Amid all the SEC Media Days distractions, a little bit of focus on football
Amid all the talk of disciplinary problems, Mark Richt did touch some on football. (Associated Press)
Most of the coverage of Mark Richt’s appearance at SEC Media Days predictably focused on Georgia’s disciplinary problems and possible suspensions, even though the coach and the players he brought with him didn’t really have much new to say on that front.
Much more interesting to me were the comments from the press conference and Richt’s chat with UGA beat writers that give some indication of what we’re likely to see on the field this fall.
On the subject of projected two-way star Malcolm Mitchell, for instance, Richt indicated that early in the season, when heat and humidity are major factors, Mitchell is likely to play mostly as a defensive back.
“Early in the year you’ll see a whole lot more of Malcolm on defense percentage-wise,” Richt said. “As the season rolls along, you’ll see … closer to 50/50 offense and defense. I also think early in the year he’ll be able to play only so many plays because of the heat. But as the weather cools, if 60 is the amount of plays he can play effectively early in the year, maybe he can go to 80 or 90,” taking him into Champ Bailey territory.
Of course, the coach is well aware that opponents will be reading his quotes, too. So while we might not see Mitchell starting on offense against Missouri, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him suddenly inserted out of the blue for a long ball from Aaron Murray or the end-around.
Then there’s the backfield, where the loss of Isaiah Crowell means “it is wide open” for the remaining players, Richt said. He did indicate that Ken Malcome will at least start preseason camp atop the depth chart and that veteran Richard Samuel probably will be playing mostly tailback.
“It certainly will change Richard Samuel’s role, I would think,” Richt said. “He was transitioning to at least the hybrid tailback/fullback for us, but I don’t think he’ll be getting an awful lot of time at fullback now.”
But he also indicated that freshmen Keith Marshall and Todd Gurley will certainly get playing time, too. Probably more and more as the season progresses. I don’t believe anyone’s thinking redshirt for even one of them any more, if they ever were.
I also liked that both Gurley and fullback Quayvon Hicks were singled out by players as having been extremely impressive in summer workouts. Everyone seems very high on Hicks, which may be one reason Richt figures there’s not going to be a need for Samuel at fullback. That’s likely to be a position that should get stronger as the season progresses, which will be a big help for Mike Bobo.
Lastly, there’s the question of how Georgia will deal with being the division favorite as the media’s pick to win the SEC East. I liked the mind-set indicated by Tavarres King. “Expectations are expectations,” the senior receiver said. “I’m just worried about outcomes.”
Frankly, I wish the Media Days discussion had centered more on football and less on drug policies and players no longer in Athens, but I’m not surprised it worked out that way.
But at least we can keep the focus where it should be here in the Blawg.
So how are you feeling about the Dawgs being picked by the media to take the SEC East? Do you think these off-field distractions could be a factor early in the season? Got something else you want to discuss concerning UGA athletics or a question for the Junkyard Blawg? Send it to junkyardblawg@gmail.com.
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85 comments Add your comment
bucket
July 20th, 2012
4:31 pm
make that Junkyard! This blog needs spellcheck!
Joey
July 20th, 2012
4:40 pm
That’s true, bucket, and I don’t acknowledge some of the Gators on here, but I can take SSIgator, and actually like Beast of the East, and Tampa Gator.
Gator fans are much easier to take, for me, than some of Auburn fans that come on here.
Pj
July 20th, 2012
4:53 pm
Regarding the schedule and how “easy” it is – not playing bama and lsu is an advantage but besides that… We play a Missouri team that’s won 48 games in the last 5 years (I believe uga has 45 in the same time frame). It’s AT missou. We go AT south Carolina who won 11 games last year. We are AT auburn, where half the team has a championship ring. We go to jax where the gators will have a top 10 defense. We play the vols who have 19 returning starters and are the second winningest program in sec history, a much better candy team than they’ve had in – well ever and end with a top 5 acc school and bitter rival in tech. It may not be the hardest schedule, but folks, it ain’t easy.
bucket
July 20th, 2012
5:07 pm
@ Joey – I have found some common ground with those guys a few times also. I just get tired of having to endure the daily rantings of UGA haters on the Junkyard Blawg. We real Dawgs fans are not deaf, dumb, blind or stupid and we know that our team hasn’t been the best in a few years and we are not happy about it. This year is the year it has to turn around or we will be looking for a new coaching staff. CMR won a couple of SEC championships (the first ones in a long time) early in his tenure and thus garnered a lot of good will. It is really hard for an AD to fire a head coach that has accumulated as many wins as Richt has. Until recently no decent coach would have touched UGA if they had fired CMR before now. He has been given the right amount of rope in my opinion and now it’s put or shut up time. But I don’t need a hater to tell me that!!!
Old Dog Class of 80
July 20th, 2012
5:08 pm
“Regarding the schedule and how “easy” it is – not playing bama and lsu is an advantage but besides that…”
we are still being led by the same mediocre Head Coach.
ARdawg
July 20th, 2012
5:09 pm
PJ
Don’t buy into that weak schedule bidnezz nor attempt to defend it. It doesn’t need defending. The schedule is what it is and those games have to be won. Nobody was crying on UGA’s should 3-4 years ago when it was the toughest in the nation. Fugg’em and feed’em fish heads
Old Dog Class of 80
July 20th, 2012
5:11 pm
Bucket – good comments!
I don’t like being called a “hater” simply because I have an opinion about our Head Coach. I am a loyal Dawg Fan and an alumnus of UGA and I don’t appreciate being run down by the Richt-o-philes fro speaking the truth.
Pj
July 20th, 2012
5:12 pm
Mmmm fish heads
Spanky
July 20th, 2012
5:18 pm
Guys, have a great weekend! Go Dawgs!…..GTBob will probably find something about that comment, and try yet again to convince folks of how bad Georgia is……..Well?……..
Old Dog Class of 80
July 20th, 2012
5:29 pm
And I have not forgiven Richt for having stinking football seasons for 3 out tof the four years when my daughter attended UGA.
Old Dog Class of 80
July 20th, 2012
5:33 pm
When the games start, I will tell you how good we are playing by how much screaming at our mistakes I end up doing. I have been doing that a lot the last four years ( and yes, that includes last year, too – we may have won the SEC East but it was not because we played good football)
AltamahaDawg
July 20th, 2012
6:05 pm
We get it, you like it when we win, and you complain when we lose. Give yourself a big ol’ badge.
kingdaddy
July 20th, 2012
7:14 pm
It’s easy to listen to the music when the band’s playing good, lol…
Circus Boy
July 20th, 2012
8:22 pm
Send in the (UGA) clowns…
Bopper
July 20th, 2012
10:03 pm
Welcome to PBU Marshall and Gurley (Pass blocking University).
You guys will never get many rushes, because UGA runs a pass heavy offense, where the running backs are primarily used as GLORIFIED PASSBLOCKERS.
Look for Samuel to get most of the reps, even though he averages a puny 2.9 yard per carry. Hey, at least he can pick up a rusher so Aaron “0-9 vs teams that finish top 25″ Murray, can throw the ball 25x a game (usually getting at least 1 pass intercepted, and getting sacked at least 3x a game).
Welcome aboard Marshall & Gurley, wlecome to PBU.
bill
July 20th, 2012
10:07 pm
Gonna get started early here. Bobo and Richt will be fired by the fifth game of the season when UGA is 0-5. Yes they lose to Buffalo, because according to the bloggers, Richt and Bobo can not coach and in fact the junior level coach at Huntsville High School, Huntsville AL is a better coach than either of them. Pepe La Pue will be the new coach and will not stink up the joint. Oh my, lions and tigers, and bears, I said joint, there goes half the team out the door.
Bopper
July 20th, 2012
10:13 pm
Marshall & Gurley will learn soon enough, that UGA isn’t a MERITOCRACY, Richt doesn’t do by who scores the most td’s, or who has the best yards per carry average, that’s why Ealey and Thomas both left over the last 2 seasons.
Kind of feel sorry for them, but Samuel will get all the carries this year, regardless of what the rest of the guys do, because he’s Richt’s favorite, and like Richt, an underachiever, and he has more experience therefor, according to Richt, can passblock and read blitzes and rushing schemes better.
When you consider Samule played linebacker at UGA for a while, Marshall or Gurely will NEVER be able to read blitzes better than Samuel, and Richt, being a pass first guy, LOVES this, and doesn’t care about PRODUCTION at the tailback position.
Old Dog Class of 80
July 20th, 2012
11:27 pm
“We get it, you like it when we win, and you complain when we lose.”
No, I like it when we play GOOD football, whether we win or lose. If we play a game against a really tough opponent and play well but end up with a heartbreaking loss, I am OK with that. What I hate is when we paly a game where the other coach says we should have won, and we make mistakes and give it away (see SC last year). Or we play sorry football but end up winning by the skin of our teeth (see Vandy last year). I haven’t seen much really good football lately by the Dawgs. Play well, and have the Coach yank the QB when he makes a couple of interceptions. Yank the place kicker when it is clear he is not in the zone. Don’t leave them in to lose games for us! If the offensive line can’t block, then they should run the stadium stairs all day Sunday after a game from 6 am til 6 pm.
GTBob
July 20th, 2012
11:39 pm
Yeah, GTBobbie, other than Matt Stafford, Cam Newton, Tim Tebow, Ryan Mallett, John Parker Wilson
Two of those were basically running backs in college who threw every once in a while, two more really weren’t very good. Stafford was the only good QB in the SEC for the past few years. Are those really the best examples that you have? There has to be some reason that Tyler Wilson is the only SEC QB who was in the top 50 in passing last year, right?
William
July 21st, 2012
2:56 am
GTBob you are a nut. Name an ACC QB better than Stafford, Newton, Tebow, Wilson. You need to get a life and stay off UGA blogs. Find a GT blog and talk all you want to. This is for UGA supporters. Where trying to have a good season. Something you know nothing about. When you have a good football team let me know. Otherwise shut the heck up.
William
July 21st, 2012
2:57 am
We’re not where
Cook's Dawg Control
July 21st, 2012
6:20 am
Dawgs giving you a problem? Just call us!
Lookie lookie lookie,
Here comes Cookie,
Cook’s Dawg Control
Hobnail Boot
July 21st, 2012
7:06 am
Talk, predictions, etc, I don’t care. Media guides are here so that means tickets and football is around the corner…We can save all of our talk for the tailgate. GATA Dawgs….
duronimo
July 21st, 2012
10:49 am
Each team is different. Players come and go. If every team exhibits the same vulnerabilities, it likely has little to do with them. Special teams and the inability to beat quality teams are two perpetural problems. Our coaches can’t fix this or they would have by now. So, the track record, plus Missouri are harbingers of a coming loss. We’ll have better players, but something involving coaching will cost us the game. Wish it wern’t so.
duronimo
July 21st, 2012
11:08 am
A number of bloggers are saying don’t worry about Missouri … they re not “that good” and will be a middle tier SEC team. Don’t the facts show that they don’t have to be “that good” …. just reasonably good like Central Fla and Michigan State. Sure, we’ll have the better players …. Their advantage will be in coaching.
Dawgsgone
July 21st, 2012
11:24 am
I listened to a lot of the coachs being interviewed at SEC media days and while CMR seems to know football and can recognize talent, he still comes across as “sort of ” in control of the program. Too much “love these guys” and we “we’ll deal with that later” in his comments. He seems too timid and detached or maybe I’m just looking at the results over the past few years. We lose games we should win, games we HAVE
Dawgsgone
July 21st, 2012
11:35 am
Sorry, apparently a BF in the middle of my comment. What I was saying is , gamew we HAVE to win because of being out coached, under conditioned or just allowing the other team to take advantage of mistakes or our lack of concentration. Maybe it happens with every other team but it sure doesn’t seem that way. Don’t get me wrong, I love the DAWGS, UGA and everything associated with them, am an alum and will always support them. But due to CMR unwillingness to make really difficult staff decisions, inability to control prima donna players and his “too casual” attidue we are where we are and will remain until something changes. We recruit too many questionable players and don’t control them and we never have depth at the positiopns that require it, too many incoming freshmen being counted on every year to product too early and too much loyalty to DGD who don’t quite measure up in talent but still work hard and behave like they should. Sorry to ramble but it’s hard not to vent sometimes. Love CMR as a person and admire and agree with his feelings on faith and family but sometimes you really have to have a mean streak and I don’t think he does.
GTBob
July 21st, 2012
2:27 pm
When you have a good football team let me know. Otherwise shut the heck up.
Nah, im gonna stick around. When the SEC gets more then one or two decent QB’s let me know. Any top tier passer in high school right now would be a fool to go to an SEC school. The SEC wants to run and play defense. Its a complete hindrance to any developing QB.
AAAAA Athens Bail Bonds R Us
July 21st, 2012
3:13 pm
Any more dawg players arrested today?
dawgfan
July 21st, 2012
5:51 pm
anybody heard the rumor that commings is gonna be the only one suspended for the Mizzou game? so rambo, ogletree, and smith will all be back. i’ve heard that from multiple people
Bernie Matt
July 21st, 2012
9:03 pm
Why not play Malcome and Samuel together ala Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams? They are both well over 220lbs! They should be able to block for each other! I guess that would be too much like right! UGA needs to find an offensive coach or a head coach willing to do what needs to be done on offense!
LogicalUS
July 21st, 2012
9:50 pm
“Malcome and Samuel together ala Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams”
Because Brown and Williams were two NFL quality talents while the UGA players are duds who would be on the intramural squads at the quality SEC programs.
But don’t worry, UGA has another two “guaranteed” Heisman recruiting wonders to save the day….they always do in July…
John Swofford
July 21st, 2012
9:55 pm
Name an ACC QB better than Stafford, Newton, Tebow, Wilson.
—–
TJ Yates in 1 year has as many NFL play off victories as all 4 combined.
Keith
July 23rd, 2012
7:53 am
Well Bill, if we could get our act together with all the discipline problems etc, maybe they would focus more on “football”. Unfortunately, we havent been able to get our act together in the past few years….which between suspensions and Murray’s knack for giving points away, this is likely to be a 9-3……10-2 if we are real lucky year
Amid all the SEC Media Days distractions, a little bit of focus on football
July 25th, 2012
6:04 pm
[...] Amid аƖƖ thе SEC Media Days distractions, a small bit οf focus οn football [...]