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Dogs freshman Green on record-setting pace

ATHENS, Ga. — A few days ago, Georgia teammate and fellow freshman Tavarres King broke the news to A.J. Green: You're leading the SEC in receiving yards.

"At first, I didn't believe him," Green said. "He was like, 'Nah, I'm serious.' I was like, 'Really?' "

Really.

Heading into just the eighth game of his college career — Saturday's showdown at LSU — Green is putting up numbers that require double takes.

Not to mention double coverage.

The freshman flanker from Summerville, S.C., leads the SEC in receiving yards with 573 yards, in receiving yards per game with 81.9 and in catches with 36. If he maintains his pace through the rest of the regular season and a bowl, he will handily break Georgia's single-season receiving yardage record of 1,004, set by Terrence Edwards — then a senior — in 2002.

And Green is doing all of this while not always knowing exactly what he is doing.

He admits to feeling very much like a freshman "in the film room sometimes when I don't know a play or something." He admits to not having "all of the routes down pat as well as I want."

"Oh yeah, he's still thinking — you know, coming to that line and making sure he's got the right split and maybe looking to a fellow receiver," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "Or even as far as, 'Am I on the line or off the line?' You'll see him look inside there and then look back at the official to make sure he's where he should be.

"Just the little things like that, he's working on."

Still, the 6-foot-4 Green has caught six or more passes in each of Georgia's past four games, including eight for 159 yards against Arizona State on Sept. 20 and seven for 132 against Vanderbilt last week. He considers a diving catch against South Carolina his best play and a wide-open drop of what should have been a touchdown against Tennessee his worst.

It all adds up to un-freshman-like numbers.

Consider this: With five regular-season games, possibly an SEC championship game and a bowl remaining for the Bulldogs, Green already has more receiving yards than any Georgia player had in the entire 2005 or 2006 seasons.

"A.J. Green is amazing. I'm completely blown away, I must say," said Georgia kicker Blair Walsh, also a freshman. "He looks like he's a fifth-year senior."

"He's playing like a veteran," said fullback Brannan Southerland, a senior. "You want all freshmen to play like veterans, but it's rare."

Said Richt: "To be leading the league, I think it probably is [a surprise]. But I was hoping he'd make an impact on the team, just from watching his high school film and then hearing the veterans talk about him during the summer. Everything was pointing toward a guy you needed to throw out there and let him see what he could do."

Georgia surely will see what he can do Saturday against LSU. The Tigers rank ninth in the SEC in pass defense, suggesting Green might have opportunities deep.

Asked what he's heard about playing in Tiger Stadium, Green said: "Crazy fans."

Quick study.

Green said he expected to "come in and have an OK season" as a freshman, but his wildest dreams didn't include leading the SEC in receiving — especially while still learning the plays, the routes, the defenses.

He insists he might not be playing at all if not for the guidance he's gotten from the team's more experienced receivers.

"A lot of people say: 'You make it look easy,' " Green said. "My mom was watching one game, and she said the announcer was saying I'm like a man among boys.

"But I don't think it's as easy out there as people say I make it look."

Tim Tucker writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.