Weekly Press Conference, Part 3

FOOTBALL

Head coach Mark Richt and several football players addressed the media during the Dawgs weekly press luncheon on Tuesday. They offered the following comments:

On Abry Jones

Abry is getting a lot of playing time as a true freshman. He has a lot of ability. He has a ways to go on his fundamentals. He has a ways to go on every little thing that you have to learn, but we feel like he is going to get better in a hurry, which he is. I mentioned the special teams kids that went leaps and bounds from week one to two, and Abry is moving very rapidly into a very fine player and I think the sky is the limit for him.

On Georgias pass rush

We pressured a lot. We had two sacks. We definitely flushed him. We flushed him out almost half the time, but he had enough space to come up in the pocket, here comes a wave of bodies and he gets through there. We might get a guy with one arm on him, but we couldnt get him down. But as he comes up in the pocket, now he has time, and he's able to find open receivers. There were times when we went up and underneath, and he did a good job of breaking containment. He was able to buy time that way also. We pressured him and made him move, but we didn't squeeze him like we should. The pocket just didn't collapse on him where he had nowhere to go. We have to get better in that regard. You can also cover better where he doesn't have as much time, but then on the other hand you can also bring blitzes that can either fool or outnumber their blocking scheme. We need to make sure we have a little bit of that too. I would have liked to have seen the big men inside squeeze it better than they did and make more plays than they did.

On Caleb King

The goal is to get him in there. We hope to get him in there Saturday.

On whether Nick Williams and Darius Dewberry will play this week

Nick has a chance this week. Dewberry, I would say no. Hopefully Nick will be ready; that will help. Darryl (Gamble) can play the sam, but he has so much work inside, either mike or will is where we would rather have him. Sometimes we will get safeties involved in covering (tight ends) too, but it would be nice to have all those guys healthy. Dewberry was playing extremely well, and Nick was another one of those young guys who was getting better everyday at practice, and you hate to slow down that progress.

On Quintin Banks

He's able to play; he's been given the OK to play, but he hasn't had a lot of practice reps. He hasn't done a lot of things full speed. I wouldn't say that he is 100 percent back to the best Quintin Banks can be. All those things together is the reason why.

On Joe Cox having a normal week of preparation

We were going to tell him to wear an eye patch to the media day and give you something else to talk about. Usually those stories don't break until Thursday, so I'm sure something will happen by Thursday that we could talk about. I think he's doing good. We are very optimistic about Joe. He's going to throw today. He's not going to throw tomorrow, just so everybody knows. Hell throw Thursday and well go play. I thought he threw the ball well. I think he threw close to 70 percent in this last game and made some really pretty throws.

On Joe Cox throwing on Tuesdays and Thursdays in practice

Everybody kind of understands thats the way it is. Nobody really gets too bent out of shape. It's always nice to get your second team guy a lot of work. A lot of coaches won't do that, but we've always done a pretty good job of letting our second team and our third team get a little work, but it's even more so this year because of that situation. It's definitely helping Logan (Gray).

On A.J. Green

A.J. is special. He's a special player. You guys don't understand this kid in that how bad he just wants to do right and do great. In practice, if a ball hits his hands and he's not catching it, he is sick about it. He hates it. When he fumbled that first play, you saw in his eyes how miserable he felt. It means a lot to that kid. It's great to have him, because he can make plays when he is single-covered or double-covered. Just get it in the area and there is a very good chance he will come down with it.

On whether Marcus Washington will play at end or linebacker this week

I'm not sure where we feel like its most important. It's kind of a one-for-one trade. With the injury of (Rod) Battle and with (Justin) Houston coming back, we felt like we needed to have Washington at linebacker mostly because of the issues at linebacker. If Nick (Williams) comes back, I don't know if that is going to free up Darryl (Gamble) to go back in the middle and push him back to end. That may be the case. The good thing is he has so many reps at linebacker, when we throw him back there it wasnt a shock to his system. He handled it well.

On whether Reshad Jones has a reputation has a headhunter

I hope not. I hope that's not the case. I love the way he is playing. I love the energy he is playing with. I don't think he has tried to hurt anybody. As far as the sideline play recently I think he was trying to tackle the guy. You are running full speed, and reaching out and grabbing what you can. Going back to the other play at Oklahoma State, I think he did everything right. He did not leap at the guy. He did not hit with his helmet; he struck with his shoulder and arm. His aim point was his chest, and the player ducked down into it. Thats when the contact was made. I didn't say anything to Reshad other than keep playing hard and make sure everything is below the neck when you make contact.

On his relationship with Bobby Petrino when he was head coach of the Atlanta Falcons

I never got to know him at all. I think the first time I met him was at the first SEC meeting we were both at. I can't say that I spend a lot of time with any of the Atlanta Falcon head coaches. I did happen to run into coach (Mike) Smith once or twice. He was at our pro day, and I got to talk to him there. We've had a few phone conversations, because he planned a clinic for all the high school coaches in the state, and he invited all the collegiate staffs to come. He personally called every one of the head coaches. He reached out more so maybe than others, but I don't expect anybody to reach out. Everybody is busy and doing their job, and I respect that.