FOOTBALL
Coach Mark Richt
You don’t want all your big linemen to leave. I think every junior in America is kind of curious where they sit as far as the NFL is concerned. There are a lot of guys who want to turn in their papers and see where the NFL sees them. I think that’s not all that surprising. These guys come in with the thought of possibly playing there one day. Now I think there is a lot of curiosity involved and there is a lot of education that needs to be given too so they make the right decision. The NFL is not going anywhere. We know there could be a lockout, but the league is going to be around, and they need to do what’s best for their careers. Also those young men and their families understand the value of that degree too. All those things have to be weighed and they’ll make their decisions before the deadline. The sooner they get their information in, the sooner they can try to get a realistic picture of where they are, because that’s still the very best gauge of where the NFL sees you. If you are going by what Coach Richt might say or what an agent might say, you are probably not going to the best source. The NFL is the best source to say where they see them. That’s a big deal, and we appreciate the NFL putting that together because before 1994 they didn’t have it and guys were just blindly making decisions off of what somebody might have said in the media or what an agent might have said or what a coach might have said. There were a lot of mistakes being made and I think this at least helps them have a better idea where they are.
Its part of college football today. Basketball, they get them for one year and they are off and running. We have a lot of quality linemen in our program and we certainly would hate to lose guys who know what the plays are and have had the experience to play in the Southeastern Conference. We certainly don’t want any of those guys to go, but well wait and see what happens down the road.
On whether the Georgia coaches see Kwame Geathers as a possible starter:
We hope so. We want Kwame to have a great career. He does too, and as he continues to develop we want him to give him a lot more snaps than he is getting right now. He’s still relatively young in his career. He’s still a redshirt freshman, so has time to continue to grow and get strong and perfect his trade, so we hope so.
On how many miles Georgia's staff has traveled on recruiting trips this week:
I don’t even know how many miles our guys put on. It’s just amazing how much ground gets covered. They are pretty relentless out there and you have to be. The recruiting wars are just as important as the wars on the field. So there is a lot going on, and everybody is just kind of swooping in at the last second. I landed just a couple of minutes ago, and timed it out just right for this 1:00. We actually pushed it back to 1:00 just so I could get in one more home visit this morning. We’ll continue to get on the road as we are trying to prepare. That’s the hardest thing you juggle when you are doing this bowl practice stuff. You are still out there recruiting, you are still out there trying to prepare for your opponent, and it’s not easy to do all those things at the same time. But we made sure our coordinators were off the road enough to get us enough of a plan that every practice would be valuable. Now it’s a matter of starting to practice and refine it as we go.
On prospects waiting until late in the recruiting process to commit:
It’s tough. You always hope that when a young man knows for sure where he wants to go he would just say it. I think those days are changing. There are a lot of them who do. There are a lot of early commitments, then all of a sudden it seems like everything dries up for a while for the guys who want to wait until the very end. Sometimes it’s because they don’t know and sometimes it’s because they are wanting to do it at an all-star game or whatever it is. I think they are getting encouraged to do that a little bit. It is a special time for them and they want it to be a special announcement, and their families do too. You can understand why sometimes it drags on, and then there are guys who flat out just don’t know until the very end. I think most of them have a pretty good idea of where they are going to go. It would be nice if they would all decide and we could start working on next years class, but that’s not where it is right now.
On whether the Georgia staff gets a heads up from prospects before they commit to UGA:
We do sometimes. Sometimes well get something even as early as now for a guy who knows he’s not going to do it until the signing day, or sometimes it might be the night before they’ll let you know. I’ve rarely had a guy commit or sign with Georgia without me knowing it at least the night before. There have been a couple like that but it usually doesn’t happen very often. Usually you get clued in pretty good. Everybody is trying to find out what’s going on because if you are not going to get a guy you have to make plans, and if you are going to get a guy you’d like to let other men know that there may not be a space for you and let them move on too. It would save a lot of miles, time and travel for sure. But it’s just where we are right now.
On whether there is any added urgency in Georgia's recruiting this year:
I think that recruiting is always crucial, it’s always important. I don’t know if you could say this season more than any other. I do think this recruiting year in the state of Georgia, even as we were mapping it out a year ago because you are looking that far down the road. This class in particular we thought was going to be extremely strong, and we still believe that. Not only strong in athleticism and ability, but very strong in character from what I’m seeing. I really like the young men we’ve been dealing with as people too. It’s been a very encouraging year in that way too, which is kind of nice.
On his vision for Georgia's strength and conditioning in the offseason:
I don’t want to get too much into the future, but since that has become a topic because of the decision that I made to make a change in the strength area, first of all I think Dave Van Halanger is an excellent strength coach. I think he’s as good as any out there. I think there are different ways to skin a cat in strength, different philosophies. We aren’t saying that Coach Van isn’t a good strength coach, I’m not saying that at all, but I think there are different ways to do things, and I want to go a little bit more old school I guess. We’ll get after it a little bit differently. Like something I mentioned before, and by no means am I saying its just the strength area that we need to improve on when it comes to winning the fourth quarter and finishing, because coaching has to do with a lot of things. I’m sure that will be a big emphasis in our program is to make sure we truly finish the drill. We say finish the drill but are we really doing it? Did we do it this year? We did not.
On how he expects the Georgia players to respond to "old school" strength and conditioning:
Well see. I think the proof will be in the pudding in the end.
Quarterback Aaron Murray
On his assessment of his play this season:
I definitely felt my main goal was to get better week by week and I feel I made strides. Everything from the playbook, my footwork, my knowledge of the defenses, preparations each week, ways to pick up cues from defenders, things like that. I think I made strides, but I still a long way to go. It’s good to have the bowl game because you have time to work on some things you might not have had time for all year. Hopefully then we have a great off-season and I’ll keep getting better.
On close games and focusing on certain plays:
I’m not as good at reflecting on the good things. I definitely lay in bed at night thinking about what I could’ve done better. It shows you really have to take every play individually, because you never know what could win a ballgame for you. One or two plays here or there and our season is completely different right now. Obviously we want to finish this season and are focused on UCF, but were excited about next year we’ve seen that were that close and have a tremendous football team. We might have been 10-15 plays away from being one of the top teams in the SEC and the nation. We’re excited.
On what he learned this year:
I learned that I can play in the SEC. Before you get here everyone tells you different things, that the speed will be different, and obviously it’s an adjustment. But I think Coach Richt and Coach Bobo prepared me for that. They had me watching film and making sure I was mentally prepared for each game. I give all the credit in the world to those guys, making sure I was where I needed to be.
Split End Kris Durham
It’s sunk in. I mean, at Georgia Tech it sunk in a little bit, but I also knew we had a bowl game still. Last weekend at the gala we were sitting there and when the seniors get called up and they showed our baby pictures it got emotional. I realized it was the last time I’d be doing this stuff. It brought back a lot of memories.
On the game:
It’s special it’s a big deal. You want to go out with a good taste in your mouth. For us it wasn’t the season we wanted. It was a roller coaster and there were ups and downs. We had some good wins, good moments like beating Georgia Tech and making a bowl game, so we did accomplish some of our goals. Hopefully well go there and get a win so its an even bigger accomplishment and get us going in the right direction.
Linebacker Akeem Dent
You can probably go and look at stats and stuff like that, but we had one of the top rushing defenses. Overall, the turnover ratio, we got more turnovers than we did a year ago. There are a lot of areas we improved on.
On DeAngelo Tyson's season:
I feel like he did a pretty good job especially being his first go around in this system.
On Kwame Geathers future:
Kwame is going to be a good player. He's already a big body guy. One thing about Kwame is he works hard, wants to improve and wants to get better. Once he gets everything down pat and knows the game plan inside and out, he's going to be a real good player.
On Aron White speaking at commencement ceremonies this coming Friday:
Aron has always been a real smart guy. He's always been a guy who is well spoken. I didn't know he was given the speech until Saturday. I think he's going to do a real good job.
Linebacker Darryl Gamble
On playing his last collegiate game:
I haven't really caught the grasp of it being my last game as a Dawg. I'm sure it will hit me sooner or later, but right now it's all about graduation that's coming up. I'm finally done with class, so that's a good thing.
On his excitement for graduation:
I'm very excited. That was one of the main things about coming to college and wanting to come to Georgia just to come and get my degree first of all and then perform on the field. It's all been falling pretty good for me.
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