MOULTRIE – On Aug. 1, 2011, the first day of football camp for the Colquitt County High football team, three projected starters went down with what were feared to be significant injuries.

Coach Rush Propst said at the time that losing the players made it the worst first day of practice he could remember in his long coaching career.

Bryce Giddens and Preston Mobley, returning starters on the offensive line from the 2010 team that reached the state championship game, were able to rehab their injuries, get back in the starting lineup and help lead the Packers to a berth in the state semifinals.

Both went on to play briefly at the next level, Giddens at Arkansas State and Mobley at Georgia.

The third Packer helped from the practice field that day was inside linebacker Ridge Underwood, and his injury was the worst suffered by the three. It was his left knee, an ACL, an injury that virtually wiped out his senior season.

He did briefly trot onto the field to line up in the victory formation near the end of the Packers’ playoff victory over East Coweta, and he was named as one of the team’s permanent captains.

Underwood had already returned from back problems and a broken wrist while at Colquitt County, but the knee injury appeared to dash his chance to play college football.

The stability of his knee had improved enough to enable him to play doubles on Colquitt County’s tennis team that spring, and after accepting his diploma as an honor graduate, he went on to study at Georgia Regents University, now Augusta State.

But through the six months of rehab, his knee got stronger. So did the dream of resurrecting his career.

During his second year in Augusta, he contacted Colquitt County assistant coach Zach Grage to get a workout that would prepare him for a college tryout. And he wanted to try out at the University of Georgia.

In the spring of 2014, with the support of his family, he did just that and was one of nine former high school players seeking to buck the long odds and walk on at a Southeastern Conference football team.

He was one of seven who was selected.

The next year, the 6-foot-2, 243-pound inside linebacker was named the winner of the Outstanding Scout Team Player award, and before Georgia’s game against Georgia Tech on Nov. 22, Underwood was among the 20 Bulldog seniors football players honored at Sanford Stadium.

Although he has been a scout team player since being at Georgia, he sounds as if he would trade nothing for the opportunity to be a Bulldog.

“I’ve got memories that will last a lifetime,” he said.

Underwood says he and his brother Dillon, also a former Packer linebacker, moved with their family to Moultrie from Locust Grove when he was in fourth grade. He began playing football as a youngster and got some playing time as a sophomore and as a junior on the state runner-up team. He credits a number of his Colquitt County coaches, including Propst, Shawn Sutton, Kevin Giddens and especially linebackers coach Darius Dawson with development as a player.

“He was a guy who knew how to motivate you,” Underwood says of Dawson.

And while his senior season was three years before the Packers went on their 30-game winning streak and won two straight state championships, he believes what his teams did helped pave the way for the success of the 2014 and 2015 state champions.

“We laid the groundwork,” he says, adding that he remembers watching such players as Chase Parrish and Kiel Pollard perform as eighth-graders.

“I’m definitely proud of what all those guys did,” he said.

And proud of what he has accomplished since he has been at Georgia, both on the practice field and in the classroom. His role on the scout team was to help the team prepare for its next opponent, and it was not something he took lightly.

“It was very rewarding,” he says. “We win as a team, and I am part of the process. I just do whatever I can to help get us ready to play on Saturday.”

Underwood’s senior season has been an up-and-down one under first-year coach, and former Bulldog defensive back, Kirby Smart. The Bulldogs will take a 7-5 record into their Dec. 30 Liberty Bowl game against TCU in Memphis, Tenn.

Underwood calls Smart “very enthusiastic, very knowledgeable.”

“And it’s clear he loves Georgia.”

As he did with all seniors before their final home appearance, Smart congratulated Underwood and his parents, Paula and Brannen Underwood, who still live in Colquitt County. Underwood called Senior Day “a surreal experience,” but one he enjoyed sharing with his parents.

“They went to a lot of the games,” he said. “I know it meant a lot to them too.”

The Underwood family will travel to Athens for another significant event this week. Ridge will graduate on Friday with a degree in Mass Media Arts.

He has some contacts in Atlanta and in New York City and hopes to be able to secure an internship, working in editing, pre-production and commercials.

“It’s an area I’ve been working in since middle school,” he says. “It’s something I’ve always enjoyed.”