Tuesday Press Conference – Part 3

Football

Coach Mark Richt

On opponents third down conversions:

We concentrate quite a bit on that. We know third and long, especially, has been our Achilles heel. You fight so hard to get them in third and long. We’ve had a bunch of teams in third and long and we’ve had a bunch of teams get a first down. It’s just so frustrating. A lot of it has been some QB runs. You feel like you have the right call, you have everybody covered and they are right there to get him, and he breaks free.

He either runs across the line of scrimmage like the Colorado quarterback did at least two or three times in the first drive of the game, or breaks free and throws a touchdown pass like the quarterback did for Tennessee last week.

We did better in that third down area last week, but if you look at it statistically we’re worst in the league in that regard. Usually you win the majority of your third-and-longs and then when you go to third-and-medium you don’t win as many and third-and-short you win less because there are less yards to go.

Our third-and-medium has actually been outstanding compared to our third-and-long. We just have got to continue to get our guys in position to make the plays and get them to make it.

On Derek Owens:

Derek, of course, was the recipient of the fumble (against Tennessee), but Jordan Love did a great job of knocking the ball out; two freshmen making a play for us.

Our kickoff coverage team, you would have to say has been the most consistent and it’s certainly the highest rated group that we have - offense, defense, special teams. I think we are No. 1 in the league and top-10 in the country. We’ve done a great job of covering kicks and kicking kicks.

Blair Walsh has kicked the ball extremely well. Warren Belin of course heads that up and has done a great job of freeing him up to make the kicks he thinks he can make.

Then we get a turnover out of that thing. I think that was the longest return other than I think the very first kick of the season. It ended up in a turnover for us, so that was a good thing.

I’ll say this too, a lot of times people will call in and fans will ask the questions about ball security and whether or not a guy should have the ball in the outside arm or the inside arm. Their runner actually started out with the ball in his right hand and when he moved to his left, he was switching the ball over to his left arm and within a moment of him trying to make that change, that’s when the contact occurred and the ball came out.

I don’t mind if a kid just puts it in his dominant hand and just lives with it, because if you cut one way or the other way and all of a sudden you try to switch the ball from one to the other, in the process of doing that you tend to make it very vulnerable for a strip or the ball getting punched out.

#94 Nose Tackle DeAngelo Tyson

On addressing the team's third-down defense:

We do it every day in practice but you're not really getting a full-speed look that you really need for the other team. We do our best, and we do what we are supposed to during practice. You're not getting quite the look from the scout the team that you're going to get in the game, but they do a good job. We're just going to have to focus more on that this week.

#93 Defensive Tackle Abry Jones

On what Saturday night was like after experiencing a victory on Saturday afternoon:

Saturday night was just a relaxed feeling. There was no thinking back to the game about what could have gone better, about what I could have done better and what could have the team done better. It was just relaxed in just saying we are back on track, we won one. I was just sitting back relaxing and enjoying the win.

On Tennessee not scoring on their first possession:

That was a pretty big deal because a lot of people read into that and that was one of our goals going into that game as a defense. We're tired of people scoring on the first drive. We're saying to ourselves we are going to step up, we're going to stop them right here and we're going to do better. We're going to show we are a good defense, and I think we came out and proved that."

#36 Free Safety Shawn Williams

On defeating Tennessee:

It gives you a lot of confidence, but I don't think you can just keep thinking about that one game. You've got to move on to the next.

On the defensive performance against the Volunteers:

I think we performed great, but we did have a couple missed assignments. It's better than is was, so as a team, I think we are getting better on defense.