ATHENS, Ga. – Dallas Lee is breathing easier these days, and he’s starting, too.
Lee has battled respiratory problems since the winter mat drills that followed the 2009 season. The 6-foot-4, 300-pound redshirt sophomore guard from Buford sensed an improvement in his condition in May and is on the verge of making his first career start Saturday when the Bulldogs host No. 12 South Carolina.
“The doctors still don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Lee said. “That’s never been figured out. They changed my medicine, and that’s got me breathing right, which is all I’m worried about. I put it out of my mind completely when I’m on the field.
“God blessed me to let me be able to go through all the summer workouts, when I didn’t have any problems with all that running.”
Lee entered this season with three career appearances, with those occurring in last year’s whippings of Louisiana-Lafayette, Vanderbilt and Idaho State. His productive preseason resulted in coach Mark Richt referring to him as the sixth man up front, and he entered the starting five last Saturday against Boise State when left guard Kenarious Gates injured his left ankle during the second quarter.
Gates is not expected to play this week, but Richt said Lee’s impending start is performance-based.
“We thought he came in and played well,” Richt said. “He might have done better than any of the guards when it was all said and done. It kind of looks like Lee is starting based on an injury, which did give him the chance to play last week, but if everyone was healthy, he would be the starter.
“There is a punch to him. He can get some movement, and he’s got some toughness.”
Lee is pleased with the way he performed but added there are little things he could improve, and there is a continuing adjustment from the run-oriented Buford High.
“We didn’t pass a lot at my high school, and there is nothing natural about a pass set, especially how you do it in college,” he said. “Trying to learn the moves for that, the mechanics of trying to throw your hands first and not your head as opposed to run-blocking is unnatural, but I work on that every day.”
Odds and ends
The Bulldogs worked out Wednesday for two hours in full pads. … Starting sophomore nose Kwame Geathers (shoulder stinger) was limited, but Richt expects him to play. … Junior safety Bacarri Rambo on having to sit out the opener for violating a team rule: “I’m not saying we would could have won, but I know I could have helped the team out as much as I can, and the results of the game probably would have been different.”