LENGTHY Richt Q/A

And when I say lengthy, I mean go ahead and go to the bathroom ahead of time if you plan to read the whole thing. We're talking like 8,700 words here. Coach Richt was really phenomenal today, though, so I decided to transcribe the entire hour-long Q/A he did with Josh Kendall, Carter Strickland, Marc Weiszer, Dean Legge and myself (and a couple folks from other papers were in and out at points). He really seemed to be refreshed and in a good mood. Obviously he really enjoyed the experience of the Richt family's mission trip to Honduras last week, so we talked a lot about that. But there's a lot of other good stuff in here too. It was by far the best interview with him that I've been privy to in the year I've been doing this. The time actually went by pretty quickly and then I look down at my tape recorder and it's been running 58 minutes...anyway, enjoy:

He'd been talking for a minute when I walked up. They were getting into the trip to Honduras when I joined the group:

It was awesome. It was all that and more. I’ll talk an hour about the trip if you want to. Everybody had a job to do. We had like physical, manual labor in the mornings and then in the afternoon we had a soccer ministry where we went to challenge teams from around the area. Gosh, everywhere we went there’d be 50 to 100 people there watching and cheering and having fun on the side. The whole community came out. It would be like a Fourth of July picnic for the city. Then at the end, we drove out our car in the middle of the field and shared some drinks. All the players would sit right there, we’d hand out drinks and then we’d share the gospel. It was pretty awesome.

Do you have a future in the other football?
I don’t. I don’t. I tried to be the goalie and got scored on rapidly. And then I got fired. I had to take off my shirt, you know the shirt. Every town had their own little bag of jerseys, so whoever showed up, there was gonna be 11 soccer jerseys – for the blue team and we were the white team and we played the orange team. We beat the orange team by the way, that was the only team we beat. And there’d be an official with a whistle, but the field was like 20 percent grass, 70 percent dirt and 10 percent cowpies. You’d be in the middle of the game and there might be an ox dragging a big tree right across the field and you’d just have to wait until they were done. They had good steel goals, no nets, but it was pretty neat.

When was the last time you could go away and nobody knew who you were?
Probably since I got this job. Even in Costa Rica, we had a little trip where there were some Americans and you couldn’t get away from it. In Honduras, nobody knew, nobody cared. It was pretty refreshing.

Was that nice to be able to be (anonymous)?
Oh yeah, that was great. It was great until the part where I did have to share my testimony a little bit. You had to revise part of it because nobody knows who Jim Kelly is or John Elway or Dan Marino. Nobody knew who Bobby Bowden was. They just didn’t know and didn’t care, so we had to just make it a little more bland I guess. But they got a kick out of, like the part where I talked about where I got sat on the bench. They understood what that was like. They understood about wanting to be great at a sport and all that, and being disappointed, and understanding what it was all about. But it was a blast.

Costa Rica was earlier this year?
Yes. Yeah, our coaching staff went there during spring break.

Had you kinda forgotten in a way what it’s like to walk around and be anonymous. Is that something that goes away?
Yeah, it was nice. If I’m across the country or if I’m out of the South, you can be relatively anonymous. Although usually somebody has got Georgia ties. If you’re in the states, sooner or later somebody’s gonna come up and say something. Which is fine. I’m not saying I don’t like it, but gosh in the state of Georgia, you know, people will look and go, ‘Oh that’s Coach,’ and that’s fine. But being there and no one really knowing or caring…it didn’t matter what you wore, it just mattered that you were there and that you were helping.

Do you see yourself doing that again in the future and after your coaching career?
Well probably. I’m gonna be doing something, some kind of mission. I don’t know if I’ll be out of the country or not. But I’ll try to do something like that. I’ve got a feeling we’ll go back as a family. I was thinking this is Jon’s last summer to do this. Even at Georgia, we’ve got a May semester (?) that’s probably about three weeks long. There’s probably gonna be some time where he is not at Clemson in the summer. I asked him if he’d like to do it again and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do this again.’ Everybody wants to go back, so we’ll probably go back.

Is it hard to step back into this after being there for a week?
Ummm. I think anytime you get any kind of vacation or mountaintop experience, when you go to Black Mountain, S.C., and you go to a coaches camp or something, you are escaping from the world in a certain way, and your responsibilities. Then when you come back, it’s like with anybody. If you go on vacation and you go back to work, it’s like, ‘Aw geez. I’ve got to do this.’ You see that big stack of mail that you left… I feel refreshed, though, and I feel excited about the season. I feel excited about the season for a lot of reasons. I’m really in a new role now. I’m not being so tied up with the gameplan and the game playcalling. And I’ve already noticed that I’m gonna have a different perspective. I’ve noticed that I’m gonna be able to be more intentional in the lives of our players. I’m gonna have more time to even help our coaches coach – not so much to tell them how to coach, but make things easier for them to do their job, and try to encourage everybody around us. It’s kind of like starting over in a certain way for me, too, and that’s kind of exciting. I was running so hard for so long, I was realizing I was not gonna be able to sustain this thing at the rate I was going.

Is there less pressure, so to speak?
Well there is less pressure, I guess. Anytime you’re calling the plays and you’re planning the season and you’re planning personnel and you’re making all those decisions – and again, I’m gonna be involved in all that, but it’s not gonna be to the same extent. The buck’s still gonna stop with me and I know that. It frees me to just to do other things and to also…I’ve got a feeling I’m gonna be able to be a bit more creative. I think I’ll be able to help Mike throughout the week and maybe say, ‘Hey, this thing here might be really good,’ instead of trying to get all the nuts and bolts – the run game, you’ve gotta get the blocking schemes, which runs are we gonna do against which fronts, how are we gonna protect this week, what are our hots, what are our sight adjustments. I can let them handle the nuts and bolts and just look at film. Usually I’m doing all the nuts and bolts till about Wednesday and then I’ll go back and look at the tape and just look for something that might be that easy touchdown, not necessarily that gadget, but just something they may be vulnerable to. I’ll be able to, earlier in the week, be able to look at it more creatively than to sit there and make sure you’ve got all the bases covered in all areas. That’s gonna help.

As you make that transition, do you feel like I should have done this a couple years ago? Do you feel like this is the right time?
Uh, no, not necessarily. I think I should have done it last year.

When you first started thinking about it.
Yeah. Well, I’d been thinking about it since Year 2. We had won 13 games and I think we led the league in offense. I knew that sooner or later, it was gonna wear me to a nub and I think it was never ideal. When all I did was think about the X’s and O’s and the strategy of the game, I had enough time to do that. But when I was trying to do that and everything else a head coach has to do, I was having to slowly delegate. I was little by little delegating the responsibility of the job. In the beginning, I was quarterbacks coach, I was at every QB meeting, I was at every staff meeting, I did every offensive staff meeting night and day, I was at every offensive meeting. And then I was still trying to be head coach. I was doing all of it. And then, you know, Mike began to take over the QB thing, but then in the second year he had to coach running backs for a little bit and I took over QBs again. But then by Year 3, I was still in the QB room, but Mike was now installing and I was observing, where before I was installing and he was observing. Then the next year, I was out of the meeting, really, and I began to give Mike some playcalling responsibilities. Then in the last maybe two or three springs, I just gave the entire offense to the staff to do. I wanted to see how they would react to it and all. I was gaining confidence as time went on and I was also coming to grips that I wasn’t gonna be doing it anymore. I’d say I pretty much knew a year ago that it was time to do it and then I basically talked myself out of it. For me, I began to look at it a lot more and I’m thinking, ‘OK, I think it’s the right thing to do. I trust that these guys can do it. But what if it doesn’t work out? I might put everybody at risk.’ Also, it was hard to say I’m gonna stop doing it because I’d been doing it for so long and I’d enjoyed it for so long. You know, we did just win the SEC again in 2005 and gosh, we had won 53 games in five years. A change is maybe not gonna be in your best interest. But even when the season began, I was thinking I probably should have done it. Then when things were going bad, I was not gonna turn it over when everything’s going crummy. That wasn’t fair to Mike and to the staff. But then after the Auburn game, after we won that game, I knew that the pressure had subsided some and it was a good time to do it.

The fact that the quarterback position was in flux at the beginning of last season, did that affect it?
That was part of it too. Going into the year, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m gonna turn this thing over. We have no idea who’s gonna play quarterback. It could end up being a real young guy, so is that the first experience I’m gonna give my playcaller?’ He wasn’t gonna be the coordinator, he was gonna be the playcaller. I think your coordinators and your young coaches are a lot like young quarterbacks. You want to show you have faith in them, but you want to kinda take some pressure off of them as they begin that role and know that they’re gonna make mistakes and you’re gonna have to live with some of those things. But now, after doing it and letting go, from an emotional standpoint, I began to get really excited.

Emotional about it?
Oh yeah.

Because it’s your baby, I guess…
Well, when you do something that you love – at least for 15 years or somewhere in that neighborhood, it’s hard to just go cold turkey on it. I understand better how coach Bowden felt because he’d been a playcaller for 25 years when he turned it over. It’s not easy to do, but I think it’s in the best interest of our team, I think it’s in the best interest of my health and well-being, and I think it’s gonna be a blessing to the program.

Did coach Bowden give you any advice about making this transition?
[Laughs]. I don’t know if he’s totally made the transition yet. When I get peace about a decision, then I don’t need to really talk to anybody else. I’ve got that peace now.

When you turned it over to Bobo after the Auburn game, you talked about how difficult it is to do from the field.
Oh yeah. There were some disadvantages.

Logistically, have you noticed it being a little easier for him in the two games since then?
Yeah, being in the box, as I learned in a hurry – I was a visual learner. It didn’t matter what I was listening to. If I was on the sideline, my vantage point was so different than being in the box. Even though Mike was up there and he was giving me basically a rundown of everything that was happening pre- and post-snap, it still lost something in the translation. Because whenever I’d go back and look at the film the next day, there’d be some things where I’d be like, ‘I’d never have let that happen if I was upstairs.’ It’s kind of hard to explain, but when I was upstairs, I knew what to do. I even thought about going upstairs as the head coach, but it’s hard to go upstairs as a head coach. I didn’t think that was a wise thing to do. It just took a little time. I just felt like Mike was on the way. I think if I’d have done it too soon, it might have been too much.

Do you think….
I got into a mode. I had to get into a playcalling mode. Even gameday, if you’re at home, you’re gonna have 10 recruits running through your office, you’re gonna have some things that you just flat-out, that you just have to do that can become a distraction to you. So I would just have to be so prepared beforehand that once I got done with that recruiting part, I could get back into that train of thought. Just get me some time on my own to do that.

Has this new role helped you in recruiting? I know you have 16 recruits.
Well yeah, and I really felt like I could be a better recruiter. In-season it’s gonna actually…help, but even in the offseason it’s helped me. I can concentrate more, I can study it more. I’m not juggling another thing, I’m juggling less so now I can really study these players better. I can get to know them better, I can be much more involved in their recruitment. I’ve kind of relied on each coach to do a great job of gaining that relationship with these guys and they’ve done a great job. I’ve said it before, in the end I just try not to mess it up. My biggest role in recruiting in the past I think was to try to run a program in such a way that it would be attractive to players and their parents, and that our coaches would sell that. Now, I’m more of a day-to-day salesman than I was before, I would say.

Do you have more concerns about your defense now than you normally do this time of year?
Not really. I don’t. I don’t. Things go in cycles and I’m so used to the defense being dominant in the spring. They started out that way, but the last couple scrimmages, the offense did well. If you’d have seen the first scrimmage, you’d have seen the defense just stone the offense. I think in some ways it’s healthy that both sides of the ball had success and both sides of the ball had some defeats too and didn’t think that, ‘Hey, we’ve arrived.’ So I think there’s a heightened awareness of how hard we’ve got to work. But I think part of the reason why we struggled a bit is…take Brandon Miller, he’s a very, very talented guy and I think he’s gonna play great at mike. But when you’re playing over a tight end your whole career and you’ve either got a ball coming at you or you’re chasing, pursuing, that’s different than being in the middle and having to be the hitman in both directions and knowing exactly where to fit in that line of scrimmage in these blocking schemes, the twists and stunts and all that. So he was not playing full speed because he wasn’t certain of exactly how he was gonna fit. But the more reps he gets, the better he’s gonna fit. After 29 more practices plus spring, I’m sure he’ll be able to play full speed. It’s not just him, it’s other guys having to go through that same thing. I think we’ll do well.

Do you feel like you have enough answers at cornerback? Is Reshad Jones gonna get a rep there?
Reshad is a possibility because he’s athlete enough to do it and he is a bigger body than most of our other corners. It takes a while to get good at that. But in some ways, assignment-wise, if you say, ‘Hey, you cover him,’ that’s not a lot to learn. The question is, do you have the ability and the technique to get it done? There may be a time, there may be a matchup where we need to do that. There may be, gosh, you could play a ton of four-receiver sets and you’re looking for more cover guys. If your safeties are good enough to cover an inside receiver, then you don’t have to get into nickel packages and things of that nature. He’s definitely gonna be covering some people man-to-man – whether it be a true corner or a slot, I don’t know.

Do you think it was tough for Brandon to get used to all the expectations he had to deal with when he got to Georgia?
Miller? I think so. No matter how good a player is, he gets overhyped. No one’s that good. Stafford is one of the best high school quarterbacks I’ve ever seen and he still wasn’t able and ready to play like a veteran, because he wasn’t. It’s a huge transition, high school to college, and no one’s gonna meet the expectations that people have if they’re quote-unquote rated No. 1 at their position. It’s just, very few guys, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a guy just play like a veteran right away.

Throughout your coaching career, you’ve had some dominant place-kickers and some guys who weren’t quite at that level. How much easier does it make your life to have a dominant place-kicker?
It gives you some peace that you’ve got a guy that can make any kick. The expectation is that he will make the kick. Even if it’s 55 yards, we’re sitting there believing he’s gonna make it. If it’s set behind, if we even got to 62 yards, we’d sit there and say, ‘You know what, this guy’s got a chance to make it.’ And of course, all the kicks in between you almost take for granted with a guy like Brandon.

Did not having him change the plavcalling when you got across the 50. Does it change at all?
A little bit, yes. The longer range shots, we were into our four-down territory a little sooner. You’d say before the game even started, ‘If we’re in this range, just consider it a four-down zone when you’re calling the game,’ if it was either myself or Mike.

So does he alleviate a lot of the pressure off the offense and you guys?
In some ways he adds pressure because if you’re sitting at a 52-yard attempt and it’s fourth-and-1 and a half, now it’s not a no-brainer anymore. You say, ‘Well we could go for it, but gosh the kid could probably make it.’ More than likely I’d kick it, where when he wasn’t there, it was like, ‘We know for sure we’re going for it.’ We didn’t have to sit there at that moment and wonder what should we do?

On preseason camps. Craziest preseason.
I think it was the first…no it was 2002. I can’t remember how many guys wanted to quit during camp. Pollack was one of them, but I can’t remember all of them. Kenny Veal walked off the field one time. He got suspended for the first game for walking off the field and then coming back. We just had guys that just…a lot of freshmen, which is typical, and a lot of guys that said, ‘You know what? This isn’t worth it, I don’t want to be here anymore. I don’t know if any of them did quit for the long haul, but we had about five or six that were just, they were ready to sack their bats, and even the (????) were wondering if it was worth it. I spent a lot of time convincing guys. Like Pollack, he was in there in my office crying. He was literally crying in my office saying, ‘I’m not good enough to play at Georgia.’ He’s like, ‘I can’t do anything right for coach Garner.’ He played D-line then. He said, ‘I just don’t think I’m good enough, coach.’ He said, ‘I’ve got to go play somewhere else.’ And I was like, ‘Naw, I think you can make it.’ There was another guy that turned out to be a great player, oh Gerald Anderson, he was ready to quit…Darrell Holmes, he must’ve quit six times that year. He quit and didn’t’ tell anybody. It was probably the last time he quit, I gave him the last rites so to speak. I knew he was leaving and I gave him the life lesson talk and the ‘I know you’re leaving’ kind of thing and I showed up to the team meeting that night and I’m getting ready to tell the team that he quit, you know? I start talking about him and everybody’s looking at me funny and I look up and he’s sitting up in his spot in the team meeting room, where just a couple hours before…Maybe he got a good meal or got rehydrated or something and felt good again.

Is there a guy you steer clear of during fall camp? Is there a coach that’s more irritable then than at other times of the year? (Someone suggests Rodney Garner)
Rodney, you know, he’s not that guy, but talking about Rodney, the players – especially his position players – are like, ‘It ain’t quite like it was when we were being recruited here.’ But Rodney, he gives them tough love. He gives them what they want, and what these guys want – and all our coaches do it – they want to be great. They want to graduate, they want to have a great career. Well guess what guys, it takes work. It takes working beyond your comfort zone and we’re gonna push you into and beyond your comfort zone whether you like it or not. And they don’t understand that right away, until they get a little older and they appreciate it.

Has the discipline been determined yet for Chandler and Barnes?
Not yet. I won’t deviate from our policy, but there’s time before I have to say anything publicly. I just want to think about it.

When you say 1.2, does that mean they have to miss the second game or is that your discretion?
No, it’s my discretion.

On the tight end subject, where do you feel Ward stands going into this thing. He really hasn’t had contact.
NaDerris? It’s gonna be very interesting to see how he will handle the physical nature of college football. I don’t know what he’s gonna do. He’s really not, I don’t think he’s had any contact yet other than getting knocked around a little bit in pass skeleton.

So you don’t know if the shoulder…
Oh I think the shoulder’s gonna be fine. It’s just is he gonna stick his nose in there and get after somebody?

Does the situation with Tripp make it more likely that Bruce Figgins will play? Or is it too early? Or will it have any effect at all?
I don’t want it to have an effect on his career. My goal would be for it not to affect his career. If he plays early, it won’t be because of Tripp. We’ve had that happen before. We’ve had guys with a one- or two-game suspension and we’d be like, ‘Should we play so-and-so?’ and ‘Coach, we’ve got to,’ and I’d say, ‘Look, I’m not gonna play this guy if it’s a two-game situation.’ Now if a veteran got hurt and he’s out for the year, that’s different. If it’s a one-game situation or a two-game situation, I’m not gonna redshirt or not redshirt a guy because of that.

You guys are pretty steadfast about leaving Aron White at receiver, right?
No, we’ve never been steadfast about that. The thing that I’ve said from the very beginning is that the day he committed, he weighed 212 pounds. I told him, I said, ‘If you weigh 212 when you get here, I don’t see you playing tight end. I don’t think that body type can hold up.’ I said, ‘Now if your body grows big enough to play tight end, then you’ll play tight end.’ I said, ‘But what we’re not gonna do is force-feed you to make you get big enough to play tight end or try to starve you to make you stay at receiver.’ I said, ‘We’re gonna let your body take its natural course and whatever you grow into is what you’ll be.’ I said, ‘But you are talented enough, in my opinion, if you don’t grow to be a legitimate big receiver.’ That’s what I’ve said to him from the beginning.

How big is he now?
He’s probably in the mid-220s. And if he stays there or gets a little bigger, he may role right into the tight end decision, I’m not sure.

Is it stunning to you the way ACLs are dealt with these days? Not stunning, but with Thomas’ return…
Because it’s Thomas, I’m not that surprised. He understands that a lot of it is between the ears. You’ve got to work and rehab and get ready, but then once your body gets to a point where you’re probably ready to play physically, it takes a little time mentally to feel comfortable. He’s so mentally tough and determined, I’d be surprised, and they say he’s already changing direction like nobody’s business. That’s the one thing they get a little nervous about, and right now he’s already doing it. I don’t think the contact scares guys as much as the sudden change of direction.

Do y’all know when you were recruiting him that he was that way?
Well, when he was a true freshman, Reggie Brown won the quote-unquote pound-for-pound strongest guy, or whatever that award’s called. We have power indexes that measure their strength, but also their leaping ability. And Thomas Brown as a true freshman would have won the award if coach Van Halanger allowed a true freshman to win the award. The reason we really couldn’t really let the freshmen get involved before was some couldn’t be there to test, some could, and we just didn’t think it was fair. We just said, ‘We’ll wait a year and let him get involved.’ But you knew he was special.

Could Rennie push Thomas?
Oh yeah, I would think Rennie’s gonna be one of those guys, pound-for-pound. I don’t really know how fast he runs and how high he can leap and how far he can leap. If he can leap pretty good, his strength will definitely be very, very formidable in the race.

Have you heard any reports, are you guys injury-free in terms of summer workouts and things like that?
Yeah, Dent had that one thing happen, which I think was after the spring. He’ll be fine. He’s not ready yet. Demiko’s really looking good from what I hear. He feels good. I don’t know, who’s coming off…I think NaDerris feels like he can go full-speed, no limitations. Marcus Washington is maybe the one I’m not 100 percent sure will be full speed by camp. Gartrell, I think, feels very, very comfortable and confident.

What about Coates?
Coates feels great. Gosh it would feel so good to see Coates play.

He’s had it tough out there hasn’t he?
But what an awesome attitude. He’s definitely disappointed, but what an awesome attitude. Gosh, he’s a pretty thing. He’s really a beautiful body guy.

But at some point you start feeling like Job, don’t you?
You know what, when I was at Florida State, we had a guy named Corey Simon. You’ve probably heard of Corey Simon. His first two seasons, he was hurt. He just could not make it through a season. And his junior year, he was second- or third-string nose guard or whatever he was. At the end of the year, he was a first-team all-American. I’m not saying that’s gonna happen to Coates, but it just happens that way sometimes. All of a sudden, you’re healthy and you start playing good. Coates, gosh he’s that body type, you’re not sure – we didn’t get a chance to see is he a safety or is he an outside linebacker.

Do you think the mobility issues that the knee problems would cause might make it more likely that he’d be a linebacker?
Not really because that injury usually heals back to where not many guys lose their agility and mobility. They may lose it because of being inactive to a certain degree or maybe because they got bigger and don’t carry the weight as good. But most guys come back just as athletic as they left.

As far as you know, is Israel Troupe even talking with the Rockies or is that done with?
My impression is he’s full-speed-ahead Georgia and not really considering it. But I’m not 100 percent sure. He may still have something inside there (?). There may be an advisor who’s allowed to do whatever they do. I’m not saying that’s not happening, but at this point I’d be surprised if he’s not with us for the next three years anyway.

Have you guys had a guy that played baseball as well as for you at Georgia?
At Georgia, no. This will be a first.

What kind of obstacles does that bring?
I don’t know yet. We’ll find out. In the spring, he’ll be able to gauge exactly what he wants to do, and also coach Perno’s gonna have a lot to say about it. But he’ll be free to do anything baseball, anything they want him to do once football season’s over. If everybody’s willing to let him sneak a little spring ball, I’ll be happy to let him do that. If they don’t want him to play, I’ll be fine with that. Whatever he wants to do. Whatever baseball wants to do.

On difficulty of opener against Oklahoma State.
I don’t know, you’d think they’d be a little more excited about the game. I’ve always said, though, I believe everybody is excited for the first game. I don’t really know if it matters who you play. Since I’ve been at Georgia, I don’t know that we’ve had an opening game where we weren’t jacked up and ready to play. So I hope that trend continues. It should continue.

You like night games?
I like night games quite frankly, once they get there.

Sitting down all day…
Yeah, that’s kind of a pain, to wait. But I do enjoy the atmosphere of a night game.

How much are you guys looking forward to playing in Tuscaloosa?
Um, I haven’t thought much about it. Coutu was mentioning that on the way in. I don’t think much about those things, but the players look at where they’re gonna travel to and get excited about going to a stadium they haven’t been to before.

You were talking about fall 2002, how much of that do you think was that you hadn’t won anything yet? You mentioned when y’all first came in there with mat drills and some of that stuff, it was like, ‘Are these guys crazy?’ …
That was part of it. They were certainly wondering if all the hard work was worth it, because we went 8-4 the first year. If it wasn’t for beating Tennessee at Tennessee, they might’ve said, ‘What’s the difference?’ you know? That’s why that victory was so important to us. But I think a lot of them were still wondering, ‘Is this really all worth it?’

What do y’all do during July?
Right now it’s mostly vacation time for staff. There’ll always be somebody that has office duty, but coaches just take time at different times throughout the summer. But if they’re in town, they’re working on little projects, whether it’s scouting reports or honing down the offense or defensive scheme or the kicking game or studying opponents. They’re doing things like that. Recruiting, still, is all year round. But it’s real casual. There’s no staff meetings. The next staff meeting I’ll have is at our hideaway, which is what, mid to late July. It’s a good time of year.

Did you throw out the first pitch the other day?
Yeah I did.

How many warmup tosses did you take?
I threw a bunch of warm-ups. What I did, there was an indoor spot with a net and a bucket of balls and I just grabbed balls and I just threw it into the net…which was good because my arm was kind of lathered up. But I really had no, I didn’t have a gauge of how far…what is it 60 feet? It was funny, I ran into the assistant general manager or whoever it was and he said, ‘The whole key is don’t go on the mound. Don’t go up on the mound because no matter how much you warm up, if you just throw your first one off the mound, it’s gonna go in the dirt. He said, ‘We sit there and study it and as soon as they step on the mound, it’s like, ‘they’re gonna throw it in the dirt.’’ He told me that and I’m like, ‘OK, thanks for the hint,’ and I said, ‘People won’t hoot me for that?’ and he said, ‘No, they’ll hoot you if you throw it in the ground. So I said OK and I got my gameplan and I get ready to go and there’s this young lady who’s in charge of cueing you and giving you the ball and saying it’s time to go. She’s there and she says, ‘You are gonna go on the mound, aren’t you?’ And I said, ‘Well, no I wasn’t gonna,’ and she said, ‘Come on, you’re the head coach at Georgia, you’ve gotta throw off the mound. You’ve gotta get up on the rubber, you know?’ And I go, ‘Are you serious?’ And she says, ‘They’re gonna hoot you if you don’t do that.’ So I’m going, ‘Oh geez.’ And the coach next to me, he’s like, ‘Don’t let them intimidate you,’ but I said, ‘Man I’ve gotta get on the rubber.’ So I got up on the rubber and threw it. It was over the plate for the first time. It didn’t go in the dirt. And it would’ve been a strike if the batter was about 9 feet tall. But it had a little zip on it.

When was that?
Just the other day. It was Monday. And I go up to where I was gonna sit and the fans were like, ‘Coach, that was a ball. That was outside. We were standing right behind you.’ They were critiquing me. ‘Stick to football.’ I felt kinda good about the throw.

How much baseball did you play?
I love baseball. Baseball was my love until about the 10^th grade and football took over.

Did you play until your senior year?
Nah, I gave up baseball after my sophomore year, but then my senior year, after I’d gotten my scholarship and all, I didn’t pitch anymore because I was worried about hurting my elbow, but I caught for the first time, which was a lot of fun. Catching was a lot of fun.

Back to Honduras, what kind of memories do you take away from the trip?
Well, the beauty of the place. It’s a very beautiful place. I said it on the Web site one time that you would have a house that would literally maybe cost $50 American to build. And even less than that because you’d probably find the wood on the side of the road, you know? And it’d be sitting perched up above a valley that has a couple-million-dollar view. If some kinda developer could see that scene and put (????) it would very, very coveted. It’s a very beautiful place. The people were just awesome. Despite their hardships, they were pleasant, they were friendly. They leaned on each other. They had a sense of community and neighborhood. I’m as bad as anybody, I don’t know all my neighbors very well at all. But everybody knows everybody, everybody needs everybody, everybody helps everybody. It was refreshing in a lot of ways.

Todd was saying was one of the things he wanted was for you to interact with some of the young men and show them what it was like to be a family man. How do you go about that?
Yeah, well just being there with my boys, playing soccer. The last couple days, the ladies came, and I don’t know, just being with them, just being visible with them. It was an interesting trip. We bought a wood carving of a village – the typical Honduran village – and we’re gonna put it right in our combination kitchen-living area, in a prominent spot to help remind us of the place. But we’re gonna go back.

Did you feel like you got to do everything you wanted to do or was it tough to walk away from there?
I wonder how much of an impact I really had. I was very awkward giving my testimony because I knew that they didn’t know who I was and they couldn’t relate to some of the stories that I knew people in America could relate to. So I felt pretty inadequate. But I think the best thing that came out of our trip was that they started that soccer ministry. Todd, he had never done that before, and when the groups normally come, the teams that come, usually they’re not families. They’re not 10-, 11-, 12-, 17-year-old and mom and dad. So as we were coming, he said, ‘Now how can I get the whole family involved?’ … and we said, ‘Well maybe we’ll play soccer. I know they like soccer.’ Well, when we left, he had guys coming to him saying, ‘When are you guys coming back? Will you do this again?’ Normally when Todd would preach at these churches, these communities, he’d be in there preaching and he said the women would be in the front, a few guys in the back – and they’d be talking – and most of the guys were outside the church just kinda hanging around, maybe listening a little bit. But afterwards, they enjoyed that so much, and he said, ‘We’d sit there and we would talk to 30, 40, 50 men and they’d be riveted on what was being said.’ He said, ‘That has never happened in the last two years.’ And so when we were leaving, one guy was saying, ‘Look, if you guys keep coming back and doing this, we promise to be in church, with our Bibles and we’ll be quiet and pay attention if you please just come back….’ He’s like, ‘I just can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.’ So I think there’s no question soccer’s gonna be used as a way to (reach) people.

Were these people from around the villages or just from the town?
Just from that…it was more of a village than a town. (Some place I couldn’t understand) but we were up in the mountains mostly, little villages where that mission had planted some churches. There’s like two or three churches they’d planted over the years.

And you were traveling to those villages.
We’d go to those villages and Todd would know the pastors at those churches and he’d call and say, ‘Hey, get a team together and we’ll meet you at 4 o’clock at the soccer field.’ So we’d show up with our guys and then they’d show up with their guys. It was funny, the first time I’m playing goalie, right, and I’ve got my goalie shirt on. Everybody had their jerseys, you know? And there’s a bunch of guys around kicking the ball and heading it and kneeing it and the ball never hit the ball with these guys, you know? And then they’d kick it at the goal and I’d be trying to stop it and I’d flip it back out and they’d do it some more. I’m feeling pretty good and getting some confidence, you know? What I didn’t realize is that the real players were on the other side of the field warming up. These were just the kids and the non-studs they had. And then the game started and I was like, ‘These guys are like the national team of Honduras. They’re kicking my butt.’

Some question about vacation. Couldn’t hear.
That was really vacation. My kids are at a camp. I’m home the rest of the way. There may be a day or two that we may go to the lake or something.

Something on whether he’d ever played soccer.
I played a little soccer. It was probably like third grade or something. It was back when you’d take a Reader’s Digest and you’d put it in your sock as a shin guard, you know, when your parents weren’t sure they wanted to…I don’t know if they even had shinguards back then, in the 60s…You know what would be fun though? If you took our team or 20 of them and you went to Honduras and you and our guys played soccer against their guys. Two things would happen. One, we’d probably get the (couldn’t hear…crap?) beat out of us and our guys I’m sure would be going, ‘Man, this makes me so mad. These guys are just running circles around us.’ And the other thing is those guys would be looking at our guys, saying they’re just big and muscular and fast. Like my son Jon, he started playing goalie when they fired me and no one could throw a ball.

Who fired you?
I fired myself. After one, Jon tried to fire me and I said, ‘Hey I’m just getting warmed up.’ And then after a minute or two, they got another one and I just pulled off my shirt and gave it to him. But Jon, first he was punting the ball out, but a goalie’s allowed to throw it out with one hand. Otherwise, he’s got to do it with two (over his head). Well he can throw it 50, 60 yards on target and the one guy was telling Todd, ‘Tell that guy to throw it.’ So we’d go to these towns and he’d be ripping them long and you’d hear them just chattering, like, ‘Oh my gosh, that gringo can throw.’

Now will you talk to the players about this experience?
I already have. We were doing Camp Sunshine yesterday and I was talking to them about it and then on our ride up here. And then last night, I had a bunch of guys at the house and we were talking about it.

So they’re inquisitive about it.
Yeah. I think, it may be May ‘mester, I may try to get some guys to go.

Would the NCAA let you take guys down there?
I think if they went, if the FCA supported it or a local church said we’ll sponsor these guys. Anybody can go on a mission trip if they want to. A lot of people raise funds. Some churches raise … I’d have to find out the compliance issue on that. I’d be sad to think it would not be allowed.

But it does intrigue you to possibly have guys go down there.
I’d love to have them. There’s 28 bunks for the guys. And if no girls came, there’s another 28 on the other side. But there’s 28 bunks and I’d love to fill those bunks with those guys and let them see it.

You weren’t staying in the bunks were you?
No, Todd worked it out where normally the doctors stay. There was really no doctors on call that week, no missionary doctors there. That was nice. And I was asking. I just didn’t want the boys here, the girls here and me and mom over here. I wanted to try to have everyone in the same place.

Any idea how much that wood carving cost?
American dollars, it was probably, I think I was told somewhere between 40 and 60 dollars. We would barter because they expect it. We bartered ‘em down and then he got to the point where he had to call his owner and saying, ‘Could I do it?’ And finally, every time we’d say, ‘We’ll pay as much.’ And then one time, when I bought the hammock for Jon, the guy wanted 900 (COLLONNIES?) or whatever they’re called. That was at like 800 and I was trying to go 750. I was like ‘750’ and he goes ‘800’ and then I said, ‘How ‘bout 900?’ and he was like [makes confused face]. And he goes, ‘800’ and I said, ‘What about 900?’ He thought I was kidding and he said, ‘800,’ and I said, ‘How ‘bout 950?’ And finally he goes, ‘OK’ and I gave him 950, so I gave him 50 more than he asked for. So that was fun.

To change the subject a little bit, you talked pretty frequently in the fall about how much you hated the new clock rule. How relieved were you when they decided to go back?
I was glad. The thing I hated about it was you’re taking eight to 12 plays away and up to 15 plays sometimes. Why would you want to do that?

On the list of boneheaded changes that they’ve made, where did that rank to you?
I just…I think we’ve got a great game, I think people love it. Maybe the television people wanted it to be short, within a certain timeframe, but I don’t think the fans were complaining. The coaches weren’t complaining, the players want to play. It’s not the NFL where you’ve only got so many guys on a roster. You’ve got 120 guys on your roster. You want to try to play as many guys as you can play.

The thing about it was, it really kinda took the eventfulness out of the end of a game.
It really did. It shortened it, or at least it made it come a little faster than it normally does. I just thought it was a bad rule. I’ve got a way to speed up the game. Get rid of the kickoff. Set the ball on the 24-yard line or something.

It’s the injuries that worry you, isn’t it?
Yeah.

Has that ever gained any steam?
I’ve never tried it. I can’t imagine. I’m about brave enough to bring it up. I just can’t imagine anyone ever…

Are the coaches that against it though?
No, I’m the only one. When I say it, they’re like, [gives confused look]. Because no one would even think of that, you know? But then when they do think about it, they’re like, ‘Yeah, you’re right. We run into each other pretty hard.’ Guys, I think when they first started kicking off, I don’t think the collisions were like they are today. Guys are so fast and strong and so well-equipped. It’s how Decory Bryant got hurt. A lot of guys.

Something about the wedge.
You can wedge and the wedge is a dangerous thing. It’s dangerous if a guy is willing to try to go explode the wedge, but you can’t leave your feet. In the past, you could lay out into all three of them and just try to blow up the wedge. Most people use a wedge or some form of a wedge.

Boss Bailey too.
I just don’t like it. Reggie Brown. Thomas Brown. DeCory Bryant. Boss Bailey. There may be more.

Is that what made you start thinking about it, all the injuries?
What made me start thinking about it is standing on the sideline during the game. Those 15 years up in the box, I didn’t think anything about it. But when I got on the ground, I started to see how hard these guys run into each other and it’s just like, ‘Wow.’

I don’t know how much this is your area, but have you spoken to Larry Munson at all?
I’ve not.

I didn’t figure that you had. How did that whole news set in with you?
It was interesting. He alluded to it in his Christmas card. He didn’t say anything in particular, but he alluded that yeah this could be it. ‘This could be it,’ [he actually said that doing a little gravelly Munson impression] you know, he probably said it 25 years ago, so…

What’s your favorite Larry Munson call?
It’s gotta be the Tennessee game because it was the first thing that we did that was significant enough to be considered one of his greatest calls.

What was your reaction when you heard it the first time? Did you call people?
By the time I heard it, everybody else had heard it that I knew. It’s just fun to listen to, to relive it, because it’s a pretty graphic description of what happened.

How often do you hear that stuff?
You know where I first heard it? I heard it the next week when coach T made the highlight tape for the next game, the motivational tape for the next game, and when everything was happening, it had his voice over it where the guys could hear and see it. So it was pretty good. It was good bonding time, good emotional time for us.

So what about Oklahoma State, the first opponent, people are talking about them like they’re Oklahoma.
Well, they’ve been able to beat Oklahoma probably more than anybody else in their league over the last five years. They’re a very good football team. They’re one of those teams that are maybe on the verge of breaking through to become a league power and a national power. They’ve got all the resources in the world and they’ve got some good coaches. Course, coach Miles did a good job of building that program to a certain level and they’ve got a great quarterback…Offensively, they’re a great team. I think they’ve got nine coming back.

On familiarity with Bobby Reid, Oklahoma State’s quarterback.
Yeah, he was in our camp.

It’s too early to say you’ve started looking over them…
Yeah, well the problem is they’ve got a new defensive coordinator. He was at Bowling Green and Ohio State, so you’ve got to watch that, you’ve got to watch Bowling Green, you’ve got to watch Ohio State, you’ve got to watch Oklahoma State, you’ve got to look at personnel. You’ve got to look at way too much film for the first opponent. That stinks, to have a brand-new coordinator for the opening game.

They’ve got a running back named Dantrell Savage that I’m sure you know a little about. Was he ever a guy that was on y’all’s radar? He’s from Columbus.
I’ll be honest with you, I don’t remember. There are so many that roll through, I don’t remember.