FOOTBALL
Coach Mark Richt and a delegation of football players met with the media during the Dawgs’ weekly press luncheon on Tuesday afternoon. They offered the following comments:
Coach Mark Richt
On Aaron Murray handling the news regarding his father’s health…
“Sometimes you just have to take off and forget about football, and that was one of those times. I think the family had some news before they told him, and they knew he’d have some time to come see family after the operation. As far as the timing, it was something they could time out in the open date, being a sports family like they are.”
On the experience that the offensive line gained against South Carolina…
“Anytime you play a game and you don’t have the success that you hope for, especially when we were rolling right along with running the ball and protecting well enough to put some good numbers up offensively, it’s disappointing. Then they (the offensive line) ran into a greater challenge and didn’t have as much success, so they had to look in the mirror, and they realize they still have a ways to go and need to get better. After a rough day, most guys want to come back and prove that they’re better than what they showed in the last one.”
On the play of Kenarious Gates…
“He’s done pretty well. We think he’s our best left tackle right now, no doubt about that. I think he’s done a good job. I don’t know (if he’ll stay at left tackle next year), so I wouldn’t say that he has nailed it down for the rest of his career.”
On the play of Malcolm Mitchell this season…
“Malcolm is playing more offense obviously, and getting more opportunities. He’s still getting more reps defensively. Today the majority of his practice will be defense, although he will get some offensive snaps today. Certain things are being installed, and we want to keep him up to speed offensively in case we have some issues with injuries because we don’t want to throw a brand new freshman in there. He’s very good on the kickoff return, although we think Todd Gurley is pretty good, too. Gurley can do it, as well, but Malcolm will start the game there.”
Quarterback Aaron Murray
On Kentucky’s young team…
“Their young players are talented and capable of making plays, but experience is big in SEC games. The more experience you have, the more comfortable you feel out there. We just need to be ready for whoever they put out there. We know they’ll be ready defensively, so we need to make sure we’re hitting on all cylinders.”
On the bye week…
“Obviously it’s great to have the bye week to get your body feeling better, but I kind of wish we had a game this past week just to get the bad taste out of our mouth from the South Carolina loss. We tried not to be sitting around thinking about it for two weeks – we put that game behind us and we know this is an extremely important stretch for us if we want to reach our goals. We need to win our next six games.”
Wide Receiver Marlon Brown
On Kentucky’s young defense…
“I feel like from playing in this league for a few years our team knows what to expect in these games and has the experience. It’s tough for a freshman at any position to step in there, but Kentucky’s players are doing it so we’ll see on Saturday.”
On Michael Bennett’s absence…
“We didn’t get a good chance to see how much we miss him vs. South Carolina because it wasn’t a big passing day for us overall. I think we’ll be fine as receivers – we’ve got guys with a lot of experience. Me, Malcolm Mitchell, Tavarres King, Rantavious Wooten, we’ve all got experience.”
On playing on the road again…
“Playing on the road in the SEC is always tough. We’ll need to keep focused and we’ll be alright.”
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