Home / Hotline Reports / Bulldog Hotline - Oct. 20, 2008
Bulldog Hotline - Oct. 20, 2008
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Scott Howard opened running down UGA’s current rankings - #9 in all polls and #7 in the first BCS standings. Moreno was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week. Georgia has won the last two meetings vs. LSU – 2004 in Athens and 2005 in the SEC Championship Game.
Scott opened by asking CMR about post-game Saturday. Richt mentioned they did some recruiting. He met with one young man Saturday night and one on Sunday. That was after taping the TV show.
Wrapping up the Vandy game – Richt told the team we had a solid victory over a very good football team. Monday is “honor roll” day at practice where we have the entire team present, including walk-ons. There were times we didn’t do as well as we liked, They were very resilient. Scott mentioned any win is a good win. Richt said he didn’t necessarily believe that when he first got here, coming from FSU, where style points matters.
What about complaints over style points? Richt says national media talks about that a lot. Local media and fans understand how tough wins are to come by. Richt then mentioned examples about teams that don’t have to deal with tough opposition most weeks.
Injuries – this is the first game in awhile that Courson didn’t come to Richt and say anyone was out for any length. D. Gamble got the wind knocked out but is fine.
Chandler and Durham will be back, Ellerbe has a good chance to be back and Kade Weston will also be back. We were able to hold him out in the last game.
Sonny in Evans opened the calls tonite. We’re starting to get into the meat of our schedule and he’s worried about inconsistency on offense, especially in the red zone. Also, please assess the play of CJ Byrd and Corvey Irvin. Richt – going into two weeks ago we were near the top of the SEC in red zone efficiency, then we had a coupe of turnovers against Tenn., then missed a couple of FGs in this game. We all know we want 7s instead of 3s. Coming away with nothing is a real downer. Third down conversions is another stat where we’ve been high. We just happened to have a bad game and that’s why we didn’t get as many points as we could have in this game.
CJ Byrd and Corvey Irvin are our defensive captains two weeks in a row. Both are playing very well and doing a good job leading.
I added concerns about driving down the field running then suddenly having a bad play and blowing a scoring chance. That could be costly this week or in future games. Richt - That last drive was a great drive just to get out of our territory. Richt would’ve have been happy just getting out past our 40 and punting them deep. During that drive we started out in 2 TEs, then shotgun where we hit a pass to the FB.. one thing about being backed up on the 5 their DBs have to be careful. They did a good job of stopping the run when we started to get close. We’ve got to take advantage of our scoring opportunities.
Rick in Woodstock noticed this last two weeks that whenever the other team gets the ball late in the first half they’re going to score. Why didn’t we call timeout to regroup the defense. Richt knows it has happened the last two games but had not noticed it before. Not only do they score but they gain momentum. To be able to call timeout isn’t a bad idea. But we want to save the timeouts in case we get the ball back with a chance to answer. Against Tennessee we were able to drive 97 yards and score a TD right before halftime.
After commercial, Scott verified it was the Tennessee game where we drove 97 yards in 9 plays just before halftime. Richt said if we had only one timeout we might have only gotten a FG instead of a TD. He hates losing momentum anytime, especially just before half. This game, Vandy adjusted and put the ball in the hands of Mackenzi Adams’ hands, and he drove them – with the help of a couple of pass interference penalties.
Austin in Sugar Hill (15 yr. old) is concerned about getting pressure on the QB. Can we get more pressure on LSU’s young QBs and still contain their running backs? Richt said when they can run the ball like that it’s hard to pin your ears back. But sometimes you do get yourself into single coverage situations. The goal is to get them into 3rd and long. Last year, we started slow in the sack category then things heated up. Right now we’re 8th in the SEC in sacks with 13. With just two more we’d be 3rd in sacks.
William in Macon wonders about AJ Harmon – can’t we put him back on defense to help put pressure on the QBs, and what kind of Kryptonite will we put in the cookies for the Florida game? Richt said he couldn’t comment on the Florida game. Harmon’s best chance to have a great career long term is on offense. Right now he’s right where he belongs and is excited about his chance to help the team. He is redshirting this year.
Ray in Augusta thanked Richt for developing fine young men, and asked about Aron White. Should we consider splitting him out in pass routes, like SC does with Cook? Richt said White is a good pass receiving TE and has been more than adequate as a blocker. He’s come a long way in that regard. The guy at SC is a little older and more mature. We might see White doing stuff like that in the future.
Les in Macon asked about Reshad Jones’ play in recent weeks, and what about stuff on ESPN where a team jumps offsides while we just take a knee. Richt – this week in particular – Jones played great .. 10 tackles and an INT. Some of his tackles were very impressive. Richt told Jones during the game those reminded him of Thomas Davis. We take a knee when the other team jumps because we don’t have a set play in that situation. If they jump but get back they sometimes show their intentions and Stafford can make a call. Stafford went through a cadence and noticed one guy flinch, indicating an overload to our right. So Stafford audibled to sweep left and Moreno had a walk in TD.
Joey in Carrollton wonders if AJ Green is healthy. Joey thinks the secondary is doing better since the Bama game. Richt – AJ is healthy. He may have more stamina than any freshman Richt can remember. He was coached really well in HS. He probably never came off the field so he probably doesn’t know how to put his hand up for a sub.
Our secondary is doing better, and our penalty count went down to 5.
Kevin in Vidalia wonders about red zone problems. What about a trips set with a slant, crossing route and and another pass route, or maybe something Texas used last week. Richt said he was drawing up the first one to give to Bobo. What about the WR trips screen inside the 20. When we run screens, it seems the opposing DEs and DTs are dropping off. We’ll slide our protection and use Moreno to block. Now, when they see us slide our protection they stop to watch for Moreno. We tried a screen against Vandy and just missed a couple of blocks. Most plays you call have a lot to do with how you execute.
Chad in Lincolnton wanted Richt to comment on the interceptions thrown against Tenn. & Vandy. Those seemed to cost us momentum and left points on the table. Richt mentioned we’re leading the SEC in total offense but not in scoring (we’re 3rd). We had one INT in the first 5 games, then in the Tenn. game there was one on a tunnel screen. He just has to throw it to the WR coming down the line but one of their DTs reacted. Usually they can’t catch but that guy did. The other was on a fade. One of the INTs in this game was on a deflected ball.
Stafford is still playing with young guys in front of him unlike some guys who have a veteran OL in front of him.
Clay in Guyton talked about getting to accompany a guy on a recruiting visit this weekend. He was very impressed with Richt’s speech on the visit. Richt said we do care a lot about these guys, and it’s a lot more than just about football. If all you care about is just football save everyone a lot of time and don’t come here. We want them to care about a lot more than just beating the crap about the next opponent.
TJ in Hapeville asked about the game plan. Richt said it would take too long to explain game plans. The main plan is to make sure the players understand it and can carry it out full speed.
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