Georgia held its first spring scrimmage since 2019 on Saturday, and coach Kirby Smart said even though the Bulldogs had plenty of young and inexperienced players, he liked what he saw.

“I was pleased with the energy,” Smart told reporters. “We made some errors, there were 16 mid-years out there who were a little nervous. There was some anxiety there but I felt the energy was good on both sides of the ball. When somebody made a play there was enthusiasm, there was more connection out there, not guys going through the motion which can happen sometimes in the spring.”

Smart also confirmed that receivers Jermaine Burton suffered a hyperextended knee recently, and Arian Smith, sustained a sprained wrist in Saturday’s scrimmage.

The backup quarterback position is a competition between Stetson Bennett, a redshirt senior, redshirt freshman Carson Beck and true freshman Brock Vandagriff.

“His learning curve is greater but he’s also picking it up quick, especially for a mid-year freshman,” Smart said of Vandagriff.

Smart added that, “we were able to move the ball at times, had a couple of turnovers in the red area, defense gave up some big plays but they played well in the red area at times. It kind of went both ways.”

For the inexperienced secondary trying to replace Eric Stokes and Tyson Campbell, Smart said it was the first real action for several players.

“We’re a long way from being ready in terms of what we need to do in the secondary because we’ve just got a lot of inexperienced players,” Smart said. “We cannot have enough of those situations, scrimmages, passing, all the different looks we get because we need experience.”