My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/bulldogs-blog/
and update your bookmarks.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

More on Sturdivant

Most of this will be in tomorrow's paper, but figured I'd update you on a few quotes from today's media session regarding Trinton Sturdivant's injury:

Richt on the possible use of Cordy Glenn and Kiante Tripp:
"We could take Tripp over there. I'm not saying we won't do that before camp's over, but I don't think we did that today. Cordy really has come along at right guard. He's talented enough to play right tackle. He could probably play left also, but he's used to the right side. If we moved Cordy to a tackle at right tackle, you could move Kiante Tripp over there to left tackle. I would say that would exhaust the possibilities, but at least we have some possibilities, which is good."

On Cordy this year vs. where Trinton was this time last year: "I'd say on par. I think just watching Cordy physically, it didn't take long to say he can do it this year, physically. The question is how will he learn, how quickly can he learn, but I think it's been outstanding how little he's made a mistake. Now I know there's a guy next to him helping him. But it's one thing, if you say slip or slide or Tex or Denver or all these calls that mean something, if you say it to a guy at the last second, even that's not easy to learn, but he's really done a nice job. We go through our walkthroughs and he seems to handle it pretty good the first time through. He's been running with our No. 1s for the past few days now."

On what it means to lose Sturdivant: "To know the backside of your QB is protected and to know that he understands what to do. He's just bigger, stronger and more experienced than he was a year ago, and he did a pretty good job a year ago. It's sad for him, of course, because he worked so hard, he got up to around the 310-pound range, stronger than he's ever been, just has been practicing so well. It's hard to lose his experience."

On where this leaves the O-line:
"We are further along this year than we were last year up front. The guys understand what Coach Searles wants, too. A year ago we were still breaking in the new coach with the new players, and the guys have a much better understanding of how to get things done, so I think that's helping."

On the progress of Josh Davis: "Josh had a very good practice today. I think his energy level moved up a notch thinking he might be the guy, and I liked what I saw. He's running with the No. 1 unit right now. It's not like we said, 'Don't play Josh.' He's competing, and he's at this moment in the lead for that job right now."

Jeff Owens on his feelings about the injury: "It's tough, but it's football. If you didn't want to get hurt, you'd go play tennis or golf. But this is football. We all feel his pain, and it's a big loss. I felt bad for him."

Owens on how Sturdivant is handling the injury: "I talked to him last night. I gave him a hug and told him to keep his head up and just stay positive. I think he's going to be quite well because he's got support, he's got his team, the coaching staff and his family, and we'll all behind him 100 percent."

Richt chatted with reporters for about 15 minutes after practice today, and about 14 of those minutes were spent talking about Sturdivant. You could tell the injury had really hit Richt hard, not just from an Xs and Os standpoint, but because he knew how much hard work the kid had put in to get to play this year. So when a reporter asked him when a decision on who the new starter would be made, it wasn't all that surprising that Richt said he didn't know. He had spent far more time worrying about Sturdivant.

"I'm still not over it yet," Richt said. "Maybe if you ask me in a week, I could respond and say everything's going to be OK, but right now, I'm still sick about the whole thing."

2 comments:

Brandon Deen said...

David, Just wanted to let you know I thought the story on Atkins and Owens was very good! Keep up all the good work your doing!

Ant123 said...

David Great work. Do you think the o-line changes will impact Staffords confidence?