Mark Richt’s patience wearing thin on line of questioning, and actual line
ATHENS — Georgia coach Mark Richt, under fire since the Bulldogs’ loss on Saturday, found himself on the defensive again during Wednesday’s SEC coaches’ teleconference. By the time he met with beat reporters at the end of Wednesday’s practice, he had resorted to sarcasm.
“I can only guess what I’ll be asked today,” he said with a smile.
When he got a somewhat loaded question, Richt decided to have some fun with it.
The question: “After the game on Saturday, was your response more encouragement and trying to be positive or have you reached a point where you’ve thrown chairs and really tried to light a fire?”
His answer: “Everybody want me to snap? Is that what they want? You all want to see me snap, is that what it is? Yeah? Well, we don’t discuss what happens in the locker room. But if you guys want me to throw a table or something I’ll do that, maybe smash a camera, if that makes everybody feel better.”
Reporters laughed and Richt did, too. But he has encountered a similar line of questioning for much of the last four days. In fact, six questions during Wednesday’s teleconference had something to do with his coaching status or the mood of his team or the fanbase.
“We’re just coaching ball, OK?,” Richt said. “You guys want to make things bigger than they are. The bottom line is like anything in life, you’ve got to control what you can and that is my attitude and my effort and our team’s attitude and effort. That’s true every season. . . . Everybody’s locked in, everybody’s working hard and everybody’s confident we’re going to have a good ballgame.”
Offensive line issues continue
Richt pointed to third-down pass protection as the Bulldogs’ biggest breakdown after last Saturday’s 35-21 loss to No. 4 Boise State in the Georgia Dome. Four days later, he was seeing the same problems on Woodruff Practice Fields.
“Some things just got in my craw,” Richt said after the Bulldogs practiced in full pads for a rare second day in a row in a game week. “Third-down pass protection was just not very good today. You’ve got to win the possession downs, third-and-short, third-and-medium, third-and-long. You usually pass more than you run and we just didn’t protect very good, not good enough to beat anybody.
“Our boys better get it going or Murray is going to be on his back. That’s what made me the most mad.”
Sophomore quarterback Aaron Murray was sacked six times and pressured another 10 times against the Broncos.
Enter South Carolina, which is believed to have one of the best defensive fronts in the SEC. The Gamecocks are particularly strong at defensive end, where junior Devin Taylor (6-7, 248) is a first-team All-SEC and Jadeveon Clowney (6-6, 250) was the No. 1 freshman signee in America.
The key for Georgia, senior center Ben Jones said, is being better on first and second down.
“That’s what happens when you get in third-and-long,” Jones said. “If we had been in third-and-short they couldn’t have brought those blitzes because they would have known we might run the ball. So that’s what we’re focusing on, getting into third-and-mediums and third-and-short so they have to guess run or pass.”
Kwame Geathers still sidelined
Starting nose guard Kwame Geathers was unable to practice with the No. 1 defense for a third consecutive day. The 6-foot-6, 350-pound sophomore from Georgetown, S.C., suffered a neck sprain (aka, “stinger”) in the opener. Nonetheless, Richt believes Geathers will be ready to play on Saturday.
“Kwame is from South Carolina and he wants to play in this ballgame,” Richt said. “I don’t think you could keep him out of this one. We’re just trying to be wise. We don’t want to light him up again and set him back.”
The good news is junior college transfer John Jenkins has been getting almost all the repetitions in practice with the first team. And he needs them.
Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said this week he believes that Jenkins and Geathers together can help Georgia defend the zone-read dive play up the middle the Gamecocks ran with such effectiveness last year. Tailback Marcus Lattimore had 182 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns on 37 carries in South Carolina’s 17-6 win in Columbia.
Etc. . . .
Richt said the Bulldogs will make a decision on the starting Mo linebacker on Thursday. “We will after we watch the film and discuss what happened today,” Richt said. Georgia is having to replace starter Alec Ogletree, who suffered a broken foot last week. . . . Wide receiver Marlon Brown practiced but was did not participate in contact. His left ankle was heavily wrapped. . . . Georgia practiced on the artificial turf fields Wednesday afternoon in hopes of it being lightly warmer than on the grass fields.
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465 comments Add your comment
Bob Davie
September 8th, 2011
12:31 am
I’m available if he can’t man up and take the heat!
Ckgator
September 8th, 2011
12:35 am
Hey – in case you guys were worried about how Coach Muschomp is doing down at Florida, don’t worry! I’m watching the replay of our game and our boys look very well prepared. Fired up and flying to the ball, in position, Brantley checking down and finding the right receiver nearly every time.
It’s almost like our offensive coordinator has 4 Superbowl rings or something. Oh wait.
What were you saying about your coach again? Back to you…
LakeDawg
September 8th, 2011
12:37 am
Ckgator
September 8th, 2011
12:35 am
Hey – in case you guys were worried about how Coach Muschomp is doing down at Florida, don’t worry! I’m watching the replay of our game and our boys look very well prepared. Fired up and flying to the ball, in position, Brantley checking down and finding the right receiver nearly every time.
———————————————————————————————————————————————-
Get back to me when you’ve played somebody.
JC
September 8th, 2011
12:39 am
TheAntiMe,
Well said, I agree with you. CMR is absolutely feeling the heat and he is trying his best to get his team ready to play a very SC team. I really think we will come out ready to play, I just don’t know if we have the depth to win the game without a few breaks going our way…speaking of that, we need a break or two to go our way for a change!
L.A. BULLDAWG
September 8th, 2011
12:48 am
FORGET ABOUT MARK RICHT’S PATIENCE! WHAT ABOUT BULLDOG NATION’S PATIENCE? YEAR AFTER YEAR, UGA HAS A TOP TEN RECRUITING CLASS, AND THAT DOEN’T TRANSLATE TO THE FIELD! THE LAST 3 YEARS HAVE BEEN HELL ON UGA FANS! RICHT NEEDS TO TAKE OVER PLAYCALLING, AND FIRE MIKEE BOBO! HOWN MANY 5-STAR RECRUITS, NEED TO BE WASTED AGAIN? I.E. MATTEW STAFFORE, KNOWSHON MORENO, AND MOST OT ALL A.J. GREEN! WE DIDN’T EVEN SNIFF AN SEC TITLE OR POTENTIAL TOP FIVE RANKING WITH ALL-WORLD GREEN!! THAT’S COACHING! BOBO MUST GO!
L.A. BULLDAWG
September 8th, 2011
12:50 am
JUST FEED ISIAH CROWELL THE BALL 20-25 TIMES A GAME AND TAKE OUR CHANCES! FORGET THE STRETCH DRAW PLAY AND ALL THAT SHOT-GUN MESS. IT’S NOT WORKING!
BullDogNoMore
September 8th, 2011
12:55 am
How much football can the dogs learn in 1 week? Here’s the dilemma, if Ga wins, then it’s apparent the coaches failed to get them ready for Boise; if they lose, then it’s apparent the coaches are not up to the job.
Mike
September 8th, 2011
1:00 am
If the Dogs don’t beat South Carolina, Richt should resign & take BooBoo with him (along with those gosh-awful new uniforms).
Bobo must GO!
September 8th, 2011
1:01 am
Looks like Richt is willing to ride Bobo out the door…..too bad he won’t make the hsrd decision and save himself and GA football.
TN Jeff
September 8th, 2011
1:03 am
How stupid is it to run a no huddle offense when it appears your team is NOT physically fit enough to hurry things up AND your play calling is moronic? All a no huddle offense does in this case is get off the field quicker via a punt and then your defense has had little to no time to rest. Eventually they wear down and a 7-7 game turns into a 28-7 game. Sound familiar?
yogi1
September 8th, 2011
1:37 am
I hope the new athletic director will step up to the plate and take charge. That is why he was hired.
Fire all the bums.
NJ Dawg
September 8th, 2011
2:50 am
To all of the “it’s just one game” people –
Seriously? Those of us that are frustrated and being somewhat negative about the coaches are very passionate about the team and reacting to 3-4 years now of a downhill slide where they keep getting worse every year, not better. I’m not expecting them to win a NC every year or even the SEC or SEC East every single year like some nutso fans but we the amount of talent we consistently get we should at least be competitive every year and in the conversation, in the picture.
Are we seriously expected as fans to just sit there accept a 3-4 year downward slide into mediocrity, see all those talented players never coached up to their potential and just be cool with it? Somebody made the point in the comments on another article that I really liked – a lot of the big talent we recruit, these guys are superstars in high school and often times go on to be top notch NFL players. Yet when they’re at UGA they’re kind of mediocre and never live up the hype or potential. What happens to them at UGA? I can’t really think of anything except not being coached up.
Tony Floyd
September 8th, 2011
3:00 am
Do you think if CMR were a manager in baseball he would ever get ejected from a game. What I mean to say is watching other games and coaches that seem to be yelling and jumping up and down and with the players like the seat of there pants is on fire will get everbody fired up. I have never met the man but what I have seen over the years is that Richt acts more like a AD. There you go, if they don’t have the season they want, ask Richt to be assistant AD and hire Gary Patterson from TCU.
Gman84
September 8th, 2011
3:50 am
You can trace the slide back to when we’d eel out a win against heavy underdogs and Richt would give us quotes like “any win is a great win”. Other coaches would burn red hot when their team played down to an opponent seeing an opportunity for obvious and needed improvement.
Once you become complacent and do not demand excellence, mediocrity takes hold and good luck getting anything better.
Gray
September 8th, 2011
4:44 am
Personally, I feel like throwing a chair, everytime someone comes up, demanding UGA fire Richt.
Someone, who as demanded Richt’s ouster, in an online blog, is at it again and this woman doesn’t know heads nor tails of what it takes to win a football game. Nor does she have a clue as to what loyalty is all about.
It’s easy to demand a coach, whose team has lost, be axed but it’s a different thing to remain loyal.
There’s a lot more to winning a football game, than calling specific plays and hoping the team will execute them. And, make no mistake aobut it, UGA was 28 point underdogs, last week and they only lost by about 20 points.
Stinger2
September 8th, 2011
4:44 am
Some observations from a GT fan after reading most all of the negative comments from recent blogs by UGA “fans”:
.UGA fans must race reality….no team can win every game.
.UGA fans have a right to their opinions about CMR and Bobo but they should refrain from nasty comments that many of them make.
.UGA fans should be thankful for what they have. Some of these blessings include a financially strong atheletic association, great facilities, the ability to recruit top talent, etc.
. Just one losing season in 10 years does not justify a coach like CMR to be fired. Get a life UGA fans.
Mama don't let your babies grow up to be DAWGS
September 8th, 2011
4:52 am
Luv seeing and hearing all those worried DAWGS
7576DAWG
September 8th, 2011
4:56 am
The only patience that should be wearing thin is the season ticket holders and the boosters that contribute a lot every year, as well as any that support the team.. The problem with making 3 million dollars a year is you lose perspective as to the fact that you are making in one year what the average high paying job makes in a life time. You start feeling that you don’t have to answer to the fans and that you are better than and smarter than everybody. Most of the questions that I had heard that get’s CMR really ticked off has been raised for 3 years now by a lot of fans and were not addressed until at the end of last year and some still are not addressed.
The biggest two was Bobo’s incompetence and certain glaring deficient recruiting for the offensive line which is all on Garner. Most fans that know a lot about football saw these problem coming a few years back which were not addressed.
All Georgia fan’s can demand a lot more than we are getting for a 3 million a year salary and those of you that are okay with us losing 7 games are already rich or you haven’t paused a minute and really given it much thought as to how much 3 million actually is.
Douglas
September 8th, 2011
4:57 am
If Richt doesn’t like the way the offensive line is blocking, it is his fault — he is the one who hired this new offensive line coach from an inferior conference. Gosh, I hope SC puts the dagger in UGA this weekend — we need to keep losing games so we can get rid of Richt and get a new coach. UGA will not beat USC this weekend — they have better coaches — and are more physical.
sprouse27
September 8th, 2011
5:11 am
CMR never likes anybody to see him sweat. We can be losing by 28 and when he talks into his headset you don’t know if he’s changing anything (unlikely) or ordering McDonalds. Nice guy and he’s not stupid. If he knew how to stop the Dawg’s slide, he would. Thing is, he doesn’t. So we get gimmicks and hype instead of meaningful improvement on the team. We hear about great recruiting class after great recruiting class. Yet all that supposed talent coming through the door never quite seems to show up on the field. We’re simply big enough to beat AA teams and most lower tier football teams. But we don’t hold a candle to the upper tier SEC teams and haven’t for a long time now. The next coach will have to fix that. Absolutely time for new coaching blood in Athens.
sprouse27
September 8th, 2011
5:13 am
Losing games is painful, but may be the price we have to pay to get rid of CMR.
Santa Cruz Bulldog
September 8th, 2011
5:28 am
Please Block and tackle this week.
That game game last week was poor all the way around.
Except for Boykin, Charles, and Mitchell.
Play to our strengths, which are speed with Mitchell, on the outside, and TE’s no team can cover.
Pass to our TE’s on first down some, and make changes to the D scheme, when the other teams Offense makes changes.
Also use some two TE sets on third down and bring Figgins in, to protect Murray.
Coastal Dog SSI
September 8th, 2011
5:38 am
No blocking, no running game. No touches, no running game. No running game, no passing game. No running game, no victory. Could we order up some running game? Thank you.
Lowcountry bulldawg is a d---he
September 8th, 2011
5:47 am
It’s OK we still best team in world we win championship this year!
I say it’s great to be a Georgia Bulldawg
Big Ten Fan
September 8th, 2011
6:10 am
Indiana U. ( my alma mater ) just recruited a great freshman class… just installed new strength, conditioning, and nutrition program… with a new coach… and lost to Ball St. ( not Boise St. )… things could be worse ?!
Parade of Knuckleheads
September 8th, 2011
6:16 am
Enter your comments here
Destin Dawg
September 8th, 2011
6:19 am
Richt coached up an exciting offense at FSU…. did he forget how ?? or is he just burned out ?? 10 years head coach in the S.E.C. is alot these days…. term limits ??
michael
September 8th, 2011
6:37 am
Ben Jones gets it, so why doesn”t Richt?
NewnanDawg
September 8th, 2011
6:52 am
McGarity had better get Dan Mullen on the phone the day after our 9th UF loss in 11 Richt years.
NewnanDawg
September 8th, 2011
6:52 am
Richt is still trying to run an FSU ACC offense in the SEC.
tony
September 8th, 2011
6:54 am
pisgah
Post #5170
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I read a biography on Richt recently which stated that he was Jim Kelly’s backup at Miami , but still a good qb who played well when Kelly got hurt a few games. He then went out to the Denver Broncos to play under our own Dan Reeves, when of all things John Elway came to Denver a few weeks later. It said Reeves had to cut Richt, and Richt wanted to play so badly that he started crying in Reeves’ office when Reeves was telling him the news, and then Reeves started crying. He then went to Miami and off all people Dan Marino comes in and Richt gets cut again. The book said that Shula was not emotional about it like Reeves.
Posted on 9/8 5:05 AM | IP: Logged
_____________________________________________________________
I found this on SC blog. Interesting if this is true. Dan and Shula showed no mercy when they cut him and he showed no mercy when he cut his 3 assistent coaches.
NextCoachPlease
September 8th, 2011
7:04 am
Richt is going BYE BYE and welcome your new coach Jim Tressel. He will take them to the National Championship next year. Thank him now please.
Lowcountry Bulldawg
September 8th, 2011
7:16 am
Thanks for showing up its been a few weeks. I was getting worried the guy who is stalking me had drowned in a tub full of 6in bath water with such a low IQ.
Parade of Knuckleheads
September 8th, 2011
7:21 am
Patience is wearing thin watching the INEPT Georgia coaching staff.
Corny Hull
September 8th, 2011
7:23 am
If the team was sucking wind in the 2nd half last week, there is no way GA can get in the kind of shape you have to be in to run a hurry up offense in 7 days. If you believe that, I have some beachfront property in Nebraska for sale to ya. Spurrier will out plan & befuddle the defense AGAIN.
JB
September 8th, 2011
7:31 am
Notes from Wednesday practice to make you ill….
Richt stated that after watching the OL practice today, he doesn’t think we could beat anybody.
Also said we couldn’t stop Lattimore last year with Akeem Dent who was drafted 3rd by the Falcons, Now I’ve got a walk on playing that slot.
All this is in the Athens Banner Herald if you dare read it.
In a tizzy | Get The Picture
September 8th, 2011
7:37 am
[...] still having a hard time deciding which is funnier – the press having a hissy fit because Richt is tired of hearing the same lame question repeated ad nauseam, or the fans’ freakout over what sounds [...]
The Man
September 8th, 2011
7:39 am
Richt is so weak…. Just get prepared to beat USC. The rest of the schedule doesnt look so bad.. Miss St, Tenn,, Fla and Auburn are possible losses. If USC wins then I dont see UGA beating these teams. But Richt is such a nice guy.
Parade of Knuckleheads
September 8th, 2011
7:41 am
All that 5 star recruiting and ….
no experienced back-up linebackers, offensive linemen, running backs, etc.
Bad planning by a bad coaching staff.
The Man
September 8th, 2011
7:41 am
Watch this pathetic display after the Boise game.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1x-8HMgyaY
Lowcountry Bulldawg
September 8th, 2011
7:43 am
JB,
Read the article. Sounds like we could have some guys out there Saturday thinking rather than playing football on the OL. Not a good recipe for success.
Parade of Knuckleheads
September 8th, 2011
7:44 am
The hurry up offense is going to “hurry up” and do what ?
Parade of Knuckleheads
September 8th, 2011
7:48 am
“Hurry Up” and get the tired defense back on the field.
Thanks Bobo.
bob
September 8th, 2011
7:50 am
Boise State was better than we were.
The sun will come up in the morning.
Nothing Could Be Finer
September 8th, 2011
7:56 am
Some of yall are pretty good at reverse psychology.
Thats not gonna help your team win or lose on Saturday.
CEPH
September 8th, 2011
7:57 am
Why is Richt complaining about pass protection, after all he hired his bud Willie Friendly (no sarcasm intended) to coach the offensive line WITHOUT interviewing another person for the job. His response to the hire was there would be a continuation of the terminology (whatever that means) because he had been a graduate assistant at UGA. Great reason for hiring someone huh!!!!!!! Also Richt must love the name Willie, seems like I remember another bud named Willis as in Martinez
w
JB
September 8th, 2011
7:59 am
Hey bob, I guess those powers Colorado and UCF were better also last year. Out played and out coached by lightweights.
bubba4dawgs
September 8th, 2011
7:59 am
To go with good coaching, the name of the game is good recruiting. Obviously, our O-line recruiting is suspect. Spurrier must be a dynamite recruiter as is Saban. I see where Spurrier picked up seven (7) recruits from Georgia for the 2012 season. Perhaps we need to look at the strength of our recruiters.
Dennis
September 8th, 2011
8:01 am
Why third and long. Because 1st and 2nd down not working either.
legionaire
September 8th, 2011
8:01 am
Richt would have been better off 2 years ago cleaning house and UGA fans would have understood that he was rebuilding and cut him some slack. He chose to piece meal and it shows. Bobo’s record speaks for itself, the conditioning program is less than a year old but will get better, Eric Zeir said it best that after 2 years the D scheme is no longer in a learning curve. You could not tell if from the BS game. Richt is upset about the pass blocking and is working to get it right. This is like teaching a combat soldier to fire his weapon while on patrol. Good luck Mark.