Gator chomps and Bulldog barks followed Richt on spring break
ATHENS – Georgia’s football team switched gears from spring break to spring practice Tuesday — a rather jolting change.
Just back from the university’s spring break, which many players and coaches spent on the beach, the Bulldogs returned to the practice field on an unseasonably warm afternoon. They held their second session of spring practice, 12 days after the first.
“Spring break — for spring football, it really does stink,” coach Mark Richt said. “You get ‘em working; you get ‘em up to a certain point of readiness, mentally, physically. And then boom, they’re gone. . . . And we [coaches] are, too. Our minds — we’re out of here, too.
“It’s hard to just come back off spring break and just expect everybody to look great. But hopefully we’ll be locked in and ready to go from here on.”
Richt spent part of his spring break on the beach in Jamaica, and listen to what greeted him there:
“I’m not lying to you: The first time we laid down our stake at the beach — laid it down just barely, hadn’t even sat down yet, just trying to get the chair aligned with the sun — two Gators [fans] are right [next] to where my chair was, right where I was looking.”
He had other encounters with SEC fans on the trip, too.
“I’ll tell you what, man: The SEC is everywhere,” he said.
“I got a couple of these,” he added, showing the Gator chomp. “But I had a lot of great Bulldogs barking, too, so it was good.”
Anyway, a rested Richt and his team were back at work Tuesday.
“I thought we were a little sluggish,” Richt said. “I hate to make it sound like it was a bad [practice] because it really wasn’t, but I don’t think everybody did a real good job over spring break staying in shape.”
The Bulldogs will practice again on Thursday.
Bare-handed Murray
If you’re wondering, quarterback Aaron Murray practiced without gloves Tuesday.
He wore them in Georgia’s 10-6 Liberty Bowl loss to Central Florida, a choice that drew much debate after the game.
“Yeah, I definitely heard a lot of second-guessing,” Murray said Tuesday. “But when you go back and watch the film, most of the bad plays were not due to throwing. It was more mental errors. So it had nothing to do with the glove.”
In any case, Murray said he doesn’t plan to wear a glove on his throwing hand during games or practices in the future unless cold weather possibly dictates.
“I felt good with it heading into the [bowl] game, with the weather and everything,” he said. “But as of right now we’re just using the hand.”
Murray participated fully in Tuesday’s practice, and he said his ankle, which he sprained in a pickup soccer game last month, “feels 100 percent.”
“I’m still doing rehab just to make sure it stays strong,” he said. “But I felt great out there today and really haven’t had any problems in about a week or so.”
Benedict’s long road back
Offensive lineman Brent Benedict, who was redshirted as a freshman last season after suffering a severe knee injury in high school, said he is a “full-go” participant this spring.
“It was a long road coming back,” he said.
He is working at right guard.
Donations rise
Donations to the Georgia athletics program have topped last year’s level despite the Bulldogs’ first losing football season in 14 years.
Contributions to the “Hartman Fund,” the fund-raising vehicle that is tied to football season tickets, stood at $22.94 million as of Monday night with “still a few dribbling in,” according to Dave Muia, the athletics department official who oversees fund-raising and alumni relations.
That total exceeds last year’s contributions of $22.74 million.
This year’s stated deadline for contributions was Feb. 15, but the cutoff, as usual, was flexible.
– Tim Tucker, AJC
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320 comments Add your comment
King Gator
March 23rd, 2011
6:19 pm
Hey Mon! Gators got that Rammer Jammer.. Ohhh Ahhhh!! Go Gators!
Jackie
March 23rd, 2011
6:30 pm
Wrong. Tenn & Kent are not easy wins for Mark Richt. 2-2 against each last 4 seasons. Both went 6-6 last seaosn like Richt.
Only gimmes are:
Vandy, Tenn, Ole Miss, N Mx St
Ga Tech, Tenn, Kentucky, up for grabs.
Auburn, Florida, Boise, SC, MSU, all losses.
Somewhere between a 4-8 & 7-5 season, depending on how Richt does against the middle 3: Tech, Tenn, Kentucky.
Richt’s not a big game coach, 2-9 aganst ranked teams since 2008.
Jackie
March 23rd, 2011
6:33 pm
Home games arn’t an advantage for Richt, as any real fan knows. richt has a great road record, but isn’t good at home, or against Florida. So the schedule doesn’t play to his strengths.
M City
March 23rd, 2011
6:34 pm
Coach Richt must finish in the top 25, or he’s gone.
Jackie
March 23rd, 2011
7:22 pm
M City,
Top 25? I agree that’s the bottom line for job retention, but where oh where does Mr. Richt get the 9 W’s?
4 W’s:
Ole Miss, Coastal Carolina, New Mexico St., Vanderbilt.
He needs 4 more regular season wins, and then a Bowl game win too, if he gets them, best shot is these 4 MUST WIN games (win or get a new job):
1) Kentucky (lost playmakers on offense)
2) Georgia Tech (#1 rush offense–last 3 games went down to final minute)
3) Tenn (they’ll have a great passing game)
4) Miss St. (lost Defensive coor)
Florida is an L. 2 Top 10 ranked teams are L’S: Boise, SC.
Richt’s 2-9 vs ranked teams in last 11 games.
AltamahaDawg
March 23rd, 2011
8:48 pm
Guys, the reason Richt has done very poorly in the “big games” lately is that he has not had the better team. The problem is the product he is putting out on the filed, not some designation or moniker. What he Is or Is Not. Was he a big game coach prior to 2008? If he wins more in the future, does he just transform back into a big game coach?
He needs to work on getting his teams to play better football, period. If that happens it doesnt matter how big the next game is, or where it’s played. That has always been the case and easily verifiable.
AltamahaDawg
March 23rd, 2011
9:09 pm
I’m just saying. UGA is likely to send a few football player out on that field those day. Why does everything always has to be reduced to oversimplification like…”Richt will win this one, Richt can’t win that one”.
Do you like Garcia, and Lattimore against our defence now that they have a year to understand it? Murray seeing thier defense the second time around? What do you think there? Do you even have any idea who UF is going to put on the field, and what they are likely to run?
Surely it’s more complicated than some stat from the past, but only some past, not all past. And from different team under different circumstances.
If you don’t think our players are going to do any better against their players this season, that stat is probably going to hold a lot of relavance.
Forrest
March 23rd, 2011
9:19 pm
Enter your comments here
Mobile Dawg
March 23rd, 2011
9:20 pm
With Coach Richt I never know what to think. From a purely football perspective I don’t see any real strengths in Mark Richt at this point. We had a “good” recruiting class on paper, but we’ve had a lot of those under this Administration.
I know every year we get hyped up hoping for greatness. Using the most basic reasoning and logic in setting expectations why should we hope, or expect for something different than we’ve seen. Very few people are capable of making dramatic change and staying with it over a period of time. That translates into “business as usual” to me. That is unless McGarity has a strong influence and “staying power” in wielding it.
AltamahaDawg
March 23rd, 2011
9:51 pm
I would say that a complete flip of the defensive staff is very unusual situation. Wouldn’t it be logical to assume that it would improve the second year? In fact isnt that almost a given in sports, second year of anything improving? Plus the upgrade in talent. illogical to me to think the defense will not improve a lot actually.
Freshmen QB’s aren’t terribly unusually, but rarely have success in the SEC. Wouldn’t it be logical to say that a second year QB would not be as easy to shut down as Murray was especially that first few games he had every play in college.
Wouldnt it be logical that with the return of the top (2) Rushers, all the back -up, including a new bigger malcome, Plus #1 recruit Frosh, the Running game should improve. Certainly no worse. same for O-line.
The schedule is not more difficult, the team we play arent going to be any better relative to our potential improvement. Kicking game again, one of the best in the country.
We will see if the new conditioning program has any big inpact, but logically, it seems as if any addded emphasis can’t be a bad thing, especially considering the way the actual losses occured.
Logically, when the losses were mostly single digits last year, its eay to make a case for a better 2011 by any number of things.
AltamahaDawg
March 23rd, 2011
10:11 pm
Actually, I am counting on him not changing. Looking forward to business as usual. The problem has been, for what ever the factors and I’m sure there are a few, he has not cinducted business as usual.
I don’t see making dramatic changing to who he as the issue. I see it as he needs to correct some issue that have caused his teams to get outscored.
ZZ Tip
March 23rd, 2011
10:21 pm
Unfortunately, no, none of that is using common sense.
Check out Richt’s real track record over last 8 seasons and you’ll find, Richt loses MORE games than they year before, 7 out of 8 of those seasons.
So, there’s a 1 out of 8 chance Richt wins more games in 2012 than 2011.
Could it happen? @90% chance it will NOT. @10% chance Richt wins more than 6 games in 2012.
ZZ Tip
March 23rd, 2011
10:27 pm
I’ll tell you another thing. Richt thinks adding more pounds wins games.
Not so.
Richt had a 30 lb advantage on the lines against UCF, and couldn’t even score a td.
Even if Georgia outweights SC, Florida, BY 30 POUNDS, without the right strategy and execution, it won’t matter.
AltamahaDawg
March 23rd, 2011
11:11 pm
Despite repeating that stats that has been used in here ad naseum as a substitition for actual football field related points, you never really refuted any of my comments. Which one is not of common sence?
BTW, since you are set on clinging to that stats, I would think that you recognize that the irony is, at this point that stats has hit a mathematical probability of NOT working this year.
AltamahaDawg
March 23rd, 2011
11:19 pm
You aren’t even stating it correctly. You are claiming that there is a 90% chance of LOSING more than 6 games, not 90% he won’t WIN more. You don’t have a stat on that. Might want to check your calender out as well.
AltamahaDawg
March 23rd, 2011
11:27 pm
And I’ll correct myself. I doubt that you caught it.
You claim there is a 90% chance he LOSES MORE than 7 games, actually. Going with something that has happen 0 out 10 seasons huh? Quite a dilemma for a guy just going with the common sense approach.
Mobile Dawg
March 24th, 2011
9:30 am
I see what you say about logic but it just doesn’t seem to pertain to this program. For whatever reason CMR just can’t seem to get the guys on board. What I have seen of Richt that I fear won’t change is his ability to provide Leadership, Direction, and Discipline to the troops. They say they respect him but their performance says otherwise.
Leadership is a skill that is mostly “Natural” but finely honed by experience and education. From what I’ve seen and experienced Richt doesn’t have “Leadership Traits” nor a plan to succeed. I hope I’m wrong and have to eat these words.
A coach I admire and could see in Athens said a while back that a football team needs at least 18 offensive linemen on scholorship on average. I read the other day we have 13. You have to have a plan, a model, to succeed. I just don’t see a plan or formula for our guy. Sorry for the negative posts, I have pretty much stopped posting because I don’t have much positive to say for CMR and don’t want to be constantly negative…..
Voting with our pocketbooks | Get The Picture
March 24th, 2011
9:46 am
[...] the purveyors of the hot seat meme ought to take some cold, hard numbers into account. … Donations to the Georgia athletics program have topped last year’s level despite the [...]
Mobile Dawg
March 24th, 2011
10:17 am
Some of you just refuse to accept reality….Those are the cold hard facts to me…..
AltamahaDawg
March 24th, 2011
12:06 pm
The cold hard facts are that you asked for any reason to think the W/L record would be better next year, and I gave you 3 or 4, none of which you refute.
And they very much applied to this particular team coach by this particular coach. I listed them by player, by position. Actual 2011 UGA football team.
I get the hyperboles. I do. We need genral Patton. But I don’t care who you hire, that stuff will always be debatable. I don’t think that was your question. It’s not really applicable to this situation either. September 2011 is going to happen.