Richt not sure what to call for Stafford yet

ATHENS – There will be times Saturday, Mark Richt expects, when Bulldog fans will wonder, “What on earth is this guy thinking?”

That’s because Georgia’s head coach freely admits there’ll be some guessing going on in his play-calling. With true freshman quarterback Matthew Stafford making his first collegiate start, there’s not much choice, Richt said.

Senior starter Joe Tereshinski “could handle really any really that we needed him to. Matthew can handle it, too, one at a time, but if you throw too many in there on him, you’re probably asking too much,” Richt said.

Tereshinski almost always stepped under center with at least two plays to choose from, but there will be times on Saturday when Stafford goes to the line with no authority to change the play.

“Hopefully, I’ll be a good guesser,” Richt said. “If you hit it against the right defense you look smart, if you hit it against the wrong defense, you don’t look so smart.”

Stafford feels comfortable handling as much of the offense as his coaches want to give him, he said. After getting fewer than 20 percent of the practice snaps in the first two weeks, he got close to 70 percent this week.

“It’s got to help our timing,” he said. “It’s got to help what the receivers are feeling and what I’m feeling on a certain route, so I’m sure our numbers will improve and our offense will improve. We need to, especially against this defense.”

Stafford, who threw three interceptions last week, also has promised to be more careful with the football against UAB.

“The worst thing we can do on offense is a turnover,” he said. “One of the better things we can do is punt, pin them down and let our defense go to work. I learn from my mistakes.”

UAB’s coaches aren’t expecting to be able to exploit the youngster much.

“We really like this new quarterback,” head coach Watson Brown said. “I think he’s going to be special.”