Tuesday Press Conference – Defense

FOOTBALL

Georgia head coach Mark Richt and a delegation of players met with the media Tuesday during the Bulldogs’ weekly press luncheon. They offered the following comments:

Head Coach Mark Richt

On different teams recruiting players from the state of Georgia…

“Georgia is not a secret anymore. Atlanta with the airport and the accessibility for people to come just about anywhere in the United States to have a direct flight from Atlanta and go recruit and get out of there. It just makes sense for time and for what it might cost to do that. Everybody is in the state. Everybody is in Atlanta, and everybody is trying to find some Georgia boys to help them win, so it’s not a shock to see them all the way in Buffalo.”

On Ramik Wilson and the outside linebacker position…

“It’s our Sam linebacker, basically, and he’ll play a lot of they are in base personnel. If they are spread out, that guy is usually out of the ball game. If they are in certain personnel groups he plays a good bit, and if they are spread out a bunch he might not play as much in that position anyway. Ramik, we think he is a very talented guy. He can play outside linebacker. We believe he can play inside linebacker as well. It’s his second year in the system, and we just expect that we’ll have a lot more productivity out of him. We like what he’s done. He’s been really good for Georgia.”

On Marshall Morgan’s readiness to kick in front of 92,000 people…

“I don’t know how ready Marshall is. He’s a talented guy, there is no doubt about that. We wouldn’t have brought him in if we didn’t think that he had the talent base to do it. He has a strong enough leg and he’s had enough success in his high school career to do well. I think in time he’s gong to do extremely well. What will he do in his first game and his first kick? I don’t know. It will be interesting to see. “Of course Collin Barber is kind of in the same boat as a true freshman punter as well. We have had some good competition with Jamie Lindley in practice, and I’m not sure if Jamie will get in there or not, but we’ve also had some good competition with Adam Erickson at the punting position too. I wouldn’t be shocked to see those guys in there as well.”

On whether Georgia has had a policy change on addressing personnel or disciplinary decisions…

“I don’t know if there is anything etched in stone, but we are handling it a little bit different this year. I don’t know if I can say why, but we are definitely handling it just a little bit different.”

Senior Defensive Tackle John Jenkins

On how the team’s anticipation for Saturday…

“We want to get the show on the road. We’re just excited, I don’t really know any other way to say it but we’re just overly excited. We’re on a mission for great things to come from this season.

On his individual, and team goals for the upcoming season…

“Individually I just want to do everything I can to help this team win. I tell everyone else that as long as we win the game as a team, then everything else individually that I have set for my goals will come true. From a personal standpoint, I want to get better fundamentally and then be able to apply those fundamentals better in a game time situation. As long as we are able to get the win, that’s all I care about.”

On the importance of the new strength coaches…

“They have been very important to us throughout the preseason. All of these guys have their own kind of area of expertise. Coach Herman Armstrong has done a great job of stretching us out and maximizing our quickness. Coach Justin Lovett came here from the Denver Broncos and I have been working with him a lot personally doing some MMA training to work on my hand eye coordination and help my feet movement more precise for pass rushing. I’m that much greater than I was last year because of all of the work these guys have put us through.”

Senior Linebacker Christian Robinson

On how the depth of the linebacker position…

“Last year after Alec Ogletree and I went down I think everyone was kind of worried about what we were going to do at inside linebacker, but look how great these guys did. Mike Gilliard and Amarlo Herrera came up huge for us and now we have four or five guys that can play for us at that position and no one would question it. It’s all about going out and getting reps and even though some guys are out, we have enough players to back them up. Then when they come back we’ll have even more depth and we’ll be cheering for the younger guys to get more reps too.”

On what he is most excited to see come Saturday…

“I want to see these young running backs. Keith Marshall put a move on somebody the other day that I hadn’t seen in a while. He shook two people and they both fell down. I haven’t seen anyone since I’ve been here that could do something like that. Maybe AJ Green had that kind of juking ability. That’s pretty special to me. I haven’t seen someone just blatantly fall down because some one juked them, so I want them to be turned loose so they can stop hitting us. I think we have a lot of good running backs, they all have their own style and they’re each unique in their own aspects so I think we have a good group. I think this group is way farther ahead than a lot of other groups in recent past.”