Tuesday Press Conference

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

Opening Statement…

“We have Alabama this week, one of the best teams in the country, obviously. The last five years they’ve won 59 games. That’s the most in the history of the SEC, and the last four years they’ve won 48 games. That’s just one off of the NCAA mark in that period of time. If they beat us they would tie it, and if they win the next game they would break the national record. They’re just at a time where they’re dominating college football really. So we have a lot of respect for them obviously. Coach Nick Saban has done a wonderful job there, no doubt.”

“They’re just a very complete football team, a very solid football team, a team that rarely loses. We know we have our work cut out for us. Our guys are excited about the opportunity to compete with them, and we’re working hard as a staff, getting our plan together. Yesterday was the only practice we had so far, but they came out with good energy and Coach Joe Tereshinski said they got in a good lift, so today will be a big day to put the pads on and do the physical part of the preparation we have to get done.”

On whether he senses a more confident team than last year’s team entering the SEC Championship…

“I think last year after 6-7 the year before and 0-2 to start, we were just fighting for our lives. We had won 10 in a row, and we were able to win the Eastern Division after going down that opening game. It was a cause for celebration. This year we definitely celebrated those things. They are very important to us. Winning the East is a big deal, and beating Georgia Tech is always a big deal to us, so we celebrated those things. I think they’re hungry for some more, and we just want to have a better performance than we had a year ago in Atlanta. I think the celebration wasn’t quite as hard as it was a year ago.”

On Georgia over the years and its similarities to Alabama…

“We really haven’t changed much offensively. We actually have done a lot more up-tempo stuff. I don’t think Alabama is really interested in trying to go that up-tempo. As far as the pro-style type that we’ve had, it’s really what we’ve been doing for a while. What is different is when I hired Todd Grantham. If we go back to that time, I wasn’t necessarily looking for a 3-4 guy or a 4-3 guy. I was just trying to find the best man for the job, and I thought Todd was that guy. As it turned out, it’s very similar to what Alabama does defensively. I think it’s probably more coincidence than anything, but Todd has certainly done a great job. I don’t think the 3-4 scheme is the reason why we are having success as much as we have the right coaches and the right players performing well. I think you could be a 4-3. There are a lot of different ways to line up defensively, and a lot of teams are having a lot of success. I wouldn’t say LSU is a 3-4. When they start out they’re more of a 4-3 look, and they’re pretty good. South Carolina is the same way. It just so happened that Todd was a 3-4 guy and I felt like he was just the best man for the job.”

On coaching hires…

“I didn’t hire Todd Grantham because he worked for Nick Saban 20 years ago. He did work for him and there’s some influence there, but Todd had a lot of experience. Stacy Searels was not directly from Coach Saban because he was with Les Miles at the time. When I hired Coach Searels, I watched the film of LSU’s offensive line and I felt like they were the best line in our league. I felt like they were the best-coached bunch. It wasn’t like I had to get a guy that had that experience. There’s a bunch of good coaches out there.”

On whether he can take anything away from Texas A&M’s game against Alabama…

“I don’t know if it was the tempo they had problems with as much as Johnny Manziel. He creates problems for everybody because he can scramble like he can. If you come at him too hard you create these seams and he takes off. You just can’t account for that. If you decide to contain him in the pocket, then you aren’t rushing quite as hard, so he’s standing there holding the ball a while. I think it changes the mindset of defenses as to how they’re used to playing the game. I think that was probably more problematic. Not to say the tempo wasn’t an issue as well, but if you had to say the one factor I’d say it would be Johnny Manziel.”

On Georgia’s football program in the 1980s and what it means to him today…

“When I first came to Georgia I was a first-year head coach and I was just hoping to survive. I was hoping to do a good job, and I felt like the Lord was leading me to this opportunity, and my wife and I took it in faith. We just started trying to do things that in a way we hoped would be able to sustain itself over time. I felt like Georgia had all the resources, the fan base, the passion, the administration, facilities, the talent base in the state of Georgia. I thought it had all the ingredients to be one of the best - if not the best -teams in the country. I really didn’t know a lot of history. I knew about the Herschel Walker era, the Vince Dooley era and the national championship of 1980. I was surprised to hear it had been 20 years since Georgia had won the Southeastern Conference, but I found that out after I got here. My goal really has been to try to on a daily basis do the best job I can do. We have a lot of people excited about the possibilities of what’s happening right now, but that’s something that I can’t really focus on right now. It’s fun for the fans, but right now I have to keep my vision on the things I can control.”

On comparing the current Georgia team to UGA squads of the past…

“I think we’re probably more similar to the 2002 team. I felt like as the season went on that year, we just got better and better. I thought we slowly improved as we went, and we weren’t very apt to shoot ourselves in the foot. We seemed to be the kind of team that we were going to make somebody beat us. I don’t know what’s going to happen Saturday, but that’s kind of the direction we’ve gone.”

On his relationship with Nick Saban and the similarities of what Alabama is doing now compared to when Georgia faced LSU under Saban…

“I have a lot of respect for Coach Saban. I think there is a mutual respect among all the coaches in the league. We know everybody has a tough job, and we know it’s hard to win in this league. He’s won more than anybody really the last few years. You have to have a lot of respect for that. I don’t know if any of us have a lot of time to get to know each other on a personal level, but I think we all respect each other very much.

“I guess we’ve played five times in the past – three at LSU and two at Alabama. I think they’ve changed a little bit. Back in the LSU days when we were playing them, I think defensively they were more apt to blitz and pressure people, play press coverage and maybe not as much help on the back end. Now they tend to line up a little more often in more of a two shell defensive look, and they’ll play coverage a little more. They put the pressure on by having four beasts up front that they don’t really need to blitz with. I think they are a little bit more apt to play coverage than they did in the past. I think in the past they’d try to bring one more than you could block and try to knock the quarterback out and tell their DBs to lock up and take care of business. I think they’ve changed just a little bit in that way. Offensively, I think they’ve always been very serious about running the football, protecting the ball and playing great special teams, defense, running the ball physically and wearing people down. I don’t think that’s changed.”

On whether this season has been rewarding…

“When we win I’m thankful. I don’t get too carried away with ‘my this or my that.’ I do enjoy coaching and enjoy competing and winning as much as anybody, but I do enjoy watching the players celebrate victories and the coaching staff do the job they’re doing. Quite frankly our coaches are doing a great job. This staff has just been phenomenal. I’m trying to manage the big picture, and there are certain things that a head coach has to do, but as far as the X’s and O’s, I still get involved to a certain degree offensively. I’ll have some thoughts about defense or special teams, but the reality is this coaching staff is really taking care of business right now, and I’m really pleased to see that for them too.

“My job is to get everybody in position to win. That’s how I see it. My job is to get the coaches and players and everybody involved in this program in position to do their job the best they can do it so we can win. It’s different than the day I got here. I was coaching quarterbacks and offensive coordinator and play-caller, so that role as changed over the years. It’s challenging nonetheless. Of course recruiting is a huge part of this entire picture too, so to manage everything that had to be managed in the right way and get everybody in position to have the freedom to go coach and play and do their thing, that’s a challenge as well.”

On the play-off type aspect of this game…

“It’s different. I guess technically we don’t know for certain, but everybody’s pretty much saying that the winner is going to go play for the national championship, so that certainly adds something to it. I said it the other day that the Southeastern Conference Championship to me stands alone as something that’s really, really special. Just look at our game, the ticket sales, and the people trying to get tickets. I was listening to the radio on the way in and somebody said that the cost of these tickets rival any BCS National Championship game. There’s something about our league that’s special. If you win the Southeastern Conference, you’ve really done something special, and if you win the East, you’ve done something special in my opinion. I think our fans really understand that and embrace that. When I came from Florida State to Georgia, that’s one of the things that I learned. Every victory is precious in this league, and the style points don’t really matter all that much. Just win. Whereas before when I was at Florida State, we were wanting to win, but we wanted to win with a certain flair or a certain style. At Georgia I realized really fast that it doesn’t matter if you have style points or not. Just win. This league is so competitive on all levels, so it’s just fun to be a part of.”

On the importance of the SEC Championship game over the years…

“I don’t think the championship game has changed much since I’ve been here. I think it’s a huge game. It’s a monster game. It’s a sellout, and people are always fighting to get tickets. It’s a game that I think everybody across the country wants to watch. Of course, this game in particular because everybody’s sitting there saying that the winner is going to go play for the national championship. Everybody already knows Notre Dame is in. I think there will be a different focus maybe nationally even more so than what we normally get, but what we normally get is pretty good. I’m sure that maybe there will be a little bit more interest in this one than in some of the ones in the past. The last six or seven years, the winner of this game has gone on to play for the national championship, so it’s not all that new.”

On the future four-team playoff format…

“I’ll say this. I’m not sure of the format. I would say that if there is a four-team playoff and each league can only have one team in it, I don’t think I would like that as much as the format now. But if you’re allowed to have at least two teams in it, I think it would be good.”