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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Richt Wrap Up

Some news and notes from Mark Richt's Tuesday news conference:

-- Kade Weston should be good to go for Saturday. Richt said he would likely not practice fully today, but should be back at work tomorrow.

"I'm pretty confident by tomorrow he'll be able to get scout-team work. He's getting pretty close to (100 percent) but you just don't want to throw a guy out there like that," Richt said. "Tuesday's a pretty physical day, so if the first thing you do is throw him into that situation and have a setback, you feel like you wasted a lot of rehab. It's a precautionary thing. But if we played today, he'd probably play."

-- On the development of Demarcus Dobbs: "I knew Dobbs was on the way. Demarcus has always shown flashes of being an outstanding football player. It's about right for him. This is his redshirt sophomore year. It's about right for him to be comfortable and proven you deserve a lot of work and a lot of reps. It wasn't a shock to see him start to play and play very well."

-- Corvey Irvin didn't put up the same numbers in Week 2 as he did in Georgia's opener, but Richt said that was more a matter of the way the game unfolded than poor play by Irvin. "He was not as productive, but that doesn't mean he wasn't playing as hard," Richt said. "A guy can play hard, but the ball doesn't come his way or the style of play might be a little different. I don't think there was a whole lot of difference between his effort. It was still outstanding. It's just that the plays didn't present themselves as much as they did in the first game."

-- On A.J. Green trying to do too much upon his return home to South Carolina: "I hope he just plays his game and doesn't try to do more than he can do. Just be A.J. So if he reads the paper, I just want him to relax and be himself, because if he does his normal everyday practice, and he plays like he practices, he'll do fine."

By the way, talked to A.J. yesterday and he said he has tons of friends and family -- including his entire high school team -- coming to the game. He said someone else is in charge of handling ticket requests though, so it hasn't bothered him any.

-- Green got his first start against Central Michigan, but Richt said he wasn't sure if Green would be back in the starting lineup this week. "I'm not sure of that," Richt said. "I'm not sure with Kenneth Harris part of the reason he started was because Mohamed moved to the X where Kenneth was and that opened something up for him. Whether or not he starts, I'm not sure, but he'll definitely play a lot."

-- One of the big concerns to come from the Central Michigan game was Georgia's problems on goal-line and short-yardage situations. Apparently Richt had a few words with his assistants about combatting that. "Handing the ball to the fullback, I talked to the staff about that a little bit because I think we need that, and we didn't have it ready to go," Richt said. "As they studied goalline, short yardage, they didn't have it in the plan. I think you've got to have that fullback run play. You've got to have it every week."

As for how well Shaun Chapas has played: "Chapas has been stellar. Shaun will continue to play once Brannan gets back, good quality reps. He's earned it. He's played very well."

-- On whether Georgia has anyone this year who could develop as Marcus Howard did last season: "The guy was probably a 4.45 as a defensive end. He was undersized, but I think his body type actually helped him rush the passer because he's very, very fast, and he could get so low off the edge that offensive tackles, they need some surface area to block. They need to get their hands on something. When a guy's down low and actually able to turn his body in such a way that there's just not a lot to get a hold of. Now, could he stand up against the run, that's what we were worried about. But I remember the first day we ran inside drills and threw him out there in the spring, I was like, this kid is strong. His size and strength gave him good leverage even against the run. But right now is there someone looking like they're on the verge? I don't see that right this second."

-- I'd be willing to be Blair Walsh gets at least one more game as the kickoff guy before a change is made, but Richt didn't exactly endorse him. "We are still competing," Richt said. "It's not a done deal. Today, we'll get lots more competition, so it's not just etched in stone that Walsh is the kickoff man."

-- Two players return from suspension this week: Linebacker Darius Dewberry and fullback Fred Munzenmaier.

Dewberry's return is particularly fortuitous, Richt said. "As fate would have it, we didn't really see a lot of tight-end sets our first two games, so I don't know how much a Sam linebacker would have played the first two games. Coach Spurrier will certainly run some tight-end sets, some basic offensive sets, and that's Dewberry's strength is to play over tight ends. So he'll be ready to go, and there's some special teams work where he'll maybe not plug in as a starter, but he'll certainly get some reps."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love Richt.
Wish he would not say so much about what he plans to do at the goal line next time!

Anonymous said...

great stuff as always--I say this is the year we whup Spurrier and the Lamecocks by two TDs.