ATHENS – Mike Bobo will be calling plays from the field again. The Georgia offensive coordinator had considered returning to the booth on gamedays.

But the Bulldogs will have a redshirt freshman quarterback, Aaron Murray, and a true freshman backup.

“I think he wanted to be able to look them in the eye and see how he was doing,” Georgia head coach Mark Richt said. “You could learn a lot by looking in guy’s eyes about where he’s at mentally. You may not necessarily want to pull a guy if he’s struggling. But you want to know that he’s struggling so you don’t put too much on him. You might run some plays that might take some pressure off him.”

Richt, who was the coordinator for years at Florida State, said he was always more comfortable in the press box.

“When I came to Georgia, I realized I was really a visual learner type person,” he said. “I could be in the box and really see the whole thing. I thought make good decisions based on what I was saying. Whereas on the ground level you can’t see the big picture.”

Injury updates

Receiver Logan Gray’s impressive preseason has hit a stumbling block. The converted quarterback is out seven to 10 days after spraining his ankle in Tuesday’s practice.

“Not a high ankle sprain, which was good, but it did swell up pretty good,” Richt said. “Any of those guys getting hurt’s a shame, but Logan he’s been practicing so well, and had his best practice (on Tuesday), and then he ends up spraining his ankle right at the end.”

Inside linebacker Akeem Dent (toe surgery) could see live action in practice next week, and Richt said the staff is “100 percent certain)” the defensive co-captain will be ready for practice the week of the opener.

Richt also expects guard Cordy Glenn (mononucleosis), center Ben Jones (knee) and inside linebacker Mike Gilliard (hamstring) to be able to have a full week of practice before the opener.

Safety Nick Williams also got hurt early in Thursday’s practice, apparently with something upper-body related. Richt wasn’t sure what injury it was said Williams was going full-tilt at the end of practice.

Diving trash talk

Richt’s high dive Monday — wearing street clothes — made ESPN SportCenter’s top 10 plays. He was told Thursday that Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen rated Richt’s dive a 5.7.

“Our own diving coach said he’d give me about a 6.5 in a real meet,” Richt said. “Mullen gave me a 5.7? All right, I might get him on that. Call him up right now.”

Game prep begins

More than two weeks before the opener, the Bulldogs have broken into some scout team drills to get ready for Louisiana. That’s earlier than normal, due to the team starting practice earlier to make up for only having one two-a-day.

“I’m not sure whoever’s going to be on the scout team today is always gonna be on the scout team the rest of the year,” Richt said. “But it’s always a tough day for some guys, hoping maybe not to be on the scout team right off the bat. But that’s a very important position for us.”