Georgia Tech 45, Georgia 42, Postgame quotes
Saturday, November 29th, 2008Here is the aftermath from the Georgia locker room.
Coach Mark Richt:
On Stafford/Knowshon decision:
For those guys it is going to be a hard decision, period.
I know Matthew had some goals besides making it to the NFL, I know Knowshon did to. These guys wanted to win championships. These guys wanted to play well enough to be in position for some national awards, though that was not really their primary objective, they had good enough reason to let it cross their minds.
It’s just going to be a real interesting decision. By any NFLPA rules, all the agent stuff and all that doesn’t happen until after the bowl game. I am sure between now and then there will be time for them to reflect on where they are. We will spend some time talking to them, trying to get them the best information we possibly can. I think both of them will be interested in what the NFL people have to say. That will be a starting point for them to figure out what they want to do.
They will have to do some soul searching and decide, ‘Do I want college to end right now.’ Do I want this experience to end right now. That will have something to do with it. I think they have done a pretty good job of focusing on the here and now and not looking too far ahead.
More on Knowshon/Stafford
I really would love to see Knowshon and Matthew play behind a mature, veteran group of lineman. I think they would have a blast.
On Mohamed Massaquoi:
Mohamed is a beautiful kid. He came here right away making plays> he is a confident guy, he cares about other people. He is a tremendous leader because of that. He really took AJ under his wing. Not only AJ, he was just kind of looking out for everybody all his teammates. I can’t imagine him not being voted team captain.
It’s hard to replace a guy like that.
On the line and injuries:
I will say this, we had 18 season-ending injuries this year. Last year we had one. The NCAA says we played the toughest schedule in the United States of America, that is by their way of measuring it. We played with a bunch of rookies.
On kickoffs:
We might have to go to Poland or something to find a guy who can kick it out of the end zone. Give him two scholarships.
We were erratic.
On Willie Martinez:
My thought is that a lot of times when things don’t go exactly the way you want them to that people want to find somebody to blame. I am not going to do that.
On defense as a whole:
I would say they played a heck of a lot better in Florida game than they were given credit for. Without them bowing their neck at the end of the Kentucky and auburn game we don’t’ win. But there were times they didn’t’ play the way we wanted them to play. We were up and down no doubt. But we were up and down in a lot of areas.
I will say this before I say anything about future; I don’t want to forget we have another game in the season. There is a time when you end your season because there is so much time there will be some reflections on what can I do better. You do that game by game and when the season gets close to the end.
On huddle with team in third quarter:
I wanted them to try to refocus. We had a tremendous focus to start the game. I thought we had a good edge.
On this loss being worse because it is Georgia Tech:
All losses don’t feel good. At this very moment, all losses stink.
On Richard Samuel:
That was tough on him. I am just going to love the kid. We all know he feels bad about what happened, he doesn’t’ need me to tell him abou tit. He just needs to hang ontot the ball. We didn’t’ take him out of the game, we didn’t say go over there and we don’t believe in him anymore.
CORVEY IRVIN
I don’t know man, I am just hurting. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Not on my book. All my chapters, this is the end of my book. I have closed my book. I wanted a happy story to end it. Not a sad one. I didn’t want to go out like this. Got to have thick skin about everything. Got to get ready for whoever we got in the bowl game.
KNOWSHON MORENO
On possibly leaving Georgia on that note:
Definitely hard, but you never know what is going to happen. I am not thinking about that right now. I am just thinking about this bowl game when that time comes.
