How Mark Richt sleeps at night.

Okay, I lied:  one last oversigning post, because this is a pretty awesome quote from Mark Richt.

“That it was one of those years in the state where we thought there was some elite players. One of the hardest things for us to do is to evaluate and nail down who you’re going to go after, especially in our own state. A lot of the out of state teams will just come in and just offer like mad. They’ll come in and just offer like candy. Quite frankly I’m not going to name names of schools, but a lot of them will do that just to get in the fight and if the kid commits too soon and they’re not sure they want, they’ll just tell them that’s not a committable offer. Whatever the heck that means? If we offer a kid in our state and he says he’s coming, we want to take him, OK? Sometimes we’re a little bit slower to offer maybe than some out of state schools. Sometimes that might hurt a kid’s feelings. Sometimes that might hurt a coach’s feelings. That’s not our intention. Our intention is to have integrity when we offer a kid and be able to follow through.”

He makes you root for him, doesn’t he?

50 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting

50 responses to “How Mark Richt sleeps at night.

  1. Loran Smith

    Kudos Mark. What an awesome quote

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  2. sUGArdaddy

    Doesn’t bother me. Get him on the field early. If you had to promise him the first carry, get him ready to do it.

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    • sUGArdaddy

      Oops…that was supposed to be on the previous post.

      As for Richt, he’s just an outstanding guy. You simply cannot argue against that. And it’s clear that we do it the right way. The oversigning issue has brought that to the forefront of public opinion more than any other topic.

      I’ve always said that we’ll feel good, really good, if we ever see that guy hoisting the crystal football. I just hope he does it.

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  3. Scorpio Jones, III

    Can we do this thing the right way…..can we?

    God I hope so.

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  4. The Original Cynical in Athens

    The thing about Coach Richt is that sometimes he is not as forthcoming with this kind of information as he needs to be. Those quotes should be mailed to every high school coach in the state, so that they understand the duty and responsibility that Coach Richt feels to every one of those kids.

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    • Go Dawgs!

      That’s probably a good point. We don’t know what he says to recruits and coaches, though. I know that when he got to UGA, he and the staff did a barnstorming tour around the state where they laid out who they were and what they were all about. Perhaps that message doesn’t get repeated as much as it should. Certainly, a black-and-white explanation like this doesn’t get printed often in the media. Either way, no matter what, this approach is going to turn off some of the “me” guys out there. It’s fine and good to hear that this is the approach, but if you’re a Rivals blue-chipper, why the heck hasn’t Georgia already made up their mind that they want me? What could possibly be wrong with me that they wouldn’t want me? You just can’t win with every recruit. We got a lot of the guys we wanted in 2011, though.

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    • No One Knows You're a Dawg

      “The thing about Coach Richt is that sometimes he is not as forthcoming with this kind of information as he needs to be.”

      Exactly. Richt doesn’t have to copy some of the tactics of our opponents, but he does need to publicly and vocally push back against them.

      This is a good start. Hopefully Richt will be more aggressive going forward.

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  5. heyberto

    This is exactly why I want him to succeed at UGA. In some ways you start to see why a kid wants to come play for him, and he can get these big recruits in a down year.

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  6. Dawg Stephen

    He doesnt HAVE to name names. Its very obvious who stinks of foul play and who doesnt. Go Dawgs.

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  7. gj

    I would feel a lot better about that quote had the situation with Devin Burns never happened.

    http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/072209/foo_467362133.shtml

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    • If we offer a kid in our state and he says he’s coming, we want to take him, OK?

      Technically, that wasn’t the case with Burns.

      That being said, it looks like Richt patched things up with the folks at Carver, doesn’t it?

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      • gj

        I’m definitely glad that we’re on this side of the aisle rather than the “other schools,” but the righteous indignation (that I may have incorrectly inferred) struck me as a bit much considering Devin’s story.

        That being said, Richt & staff worked their butts off for this class, and they deserve a lot of credit.

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    • texasdawg

      The Burns case was a bad mistake by Richt and UGA and it should be condemned, apologized for, and not repeated in the future.

      So far, Richt and Georgia have done that.

      They didn’t deny that the practice was wrong and promise to continue doing it and hide in bogus excuses about “1-year contracts” or “nothing was official” and so on, as do many other SEC programs currently.

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    • S.E. Dawg

      Actually he did mention that this morning. Only to say that there was some miscommunication.

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  8. Boz

    +1 all around. Pure class act.

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  9. jerome

    He makes you want to root for him, doesn’t he?

    Yes, he does.

    The only notable exception would be the black helmet game, this year’s Ford truck commercial, and the 2006 early season overspray tan.

    Beyond that, CMR is beyond solid.

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  10. Beelzebubba

    Like Crowell said ” He’s a God fearing dude.”

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  11. He is a class act and yes I am rooting for him-even if you have been a basher the last two years,put it behind you lets ALL get behind our team our school AND OUR COACH if you cuss him around me you are gonna get what i got left

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  12. simpl_matter

    Faith and worldly success aside, Mark Richt is an outstanding human being. He will always bring in good recruiting classes because parents can see the man that will be their son’s “Coach.” Of course, he’s still got to push & sell like mad along with everyone else….

    Here’s a question and an observation: How much of his success was based on McGarity’s lightening CMR’s responsibility load this season? If giving Richt more time to recruit allows us to pull in this kind of talent after a crap season, the future looks bright. I’ve never loved red panties more…

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  13. Bad M

    Will always love the Coach. Represents the best in leadership, coaching, and The University. Its an honor to have him lead this team. He is the ultimate DGD.
    /You can try to bash him all you want, but that just says more about you than it does him.

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  14. texasdawg

    Richt would be very justified in making a much bigger deal about how much Georgia, recruits, fans of the game, etc., are cheated by the practice of oversigning.

    He has chosen to say little though and let the truth eventually come to light. And every day the truth about what is going on with oversigning is becoming clearer and more widely known. And the oversigning defenders are badly losing the battle. It’s only going to get worse for them in the near future.

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  15. Irishdawg

    “He makes you root for him, doesn’t he? ”

    He does, and I can’t fathom why any self-proclaimed Georgia fan wouldn’t want him to turn it around. Richt is a classy, decent guy, and an excellent representative of the school. Not only is Nick Saban a shark, but let’s not forget he roamed a sideline for quite a few years before he got a championship.

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  16. Dawg85

    I’m rooting for him big time. Hopefully he can turn it around this year so this class can reach it’s full potential. Coach long enough and there will be some down cycles. Hopefully the program is turning a corner.

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  17. Beelzebubba

    Where can I get a hat like the one Crowell is wearing?

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  18. Bulldog Bry

    I wasn’t aware that the Senator was in the category of “Richt basher”……

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    • Bad M

      I didn’t mean the Honorable Senator. Just in general. Tired of all the negativity that is just hurting the program.

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  19. When the Dawgs were 6&6 I did not think 2011 would be Richt’s last year. When they were 6&7 I did think 2011 would be his last. Now after NSD Iagain think 2011 will not be his last year. I always have hoped that it would not be. I like what he Is doing at UGA on & off the field. Now GATA.

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  20. What is it with ESPN? The Dawgs are # 1 in the SEC east according to Scout & Rivals but not ESPN. They have UF at 14 & 21 but ESPN has them at # 5. The Dawgs certainly did better today than UF. I continue to have no use for anything pertaining to ESPN & CF.

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  21. Mayor of Dawgtown

    There is something going on with ESPN and UGA that we do not know about. ESPN announcers actively campaigned AGAINST the Dawgs playing in the 2007 BCSNC game. When was the last time you saw a network lobby against a team? They sometimes have favorites that they lobby for, but that was the only time I have ever seen negative lobbying by a network. It was uniform, too–not like some ESPN nattering nabobs were against UGA and some others were against LSU or Ohio State. ALL of them in unison trashed the Dawgs. It worked, too. The Dawgs dropped in the final poll, fell out of the top 2 in the BCS standings and consequently did not get to play for the national championship that year. Someone behind the scenes who is in power at ESPN has a hard on for UGA.

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  22. Macallanlover

    Not an ESPN apologist by any means but they use a different method to evaluate and rank recruiting classes. First, they use their own rankings of the Top 150 athletes which is not unusual, but does vary from Scout and Rivals. That accounts for some of the variance. But the biggest difference is ESPN gives extra credit for how well the signees address the teams’ needs/weaknesses. You can question how qualified they are to do either evaluation but that is actually a better system. Signing 5 star RBs and QBs will not yield much if there is a lack of talent and depth along the offensive line.
    I think if you are ranked anywhere in the Top 15, and address your position needs with players of good character, you are in good position regardless of the specific number assigned your class

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  23. Bryant Denny

    I thought Auburn was in Georgia?

    Just kidding.

    Enjoy your haul, Dawgs.

    BD

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  24. This is John Galt speaking....

    It seems many of you now have changed your tone regarding Richt and the coaching staff. It makes me wonder if most of the complaining comes from those fans that never make a contribution to the University

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    • biggusrickus

      I get the complaining. Georgia was 14-12 the last two years after a disappointing season in ’08. However, last year was a vast improvement in some respects over ’09, despite the worse record. I, myself, wonder if Richt can get it back. I hope he can. I hope the defense improves tremendously over last year. And let’s make no mistake about it. Georgia won with defense from ’02-’05. If they can get back to holding people to 16-18 points per game they’ll improve dramatically.

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      • biggusdickus

        Er….In the 2010 Liberty Bowl didn’t the UGA defense hold the Conference USA Champion UCF team (which averaged 28 points a game during the regular season) to 10 points and didn’t UGA still lose the game? Just sayin’

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        • biggusrickus

          You’re totally right in your one bowl game sample size. You could have at least used the 17-6 loss to South Carolina or 24-12 loss to MSU to buttress your point. Of course, the problem with that is that they’ve lost games 34-31 in overtime to Florida, 49-31 to Auburn, 29-27 to a terrible Colorado offense, 31-24 to Arkansas, 45-19 to Tennessee, 41-17 to Florida, 34-27, 41-30 to Alabama, 49-10 to Florida and 45-42 to Georgia Tech since 2008. You know how many times they gave up 30+ under Van Gorder? You know how many ugly defensive wins they had while Van Gorder was coaching the defense? I’m all for smartasses, but please.

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          • Biggus Dickus

            (Weeping softly while looking in the mirror.) I’m sorry! Please don’t tell Mom! Or the other multiple personalities!

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  25. Mr. Zvi Ben David

    He damn sure does.

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  26. I wanna Red Cup

    CMR makes me cry. I love you man. And lets GATA

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  27. Sefdawg

    I hated seeing people bash CMR the past couple of years. It means something to me that my coach is a good man. I don’t think I would enjoy rooting for my team as much if my coach was a shark. Or a crybaby. Or a clock managing moron. Just sayin’.

    Like