Home / Hotline Reports / Bulldog Hotline - Sept. 29, 2008
Bulldog Hotline - Sept. 29, 2008
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Scott opened tonite noting that 6 SEC teams are ranked this week, including Vandy, and that the Tennessee game Oct. 11 is now officially set for a 3:30 kickoff (CBS).
Richt is on the road tonite, speaking to the Savannah TD Club. Scott wonders if he has reviewed the game tape yet. Richt says he hasn’t looked at it as much. And he said the goal for yesterday was for coaches to get some time with their families and be ready to get back after it.
Richt was most encouraged that the OL wasn’t a case of the whole line getting whupped up on, but just one guy here and there missing an assignment. We’re close to playing the kind of game we want to. It’s hard to get the kind of consistency you want with so many young guys. Compare it to Alabama with juniors and seniors, including the top LT in the country.
Injuries – that could take awhile..
Stafford got dinged during the game. He was checked for a possible concussion but the tests came back good. He did not speak to the media after the game because he being tested right after the game.
Moreno hurt his elbow on a chip block. We believe he’ll be back for the Tenn. game but he won’t practice this week.
Chandler – sprained AC joint in shoulder, out for Tenn.
Figgins – season ending shoulder surgery
Ellerbe hurt his knee – hopeful for Tenn. game
Durham – out 3-4 weeks (ankle sprain)
On the (much needed) positive side:
Southerland will be back full swing
R. Battle will hopefully be ready to go
Q. Banks should be ready to go.
Of course we’ve already been missing Sturdivant and Owens
Scott likes the 3:30 kickoff; Richt was not aware that had been officially decided.
(Was that “Good Time” by Alan Jackson coming back out of break?)
Omar was the first caller tonite.. wants to be sure we bounce back from the Bama game. Richt said he hands it to the fans. Tremendous Dawg Walk and crowd noise, students showed up early like he asked, were the last ones to leave and were still chanting even near the end. Richt apologized that we didn’t play as well as the fans cheered.
Omar is concerned about how Bama’s OL & DL whipped us, and Tenn. will be hungry. Richt says you wish we could mature these freshmen overnight. We just ran into a veteran group of linemen and they took it to us. We held up OK vs. the run but they had time to throw. It’s also up to the offense to score to force Bama to take some chances. It works all the way around. Certainly the defense couldn’t get them 3 & out. This week we’re going to lift weights 3 days, get the guys rested and have a plan to get after them.
Clay in Guyton thinks the guys played hard, there were penalties and things that happened. Hitting their QB in the head may have been the turning point of the game. What do the coaches say to the players about penalties. Also, what about the grounding penalty Stafford got. Richt said on the grounding penalty the ball didn’t cross the line of scrimmage. As for penalties, Richt said he tried to get these things slowed down without getting it to the point where guys are afraid to play aggressively. We will just have to rev it up as far as discipline for that stuff. Richt said he’s been on championship teams that lead the league in penalties, and Florida and LSU did that too. You have to be careful not to take the life out of your bunch.
Steven in Ringgold is concerned about injuries. Why does it always seem to be shoulder injuries in practice. He was also pleased with the fans staying and the fans not quitting. Richt said we just got done with 11 wins in a row. Losing just crushes you and makes you sick. The fans were tremendous and it made a great impression on recruits and their families. There were comments about other visits where the home team lost and fans didn’t treat them so well. This game was nothing like the Tenn. game last year where we didn’t bring any fight. We fought like crazy in this game and scored 30 points in the second half.
Scott in Grayson thought the first half was a rough experience, but the second half was better and of course the crowd. What about kickoff and punt returns? As for punt returns, it has been musical chairs – Asher, Logan Gray, Prince Miller, Reshad Jones .. Prince has been practicing that thing lately. Richt told him “you’ve got my vote.” It was great to see him run that one back, especially with their guy draped all over him. Ramarcus is doing better as a kickoff returner and wrapping the ball up better. Richard Samuel is a prototypical guy to do that job, but sometimes you’re leery of putting a true frosh back there. We’ll certainly take a look at him more.
Eddie in Acworth knows we’ve all had this Tennessee date circled on the calendar since last year. What about “conventional wisdom” that UGA was distracted with the blackout and national championship talk? Richt – there was no “bigger picture” than Alabama, the #8 ranked team in the nation. What would we be looking ahead to? The only thing we can control is winning the SEC East. We play the type of schedule where we just need to keep winning. If we win the East, we play for the SEC championship. If we can win that, we might play for the whole thing.
One caller, Scott, was looking at stats and saw we were next to last in the SEC in pass defense. Richt said sometimes stats can be a little misleading. Ga. Southern is a spread team throwing, so is Central Mich., and South Carolina where Spurrier loves to throw the ball. We had the lead in those games so they were having to throw more. Plus we were leading the league in run defense. How do we play better pass defense? They need to do a better job of rerouting WRs instead of letting them go where they want, and get pressure on the QB. If the offense scores more, it puts more pressure on the opposing offense and make them take chances.
Casey in Athens is a big fan of the home run ball but thinks Stafford was trying to stick it in there against double coverage. Richt – you don’t go for the homerun ball every time. There was one time Stafford threw into double coverage. If he had been able to throw on time there would not have been double coverage but he had to escape pressure. We do throw some screens. In a game where the score isn’t so lopsided we do throw it short some.
Scott from Arcade – with Bama having outscored its opponents 64-0 in the first quarter, did it cross our minds to take the ball to start the game? Richt laughed and said after the game it did. We’ve always wanted to defer and play defense first.
Pete in Lawrenceville wonders what lessons we learned from Saturday night, and has some questions about Martinez. Pete thought more adjustments were made when VanGorder was defensive coordinator and is concerned with the “bend but don’t break” approach of Martinez. Richt said VanGorder and Martinez are of the same overriding philosophy and installed our defense together when we first got here. We certainly slowed Bama down in the second half and also put some points on the board. It helps when you put points on the board.
It will be interesting to see what Bama does the rest of the year. They may have their way with everybody. We still have 3 freshmen along with a soph and jr. We’re not that far off. If we keep battling and keep believing we can get right back into the race.
Shawn in Buford noticed Bama had 7-8 in the box to stop our run and make us pass. Why weren’t we able to get to them? Richt said their LT is the top rated tackle in the country as is their center. They just have a bunch of veteran men up front. We started slow a year ago and there was concern but we got better as the year went on. Watching the film, it wasn’t great at times but not as bad. It was usually one guy here and one guy there making a mistake that might flush the QB out or cause a back not to be able to make a cut. If you have 8 of 11 that don’t know what they’re doing there’s no hope but one guy here or there can be corrected.
James in Atlanta was impressed with Moreno sprinting back to the sidelines after he scored the TD. Richt said it brought energy to everyone. Then we ran that punt back and got everyone lit up. To Bama’s credit, they got a good drive going and put up a score. Plus, the new clock rules favor a team in the lead. You can grind 5-10 more seconds per play than you used to.
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