Georgia Football Week 3 Spring Practice Report

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart's first spring at Georgia has made the turn and is headed for the clubhouse.

The Bulldogs have wrapped up their third week of the spring practice session, with all eyes on the G-Day Game on April 16 for which Smart hopes 93,000 fans will fill Sanford Stadium.

What will they see? That picture began to come into focus over the last week.

Time To Panic?

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True freshman early enrollee Jacob Eason is supposed to be the future of the quarterback position in Athens but has yet to ascend to his throne.

According to Seth Emerson of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, senior Greyson Lambert and junior Brice Ramsey split the first-team snaps during Georgia's first spring scrimmage on Saturday, with Eason taking the majority of the snaps with the threes.

The returns were quite positive.

"We did have some big, explosive passes," Smart said, per Emerson. "It’s not good on defense, but it’s good when you have a chance to do that on offense."

Time to panic?

No, not even close.

Eason is essentially three weeks into his college career, and of course Smart is going to rely more on his veteran quarterbacks in his first spring session as a college head coach. That's the wise thing to do. Eason needs to learn how college quarterbacks operate in practice, approach work every day, handle the pressure of scrimmages and adjust to different ideas coaches bring to them on the fly.

That takes time.

It'll still be Eason's show at some point this season, and the former 5-star prospect's winning the three-man competition outright prior to the season opener vs. North Carolina is a legitimate possibility. 

Patience is a virtue.

Slowly Building

With Nick Chubb out rehabbing from his knee injury, Brendan Douglas not taking contact due to a wrist injury and junior Sony Michel being treated with kid gloves due to massive running back depth issues, Saturday's scrimmage became the Tae Crowder Show in the Bulldog backfield.

How did the redshirt freshman do?

Stats weren't released, but Smart didn't seem too thrilled.

"That running back situation made it tougher to run it but I still feel like to be a productive football team we’re going to have to run the ball first and then throw the ball down the field," Smart said, according to Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald. "We’re not where we need to be physically running the ball, dominating up front."

Crowder, a 6'3", 220-pounder from Hamilton, Georgia, was a 3-star prospect in the class of 2015 and committed to the Bulldogs on national signing day a year ago.

As is the case with the quarterbacks, the progression of the running game—and Smart's quest to build depth—is going to take time. The blessing for Smart is that the number of carries Crowder will receive this spring will help him develop, get him used to the speed of the college game and could land him some rotational carries in the fall if he succeeds.

He has the body type; he just needs the comfort. That comfort is happening this spring.

Linebackers Improving

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With Jake Ganus, Leonard Floyd and Jordan Jenkins gone, Smart and first-year defensive coordinator Mel Tucker desperately need some younger players to become stars this spring.

Natrez Patrick and Reggie Carter obliged in Saturday's scrimmage.

Patrick, an inside linebacker who cross-trained outside at times last spring, is a versatile, 6'3", 248-pound sophomore who had 22 tackles and a career-high four against Penn State to close the 2015 season. Carter, a 6'1", 228-pound junior, has struggled with injuries at times but appears to be doing fine this spring after last season's shoulder surgery.

"Natrez Patrick and Reggie Carter did well today, and I was excited to see them out there," Smart said, per Georgia's official site. "We always tell the guys you can run hard to the ball, and that's the one thing that doesn't take any talent. And those guys were running hard."

There's no shortage of talent in the linebacking corps at Georgia. If they earn starting nods, Patrick and Carter will be joined by juniors Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy outside in an ultra-athletic unit that could evolve into one of the SEC's best.

Breaking Out Of The Slump

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Speaking of Carter, the former 5-star prospect burst onto the scene in 2014 with 41 tackles, seven for loss and an eye-popping 11 quarterback hurries.

The Norcross, Georgia, native suffered through a sophomore slump in 2015 with just 19 total tackles, none of which were behind the line, and only four pressures on the quarterback, according to CFBStats.com. Hearkening back to his freshman year is imperative to Georgia's success in 2016, and Carter appears to be on his way to doing just that.

"He’s done a good job giving extra effort, and I’ve been pleased with that," Smart said, according to Jason Butt of the Macon Telegraph. "I’ve been pleased with what he’s doing so far. But I think he’s one of those guys you have to push and challenge all the time because he’ll relax on you."

That has to be welcome news to Georgia fans, who expect Carter to be the unblockable threat off the edge that Floyd was over the last couple of years and Carter looked like he could become as a freshman. 

Smart apparently knows that Carter needs to be pushed, and that's fine. Perhaps the fact that everybody is forced to fight for his job due to the coaching change is exactly what Carter needs to realize his potential.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics are courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted, and recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.