FOOTBALL
Coach Mark Richt
On Sanders Commings:
He’s a guy that you aren’t sure if he’s a safety or if he’s a corner. He has that body type to where he’s big enough and physical enough to be a safety. We have a good many safeties right now. We have some guys who we think can play with Alec Ogletree coming in and Nick Williams staying at safety. You have Jakar Hamilton coming in, so it kind of freed us up to move him to corner. He has the skills to play corner. He has good ball skills. He’s very athletic, he’s fast and you want bigger corners if you can get them.
We were hoping that he would just gain confidence as he went and be able to start making plays for us and be able to match up against pretty good sized receivers. He’s done all those things, but I think he’s done it through listening to coach Scott Lakatos, trying to do it exactly the way he says do it. He’s earned himself a lot of playing time.
#45 Inside Linebacker Christian Robinson
It’s a big deal. Everybody, when we used go back on Monday, we would talk about how we had to shave this week. It’s motivation. When you start to see the younger guys on the sideline say, ‘Man, we don’t have to shave,’ it’s kind of funny.
On why not having to shave is a big deal for the players:
It’s just one less thing that you have to worry about. We can’t get our travel gear if we don’t shave on Fridays so Coach Tereshinski will be waiting for us with a razor if we didn’t have it shaved. Friday is the day it’s enforced. You can have whatever you want until Friday, but if you show up at the window to get your gear without shaving, he’ll give you one of his old razors.
On the difference in the defense the last two weeks:
I think the difference has been in third down conversions, turnovers and big plays. We’ve gotten off the field on third down during the first drive of the last two games. We’ve had a bunch of turnovers and the big plays have gone away the past two games. Everybody has been doing their jobs on third down, being in the right place when they have a chance to make a play or create a turnover, and not allowing the other team to capitalize on missed assignments.
#51 Inside Linebacker Akeem Dent
For some guys, it’s motivating because some guys want to have a little facial hair. For us other guys, we want to go out and cause turnovers all the time basically because we’re on defense. We want to cause turnovers so we can get the ball back to the offense so they’ll be able to make plays and score touchdowns.
On the reasoning behind Coach Richt allowing the players to let their facial hair grow out:
The thing about that is that, later on in life when you get a job, you have to be clean shaven. Coach Richt is just trying to prepare us to be men and teach us how to handle responsibility.
On how he overcame his injury to become a consistent defensive player:
The month that I missed before the season, in the preseason, was the toughest thing that I have ever done in my life. But right now, I just use that as motivation. I’m back and I’ve been playing since the first game and it’s been really exciting. I’m just trying to keep that going.
On the differences between playing linebacker this year and last year:
One of the main things is that we’ve been here a couple of years and we kind of got to understand the system better than some of the younger guys because of that. The scheme is totally different. We’ve had guys make a lot more plays than they had made in the past.
#19 Cornerback Sanders Commings
On how the team has been able to fight back after a disappointing start to the year:
The coaches just kept telling us that it was all about us. We knew the fans would be down because the season wasn’t going the way that it could have gone with all of the talent that we have. All we have is each other so we have to stay together and fight together.
On where the “we’re all that we’ve got” mindset originated:
It starts at the top with the coaches. They said it first and we bought into it. Everybody’s buying into it. The senior leaders have played a big part in that as well. I would say after the coaches, they’ve played the biggest role. Guys like Kris Durham, Akeem Dent, Demarcus Dobbs, Drew Butler and Aaron Murray. Not only the seniors, but a lot of players have played a leadership role.
On whether he expected to play corner or safety when he came to Georgia:
They told me that I could play corner or safety when I came in, so I was pretty much open to anything. Freshman year, I played a little bit of both. My redshirt freshman year, I started at safety and then towards the end of the season, I started to work in at corner. Since then, I’ve been at corner. I think that the positions are very similar. I feel like playing safety is just like playing corner except with a little bit more space between your man. If I had to pick one, I think that I’d want to play corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment