Georgia Bulldogs

Editor's note: Over the next couple of weeks, we'll clean out our notebook from Georgia's spring practice to tell the stories we didn't get to before the Bulldogs' G-Day game. Previously we featured fullback Quayvon Hicks and tight end Jay Rome. Today we recap a conversation with defensive end Ray Drew from a few days before the G-Day game.

ATHENS, Ga. -- Ray Drew decided before spring practice to stop worrying so much about what everybody else thinks, and the junior defensive end believes that new approach made a world of difference.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Over the last two weeks, we reviewed the competition for playing time at each position on Georgia’s depth chart and identified a player to watch at each position.

A defense that lost 12 significant players will be a focal point well into the fall, and it was in our post-spring recaps. Let’s take a look at the defensive positions first:

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Editor’s note: Last week we started reviewing each of Georgia’s position groups at the end of spring practice. We took a look at the offense last week. Today we begin examining the defense, starting with the defensive line:

Returning players/stats: Garrison Smith, Sr. (Eight starts in 2012. 57 tackles, two tackles for a loss, one sack); Ray Drew, Jr. (23 tackles, 1 TFL); Michael Thornton, Jr. (No tackles); Sterling Bailey, So. (One tackle); Jonathan Taylor, RFr. (Redshirted in 2012)

Newcomers: Toby Johnson, Jr. (ESPN’s No. 4 overall prospect in the 2013 junior college 100, No. 3 DT. Expected to enroll this summer); John Atkins, Fr. (Hargrave Military transfer. Enrolled in January); Chris Mayes, Jr. (No. 87 in 2013 junior college 100, No. 14 DT. Enrolled in January); DeAndre Johnson, Fr. (No. 84 DT. Expected to enroll this summer)

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Week two of Spring camp had the Georgia Bulldogs hitting the practice field in full pads while preparing for a scrimmage on Saturday. Position battles and projected performances dominated the questions we received for this edition of the DawgNation Mailbag.

Adam (Charlotte): What is your view on the post-Aaron Murray quarterback position battle? Brice Ramsey comes out very highly recruited but played in a pure running team and didn't really showcase his talents. Could the big bad SEC be too much for him?

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Editor’s note: Over the next several weeks, we’ll take a look at each position on Georgia’s depth chart today and projecting how it might look in the future. Today we examine Georgia’s defensive ends:

• Current two-deep depth chart:
Garrison Smith (Jr.), John Jenkins (Sr.)
Cornelius Washington (Sr.), Ray Drew (So.)

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Sterling Bailey felt like a kid on Christmas morning when he arrived at his locker last week on the first day of preseason camp and there was not a non-contact jersey waiting for him.

“I was excited because I wanted to be back out there on the field,” Bailey said after Tuesday morning’s practice. “I haven’t been out there since Dec. 10, so when I stepped foot out there, it was an amazing feeling.”

The redshirt freshman defensive end tore ligaments in his right foot during December bowl practices and missed all of spring practice.

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HOOVER, Ala. -- Considering that the league’s media picked his team by a comfortable margin to return to the SEC championship game, Mark Richt’s trip through the SEC Media Days turnstile was mostly uneventful.

Richt publicly addressed running back Isaiah Crowell’s June 29 arrest and subsequent dismissal for the first time, but otherwise, Georgia’s coach and players Tavarres King, Jarvis Jones and Abry Jones were able to focus on their prospects for a promising season.

Among the highlights of Richt’s early morning visit with Bulldogs beat writers, he spent several minutes discussing the role receiver Malcolm Mitchell will play by splitting his time at cornerback.

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Georgia football signee Leonard Floyd’s family threw a party Saturday to celebrate this being his last weekend at home.

The outside linebacker (Eastman, Ga./Dodge County) leaves for Athens on Thursday after passing a summer school class to reach the number of core class hours required to enter UGA.

“I passed the class. I’m good to go,” Floyd said.

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Seventy-eight days remain until Georgia kicks off its season opener against Buffalo on Sept. 1. In the days counting down to the opener, DawgNation will profile, with our “Around the Hedges in 80 Days” series, a Bulldogs player we expect to make an impact. We will review each player’s career thus far and project his long-term potential as we progress through our alphabetical list, from center David Andrews to receiver Rantavious Wooten.

78. Sterling Bailey
Redshirt freshman, Defensive end
6-foot-3, 259 pounds

Fall forecast: It’s difficult to gauge the impact Bailey might make this fall because he suffered a foot injury last December that prevented him from participating in the offseason conditioning program and spring practice. However, defensive coordinator Todd Grantham maintained that he was pleased with Bailey’s work while redshirting last season, so he will be a player worth watching during preseason camp.

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MACON, Ga. -- With 20 public commitments already in the fold, Georgia’s 2013 football recruiting class is larger than the 19-player group the Bulldogs signed in February.

Coach Mark Richt said his staff often gathered a considerable number of early commitments in past years prior to getting off to a slow start with the 2012 class. While picking up as many as 20 players this early in the process is an unusually high number, Richt expects to continue building the bulk of his signing classes early in the recruiting process.

“We were getting in the habit of that, I think, prior to last year’s class,” Richt said Tuesday at the annual Pigskin Preview at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. “I think if we do our homework and the faster that we can make evaluations and decisions on who to offer and go after these guys, I would think we can get some early commitments unless something changes culturally where no one’s doing it. But I think we’ll get our share early, I hope, if we’re doing a good job.”

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