My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/bulldogs-blog/
and update your bookmarks.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

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.”

11 comments:

PTC DAWG said...

Just win...

And obviously, we need to get some WR's ready for next year, if AJ being out has been that big of a deal.

CSA said...

I'm going to watch GA State play in the dome Saturday afternoon just to support the upstart team.

Afterwards, I'll be gearing up to watch my Bulldogs play in Colorado, and I hate to say it but the only thing I'm really looking forward to seeing is #8 back on the field. I really hope he makes a difference, but what these kids need is a whole attitude makeover. They can win, they just need to WANT it MORE than their opponent. Some of that starts with coaching and firing these guys up before the game.

I've read a quote, forget exactly where and exactly what it said. But to paraphrase it said that Richt doesn't get involved with the team's pre-practice rituals. He said each player gets ready in their own way, and he doesn't bother them. Richt, I think it might be time to start getting these guys fired up. Show them some game footage of 2002 or 2005 SEC Champ games, hell any of your signature wins. Tennessee in 2001. Just please get these guys ready to play some ball!

Papa Jack said...

Check out my blog:

http://rebuildingthedawgs.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Here is the thing I don't get and bugs me with the excuses about TE's not being involved. Granted the safety hasn't had to worry about #8 on the outside and therefore play tighter on the TE. But for goodness sake, couldn't we find some creative ways with formations and play-calling ourselves to dictate the defense to open up the TE instead of the D dictating to us what we do all the time now? To me that is weak, plain and simple. This isn't the NFL and I'm not sending Bobo up for a punchline here, but I'm pretty sure teams like San Diego, Dallas, Indy and the Falcons find ways to get their TE's involved when the other team knows good and well they are going to get touches. That could be said for Bama and FL last year too. Hell our history has been "TE U" under Richt to do just that but you're telling me all of a sudden we don't know how to get them the ball outside of #8 dragging the safety away? I don't get it.

Anonymous said...

Anyone know if the game this weekend is going to be covered by any network or ESPN gameplan? Can't seem to find what channel it's going to be on. I'm still willing to pay to watch the dawgs...

Chris said...

Anon, last I heard it was coming on Fox Sports (Fox Sports Net, maybe?). Although I can't confirm because I don't get that channel myself.

Anonymous said...

Anyone find it discouraging that CMR said they stuggled bc they had guys they were not sure if they were gonna play or not....I don't know I'm just saying.....

Andy said...

FSN it is - same channel that aired last week's debacle.

TrboDawg said...

I, for one, would rally LIKE to see "us take our frustrations out on someone else" - namely Colorado

OZAM said...

Richt: "a possible reason for the success of opposing team’s opening drives: Mississippi State showed some formations that Georgia hadn’t seen on film"

Hmmm....sounds like a good idea. Maybe our offense could do the same??

BulldogBen said...

“The bottom line is things will get worse or things will get better,” Richt said.

I don't want to pile on but these comments just drive me crazy from Richt. McGarity needs to get him a PR person because he sucks at it.