The return of A.J.

Mark Richt summed things up pretty well on Tuesday, when asked what personnel changes he may be planning after Georgia’s 1-3 start.

“There’ll be nothing drastic,” Richt said. “I guess the most drastic personnel change would be A.J. getting in the game.”

Yes, the return of A.J. Green was the dominant topic at Richt’s weekly news conference. Green, the star junior, was listed as the starting flanker on Georgia’s depth chart, a sigh of relief to pretty much everyone.

Aaron Murray said he almost didn’t want to throw the ball to Green in practice the past three weeks because “it almost made me sad I wouldn’t be able to throw to him on Saturday.”

But now Green is back, and while no one came out and said it, the hope is clear that it could change everything.

Richt said he thinks they’ll see different coverages now that Green is on the field, and that could open things up for the tight ends. That position has been largely absent from involvement in Georgia’s offense.

“That is what happened in some of the games last year,” Richt said. “You saw Orson (Charles) or somebody run down the middle. A lot of times that’s because a safety is playing No. 8.”

Green will be available to the media later today, and I’ll post his comments. Here are a few other notes from Richt’s presser:

- Richt mentioned possible changes after the loss to Mississippi State. On Tuesday he said he didn’t expect a “major overhaul,” just a new starter or two.

- Asked about the cross-country scheduling, Richt said he agreed with the earlier strategy to try and go west. But with the cancellation of the Oregon series, Richt agrees with that too. The western trips in the middle of the season were too taxing, he said.

“As soon as we took that first trip to Arizona State, I said I don’t know if this was the best idea or not,” Richt said.

- A possible reason for the success of opposing team’s opening drives: Mississippi State showed some formations that Georgia hadn’t seen on film, according to Richt. MSU also played some guys that Georgia weren’t sure would play because of injury.

“There were a lot of common threads, but it wasn’t exactly the way we practiced it,” Richt said.

- Richt and his staff continue to try and keep the team’s morale up, with the mantra being to “stay unified.”

“The bottom line is things will get worse or things will get better,” Richt said. “We don’t want to take our frustrations out on someone else. We need to teach these young men how to handle adversity.”