Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell has not played since the first half of the Bulldogs week-three win over Arkansas State.
Turf toe has held Campbell out from game action, but the sophomore corner has been practicing in a limited capacity the past two weeks.
All signs pointed toward Campbell playing vs Florida last Saturday, however, even though he warmed up with the team and was suited up all game, the coaching staff held him out of action.
“Tyson warmed up, felt pretty good, felt he could go if he was needed to,” Smart said on Monday. “He did not feel 100 percent. We didn’t feel like there was an opportunity to play him.”
He had a strong few days in practice last week before suffering a setback while training inside.
“He practiced last week, he went Tuesday and Wednesday the whole practice,” Smart said.
In Campbell’s absence, JUCO transfer D.J. Daniel has taken over the starting role across from Eric Stokes and has played well.
“D.J.’s been doing a great job all year just coming to practice and working hard and it pays off on Saturdays,” said senior linebacker Tae Crowder. “He just comes to practice and works at it. He’s got great technique. He does a great job competing with our receivers.”
The Florida game kicked off a November that includes matchups against Missouri, Auburn, Texas A&M and Georgia Tech, plus a possible matchup vs Alabama or LSU the first weekend in December – where Georgia would need as much secondary help as it can get.
There’s no doubt that Smart would love to get his starting cornerback back in action as soon as possible but understands that bringing him back to early could be the worst possible decision for Campbell and the Georgia defense.
“He’ll continue to work this week, (and) if he has a good week of practice and he feels 100 percent, then we’d sure like for him to play,” Smart said. “We have a lot of roles that we can play guys as fast and talented as him, so we want to try to work him in in some way.”
Campbell started 11 of 14 games last season as a freshman and started each game in which he’s been active this year.
