Hey Coach Richt, thanks for reading!
Mark Richt took issue with a blog about Logan Gray fielding punts. (Associated Press)
So, first thing when I fire up the computer this morning, there’s an e-mail from my brother Tim saying, “I see in the Athens paper that Mark Richt reads your Blawg, he answered your question about Logan Gray returning punts. …”
And, sure enough, under the headline “Richt takes issue with blogger,” The Athens Banner-Herald reports that after practice Thursday Richt appeared to be criticizing my comments earlier this week about him continuing to use Logan Gray on special teams. I say “appeared,” because he didn’t name which blogger he was disagreeing with, saying only that it was a “media blog,” and I’m not the only one critical of the move (as I noted at the time). But the ABH seemed pretty sure he was talking about me.
Anyway, Richt said: “I usually don’t ever read a blog, but I read a blog about Logan Gray catching punts.” He went on to say he wanted “to try to educate whoever cares that when Logan is back there — I tried to explain it the other day — it’s at a time when our opponent is punting it in. It’s a pooch kick. Our defense — our punt return team — is in punt safe to keep them from faking the punt because their across the 50-yard line.
“All Logan is doing is making a decision whether it should be a fair catch or let the ball hit. The fine gentleman who writes the blog, I don’t think he understood that very much, but I just thought maybe if everybody got educated on that a little bit better, they’d understand why Logan would do that. He was 100 percent last year on making those decisions and never bobbled the ball. I think that’s not a hard thing for him to do and we’re not expecting him to return the punt because those punts don’t get returned. There’s no return set up.”
I thank Richt for saying “fine gentleman” and not “complete tool” or one of the other phrases I’ve had thrown at me here. But I have to point out that, like a master politician, Richt chose to disagree with me on a point I wasn’t making.
I understand completely, and always have, that Gray is in there to either fair catch the ball or let it go and isn’t intended as a returner. And I never questioned his ability to do that.
What I questioned was the wisdom of using one of your quarterbacks for such a job — which not only takes away from his QB preparations (the Georgia coaches noted that two years ago Gray fell behind Joe Cox in practice in part because he was spending time on special teams) but also exposes him to possible injury if an opposing player fails to observe the fair catch signal.
And, secondly, I expressed concern over Richt’s indication that he might continue to use Gray on other special teams, noting I didn’t think Gray looked too sharp in kickoff coverage last year. The coach did not to address that point.
Lastly, I should point out that at times last season Gray was deployed to fair catch the ball when Georgia wasn’t backed up deep in its own territory. So the strategy itself was used inconsistently. And, as the Senator notes in responding to Richt’s comments, on at least a couple of occasions Prince Miller was back there fielding pooch kicks instead of Gray.
As for whether it’s a good thing for everyone in the stadium to know when Gray runs out on the field that Georgia isn’t even thinking of attempting a punt return is a strategy question that can be argued both ways.
Bottom line: As long as Gray is a quarterback, even if he winds up as the backup, there are more reasons for not using him on special teams than there are for doing it.
And, again, thanks for reading, Coach. If you continue to do so, you’ll find that I actually agree with you and support you more often than I don’t.
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154 comments Add your comment
PUP FAN
March 19th, 2010
3:25 pm
Dawg Blood,
AMEN!
whoknowsnow
March 19th, 2010
3:32 pm
I agree with you Bill, this is about the stupidest thing we could do on punt return. I love Richt as a coach and everyone says trust him, he’s the professional, but how many other teams have you seen do this. Evidentally it isn’t smart or other teams would do it too. It’s not like its so scretive and intelligent that only Mark Richt could think of it. I think it’s dumb and no threat to the other team even if we are only going to fair catch the ball.
whoknowsnow
March 19th, 2010
3:38 pm
I also am not going to complain about Richt reading blogs if he was. I respect him as a coach and know he knows more about the game than anyone on here, but maybe if he read them often, he would get the hint to get some fire in his @$$ on the sideline.
Minnesota Dawg
March 19th, 2010
3:47 pm
Bill King, you got the best blog on this site. The other bloggers are not as on target as you. You bleed red and black, they don’t! Keep up the good work and go Dawgs!
C. Strickland
March 19th, 2010
4:01 pm
“to try to educate whoever cares that when Logan is back there — I tried to explain it the other day — it’s at a time when our opponent is punting it in. It’s a pooch kick. Our defense — our punt return team — is in punt safe to keep them from faking the punt because their across the 50-yard line.
Bill, did CMR actually spell out “their ” instead of “they’re” in his quote? I guess it was a quote since you didn’t include the end quotation mark either. Point is, you’re about as fine a writer as you are a football coach. But don’t get me wrong- you’re a perfect fit for the ajc.
GATA
March 19th, 2010
4:01 pm
Keep up the great work Bill. As the old sayin’ goes, “A hit dog hollers” and Senator Richt is Hollering!
Reality
March 19th, 2010
4:11 pm
This is too rich!
Ugag needs to just give up on all men’s sports and stop embarrassing the university and the State of GA. Women bulldogs seem to do just fine.
Mikey
March 19th, 2010
4:20 pm
If Logan Gray ever takes one more snap at QB we have absolutely hit rock bottom.
Murray would have to be in traction, Mett would be suspended and Mason would be…well, he would not be capable.
baddog
March 19th, 2010
4:49 pm
Great rebuttal Bill!! Even if the other team is punting from the 50 shouldn’t we put someone back there that they will want to kick away from by kicking it out of bounds or in the end zone? Agree putting Gray back there tells everyone that we are content with what the punting team gives us. I did some punt returning in HS and it just takes some practice to know when to let it go, fair catch it, or when to catch it and take off with it. Not rocket science.
jzdawg
March 19th, 2010
5:15 pm
Putting Gray in as PR is telling everyone that you have no intention of returning the ball. Punters on the opposing team must love it when they see Gray coming in to fair catch because they know we aren’t going to attempt the block punt and they know we aren’t going to return it. Hopefully with our new defense we will see more of the opposing team punters this year so bring back Mikey Henderson or Thomas Flowers and the aggressive punt blockers!!
shane#1
March 19th, 2010
5:27 pm
I don’t give a rat’s rear end who fair catches punts on the ten, as long as sombody does. I would use Gray on punt and field goal teams just in case I wanted to fake a kick. It would be nice to have somebody back there that can run and throw some. I like what I am hearing from spring practice, teaching the basics of football. The DBs worked on stripping the ball from behind today and Boykin said, ya’ll won’t believe this, that they are learning to turn and look for the ball in pass defense! Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming! With Grantham stressing the fundamentals of tackling, like taking the right angle and maintaiming your balence, I swear, if CTG ever mentions tackling the hips, my old ticker may stop! At least I would die happy.
Doc Reem
March 19th, 2010
5:39 pm
PLEASE READ THIS!!!!!!
Five reasons this is not a good idea by CMR:
1. What if it’s late in the game (say 1:00 minute left) and opposing team wants to pooch kick us. Do you still put Logan out there? I mean in that situation you want to try to return it if all possible to better your feild position. Therefore you should have someone out there that can do both RIGHT?
2.What if an opposing teams player does’nt see Logan put his hand up signaling fair catch. Then you’ve lost the Special Punt Safe Return guy and a back-up QB at the same time.
3.Won’t this mean that you’re actually taking game situation reps from the Full-Time return guy. Therefore not allowing him to get in more rhythm?
4.So CMR is this postion so important that you need to actually split time between two players to get it right?
5.Is it good strategy too telegraph exactly what you’re about to do any situation in the game of football. I think Not!
Lastly people CMR started all this crap not Bill! He did this by even talking about using Logan Gray on punt return and it’s only second day of spring practice for Pete’s sake! These no way Logan could have proven that he’s all world in punt sasfe return in two days of practice. This is simply something CMR is doing to pacify on on his beloved QB’S.
Tech Master
March 19th, 2010
6:42 pm
Richt’s spending time reading blogs criticizing his coaching, when he could be doing something more useful, like thinking up a new type of taunting penalty to use against Florida next year in Jacksonville!
GaDawg
March 19th, 2010
6:58 pm
Hey Bill,
I knew who you were calling Pigs, and you were absolutely right to do so. A Pig is a Pig is a Pig. Real UGA fans don’t need’em and don’t want’em. They can all move to Arkansas and pull for the Hawgs! Lets just get them out of Athens.
Big L
March 19th, 2010
7:47 pm
Any of u jackasses bangin on Bill for the blog needs to lay off. This is the only damn thing thatbis gonna get me to the next season . so you can all kiss my grits.
GT IS STILL A 4TH RATE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
March 19th, 2010
8:29 pm
THOSE JELLO JOCKITCH ARE BACK. HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHA
GT IS STILL A 4TH RATE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
March 19th, 2010
8:32 pm
JELLO JOCKITCH TALKING ABOUT GA LOSSES TO FL, HOW ABOUT JELLO JOCKITCH LOSSES TO GA. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA
AltamahaDawg
March 19th, 2010
8:34 pm
At least he didn’t read the one where you said he “totally ignored the kicking game”.
77DAWG
March 19th, 2010
8:36 pm
Yes, I agree with the a blog above. It is a clear messege to the opp team that we will not going to hurt them in any way! I may not know lots of football, but didn’t they say ” never let your enemy know what you uo to?”. CMR and some of us forget what Logan did two years ago. He volunteered to just be on a scout team knowing that he will be a backup till graduate. The guy has more heart and really love UGA than some of us and may be CMR too. No matter what will happen, Gray, and Cox will get UGA dipplomas and will always appreciate their oppotunities to be bulldogs. Never expect CMR to read mine.
WatsonOne
March 19th, 2010
9:41 pm
King, you are a dip—-
AltamahaDawg
March 19th, 2010
10:04 pm
So the worry is that when we put everybody up on the line, protecting from the fake, with no blocking whatsoever, and the whole world knows how those punt situation are handled by everybody, having Logan Gray in there is going to somehow tip our hand that we might not be setting up the big return?
AltamahaDawg
March 19th, 2010
10:25 pm
Doc if I may. As I see the 5 answers.
1. It depends on where they are punting from. if its one minute in the game, and they are on say the 50, or our side of the field. Which is worse? They might fake the punt and we never get the ball back, or we might have to settle for 5-10 yrds less? Now if they were backed up they are not going to fake. Go ahead and pooch it please. In that case we set up the return.
2. What if Logan Gray or anybody else gets hurt lifting weights. Or strains his arm throwing 1000 balls a week. What if Boykin gets hurt taking the KO and we lose the KO guy and the starting DB? I say play the best guy for the job. Obviously Gray has shown in practice he is. Can you name a player that got hurt because somebody pelted him on a fair catch? or even returning a punt for real.
3. I would bet they take hundreds if not thousands of punts in practice reps, I doubt that if our main return guy getting only 5 shots at it, and not that 6th, it’s really going to ruin his moves. In fact I would say fatigue late in that game, since he is also a full time position player, would be as much of a concern as that.
4. Why wouldnt a team have 2 guys ready at some skill? especially because its very situational. We have various WR, RB, LB for a certain downs and yardage.
5. The whole world knows what we are going to do when we have 9 guys in the box and they are punting to our 5 yrd line. There is a reason everybody knows what we are going to do. They would be too.
AltamahaDawg
March 19th, 2010
10:40 pm
BTW, Richt never said “last year he only was in if the ball was going to the 10″. If I had to guess why he was in there faircatching the ball further up the field on rare occations, the 4 muffed punts that the others lost might be someplace to start.
Clearly he was talking about why he is still in the punt mix, despite being in the QB race, this year. I would be betting that we do not see him in on anything that isn’t exactly the situation he described.
*
March 19th, 2010
11:12 pm
THWG
coachx
March 19th, 2010
11:30 pm
I know your a die hard Dawg fan but you have no business pretending your smarter then Mark Richt.
Gray is 3rd string QB at best. If Cox got hurt last year then the red shirt was coming off Mett or Murray. Richts job is to win games and not protect 3rd string QBs. Our other returners (Boikins and Jones) have fumble issues.
Kiss you cushy ass job good bye. Dawg fans have turned against you for your arrogance.
RED DOG 77
March 20th, 2010
1:08 am
Ther are plenty of application for starting players be they a QB or an AllAmerican WR to play special teams, Even your back-up QB, should be able to “fair catch” a punt without taking away from his QB reps…………….Sort of like last year when AJ Green blocked that field goal attempt……………Priceless !!! GO DOGS!!! GATA!!!…….Sometime you gotta play ” out of the box ” if you want to win a game !
bone
March 20th, 2010
1:31 am
bill, i’m glad to know you know more about football than the coaches themselves.
bone
March 20th, 2010
1:32 am
i’m sure the coaches will consider you for advice from now on.
AltamahaDawg
March 20th, 2010
8:00 am
Does anybody remember our other top reciever MoMass was the one that blocked the punt against OkieStae a few years ago? We play receivers as (tacklers) on ST all the time. And back up RB, and a number of position guys. Cry because a couple of walk-ons that you don’t recognized happen to be on the field periodically, then cry when we use known capable guy too.
Should he just recruit an entire squad of only ST players?
Dawg Realist
March 20th, 2010
8:59 am
Gray’s not that good and will never play QB—might as well get some value out of the hundreds of thousands in scholarship money they are paying him.
te29wr
March 20th, 2010
9:01 am
You blog and let the coaches coach and we all will be better off, If you want to coach get a job
Fired Up
March 20th, 2010
9:09 am
BK ur an idiot along with all other liberal journalist.
jarvis
March 20th, 2010
9:15 am
Hey dumba$$es, the fact that we are in the safety formation lets the punting team know that we are not trying to block the punt. We are playing against the fake in these situations. Logan being back there makes no difference in tipping our hand. It’s tipped before the snap.
He’s not going to play QB in 2010. He’s never going to play QB. They can use him any way the see fit.
Ted Striker
March 20th, 2010
10:38 am
I stopped reading your blogs — except for this one — at the end of the 2008 season. Read this one because of the headline.
Bill, you’re a damn good dog (fan), but your blogs are too negative and if you really believe that HALF the fun of college football is second-guessing someone, then maybe you should quit blogging and start coaching.
DirtyDawg
March 20th, 2010
10:42 am
Enter your comments here
Andrew
March 20th, 2010
10:52 am
I think Bill is a closet GT fan.
AltamahaDawg
March 20th, 2010
1:28 pm
Lighten up on Bill. I don’t think there is a more Richt friendly guy in the AJC you do?
STEINER
March 20th, 2010
2:14 pm
Froggy Dawgy;
You are either an idiot or a Tech man…Either way, you are not welcome here…Tell me somebody else with a great record against Florida lately…We have no interest in a 7 on 7 taking place in Florida, so please don’t come on here telling us about it…Win 90 games in 9 years and then come back….You are a lot like Wild Bill, you shoot from the hip, with limited knowledge about the game of football, and it seems to always question the coaching staff’s ability to make decisions and coach…You seem to only repeat what some of the idiots in the stands want to know, which has little or not effect on the game….And I suppose Logan is coached so that if he were to get a line drive kick, he would catch it and get what he could on the return…Not many line drive kicks inside the 50 in the SEC….
STEINER
March 20th, 2010
2:24 pm
Sometimes I like to read your blog, Bill, then other times I think you are a “POT STIRRER”….You’re like a lot of UGA fans, when the Dawgs lose a couple they are favored in, its time to question or run off the coaches…But then when they do good and end up #2 in the nation, we want to get on the “love train.” I’m with the coaches and the Dawgs in either situation, cause I know the coaches involved and know they are doing the best they possibly can….GOT A LITTLE DEAL FOR YOU BILL THAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO READ, HERE GOES: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
GaDawg
March 20th, 2010
5:43 pm
The Lord knows that I try to behave myself. I try to be a good husband. I go out of my way to help my friends and family.I give to the needy. I try to exemplify the best in sportsmanship when I am in Sanford Stadium. When I am with my Georgia Tech friends, I always seek to be a Gracious Winner as well as a Graceful Looser (when that rarity of occasion occurs), but somehow I just can’t control myself at the moment:
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{30-24}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}BaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
WE RUUUUULE THIS STATE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damn’ I feel so much better now!
GaDawg
March 20th, 2010
7:09 pm
STEINER
March 20th, 2010
2:14 pm………….
March 20th, 2010
2:24 pm
NOW THESE ARE A PAIR OF POWERFUL ENTRIES…….somehow, I don’t believe that Steiner is your typical blogger. Those words are too insightful, too full of emotion, and so very articulate.
I think that it would be a good idea for all of us to make a copy of those words, save them in our document file, and refer to them every time we think about posting a blog. I, like so many others, needed to hear those words. accentuate the positive; eliminate the negative. Back our Dawgs come Hell or High Water!!! Awesome, I feel like we just had a visitation!
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…….DAWGS!!!….SIC’EM!!!
greg
March 20th, 2010
9:29 pm
bill
i will never read your negative laced blog again. you should be replaced by someone who actually knows what he is talking about when it comes to Georgia football(David Hale).
When it has to be...
March 21st, 2010
7:07 am
Sometimes, no matter where you look, who you try, or what makes sense, you just might have the right guy in the right place, at the right time; Gray might just be that guy…some teams have an “up” guy and then the regular depth guy…the up guy knows what he is expected to do, he is much more disciplined, has sure hands, and is trusted to make the right decision…this guy isn’t thinking return, he’s thinking secure the ball, and do his job…this is a hard thing to coach, because a most return guys wants to take a chance and take off, which sometimes leads to disastrous results…now why have a QB do this, well it sounds like Gray has the perfect DNA for such a job…coaches sometimes do things that just doesn’t makes sense sometimes, point in fact Murray during his record setting Jr year was also the punter, where any opposing player could take a shot at him, granted he didn’t have to punt too much, but the coach knew that Murray was the one to have back there at crunch time…so, maybe that’s why a QB is the up guy…
Monroe's first Redcoat
March 21st, 2010
2:37 pm
144th!!
TechBuzz
March 21st, 2010
6:11 pm
It doesn’t matter who Ga puts on the punt team—they will be lucky to win 8 games next year. Ga will lose to South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn and Tech. Richt better update his resume–angry dawgs will not put up with another trip to shreveport.
Dawg 39
March 21st, 2010
7:05 pm
A final ? thought. We need to find someone to replace Prince Miller returning punts. There are several viable & able candidates. Special Teams will be special in a positive way next year & Logan will still be the best option to field, or let bounce, pooch & directional kicks deep in our own territory.
You usually don’t get hurt making a fair catch so I agree with CMR on this one (& all the others).
Awbun Tagger
March 21st, 2010
11:14 pm
You have the worst baseball team that I have even seen. We crushed you 3 games to none. It wasn’t even close. You may be the worst team in the SEC this year. Go taggers.
FrateDawg
March 22nd, 2010
9:01 am
He won’t say it, but I will, Complete Tool, it is a fair catch for a punt. Who cares. I really don’t think Logan is going to be playing QB anyway, since he was already moved to wide out and then jumped back into the QB mix. Let’s find something more interesting to write about…other than a fair catch. Boooooooooooor-ring.
berry bulldawgs
March 22nd, 2010
3:03 pm
Now Bill King has joined all the AJC UGA Haters.
What’s the problem with Logan Gray, Bill?
Elite 11 QB, Rated #5 dual-threat QB, AJ Green says he’s standing out among the 3 QB’s in performance and leadership in practice, so what’s the deal?
Why undercut Coach Richt here?
Mike Dog
March 23rd, 2010
5:06 pm
Don’t think Richt meant it as a compliement there Bill.
I think Richt was peeved because:
A) you thought he’d risk Logan getting hurt on punt returns
B) the implication was that if Richt is looking to use Logan for Special Teams, then the QB race is over. Not true. Logan’s in 1st right now, and might be at the start of the season.