Warren Ericson said he still has not been told whether or not he will start at center Saturday at Missouri in place of the injured Trey Hill, but he is ready to go if his name is called.

“I’m waiting to see myself like y’all are,” Ericson said after practice Wednesday. “It’s totally up to the coaches and whatever that is will be the best decision for the team. If it is me, my job will be to step up and do it.”

Ericson is no stranger to the starting lineup.

In last year’s Sugar Bowl, Ericson started at right guard in the absence of Ben Cleveland and accounted for himself very well.

So far in 2020, Ericson has played in seven of eight games, playing both center and right guard in Georgia’s victory at South Carolina.

“It is like my mentality has been ever since the season has started. I’ll do whatever I have to do to be ready to play in this game,” Ericson said. “That’s what I’m going to do, and I’ll be ready no matter what.”

Freshman Sedrick Van Pran is also in contention for the job.

“Yeah, both of those guys are working there and doing a good job. Trey has a meniscus that he was going to have to have repaired after the season, and then I guess last week at some time he injured his other meniscus—so he went ahead and got both of them cleaned up, and he is good,” head coach Kirby Smart said earlier this week. “He’s already off a scooter and moving around. We are really hoping he can bounce back. It was more of a cleanup than a surgery, so we are hopeful to get him back at some point. The other guys are working really hard and doing a good job out there.”

Ericson said he will do his best if his name is called.

“Football is like it always has been. You want to take each day, prepare and try to get better,” he said. “My main objective is to do that and play my role.”

After teammate Rodrigo Blankenship won last year’s Lou Groza Award, punter Jake Camarda was asked how would like to add the Ray Guy Award as the nation’s best punter to his trophy case.

“Would it be cool to bring another piece of hardware to Athens?” Camarda said. “Yes, absolutely. But when it comes to my goals, my goal this year was just to come in and just be as consistent as I possibly could and help our team win football games.”

Camarda is one of nine semifinalists for the trophy, named after the Thomson native and Oakland Raider Hall of Famer.

Based on his numbers, the former Norcross High standout would appear to have a good chance.

Camarda’s 47.8 average ranks third in the country and the Bulldogs 45.6 average in Net Punting leads the nation. He has punted 29 times and placed 17 of those inside the 20 yard line. He has had 14 that traveled 50+ yards. Opponents have only had two punt returns for two yards.

He has been included on the Ray Guy Award Watch List. He has been named the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week twice this year (ARK, UK). He has been on the “Ray’s 4” list as one of the week’s top punters nationally twice.

When asked about Guy, Camarda laughed that he needed to do some brushing up.

“I know that Ray Guy was a very good punter,” Camarda said. “My knowledge probably isn’t what everybody would expect, but Ray Guy was a very, very good punter, a very respected punter.”

Wide receivers Makiya Tongue and Trey Blount have officially put their names in the NCAA transfer portal Tuesday.

They join quarterback D’Wan Mathis who put his name in the portal two weeks ago.

Neither player has seen much action with the Bulldogs.

Blount has played in three games this season, earning the start against Kentucky. In those three contests, he did not register a reception. The former four-star performer will leave Athens with just four catches for 52 yards in his career.

As for Tongue, the Louisiana native has yet to play in a game for the Bulldogs this season after playing in three as a true freshman in 2019. He leaves Georgia without having made a career catch in a game.

Earlier Wednesday, Smart took part in the SEC teleconference. Below, are some of his responses during the 10-minute session:

On how the cold weather will impact the game this week and if it makes him alter a game plan: “Not really. We do not control the weather. We practice in it all the time here. It has been cold this week. We have been practicing outside, inside. We have to go inside a little bit, not by choice but because our fields base is under construction. We alternate who gets to go outside. We have told our team all along, that is not something we can control. We worry about things we can control, and we control how we play and the guys playing in the game won’t be thinking about the weather—they’ll be thinking about the game.”

On what he has thought Eliah Drinkwitz has done with the program: “He’s done a tremendous job. He is a really good football coach. I think when you look at his track record, he has done really well. Going back to his NC State days, he created a lot of issues and conflicts for defenses and then at Appalachian State he did an unbelievable job, as you know, winning against SEC and ACC schools. He is a really good football coach, a really good motivator, you can tell the guys are buying in and playing hard for him. He has a tremendous staff. His quarterback is playing, like I said, he is really impressive to me because his composure and accuracy, he also throws a really good ball. He is a good enough athlete to get out of trouble when it gets in there, he is extended some plays and ran for first downs. I just think Eliah has done a good job coaching them. Their defense is so different to play against. They’re very different defensively compared to most defenses in our league.”

On what Missouri does different defensively compared to the rest of the league: “They don’t play the same front that most of the conference plays. A lot of the defenses in the league come from the same tree, they are not that way. They play a bare front; they play a lot of man to man and they are really good at doing it. So, it is like the thing is you say, ‘Well if you know what they’re going to be in, then you should beat them.’ Well, that is not the case with Missouri because they do it sometimes better than you can attack it. It is very different. You do not get cumulative of reps that you would get when you play somebody and can say ‘we can use this because we used this during the year.’ They are just very different. It’s kind of just a stand-alone.”