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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 10, 2015

Mark Richt

Athens, Georgia

An Interview With:

COACH MARK RICHT

COACH MARK RICHT: Looking forward to playing Auburn this weekend, playing for the 119th time. That's a lot of ball games. I know both teams would like to take the lead in that series. I know that's our goal.

Want to talk a little bit about their offense under Coach Malzahn, and of course, the whole team is under Coach Malzahn, but he's right in the middle of that offense. Right now they're averaging 27.1 points a game, 379 yards per game, 188 of it rushing, 190 passing. That's as balanced as you can get. They're very up tempo, very creative in a lot of the things they do, a lot of plays that create confusion and create big plays for them.

One interesting stat they have, I think they lead the nation in fumbles lost. They've only lost two fumbles all year long. That's a tremendous job they've done. I think the first three games they started out minus five in the turnover ratio, and since that time they're now plus 10, so that's a 15-point swing in that category. So they've done a great job of taking away the ball and securing the ball.

Really look like they're hitting their stride to me. I watched them on TV this weekend after our game, and just came out guns blazing and really look like they're hitting their stride, as I said.

Another interesting stat I read, since Coach Malzahn has been there, they're averaging 23 first downs a game, which is a massive amount of first downs. They do a great job of winning first and second down, reducing that yardage on third down and converting third downs.

Talk about some of their players, at the quarterback position, whether it's Sean White or Jeremy Johnson, I don't know for sure. Jeremy obviously started the last game and played most of it. He's got 600 -- I think it's 640 yards passing and 133 yards rushing, six touchdown passes, and he's five and one as a starter. Pretty significant stat right there.

Sean's thrown for over 1,000 yards, done a very nice job of moving their offense over the last few weeks. I'm not sure if he's healthy or if he'll play or not. I guess we'll find that out as we go.

Barber has got 850 yards rushing, averaging 92 yards a game. I think he's fourth in the league. He's got 12 touchdowns. Very impressive for him. Robinson has got 274 yards rushing, just kind of hit the scene as of late, six foot, 230-pound. Both backs, 225 and 230, guys that can pound the ball. Very impressive there.

Their No. 1 receiver is Ricardo Louis. He's got 36 catches, 563 yards, averaging over 15 yards a catch. No. 2 in that category is Marcus Davis, 16 catches. Melvin Ray has got 15 catches. Melvin and Ricardo both are over 6' 2, 215-pounders, big, physical receivers.

They've got three returning linemen up front, and they're all averaging -- they average over 300 pounds. There's a couple just under 300 pounds. But very athletic guys up front. So they do a great job on the offense.

Defensively under Coach Muschamp, giving up 27 points a game, 430 yards a game, 191 rushing, 239 passing. That was kind of before Carl Lawson got back, and I know he's only played two games, but since he's been back, they're only giving up 18 points a game. So I think his presence is being felt already.

I know it takes more than one guy to play defense for sure, but he's a guy that is very dynamic as a pass rusher and run stuffer and everything else that you'd want in a guy playing that position. So they've got him back healthy.

Some of the standouts, in their secondary, Johnathan Ford is leading the team in tackles, 96 tackles. He's actually got 194 career tackles. They have four guys that are over 100 tackles in their career, and Johnathan is one of those, No. 23, 6-foot, 203-pound junior. Jonathan Jones has also got over 100 tackles in his career. 113 career tackles. He's fourth on the team with 53 tackles, and he's first on the team with nine pass breakups; No. 3, Jonathan Jones.

At the linebacker position you got Cassanova McKinzy in the middle. He's No. 1 on the team for tackles for loss. He's No. 1 on the team for sacks. He's No. 1 on the team for quarterback hurries, and he's third on the team with tackles with 59; but 6'3, 255, senior. He's got 248 career tackles. So he's played a lot of ball, doing a great job there.

And then Kris Frost, No. 17, has also got a lot of tackles in his career, 225 career tackles. He's No. 2 on the team with 74 and playing really good.

Up front, talked a little bit about Carl, and he doesn't have an awful lot of stats yet just playing a couple ball games. But I'm pretty certain he's going to be a first-round draft pick and a guy that is going to have a long NFL career. But he's playing extremely well in the two games that he's come back.

And then up front they've got a bunch of guys they rotate, Montravius Adams, about 300 a pounder; Russell, just under 300 pounds. They've gone Swain. They play Lawrence up front. That's the two inside guys, the two edge guys. Lambert and Lawson they have. Also Cowart and Russell play a good bit as well. So just really do a good job of rotating those guys around.

In the kicking game Daniel Carlson is having an unbelievable year. He's 18 for 21 on field goals. His longest is 56. I'm pretty sure he leads the nation with field goals made over 50 yards. He's got four of those. He's made the last 12 in a row. On kickoffs, he's had 35 touchbacks.

There's an interesting statistic they have in the kickoff coverage and the punt coverage is they've only given up 10 kickoffs all year and only four punts have been returned on them all year. And that's No. 1 in America, with the least amount of kicks returned, kicks and punts returned combined. So they're doing a super job on placing the ball in the right spot as far as their punter and their kicker and also doing a great job of covering those kicks.

Kickoff return, Ford and Johnson combine for around 29 and a half yards per return. They're fourth in the nation in that category. They're second and third in the Southeastern Conference as kick return men. And their punter, Kevin Phillips, is averaging about 42 yards a punt, and has had 17 that have been fair caught and 13 inside the 20, which is pretty impressive, and that's why they're not returning many because he's forcing fair catches with the height that he gets on those punts. And then their punt return man, Marcus Davis, averages 7.3 a return.

So that's the report on Auburn. It's certainly going to be a great challenge for us to go to their house. I guess the third time in four years. But it gets very loud there. You could see on TV copy the teams that are playing them at their house having a terrible time trying to get off on the snap count. And we gotta work hard on that, be able to get that ball snapped and get off on the snap.

And then they're just -- they're playing with a lot of confidence that I see right now. So it will be a great battle. We're looking forward to it, and with that I'll open it up for comments, or questions.

Q. Coach, through the years you've built a pretty good record against West teams. I know you were asked and discussed this some last year when you won both of your games, but I think the East went 4 and 11 last year, if you include the title game. This year it's even more drastic. It's one and 10 East versus West. Why do you think the divide between the two divisions has gotten as wide as it has?
COACH MARK RICHT: I don't know. They're recruiting and coaching and whipping the East. They're just doing a better job. I don't think there's any other way to say it.

Q. Coach, after everything that's gone on, how is the team's mindset? And also the wildcat or wild dog, I know you can't say, but are we pretty happy with that?
COACH MARK RICHT: Okay. Well, first of all, I think the mindset of the team is pretty healthy right now. I think that they handled last week well. I mean I don't know what everybody thought the entire time through, but I saw how they acted in practice and meetings, even -- you know, when you -- we have a lot of -- what's the best way to say it? We have a lot of expectations academically, to be a certain place on time, to be prepared, to make sure you're going to class, making sure you're taking care of your business. If you happen to have a discipline run for missing something or whatever, you know, guys are there, they're on time. You know what I mean. So it wasn't -- I didn't see a lot of guys going and starting, well, I'm not going to class today or I'm not going to study hall today or I'm not going to -- if I happen to miss something, I'm not going to just say, I'm not going to my discipline run or whatever it is. So I think everybody handled that well. I thought they practiced with a purpose.

I think in the game, you know, our big thing in the game was to really and truly focus on what we're responsible for and then try to encourage everybody else, and I saw a lot of that from the team. I saw a lot of it from the coaching staff, because in some ways we are all we had, you know, that day, to a certain degree. Not to belittle our fans. I mean everybody was at the Dawg Walk. It was fantastic. The students were there; it was fantastic. The fans that were there, considering the weather report and what's been going on, I was really happy and thankful for what our fans did.

But kind of all week long we tried to just say, hey, let's focus what's happening in this building, on this practice field, try to take care of all your responsibilities academically and then when it comes time to play the game, let's do it together.

And I was pleased with that. And the message this week is, you know, we can't let up. We gotta build on this past week. We can't go backwards. We can't relax in any way, shape or form. We gotta keep the sense of urgency to get better. And that's the greatest focus this week.

Oh, I'm sorry, the wild dog, Wildcat. We call it the wild dog. It was effective in a lot of ways. Of course, that first touchdown we hadn't had in a while. Thankfully that thing opened up so big we were able to fumble it, pick it up and still score.

But that was not the only play that had success. Between Sony and -- what's my man's name? What's that? No, my -- Terry Godwin. Sorry, Ms. Godwin. I had a brain lock for a minute. But Terry, he did a nice job there. He handles the ball well, and he played a little bit of that kind of thing in high school, a little bit of quarterback in high school. So it was kind of natural for him.

Q. Mark, as far as run defense, when other teams have tended to just run with their backs on you all, y'all have done pretty well this year. What about Auburn's approach that makes what y'all have seen so far or is it so different that --
COACH MARK RICHT: Well, they're more of a -- they will spread you and they'll go fast, but a lot of teams that spread and go fast want to throw it, or throw little bubbles and all that kind of thing. They want to spread you out and still pound you with power game runs, you know. It's not just zone red here and there. I mean they're running power. They're running a lot of things that they'll pull linemen and fold them up inside.

They like to run the ball in a very physical manner, and when you got a guy like Johnson, who's a big man, who can be that guy who can run those types of plays, you add a blocker to the scheme. In a system more like ours when our quarterback hands the ball off, and he might fake a bootleg or this or that to try to hold somebody at bay a little bit, and we do some zone read, too, but not as much as other teams, or quarterback -- we don't do a lot of quarterback run. That's really why we're doing more of the wild dog stuff because that gives us the same type of thing. The only problem is, you know, Sony Michel is not a threat to throw the ball with a cast on his right hand, you know. Terry could be a threat to throw it to a certain degree, but not like Johnson who can run and throw. And he is truly their quarterback running their system. So that's the advantage of that.

But it is -- you know, the thing about teams that have a QB run or even the wild dog, wildcat kind of thing, somebody's gotta defeat a block. First of all, you gotta be gap sound. Everybody's gotta be where they're supposed to be, but the reality is they're going to have a hat, a blocker for just about everybody in the box, if you keep a safety deep. So the only unblocked guy you got is a deep, one-high safety. So somebody's gotta whip a block. You can't go -- we use the term you can't go one for one on a block because they'll run all day. So somebody's gotta win. Somebody's gotta win.

Q. Given what was going on a couple of off seasons ago, when Tray had to leave the program, how tough was that decision, and how is he looking on film?
COACH MARK RICHT: Yeah. Well, Tray is -- I know he had a big pick, I think to start the year, maybe the first play of the game. He's got a couple of interceptions. He's made a bunch of tackles. He shows up on film a bunch.

Right here they -- I don't see him -- in our depth chart he's not a starter, but he may be starting. I don't know. I thought he's basically starting for them. But he's playing a lot. He's playing well. He's a tough kid. He's a physical kid, very athletic guy. So he shows up a bunch. He's No. 28 for them.

Q. Mark, since this game doesn't have the ramifications a lot of people thought it might before the year, do you still talk to your players about tangible goals, and if so, what would those be, or do you just kind of keep it general?
COACH MARK RICHT: Yeah. Right this minute Auburn being Auburn and us being Georgia is enough, in my opinion. And that's what we're focusing on. We're focusing on getting ready to play one well of a football game versus a team that's going to have a tremendous fanbase ready to get after us, you know. It's going to be a war; it's going to be a battle. And if you're a competitor, that's usually enough to spark your blood, you know, get your blood pumping.

Q. And as a followup to that, 2011 was a little different, because even though you -- I think it was 2011, you lost those first two games, but you still had pretty much every goal on the table, you could still accomplish things.
COACH MARK RICHT: Sure.

Q. But do you use that year, do you draw anything from that year in terms of kind of things you were able to do to sort of motivate players or keep them focused?
COACH MARK RICHT: Yeah, we talked a little bit about that, and we probably -- I don't know if it was 2006, not that our guys remember 2006, but you could -- I think 2006 was the year we started out like 5 and 0. Then I think we lost 4 out of 5. And you know, the sky was falling and all that kind of thing. And then we battled back to beat, I think, No. 5, Auburn. Georgia Tech was a ranked team. Then we ended up playing Virginia Tech, who was a ranked team in a bowl game. I think we were down 18, 21 points, something like that, at half, came back and won it.

Just sometimes things don't go the way you want in life, and so what are you going to do? You got two choices. Are you going to quit? Are you going to cry or are you going to fight and are you going to do it the right way? And we tend to grow through adversity, and we tend to learn a lot about ourselves as a person when things are tough. And those are the kind of things that we talk about.

You know, not only football lessons, but life lessons, too, because the reality is all those guys are going to run into some things down the road that are going to be tough, and they gotta figure out, what do I do now. It's just going back to what I said a week ago, when I talked to the team, I was like, all you guys know how you feel in this room, but maybe you don't know how to act right now. We're going to try to help everybody know how to act, and that is to stay positive, stay together, fight like mad and turn the thing around. So that's what we're working on.

Q. Coach, two unrelated things. First off, I know you studied defense mostly, but can you tell a difference in Auburn when Johnson's the quarterback and White is the quarterback? Is there a difference?
COACH MARK RICHT: Much more threat of a QB run with Johnson. Johnson seems more demonstrative. He's more of a guy that'll just kind of get pumped up emotionally. I don't know if I see the exact with Sean, same with Sean. Not saying he's not excited about playing, but there's a little different body language there. He seems a little bit more controlled in what he's doing.

But both of them got plenty of arm to do the things they want to do in the passing game. I think Johnson just got started off, it just was a rough start. And they felt like they needed to make a change, and they did, and to Johnson's credit, he didn't go in the tank and just say, forget this, you know.

Even I heard his comment after this last ballgame when they were interviewing him. No, I was actually listening on the radio, and I heard his interview after the game and when they're talking about who's going to start next week and all that, he said, "I just want what's best for Auburn." And I think the guy meant it.

So there's a lot of credit to those guys that have been the guy and then they're not the guy and then they get another chance. But he probably wouldn't have been ready for this last ballgame if his attitude went in the tank, if he decided he wasn't going to work hard, if he decided he was mad or bitter. Sounded like he didn't do that. Sounded like he just kept banging away, kept fight for his team, kept fighting away with his teammates and had a great performance.

Q. The other thing I wanted to ask, of course, the situation at Missouri, a situation that became a national story when the football team did a boycott and had Gary Pinkel's support. Kind of your reaction to the turn of events there?
COACH MARK RICHT: I don't know all the details. I did hear the story. I mean I think just from what Coach Pinkel did as far as I can see was, like you said, support his players, and really, mostly supporting their right to do that, to protest or to say this is what they think's important. And that's what makes America great, and I think that he handled it well.

Q. Greyson said after the game that his experience at Virginia had prepared him for being displaced as a starter, then coming back, and really, if you look at his season, there's been a bit of a roller coaster. How does his demeanor enable him to stay constant?
COACH MARK RICHT: He's been great. I was bragging on Jeremy Johnson over there, but Greyson's been the same way. Faton's been the same way. I told the story about Faton somewhere along the way, but he gets the chance to start; it doesn't go the way he wants. We change back to the Greyson-Brice combination, and instead of going in the tank, the guy says, well, maybe I can go to the scout team and help us win by giving a good look as a free safety back there. And whenever I get a chance to get offensive reps, I'll just come on over and get offensive reps, but when I'm not getting offensive reps, instead of standing around, I could go there and help the team. That says a lot about a person. Very impressed with all of our QBs and how they've handled everything to this point.

Q. You have a couple of guys on your team who played quarterback in high school and then have moved to different positions now that they're here. Is there an extra benefit of having guys who sort of know the position and can read and react to it, both on the offense and defensive side?
COACH MARK RICHT: Right. Yeah, there's no doubt. If you played quarterback and you're a free safety, it helps a lot. You know, you just got a better feel for football in general. You got a better feel for offensive football. I don't think there's any question about that. And then, you know, like a Terry Godwin or anybody who is a skilled player that has played the position, you certainly can use their skills. And even let's say you're a quarterback and you became a receiver, some receivers, if that's all you ever do, and the ball doesn't come to you when you're open or the ball doesn't come to you all day because the coverage dictated it, I think sometimes if all you did was receiver, you're like, man, getting tired of running these routes and what the heck is the quarterback doing. But if you played quarterback, you understand that there's a certain progression that you're reading, there's certain times -- there's protection issue that keeps the ball from going to the guy. I just think they understand the game better and have a little more patience as to what's going on out there.

Q. Sort of a followup for that Missouri question, were you sort of surprised, impressed, scared at sort of the power that college football can wield on a campus now, seeing what was accomplished there by their protest?
COACH MARK RICHT: Well, I just -- again, I don't know enough about it to really understand the whole deal, but apparently there was some just from what I saw, there was some things that were going on that shouldn't have been going on. And sounds like they weren't being addressed properly. And you know, when that happens, things need to get fixed.

But I really don't know enough to kind of make a real strong comment on that.

Q. Trenton Thompson kind of didn't play as much this past week. Was that more of an issue with the ankle or was that more of an issue of other guys getting a chance first?
COACH MARK RICHT: No. I think it's more of his ankles. We thought he could play, but we didn't want to go the whole game with him if we could help it. Try to keep him going and learning and getting better and all that, but also try not to put too much stress on his ankles. He's getting better. He's still not 100 percent, but he'll be practicing and he'll be ready to play.

That's not just him in general, but that's part of the reason why we went inside yesterday, just for the whole team's sake, to have one more day of rest without, you know, just getting on it and moving, changing direction fast and all that kind of thing.

If you're an offensive lineman or defensive lineman, every day there's helmet and shoulder pads on, there's contact and there's pressure put on your joints and put on your ankles, so we were trying to have a day yesterday where we could get some mental things done, but not so much physically.

Q. Coach, on the Missouri thing again, did you realize Reuben Faloughi is out there, he's pursuing a PhD and is apparently at the forefront?
COACH MARK RICHT: Reuben Faloughi.

Q. Faloughi. Excuse me.
COACH MARK RICHT: Well, Claude made mention of that right when I was walking in.

Q. He made some mention that he encountered racism on the Georgia campus. First, on Reuben specifically what you remember about him --
COACH MARK RICHT: Well --

Q. -- and secondly, are you confident in the relations on your --
COACH MARK RICHT: Yeah. I mean I'm a big fan of Reuben Faloughi. Always have been. I don't know what he's talking about. That's the first I've heard of that, but it'll be interesting to have a conversation with him to see what he's talking about. I think it would be good to know for everybody.

Q. Completely different followup, but they call it the Prayer at Jordan-Hare now. You've been involved in a lot of games. I can't recall exactly where you've put it, but that kind of amassed a pretty good comeback in the fourth quarter of that game.
COACH MARK RICHT: That would have been the greatest comeback in the history of Georgia Football. It actually was. We were down 20 in the fourth and came back and took the lead. So we did erase the deficit. But we lost the game, obviously, on that ball they launched out there.

But I mean that one, I mean I literally -- I mean I hit my knees and then I my chest hit on the ground, I was like, what in the world is going on.

But gosh, you see so many of those -- I mean the very next time they played, the game against Bama, what happened there; and then what happened at Florida State and Georgia Tech and what happened to Michigan and what happened to -- how about Arkansas/ Ole Miss?

I mean unbelievable stuff that happens, and it just seems to happen in college football more than the pros; just wild stuff. But that's why everybody loves college football, man. You hate to be on the other end of it, but, you know, just like even this year, Ole Miss one time Chad Kelly is getting hit in the mouth and just launches it up in the air and bounced off somebody's head and the guy catches it for a touchdown, and it helps them win the game. Then it looks like they got a stop, the guy flips it over his head and then lands into one guy on the whole team that could probably outrun the defense. He gets a first down. Then he tries to give it away at the end of that run. I don't know if he thought it was the last play of the game or what, but he's lateralling it back and trying to find a way to lose it.

Then they go for two and get sacked, but there's a facemask, get another shot. I can't imagine the emotion that everybody was going through at the end of that one. I was watching it just thinking it was wild as a fan, but I can't imagine being a coach of either one of those teams and not have a heart attack.

Q. Coach, I was wondering if you've seen anything out of Sony in terms of the last month in growth or evolution, just having to kind of have the extra attention and extra responsibility?
COACH MARK RICHT: He's always been a very well-grounded person, I think, very mature guy, hard worker, just team guy, all those kind of things, but the one thing I think that's maybe a little bit different is just the physical nature of being the lead back and not only being the lead back, but continuing to run what we run, you know, the lead, which is a physical, inside run. Sometimes it bounces, cut back, whatever. The power, physical, inside run.

Obviously we got our outside plays as well. And he'll run routes and catch the ball in space and all that. So his role has changed to be -- he's running a lot more reps, but he's probably hammering it inside a little bit more than he would have been if Chubb was around. And I think he's taken to it pretty darn good. All right. Thank you all.

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