Richt says Wilson playing catch-up for Georgia

photo Georgia linebacker Ramik Wilson closes in for a tackle in the 2013 win over Florida.

Georgia inside linebacker Ramik Wilson ended last season as the Southeastern Conference's leading tackler.

As Wilson nears the start of his senior year, Bulldogs coaches are hoping that he will be simply up to speed. The 6-foot-2, 232-pounder from Tampa has missed a majority of preseason camp with a concussion.

"It's hard to get better when you're not there," head coach Mark Richt said Wednesday in a post-practice news conference. "It's hard to get game-ready when you're not practicing. Unfortunately he was not able to practice, and now he's playing catch-up, quite frankly.

"Hopefully he can get to the point where the defensive staff feels like he ought to be in there doing it."

Wilson tallied 133 tackles last season and was a first-team All-SEC selection by both the coaches and the media.

The No. 12 Bulldogs held a dress rehearsal Wednesday inside Sanford Stadium for their Aug. 30 matchup against No. 16 Clemson. The first-team offensive and defensive units wore red to represent Georgia, while the remainder of the team wore white and emulated Clemson.

Richt said the first-team offense ran 25 plays and that 28 plays were run against the first-team defense. No statistics were kept.

"From this point forward, everything is pointed toward Clemson as far as all the prep work and who will be getting the reps and all that kind of stuff," he said.

Junior outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins was praised by Richt for having an "outstanding camp." Among the other players singled out were sophomore outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, senior safety Corey Moore and junior kicker Marshall Morgan.

With the "camp" portion of the preseason all but over, Richt was asked to assess what transpired.

"As far as the organization of it and what we were trying to accomplish, I think it was pretty darn good," he said. "As far as settling a lot of questions of who's playing where, I don't know if we know as much coming out of this camp as I would have liked."

Bowman sidelined

Redshirt junior cornerback Devin Bowman has not been practicing lately due to a hamstring injury. Richt said he pulled the hamstring "pretty bad" and that the 6-foot, 180-pound former Ridgeland High School standout had been having a good camp.

Bowman played in 13 games as a redshirt freshman and tallied nine tackles. He played in nine games last season and did not record a tackle.

Odds and ends

Richt said that offensive coordinator Mike Bobo would remain in the coaching booth this season and that defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt would roam the sideline like his predecessors. ... Receiver Malcolm Mitchell is getting in a little bit of running, according to Richt. ... The Bulldogs will practice daily through Saturday morning before taking Sunday off.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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