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Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009

Georgia’s leaders expect better focus

With little more than a month until Georgia kicks off its spring practice, the focus in the locker room is clearly on what lies ahead for the Bulldogs. But the excitement about a new season hasn’t diminished the sting of last year’s embarrassing losses to Alabama, Florida and Georgia Tech.

A month into offseason workouts, many Georgia players already have lauded this as the most intense training the Bulldogs have endured in years, and the high tempo efforts have been fueled by the disappointment of last season’s defeats. But beyond the weight room and film room, senior Marcus Washington said the team’s leaders have offered regular reminders that focus needs to extend beyond the athletics building.

“Guys doing wrong, you know they’re doing wrong, you’ve got to get them on the right path,” Washington said. “Last year we had a lot of off-the-field issues, guys getting arrested, guys getting in trouble, drinking, whatever. All that needs to be eliminated to be successful. I think that really hampered our season a little bit because guys always had these outside influences that made them not focus on the real task at hand, which is winning ballgames.”

Georgia had nearly a dozen off-field incidents involving players running afoul of the law last year and three players — Michael Lemon, Donavon Baldwin and Jeff Hensen — left the program because of legal difficulties.

Washington said he thought the coaching staff’s policies regarding off-field transgressions was already as tough as it could be, but this year the players need to take a more hard-line approach toward misconduct away from the locker room long before it reaches the level of police involvement. Players who aren’t on board with the program, he said, should find a home elsewhere.

“(Coaches) always say you get one mulligan,” Washington said. “You get to mess up once, and the next time around, it’s pretty much you’re out of here. Some guys are just hard-headed. They’re going to do what they want to do, and they’re going to have to learn the hard way. If going out drinking, partying, if that’s what you want to do, you can go somewhere else and do it, because that’s just not what we need here.”

Linebacker Rennie Curran was among the team’s most vocal leaders last season, but he said it became frustrating at times when some players simply weren’t interested in listening. As the problems — both on and off the field — persisted, Curran said the focus tended to wane.

While he’s spending this offseason honing his leadership skills, Curran also thinks this year’s team has a far greater determination to remain focused on the task of winning games, and he doesn’t expect any of the drama the Bulldogs encountered during their disappointing 2008.

“You just have to be persistent and hope everybody can get on the same page, but I have no worries about that this year,” Curran said. “I feel like we’ve got a great group of guys that want to do things right and want to buy into the program, and that’s going to translate into good things.”

NEXT IN LINE

When cornerback Asher Allen decided to leave school early to enter the NFL draft last month, his first recommendation for a replacement was freshman Sanders Commings.

That isn’t entirely surprising to Commings, who was one of Allen’s protégés last season, but he said he’s still going to have to work for the job, no matter whose endorsement he has.

“This spring is very crucial,” Commings said. “I need to go out and have a great spring to show Coach (Willie) Martinez what I can do so I can step in. Coach Martinez said the best man is going to get it, so it’s pretty open.”

Commings added about 10 pounds to his frame — he now weighs in around 215 — last season and he said he’s in good shape to fill the role of physical corner that Allen mastered for two seasons as a starter. While Commings doesn’t have a ton of learning experience under his belt at this point after redshirting in 2008, he said he has learned enough to feel comfortable competing for a starting job.

“I’ve definitely learned a lot more since I got here,” Commings said. “My backpedal was rusty coming out of high school, but overall I’ve just gotten a lot better.”

BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER

Curran was already a weight-room legend among his teammates, but before the 2009 season kicks off, he’s looking to add even more to his credentials.

“Working even harder in the weight room — putting more weight on that I should and just doing more reps – anything it’ll take to be the best,” Curran said.

At 5-foot-9, 225 pounds, Curran set the Georgia standard for pound-for-pound strength, but his quest to break the team’s bench-press record was cut just short a year when he wrestled with some nagging injuries during the offseason. This year, he’s feeling good, and he’s betting record will fall by the time the players begin maxing out in the weight room later this year.

“I’ve been putting more weight on, doing extra reps for the guys, and I’ll evaluate at the end of the offseason, but it’s going really good right now,” Curran said. “My groin doesn’t hurt like it did last season, I’m feeling healthier than I was coming off last season, so hopefully I’ll be able to do great things in the weight room and on the field, too.”

MAYBE NEXT YEAR

Quarterback Logan Gray knows his spot on the depth chart is far from etched in stone, but for the time being, he’s pretty happy where he is.

Currently Georgia’s second-string quarterback behind Joe Cox, Gray will face a challenge from highly recruited freshmen Zach Mettenberger and Aaron Murray for playing time this year and beyond. His goal is to land the starting gig after Cox graduates following the 2009 season, but if that isn’t in the cards, the athletic Gray said a change in position isn’t out of the question.

“No matter what I want to play, I just want to get on the field and contribute,” Gray said. “I want to be the best quarterback I can be, but if for some reason it doesn’t work out down the road, if it’s not in the cards, I might look at playing another position, but I haven’t really thought about it much right now.”