Munson told CMR it was a good thing that we were able to make big plays on offense
and defense because
Arkansas was holding us by the throat. CMR noted the good
in many individual stats but that we couldn’t put up points. They also talked
about the 6-6 WR (Monk) who made a couple of plays on jump balls. We
had a couple of problems on audibles – Greene had some beautiful checks but
about 67% of the guys heard it and the rest didn’t. We ended up having to try
some FGs because of it.
CMR knows the Gators will be fighting for their lives just as we will be. We
know the deal and will prepare the best we can. Munson says “they’re still
Florida”
– lots of players and lots of speed. CMR knows Florida is about three plays
from being undefeated and says there is no real difference between this team
and the Florida teams of the past. It will be one of those brawls and Richt
hopes our players are up to it.
Paul in Orange Co., CA (listening online) opened the calls by telling
Larry he’s got his old highlight tapes out since it's Florida week. Plus
he’s named his family dog Munson. Then he wondered if a 2 QB rotation on a drive
might work in this game. CMR says there is no reason we can’t. It has crossed
our mind but we haven’t done it. Most defenses figure if you bring in a mobile
QB there is a reason for it. CMR likes to keep a QB in for an entire drive.
If you change a QB in the middle of the drive, you could get a fumbled exchange
and beat yourself up for that.
Bert in Roswell wants to know who will be the backup TB this week, assuming
Ware is out for this game. Also wondering about use of Pope as he gains confidence.
CMR is not sure of Danny Ware’s situation – it might not be as bad as originally
thought. This time, it was not the same side of his chest and not nearly as
bad. If he can’t go, Richt thinks any of the others could do it.
We did hit a corner route to Pope in the red zone. The in & out route to
Gibson was against soft coverage. We had a fade to McClendon but he stumbled
near the end of his route. Hopefully we can take advantage of those situations.
James in Alpharetta wants to know what other defense we’ve faced that Florida’s
is similar to. Also, he wanted to know if we were ever involved recruiting Darius
Walker. Richt said we liked Thomas Brown better and Brown committed to us early.
Walker will be a great player but we’re happy with Thomas.
Florida’s defensive scheme is different from anyone else, but they’re like everyone
else in that they’re fast and hit hard. Crowder runs well side to side, makes
a lot of big plays and is everywhere. We might have some TE and other schemes
for him.
Jeremy in Memphis notes we rushed 47 times for about 130 years against a defense
that Bama (he thinks ) rushed for over 300 against. CMR said we could
throw the ball more. An earlier caller noted the play action passes were effective
because we stayed true to our running game. We’re improving at the running game
.. RBs missed cuts a few times and missed a few OL assignments. We need to keep
at the running game since we may not be good enough to just drop back and throw
down after down.
Jeremy also asked about recruiting big bodies on the lines; CMR said defensive
linemen are a high priority in recruiting this year.
Responding to a later question on play calling in short yardage, we tried to
run outside because the tape showed they packed it inside in short yardage.
Overall, Thomas Brown ran beautifully but also had benefit of better blocking
than we seemed to have when Ware was running the ball. We’re pleased with those
two and no one will have a perfect night every night.
Brian from Braselton said he and some friends have pulled some hedge, grass
& pompoms to take to Jax in order to help change our luck. He also asked
about the kicking .. Richt said we still have confidence in Andy Bailey even
after missing a couple last night. We would be concerned if he were missing
and not striking the ball well.
CMR did not go down to thank the fans because he got turned around after doing
some TV interviews. We did not have enough of a group that he could find to
know where to go to thank them. Pete from Atlanta noted that we get split up
at a lot of stadiums. Richt felt bad about missing the boat on thanking our
fans who made the trip.
What about something like the old halo rule on punt returns – since our returner
got drilled a couple of times last night … especially in light of the new rule
about jumping to block kicks? CMR said he liked the old halo rule, but they
probably had trouble calling it. The rules committee figures if a player wants
protection, then call for a fair catch. The halo rule was good for us because
we’ve been a good punt returning team; give our guys a little room and they
have a chance to do something big.
John in Maryland thinks we audible so much that players may be on their heels
due to so much communication. He is also concerned about defensing the option.
CMR likes the audibles since Greene does it so well. A couple of times, linemen
thought Greene was checking to a quick pass. You have to try it because you
might get a bad play if you don’t, even though we had some trouble due to crowd
noise. On Shockley’s series, we blindly called a quick game play, expecting
cover 2, but they were in a different defense and there was nowhere to throw
the ball.
CMR used that occasion to say he hopes our crowd will be very involved in our
final home game in several weeks.
Florida does not run much option and it would be hard to put in during one week
of practice.
John from Athens noted an AJC writer criticized the screen pass call. We expected
man coverage in that situation on the 2-yard line. If we’d blocked it better
we would’ve walked in for a TD. The TD to Gibson came on an audible; we blocked
it well and got the coverage we expected. The other team has SEC athletes and
coaches and does things well in their game plan, too.
Bob from Winder wants us to finish the drill on the Gators and put that problem
behind us – Richt agrees. Bob is also concerned on our conversions in 3rd &
short. CMR says this is the first game we haven’t done well in short yardage
and that is troubling. We’ve got to make those.
Matt in Marietta followed up on the goal line play calls and asked if CMR would’ve
changed any if he had it to do again. CMR would not have changed the screen
on 3rd down but might have run a different play on 4th down – we went with a
play we had not done a lot in practice. It would’ve worked if we hit it up inside
but that happens sometimes on a play we don’t use a lot in practice.
Meanwhile, Robert from Savannah asked why we don’t spread it out more on the
goal line. CMR said lots of teams will go with a goal line defense even if you
go with a spread. This was a team that was going with lots of big guys on the
goal line and we would’ve had to throw instead of trying to run from the spread.
CMR told a caller from Cartersville that coaches do get to every school in the
state and talk to every HS coach in order to make evaluation. He also reminded
that he cannot talk about specific recruits.
What about the penalties?? One caller (Skip) talked about a little league
team that drew the other team off several times just by snapping on two instead
of one. CMR has gotten tougher on the penalties and we’ll keep pounding it home.
We went from 13 to 9 this week and maybe we’ll go down to 6 or fewer this week.
One younger caller commented to Richt about how fans don’t understand everything
that the players have to learn for each game. CMR cited a book (Every Week
a Season, by Brian Curtis) that goes into that very well.
Comments