Head coach Mark Richt
Opening statement…
“It’s great
to be undefeated and in a great mood. This is awesome. Now we have to play. Louisiana-Lafayette, the Ragin Cajuns.
Rickey Bustle, I’ve known Rickey a long time. I knew Rickey when he was
coaching at Virginia Tech for years and kind of exchanged a lot of ideas
offensively over the years. Not a lot lately, but back in the day. I have a
very high respect for Rickey and what he is doing. He’s entering his ninth
season there, which is great. I didn’t realize it until today,
he coached Todd Grantham back in his day. So I probably should have been
reading the newspapers and I would have known that by now. I just caught wind
of that, so that’s pretty interesting. I know coach Grantham will be excited
about hooking up with coach Bustle.
“From what I
hear they are very, very healthy. I got a report that Brandon Nash, a backup
linebacker, might be the only guy who is iffy for the game. So it looks like
their entire two-deep units are healthy and ready to go. We are very similar to
that right now which is a tremendous blessing for us. Richard Samuel for us
maybe would not be able to go, who would normally go. Chris Burnette,
he’s iffy right now, but everybody else looks like they will be ready to play,
which is great. Everybody is going to be able to practice this entire week who will probably play, so that’s good too.
“First game
of the year, I know our guys will be excited. We know it’s going to be high noon.
It looks like the weather is starting to cool down a little bit possibly by
then, which will probably be good for everybody including the fans. I hope it
does cool down to the mid-80s anyway. We’re just looking forward to playing.
We’re looking forward to getting it kicked off and just seeing what we’ve got.”
On the opening game for Georgia quarterback
Aaron Murray…
“I hope it’s
friendly for him. Aaron – he’s human. He’s a freshman and he’s going to
have nerves just like everybody else. I’m a 50-year old man and I’ll be nervous
too, which is a good thing. Louisiana-Lafayette, you look at them last year.
They played Kansas State and beat them. Kansas State plays Texas A&M and
beats the heck out of A&M. They are a very capable team and a very veteran
defense, as I mentioned, with a fourth-year coordinator, juniors and seniors
and guys who know what they are doing, guys who will be very confident from a
defensive standpoint. I don’t know how friendly they’ll be to him. Hopefully
our fans will be friendly to him and hopefully our fans will realize he’s a
freshman, he’s a rookie. He’s going to make mistakes. He probably won’t just be
lights out as far as his accuracy and his decisions and all those things. He’s
going to be finding his way and hopefully his teammates will help him out
offensively and defensively and even in the kicking game. All those areas can
really help a young quarterback. I feel good about that. I feel good about the guys around him.”
On starting a freshman quarterback…
“What I’ve
learned is that you are better off starting slow and you are better off
starting with a smaller package and repping him over
and over and over with this smaller package. And then hopefully he’ll have
success and you can kind of grow as you go. That’s what I’ve learned and tried
to help him understand. Most of these guys were pretty good playmakers in high
school. They are used to being the guy making plays. Sometimes they feel like
every time the ball is snapped they have to make a play, you have to do
something spectacular. Aaron is a pretty mobile kid, and who knows how many
times he created and scrambled and made plays. That’s kind of what he’s used
to. He has to understand that you have to trust your feet. When I say trust
your feet, when we drop in the pocket, when you hit that back foot in the
ground you are looking at a first progression. When you hitch once you are
looking at your second, and when you hitch third you are checking it down or
you are starting in scramble mode or you are throwing it away. It’s not going
to be like every play I’m going to ad lib and do all these great things. You
just have to understand, you don’t have to be the hero. You just have to run
this system, and what we have to understand is that no matter how much he
knows, he’s going to be going through some things for the first time and we
have to help him.”
On whether the success that David Greene and
Matthew Stafford had as freshmen raises expectations for Aaron Murray...
“Greene was
really the only one who kind of went through it unscathed or close to being
unscathed. Greene was very, very disciplined in what he did. Greene created a
lot of great habits as a redshirt freshman in that spring and fall. He rarely
did the heroic thing or sometimes the boneheaded thing, where Stafford, he
wanted to make plays. He was about making plays. He was about wanting to do
great things and guys with that kind of arm strength and that kind of ability,
they can’t help themselves sometimes. So if you look at Stafford, we struggled
with Stafford because we turned the ball over a bunch with him. At the end of
the year when we quit turning it over, we won. We beat a No. 5 Auburn at
Auburn, and I guess we beat Georgia Tech and we beat Virginia Tech, who had the
No. 1 defense in the country that year. He finally
just quit trying to be that hero. We struggled with Matthew as the starting
quarterback as a freshman and we struggled a little bit less with Greene
because of the decisions those guys made.”
On eliminating turnovers…
“That’s why
you scrimmage and that’s why you do 11-on-11. You try to get the QB in as many
situations as possible. It’s just like our practice game. We were in long field
goal range, but we were in range. We had a third down play, and it was a
screen. The defense smelled it out and they were ready to defend it. (Murray)
could have thrown the ball at his feet and been incomplete and been in field
goal range, but he knew he shouldn’t throw it directly to the guy because he’d
have trouble, but he decided to begin a scramble and got sacked for about eight
or nine yards. We were out of field goal range and had to punt. We might have
lost three points right there. Later on we had a third down inside the 10, and
the scout team actually brought a different look than we thought we were going
to see and he made a good decision not to throw it into coverage, but he began
to scramble and he was out of the pocket. All he had to do was throw it over
their head, and he chose to try to spit one in there. It was not an
interception, but it should have been intercepted. There was a possibility of
losing 10 points on two decisions in that game. We’ve been practicing
20-something days and all of last spring. You have to live it out. That was
probably more meaningful to him than anything you can say in a pass skeleton
drill or even an 11-on-11 drill. It was closer to a real game, and I think it
hopefully resonated with him more than what we would say in a meeting.”
On the importance of the mental outlook
going into the Louisiana-Lafayette game…
“I know
Louisiana-Lafayette is coming in to beat a top-25 team and make their
reputation at the expense of us. Our guys understand that. It’s been rare that
we weren’t pretty jacked up and excited to play an opening game, so I think
that helps a lot. I think our players have a very healthy respect for who we are playing, mainly because when you watch the film
you see guys who can make plays. They are sending guys to the NFL too. They
don’t have a talent base problem. When you are in the Deep South you are going
to find players and athletes. They are very well coached, so I don’t think our
guys are falling into that trap at all.”
On minimizing mistakes...
“That is all
they are hearing from me mainly. That’s a big part of what we are talking
about. The goal is to at least make the opponent beat us. Let’s not beat us.
Let’s see how good we can be if we don’t help them. Let’s try that and see how
it goes. That’s been a pretty strong message.”
On Bacarri Rambo…
“I’m sure
it’s an honor for him to start. He’s excited about starting. He’s earned the
right to start obviously. He’s pretty much earned it because he picked it up
the quickest. He learned what to do pretty quickly. He was able to help other
guys get lined up properly. And he’s a good player. He has very good ball skills,
and he’s not afraid to hit you. He’s got good speed and he’s got just a knack
for football. He’d be a heck of a quarterback I think too. He’s got some
ability to do those things. I think he’ll do well. But we will substitute. We
need to play more than one team along the way. The media keeps
wanting to know who’s starting. I’m more concerned about who’s ready to
play. The questions I ask our coaching staff are not who’s starting, I ask them
who is ready to go in the game and play significant downs for us, so there will
be more than him but he’s doing good.”
On the importance of Georgia’s backups…
“You have to
have depth and quality depth, guys who can come in and play well. A year ago
when we had a lot of injuries or even during camp a little bit when guys were
out for a week or a few days, it just gives the next guy a chance to get more
reps and get better. I think that’s crucial. Most teams, as the season wears
on, if you don’t have enough depth, you’re in trouble. Anybody that you play in
the first game of the year, everybody is healthy, everybody is undefeated,
everybody is excited, and they might not be the same team game eight, nine or
10 that they are game one.”
On Trinton Sturdivant…
“Trinton is doing well. Trinton
has been practicing. The last practice game, he got maybe 12 or 13 snaps. Trinton has been hooking it up in our inside running
drills, which for a lineman that is live basically. When you go thud with
linemen, they are banging heads every play. They are in the middle of a bunch
of bodies trying to block a scheme and can get rolled up, so he has gotten
those reps and he’s gaining more confidence and he’ll play.”
On players making mistakes off the field…
“The flaw is
if a guy does something that deserves to be disciplined and you don’t discipline
him. That’s where the flaw us. The flaw is in us as humans. We’re flawed, we’re
human, we make mistakes. When we make a mistake, then
we get disciplined for it. As long as we have 18-22 year old guys who are human
beings, they are going to make mistakes. That’s just all there is to it. If you
don’t discipline it, you have a problem. If they don’t learn from it, then they
have a problem. If it’s severe enough that they don’t belong on the team, then
they go, that’s just the way it is. I think a lot of times, you guys cover us
over and over and over and you’re not everyday watching what’s going on next
door. If you lived in that neighborhood and you watched what happened everyday,
you would probably say they have problems too. The problem is we are human, the
problem is the culture of the college kids around the country and the things
that they think are fun and what they do and just sometimes flat immaturity and
that kind of thing.”
On Caleb King…
“He’s ready
and he’s in great condition. He’ll get more carries I’m sure than he would have
if Washaun (Ealey) was there. Carlton will have to
step up, and Fred Munzenmaier might get a few totes at tailback too, so I’m
sure he’ll be excited about that.”
#11 Aaron Murray, QB
On the cohesiveness of the offensive line…
“I think
that they’re a great group of guys. They’ve worked together, at least some of
them, for three years now. I’ve said it 100 times but I think that they’re
probably the best offensive line in the SEC and probably one of the best groups
in the country. Those guys, all of them could play on Sundays. They all enjoy
each other. They’re a great group of guys and they really like to hang out with
each other. They work well together, which is huge. There’s no risk between
those guys. There’s great communication out there, which is really reassuring
when you get to the line of scrimmage and they’re all saying the same thing and
are all on the same page. It’s great to have those five guys in front of me.”
On potential nerves before the game…
“I wouldn’t
say that I get nervous. I would say that I get more juiced up. I get really
excited, and I need to take that down a notch. I get extremely pumped up. It’d
be a great thing if I was on defense and I was trying to take someone’s head
off, but offensive wise, you want to be a little more mellow.
I think that I’ll be fine once I get calmed down a bit. I’m just excited about
the opportunity to come out and play.”
On opening the season at Sanford Stadium…
“It’s going
to be a great experience and a great way to start the season and my career.
Being at home and being in front of all of the fans, it’s definitely very
exciting and I’m very excited to get out there on Saturday.”
#16 Kris Durham, SE
On coming back from his season-ending
shoulder injury last season…
“It’s not
starting over, because I kind of understand the concept of everything out
there. It’s hard to put into words, but it’s exciting. It’s nerve-wracking. I’m
just excited and antsy. I even have a little bit of anxiety because I’m so
ready to be out there on Saturday.”
On play of QB Aaron Murray…
“I didn’t
realize, because I didn’t get to throw with him a lot last year because I was
injured, just how good of a player Aaron really was. He’s intelligent. He’s a
student of the game and it’s almost like he’s a veteran already. He really is
something special.”
#78 Josh Davis, OT
On the play of junior OG Trinton
Sturdivant…
“Trinton is really excited about going back again. He’s
being smart and making sure that he’s not doing anything that will hurt him during
his return. In my opinion, Trinton looks great. He’s
almost back to his old form. He’s ready. It’s all he’s been talking about every
day at practice. ”
On the play of the offensive line as a
whole…
“We feel
good as a whole. We know that we have to get comfortable out there as a whole
and we know what we have to do out on the field. We’re ready for [Saturday].”
#51 Akeem Dent,
ILB
On overcoming his injury…
“It was
frustrating in the beginning when I had some adversity, but now I’m in a
position to be well and be ready to play football.”
On getting the call despite missing camp…
“It’s an
honor. The guys in there while I was out did fantastic and really took on a leadership
role and did a nice job. To have missed camp was unfortunate but now I feel
like I’m ready to go and I’m glad to be back in there.”
On the rest of the defense…
“We worked
hard all preseason and all camp and we’re ready to go. I know everyone is ready
to make a contribution. I trust in my teammates 110 percent.”
On his senior season…
“You get to
that point where you start to feel like it’s your last season. You always think
you’ll play football all your life, but you don’t know that. When your senior
season rolls around you have to take advantage.”
#18 Bacarri
Rambo, FS
On the defense’s keys to success…
“I think we
have to win the turnover ratio. When you are able to create turnovers it really
sets the tone for the defense. In the past we’ve been ranked low in that
category so we have to go out there and focus on getting turnovers and getting
our great offensive players back on the field because they’ll make plays. Our
coaches have stressed that to us. Coach [Todd] Grantham is aggressive on
play-calling, and we’ll do things and force the quarterback to throw bad balls
and help us do what we need to do.”
On playing against an opponent…
“It’s been a
very long time since we got a chance to hit an opponent so we’re all ready to
go out there. It’s different when you’re playing your own guys. We all want to
go out there and do it but at the same time you don’t want to hurt your
teammates. We’re excited to face an actual opponent.”
On getting to start his first game…
“It feels
great to get out there and start and to know I’ll have everybody screaming.
It’s exciting to start my first college game – it’s a dream come true.
I’ve been dreaming about that since I was a little boy. My dad always told me
I’d get where I need to be if I worked hard and I’ve been working hard to get
to this point. I’m going to continue to do that to achieve my dreams of
succeeding here and playing at the next level.”
On the difference in starting vs. coming off
the bench…
“Being on
the sideline and watching guys play and having an idea of what to do when my
turn is called is helpful. But now that I’m starting I really have started to
focus and pay much more attention to my playbook because I’ll be out on the
field all the time. On one hand it’s very difficult being on the sideline but
in some ways it helps too. I want to be a starter and have my name called at
the beginning of the game.”
#94 DeAngelo Tyson, N
On where he is now…
“You can
never be comfortable because there’s always room to learn, but right now I feel
a little bit of comfort knowing the system and knowing we can play fast. At
first there was a lot of stuff to learn [with the new system] but the coaches
that we have are great teachers. When you have great teachers you become a
great learner.”
On what the defense expects…
“We’re going
to play whatever Coach Grantham calls. We are comfortable with the things we’ve
worked on in practice, we’ve gone over everything a lot of times, so we’re just going out and having fun. That’s what we’ll do
each and every Saturday.”