ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia's strength and conditioning program is facing criticism with the Bulldogs owning a 4-4 record, the program's worst start since 1996.

Former NFL lineman Randy Cross, who spent 13 years in the NFL after playing at UCLA, took aim on "SEC Gridiron LIVE" on Fox Sports Net.

"There's no excuse for not being a very tough football team," Cross said of Georgia. "There's no excuse for looking weak and I mean weak. They don't look very strong. They don't fill their uniforms out well."

Dave Van Halanger, Georgia's director of strength and conditioning since 2001 when coach Mark Richt brought him from Florida State, disputed Cross' claims about the Bulldogs' lacking strength Thursday.

"To make a statement, you should have some facts behind it," Van Halanger said. "I know I would if I would say anything on the air. For us, this year we had 29 guys bench press over 400 pounds and two over 500 — Jeff Owens and Justin Anderson. We had 44 guys on our team that could back squat 500 and 14 over 600.

"That's pretty impressive. We had 63 guys that power cleaned from the floor 300 pounds or more and two that went over 400 pounds. That's the first time I've ever had two in my over-30-year career."

Van Halanger said this year's team had a bench press average of 415, the same as the 2007 team that finished ranked No. 2 in the nation. This year's team, he said, is younger, but still improved from an average squat from 530 to 551 and an average power clean from 321 to 341.

"We're very young," Van Halanger said. "We only have one senior offensive lineman. Those numbers are very, very strong. Our kids are very strong and work tremendously hard."

Richt said those on the outside of his program are just looking for why the team has struggled.

"Everybody wants us to win. Everybody wants to find some kind of angle to see where they think we've got issues," Richt said. "If everybody is going to start chiming in on what we think we need to do, it's obvious that every single part of our program is going to be looked at and questioned."