Mark Richt’s already pooh-poohed the request for a blackout. Now he’s pulling the curtains shut with the media.
I’m generally not a fan of closing off the media, but I get what Richt’s about here. The fewer distractions this week, the better.
Maybe he should go ahead and confiscate all players’ scooters while he’s at it.
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UPDATE: And in case you’re wondering if a certain returning player will be among the selected…
Get The Picture 
I just don’t blame him. So many reporters just ask stupid questions. Not all, just some.
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I don’t think this is as much about reporters asking dumb questions as it is about players giving dumb answers.
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You think this is reaction from the UF game? Like Richt is making damn sure they aren’t reading any press clippings, because they won’t be able to speak to the press.
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More like a reaction to what Wilson and Bailey said after the UF game.
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Senator, I agree with that completely. However, if he doesn’t want them making those comments perhaps there should be heavy emphasis leading up to the game about never taking any opponent lightly. Maybe the staff already does all it can and it’s just 18-22 year old kids not paying attention but that doesn’t seem to explain those 1 to 2 inexplicable games every year….
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Right, the coaches didn’t warn them it was a dangerous game, and didn’t put enough emphasis on it….for two weeks. Maybe they were spending three weeks pointing toward Kentucky. Got it.
Trying to see if that could have possibly been sarcasm because it couldn’t have been said seriously.
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Well, somethong was different about the Dawgs’ energy before the Florida game. A legit question from Murph and basically backed up by player comments.
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Actually, not. I didn’t say, or imply, that some players may not have formed the own indifference on their own. They all have computers, radios, TVs, and their own circle of friends and are free to assign their own level of interest/motivation regardless of what coaches say. I said the coaches were not negligent in the players’ indifference, if that is what it was….and more than parents and teachers aren’t responsible for teenagers who throw their lives away due to drug addiction. The players (and young children) have all been warned repeatedly but make their own decisions. Questioning the coaches for taking a team too lightly is not legit, never have seen that from any coach, with any team. That would be big, and shocking, news.
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A solution to how much Coach Richt’s Bulldogs read their own press would be much appreciated. Seems like they have the most trouble after hearing how good they are–trouble sustaining success
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Maybe. But I also think it has to do with Gurley coming back. It would end up being the focus of the whole week – for EVERYONE. Ask any reader of this blog and they will tell you the reason we read your work is because it is decidedly NOT lazy journalism. And a lot of UGA stories are.
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I appreciate your praise, but, for the record, let me state that I am NOT a journalist, and if it weren’t for the beat writers, this blog wouldn’t be nearly as informative as it tries to be.
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I wasn’t really calling you a journalist, but I get your point. You take a story and go further in depth or call out when teh stupid burns. I like Radi (he went to UGA with my brother) and Seth, but I’m guessing they can come up with enough material this week despite the clampdown. I mean, does anyone really know what Gus’ crazy-ass wife has been up to recently? Can we find out?
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Senator, if I may, it is my opinion that you are, in fact, a journalist. No, you don’t work for an outfit that sells Viagra and toilet paper, but you “cover” Georgia football and college football. That you use traditional media beat writers as sources from time to time does not, to me, lessen your journalism.
And, of course, you are a publisher.
In a general sense, this blog and its publisher are more like journalism than the traditional media. You dig, you write, you publish. What’s not journalism about that?
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I write with an opinionated slant. I’m a fan. That’s the difference.
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Yes suh, ya’lls de boss, suh.
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The NY Times reporter recruiting department is holding for you on line 3.
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THIS is the type of blackout I support % !
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+1
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Amen
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Agree 100%. ‘Bout time.
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+100
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Yeah – I’m okay with all of this.
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the beat reporter butthurt is off the chart on twitter.
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Kick him when he does not have time to act like Nick.
Kick him when he does have time to act like Nick.
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Seeing a herd of reporters whine about lack of access and then assure us that their readers are the only ones being hurt is very, very tiresome.
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It helps make sure their is no locker room material.
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Locker room material? That’s fake juice too.
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Really disrespect is a big motivator. No fake juice there.
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Yeah, I would really like an Auburn player to disrespect Mr. Gurley. I like the idea of him coming out of the tunnel ready to make some people pay.
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This is the way it ought to be all the time IMHO.
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On the other hand
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This is all we need to know this week.
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Couldn’t agree more
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Well said.
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Never gets old.
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I would love to see Gurley and Chubb in a split backfield to start the game.
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That would be SUPER SWEET!
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The last time Richt cut off media access to the players, we found out two days later that Gurley was suspended. Is another shoe about to drop?
In all seriousness, this is so freaking stupid it just boggles my mind. Train the players about what not to say if you must, but cutting off the media’s access to them is just garbage. Auburn’s highly motivated to come in between the hedges and beat Georgia like a rented mule. They’re motivated because of their loss, they’re motivated because they want to win an SEC championship and they’re motivated because IT’S GEORGIA. There’s one team that’s going to be on the field Saturday that has shown an inability to get up for a game against a major rival with title chances on the line. That team will be the one wearing red jerseys. The Auburn Tigers have never shown some inability to show up to play a rival, and their coach hasn’t had to spend hours figuring out how to trick his team into giving effort. So let your players talk, Coach Richt, because there’s nothing that they can say that will get the bad guys any more ready to play than they already were.
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Mark, is that you? Your mother, Mrs. Bradley, said to give her a call.
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You think the Auburn teams we curb stomped in 2012 & 13 were prepared to play?
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Auburn looked pretty prepared in 2013 . More than it was in 2011.
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I must have forgotten the curb-stomping of Auburn in 2013. Probably because Georgia lost that game.
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I can make it in life without hearing what 18-22 year olds think about a game.
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Agree, let’s here what they have to say after the game. Do something, then talk about it.
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Did Auburn get up last years BCS game or did they become the first SEC team to lose in the last 8 years. Did you go to the 07 black out game? did Auburn get up for that game…did Auburn just fail to understand that if they inexplicably lost to a less than impressive Texas A&M team their season was over . Do you really think that Auburn doesn’t choke because if you think that you need to go pull for them…but you probably do.
This is brilliant (blacking out to the media), if you don’t say anything you can’t say anything wrong. We don’t need our players taking interview seminars we need them learning how to defend the spread option. We need a repeat of the visor fling . We need the good to be prepared to triumph over the evil. We need to teach the young players that Marshall didn’t just steal he stole from his UGA teammates.We need to inflict pain,justice and retribution upon the unjust cheaters that The WarPlainstigers personify.Can I get an AMEN?
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I’d say this is almost entirely about Gurley. The hoards are at the gates wanting to ask all the in-depth questions about autographgate. He doesn’t need that before the game, nor the coaches or teammates.
Good Lord I hope he has a good game and we win, because you know they will all make a beeline to him in the locker room after the game regardless of the outcome and will start in on it.
The more I think about it, the more it would make sense for McGarity to get in front of that story this week and release as many details as possible and then explain why no more can be said, and that this line of questioning will be off limits Saturday night.
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Bravo, that is exactly what this is about, and why we should shut it down. And I agree, questions about autograph-gate have been asked and answered, shut it down until after our season is over. Eyes forward, no looking back.
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Agree completely.
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This is probably just a ruse to destroy my Fabris pool picks. The leading rusher and scorer for TCU was out with “an upper torso injury” and no one found out until Saturday morning. The injury was rumored to be a concussion sustained in the game the previous week. How did the reporters not find out about that during the week? After I found out, it was too late to change my pick for the game, luckily, they covered anyway.
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“give ’em all a nice big $h!tburger to eat…”
Lou Brown, Major League
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So we’re on Double Secret Preparation?
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TAGS reference?
Awesome.
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So this means that we have a chance?
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Where’s pulpwood? I need me some pulpwood…
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What has happened to Pulpwood? I really miss him, but am glad he did not surface before the WLOCP.
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Richt corrected what Wilson said quick like after the Kentucky game.
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