Georgia quarterback/punter Brice Ramsey (12) during Saturday's game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Sanford Stadium in Athens,Ga., on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015. (Photo by John Kelley)Brice Ramsey could have two starting roles Sept. 3 when Georgia opens its 2016 football season against North Carolina in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic.
Or he could have none.
The 6-foot-3, 213-pound redshirt junior is the overlooked member of a quarterback competition that includes fifth-year senior Greyson Lambert and heralded true freshman Jacob Eason, but he's the incumbent at punter after averaging 41.9 yards last season on 25 attempts. Ramsey's special-teams challenger is true freshman Marshall Long, who averaged 46.5 yards per punt as a senior at South Rowan High School in China Grove, N.C.
Lambert is a graduate transfer from Virginia who arrived in Athens last summer, so Ramsey is the only quarterback dealing with a third Georgia offensive coordinator in three years. He signed when Mike Bobo was coordinator, played for Brian Schottenheimer last season and now is under the guidance of Jim Chaney, who is offering no sympathy.
"I've had three different schools in three years," Chaney said this past weekend in a news conference. "What's the big deal? If you want to go on and play, you're forced to learn, regardless of what style it is or who the coordinator is. Players play, coaches coach, administrators administrate, and there is no overlap.
"Do your job to the best of your ability, learn, work your butt off, strive to be the best you possibly can be, and see where it goes."
Ramsey, a top-100 national prospect and a consensus four-star talent in the 2013 signing class, replaced an injured Hutson Mason and played the second half of the Belk Bowl following the 2014 season and appeared to be the quarterback to beat in the spring of 2015. Lambert arrived, however, and won the starting job in August, though Ramsey wound up playing some at quarterback in six games.
The punting opportunity opened before the Florida game, and Ramsey seized it with authority, averaging 47.7 yards on three punts against Kentucky and launching a 58-yarder against Georgia Southern that rolled dead at the 1.
"I'm going to use the best punter, and if Brice is the best punter, then he's the best punter," head coach Kirby Smart said. "If he's the best quarterback, then he'll be playing quarterback, and that would not limit his ability to punt."
Ramsey's quarterback numbers last year were respectable, as the former Camden County High standout completed 21 of 35 passes for 249 yards. He went 11-of-14 for 125 yards in the 48-6 thumping of Southern University, but it was a different story against Alabama, when he was 1-of-6 for 20 yards and threw two interceptions, including one that Eddie Jackson returned 50 yards for a touchdown.
In Georgia's final eight games last season, Ramsey played quarterback in just two of them, but Chaney quickly gave him an opening by wiping the slate clean.
"He's doing a fine job," Chaney said. "I'll probably train him different than Mike or Brian did, and that's kind of the way we all have to do our things, but do I think he's behind the 8-ball? Not one bit."
Odds and ends
The Bulldogs held their eighth preseason practice Monday, working out for two hours in full pads. Junior tackle Isaiah Wynn on fellow tackle Tyler Catalina, a graduate transfer from Rhode Island: "The weather has been an adjustment for him, but he has done great." Sophomore defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter, who is suspended after a second alcohol-related arrest, was spotted in full pads by the media Monday for the first time in preseason camp.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.