Georgia senior starting defensive tackle Jeff Owens will miss the remainder of the season due a to knee injury sustained in Saturday’s win over Georgia Southern, according to Bulldog head coach Mark Richt.

Richt announced the news Sunday evening on his weekly teleconference with the media. Owens, a 6-3, 298-pound native of Sunrise, Fla., went down late in the first quarter against the Eagles. He is scheduled to have surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament on Tuesday, Sept. 9. Richt said Owens is staying positive and aims to return in 2009. Owens played as a true freshman in 2005 and 2008 becomes a redshirt season for him. Owens started 26 games in his Bulldog career and his streak of 15 straight will end this Saturday.

“Corvey (Irvin) and Geno (Atkins) would be our top two now,” said Richt when asked about how the defensive line shapes up without Owens. “Corvey played the most snaps against Georgia Southern and had a very productive game. Geno was productive as well. After that, we have Kade (Weston) although he won’t be ready this week, but we hope he’ll be back for South Carolina. Brandon Wood played well, Ricardo (Ingram) and DeAngelo (Tyson) got some time Saturday, and we’ll have five guys ready. I don’t think we’ll play A.J. (Harmon) right now knowing Kade is not far away.”

Owens went down with a right knee injury early in the first quarter of Saturday’s game with Georgia Southern. Owens left the Georgia locker room on crutches and sporting a knee brace that started at mid-thigh and ended midway down his lower leg.

Owens, a leader on the Bulldog defense, had 23 tackles last season and considered foregoing his senior season to enter the NFL draft.

The loss of Owens, for however long it is, coupled with Kade Weston’s knee injury will make the defensive line, and particularly the tackle position, a point of concern for the Bulldogs.

“We already played DeAngelo Tyson and we were going to play DeAngelo anyway. We’ve got Corvey Irvin, and we’ve got Geno Atkins. Kade (Weston) had a little scope on his knee, and probably, we hope, will be back for South Carolina,” Richt said.

“But without him we’ve got Brandon Wood, we’ve got Ricardo Crawford, DeAngelo Tyson. And hopefully that’s enough to get us to the point where Kade returns and that’ll get us six back in the lineup.”

Richt said he has a close relationship with Owens, and had an optimistic attitude about the prospect of him being out for the year.

“I saw him and I said, ‘The best part about this is if you don’t come back this season we’ll to hang out for another year, and he smiled a little.’”

- Georgia Sports Communications contributed to this report