Richt’s warning to players: ‘It could get worse’
"We are where we are," Mark Richt told the Touchdown Club of Athens. (Associated Press)
Mark Richt didn’t hang around long at Tuesday night’s Touchdown Club of Athens meeting, showing up late and leaving immediately after some brief comments and taking a couple of questions from the floor. But he didn’t skip the fan gathering, as some had speculated he would, and when he took the microphone he didn’t duck the issue of Georgia’s 0-3 conference start, either.
“We are where we are,” the coach said to the full-house crowd assembled to hear his mentor, Bobby Bowden. “We’re going to have to get better or it’s gonna get worse. It’s not going to stay the same. I told the players, you think it’s bad now; it could get worse.”
But no matter what, Richt said, “we’re not gonna lose our poise, we’re not gonna lose our integrity. We don’t want to take our frustrations out on anyone, except maybe Colorado. … We just have to keep working hard and keep together. We must stay together.”
Generally, Richt’s update for the club echoed what he’d said earlier in the day at his weekly news conference: The coaches need to work on helping the players correct their mistakes and teach them how to handle adversity while maintaining a positive outlook.
“That’s all we can do right now is keep grinding and keep it positive,” the coach said.
Richt didn’t get into a lot of specifics about the Dogs’ problems, but he did note that in the Mississippi State game it seemed that every time Georgia made a big, positive play, something happened to negate it, whether a turnover or “the penalties got us again.”
On the bright side, he said that the return of A.J. Green to the lineup is bound to open up the middle some for the Dogs’ tight ends as defenses double-up the celebrated wide receiver. “It’s nice to see No. 8 out at practice again and know that you might actually be able to use him this week.”
The Georgia coaching staff is hoping Kris Durham can play against Colorado. (Associated Press)
Even without Green, Richt said, the Dogs have been close to breaking several long touchdown passes with Kris Durham if only quarterback Aaron Murray had been able to hit Durham in stride. The problem, Richt said, has been Murray overadjusting after tending to overthrow receivers in the spring game. “We told him to keep it in play and give the guy a chance to catch it,” which is better than overthrowing, but “if he had hit Kris on the run I think he would have scored four or five times.” Richt also singled out receiver Tavares King for praise.
Durham, Richt said, was able to practice Tuesday in a noncontact jersey after suffering a stinger to the neck in Starkville, and “We hope he’ll be able to play” against Colorado.
Asked by a fan about dealing with the higher altitude the Dogs will face in Boulder, Richt said, “There’s not much we can do about it.” He said he consulted with UGA director of sports medicine Ron Courson and asked if getting out there 24 hours earlier would make any difference and Courson said no. Richt said Georgia will have oxygen available on the sideline but “we’re not going to make a big deal out of it.”
At that point Bowden interjected that Richt should just ignore the altitude and later during his own comments the former FSU coach said his teams’ experience playing at Colorado was that the only difference the altitude made was “the ball goes further,” which helps kickers. “They want you to think it’s a big problem and they try to psych you out,” Bowden said, but his advice on the subject is: “Don’t pay any attention to it.”
As for Georgia’s undersized defensive line, Richt was asked about additional playing time for redshirt freshman Kwame Geathers, the biggest of the Dogs’ nose tackles. The coach said that part of the problem has been Georgia’s opponents haven’t been playing two-receiver sets, which means the nose guards haven’t played much. Geathers, he said, “is coming,” though he’s still tending to favor the hand on which he had offseason surgery. “He’s not, in Coach [Rodney] Garner’s opinion, as ready to get as many reps as the other guys.”
After Richt left, Bowden, who regaled the crowd with amusing stories from his long career, assured the Touchdown Club, “I feel sure Georgia’s gonna pull this thing out” and said that frequently it just takes one player to make the difference. “It’s not like they need to replace all 30 players.”
HOPEFUL SIGNAL ON OFFENSE?
I thought it was interesting that in his news conference Tuesday, Richt talked about Georgia still wanting to run the ball and keep the play-action passing game that hasn’t had much success so far this season, but he also said, “We do have ways to get the ball to our receivers quickly on quick screens. We have screens to our backs. We have ways of throwing quick game if we feel like they have outnumbered the run and we want to get some one-on-one situations. We are still very multiple in what we do.”
Sounds like the head coach wants offensive coordinator Mike Bobo to mix it up a bit more. At least, I hope that’s what that means.
Find me on Facebook.
Follow me on Twitter.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
427 comments Add your comment
Taco Time in N. Ga
September 29th, 2010
12:49 pm
Delusions of,
Look again. I was slamming the couple of plays argument, not supporting it. It’s a loser’s excuse.
Dan Mullen
September 29th, 2010
12:50 pm
Dumbo so Florida and Alabama don’t play top teams, Alabama just beat Penn State so why can’t Georgia play Oregon. Florida nevers plays top teams out of conference. And Alabama will play Michagan in Texas so what is Georgia’s excuse
Hobby
September 29th, 2010
12:51 pm
UGA has problems top to bottom. The precedent was set with Damon Evans and extends all the way down (example–lack of dicipline on and off of the field). It even extends to lack of accountability and responsiblity in the recruting area. How could AJ Johnson end up at Tenn without UGA even expressing interest!!??
UGA must look inward to correct the atmosphere of lack of dicipline, thuggery, etc before any meaningful improvement can be made
5150 P.O.A.D
September 29th, 2010
12:51 pm
Hell, last year AJ didn’t even have more yards than Bay Bay Thomas at TECH. You know TECH the school that Runs the ball 9 out of 10 plays.
the real Old Gold
September 29th, 2010
12:52 pm
Paul Johnson should be on the hot seat!
GDAWG65
September 29th, 2010
12:53 pm
Richt in the business world it was never easy firing someone but when someone under you is not performing, clueless about their job everyone including the “bottom line” suffers. Face up to it and do it. Now
Bulldogs #1
September 29th, 2010
12:53 pm
AJ Green is better than any reciever TECH has had hands down
Fire Paul Johnson
September 29th, 2010
12:54 pm
Fire Paul Johnson right now
dawglover
September 29th, 2010
12:54 pm
uga will get a big boost from their weak schedule this week. Colorado is about the same level as LA Lafayette. The dogs will run up a big score, and the bloggers will be saying that all of the problems are gone and they will “run the table”. Should be good for some laughs.
Tweets that mention Richt’s warning to players: ‘It could get worse’ | UGA: The Junkyard Blawg -- Topsy.com
September 29th, 2010
12:55 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Geoffrey Reid, John McDuffie. John McDuffie said: Richt says, "We are where we are" – #L2coach http://t.co/FPcXGQx [...]
Dawg Trainer
September 29th, 2010
12:55 pm
9 more days, Dawgs. Tennessee is coming, and we’re bringing Hell with us. Well, maybe Hellions, we’re awful young. As long as LSU doesn’t get us too beat up Saturday, we’ll put an end to your long decline into mediocrity. We know…we’ve been there!
Will
September 29th, 2010
12:56 pm
It will actually be a relief to get away from Georgia this weekend and be with the most “loyal of the loyal” Bulldog fans in Boulder. Not many bandwagon fans are willing (or able) to afford the trip.
I am so disappointed that our AD has decided to help the team be more competitive by scheduling more Buffaloes and West Carolinas in the future. If you are a Bulldog season ticket owner, you know that, although these games sell out, thousands don’t attend and you can’t give away tickets to those games.
Although UGA already has a healthy financial bottom line and brings in a gadzillion dollars already, the AD wants another home game to make more money. I wonder how much money is enough for this guy?
Bulldogs #1
September 29th, 2010
12:56 pm
AJ Green is better than Jones because he barely gets thrown to because they run the ball, he is better than jeffrey at south carolina, and he sure as hell is better than the reciever at oklahoma because he is more physical and taller
Dumbo
September 29th, 2010
12:56 pm
Dan Mullen…..I’m kinda slow, but what state is this Michagan, I mean I only passed the fourth grade and all, but I ain’t seen no state name Michagan…uh, do ya mean Michigan?
5150 P.O.A.D
September 29th, 2010
12:57 pm
Slow down there DAN. Big bad Miss St playes Alcorn St, Tulane, Huston, Jacksonville St., Mid Tenn St., Garner-Webb, and UAB.
SadDawg
September 29th, 2010
12:57 pm
Tide Roll,
You mean proactive like Urban was last year with Spikes? A 1/2 game suspension for trying to intentionally blind a player?
Maybe Richt thinks a clip is a little less likely to cause permanent injury than losing one’s sight.
Dan Mullen
September 29th, 2010
12:58 pm
Dumbo just a typing mistake, nobody is perfect but Alabama will play Michigan so why can’t Georgia play Oregon
UGA '79
September 29th, 2010
12:59 pm
Richt should be fired. Then he can devote all his time to pimping Ford trucks. UGA is in a fight with Vanderbilt and Kentucky for a suitable tier in the SEC. Richt used to be overrated. Now, the alum-mob is turning on him — just as it did Ray Goof. High time, too. Best thing that could happen to the program is a 3-10 season. Makes it that much easier to can his bible-thunking butt.
Court Deputy
September 29th, 2010
12:59 pm
Well let you slide till Sunday coach. Keep your head up. Padded room may be next if Dawgs lose to Colorado. Go you hairless duuggieeesss.
Dan Mullen
September 29th, 2010
1:00 pm
5150 P.O.A.D Do we need to have a Post about how many cupcakes Georgia Tech play because South Carolina State is a major cupcake
Dumbo
September 29th, 2010
1:00 pm
Ever heard of trying to reduce overhead….cost a crap load of money to fly 3000 miles and back
Pitiful Dogs
September 29th, 2010
1:00 pm
hey Bulldogs #1…I don’t think Greenis as good as Jones, but that does not matter. Nothing is going to save your season. You may get by Colorado, but you will lose at leat 4 more games.
Fire Paul Johnson
September 29th, 2010
1:01 pm
FirePaulJohnson.com
5150 P.O.A.D
September 29th, 2010
1:02 pm
Bulldogs#1 Jeffery and Broyles lead the NCAAs in yards right now I do believe. How many TD and yards does AJ have? I forgot he had a grand in his hand and some bling in his ear but no time on the field.
hj
September 29th, 2010
1:02 pm
bobo been at thomas county high school, uga qb, uga grad assistant, uga coach, uga OC; zero broad based experience going against other coaches that are wiping him up; bobo is in over his head. only reason he is there is politics
HARDY-DOG
September 29th, 2010
1:02 pm
What Richt FAILS to realize that nothing on Offense or Defense is working. There’s 22 guys out their on both sides of the ball running around without any direction!!!!
JoeFan
September 29th, 2010
1:03 pm
The problem is that UGA will likely improve but the teams they are playing should improve as the season goes along too. UGA is almost assured of losing two more games, Auburn and FL, which makes them 7-5. Likely they will also slip up in another, so 6-6 is a real possibility. Can we get a do over / mulligin on this season?
Dan Mullen
September 29th, 2010
1:03 pm
Wow I wonder how much farther Colorado is from Oregon, If they are going all the way to Colorado I know they can go to Oregon if Georgia is a top program
A Big Dog
September 29th, 2010
1:04 pm
Think I’ll sit here under this tree…lick my rump & stump and wait for some old GT women to come and let me lick her butt ugly face with my rump licked tongue
SadDawg
September 29th, 2010
1:04 pm
“Hey, if it help my Dawg friends, I remember just 4 years ago, Bama stunk too.”
*************************************************
No, JB, don’t you read much on here, do you? If you did, you would know:
Alabama has won 175 SEC titles and 99 National Titles, including the last 30.
Bama never has to rebuild, and every coach is successful.
Oh, and Bama never gets put on probation after a championship.
Bulldogs #1
September 29th, 2010
1:06 pm
5150 P.O.A.D and whats your point? Stats won’t matter because AJ Green will get drafted before those guys anyway because he is the best. He is a Top 10 pick on Mel Kiper’s board so what is your point because scout know AJ is better than both of them guys
Ironwood
September 29th, 2010
1:06 pm
We will show you. We own Colorado. 106-32. We beat them 20 years in a row in 1306. This weekend we get back on track. We will kill UF. SEC Champs. You can bank on it!
5150 P.O.A.D
September 29th, 2010
1:07 pm
UGA has played a OCC game 5 times since 1950 past the Mississippi. UGA doesn’t go West because they lose. Damon thought he was signing on to play the Aflac Ducks not the Oregon Ducks. Give Damon a break he had red panties on his mind when he made that deal.
Pitiful Dogs
September 29th, 2010
1:08 pm
GO Dawgs Go Dawgs sic em woof woof.
what of it?
September 29th, 2010
1:08 pm
I’d like to see Bowden do one set of stadiums at Colorado and tell me that altitude doesn’t affect the players.
Dumbo
September 29th, 2010
1:09 pm
Dan….its about 900+ miles more to Portland than Denver
ATL to Denver = 1200 + miles
ATL to Portland OR = 2100+ miles
wildbill
September 29th, 2010
1:11 pm
CMR said the right things, things that most fans love to hear. I sincerely hope he is foretelling good things to come. HOWEVER, there is an old timer’s saying that I learned from my mom a long time ago. It is: “BIG TALK, LITTLE DO!”
North Dakota State AD
September 29th, 2010
1:11 pm
Could somebody get me Ga Tech’s phone #. We want to play them ASAP.
Dumbo
September 29th, 2010
1:12 pm
A Big Dog…I don’t know if I’d brag about licking my rump or kissing some old GT skank….nasty…just down right nasty, you take cake today ole boy!
Phil
September 29th, 2010
1:12 pm
“Absolutely no way we lose in Boulder. We might be bad but we AREN’T that bad. Colorado is considered the 11th or 12th best team in the Big 12″
Yea, but so are we, the 11th or 12th best team.(in the SEC)
Home field advantage, coming off a bye week, having a Blackout, celebrating the 1990 NC team. The crowd will be fired up.
And you know what Richt will do, the same dumb thing he does every time we win the coin toss(if we win it), defer to the 2nd half. He will playing right into their hands, giving them the opportunity to score first and get the crowd all pumped up. All the pressure then goes onto us and we start making mistakes and things do downhill.
And by the way, Texas fans were probably saying last week, “No way we lose to UCLA”.
5150 P.O.A.D
September 29th, 2010
1:12 pm
Bulldog1 and J Russell from LSU was a #1 Pick too. Just because some scouts think a player is great it doesn’t always mean the player really is great. AJ is good no doubt, but I don’t think he is the BEST WR in the country. He has not been the best WR in any year in his carrer. AJ is a lot of HYPE but he has not lived up to ALL the HYPE for sure. Yes, he is good, but great remains to be seen.
Dan Mullen
September 29th, 2010
1:12 pm
Dumbo when you start making excuses about miles and not the game itself then I already know Georgia thought they would lose both games to oregon because their high power offense would eat away that confused Georgia defense
FMX
September 29th, 2010
1:12 pm
It appears to me that Richt always seems to escape the blame. I just have never seen in any sport where the coordinators who were hired by the coach get all the blame. . He shouldn’t get anymore chances. The strength of our team was suppose to be the running game and defense. Green was the icing on the cake but not the cake. The fact that at this point we have two young quarterbacks tell you something about his recruiting. It seems that he is just recruiting a bunch of thugs with all the arrests. Mark Richt has lost this team. The longer we wait for him to right the ship the bigger the hole is going to be to get out of. Folks we are in the SEC
Coachdawg 2000
September 29th, 2010
1:13 pm
For all of the “fire Bobo” idiots. Last year Bobo’s offense averaged around 29 points a game(with Joe Cox). The only difference is a new inexperienced QB, and our best player watching. You should win every game if you score 29+. Sometimes, like it or not it is the players. We miss a guy who scares every defense in America and a guy who had not thrown a ball in live competition in almsot 2 years. So #1 take a deep breath, #2 get a grip, and then GATA!!!!
Abnerish
September 29th, 2010
1:13 pm
I don’t know why anyone even attempts a guess at what our final record will be. There is only 1 game left on our schedule that is a definite W – Idaho St. We have 2 almost definite Ls – Florida and Auburn. The rest of the games are a complete toss up, even this week in Colorado. This team is a complete unknown and nobody can say with any real certainty which games the Dawgs will win and which they will lose. As a fan and an alum, I just want us to improve every week (on and off the field). But I will say that if the Dawgs lose this weekend, some fans may not let the team land their plane at the Athens airport!!
Pitiful Dogs
September 29th, 2010
1:13 pm
Hey North Dakota…that wouldn’t even help.
SadSawg
September 29th, 2010
1:14 pm
Um, toad, we beat Arizona in ‘08 and ‘09. I’m pretty sure that state is in the west . . .
Taco Time in N. Ga
September 29th, 2010
1:14 pm
Time for one of my favorite hobbies, an examination of the Bowden coaching tree. Ready? Here we go…
Bobby Bowden (Don Vito) – run out of Tallahassee when he refused to quit despite having lost his grip on the Seminole program at least 5 years earlier; now living off of his bitterness
Tommy Bowden (Michael Corleone) – finally run out of Clemson after years of underachievement; they would’ve whacked him earlier but IPTAY couldn’t stomach the buyout.
Terry Bowden (Sonny Coreleone) – bloodily gunned down at a toll both ambush on the Plains; his ghost is rambling around somewhere in northern Alabama
Jeff Bowden (Fredo) – as FSU OC, forced to don the concrete overshoes after hanging an oh-fer on mighty Wake Forest in ‘06
Chuck Amato (Tom Haden) – chased off by N. Carolina State (his alma mater, no less) after steadfastly refusing to recruit a competent quarterback for multiple seasons
Mark Richt (OK, out of “Godfather” parallels) – the wolves are howling, the feds are closing in, whatever metaphor you care to use
It’s less pretty with each passing year. This Bowden “legacy” will ultimately be shown to be a thing of smoke and mirrors.
Dan Mullen
September 29th, 2010
1:15 pm
Dumbo if that was the cause then you could say the same thing about Boise State but they went almost 3000 miles and man handled a Virginia Tech team
2010 Colorado Schedule maker
September 29th, 2010
1:15 pm
We had to schedule UGA home and home because our schedule was just too tough.