Tuesday Press Conference

FOOTBALL

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

Coach Mark Richt

Opening Statement…

“There are 22 Georgia boys that play for Auburn. Auburn tends to recruit really hard in our state, and they get a lot of the really fine players out of the state of Georgia. I think that’s one of the reasons why it’s such a tremendous rivalry game. This is the 116th time that we’re going to play Auburn, and they lead the series 54-53 with 8 ties. That’s an awful lot of games to have that even of a series, and it’s for good reasons because it’s a very heated rivalry. We don’t expect anything different. We know that we’ve been recruiting against Auburn for years. We know they’ve got great players. We know that they have outstanding coaches, and we have a lot of respect for them. We know that the rival game certainly brings the best out of both teams, so we’re expecting quite a challenge and quite a battle.”

“Going to Auburn, it’s a great atmosphere. It’s a great tradition and a great rivalry for us. It’s a game that we know we’re going to get into another 60-minute war, so we’re looking forward to that opportunity.”

On injuries…

“Some years you’ll lose a guy a game or two, but to have three guys be out for the rest of the year who were prominent players and starters, that’s been tough. It’s been tough that two (Abry Jones and Marlon Brown) have been seniors and their careers ended early for us. The good news is the injuries they have are very correctable and they’ll get to continue their careers playing ball. I think they’ll both play in the NFL. Michael Bennett certainly was a bad injury, but we do feel like he can at least come back and play for us another couple of years, which will be good for us and hopefully good for him too. I wouldn’t sit here and say woe is me or anything like that. I hate it for each individual, but I can’t say it’s been an awful year in that regard.”

On having two former Georgia assistants on the current Auburn staff…

“There aren’t many secrets out there in the college football world and the SEC world. First of all, every little bit of film that there is is given to each other freely. It’s just how we exchange film. It’s not like you can’t get film on anybody and study what they do. Are we different offensively today than we were back when Brian VanGorder was here? Yeah, we’re very different. Maybe not as different as when Coach Willie Martinez was here, but for the most part it’s changed a good bit, just as far as little things and the fact that Mike Bobo is calling the game and not me. There’s a difference there too. I think everybody gets enough information to put a good plan together and play good defense.”

On whether Brian VanGorder and Willie Martinez have an advantage of knowing Georgia’s tendencies and vice versa…

“You’d think you do, but Coach VanGorder – he’s calling the defense and left Georgia in 2004, so it’s been a while. He’s been at a few places since then. Obviously being with the Falcons he did some things differently in the NFL than he did at Georgia. As you watch the tape of his defense, it doesn’t say that’s exactly what he did at Georgia. It doesn’t look that way. You just have to learn the new things that he does and likes in certain situations. One thing I know about Brian and Willie Martinez is they are really good at trying to force you to do things you just don’t like to do. A lot of coaches preach that, but not many of them can figure out a way to do it. I’ve always had a lot of respect for their ability – especially as a tandem – to figure out what you like to do best and make you do something that you’re a little uncomfortable doing. That’s maybe one thing I know about them. I think most people try to do that, but they do a very good job of that.”

On Auburn’s season…

“I think the big thing is just our league itself. There is truly a very, very fine line between winning and losing. There are a lot of good teams in our league in my opinion that still might have a losing record in league play. You lose some close games and sometimes you win the close games. Sometimes you get a break here or there and you grab momentum, and it serves you well for the rest of the year, and sometimes you don’t ever find it. Obviously I’ve been coaching going into 12 years now, and it is a very fine line. Even the year we went 6-7, how much of a different team did we have than some of the teams that might have gone 10-2? Probably not a whole lot different. Not making a play here or making a bad decision there as a coach or the other team just making a play that day. It’s not all that mind-boggling to me because it’s just a really tough league.”

On whether people don’t appreciate how quickly things can turn from good to bad or bad to good…

“It’s a business where there’s a lot of people who are very passionate about what we do. Everybody knows football to a certain degree, but not everybody understands exactly what it takes to put a team together and to put a game plan together and try to get players in the right frame of mind to play every single week, and even as players to try to do it themselves. We’re all human and there are ups and downs. There are probably more variables in the college game than in the pro game because we are dealing with young people. It’s kind of exciting. It is kind of a roller coaster, and sometimes you do go up and down, and you just don’t know how close you might be to having a really good football team if you’re just patient for one more year. I think a lot of teams go backwards because they make changes when maybe they are on the verge of something good happening and then if you make change and you start over again, it’s hard for all the cumulative reps that you’ve had to all of sudden blossom. I would imagine it’s hard to try to figure out as a decision maker if that team is close or if they are not.”

On how he views the ups and downs of college football as a coach…

“I just think you know it’s part of the business. You just understand that’s the way it is and that’s why you have to keep believing in what you do. You have to keep grinding. You have to keep evaluating what you do, because if you need to make change, you need to make change. If you need to recruit differently or train differently in the offseason or try to do something different schematically, you have to always be looking for ways to get better on a yearly basis. But I think if you just totally abandon what you believe in and try to be something you’re not, then you’re done.”

On what it would mean to get back to the SEC Championship Game…

“I look at everything on a year-to-year basis. This is this season, what is our goal, what do I think we can accomplish? What kind of a team can we become? If we make it in 2012, then we accomplish what we set out to do in 2012. Have we reached our full potential as a team yet? I don’t know. I think at times we’ve seen the best of what we can do offensively and defensively and maybe even in kicking. But have we done it all on the same day? Not very often, and that’s still a goal for us to try to get to a point where everybody can play their best week in and week out.”

On Missouri and Texas A&M and the way they have fit in the SEC…

“I think they are great additions to the league. I remember as a first time head coach, but also first time in the league, I really didn’t know for sure what to think about what was going to happen. I remember getting to know Georgia, but I didn’t know how we were going to compare to the rest of the league. If I had that same talent base at Georgia in the SEC I could have had a pretty good idea what we could have done, but I had no clue what could happen in our league. When the first season was over (in 2001), we went 5-3 and there were two games that we could have won. If we had won one or two of those games we might have been in the SEC Championship Game. I’m sure both of those teams are saying we can compete in this league and why not us? I think it helps to live through it one time.”