Georgia held its first weekly football news conference of the season today.

New athletic director Greg McGarity took some questions before Mark Richt appeared.

McGarity was asked about his expectations for the football team.

“You never put a win total on any sport,” McGarity said. “I’ve met with half the coaches now and I’ve shared with them the expectations that we have from coaches. You just want to be in the hunt. I think every sport that we sponsor you want them to be in the hunt for championships. There could be circumstances that could lead you to not be in the hunt a certain year due to various circumstances, but you want every sport at the University of Georgia just to be in the conversation.”

McGarity listed swimming, tennis and softball as sports that are “in the hunt.”

“Football, I think, Georgia is in the hunt,” McGarity said

He didn’t list a specific number of victories as a benchmark.

Some quick hitters from Georgia coach Mark Richt’s postpractice meeting with reporters on Thursday evening:
--Richt said that he thinks offensive coordinator Mike Bobo will continue to call plays from the field level. Bobo told me earlier this preseason that he was considering moving back up to the coaches’ box.

“As far as I can remember, I think he said he wanted to stay down,” Richt said. “I think he really wanted to be able to look (starting QB Aaron Murray) in the eye and see how he’s doing. You can learn a lot by looking in a guy’s eye about where he’s at mentally. You may not necessarily want to pull a guy out if he’s struggling, but you want to know that he’s struggling so you don’t put too much on him.”

--Injury update: WR Logan Gray (ankle) is out 7 to 10 days with an ankle sprain. “It’s not a high ankle sprain, which is good, but it did swell up pretty good.”

It’s a question that Georgia coach Mark Richt gets usually the first week of preseason practices.

Which freshmen have jumped out so far?

“I’ll preface this by saying they've all got a long way to go but just seeing some sparks," Richt said before mentioning offensive tackle Keanrious Gates from Greenville High.

“I think Kenarious Gates is moving around pretty well,” he said. “He’s picking things up relatively well. None of these guys have mastered anything. He looks like he’s going to be a good one down the road. I doubt that we’d have to call on him at all this season. We hope that we would not have to. He’s shown some good signs.”

The 6-5, 307-pound Gates was a Kentucky commitment that switched to Georgia in the final days before Signing Day in February.

HOOVER, Ala.--Welcome to Day 2 of SEC Media Days. Georgia is up today along with Arkansas, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

We’ll be focused, of course, on the Bulldogs.

Coach Mark Richt will be joined by receiver A.J. Green, punter Drew Butler and fullback Shuan Chapas.

The local beat writers and some national scribes will meet with Richt shortly. The NCAA inquiry at Georgia and the issue of improper contacts between agents and players in college football are sure to come up.

--
Richt wouldn't concede that the NCAA inquiry is bad news for Georgia.

"I don’t know if it is or not quite frankly," he said. "I don’t necessarily think it is bad news."

He added: "I’m sure they’re gathering information, but we’ll see what they gather."

Asked whether the NCAA wanted to talk to one or more Georgia players, Richt said
"I don’t know at all. I’m actually asked to not make any comment about it."

Of the half dozen misdemeanor charges facing Georgia running back Dontavius Jackson from his Saturday morning arrest, violating the conditions of a learner’s permit would certainly rank well below a DUI and a hit and run.

Still, more than eight months after coach Mark Richt said he was “highly frustrated” with driver’s license issues for some of his players arrested, they apparently still remain.

According to the police incident report from the weekend in which receiver Tavarres King was also charged with underage possession of alcohol, Jackson was asked if he was aware that he had a Class D provisional license. He stated that “he was aware and that he had not had a chance to renew it yet.” The officer “then asked the driver if he was aware that he was not supposed to be driving at this time of night on a Class D license and he stated that he was aware.”

Georgia football coach Mark Richt answered questions from reporters Wednesday afternoon for the first time since athletic director Damon Evans' resignation. He spoke in the hallway on the third floor of the Butts-Mehre Building. Here are some of excerpts.

MACON—Georgia football coach Mark Richt is happy to have some earlier starts for his team this season, but he would like to make some adjustments if he could.

“I’d like to have the night games in September and then have the noon games in November,” Richt said today at the Peach State Pigskin Preview. “I’m just saying that because of the weather. It’s going to be excruciatingly hot and humid. I can just picture what it’s going to be like those first three ballgames.”

Georgia had six night games last season, but the Sept. 11 game at South Carolina and the Sept. 18 game at home against Arkansas are set for noon kickoffs on ESPN or ESPN2. The game time for the Sept. 4 opener against Louisiana-Lafayette in Athens has not been set yet, but seems likely for an early afternoon start.

DESTIN, Fla.--For all the speculation that Georgia football coach Mark Richt is on the “hot seat” following an 8-5 season, Bulldogs athletic director Damon Evans and university president Michael Adams see it differently.

“I think when people see a little adversity, people just want to jump on it and attack it,” Evans said this morning at the SEC spring meetings. “There’s no need for that because he’s not on a hot seat. Mark is in a good place with us and I’m glad he’s here.”

Richt is 90-27 in nine seasons, with the third highest winning percentage among active coaches in college football, but questions about his job security have come up this offseason by some observers.

“Mark’s been here what? Is it 10 years now? Is it nine years?” Evans said. “He’s had a great track record here.”

Adams indicated that Richt’s job isn’t in jeopardy even after his worst season in Athens.

A.J. Green will be getting tons of attention in the months to come.

Like this. The Georgia junior wide receiver is on the cover of The Sporting News preseason college football magazine. He shares the cover with Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt in one of 17 regional editions.

In case you’re wondering, Georgia quarterback Joe Cox and South Carolina's Stephen Garcia were cover boys last year.

Green has been rated as a top 10 pick for next year’s NFL draft by most projections.

The National Football Post rates Green as the No. 2 junior wideout behind Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd.

A big topic last year at this time was Georgia’s rugged schedule heading into the 2009 season.

Guess that wasn’t much ado about nothing. The Bulldogs, after all, went 8-5 last year, the worst season in coach Mark Richt’s nine in Athens.

Good-bye Oklahoma State, LSU and Arizona State. Hello Colorado, Mississippi State and Louisiana-Lafayette. (I figure Idaho State for Tennessee Tech is a wash, right?).

Before you pencil in 9 or 10 wins this season, Richt provides a cautionary tale for those that think the schedule sets up nicely: 2006.

“I don’t know, we had a year in ’06, people wanted to say that season that schedule was one of the better schedules before the season began, but it wasn’t like we took advantage of it, if in fact it was,” Richt said.