Harvey-Clemons suspension may be three more games

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Louisville introduced Todd Grantham as its new defensive coordinator Thursday, while one of Grantham's former players at Georgia was in a negative light again.

Bulldogs safety Josh Harvey-Clemons, who finished third on the team with 66 tackles this past season despite being suspended for the opener at Clemson and the bowl game against Nebraska, may miss the first three games of the 2014 season as well. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, citing sources, said the rising junior is serving a four-game suspension for a second positive marijuana test.

Harvey-Clemons missed the Clemson game after admitting last spring to campus police that he had been smoking marijuana, and the Gator Bowl would have served as the first in this four-game suspension. Georgia officials have not provided any comment.

There were reports last month that the bowl suspension was due to academics, and Richt did not provide details after the team arrived in Jacksonville.

"I'm only going to talk about the guys who are here," Richt said. "I'm not going to get into all that stuff."

The Bulldogs open the 2014 season against Clemson, South Carolina and Troy, and not having Harvey-Clemons would provide an immediate challenge for new defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt.

Pruitt began his first day on the recruiting trail Thursday and got a 2015 commitment from Rico McGraw from Ensworth High in Nashville, who is rated by Rivals.com as the nation's No. 13 safety. Pruitt also is having to complete a defensive staff that has lost secondary coach Scott Lakatos and inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti.

Olivadotti was announced Thursday as inside linebackers coach of the Washington Redskins, where he spent 10 seasons before getting hired at Georgia in 2010. Bulldogs defensive line coach Chris Wilson has been mentioned as a candidate for the same post at Southern Cal, but his locale for the 2014 season remained unknown as of Thursday night.

Grantham said the opportunity to work with new Louisville coach Bobby Petrino was too good to pass up but still was asked at his news conference why he made the move.

"Five years ago, I was with the Dallas Cowboys, and we had just come off the NFC East title and had won the first playoff game in 10 years," Grantham said. "I took a job at the University of Georgia, and people were kind of questioning why I did that. That was a chance to change an identity. We won two SEC East titles and kind of got a place back to where it was."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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