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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Sunday Teleconference Notes (10/11)

A few tidbits from Mark Richt's Sunday teleconference…

-- Fans have complained a good bit about Richt not sounding as upset about the failures of the team as he should. First, you have to understand that it's just not Richt's personality to air that stuff in public. But he was a bit more straightforward in his criticism today.

Regarding the defense: “It’s not what we have been accustomed to at Georgia, that’s for sure. That’s something that’s gotta be corrected. There are some circumstances for those things happening but overall, everybody’s got problems. Everybody’s got issues. Everybody’s got to, whether it’s injuries or youth or whatever you might say. But the bottom line is you’ve got to perform and we haven’t performed as well as I would like our defense to perform. We certainly haven’t helped them in a lot of instances, and that’s pretty well documented with some of those things. When your turnover ratio is what ours is, we haven’t helped those guys in any way. But they’re still allowed to go three-and-out, too."

Regarding the overall performance: "We’ve got to get better, period. We’ve got to get better at defense, get better on offense, we’ve got to get better in all areas. And we’ve got to get better at coaching.”

On what he means by "coaching better": “We just have to continue that when we put our plan in, it’s not too much. We don’t ask our guys to do more than they’re capable of doing. And we’ve got to continue to motivate and all the things that coaches do. I guess the point I’m making is that is where we are right now is a culmination of everyone. I’m not pointing the finger at any one individual. I’m pointing the finger at all of us as a whole. We must all improve, period.”

-- He called this game one of the most frustrating of his career offensively.

-- Richt said he'll be evaluating film from the game and may make some personnel changes, but it won't be any wholesale cleaning house on either side of the ball. “We’re not going to have open tryouts or anything like that. We’re going to get right back to work preparing for Vanderbilt and try to get the best man at every position. But it’s not going to be some kind of open tryout.”

-- Any personnel changes, he said would be decided by Tuesday, most likely.

-- Obviously chief among the personnel questions is at quarterback, but don't expect anyone other than Joe Cox to be under center this week.

Richt on the freshmen -- Murray & Mettenberger: “They could function with a certain percentage of what we’re doing, but it’s a matter of deciding whether you want to do that, number one, as far as playing them, and then how much can you do with them, and how effective can a true freshman be at this point."

Richt on his game plan for Vandy: "Right now, my No. 1 goal is to put a team out there that has the very best shot of beating Vanderbilt on Saturday. Any personnel decisions that may or may not be made will be based strictly on who gives us the best chance to win on Saturday.”

-- Regarding Cox, I noted this (thanks to reader Jim F.) on the blog earlier today: Before the drop by A.J. in the second quarter, Cox was 11-of-13 passing. After, he was 9-of-22 the rest of the way. Take away the 4-of-5 throwing during garbage time, and Cox went 4-of-17 (29%) following A.J.'s drop.

Well, Richt may know the real cause: “Joe played better in the first half than in the second half. I think Joe took a couple shots that probably shook him up a little bit. He probably would never admit to that. But before we have any successful quarterback play, we’ve got to run the ball better and pass protect better than we did.”

-- More Baccari Rambo? That's good. More Bryan Evans? Eh, not so much.

“Rambo is beginning to play well and earn more playing time," Richt said. "He needs to play more. As a matter of fact, when it comes to safety play, we probably need to do more of a three-man rotation between Rambo and Bryan and Reshad. Rambo kind of subbed for Bryan but we really didn’t sub Reshad. Reshad doesn’t need to play every snap, Bryan doesn’t need to play every snap, Rambo doesn’t need to play every snap. We need to split that workload a little bit more and I think that’ll help all those guys. We need to be productive on a more consistent basis.”

-- And just a word to a few commenters: I've read multiple (at least three) comments today referring to Georgia as the "laughing stock of the NCAA."

Please guys, if you want to say something that silly, don't do it on the blog of a guy who follows Syracuse football. Now THAT is the laughing stock of the NCAA.

13 comments:

Trey said...

Wow... thanks so much for the post David. FINALLY we here the frustration and what we've all been wanting to here from Richt. Personally, I understand we're going to have down years, and its ludacris to suggest a team will ever go without bad years. But we all wanted to see he was upset like we are, and he was hurting like we are, and that he's pissed off that Georgia is playing awful football right now. I think just doing that will get some pressure off of him.

Anonymous said...

David,

You mentioned possible personnel changes, but you stated "don't expect anyone other than Joe Cox to be under center this week."

Then that was followed by a quote from Richt about basically how it would be a difficult decision to play a freshman at QB. Didn't sound like he was ruling that out, either.

So why do you sound so adamant that only Cox will play? We even saw Gray get some more snaps yesterday, so isn't there a pretty good chance we'll at least see Gray under center? Did Richt have more quotes on the QB situation that you just didn't put in here?

David Hale said...

I'm just speculating based on the two quotes put together...

1.) It would be tough for the two freshmen and...

2.) We're going to play the team that gives us the best chance to win against Vandy.

I'm not saying there aren't longterm benefits to giving Murray or Gray or Mett playing time, but the QB who gives them the BEST chance to win THIS week is still Cox.

Anonymous said...

willie needs to go, and so does bobo. UGA was better when Richt was making the play calls.

Our running game is so horrible. UGA used to be called tailback-U. Our smallest running back (Carlton Thomas) ran the ball the best this past saturday.

DevildawgNC said...

I know we want to be all excited about Rambo, but he was the guy who came up for pressure then made a terrible read on that running play TD. I think he'll be a great player, but he's not Rambo Rambo.

As for the running game, is it that our O-line is getting completely hosed, or that our RB's don't have the dodginess (that's a word, of course) of Knowshon, who almost always took his first contact a couple yards behind scrimmage?

Sorry Dave, about Syracuse. Paullus was usually good for the clutch momentum 3 pt, and slapping the floor to get everyone hyped--not so much for the 'cuse?

Anonymous said...

I really do not understand why we would not play Aaron Murray at this point unless he is still injured.

Joe is not giving us a chance to win, so if Murray only knows 10 plays, but runs them well, that may give us a chance.

I really expect CMR to get more involved in the playcalling.

When he turned over the reins to Bobo, it was the right call. But things have changed and it is time CMR to get back down to what made him a great coach to begin with.

CMR really needs to be sending out feelers to DC candidates across the country.

Anonymous said...

If Murray only knows 10 plays, great, he should fit right in cause I am not real sure we have run more than 10 different plays.

Palmer said...

Could you share some of those links about the "lauging-stock" comments?

It just frustrates me to no end that we seem to be holding the short-end of the stick every saturday in the eyes of the media, and "laughing-stock' is just insulting. I know we've played like crap, but it's a little too much.

JasonC said...

DevilDawg,
RE: Rambo
Yes, he is raw and apt to make mistakes, but he is also making plays. He is showing some improvement and has time to get better. Evans is a senior and still making costly mistakes. Jones still rams people instead of wrapping up. At this point, I think people are willing to take a short-term loss for a long-term gain.

Also, I know Jones has been screwed on a couple of calls, but like it or not, he seems to be a magnet for penalties (15 yarders).

Anonymous said...

Well Dave, as an alumnus of Syracuse, you should be more qualified than any of us to explain to the Georgia fans about the perils of firing good coaches. Insert Pasqualoni here. This talk about firing coaches is sometimes warranted, but lets remember that the replacements are not always capable, no matter what credentials they bring (from the NFL or otherwise...see Al Groh).

JaxDawg said...

David,
Say what you want about Syracuse, but they weren't projected to contend for their divisional title this year, and they weren't preseason #1 just one season ago.

No one said their OL was possibly the best in the country and their recent lack of success would never warrant the expectations GA receives.

Yes - we are a laughing stock of this conference and potentially the country b/c we are THE most underperforming team in the land.

I dare you to compare the talent on the GA roster vs. that of Syracuse. No program is doing less with more than the Georgia Bulldogs.

Anonymous said...

The offense was better under Richt? Really? I think the revisionist history is at an all time high here. Go out in some of these offensive masterpieces and tell me how great Richt was: south Carolina in 01, 02, 04, and 05, Florida in 02, 03, 05, and 06, vandy in 03, UAB in 03, tech in 04 and 05, Colorado in 06, ole miss and msu in 06, marshall in 04, Tennessee in 04 and 06. Richt was even less creative and more predictable than Bobo.

David Hale said...

TP -- I meant comments by readers on this blog. Just go back through the comments from the live blog, game notes and "fleeting thoughts" posts.