Richt on AJ appeal, arrests and tackling

Mark Richt didn’t know anything more about A.J. Green’s appeal as of noon on Wednesday, and by the sounds of it he won’t know anything until there’s a ruling.

“At one time I thought we were gonna get an appeal yesterday,” Richt said on the weekly SEC teleconference. “And then at one time I thought it would be this morning and then I finally realized I needed to relax and let them tell us whenever they wanna tell us.”

Richt was asked if all this, and other suspensions, had been a distraction.

“We don’t dwell on those things,” Richt said. “Injuries happen in football. Suspensions happen in football. You might not get a call like you want it in football. You might have a penalty that sets you back. There’s always gonna be some kind of adversity.”

Richt spoke at length about off-field player problems, which is a hot topic again with Chris Rainey’s situation. He repeated earlier statements that the important thing is to discipline players, but compared football players to the student population as a whole.

“I think if you followed around 125 fraternity brothers, I think you’d probably find a lot of the same issues,” Richt said.

He also said that a number of players have, after trouble early in their college careers, gone on to become better citizens.

“They’re all young people, and go through periods of time when they make bad judgment,” Richt said. “We all do. But to think these guys are perfect and are never ever gonna make a mistake, that’s unrealistic.”

Richt later added: “I know personally, my Gosh if everything was recorded that I did, I don’t know if I’d be where I am today.”

More notes from Richt and Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino on the SEC teleconference:

- As you’d expect, tackling is an “emphasis” in practice this week. But asked about the defense, Richt essentially said that the Bulldogs have to be careful not to chase their mistakes from South Carolina rather than prepare for Arkansas.

“So you can spend a lot of time trying to correct those mistakes. But you’ve gotta be sure you’re preparing for what Arkansas does," Richt said. "But some things are very basic, like tackling. And we’ve been working really hard on that. I don’t know if it’s more of an emphasis by coaches, but it’s more of an emphasis for players when we show it to them.”

- Richt said the team’s “spirits are good, in that we shook off the loss and are ready to move on.”

- Petrino is coaching a game for the first time in Georgia since he left the Atlanta Falcons in the lurch.

“I haven’t even thought about it,” Petrino said. “This game is all about our players.”

- The Razorbacks are planning as if Green would play, but not because they have any special insight into his appeal.

“We have to prepare as if he’s going to play because we have no word whether he is or not,” Petrino said. “It’s just a matter of having our gameplan set as if he’s going to be on the field.”

And would it be different?

“I’m not gonna tell you that,” Petrino said with a laugh.