Georgia S Richard LeCounte has been out since he suffered a motorcycle accident the night of the Kentucky game about a month ago.

On the SEC coaches media teleconference, coach Kirby Smart updated LeCounte’s status this week.

“He’s been walking through with us,” Smart said. “He’s been out in practice and was able to run and do some thing yesterday. Still has not had contact but we are working and rehabbing to get him back.”

Smart was also asked about the idea going around college football about teams ducking opponents by using COVID-19 protocols and other reasons to not play the game.

“I think it’s uncharted territory, not something we’ve had to deal with before,” Smart said. “So, you’d probably be arguing the flip side, if they forced them to play or they made them use, you know, non-scholarship kids welcome kids to fill those numbers and fill those spots in the minimums. So, you know, that he would probably be saying well that game should have counted because they didn’t have their best players available because of what a lot of people think it’s out of your control. Maybe it is in your control maybe it’s not in your control we don’t really know everybody’s handling it pretty much the same way but not everybody’s getting the same results. So it’s definitely hard to measure and I don’t know that I have a stance to say whether or not it’s fair to make guys go out there and play that may or may not be ready to may or may not be capable of, you know, you can up injuries as well sometimes when you go out and play with guys that might struggle to compete at the SEC level.”

There is a bit of a trend of athletics directors at places like Vanderbilt and South Carolina leaning toward hiring offensive-minded coaches. Smart was asked if those ADs are missing something about a defensive coach.

“I don’t know what they are missing,” Smart said. “Every decision is independent of another… there are some good defensive head coaches and it’s about who they hire to run the offense… you better get someone that can get good players.”