Kirby Smart gives mid-week injury updates on Mykel Williams, Warren Brinson, Jordan Hall
ATHENS, Ga. — Kirby Smart has seen a pair of practices from his Georgia Football team ahead of playing Alabama, and it sounds like he’s feeling better about the health of the Bulldogs. Defensive linemen Mykel Williams (ankle), Warren Brinson (ankle) and Jordan Hall (leg) have all missed the last two games. Hall has yet to make his season debut. Listening to Smart’s choice of words on Tuesday night, there’s a chance – albeit with varying levels of confidence – all three are able to give it a go on Saturday.
“Yeah, Warren’s continued to practice, taking his rep load. Mykel’s doing to do a little bit. I still don’t know the timeline on Mykel. He’s looked good running and taking some reps, some light reps, some rusher reps, some stuff he did today. It’s his first day really getting out there and doing some things. But I don’t, I mean, I haven’t talked to Ron, so I don’t know. I can watch the tape and be able to see that Jordan’s still pushing through. But yeah, think about Warren. Mykel’s gonna be close, and Jordan is still trying to get into practice.”
Without Williams, Brinson and Hall available, Georgia was forced to rely heavily on Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, Christen Miller and Nazir Stackhouse. The three starters each played more than 50 snaps against Kentucky. Xzavier McLeod, Jamaal Jarrett, Joseph Jonah-Ajonye and Gabe Harris also pitched in to the effort.
“How many times that has happened, I don’t know or don’t remember,” Smart said about the short rotation last week. “You guys probably have to tell me. It’s not normal for us. We like to rotate in that position. We want to stay fresh. But we knew going into that game that potentially could happen.”
“We’re in a lot better place. You know, we’ve got young defensive linemen that are getting better, but we may not have felt like they were ready for that. We may not have felt like that was the position to put them in,” Smart added. “I do think Jamaal Jarrett and Xzavier McLeod did a good job relieving those guys some, and probably could have done even more but neither of them had gotten a lot of work, because Xzavier McLeod didn’t practice until either Wednesday or Thursday. It’s one of those things that we feel much better in this off week already with the guys that are taking reps.”
Kickoff time for Georgia-Alabama is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday under the lights of Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. ESPN’s College GameDay will be in town to get the day going early before ABC has coverage of the game with Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe on the call. The Bulldogs opened as 3.5-point favorites over the Crimson Tide with spreads now ranging anywhere between 2.5 and 1.5, all in favor of UGA, according to Vegas Insider.
