Another day, another update on D’Andre Swift’s bruised left shoulder.

After head coach Kirby Smart on Monday seemed to hedge his Sunday comments by saying he was “hopeful” the junior running back would be a go for Saturday’s SEC Championship, Tuesday’s update was again on the positive side.

“He’s been out there doing what we asked him to do; he’s practicing,” Smart said after practice Tuesday. “He’s banged up. It’s tough, but he’s a warrior, he’s a fighter, and we expect him to be able to go.”

That’s obviously great news for the Bulldogs (11-1), who need a healthy Swift, or at least a reasonable facsimile, to have a chance against No. 2 LSU.

Swift initially appeared to suffer what Smart termed a “shoulder contusion” during his third-quarter fumble inside the Georgia Tech 10-yard line.

However, that actually wasn’t the case for Swift, who didn’t tell coaches he actually aggravated his shoulder earlier in the game.

“According to him, and we had that same question, it was earlier in the game that he injured it, and he continued to play with it and began to hurt more and more after that,” Smart said of Swift, who landed on his right shoulder. The injury was to his left.

“It was bothering him more,” Smart said. “He’s had a banged-up shoulder a lot of the year, a lot of the guys have. Brian Herrien’s had it. A couple of players have had similar injuries.

“He’s dealt with it; he’s played with it. I won’t say it’s a common injury, but we’ve had a lot of guys who have had that same injury. He’s been dealing with it and it came to a head Saturday. He had a couple of hits earlier where he (Swift) did fall on it.”

The fumble was one of two in the game for Swift, who was carrying the football on his inside arm when both mistakes occurred.

“Philosophically, you’d like to have the ball in the outside arm,” Smart said. “But there’s also dominant arms, dominant hands, and sometimes injuries are involved in that. But he's comfortable in his right arm, so, that’s where he had those (fumbles).”

Twice, LSU coach Ed Orgeron has made it a point to praise Bulldog defensive tackle Tyler Clark.

“He’s a really good player,” Orgeron said.

Smart doesn’t disagree.

“Tyler’s had a good year. He’s been really active,” Smart said. “I think the way we’ve played defensively, with the havoc and the movement, has helped.”

The stats seem to back that up.

Clark is the top tackler among Georgia’s defensive linemen with 24 tackles and eight tackles for losses of 34 yards.

“He’s a good athlete. That’s given him the ability to make some plays. Tyler’s a hard-nosed, tough worker,” Smart said. “I mean, the number of snaps he’s played for us for four years is pretty incredible for what he’s been able to do for us, and also to stay relatively healthy. But Tyler’s done a great job. He’s one of the first kids we recruited here, and he’s been a great Georgia Bulldog.’’

• Do players enjoy all-the-marbles games?

“Yeah. I think they’re excited about the opportunity. Two years ago, this was the most-watched game in all of college football. There’s a lot of passion and energy involved. Atlanta’s got a great venue, and the Southeastern Conference is second to none when it comes to fan bases and passion. Our players are excited. I am, too.”

• On finding weak links on LSU:

“They’re trying to find our weak links; they don’t have a lot. They’ve got good football players on the field. They’ve got a good quarterback, and they’ve got a very experienced O-line. It’s not like there are a lot of weak links out there for them. You put the game plan together, and you look at pictures and say, ‘That doesn’t look good,’ so you might move this, change that, and tweak people around. But philosophically, it’s about what am I willing to expose myself to risk on. That’s the hardest decision, because ultimately they’ve got good players in a lot of spots.”

• On inside linebackers coach Glenn Schumann and his impact helping call defensive plays:

“Yeah, I fully expected him to. When I hired him, he was the most sure hire I had. You could say, wasn’t he a risky hire? No, because I worked with him before. When you have a body of work, it’s like having an internship, an employee, a comrade, he worked alongside you. There was not a lot of risk or concern when you hire somebody that’s worked with you as long as he has. He’s a great teacher. He teaches the technique well and spends more time putting the tapes and packages together. His players play really hard for him. He’s a good recruiter. He’s what you want in a coach.”

• On Ed Orgeron being a character with some good quotes:

“He’s had some good ones. I think it’s more important what he does with his team than what he says. Obviously words only go so far. It’s your actions and your team’s performance. He certainly spoke loud and clear with that, because they’ve played really well in big games. He keeps his team good and loose, and they play to his character. I think it’s great for our conference. We’ve got a stellar group of coaches in our conference.”

• Looking at Orgeron and going to a pass-heavy offense, how difficult is it as a defensive coach to do that?

“I mean, I think that’s hard. I think if you can score points like they’re doing, that’s great. What’s bad about that? I think we all want to do that some—[but] it’s not who we are. I mean we don’t have a team built like that. We’re not built like those two teams. We’re built very differently. That's not always by nature. It wasn’t like all of a sudden, Alabama decided they were going to throw the ball all the time. They got a stellar group of wideouts in one gathering. It’s like they all came in at once and became really good players. Same thing at LSU. I mean LSU, they’ve had good wideouts over the years.

"But they have a really stellar group at the same time, along with a transfer quarterback who has been impactful. I don’t know that philosophically both those guys made huge changes, as much as they inherited two quarterbacks who are unique, who can do special things, and they’ve got some special players around them.”

• On the absence of Lawrence Cager and Georgia Pickens the first half potentially changing game plan:

"I don't know about that. You can't change who you are completely in a week. Certainly, we've got different groupings, different packages, different use of guys. We've got a lot of big guys. We've got tight ends, backs, receivers, just not as many as we've normally had, but I don't think there's going to be a major wholesale change in a week."

• Will Charlie Woerner and Eli Wolf have an increased pass-catching role?

"I don't know if I'd say that. Everybody's important, right? So the wideouts that are playing are important, the tight ends that are playing, the backs that are playing, everybody's important. You can't put one thing over another. The No. 1 thing that indicates success is, don't turn the ball over and get explosive play. We've been good at one, and we've been just okay at the other."

• On recruiting this week:

"We're hopeful to get out a couple of days, a couple of times to go see some people. It's tough, because there's a lot of planning going on."

Georgia practiced for approximately two hours Tuesday in preparation for Saturday.

“Practice has been good. Guys are really focused, energized. You can tell the extra juice flowing out there. It’s nice to see it,” Smart said. “Certainly, the more you watch these guys, you realize why they’re so good. But our guys are really excited, and they’ve had two really good practices in the books.”

Striking a proper balance between rest and getting the team ready for a physical LSU squad has been key.

“You’ve got be smart about how you practice this time of year,” Smart said. “We’re having to do tempo, walks (walkthroughs), some good-on-good, while trying to take care of their legs. But at the same time, expose them to what is going to be a really good, physical football team.”

Practice has been split between outside and indoors.

“We’ve been outside, I would say, probably 25-to-30 percent of the practice. Mainly because of the legs. The turf is probably a little harder on your legs,” Smart said. “So, we get some out, some in. We just don’t have enough space in there. We do most of it inside.”