Georgia football notes: Auburn-Georgia tailgaters beware: Rain reduces parking at UGA | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

ATHENS, Ga. — Tailgaters may want to be aware of some reduced parking around campus for Saturday’s game against Auburn.

Because of the wet weather brought by Tropical Storm Ida, several grass-covered areas typically used for parking, including the lots near the intramural fields off East Campus Drive, will not be available.

The school also urged fans to carpool, to avoid using pull-behind trailers and reconsider placing heavy objects on the wet grounds in other grass-covered parking areas.

Curran mulls NFL

With the season winding down and the hype surrounding next year’s top NFL draft picks heating up, Rennie Curran knew he would have some tough decisions to make.

The junior linebacker is second in the SEC in tackles and is on pace for his second straight 100-tackle season at Georgia, and many draft services see him as a potential early draft choice. So from family and friends to fans who see him on campus, he’s already being hounded about his future.

“That’s one thing people always want to know,” Curran said. “They see you in that position, and you’re ranked high and having a good season, and they want to know.”

Curran said Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, teammates last season who were both selected in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft, set a nice template for how to handle things, and that’s a path Curran plans to follow.

“Knowshon and Stafford, I watched them go through the same thing, and they did a good job handling it,” Curran said. “Right now, I’m just focused on the season, honestly. It crosses my mind just like it would anybody else who was in the situation I’m in, but it’s a good situation to be in and have to think about. But for the most part, I’m just focused on what got me here, which is working hard and finishing strong, because that’s all I really feel like matters.”

Robinson back to backup

He’s the reigning SEC defensive lineman of the week, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be seeing a ton of action this week, head coach Mark Richt said.

Defensive end Montez Robinson earned his first serious playing time of the season against Tennessee Tech, racking up five tackles and two sacks while filling in for injured starter Justin Houston.

But Houston’s injured elbow appears healthy this week, and that means Robinson will be back to his role of backup.

While his big week didn’t bump him up the depth chart, it wasn’t without it’s benefits.

“It’d be difficult to get him the same amount of reps he got last week with Justin being back, but he’s progressing and gaining confidence in himself, and we’re gaining more confidence in him,” Richt said.

Good scout attitude

There weren’t many members of Georgia’s 2009 signing class who haven’t seen the field this season, and several of those being redshirted are due to injuries. But of the six healthy players still waiting their turn to see the field on game day, Richt said many have adopted a healthy attitude toward work on the scout team.

“The great majority of their life right now is being on the scout team, but they can get better by doing it,” Richt said.

Quarterbacks Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger both earned praise from offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, who said that both have gotten far more work with the first- and second-team offenses in practice this season than past freshman quarterbacks, due in part to starter Joe Cox’s injury that keeps him from throwing on Wednesdays.

Linebacker Chase Vasser suffered a minor injury after a scooter accident on campus earlier this season, but Richt said he’s healthy again and performing well. Georgia’s two freshman offensive linemen — Chris Burnette and Dallas Lee — have helped the scout team look far more impressive than years past, too.

But the star of the redshirts, Richt said, might be defensive tackle Kwame Geathers, who has come particularly far from his first days on campus, when he arrived three days after the start of fall camp, slow and overweight.

“I don’t know the number that he dropped, but it was probably in the 30-pound range if not more,” Richt said. “That guy really did a phenomenal job of really getting his body down to where he could run and have some stamina.”