HOOVER, Ala.--Welcome to Day 2 of SEC Media Days. Georgia is up today along with Arkansas, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

We’ll be focused, of course, on the Bulldogs.

Coach Mark Richt will be joined by receiver A.J. Green, punter Drew Butler and fullback Shuan Chapas.

The local beat writers and some national scribes will meet with Richt shortly. The NCAA inquiry at Georgia and the issue of improper contacts between agents and players in college football are sure to come up.

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Richt wouldn't concede that the NCAA inquiry is bad news for Georgia.

"I don’t know if it is or not quite frankly," he said. "I don’t necessarily think it is bad news."

He added: "I’m sure they’re gathering information, but we’ll see what they gather."

Asked whether the NCAA wanted to talk to one or more Georgia players, Richt said
"I don’t know at all. I’m actually asked to not make any comment about it."

We’re less than four weeks away now from the first sign of college football around these parts: SEC Media Days.

Usually that means Georgia football coach Mark Richt brings a couple of seniors with him for the trip to Hoover, Ala.

Not this year. Richt is going in a different direction.

Juniors A.J. Green and Drew Butler and senior fullback Shaun Chapas will represent the Bulldogs on their day in suburban Birmingham on July 22, according to associate athletic director Claude Felton.

Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno, Rennie Curran and Thomas Davis never got their Media Days’ turn. They were gone to the NFL before their senior seasons (Moreno never made it to his junior season).

The last Georgia junior to go to Hoover was All-American end David Pollack, who went both in 2003 and 2004.

One reason Green and Butler are going is that they are consensus preseason All-Americans, something even Stafford and Moreno couldn’t say.

Trey Thompkins won’t be part of Thursday night’s NBA draft after sticking around Georgia for another season.

Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox is eyeing big men on the recruiting trail to replace Thompkins—the Bulldogs’ unanimous All-SEC selection--and rising seniors Jeremy Price and Chris Barnes after next season.

“Trey likely, if he has a good year, might be gone,” Fox said earlier this month. “I think for right now we have two seniors up front. We’re going to continue to add a couple of more big frontline players. That’s got to be an issue for us. The one thing we’re probably comfortable is that we have three point guards on our team that are all still going to be back the following year. We need to get some wings and some shooting just like everybody to add some pieces to the puzzle.”

A.J. Green will be getting tons of attention in the months to come.

Like this. The Georgia junior wide receiver is on the cover of The Sporting News preseason college football magazine. He shares the cover with Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt in one of 17 regional editions.

In case you’re wondering, Georgia quarterback Joe Cox and South Carolina's Stephen Garcia were cover boys last year.

Green has been rated as a top 10 pick for next year’s NFL draft by most projections.

The National Football Post rates Green as the No. 2 junior wideout behind Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd.

Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox has noticed a significant change already this offseason.

“One year into the job, I walk into the locker room and I see some faces that believe we’re going to win,” Fox said.

Others are taking notice, too.

ESPN's Andy Katz put Georgia at No. 25 in his Preseason Top 25,which he updated after the NCAA’s deadline for withdrawing from the NBA draft passed. Georgia sophomores Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie considered entering the draft but chose to return to the Bulldogs.

Here’s what Katz writes about the Bulldogs entering year two of Fox:

There’s no debate among the NFL draft gurus looking ahead to 2011: Georgia wide receiver A.J. Green is a sure-fire first-round pick.

Here’s a roundup of some early projections for Green:
Russ Lande of The Sporting News: No. 2 overall pick.
Former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah of MoveTheSticks.com: No. 3.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper: No. 4.
SI.com’s Andrew Perloff: No. 5.
SI.com’s Tony Pauline: No. 9.
CBS Sports.com’s Pete Prisco: No. 16

If Green, entering his junior season, does indeed go in the first round, he would be the first Georgia receiver drafted in the first round in nearly 30 years—since New Orleans drafted Lindsay Scott with the 13th overall pick in 1982.

Scott is the only first-round receiver that Georgia has produced since the first common draft n 1967.

Mohamed Massaquoi in 2009 and Reggie Brown in 2005 were second-round draft picks and Hines Ward in 1998 went in the third round.

Defensive end Montez Robinson’s future with the football program remains to be determined after his arrest earlier this month on battery and criminal damage charges for two separate incidents involving a female student.

Robinson is suspended indefinitely.

“We’re working on that decision, I guess is the best we can say,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said after practice Sunday. “I’ll just leave it at that.”

Robinson went through foster care growing up and Richt acknowledged it’s a balancing act to hand out appropriate discipline and also be mindful of wanting to keep the freshman in a stable environment. “It will be a tough decision is the best I can tell you,” Richt said.

Other items

Georgia’s top receiver A.J. Green may not be able to play Saturday against Georgia Tech because he’s still not recovering from an injured left shoulder, coach Mark Richt said today.

“Right now, he’s still working on the strength and getting the soreness out,” Richt said. “He doesn’t have full range of motion right now. Sometimes those things can change.”

Richt said a decision on Green’s status might not be determined until before gametime.

“We may know sooner that he’s out if he can’t do anything at all, if he couldn’t have a full range of motion and run full speed and feel comfortable and confident by Thursday,” Richt said.

Green, who leads the Bulldogs with 47 catches and 751 receiving yards, sprained a joint in the shoulder in the first half of the Bulldogs win against Auburn and missed Saturday’s loss to Kentucky.

A quick update on the availability of receiver A.J. Green (shoulder) and safety Bacarri Rambo (concussion) for Saturday's game at No. 7 Georgia Tech.

Here's what coach Mark Richt said this evening:

"They’re getting there. I’d say we’re pretty hopeful on both of them. I wouldn’t say either one of them are a slam dunk right now, but hopefully by Tuesday, we’ll have a really good feel.”

Both were injured in the win against Auburn on Nov. 14

A.J. Green’s shoulder injury will keep him off the field Saturday against Kentucky, but won’t necessarily knock him out of his top spot among SEC receivers at the end of the season.

The sophomore currently leads the SEC in catches per game and receiving yards per game.

Even if his injured left shoulder forces him to also miss next week’s game against Georgia Tech, Green can still end up the SEC leader in both categories if he returns for a bowl game.

To qualify for NCAA and SEC statistics, a player must appear in 75 percent of his team’s games. Green would play in 10 of 13, 77 percent, if he’s back for the bowl game.

Georgia hasn’t had a player lead the SEC in receiving (based on receptions per game) since Brice Hunter in 1993-94. Green led the league last year in receiving yards per game.

Green is averaging 5.2 catches and 83.4 yards per game this year. Ole Miss’ Shay Hodge is right behind, averaging 5.0 and 81.0.