This offseason has been unlike any other for Mark Richt. He has never come off a losing season as Georgia’s head coach. So making his way through the Bulldog Club speaking tours on the heels of a 6-7 season and an embarrassing loss to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl, Richt answered a lot of questions about what was wrong and how was he going to fix it.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Richt answers five questions about his team:
Q: You had to endure an NCAA investigation into Jarvis Jones’ eligibility and another regarding Orson Charles’ alleged relationship with a Miami booster. Do you feel like your program has been assailed to a degree?
A: Not to say I wasn’t concerned, but I didn’t think about it a lot or dwell on it that much. I felt like it was something I couldn’t control. … I think if I had heard something on the Jarvis thing different than what I knew really happened, I might have been a little shook up about what might happen. But I was pretty confident it was going to be a good result for us.
Q: Do you believe it’s an important season for you?
A: If you walk in the Butts-Mehre Building, there’s not a sense of doom or gloom in there. There’s only excitement, only guys that are thankful that we’ve got a new season and a clean slate, and the ability to play some great opponents to start the year. The expectations are just as high as they’ve ever been going into the season, and we’re just as excited about it as ever.
Q: It was your coaches and staff that came up with the “Dream Team” theme. Clearly a lot of those players are going to contribute. So is the dream going to be a reality?
A: I’ll say it and I really believe it, we did really good. The typical things that keep young guys from playing, especially really talented guys, are just knowing what to do. Sometimes it might be [he is] not just quite physically strong enough yet. But you can tell these guys are going to be highly productive players. We’ll just see who ends up starting and playing and all that kind of stuff, but I think we did great.
Q: What do you like best about [quarterback Aaron Murray], and is there anything he needs to do better?
A: I think Aaron can improve. I think he tries to hold the ball a little too long sometimes. Sometimes it turned out to be a sack, and sometimes he scrambled for a touchdown. But he still held it too long. And I think he can do a better job of hitting our guys in stride. I know a couple of times last year, if he lays it out there for Kris Durham he has some long touchdowns. … But the thing about Aaron is he understands preparation. He understands team. His motivation is for Georgia to win.
Q: You’ve spent a month now getting your team ready. Do you believe this one has a chance to win big?
A: We’ve got the potential to be a very good team. The difference between really good teams and average teams are how well you finish. Do you make plays, big plays, at the end of the game? That’s going to define us, really, I think. I think it could go either way. It just depends on how these guys finish.
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