lumpkin and wide receiver T.J. Gartrell all played their high school football for Stephenson coach Ron Gartrell. However, linebacker Josh Johnson has become the second straight Stephenson product barred from the school. An administrative committee forced the Bulldogs to drop cornerback Michael Grant two years ago

On top of that, T.J. Gartrell, Ron Gartrell’s son, is a sophomore and has only three catches this year. Despite all that, though, there seem to be no hard feelings between Ron Gartrell and the Bulldogs.

He ended a conversation with The Telegraph this week by saying, “Go Dogs.”

He said his son is not playing as much as he would like, but added that T.J. Gartrell is not as upset about the situation as he is.

“He’s not disappointed, he understands,” Ron Gartrell said. “He understands with Mohamed (Massaquoi) coming in and some other receivers emerging, he needs to step up his game.”

A PROBLEM: Shockley and JaMarcus Russell have a similar problem. Their wide receivers drop too many passes. Both Georgia’s and LSU’s offenses have been hindered this year by dropped balls. Shockley and Russell also handle the problem in a similar fashion.

“You can’t say too much,” Russell said. “It’s not about pointing fingers at one another. You always try to keep them up because if you say anything to them, you might get them down more than what they already are.”

Shockley said almost exactly the same thing after the Georgia Tech game, in which Bryan McClendon dropped a pass that turned into an interception but later rebounded to catch the game-winning touchdown.

“When your guys are down, you have to make sure you get them back up because you never know when you’re going to have to go back to them,” Shockley said.

CUPBOARD STOCKED: Georgia assistant coach Kirby Smart has seen LSU’s team up close and personal, and he has some sobering news for Bulldog fans.

“There’s no doubt LSU has the best material in the league,” said Smart, who was the Tigers’ defensive backs coach in 2004. “We line up with them with the first 22 on offense and defense, but LSU has a lot of depth that maybe we don’t have.”