2006 Spring Practice: Day 2 O and O

ATHENS – Observations and opinions from Georgia’s second day of 2006 spring practice.

Georgia continued its spring practice on the field turf fields on the lower end of the football facility. Some of Georgia’s skill position players practiced at times on the upper grass fields. The Bulldogs continue to wear grey (or silver) shorts during practice.

Georgia’s quarterbacks remain the focus of the attention of the media. During the time open to the press, the quarterbacks continued their regular work. Saturday’s practice was slightly different than a typical practiced and seemed to be rather elementary compared to a typical practice. While this practice seemed slow, too, the pace is starting to catch that of a regular fall practice. Much of the perceived speed of the practice is due, in my view, to the amount of uncertainty regarding the position.

Each quarterback gets his work in, and even though there is an order from one to four, the pace is not as fast as is seems in the fall – but that is to be expected.

Matthew Stafford’s arm is the most obvious thing that jumps out every practice. Its hard not to notice the way he throws. Realizing that he is a young person that still needs time and practice, it’s almost breathtaking the amount of arm strength he has. With that said – I have never seen him throw a ball with people coming at him; I have never seen him throw the ball with shoulder pads on; and I, obviously, have never seen him lead a team. All of those factors are critical in a quarterback. Stafford, however, has the strongest arm of any quarterback I have seen live at Georgia. D.J. Shockley had a strong arm and David Greene is very accurate, but neither has an arm like Stafford’s when it comes to pure power. 15-yard outs will not be a problem for this guy.

Blake Barnes seemed to be having a better practice, from what was opened to the press. Barnes was more on target.

Thomas Brown seems bigger. It’s hard to know if he has actually gained weight or not, but he’s certainly bigger-looking. The other interesting thing about Brown is the amount of tape he uses on his ankles. It looks like he has about 2 inches-worth of tape around each one. I am not aware of him having ankle problems. Brown looks like a late-1980s running back from Notre Dame with all of that tape.

Coleman Watson was off his crutches and worked a little with the conditioning group that runs on the upper fields.

Georgia’s special teams look very good early this spring.