Richt coaches fans on crowd noise; McClendon weighs in on ‘Boo’
Here’s a link to Tuesday’s football notebook and another to my profile of free safety Bacarri Rambo, who played this past Saturday’s game with a heavy heart. It was a busy, newsy day around the Butts-Mehre Building, however, and I couldn’t fit everything in. So following is some stuff that didn’t make the cut for print. Call it “bonus material.” . . .
Georgia coach Mark Richt, playing Mississippi State quarterback Chris Relf, demonstrates exactly when Bulldogs fans should "go berserk." (Photo by Chip Towers)
Richt coaches fans on crowd noise
Georgia coach Mark Richt is counting on the Bulldogs’ fans to be a 12th man against Mississippi State on Saturday. He’s so adamant that they produce crowd noise that he stood up during his opening remarks at his weekly press conference on Tuesday and demonstrated exactly when and how he wanted them to be noisy.
“I want to talk to our fans and educate them a little bit,” Richt said. “We need a lot of crowd noise and I know fans know that. But when teams no huddle [like Mississippi State] and you’re cheering, you might not be cheering at the right time. So I want to try to tell you what we hope happens in the game.”
Standing up, Richt demonstrated how State’s quarterback Chris Relf looks to the sideline for a play call after lining up in the shotgun and starting the cadence.
“When he looks to the sideline,” Richt said, turning to face the side of the room, “that’s the time when we need the fans to go berserk. That’s when they’re going to try to communicate to their line what they’re going to do. We don’t want them to communicate well. We want them to have trouble hearing each other and we want offensive linemen to jump offsides. So, UGA fan base, that’s the time when we want you to go crazy, when he looks to the sideline after he starts his cadence.”
What’s up with Malcome?
There was a lot of rumor and innuendo bouncing around Tuesday about tailback Ken “Boo” Malcome, who didn’t make the trip to Ole Miss and was absent for Tuesday’s practice. Even running backs coach Bryan McClendon heard the scuttlebutt that Malcome was itching to transfer.
“It sort of took me by surprise to be honest with you,” McClendon said. “Every time I’ve talked to him, he’s been happy here and this is definitely the place that he wanted to come to and this is the place where he wants to be. . . . The bottom line is the guys that have been able to come out and perform out there at practice, those are the guys that have been able to play.”
As it turns out, Malcome missed practice because of “some sort of stomach problem,” according to McClendon. But therein lies the problem with Malcome getting playing time.
The 6-foot, 221-pound redshirt freshman from Decatur was expected to step to the forefront this season with Georgia’s attrition at tailback. But since preseason camp opened in August he has fallen behind true freshman Isaiah Crowell, linebacker convert Richard Samuel, junior Carlton Thomas and former walkon Brandon Harton on the depth chart.
“The biggest thing for Ken is he just has to come out there and be able to practice so he can keep progressing,” McClendon said. “Obviously, that’s something that’s sort of held him back last season, this season, this past spring, this past summer. I think he has a bunch of talent. Once he is out there and once he does get better, you’ll see the player that he can become. But he just has to be out there.”
Robinson spotting
All indications are that inside linebacker Christian Robinson will be available to play on Saturday.
To be clear, that’s “available,” not “will play.” But the 6-foot-2, 226-pound “Mike” linebacker was practicing without any obvious limitations on Tuesday, the second day in a row Robinson has been on the field. Robinson has been out since the fourth quarter of the South Carolina game with foot injury. He was a starter and the Bulldogs’ leading tackler in the first two games and is considered the unofficial defensive captain.
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474 comments Add your comment
JB
September 28th, 2011
10:37 am
UCF Dawg….good points,….We have a history of not throwing coach’s overboard after a bump or two. From my Dawg friends I talk to,, they have concerns just beyond wins and losses, which IS the most important. I’ll list them
1. Roster mismanagement.
2. poor player evaluation in recruiting
3. Plays seniority over most talented playing.
4. to finesse vs physical
5. to loyal to assit. not getting the job done
6. S&C program
7. Unwilling to “try something else on offense” . Very few new wrinkles.
8. Hasn’t improved as a game day coach ( always out of timeouts late in game)
9. Unable to fix defense giving up lots of points and yardage last 3 years.
10. Come out flat to play way too many times.
Joey
September 28th, 2011
10:37 am
Lowcountry, that is a good point about the Nutt connection. Richt coached the 2nd half of the Ole Miss game virtually the same way he did vs FSU and his mentor Bobby Bowden in the Sugar Bowl.
DawginLex
September 28th, 2011
10:38 am
I thought the same thing Joey
ATL Sports Fan
September 28th, 2011
10:39 am
Insider there were a lot of fans in Oxford. What are you talking about? There were atleast 10K UGA fans at that game. The whole 100 sections along with the K and S sections. On top of that the boxes were full of UGA fans as well.
Lowcountry Bulldawg
September 28th, 2011
10:39 am
gdawg,
I would love for Richt to do exactly as you mentioned in your last line or two. Slap MSU upside the head and make Mullen look bad.
Joey,
It may happen, I know we want more for the program and with the recent fast success of Florida, Bama, Auburn and LSU it just amplifies CMR struggles.
Mobile Dawg
September 28th, 2011
10:39 am
House will be packed Saturday, and rocking, until Richt and company give them a reason not to be. This fan based is starved for a great performance. And you know what, they could get one but therein lies the problem most of us have. Why can’t we consistently be good?
My fear is that we will come out flat, Richt like, and play just good enough to win, or worse, we lose at home. It’s a serious possibility. MSU can play, and they are physical, we’re not.
Lowcountry Bulldawg
September 28th, 2011
10:41 am
Joey,
Exactly CMR has enough class not to embarass Nutt considering her is under that same spectrum. Good point with the FSU connection I think you are spot on with it.
ARdawg
September 28th, 2011
10:42 am
Good going there Chip! That clown was here yesterday pulling the same crap
pat
September 28th, 2011
10:42 am
Poly…..name a better ten year stretch in UGA history…..Rich has made morons like you think we are Ala. We never have been. But at least now because of his success you expect us to be. Idiot
Good point Richt...fans do need cheer education
September 28th, 2011
10:42 am
He’s got a point. I’ve been going to games for 43 years…section105. Our fans are not coordinated with their cheers. During Herschel years, the fans were loud and coordinated and understood what the 12th man means to the team.
Today, if you cheer loud in my section, somebody tells me to “sit down and shut up”. What’s up with that!!!
Joey
September 28th, 2011
10:42 am
“Richt was a young assistant from to a great HC when he came to UGA”
********************************************
And he won 2 SEC Titles and had teams that finished the season ranked #3 and #2. Richt was a great coach.
He just isn’t anymore.
McDawg
September 28th, 2011
10:42 am
who is this plloyanna weirdo
freshmen is upset he doesn’t get to play-if you don’t practice you don’t play-pretty fundamental stuff
Really Haters??
September 28th, 2011
10:44 am
Boy the Haters are out today! I am so glad you won’t be at the game on Saturday….The stands will be filled with loayal dawg fans…Looks like the haters are really concerned…the chatter has been really kicked up a notch…Goes to show we are improving and they are nervous…No GO BACK to Work and stop wasting your bosses money! MORONS!!!
ATL Sports Fan
September 28th, 2011
10:44 am
When fans do tell me to sit down and be quiet I tell them that I spent 4 great years and gave my all out on that field and I am at a football game not a ballet. If they do not like then they need to go home and watch it on TV.
Big Dirty Dawg
September 28th, 2011
10:44 am
Agree 110% UCF Dawg. Tired of the Dawgs beating themselves at key moments during the season!! Or getting outcoached each game!!
UCF Dawg
September 28th, 2011
10:44 am
JB …good points as well. Though I do think the defense is getting better. I am of the mind that the USC score was not all their fault and Ole Miss tricks are bound to work sometimes. But the issue isn’t if Grantham can coach a defense (which I think he is and can), it whether CMR can lead his team out of mediocrity and into the elite (correcting the other points you mentioned). I think the playing seniority has drastically improved this year…but that may be that the new talent is that much better than old talent. We are only 4 games into the season with a .500 record. If CMR and his crew can TRULY turn the Bulldog ship…we will see it this year one way or another. That said…onto Miss State! GO DAWGS!
McDawg
September 28th, 2011
10:45 am
is this a Bill King blog?-so much gloom and doom
gdawginkalamazoo
September 28th, 2011
10:45 am
ARdawg, yes Mitchell too. I agree. It is frustrating because even as freshmen some of these kids can make the plays. Talent wise the future is bright at UGA. Wish we had better results the past few years being that we have had the #4 average recruiting class int he country.
ATL Sports Fan
September 28th, 2011
10:46 am
I got into it with an older Ole Miss fan this past weekend. We had box seats next to the UGA bench and we could hear Grantham yelling,curising at the defense. This guy would yell back at Grantham and tell him there were woman and kids around. I finally after three quarters looked at the guy and told him this is football not a debate and if you don’t like it find other seats or don’t listen.
ARdawg
September 28th, 2011
10:46 am
Joey
The difference in then and now IMHO is that Richt surrounded himself with talented assistants. He inherited some quality recruits from Donnan and it was a recipe for success. That success has went to his head in believing his greatness could develop talented assistants. He can’t or he hasn’t yet anyway
ATL Sports Fan
September 28th, 2011
10:48 am
The Ole Miss team played tough. When you play a team that is a wounded dog your going to get their best. They played tough and we shot ourself in the foot on a few occasions. Blair Walsh didn’t help out.
Really Haters??
September 28th, 2011
10:48 am
Really JB..That’s all they talk aobut…Really! No my friends that I tailgate with support this team and staff. They gave up 183 points to UM…No offensive touchdowns last Saturday..
Chip Towers
September 28th, 2011
10:49 am
UGA Insider: Hey, I don’t give a hoot one way or another but your assertion that “the amount of fans who traveled to Oxford (was) very small and very quiet” is inaccurate.
I was there and UGA was well represented. In fact, I was listening to the Rebel network tailgate show on radio driving in from Memphis to Oxford and they were talking about how many Georgia fans were all over the Square and around Oxford. Seth Emerson of Macon/Columbus was staying in Tupelo and tweeted about how UGA fans had taken over that town. It was a topic of conversation in the press box as well. So I just think your premise is unfounded. That is all.
DawginLex
September 28th, 2011
10:49 am
ATL sports fan
Grantham is doing a good job with the defense. Any hopes we have to run the table rest on their shoulders. Someone said we are 13th in the country in total defense. That’s on a par with Van Gorder years and we have already played 2 top 15 teams.
oat
September 28th, 2011
10:50 am
Mark Rich has a bowl winning percentage of 700….Saban…500. Rich has had UGA ranked top ten 6 times in last 9 years….Saban 5. Rich has finished with 8 or less wins 2 times in ten years…..Saban has finished with 8 wins or less 7 times. Saban in 2007 had two wins….Rich has never finished with less than 6. rich has had 15 all Americans in 10 years…Saban has had 10 in 16 years. Saban and Rich are 3 and 3 head to head but 2 of Saban wins came in one year. If Rich sux…..what does that say about Saban.
ARdawg
September 28th, 2011
10:50 am
ATL
Walsh was due a bad day. Don’t hate on him too much. He’ll still likely break the scoring record at UGA as much as Richt likes to kick FGs. Remember sure footed Billy Bennett in Baton Rouge?
ATL Sports Fan
September 28th, 2011
10:52 am
Thanks Chip!! Insider has ZERO inside information. All he does is try to bring down everyone. I agree Chip that place was packed with UGA fans. The 100 section was packed along with the K and S sections. The four boxes to our right were all UGA fans.
UGA Insider
September 28th, 2011
10:52 am
ATL Sports Fan,
I tail-gated with Billy Brewer Saturday and he even speculated why there were so few UGA fans in The Grove. There may have been 8,000 UGA fans there. Do you think that is good? In the 100 section you could basically sit wherever you wanted. I bet in 2006 there were 25,000 UGA fans…it was shoulder to shoulder that night. However the economy was much better then which I do think is hurting fans as well.
Joey
September 28th, 2011
10:52 am
I totally agee ARdawg. I have long believed that it is an ego thing with Richt regarding assistants. I thing the early success convinced him he could plug ANYBODY in at OC or DC (see Martinez and Bobo) and his system would still win titles.
oat
September 28th, 2011
10:52 am
My auto correction crap on my tablet will not let me spell Richt
Big Dirty Dawg
September 28th, 2011
10:53 am
another FSU comment…When Richt was hired, Coach Bobby Bowden was interviewed regarding his OC going to UGA. Bowden agreed Richt was a fine man, and would be a good head coach…but also said, he was unsure about Richt’s ability to make big coaching decisions regarding organization personnel decisions when it comes to running a business, basically the hiring and firing of assistants. he felt Richt might be too soft when it comes to those type of issues, because of his faith and compassion. I think we’ve been seeing that for the past 5 yrs.
oat
September 28th, 2011
10:55 am
Oh and Richt has a all time D1A winning percentage of. 738. Saban has a winning percentage in D1A of. 710
Mobile Dawg
September 28th, 2011
10:55 am
Lex said:
“I agree to a certain extent but if you put Murray on that team with that defense, I think he wins a lot too. ”
That’s exactly my point Lex, I’m not beating my chest as a psychologist but I worked for years in a large Fortune 500 company and had the opportunity to go through the “grooming” process managing several levels afterward. After taking an early out package I started my own business using the principles I had learned there and have been considered successful. Management is a “process”, that can be repeated over and over with consistent results with the backing of your supporters, that’s critical.
What we learned is that the environment that a new “competent” employee comes into is the most critical part of how they will perform. It was demonstrated, we would pick a low performing employee and place that person in a group of “generally” high productive people and over a relatively short time period the low performer would be working at the level of their peers. Same philosophy applied to a higher performer that was use to working with high performers and move them to the lower performing teams guess what happened.
I have no doubt that is the largest problem we have in Athens is the team culture, work ethic, environment, call it what you want. Look what Saban did in two years at Bama, during the first year there was turmoil, he weeded out the bad apples, second year they were in the SECCG, third year the MNC. The reason for our demise is “the management style” of Coach Richt.
Joey
September 28th, 2011
10:55 am
MobileDawg, don’t you think our D is playing more “physical” than in the last 4 years?
I do.
The O – not so much.
RxDawg
September 28th, 2011
10:56 am
I think every UGA fan should bring a cowbell to the game. Ringading ding.
ATL Sports Fan
September 28th, 2011
10:57 am
Oh I am not bashing Blair, but he had a bad day. I know why Richt kept going back to him. The game was over. The only way to boost a kickers confidence is to conitue to put him back out there. Oh I remember all to well ARDawg. I am sure if was as tough to watch on tv or in the stands as it was on the sideline.
Mobile Dawg
September 28th, 2011
11:00 am
Yes Joey, there is definite improvement over the WM years. I still think conditioning is an issue, and the fact that we don’t run a ball control style offense contributes to their getting tired.
DavidPandGA
September 28th, 2011
11:01 am
I feel good about this years team. I like the leadership of Murray, and Isiah will only continue to improve. Say what you want about Richt, he seems to be a lot more passionate about his job and his work with the team (and for good reason). We will beat Either Florida or Auburn this season, mark my words.
ATL Sports Fan
September 28th, 2011
11:01 am
Insider there were probably 15K UGA fans there on Saturday. I had numerous Ole Miss fans that told me that there are more UGA fans than Ole Miss fans that were in town and at the game. The stadium only seats about 60k and I would say it was 3/4 full with 1/2 being UGA fans.
DawginLex
September 28th, 2011
11:06 am
Anyone notice Aron White’s comments about losing to MSU last year?
It’s in the Macon paper.
He and Orson charles commented about the locker room after the game, the grumbling, finger pointing etc.
Now they both openly talk about being more physical and “having a mature back like IC to run it 30 times and not fumble”.
Interesting stuff
Joey
September 28th, 2011
11:06 am
Yep, MD, the 3-and-outs absolutely killed our chances vs Boise. Better sinc, but Bobo broke the 3-and-out world record vs Miss State last year. Their DC had Bobo’s number, but he is, in my opinion, doing a better job calling plays since Boise.
I have bashed Bobo for years, but I thought he was great vs SC, and pretty good vs Ole Miss.
BG
September 28th, 2011
11:07 am
Having Robinson back will be huge!
BIGDAWG37
September 28th, 2011
11:08 am
Anyone who has EVER played football know players like “Boo”…all the skills and potential in the world!!! God given talent! But, no drive!!!
He thought the job was his when he signed!!! It’s easy…stay out of the hottub, get in the weightroom, and run the ball!!! That’s what you are here for!!! GO DAWGS! > Stomach ailment…My ARSSS!!! Grab some milk of magnesia and go to practice!!! YOUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT!!!
DawginLex
September 28th, 2011
11:08 am
Joey
I got blasted for wanting to hire Manny diaz. MSU smoked us last year and it was his first year. I guess it ay have worked out because Grantham is doing ok and Diaz bolted to Texas
DJ Dawg
September 28th, 2011
11:09 am
@Joey
Dont give BoBo credit. I think CMR was more involved in the play calling then people think since the Boise game.
DavidPandGA
September 28th, 2011
11:11 am
I find it funny Bobo is essentially sticking to his conserative play calling of years prior, but since the arrival of IC and his ablilty to successfully run the ball, it opens our passing game and allows us to score more points. It’d be interesting to see how well recieved Bobo was if Isiah wasnt in the mix.
Mobile Dawg
September 28th, 2011
11:15 am
Let’s all hope for the best Saturday, I’m looking forward to seeing how the Dawgs come out. Gotta run, you’all have a great day….
Les Claypool
September 28th, 2011
11:16 am
We win out! We get better every game. Have the talent to match any team. Will make some noise in the SEC this season. If you think that your team will just whip the DAWGS you are wrong, these men will stick it to you. As long as UGA doesn’t give the game, we win.
DJ Dawg
September 28th, 2011
11:22 am
We will be fine as long as we come out focused and ready to play!!
Cobb Dawg
September 28th, 2011
11:29 am
Is this what we’ve come to, Bulldog Nation? That the coach has to teach fans how and when to make noise in the stadium? I’ve said this before — Sanford Stadium these days is no Death Valley….and it’s a problem….