Georgia’s ninth practice of the spring season took place Saturday at Sanford Stadium, and as expected, coach Kirby Smart and his staff saw things they liked and things they didn’t care for, but there was no lack of gusto between the hedges.
“I was pleased with the effort and enthusiasm,” Smart said. “As is always the case with scrimmages, one side will shine, and then the other side will shine. I thought defensively we started out pretty well when the (No.) 2 defense went against the (No.) 1 offense and at least held them to field goals early, and then the 1 defense kind of dominated the 2 offense early, but then we started going the 1’s against 1’s, and we had some really good competition.”
Smart said he would like to see more consistency, but added he was pleased with the physical nature of the early-afternoon scrimmage.
“Between the defense and the offense, I thought the inconsistency showed up on sustained drives, and then (the defense) gave up a couple of explosives, and we don’t need to do that to be a good defense,” he said. “They executed hard. There were some good licks passed, and it was physical, which is what my goal was.”
Junior college transfer Jermaine Johnson, who figures to be active in the coming season at outside linebacker, was among the walking wounded Saturday, suffering from the effects of an ankle injury earlier in the week.
“He’s got a sprained ankle,” Smart said of Johnson, who played last season at Independence Community College in Kansas. “He sprained his ankle (Tuesday). He was not able to practice, but he had a foot injury coming in from junior college and he didn’t get to practice … during the (Sugar Bowl) practices. He kind of re-injured that during our practices. We think he’s going to be fine. He should be back in the next couple of days.”
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