With all the usual caveats in mind about preseason happy talk, I have to confess that, so far, the one development I’ve taken a small degree of comfort from is Will Friend’s relative calmness.
Freshman David Andrews is the second-team center and, at this point, will likely not redshirt this season. In fact, offensive line coach Will Friend said Andrews has had the best camp of any of the second-teamers in his unit.
“He’s got a good chance to, and we’ll just continue to get him ready. And if he’s ready, he will (play),” Friend said, chuckling. “David’s had a good camp. And you know a lot of it depends on what goes on from now on. Can he continue to grow and learn what to do as well as he’s done the first couple days, then he has a chance to be a real good player. He’s got a chance to play this year, probably.”
2. Friend likes how his first-team has performed so far. Besides Andrews, he also praised sophomore Dallas Lee, redshirt freshman Kolton Houston and freshman Watts Dantzler.
“The first five done good so far. And we’re just trying to get a couple of those guys who are with the (second-team) to come on,” Friend said. “I wasn’t in panic mode before. But we’ve had a decent camp, I guess first week so far. It’s only been a week. It’s been pretty good, especially with the ones.”
If there’s anybody on the staff who’s had the excuse to freak out, it’s Friend. Yet it sounds like he’s holding it together and (maybe) even starting to build a little depth.
Of course the other possibility is that he’s too overwhelmed to know any better right now.
Get The Picture 
“Of course the other possibility is that he’s too overwhelmed to know any better right now.”
That’s what I’m worried about,
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I was really hoping we were going to redshirt a bunch of these guys, but when past classes don’t pan out, we have to go with trial by fire. Andrews was really one of the freshman o-linemen I wanted to see after a couple of years in the weight room and of film study. Center is not one of those positions where you want to see a young face. Ben Jones did well in the transition, but there’s a reason centers in the NFL are as old as Methuselah.
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Good point on Ben Jones. Hasn’t he been starting from just about the day he hit campus? Although the RS helps develop the player, it looks like Andrews is our projected starter in 2012. Getting him game reps this season may work out well for the future. And to add to what DavetheDawg says, we’ve had freshman contributors recently – Gates, Glenn, B. Jones, Sturdivant, Boling, etc, etc. The OL won’t be a team strength, but they ought to get the job done. We don’t run up against some of the really tough D’s this season.
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Yes, he started in 2008 and actually played pretty well for a freshman against Mount Cody. Andrews has to play this year because Burnette had to move over to guard because of the other guys who haven’t worked out.
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If they can play, play ’em. Maybe we’ve got a few guys who will be game-ready sooner than later, a ‘la Kenarious Gates. The future is now…
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We need to play someone new at center this season for when BJ leaves. It’s that simple.
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The days of red shirting good players is over. The change to the NFL rookie pay scale means that even good players will be leaving after 3 years. If you waste a year for red shirt then you only are going to get 2 years out of them. Good JC players will also become 1 and dones. Jenkins will be gone after this year unless he is a total bust.
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Jenkins & Geathers are both going to impress the NFL. This will be the last year for a number of Dawg underclassmen. Better get it done this year. GATA.
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Especially at this position. Get him some playing time because he’s going to be needed next year. Also, these O-linemen might need a redshirt later in case…well I’m not going to say it, but…let just say they get Sturdivant’ed. (Poor kid.)
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Would it be nice to redshirt all the frosh OL? Of course. But you know what? They’re football players and they signed with UGA knowing they’d have a crack at seeing the field this season.
Get ’em ready, coach.
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If Richt lasts as our HC and I hope he does, I hope he starts emphasizing OL recruiting. We seem to match UF and Bama for skill positions but we seem to be behind the curve when it comes to OL, whether it be unlucky injuries (Trinton Sturdivant), difference of opinion on workouts (Benedict) or just complete misses (Kevin Perez and many others recently). Some of those things are going to happen but I just feel OL and Defense are what wins championships and it appears our D could be on it’s way to being very good again but I’m not real confident in our O-line. Hope they prove me wrong.
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Isn’t Perez still on a roster somewhere in the League?
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How many games did we win in 2004, when David Greene spent his senior season on his tuchus? Didn’t we bitch slap defending national champ LSU in a nice payback game?
My point: a good deep offensive line is important but not everything.
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