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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 30, 2017

Mark Richt

Greensboro, North Carolina

MARK RICHT: Probably like everybody else, team is ready to play somebody besides each other. I think we're in good condition. Overall we've come through camp with very few serious injuries. We did have one to Jamie Gordinier that was an ACL that will end his season. Other than that, there's been some pulled muscles here and there. Overall we're pretty health and excited to play.

Q. Of all your years in the SEC, you certainly were touting that league as being the superior league in the country. Now that you've got a little bit of time in the ACC, talk about how different the perception of that league is now compared to 10 years ago.
MARK RICHT: Well, if you go back about 15 years when I was coaching at Florida State, it's not even close to the same league. Florida State at that time, back when I was coaching there, we entered the league and we rarely lost. I think we won the league six, seven, eight years in a row, something like that.

It's far from that now. As we know, Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, ourselves, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, you can keep rattling off teams. Pitt beat Penn State. Pitt beat the national championship Clemson. University of Pittsburgh. There's a lot of really good teams in this league.

If you want to get into measuring leagues, if you measure everything you can measure last season, we were probably the best in the country. But that's got to be proven year by year. I don't really know if it matters or not, but people want to talk about it. I would say it's a great league, that's for sure.

Q. When you see particularly what a lot of coaches have done in this league beyond just Clemson and Florida State and Louisville, do you feel like moving forward this is going to be a league that's going to be consistently battling the SEC, perhaps another Power 5 league year in and year out?
MARK RICHT: I mean, the reality is we're battling each other in in-league play, trying to win the conference championship. At that point, if we have a strong enough league, a strong enough season, then at least one of our teams will get into the final four, then we'll do battle with whoever shows up as an opponent.

But, I mean, the truth of the matter is we're just battling against whoever's on our schedule, trying to do the best we can with our programs as far as facilities and how we develop our players, coaching staff salaries, all those kind of things. You don't hire some of the coaches that have been hired in this league without people stepping up administratively.

I think the league's on the rise. I can't imagine it slowing down any time soon.

Q. A lot of conversation this week about how similar Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban are. With your past at Georgia taking on Nick Saban, then yearly now having to face Florida State, how accurate or how different is your prep on your end when facing those squads?
MARK RICHT: Well, I mean, whoever you play, you got to assess their strengths and weaknesses. You got to assess what they do schematically. You build a game plan around trying to take advantage of anything you can.

When you play teams that are very well-coached and have the type of personnel to get the job done at just about every position, with some depth, you know, they're tough to beat. They're definitely similar in that way.

Q. Do you have any further update on when Ahmmon Richards would play? How careful do you tend to be with those hamstring injuries, guys say it feels all right, but it's a short step to reinjury if they go to early?
MARK RICHT: I think once a guy thinks he's ready, you probably need another two, three days after that, quite frankly. That's been my experience.

To this point, Ahmmon has not practiced with us. Start out running in the underwater treadmill first. Then we have a machine that takes some weight off you. I think it's called an UltraG, whatever. They're running with not all their body weight on a treadmill basically. Then you finally get on land and start running. That's where he's at now. He started to jog, cut a little bit here and there.

It's very unlikely he'll play in this first game.

Q. Your thoughts on these early-season matchups between Power 5 teams. I notice you have a couple coming up in the next couple years. What are the challenges of playing the game that early?
MARK RICHT: Well, I think it just depends on what type of team you're bringing into that game. How mature is your offensive line. How mature is your quarterback. If you're breaking in a brand-new quarterback, those games are tough. If you've got a two- or three-year starting coming into that game, you feel a little bit better, especially if he has the skill around him. Is your defensive line able to hold up against a physical team.

You're going to be tested to the limit in games like that. If you're mature and you got guys in the system, your coaching staff stays intact, those kind of games you at least feel better going into them than you would if you change coordinators or you're changing the quarterback or your offensive line just graduated four starters. That's the thing about those games that worry you more than anything else.

Q. Have they been beneficial?
MARK RICHT: If you win it's beneficial. If you're that team that is really ready to play on all those levels I spoke of, they can be beneficial. But if you win every game but your first game, somehow you get knocked out of the playoffs, that's not very beneficial.

Q. Bethune coming off a 4-6 year, which for them is a down season, what do you see when you look at Bethune on film on both sides of the ball?
MARK RICHT: First of all, they finished winning four out of five games. That's very important. That means your team is fighting through adversity and getting better, whether it's injuries, I think there were injury issues a year ago, young players playing, all that type of thing. As the season went on, let's face it, you if you start out losing a bunch early, you rally and win four out of five, there's some coaching going on, there's some team belief going on there that helps you build for the future.

They know that overall record a year ago is not what they're used to and they don't like it, they're going to do something about it. I just see a very well-coached team. I see athletes that can compete. There's a lot of redshirt seniors playing, redshirt juniors playing, especially on the offensive side of the ball. You got one sophomore, maybe two, and both of them are redshirt sophomores that are the starting lineup on offense. Everybody else is a senior or a redshirt junior.

They got a lot of guys with a lot of experience and they're going to be ready to go. They got I think eight starters returning on offense and seven on defense, something like that. They'll be ready to go.

Q. It was announced that a redshirt sophomore quarterback Williams is going to get the start on Saturday. Saw some playing time last year. Much more of a mobile quarterback than Larry. What are the challenges of facing a mobile quarterback? Have you seen film of him from last year?
MARK RICHT: I'll be honest, I haven't looked at a lot of their offense. I trust Coach Diaz to handle that. I'm right in the heart of game planning, play calling, coaching quarterbacks. Most of my time is really spent on watching the defense. I trust Coach Hartley a lot with the special teams. I'm not spending a whole lot of time watching that.

For me to give an assessment on that, I don't know. But I do know that a quarterback that can run, you've got scrambles that he can extend a play, find somebody open. He can scramble for positive yards. You can have some QB running there. Zone reads. You got to respect the quarterback. There's so many ways a mobile quarterback can hurt you, especially when he throws the ball well.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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