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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 7, 2018

Mark Richt

Greensboro, North Carolina

MARK RICHT: Just got out of practice here a little bit ago in preparation for Georgia Tech. It's certainly an offensive system that takes a lot of work, takes a lot of study, takes a lot of simulation from our scout team. It's nearly impossible to really -- it's certainly impossible to really simulate what's going to happen in the game, but that's one of the challenges of playing Georgia Tech. It's an offense you don't see often and an offense that is very different than anything you deal with.

And then again, trying to get your scout team to give a good enough look to really get you ready.

Q. Obviously offense has been a challenge for you of late in these last three games. Is that an area where privately before the season, were you kind of concerned about the offense? Were you thinking this might not be as productive as you hoped?
MARK RICHT: Well, we actually always have high expectations, but if you'd have told me we were going to lose Ahmmon Richards after the first game, that would have been kind of a heartbreaker, and certainly it was as it happened. Certainly one guy is not the reason why you're not having productivity, but he was a big playmaker for us, and him coupled with Jeff Thomas we felt could be a really good one-two punch out there at the receiver position.

Got some backs coming back that have done well, felt good about what was going on with the young tight ends and all, and the line we feel like is getting better. But we didn't sit there and say, oh, we're in trouble by any means, but we knew it was going to be a challenge to continue to get better, but losing Ahmmon early on didn't help, I can tell you that.

Q. Just wondering about the morale in the locker room after some disappointing losses and how you just kind of keep everybody's spirits up as you get ready to try and make a bowl and maybe even potentially win the Coastal?
MARK RICHT: Yeah, I mean, immediately after a game the locker room, there's not a whole lot you can say after a loss, but the locker room in general I think you're talking about just the team in general.

Q. Yes.
MARK RICHT: You build team, true team in the off-season. It starts in January. We say we're a family. We say we've got each other's back. Bottom line is when things are going easy, when things are going well, it's easier to have each other's back and it's easier to have that family that you talk about, but if we are what we say we are, it's through the thick and the thin of it. I think our guys have taken that to heart. I think our guys truly care about one another, and certainly are disappointed in some of the results we've had, but I haven't seen a breakdown of the team concept or the family that we've built.

I'm proud of them for that, but the bottom line is conversely if you really do care about your teammates, then do your job well and prepare well. So that's the things that we talk about is not only saying that we want to be good teammates, we want to do it by how we produce in practice every day.

Q. Is Ahmmon still around the team, and what has his role been as somebody who had been a leader? Is he still taking on that kind of role even though he can't play?
MARK RICHT: Right. He hasn't been around a lot. Everybody kind of handles it differently, and some guys feel just awkward, you know, being around it because it hurts so bad, and I think there's been a little bit of that. He's been around some, but he hasn't been in every single meeting and been on the practice field every single day.

Q. I'm just asking what I feel like is kind of the usual question. I know you had said you might have a decision on the quarterback position after a couple of practices. Do you have one yet on who's going to start Saturday?
MARK RICHT: Well, I don't. We haven't even looked at the tape yet of practice today. We did -- obviously we looked at it yesterday. We'll have a good feel probably by the end of the day what we're going to do because I want -- tomorrow I would like whoever it's going to be to get the majority of the No. 1 reps. We'll have a decision sometime by the end of the day.

Q. And was Travis able to get any work in today?
MARK RICHT: He was out there. He got a little bit of work but not a lot. He got a lot of mental reps. As a matter of fact, he stood behind the huddle every single play and watched every signal and code name and all that kind of stuff and was kind of marrying what he would be doing behind the huddle or behind the line of scrimmage when the other guys were getting the work in. He's getting a lot of good mental reps. He's a guy that's had enough experience in his career that if he does feel great tomorrow, we'll get him in there and we'll let him play. But right this minute, we felt like he's made a lot of progress, but we feel like if he got it banged again, it might set him back, so we just erred on the side of being safe. But my guess is he'll get most of it tomorrow.

Q. Do you learn anything over the years about the kind of weather you faced last weekend? It doesn't seem like there's anybody that can take advantage of it.
MARK RICHT: Yeah, it is rough. When it rains that hard, you know, you've got this game plan and call sheet, and you know, you kind of have to set it on the side there for a minute because you really can't drop back and throw. It's hard to even roll out and throw the ball, and if you can somehow throw it accurately, it's hard to catch.

You know, we threw a couple grenades out there and caught one of them while it was raining really hard, but for the most part you've just got to hook it up and run the football and secure it the best you can because even when you run it, the ball can come out for sure. We had a couple fumbles in the game that don't normally happen for us.

You know, it's tough. I mean, it was raining hard. It was probably two to -- I'd say at least two inches deep of water -- you could just watch them as they're running, just water spraying everywhere. I'm sure the linemen probably enjoyed it more than anybody else, but I know quarterbacks don't like it much.

Q. But there is really no advantage you've found over the years?
MARK RICHT: Well, I think if a team relies heavily on throwing and catching compared to a team that relies heavily on running the football, the team that runs the ball would have an advantage for sure.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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