ATHENS – There was an encouraging sign for Georgia at Wednesday’s practice: John Theus and Watts Dantzler, the pair of right tackles, testing their sprained right ankles on the side.

Theus, the highly-touted freshman who started in the opener, at one point told the trainer: “Feels good.”

Still, head coach Mark Richt wasn’t ready to say that Theus or his top backup, Dantzler, would make the trip Saturday to Missouri.

“We hope so. We’re not 100 percent,” Richt said. “If we don’t think they can play or help we won’t. If there’s no chance. If we left today I’m not sure we’d have both of them. .. But we’ve got a couple more days yet.”

But Richt did commit to taking cornerback Malcolm Mitchell on the trip. The sophomore cornerback missed the opener with a sprained ankle, but has been practicing in a limited capacity this week.

“I’m not certain that he’s full-speed. But it’s Wednesday,” Richt said. “I mean I’m encouraged. We’ve got a couple more days to go yet, to see.”

Receiver Marlon Brown also continues to look good to go, after missing the opener with a hamstring injury. Brown is set to start, assuming he’s healthy.

“With hamstrings, it’s always good to get back to 100 percent, and not let it linger on the rest of the season,” Brown said. “So it was pretty good for me not to play last week, so I got it back to normal.”

Suspension non-update

The only new information gleaned on the status of Alec Ogletree and Bacarri Rambo is Richt saying that if they travel to Missouri, that means they’re playing.

But Georgia’s 70-man travel roster isn’t typically released until shortly before kickoff.

“About 7:30 Saturday, that’s when we can hand it out, is that what it is?” Richt said. “If you request it now, you’ll get it by Saturday by about 8.”

Ogletree and Rambo were suspended for the opener for reportedly violating UGA’s drug policy for athletes.

Kicking around

While freshman Marshall Morgan is set as the place-kicker, at least for now, Richt isn’t ruling out giving senior walk-on Jamie Lindley another shot at kickoffs. Morgan’s kickoffs were outstanding in the opener, but Lindley did well too.

“He had the last kick and he drove it right out of the end zone. So he impressed us,” Richt said. “I wouldn’t count Jamie out for having an opportunity to kick somewhere along the way. It could be any given game.”

Dawson unaware of NCAA meeting

Freshman cornerback Sheldon Dawson said a reported meeting with the NCAA about an investigation of Mississippi State has not happened yet, if it does at all. The NCAA has been looking into Memphis-area recruits, and reportedly was set to meet with Dawson.

But Dawson said the first he heard about the meeting was from a newspaper article, and he was never visited Starkville during the recruiting process.

“Mississippi State, they were recruiting me for a minute, but I never went on a visit,” Dawson said. “I’ve never been to Starkville.”

Old man football update

The comments by Missouri defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson last Saturday, saying Georgia played “old man football,” have continued to linger.

“My mom called me. She wanted to know about it too,” Richt said on Wednesday. “But that’s just kind of how it goes.”

Missouri has kept Richardson off limits from reporters this week. But Pinkel volunteered during Wednesday’s SEC conference call that Richardson had been disciplined.

 “What Sheldon did was wrong and irresponsible. That doesn’t happen around here,” Pinkel said. “He just got caught up in the moment, he made a mistake. We dealt with that internally.”