Richt "absolutely" expects to return, and wants Bobo back too

Mark Richt just finished a fairly newsy Sunday teleconference with reporters. The top headlines:

- He laughed off speculation about the vacant job at Miami, his alma mater, and said he “absolutely” expects to be Georgia’s head coach next fall.

- No staff changes are being considered now, and Mike Bobo will remain the play caller on offense.

- The staff is hitting the recruiting trail looking for a few immediate impact players, including some junior college prospects. And they would love to get a big, physical nose guard.

Let’s start with the Miami job, which opened up Saturday. The first question to Richt was whether it could be a distraction.

“I don’t think it’ll be a distraction because I have the same answer for that as I had for the other one,” he said. “Georgia’s my home and it’s where I wanna finish my career.”

He was alluding to the Colorado job, which he was linked to a couple weeks ago. As for Miami, Richt said he has not been approached.

“It’s like I’ve been saying: Georgia’s my home and that’s where I want to be,” Richt said. “I don’t think I’ve gotta go any farther than that.”

But could there be changes on his staff? Not immediately, it seems. The head coach spoke of evaluating the program and its problems, and how they can be fixed: Recruiting, strength and conditioning, even nutrition were the topics he mentioned.

Then when Richt was asked if he was considering any staff changes, he paused a moment.

“Am I considering changes on the staff? No,” he said.

Later, when asked about the criticism offensive coordinator Mike Bobo dealt with this season, Richt defended his coordinator. He pointed to the record number of consecutive games that the team has scored at least 30 points – the streak currently stands at seven, the most in school history. Richt also pointed to his own days at Florida State, saying he incurred grief from fans.

“If you’re in that leadership position, if you’re (calling plays)… you’re always gonna be a guy that’s gonna be open for the criticism,” Richt said. “It just comes with the territory.”

So does that mean he wants Bobo as the play-caller going forward?

“Yes,” Richt answered.

While the season still isn’t over, as Richt pointed out, he did say the team was working on improving next year’s talent level. That means a few junior college prospects.

“We’re working some guys. And when we do go junior college we try to find some guys that can impact immediately,” Richt said.

Asked to assess the team’s top two or three priorities in recruiting, the head coach at first demurred, saying they needed to look “across the board,” because of future depth needs. But he eventually mentioned a “big, physical nose guard” to fit the 3-4 scheme. Junior DeAngelo Tyson, a smaller tackle better suited for a 4-3, started each game at nose this year.

“That’d be nice, for an immediate impact,” Richt said.