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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 19, 2018

Mark Richt

Greensboro, North Carolina

MARK RICHT: We've had a good spring to this point. We'll have one more practice. We're going Saturday. We're going to scrimmage some situations, a little bit of overtime and one-minute drill and some third downs. Then we'll get some younger guys that haven't had a lot of work, and finish up with a good little scrimmage for those guys.

We had our spring game last week, and we're just finishing up Saturday. We've got a big alumni weekend. We have over 284 players showing up to just hang out, spend time on Friday afternoon, Friday night, and then Saturday after practice. After the scrimmage in the morning, we'll have a barbecue with them.

So lot of our former greats show up, and I think they're all great. So looking forward to that.

Q. To look at the quarterback competition through the spring and just what your takeaways have been up to this point, just what can you say about that?
MARK RICHT: Malik's still ahead of everybody. It starts out with his knowledge of the system and his ability to get us in the right plays and the right protections and knowing who to go to with the ball versus different coverages and things of that nature.

N'Kosi Perry is making a lot of is strides compared to what he knew in the fall. He showed up in the summer last year and was learning and doing his best. Now he's had a whole season and almost an entire spring. He's done well.

Cade Weldon was doing well before he had an eye issue, infection, that he missed a couple days of practice. He was actually back today. Then Jarren Williams, brand-new kid out of Georgia is a mid-year enrollee. Got here in January. He's learning quickly and has great fundamentals of throwing the football, and has been very, very accurate. So been really encouraged by him.

Q. You had a player injured on a kickoff last year. Now he can't play again. I'm wondering if you had any different or unique thoughts on a new kickoff rule changes and whether you think that might prevent injury like the one Malik suffered?
MARK RICHT: Well, I think if people fair catch inside the 25, it will probably cut down on those high collisions, those high-speed collisions. I haven't even talked to Todd Hartley, our special teams coordinator on how we're going to handle that strategically from a return standpoint or even a kickoff standpoint.

It will be interesting to see what people do. I don't know. But I know by the grace of God, Malik is fine as far as he's going to be able to have a very normal rest of his life, even though it's not going to be playing football. He's already helping us as a coach, and he wants to be an entrepreneur. He already is an entrepreneur. He's got a clothing line he's working on and he's going to have great success. So thankfully the injury wasn't one that would keep him from having a normal life.

Q. How's Lawrence doing in spring practice? How's he doing?
MARK RICHT: I'm sorry, who are you asking?

Q. Lawrence Cager. How's he doing?
MARK RICHT: Our kicker?

Q. No, Cager, Cager, the wide receiver from?
MARK RICHT: Oh, Cager. Okay, Lawrence Cager. I didn't put two and go together. Cager's really had great spring. Mostly great. He's had a couple times where maybe he didn't get his block or didn't make a catch when he probably should have, and known that he should have.

But he's tall, he's fast, he's athletic, he's got good ball skills. He's another guy that really knows what to do and how to do it. When he plays big, and plays 6'4", 6'5" like he is, he really can be special. We just want him to be special on a very consistent basis, and I think he had a good spring for that.

Q. What is one thing you like to see for your team next year to improve on? I know there are tons of things to improve on but.
MARK RICHT: We just need to be physical at every position across the board. Our receivers -- and we did block well last year in the perimeter, but we've got to continue to block and even block better with our receivers, our backs, our tight ends, obviously, our linemen. We were a pretty good tackling team. Last year we were good at getting the ball out. We had over 31 turnovers, I think it was. And we protected the ball well until the very end, had a bad spill the last couple games, but our turnover ratio as a team was good.

But I think guys need to, you know, rise to the occasion and make plays when they count the most. We had some moments of that too, but we've got to do it on a more consistent basis.

Q. I remember last off-season you were pretty up front about looking for some transfers to come in. I think you had even put it on Twitter saying, hey, if you want to play running back, here's a good place to go do it.
MARK RICHT: Right.

Q. A, is that a priority for you again this off-season to try to bring in a couple more bodies, and B, did you find that to be effective strategy sort of putting it out there and saying let me know?
MARK RICHT: You know, what I should have done is moved D.J. Dallas to running back earlier than I did. We kind of hoped and prayed that we stayed healthy. Then when Walton got hurt and now it's like Homer's doing a good job, but we need D.J. to be a running back. He spent the whole off-season trimming down to play receiver. He got down in the 190's. Now that he's been training to be a running back, he's in the 220s, the it 220 range.

I should have told him that, because he was a mid-year kid. If I had put him at tailback last spring, we wouldn't have had to put an advertisement out there for a mid-year transfer.

But we're always up for a guy who is a graduate transfer, especially, because they are mature and they can help you in a certain position that's huge. Then when it comes to recruiting your next class, it really doesn't keep you from bringing in a mid-year. It doesn't keep you from signing another kid.

So they're almost -- there's hardly any risk to that other than the type of character that you bring in.

Q. Is that something owe you've been doing this a long time, is that one of the biggest differences that's happened over the last few years in terms of coaching and recruiting and just kind of adjusting to the number of guys moving around?
MARK RICHT: Right. Even on signing date, if you don't get your number, it's okay, because you need to have a number left if something pops at the end of spring and you're like, hey, this kid wants to transfer and he can help us. If you're full, you can't bring him in.

So you have to have space for these guys. That's why unless you get exactly who you want in the recruiting process on signing date, don't sign somebody just to say you signed them. Don't sign a guy just to say we need depth. Just hang in there and a graduate transfer may pop and help you, you know, get what you need for the moment and still be able to recruit your next class without keeping you from bringing in a guy at mid-year.

Q. I'm not sure the last time you may have touched base with Coach Bowden, but I wanted to get your impressions on Willie Taggert, the things he's done here at Florida State in his new tenure, and him bringing Coach Bowden back into the fold with the program after Coach Bowden has kind of been away from it the last couple years?
MARK RICHT: Yeah, well, Coach Bowden, we all know that Florida State wouldn't be where they are without Coach Bobby Bowden. He was the difference maker in a program that was struggling, quite frankly. He brought Florida State into national prominence.

The reason they're still there is the foundation that he built. He should be back, and he should be around, and I applaud Coach Taggert for doing that. It's the right thing to do, and I'm glad to see it.

Q. Do you think there was a reason Bobby stayed away from the program for so long?
MARK RICHT: I don't know the answer to that. But I know if I was at a school for 30-some years and then I retired, you know, if you think somehow or another you might end up being a distraction. That might cross your mind to say, hey, the new coach needs the players to respond to him. That could have been it. But I really don't know other than he wasn't there, and now he is, and I think that's awesome.

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