Mostly uneventful postpractice today. The team's practicing at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow because of some kind of Swahili culture thing in the day and academic meetings in the afternoon. Also, Thomas Brown didn't practice yesterday because of knee tendinitis, but he was back today. Marcus Howard (ankle) was also available today, but Richt said DEs coach Jon Fabris elected to not use him much.
Here's some of what he had to say today. Make note of the plea for people to be in their seats for the senior day stuff. That will be held 16 minutes before kickoff on Saturday, at approximately 12:18 p.m.
On how Darryl Gamble's forced fumble against Vandy was the catalyst for the defense's recent opportunism:
We’ve been getting some turnovers since then. On that play, Reshad Jones hit the runner pretty hard – hit him hard enough to where his ball security got poor and then Darryl knocked it out and of course Ellerbe got on it. That play is etched in my mind for a long time. It was huge. It was the catalyst for everything. Without that, we wouldn’t be having as much fun as everybody says we’re having.
Does Reshad get enough of the credit for that play?
On my coach’s show I know I mentioned it because I did get a chance to see it a couple times on TV copy and realize that Reshad had a lot to do with the ball coming out. Darryl did a beautiful job too. They all did. It took all three of them to get it.
On the Senior Day celebration Saturday:
At the 16-minute mark, the seniors are gonna be honored. It sure is a lot better honoring them when everybody’s in the stands. I know it’s asking a lot, it’s early, but if everybody can get in the stands 20 minutes prior to kickoff and be settled in time to really honor our seniors when they go through the gauntlet of their teammates to the 50-yard line to meet their parents, that’d be big. I don’t know if you guys can mention that or not. I know you guys have got editors and all that stuff. But it’d be nice to make that plea to the Bulldog Nation to be there and help create some excitement and to also be able to thank those seniors for everything they’ve done for us.
On talking to the team about the Billy Humphrey situation, where the UGA basketball player was arrested for having a butterfly knife with a long blade in his dorm room:
You’ve just gotta keep reminding them of the rules. We actually read a memo out today just to help remind anybody. I think they understand the big items or whatever, but there’s some items on there that if you have a paintball gun or a BB gun or an air soft gun, whatever that is, I don’t even know what that is. They even said a potato gun or something. I don’t know what that is either. Or anything that even resembles a weapon, you just can’t have it there. And also, some people have permits to have weapons, but even with a permit, you can’t have one on campus period. Just because you have a permit, whether it’s a hunting rifle or whatever it is, you just can’t have it. So it’s good to remind everybody.
On what it was that he read to the team:
There was a memo that came from the chief of police sent throughout the university. Not just the athletic association, but the entire university. So we kinda read off the details to them. We stuck them in their little mailboxes, but I don’t know how many guys just sit and read a memo. So we read it out to them.
On defending against Kentucky's screen pass after Troy threw it well against UGA:
Everybody who runs those has had a fair amount of success against us – a fair amount to a lot of success. Over the years I think we’re getting a little better at it. We worked really hard on those, offense and defensively. Ever since camp, we’ve been working just a two-on-two drill, it’s just receivers versus DBs and we inserted linebackers in the drill to play, to work on those screens for us and to play those screens. We’ve actually gotten better at running those types of screens, not that we’re as good as Troy is, but we’re better at it offensively and we’re getting better defensively at stopping those plays. It just really comes down to you’ve gotta defeat a block on defense and we’ve just got to keep getting better at it.
On practicing that drill frequently:
We do it every day we put pads on. We might’ve missed one or two in there, but the goal is to get it in there just about every day that we have pads.
On his behavior toward the officials:
I’ve been getting a little too carried away, probably, on that end. I don’t know if you noticed me in the second half – I just kept my mouth shut. I told the coaches in the staff meeting, if you want me to try to get to an official about this that or the other, I said, ‘Don’t expect me to try to get after anybody. If I do talk to them, it’ll be in the proper tone and I’m just gonna calm down on the official thing.
Does he think it's been hurting them?
Since I’ve kinda cut loose a little bit in some areas, I cut loose a little bit in that area. I probably went a little overboard on that, so I’ve just been convicted that I don’t need to do that anymore, so I will be strictly polite and gentlemanly from here on out.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
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4 comments:
I'll regress to the previous post concerning the heisman. The heisman has been distorted for the past 15 years or so, going to the preceived best player on the #1 or 2 team. This line of thought is how Peyton Manning never won the Heisman and great qb's such as Toretta, Crouch, White and Smith have. Most college football fans have very little interest in the trophy these days. That is not what the heisman is all about. By definition it goes to the most outstanding player in the country. I'm not a Tebow fan, but his #'s are far better than Dixson's. Just look at the TD's. That's impressive. In my mind, McFadden is the best player in the country. Is it his fault the rest of the team stinks and his Head coach is a dipship? I don't think so. One could argue that putting up big #'s on a bad team is more impressive than big #'s surrounded by good teammates. Just giving the trophy to the best perceived player on one of the top ranked teams takes something away from the honor.
I hate how we do senior day. They cirlce up and then jogg to the sideline when its over. It ruins the atmosphere imo. They should get to run out of that tunnel one last time to the roar of the crowd!
Re the Heisman...I agree with the previous blogger...it's become a reflection of the team's success not the game's best player...case in point, when Gino Toretta, of Miami, won the award, he was drafted 298 overall...a vote of no confidence by the pros...and he never went anywhere. The player from Princeton, years ago, won the award, didn't go to the pros but succeeded in business..Kazmair was his name..just an outstanding player on an Ivy League team..real football...not major media hype. I also agree on McFadden..and that Nutt has ruined Arkansas football.
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