David Perno’s firing marks the fourth head coach to go since McGarity was named as athletic director in August of 2010.

UGA president Michael Adams hired McGarity as Georgia AD from Florida where he worked for Jeremy Foley, an athletic director Adams respects.

McGarity brought with him “sort of a no-nonsense view that at the University of Georgia, you’ve got to be competitive almost no matter what, given our resource base, our commitment to athletics, how much the Bulldog Nation cares about it, how much the whole state cares about it,” Adams said.

McGarity also made moves in volleyball, women’s golf and gymnastics as well.

“One of the things I liked about Jeremy and I’ve watched him for over 20 years, if you produce you get rewarded, if you don’t produce you probably end up on the outside looking in,” Adams said before Perno’s firing and not talking about any sport specifically. “That’s kind of the way it is today if you get in it at this level. …The coaches know this. They’re not dumb people to be where they are at their profession. This is a place at this level, whether you’re a head coach or a department head or a dean or a researcher or president, you’ve got to produce. You produce here, you do well. You don’t produce here, you don’t do well. This is a meritocracy.”

McGarity said the expectation at Georgia is that all sports are competitive.

“When you are competitive then you have to evaluate programs,” McGarity said last week. “Even those programs that are successful, you can’t let your guard down. There’s an accountability piece. The University of Georgia has every resource imaginable.”

McGarity wants Georgia to rank among the top 10 athletic programs in the country, but does making moves with baseball and gymnastics in the last year mean that a move will be made next spring with basketball coach Mark Fox if the Bulldogs don’t reach a postseason tournament?

Not necessarily.

“We’ve got some programs that basically have no tradition,” McGarity said. “Volleyball, no tradition. Men’s basketball doesn’t have much of a tradition. We have struggled in some sports. We just need to get to where all of our sports are competitive on a national level. Some might take more time than others. Every sport is a little bit different. That’s probably the best way to say it. There’s not two sports really alike.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marc.weiszer

That has made for some smooth sailing as well as some choppy times during his tenure.

Georgia’s athletic revenue has grown from $25.7 million in 1997 when Adams became president to a projected $92.1 million for fiscal year 2013, and the Bulldogs have won 19 national titles in six sports during that time.

He had a messy parting of ways with athletic director Vince Dooley that enraged much of the Bulldog Nation and played a large role in the hiring of basketball coach Jim Harrick Sr., who resigned after four seasons following an academic scandal.

“I don’t have many regrets,” Adams said during an interview in his north campus office in his final weeks as president before his retirement on June 30. “You want to know what my biggest regret is? Not getting the final five yards against Alabama. To have gone out in the national championship game, and I felt that night that was the national championship game and I think the following events proved me right. I’m not sure I’m over that one yet.”

Adams was a regular presence in postgame football locker rooms and he takes pride in the two game balls he said the team gave to him during his final season as president after victories against Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl and versus Georgia Tech, a 42-10 thrashing.

“That’s about how it should be each year,” he said. “There’s nobody in the Georgia Nation who wants to beat Tech more than I do and they know that.”

Many in the Georgia Nation viewed Adams in an unfavorable light when he sent Dooley, the beloved former football coach, to retirement as athletic director earlier than he wanted.

Dooley worked for four other presidents, but his 40 years at Georgia ended in a very public squabble with his boss.

“Well, I guess the first thing I would say to you is that all that is over 10 years ago,” Adams said. “I just don’t think I’ve talked about it since then and I don’t think I’m going to.”

Adams, who will be succeeded by university provost Jere Morehead, will preside over his last Athletic Association board meeting as chairman this week in St. Simons before attending the annual Southeastern Conference meeting in Destin, Fla., next week for the final time as president.

He may be viewed locally by some through the prism of how he handled Dooley, but at the conference and national level, his role in athletics is viewed in a different light.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive said Adams has “been a significant voice nationally in matters of intercollegiate athletics. … There’s no doubt that he has made his mark as someone who understands intercollegiate athletics and was willing to speak out on issues. Obviously had some very significant assignments both at the conference level and at the national level.”

Adams served as chairman of the NCAA’s executive committee, represented the SEC on the Division I board of directors, served as chair of the SEC’s executive committee, as a member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and called for a football playoff in 2008.

“He’s made himself very knowledgeable and obviously he’s had a very significant tenure in terms of his years at Georgia, which gave him a significant tenure here,” said Slive, who says he’s turned to Adams for consultation during his 11 years as commissioner. “When he speaks on issues in the meetings, people listen carefully. When our presidents and chancellors meet, there are 14 leaders in the room, but he spoke about issues, he thought about issues, he was effective in communicating his points of view.”

Dooley, AD from 1979 to 1994, tried to be diplomatic in assessing Adams’ role in athletics at Georgia.

“I don’t really have much to say except that I appreciate his contribution and his interest in athletics,” Dooley said. “He had a real interest in intercollegiate athletics.”

Early in his presidency, Adams said that he spent less than 15 percent of his time on athletics.

The 15 percent mostly held true, he said, but the biggest exception came in 2009 when his friend, the late NCAA president Myles Brand, had pancreatic cancer and a dire prognosis.

“The Foundation Board and the Athletic Association Board were very good to me that year to allow me to do what I needed to do because I was both president of the University of Georgia and also helping to run the NCAA,” Adams said. “That 15 months, I think it was actually was the time where athletics took more of this job than at any other time.”

Adams was mentioned as a potential replacement for Brand after his death, but he remained at Georgia, where he saw a football program suffer its first losing season under coach Mark Richt in 2010 and then return to prominence with back-to-back trips to the SEC title game.

“I am proud of my association with this Athletic Association,” Adams said. “It has been for me more stress-relieving than stress-inducing. What I mean by that is the stack of papers you see on the corner of that desk over there, by the time they get here, there aren’t many easy ones because they’ve been back and forth between deans and vice presidents and other constituent groups and all. For most days in athletics it has been a stress reducer. As you know, I love the games. I love the contests. And when (wife) Mary and I would get there, you could just kind of feel the stress of the day draining away. There have been a few days where they have enhanced my stress, but 98 percent of my days here I’ve been able to be a fan and I like being a fan. And I expect to be a Georgia fan well into the future, as does Mary.”

Michael and Mary Adams were on vacation in Nashville, Tenn., during a long July 4 weekend in 2010 when he got a phone call while he was sitting in bed at the Hermitage Hotel.

Damon Evans, the athletic director who Adams picked to replace Dooley, had been arrested for DUI in Atlanta.

“We had just ordered breakfast in the room and it hadn’t yet come,” Adams said. “I finished the phone call. I looked over at Mary and said, ‘We’re going home.’ So we got in the car and drove to Athens and worked all weekend putting the pieces together.”

A woman who was not Evans’ wife was in the car that night.

Evans, the first African-American AD in the SEC and a senior administrator under Dooley, could not survive in what he called his dream job.

When Adams is pressed, the way things ended for Evans is what he said he regrets.

“I was very close to Damon,” Adams said. “I helped bring him along. I’m glad he’s now getting back into the sports world (heading a fundraising division with IMG College). Mary and I were close to the kids. The kids would come to the house periodically to see her. We were close to the whole family. So that was maybe the toughest weekend I’ve had here in sports.”

Adams said he views Evans’ six years as athletic director from 2004 to 2010 as a time when positive changes were implemented that remain in place today: strengthening academic advising, improving student recruitment of athletes and enhancing ticket operations.

“For me personally, I felt that it was a personal loss as well as a professional loss,” Adams said.

Adams had a role in big decisions impacting athletics in several hires, including Harrick.

They knew each other when both worked at Pepperdine University when Adams was a vice president and Harrick the head coach.

“He is a superstar in the making on the college presidents’ scene,” Harrick said in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story after he was hired at Georgia in 1999.

Georgia was found to have committed major NCAA violations between 2001-03 during Harrick’s tenure that left Georgia on probation and required it to forfeit games. Former player Tony Cole’s allegations led to an NCAA investigation that found academic fraud and extra benefits. Georgia fired assistant Jim Harrick Jr. and decided to pull the Bulldogs from the SEC and NCAA tournaments.

“I said to coach Dooley, ‘Would you like for me to get Jim Harrick in the pool,” Adams said. “He said, ‘Yes. I think the better the pool, the better.’ We interviewed three finalists. Coach Dooley made a recommendation to me for whatever reasons. I think, and still think, that he and coach Harrick got along very well.”

Dooley’s first choice was then Delaware coach Mike Brey, who turned down the chance and eventually landed at Notre Dame. Harrick won the national title at UCLA in 1995 but was fired the next year over expense reports from a recruiting dinner that violated NCAA rules.

“Ultimately on decisions on the head basketball coach and the football coach, I make the decision only from the standpoint of that was my recommendation to the president,” Dooley said.

Adams said Dooley recommended Harrick twice, the second time after Harrick decided he wanted to stay at Rhode Island before changing his mind.

“I think the AD was involved in the hiring, he played the lead role in hiring Jim Harrick, not once but twice,” Adams said. “I think that I can document all that.”

Adams still calls Harrick “one of the best final-two-minute coaches that I’ve ever seen, and I know enough about basketball to know the difference. I regret what happened to him, but he made mistakes here at a level that would have made it impossible to stay whether I was making that decision or coach Dooley was making that decision. It was just obvious to both of us.”

Adams received a warm ovation from a Georgia alumni crowd at its UGA Day event Wednesday night in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. He was on a program that also included defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and men’s basketball coach Mark Fox.

“The way you build a great university is every time there’s an opening, you replace whoever’s leaving with somebody better,” Adams told the crowd. “I think we’ve done that in most cases. You never bat a thousand in personnel decisions, but my theory has been to hire the very best vice presidents and deans possible, which is the area I’m most responsible for, and the AD and the chief legal person, the chief PR person. And then you get out of the way. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve not micromanaged. I have not sat with each of them every week and told them what I wanted them to do.”

Time hasn’t healed the wounds for some.

Adams turned down Dooley’s request to have his contract extended again as athletic director in June of 2003, forcing him out a year later. Dooley requested four more years and later reduced that to two.

Adams had said in 2001 that Dooley’s contract would not be extended once it ended. He stayed on as a special assistant for fundraising at his regular salary of about $300,000.

Barbara Dooley, not known to hold back on much, still has raw feelings about how Adams treated her husband, who won 201 games, six SEC titles and a national championship in 25 years as football coach. Georgia teams won 23 national titles with Dooley as AD but also had six major infractions cases in 25 years.

“In my opinion, he has never said anything positive about Vince Dooley’s ability as the athletic director,” Barbara Dooley said. “He’s comparing all of these great things that have happened after Vince Dooley. I take personal offense to that. You can certainly print that.”

Adams’ decision — backed by the university system chancellor—brought about emails and petitions voicing discontent with the move and further strained already rocky relations between Adams and the UGA Foundation, which raised and managed private donations to the school. Foundation members tried to force Adams out and commissioned an audit of his spending habits and management.

Adams said he knew he would have an opportunity to name an athletic director at the proper time after becoming president.

“I didn’t come here with any hard and fast schedule on that,” he said. “I had been told by the previous president that he had extended coach Dooley’s contract and they had agreed that was going to be his last contract. So I kind of had three, four, five years, whatever was left remaining in mind. I didn’t come in here and start immediately changing anybody. I think vice presidents and deans and what all when you get a new president, you want to evaluate. ‘OK, where are the strong points, where are the weak points, etc.’ We did a lot of things right in athletics long before I got here. So I didn’t come with a whole set of predispositions. You sort of learn and evaluate on these things as you go.”

Adams and Dooley didn’t see eye-to-eye on the firing of football coach Jim Donnan and the signing of some basketball recruits.

Adams wanted Donnan gone, but Dooley objected after a 7-4 regular season in 2000. Adams at the time called it “an honest disagreement.”

Donnan had three years left on a contract that paid him a buyout of about $2.1 million.

After the firing, it became known that Adams had given Donnan a raise of about $250,000 in the summer of 1998 when he turned down an offer from North Carolina. Dooley and the athletic board did not know about the arrangement, but the board approved paying it.

“He was hands-on, controlling and (some say) egotistical,” Dooley wrote about Adams in his book “History and Reminiscences of the University of Georgia.”

Adams came to Georgia from Centre College in Danville, Ky., which had an enrollment of 970. He lost a bid for Congress as a Republican in 1980 and had worked on the staffs of Gov. Lamar Alexander and Sen. Howard Baker, both from Tennessee.

He was chair of the NCAA Division III president’s commission but didn’t have a background running a major-conference school like Georgia.

“There are a lot more zeroes in the budget here,” Adams said. “I sat for six years on the all presidents’ commission before I got here and it was dominated by I-A presidents. I had at least listened to and to some extent been conversant in many of those issues before I got here so I’m not sure I was quite as much a babe in the woods as some people may have thought.”

The power struggle between Adams and Dooley wasn’t a consideration when Greg McGarity pursued the athletic director job in the summer of 2010 at his alma mater after serving as a senior athletic administrator at Florida.

“Frankly, I didn’t want to know anything about it,” McGarity said. “It’s just irrelevant. It had no effect on me. It happened years ago. For me to come in with any preconceived thought or notions there would not have been fair to anyone.”

McGarity said a three-hour lunch meeting in New York when he was interviewed for the job put to rest any “preconceived attitudes.”

He keeps a napkin from the first meeting McGarity attended with Adams and Georgia athletes in the fall of 2010. McGarity scribbled on it some of what Adams said: Follow rules, go to class, stay out trouble.

Said McGarity: “He’s very, very clear on expectations. … It’s pretty simple.”

McGarity says Adams has been “extremely accessible” and that the common goals about athletics proper place on campus are clear.

“I think the academic interests are closer aligned with the athletic interest and vice versa right now than at any time since I’ve been here,” Adams said.

McGarity said Adams has let him do his job as he guides an Athletic Association that ranked 12th among public school athletic departments that showed a profit in 2010-11, according to one ESPN.com study.

“There’s no question he’s my boss,” McGarity said. “He’s in charge of everything under the University of Georgia banner. Not only athletics. He has let basically me run the department. … I think he has confidence in all of his cabinet members to run their department because as president he can’t. There’s so many balls to juggle in the air that there’s just no time to devote full-time to really any area.”

Richt, who replaced Donnan and is entering his 13th season as Bulldogs coach, said “the relationship I’ve had with President Adams has been very good.”

They met annually to talk about the program.

“He would say whatever he wanted to say and would allow me to voice anything I wanted to voice,” Richt said. “Mostly it was just conversations about being pleased about how things are going and if there were things that we needed to handle, we would handle them.”

Adams said he’s always been involved in five pivotal positions in athletics: the athletic director, and head coaches for football, men’s and women’s basketball and gymnastics.

“Those are five key positions that impact how this university is viewed almost daily,” Adams said. “I’ve treated most of those situations, not all, there are two or three exceptions that you know about, but I’ve treated most of those situations like I have the hiring of deans. … Well, I’ve done that on a couple, maybe more than a couple coaching or AD changes, but I only get in it at the last minute.”

When McGarity was searching for a new volleyball coach in 2010, he said Adams gave him a name of someone in the volleyball world to serve as a reference for candidates.

“That’s the value of someone so connected,” McGarity said.

Adams, who turned 65 in March on what he called his “Medicare birthday,” plans to take a year off from the university. He said he will spend time at his lake house and travel next year to Australia, New Zealand and California and may write books.

Then he plans to teach political science or political communication at UGA.

He will continue to have a hand in college athletics after his retirement.

“On the big issues of the country on higher ed in sports and higher ed academics, those are the kind of things I’m going to write about and still be involved in,” he told the crowd in Atlanta, “because I care deeply how this model which has existed now for about 130 years is perpetuated in this country going forward. We have to keep amateurism in collegiate sports.”

Adams will serve a three-year term on the NCAA Committee on Infractions and said he already has “two or three opportunities” to serve as a consultant.

“We’ve had our ups and downs here, but I’ve had a pretty good record of keeping things within the white lines,” he said. “I’m probably going to do some consulting in areas to help presidents with athletic issues, athletic board issues and also with general board issues. I’m going to write some in that area. That’s one of the areas that I think I have learned some things in.”

That spurred on a grass-roots online petition of support for the Georgia offensive lineman from Buford, who remains ineligible for testing positive for a banned substance he said he was injected with in high school to aid in his recovery from shoulder surgery.

Georgia and Houston, who was interviewed on ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” in a program that first aired on Sunday, say there has been no re-use since testing positive in 2010, but Houston still has not met the appropriate threshold that would allow him to play by the NCAA.

Nearly 3,200 have signed the online petition as of Friday midday asking for Houston to be declared eligible to play. He’s been banned since testing positive for the steroid Nandrolone as a freshman.

The petition was started by Jeremy Barton, a 2005 UGA graduate who lives in Napa, Calif. He’s a senior business analyst for Treasury Wine Estates, which owns six wineries in the Napa/Sonoma regions.

“I am very supportive of the NCAA’s efforts to safeguard fair play, however, in this particular case, it is apparent that those efforts have overshadowed what the NCAA states as its primary goal, to `focus on the development of our student-athletes,’ ” Barton said via email. “Rather than sending my letter with only my signature, I offered friends and family the opportunity to sign it with me via Change.org.  On Tuesday morning, 10 close friends had signed, and I had assumed that would be the extent of our petition. However, by lunchtime, over 600 individuals had signed, and before the end of the day, we had reached almost 2,000. I realized very quickly that I was far from the only person compelled to support Kolton’s reinstatement, and that the UGA community runs far deeper than I had imagined.”

Georgia players helped the cause by tweeting out a link to the petition.

The petition drew supporters from seven countries and 44 states, according to Barton. He sent copies of the petition to NCAA president Mark Emmert and Dr. Brian Hainline, the NCAA’s first chief medical officer, but had not heard back as of Thursday.

Georgia continues to hold out hope that Houston’s eligibility will be restored.

It insists that Houston, who has two years of eligibility remaining, doesn’t have a competitive advantage.

Houston told OTL that he had five fatty masses where he was given injections surgically removed in October. He also has undergone a 150-degree “sauna detox” program in an effort to become eligible and was given an experimental antibiotic.

Senior associate athletic director Ron Courson has continued to adminster drug tests for Houston.

Houston tested recently at about 4 nanongrams per millileter, down from 260 ng/ml initially. The NCAA acceptable level is 2.5 ng/ml.

“It’s so close,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said early this week. “The NCAA’s staff has been very helpful. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I think Ron’s relationship with all of those at the NCAA, they’re his peers that are in this review piece so we’re all trying to work together to try to find out how we can make this work. So we’re getting good communication back and forth. It’s not that we’re not getting any response from the NCAA. Ron has continuing conversation with the powers that be within the structure of the NCAA to see if there’s something we can do to help this young man out.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marc.weiszer

Grantham talked again about how the Bulldogs will be deeper, especially up front.

“Last year we had 28 guys on scholarship on defense, which when you start breaking the numbers down, you should be around the 41 number,” he said. “Thinking that if you have 85 guys on scholarship, three specialty, divide that in half, you get 41. We were at 28 last year on defense, which is a low number. Once we get into August, we’re going to be into the 37 to 38 range, which means we’re closer. What that does is it tells you, you’ve got more guys on special teams because you’ve got depth. You’ve got more guys that can play in rotation, which can keep guys fresh. I think that’s a big thing, particularly in the front seven.”

There are plenty of candidates to play nose guard.

Mike Thornton is holding down the starting spot, ahead of junior college transfer Chris Mayes.

“There’s nothing that says that Jonathan Taylor cannot play there, John Atkins,” Grantham said. “We have numerous guys that we can play in that position. We’ve probably got 11 guys up front that we feel can play with their hand in the dirt and we’ll mix and match those guys throughout August and September and see what gives us the best chance to be successful.”

Toby Johnson from Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College is projected to play defensive end. He’s coming off ACL and MCL surgery on Nov. 28.

“He was here for the spring game; we were able to look at his knee,” Grantham said. “Ron Courson, our trainer, was ecstatic about his progress and where he was. He’s done great on his grades. He’s going to be here June 3 for first semester, which allows us to work with him in the rehab department to get him in the strength and conditioning room. We’re going to see how it goes with him, but everything is very encouraging now. He’s definitely a talented guy. We’ve always felt that we needed a guy like that with his initial quickness and acceleration. We’re certainly going to give him an opportunity to compete for playing time when he gets here.”

One more thing.

Could Grantham actually get away without dropping some Tray Matthews talk to get fans excited?

“He actually knocked two guys out in three scrimmages,” Grantham said. “The only problem is one of them was a defensive guy. …We’ll work on that with him.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marcweiszer

Grantham is as fiery as any coach around, but the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator didn’t get bent out of shape by what Florida coach Will Muschamp said earlier this week on the speaking circuit: That the Bulldogs’ winning ways against his team won’t last long.

“I mean, you know, what do you expect him to say at a Gator function?” Grantham said before speaking Wednesday night at UGA Day at Atlanta Marriott Buckhead, where he stepped in for head coach Mark Richt, who had a conflict with his schedule. “Will’s a guy that I know personally. I think he’s done a great job at Florida. I think he’s very competitive as we all are as coaches. He’s a guy that wants to win. I think he’s just really trying to fire up the people in Jacksonville.”

What Muschamp said, according to the Florida Times-Union: “It’s not going to be a long winning streak, I can assure you. We feel very comfortable.”

Georgia already has its longest winning streak in the series since taking three in a row from 1987-89.

Grantham has called Muschamp, a former Georgia safety, “a good friend of mine.” He talked to Muschamp when he was Texas’ defensive coordinator about a transfer from Southern California named Jarvis Jones, who Muschamp recruited out of high school.

“The bottom line is, in this league, you really win with individual performance,” Grantham said. “You win with mental and physical toughness and you do it on the field. The fact is the last two years, we’ve won in Florida and we’ve won the SEC–SEC East I should say. From that standdpoint, that stuff has really no effect on me or how we prepare.”

Grantham is replacing a star player who had dominating individual performances the last two years against Florida. Jones, the two-time All-American outside linebacker, had seven sacks in two games against the Gators and had two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries last season in a 17-9 Bulldogs win.

Georgia forced six Florida turnovers in that game and rode a pair of touchdowns on fourth-down passes in a 24-20 win in 2011.

“In this league when you turn the ball over, you’re going to have a hard time winning,” Grantham said. “The last two years we’ve had 62 turnovers [gained], which is second to only LSU.”

Grantham lost seven players off the defense who were selected in last month’s NFL draft, including first-round linebackers Jones and Alec Ogletree and third-rounders in safety Shawn Williams and nose guard John Jenkins.

“Those players have been able to kind of show the young guys the way and take ownership of the team,” Grantham told the crowd. “The guys that are here now, it’s their turn for the torch.”

Earlier, Grantham said he felt good about the unproven talent.

“I don’t think you look at anything as a crutch,” Grantham said. “These guys came to Georgia to win. We expect to win. We’re looking forward to the season.”

Georgia has more depth on the defensive line, he said, than in years past.

“We’ve got 11 guys that are going to be competing for playing time,” he said. “I think all of those guys can give some kind of role.”

At inside linebacker, Ramik Wilson finally has an opportunity to get playing time. Coaches have liked what they’ve seen from him for a year, he said.

Grantham mentioned outside linebacker James DeLoach’s strong spring to reporters beforehand and to the crowd later.

In the secondary, freshman Tray Matthews “is a young guy in the back who has shown he has the ability to play in this league.”

As for the incoming freshmen who didn’t enroll early, Grantham said he’s looking forward to taking a look at Shaq Fluker from East Mississippi Community College and Kennar “KJ” Johnson from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in the secondary.

“Both those guys are JUCO guys that I think can have an immediate impact,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you. I look forward to working with all of them. I think all of them have some upside and a skill set that they can help us.”

Grantham said rangy outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, who is already on campus, can also make an impact after arriving from Hargrave Military (Va.). He said he expects the 12 defensive signees that did not enroll early to not have any issues academically that will hold them up from arriving at Georgia.

Notes: Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox said he would like to name a replacement for assistant Kwanza Johnson by the start of summer school in June. He said former Bulldog Jonas Hayes, the program’s operations coordinator, is under consideration for the job. TCU officially announced it had hired Johnson on Wednesday. “Whoever we hire, that’s something that recruiting connections will be a big part of that,” Fox told the crowd. Earlier, he said he was looking for someone that was the “total package.” … Georgia will play Wofford on Nov. 8 in Athens in what appears to be the season-opener for the Bulldogs, according to a game contract obtained by the Athens Banner-Herald. A home game against Appalachian State is also lined up on Nov. 29. The two schools will play in football on Nov. 9 in Athens. …Fox said former Bulldog Jarvis Hayes is back on campus taking classes. …Outgoing Georgia president Michael Adams, who addressed the crowd, sat at a table with former Bulldogs linebacker Rennie Curran, who will play in the CFL. Curran took the microphone at one point and mentioned that Grantham criticized him for entering the NFL draft as a junior instead of staying to play for Grantham. “I was right, too,” Grantham said. …Grantham said outside linebacker Chase Vasser, coming off shoulder surgery, has been cleared to work “full-tilt” in offseason workouts. …Grantham on former Bulldogs linebacker Christian Robinson moving into a graduate assistant position: “He’s a guy that I think the world of. …I think he can be a dynamic coach. It’s something good for the program and good for us.”

The forward is still rehabbing “moreso than anything,” he said last week,” and is on the floor “a little bit. They can’t keep me off too much. I’m definitely doing what I’m told and trying to get as healthy as possible.”

The return of the 6-foot-8, 235-pound former Georgia “Mr. Basketball” won’t make up for the big blow of losing SEC player of the year Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to the NBA, but it would give coach Mark Fox an experienced player to work in his rotation.

“It starts with him just getting healthy, which he’s on a good track right now,” Fox said. “He’s really doing well. I think everyone’s pleased with how he’s doing. We’ve got plenty of time to get healthy. Then once he’s healthy, I think he can fit in a lot of places. The one thing about Marcus is he’s so versatile. He can do a lot of different things. He’s smart so he can play a number of places. I think you can see him in lots of places.”

Thornton, the Westlake High product who will have two years of eligibility remaining, has had three knee surgeries at Georgia, the last a scope of his right knee in December.

He said he wants to help Georgia “win games, more games than last year.”

Even without Caldwell-Pope, the only player who scored in double figures for the Bulldogs last season.

“I think we can still be pretty good,” said Thornton, who averaged 3.8 points and 4.4 rebounds last season before his injury. “We can be very good. We have the players, we have the talent, we have a great head coach. We’ve just got to put all the pieces together.”

Fox has eight weeks he can work with players in the summer.

He said Thornton is shooting, but won’t do much more until into June or even July.

“He’s going to have some rust,” Fox said, “just because he’s been off the court for some time.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marcweiszer

The former Bulldogs linebacker, who completed his college career last season, is joining the staff as a graduate assistant, he posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

Robinson took part in a St. Louis Rams rookie mini-camp last weekend after going undrafted.

“When one door closes another door opens,” Robinson tweeted. “Heading back to UGA to be a Graduate Assistant Coach. #Go Dawgs.”

Robinson, who had 159 tackles and made 17 starts in his college career, interned last summer with Oconee County High School football coach Mitch Olson. He was a regular presence on the sidelines at Georgia practices this spring.

“I can definitely see coaching in his future,” Bulldogs defensive end Garrison Smith said last season. “He’s very knowledgeable of the game. He’s a student of the game. He’ll learn everything. I know in the future he’ll be able to go teach other players what he knows and help them and develop them.”

Georgia did not know whether Robinson would have the title graduate assistant or program coordinator.

Former Bulldog offensive lineman Dan Inman and Mike Macdonald are returning as graduate assistants. Former Georgia defensive end Brandon Wheeling left to become a graduate assistant at Auburn after defensive line coach Rodney Garner joined Auburn’s staff. Jonathan Batson and Mike Kelly also left their graduate assistant positions.

The remaining SEC West opponent for Georgia is the big reveal.

McGarity said he saw “models” of the ’14 schedule in a meeting of conference athletic directors last week in Jacksonville, but that it’s still under review.

He’s not worried about Georgia’s strength of schedule for the coming four-team playoff.

“From our standpoint, the University of Georgia doesn’t have to worry about that in 2014 because our strength of schedule is already off the chart for the next two years,” McGarity said. “Who knows what the ’15 schedule will be, but we just know that in ’13 and ’14, the strength of schedule is not an issue here in Athens.”

Georgia is playing LSU as its rotating West opponent this year.

McGarity’s “off the chart” comment would seem to indicate Alabama or perhaps Texas A&M will play Georgia in 2014.

“It will be somebody really good, that’s for sure,” he said.

McGarity said he expects an announcement of opponents and even dates in Destin, but an SEC official late last week indicated that Destin would be the earliest the 2014 schedule would come out.

“We have an idea of who we’ll play, but we don’t know when we’ll play,” McGarity said of the rotating cross-divisional opponent in the 6-1-1 format that also includes six division games and the permanent cross-division partner. “We know it will be a road game because Auburn’s coming back here in 2014. Whoever we play on the West side will be a road game. It hasn’t been finalized but Destin is when we’re planning to see everything because we’ve all got to move forward with dates, campus dates, homecoming dates and things like that.”

South Carolina just announced its playing a nonconference game with North Carolina in Charlotte in 2015, but McGarity said he’s not moving forward in lining up additional nonconference opponents to the schedule beyond 2014.

“We’re still talking while we’re getting a model on the eight-game schedule, the nine-game idea is going to be tossed around as we move forward,” he said. “We’re not sure if that will ever happen and if it does, when would it happen? We’ve been so focused on the eight-game schedule for 2014 and maybe ’15, that we really haven’t focused on the nine-game schedule. I know interest is picking up on it. We have not discussed it as athletic directors. We will discuss it at a later time.”

Georgia has nonconference games in 2014 against Clemson, Georgia Tech, South Alabama and Charleston Southern, all at home.

“The key thing for us is seven home games,” he said. “We have six home games coming up (this season). Not having that seventh game is really a financial burden on an institution.”

McGarity said factors that will go into consideration of a nine-game schedule include strength of schedule and what other conferences are doing.

“We probably won’t even discuss a nine-game schedule in Destin,” McGarity said. “It will probably be later on.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marc.weiszer

Men’s basketball made the biggest gain, compiling a four-year average of 990 out of 1,000 in the measure of eligibility, retention and graduation of scholarship athletes.

The NCAA is likely to release scores in early summer for data through the 2011-12 academic year. The Athens Banner-Herald obtained Georgia’s scores in an open records request.

Football’s score dipped two points to 968. It tied for third in the Southeastern Conference in last year’s report.

The lowest score by a Georgia team was a 965 from men’s tennis, but that’s well above the 930 cutoff, which makes a program subject to penalties such as loss of scholarships or postseason play.

“All our academic pursuits are trending upward,” athletic director Greg McGarity said. “I think that’s a good sign. … It’s a good feeling and it’s a credit to everyone really.”

Men’s golf and gymnastics again scored a perfect 1,000, and so did women’s swimming this year.

Men’s basketball’s went up 30 points to 990, which would have been good for a tie for tops in the SEC last year.

The program had a 944 four-year APR in 2008-09. Mark Fox was hired as head coach in April 2009.

“One of the charges he had when he accepted this position was to change the culture, straighten up the academic piece of our program,” McGarity said. “He has devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy to that and there’s no question it shows in the numbers. Along with wins and losses, that’s another piece of the equation that you have to consider as far as the job that’s been done off the floor.”

APR scores (data from 2008-09 through 2011-12 academic years):

MEN’S SCORES:

Baseball: 966

Basketball: 990

Cross country: 983

Football: 968

Golf: 1,000

Swimming: 985

Tennis: 965

Indoor track: 971

Outdoor track: 966

WOMEN’S SCORES:

Basketball: 979

Cross country: 995

Golf: 985

Gymnastics: 1,000

Soccer: 984

Softball: 972

Swimming: 1,000

Tennis: 974

Indoor track: 994

Outdoor track: 994

Volleyball: 979

So the Georgia senior offensive guard didn’t directly feel all the shuffling of positions on the line and players moving between the first and second units.

That left plenty of questions for the offensive line heading into summer workouts, but Burnette still sees big things for a group that returns all five starters.

“Man, I think we have the opportunity to be probably one of the greatest offensive lines that we’ve had at Georgia ever, in my opinion,” Burnette said. “I think we have the talent. I think we have the guys that want to do it. I think we have the mentality this year. I think last year we had the mentality that we wanted to prove everybody wrong. Still, this year people are still doubting us. We’ve definitely taken those things and put them on the bulletin board for motivation.”

It wasn’t all just outsiders that provided motivation. Offensive line coach Will Friend said the starters didn’t play physical enough or with enough effort on G-Day. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo left spring saying that the best tackle at the time was Xzavier Ward, not returning starters John Theus or Kenarious Gates.

Burnette said he has “no idea” who Georgia’s starting tackles will be.

Asked if he actually thought that Theus, who started every game at right tackle as a freshman but missed time this spring following foot surgery, would be a backup, Burnette said: “I don’t, but we’ll see. You never know. We’ll definitely have the best guys, the guys playing the most consistently. Really, we’re just adding depth. We’re just adding so much depth and that’s great for the offensive line.”

Georgia coach Mark Richt said last month that he feels like “we’ve got seven, eight, maybe even nine guys that I think can perform in our league. I’m not saying they’re the best line in America or the best line in the league, but we’ve got enough guys that can function well.”

He mentioned players like Austin Long and Greg Pyke as pushing to get in the rotation.

As for Burnette, he expects to be ready for preseason practices.

“By the time fall practice hits, I think I’ll be 100 percent,” Burnette said. “If not, I’ll be really close to it.”

Burnette said he will probably sit out some summer workouts with the linemen “just to be safe and make sure I’m strong and ready by the time fall camp gets around.”

Burnette started 12 games last season at right guard, missing two due to his injury, and thinks he can take his game to another level.

“I think I’ll be better, honestly,” he said. “It was good to kind of get some rest for the other parts of my body that were kind of falling apart. The doctors did a great job of repairing my shoulder. It’s just really the idea of getting the range of motion back and the strength. Other than that, I feel like it’s healed up. Once I get all those things together, I’ll be ready to go.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marc.weiszer

The Bulldogs faced a bit of resistance from Northwestern Saturday, but notched a 4-0 victory for the second consecutive day at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

KU Singh’s absence from the Bulldogs’ lineup hasn’t been felt in the final results.

Not yet.

The nation’s fourth-ranked singles player quit the team just days before the tournament began, but the Bulldogs marched on without him.

Georgia got singles wins in the second round from the top of its lineup: No. 1 Ben Wagland, No. 2 Nathan Pasha and No. 3 Austin Smith, who all moved up in the lineup this week.

“The biggest thing is we knew that we’re capable of playing with anybody,” said Pasha, a sophomore ranked 47th in the nation who won 6-2, 6-3 against Raleigh Smith, ranked No. 87. “Ben’s doing a good job at one. I’m doing pretty well at two and from down on. We just have a bunch of guys that can compete at every spot.”

Georgia (24-4) has reached the round of 16 for the 10th consecutive year.

“I thought we played well,” Georgia coach Manuel Diaz saud. “We responded well to a good team that was competing on every court and playing well, well-enough to win today. Our guys had to play their best tennis, and under the conditions I thought we played a very good match.

The third-seeded Bulldogs will play No. 14 seed Oklahoma (21-6) in the round of 16 Thursday at 10 a.m. in Urbana, Ill.

“I think we’ve got a good chance,” said Diaz, who is in his 25th season and has guided the Bulldogs to four national titles. “I don’t think we have an impossible task ahead of us. Everybody left in the field has earned their way. I think we’ve earned our way, and we’re not going there to finish second in the round of 16.”

Georgia has reached the quarterfinals every year since 2005, but getting there without Singh makes that quest tougher.

“On paper, it could,” Pasha said. “Psychologically, we don’t buy into it because we know the kind of talent we have, the kind of freshmen we have. … Given the work ethic, the fight that we have and the belief that we have, we believe we can do it and we believe we’re the same as we were before. That’s how we’re going to go to Illinois with that mindset.”

The Sooners defeated NC State 4-0 on Saturday.

They are coached by John Roddick, a four-time All-American at Georgia from 1995-98 and brother of now-retired tennis star Andy Roddick. Former Georgia All-American and Athens native Bo Hodge is a Sooners assistant.

The teams met in the NCAA quarterfinals in 2010 in Athens, with the Bulldogs taking a 4-0 win.

“It should be a tremendous match,” Diaz said. “I always thought Oklahoma was a top eight team and they’re in a position now to compete for a spot in the next round. We’re both going in there hungry. We both have a lot to prove.”

Northwestern (22-10) racked up its most wins since 1988, but a day after dropping the doubles point and rallying to upset 19th-ranked Wake Forest, the Wildcats couldn’t break through on the scoreboard this time.

The Bulldogs’ No. 1 doubles team of Wagland and Hernus Pieters, ranked fifth in the nation, won 8-3 and the team of Pasha and Garrett Brasseaux, ranked 15th, followed with an 8-4 victory to clinch the point.

“I just wish they’d let our No. 3 three team get a win,” Diaz said laughing. “We’re playing well at all three spots. That’s great.”

Wagland, the freshman from Australia who is ranked 33rd, made it 2-0 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory on court one against Spencer Wolf.

The Bulldogs had lost a set on three different courts but Smith, a freshman from Cumming, clinched with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 win against Sidarth Balaji.

“Really proud of the way the guys are competing, especially the young guys, getting tremendous experience,” said Diaz, who got all six of his singles win from freshmen and sophomore the first two rounds.

Smith said the Bulldogs “are pretty much past” losing Singh. He said he was over it about 10 minutes after he got a text from Diaz with the news.

The goal remains to win it all.

“I have confidence that we can do that,” Smith said. “I know probably a lot of people probably don’t think we can, but that’s probably more fuel on the fire maybe to try even harder to get that, to win it all.”

Assistant coach Kwanza Johnson has resigned to take a similar position at TCU, Georgia confirmed Friday morning.

The move had been widely expected for nearly three weeks, so Fox has had plenty of time to mull how he would fill his first assistant opening in his four seasons at Georgia.

Fox had said Wednesday that Johnson had not made any decision, but the delay in Johnson leaving didn’t seem to bother him.

The Oklahoma native is joining the staff of Trent Johnson at TCU. Johnson and Fox coached together at Nevada and Washington and are best of friends.

“Kwanza is like family,” Fox said Wednesday. “He’s done a great job for us, we got through the school year and he’ll decide what is the right path for him.”

That’s going to TCU.

“He’s done a grat job for us the past seven years, both at Nevada and here at Georgia, so his contributions to our staff will be missed,” Fox said in a statement Friday. “We certainly wish him and his family the very best.”

Georgia posted the opening on the university employment website on Thursday.

Coaches aren’t on the road recruiting again now and won’t be again until July, Fox noted.

“May is the slowest time for basketball coaches,” Fox said.

I checked with the Georgia offensive lineman this week on if there have been any recent developments. His response: “Still same situation.”

Athletic director Greg McGarity and coach Mark Richt on Wednesday didn’t have anything new to report either.

“No, not that I know of,” Richt said.

We touched on Houston’s case once again before spring practice. The NCAA ruled him ineligible for testing positive for a performance enhancing substance and he has not hit an appropriate threshold that would restore his eligibility.

Georgia maintains Houston was unknowingly given a substance banned by the NCAA–the anabolic steroid Norandrolone–after sustaining shoulder injuries playing for Buford High School.

Richt said again Wednesday that he doesn’t view Houston’s eligibility as a “dead issue.”

“I imagine it’s either meeting the threshold or getting some kind of waiver,” Richt said. “One or the other. I think we’ve been able to prove there is no physical advantage that he has at such a low level and there’s never been any kind of re-use or anything that’s spiked it up to make them think he’s doing something since high school. It’s been three years or whatever. Hopefully it will come out good for him.”

Richt said he has not seen the OTL report ahead of time, but did view the short preview.

“I got the gist of what it’s about,” Richt said. “I don’t really know what’s going to come of it. I’m interested to video it myself.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marcweiszer

While many Bulldog athletes headed home for some downtime, more than 20 current and former Georgia players from 12 sports woke up early Wednesday morning and rode a bus to Atlanta.

They took part in the “UGA Day — Learn, Play, Excel” assembly for second through fifth graders from Drew Charter School in the East Lake community. The event, held in an adjoining YMCA, marked the third straight year that Georgia’s Athletic Association partnered with a metro Atlanta area school.

“This is an area that’s struggled a little bit,” receiver Chris Conley said. “Downtown Atlanta schools in troubled areas with troubled kids specifically. These kids are pushing those boundaries and pushing those limits. They’re showing those kids aren’t lost causes.”

Aaron Murray handed out T-shirts to kids instead of handing the ball to a tailback.

The quarterback got a big round of applause when introduced, but not quite as big as the one given to Georgia swimmer Shannon Vreeland when the students were told she is as an Olympic gold medal winner. Former Bulldogs gymnast Courtney Kupets brought her two Olympic medals with her to show.

The message from speakers, who included football coach Mark Richt and basketball coaches Mark Fox and Andy Landers, was less about winning games and more about ways to succeed in the classroom and in life.

“It really doesn’t matter how hard I worked in basketball to earn that scholarship, if I had not worked as hard in the classroom, I could not have gone to Georgia,” Carla Green Williams, the Georgia executive associate athletic director who played for Landers, told the audience. “It’s not too early. … It’s important to do your very best right now.”

Fox clapped his hands when it was announced that the Drew students got good news on recent test scores. “I think that’s awesome,” he told them later.

“It’s just a blessing to be here and show these little kids that no matter what background you come from — rich or poor — as long as you’ve got your education and you’re making good grades, you can go as far as you want to go,” defensive end Garrison Smith, who grew up in Atlanta 10 minutes away, said afterwards.

Georgia athletes ate lunch with students following the assembly in which Kupets told the students to set goals for themselves to try to achieve.

Others spoke out against bullying of classmates and urged them to treat each other with kindness and respect authority.

Offensive lineman Chris Burnette told them his favorite pastime is sleeping because he loves to dream. Specifically, about being Superman.

He told them not to be afraid to follow their dreams.

Richt warned the students about making sure they don’t do things to keep dreams from coming true.

“There’s a lot of guys over the years that were good enough to play football but didn’t get to come to Georgia because they didn’t have the grades, they didn’t care enough about school and they didn’t behave the way they should behave,” Richt said. “And there’s been some guys who have come to Georgia and didn’t behave like they should or didn’t do well in school like they should. And they had to go. They had to lose their dream because they didn’t do it right. Make sure y’all take care of business, OK?”

ATLANTA–Kwanza Johnson remains on Mark Fox’s Georgia basketball staff.

How long remains to be seen. The assistant coach still could be headed to TCU.

Two and a half weeks after it appeared imminent that Johnson was leaving to work under Trent Johnson at TCU, it hasn’t happened yet.

“He’s, I would say, not made any decision,” Fox said after speaking to elementary school students from Drew Charter School at Georgia’s “Learn, Play, Excel” event this morning.. “He’s doing a great job for us. Now that school’s over, he’ll probably try to sit down and figure out what he wants to do.”

Kwanza Johnson came to Georgia with Fox from Nevada in 2009.

It might seem unusual for Johnson’s status on the Georgia staff to linger this long, but this is an unusual situation given how close Fox and Trent Johnson are.

They remain close friends after coaching together at Nevada and Washington. Trent Johnson introduced Fox to the woman who became his wife.

“Here’s what people have to understand–Trent Johnson’s my best friend,” Fox said. “Kwanza is like family. He’s done a great job for us, we got through the school year and he’ll decide what is the right path for him.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marcweiszer

The Bulldogs led the nation this year with 10 football players who left high school during their senior year to enroll in time for the spring semester.

The next closest to Georgia’s number were Florida, Michigan, Ohio State and Southern California with six each, according to USA Today, which annually tracks early enrollees from “conferences that receive automatic bids to Bowl Championship Series games (along with independent Notre Dame).”

Georgia had a program-record 13 early enrollees in all if you include players who came from junior college and prep school.

“I don’t know what kind of spring we would have had without all 12 of them and there are of course 13 here and Tramel (Terry) not participating,” coach Mark Richt said last month when spring practice wrapped up. “It would have been tough. I don’t know if we would have got to the point where we cancelled the spring game, but we just needed them in there.”

Georgia had 10 of the 43 players in the SEC who enrolled early from high school. After Florida’s six, LSU and Alabama had five and Tennessee and Texas A&M had four each.

Tennessee coach Butch Jones was coach at Cincinnati when the Bearcats led the nation in early enrollees in 2012 with nine. Florida had 11 in 2010.

At Georgia, Tray Matthews is expected to start at free safety after enrolling early.

Georgia’s second-team linebackers this spring were early enrollees Reggie Carter and Ryne Rankin. Another, J.J. Green, provides depth at tailback behind Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall. Terry, a receiver/running back, could still play this season after missing the spring following ACL surgery.

The early enrollees can get up to 24 credit hours before their true freshman season, Richt has said.

“He’s almost a sophomore,” Richt said. “Those guys tend to graduate.”

Having the large group of early enrollees made managing a supersized 33-player class easier, Richt said.

“We’re glad the class was broken up,” Richt said. “We knew it was a very big class. Just by numbers. It’s more guys to monitor, it’s more guys to manage, more guys to educate. It’s more guys that you want to indoctrinate to the culture of your team and your program. By having 13 of them here and having them go through it, now they don’t have to go through that again. They don’t have to go through the orientation of it again. Now there’s only around 20 guys that have to go through it instead of 33.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marc.weiszer

“I can get around … able to play with my kids and get some work done,” Jacobs said. “I can do everything I need to do besides play football again.”

Jacobs’ playing days on the football field ended in 2001 after the defensive tackle suffered a major stroke following a University of Georgia football practice prior to a game against Ole Miss.

Now, he’s returning to Athens on Saturday to help raise stroke awareness in St. Mary’s Next Step 5K run/walk, a 3.1-mile race through the UGA campus starting and ending at Stegeman Coliseum.

“This stuff is for real,” said Jacobs, who turns 34 on May 12. “Back in the day, everybody used to think it happened to an older person or couldn’t happen to them, but when it actually happened to them, it was a surprise. This stuff happens every day.”

Having Jacobs on board for the 5K is valuable because his story shows a stroke can happen to anybody, said St. Mary’s stroke coordinator and Next Step 5K chair Joanne Lockamy.

“He’s trying really hard to get out there, to let people know about stroke and the signs and symptoms of stroke,” she said.

St. Mary’s, which has been ranked Georgia’s No. 1 hospital for stroke care by HealthGrades, will offer blood pressure screenings and stroke education at the event.

Stroke is the nation’s leading cause of disability and one of the top four causes of death, according to St. Mary’s. It occurs when blood flow to part of the brain stops.

Symptoms include weakness or numbness, usually on one side of the body; trouble talking or understanding; trouble seeing in one or both eyes and difficulty walking or loss of balance or severe headaches with no known cause. Most stroke patients are 50 or older, she said.

Fast treatment can often prevent severe disability and death. Lockamy said that many patients have had symptoms for a while, but don’t get treatment because they are not sure about the symptoms.

Jacobs felt dizziness during Georgia’s game against Auburn on Nov. 10, 2001, in Athens.

“I just didn’t feel myself,” he said.

During a walk-through in practice four days later, he said a walk-on offensive lineman barely touched him, but his right side went numb.

“When I told them I had to go to the hospital and I wasn’t feeling well, that’s when they started to proceed,” he said.

Jacobs, then 22, had a torn blood vessel in his neck and stopped breathing, but was revived and rushed to St. Mary’s for emergency treatment and spent weeks in the intensive care unit, including at Emory Hospital.

These days he’s an account manager for Academy Mortgage in Atlanta. Jacobs and his wife, Desiree, have two sons — 4-year-old David and 3-year-old Dawson. The whole family will be at the event Saturday.

Jacobs remains much more than just a former player to Georgia coach Mark Richt.

“I love him, man,” Richt said. “Yeah, you better believe it, too. I love them all, but I just got to know him more intimately because of his stroke and kind of living through that with him a little bit.

“We became very close. We have lunch every so often. I’m the godfather of his oldest boy. And I just love how he loves people and how he wants to give back. He’s just a special person.”

Jacobs’ stroke came in his junior season during Richt’s first season in Athens.

“Once anybody goes through adversity, they really find out people that are really on their side,” Jacobs said. “He was big when I went through my stroke. Just knowing me one year, his first year coaching, to have something like that happen, he was still right by my side. That was a guy that I wanted to be the godfather of my son. He’s always teasing me telling me that he wants my first born. He’s saying that for football. I said, ‘OK, he’s going to get my first born then.’”

The Next Step 5K was founded by teacher and stroke survivor Sally Baker in 2011 to encourage physical activity, spread awareness and educate about stroke as well celebrate life and recovery for stroke survivors and their loved ones.

While this is the third year for the Next Step event, it’s the first time it’s a competitive race.

“I figured the best way to get out the message about stroke and stroke awareness was to get more people to come and making it a competitive race would make it larger,” said Lockamy.

About 100 people took part in the event last year, mostly from the Athens area. Lockamy expects about 150 to 200 this year. Walkers and families with strollers are welcome and an easier course will be set up around the coliseum for people with limited mobility or in wheelchairs.

The Yellow Jackets will visit Stegeman Coliseum on Nov. 15, according to a contract obtained by the Athens Banner-Herald under an open records request.

The rivals have never played that early in November before in a series that started in 1905, according to Georgia records. The previous earliest meeting was on Nov. 25, 1977 when the Yellow Jackets beat the visiting Bulldogs 75-58.

They haven’t opened a season against each other since then, but Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said Tuesday he didn’t think the Georgia Tech game would be the Bulldogs’ opener. The schedule is still being finalized.

Georgia Tech leads the all-time series 103-86.

Nov. 15 is the Friday before the Georgia football team plays at Auburn. Georgia’s season-opener last year was Nov. 9 against Jacksonville.

Georgia and Georgia Tech have played in December or January each of the past 10 seasons. The website sicemdawgs.com first obtained the game contract for the upcoming game last week.

Some other dates added to the Georgia basketball schedule:

–Western Carolina in Athens on Dec. 21

–At George Washington on Jan. 3, a return game from last season.

–As previously reported, Georgia has home games set on Dec. 14 against Lipscomb and Gardner-Webb on Dec. 18 and will play in the Charleston Classic from Nov. 21-24.

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marcweiszer

“The first thought of that game is whichever defense can hold them under 30,” David Pollack, a three-time All-American defensive end for Georgia from 2002-04, said Monday. “That’s the first thing that comes to mind. It’s just because both teams are experienced and you figure with the quarterback spots, they’re going to play pretty well.”

Georgia’s Aaron Murray and Clemson’s Tajh Boyd will be in the national spotlight in the 8 p.m. game on ABC on Aug. 31 in what could be a top-10 matchup.

Pollack said he’s “pretty sure” that ESPN’s College GameDay will make Clemson the site of its broadcast that week. Pollack is among the on-air personalities for the popular show.

“If you can go to Death Valley with those fans, they’ve got some great fans, man,” Pollack said before the Celebrity Pro-Am of this week’s Stadion Classic at UGA. “It’s an SEC-type atmosphere.”

Added Lindsay Scott, who played receiver for Georgia from 1978-81 when the Bulldogs went 2-2 against Clemson: “Clemson’s going to be tough. Especially up there. I tell you. It’s hard to play up there. They’ve got a big house up there. They’ll be ready. That’s scary. … That’s a hell of a game to open up with.”

An 11th-ranked Georgia team coming off its first SEC title in 20 years went on the road and thumped Clemson 30-0 to open the 2003 season in the team’s last meeting before a crowd of 83,000. Those Tigers were coming off a 7-6 season.

“All I remember is it was 900 degrees,” said David Greene, Georgia’s starting quarterback in back-to-back wins against the Tigers in 2002 and 2003. “Other than the score.”

“That was a heiney spanking,” Pollack said of that 2003 rout that followed a 31-28 win over Clemson in 2002 in Athens.

Greene hit Fred Gibson on a 56-yard post pattern for a touchdown to get the scoring going in the 2003 game. Clemson was held to 199 total yards by a defense missing six players due to injury and suspension.

This time, Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo returns all of his starters from the program’s highest scoring offense except for receiver Tavarres King.

“I know Coach Bobo’s licking his chops,” Greene said.

Clemson is coming off an 11-2 season, the first time it’s won that many games since 1981.

“I think it will be great,” Pollack said. “The first thing that pops off is Murray-Boyd. Both those guys could have left early. Both undersized quarterbacks. This will be Tajh’s third year as a starter, Aaron’s fourth year as a starter. So, I think about that and the offenses and high-flying and both returning.”

Georgia has won five consecutive in the series against Clemson and leads the all-time series 41-17-4, but had some memorable battles in the late ’70s and ’80s.

“It’s got a lot of history to it,” said former Georgia offensive tackle Jon Stinchcomb, who is retired from the NFL after playing for the New Orleans Saints from 2003-10. “Being from the area, those are two schools competing on the recruiting trail, so why not put it out on the field and get after it a little bit?”

–Seven of the eight Bulldogs drafted were defensive players. Think NFL teams like taking players from a defense coached by Todd Grantham, who spent 11 years coaching in the league?

Here’s what Bengals defensive backs coach Mark Carrier told reporters after Cincinnati took Shawn Williams in the third round: “One thing you like about this kid is he played in a NFL-style defense with Todd Grantham, the defensive coordinator down there at Georgia and he barked out a lot of signals, they give you a lot of different looks and obviously had a lot of guys in this draft and one I think I like and fits right in with our room is that he’s not afraid to stick his face in the fire. That’s a big deal for me and a big deal for our room. You come play for us, you better be ready to go hit somebody.”

Granted, the Bengals seem to have a love affair with Georgia players. Their roster includes A.J. Green, Geno Atkins, Orson Charles and Clint Boling.

“I think the coaching staff there under coach Mark Richt has done a great job teaching them to play aggressive, attacking football,” coach Marvin Lewis said. “Whether it be offense, defense, they’re all no-nonsense guys, so we really like their work ethic, how they handle and carry themselves as people and that say a lot about the program.”

–Underclassmen decisions can be hit or miss. Southern California quarterback Matt Barkley going in the fourth round is evidence of that.

Did nose guard Kwame Geathers make the right call to leave after his redshirt junior season? The answer appears to be no given he went undrafted. Geathers landed with San Diego as an undrafted free agent.

Did Bacarri Rambo make the right call to stay at Georgia after his redshirt junior season? The answer might be no. The safety wasn’t drafted until round six.

Rambo stayed last year despite being an All-American in 2011 after he said he got a draft grade back from the NFL advisory committee that said he could go as early as the third round. Then he was suspended four games with his second violation of Georgia’s drug policy.

Geathers can only hope he can end up with a couple of Super Bowl rings like Danny Ware, the former Georgia running back who also went undrafted in 2007.

–Good behind the scenes with the Rams from Peter King of SI.com. He was in St. Louis’ draft room when it took linebacker Alec Ogletree at No. 30 overall.

Here’s what he wrote:

You saw the Rams trade twice — from 16 up to eight, to take wideout/returner Tavon Austin, and from 22 down to 30, to take versatile linebacker Alec Ogletree — but what you didn’t see was the glee in the room when both picks were made. That was good. Twenty-five or so football people in the room, not in cliques or camps, but together, and pretty excited when the moves were made. Case in point: When Ogletree was picked, special teams coach John Fassel and linebackers coach Frank Bush high-fived and considered the impact of the first two picks.

“Can I have Ogletree for punt blocks?” Fassel asked.

“Yeah, he blocked six punts in college,” Bush said. “He’s great at it.”

“Wait,” Fassel said. “I don’t want him to block the punts — I want to see Tavon return ‘em!”

And they both laughed the kind of laugh you hear in a draft room when you’ve just had a good day.

Don’t think Ogletree came close to blocking six punts at Georgia. His bio does say he blocked six punts in 2007 at Newnan.

–What was nose guard John Jenkins doing not long after he was drafted by New Orleans on Friday night?

“It’s crazy that I’m in Wal-Mart right now talking to you,” Jenkins told New Orleans radio station WWL.

Former scout Daniel Jeremiah, now with the NFL Network, listed Jenkins as his boom-or-bust pick among defensive tackles before the draft. Jenkins was the eighth defensive tackle drafted.

Jenkins was academically ineligible for the bowl game, but Saints coach Sean Payton said Jenkins’ “work ethic and all the background stuff with his coaches, people at the school, and all of that was outstanding. We had a chance to interview him and visit with him at the workout and so this is a player that we felt pretty comfortable with and at least knew who he was.”

–Jarvis Jones, who struck a deal with Subway before the Steelers drafted in the first round Thursday, sounds pretty happy to be pushing the product.

“Subway for life, man,” Jones said. “I get to eat Subway forever.”

Yes, he says, he loves to down the six and 12 inch sandwiches.

“I love Subway, man,” Jones said. “We’ve actually got a Subway right up the street from the facility. I used to eat Subway a lot. Run and get me a sub before meetings and stuff. Try to stay healthy. Give me energy before practice.”

About the Jarvis likeness in the form of a sub sandwich, Jones said he loved it. And the hair, he said,  was “like five pounds of raisins.”

–Getting drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs with the first pick of the fifth round was the second draft experience for cornerback Sanders Commings. He was a 37^th round baseball draft pick by Arizona in 2008.

“It’s definitely a bigger stage,” Commings said. “I was very late in the draft. A Mid-round pick in football. It feels pretty good.”

Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Commings could help at both cornerback and safety.

“You know, he’s a great baseball player; he was a centerfielder in baseball, so you know he can track the ball. And I’m talking about a legitimate centerfielder, not just a guy that played Little League, he’s legit—he has good ball skills,” Reid said.

Said Chiefs general manager John Dorsey: “I was actually a little surprised that he lasted that long. He’s a very gifted athlete, a former baseball player. ..He’s a larger corner, 229 pounds. I can envision the coaching staff using him in match-ups with more athletic tight ends. Actually, playing some free safety, I can see a combination; you have safeties in today’s football that are now used in coverage situations.”

–Cornelius Washington’s statistics at Georgia isn’t the reason the Bears liked when they drafted him in the sixth round. It’s the potential.

“What did we see on tape?” Chicago general manager Phil Emery said. “An explosive athlete, we saw a guy that’s close a lot but hasn’t closed. We think that this is a player that’s still got a lot of ceiling.”

Washington played both defensive end and outside linebacker at Georgia.

Bears coach Marc Trestman was asked how difficult it will be to find the best place for Washington to thrive.

“That’s part of our job as coaches,” he said. “The first place to start is to get his hand down and let him rush the passer and see where it goes from there. He certainly has tremendous athletic upside.”

–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marc.weiszer

So the wide receiver from Georgia lay down to wait for the phone to ring. He got up and took a ride in his car.

In between, he watched other players get drafted on television. Then it happened.

The Denver Broncos selected him in the fifth round with pick No. 161 on Saturday.

“My dad pointed at the TV and here my name was,” King said from his home in Baldwin. “It was crazy. It was an awesome moment for me and my family. Just enjoying it right now.”

King said Denver had the wrong last digit of his phone number so the team couldn’t reach him before the pick.

NFL teams reached out to former Georgia players plenty in the draft.

The Bulldogs tied the program-record from 2002 with eight selections in all.

That included four players drafted Saturday.

First, cornerback Sanders Commings was drafted in the fourth round by Kansas City with pick No. 134. Some had projected he could go as early as the second round.

“People said some things, some people said others,” Commings said. “I was just excited about just being possibly drafted. It’s just a blessing.”

Defensive end Cornelius Washington and safety Bacarri Rambo weren’t too excited to be taken in the sixth round.

Chicago drafted Washington with pick No. 188 and the Washington Redskins nabbed Rambo soon after at pick No. 191.

“I thought everybody had forgotten about me,” Rambo said in a teleconference with media that cover the Redskins. “I was sitting here praying, asking God to give me one team to like me. Then the Redskins called, and it’s just a blessed moment. I thank the organization for believing in me.”

Cornelius Washington’s stellar showing in the NFL combine didn’t translate into an early round pick. He was listed as the best available player on ESPN analyst Mel Kiper’s list for much of the afternoon.

“I had Cornelius Washington in the second round, probably overrated him a bit based on his computer numbers, which are through the roof — 6-4, 265 with 4.5 speed and incredible athletic ability,” Kiper said. “Pass rush has improved. He’s got a chance with the Bears.”

Washington said he was “a little discouraged” to fall to the sixth round.

“Me and my agent (Rich Rosa) both were — still are shocked,” he told Chicago media. “I have no idea what was going on. But you know, I’ve got an opportunity, and that’s most important thing. You know, you turn something that’s mildly negative into a positive and it’s still a blessing.”

Washington, who played both outside linebacker and defensive end at Georgia, said the Bears want him to play end “and I’m very happy with it. I’m going to have the ability to just go and rush and that’s the best thing for me so I’m excited.”

Rambo, an All-American in 2011, ended his career tied for the Georgia career lead in interceptions with 16, but he was suspended for four games this season for his second violation of Georgia’s drug policy.

Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said the team “did a lot of background checks” on Rambo and “we felt very comfortable with him.”

Still, Rambo was the 17th safety selected.

“It was very hard because I felt like a lot of those guys weren’t near the guy I was, but everything happens for a reason,” Rambo said. “It put a big chip on my shoulder, so I’ll just have to go out there and prove it to everybody.”

The 6-foot, 216-pound Commings, from Augusta, said he isn’t sure if he would play cornerback or safety, a position he also played at Georgia. Chiefs coach Andy Reid told reporters Commings, who had eight interceptions at Georgia, would begin at free safety.

King will go from catching passes from Aaron Murray to catching them from Peyton Manning.

“You’re catching passes from one of the greatest players to ever play the game,” he said. “It’s going to be awesome. He’s going to put me in the right position to make plays and put me in the best position to succeed. I’m excited to get to work with Peyton.”

King is the fourth Georgia receiver drafted since 2009, joining Mohamed Massaquoi, Kris Durham and A.J. Green.

“Tavarres King of Georgia is a dynamic wide receiver with speed and a lot of upside,” tweeted John Elway, the Hall of Fame quarterback who is now executive vice president for the Broncos. “Pleased he was still on our board.”

King said he had “not a clue” that Denver had interest in him.

“They weren’t even somebody that I thought I was going to go to, but I’m glad to be a Bronco,” he said. “It’s a team I liked growing up, too.”

The 6-foot, 189-pound King had 136 catches in his Georgia career and finished third all-time at Georgia with 21 receiving touchdowns and fourth all-time with 2,602 receiving yards.

Seven Georgia defensive players were drafted in all, including first-round linebackers Jarvis Jones (Pittsburgh) and Alec Ogletree (St. Louis) and third-round selections in nose guard John Jenkins (New Orleans) and safety Shawn Williams (Cincinnati).

“I know we’ve got guys on our defense that are phenomenal,” King said. “For me to be a guy on our offense that made it to the league and got drafted, it’s pretty good.”

Nose guard Kwame Geathers, who left after his redshirt junior season, went undrafted, though he will sign as a free agent with San Diego, according to a tweet from Georgia’s official Twitter account.

Cornerback Branden Smith said via text he will sign with Tampa Bay.

Receiver Marlon Brown (Houston), defensive end Abry Jones (Jacksonville) and linebacker Mike Gilliard (St. Louis) tweeted they would sign as free agents.

The Chicago Bears drafted Washington with pick No. 188 and the Washington Redskins nabbed Rambo soon after at pick No. 191.

“I thought everybody had forgotten about me,” Rambo said in a teleconference with media that cover the Redskins. “I was sitting here praying, asking God to give me one team to like me. Then the Redskins called ,and it’s just a blessed moment. I thank the organization for believing in me.”

Washington and Rambo became and seventh and eight Georgia players selected, tying the school record.

Washington’s stellar showing in the NFL combine didn’t translate into an early round pick. He was listed as the best available player on ESPN analyst Mel Kiper’s list for much of the afternoon.

“I had Cornelius Washington in the second round, probably overrated him a bit based on his computer numbers, which are through the roof—6-4, 265 with 4.5 speed and incredible athletic ability,” Kiper said. “Pass rush has improved. He’s got a chance with the Bears.”

Washington said he was “a little discouraged,” to fall to the sixth round.

“Me and my agent (Rich Rosa) both were—still are shocked. I have no idea what was going on. But you know, I’ve got an opportunity and that’s most important thing. You know you turn something that’s mildly negative into a positive and it’s still a blessing.”

Washington, who played both outside linebacker and defensive end at Georgia, said the Bears want him to play end “and I’m very happy with it. I’m going to have the ability to just go and rush and that’s the best thing for me so I’m excited.”

Rambo, an All-American in 2011, ended his career tied for the Georgia career lead in interceptions with 16, but he was suspended for four games this season for his second violation of Georgia’s drug policy.

He was the 17th safety selected.

“It was very hard because I felt like a lot of those guys weren’t near the guy I was, but everything happens for a reason. It put a big chip on my shoulder , so I’ll just have to go out there and prove it to everybody.”

Four Georgia players have been drafted Saturday.

Cornerback Sanders Commings (Kansas City) and receiver Tavarres King (Denver) went in the fifth round.

Linebackers Jarvis Jones (Pittsburgh) and Alec Ogletree (St. Louis) went in the first-round Thursday and nose guard John Jenkins (New Orleans) and safety Shawn Williams (Cincinnati) were taken in the third round on Friday.

Nose guard Kwame Geathers is among Georgia players still available after 12 picks into the seventh and final round.

Denver picked the wide receiver in the fifth round with the 161^st pick.

“I know we’ve got guys on our defense that are phenomenal,” King said from his home in Baldwin. “For me to be a guy on our offense that made it to the league and got drafted, it’s pretty good.”

King said he didn’t know Denver took him until he learned about watching the NFL Network’s draft coverage.

“My name just popped up on the screen,” King said. “They said they’ve been trying to call me but they’ve been typing in the wrong number. The last digit was wrong. My name came on the screen and then I got a call from my agent and then got a call from (executive vice president) John Elway and coach (John) Fox. It was jut pretty awesome.”

King will go from catching passes from Aaron Murray to catching them from Peyton Manning.

“You’re catching passes from one of the greatest players to ever play the game,” he said. “It’s going to be awesome. He’s going to put me in the right position to make plays and put me in the best position to succeed. I’m excited to get to work with Peyton.”

King is the fourth Georgia receiver drafted since 2009, joining Mohamed Massaquoi, Kris Durham and A.J. Green.

“Tavarres King of Georgia is a dynamic wide receiver with speed and a lot of upside,” Elway tweeted. “Pleased he was still on our board.”

He said he had “not a clue” that Denver had interest in him.

“They weren’t even somebody that I thought I was going to go to, but I’m glad to be a Bronco,” he said. “It’s a team that I watched growing up—Terrell Davis, John Elway. They’ve always been on the map for me. Shannon Sharpe, he was there. It’s a team I liked growing up, too.”

The 6-foot, 189-pound King had 136 catches in his Georgia career and finished third all-time at Georgia with 21 receiving touchdowns and fourth all-time with 2,602 receiving yards.

“His junior year, you could see the speed,” said ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay. “He was the one of the few people I ever saw that was able to go up against Mo Claiborne and beat him deep. He’s got that ability. Now, he’s got to become a little become more consistent with his routes and his ballskills, but I think this is a great pick.”

He was the second Georgia player drafted on Saturday and the sixth overall.

Cornerback Sanders Commings was taken in the fifth round by Kansas City.

Linebackers Jarvis Jones (Pittsburgh) and Alec Ogletree (St. Louis) went in the first-round and nose guard John Jenkins (New Orleans) and safety Shawn Williams (Cincinnati) were taken in the third round.

Safety Bacarri Rambo, defensive end/outside linebacker Cornelius Washington and nose guard Kwame Geathers are among players from Georgia still available after five rounds.

Sanders Commings was the first of what could be several players from Georgia to get picked Saturday in the NFL draft.

The cornerback was at his Augusta home with his parents and brother when he got word that Kansas City had selected him with the first pick of the fifth round, the No. 134 selection overall.

Some had projected Commings could go as early as the second round.

“People said some things, some people said others,” Commings said. “I was just excited about just being possibly drafted. It’s just a blessing.”

The 6-foot, 216-pound Commings started 35 games at Georgia with eight interceptions.

He played some safety, but didn’t know which position the Chiefs would play him.

“They just want to let me play wherever I fit best,” he said.

Commings said he spoke to the Chiefs at the Senior Bowl, combine and throughout the pre-draft process.

“Sanders Commings is interesting because I think he fits what today’s NFL is becoming. More and more teams are looking for tall corners,” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said prior to the draft. “He’s over six feet tall, big-bodied guy, a little stiff. But most big corners are stiff. I think on tape he’s an average player, but I think he’s got the skill set that the NFL is looking for.”

Commings will join former Georgia teammate Justin Houston, a defensive end.

“He said he loves Kansas City,” Commings said.

Four Georgia players—all starters on defense—were drafted in the first two days: linebackers Jarvis Jones (Pittsburgh) and Alec Ogletree (St. Louis) went in the first-round and nose guard John Jenkins (New Orleans) and safety Shawn Williams (Cincinnati) were taken in the third round.

Safety Bacarri Rambo, defensive end/outside linebacker Cornelius Washington, receiver Tavarres King and nose guard Kwame Geathers are among players from Georgia still available through the 10th pick of the fifth round.

That’s when New Orleans selected nose guard John Jenkins and Cincinnati tabbed safety Shawn Williams two picks later

The Saints traded to get the No. 82 overall pick and took the 6-foot-3, 346-pound Jenkins.

“It’s crazy,” Jenkins told reporters in New Orleans. “As a child when you start playing this sport, you think that you want to be a professional athlete and then it’s just a dream but when it comes true, it’s like wow, I can’t believe this is happening right now. I’m just caught up in the moment.”

The Bengals, who already have a roster chock full of former Georgia players, grabbed the 6-foot, 213-pound Williams at pick No. 84.

Cincinnati has drafted five Georgia players in the last four years, including Geno Atkins, Clint Boling, A.J. Green and Orson Charles.

“It was exciting because I know that I have so many Georgia players that have been here, and they’re in Cincinnati and doing great things with the Bengals,” Williams told the Cincinnati media. “When I got the phone call and they told me, I was like, ‘Add me to the list of Bengals from Georgia, and let’s go off and do something great and help the team win and do whatever I can.’”

Williams said Atkins was a role model when he arrived at Georgia.

“Same thing goes with A.J. Green — he was here my freshman year,” Williams said. “Me and Orson came in together, so it’s amazing that we can be teammates again.”

New Orleans defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was at Georgia’s pro day last month when Williams and Jenkins worked out, along with first-round linebackers Jarvis Jones and Alec Ogletree.

“With John, the thing’s that impressive, obviously he’s got size,” Saints coach Sean Payton said in a news conference. “He’s got good initial quickness. He’s a hard worker, has good character. It’s important to him. … His get-off and his initial quickness is something that stood out. He’s been disruptive. I like the size of the player. We talked about trying to get bigger and this is one step in that direction.”

Jenkins, who also saw time at end last season, played at up to 370 pounds last season.

Payton said expects him to play in the 340 to 345 range. Payton said he got “a little bit more exposure” to the Georgia program when defensive coordinator Todd Grantham interviewed with the Saints.

Now Jenkins will play for Payton.

“I don’t mind being a Saint, I’m kind of happy though to be honest with you,” said Jenkins, a native of Meriden, Conn. “I was down there when I went to junior college and I got accustomed to that area. I was down in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area, so I know a lot of people and supporters out there that I get to see again.”

As a strong safety, Williams, from Damascus, was second on the Bulldogs with 98 tackles last season and fueled the defense by calling them “soft” prior to the Florida win.

“Shawn Williams has great physical tools and has been a great leader down there on that defensive football team at the University of Georgia,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. “There are a lot of good players on that team, and he’s done an outstanding job down there. Been a quarterback for the defense on the field and is an aggressive, aggressive player. He’s got great speed, quickness, measurable, moving in and out, so, we really feel like he comes here and has an opportunity again to compete for an opportunity to play and will for sure upgrade us on special teams as well. If he’s not a starting player, he’ll play and make us better on special teams.”

After Jones and Ogletree were taken Thursday night, rounds two and three looked to be prime landing spots for a few former Bulldogs, but it took a while.

Georgia Southern safety JJ Wilcox went to the Cowboys in the third round before any Georgia safety did.

Safety Bacarri Rambo, defensive end/outside linebacker Cornelius Washington, cornerback Sanders Commings, receiver Tavarres King and nose guard Kwame Geathers are among players still available today when the draft resumes at noon and wraps up rounds four through seven

Jones (No. 17, Pittsburgh) and Ogletree (No. 30, St. Louis) flew Friday to appear at news conferences for their new teams.

“I really want to thank the Rams organization for taking a chance on me,” Ogletree said as he was introduced in St. Louis. “I’m ready to get to work.”

Ogletree was happy to be drafted in the first round after off-field issues — multiple suspensions and a DUI — caused him to drop from the first half of the round.

“I’m very comfortable in my ability to tackle somebody, run ‘em down,” Ogletree said. “I feel like between the lines, nobody’s faster.”

Said Rams coach Jeff Fisher: “He’ll put himself in position to make plays. He can chase down. He has excellent speed, pursuit speed to where he can close very quickly. That’s what we need in our division.”