Georgia Football: Injury update after Bulldogs' second scrimmage
Georgia Football wasn’t at full strength last weekend when media was let in to see a portion of the Bulldogs’ practice prior to their first scrimmage. And from the sound of things, they weren’t at full strength this Saturday either for the second scrimmage of fall camp. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart updated the injury status of the team afterwards.
“We had some nicks, bumps and bruises today. I don’t know that outcome of all those, yet,” Smart said. “Kearis (Jackson) has an Achilles or ankle that is bothering him about halfway through the scrimmage. We thought he could’ve gone, he thought he could’ve gone, but we held him in the back half of the scrimmage. Kendall (Milton) did not go today, but he is much better. He is much closer to being full speed. Having not practiced, we didn’t want to put him back out there because he did not practice before the scrimmage. He should be back to full speed. Earnest Greene is still struggling with an upper leg injury. Rian Davis did scrimmage today. It’s really his first day back. He’s been able to get back up to 80-90% of velocity and speed. He was able to go for a little bit today. Tramel Walthour scrimmaged today and was able to go and do some things. De’Nylon (Morrissette) was running and is back to about 70-80 percent. He did route-running, “indys,” and all the drill work, but we expect to get him back next week. Brett’s (Seither) back has been bothering him, and we’ve been working with him on that. He scrimmaged today and did fine, but he’s been in and out.”
One name that Smart did not mention but DawgsHQ reported that did not participate in the scrimmage was Tate Ratledge. Smart told reporters last week that Ratledge was dealing with turf toe which is believed to be a day to day situation.
DawgsHQ also reported that CJ Smith was not a participant in the scrimmage either, dressed out but not playing. The freshman wide out would be yet another in a long line of players in that position group to get hurt, joining Jackson, Morrissette and Arian Smith, who suffered an ankle sprain that will require surgery.
Smart had this to say about why it seems the wide receivers are always the ones getting hurt.
“They are the highest soft tissue injuries. His (Arian Smith’s) is not, but you tend to have a lot of soft tissue injuries in that position because of the volume of running and the scholarship quota and numbers,” Smart said. “What is your scholarship number at that position? We have had years where we thought 12 was the number, 13 was the number or 10 was the number. We brought more into camp this year than we ever have. I want to say we brought 18, not scholarship, but 18 in our 105 number. It is hard to keep up when you two-spot things and work things. You are always looking for extra legs to cut the volume on those guys. We actually cut volume on the top four guys this spring and this camp than we have last camps just in learning, don’t work these guys too hard and keep the volume down on these guys. Some of the injuries we don’t control and are not soft tissue. Arian’s situation is just football, and it happens from time to time. The number one thing we can do is to have more depth at the position and not have to count on freshmen. Ever year that I have been here we have had freshmen lead us in receiving.”
Georgia players will have the day off to recover tomorrow before turning the page to the final week of fall camp on Monday. Then, less than two weeks after that, it’s time for the season to start as Georgia takes on Oregon in the season-opener on September 3rd.
