ATHENS -- The moment Isaiah Crowell made his entrance to Sanford Stadium on Saturday, he was immediately swamped by autograph-seekers and fans asking for pictures.

It was a fitting scene, even though Crowell wasn’t going to play a second in Georgia’s spring football game.

There was little drama in the game, as so many position battles and other issues are in a holding pattern. That’s thanks to the impending arrival of an elite recruiting class, headlined by Crowell, as well as a few others who attended Saturday’s G-Day.

Even head coach Mark Richt spent much of the postgame news conference discussing the future, rather than the players who had just completed an 18-11 win for the Black team over the Red.

“The guys that are here currently realize there’s a pack of Dogs coming to try to get playing time and try to win jobs,” Richt said. “So I think that’s going to really ignite and excite our program.”

There was another reason that G-Day lacked the pizzazz of previous ones in Athens: Nearly one-fourth of the team’s scholarship players (13 out of 60) missed the game with injuries, including cornerback Brandon Boykin, tailback Washaun Ealey and safety Bacarri Rambo.

The remaining players put on a low-scoring affair that had a few, though not many, flashes of potential:

Branden Smith, a starting cornerback, showed his talents on offense. Smith had a 28-yard touchdown catch-and-run and looked good in three other offensive touches.

Nose tackle Kwame Geathers wrapped up a successful spring with two big tackles behind the line.

Starting quarterback Aaron Murray looked like he did for most of last year, completing 12-of-17 passes for 122 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

But on the whole, the Georgia football program ended the spring as it began -- anticipating the arrival of the consensus top-10 class.

“I don’t think this group is coming in thinking, ‘I’m gonna wait my turn.’ They’re gonna respect the veterans ahead of them and know they’ve gotta learn what to do and know they’ve gotta win the job. But they want to come in and play,” Richt said. “So with that kind of an attitude and that kind of a talent base it can’t help but make everyone compete just a little bit harder.”

Richt added that he thought a lot of veterans would be preparing harder now, knowing the competition is on the way.

One of those might have been Geathers.

The rising sophomore was thought to just be competing to back up John Jenkins, the highly touted nose tackle who signed in February. But Geathers played so well that defensive coordinator Todd Grantham is contemplating using Geathers and Jenkins together.

“It motivates me a lot,” Geathers said. “I’m ready for him to come in. He’s going to help this team a lot, along with me. It motivates me a little bit every day to go after it in practice.”

Then there were the tailbacks, who are well aware that Crowell could start right away. Ealey, last year’s leading rusher missed most of spring and G-Day with a hamstring injury. Carlton Thomas had a game-high 57 rushing yards but lost two fumbles. Caleb King completed a good spring with a solid G-Day (30 yards on five carries), and Ken Malcome had 41 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Elsewhere, some players who don’t figure to get much competition from the newbies performed well:

Alec Ogletree, whose move from safety to inside linebacker was one of the spring’s big moves, had a game-high seven tackles. Jarvis Jones, the newly eligible transfer from Southern California, had a sack.

It was a mixed bag at some other positions:

The offensive line gave up eight sacks, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. It was only a week ago that it lost starting tackle Trinton Sturdivant to a third career knee injury.

No. 1 receiver Tavarres King had a solid day (five catches for 62 yards), as did standout tight end Orson Charles (four catches for 41 yards). But while Marlon Brown had good statistics (four catches for 47 yards), he also missed on what would have been a long completion from Murray.

The game was witnessed by not only Crowell, but also Jenkins, linebacker Ray Drew, offensive linemen Zach DeBell and Watts Dantzler and many others in the recruiting class. That group doesn’t figure to do much watching this fall.

“I can’t speak for every veteran, but they understand that they’re either going to have to hold onto their job or win their job,” Richt said. “It’s pretty much true every year. But I just think there’s more of them than we’ve had in the past in any one class. And I think there’s just kind of a belief system of this group that they believe they’re good, and they believe they’re going to come in and play and they believe they’re going to make a difference.”