Tuesday Press Conference–Part 2

FOOTBALL

Coach Mark Richt

On Georgia’s special teams…

Early in the year we were doing some things fundamentally extremely well. Then it got especially sloppy in this last ballgame. Guys were just not avoiding blocks in the right direction. If everybody avoids blocks properly, then you’ve got all your gaps taken care of. You have guys just kind of ad-libbing, then you get these creases. So that’s part of it, but also personnel. We are challenging a lot of the guys who play more scrimmage downs to get involved in more than just the opening kickoff. I think everybody can understand how crucial that that play is, so there will be other guys involved personnel-wise. We have to kick the ball in such a way that there is enough hang time to get everybody down there too.

We have some true freshmen on there. It’s the same bunch of guys that really did a fantastic job earlier in the year. A lot of it became fundamental. Are you running as hard as you should be? The main thing was are you avoiding blocks properly. The number one fundamental of that team is the number one thing we work on. For whatever reason, a few guys decided they would avoid any way they felt like. We’ll get that straight.

On Aaron Murray…

He missed a couple, but it was tighter coverage than we had experienced all year long. The margin for error is less. Give credit to Florida and their defensive backs and safeties. I thought they did a nice job. We knew going in that’s what they’d do. We didn’t think for a minute they were going to change their philosophy. We knew we’d have to make catches in tight coverage. We’ve been getting guys more open than we did in that ballgame, but when you are dealing with zone coverages and concepts, if you have good concepts you are going to get people open. When you play man coverage, no matter what the concepts are, there is usually going to be somebody sticking with them. The ball has to be placed in a shorter window.

On Hutson Mason's progression at quarterback…

I think Hutson is progressing extremely well. He treats practice like a game, and he functions very well. He does a great job.

On if the third spot in the tailback rotation is open for competition…

Yeah. It's open season. It sure is.

On offensive line backups…

I would say first guy in is still David Andrews. Right now, hopefully none of this happens, but if we lost a tackle it would probably be Kenarious Gates. If Gates goes to tackle, you got to insert somebody so you probably insert David. You put David at center or you put him at guard. I'm not sure where we would put him. He could go either spot. Of course, Ben Jones could fill in at the guard. If a guard left, David could come in at guard or center, same thing. At one time I think Gates was out and Dallas Lee was in, and if a tackle went out at that point, we probably would have put Ben Jones at tackle. With Gates back in, we think he could handle that.

Safety Shawn Williams

On returning home…

It’s been awhile since have played a game at home, but I have been focusing on just getting ready for games. I’m excited to get back and play in front of the home crowd.

On the play of the young players…

We have a lot of players who have stepped up and made plays for us this season. Mike Gilliard isn’t a young player, but is getting an opportunity to play, is playing really good football right now. Amarlo Herrara is another guy who stepped up and played well when we had some injuries to the linebacking corps.

On New Mexico State…

They are a very athletic team. They have a playmaker at every position it seems like. The quarterback has a strong arm and knows how to get the ball to his receivers. I think they have a whole bunch of guys on the team that could play in the SEC. They pass a lot and I hope to be able to get my hands on a ball or two and come up with some big plays.

Defensive End DeAngelo Tyson

On beating Florida…

It was a great win for the team and meant a lot to the senior class. We haven’t beaten Florida since we’ve been here and we didn’t want to leave without beating them. I think every senior on our team left everything out on the field Saturday night. It was a great feeling afterwards, but we have to keep pushing, keep winning games if we want to reach out goals, which is to make it to the Georgia Dome.

On playing at home…

It’s very exciting to return home and play in Sanford Stadium. It’s hard to win on the road, especially in the SEC, because of the noise in the stadium. You just have to prepare for that and be tough. It feels good coming back to 85,000 fans that are yelling at the other time instead of you. Hopefully, we will continue to do what we do and play well.

On playing New Mexico State…

We can’t take New Mexico State lightly. They are just like any other team we’ve played this season. We’re going to prepare and compete like it’s the biggest game of the season. We’re on a good streak right now and can’t slip up if we want to reach our goals.

Lady Dawgs Win Exhibition Game

BASKETBALL

Junior forwards Jasmine Hassell and Anne Marie Armstrong led Georgia offensively with 15 and 12 points, respectively, as the No. 13 Lady Dawgs beat the West Georgia Wolves, 72-40, Tuesday evening at Stegeman Coliseum.

Hassell and Armstrong combined to make 13-of-20 attempts from the floor in pacing the Lady Dawgs.

Sophomore Khaalidah Miller added nine points and six rebounds. Junior Tamika Willis led Georgia on the boards, with eight rebounds, five of which came in the first half.

“It’s a start," said coach Andy Landers. "We’ve got to play harder, longer; we’ve got to play with greater intensity; we’ve got to execute our defensive fundamentals much better than we are. Offensively we are where we are, but I’m not really concerned about that; we’ll get better as we go along."

The Lady Dawgs used a 12-2 early run in the first half and never looked back. In addition, the Lady Dawgs held the Wolves to just six points in the last 12:25 of the opening period.

Freshman Erika Ford connected on 4-of-4 from the line in the first half and followed that up with four more points, to end up with eight points and two assists. Fellow freshman Krista Donald was 2-for-3 and ended the night with six points.

“I was very pleased with the new players," continued Landers. "I thought they brought energy and played well.”

The second half was similar to the first, as Georgia held West Georgia to 25.8 percent from the floor.

“We rebounded the ball well, turned them over and scored off of turnovers; those things are all positives," said Landers. "I thought when we ran with the ball, we were at our best and we were able to get our best shots.”

The Lady Dawgs open the 2011-12 regular season next Friday, Nov. 11, vs. TCU. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m. at Stegeman Coliseum. The game will be immediately followed by the Georgia men's basketball team against Wofford.

The Lady Dawgs were also ranked No. 12 in the USA Today Coaches poll, which was released earlier Tuesday.

Jones Named National Player Of The Week

FOOTBALL

Georgia redshirt sophomore Jarvis Jones was named the FWAA/Bronko Nagurski National Player of the Week on Tuesday, adding to his accolades following his performance in the victory over Florida.

Jones will be added to the 2011 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List. The Nagurski Trophy will be presented to the best defensive player in college football on December 12th by the FWAA and the Charlotte Touchdown Club at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte. The keynote address will be given by coach Mark Richt. Five finalists for the Nagurski Trophy will be announced on Nov. 17.

Each week during the 2011 season the FWAA All-American Committee has selected a national defensive player of the week from nominations made by the 11 Division I Bowl Subdivision Conferences and major independents.

Jones, an outside linebacker, had already been named the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week, the Southeastern Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Week, Rivals.com SEC Player of the Week and the College Football Performance Awards National Player of the Week earlier in the week.

A 6-3, 241-pound native of Columbus, Jones finished with four sacks for minus 27 yards and five total tackles to go along with a forced fumble during his team’s six consecutive win. His four sacks rank in a tie for second most in a game in school history, and the most since Charles Grant had four versus Auburn in 2001. Jones is only the fifth Dawg in school history to record at least four sacks in a contest.

Jones leads the SEC with eight sacks in eight games and is ranked fifth nationally. He helped anchor a defense that held the Gators to minus 19 yards rushing and only a single offensive touchdown. In fact, Georgia’s defense has allowed just six touchdowns in the past 24 quarters.

Tuesday Press Conference–Part 1

FOOTBALL

Coach Mark Richt

Note: The suspensions of Isaiah Crowell, Carlton Thomas and Ken Malcome were announced after the press conference.

Opening Statement...

We have our work cut out for us. It’s kind of nice to turn the film on and know that you aren’t going to have to make up a bunch of stuff for your team to get excited about, knowing that we are in for a really hard-fought battle. We’re looking forward to that. We’re looking forward to being home. We haven’t been home in a while. It’s been about five weeks or so. We are looking forward to seeing our fans. I know our players will be enjoying the Dawg Walk.

On the availability of several players dealing with injuries…

Isaiah Crowell is healthy. Richard Samuel had surgery this morning on his ankle just to stabilize his injury. It will probably not slow down his rehab. It actually will speed up his rehab. Sometimes you can take a ligament, put it back in place, put a pin in there to hold it in place, and it tends to be stable enough to rehab where sometimes you’ll sit there and wait for that thing to heal on its own and you have to stay off it longer. We think it will allow us to accelerate his rehab. The surgery, Ron Courson felt, was real profitable. It was debatable on whether it could have been non-op or not, but this will absolutely stabilize it immediately and allow him to get stronger quicker. It’s a very stable surgery. We don’t know when he’ll be back, but obviously it won’t be anytime soon. I would say a minimum of four weeks.

Dallas Lee broke his leg in a couple of spots; no need for surgery there. He’s four to six weeks also. Kenarious Gates went in there and played pretty well, actually. I’d say the chance of Malcolm Mitchell playing this week would be close to zero. I don’t think Malcolm will play.

It’s sad for all of them really. Richard really had probably his finest performance in a really big game. For it to happen on the last play was sad for him. Just reading his comments about his goal of wanting to help the team win, that’s why he moved to running back because he felt like he could help the team win. We felt like he’s been helping us win all along, but for him personally, he felt like he finally made a significant contribution to this team in a big game and helped us win. He reached that goal in this particular game. I think it’s been every game he’s helped us win. Now he has to wait a little while to go do it again. I’m just real pleased with his effort. Actually, Richard was named captain for this game, so he may crutch out there and flip the coin. Our captains will be Ben Jones, Richard Samuel, DeAngelo Tyson and Jarvis Jones.

On the attitude of the team since the win over Florida…

We had our first team meeting when I went over honor roll. So we were still talking about the last game we played. That’s kind of the final thing we do when it comes to talking about a game before we turn the page to the next one. We enjoyed the moment as we did our honor roll for that game. We’ll have to watch practice today, but I felt like at practice everybody was focused on their job getting ready for the next one.

On Ken Malcome…

Ken is healthy. He pretty much knows what to do.

On Rhett McGowan…

Rhett has been practicing well for a long time. He’s really one of the better guys we have against press coverage. He just has a knack for getting some separation. He’s not a burner, but getting off a jam is at least half the battle when a guy is coming up and pressing you. He has had a knack of doing that all throughout his career here, so we felt comfortable enough to get him in the game and throw the ball to him. He did a great job. He separated well, he caught the ball, he secured it immediately.

On Georgia’s receivers…

I thought we played a really good fundamental football game against that type of coverage. Florida’s guys did cover us tight. I think it was obvious to most people watching it, when our guys did catch the ball they were well-covered. But when you are covered well you have to catch the ball at the high point. Chris Conley at the end of the game, I saw it from across the field and I was impressed with it. Then when I watched TV copy, he did everything right. He ran his route properly, he located the ball, he stopped and jumped and caught it at the high point, he caught it strong and got it immediately to his body to secure it.

Marlon Brown catches the ball in traffic and he secures the ball and is able to grind another two yards to get a first down. Tavarres King’s catch was really fantastic as well as Michael Bennett’s catch. Michael, not only did he catch it, he had to go full speed, turn in the air, elevate to get it, then at the bottom of it he had to really wrestle it away, because that official wasn’t going to say touchdown until he knew he came out with that ball. He did a beautiful job of that, so props to Coach Tony Ball and the job he’s done of teaching those guys the fundamentals. He works hard on those things. Just about all the things you teach in camp over and over all of a sudden keep coming to fruition more than one time in crucial moments in a big game. That was outstanding.

Quarterback Aaron Murray

On Jarvis Jones…

He’s a very outspoken guy. He keeps it lively, he’s fun to be around and he’s playing his tail off right now. Last year when he was on the scout team, he was giving us all kinds of trouble. We would be in there and Ben Jones would say ‘Man, we’re facing the best linebacker we’ll face all year with him on the scout team.’ He really gave us trouble; when you’re supposed to be completing every pass and making every run, he’s in there disrupting everything. I know he worked extremely hard in the off-season to learn his position because he didn’t know if he was going to be outside or inside. Like I said, he’s worked extremely hard and it’s paying off; you can see the results.

On the receiving corps…

Obviously you want more depth, especially since we ran over 80 plays this past weekend. With our no huddle and running plays a lot, we use the down field play a lot; a lot of teams don’t throw the ball down field as much as we do. That can wear you out. I think when it comes to conditioning it’s always nice to have a few more receivers to mix in and out so guys can go full speed. When it comes to talent we might not have a lot of guys, but the talent is there. We have tons of guys who have been making plays all year. We have guys who have been stepping up and playing positions that maybe they weren’t used to or expecting to play and just going out there and making plays for us.

Wide Receiver Chris Conley

On the plays becoming more natural as the season goes on…

Yes, I think that the more that you see it and the more that you play and practice and game speed, it makes it easier for you to recognize tendencies. A lot of defenses do some similar things and after watching a lot of film, it’s really easy to pick up on their body language.

On focusing on New Mexico State…

I think this week, the coaches are really focusing on us again. They’re making sure the players aren’t looking forward to any other games; right now we’re worried about New Mexico State. That is the biggest thing on our plate right now and that is the only thing we are focusing on. We’re not looking forward to any other games down the road.

On the talent in the receiving corps…

All the guys were sort of upset that when Malcolm was out there was a fear that our passing game would drop off. We think that our receiving corps is very talented and each of the guys has different attributes. So when Malcolm wasn’t able to go, we felt like there were other guys who could step up and contribute. We’re hoping for a speedy recovery for him and to have him back because his skills add to the group too.

Three Running Backs Suspended

FOOTBALL

Three University of Georgia running backs have been suspended for Saturday’s game with New Mexico State for violation of team policies according to coach Mark Richt.

Junior Carlton Thomas, freshman Isaiah Crowell, and redshirt freshman Ken Malcome will serve one-game suspensions on Saturday.

”We have certain standards in all that we do and their actions do not reflect the Georgia way,” said Richt. “They will serve their suspensions, learn a lesson and I’m sure be better men for it.”

Redshirt junior Richard Samuel had surgery Tuesday on his injured ankle and will miss 4 to 6 weeks.

The suspensions and injury to Samuel will leave the Dawgs with a couple of choices at running back for Saturday’s game.

Former walk-on redshirt sophomore Brandon Harton (5-6, 174) was awarded a scholarship during the summer based on his spring and fall camp performance. Unless the staff moves someone from another position, he will be the likely starter against New Mexico State.

Senior Wes Van Dyk had one carry against Coastal Carolina, he was awarded a scholarship this summer for the work he did during the summer workout program, he may get more than one this week.

Fullbacks Bruce Figgins and Zander Ogletree have not carried the ball this season, but Ogletree may see action at tailback Saturday.

The Dawgs opened as a 34 1/2 point favorite over the Aggies.