I’ve been hurt, hurt, hurt…

First member of the walking wounded to miss a preseason practice… is Isaiah McKenzie.

“There was nothing we could do. We don’t know where that angel came from.”

Quite the sales job, Coach Grantham.

When former Georgia safety Josh Harvey-Clemons was being recruited to Louisville, one of the unexpected selling points for defensive coordinator Todd Grantham — formerly at UGA as well — was who the Cardinals would play in Harvey-Clemons’ first eligible game with the new program.

Auburn.

“When he said that,” Harvey-Clemons said, “I just knew it was meant for me to come here, really. I’ve been waiting to play them again. I look forward to it.”

Boy, talk about Kismet.  But at least Shaq Wiggins assures us that Harvey-Clemons “actually handled it pretty well” at the time, which is more than you can say for us fans.

My original feeling about Auburn-Louisville was that it was going to be your basic meteor game, but at times like this I kinda hope Gus third-and-Granthams Louisville to death.  Which, now that I think about it, isn’t really that unrealistic an expectation.

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“Coach Pruitt has had input without a doubt.”

Chip Towers counts the ways in which Georgia’s defensive coordinator has affected the program since the moment of his arrival.  Some of what he mentions isn’t particularly profound – yeah, Pruitt got to choose his defensive assistants, but that’s SOP – but the last little bit in his piece carries some weight with me based on who said it.

Said former receiver Chris Conley, now with the Kansas City Chiefs: “Restructuring and discipline. … Some of the guys came in and were like, ‘Oh, what’s going on? But he put his foot down and said, ‘either you buy into this system or you’re not gonna play.’ And that created that discipline.” and really it’s gotten the defense to the point where they’re all buying into what they’re doing, they’re sold on his schemes and his way and his mentality, and it’s really translated to the way they play. They play with a lot of confidence now.”

Please, please, please let this turn out to be more than just the usual happy talk.

Forgetting Keith Marshall

This totally slipped my head when Thomas Brown was brought on board as Georgia’s new running backs coach.

Keith Marshall may not have shown it in an actual Georgia game for some time, but the tailback still is a threat as a ballcarrier, his position coach said Friday.

“He can definitely still go,” Thomas Brown said.

The former Georgia running back worked with Marshall on the practice field for the first time this spring after arriving from Wisconsin.

“One thing I talked to him about in the spring was trying to overcome the mental adjustment of being injured,” Brown said. “I’ve been there before (tearing an ACL in 2006). I understand sometimes coming back as a running back you’re thinking about what you’ve done before to be injured or are thinking about reinjuring something.”

There’s a mental aspect to full recovery that is hard to appreciate by those outside the arena.  If Brown can relate in an effective way and so help Marshall get back to where he used to be, that by itself will make for one helluva coaching job this season.

A Spurrier never forgets.

This is a pretty cool last detail to the story of Steve Spurrier recruiting – and botching said recruitment of – Robert Edwards to Florida.

Edwards had a horrific knee injury at the Pro Bowl after his rookie season in NFL. It sapped his breakaway speed, but he still spent some time in the NFL. When he was released by the Patriots, he met up with Spurrier again.

He had left Florida to coach in the NFL with the Washington Redskins.

“I went there to work out for them after the Patriots had released me,” Edwards said. “Coach Spurrier pulled me into the office and said he regretted the way he handled my recruiting when I came to Florida.”

“For him to remember that really impressed me,” Edwards said. “This was in 2001 when I was going to work out for teams. I graduated high school in 1993. It was almost 10 years from then and he remembered all that.”

Under those circumstances, I’d be impressed, too.

Spurrier has a reputation for not being the hardest working recruiter out there.  But this is evidence that he must have done something right.  If recruiting for the Gators was that easy, Jim McElwain would have more to show for it right now.

Cleats on the ground

For those of you who think Faton Bauta’s running abilities give him a leg up on the competition (see what I did there?), I got news for you:  even Bauta doesn’t think that matters much.

“Our offense doesn’t really allow for our quarterback to run much considering all the progressions we have,” he said.

Schottenheimer and Richt aren’t suddenly going to morph into Gus Malzahn.  Sorry if you got your hopes up about that.

“Look, Nick’s a friend of mine.”

So, do you figure the next NCAA rules dispute goes a little more in Nick Saban’s favor than the 10-second substitution kerfuffle did?

Spencer Hall blames Schottenheimer.

Don’t say he didn’t warn ‘ya, Dawg fans.

Crack open another Red Bull, Coach.

I’ll say one thing for Mike Ekeler.  When it comes to his charges, he definitely doesn’t lack for confidence.

Losing a pair of NFL draft picks in Ramik Wilson and Amarlo Herrera hasn’t left Georgia inside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler down in the dumps.

Anything but.

“I think at this point, we’re better right now than we were last year,” the Bulldogs’ second-year assistant said after the team’s fourth preseason practice Friday.

Hey, don’t let us stop you there.

But Ekeler’s praise didn’t stop at saying this group is better than last year’s.

“I think we play better technique than anybody in college football, in my opinion,” Ekeler said. “These kids do it.”

If attitude is contagious, Georgia’s got itself a bunch of all-SEC types lurking at the position.  Red Bulls for everyone!