Old high school buddies set to shine

by Murray Poole

“Seven come Eleven,” familiar words to
gamblers when they roll the dice.

But in the case of two of the Georgia
Bulldogs’ brightest stars, the No. 11 came first
and the No. 7 followed.

Aaron Murray was already one of the nation’s
top prep quarterbacks at Tampa’s Plant
High School before Orson Charles, one of the
country’s leading tight end prospects, witnessed
Murray in a seven-on-seven competition
prior to Charles’ senior season at
Riverview High. Observing Murray’s obvious
strong passing arm, outstanding footwork
and his work ethic in general, Charles just
began thinking how great it would be to be on
the end of Murray’s passes in his upcoming
senior season.

Thus, No. 7, Orson Charles, followed
No. 11, Aaron Murray to Plant High School
and the rest, as they say, is documented history.

The two quickly became one of the top
prep passing tandems in America while leading
Plant to the 2008 Class AAAA state championship.
Overcoming a broken leg suffered
early in the season, Murray passed for 344
yards and three touchdowns in the state title
game to finish the season with 1,927 yards
and 33 touchdowns. That, after Murray threw
for an incredible 4,013 yards and 51 touchdowns
in his junior year at Plant, while also
rushing for 932 yards and 12 touchdowns.

And one of the biggest reasons Murray
had such phenomenal success throwing the
ball all over the lot was Charles, who lived up
to his billing as the top tight end in Florida by
catching 75 passes for 1,440 yards and 21
touchdowns. Needless to say, Murray and
Charles were honored on most of the high
school All-America teams.

And, then, their high school careers
stamped solidly in the record books, No. 7
would follow No. 11 once again. After Murray
signed, as expected, with Georgia on National
Signing Day in 2009, Charles strung his
decision out a little but also inked his scholarship
with the Bulldogs a month later, on
March 6.

“I definitely made that move because of
him,” Charles said of his decision to join his
former teammate in Athens. “In the end,
Aaron said he just wanted me to go where I
wanted to go. He said, ‘I’d love for you to
come to Georgia, but this is your life. You can’t
have any regrets.’”

One thing’s for sure, as Mark Richt’s Bulldogs
zero in on their 2011 season opener
against top-10 ranked Boise State in the Georgia
Dome, the entire Bulldawg Nation doesn’t
have any regrets over Murray and Charles
being in the same football uniform for a fourth
straight year. While Murray underwent a redshirt
year in his first season at Georgia in ’09,
the 6-3, 241-pound Charles earned both
freshman All-America and freshman All-SEC
honors while catching 23 passes for 374 yards
and three touchdowns.

Then came the 2010 campaign when
the 6-1, 211-pound Murray took control of
the Bulldog offense and simply had a dazzling
season as a redshirt freshman, passing for
3,049 yards and 24 touchdowns (tying for
2nd best in school history) while throwing
only eight interceptions. And reunited with
his old buddy back on the playing field,
Charles enjoyed a sophomore season that saw
him snare 26 passes for 422 yards and a pair
of scores.

Now, as the polished Murray embarks
on his redshirt sophomore season and
Charles enters his junior campaign, both have
been picked for preseason All-SEC first team
honors as well as being in the running for a
slew of coveted national awards at their respective
positions.

And with Richt and offensive coordinator
Mike Bobo both talking about Charles
being a much bigger receiving target for Murray
this season – especially with All-America
A.J. Green having migrated on to the Cincinnati
Bengals – Georgia fans can only rub their
hands in anticipation with the thought of the
Murray-to-Charles duo once again becoming
the deadly pass-catch combo they were in
high school.

Murray, himself, can’t wait for this to
happen. He, of all people, knows the damage
an Orson Charles can inflict on an opposing
team’s secondary.

“Orson is a tremendous talent,” said
Murray. “I don’t think there’s a linebacker as
big as him in the SEC – I know that there’s
not one as fast as him so the way he can be
used in our offense is a blessing to me, I would
say. He’s worked hard this off season. I know
he’s ready to go. I know his knowledge of the
playbook after two seasons has grown
tremendously and I think the coaches trust
him now a lot more to use him in a lot of different
situations, in a lot of different ways, and
I think that’s only going to increase in the fall,
the number of times the ball is going to be put
in his hands,” said Murray. “I feel comfortable
reading him, understanding when he’s going
to make a certain break or if he’s going to
break a certain route high or if he’s going to
bring it downhill, stop in a zone. We’ve
worked extremely hard since we were at Plant
until now and that goes with all the guys. All
the guys have been working hard this offseason,
understanding what needs to be done
with certain routes and timing with me and as
a whole offensive unit, I think we’ll be great. I
know the camaraderie on this team right now
is great.

“I’m going to be looking for Orson all
year, just the way he’s been able to get open
and create mismatches with defenders,” Murray
said. “I think he’s definitely going to have
a tremendous year. My goal is to get him into
the 50s (total catches) this year. I think he definitely
has the talent to do that.”

Murray added that he wants Charles to
set a new Georgia record for catches by a tight
end this season.

Shannon Brown holds the current
record with 49 in 1993.

Charles also realizes how fortunate he is
to still be catching passes from the deadly accurate
(61 percent completion rate in 2010)
Murray.

“That’s definitely a blessing,” Charles said.
“I played in my state game with Aaron, I
played in my (U.S.) Army game with him, I
played high school ball with Aaron and my
college games with him so I don’t know many
people out there that can say that. So just as
Aaron knows what I’m doing, I know what
he’s doing and all that comes with hard work.
After practice, we work on stuff we missed in
practice so, like I say, all that comes with hard
work.”

It’s also a blessing to Mike Bobo to have
these two guys lining up in his starting offense.
“Obviously, there’s a connection between
those two,” Bobo said.” They’re on the same
page on certain routes that will help. Orson
has done a great job of making plays for us
and will continue to make them and we’ve
got some things in the offense this year, we’re
going to try to get the ball to him more.”
And says Bulldogs tight end coach John
Lilly: “I think it even goes beyond that (the
two’s long-time connection). Both are experienced
a little bit more at this level so certainly
they’re experienced a little bit more in our offense.
You’d like to think that would mean
something and would help their unspoken
communication, or whatever you want to call
it, be a little bit better.”

Lilly isn’t about to make a prediction of
Charles catching something like 50 passes this
season but at the same time he says there
should be plenty of opportunities for his talented
tight end as the year unfolds.

“You never know how things are going
to play out,” said Lilly. “We’ve got some very
talented wide receivers, I think our backs are
catching the ball really well also but certainly,
there are going to be opportunities in the
passing game at the University of Georgia for
the tight ends. That’s probably the most natural
position to try to create mismatches with
because you can kind of hopefully keep certain
defensive personnel in the game and do
things with that. But I guess it remains to be
seen (on Charles getting the ball a great deal
more).”

So, for Georgia fans, they’re hoping
“Seven come Eleven” will roll up big on the
Southeastern Conference playing fields in this
new football season and help pace the Bulldogs
back to the Georgia Dome a second time
this autumn. Uh, make that “11-to-7.”

Tagged: murray poole, uga athletics, georgia football, uga football, aaron murray, orson charles, riverview high school