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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 8, 2015

Mark Richt

Athens, Georgia

COACH RICHT: Okay. Going to Vanderbilt obviously. Coach Mason is in his second year and he's actually decided he's going to start calling defensive front plays now, so we've had to study that a little bit.

But let's start with the offense. They have got a new offensive coordinator who was at Wisconsin a year ago, Andy Ludwig, and you can already see some of the continuation that he's trying to get accomplished just by watching the first game. Serious about a good balance of pass and run.

Their No. 1 rusher is Webb. This last ballgame, he had 70 yards. He had 97 all-purpose yards. Did a great job. Johnny McCrary is their quarterback, a kid from Georgia, a guy we got a lot of respect for. He threw it for 217 last week, ran for 66 yards and very, very dangerous run, passing threat.

Matter of fact, talking about guys from Georgia, they actually have more players on their roster from the State of Georgia than they do the State of Tennessee. It's the No. 1 state for their roster, so there will be a lot of guys excited about playing us, I'm sure, as we'll be excited about playing them.

Just backing up a little bit on the offensive side of the ball, they do have seven return starters, three of which are on the offensive line. Pulley, Bernstein and Holden, guys that are center and left side of the line. And then at wide receiver, their No. 1 receiver is No. 10, Sherfield. He had four catches for 63 yards, and so again, they are very serious about having a good balance, run and pass. Got a chance to watch them, actually, that Thursday night and been looking at the film ever since.

Defensively, I know it's early in league play, but they are No. 1 in the league in rush defense, No. 3 in first downs allowed and No. 4 in the league in total defense. And as I said, Coach Mason is going to be calling the shots. There's nine return starters on defense and they actually held Western Kentucky to the lowest number of first downs, I think which was 11, and the lowest amount of yards in the Jeff Brohm era.

Western Kentucky is a very good offensive football team. Matter of fact, we had their staff come and see us this last off-season and spend time with them, just talking ball and trying to learn from them some of the things we do. So we know they are outstanding at what they do, and Vanderbilt just had a great performance against them defensively.

Some of the superlatives from the last game: They actually had three guys that had six tackles apiece in McGaster, Williams and Herring. McGaster is No. 5, their corner, very good coverage guy, very physical tackler out in space, very impressive guy to watch. Herring, No. 35, their middle linebacker, as I said, had six tackles, and Nigel Bowden, I'm assuming, will be ready to play. I'll watch tape from a year ago -- and he's also a kid from Georgia. He had a great game against us last year, I know that. Should be ready to play this week.

As far as their kickoff return man, Sims, he's averaging 20.34. Their punt return man, Trey Ellis, is averaging about eight yards per.

Tommy Openshaw is their punter/ex-point field goal guy. He averages 44 yards per punt. He had two kicks over -- he had two punts over 60 yards in the last ballgame and hit two-out-of-three field goals with a career-long of 49.

So like I said, going on the road for the first time, playing SEC, Eastern Division opponent for the first time, is something that we all work towards and are looking forward to.

With that, I'll just open it up for any questions y'all might have.

Q. If you look at the last few years of this rivalry, when the game has been here, you guys have kind of been able to take care of business, when you go on the road, it's basically a coin flip. Any rhyme or reason to why there's been such a discrepancy?
COACH RICHT: I don't know. That's something we've got to work on, we've got to solve. We've got to play better at Vanderbilt than we have been playing, and that's one of our big challenges.

But you're right, there's been -- three out of the last four, three were extremely close and we lost one of them. I think the other one, there was a little bit of a margin there. Just haven't played extremely well there.

Q. Go ahead and get it out of the way. Apparently there were some kind of alternate jerseys, lighter-colored. Will you wear red? Is that something you've thought about?
COACH RICHT: I don't remember if we made some kind of agreement for this game. But usually if a home team wants to wear light or light color, we're more than happy to accommodate. And I'll be honest with you, I don't remember if we made an agreement on this one or not. But if they asked us to do it, I've never not accommodated that for a home team.

Q. Just talking about struggles at Nashville, what do you recall about that last trip there, one of the crazier games?
COACH RICHT: We lost -- yeah, there was a lot of things that happened that were regrettable: A fake punt they got on us -- was that the targeting foul day? That wasn't good. I think the targeting rule changed probably because of that play, because of the outcome of that game.

Just one of those deals where the way the rules were read that if you get a targeting foul and the guy gets ejected. Back in that day, two years ago, if you had a targeting foul, you were ejected from the game and there was 15 yards marked off against your team. They would review it and if they decide it wasn't targeting, the player can come back in the game but the foul stayed, even though it wasn't a foul.

I don't remember what the score was, but we were in pretty decent shape at that time and it was a fourth down stop, I believe. We would of had the ball; instead they got the ball, plus 15 yards. They ended up scoring a TD a field goal, whatever it was. And it seemed like they punted us, we dropped them up to punt maybe. That happened, too, I don't remember. They got that one.

Just a lot of things didn't go well, but that's -- we're responsible for all those things. Got to take ownership of them. Pressure you reminding me of all those things. (Laughter).

Q. When you went back and looked at the film on Greyson from his first start, how would you assess that and what do you want to see him improve at?
COACH RICHT: He played very soul slid. Both quarterbacks played very solid. There was not a pass that was thrown that shouldn't have been thrown. We did two balls batted down, which that's part of football. And then we had two scramble situations where Greyson through the ball where only we could get it.

So again, every -- I like it when every ball is thrown, there's a purpose and it's a good purpose. It's not one that could have got picked or put us in harm's way, and then of course, Brice's two completions were pretty impressive, both third down conversions. He did a nice job.

But Greyson, you know, for a first start, I can't sit here and say, he should have done this a lot better, that a lot better. There weren't that many reps that we threw the ball and usually that's where the quarterback has to process the most information and has to make plays, so to speak.

But he handled the run game well. He made good checks at the line of scrimmage. His ball handling was good. It was solid. I thought he was pretty good, you know, hiding his hands -- we use the term "hide your hands" on certain ball fakes when you're trying to get somebody to believe you still have the ball in your hand. And he affected a few people a couple times where linebackers started to come back the hill and turned and ran into coverage thinking maybe he still had the ball, setting up for a pass. So the little things he did a good job of.

Q. You talk about Vanderbilt trying to be balanced on offense. Is that less important for you guys given the running backs that you have?
COACH RICHT: Well, I think we still -- you know my definition of balance. If people just overload us in the run game, we've got to be able to throw it well and vice versa, people just start playing two-deep and start playing coverage on us and doubling the receivers and things of that nature, we'd better be able to run the ball well. That's what I consider, the ability to handle those situations, balance, for me.

But I think we'll be -- my guess is we'll be pretty balanced across the board throughout the year. I don't think it will be super-heavy run, although we have a lot of faith in our ability to run the ball. But we know you've got to throw and catch if you're going to win the types of games we're going to try to win here.

Q. The decision to give Brice a series in games or the backup in games, is that something the backup quarterback knows going into the game and he'll have that opportunity?
COACH RICHT: We told him that we would like to get this done but we are not going to promise that it's going to happen because circumstances sometimes change. And I mean, it could be anything.

Just with the one drive before Brice got in, we ended up, the ball was on like the three-yard line, and there was a little bit of discussion, is this the time to do it. We ended up deciding no. But if we'd have said, this is the series and it ended up on the three, we might have changed our mind. I don't know if we would have or not, but you just never know what the circumstance will be. But what we're going to be looking towards trying to do that in the future, yes.

Q. What's the story behind the play cards? I guess who brought them in, and the neon hats -- has that become a more efficient process?
COACH RICHT: Well, there's certain things I can't tell you or I'd have to, you know -- no, I'm just kidding. (Laughter) Certain things we're not going to talk about in regard to that.

But as far as the neon-looking hats and wristbands or whatever the heck it is, it's just to try to separate -- as you look to the sideline, you need something to stand out when you're signaling in plays. You want whoever is signaling the plays to look a little different.

Q. In terms of Greyson, with his job description, what is it he's been asked to do with this offense?
COACH RICHT: Well, most every run play we have has some type of a check, some type of a -- we have what we call combo plays where it's either this run or it's that run. Sometimes it's either this run or this pass.

Sometimes it's a situation where we might have a zone play this way, and then the check is to go zone that way. And sometimes, you may have what we call a horn play or a toss-sweep tied together with a power play or something. Just depending how the defense lines up, and he has to be able to get to the line of scrimmage and see the keys that we have given him as coaches to decide why he should run here or run there.

Then he also has, in the passing game, really every time we come to the line of scrimmage, we are trying to declare who the Mike linebacker is. Once we say this guy is the Mike, 42 is the Mike, then everybody knows their job. But you may come to the line of scrimmage and you think 42 is the Mike and there may be something happening in the perimeter where it's like, okay, we've got to move the Mike over one man.

So it's like, you know, check, check, Mike, change the Mike at the line of scrimmage to get everybody's assignment proper. And that's true in the run and the pass game.

And then when it's time to -- on a run, once he's decided what the run is, he's got to take the right steps, he's got to use the right ball handling. We talk about hiding our hands and trying to make the run look like a pass and make the pass look like a run. Those are the responsibilities he has.

When it comes to the passing game itself, there's some plays that we call pure progressions where it's either him, him or him, and you've got to go in this order. Sometimes you go outside-in on a read; sometimes you go high-to-low; sometimes you go low-to-high. So you have to know your progressions. You have to know -- sometimes your progression may change if it's two-deep compared to a three-deep coverage.

The other thing is you have to understand your protections to the point where if they bringing more than we can block, he's got to throw quick to somebody. He's got to throw a hot route to a receiver, or what we call a side adjustment. Usually if it's coming from the perimeter, corners and safeties, we call it a side adjustment. If it's coming from linebackers, if we're outnumbered from the interior seven, then usually we call those hot routes.

You just got to know when you're hot, and if you're hot, you've got to change your drop, give the ball to the right guy, put it on money. Got to be able to get hit in the mouth real hard and go back and trust your protection the next time. So those are just some of the things he's got to do.

Q. You spoke a little Sunday about Floyd's versatility, anywhere from the edge to nickel. How unusual is that and how does he handle that during practice?
COACH RICHT: He doesn't go from meeting room to meeting room, but he has a very high football IQ. I know people use that term, not sure what that means, other than comes easy for him. He loves the game and he understands it. And it just comes pretty natural to him.

He's still got to learn, this, that and the other obviously, but it doesn't mess with his head. He can process all that information at all of those spots -- now, can he play all three in one game? I don't know if you can game plan it quite that way but he's got the versatility to do that.

Q. How is Trent Thompson developing to be able to help you guys on the line?
COACH RICHT: Trent's doing well. We're at the point in that ballgame where we made a lot of substitutions on defense, and the discussion had already been -- we already had a decision made offensively, we were going to let a lot of young guys play if we got the ball back. Of course the game ended. But just getting reps in a game is different than doing it in practice, and the more you do it, the more comfortable you get.

But Trent and a lot of young guys are continuing to develop. That's what we talked about today in the staff meeting. We just got to keep getting better, got to keep improving and got to keep developing our young players, and if we do that, we'll have a chance to be pretty good.

Q. Haven't had a chance yet to make the acquaintance of Rico McGraw, but clearly he played a lot and started as a freshman, he's a Nashville kid. What can you tell us about Rico McGraw?
COACH RICHT: Well, Rico, he's another guy that's really versatile. He could play corner, safety or nickel. He is a smart kid. He picked things up quickly this summer and throughout fall camp. Not afraid to strike you. Just a young guy that -- part of the reason why young guys play this time of the year is because they are ready to, and other times it's because you have a lack of depth at certain positions to they almost have to play and it's probably a little bit of both for him. But he's doing a nice job, and he's a great kid.

Q. With the game being cut short on Saturday, it was obviously becoming a safety issue, but do you wish you had more reps to watch guys like Ramsey or defensive backs like Rico, or did you see what you wanted to?
COACH RICHT: We would have loved to have continued to play and allow some of the young guys to play. The game was in a position where we felt comfortable doing that with the margin, the scoring margin and the time left on the clock. We were ready to make some substitutions.

It would have been nice for those guys just to play. Gosh, I mean, families may be coming to visit. They would have got to see their boy play. They would have had a little bit more to talk about after the game, just those kind of things for morale, but also for development, as well.

Q. Going back to that idea of balance a little bit, I think this Saturday receivers only got six or seven touches. If you're expanding the passing game, do you intend to try to get more touches out there, or is it equally important to get the running backs involved in the passing game?
COACH RICHT: Right, well, we do -- we have route concepts that the ball might go to receiver, tight end or a back, in just about any given play. And so a lot of it is just dictated by the coverage and the progression. If we are going high to intermediate to a check-down, well, if the safeties play too close to the line of scrimmage, we may throw a post. If they play real deep but the linebackers don't get much depth, we may hit something intermediate. The backers drop back as well and leave space for your back, you may dump it to your back.

Everybody is really important in these reads and if the quarterback goes to the right guy, it could go to any one of those three groups. So we think they are all valuable and they are all going to have to make plays before it's over.

Q. Couple special teams questions. Kickoffs, is Collin going to keep doing that, and is McKenzie available to return?
COACH RICHT: McKenzie will be ready to go. You can expect to see him back there returning punts and kicks, or at least available to do that. I'm not sure he'll get all those. More apt to get a punt return than a kick return to start out.

But I think Reggie did a good job. We really thought Reggie played well as a return man in the kick and the punt return. So Reggie is still in the mix.

Collin and Marshall are both working on the kickoff. Marshall, I think proved that he's healthy and he's fine, and we've just got to figure out who is going to kick off. But they will both be available to do that.

Q. The tight end, Jackson Harris, got a lot of snaps. Is that a formation thing, him being the second guy rather than Jay?
COACH RICHT: Well, we plan on playing all three of those tight ends, and we've played a lot of two tight end sets, not only -- we did some two tight end, two-back sets and we did some two tight end, one-back sets. So tight ends got to roll pretty good.

But Jackson has had a really good camp and he's earned the right to play. We'll see Jay, too. But he's done a good job for us.

Q. Back to Greyson. Did you have a pretty good idea once he got here that you would be able to maybe give him some free reign in this offense that if you see something, say, oh, that doesn't look so right, maybe we need to do this?
COACH RICHT: No more than any of the other quarterbacks. We expect all of our quarterbacks to be able to do that. I mean, to run our system, you have to be able to do it or you can't function. But they all can do that very well.

Q. The atmosphere at Vanderbilt is different than some other SEC venues you guys go to. What challenge does that present?
COACH RICHT: Well, the big thing is once you get in the game and you're inside the line, so to speak, that's really where your focus should be. We do feel like there will be enough crowd noise where we have to use our non-verbal cadence.

And that's the biggest thing when you go into an opponent's stadium: Do you think it will be loud enough to force you to do that, and I've been there long enough to know that you've got to have a plan for that. That's really the biggest thing we talk about is how the noise can affect your cadence and we always go into there thinking we've got to have a non-verbal cadence for that.

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