Georgia fifth-year senior receiver Justin Scott-Wesley has yet to play a full season for the Bulldogs.
That may be the case one final time.
Scott-Wesley suffered a knee injury during Monday's workout in Athens and has not been spotted on the practice fields since. Bulldogs coach Mark Richt didn't offer details about the injury in a news conference following Thursday night's practice, but he did not provide an optimistic outlook.
"Justin is going to be a while, I think," Richt said.
The 5-foot-11, 201-pounder from Camilla, Ga., was part of the 2011 "Dream Team" signing class. He redshirted that season and then played in nine games in 2012, making six catches for 135 yards and a touchdown.
Scott-Wesley had a strong start to the 2013 season, catching an 85-yard touchdown in a 41-30 win over South Carolina and a 25-yard score with 1:47 remaining to help the Bulldogs topple LSU 44-41. He had 16 catches for 311 yards and the two touchdowns less than five games into the year but suffered a season-ending ACL injury in the third quarter at Tennessee.
Recovering from that injury carried into the 2014 season, as Scott-Wesley played in just six games, collecting three receptions for 52 yards.
The Bulldogs practiced for two hours Thursday, which was their 16th of 29 preseason workouts. Speaking for the first time since last Friday's first scrimmage, Richt was asked if the quarterback competition among redshirt junior Faton Bauta, redshirt sophomore Brice Ramsey and Virginia transfer Greyson Lambert was any closer to getting whittled to two.
"Until we really get a peace about if it's a two-man race, then we won't make the move," he said, "so I just don't know when it's going to be. It could be after this scrimmage possibly. I think I targeted that back in the spring, because you like to know by the second scrimmage.
"I'm not sure that will happen, but there is a decent chance that it will."
Richt said sophomore receiver and return specialist Isaiah McKenzie is closer to coming back from his hamstring injury compared to senior fullback Quayvon Hicks. He did not seem concerned that junior inside linebackers Reggie Carter and Tim Kimbrough were missing time this week with injuries.
Kimbrough has a leg injury, while Carter's setback has yet to be disclosed.
"Those two guys have had a lot of reps," Richt said. "They haven't necessarily been game reps, but they've had a lot of reps in our system."
Odds and ends
Sophomore left guard Isaiah Wynn will work some at tackle, and there will be mixing and matching at center in Saturday's second scrimmage so coaches can get an idea what to do if some starting linemen get hurt. Richt said the scrimmage will have a lot of live kicking. The Bulldogs will start preparing for Louisiana-Monroe next week.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.