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Watch: Sony Michel fires up Bulldogs before scrimmage on Saturday

Running back Sony Michel pumped up his team before Georgia's scrimmage on Saturday.
Curtis Compton/AJC
Cy Brown
Cy Brown

Welcome to Good Day, UGA, your one-stop shop for Georgia football news and takes. Check us out every weekday morning for everything you need to know about Georgia football, recruiting, basketball and more.

Sony Michel pumps up the Dawgs

On Saturday, Georgia football held its penultimate scrimmage before the Appalachian State game on Sept. 2. (We’ve got some news and notes from the scrimmage below.) It was also Watermelon Day, which, as Chip Towers of DawgNation explains in this excellent column, is the symbolic end of preseason practice and beginning of preparation for the season.

[W]hen Georgia breaks out the watermelon, it means the hard and uncomfortable work of toughening up a team and determining who will contribute in the coming season is pretty much done. So now the Bulldogs must shift from getting themselves ready to getting ready for somebody else.

It’s not a transition coach Kirby Smart is eager to make. The watermelons came out at the end of Georgia’s second full-scale scrimmage of the preseason Saturday at Sanford Stadium. It was the last truly competitive scrimmage of the year, from the standpoint of determining who will play and how much.

Some of those position battles will continue into the season. But, for the most part, you have to start getting 44 players ready to face another team and deciding which others will help on special teams.

So although there are still a dozen days left until Georgia plays its first game of 2017, I’m going to go ahead and call the next 12 days football season. So if you want to get excited, just watch this video of Sony Michel and strength and conditioning coach Scott Sinclair pump up the team before the scrimmage on Saturday. If you’re not ready for some football after watching this, check your pulse.

The secondary shakeup continues

With cornerback Malkom Parrish out of the lineup for a little while, including potentially the season opener, there’s a starting spot up for grabs in Georgia’s secondary. According to Seth Emerson of DawgNation, that spot could be filled by 247Sports composite 5-star freshman Richard LeCounte, who was working with the ones during Saturday’s scrimmage.

Richard LeCounte was getting first-team reps at safety before Saturday’s scrimmage. LeCounte also appeared to be getting a long look at Thursday’s practice.

J.R. Reed, the sophomore who had been working first-team safety, was instead at star. A transfer from Tulsa, Reed was also working with the stars during Thursday’s practice.

And Aaron Davis continues to work at cornerback, on the left side of Georgia’s defense. Davis had been working at star and safety until this week.

Close competition at kicker

While Rodrigo Blankenship established himself as a cult figure last season, he didn’t establish himself as the team’s starting kicker. In fall camp, he’s received competition from Wofford transfer David Marvin. After the Saturday scrimmage, Smart indicated the race was still close, specifically when it comes to field goals. But he also singled out Blankenship for his apparently improved capabilities on kickoffs. From Emerson:

While the competition between Marvin and Blankenship remains very tight, head coach Kirby Smart did volunteer something about Blankenship’s preseason performance.

“I will say this: Rod kicked off really good today,” Smart said. “The field goal kicking [competition] is really tight. And it’ll probably be decided within this week. But Rod’s kicking off real well.”

Georgia football adds yet another 4-star prospect

The scrimmage wasn’t the only source of news this weekend. There was also more big news on the recruiting front.

On Saturday, Georgia also landed its third Class of 2018 commitment of the week in 4-star Peach County WR Kearis Jackson. With the commitments of Jackson, 4-star OLB Azeez Ojulari and 4-star WR Elijah Moore, Georgia jumped seven spots, from No. 31 to No. 24, in 247Sports’ team recruiting rankings.

A different kind of blackout

If you’re looking for a place to watch the eclipse in Athens, you can head down to Sanford Stadium. It’s not the blackout most fans envision when they think of Sanford, but it should still be cool.

Dawgs on social media

Different Teams, Same Goals, Georgia Made #Dawgsforlife #Blessed #WhoDey

A post shared by Geno Atkins Jr (@genosacks) on

Good dog

Where can I get one of these?

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