Georgia does some scout-team drills in practice

Georgia started some scout-team drills during Thursday’s workout, signaling that the “camp” portion of preseason practice is giving way to preparation for the Sept. 4 opener against Louisiana-Lafeyette.

Thursday wasn’t the first look at the Ragin’ Cajuns, or several other teams for that matter.

“We do a summer breakdown on every opponent we will play, some of it more in-depth than others,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “We do a full breakdown of the first six opponents, and then we’ll also do an in-depth look at the guys in the (SEC) East and Georgia Tech. We won’t do anything in-depth on Auburn because it’s so late in the year, but we’ll break down film on every team and watch it just like it was game week.”

Among Georgia’s first six opponents are Mississippi State and Tennessee, which have Manny Diaz and Justin Wilcox as new defensive coordinators. So in addition to watching tape of the Bulldogs and Vols from last season, Bobo has studied the defenses of Middle Tennessee State and Boise State.

“We try to get a base plan on paper, and then we’ll go back that week of the game,” he said. “We’ll pull it out and say, ‘Here is what we were thinking.’ We might change it because they are doing something different defensively, or we might feel we have something better that we came out of camp with.”

Staying down low

Bobo has decided to coach from the field, which is where he moved following last seasons’s 45-19 humiliation at Tennessee. The Bulldogs closed last year with a 5-2 record after starting 3-3, and they scored 27 or more points in six of their final seven games.

The fact starting quarterback Aaron Murray is a redshirt freshman factored into the decision, according to head coach Mark Richt.

“I think he wanted to be able to look him in the eyes and see how he’s doing,” Richt said. “You can learn a lot by looking in a guy’s eyes.”

New defensive coordinator Todd Grantham also will work from the field, with the most likely candidates in the booth being running backs coach Tony Ball and either secondary coach Scott Lakatos or inside linebackers coach Warren Belin.

Fan Day nearing

The annual Fan Picture Day will be held Saturday afternoon in Sanford Stadium, with gates opening at 1 for fans to get into position to interview players and coaches, who will be available from 3 to 5. Also in attendance will be “Russ,” the interim mascot.

Athletic department officials are limiting fans to having two items per person, and event personnel will be in place to enforce that before fans enter autograph lines.

Odds and ends

The Bulldogs practiced Thursday for two hours in full pads. ... Three freshmen Richt is certain will play this season, including on special teams, are cornerback Derek Owens, safety Alec Ogletree and fullback Alexander Ogletree. ... Richt on Monday’s back flip off a 10-meter platform being included in ESPN’s top 10 plays of the day: “You don’t really want to be 10th, but at least I made it.”