SEC MEDIA DAYS- DAY 2: Green, Dawgs ready to open eyes

Hoover, Ala. — A.J.Green is hungry.

The wide receiver said his teammates are too.

They haven’t missed any All You Can Eat buffets, but they’ve missed championship games and the glory that comes with such success.

And this season, the Bulldogs want to taste plate after plate of what their SEC counterparts have tasted the last several season.

“I’m going to tell you, we’re hungry,” Green said in his Thursday morning news conference during day two of the SEC Media Days. “A lot of people, like I said, are counting us out … I believe that, like I said, we’re going to open a lot of eyes coming into September, going towards the end of the season.”

The 6-foot-5 junior is the premier name on a Georgia offense that is returning 10 starters.

The 11th man, Georgia’s redshirt freshman quarterback, has yet to take a game snap for the Bulldogs. He remains untested and has no game experience. He is the second youngest player on the Georgia offense, leading a group of veterans into what some call a make-or-break season for head coach Mark Richt.

But it seems as though Aaron Murray has won over his teammates as well as Richt. Green has seen his quarterback put in the hours a starter should put in from the beginning when Murray arrived in Athens more than a year ago.

“From day one, I saw it in Aaron,” Green said. “He was preparing like he was the starter. Whenever that time was approaching, he was going to have the best opportunity to compete, put us in the place to win a lot of games.”

Murray has stayed in contact with his teammates this summer, pushing Green to play their version of catch outside of practice to become more acquainted with one another on the gridiron.

“He always texts me, ‘Come out and let’s throw,’ get that chemistry down, work on some routes that I have trouble running or he has throwing,” Green said.

Though Green is aware of his quarterback’s youth, the two-time All-SEC receiver still refers to Murray as “a leader” and he looks up to his leader “the way he carries his-self on and off the field.”

Murray enters his second season in Richt’s system after completing two springs with the squad as an early enrollee. He has logged hours upon hours waste-deep in the offense’s playbook and knows what to do in any given situation, according to Richt.

“You can get him in the meeting room, get him on the board, ask him anything. He’ll tell you the answer — get it right,” Richt said. “And that could be exciting as a coach.”

But Richt realizes the difference between memorizing and reciting the entire playbook and actually executing on the field each and every Saturday. That will come in time for the Tampa, Fla., native, Richt said.

“We got to be careful … not to get enamored with (Murray’s knowledge of the playbook) and expect him to be able to answer the question quite so well as he’s on the field getting chased by a bunch of 300-pound defensive linemen,” Richt said. “He’s got to live the experience of being that quarterback.”

Despite Green calling him a leader and Richt acknowledging his extensive familiarity with the Georgia playbook, Murray is a rookie in arguably the toughest conference in college football.

In order for the Bulldogs to feed themselves, Murray cannot “be a hero.” And since Georgia is returning numerous veterans for the 2010 season, the wins and loses hinge on Murray’s ability to utilize the weapons around him.

“We have to manage him. We have to help him understand that he does have a very strong core of people around him and he does not have to make a spectacular play every time the ball is snapped,” Richt said. “He needs to do his job. He needs to put the ball on the money.”

With a strong tandem of running backs in Wayshuan Ealey and Caleb King, returning right end Orson Charles and Green at flanker, Murray has options and teammates to rely on behind his experienced offensive line.

“I believe I can instill that confidence level that he needs to throw the ball and just to know that he has that primary receiver out there,” Green said. “Whenever he’s in trouble, he can just throw it. It don’t have to be a great ball. It can be whatever, and I can make a play on it.”

Murray’s worth ethic has been on display in the locker room since he stepped into the spotlight of being the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs. Richt said the squad has taken notice and wants to silence the hunger pains.

“They respect this kid because he prepares, because he puts the team first, because he has talent,” Richt said. “They know by virtue of the fact that he is the quarterback, he’s in the leadership position, and he has to succeed.”