FOOTBALL
Coach Mark Richt and a delegation of football players met with the media Tuesday during the Dawgs’ weekly press luncheon. They offered the following comments:
Head Coach Mark Richt
On Georgia’s running backs…
“We have to get better. We missed some opportunities this last game maybe more than game one as far as hitting it in the right spot. We missed some good blocking a couple of times I thought, more than a couple of times actually. It wasn’t just one guy. I think all three of them really, there was probably a run or two that all of them had that could have gained some years. That very first play where Todd Gurley dropped the ball there was going to be space. There was going to be a good gain. If he would have done something to the safety who was in two-deep coverage he might have gone a long way. There were some inside runs that some of the guys missed where it was blocked a little better than they ran. We need to be more consistent. We are getting there. There are some young linemen and some young backs, so it’s little bit understandable. Like I told the staff, we won the game, it was a great victory, it was a good fourth quarter win for us, but we have a lot of room to improve and that’s a good thing. That’s our job as coaches to keep teaching and training and trying to get us to be consistent in what we do.”
On Georgia’s quick inside toss…
“It’s basically the old school power. It’s a power and we’ve handed it off over the years. Most everybody in the country still hands it off. LSU has been a team that they’ve tossed it. If the quarterback brings the ball back to the back, then he just hands the ball off and he might fake like he has it. When you toss it you can stop and help the tackle a little bit off of any kind of an edge. We haven’t perfected that part of it yet, but you can see the benefit of it on film when we watched LSU do it. That’s the first time I’ve seen anybody do it that way. I didn’t really understand why in the beginning. The other thing too is anytime you toss the ball a lot of times defensive players think it’s going outside, so you soften up your linebackers too when you toss it. They don’t come downhill quite as much.”
On Marlon Brown…
“Marlon had an exceptional camp. He’s in tremendous condition. He made plays just about every day in camp working up to the point where he pulled a hamstring. I think he’s an outstanding football player. He was always a very good player and had very good potential I guess you’d say, but he has worked hard. He’s made himself to be an outstanding player in my opinion. I think this last ballgame was an indication of some of the things he can do. Both touchdown catches were pretty outstanding. One showed his quickness and agility to turn back and catch the ball over he left shoulder. The ball was placed where we wanted it, and he adjusted the way we wanted him to. Not everybody can do it that well. The one he caught in traffic off to the left of (Aaron) Murray was a very strong catch in traffic. He took advantage of his height. He blocks well and he’s playing hard. He’s doing great.”
On whether Marlon Brown is injury prone…
“I don’t think he’s injury prone. I don’t think that term is fair. I think most everybody is unlucky when they get certain injuries.”
On whether he thought Marlon Brown was raw when he was recruited…
“I thought he was going to take a little time. He played in a league where he was a man among boys and you didn’t know what it was going to look like when he was with like athletes, similar athletes to himself. There’s a little bit of a learning curve. I think he had to do some things with his flexibility and agility to help him become more of a smooth route runner and just straight-ahead speed. He worked on all those things and I think he’s become a really outstanding player.”
On John Theus…
“That was his first experience in that kind of crowd noise. Obviously it got to him some. They also were stemming late and moving late. He jumped quite a few times along with our freshmen backs, so he has to get used to that kind of thing. Sometimes when it’s loud and you don’t have the verbal cadence of the quarterback that you can hear you don’t get off on the snap as fast. If you are late off the ball you are going to get beat. That’s what was happening to him. A veteran was working on a rookie, and he learned a lot.”
On Alexander Ogletree…
“Zander didn’t travel, but we only take so many fullbacks.”
On the possibility of having a long-range and short-range kicker…
“I would do that if I thought my short range guy didn’t have enough range, but I think Marshall has good range for long field goals. I think he’ll calm down and be fine. It’s not that hard to do. He’s a freshman too and that was his first experience being at an away game and a close game. It’s new for him, but it was impressive that 52-yarder. He really was kicking well in pregame warm-up and he felt like he could have made one from 60 in pregame going in that direction. We were within that range, and at the time we needed three on the board, so it was nice to see him make his field goals. The extra point that we did miss, we were fortunate to score on the two-point conversion that kind of erased the miss. I think he’ll be fine.”
Senior Wide Receiver Marlon Brown
On his big performance vs. Missouri…
“I was doing it for the fans and my teammates. It felt good. Every game is fun but that might be my favorite so far. Now it’s time to get past Saturday and focus on Tuesday. Every game is fun.”
On his confidence…
“I have confidence now after that game. It was a big game for me, and it was a close game, so I’m trying to build on it. It’s cool to do those things and make those plays in practice, but to do it in the game is a lot better.”
On the offense Saturday night…
“We just started clicking. We started passing the ball more, and had four receivers on the field at the same time. It’s kind of like ‘pick your poison.’”
Junior Quarterback Aaron Murray
On Marlon Brown…
“What you saw last game is what he’s capable of doing and what we know he can do. If he stays healthy, the sky is the limit for him. He’s a big receiver – 6-5, 230 – he’s a quarterback’s dream. He’s a guy who can go for the ball and create space, and he’s hard to tackle. If you get him 1-on-1 in space, it’s hard to bring him down.”
On the play of the receivers…
“I’ve been saying all along I think our best position is receivers, because they’re experienced and they have talent. They also have depth – you can rotate them in and out and create certain mismatches. When you can put four receivers out there, there aren’t many teams who can cover our guys at once.”
On the offense’s improvement as the game went on vs. Missouri…
“In the first half I thought it was things here and there, penalties, that were dropping us back. It’s hard to get a first down on 3rd and 8, 3rd and 9, 3rd and 10. We had some missed opportunities and when we started cutting back on those, it was easier to convert and we went from there.”