Deleted Scenes: Staying Focused Off the Field

In case you didn't pick up the paper Sunday, I had a story on Georgia's approach to the real offseason -- the three-plus months that follow G-Day and precede the start of spring practice. The team won't have much oversight from coaches and the schedule for the players isn't nearly as regimented, and that lack of structure can often lead to a loss of focus and off-field distractions. After struggles in those departments a year ago, however, Georgia's coaches and veterans are promising a much different approach this time around.

Again, you can read the story HERE.

I also had blog posts a couple of weeks ago dealing with Mark Richt's new attitude toward discipline. You can read them HERE and HERE.

There were plenty of other quotes that didn't make the final cuts on any of those stories though, so here they are...

Bryan Evans on the defense's attitude toward leadership...
"Right now, as players, we don't want Coach Martinez to tell us what to do. We want to be led as a team, not be coach-driven. We want to show Coach we can do it without him having to jump down our backs."

Joe Cox on how to keep the players thinking football during the summer...
"Doing things that are going to keep our team together and around each other. I think once you hit this part of the season, the guys that hang out with each other, the little cliques on the team, kind of hang out a lot more and people start doing different things. But us as seniors, we've talked about having things like cookouts just to bring everyone together and still talk about what we want to do this season and the strides we want to make this summer and just make sure that everybody gets a good feel for each other and that the whole team gels. We're going to need everybody on the same page if we're going to do good this fall."

Tony Wilson on staying motivated for voluntary workouts...
"It's hard to get energy up at 6 o'clock in the morning, but I think the coaches did a good job of conditioning and the way they approached things, and I think we responded well. By far this has been the hardest offseason conditioning I've been through in my life by far. They ran us into the ground, and nobody moaned or complained. We took care of business."

Shaun Chapas on the team's mentality this offseason...
"Since January it's been like this. We're just going back to work and trying to do the little things. We don't have a problem at all getting everybody out and participating. Everybody knows what we have to do to be good."

Jeff Owens on his approach to the months spent away from the coaching staff...
"There is no offseason. You go from January to January. The summer is very important because it's the time where you get stronger, get faster and get your body in shape. You work on your technique, just work on the little things and fine tune your game."

Owens on how to keep players out of off-field trouble...
"Guys have to be accountable for their mistakes. There's consequences for every decision you make. If you get in trouble, you're not going to make the media. But at Georgia, you're always under the microscope, and you have to know that there are consequences for all your actions."

Dave Van Halanger on the continuing workouts after spring practice...
"Spring breaks you down a bit physically with all the hitting, so we're building ourselves back up physically and mentally, getting together again team-wise, and focusing on academics."

Mark Richt on his approach to players who get in trouble...
"I've had young men that have had an issue where they got in trouble. They've got to understand that reputations take a lifetime to build and one night to damage. I never like to say destroy, because that means it's beyond repair. Some individual guys in their career, you do damage to your reputation, son, and it's going to take a long time for people to believe that you're truly back on the right track. But from this day forward, if you do right, you begin that process. This moment won't define your life and your career. What you do from this moment forward will define you. A lot of guys have really responded well to that."

Richt on what to expect this offseason...
"We do have to remember these guys are human. These guys are being watched more closely than probably any group in the state of Georgia. There's no place to hide. So am I going to sit here and say that these guys are never going to make a mistake again? That's very unrealistic, but I think at least we've had a very good start and guys, as a whole, want to do the right thing. But shoot, who knows what tomorrow brings, right?"