What’d I Miss?

You just can’t take off any time during fall camp. I was busy celebrating Karl Rove’s departure yesterday, but I missed out on all the changes at the Dawgs’ practice.

Remember that scene in Space Jam? Jordan’s team (the cartoon characters) are all in the locker room and they’re all bandaged up and ailing? It seems that paints a clear picture of the offensive line. In fact, it’s so bad that RFr Kiante Tripp has been moved from defensive end to offensive tackle. Really? We’re that stocked at the end position we can afford to move 2006’s 14^th rated defensive end to the offensive side of the ball? Well, I guess when the same guy was also rated the 9^th best OT then the answer is OH HELL YEAH. Hey, I can appreciate that Coach Richt doesn’t want to move guys around. But it sounds like this guy is extremely athletic and would punt if you asked him to ( You reckon he punts? We still need a punter….)

In case you’re keeping tabs on the injured:

OL – Chris Davis, Chester Adams, Scott Havercamp, Chris Little, Tanner Strickland

Skill positions – Mikey Henderson, Tripp Chandler, Jason Johnson, TJ Gartrell, Kris Durham

DL – Tripp Taylor, Ricardo Crawford

DB’s – Rashad Jones, Bryan Evans, Thomas Flowers

LB – Chris Gaunder

Don’t worry if you’ve not heard of Chris Gaunder. He was just awarded a scholarship after he and fellow walk on Drew Williams showed they got what it takes. I distinctly remember Gaunder making a tackle in the Chick Fil A Bowl last year right after Milner scored our first touchdown. I’m guessing Gaunder has become a special teams guy, because at 6’0” and 216 lbs, he’s not vying for Brandon Miller’s job (of course former MLB Jarvis Jackson was around 220 lbs, so what do I know). I love to hear the walk-on stories because they are essentially making space for someone who has proven themselves on the field.

In the “I love Mark Richt, however” department we have this blurb about the linebackers yesterday:

“Brandon (Miller) of late has played more Sam and (Dannell) Ellerbe has played more Mike,” Richt indicated when asked about Miller’s play on Tuesday. “If it happened today we would probably play Ellerbe at Mike. It doesn’t diminish Miller’s ability. Even though he isn’t playing a lot of Mike right now, he is the guy who is physically dominating. He’s quite frankly throwing our tight ends around.”

This despite the previous declaration that, in moving him to the MLB, Miller was the “key” to the defense. He sounds like a White House press secretary who’s backpedaling. Look, I know he says whatever he has to just to protect his players, but this sounds worrisome. In the spring he said, and I quote, “We’re in good shape at linebacker”. Is this the equivalent of “no new taxes”?

Speaking of politicians, Georgia Congressman Paul Braun visited practice on Tuesday. You reckon HE can punt?

CB Remarcus Brown was suspended for the first two games for the dreaded "violation of unspecified team rules". At Miami, that means they've been smoking weed. Could mean anything here. At South Carolina, you can key a car and not get suspended any games. Unfortunately, at Georgia, they'll suspend you for skipping class, so I hope everybody's got the mischief out of their system.

We're getting down to two weeks before the first game. I hope we're done playing musical chairs and let these guys just play. Bring on the Cowboys.