Recruit Prep: Deleted Scenes

In the wake of Dexter Moody's release from scholarship following a dispute at his school, I decided I wanted to look more into what Georgia's coaches do to prepare their recruits -- the ones who don't get to campus early -- for life as a Bulldog, both on and off the field.

You don't have to spend much time around Mark Richt and company to hear the term "The Georgia Way" pretty often. So my question was this: When do coaches begin instilling that in their players?

My original plan was to write a story that covered everything from the Moody fallout and the spotlight that gets put on players once they are officially Georgia Bulldogs to the prep work they do in the weight room, the classroom and with the playbook.

As it turned out, I got through the first part of that and already had a story that reached about 900 words. Considering we only had so much space in the paper, I decided the best bet was to narrow the focus cut out the other stuff. But that doesn't mean it wasn't worth reading. So, in addition to my story in today's Telegraph, here are the quotes from players, coaches and new signee Arthur Lynch on how the next group of Bulldogs prepares for life at UGA...

Arthur Lynch on what coaches provided to help prep him for arrival at Georgia...
"A couple days after I signed they sent me a workout plan for the weight you lift weights and conditioning and stuff like that. I work out, do their lifts, lift five days a week – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, sometimes Friday – then I run. I try to study the playbook, run routes. I'm just mentally and physically preparing for it. I report May 31 so I'm just trying to be in the best shape I can be."

Lynch on what type of interaction he has with coaches...
"I talk to Coach (John) Lilly a couple times about some of the plays. Really after the spring game there's only a month left until I'm down there. I want to learn as much as I can without the coaches' help, and then if I absolutely need an answer, I'll ask them. I like to be really independent because in college, you have to be really reliant on yourself. You're an adult there, and I'm just trying to be as mature as possible in this situation and hopefully the dividends will pay off in the end."

Lynch on what coaches expect from him...
"I think the way it sounds was the fact that they just want me to have an understanding of the offensive system. It's a pro style, they run the gun a lot. The thing about Orson (Charles) is he can play the slot, X and Y, but they want me to learn that because I can play both and the tight end. Obviously they just want you to do the best possible. I'm working up here with our strength coach. He's well known around here. He mostly trains hockey players, but he trains football players as well at Boston College. He's our strength coach at our high school, he trains professional hockey players, so he knows what it's all about. He's actually going to call Coach (Dave) Van Halanger and just learn what he wants me to be prepared for when I get there. But physically and mentally, they just want us to be as ready as possible."

Mark Richt on what they give to players before they arrive...
"What we're allowed to give them, we can give them our workout regiment, something they can follow on their own, and we're also allowed to give them playbook materials. We don't ship out playbooks because if you ship a whole playbook to a kid, he'll get overwhelmed. A lot of times we just shoot bits and pieces to them. Each position coach makes the decision on how to do that."

Richt on how much coaches teach "the Georgia way" before players arrive...
"That's one thing, we really try to shoot them as straight as we can on everything. We want them to spend time with the current players. We want them to ask what the real deal is. We don't hide the fact that we get up at 5:45 in the morning and do mat drills and get after it. I think most guys understand it's going to take hard work to get where they want to go. And the other thing is, once you get them here, you don't have a bunch of guys wondering what happened. You try to change the culture of how – if there's a big difference between how you recruit them and how you treat them on a daily basis, it's hard for them, and they start to wonder if you were being truthful with them to begin with."

Carlton Thomas on the increased attention once you sign with Georgia...
"You always know you've got a lot of attention on you and a lot of eyes. You don't want to say that you can't do anything, but you just want to make sure that you're not getting in trouble and slandering your family name and your organization."

Bryan McClendon on preparing players before they get to Georgia...
"The biggest thing is that they've got a lot of ground to make up when it comes to a lot of them not being ready physically and some of them not being ready mentally and being ready to grasp stuff. The biggest thing when it comes to regimenting them when they first get here in June is to jump knee deep in their playbook in order to catch up with everybody, but early enrollees get a jump on learning the routine and once you get used to the routine and used to people, you can go all in. The thing that those guys who don't come til later, they start that process later. The guys who enroll early are able to play as true freshmen because during that summer camp, there isn't anything new to them. They've been there in spring, they've been through mat drills, they know what we expect. The guys that get there in the summer, they're just now learning that."

Rennie Curran on what coaches tell players about behavior...
"There was nothing that they really had to tell me. You're supposed to know that when you join a program like Georgia that has set its standard, you know the opportunity that you have in place. For me, I was just working hard to have a chance to play. For the most part, they didn't have to say much. I already knew. Whenever I talked to Coach Richt, he just mentioned to me to stay out of trouble, but that's him. He's that fatherly figure. He's always trying to steer you in the right direction. I was around here a lot, and I was just trying to soak up as much information as I could. Tony Taylor and those guys were here at the time, and I would go sit it on meetings and things like that.

John Lilly on prepping players before arrival...
"We want them to be able to hit the ground running when they get here, and certainly in June when they come in for the summer, the thing that happens then is, we can't meet with them, but the other players can help them out. So I think with them, you kind of piecemeal them a little bit. You don't give them the whole playbook at once, but you do as much as you can over the phone. They'll text message me with questions on it sometimes, ‘Hey, what is this?' or whatever the case may be, so you do try to get them as ready as you can."