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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Richt speaks (and makes a funny), the blog listens

At least now Mark Richt can laugh about it. Sort of.

Caleb King returns this week from his two-game suspension. So at Richt’s weekly news conference on Tuesday, a question was prefaced by pointing out that Georgia hasn't often had both King and Washaun Ealey available for the same game.

Richt started smiling.

“I was told we were 4-0 when we had our running back suspended,” he said, adding: “It’s early yet. It’s only …” he looked at his watch.

The room laughed, and Richt kept smiling, sheepishly, as if he felt guilty about going there.

“Anyway,” he said.

The Bulldogs are actually 3-0, since Ealey was suspended the opener. The exception was the Tennessee game, when Ealey was benched for his fumbling problems, but still got 12 carries. King did miss a couple games with a sprained ankle. (The Bulldogs lost both of those.)

More notes from the news conference:

- Richt didn’t name a tailback starter, saying they’ll wait to see how King and Ealey practice this week.

“I still feel like if you’ve got two guys that know what they’re doing, they’re going to be physical, then you play them,” Richt said. “So I’m sure we’ll split them up.”

Carlton Thomas will still be in the mix too, Richt added.

- Cornerback and punt returner Branden Smith will be in a non-contact situation practice today, and they hope to upgrade him later in the week.

- Richt on Chris Rainey, the Florida receiver who is eligible to play but hasn’t been officially ruled in: “We’ve gotta prepare as if Rainey will be there. A very fast guy, and very problematic when they put Rainey and Demps in the same backfield. Double trouble, so to speak.”

- Richt said they “missed out” on Chas Henry, a Georgia native, but lucked out by landing Drew Butler.

“There’s probably the two best punters in America going against each other in this game,” Richt said.

- Richt hasn’t studied a lot of defensive film of last year’s Florida film, since Charlie Strong is gone and the Gators have a new defensive coordinator. He does expect Janoris Jenkins to man coverage on A.J. Green, and will watch to see if a safety “sneaks over.”

- When asked about Florida’s offensive struggles. Richt took a deep breath.

“There are some good defenses out there and they’ve played some good defensive teams,” Richt said. “They have struggled some against those teams, but they have also done well.”

- Richt was asked to diagnose the team's struggling third down defense. He attributed it to “mostly our inability to squeeze the quarterback in the pocket. We’ve allowed him to get out of the pocket either on QB run situations or scrambling situations where he can buy a little time and get a little more pressure on our coverage.” … And the defenders in zone coverage haven’t been “disciplined enough.”

- How big a game is this? Georgia-Florida is always big , but Richt granted that a win would open the door for a shot at the division title.

“We pretty much dug out of a hole. Now we’re just trying to climb the mountain a little bit,” Richt said. “Hopefully we’ll just continue to play well and represent Georgia the way everybody would be proud of. … We’ve grabbed a lot of positive momentum, and we just want to keep it going. That’s where we’re at right now.”

- Less than 400 tickets left for the Idaho State game.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it just me or is everybody excited about the Dawgs not having to face a Charlie Strong led defense?

Vixcave said...

I'm not sure running back by committee works best for UGA. I hated to see Knowshon take himself out of the game a couple years back. That's not working well for him today. If our guys are conditioned and they are hot, play them!! Work them, make them tough!! Let them stay in rhythm and stride! Caleb can get his chance again when opportunity knocks. I don't hear any knocking right now.

Anonymous said...

www.keepmarkricht.com

Carter said...

Against Colorado, King got 12 carries, Thomas got 7, and Ealey got one.

I guess Ealy's lone carry was overlooked.

Anonymous said...

@Carter

What's your point? We didn't win the Colorado game...

Willb said...

Ealey needs to carry the load this week. He has been the better back this year and last year. He just better flat out.

Also remember last year when Fla was dominating us Ealey was the only dawg man enough to stand up to them.

King Jericho said...

@willb

Yeah, and he almost lost his eyes for it.

Anonymous said...

Anybody heard anything about the Caleb King loan situation that the Red and Black tried to make into a big deal? I know Greg McGarity sent the info off to te SEC, but it'd be nice to know whether or not he's in the clear before we play him in anymore games.

Carter said...

Anon 2:53,

My point was to refute this: "So at Richt’s weekly news conference on Tuesday, a question was prefaced by pointing out that Georgia hasn't had both King and Washaun Ealey available for the same game."

Reading is fundamental, Anon. 2:53

Seth Emerson said...

Gentlemen, that's my fault. I meant to stick an "often" in that sentence, as in they haven't "often" had both Ealey and King available.

Sorry, it's a hectic Tuesday - football presser at noon, then player interviews, then basketball interviews, and now a short respite before football practice.

Carter said...

No problem, Seth. I can't even spell Ealey consistently.

There was also this from last night's Bulldog Hotline:

"Rick in Woodstock asked about a stat he saw .. we’re 3-0 this year when we have an RB suspended. Obviously we do not want to get an RB suspended this week. But what is the possibility of Ealey getting the bulk of the carries? CMR – early in the season when its hot, it’s hard for one guy to carry the load. There were some moments when Ealey was doing it.in the last game. Some of how we split carries this week may depend on how warm it is in Jacksonville on Saturday."

http://theantiorangepage.com/node/3731

Willb said...

There might be something to the whole us being undefeated when one back is suspended thing. Running backs typically play better when they can get in a groove and don't have to worry about being pulled.

I'm just not a fan of the running back committee thing. Even when we had moreno he was always waving his hand to get out. What the he'll is that?

Marcus lattimore sure as hell wasn't waving his hand to get out against us! I don't know if a ga rb knows how to carry the ball that many times!

Ealey and king isn't ingram and Richardson or McFadden and jones! When backs are that good I get it but in our situation I would like to see ealey get the bulk of the carries.

Seth Emerson said...

Regarding the Caleb King question:

Per UGA, the situation was reviewed by the school in conjunction with the SEC and it was determined there was no violation.

Anonymous said...

It's funny how short everyone's memory is. Just a few weeks ago everyone said Ealey should get benched, now it's "he's always been the better RB". Maybe the lesson is, take it a week at a time and quit with the generalizations.

Willb said...

Anon 6:34 I don't remember hearing that many people saying ealey should be benched. The fumbling was an issue of course and possibly still is but most people I talk with have and still do prefer ealey to king.

Although you could say ealey has cost us a couple of wins this year with fumbles and blocking issues so I could understand if fans have had issues with him. I personally just find him to be the much superior back.

I just wonder how ealey will perform with king back. It's looking more like were going to split carries no matter what so I hope we have a game like we had against ga tech last year this sat and run the gators into the ground. Control the clock and really beat them physically. I have faith that richt will come up with a good game plan regardless.

I want a win this sat so bad!!!

Anonymous said...

CMR making fun of all the Arrests / Suspensions.

Sounds about right.

Where we are right now ?

4-4 having beat no one of any consequence and 40-18 for the 2nd half of CMR Era, compared to 54-13 for the first 5 years of the CMR Era featuring the Jim Donnan Recruits. That and we are # 2 in the nation in Arrests / Suspensions the 2nd half of the CMR Era - including TWICE (2 X) as many Arrests as Urban Meyer has posted with Rainey the 27th for Urban Meyer compared to twice as many for CMR in the same timeframe.

2-7

Did I mention 2-7 is also where we are vs this team, right now

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Russ said...

"Superior back"--now that's funny! Both backs are very servicable. Neither will play on Sunday! I still think a combo of Ealey and King can work. Bobo just needs to be smart about substituting. Don't substitute middle of a drive if one back is hot.