Tuesday Press Conference ~ Offense

FOOTBALL

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

Coach Mark Richt

On Georgia’s offense…

“We have executed well. We haven’t had a lot of missed assignments. The majority of our guys have played or at least practiced a while in our system. When your quarterback can get you in the right play most of the time or the right protection most of the time or if he reacts property to a blitz and gets it to the right guy without a chance of getting a sack, or guys are mostly catching the ball, you have a chance to be efficient. If you have a young QB and you have to call a play and kind of live with it sometimes, you have to guess right sometimes and sometimes you guess wrong. You run into some bad situations if you can’t trust your quarterback to get you in the right stuff. Murray is a guy who gets us in the right plays most of the time and the right protections most of the time. He reads out coverage's well. He’s been very accurate overall. That pick six, when it happened I had no idea the ball was tipped and I wasn’t real thrilled about that. I didn’t let him know coming off the field, but I wasn’t really happy about it. I didn’t realize until the next day or maybe late that night that the ball actually did get tipped at the line of scrimmage. It was a good read and it looked like it was probably going to be a pretty good throw. So he really hasn’t made many bad decisions with his throws.”

On Georgia’s offensive line…

“This game will definitely be the best gauge. South Carolina’s defense is playing great. They are not playing good, they are playing great. They are kind of used to playing great. They were pretty darn good last year and the year before and the year before that. They’ve just got a tradition now that has built up over time that they believe. It’s obvious that they believe, and they should. They are really good at what they do, so our guys will be challenged with the edge players, the rush. They are also very physical against the run. Their inside guys are physical and their outside guys are physical and their linebackers are big, strong and experienced. Then you have a guy like D.J. Swearinger, who is a big hitter at safety, so without a doubt this is the biggest test for our offensive line.”

On Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall playing together and their recruiting process…

“They almost sold us on it. I think they had the thought of playing together and being roommates and being friends throughout college. They got to know each other, they liked each other. They weren’t afraid to be on the same team, and I think they had a dream of maybe one day sharing the load wherever they went. For it to happen the way it’s happened so far this year I can’t imagine them dreaming it up any better than it’s been. The reasons why it’s happening, of course some if it was the attrition that we had, but some of it is the fact that they’re very coachable, teachable. They are very serious about learning what to do. They know they have a great talent base. They are different in their styles, and I think that’s effective. I would imagine that they could only get better at what they are doing. I don’t know if the results will be better, but they’ll definitely become better players as time goes on.”

On Todd Gurley returning kickoffs…

“We do think Malcolm Mitchell has the potential to be a big return man as well. We think he and Gurley both have big play potential as kick return men, so we’re just kind of letting them share the load a little bit.”

On Aaron Murray…

“We have a lot of confidence in him period, and we’re going to call a game that’s going to put a lot in his hands like we have been. Even at the end of the first half of this last ballgame, there wasn’t a whole lot of time. They decided to kind of have a squib kick, and we got the ball around the 35. At that point with 37 seconds you might say let’s not throw a pick and give up another turnover. They are scoring 20 points in the second quarter and things are going bad, so you might say we’ve had enough. Let’s just go to halftime and regroup. I told Coach Mike Bobo, let’s go try to score. Murray did a really nice job of moving us down the field and getting us in position to get those three points. I think psychologically those were important points for us. I don’t know if I would have done that last year. I definitely wouldn’t have done it his freshman year. I guess that gives you an idea of the faith I have in him as a head coach.”

Quarterback Aaron Murray

On the importance of the South Carolina game…

“We’re excited. This is one you circle on your calendar in January. Watching the film of last year’s loss to the Gamecocks is one of those things than makes you want to push through the spring and summer workouts. It still hurts. I think we’ve picked up some momentum the last five games and we need to keep working just as hard in practice and make sure we’re ready to go.”

On South Carolina’s defense…

“They’ve got talent all over the board, especially in that front four. Watching them on film, you can see they don’t do too much in terms of blitzing. Those are the best defenses – when you trust your players to just make plays and they do that. They do a great job of getting pressure on the quarterback without blitzing and with just those four guys. We’ve got our work cut out for us this week when it comes to preparation and making sure we’re ready.”

On the Georgia offense…

“We’ve been pretty balanced all year long when it comes to running and passing and quick passes and cutting guys. Right now as an offense it’s probably hard to get a grasp on what we’re going to do. I think Coach Bobo and Coach Friend will make sure our guys are ready to go.”

On last year’s loss to USC…

“That was a tough loss last year, but this is a new season and a new team and a completely different look. We’re a heck of a lot better than last year in every way. We need to put that behind us and go back and watch film in preparation of this Saturday’s game. It’s painful to watch that but this is a new team and we’re ready to go forward.”

Wide Receiver Tavarres King

On South Carolina’s defense…

“They have a chippy defense and guys who are going to get after you. They have a great defense, and it’s going to be a challenge for our offense this weekend. We’re looking forward to it. It’s why you play the game.”

On Keith Marshall and Todd Gurley…

“They are doing a phenomenal job, especially being as young as they are and not knowing what they are getting into. They have handled it well, and they are very mature for their age. They are going to have extremely successful careers here.”

On whether last year’s loss to South Carolina still stings…

“It stings a lot. I feel like we had a lot of self inflicted wounds. It hurts, because we hurt ourselves so much. We made so many mental errors. That’s something we are trying to eliminate this year – mistakes and errors and not beating ourselves.”