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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 27, 2017

Mark Richt

Greensboro, North Carolina

MARK RICHT: First of all, very proud of Braxton. He's been everything you could hope for in a player as far as work ethic, as far as effort, productivity on the field. Unbelievable grades. He's always a 4.0 guy. We're just proud of him and what he's done. Of course last week he ends up with his first 100-yard game receiving yards, so that was big as well.

But we had our practice this morning, and it went better than the day before, I can promise you that. It was kind of sloppy. I didn't like what happened offensively. I thought our defense did a better job yesterday.

But today everybody came around and gave the type of effort I thought we need to to have a chance. We'll see what happens this Friday night.

Q. To look at weathering the storm through what you've had to deal with this season and the team and having the game and having to get moved and Florida State getting postponed and whatnot. Just what you can say about how you saw the team weather what was going on with their families, with themselves and a change in their schedule?
MARK RICHT: Right. Well, we went two and a half weeks without going to school. Our campus let people out early enough to make preparations for the hurricane. Then after the storm it took probably a week later than everybody thought it would to get back to where we could go to class again. Then we couldn't be on campus as well to even practice. So that's why we spent a week in Orlando there after everything settled down.

But the goal from the very beginning was to focus on safety, focus on our families, and focus on what's best for each player individually and each staff member individually. Then just go do it. So there was no thought of football probably for at least a week, if not longer. Then by the time we gathered everybody up from all over the world, basically, we finally got a chance to get to Orlando and spend about eight days before the last game.

Q. When you had an opportunity to get back to things, and most recently Malik Rosier, what can you say he's shown you? I know you've only had a short amount of time on the field with him, but what you can say about that so far?
MARK RICHT: First of all, he did a great job competing for the job. It was truly an open race between him and Evan Shirreffs, N'Kosi Perry and Cade Weldon a true freshman. I gave everybody the opportunity to win that job legitimately, and he won it. By showing up to work every day, with the right attitude, the right focus, the ability to hit his target, and his understanding of the offense, and the fact that he wasn't going to put the ball in harm's way.

He made very few decisions that could have been close to being interceptions, and he won the job that way.

Q. As you look at Duke's defense on film today, how different do they look or how much better do they look from last year?
MARK RICHT: I'm not comparing year to year. But I can tell you when I put the tape on this year, I was extremely impressed. I'd really like to look at film and not be quite so impressed, to be honest with you. But I see a very confident team. Just how they're playing up front, how they're playing on the perimeter, the gap responsibilities, the confidence in their man coverage, the way they tackle, the way they hustle. I mean, you could see why they're one of the best teams defensively in the country.

And we're four games into the year. They played Northwestern. They played Baylor, they've played North Carolina. They've played enough teams for these statistics that we're seeing to be remarkable. Seven first down conversions out of 50 as far as Duke's defense? That's hard to imagine that could ever happen. But that's how well they're playing right now.

Offensively that's why they're getting those third down conversions. And that's why they're one of the top teams in America in time of possession.

Q. When you talk to the average sports fan and say Duke's 4-0, they would probably say did basketball start early? Duke being 4-0, how good of a job is Coach Cutcliffe doing out there to get them to a point not just being competitive but winning?
MARK RICHT: I think spectacular. The job he's done has been wonderful. He's fun to watch. Always had a lot of respect for Coach Cutcliffe as long as I've known him.

If you want to learn something about offensive football, watch their tape. If you want to learn how to train a quarterback, see if he'll allow you -- being a quarterback, to see how he teaches. He's outstanding at what he does. But he's also outstanding at hiring good people and keeping them running a disciplined program. When you hire good people, you get the kind of results they get on defense as well.

Q. If the NCAA said you could only recruit 150 miles from your campus, that wouldn't be a bad thing in Miami, would it? I've written in my column saying you're going to build a wall around Dade County. There are a lot of good football players close to Miami, aren't there?
MARK RICHT: There are a lot of great ones. The issue is there are too many great ones for us to get them all. If there were 50 to 100 at least in the tri-county area, if not 150. I'm talking about Division 1 recruits. We might could snag 20 a year, maybe 25 at the most. So there is another 100 going all over the place.

But we are fortunate to be down in a spot where there are great players and a bunch of them want to stay home.

Q. You were mentioning the defense. Duke has a really strong rushing defense. I believe they're ranked second nationally, allowing 65 yards. You guys on the opposite side are ranked 11th in rushing offense. Averaging about 285 yards per game. How important is that rushing game to you, and Mark Walton coming off his leg injury and hopefully playing this weekend?
MARK RICHT: Yeah, it's big, there is no doubt. We've always wanted to run the ball. I've never been the type of offensive coach that felt like we need to sling it every down. I enjoy throwing and catching as much as anybody. But if you don't have a good, solid running game, you're going to get some coverages that you never dreamed of. So the better you run the ball, the less complicated some of the coverages become. It helps you throw and catch the ball.

So it's going to be big. You know, everybody thinks that the running game starts with the offensive line and ends with the offensive line. It certainly starts there, but you need your tight end to block. You need your receivers to block. We've had a lot of long runs, but mostly because our receivers are blocking down field and springing these backs once they get through the interior line. I'm proud of the job that our receivers have done blocking.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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