College football: Georgia routs Louisiana-Lafayette

ATHENS, Ga. — For a few hours on Saturday afternoon, all that was wrong with the Georgia football team last year seemed solved.

The quarterback was stellar. The defense was flying around and, with the exception of one play, perfect. And with everyone else performing just as well, Georgia rolled past overmatched Louisiana-Lafayette, 55-7.

It was enough to forget, for at least three hours, that the one thing Georgia thought it could depend had suddenly become a very sticky situation.

A.J. Green, the team's best player and an All-American candidate, was forced to sit out the game in a decision announced two hours before kickoff. The junior receiver has been linked to an NCAA probe of agents, but for the past month Green and head coach Mark Richt had expressed confidence that Green wouldn't miss a game.

The team released a statement saying that Green was being held out "pursuant to UGA Athletic Association policy and pending a ruling from the NCAA clarifying his status."

After the game, Richt declined to elaborate.

"I'm just gonna do what I was told," Richt said. "And that was just don't make any comment on the A.J. Green situation. So in any way shape or form, I'm just gonna say no comment."

University of Georgia president Michael Adams said before Saturday's game that he expected a ruling on the A.J. Green situation "pretty soon" and that he doesn't have any "extraordinary concern" over it.

Adams also declined to answer whether the situation with Green was tied to an issue separate from the agent probe that ensnared players at Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina.

"Our lawyers are handling it. And that's appropriate," Adams said. "And I'd be surprised if we didn't hear something pretty soon."

But asked if he thought the situation was serious, Adams wasn't sure.

"What I might think and what the NCAA might think might be two different things," Adams said. "I don't think it does us any good to speculate until it's over with."

Before the game, Green hung out in a jersey and shorts with three other key players who were suspended for the game: Washaun Ealey (the team's leading rusher last year), Tavarres King (the projected No. 2 receiver) and Alec Ogletree (a safety and the team's top true freshman.)

Those three are all expected back next week, according to Richt.

But without any of the four, Georgia still managed a wire-to-wire rout.

The defense, the team's albatross the past few seasons, nearly had a shutout. Lousiana-Lafayette only had five first downs, one by penalty, and 128 yards. Sixty of those came on one play, a touchdown pass late in the first half that was perhaps the defense's only breakdown. There were three sacks and three interceptions, one returned for a touchdown by Jakar Hamilton also a new player .