Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Friend-ly options

"Up is down; down is up. He says 'Hello' when he leaves, 'Goodbye' when he arrives."
- from "The Bizarro Jerry"


It's a strange new world over in Athens this August. Just check out the adjectives being used to describe the Bulldogs' offensive line: "deep"..."versatile"..."confident"......."deep".

And other than Chris Burnette coming off of shoulder surgery, everyone is at or near 100% (Burnette said yesterday he was at about 80%, but has been gaining more and more reps as the opener draws near). The injury bug that continuously haunts the offensive line this time of year has apparently moved over to the defensive secondary. Leaving Coach Friend with a bunch of cross-trained and eager bodies that can go more than eight deep.
Georgia’s starters could get more of a chance for a breather, which could keep legs fresh.
“I’m happy for that,” Gates said. “We’ve got a better rotation. We get guys in and out, guys that we trust. We can turn around eight, nine, maybe 10 guys we trust can go in the game and do what they’ve got to do.”
Andrews said Georgia has more players that can rotate. And Gates said the line overall is ahead of where it was a year ago.
“We’re better than last year,” Gates said. “We’ve got more guys stepping up and we trust each other. We love playing with each other. We have fun and we push each other.”
Considering there've been some August practice reports that were scrambling to find just five healthy bodies, this is welcome news.