“AT&T Bulldog Hotline” comes your way every Monday night at 8:00 p.m, over the air on the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network from IMG, and online at georgiadogs.com. You can call in to the AT&T Bulldog Hotline number at 1-888-81-DAWGS (1-888-813-2947). Or submit your questions for Coach Richt via the Dawgs’ Official Facebook page, facebook.com/georgiabulldogs, and the Official Twitter page, @UGAAthletics, using the hashtag #bulldoghotline. Look for posts on these sites every Monday for instructions on submitting your questions. The Dawgs return to Athens to host the Georgia Southern Eagles this Saturday at 1:30pm. The game will air locally on WSB-TV, otherwise it’s pay-per-view.*
Scott leads things off by congratulating Coach Richt on the win and the SEC East banner. Richt said it was great, the fans were great. Appreciated the administration allowing the entire Redcoat band to attend. Fun to see everyone celebrating. Excited about the opportunity to get to Atlanta but have got a lot of work to do before then.
Buckhead Bulldog thanks Coach for the blowout, as there was no traffic getting home. Really liked the kickoff coverage and the punt coverage which was very good. Says that this helped tremendously with the field position battle. Just a complete effort. Richt says part of the reason we had a shut out was due to just that, the field position and them having such a long way to drive. With our defense playing like they have been that made things difficult for them. No turnovers helped as well.
Jim in Duluth is a little hoarse, but enjoyed watching us play to a standard last night. A lot of his questions were covered by Buckhead but wants to know a little about Georgia Southern and if they are locked into the FCS playoffs already. Richt says he believes they are playoff bound. May have an open round. Has just started watch a little of their film today. But most of the day has been spent breaking down Auburn tape, grading, meetings and some time with family. Saw just enough of Southern’s offense to know that they are really good at what they do. They ran for over 300 yards against Alabama last year and of course we run a similar defensive set. So we’ve got to be ready.
Trey in Augusta is glad we got another long touchdown run. Wants to commend Tavarres King on wearing Marlon Brown’s jersey and asks if King is alright after landing awkwardly on his shoulder at the end of that long pass completion. Richt agrees that it was a good thing to see King honor Brown in that way. Says that those two often wore each other’s jerseys in practice, so the team was kind of used to it. King is fine, came out of the game relatively injury free. Could get Chris Burnette back this week, still day to day. We’ll see how that goes. Marlon had his surgery, doing fine. Michael Bennett is ahead of schedule after his surgery. And Abry Jones is progressing well and has an outside chance to play in a bowl game.
Scott comments that it’s good to see that we came out relatively injury free, even though there was some big hits out there. Richt agrees that there was and they both mention Christian Robinson’s big hit on Tre Mason.
Evan from Madison Co. wants to know if he saw Auburn giving up as the game wore on. Richt says the staff just finished watching the tape and he didn’t see any sign of that. Saw them playing “hard as heck”. We just executed really well. Hopes we can continue to play this well defensively. But didn’t see any signs of Auburn players giving up.
Marlon Brown gets the Primerica Team Player of the Week Award.
Mike in Columbus runs down the roster from the seniors to the freshmen and concludes that we’re a young team. He thanks Scott for his service and tells Richt that he’s building a powerhouse and we will get the nation’s number one player in this class. Richt says this will likely be his largest class since coming to Georgia. He’s not sure what recruit Mike is referring to but is excited about the upcoming class and they are recruiting like mad.
Kevin Ward wants to know why there’s so much checking off and looking to the sidelines before a play is run. Richt says you can’t just run a play no matter what like you used to. Defenses are just too sophisticated these days. The goal is to find out what the intentions of the defense are and then run the right play. The defense typically will show their hand right before the snap, and that gives Bobo a chance to see what they’re planning to do an react. And Murray does a lot of that on his own as well. Also says that some of those long touchdown runs were audibles where if we had stayed with the original call it might not have been so good.
Abby in Atlanta knows we have two more regular season games, but wants to know what we can do to beat Alabama. As a native of that state that would make her proud. Richt apologizes, but can’t talk about that game yet. Acknowledges the accomplishment of getting to the SEC Championship Game, but there’s work left to do first.
Scott mentions that the BCS just came out and tell Coach Richt that Georgia comes in at #5.
Chris wants to know which players have performed above expectations this year and if he thinks we’ll have two 1000 yard rushers. Richt says the offensive line has played better than what he thought they would. They have not been perfect and have a ways to go, but they’ve done well. Our punter and kicker are starting to get to where we want and need them to play. Can’t say that for the whole season obviously, but they’re really coming along.
Scott mentions all of the yards gained last night and that it came when Burnette was out. Richt says they substituted a lot and many guys played a lot more than they have thus far.
*Someone correct me if I’m wrong. The georgiadogs.com website only lists WSB-TV as the television option. But I believe it’s still pay-per-view outside of the local viewing area.
