Head Coach Mark Richt
Opening Statement…
“Hugh Freeze has got them going there at Ole Miss. He’s
doing a great job. They’re really excited right now, and they’re winning. They
went 16 games in a row and didn’t win a conference game, and then they came
very close to beating Texas A&M. I know they had them 27-17 at one time,
and the second half looked like they were going to win that one and ended up
not winning it. It was kind of a heartbreaking loss for them, but then they ended
up winning the next two league games. They’re just doing it in great fashion.
Their offense is really high tempo and very productive. They’ve already scored
more points, had more first downs, had more touchdowns, more passing yards and
just about every stat that you could have. They’ve had more of that now in
eight games than they had all of last season, so it’s very impressive.”
“They just have a really good offensive package and a good
scheme. It’s a challenging, balanced attack. Like I said before, they’re very
high tempo and you have to get lined up in a hurry when you play these guys.
They’ll sub some, but to go as fast as they go, they’re doing it without doing
a lot of subbing at times. Our biggest challenge is just going to be to line up
and get ready because they’ve caught a lot of people not being ready and
they’ve taken advantage of that.”
“On defense, they went with the youth movement. They’re
playing a lot of young players, but with that, there’s a lot of energy and
enthusiasm. They’re flying around hitting people, and they’re really gaining a
lot of confidence in my opinion. I think their whole team is gaining a lot of
confidence. They’re 5-3, so they’re one game away from a bowl, and they haven’t
played in a bowl since 2009 I think. Coach (Freeze) has got them believing.”
“What I see is a team that has a brand new head coach that’s
brought a lot of energy to the program. A lot of times, you just never know how
close you are to winning and breaking through and having success. When you
watched them play Alabama, they played Alabama pretty darn good. I think they
might have had the best defensive performance against Alabama all year. When
you watch that film, you know they can run and play with the big boys, and they
did it at Alabama. You could see that they were getting better and better, and
then they go ahead and beat Auburn and get their first SEC victory in a while.
Then they actually go to Arkansas and win one there. It was a tight game, and a
great ballgame. They also showed me that defensively they can play man coverage
with a really good passing attack because we know Arkansas has a very good
attack and they did a very good job of doing that and mixing coverages to try to make things confusing. So I’m very
impressed with them. I know it’s going to be a heck of a ballgame. I’m glad
that we’re going to be at home. I’m glad that we’re going to have our fan base
there and our students there and the Redcoat Band, and everybody else that’s
going to be there. We haven’t been home in awhile. We haven’t been home the
entire month of October, so we’re happy to be home.”
On Ole Miss’
philosophy regarding snapping the ball…
“If you have 11 guys that can go 15 plays in a row, you
don’t have to slow down. Now I don’t know if anybody’s quite doing that, but if
you don’t substitute on offense, you can go as fast as you want to go. Those
officials now are getting off the ball and letting you play. If you sub
anybody, even a running back for a running back, it doesn’t have to be going
from three receivers to two receivers, but if you make any substitution
whatsoever, you’ll see those officials out there holding everything to see if
that defense is going to sub. If they do, they’ll stay on top of that ball long
enough for the defense to sub. They really don’t give the defense very long.
Once they’re on the field, it’s not long before they walk away. So you’re
barely on the field getting the call and trying to get lined up fast enough to
play defense. A lot of times you’re not even in the stance. So yeah, that’s
been problematic for defensive teams to try to keep up with that.”
On how quickly Ole
Miss snaps the ball…
“They snap it faster than we do. We have times where we’ll
go fast, but we have times obviously where we’ll try to make it look like we’re
going to go fast and then we’ll freeze our count to try to see what they’re in,
and then we’ll try to make the call from there. It becomes a little bit of a
guessing game at time, but we don’t go as fast as they go.”
On whether he’s been
tempted to go no-huddle offensively…
“Yes and no, that’s part of the reason why we’re doing as
much as we’re doing right now, because we do try and take advantage of that
rule. I think there are different philosophies. If you are going to say our
main goal is speed, tempo, then you are going to do very little motions, very
little formation, the least amount of personnel
grouping and changing. If you sub fast and you get up on the ball and you are
ready to go, it still creates problems, because defensive coaches want to match
personnel with your personnel. Even if you are doing that and the officials are
holding their arms out, it’s still faster than they want to operate. We have a
little bit of a blend of two philosophies when it comes to no-huddle, but we
can go as fast as we want. We also can quickly make substitutions, personnel
grouping changes, which also creates problems. It slows you down the more you
motion and shift and change personnel, but it does create some issues for the
defense. We do a little bit of both.”
On whether something
changed last week with Georgia’s defense…
“That’s a good question. You ought to write a story about
that, maybe make everybody mad. That would be nice. I’m serious, I don’t know. I
don’t know what they are going to do this week. I hope they play like they did
this past week. I hope we continue to get after it with that kind of emotion
and heartbeat.”
On his conversation
with John Jenkins at the end of the Florida game…
“I won’t say what it was about, but I remember. It was a
good thing. Sometimes I’ll say some things to the team, and I’ll even forget
that I said it to them. Then they’ll bring it up after the game. It was one of
those kinds of conversations.”
On his faith in Aaron Murray…
“Aaron is the guy, period. Aaron is the guy.”
On Georgia’s running
backs being open in the passing game…
“He could have checked it down a couple of times, I don’t
think there is any doubt about that. He could have checked it down.”
On Todd Gurley’s game
against Florida…
“I thought it was probably underrated as far as what people
talked about at the end of the game. There were so many things to talk about in
that game. I thought it was a tremendous performance, that many carries against
that physical of a defense. To average 4.4 (yards per carry) and not really
have a long run, that was a heck of a game, and his ball security was
tremendous. I think early in the game he got hit pretty good.
Something was bothering him. It wasn’t an injury that kept him out, obviously,
but he got stung pretty good early on and didn’t say much about it. He just
kept going.”
On Aaron Murray’s
second half against Florida…
“We talked a little bit about what it means to be soft
position-by-position. I guess it was the day of the game. One of the things we
talked about at quarterback was you’re soft if you can’t get knocked down a
couple of times and get back up and trust your protection and throw strikes. I
didn’t say throw picks, but that’s the same kind of thing. You’d rather get
sacked than throw a pick. That’s a test of a guy’s toughness at the quarterback
position. Can he have some bad plays and then shake it off and go make some
plays that will help you win the game at the end? I thought he showed real
outstanding mental toughness in that area. I thought Coach (Mike) Bobo did a good
job of not quitting on the guy.”
On Georgia’s offensive
line…
“I thought the line blocked well. I won’t say it was any
kind of a dominating performance, but I thought they blocked well. I thought we
pass protected a little bit better than maybe I thought we would. I thought the
run blocking was what I would hope for, just a battle, creating a little space
here and there and having a back that would stick it on in there. Some of our
four, five, six, seven yard runs were blocked as well as they could be blocked,
and their safeties came up and made the hit. I don’t know how many times their
safety was the initial hit man when he was an unblocked player just because of
the numbers. There were quite a few times we stuck a hat on everybody and
created space and got him to the safety, but their safeties were outstanding at
coming up and making tackles. Both are very physical guys and very sure
tacklers. It was one of those kinds of games.”
On Jarvis Jones and
causing fumbles…
“The fumble thing was huge. We talk about it so much as
coaches and you have stats to back it up. It’s amazing how much time we spend
on offense, defense and special teams – so much time – but ball
security is the number one stat besides the score as far as deciding who wins
and who loses. Jarvis has an awareness about him.
First of all, when you hustle you have a chance to make plays, just like that
last fumble. If he’s not hustling, he’s not making that play. But because he’s
hustling, he’s turning and running when they play is already past him, he sees
the ball, he sees the guy, but the guy doesn’t see him. Here’s a guy from
Florida trying to make a great play, and he’s about to make a great play, but
because Jarvis hustled and was in position to see the ball as he diving, it’s
hard to keep the ball tight when you’re airborne. Instead of just going to
tackle the guy, he rakes the ball out of there. (David) Pollack was a guy who
had a knack for that. There are just certain guys who not only want the sack,
but they want the ball out.”
On the Ole Miss-Texas
game…
“That game was so long ago, it’s not the same Ole Miss
defense in my opinion. There are some things that you might could
learn as far as some things schematically that they did, but they didn’t play
that day like they’re playing now defensively. They’re playing harder, they’re
playing faster, they’re believing more and they were
playing a bunch of young guys. Those guys are not as young as they were. Even
our freshmen, they’ve played seven or eight ballgames now, so they’re not quite
the rookies they were early in the year. They’ve gained enough experience to
not let some of the things that happened to them early on happen to them now.
Texas absolutely had a great game against them, points and yards, but I don’t
see the same defense.”
On whether he would
favor allowing players to leave for the NFL before three years in college…
“I’m not in charge of all those rules, and I really don’t
have an opinion on it right now. I’d have to think it through before I start
spouting something out.”
On David Andrews’
status for Saturday and who would play if Andrews cannot…
“We think he’ll play. We don’t think we have to worry about
that, but if something happened to David I’m not sure what we would do. It
probably would be (Chris) Burnette. I think early in
the year that would have been the answer, and since we’ve played a lot more
ball I don’t know if we would change our mind. I don’t know if we would put
(Preston) Mobley in there, but I think it would be Burnette.
We do think David is going to play.”
On Malcolm Mitchell’s
contributions to the offense…
“It’s helped us a lot, obviously. He’s still practicing some
with the defense. He’s still meeting some with the defense. He’s trying to stay
up to speed as much as possible in case of an emergency on defense. So he’s not
offense in every meeting and every period of practice, but he’s mostly offense.
We’re getting him going again, and having him more in tune to what we’re doing
and getting the rust off – there was a little rust on the guy at the
receiver position, but I think he is shaking most of it off and doing some of
the things fundamentally that make you a good receiver. That touchdown, it
seems pretty simple, but not many guys will run it all the way to eight yards.
It’s a fade-stop type play where you have to run the exact yardage and you have
to make it look like you’re going deep and hit the brakes, have a sudden stop
and get your hands ready to snatch it. It’s not that easy to do. It takes time
and reps. Of course (Aaron Murray) had to get it out early. There was a guy
coming free. The goal is the throw the ball before they get their eyes around,
so the ball is on the way and you get your eyes around. You saw it happen to (Tavarres King) one time. It wasn’t the same play, but it
was the same kind where the ball is on the way and you turn around and the ball
is on you. The route that TK ran, it doesn’t usually happen that fast, so I
don’t want to make TK look bad. The ball was thrown early because of a
protection issue again. For Malcolm to run the route the way he should, snatch
it strong with his hands and have the presence of mind – Coach (Tony)
Ball always tells them to get off the sideline and wheel back inside and go and
see what you can get. It was a heck of a play.”
On Kwame Geathers…
“My best image of Kwame in the last two weeks was in the
Kentucky game when he had that big sack and I saw this giant athlete work up
the field and change direction and just reach out and snatch the guy. He didn’t
go very far once Kwame got his hands on him. He’s playing extremely well. We
probably played more of him and John Jenkins in the game at the same time due
to Abry (Jones’) injury, and they’re both playing
well. Kwame does stay in there at the nose, and John will move outside, but I
think it’s the time of year when the weather is pleasant enough to play more
snaps without the heat issue, because the heat does hurt the big guys a little
more I think. He’s been great. He’s kind of an unsung hero. He does his job and
does it well, doesn’t say a whole lot, works his tail off and does what he’s
supposed to do in school. He’s just a great kid.”
On Jarvis Jones and
where he ranks with national awards…
“I don’t know if there is a better defensive football player
in America than Jarvis. I know the linebacker at Notre Dame is a great player
as well. They might be equally great, and they are both so important to their
team. Jarvis is a pretty dynamic player to have the pass rush ability and the
ability to drop back and make the pick or be the guy who mirrors the quarterback
and is athletic or be the guy who stops the run two or three yards in the
backfield. He can stone somebody who is trying to block him and make the play. If
you take his per game statistics it’s pretty impressive. I think he’s number
one in America in sacks per game, maybe forced fumbles per game and fumble
recoveries. His stats are really impressive, but when you watch him play it’s
equally impressive. I think he’s the best player in America.”
On Michael Bennett…
“Michael understands what happened to him. He’s kind of over
the shock and the initial pain of it, knowing that you can’t play the rest of
the season. There are going to be long days of rehab and maybe even wondering
what could have been. I don’t know if he’ll go there, but I think he knows he
has a great future ahead of him. He still has two years of eligibility and
people recover quite well from that type of surgery. He’s walking around
without crutches and he feels like he’s ahead of the game right now in the
rehab process.”
On whether he thinks
Jarvis Jones is the best player in America…
“I can’t think of a better player than Jarvis in the whole
United States of America. He’s the best.”
FB Alexander Ogletree
On the Florida win…
“It felt great. It’s a great win. It’s always good to beat
Florida – that’s a big-time game and we knew we needed it. We all went
out as a team and played really hard.”
On the performance of
Todd Gurley…
“Todd’s a work horse. He just went out there and got it done
on Saturday. I told him before the game to go out there and play hard – I
knew he hadn’t played in a game like that before and I told him it was going to
take all of our ability and heart if we wanted to win. And he went out there
and got it done.”
WR Tavarres King
On the Florida win…
“This one was a lot more sweet. Being my last go-around it
meant a lot to me. It’s crazy to beat those guys twice in a row – that’s
something that hadn’t been done in a long time. It just topped everything off
being my senior year. The defense was lights-out. It was a fun game to watch
and it was awesome to be a part of it.”
On Todd Gurley…
“The kid is phenomenal. I’ve never met anybody like him. He
works extremely hard, and he’s very poised. He’s a guy who’s just way ahead of
his years. I don’t feel like he’s a freshman. He doesn’t act like it, doesn’t
play like it.”
QB Aaron Murray
On Florida…
“It was an unbelievable experience on the field and in the
locker room celebrating afterwards. It was a lot of fun to get that victory
– this was probably the biggest Georgia-Florida game I’ve been a part of
and it feels great to be on top of the SEC east again and maybe be able to
compete for an SEC Championship if we do our part these next two games.”
On how his experience
helped him respond with a stronger second half…
“It would’ve been rough [if I were younger]. I think having
played in a lot of big games helps. And with our defense playing so well, it
gave some more confidence. If I was playing poorly and then Florida goes down
and scores a bunch of points, it would’ve been a lot different.”
On getting ready for
Ole Miss…
“We want to play every week with that intensity [that we did
vs. Florida]. We are capable of playing with that emotion and intensity every
game. Being back in the lead in the East is big – it gives us the chance
to play in Atlanta. Like Jarvis [Jones] said after the game, that wins meant
nothing if we don’t win the next two.”
DB Damian Swann
On Ole Miss’ offense…
“It’s going to be a good challenge for us. They’re offense
is very good; they have a veteran offensive line, a pretty good quarterback and
good receivers. We just have to play well fundamentally and be ready for when
they take shots on offense and play fast.”
On keeping up with the
up up-tempo offense…
“It’s going to be a challenge. You never know what they’re
going to do and you just have to make the right call. We know that sometimes
they’re going to catch you a little off guard. They had a few big plays against
Alabama because they caught Alabama lined up off guard.”
On coming into his own
as a defender…
“It’s just a confidence thing. I’m starting to build my
confidence pretty high and playing with all of the
veteran guys really help me. They all have my back when we’re out there and
trust me to make the right plays.”
DL Garrison Smith
On motivating the
defense…
“I think it’s always just the challenge that motivates us.
When someone challenges our manhood or says anything to take a shot at us then
we want to respond. We try not to get too caught up in it but we’re going to
respond. We’re motivated for every game, but some games have a different effect
than others. We’re going to be motivated every time whether we get called out
or not.”
On Ole Miss’ up-tempo
offense…
“This is a real big challenge for us because of the way they
run their offense. They have a great coach that has done a really good job of
putting players together in a way that they feed off of each other. It’s going
to be a big challenge just to keep guys fresh going against an up-tempo
offense. That’s a challenge for any defense, just to get lined up and play
against a good offense with good players.”
On how big of a factor
fatigue will be…
“Fatigue plays a very big part in the game but that’s why we
condition and run during practice. We want to keep up and practice in the game
tempo and hopefully that conditioning will help out on Saturday.”