FOOTBALL
Head coach Mark Richt and a delegation of football players met with the media during the Dawg’s weekly press luncheon on Tuesday. They offered the following comments:
Coach Mark Richt:
On Tennessees new staff:
Anytime there is a new staff anywhere, the dynamic changes. Everybody has their own style of recruiting. You kind of get a pretty good feel of what each coach is like or what their program is like. Anytime a coach comes in new, one of the greatest things that he does have is that he is new and he can say this is our plan and this is a vision of what we want to do, and that can sell. Tennessee, Auburn, even when coach (Houston) Nutt went to Ole Miss last year, when those guys come in new they definitely create a buzz.
On Georgia tackling in practice:
We are still live tackling in practice today. Tuesday is the only day we will take guys to the ground, and well do it again today.
On the art of tackling:
I think people probably tackle less in practice than they did 20 years ago. It’s hard to simulate tackling without tackling, thats for certain and thats why we spend time tackling in space. When I say space, some of our perimeter drills without the linemen, and well definitely tackle our inside running game. We used to tackle a lot in 11-on-11 situations, but we do less of that. There is an art of thudding. If you thud properly, you will do everything in a fundamental tackle other than toss the guy to the ground. If you thud properly, you can still keep your fundamentals of tackling. It’s safer, but if you thud properly, you must move your feet, you must get in front of the man and you must bend your knees. If you are tackling, you might can lay out and grab a guy with your hand and rip him to the ground. In a thud situation were never looking to reach out and snatch a guy. The goal is to get in position to strike him. I say tackling has gotten worse, but I don’t know if it has or not. I think the numbers are an issue. When you start grabbing and throwing guys to the ground, somebody is going to get leg-whipped or something is going to happen where you cost a guy a week, month or season.
On Rantavious Wooten:
Rantavious is a very high-energy young man. He has great body control, good speed and good hands. He seems to play extremely well under pressure. The week before he had two third down catches, two key grabs. Both of them were not easy plays by any stretch. He is getting better on a daily basis. He is a sharp kid and doesnt have trouble learning what to do any more than a normal freshman I guess. He is doing a good job.
Fullback Shaun Chapas
On the offensive struggles:
Well it is encouraging to know that although we still have a lot to improve on, if we put it all together I think we will have something pretty special. So it is something we strive to do and we are going to try and put everything together.
On playing with young guys and if their inexperience is hurting the team:
That might have something to do with it, but the young guys aren’t the only ones messing up though so you can’t necessarily say that. But experience is definitely huge and helps out a lot when it comes to making mistakes.
On how close the team is to playing a complete game:
I have full confidence in our ability to do that. If we just all go out and played focused and play hard like we know we can then we can do it.