Home / Hotline Reports / Bulldog Hotline - Nov. 16, 2009
Bulldog Hotline - Nov. 16, 2009
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
Scott Howard is again live at Hotel Indigo in downtown Athens. He opened by pointing out that UGA can finish second in the SEC east with a win over Kentucky this Saturday. Ealey was named SEC frosh of the week after 98 yards rushing vs. Auburn. Second hour guest tonite will be Andy Landers.
Scott opened up congratulating CMR on the fourth straight win over Auburn. CMR – pretty much like everyone else saw it. In the beginning it wasn’t too pretty – looked like more of the same. Then the boys decided to settle down and play solid football. Third time being down double digits and winning says a lot about their heart. Our fans did the job too generating a lot of noise causing some Auburn mistakes, and supporting Rambo when he was injured was like a scene out of a movie. Having reverence with silence, then chanting his name as he was being carted off the field was something.
Richt confirmed Rambo did have a concussion .. no ill effects since he came off the field. He’s had many tests to gauge where he’s at and has passed with flying colors. He will not play this game even though he seems to be doing exceptionally well. AJ Green had an AC separation; he’s out this week and difficult to tell beyond that. Dewberry hyperextended his elbow. We think he’ll be able to practice and play this week. Dewberry is probably the toughest guy on the team so he won’t let something like that keep him out.
Brent from California opened the calls tonight. He looked at next year’s schedule to see how far west we might be travel and wondered if there was a limit on travel distance in a season. CMR said there is no limitation on how far teams can travel. Hawaii plays in a conference with a team in La. We do play at Colorado next year but don’t travel west for awhile. Scott remembers we have Oregon on the schedule in a few years.
Mitchell in Baxley congratulated CMR on the win and wanted to know what CMR said at halftime. CMR thought the key to the game would be our DL. We weren’t going to try to outnumber the running game because of the razzle dazzle they like. Our OL got it going in the second half. CMR couldn’t think of what he said at halftime. He did tell the OL we had to run the ball to win, to get the ball away from their offense. Our guys have a lot of heart. When we quit the penalties and got turnovers instead of gave them up it made a big difference.
I complimented CMR on the team playing like Georgia should – for the first time in nearly two years - and asked about UK’s QBs since their starter is hurt but another guy (Cobb) wore us out last year. CMR said Cobb has been playing WR and running wildcat. Their starter, Hartline, has been hurt. He was supposed to come back but will have surgery which will end his regular season. They have been working with a young guy at QB. If they want to go with Cobb, we’ve got to force those guys to go sideways, and our LBs have to defeat blocks. We will have to play physical like we did this past game.
Scott Howard noted coming out of a commercial break that Saturday is Senior Night.
Doug in Cumming congratulated CMR on the win and wondered if he would talk about recruits. CMR said he can’t speak about any particular recruits. But the atmosphere was great. Official visits are allowed to be in our locker room and got a feel for what its like to play Between the Hedges on a Saturday night when our fans are going crazy. CMR said its hard to explain what that means to recruits and their families to see what its like and feel the love. CMR thanked the Bulldog Nation for a great job.
Tony in Kennesaw wondered about night games. Does CMR prefer night games over day games, and what changes in terms of prep. Tony recalls Joe Cox said he liked the night games. Richt likes the night games – more electricity to it. When you’re under the lights Between the Hedges it’s a special feeling. Night games are here to stay with this new ESPN TV deal. For our prep – the guys get to sleep in until 10 am. Our coaches (home and away) will spend time at the team hotel going over stuff with players, whereas with the noon or 3:30 games there’s no time for that.
Bruce in Hartwell said Scott is doing a great job. Also, he got some tickets for this game from a neighbor. They were there for the Dawg Walk and he got to high five Cox. And he thanked CMR for taking time to talk to him once during the offseason while getting away at the lake.
Richt said he’d like to enjoy tailgating and the Dawg Walk one of these days like the fans get to. With the weather so nice and playing Auburn he thought the fans would have a great experience. And he was glad we gave the fans something to cheer about. The fans lifted us up too. On Auburn’s last drive when that kid jumped offside that was because of the crowd too.
8:38 pm – Kia Drive of the Game (on the same day the Kia plant in West Point officially opened) included the play where Orson Charles caught a deflected pass off an Auburn LB. UGA scored 6 plays later on Ealey’s 1 yard run.
CMR – when it happened, he thought it would be just what we needed .. the kick in the pants as Scott said on his radio call. The other game winning play was Rambo dislodging the ball on their pass play on the last series.
Bob from Covington asked if CMR was handing out a lot of bones after this game. CMR said they did. Everything that could possibly happen in a good sense happened .. 92,000 Georgia fans served up a perfect evening for those recruits. Special teams question – is Richt’s heart in his throat every time we kick off? CMR laughed and said we’re playing lots of young guys on that unit. Sometimes they do it just right and sometimes they make the silliest mistake. Blair is doing a great job kicking it but Auburn did a great job on that one they ran back. If a guy breaks through you have a triangle of 3 guys to try and tackle a guy instead of letting him go the distance.
Giving out bones… we give those out Sunday nights. Offense, defense, special teams and academics, such as a guy making 95 on a test. In the middle of it Richt threw in one about a guy getting a passing grade on two cat scans and an MRI (Rambo) and it caught the team off guard.
One guy you’re probably thinking of is Israel Troupe. He hasn’t had many opportunities. CMR can’t say enough about guys like him who just keep banging away without complaining, then when he got his chance he made a big play.
8:47 – SunTrust solid halftime adjustments. Scott asked about those halftime adjustments. CMR said defensively we got a good gauge on them after those first two drives. They’re the number one offense in the league and go at a fast pace. It’s hard to simulate that in practice. Stay in your gaps and do your job and it’ll work out in the end. We challenged the OL – and the offense in general – to just get after them so we could run the ball.
Scott Howard noted we have beaten the top two scoring offenses in the league – Arkansas and Auburn.
Cory from Tifton noted CMR had answered his question about Troupe getting more playing time. CMR said Troupe has gotten some time but not many balls thrown his way. That comes from playing behind AJ. Now we’ve seen he can make plays, Wooten can make plays and other guys. We scored 31 points all without one of the best players in the SEC.
Scott in Grayson was impressed as C. Washington came into his own vs. Auburn. Scott has also noticed the passion Rambo plays with for several games now. Hopefully this injury won’t dampen his spirit he plays the game with. Even with UK this week, how do you then adjust and get ready for Tech next week? CMR agrees Washington is coming into his own. Rambo played QB in high school and has great instincts, and understands offensive football better than most. CMR doubts that play will soften him up in any way. As far as prep – we do need to get ready for UK. It just so happens there is no school the entire Thanksgiving week this year, so we’ll have all the time we want. If we win this game, we’ll be 5-3 and assure second place in the east. Kentucky is probably the best special teams team in the SEC and also one of the most physical. And they have enough speed to beat you.
Don in Statesboro asked if CMR has considered leaving Ealey in the whole game. He said fans of Ealey in HS are used to seeing him carry it a lot of times each game. CMR said he probably could but isn’t sure a guy in the SEC should carry it 25-30 times per game. Ealey is still learning to run the ball in our system and is still working on his pass protection skills. If you want to change a game in a hurry, have a back miss a block on a blitz, the QB gets hit and fumbles and they scoop and score. Richt added that Caleb also played a strong game vs. Auburn.
Chris in Brunswick wondered why we have started slow so many games? Also, its senior day. CMR agreed we started slow but glad we got going. Also, Richt asked the fans to get there early to honor the senior players.