UGA press conference notes
Just returned from the Mark Richt press conference and media luncheon. The potato salad was phenomenal. The content, not so much. Not a ton of big news today. The most interesting nuggets involved Bainbridge product Darryl Gamble saying he will start on Saturday in place of injured Dannell Ellerbe. All signs are Ellerbe will attempt to play on his injured knee, but likely see his playing time cut back.
Also, Cordy Glenn and Chris Davis are now in a battle for the left guard spot. The freshman Glenn had been demoted over the last two weeks in place of Davis, but apparently now could return.
Knowshon will be a full-go on Saturday. Also, Tripp Chandler not being ruled out.
Here are a few interesting quotes from Richt:
On Tennessee’s struggles on offense now under the direction of quarterback, redshirt sophomore Nick Stephens:
It has obviously been a quarterback change. I am not trying to say anything negative about anybody, we recruited the heck out of Jonathon Crompton, he is s tremendous quarterback, very capable quarterbaqck. For whatever reason they were struggling and needed to make a change. A lot of times that could be the spark that makes the difference. I remember when we were playing Colorado and Matthew (Stafford) actually was playing a pretty good game. Matthew was putting it on the money and we dropped about four or five or six balls, whatever it was. We made a change because we felt we needed to make a change, not because Matthew was an issue, for whatever reason it just wasn’t happening. We put Joe (Tereshinski) in there and for whatever reason things turned and we looked pretty stinkin’ good on offense. And good enough to come back and win the game. Sometimes a change can make a big differenece like that. I assume that is why they did it. So far they have got positive results.
On cracking down on the penalties:
“I think most coaches will say, we don’t want penalties, but it is a pretty subjective thing.”
“I’m wearing them out. I’m wearing them out physically. Before I was a little reluctant to make such a strong point, I was concerned about some aggressive play and all that kind of thing, but my strategy and my thoughts were wrong. The penalties have not slowed down and have cost us. I did a poor job on the front end of this.”
On needing a championship to be considered a great QB in regards to Matt Stafford:
“If you’re going to say who is the greatest quarterback of all time, you’d probably go right to how many Super Bowls did the guy win, how many national championships did the guy win, how many SEC championships did a guy win. To say that Stafford or anybody else was the best, you’d have to have a championship during his tenure to put him in that category. But I do think he’s a great quarterback.”
