Georgia Football: Aaron Murray, A.J. Green Impress in Final Scrimmage

The UGA football team held its final scrimmage on Wednesday in preparation for its season opener against the Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana-Lafayette.

As the sounds of "Welcome to the Jungle" pumped from the stereo speakers and echoed all the way from Sanford Stadium to the far outreaches of UGA's North Campus, the Bulldogs played a mock game. 

The coaches were all in place under the direction of Mark Richt. The coordinators of both offense and defense, the running backs coach, and the coaches of both the defensive and offensive line joined Richt on the field while the remainder of the coaches were in the box. 

According to redshirt freshman quarterback Aaron Murray, the strategy worked.

"I definitely had a little jitters. In warmups, I had a couple of overthrows," Murray said. "I was a little pumped up. Whenever you go into Sanford Stadium, your jitters are going to be running a little more than when you're just out on the practice field. I just need to calm down a little bit. After the first play, the jitters died down and I was good to go."

The Results

Richt set up the game so that the starters would be playing as the Georgia Bulldogs while most of the scout-teamers made up the "Louisiana-Lafayette" side.

At the end of the scrimmage, the Georgia side was on top by a final score of 38-24, but the game wasn't really that close.

Richt had spotted the scout-teamers 21 points and counted a field goal that didn't actually go in. So while it won't go down in history as a shutout, in reality, it was.

"We got a little shutout today," said cornerback Vance Cuff, who recorded six tackles. "We'll take that moral victory right now and build on it and try to go to the film room and really get a shutout next week."

The Quarterback

Despite Murray's pregame and first-pass jitters, he managed to have quite a solid performance. 

Murray completed over half of his passes, going 9-for-17 for 127 yards and a touchdown to standout wide receiver A.J. Green. The redshirt freshman never turned the ball over and outpaced true-freshman Hutson Mason by a significant margin. 

Mason, in a solid performance for a backup, completed 5-of-10 passes for 69 yards. 

Murray said that he feels as though he's getting better.

"The more times I get out there, the better I'm getting," he said. "I definitely took a little step forward today."

But he did admit that his performance could have been better. 

One play the quarterback referenced was when he scrambled around and was sacked for a loss of six yards instead of simply throwing the ball out of bounds.

Richt offered his own assessment of Murray after the game.

"He's still learning. He's still a freshman," he said. "It wasn't really bad, but there were a couple of times where he could have made a better decision. I'm just very thankful that we got into those situations and it happened today. Hopefully the point will be driven home a little bit better because it was more of a real situation."

The Other Big Names from the Scrimmage

A.J. Green, Georgia's best wide receiver, had a solid game in the scrimmage. He caught four balls for 40 yards and a touchdown and kept building up the connection he has with the freshman quarterback. 

The two lead running backs, Caleb King and Washaun Ealey, combined for nine carries, 67 yards, and a touchdown. 

The Georgia defense also totaled seven sacks and two interceptions. One of the interceptions was returned 66 yards for a touchdown by Baccari Rambo.

As Richt said though after the end of the scrimmage, there will be no dramatic changes to the depth chart based on the results. 

The Takeaway

All signs point to go for the Bulldogs as they prepare for their first game next Saturday. 

Aaron Murray keeps improving with every bit of action he gets and the results of A.J. Green have been quite consistent. The rapport that these two develop will be key for the team this season as Green is a true go-to receiver. 

Once again, the two running backs split carries pretty evenly and both produced. The running game keeps producing and should be helpful in taking pressure off of Murray throughout the season. 

Finally, the defense, while only playing against a team of scout-teamers, did get to the quarterback and produce pressure while shutting them out completely. 

Mark Richt won't say it yet, but the team looks ready for the Ragin' Cajuns.