PLAYERS SAY OFFENSE IS AHEAD OF LAST YEAR

ATHENS — It would appear that six practices into the 2018 season, the Georgia offense is ahead of where it was at the same time a year ago.

After taking Wednesday off, the Bulldogs were again forced to go inside Thursday after inclement weather once again reared its head, but even at this early juncture, players remarked that the offense is making significant progress.

“I would definitely say we’re ahead,” said junior tight end Charlie Woerner, who grabbed nine passes for 100 yards in 2017. “We had a really good summer learning the offense and doing our player-led practices. Our summer was very productive, and a bunch of young guys (have) learned the playbook already. You kind of start over at camp, learning everything again, but it’s going very well, and I think we’re ahead.”

“They’re pushing us much harder this year,” added senior receiver Ahkil Crumpton, now in his second season in Athens after transferring from Los Angeles Community College a year ago. “We’re really jumping into it and we started early in the summer. Right now everybody’s on the same plane just trying to get better.”

The difference a year makes: Senior guard Kendall Baker is perhaps the walking representation of dogged perseverance. The 6-foot-6, 305-pound offensive lineman played in three games as a redshirt freshman and two as a sophomore. With a talented group of recruits coming along last fall, it seemed as if Baker would spend his third consecutive season watching from the sidelines.

But he earned a start at left guard in Georgia’s second game of the season — remember that 20-19 victory at Notre Dame? — and remained the starter for the next 14 games.

Baker, who prepped at Marist primarily as a defensive threat, made sure he spent his summer preparing for an active season on the offensive line.

“I worked real hard this offseason because I knew what was coming,” Baker said. “I knew I had a lot of stuff to do to make the team better and make myself better. If I wanted to stay out there and do what I had to do for this last season, I had to go ahead and make the most of what I did. So me and (senior center) Lamont (Gaillard) worked out all summer and didn’t really take a break and came back. We did have a good summer.”

His summer of labor didn’t necessarily result in a noticeable weight gain (he is the smallest lineman of Georgia’s returning seasoned players), but Baker definitely feels different.

“I didn’t gain too much weight,” he said. “The weight that I put on was better weight — I’m still at about 305 (pounds).”

LeConsistency: Sophomore Richard LeCounte recorded nine tackles in Georgia’s G-Day game in April and appears poised to earn his share of playing time this season, but coach Kirby Smart said Tuesday he’d like to see more stability in the 5-foot-11, 185pound safety’s play.

“He makes some of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen, and then he makes some of the most boneheaded plays,” Smart said.

Lest anybody gets the idea that Smart doesn’t care for LeCounte, the coach said, “I love Richard; Richard is one of my favorite players to coach. And y’all will say ‘Coach Smart is attacking Richard.’ That’s not the case.”