Mark Richt: Georgia a young team that ‘will get better exponentially’

Here’s some quotes from players and coaches after Georgia’s 45-42 loss to South Carolina Saturday night at Sanford Stadium. . . .

Georgia Head Coach Mark Richt:

“That was an exciting game. The score didn’t turn out the way we wanted. Losing is no fun.”

“South Carolina is a tremendous team, and I think Georgia’s a darn good team if we don’t help the opponent too much.”

“As head coach, I saw an awful lot of great ingredients in this game. I saw a lit fight from our guys, I saw some outstanding plays at crunch time, I saw banged-up guys sucking it up and going. I saw I a lot of resiliency. We can be very good football team, we just had too many giveaways.”

“I thought we kept fighting. We took the lead a couple of times and never gave in. The clock just ran out on us, basically.”

“I wouldn’t say we’re young across the board, but we have enough young people we’re counting on that we’ll get better exponentially.”

“I think the Eastern Division will be decided down the road and I think we’re going to be in the middle of it. I think everybody needs to wait and let it play out.”

“There were so many bad things that happened to us, it would’ve been easy to lay down and die, but we didn’t.”

On play Murray was sacked and fumbled . . .

“We had a slip screen called and their five technique [tackle] went inside and I don’t think Cordy [Glenn] got a hand on him. If you’re gonna get sacked, you get sacked. But Murray had to hold onto the ball there.”

On Isaiah Crowell . . .

“Isaiah is a dynamic player. He got busted in the ribs early in the game and had a hard time breathing. He showed some toughness to be able to finish.”

“We’ve definitely been through some really tough games, games that take a lot of guts, energy and games where you need the majority of things to go right to get the victories. We lost and we understand that. But we’re going to be a  good football team. We’re resilient enough to shake it off and make the corrections.”

On throwing his head phones and play cards . . .

“I guess I wanted to show people that I could get mad. I threw them pretty far, too. If I had a visor on I would have slammed it down.”

“We have a tight-knit group. Our guys love each other and believe in each other. We will tweak a couple of things and be in good shape. The future is still very bright. We’ve just got to do things to get results on the scoreboard.”

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier:

“I’ve never won a game like this that I can remember,” Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier said. “Georgia outplayed us. Give them credit, they outplayed us, but somehow or another we won the game. Sometimes it happens like that. Somebody was looking out for us tonight.”

QB Aaron Murray

On the interception…

“I think I just threw it a little behind Orson [Charles]. There was pressure, it was a tight window, and you have to put those right on the money, and I didn’t. The defender made a great play on it.”

On the game…

“I think we had great plays on both sides of the ball. We had some great plays on offense, and the defense had some awesome plays. We just gave up too many big plays and those mistakes hurt us. We can be a great football team, we have a ton of talent on both sides of the ball, but those four turnovers hurt us.”

On the miscues . . .

“Every mistake we made was big. It stinks to five points away in a ballgame like that. We gave away 28 points tonight. You can’t do that in any game, much less an SEC game.”

TB Isaiah Crowell:

“I hate to lose, but we have to deal with it. We have to come out this week and be ready to work. There isn’t time to put our heads down.”

On what happened on the fumble . . .

“I made a small pocket and the ball hit my hand. It was my fault. I should’ve made a bigger pocket.”

On being put back on the field after the fumble…

“I learned that they have confidence in me. [The fumble] was my fault. I told them it wouldn’t happen again. It was nice to get back out there so I could try to redeem myself.”

On the outlook for the season . . .

“The window is still open to win the East and that’s what we’re focused on.”

LB Christian Robinson:

On the game…

“They made some great plays, and we didn’t do what we needed to do. It’s disappointing, but we’re going to go back to the film room, look at our mistakes and get better.”

On critics…

“It’s our job to get the job done, and we didn’t do that today. It’s not the coaches, it’s us. We played our hearts out and just didn’t finish. I’m looking forward to getting back out there.”

CB/KR Brandon Boykin

On mood in the locker room after the loss…

“People were disappointed, but no matter what, we all know that we have to come back on Monday ready to work. We know that we’re capable of winning a lot of games, and winning close games. We’re ready to get back out on the field.”

On kickoff returns…

“I told [the team] before the game that I was going to give all I got. The blockers did a great job of opening the holes, and I just got myself through the holes. I was happy I was able to give the offense good field position.”

OLB Jarvis Jones:

If you play this game long enough you’re going to lose a game like this. It’s tough. This is the SEC. You make mistakes and good teams are going to capitalize on it and that’s what they did.”

546 comments Add your comment

sneakuponum

September 11th, 2011
6:39 am

yall played good and Mark Richt should stay. Not question about it.

BEAT UGA SOUTH CAROLINA SO RICHT CAN GO

September 11th, 2011
6:46 am

14-14 IS UGA RECORD IN LAST 28 GAMES,PLEASE KEEP RICHT

Get Real

September 11th, 2011
6:50 am

Get over it UGA. You aren’t that good.

Newnandawg

September 11th, 2011
6:54 am

Didn’t all the excuse makers say “Well, UGA is a young team” last year?

rosezeee

September 11th, 2011
6:55 am

The fish (or the Dawg for that matter) stinks from the head, including Adams, McGarity and Richt.

USC coaches see something UGA coaches dont on punt coverage and run a fake from their own 30. Sad.

Lattimore gashes the Defense AGAIN. Sadder.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Love all the hype but the truth is that it is week two and the season is toast already.

LOSING

Indydawg

September 11th, 2011
6:55 am

I’m with Thomas Brown on this one. If there was a national championship for moral victories, we would have won three titles in the past few years. Richt has talked this fanbase into a coma where we accept excuses. Jedi mind tricks. Anybody who thinks we are going to run the table the rest of this season is smoking. Guys are just not getting it done. Bottom line.

Get Real

September 11th, 2011
6:57 am

If I pay for the ticket, I can leave the game any damn time I please.

Gatormeat

September 11th, 2011
7:11 am

dogs go down again, bringing murrays record to 6-9. How come in Feburary the dogs get the best recruits but in October the Mighty Gators have the best players? Florida 2-0, dogs 0-2, we are better than you. Again

Win P

September 11th, 2011
7:14 am

Check the mistakes and this team will defeat Fl.

CreekDawg

September 11th, 2011
7:15 am

why did BoBo not have Murray under center in the I formation, and hand, or toss the ball to IC with 265lb fullback blocking for him? Why, why are we stuck with two pass happy ex-Qbs calling plays? Elliis Johnson dialed up a perfectly timed blitz which sealed our fate.

Nauti dawg

September 11th, 2011
7:16 am

What is up with punt team? We don’t send pressure to the punter. We don’t set up blocks well. We obviously don’t look for the fake. We are standing there like zombies on punts. other team is punting…send in the zombie team.

doctor

September 11th, 2011
7:23 am

Richt always talks about how good other teams are——————————what about his own team. This guy is a quack. Send him to the nut house please and let us get a mean bad ass coach for once. Georgia has gotten worse while other SEC teams have gotten better——-Richt always has a sales line in the interviews. We are young, somebody got hurt, blah blah blah. Tired of it folks—time to move on—–for better or worse—-

Thomas Brown

September 11th, 2011
7:23 am

LakeDawg September 10th, 2011 11:23 pm

“9-3 minimum or he should be gone. Moral victories don’t count.”

Who is the only 1 team you will allow him to lose to and keep you supporting him, before he plays another worthless team in a bowl game for the season number 11 in a row ?

hurting in ga

September 11th, 2011
7:25 am

I am proud of theway we played hard but the bottom line is this. They see something call a fake punt run a touchdown. We see something call a on side kick and we jump off sides. boykin had a chance for a pick 6, very tough play, couldn’t do it. Everytime we had a chance to go up by more than 1 score we blew it, missed field goal, fumble, fake punt. Somebody got to step up and make the tough play. Need more speed on defensive line.

doctor

September 11th, 2011
7:30 am

If you don’t believe what I blog—-look at UGAs record for this year—- O-2, the numbers do not lie. Wake up Adams—————-lay off the Jack long enough to make a change. You have to run the ball 70 percent of the time to wear the other teams defense down————hello—————anybody at home in there?

SE Dawg

September 11th, 2011
7:32 am

Running backs Samuel, Crowell, Boykin? Where is our pre season #2 back……..Malcom?

Beast from the East

September 11th, 2011
7:33 am

Tough loss in a hard fought game. Too many mistakes but the biggest one was the Deon Sanders imitation by Boykin on the fake punt. I’d bench his butt for the rest of the season. You can’t allow that type of wimpy play from anyone, much less a starter. What a wuss!!!

Thomas Brown

September 11th, 2011
7:35 am

Newnandawg September 11th, 2011 6:54 am

“Didn’t all the excuse makers say “Well, UGA is a young team” last year?”

No, sir, that was 2009. Remember now ?

2008 we were ranked # 1 every poll, lost all 3 games against any good team, giving up 29, 31 and 42 consecutive points and ended up # 13 AP Poll; had we started out # 13, we finish not in the Top 25, which is where we should have finished anyway, 22 of them out partying the night every poll made them # 1.

2009, then we went 8-5 and ALL THE EXCUSE MAKERS said we were rebuilding 2009, that we were young. Coming back to you now ?

2010, then, last year, they could not say that again – so they said that was just 1 bad year. Anyway, I had drilled it into them that we had 18 seniors on the Depth Chart Media Guide 2010 page 10.

2011 Depth Chart Media Guide page 10 again shows 22 seniors.

“Didn’t all the excuse makers say “Well, UGA is a young team” last year?”

Good one

Newnandawg

JB

September 11th, 2011
7:49 am

I’d be willing to give Richt another year to bring this “young” team together if he would do two things.
1. Fire Bobo and open the Check book and bring in a real proven OC with New ideas and the ability to call a game as to what the D is giving you.
2. Open up the QB position. The ole line of ” playing the guy that gives us the best chance to win” needs to go out the window. His record speaks, although not all his fault, and looks good at times.

Thomas Brown

September 11th, 2011
7:52 am

CreekDawg September 11th, 2011 7:15 am

“Elliis Johnson dialed up a perfectly timed blitz which sealed our fate.”

Jadeveon Clowney lined up on the right side, split the 2 OL, and threw Aaron Murray to the ground like a rag doll, whereupon South Carolina scooped it up, waltzed into the end zone 3 of them and none of us in sight to put the game away by 2 scores. Whereupon the fans left. They were not supposed to do that. They were supposed to sit there and have so much fun, per AltamahawDawg, losing for the 13th time in 26 SEC East games over these last 6 seasons and 14th time in the last 28 games overall. I waited. I wanted to see Mark Richt and Steve Spurrier at mid-field after the game. He hugged Steve Spurrier, who found it uneasy, and tried to quickly get away. That’s what I saw.

JB

September 11th, 2011
7:53 am

If we had a OL like Bama’a, we could of run right at them all night and they could not of stopped it. They almost couldn’t stop us last night. We would of eaten clock and won the game. That is SEC football.Richt needs, if he last, build a deep talented line. Crowell and Samuels would of pounded the ball all night mixed in with a little play action passing.

JB

September 11th, 2011
7:56 am

WE played hard last night, and to beat Tenn,Miss St.AU and Tech, will have to play that hard with less mistakes. Kentucky is no gimmie .

Elmer

September 11th, 2011
7:56 am

I’m proud of the team based on how much it improved from game 1. I’m ashamed of some of the fans – the ones that started filing out of the game with a few minutes left. I can’t imagine why people like that go to games – it was exciting and the outcome was still in doubt when those folks left. The sad part is that I would be willing to bet that many of those same people are creating posts talking about a team that gave up. It didn’t. Those fans did.

'94 UGA Alumni

September 11th, 2011
7:58 am

Stick a fork in us we’re done. As several people have said…moral victories don’t count. I don’t even remember the last time we beat a ranked team. I wish Richt would quit on his own instead of waiting to be fired.

5-7

September 11th, 2011
8:04 am

Looking like uga will get 5 or 6 more moral victories this year.

JB

September 11th, 2011
8:09 am

IN Richt’s mind the morning, the pressure is off some. He feels he went 15 rounds with a good physical team and could of /should of won. Now, that thinking comes from where this team has been the last 3 years. losing a hard fought game with Carolina should not make anyone feel better. Carolina is not that good and I think they lose 2-3 games this year. Now, I did see some things that made me feel better, but i also say a lot that disturbs me.

lawdawg

September 11th, 2011
8:12 am

Ga. never has enough offensive lineman,has to start a walk -on at linebacker,if he hadn’t signed such a great freshman running back we would of had a linebacker and a walk-on as our two top running backs entering the game..The man has been their 10 years and doesn’t have any depht,how can that be,it starts at the top.

Timmy

September 11th, 2011
8:12 am

Maybe we’ll play Notre Dame in the We Used to Be Relevant Bowl… sponsored by the Acme Typewriter Company.

Mike Bobo 17 INT

September 11th, 2011
8:14 am

The outcome was not surprise, but Bobo should not receive any criticism for his offensive scheme. UGA hung 42 on the Ole Ball Coach, and that means there is nothing wrong with the offense. Even against Boise, UGA hung 21 on the Broncos.

Therefore, the problem is not CMR or Bobo, your problem is Defense….more importantly Grantham. CMR made a desperate move in replacing Martinez, whom should have been replaced years ago, but once the booster pressure became unbearble, he swung for the fences and struck out with Grantham.

There is just not enough emphasis on defense, but there shold be. Dooley is not really that good, Erk Russell was. CMR is an offensive genius, he just needs someone who can run a proper defense, like Brian Van Gorder.

The troubles with this problem are deeper than CMR, or Bobo. The problem with this program is Dooley and a team that has not learned how to respect their opponents. The taunting and all the pre-game energy is spent, thus this team is gassed by half-time. Opponents come in and quietly get the job done and leave….such as yesterday.

Tim

September 11th, 2011
8:19 am

Some observations, Samuel needs to be moved back to LB, he is not an SEC caliber RB, he stumbles every time his number is called. Samuel cannot run outside whatsoever, runs upright with no cutback ability.
C. Washington gets absolutely no pressure nor can he disengage from his blocker. Most of Lattimore’s cutbacks were to 83’s side. Where is Ray Drew?
We must put our athletes on our special teams unit, we have too many walk-on’s on the field.
Special Teams are 1/3 of the game!
This is Bigboy Football,

Mike Bobo 17 INT

September 11th, 2011
8:19 am

Unfortunately the only way Kirby Smart or any other top-talented DC comng to Athens is in the form of a head coach. UGA should have upped the anty when Van Gorder left for Jax, but apparently no one in Athens understood the critical component of a defensive coordinator.

I like CMR, and if you fire him, he is going to be successful somewhere, which will only prove that the UGA is broken, and has deeper issues other than coaching. CMR could leave this program in a heartbeat, and be back in the Garnet and Gold in 2 seconds. He could also be back in Miami running that offense also……so you might want to think long and hard before pulling the trigger. What CMR needs is a better mentor than Dooley, because no one would have ever heard of Dooley if not for his recruiters and Herschel Walker.

Mike Bobo 17 INT

September 11th, 2011
8:20 am

Go back to a 4-3, go def coordinator shopping and this program might get back on track.

Thomas Brown

September 11th, 2011
8:22 am

JB

I really don’t know where to start with that, sir. I think, maybe the start of it has to be that Mike Bobo is not the panacea to our issues. We have given an entire recruiting class full of scholarships to guys who none of them have ever seen the field on offense or on defense; and continue to play Favorites, such as your next point about I guess Christian LeMay – why save him ? Mark Richt will not be here for him, if he does because, as you say, this is the game number 9 now that Aaron Murray has been beat out at his position head-to-head on the field by the opposing QB. 7 of them end the season ranked and 2 did not, but all 9 were better than he head-to-head for all to see and he lost all 9 as a direct result thereof. We have nobody on punt returns, for example, playing in the game. Zombie team, one guy just called them aptly, for example. Boykin now is the answer at RB, when I said that four (4) years ago. Didn’t I repeatedly, and every day since to say I told you so about last week. He whiffed like Garo Yepremian on his pass in Super Bowl VII after being sent back there to return the punt and whiffing on the tackle. Aaron Murray tweeted just prior to kick-off last week that he was “leaving to go whoop some a**” on his international Twitter WebPages. It sits there still this morning, if you don’t know how to use that technology, I can provide it. Of course, Brandon Boykin missed the interception this week, and got most of the press last week for his tweet to the Bear Bryant top college coach award winner, twice. 26 players have been removed from our roster in the last year, hailed around here as “addition by subtraction.” We tried to hide 2 suspensions to last week’s game. Who knows who was suspended for this game ? We wait to put Malcolm Mitchell in until the 2nd half and start out like molasses every game. Our players call their own number so many times in a game, they can’t even figure out that they need to go to the sideline and get a back-up QB ready to play, so they get the # 1 RB in the nation nearly injured himself on a botched hand-off of his, one of his 3 fumbles in the game, and someone tried to blame that on Isaiah Crowell. No, that’s on the QB, like the one at his feet he did fall on and like the 1 that cost him the game on what will always be known as the rag doll play. We have no completion to any TE last night; I presume that was some wrinkle of a game plan strategy to fool them. The only position on the team we have so many at that all might make it in the NFL; and we complete not 1 pass to them all night in a game featuring 87 points. We recruit for 6 consecutive recruiting classes 0 fullbacks, yet there are 200 every year, including great ones in the state of Georgia; now, next season we have a FB commitment. Our problems are so pervasive that all of us to an injustice to just how badly organized we are as a football program anymore. I feel that we can rattle off 10 more wins including another nobody bowl opponent as per always with the lone loss to Alabama or LSU in The SEC Championship; and that is not based upon fantasy in my mind, but on the fact that 11-3 means we beat no one this season.

Firing Bobo and opening up QB isn’t going to fix much

JB

Burma Shave

September 11th, 2011
8:23 am

Dawgs lost last night
They’re 0 and 2
All of them
Feel so blue

Burma Shave

Lakeland Dawg

September 11th, 2011
8:23 am

To all of the nay sayers who continue to bash Richt…………If you are so smart, why aren’t you out there on Saturday coaching the Dawgs? There is a lot more to coaching than any of you will ever know. I do agree, Mr. Predictible (Bobo) has to go.

dockpace

September 11th, 2011
8:25 am

Coaching was better with the exception of the 4th and 2 decision to kick the field goal that Blair missed badly. We loss by 3…. Murray has not been very good thus far except the 2 min offense when he went 8for8

Don Roberts

September 11th, 2011
8:27 am

Thomas brown: shut up redneck. Get a life.

You want fries with that?

September 11th, 2011
8:28 am

It must have been a long, miserable drive back to the mobile home park last night.

Just in case you forgot the score, it was 45-42.

Pot Meet Kettle

September 11th, 2011
8:29 am

To all of the nay sayers who continue to bash Richt…………If you are so smart, why aren’t you out there on Saturday coaching the Dawgs? There is a lot more to coaching than any of you will ever know. I do agree, Mr. Predictible (Bobo) has to go.

WTF? Why aren’t YOU coaching the offense? No one can replace the head coach but YOU can replace the offensive coordinator? Hypocrite!

mike addington

September 11th, 2011
8:30 am

Great game and Gorgia looked great, except for Murray. He played much better last year than this year. Time to start at least looking at the other pretty girls. Don’t blame this one on Richt. It was all Murray this time, although I still think he’s a winner. Hard played game. That was football.

Marshy

September 11th, 2011
8:30 am

Go Dawgs! Keep your head up, you played a hell of a game. We need to stand behind our players and coaches. Let’s build this team up, not tear it down! Still proud to be a Dawg…….

" HOT " seat

September 11th, 2011
8:30 am

…………….. wait til next year
next year
next year
next year

K Conley

September 11th, 2011
8:31 am

I support our Coach and our TEAM 100%. If our staff is let go at the end of this year, all of you morons calling for it will rue the day. You need to remember what football was like in Athens in the years between Dooley and Richt. All of our best players are freshman and sophomores. It would be a travesty to not let a good man who these kids want to play for not at least have 2 more years after this one. You learn from these type of losses. The grass isn’t always greener, and I can tell you that Keith Marshall and all the other kids in the stands want to play for our Coach. What’s a shame is that the grown people who say they support this University don’t see the big picture.

Beast from the East

September 11th, 2011
8:32 am

No moral victories, but you Dawgs have to feel better about alot of what you saw yesterday. Cut down on the mistakes and you’ll be a tough team to beat.

19 of 21 Go Gators

September 11th, 2011
8:32 am

Nothing is better than waking up on a Sunday morning and listening to UGA fans cry like little girls. Since 1980, the Mighty Gators have won three National Champioships, and two Hiesmen Trophies. and several SEC champioships, and have at least played in a few they lost. UGA thinks that 8-9 wins is a good season. How can you puppies call yourself a rival of Florida anymore, when you get your a** handed to you 19 of 21 years? The Gators may be UGA’s rival, but to Florida, its just another cupcake team. Bet y’all wish you had Charlie or Will the Thrill? Man, you can’t even get ex-players to coach your team. LET THE EXCUSES BEGIN HA HA

Ray Barone

September 11th, 2011
8:34 am

Rodney Johnson can stick it where the sun don’t shine.

Thomas Brown

September 11th, 2011
8:36 am

I have never even seen a post by any Don Roberts

Beast from the East

September 11th, 2011
8:37 am

19 of 21,
You’re a fellow Gator? I doubt it. For the record, it’s 18 of the last 21……not 19 (we lost in 97, 04 and 07). Show some class. We (Gators) haven’t proven we can beat a quality team since the 2009 season. Lots of questions still to be answered.

mark

September 11th, 2011
8:37 am

a couple years ago while watching a uga game i noticed that it appeared that a fake put could be easily run against us, the next week while playing alabama i think iwas watching game with my father and i said be ready for a fake punt at some point, and sure enough they did it on que,big first down, THIS CRAP WOULD NEVER HAPPEN TO A GOOD COACH TWICE FOLKS!!! fire his loosing but today!!!!! NOW NOW!

MarineDog

September 11th, 2011
8:38 am

No one likes to lose. This includes the players, coaches, and fans. I am disappointed in this lost as well. A lot of improvement was shown between the 1st game and 2nd game. However, the most disturbing part of this is the behavior of the fans. The booing, name calling, and overall constant bickering is at a level that I have never thought the Ga. faithful would stoop to. It’s one thing to expect to win an express your disappointement. However, it crosses the lines with the personal insults are hurled at the team. I think there are some that are hoping that the season turns out bad so that Richt can be fired. Will the same behavior be displayed if they don’t win a NC within the first few years? Yes, I am embarrased of our record against winning teams over the last few years. I’m more embarrassed of the spectacle our fans are making; especially after only 2 games.