Post-Scrimmage Notebook

Although Georgia’s starting offensive line appears to be taking shape, head coach Kirby Smart isn’t ready to start talking in absolutes.

“We’re going to continue the competition,” Smart said after Saturday’s second scrimmage at Sanford Stadium.

“When you guys are here, it will probably be the same group that is always. But we have to rotate in practice because if Lamont (Gaillard) goes down, what happens? Where does everybody go? Dyshon’s (Sims) a guy who can play a lot of positions so we’ll continue to move guys,” Smart continued. “So, that never stops. We’re constantly asking ourselves if he goes down, he goes there, if he goes down, he goes here.”

Take Saturday’s scrimmage, for example.

“I think we rotated a little at left tackle to make sure Isaiah (Wynn) got some time out, because if we lost him that’s probably the toughest loss we could deal with,” Smart said. “We rotated the guards, kind of in a triangle there between Solomon (Kindley), (Pat) Allen and Kendall Baker, but Andrew (Thomas) is still working right tackle.”

Smart became a bit irritated when asked if he had a timetable as to when he wanted some final decisions made.

“I don’t know. When we know, we’ll know. It’s one of those things. When we practice, the week of the game, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, something could happen one of those days. It’s football.

"It’s not about naming a starting offensive line,” Smart said. “That’s not what’s important. What’s important is how the starting offensive line plays and how many reps we can get guys in the right spot. Y’all want to know really bad who the starting offensive line is, but that’s not the goal for us. The goal for us is getting the best five in the best five spots, and then get the others work where they can play if others go down, that’s our goal.”

Nizialek closing in on punting job

Smart said graduate transfer Cameron Nizialek is closing in on the job to be the Bulldogs’ starting punter.

"The punter competition is leaning more and more towards Cam. He's done a really good job. Marshall's (Marshall Long) done well too, but I don't think Marshall's past the injury completely. He's still coming back from that,” Smart said. “The field goal kicking, it's tight, and the kicking off. I will say this: Rod (Rodrigo Blankenship) kicked off really good today, and the field goal kicking is really tight. And it'll probably be decided within this week. But Rod's kicking off really well."

Eason, Fromm impress

One week after expressing concerns with their accuracy, Smart liked what he saw from quarterbacks Jacob Eason and Jake Fromm.

“I thought he (Eason) threw the ball down the field a little better. I thought he was a little more accurate than the last scrimmage, but so was Fromm,” Smart said. “Both those kids were a little more accurate. I don’t think that’s a reflection of Malkom (Parrish) not being out there. I think it was a reflection of the quarterbacks and the receivers being on the same page a little more. I thought they both executed well and did some good things.”

Opening Statement

“I thought the enthusiasm and the desire to practice was much better. We had a lot more energy on both sides of the ball. The guys played harder for longer. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that every day this week other than Wednesday, I think we went inside. Every other day we went out in the heat. The guys really pushed today. It was hot out there, but it wasn’t like I noticed it with the players where it really affected them from a fatigue standpoint. So that part was positive.

“We were a little bit sloppy at times with some penalties, which I would have thought would have been more last week. We had a couple of offsides, a couple of snap infractions, cadence issues. You don’t like those because you have to overcome those penalties. We had a couple of defensive penalties that were aggressive but pass interferences that hurt us, hurt us in some critical situations. So, the penalties were probably the most glaring thing that stuck out as a negative. The kids played hard. Some guys made some good plays. It was very competitive. It was a similar format to last time. We didn’t do a third down period. We did a second-and-10 and third down period. We did a couple of different two-minute situations. We did a couple of other end-of-game situations, but for the most part, the scrimmage was similar to last time--same typical number of plays, about 130 plays.”