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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 4, 2015Mark RichtAthens, Georgia An interview with: COACH MARK RICHT COACH RICHT: Well, day one. We will have our first practice today. Looking forward to that. We've had some meetings and some walk throughs, things of that nature, to get prepared for this first day of acclimation. So everybody knows, there's five days of acclimation that the NCAA has everyone do as far as just getting used to heat, getting used to contact, those types of things. We'll spend two days in shorts and helmets and two days in what we call shells or at least shoulder pads and helmets. So day five we'll be able to put on the full pads for the first time. That's kind of how we're going to go. We're looking forward to this camp. There's been a lot of preparation between the end of the season and today to get us to this point. This is just another phase of preparation for game one, Louisiana Monroe. We're looking forward to that. Questions. Q. The staff you've added over the past year, how has that affected y'all's preparation? Are you more prepared? COACH RICHT: I think we had a very good off season. I think you have to be prepared for camp, meaning you got to be in great condition. You got to be strong, you got to be healthy. We've been very fortunate with our health. I know Scott Wesley had a little something late in the summer, relatively late in the summer. He'll be fine. He'll be working with us. I can't think of anybody right now that cannot participate. There may be a couple. We just have to watch the volume of their reps just to make sure we don't go too hard, too fast. Everybody has the green light to practice. There may be an exception. I just can't think of one. That's good. A lot of things have to go well for you in the off season, so to speak, to get you ready for this day. I say it all the time but we do have 29 practice opportunities and multiple meeting opportunities to get mentally and physically prepared for the season and for the first time. So all I can say is I think the players did a phenomenal job this summer. I think our strength and conditioning staff did an awesome job, especially the last couple months. We did have the rule change where you can have eight hours of mandatory work in the strength and conditioning, and two of those can be in a meeting setting. So we did take advantage of those eight hours. I think it was very beneficial for our team this summer compared to some others maybe. Q. Coach, regarding the quarterbacks, I guess your first year here you had a two horse race. In '06 you had four. Midway through camp you had a first and second guy, a third and fourth guy. Now you're going through with three. Have you thought about how you're going to go through the reps? COACH RICHT: We're going to rotate the top three guys, the three scholarship quarterbacks. We're going to rotate them one guy with the first unit, one guy with the second unit, one guy with the third unit, rotating it around on a day to day basis until we think it should stop. It could go all the way to the first game. At some point we may drop it to a two man race. It's just hard to say how it's going to go. But that's our starting point. Q. Did you give them a briefing on that or do you have them focus on the next snap? COACH RICHT: They know. They know how the reps will go. Was that the question? Q. Yes. COACH RICHT: We tell them. We're obviously talking to them about the things that are important, about quarterback play. We're not necessarily saying, This is what you have to do to win the job, per se, but this is what you have to do to become the best quarterback you can be. That's the goal for everybody: to be the best quarterback, linebacker, safety, runningback, whatever it is. We're all trying to perfect our trade, so to speak. We talk about in terms of perfecting your trade. The more you know about your position, the more you are prepared, the faster you can play, and you'll make better decisions as a quarterback if you get in a good habit of how you think, how you progress through your reads. Even your fundamentals, the balance that you have when you throw the football, all those things together help you become the best you can be. That's what we're hoping for for everybody. Q. Coach, it's year two of Jeremy Pruitt. It seems like since he's been here, you've given him an awful lot of autonomy to change things. Would you agree that he's had his imprint? What was it that you saw in him? COACH RICHT: We have staff meetings on everything we do. Everything is open to discussion. Anytime you have people from different programs, you want to hear how they might have done this or that. Coach Pruitt has input without a doubt. Coach Rocker being at Auburn. Coach Shotty being in the NFL, all those things. So we get a lot of ideas, and then we kind of nail down what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. But there have been a lot of things that Coach Pruitt and Coach Sherrer have brought from the places they've been. Q. Coach, as opposed to some of the summers in recent past, things have been relatively quiet. Do you attribute that to anything? COACH RICHT: I don't know. I'm thankful our guys did a good job in that regard. When you talk about a lot of things need to go right in the off season, that's one of them besides staying healthy. If you have a bunch of guys that didn't do what they're supposed to do socially and off the field, it creates distractions. It also creates a lack of depth sometimes if you're playing without some guys because of those two reasons. At this point we haven't had a lot of either one. So going into camp, we're in pretty good position. A week in, we may have all kinds of injury issues God forbid but you never know what's going to happen once you get started. Q. With Keith Marshall, how healthy is he from what you've been able to see with the walk through so far? Also from conversations, what is his mindset like coming off the injuries? COACH RICHT: Well, he's like everybody else. He's trying to get in the best condition as possible. He's trying to learn what to do. He's trying to perfect what he's trying to accomplish. He's trying to become the best runningback he can be within our system. So that's his focus. That's what he's doing. That's what we're asking everybody to do. We're not too much worried about depth charts right now. Even though we're working three and four groups, a lot of times we're setting our groups by having a young guy next to an old guy so when you're working together, an older guy can help a younger guy. If we put our ones and twos over here, threes and fours over there, there's nobody to help the threes and fours. We'll split it up to where we can have some of the veterans help the young guys. The depth chart really isn't important right now. The learning of what to do, perfecting of what to do, is what is foremost on our mind both sides of the ball and specials. Q. I'm sure Greyson has been doing some serious cramming studying the playbook. Obviously that's a lot to pick up. What's your expectation for him? COACH RICHT: He's going to be competing for the job. Just from sitting in the meetings, I sit in almost every quarterback meeting. If there's a conflict between a special teams and quarterback meeting, I'll be with special teams. From what I see, all the QBs are able to communicate well with Coach Schottenheimer. So I think they're all going to get their opportunity. Just like I said, we're going to rotate them. Everybody's going to get a shot with the ones and twos and threes across the board. We'll keep rolling that until we get the answer. Q. Greyson, when you're a new quarterback coming from a different program, how difficult is it for somebody like that to earn the trust of his teammates and receivers, get on the same page? COACH RICHT: Well, I think it's true for him. I think it's true for the other two. You just got to be able to show up on a daily basis and work and prove to everybody that you are prepared. You know, everybody looks to the quarterback to know what he's doing and have the confidence to handle all situations. So that's what I'm asking from all three of them. He's just one of the three trying to do that. Q. Coach, there's been a lot of upgrades off the field for the program this year that has everyone out there real excited, I'm sure including yourself. One question I get from people out there is what you and the coaches can do to kind of help the team minimize game day hiccups. I know it's early in camp. COACH RICHT: It's preparation in all phases. Just looking at every situation that has to be addressed, assigning meeting time and practice time to cover it. But, you know, football's an interesting game. There's times that things pop up that, you know, maybe weren't on the top of the list of things to prepare for. But that's why over years and years of coaching, everybody has their input on things that need to be covered. That's what we do. The more you rep it, the better it is. But, you know, there's never going to be a game that's going to be played perfectly, there's never going to be a game that will be coached perfectly, there's never going to be a game that will be officiated perfectly. That's what kind of makes the game exciting. If it was 100% predictable, everybody would do it perfect, there probably wouldn't be that many people in the stands would be my guess. Q. How you feeling about your group of receivers? You have Malcolm Mitchell there, but the youth you have. COACH RICHT: The best thing about the receivers is the number of them. There's walk ons in the group, as well. In the spring, we barely had enough to practice. There were a couple days we were just hanging by a thread. So every once in a while you'll have a position that's just so low; the other guys don't get the work like they need. But we do have a pretty good mix of veterans and some young guys. I think the summertime has just been so beneficial compared to the years past where they'd show up a couple days ago, we're with the rookies for two or three days, then the veterans roll in. They're just not ready. But to have two months to be able to meet with them a little bit, have the veterans show them the way out on the practice field, throughout the summer, it just gives them a better chance to compete. If you don't know what you're doing, it's very hard. If you're not sure of what you're doing, you have a little bit of working knowledge, you just can't play with the type of intensity and you can't play fast like you'd like to. You know, uncertainty slows players down. That's just the way it is. But I'm pleased with who we have. I'm really looking forward to watching these guys perform when the coaches are there and see that. Q. What are your thoughts on how quiet the off season has been for you off the field? What's contributed to that? COACH RICHT: I thought for sure that question was asked. I'm just thankful the boys did a good job. Q. Coach, I think it's fair to say that Todd Gurley appeared to be kind of a once in a generation player that you get every once in a while. Then Nick comes in and did what he did over eight games last year. COACH RICHT: Right. Q. When you look back at what that guy stepped in and did, the expectation one year removed from that, are you just extremely blessed or... COACH RICHT: We are blessed, no doubt. We've had great backs. I mean, you can go back a long way and talk about all the great backs at Georgia. Some of them in recent history, having two backs within, I don't know how many years, when Knowshon came out. Knowshon was the first pick of the draft at his position. Gurley was, after an ACL, a top 10 pick. You get a feel for what type of player the NFL thought he was. But for Nick to step in like he did... The thing I've said throughout the summer is, I knew the kid was pretty good. I didn't realize the kind of stamina he had. I thought he would be mentally and physically tough because of the program he came out of. But to carry the ball as many times as he did more by need than by design, he was able to handle it. He was able to stay pretty healthy throughout. You know, I don't know if he can run the ball a whole lot better than he's been running it. But the things we've been trying to focus on for him is the route running, ball protection, pass protection that can make a back even more complete. If he can become really good at that, as well, he'll be a better back for it. Q. (Question regarding replacing David Andrews and his leadership abilities.) COACH RICHT: I think, again, leadership, when you talk about off the field, I don't know how much off the field leadership is important in this type of situation. I think it's on the field leadership that those centers and quarterbacks, especially, have to have. Again, everybody kind of counts on the quarterback to know what he's doing, be able to direct people, be able to help somebody if he's not certain. But the center, he has a big job. He comes to the line of scrimmage every single time. He has to declare who the Mike linebacker is, he has to set a lot of the blocking schemes. He's got to be able to adjust on the fly if the quarterback overrides something, get the information to everybody. Then he's got to snap the ball. A lot of people play that nose guard right over his face, you know. So he has one hand to snap and one hand to play ball with for just a moment. That's a hard thing in itself, as well. So it's a tough job description. David Andrews played it well, Ben Jones played it well, all last seven seasons. But beyond that, last seven seasons we had two guys handle that responsibility and handle it well. Now we're trying to find that answer. So far it's Kublanow is the number one guy. But we're still fighting for jobs, trying to figure it out. But Brandon has taken his position change very seriously. Just from what I saw in some walk throughs, I was very pleased with what I saw so far. Q. Mark, as far as the quarterback competition, Greyson's entrance into it, how much does his experience in real games help him and could it kind of offset his inexperience in this system? COACH RICHT: We're going to base the quarterback decision on what they do in practice, what they do in scrimmages. I'm not going to say, What did Brice do last year? I'm not going to look at last year's bowl game and make that part of the factor. I'm not going to use any other time that Faton has been on the field as a determining factor of who should be the quarterback. It will all be based on the experience at Georgia, not anywhere else, at Georgia, this camp, this spring in particular. Q. Coach, the addition of Mark Hocke in strength and conditioning seems to have put a charge in the weight room. What kind of asset has he been? COACH RICHT: It's pronounced 'hockey'. Mark, he's a high energy guy. He has a great program. He has implemented it well with his staff. But he's also into conditioning the mind and into mental toughness as much as physical. Just kind of a mindset of how to think. He's done a very, very good job with some of our leadership groups, some of our character ed stuff in the off season. He's more than just a strength coach. I think most good strength coaches have the ability to motivate and help the mindset of the players, as well. Q. Mark, could you give me a thumbnail sketch on some of these newcomers from what you are expecting? Trenton Thompson, Roquan Smith, Terry Godwin, Rodrigo Blankenship? COACH RICHT: We hear the names of all these freshmen. You mentioned the four. But here is the thing that I don't want to do: I don't want to put some kind of undo pressure on a guy and say, We expect you to start this year. We expect you to do this or that. Again, it's going back to, We expect you to learn what to do, both assignment wise and fundamentally what to do, play with great energy every day, and just try to become the best player you can be at whatever position you play. Then we'll determine who's going to play as we go. But we're not trying to sit here and say, We want you to live up to everybody's expectation of what you should become this season. We just expect them to do their best. That's the main thing. I think that's the best focus for everybody. Q. (No microphone.) COACH RICHT: You know, we're going to have a starting punter and kicker and we're going to have backups. Whoever is the best will be the starter, whoever is the second best will be the backup. Rodrigo is in the mix certainly, but there will be some others that will be here as well. In the 105, we can't bring everybody in. We probably have less specialists here this camp than most because we're trying to get a lot of guys reps going as deep as four units. With 105, it's tough. I'm definitely for changing the rule to just let everybody come to camp. If you're allowed 125, bring 125 in so we can get everybody in there and let them all compete. But we had to draw a line somewhere. Q. This is starting your 15th season here at Georgia. What feels different now or the same now as it did in 2001 when you started camp then? COACH RICHT: It's a lot cooler up top (smiling). I don't know. I think sometimes, just like I spent 15 years at Florida State, not all in a row, but you just go. You just go. You just work. You just prepare. There's not an off season for us. We're always doing something. Recruiting goes on all year long. We got spring ball. We have off season conditioning. We got all these different things, camps, two a days. We don't have two a days anymore, but fall camp, and the season. It's just busy. You're always focusing on what do we have to do today to get better. Somewhere along the way you look back and you'll be able to answer that question. It's like a lot of the success we had as a staff at Florida State, we didn't think about it when it was happening. You look back and say, You know what, we had a pretty good run. I haven't really thought about what's a whole lot different. Social media's changed things as much as anything in recruiting, just how you manage things. But other than that, it's not a huge difference. Q. (No microphone.) COACH RICHT: You know what, I feel like I'm in good shape. I don't know how I would compare to most 55 year olds. I feel good (smiling). Q. From a coaching perspective, what are the advantages or disadvantages to a two quarterback system if it should come to that? You never really had a true quarterback rotation here and did you at Florida State ever? COACH RICHT: While I've been quarterbacks coach, the closest I came to a two quarterback system, and it was never a true two quarterback system, was always trying to get the second teamer in the game. All throughout the time at Florida State, we did pretty much what we do with Shockley, try to get the second team QB in there. Maybe one drive in the first half. If you happen to get a game in control, get him in as soon as you can to get as much experience for your second teamer as possible. The only true rotation I had was probably the first game that I was here with Cory Phillips and David Greene. I think we went two series and rotated. I don't know if we did it the whole game. I know we did it in the first half, I'm not sure if we did it in the second half. I think the greatest advantage to a two quarterback system would be if you had two really dramatic differences in style as a player. If a team has to prepare for this guy and it's totally different than preparing for the other guy, I think that can cause issues for defenses in how they prepare. If you have two guys that are very similar in style, it could be an advantage in that it may just take a little pressure off one guy or the other. If you think one guy is hot, use him. It's just hard getting the rhythm and staying in a rhythm as a quarterback. I found that it's better to have one guy doing it. But, you know, we'll just see how it goes. Q. Coach, defensively it doesn't seem like you changed philosophy and the style in how big you wanted guys up front. There were times last year where you struggled to stop the run. What can you do this year in this camp to make you a little bit better at that? COACH RICHT: Usually when you give up a lot of rushing yards, somewhere along the way you give up a big run or two here and there. The big thing is just make sure everybody understands their gap responsibilities, make sure everybody is playing exactly where they're supposed to play, everybody is filling in from the perimeter in the right spot. We just got to be sure tacklers and play with some tenacity. You can slant and angle defensive lineman. You can bring in certain stunts that might be run stoppers. We'd just as soon not guess. We'd just as soon play good fundamental football, get after people's rear end and get people on the ground. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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