FOOTBALL
Coach Mark Richt
Note: The suspensions of Isaiah Crowell, Carlton Thomas and Ken Malcome were announced after the press conference.
Opening Statement...
We have our work cut out for us. It’s kind of nice to turn the film on and know that you aren’t going to have to make up a bunch of stuff for your team to get excited about, knowing that we are in for a really hard-fought battle. We’re looking forward to that. We’re looking forward to being home. We haven’t been home in a while. It’s been about five weeks or so. We are looking forward to seeing our fans. I know our players will be enjoying the Dawg Walk.
On the availability of several players dealing with injuries…
Isaiah Crowell is healthy. Richard Samuel had surgery this morning on his ankle just to stabilize his injury. It will probably not slow down his rehab. It actually will speed up his rehab. Sometimes you can take a ligament, put it back in place, put a pin in there to hold it in place, and it tends to be stable enough to rehab where sometimes you’ll sit there and wait for that thing to heal on its own and you have to stay off it longer. We think it will allow us to accelerate his rehab. The surgery, Ron Courson felt, was real profitable. It was debatable on whether it could have been non-op or not, but this will absolutely stabilize it immediately and allow him to get stronger quicker. It’s a very stable surgery. We don’t know when he’ll be back, but obviously it won’t be anytime soon. I would say a minimum of four weeks.
Dallas Lee broke his leg in a couple of spots; no need for surgery there. He’s four to six weeks also. Kenarious Gates went in there and played pretty well, actually. I’d say the chance of Malcolm Mitchell playing this week would be close to zero. I don’t think Malcolm will play.
It’s sad for all of them really. Richard really had probably his finest performance in a really big game. For it to happen on the last play was sad for him. Just reading his comments about his goal of wanting to help the team win, that’s why he moved to running back because he felt like he could help the team win. We felt like he’s been helping us win all along, but for him personally, he felt like he finally made a significant contribution to this team in a big game and helped us win. He reached that goal in this particular game. I think it’s been every game he’s helped us win. Now he has to wait a little while to go do it again. I’m just real pleased with his effort. Actually, Richard was named captain for this game, so he may crutch out there and flip the coin. Our captains will be Ben Jones, Richard Samuel, DeAngelo Tyson and Jarvis Jones.
On the attitude of the team since the win over Florida…
We had our first team meeting when I went over honor roll. So we were still talking about the last game we played. That’s kind of the final thing we do when it comes to talking about a game before we turn the page to the next one. We enjoyed the moment as we did our honor roll for that game. We’ll have to watch practice today, but I felt like at practice everybody was focused on their job getting ready for the next one.
On Ken Malcome…
Ken is healthy. He pretty much knows what to do.
On Rhett McGowan…
Rhett has been practicing well for a long time. He’s really one of the better guys we have against press coverage. He just has a knack for getting some separation. He’s not a burner, but getting off a jam is at least half the battle when a guy is coming up and pressing you. He has had a knack of doing that all throughout his career here, so we felt comfortable enough to get him in the game and throw the ball to him. He did a great job. He separated well, he caught the ball, he secured it immediately.
On Georgia’s receivers…
I thought we played a really good fundamental football game against that type of coverage. Florida’s guys did cover us tight. I think it was obvious to most people watching it, when our guys did catch the ball they were well-covered. But when you are covered well you have to catch the ball at the high point. Chris Conley at the end of the game, I saw it from across the field and I was impressed with it. Then when I watched TV copy, he did everything right. He ran his route properly, he located the ball, he stopped and jumped and caught it at the high point, he caught it strong and got it immediately to his body to secure it.
Marlon Brown catches the ball in traffic and he secures the ball and is able to grind another two yards to get a first down. Tavarres King’s catch was really fantastic as well as Michael Bennett’s catch. Michael, not only did he catch it, he had to go full speed, turn in the air, elevate to get it, then at the bottom of it he had to really wrestle it away, because that official wasn’t going to say touchdown until he knew he came out with that ball. He did a beautiful job of that, so props to Coach Tony Ball and the job he’s done of teaching those guys the fundamentals. He works hard on those things. Just about all the things you teach in camp over and over all of a sudden keep coming to fruition more than one time in crucial moments in a big game. That was outstanding.
Quarterback Aaron Murray
On Jarvis Jones…
He’s a very outspoken guy. He keeps it lively, he’s fun to be around and he’s playing his tail off right now. Last year when he was on the scout team, he was giving us all kinds of trouble. We would be in there and Ben Jones would say ‘Man, we’re facing the best linebacker we’ll face all year with him on the scout team.’ He really gave us trouble; when you’re supposed to be completing every pass and making every run, he’s in there disrupting everything. I know he worked extremely hard in the off-season to learn his position because he didn’t know if he was going to be outside or inside. Like I said, he’s worked extremely hard and it’s paying off; you can see the results.
On the receiving corps…
Obviously you want more depth, especially since we ran over 80 plays this past weekend. With our no huddle and running plays a lot, we use the down field play a lot; a lot of teams don’t throw the ball down field as much as we do. That can wear you out. I think when it comes to conditioning it’s always nice to have a few more receivers to mix in and out so guys can go full speed. When it comes to talent we might not have a lot of guys, but the talent is there. We have tons of guys who have been making plays all year. We have guys who have been stepping up and playing positions that maybe they weren’t used to or expecting to play and just going out there and making plays for us.
Wide Receiver Chris Conley
On the plays becoming more natural as the season goes on…
Yes, I think that the more that you see it and the more that you play and practice and game speed, it makes it easier for you to recognize tendencies. A lot of defenses do some similar things and after watching a lot of film, it’s really easy to pick up on their body language.
On focusing on New Mexico State…
I think this week, the coaches are really focusing on us again. They’re making sure the players aren’t looking forward to any other games; right now we’re worried about New Mexico State. That is the biggest thing on our plate right now and that is the only thing we are focusing on. We’re not looking forward to any other games down the road.
On the talent in the receiving corps…
All the guys were sort of upset that when Malcolm was out there was a fear that our passing game would drop off. We think that our receiving corps is very talented and each of the guys has different attributes. So when Malcolm wasn’t able to go, we felt like there were other guys who could step up and contribute. We’re hoping for a speedy recovery for him and to have him back because his skills add to the group too.
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