Richt on Ealey's injury, Houston on the NFL, and more

Georgia head coach Mark Richt still thinks Washaun Ealey’s knee is fine and he will play on Saturday. But he admitted that the sophomore tailback would have still been limited had the Bulldogs held a full-practice on Wednesday.

Instead the rain forced the team to do a walk-through.

“It’s bothering him right now,” Richt said of Ealey. “But in a few days it’ll subside, and you add a little adrenaline, and it’ll be fine.”

Ealey said after Tuesday’s practice that he had a Grade 1 MCL sprain. Richt on Wednesday described it as more of a bone bruise.

“I don’t even know who’s gonna start right now,” Richt said. “If Washaun had been healthy the whole week, it would’ve been him. But that’s something I’ll have to discuss with (offensive coordinator Mike) Bobo and (running backs) coach (Bryan) McClendon, and decide what’s best.”

- Branden Smith has been cleared to practice and should play against Florida. The cornerback and punt return man has missed the past three games after sustaining his second concussion of the season.

- The rain forced Georgia inside, and caused an alteration in their normal practice plan. But Richt said they won’t try to make up for it Thursday.

“I think the information we needed to cover was covered,” Richt said. “But there’s nothing like doing it. So I wish we could’ve done it today.”

The Bulldogs had to use the Ramsey student center. Richt said only half-jokingly that he was trying to get into the school’s unfinish indoor practice facility. He pointed out that the field turf is down.

“I just thought if we went in through an outside door, then went right back out, and didn’t do anything else. But they wouldn’t let me in,” Richt said.

Actually, now that I play the tape back, I'm not sure whether Richt was joking or not.

- With all the bad off-field news his program has endured, Richt was happy to bring up the fact Georgia ranked second in the SEC in the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate. That was released Wednesday.

“Of course Vanderbilt was No. 1, and Georgia was No. 2,” Richt said. “That’s great news for all our players that have worked so hard, and our academic people. Certainly not as high as we want it to be, but considering a lot of people like to compare numbers in the league, and we’re No. 2.”

Richt pointed out that the team’s Academic Progress Rate was also No. 2 this year. When it was pointed out that the team’s GSR was higher than Georgia Tech, Richt said: “Is that right? I didn’t say that.”

- I’ll have a bigger story in Thursday’s papers on Justin Houston. But since I didn’t include it, here’s his response to The Question, of whether he’s thought about possibly leaving a year early for the NFL draft:

“I try my hardest not to thing about that at all,” Houston said. “I just want to take it a game at a time, and just focus on this season. When the time gets here, I’ll think about it then, but right now I just want to focus on this season.”

- Houston was also asked about having a half-sack taken away from him at Kentucky, after coaches watched tape. That happened before, when a sack was taken away at South Carolina.

Yes, the only ones that can stop Houston this season are Georgia’s coaches.

“Uh, yeah, if you say so,” Houston said, smiling.