Tuesday Press Conference ~ Defense

FOOTBALL

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

Coach Mark Richt

On Todd Grantham’s fire and intensity…

“I knew he had a lot of fire. Sean Jones played for him in Cleveland and Sean said that about him. Brad Johnson, who is my brother-in-law, was on the team playing quarterback at the time, so he got to observe the type of coach he was in practice. I wanted that. That was one of the things I wanted in the guy who was going to lead the way for us on defense. Defenses play a lot on emotion. You certainly had to have good schemes, and Todd had a great reputation for that, understanding not only how to pressure people, but also how to play the back end in coverage and all that. I heard just great things about him in that regard. It’s an emotional game. It’s about playing hard and getting after it. When the guy in charge of that group is that type of personality, it tends to bleed over into the way his players play.”

On big plays given up by the Georgia defense…

“When you blitz and you don’t cover every gap, you are exposed to something popping like it did on that run. If somebody is putting a double-move on you it means that you are pretty aggressive and get after it and try to make plays. You want them to do that, but you want them to try to make plays in the perimeter where they are still in position to collision a double-move. You can’t just go for the pick 100 percent because you are going to get beat like that. In some sense it’s positive that we have some guys playing aggressively. We just have to be a little bit smarter and be a little better fundamentally when they do it.”

On punt returns…

“The main thing is that we’re looking for a guy who will field the ball and communicate well. So I think we’re still searching for that, but it’s a tough job. You’re back there and guys are flying down the field getting ready to pop you as soon as you touch it, and sometimes it’s hard to decide whether to catch it, to let it roll, to fair catch it or to return it. It’s a tough job, and we’re trying to get someone who will go back there and just take the bull by the horns and make good decisions and communicate well to everybody and wrap up the ball.”

On whether Malcolm Mitchell will remain on defense…

“Malcolm will definitely stay with the defense as far as being ready to play. I imagine he will still play. His offensive reps will increase, and he’ll probably start to spend some meeting time with the offense as well. I’m thinking about trying to find a way to split time with him if he can manage it. We think it can work for us. He’s a guy who I think is in good enough condition. I know he’s smart enough to understand what’s going on on both sides of the ball with the experience he’s had. We need him on special teams too. He’s going to play offense, defense and special teams off and on for the rest of the year I would think.”

On whether Georgia has watched film from Wyoming of Austyn Carta-Samuels…

“I don’t know if Coach Grantham got to watch any Wyoming tape or not. We did watch what happened in the Presbyterian game, and he played well. He didn’t have to really run the ball that often and wasn’t pressured much. He did drop back and throw the ball well. It looked like he ran the system well. Everything was pretty smooth while he was running the show, and I can only assume that he’ll start but we don’t know that either. They didn’t change what they would have been done schematically a lot. As a matter of fact, they probably did a little bit less in this game than they had done in the others, probably due to the fact that the first play of the game they took off for a touchdown and the score got out of hand quickly. I don’t think they needed to show much.”

On T.J. Stripling…

“He feels 100 percent. His upper body strength is still a little ahead of his lower body strength. It had to do with the surgery a year and a half ago. I think he’s recovered well. He has no fear of anything right now. He’s just playing football again, and it was great to see him get in there and make plays on scrimmage downs. He’s already been making an impact for us on special teams. I’m happy for T.J that he’s making progress.”

On Amarlo Herrera and his interception returned for a touchdown against FAU…

“Amarlo is doing great. It was a great interception and return for a touchdown. He really looked like a ballplayer there. He’s been very physical tackling. He hustles to the ball. I felt like he’s been a little bit better in the run game than in the passing game. It was really a great play that he made. It was a crossing route where sometimes linebackers get caught up in the play fake and they lose their man. He saw that it was a fake and turned and got in the hip of that crossing route and made the pick. Usually those guys at best will knock it down, but he not only intercepted it, but took it to the house. It was just a great play in the passing game. Anytime another linebacker is out it gives more opportunity for the next guy, and I think Amarlo is certainly taking advantage of his time right now.”

Defensive Back Damian Swann

On defending against the Vanderbilt quarterbacks…

“We haven’t really gotten into their two quarterbacks too much yet. We’ve watched a little bit of tape from last year, which was [Jordan] Rodgers, but we haven’t really gotten into their other guy who could be their starter for this week.”

On the feel of the clubhouse through week four…

“There isn’t really any extra motivation going around. We all have the same mindset and that’s just to play hard. We just want to play hard and execute our game plan so that we can get to where we’re trying to go. It’s the fourth game and we’re about to hit a big SEC stretch that starts this week.”

On playing against Vanderbilt after last season’s match…

“Some of those feelings and emotions might carry over from last year, but also it might not. A lot of teams like to dwell on the past but we aren’t one of them. We’re going to go into the game with the mindset that what happened last year in the past, is in the past. This is a new game, we’re both new teams and we’re both just trying to win the game.”

Linebacker Amarlo Herrera

On last week’s interception return for a touchdown…

“It felt great. It was the first time I’ve scored in my college career and it was a great feeling. I had my eyes on the pylon the whole way. I recognized the play action right off the bat and played underneath the receiver and was able to turn my hips and pick the ball off. I’m working really hard on getting better at defending the pass and the run, but this was a big play for me.”

On the play of the defense thus far…

“I’m not worried that we haven’t played up to people’s expectations so far, it’s only the beginning of the year. We’re on a roll now and I think there are better things to come. Suspensions and injuries may play a factor in our performance, but like I said before. We didn’t have the same starting line up in every game last year so you can’t really say that we aren’t playing as well because certain guys are missing.”

On how the team treats out of conference games compared to SEC games…

“Personally I don’t treat those games any differently. I can’t speak for everybody else but we put the same amount of time in for every game. We go in every Monday and work just as hard every week no matter who we are matched up against for that week. We’re always in the same mood as a team, we’re just trying to win week. We try not to put too much emphasis on off the field hype and what not, we just try and play football the best we can and win the game.”