Georgia will conduct more than 40 football practices, including Tuesday's start to spring workouts, before its Sept. 2 opener against Appalachian State in Sanford Stadium.
The Bulldogs may need every one of them before settling on an offensive line.
Owning a roster with returning experience at quarterback, tailback, receiver and across the board on defense, Georgia second-year coach Kirby Smart is citing the offensive line as a primary point of emphasis. Gone from last season's 8-5 Liberty Bowl champions are starting center Brandon Kublanow and starting tackles Tyler Catalina and Greg Pyke.
With five-star tackle Isaiah Wilson, four-star tackles Andrew Thomas and D'Antne Demery, four-star guard Netori Johnson and three-star guard Justin Shaffer on hold until the summer, Georgia will have to make do with those who have returned from last year and transfer tackle D'Marcus Hayes of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
Redshirt junior Lamont Gaillard, who started all 13 games at right guard last season, got the first crack at center Tuesday. Senior Dyshon Sims opened spring at left guard, where he made one start late last year, while Isaiah Wynn was at left tackle.
Wynn started the final five games of the 2015 season at left tackle but made 12 starts a year ago at left guard.
Smart said redshirt freshmen Solomon Kindley and Ben Cleveland would be vying at a right guard position he described as "completely up for grabs," and he added that fifth-year senior Aulden Bynum would get the first chance at right tackle with Hayes as his backup. Redshirt sophomores Pat Allen and Sam Madden and redshirt freshman Chris Barnes will be in the mix as well after productive offseason workouts, according to Smart.
"I'm very excited, because I've seen those guys grind for the past five or six weeks in the offseason," senior tailback Sony Michel told reporters. "I've seen them work hard, and I'm sure these guys are excited to go out there and push some people around. Even though we lost a couple of guys, I think we've got some young guys that are ready to step in."
Said Smart: "What you see one day will probably not be what you see the next."
Addressing inconsistent special teams and providing more red-zone scenarios both offensively and defensively also are objectives this spring, but Smart believes he does have more players who can help from a depth standpoint compared to this time last year.
In fact, one desirable dilemma Smart has compared to his first spring is how much to use proven players such as Michel and fellow tailback Nick Chubb and outside linebackers Davin Bellamy and Lorenzo Carter.
"As a coach, you're always worried about that," he said. "I know some coaches in college football have a philosophy that if a guy has played 1,000 snaps in his career, which we have a couple of guys who have, is spring going to get them better? I would argue that it does and that everybody can get better.
"We're not going to sit our guys because of who they are, because I think that can cause angst or problems from within. We need to be smart about that."
Quarterback dearth
The Bulldogs have just three quarterbacks this spring - sophomore Jacob Eason, early enrollee Jake Fromm and junior walk-on Sam Vaughn. Former Alabama and Western Kentucky quarterback Parker McLeod, who was a walk-on last season with the Bulldogs, is no longer on the roster.
Greyson Lambert is out of eligibility and Brice Ramsey will play his final season elsewhere as a graduate transfer, but Smart said Tuesday that Ramsey will help out as a student coach until finding a destination.
"Brice is loyal to this program and has handled everything in a first-class manner, and we've asked him to help out," Smart said. "He won't be taking reps away from the others. It's more of a matter of enough balls being thrown, so he's going to do that.
"Our three guys are going to get a lot of work. Most of the time, you want five quarterbacks with three getting the reps."
Fromm is wearing jersey No. 11.
Odds and ends
Sophomore punter Marshall Long, who suffered a dislocated kneecap last November, should be punting by the end of spring drills but not in a competitive environment, Smart said. ... Smart on the dismissal of defensive line coach Tracy Rocker: "That's usually a personnel issue, which I chose to keep in-house." ... Smart on sophomore cornerback Mecole Hardman: "We want to get him some offensive snaps to expose him to some concepts, but it won't be early in the spring."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.