Richt and Bulldogs 'shake things up'

It may not sound like much, but for the first time Monday we saw the first tangible sign of Georgia trying something to fix its woes.

The Bulldogs held a full-pad practice on Monday, which is normally reserved for special teams work and other minor walk-through stuff. Head coach Mark Richt answered “never” when asked how unusual it was to do so on a Monday.

“We hadn’t been blocking and tackling real good, so we decided to have a little spring ball today,” Richt said. “Normally we’re in shorts, running, getting a little running in, work on a few things. But we decided to put the pads on and get after it. One vs. one, two vs. two.”

Richt seemed pleased, calling it “physical” with “great competition.”

The players found out via text at 2 p.m. that the practice was going to be switched up.

“We’ve gotta do something different, to shake things up,” tailback Caleb King said. “It honestly was a good fun practice. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, more like this.”

King said that despite having to do sprints at the end of practice. That went for the entire offense, which “lost” a set of mini-scrimmages to the offense.

Cornerback Vance Cuff admitted that the rules were set up to favor the defense.

“They had to get a certain amount of yards and have to do certain things, and all we had to do was pretty much stop them at the beginning,” Cuff said.

Receiver Kris Durham, still dealing with a pinched nerve, was in a non-contact jersey. (He said he hopes to play Saturday.) But Durham also thought the padded practice was a good thing.

“It was a very emotional practice. You could tell everyone was getting after it. It was pleasing to see,” Durham said. “It was something that we needed. We needed to get more physical.”