UGA blog finds new home
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 09
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Richt understands fans ‘being bummed’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s clear from the amount of - and tone of - commentary here the last couple of days that there is more than a little concern about Georgia’s football program, at least among the segment of Bulldogs’ fans who vocalize their thoughts in this forum.
At his weekly press luncheon on Tuesday, coach Mark Richt was asked what he thought about the level of consternation Georgia fans are exhibiting in the wake of last Saturday’s domination at the hands of Tennessee.
“That happens everywhere across the nation,” Richt said. “Tennessee thought the sky had already fallen and they did what they did to us. It’s natural for fans to get emotional. They care about their team. When we win, they get excited. When we lose, the get down in the dumps, some of them more than others. And I don’t blame them for being bummed out. That was a bummer of a game.”
Asked how he was personally dealing with all the criticism, Richt said: “There’s a real blessing in not reading papers and not watching TV and just staying focused on what’s important. That’s what we’re doing right now.”
Obviously, with Georgia where it is at this point in time and having lost to Vanderbilt in Athens just last season, to expect the Bulldogs to automatically get well against the Commodores isn’t very logical. But after hearing Richt talk about them, it’s evident how difficult a matchup this could actually be for Georgia.
The game, which will be nationally-televised on ESPN2, is already sold out in Nashville. Meanwhile, Vandy features 20 returning starters from the team that beat the Dogs last year.
“We’ve got a tremendous challenge,” Richt said. “Last year they came into our house and beat us and it was not a fluke. They came in and went toe-to-toe with us and came out with a victory. We made some mistakes in that game but, as I look back on it, they did, too.”
As promised, I posed some of your most prevalent reasonable questions to Richt. Here’s some of his answers:
Is he considering getting more involved with the offense again? “Not as far as calling the games. I give some input during the week. Game day, if I see something glaring that I really feel I need to say I’ll say it. But a lot of times someone else’s thought process or guess is as good as mine. If I see something I think may be helpful during a game I’ll say it. But I’m staying out of it pretty good.”
Does Matthew Stafford struggle with throwing accuracy? “I think he’s like a lot of guys: If he’s got a big fat pocket and a guy’s running free, he’ll zing it in there. He’s dealing with less than stellar protection and having to throw off balance and on the run and sooner than he’d like to. That will affect your accuracy.”
Comparing Stafford’s sophomore season to David Greene’s: “Well David was redshirted. And that particular year (2002) David had six senior offensive linemen in front of him, Musa Smith behind him and Reggie Brown and Fred [Gibson] outside. He was surrounded by a much more mature football team than Matthew is being surrounded by right now. Matthew’s days of that are to come. The next couple of years he’ll be surrounded bny a much more mature team. David benefited from that.”
Is defense’s play a concern? “It’s a concern. It’s always our number one goal to shut down the run and Vanderbilt is a team that runs. Even the quarterback runs. We need to do better playing at the right pad level. Got to make sure we fit into the scheme of things, everybody in gap. Then you’ve got to tackle. We’re tackling decent but we’re not knocking anybody back. If we could stop the yards after contact we’d do better at stopping the run.”
Any chance freshman Rennie Curran could start at linebacker? “If he didn’t have a concussion this week he would’ve been a strong candidate to start. I’m not going to say it was guaranteed he was going to start, but he was making a strong move in that direction.” He added that Curran should return to contact Wednesday and will play.
Will Demiko Goodman become a more integral part of the passing game: “I think so. I think he’s earned that.”
That’s all for now. I’ll share more when time allows.
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