Tuesday UGA News and Notes

Kirby Smart said there are still plenty of areas freshman wide receiver Jermaine Burton needs to improve, but there's one aspect of the freshman's play that's of absolutely no concern.

“The thing about Jermaine is he cares. That's important to him. He wants to do those things right, and on top of that, he has good ability,” Smart said. “The want-to is half of it, the ability is the other part, and opportunity also. He got an opportunity to make plays, and he made them when he got an opportunity.”

A native of Atlanta and graduate of Calabasas High School (Calif.), Burton earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors after making eight catches for 197 yards and two touchdowns (all career highs) from quarterback JT Daniels during the Bulldogs’ 31-24 win over Mississippi State.

Burton had catches for 49, 48, and 46 yards, and finished with the fourth-best outing by a receiver in school history. His showing was the best since Tavarres King went for a record 205 against Michigan State in the 2012 Outback Bowl.

Smart believes his best is still to come.

“I think Jermaine’s getting better because he works hard. There's a lot of potential to grow. He doesn’t block the right guy all the time, he doesn’t know all his assignments, and he doesn’t always know his split,” Smart said. “The things you guys see, the public sees, are awesome, so I want him to be the complete player he can be. I want him to help benefit our team in terms of second-level run game, getting runs started. There were a couple of runs that didn't get started, which you could say was his fault, because he didn't do the right thing. So, it's not like he doesn't have room to improve. He does.”

Don't get Smart wrong; he's thrilled with the success JT Daniels enjoyed last Saturday night against Mississippi State.

Nevertheless, Georgia’s head coach cautioned a reporter who asked whether or not his emergence spurred any extra excitement within the offense.

“Well, I think the verdict is still out on that. The sample size we have is small, but the sample size we have, meaning coaches in practice—we get to see him each and every day,” Smart said. “You have to remember we've seen this guy go with the ones for longer than anybody else has, because he practiced the Missouri week the whole time there.”

Daniels will make his second straight start Saturday night at South Carolina (7:30 p.m., SEC Network).

“I've seen him make some good plays. I've seen him make good decisions. He had some really good plays today. We go good-on-good and compete on third down. He moved in the pocket, made some plays,” Smart said. “The biggest improvement that he's made is in his pocket awareness, and that’s where his best decisions have to come. As far as transformation or anything like that, I don't know. We have to find ways to run the ball, and that’s probably the most important thing to me, so we can be explosive in both ways.”

…Smart was also asked who would back up Daniels if he had to come out of the game. “It would depend on the health of Stetson (Bennett), obviously. We'd hope he'd be healthy enough,” he said.

The sight of freshman cornerback Kelee Ringo has been a pleasant sight for Smart.

Although Ringo is out for the year following shoulder surgery, progress is certainly being made.

“He’s actually been out there in a black shirt, doing, I guess you could say, about 70 percent of the work. He doesn’t hit anybody, and he doesn’t get to do a lot of drills, but he does individual things,” Smart said. “I’ve been really pleased with him trying and fighting to get back out there. Guys get injured, and they kind of lose focus, and it's like they get lost in the shuffle. But he's been in every meeting. He's very attentive. He takes notes. It’s very promising to see that out of him, but I don’t think he’s going to be back any time soon or anything."

Smart on what's missing without Richard LeCounte: “I just really think confidence. I don’t want to call it play-making ability, because he always made plays---that’s the one thing about Richard, you cannot find a game that he didn't have some crazy breakout in the middle or run down a reverse or just make an acrobatic interception. Just that moxie and play-making ability is probably one of the biggest things—and confidence. He breeds confidence, and it trickles down into the other players, with Richard. You probably miss some of that, that play-making ability.”

JT Daniels was named the Maxwell Awards Player of the Week Tuesday following his performance against Mississippi State. Daniels made his Bulldog debut and shredded MSU for 401 yards and four touchdowns (both career highs) during his team’s win. He was 10-for-11 for 144 yards, three touchdowns and was only sacked once on third downs. He posted the top efficiency rating of his career (197.1). Daniels became the first Bulldog since Aaron Murray in 2013 to throw for more than 400 yards in a game.