A little practice drill work, starring the offensive and defensive lines (via):
Speaking of the lines, it sounds like they’ve all but settled on the o-line starters.
Freshman John Theus is all but the certain starter right tackle. Richt said they’ve used the lineup with Theus at right tackle “for the majority of our practices, and I think it’s been good.”
“We aren’t flipping guys a bunch. Guys are staying put, and I think it’s helping us,” Richt said.
And Gates is happy at left tackle, even though there’s room for improvement.
“I feel very comfortable because I feel that’s my natural position, that’s where I need to be,” Gates said after Monday’s practice. “This has been my best camp. I’ve worked hard and become a leader for the team and am just holding down left tackle.”
The 6-foot-5, 318-pound Gates, who started nine games at left guard last season, admits he can improve his technique.
“He’s getting better,” coach Mark Richt said. “He’s really practiced well the last few days especially. I think he’s become more comfortable there. He’s being a little bit more patient in his pass protection. …You’ve got to time your punch.”
Get The Picture 
Isn’t left tackle is the one that basically protects the quarterback’s blind side?
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If the QB is a righty, yes.
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Maybe it’s my lack of football playing experience, but I don’t like hearing our coach saying our starting left tackle is “getting better” with 2 weeks til season starts. He should be good to go. I guess theI don’t have much of a choice with what we lost last year.
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I guess I don’t*
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To be the devil’s advocate, would you rather be hearing the starting left tackle is “not improving” or “getting worse”?
It’s preseason happy talk, man. Every college team is improving right now and has had the best offseason ever. Don’t let it get to ya.
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Fair enough. I’m not too worried about it. But to your point, it’s preseason happy talk, so “getting better” pretty much means nothing. I have confidence in Gates, and if the coaches think he’ll be ready, then I think he’ll be ready.
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And I can only imagine Murray will take whatever he can get re: RT after operating behind the revolving door of Bean Anderson last season. Poor Anderson even gets beat like a rug in the NCAA video game regularly.
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I am happy the coaches are not saying they are moving on of the guards to play tackle due to injury or numbers. Theus is a tackle prospect that every school in the country would have taken. How long has it been since Richt has had a tackle that highly regarded?
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Pretty amazing that CSS looked at Gates all fall as a recruit and the only way he got to uga was because drick rogers went to ut. I think CSS spent time in his office watching old auburn tapes and eating brownies.
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I like the whole “we aren’t flipping guys much” – 10,000 hours and the like. The pirate and other noted successful offensive minds often talk about reps.
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You mean the old “cross training” system didn’t work!?
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Holy crap, yes! A thousand times yes. If we had three year starters everywhere, fine. But let’s let them master one spot before we move them around so much. For all his faults, Cam Newton had an interesting interview where he talked about how Malzahn broke everything down for them to learn easily and rep’d it a thousand times. You are dealing with kids with limited practice time. And we’ve been making too many simple mistakes to move on to cross training.
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“Outliers” reference. Nice. And I agree.
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D line looks good from that clip…..but the one thing that got me the most excited was the toss left that looked successful. I really wish we ran more tosses like when Knowshon was back there. He really made that play special. I think Bobo had supreme confidence in that play back in 07-08.
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If course, getting KM in space is a no brainer. It helps when you have a guy with elusiveness. Because if the D guesses right on a toss it can get ugly.
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Oh and I got excited by that clip too haha, love the toss when it works, it is a thing of beauty.
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…and athletic Tackles help — I get the feeling this Theus kid could be terrifying to LBs and DBs out in the flats during a toss sweep. Gates, I’m not as sure about but maybe so since he feels its his natural position.
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To bring a little rain to the parade, It looks like the only one hustling was the ball boy. Our practices are slow. I have spent the last few weeks reviewing the last season’s games. I am scared to death. Even in the wins, with the exception of GT and Auburn we looked mediocre. I see it being an 8-4 season. Losses MO, SC, UF and either UT or Auburn. Sorry but I’ve finally gotten too old to drink the Kool-aid.
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The teams you’re predicting Georgia loses to – how much have you seen of their preseason practices? UF, UT and Auburn were a heckuva lot more mediocre than Georgia was last year.
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Jesus, dude. Who pissed in your cornflakes? It’s an easier schedule and we went 10-2 last season. You’ve got to be TRYING to be a pessimist to come up with 8-4. That or a South Carolina troll.
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Missouri??! Really? Missouri?! Have you even bothered to check out their situation at offensive line? They’re starting a walk-on at tackle. Auburn doesn’t know who their quarterback is. Florida doesn’t know who their quarterback is. Tennessee knows who their QB is but they don’t have a running game, OR a defense.
Some of you are trying way too hard to be debbie downer.
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…and I’d argue Florida doesn’t know who their coach is either.
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Aren’t we starting a walk on at fullback?
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Probably the position of FB can’t theoretically get your QB whacked out for the game/season if done poorly. And the Dawgs have had previous walk-ons at fullback carry out the position with style.
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JT WALL, ANYBODY??
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Yes, but the difference is we aren’t doing it because we ran out of scholarship players at the position. Merritt Hall earned that spot because of his hard work. Mizzou is starting a walk-on at tackle because injuries have left them short on scholarship linemen.
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Char-ron Dorsey FSU, John Spickelmier Notre Dame, Jason Spitz Louisville, Brent Benedict Va Tech, all former Bolles High players I had the chance to see and none of them had better footwork or skill set to play early in college with the exception of John Theus. Former Major league player and good friend of mine, Storm Davis coached at Bolles for many years, his words to me,” Theus is more ready to play on the college level than any lineman Ive coached or coached against.
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Well he was a guard. He practicing tackle and he might learn something new everyday. I’d say its not over reaching if that all true. Learning is getting better imo.
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He’s*
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Reminds me that Gates was an afterthought when we signed him. He was on his way to kentucky before we realized we had an extra ‘ship. He represents a strong argument for signing the limit every year.
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Word
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