Georgia's Olten Downs (Shaw, Carver) to help coach receivers for TaxSlayer Bowl

Former Shaw player and Carver assistant coach Olten Downs received a promotion of sorts on Wednesday at the University of Georgia.

Downs was hired by Georgia as a quality control assistant for offense in March, a position that did not require Downs be on the field on game days.

On Wednesday, Georgia interim head coach Bryan McClendon announced that Downs will be on the field for the TaxSlayer Bowl on Jan. 2. McClendon, the Dogs' wide receivers coach, was named interim head coach after Mark Richt was fired last month.

McClendon said Wednesday that Downs would help him coach the receivers.

"Coach Downs is just a tremendous coach, and we're lucky to have him," McClendon said. "He'll be on the field as well. He's going to help out with my group -- the receivers. He's been helping with those guys all year in a capacity where he wasn't a guy who was able to do stuff on the field outside of charting and things like that. As my role changed a little bit, he's going to have a new role to take in, a bunch of the team aspects and things like that."

Downs won three high school state championships. He won one as a player at Shaw High in 2000. He won one as an assistant coach at Carver in 2007, then he won one as a head coach at Creekside in 2013.

Kevin Price, 706-320-4493, Follow Kevin on Twitter@lesports

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Georgia's Olten Downs (Shaw, Carver) to help coach receivers for TaxSlayer Bowl ."