In case you missed it, spring practice started yesterday.

There was plenty of non-criminal coverage, too, as Emerson, Estes and Weiszer all turned in good reports on the day.  A few items of note:

• Health.  Overall, something of a mixed bag, but better than I anticipated.  Gurley looked healthier than expected.  Wilkerson and Marshall went through some non-contact drills and accelerating full-speed and cutting.  Malcolm Mitchell has progressed enough that Richt thinks he could run some routes competitively, and wouldn’t even rule out the possibility of Mitchell facing off against a defender this spring.  On the other hand, Scott-Wesley and Rome didn’t do much of anything.
• J.J. Green.  He’s moved to cornerback. “He looked pretty natural out there, I thought, as a corner, the couple little spots I saw,” Richt said.  It can’t hurt.
• Checkgate.  All four of the arrestees practiced yesterday.  “Ready for our first spring practice!” Matthews tweeted at lunchtime.
• Quarterbacks.  Mason’s the clear-cut number one guy, which is no surprise.  It sounds like there’s still a lot of work to be done with his backups, though.  “Faton is next, and Faton is getting a lot more reps and he’s doing well. You could tell he’s still not 100 percent certain on every single situation, but we pride ourselves at Georgia to try not to waste any plays offensively. In doing so, the quarterback has got to make a lot of decisions at the line of scrimmage according to what he sees defensively. … Brice is certainly a lot farther along than he was a year ago. And you know Jacob, his head is spinning. I can’t imagine how bad his head is spinning right now. He did some good things as he’s trying to learn what to do.”
• Pruitt the position coach.  Hands on:  “Pruitt was working with both the safeties and the cornerbacks, bringing them together for various, hard-driving drills. It was impressive that Pruitt made sure to identify each player by his first name, walk-on or scholarship guy, and he coached every single one of them through each drill.”
• Special teams.  Per Richt, the goal is for defensive starters to each be on two special teams units.  That’s different.
• Position changes.  Other than Johnny O’Neill moving outside, it doesn’t sound like much is new.