Tuesday Press Conference ~ Defense

FOOTBALL

Coach Mark Richt and a delegation of football players met with the media Tuesday during the Dawgs’ weekly press luncheon. They offered the following comments:

Head Coach Mark Richt

On the play of the defense early in the season…

“There are a lot of good things that happened defensively in the ball game against Missouri, but there are some things that we have to clean up still. But overall, I think they are running hard towards the ball and they played their gap responsibilities better than in game one against Buffalo. We call it ‘setting the edge’ on plays that go outside, and we want them to turn everything into our big men. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. Todd Grantham did a good job of having just a couple ways of trying to rush the passer against Missouri. It was a little bit different and a little more creative. We were trying to do some things to push him to scramble to a certain direction and let the rush guy come all the way from the other side over the top, and basically get him from behind. That’s how we got one or two of those sacks, tackles and fumbles. We were disciplined in our rush lanes, and that actually worked pretty good a couple times. We had a breakdown on that big touchdown pass where we just weren’t really disciplined there, but overall I think we’re playing pretty good, and I think we can get better. We won, but we can certainly improve on both sides of the ball and special teams. To get two guys back at this point is good as well.”

On Amarlo Herrera…

“Amarlo is doing very well. He’s better against the run than against the pass right now in his development, but he’s getting better in that area. He’s been a very sure tackler. He’s been one of the guys running extremely hard to the ball. You get a lot of tackles when you play hard, and Amarlo has been doing that. He’s been fundamentally sound, and he’s certainly improved his strength, agility and speed in the offseason, so it’s paying off for him.”

On Jarvis Jones getting attention…

“He does deflect any kind of personal glory to the team. I think he’s very sincere. Some guys say it because they think that’s what people want to hear, but Jarvis is sincere about it just like A.J. Green was. They are humble guys. They like football and they like their teammates, they like their coaches and they like Georgia. More than anything they just enjoy playing the game. He did basically what he said he was going to do. He wanted to come back to get better. He thought he could get better. He got in better condition, he’s stronger, he has more stamina, he wanted to become a better student of the game and now he studies film more than he ever has in his career. He wants to be a special player, but he wants to do it in the context of the team. He wants to do it in the context of winning. People talk about big time players make big plays in the biggest games, and that’s what he did. The moment that we needed it the most he made some really big plays for us. That happens because of the culmination of all the work he’s put into it.”

Senior Nose Guard John Jenkins

On the play of the defense in the second half against Missouri…

“We changed up some things at half time. As far as the first half goes, the intensity level of our defense was there. We got beat on a couple of plays and we beat ourselves on a couple of plays as well. I believe that as a defensive unit we played pretty stout throughout the whole game.”

On getting hyped up for the Missouri game…

“It was an easy game to get hyped up for, being the first SEC game of the year for us. Besides all of the negative talk going on in the media last week, we as a team already knew what was at stake. We have goals for the season and we all know what we want to accomplish, so we are aware of what we need to do to get to that goal.”

On looking forward to this weekends game against Florida Atlantic…

“Even though this isn’t a conference game, it’s a game none the less. We can’t take games lightly, just for the fact that its on our schedule. We know our goals and we know where we want to be at the end of the season. Just because this isn’t a conference game doesn’t mean we are going to take them lightly by any means.”

Sophomore Inside Linebacker Amarlo Herrera

On the play of the defense through the first two games…

“We’ve played alright, I think we’ve been decent. We’ve given up a few big plays but other than that we have done well. I think we just need to come out and be able to put together a solid effort for the full 60minutes. We’ve had two great second halves, we just need to be able to play the whole game like that to be great.”

On maintaining composure after Missouri took the lead…

“Most of us have played in big time games like this before. We’ve been in positions where we were down and we’ve also been in positions where we were winning. We all talked to each other and communicated with each other about what we needed to do. Everyone has a love for each other so no one will get mad at someone else for telling each other to do their job.”

On his feelings about getting the rest of the starters on defense back…

“The fact that we haven’t played with all of our guys out there yet should be scary for everyone else. It’s going to be crazy getting everyone back. When I really start to think about that, it’s going to be very exciting to get everyone back out there and show what we can do.”