Missouri wide receiver L'Damian Washington, right, runs past Georgia cornerback Devin Bowman from Ridgeland High School in turning a pass reception into a 69-yard touchdown during Georgia's SEC victory last Saturday at Missouri.Georgia redshirt freshman cornerback Devin Bowman may have reduced playing time this week against Florida Atlantic with Sanders Commings returning from a two-game suspension, but the former Ridgeland High standout is no longer an unknown commodity.
Bowman started the opener against Buffalo and got significant action again this past weekend when the Bulldogs won at Missouri.
"I think any time a kid plays and has some snaps, it is much easier to maybe find a role for him moving forward, because you kind of have a better feel of what he can exactly do," Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said.
The 6-foot, 180-pound Bowman made two tackles against Buffalo and one against Missouri, but he got beat by L'Damian Washington for a 68-yard touchdown reception that gave the Tigers their largest lead at 17-9 early in the third quarter. Grantham said it's not always about one person on such plays.
"They tried to go after him a little bit on the backside of trips, and he did a really good job of playing physical and rerouting guys and staying on guys," Grantham said. "He forced a couple of other bad throws that were just incomplete passes, but it was because of the way he played that allowed it to be that way. I think he improved from game one to game two, and I was proud of his performance and the way he came in and helped us win."
Rough patch ahead
No team in college football has a more imposing two-game stretch than Florida Atlantic, which visits No. 7 Georgia this Saturday and No. 1 Alabama next week. The Owls opened with a 7-3 win over Wagner before losing 31-17 this past weekend at Middle Tennessee State.
"What you can never do is take a step backward, and for us it's a daily grind of trying to get a little bit better every day in practice," FAU first-year coach Carl Pelini said Monday. "We want to be a better football team this Saturday than we were last Saturday and be a better football team against Alabama than we are against Georgia and just keep that progression.
"You can't worry about opponents, and you just can't change your approach week to week. Then you become a team that has peaks and valleys, so you just need to focus on getting better every day. We have enough problems of our own that we have to worry about Georgia."
Jones honored again
After being named Walter Camp national defensive player of the week Sunday, junior outside linebacker Jarvis Jones was tabbed Monday as SEC defensive player of the week. The 6-3, 241 pounder tallied nine tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble and his first career interception against Missouri.
Jones has 16.5 sacks in 16 career games with the Bulldogs, and he's leading the SEC this season with 4.5 tackles for loss.
Odds and ends
The Bulldogs practiced for 90 minutes Monday, with Jones (groin and shoulder), receiver Michael Bennett (knee) and cornerbacks Malcolm Mitchell (ankle and shoulder) and Damian Swann (knee) limited. Sitting out were defensive end Cornelius Washington (hamstring) and backup right tackle Watts Dantzler (ankle). ... Georgia's home game against Vanderbilt on Sept. 15 was picked up Monday by ESPN2 and will have a 7:45 p.m. kickoff.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.