Georgia football: Bulldogs don't want freshman quarterback Aaron Murray to try to be a hero

ATHENS, Ga. — Aaron Murray is already thinking about his iPod playlist for Saturday morning.

“Some mellow, slow-jam country music,” Murray said. “No Eminem or rock songs or anything like that. I’d get too pumped up.”

Georgia head coach Mark Richt was worried about the opposite for Murray, a 19-year-old freshman.

“He’s human, he’s a freshman, and I think he’s going to have nerves like everyone else,” Richt said. “I’m a 50-year-old man, I’m going to have nerves too.”

As the countdown continues for Murray’s debut as Georgia’s quarterback Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette, the mantra remains the same on all fronts:

Ÿ Lowered expectations from Richt.

Ÿ Boyish enthusiasm from Murray.

Ÿ Stated confidence from his teammates.

Richt spent a good portion of his first game-week news conference discussing Murray and his role. All preseason, Richt has preached that Murray doesn’t need to be a hero, and he continued that Tuesday.

“Hopefully, our fans will understand he’s a freshman,” Richt said. “He’s a rookie, he’s going to make mistakes. He probably won’t be lights out as far as his accuracy, his decisions, all those things. He’s going to be finding his way. Hopefully, his teammates will help him out.”

Richt has little choice but to count on Murray. The backup is a true freshman, Hutson Mason, or junior Logan Gray, who is playing wide receiver and has been hurt.

How much is Richt trying to lower expectations for Murray? When he was asked if the successes of Stafford and Greene would set hopes higher for Murray, the coach answered by disputing that Stafford did that well as a freshman.

Stafford did finish his freshman season with three straight wins, over Auburn, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. But he had mistakes early.

“What I’ve learned is that you’re better off starting slow, and you’re better off starting with a smaller package and repping him over and over and over with this smaller package,” Richt said. “And then, hopefully, he’ll have success, and you can kind of grow as you go.”

Murray’s concern seems to be not getting too amped up beforehand. Hence the desire for a slow-music playlist.

“I get extremely pumped up,” he said. “It’d be a good thing if I were on defense and I’d probably take someone’s head off. But on offense, and especially at quarterback, you want to be a little bit more mellow.”

Murray said he would calm down after the game starts and he has a chance to take in the Sanford Stadium atmosphere.

One thing about him that hasn’t been questioned, at least since the beginning of August, is whether Murray has the proper command of the huddle. Right tackle Josh Davis, a senior, said Murray has “handled it like a veteran.”

Another senior, wide receiver Kris Durham, agreed.

“He can’t sit there and worry about outside critiques and that sort of stuff; he just has to get himself ready,” Durham said. “He’s doing a fantastic job. You can already see from the first day of camp through yesterday when we practiced, he’s just taking more and more leadership, more and more command.

“You can tell that he’s grown up a lot in the past month. He’s going to continue to do that.”

The Georgia football program is counting on it.