An ankle issue has limited Georgia All-American Jarvis Jones in recent weeks, but has not cost him any game time.
Whether that continues into this weekend’s matchup with Kentucky remains to be seen.
Head coach Mark Richt confirmed that Jones has not practice since the Bulldogs’ last game against South Carolina due to an ankle injury suffered in the loss. While that wouldn’t normally be a big deal, the fact that the Gamecocks game was Oct. 6, though, raises doubts about the linebacker’s availability for Saturday.
In comments distributed by the team, Richt elaborated on Jones’ status.“We’ll see. We’re not counting him out yet. He had been running on a treadmill underwater and did extremely well. We figured when we put him on land, he’d hit the ground running literally, but he wasn’t ready to practice.
If he’s healthy enough to play, we want him to play. There’s no thought of holding him out this game so that he’s 100 percent next game. I don’t know if anybody’s 100 percent this time of the year when you’re six games in. Just about everybody has something bothering them, but if he gets the okay to go, he’ll play this weekend.”
Even as Richt denies giving thought to “holding him out this game so that he’s 100 percent next game,” such a tack wouldn’t be out of the question as “this game” is against hapless UK while the “next game” is against No. 2 Florida in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. It would make sense, then, to sideline Jones this weekend if there’s any chance it would impact his availability the following weekend.
Jones did miss one game already this season due to injury, although it was a groin issue that kept him out against FAU in mid-September. Despite battling nagging injuries, Jones is still ninth nationally in sacks per game and tied for 11th in tackles for loss.