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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 24, 2015

Mark Richt

Athens, Georgia

COACH RICHT: The last two times we have played have been overtime games. They are 3-8 right now, but five of their losses were for a touchdown or less, very close games that they have played against really good teams. They have played one of the tougher schedules in America, and they could easily be 8-3 right now without anything much different.

Offensively, they are scoring 31.3 points a game. They are having 387 yards of total yards per game, 261 yards rushing per game. That's seventh in America.

Talking about rushing the ball, in the last seven years, they have run the ball for over 31,000 yards, which is No. 1 in the nation. So they know how to run the ball as good or better than anybody in the country. They are averaging 125 yards a game passing. They have gone 236 games without being shut out, so offensively, they have just been getting the job done for a long time.

As far as their rushers are concerned, Marshall, No. 34, is their leading rusher, 77 carries, 614 yards. Thomas, No. 5, is their No. 2 rusher. Got 670 yards rushing. He's also passed for 1,263 yards and 12 touchdowns.

As far as their receivers are concerned, their No. 1 receiver is Jeune, No. 2. He's got 21 catches for 480 yards and three touchdowns. Their No. 2 receiver is Lynch. He's gotten catches for -- he's averaging 25 yards per catch. He's got eight touchdowns. They know how to throw the ball. He's also the third leading rusher with 402 yards. I'm talking about Lynch, No. 49, really fine dual threat.

On defense, they are giving up 26.9 points per game. They are giving up 365 yards a game total yardage, 163 rushing, 201 passing. They have got nine interceptions this year as a team and they are averaging over four tackles for a loss per game, so they do a good job of getting you behind the line of scrimmage.

Their secondary is all seniors. Three of the four seniors are red-shirt seniors, so three fifth-year seniors and another senior back there. Talking about their DBs in particular, D.J. White, No. 28, he's leading the team with two interceptions, actually tied with Brant Mitchell with interceptions. He has two, as well. But White has seven career interceptions. Jamal Golden has eight career interceptions and he's second on the team with tackles with 56.

Their No. 1 tackler is P.J. Davis, No. 40. He's got 73 tackles. He's also No. 1 with tackles for loss, 6.5 a game, second in tackles for loss is Tyler Marcordes, No. 35. He's got 5.5 tackles for loss per game and he's the No. 3 tackler with 44 tackles.

On their defensive front, Freeman, No. 42, 6-1, 240-pound sophomore, kinds of leads the way with the guys up front right now. He's got 42 tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks, pass break-up, quarterback hurry, a fumble recovery, a force fumble; been very active up front.

Talking about their kicking game, Harrison Butker, he's kicked 40 touchbacks so far. That's one of the best in the country. He's seven out of ten in field goals. In his career, he's kicked three out of four over 50, and doing a great job there.

Golden, going back to Golden as a returner, kick returner, he's averaging 24.5 yards a kick return, which is No. 1 in school history. Their punter, Rodwell, averages 39 yards a punt. He's got a long of 59, and Golden is also their leading punt returner with 9.9 yards per return.

That's the report on Georgia Tech. Without a doubt, a big rivalry game, one that like I said, has been extremely close. Just about every time we play, both teams get up for this game, both fan bases get up for this game. Everybody knows how important it is and we don't run away from that fact.

If anybody has a question, we'll get it going.

Q. You touched on the last two years going into overtime. You go into overtime Saturday night. How much do you work on overtime situations? Does that happen more during a season, before a season, just kind of curious.
COACH RICHT: Well, we probably rep more overtime situations in camp than you do on a weekly basis. We work on it specifically on the open date, as well.

But when you're working red zone offense, red zone defense, you're pretty much working on the same plays that you would call. We work on two-point plays probably every other week or so.

Well, we work on two-point plays every week: The defense works it versus scouts; the offense works it versus scouts. There's times where we do situational things in the one-minute drill. Like every Thursday, we go offense versus defense, one-minute drill. It might be we need a field goal. It might be we need a touchdown. It might be we're doing a May Day like running off the sideline kicking the field goal. Maybe we're practicing two-point plays at the tail end of it, good-on-good kind of stuff. We always do it versus scouts because sometimes we re-emphasize it when we get our ones versus ones and twos versus twos.

But the overtime itself, we feel like we've got it covered because we're always working red zone offense and defense along with the two-point plays.

Q. Do you feel like you're coaching for your professional life in this game?
COACH RICHT: Me?

Q. Specifically.
COACH RICHT: Who made you ask that question? (Laughing). I know you didn't think of that one.

My focus is beating Georgia Tech right now. That's my answer to you.

Q. I had a similar kind of question.
COACH RICHT: Yeah, well I probably won't answer it, I can tell you that. So go ahead.

Q. Do you expect to be coaching at Georgia next year?
COACH RICHT: My focus right now is Georgia Tech. (Laughs). Who made you ask that one? (Laughter). Mm-hmm. You're going to ask the same one? We can end this thing as fast as you want. I'm here to talk about the game --

Q. Mine's on the O-line. When you were looking at the film against Georgia Southern, obviously a lot of pass pressure. Where did y'all kind of diagnose what the issues were and how were you applying that to this game?
COACH RICHT: Well, the majority of the time we have pass-protected well. The times we didn't, we had a couple -- I know we had two missed assignments that just got us in trouble. There was a couple times we just got whipped. As far as a guy just getting beat, that happens from time to time, as well. But most of the time we protected pretty good.

Q. Especially the way last year's game ended where you guys take the lead, the kick, they come back and then overtime, how much did it stick with you afterwards?
COACH RICHT: Oh, it was painful. All losses are painful. All losses are painful, no doubt.

Q. How proud are you of your mark over Tech? That's your highest winning against any of Georgia's rivals. But what's that personally mean to you?
COACH RICHT: Well, I know how important this game is to our fans. I know how important this game is to our team and our coaches. It's the last regular-season game of the year. There's a lot of reasons why the game is important. Just like when losses sting, I mean, victories are what you're looking for.

Like I've said in the past, I'm usually mostly thankful for victories. It's the way the series has gone and I'm -- any time we win a game, I'm proud of the team, I guess I can say that.

Q. Back to the offensive line, how did Hunter Long do and what is Greg Pyke's availability?
COACH RICHT: Greg's been practicing. Hunter, he's struggled in some areas, just getting a lot of reps for the first time in a long time. I guess since probably his first start at center would be my guess. I can't remember another time he started, played the whole game. But considering it was his first shot out of the cannon and had to wait so long to do it, he did a nice job. We're glad that we had him.

But as far as Pyke, he did practice yesterday. If he keeps getting better, he'll be ready to play.

Q. It does sound like that Thomas is going to play, but from what you guys saw in the film last week, did you get a pretty good look at Jordan, if, indeed, he does have to go at quarterback?
COACH RICHT: Oh, yeah. I mean, he played a bunch, so we got a chance to see that. We don't think there will be a huge difference in how the game would be called, regardless of who the quarterback is. So we're preparing for what they have done for a long time.

Q. You're talking about what the game means to fans and for coaches, obviously sometimes it means families are going against each other, and in this case, the Marshalls. What can you say about Keith Marshall's progress?
COACH RICHT: Keith is much better today or yesterday's practice than he was even Thursday's practice last week. Unless he gets set back somehow, I think he would be able to play in this game.

Q. Leonard Floyd obviously named one of the five Butkus finalists.
COACH RICHT: That's big.

Q. Can you talk about his year, working inside and now he's back to doing his damage from the outside?
COACH RICHT: Well, we just put him where we felt like we needed him the most, against different opponents and in different games and sometimes it had to do with linebackers depth, and we had Reggie Carter go down and we didn't know about the true freshman being just ready early on.

Now they are more ready to play snaps and it's freeing him up to play in his natural position, which is the edge, whether it's defensive end in a 4-3 or outside linebacker in a 3-4 or even sometimes being in a nickel, which is basically a glorified outside linebacker when you're versus three receiver looks where you can be in coverage but also pressure from the outside.

I think he's much more at home outside. I think it's pretty easy to see that. But the one thing about him, that I really respect is just how much the guy loves to play. If you just watch the guy, and see how excited he gets about making plays or even if he misses a play, how disappointed -- he doesn't hide anything. His body language tells you exactly how he's feeling. I just really like the way he gets out of it.

I'm really proud of him becoming one of the finalists for that award. It's a big deal.

Q. You've obviously been around offense your whole life. This year it's been a struggle for the offense. Can you remember some similar years and can you speak --
COACH RICHT: I look back, I look back a little bit. There was a couple years that were rough. Can't be perfect every year. But yeah -- what's the rest of your question?

Q. How you feel that those guys have performed despite that fact.
COACH RICHT: Well, I think, like even the last three games, we've decided to huddle. We've decided to slow the game down a little bit. Decided to try to control the ball a little bit more. You know, do things that aren't really sexy when it comes to football, offensive football, but things that we thought were going to help us win.

I'm proud of everybody being able to do what we felt like we needed to do that was in the best interests in terms of this team to win games. I think in that regard, we are doing the right thing.

Q. And is that kind of the game plan for Saturday?
COACH RICHT: Well, I mean, we are not going to start jumping into the no-huddle all of a sudden and all. So, yeah, it will be similar philosophy.

Q. Following up on the Marshalls, do you remember, obviously I'm sure you know, Marcus Marshall. Did you guys give him a hard run or just how did the recruitment -- try to get him here?
COACH RICHT: We didn't offer him. We did not do that. But he's shown that he's a pretty darned good ballplayer and I'm sure he'll remember that and play a little extra hard.

Q. How is this game week different in terms of how you structure with no school and meetings and all that?
COACH RICHT: We did have some academic work done. Yesterday and today, blocked out about an hour and a half, two hours for guys that need to get ready for projects or tests or whatever it was, when we get back to school. Sp that was the only academic responsibilities that we've had so far.

But what we did with our times, for meetings and practice, we basically just did exactly what we do every other Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Tomorrow morning, as you know, we practice in the morning and try to get out of here somewhere around 11 or 12 to give guys a chance if they are within striking distance to go home for Thanksgiving, get them all back in town Thursday night.

Then we'll do a very normal Friday operation. The only thing different is as we are traveling to Atlanta, we'll stop. One group will stop somewhere in the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Group Hospital, I'm not sure which hospital -- Scottish Rite, I think that's where we're going. We go to the children's hospital and then we'll go to Shepherd's Center, as well. That's typical. I think the defense is going with the kids and the offense is going to the Shepherd's Center. I'll probably go to Shepherd's Center, as well.

I think we'll see Devon there, won't we? Devon Gales will be there, so we're looking forward to seeing him and everybody else.

Q. You've had a lot of success against Tech in Atlanta. What has been the deal with the focus in that game when you go over there, because it seems like most years, you get off to quick starts. I know the last time around you didn't and you got way behind. There just seems to be -- curious why you've had so much success.
COACH RICHT: To me, I don't remember many games that weren't close. I think they are all close. And I don't know, we just line up and play ball and try to win the darned game no matter where we're at. I don't think much about if we're home; if we're away.

We certainly have to account for crowd noise and we'll be prepared for that. But other than that, it's just another time we're playing Georgia Tech.

Q. How much do you think the experience with Georgia Southern Saturday night will help you difficult defensively and are these options just incredibly different?
COACH RICHT: Yeah, they are different. I think the thing with schedule, in the off-season I'm kind of looking at the season. I think my thoughts were that we probably would gain a lot from that, but as we got closer to the game and just studying the film many and watching both offenses, they are a lot different. They both run option, but they are very different in how they go about it.

But again, like I've said, the fundamentals of defeat blocks the fundamentals of being responsible for gaps, the fundamentals of assignment football when it comes to option, those things do carry over. But they do it just different enough where it's not like, let's do it exactly like we did last week. It's not like that.

Q. What are the chances you think Isaiah might be available Saturday, and what has he meant for your offense the last couple weeks?
COACH RICHT: He's kind of been feast or famine. He's had some great returns. He's had some great runs and then of course the fumble that cost the touchdown could have -- I mean, was a big factor in the game.

But as far as his health, he did not practice yesterday. We'll see what he does today. I think Ron is going to get him out there and see how he's doing and then make a determination, if he practices, and if so, how much of the practice he'll go.

So it's up in the air right now for him.

Q. One more question about over time. When you get to over time, are you a believer in the momentum and do you feel sometimes going into overtime, because you may have been the last team to score -- it seems like a lot of times whoever does score last in regulation, can sometimes carry that momentum over.
COACH RICHT: I don't. Just like in this last game, we were kind of starting to mound mount a little bit of a one-minute drive before the end of the game but when the clock got down to eight or nine seconds -- well, what happened earlier, there was a ball on the far side we thought was out of bounds and I was talking to the official and said if it's out-of-bounds, I don't want to use my timeout, but if it's out-of-bounds I want to use it.

We were just sitting there kind of waiting and we waited too long to make that determination. We might have lost a second or two there, but then when it got down to about eight or nine seconds and we were still -- I think the best we might could have done was get it in position for a long field goal. If you remember early in the game, they blasted right through us on the miss. If we had kicked one that would have been accurate, it might have got blocked and rejected and scooped and scored.

So I wasn't feeling real great about the thought of a long field goal to try to win it. I felt like at that time our best bet was to go to over time. So there's different things that go through your mind on that.

But as far as once you get there, the goal is to win the toss and play defense, so you no he what you've got to do offensively. And if you lose the toss and you have to play offense first, then you get to decide which end zone. Of course they chose the end zone away from our student section and our band and all that. If they had won the toss and we had the choice, we would have been where our crowd noise was. So there's some strategy as far as that's concerned.

You know, I don't know -- I've never really done a study on that on the momentum from the last score and who wins the game and all.

Q. I've talked to some others since last year that said that the squib kick last year wasn't necessarily the wrong strategic call. I know the way you study things retrospectively and you probably don't want to revisit that, but you were very strong afterwards, saying that that was a bad, bad call on your part. What's your thoughts on that?
COACH RICHT: Well, the thought was, there's not much time left, if you kick it deep, they are able to set up a return, there's a chance they could hit one. They would be more organized to practice that than the squib.

But we were covering kicks good just about all year at that time of the year. I should have just trusted our ability to go down and kick it deep and get them on the ground. And so by having the squib and them getting decent field position, obviously they got the one play, and the kid scrambled it just enough, just enough to give them a chance to kick it.

I mean, if we'd have kicked it deep and tackled them, it would have been a lot harder to do that. If we'd kicked it deep and scored a touchdown, everybody would say, why didn't you squib.

It goes back and forth. Just I really think if I had to do it again, I would kick it deep and just see if we could get them on the ground a little bit farther away from that goal line. But as far as -- a lot of people would say, you should do that. So it just depends on how it ends up I guess.

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