Although head coach Kirby Smart did not come out and say it, it sounded like center Jared Wilson (sprained foot) may be ready to resume his position as the starting center for Saturday night’s game at Texas (7:30 p.m., ABC).

“Yeah, Jared's been good here. He's been practicing. Seems to be doing more the last two days than he has in the previous week,” Smart said after practice on Tuesday. That's good; he repped for us today.”

Wilson has not played since spraining his foot at Alabama. Redshirt sophomore Drew Bobo has started the past two weeks in his place.

Sophomore defensive tackle Jordan Hall, who has yet to play after undergoing surgery to repair stress fractures in each leg, continues to make slow progress.

“Jordan's done more than he has the last two weeks. He's been out there repping, taking reps from us, and getting better,” Smart said. “Jordan's been through a long, hard process. He’s having to get comfortable with the pain that he has. It jumps up and bites him at times. You never know, it might just hit him on a rep. He hasn’t taken the rep load that he would like to take, but he’s out there this week doing more than last week.”

Georgia’s defensive line has been beset with injuries for most of the year, as many of his contributors continue to fight through pain.

“Mykel (Williams) has been battling injury, Warren Brinson has been battling injury, Christen (Miller) has been battling injury. He’s not able to complete the work we carry week in and week out,” Smart said. “Naz (Nazir Stackhouse) has been most reliable in terms of staying injury-free. There’s not really a guy that hasn't missed time at that position. We've been really fortunate to have the numbers we have, even though we don’t have the experience we need.”

…Freshman running back Chauncey Bowens did not dress out last Saturday against Mississippi State, but Smart said that he’s fine.

“He's practicing,” Smart said. “He had a little injury that he was dealing with last week, but he's been practicing all this week.”

…On practice so far this week: “It's good. I mean, I don't know if it was our best Tuesday. I thought that it was good, not great. And we've had some good ones, but it was a spirited day, they got after it,” Smart said. “We had a good competitive practice. Yesterday was a lighter Monday. As I said, we've had more snaps played this year than we ever have before. So, we just did a little bit less on Monday. And the same kind of Tuesdays we've been having.”

…Regarding similarities between Carson Beck and Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers. “You don't have a full, like a full quota of his, he hadn’t played in every game. The games he's played in, they're very similar in terms of knowledge, understanding of their offense, protections,” Smart said. “It doesn't seem pressure affects him much. I mean, he seems like he has really good composure in there, stands in there. They both have the ability, if something goes wrong, to get you out of a bad play and typically avoid catastrophes. That's what older quarterbacks do. That's the similarities they seem to have.”

…Georgia is a 3.5 underdog but Smart said he doesn’t care: “No. I don't even know that. I do not look at lines and underdog favorites. I worry about one thing. What do we have to do to play our best? That comes with a lot of game planning. There is a minimal approach to the game, but I don't think it's about being the underdog,” Smart said. “I think it's about being physical and being prepared to play in a tough place. And the mental strength it takes to play well on the road, you don't need to waste all that energy talking about being the underdog.”

…Smart on recruiting the state of Texas: “There's tons of players in Texas. I mean, I've always said the entire SEC footprint prior to Texas being in the SEC and (Texas) A&M being in the SEC could fit into Texas. So, like, if you took all the people in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and you just said, it's like Texas,” Smart said. “So, there's so many good players there. There are so many good high schools. Development. Coaches get paid more. They have indoors. They have practice all day. They practice year-round. I mean, they just got everything. So, when you go over there, I liken it to getting Georgia high school football players. They're very well-coached, hard-nosed.”

…Smart on Georgia’s running back room heading into the game: “Who am I playing? Texas, right? So, our run game is relative to who we play, typically. I think you take the opponent out of it and say, we set the standard. We should be able to do this, but I also think it's unrealistic in this league to find many teams that are just dominating in the run game,” Smart said. “If they are, they probably are doing it some with a quarterback run, okay? If you take quarterback run out of it and you say, ‘All right, these are the teams that don't run the quarterback by design, where do you stack up? How are your backs? How are you blocking people? What is your success rate? What is your, not average yards per carry, what is your efficiency runs per carry?’ I've been really comfortable with where that is based on who we play.”