The Georgia Bulldogs conducted their 10th practice of the spring on Tuesday afternoon, a full-pads session that lasted just over two hours at the UGA Club Sports Complex. The workout was Georgia’s first since the Bulldogs’ initial scrimmage of the spring last Saturday.
 
 

“I was really pleased with the kids’ work ethic today,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “I was a little worried going out there. It’s getting to that point…and you know when that point hits…practice nine, 10 or 11…where it can get kind of ho-hum. But we had some good spirits out there, some good pads popping. I thought the offense tried to play a little more physical and run the ball a little better. They challenged us up front and came off the ball and hit us.”

 
 
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A portion of the practice concentrated on the Bulldogs’ ability to move the ball from deep inside their own territory.
 
 

“We try to do a little different situation every day,” Smart said. “Today was coming out with the ball backed up. We tried to do some backed up situations and get the ball out of there. We try to explain to the kids that if the defense holds and they have to punt from their own end zone, you earn about an average of four points per time you stop them. And then the same thing with the offense. If you don’t get a first down, you kind of give up scoring four points because the other team usually gets the ball inside the 50 and it results in points a lot of times.
 
“The offense won both of those,” Smart continued. “They got first downs both times so that was a good achievement for the 1s and the 2s to get that done.”

 
 

 
 
Georgia will practice again on Thursday and hold another scrimmage on Saturday. Smart was asked if he would treat this weekend’s scrimmage differently since it was a week before the annual G-Day game.
 
 

“Saturday’s scrimmage will have nothing to do with G-Day,” Smart said. “To be honest with you, G-Day…it’s a practice to me. We’ve got go out there and get better. The good thing (about G-Day) is we hope to have a great environment where the kids get butterflies in their stomach and get to play in front of a crowd. It’s amazing how some guys perform better and some guys don’t perform as well. They get anxiety. You’ll find that out. This Saturday’s scrimmage is all about finding our best 22 and our best 44. We want to find them and put them in the best spots. It will only be about that, finding out best players. We will do some different situations, but it will be scrimmage and tackle and try to get better.”

 
 
Georgia’s spring drills will culminate with the G-Day intrasquad game on Saturday, April 16 at 4 p.m. That contest will be televised nationally on ESPNU, with Dave Neal calling the play-by-play, former Georgia All-American and Academic All-American Matt Stinchcomb serving as color analyst and Shannon Spake handling the role as sideline reporter.