In last week’s Tuesday press conference, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt was very somber while talking about their upcoming opponent, the Florida Gators, and his team being called out by one their own. However, after defeating the Gators 17-9, this week’s presser had a much different aura around it.
Days after his team put together their best defensive effort of the season, Richt discussed this week’s opponent, the Ole Miss Rebels, in a much better attitude than that of last week’s presser. Once through with dissecting the Rebels, the Georgia coach talked about what to expect from the defense going forward and lauded high praise on one of his top players.
Here are quotes from Mark Richt’s Tuesday presser:
What he thinks of Rebels
“What I see is a team that has a brand new head coach that’s brought a lot of energy to the program. A lot of times, you just never know how close you are to winning and breaking through and having success. When you watched them play Alabama, they played Alabama pretty darn good. I think they might have had the best defensive performance against Alabama all year. When you watch that film, you know they can run and play with the big boys, and they did it at Alabama. You could see that they were getting better and better, and then they go ahead and beat Auburn and get their first SEC victory in a while. Then they actually go to Arkansas and win one there. It was a tight game, and a great ballgame. They also showed me that defensively they can play man coverage with a really good passing attack because we know Arkansas has a very good attack and they did a very good job of doing that and mixing coverages to try to make things confusing. So I’m very impressed with them. I know it’s going to be a heck of a ballgame.”
On how Ole Miss runs the no-huddle
“If you have 11 guys that can go 15 plays in a row, you don’t have to slow down. Now I don’t know if anybody’s quite doing that, but if you don’t substitute on offense, you can go as fast as you want to go. Those officials now are getting off the ball and letting you play. If you sub anybody, even a running back for a running back, it doesn’t have to be going from three receivers to two receivers, but if you make any substitution whatsoever, you’ll see those officials out there holding everything to see if that defense is going to sub. If they do, they’ll stay on top of that ball long enough for the defense to sub. They really don’t give the defense very long. Once they’re on the field, it’s not long before they walk away. So you’re barely on the field getting the call and trying to get lined up fast enough to play defense. A lot of times you’re not even in the stance. So yeah, that’s been problematic for defensive teams to try to keep up with that.”
On what happened with the defense
‘That’s a good question. You ought to write a story about that, maybe make everybody mad. That would be nice. I’m serious, I don’t know. I don’t know what they are going to do this week. I hope they play like they did this past week. I hope we continue to get after it with that kind of emotion and heartbeat.”
On Aaron Murray’s performance against Florida
“We talked a little bit about what it means to be soft position-by-position. I guess it was the day of the game. One of the things we talked about at quarterback was you’re soft if you can’t get knocked down a couple of times and get back up and trust your protection and throw strikes. I didn’t say throw picks, but that’s the same kind of thing. You’d rather get sacked than throw a pick. That’s a test of a guy’s toughness at the quarterback position. Can he have some bad plays and then shake it off and go make some plays that will help you win the game at the end? I thought he showed real outstanding mental toughness in that area. I thought Coach (Mike) Bobo did a good job of not quitting on the guy.”
On David Andrews’ availability this weekend
“We think he’ll play. We don’t think we have to worry about that, but if something happened to David I’m not sure what we would do. It probably would be (Chris) Burnette. I think early in the year that would have been the answer, and since we’ve played a lot more ball I don’t know if we would change our mind. I don’t know if we would put (Preston) Mobley in there, but I think it would be Burnette. We do think David is going to play.”
On Jarvis Jones and his national recognition
“I don’t know if there is a better defensive football player in America than Jarvis. I know the linebacker at Notre Dame is a great player as well. They might be equally great, and they are both so important to their team. Jarvis is a pretty dynamic player to have the pass rush ability and the ability to drop back and make the pick or be the guy who mirrors the quarterback and is athletic or be the guy who stops the run two or three yards in the backfield. He can stone somebody who is trying to block him and make the play. If you take his per game statistics it’s pretty impressive. I think he’s number one in America in sacks per game, maybe forced fumbles per game and fumble recoveries. His stats are really impressive, but when you watch him play it’s equally impressive. I think he’s the best player in America.”
When asked to clarify if Jarvis is best overall player in country
“I can’t think of a better player than Jarvis in the whole United States of America. He’s the best.”
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