Dogs take practice inside, continue prepping for Gators

ATHENS — Due to severe weather and heavy rain, the Georgia Bulldog football team moved indoors Wednesday, practicing approximately 90 minutes at the Ramsey Center on campus.

Working out in jerseys, shoulder pads, shorts, helmets and tennis shoes, the Bulldogs (4-4, 3-3 SEC) continued preparation for this weekend’s annual showdown with Florida (4-3, 2-3 SEC) in Jacksonville, Fla.

“I would’ve rather been outside, but we had a walk-through inside and everybody was focused, and we got about as much out of it as we could have,” head coach Mark Richt said after practice.

Georgia spent about 25 minutes on kicking/special teams work and the rest of the time the offense and defense worked in separate gyms.

“We’re not going to change anything in our routine (today), it will be our normal work tomorrow,” Richt added. “We’ll go to the stadium and work with the crowd noise.”

Richt said sophomore cornerback/punt returner Branden Smith, who has missed the past three games with a concussion, has been cleared to play. He will see action Saturday.

When talk turned to the tailback spot, Richt said the starter has not been determined between sophomore Washaun Ealey and junior Caleb King. Ealey has a “bone bruise” and did take part in Wednesday’s walk-through, Richt said. Ealey is coming off a record five-touchdown rushing performance in the road win against Kentucky last Saturday.

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DOGS DOING IT RIGHT: Richt said he was proud of the latest Graduation Success Rate released by the NCAA on Wednesday as the Bulldogs ranked second in the SEC among football teams, trailing only Vanderbilt for the highest graduation rate. Football’s latest GSR came in at 68 percent.

“That’s great news and outstanding for all the guys that graduated, for our support staff including our academic people,” said Richt.

New Georgia A.D. Greg McGarity agreed.

“The overall report is encouraging and it definitely continues an upward trend,” McGarity said. “The improvement by eight of our sports as well as the three that remained at 100% is particularly noteworthy. At the same time, we want to get better and will continue to work hard in the academic area with our student-athletes.”

Kickoff at EverBank Field in Jacksonville is set for 3:30 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on CBS.