Web posted December 28, 1997

By Marc Lancaster
Morris News Service

TAMPA, Fla. - Thirty minutes into practice, Georgia's scout team offense was taking on the second-string defense. Mike Usry dropped back from under center and spotted tailback Johnny Brown in the left flat. He zipped a pass to Brown, who was forced out of bounds by cornerback Cory Robinson.

Brown's momentum carried him into a stack of chairs, and he then rolled onto the plush, patterned carpet. Robinson helped by rearranging a few chairs to make things a little safer on the sideline.

Introducing the Georgia Bulldogs' emergency practice plan, live from the main ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Downtown.

After intermittent rain Friday slowed the Bulldogs' first workout here, the weather grew even worse overnight. Driving rain, propelled by high winds, drenched the Tampa Bay area. Several tornadoes touched down in surrounding counties and the entire metro area was under a flood watch most of the day.

Georgia's staff inspected the University of Tampa field before the scheduled 8:30 a.m. practice - ``We sent a submarine over there to check it out,'' cracked head coach Jim Donnan - but the field was flooded, so the ballroom session was scheduled for 10:30.

Thus, what was supposed to be a high-intensity, full-contact workout for the Bulldogs turned into an exercise in avoiding carpet burns - and other things.

``I'd hate to knock down one of these chandeliers throwing the ball,'' said Hines Ward, glancing upward. Much to the relief of the nervous Hyatt employee who watched part of the workout with a frightened look on her face, the chandeliers were spared - though a few tipped balls made things interesting.

Donnan was not thrilled with the situation, but added that unpredictable occurrences are part of the game, and the Bulldogs need all the work they can get.

``You just have to kind of do anything you can to get a practice in, because it's not like a typical week, where you've had a game before,'' he said. ``We've been off for so long that hopefully we can get some time in here, but right now we're going to see what happens.

``We're working on this new turf here. This carpet really feels good. It gives a lot of sponge,'' he added with a half-smile.

Donnan said he had worked out in a hotel ballroom once before, at the Orange Bowl in Miami while he was an assistant coach at Oklahoma.

The Bulldogs went through their practice under the assumption that Wisconsin was suffering the same fate, but when Donnan arrived at the media hotel later in the day for a joint press conference with Badgers coach Barry Alvarez, he found out otherwise.

Wisconsin pushed its practice back to late morning and was able to get in a full workout on its University of South Florida field, which Alvarez said was in ``amazingly good'' shape. The Badgers did have one disadvantage, though. They left their equipment in a tent at the practice field, and the combination of the all-night deluge and a sprinkler that was turned on and doused the tent left the players with some damp equipment for their session.

Still, Donnan was jealous of Wisconsin's field.

``You wanna switch?'' he asked Alvarez.

``I'll switch shoes with you,'' came the response.

That won't happen, but both teams should be in good shape today, as the weather is expected to clear up (but get colder) by this afternoon. Donnan said the nearly lost day of practice will force the team to go full-contact on Monday, something he had hoped to avoid. The Bulldogs have set up their workouts to match their regular-season routine, with the schedule moved up two days because the game is on a Thursday rather than a Saturday.

As for the improving weather, Donnan said he'll believe it when he sees it.

``We'll see how we do (Sunday),'' he said. ``I'm still worried about (Sunday) right now.''