FOOTBALL
Coach Mark Richt
On how he views this game coming off two tough opponents…
Coastal Carolina is another team that understands winning. They were conference champions a year ago. When you watch them play, they execute well, they run hard, they tackle physical and they are productive in the things that they do. I promise you they are going to show up looking to knock us off. I don't think there is any doubt about that. I don't think there's a team that is coming in saying we are just going to collect a check and leave. That's not their personality. It's not the personality of their coach. We've got to execute. If we go out there and don't play good we're going to have a war, and we may have a war anyway. I don't know. We're going to find out. We're looking to play the very best we can, improve as much this Tuesday as we did last Tuesday and everyday our focus must be on finding ways to get better.
If there is any concern of an emotional letdown after the buildup of the first two games…
Right now, no. We spend time with them yesterday. We had our meetings. We had our practice. There's not a cloud hanging over us. There might be perceptively, but as far as what I'm seeing in our staff meetings, what I'm seeing as we prepared throughout the day and night, what I'm seeing with these guys and their belief in each other and what we are doing, they know. If the game went the other way, then Georgia is the frontrunner in the East. Everybody would start thinking about all the positive possibilities. Is the difference between winning and losing that big of a difference between where we are? I don't think there is. We're going to keep improve, and after this week we got a four-game stretch before an open date with some Southeastern Conference foes and we'll just battle them one at a time and see where we are at.
On the team's win-loss record over the last two years and his perspective on why it has been that way…
Last year we went through all that, and we talked about things that are a year old. Those are old. This season is the only thing I'm really concerned about, and obviously, we turned the ball over. Not only were they turnovers, they were turnovers for points. I guess there was five yards they had to track one time. Our defense basically gave up 17 points to a pretty darn good football team. They had no responsibility for the fake punt, the pick six or the fumble for a touchdown. They could have stopped them on the five yard line going in. Sudden change – that's their job to turn it into a field goal. We just gave that one away.
On only having one sack through the first two games…
We're getting some pressure, and there's a difference between pressure and sacks. We got him (South Carolina's Stephen Garcia) running around a bit, but he ran around and threw a touchdown pass, ran around and threw a long gain in the fourth quarter. Part of the issue is that a couple of times we lost contain, and you can't have that. We also had some times when we knocked both quarterbacks (Garcia and Boise State's Kellen Moore) down as they were throwing the football and force some throws a little bit sooner than they wanted to. The one interception that we did get wasn't attributed to much pressure. It was sprint out and the ball was just thrown in there where the guy made a pretty good play. So we're getting pressure but we're definitely not getting the sacks, and right now, we are challenging our guys to be able to rush the passer without having to bring different types of pressures to get the rush, to get the sacks. We just have not had anybody step up and do that one a consistent basis anyway.
On Jeremy Sulek being an example for walk-ons sticking it out…
He tried out one year and didn't make the cut. But instead of quitting and going home, he decided to lift, run and get stronger and try again the next year. Then he makes the team and all of sudden he's playing a lot of football for Georgia. It's a great story, and hopefully, it does attract some more guys to come and walk on for us because we sure need them.
On who will get time this week at the inside linebacker position…
It will be at least after Wednesday to kind of hone in down to see.
On how well suited Ramik Wilson and Amarlo Herrera are to see more reps…
They are getting a lot more reps. Amarlo played a bunch. Ramik didn't play a ton, but he may get a lot more. I will say this: we recruited the right body types and the right people. They are great kids. They've got tremendous ability, and now they just need to play and that's what we're doing.
At this point forward, how would he define a successful season…
Win the Eastern Division and win the SEC. That's how I would. Are you kidding me? When's the last time the Eastern Division had an undefeated team? I don't even know. It's been a long time. That's our goal and that hasn't changed one bit. Let's face it, could that game on Saturday gone either way? I think it's pretty obvious that it could have. Did we improve tremendously in a lot of areas? There's no doubt about that. I left the field sick about losing but encouraged about the team, encouraged about so many things that are important to winning. I'll mention this again, we had veterans trying to get on the special teams. They are taking rookies and saying get out, I’m in. Shawn Williams took a rookie out of there and he had a knock out block that sprung Brandon Boykin for the longest return of the day. We had guys that I knew were banged up pretty good but we're like 'I'm not coming out.' We had some really horrible things happen to swing momentum and came back to take the lead a couple times after those things. At the end of the fourth quarter with six minutes to go we take the lead. We gave them one more touchdown at the end, but even after that we line up and go down and score and we're in position to get the onside kick and possibly get the ball and win the game. So a lot of encouraging things, and there's seven more games for us and South Carolina. And some of the teams haven't even started their conference play, so there's a lot of football left. If South Carolina is the team to beat in the east, which right now they are – they are the preseason favorite for it and they are 1-0, but I would think we can compete with anybody in the Eastern Division and anybody in the league.
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