Friday Wrap Up (9/5)

Here's a bunch of comments from the Bulldogs that didn't make it into any stories or notebooks for me this week, but may be of some interest to you (particularly Richt's comments about the kicking game).

Also, don't forget I'll be live blogging during the game tomorrow. If you can't make it to Sanford Stadium, please try to check it out.

If you do head out to the stadium, have fun, be safe, and let me know where the party's at afterward.

Enjoy the game...

Tony Wilson on the production of the young wide receivers:
"It helps us a lot, keeps us fresh, and they're giving a great effort on each play, running or passing. The contribution of A.J. and T.K. is great for the older cats because we don't wear out. We've got backups that can come in and do what we can do or even more."

Wilson on how defenses game plan for Georgia's deep WR corps:
"It is very difficult. You never know who you're going to get. We've all got our different games. We all compliment each other in some sort of way. It's very exciting."

Mohamed Massaquoi on how his freshman year compares to A.J. Green's:
"They parallel a lot. He's a got that's flooded with talent, but he's learning. I really feel his best football is way ahead of him the more he learns and the more he gets a chance to play."

Massaquoi on what it's like making your first catch:
"It's one of those things, you're so excited, you're so wound up, there's so many emotions that it kind of calms you, settles you, brings you back to real football."

Head coach Mark Richt on the play of Cordy Glenn and Kiante Tripp:
"The guy who led the team in knockdowns was Cordy. Kiante had his share. He played with more energy, he played with a lot of energy. I thought he stepped it up game day instead of maybe being too nervous to do it. He played with a lot of energy, focus."

Richt on the wide receivers:
"He's very reliable. He's got the full confidence of the staff, as does Mohamed, as does Kenneth. And the guys that are on the way to that point are Michael Moore and Tony Wilson. I'll tell ya, Demiko played well. Demiko blocked his tail off, and that's been one of his big issues. He caught the ball well. He played with a high level of energy. I'm happy with what he did. They all got after it blocking. That was so good to see."

Richt on the development of the safeties:
"Andrew Williams we have a lot of confidence in his ability to know what to do, and physically, he did a nice job. John Knox is making great progress, but is still not to the point where you really know that he knows. He's at a point where we feel like we've got to get him in there so we don't wear out the two starting safeties. I told the coaches, don't wait until somebody is trying to get an IV for fluids to put someone else in there. Let's rotate them out of there before that happens."

Richt on what poor weather could do to the game Saturday:
"Usually a slick field is actually a benefit to the offense. The offense, they know where they're going. When they're ready to make a break, they can break down a little bit more, bend their knees a little bit more, be a little bit more careful when they get in and out of a break. Whereas a defender, not knowing what's going to happen, he has to react, not knowing what the offense is going to do. And that's usually when guys slip. Usually even if it's raining hard, I've seen great passing teams be able to take advantage of it. If a QB can handle a wet ball, you've got a chance. If a QB can't handle a wet ball, it'll hurt them. Wind really affects a passing game more than rain does. High winds, it's tough, real tough."

Richt on how the Dawgs can defend against Central Michigan's terrific return man Antonio Brown:
"If you're punting, you try to punt it away from him or you try to angle kick it out of bounds. The other one is just to kick it high, and Mimbs actually can do either. He's very proficient at kicking it high, and we also spent a couple of games last year kicking away from the return men we thought were extremely dangerous. On kickoff, it's hard to kick it away from a guy unless you just totally pooch it. If you try to angle kick it here or there, if he's a single safety and has got good range, he can get to the ball. You want to kick it high enough where you can cover him, and quite frankly, we haven't been really great at that yet. The kickoff concerns me a little bit more than the punt because I think we have a more veteran guy that can do what it takes to make it tough on a return man."

Richt on Blair Walsh's shortcomings in the kickoff game last Saturday:
"Some was by design and some was just not hitting the sweet spot a couple of times. He was given permission to try to knock it out like the first one, but had it also on a couple of other ones that he was just not able to do it. You've got to be sure that you get it out and there's two that he didn't and they got a pretty good return on them."

Richt on where Darryl Gamble fits in against the spread:
"There's not going to be much Sam linebacker going on. It's going to be the two middle linebackers for the most part just because they spread and there's really not much tight-end sets going on with them. Darryl (Gamble) will have to play the Mike, backing up at the Mike. He could play Will, too, but more than likely he's going to play the Mike backing up Dannell."

Richt on injury issues:
"Kade (Weston) is really on track and we think Kade will be ready to practice, maybe with some limitations, but be able to practice Monday. (Quintin) Banks, we're really thinking he's got a good shot at Alabama, and there's an outside chance that (Brannan) Southerland might could play the personal protector on the punt team at the Alabama game."

WR coach Mike Eason on importance of WRs blocking:
"One of the things that we stress is that you must block. When you have the kind of backs that we have, they're going to break tackles, they're going to make people miss, they're going to get in the secondary, so we can't afford to be passive in the secondary in terms of our blocking. We've got to lock it, and we've got to be physical, and that's what we're asking them to do."

CB Bryan Evans on the importance of making tackles against CMU:
"The first thing to do is to try not to miss tackles. Everybody's spread out, so if you miss one tackle, possibly it can go the distance for a touchdown. So you want to take care of your man and make open-field tackles."

OL Chris Davis on Tripp and Cordy Glenn's first performance:
"I think he did very well. The film showed he did some good things. For his first start, he did really good a lot better than my first start. But him and Cordy both came out and I thought they did very well for a true freshman."

Rodney Garner on DT DeAngelo Tyson:
"DeAngelo is included before some of the other ones. We made the decision we were going to play him regardless. I don't know if I would have put him in the game in the first quarter like I did, but we knew going into the game we were going to play him. I'm not going to say he's playing well. He has some ability, he made some plays Saturday. I think he showed some promise."

Matthew Stafford on the three keys to beating Central Michigan:
"We need to cut down on penalties. We had too many of those which is uncharacteristic for us. Try not to turn the ball over. I know we only had one, but you'd like it to be zero. And I think we need to be a little more efficient on third down."

Stafford on Georgia's big-play potential:
"I think we have the opportunity to make a bunch of big plays this year just with the personnel we've got, guys that can really go down the field and catch it, and obviously our backs are great players. So it's something we're trying to get better at, and it's definitely a good thing to have."

Stafford on Kris Durham:
"I think he played really well in bowl practice last year, and just kind of carried that over to this year. He got bigger, which helped him I think get off the jam and do things like that, but I think just another year in the offense, knowing what he's supposed to be doing."

Knowshon Moreno on how many carries he wants this game:
"I don't mind. If the other guys are doing a good job, we're moving the ball as an offense, I don't mind getting eight carries. If I get the same thing this game, it's alright."

Durham on his own progress:
"Hopefully I'm starting to turn a corner. It was a real blessing that the coaches had the confidence to put me in there, and just the time with Matthew over the offseason, things have come into place."

Durham on what having tall receivers like Green and himself does for the offense:
"It gives us an advantage for the deep threat, and that forces the corners to back off a little bit, which gives us a chance to throw some under routes. It definitely opens up the offense for underneath routes, screens, Knowshon. So we just want to continue to have big plays."