UGA’s Mark Richt put on defensive again during SEC coaches teleconferece

ATHENS — Sorry for the relative lack of presence on the blog today. I had to tune into the SEC Coaches teleconference, videotape a segment for ESPN’s College GameDay and go get my knee worked on at my orthopedist’s office. But I’m saddled up here at practice now and will bring you updates the rest of the day.

As for the SEC teleconferecne, Georgia coach Mark Richt continued to get peppered with thinly-veiled queries insinuating that is job may be on this line this week or this year or whatever. For him, that’s pretty much four days in a row of that line of questioning and you can tell that’s it’s starting to wear on him a little bit.

I’ll just quickly share some of his answers from his 10-minute or so session and you’ll get an idea what I mean:

Does Saturday’s game feel like a must-win?

“I wouldn’t say that. It’s a very important game for us, very crucial for the Eastern Division race. It’s not a must win mathematically for the race or not a must win in any other way I know of. But is it crucially important? There’s no doubt about that. But we look at every game like it’s a must-win game, so however you want to spin it, you can spin it. You guys spin it anyway you want anyway. So do with that what you want.”

What’s the general feeling on the team about having to face No. 12 South Carolina coming off such a disappointing loss to Boise State?

“I’d say excitement right now. These guys are really excited about playing this ballgame. They’re getting a chance to play between the hedges for the first time this year, getting play SEC competition for the first time. Maybe they’ll get some form of redemption for last week as far as how we played overall. So everybody’s got a good attitude. They showed up ready to work.”

What about keeping up team morale?

“We don’t have that issue right now. Everybody out there might think that, but nobody had to push anybody yesterday. Everybody’s in, everybody’s working hard, the scout teamers know that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are their game days basically . They’ve got to go great job to simulate what’s going on and I thought they did their part. We were in full pads going live football and competing. There’s no motivational issue right now. There’s no need for anybody to pick anybody up. We’re just going to contuinue to work hard and prepare.”

What are you doing to insulate your team from crictism?

“We’re just coaching ball, OK? 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. Today’s no different than a year ago or two years ago going into Game two in my mind. Everybody’s locked in, everybody’s working hard and everybody’s confident we’re going to have a good ballgame.”

How do you keep from focusing on the big picture job of getting the program turned around but having to get ready for a tough opponent?

“You answered your own question. You just go to work every day. What can I do today that’s going to help us in Game 9, not much other than getting better at fundamentals, get better at tackling and those kinds of things, and that’s going to help me on Saturday. The goal is to get ready for South Carolina and that’s what we’re going.”

With all the fan forums and blogs and Internet coverage, how do you filter out the noise?

“Well, just what I’ve been saying all along: We get in our meetings, we focus on our jobs, we practice, we compete well, we use the type of energy it takes to have a good day. We can control certain things and that’s what we focus on. And that’s when you’re winning, too, and you’ve got people saying how great you are. You’ve got to be insulated from that, too. If anybody gets to involved in anything that’s swirling around good or bad it doesn’t help you win. So I think you’ve got to manage that.”

Do you address it with the team?

“We don’t talk about it, quite franlkly. We’;e going to work. It’s Game Two, it’s Game One in league play. I don’t see what the issue is as far as any kind of reality,. I don’t even know what’s swirling around. Everybody says there’s stuff swirling around. I usually find about it if my mom calls or I go to church and everybody says they’re praying extra hard for me. That’s when I know it’s out there.”

OK, that’s enough about that. Here’s what some of the SEC coach — including Richt — had to say about the eventual addition of Texas A&M to the SEC.

• RICHT: I’m just going to stay away from commenting on anything as far as expansion right now until all the dust settles and I have a better idea of what’s going on. I’ll say this: It looks like change is coming. I’ll say that. But for me as a coach, my effort and energy has to be focused on preparation and this game and that’s what we’re doing. . . . The truth of the matter is I don’t know and for me to make some kind of comment would be premature. I’ve got an AD as a boss and a president and a commissioner and I don’t think anybody needs my comments on expansion right now.”
• WILL MUSCHAMP: “Whatever Dr. Machen and our administraion decide I’ll support. But Texas A&M has a great tradition and is an outstanding program. . . . I really think we’re headed to the 16-team leagues. Eventually I think there will be four of them at some point if you ask me personally. But whatever our conference decides I’m fine. . . . I don’t know how it will work. Honestly I haven’t put any thought into it at all. But I do think that’s where it will go eventually. I think there’s the haves and have nots esstially.
• STEVE SPURRIER: “It may open up the door for LSU, Arkansas, the Mississippi schools and so forth. I don’t think it will have any impact with us. We’re trying to recruit our state and the border states. That’s about where we are. Every now and then we’ll go up into New Jersey and the OPhiladephia area. But the TV markets and all that if A&M comes in, which looks like is going to happen, that’s fine with all of us. We don’t make those decisions. That just adds a bigtime college program, Texas A&M, to the SEC. And I thnk that’s fine with all of us coaches.” . . . (impact on recruiting) “It won’t for us. Maybe the western teams over there can go into Texas and it can give them certainly more pull. Who knows?”

• LES MILES: “I’m kind of caught because I coached in the Big Eight conference and I coached in the Big 12 conference and I have historic respect for that tremendous conference and the traditions of those teams. So as happy as I am to realize that there will be a greater, plainer view of Texas, I’m saddened in some respect that the old Big Eight-Big 12 is kind of fragile right now. I don’t understand it I guess is what I’m saying.” . . . (Recruiting) “Texas football is great high school football, very talented players. I think there will be a strong view of the strongest football conference and a competitive view of the choices the Texas players have to make and I think they’ll be looking at what conference is the best they can play in and which is closets to my home and what’s the travel distance that my parents would have to go to see me play. I would think the SEC would be preferred to West caost travel or whatever the other choices would be. . . . The dynamics are going to be very significant. I think we would compare very favorably to the other choices of those Texas prospective student-athletes.”

PRACTICE OBSERVATIONS

Real quickly, practice is ongoing. Georgia is in full pads for the second consecutive day. Very unusual. . . . Wide receiver Marlon Brown was wearing a green jersey. His left ankle was heavily wrapped but not sure if that’s the reason. . . . Nose guard Kwame Geathers, who suffered a neck injury (aka stinger) was nowhere to be found for the second straight day.”