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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 4, 2015Mark RichtMARK RICHT: Thank you for being here. I appreciate it so much. It's an exciting day without question, it always is. We're really thankful for a lot of things today. First and foremost, all the student athletes that have decided to come to Georgia. I'm about to introduce a few here in just a moment, but I do want to make a few thank yous across the board. First of all the, I want to thank our field coaches and their wives and their families and the sacrifice that they make to get this thing done, the amount of travel time and hours on the phone and film watching and all those things, just apart from coaching football, and recruiting is such a big deal and takes a lot of time. Just want to thank our coaches and thank our wives and their families. The recruiting staff, obviously I'd like to thank them and all the student hosts and the student helpers. We've got our academic staff that has come and helped us. We've had professors come and help us. Our custodial staff has come at all hours to make our facility look beautiful, our equipment people, strength and conditioning, sports medicine. Greg McGarity, our athletic director, has come and spent time with our recruits, President Morehead has come and helped us, as well, the entire athletic association staff, even travel coordinator, pilots, just so many people that get involved. Last but not least, our current student athletes, too. They spent a lot of time hosting these young men on their trips, and I just want to thank everybody for that. It's an exciting time right now for me to introduce these gentlemen. What I would like to do is when I introduce the first three, if you guys would stand up as I call your name, and the first three get on this side of me and the other four will get on this side of me, and maybe we'll get some beautiful pictures of these guys. I'd like to introduce our mid‑year enrollees. We'll go in alphabetical order, and I'd like to start out by introducing to you Johnathan Abram from East Marion High School in Mississippi, coached by Kevin Jackson; Chuks Amaechi, linebacker from Arizona, coached by Tom Minick; Michael Barnett from Dorchester, South Carolina, Woodland High School, coached by Mathis Burnett.  Jake Ganus is kind of a special situation from UAB, which we know UAB quit playing football, so we lucked out and got him. Jackson Harris from Columbia, Tennessee, Columbia Central High School, coached by Howard Stone; Natrez Patrick, Atlanta, Georgia, Mays High School, coached by Cory Jarvis; Jarvis Wilson, Tupelo, Mississippi, Tupelo High School, coached by Trent Hammond. Let's get a nice picture with all these guys. They're visited by a lot of family here, too. I know that Natrez's mom is here, Jarvis's mom Camilia, dad is Otis, brother John is here; Jonathan Abrams mother Alexandria and stepfather Marvin is here, as well, so welcome everybody. It's good to see y'all. Got my notes here. What I'd like to do is just call out these names and we'll go from here. Pat Allen, Franklin High School in Maryland, coached by Anthony Burgos; Deandre Baker, Miami, Florida, Miami Northwestern, coached by Eddie Brown; Juwuan Briscoe, defensive back, from Maryland, Thomas Stone at 716, coached by Paul Freele; Michael Chigbu from New Orleans, Holy Cross High School, coached by Eric Robredo; Kirby Choates, East Point Georgia Tri‑Cities High School, coached by James Banks; Tae Crowder, running back, Hamilton, Georgia, Harris County High School, coached by Dwight Jones; Sage Hardin from Atlanta, Marist High School, coached by Alan Chadwick. Daquan Hawkins, D‑tackle, Atlanta, Georgia, Westlake High School, coached by Brian Love; Sam Madden from New Jersey, Barnegat High School, coached by Rob Davis; Gary McCrae from Cuthbert, Randolph Clay High School, coached by Daniel McFather; Rico McGraw, DB, Nashville Tennessee, the Ensworth School, Ricky Bowers, head coach; Chauncey Rivers, defensive end, Stone Mountain, Georgia, Stevenson High School, head coach Ron Gartrell. Rashad Roundtree, Lakeside High School, Steve Hibbits, head coach; Devondre "Scooter" Seymour, North Gwinnett High School and Hines Mississippi Junior College, coached by Gene McMurphy; Jason Stanley, wide receiver, Fairburn High School, Creekside, coached by Olden Downs; Juwan Taylor, Hallandale Beach, Florida, Hallandale High School, Damian Jones, head coach; Trent Thompson, Westover High School in Georgia, in Albany, Georgia, Octavia Jones, head coach; D'Andre Walker, Fairburn, Georgia, Langston Hughes High School coached by Willie Cannon; Justin Young, Grayson High School in Loganville, Georgia, coached by Mickey Connor; and Shaquery Wilson, Coral Gables High School and coached by Roger Pollard. To this point, this is our class, our signees from today, and our mid‑year enrollees. We are absolutely thrilled about these young men and can't wait to see them do their thing. Some of them are already here doing their thing a little bit, and when this is over, you will have an opportunity to talk to our mid‑year players and ask them anything you want. With that I thought I would open it up to any questions that you might have and we'll go on. Q. Is this one of the nuttier signing periods you've experienced? MARK RICHT: It's been interesting, and it's not over yet. There's still things swirling around out there still. Yeah, I think there's been a lot of emotion in this one, and it's a large class, too. The more people you sign in the class, the more‑‑ at times the more drama you have. But the one thing I do want to say about our mid‑year enrollees, these guys had a plan. You just can't all of a sudden snap your fingers and say I'm going to graduate early. First of all, you've got to be smart, you've got to be organized, you've got to have support from your family and your high school. People have to‑‑ these guys tend to be a little‑‑ maybe just a little bit more ready for college because they did the things that they had to do to get here in this time frame, and just really proud of all of them and proud of the families that helped them do it because it is not just something you can all of a sudden decide in August, hey, I want to be a mid‑year enrollee. You've got to do the work on the front end and plan, and really proud of these guy. Q. Can you talk about the focus on secondary recruiting this year? MARK RICHT: Well, there's no doubt we feel like we needed to bolster what's going on in that defensive backfield, and we believe we did that. A lot of talented guys, a lot of guys that are going to compete well, but it's a situation I think where they saw opportunity, and we'll probably‑‑ the goal is to be able to do some things defensively that‑‑ play a little more man coverage and challenge people a little bit more, and I think we've got a great bunch of guys to do that. Q. With all the rumors swirling about your future, did any of that have any sort of impact? MARK RICHT: Well, I think when you lose coaches, it does‑‑ you lose relationships. You lose time spent. So I think that certainly came into play. But bringing Coach Schottenheimer in here, Brian Schottenheimer, our new offensive coordinator, and Rob Sale, I think those guys did an excellent job of coming in and getting to know everybody and rallying along with the rest of the coaches. Q. Did you have to talk to the parents or‑‑ MARK RICHT: Well, we always talk about that, yeah. If you're being recruited by a particular coach‑‑ Q. About the rumors, your future. MARK RICHT: That never really came up. Q. When you have a guy decommit and recommit to Georgia, what's that been like the last few weeks? You've had a couple of those. MARK RICHT: Right. Well, those things happen for different reasons. I think Pat's situation was more of a coaching change issue.  Shaquery's was probably a little bit different in that regard. You never know why a guy turns around and changes his mind back. But we were happy to welcome them back. I'm sure they'll‑‑ well, I know they're very happy that they did. Q. Wilson supposedly wanted to play wide receiver is one reason he changed his mind to go to West Virginia. Have you changed‑‑ MARK RICHT: No, no, that was a good question because I think a lot of people were going to think that. He said, coach, I'll do whatever you want me to do. He just wanted to be at Georgia, and he's put as an athlete for that reason. Q. Are there any additions to this group that you might have later today? MARK RICHT: There's a possibility. There's a possibility. I really don't know for sure. We just have to kind of wait and see. But there's still some possibilities out there. Q. Following up on the commitments, decommitments, we talk about recruiting and the hat ceremonies and you've been going through this for a while. How do you stay so patient? Is it tougher now? MARK RICHT: I don't know if I'm patient or any coaching staff is patient. I mean, you don't have a lot of control. I guess you don't have a choice. You don't have any other choice but to be patient. I guess we are patient because we don't have any control. But I can't say that there's not a lot of emotion that goes in it from us, too, because like I mentioned to start out, there's a lot of time invested, a lot of travel, a lot of time away from home, a lot of phone calls, a lot of‑‑ just the building of relationships over time. You get to know people and really‑‑ you like them a lot and you want them to be a part of your program, and you can see where things would work out for them at your University. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't, but I don't think anybody goes through recruiting season without having that excitement of getting the ones that you want to get, a high percentage of those, but then there's always some tough things, too. Q.  When you guys amassed so many commitments early in the process, did you know that you'd kind of be playing defense a lot? MARK RICHT: I think nowadays in recruiting, the minute somebody commits somewhere is about when recruiting starts. You know, a lot of times you're thinking, well, once you've got a commitment, you've got it. But I think‑‑ I don't think anybody in the country thinks just because a guy says he's coming doesn't mean you still‑‑ you can't just stop calling and stop recruiting and stop taking care of business. You need to escalate that. Q. What's your feelings on the new early signing period, and do you think it would have made any difference in the case of some of these guys? MARK RICHT: Right. I don't know about the early signing date. You know, it'll be interesting to see if it happens, and if it does what kind of effect it'll be. Will it calm things down or will it be two days like this? You know, I don't know what's going to happen in that regard. But it'll be interesting to see. Q. I know you guys don't get into recruiting rankings necessarily, but for the first time you added the No.1 player in the country. Just talk about Trent Thompson. MARK RICHT: Yeah, Trent is a big, massive man who has got great agility. If you meet him, he's just the nicest guy you ever want to meet, but when he's playing ball, he gets after it. He's just got tremendous quickness for a big man, changes direction, plays very hard, and I think probably the reason why he got rated as high as he did is when you start taking these guys and bringing them to all‑star games or combines or whatever and you start letting them compete with some of the best, the word I got from some of those kids in those situations were like, the guy just was very difficult to handle by anybody. He's a fun kid to be around. He really is. Q. Can you talk about the defensive line class as a whole? MARK RICHT: Well, you definitely want to‑‑ you've got to have the beef up front, both sides of the ball. You've got to have guys that can command double teams. You've got to have guys that can hopefully put pressure on a quarterback without having to bring blitzes and things of that nature, guys that can be stout in their run gap responsibilities and not get pushed around. It's truly important to have the big men up front. I think we did a good job there. Q. For depth purposes what are you expecting? MARK RICHT: We don't think in terms of depth with guys, we think in terms of guys that hopefully will play and become starters, compete to start. I guess a starter is part of your depth as far as your depth chart, but we want these guys to compete. Q. How about finally getting Devondre Seymour into the program. MARK RICHT: Yeah, Devondre Seymour, it says 6'6", 310, I'm not sure if it's 310, it might be bigger than that. We call him "Scooter". But very talented guy, and a guy that if I'm not mistaken will be coming in with three years to play three, and that'll be great for us. You know, it's been a little while, waiting for him to get in position to come back on campus, or to come to campus, but we're very happy that he decided to stick with Georgia and is taking care of his. Q. You mentioned (inaudible)? MARK RICHT: Yeah, it did, it did, and Pat, again, Pat was one of the guys that committed early and changed his mind and then recommitted. And then big Sam Madden coming in, really liked what we saw with him on film, and after meeting him really enjoyed him and his father on that trip and had a lot of faith that we were going to have a pretty darned good ball player. He's a massive guy, too. I mean, he probably was in the 345 to‑‑ well, he probably showed up 345, probably left about 355 after all the food he ate on the trip. But we did get some big, solid men. Sage Hardin, very‑‑ he's tall, long, tough, athletic, smart kid. He's going to really help us, as well. Q. Talk about Hawkins and Choates. MARK RICHT: Guys that have been on the radar for a while. You know, Daquan, really when you look at him, he's as good looking as any of them, you know, a guy that in the very beginning we're thinking maybe this guy can play offense. There's no doubt he could play offense. But then the more time you spend watching him do his thing, you could see that he's going to be a tremendous defensive lineman for us. But he was a guy that both sides of the ball liked. He was on the board the whole time through, and in the end it worked out at defensive line because that's where his heart is and where we think he'll give us the best impact. And then Kirby, very‑‑ he's a tough, athletic kid, a guy that loves Georgia, within loving Georgia a long time, and when the opportunity came to get him, he accepted that offer, and we're glad that he did. Q. Talk about getting Tae Crawford. MARK RICHT: Tae is a very physical back. He's got‑‑ Q. Is he just a back? MARK RICHT: Well, he does have the ability to do a little bit of what Quayvon Hicks is doing as far as an H‑back type guy, even possibly tight end type guy, enough of a body to do that. But he's a pretty good runner in his own right. He is a very physical guy, big tackle breaker, guy that we think could hold up well in our league, got a great stiff arm, just down after down after down, just stiffing guys into the ground and running them over. Very impressed with him. Q. Was it hard this year to maintain relationships with some of those guys when you're still trying to keep some of these guys that were uncertain? MARK RICHT: Well, you've just got to keep recruiting I think is the best answer to that. You've just got to keep recruiting, you've got to keep evaluating, and gosh, I can't tell you how many times we got guys late and they did great. Kenarious Gates I think was at least a three‑year starter for us if not a four‑year starter. Timmy Jennings I think we offered the night before. Timmy was the last guy brought in the class and he was the first guy drafted that year, and he's been an all‑pro corner. You just keep recruiting. Q.  You have yet to hear anybody say their signing class wasn't great. If there was any flaw in this class, would you want more wide receivers? Is there any area that you didn't really get everything you wanted or as many? MARK RICHT: Well, I would just say the day is not over, and we'll see what the next few hours bring. You just don't know, and I don't know for sure what it's going to bring. Maybe you can ask me that tomorrow. Q. What are your thoughts on how Brian Schottenheimer has adjusted in the early weeks? He's been in the NFL for a while. MARK RICHT: Well, Brian has got a‑‑ I think he's a very good communicator, and I think that he's got a spirit for young people, and I think they see that in him, and I think they can hear it in his voice, and I think he's going to end up being a really outstanding recruiter. Q. You mentioned (inaudible). It's not an easy thing to do, and yet it seems to be a rising trend. Do you expect that to continue more? MARK RICHT: I think more and more young men are wanting to be mid‑year guys. I think a lot of them realize it's a little bit harder than you think. It's not a slam dunk, like I said before. And even if you're way out in front of it, it's not always going to happen. But again, it's a great tribute to these guys and what they did to get themselves in position to do that, and their families, there's no doubt about it. And there are some schools that just don't allow it. Some guys want to do it, and some schools, some school systems don't even allow them to do that. Q. In the case of Jake, how many guys at UAB did you look at when that happened? MARK RICHT: We took a good look at the film, but Jake stood out. He's a guy that we thought could come in and help us. Obviously Jake doesn't have a lot of eligibility left, but he's got a lot of maturity about him, and we really believe he's going to come in and give us some good pop. Q. How much, if anything, did the full cost of attendance thing come up with groups? MARK RICHT: We didn't get into it much at all because it's so hard to define at this point. I'm sure next year's class it'll be a big deal. Q. How big a deal do you think, because at some schools it'll be a certain amount‑‑ MARK RICHT: Oh, I think it's going to be a big deal. Again, it's not defined yet, so until it's defined we won't know how big of a deal it's going to be. Q. What's the biggest difference between today's recruiting and say when you were an assistant? MARK RICHT: I don't know, just I guess information and how fast it travels obviously is a big part of it, how you communicate with young men has changed. We're not supposed to text, but you can DM them, direct message them on Twitter, and there is a difference between texting and direct messaging because the young man has to accept you, like if it's your phone you could text a guy on his phone all day long but if he doesn't want to communicate with you on Twitter, he doesn't have to. So there is a little bit of difference there. I think just how fast information travels. I think, again, the attention and the hype that the recruiting gets tends to be a big deal. Q. Is that good or bad? MARK RICHT: I don't know. I think in some ways it's good. I think it's hard for anybody to do things that a kid won't report as far as, hey, I'm here doing this, I'm here doing that, and then so‑‑ I think it might have cleaned some things up, but it also maybe complicates things a little bit, too. Q. What is the thinking in terms of adding to your support staff? I know some of it has to do with days like this. MARK RICHT: Yeah. Well, the support staff, some of the additions is just to bless these young men and help them take care of business on a day‑to‑day basis. Some of it is just positions that we've had in the past that we've just amped up a little bit. That's really all there is to it. Q. (Question on part of the class being from out of state). MARK RICHT: Well, we just want the best players. If we go out of state we're looking for some special people. But we're still probably 60 to‑‑ we're normally around two thirds Georgia. That's about where we're at this time around. Q. Madden, was there a lifeline with his family to Georgia? MARK RICHT: No, I can't even remember exactly how we got on him. But we got a hint that he was available and ready to make some visits, and we also knew that we were in need, so that's how we got hooked up. Q. Do you think it'll be easier to recruit (inaudible)? MARK RICHT: I don't know. You know, when Chubb and Sony came in, Nick Marshall and Gurley were about at that age range, so maybe we can nail it down. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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