FOOTBALL
Coach Mark Richt and several football players met with the media Tuesday during the Dawg’s weekly press luncheon. They offered the following comments:
On his role in playcalling:
What I do, and again I think it’s the way to do it right now, I will watch film separate from the staff because if you sit in there with the staff you are all kind of thinking on the same line sometimes. One guy might want to look at one thing and another guy might want to look at another thing. I have the ability to look at film without having to put all the nuts and bolts together of the run checks and the protections. I can just basically be a resource for Mike (Bobo) for ideas. If it’s base or certain personnel groups or field positions or down-and-distance tendencies, if there is something I see that I like I will jot it down and hand to him and say if you like it, use it and if you don’t, don’t. I understand being in his position.
There are always good ideas but you have to decide how many of these ideas do we use in this game plan that we can execute properly. I don’t want to get him off of the train of thought that he has too. I’ve had times when coach (Bobby) Bowden, especially game day, would want to insert this or that idea. It was difficult sometimes to keep my focus on where I was going. We laugh about it now and we’d laugh about it on Sunday, but there were a couple of times I went into the office and said, Coach, if you would like to take this thing back over I’ve got no problem or if you want this series or that series its fine with me. If we are going to have some of these suggestions, let’s at least get them in between series. He would always say, I wasn’t trying to mess you up, buddy. I can understand where Mike is in the heat of the game, he’s in the heat of the battle. If I do make a game suggestion, I try to make it in between series.
There are many times where we are crossing the 50 and I’m saying, Mike you have four downs to get this thing or you have three downs to get this thing. He needs to know on third down if he has two plays to get this thing or one. A lot of things like that happen even to decide should we try to move the ball down the field on a two-minute drill before the half or should we just let the clock run or whatever it may be. I’m heavily involved in those types of things. I might say if its fourth and less than a yard we are going, if it’s more than a yard we are punting, so I have to alert those guys too. Those are more of the decisions that Im making game day.
On the Dawg’s defense:
I think when we get people in the third and long situations, the possession down, we need to nail it more often. We need to get off the field when we get them there. There are a lot of things we have to improve on all the way across the board with the entire football team. We’ve gotten ourselves in that position on enough occasions where if we could just finish it I think the outcome of a couple of our games would have been different too.
Safety Bryan Evans
On feelings after the loss on Saturday:
Kind of struck. We are 3-3 now, so we are 500. Last time I remember being 500, was in 06 when we went 4-0 then we lost four games straight. We had a pretty strong finish so that is just something that we have to get turned around.
Comparing the 06 season to this season:
In 06 it was worse than this. We lost 4 straight including losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky. We just have to go out and win against Vanderbilt and try to get this win streak going.
On contributions that helped turn around the 06 season:
Just never giving up. There were a couple of days where you felt like throwing in the towel, but it’s just not our nature to give up so anytime that we can go out and try to get a win and get our win streak up that’s what we are going to do.
On not being a front runner in the SEC East:
It’s very strange. This loss really set us back a lot. The way the SEC is played it can change at any minute, so you can never say it’s not going to happen. Right now, it just feels very weird.
Linebacker Rennie Curran
On feelings after the loss in Knoxville:
Everybody is just ready to get back to work. We all realize what we need to do to get better. Getting in the film room more and doing everything that it takes. We realize as players that our time is limited being college students. At the same time, we have worked so hard this season, and in the off-season, so we can’t just let that go for nothing. We just have to continue to fight hard and bounce back, and that is what everybody is doing. We are staying optimistic, not getting down and realize that there are going to be failures, but we just have to continue to fight hard.
On playing smarter and having less mental errors as a defense:
We all want to win, we are all fighting hard and playing our hearts out every single game, but at the same time we have to focus on playing smarter and that starts with our preparation. Coach Martinez could coach his heart out, but it’s up to us to stay in the film room for an extra 30 minutes or whatever it may take to learn those formations and those tendencies that will help us on the field when the offense comes out and does something that you haven’t seen before. That is only going to come with the time you put in as a player and being a student of the game.