Richt discusses Muschamp, recruiting and the strength program

It almost felt like we had to re-introduce ourselves to Mark Richt, since we hadn’t had a press availability with the Georgia head coach since the day after the Georgia Tech game. So there were a lot of topics covered – recruiting, the change in the strength program, and the new Florida coach, among other things.

So without further ado, here are 10 things we learned from Wednesday’s press conference, which also included some players.

1. In the past week Georgia’s arch-rival got a new coach, so of course it was time for Richt to start the verbal war with Will Muschamp. OK, Mark, whaddaya got?

“I think he’ll do well, he’s a very good coach and a good person,” Richt said.

Ouch! I can't WAIT to see Muschamp's answer.

2. Seriously, here’s what Richt did see fit to mention that Muschamp – a former Bulldog player – probably hasn’t forgotten his roots.

“I think Will’s a very fine coach. I don’t know that he’ll admit it to anybody, but he’s still a Georgia man in a lot of ways,” Richt said.

3. Richt and his staff have been busy on the recruiting trail, in fact he barely made it to the press conference after getting off a plane. Per NCAA rules, he can’t comment on specific players, but he did appear to speak in general terms about the key uncommitted in-state recruits.

“I do think that this season, or this recruiting year in the state of Georgia, as we were mapping it out a year ago, because we were looking that far down the road, this class in particular we thought was gonna be extremely strong. And we still believe that,” Richt said.

“And not only strong in athleticism and ability, but very strong in character, from what I’m seeing. I really like the young men we’ve been dealing with as people too. It’s been really encouraging in that way, which is kind of nice.”

Some would take that last part as a statement on the off-field trouble the Bulldogs have faced this year. It wasn’t clear whether that was Richt’s purpose, but it was interesting nonetheless.

4. Richt said they sometimes get a quiet commitment from a player, who doesn’t announce it publicly.

“I’ve rarely had a guy commit or sign with Georgia without me knowing at least the night before,” Richt said. “There’ve been a couple like that lately, it just doesn’t happen often.”

5. Richt expounded a bit on his decision to replace Dave Van Halanger as strength coach with Joe Tereshinski II. Richt said it would be about “truly finishing the drill.”

“I think Dave Van Halanger is an outstanding strength coach. He’s as good as any out there. I think there’s different ways to skin a cat, different philosophies,” Richt said. “We’re not saying that coach Van wasn’t a good strength coach by any means. But I think there’s a different ways we could do things, and we could go a little bit more old-school, I guess.”

6. Richt said it didn’t surprise him that Georgia juniors – including offensive linemen Cordy Glenn and Trinton Sturdivant – would be exploring the draft. Every junior in the country was probably “curious” about their draft status, he feels.

“That’s just part of college football. I mean in basketball they get them for one year and then they’re off and running,” Richt said. “We’ve got a lot of quality linemen in our program. We’d certainly hate to lose guys that we know, know what the plays are, and have the experience of playing in the Southeastern Conference. So we certainly don’t want anybody to go. But we’ll just have to see what happens down the road.”

7. Statistically, Richt believes that Aaron Murray has had a better freshman season than David Greene or Matt Stafford. Given that Murray was the team’s big question mark entering 2010, Richt admitted he “never would’ve dreamed” they’d still be 6-6.

“If we’d have known he’d be as efficient as he was, and like you say, turnovers got in the right direction in a positive way, our penalty situation was much improved, to think that you would be 6-6, I would say no,” Richt said. “But when we did turn it over, there were some inopportune times, when it cost us.”

8. Linebacker Akeem Dent said he has agreed to play in the East-West Shrine Game, in Orlando on Jan. 22. The coaches for the East-West game are Dan Reeves and Wade Phillips.

9. Receiver Kris Durham said he will play in the Texas vs. the Nation game, in San Antonio on Feb. 5. Durham’s team, made up of national players, will be coached by Jerry Glanville.

10. Finally, junior tight end Aron White is one of the commencement speakers at graduation this week. White, who plans to attend graduate school while playing his senior year, aspires to be an athletics director some day.

White said part of his intention was to put out a positive impression of the football program, given all the bad publicity it received.

I’ll have more on White in tomorrow’s papers.

And I'll have more on the blog later too. No really!