Mark Richt tells Seth Emerson what he’s looking for with the next head of strength and conditioning.
“The bottom line here is we believe in playing a physical brand of football on both sides of the ball,” Richt said. “We want to be able to play physical. There’s certain teams that you play that will be teams that will pound the ball or have a physical style of play. We certainly have a physical style of play on offense, with also the ability to throw the ball as good as anybody. We’re very balanced in what we do. So it’s going to be important there.
“But there are some teams that spread and go fast. So we want to be able to be physical, but recover quickly and go be physical again. And so that’ll be a big part of what we’re doing, is to train our team to be able to handle anything that could possibly come up in a ballgame, as far as the physical part of it as well as the mental part that comes with it. It gets developed in your offseason program.”
In other words, he wants it all. Nothing wrong with that!
Seriously, I get what Richt’s saying. And with the variety of offenses Georgia faces in the SEC, he’s right to want that kind of flexibility. What’s important to see here is the implicit recognition that he wasn’t getting that with Joe T’s program. It will be interesting to see the background and philosophy of Richt’s next hire. I think most of us believe Georgia has some catching up to do with its peers.
Get The Picture 
Who’s playing in the Lord & Taylor and Talbot’s Bowls?
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Go get Urban’s guy.
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Honestly, I’ve got some time off in the next couple of weeks and I’m thinking about walking outside B-M with a sign saying “Hire Turley”. The more I read about Shannon Turley, the more impressed I am with the guy. Stanford has been arguably the most physical team in the Pac-12 recently (I know, I know), but they’ve also been able to keep Oregon speedsters in check in years past. And, more importantly than anything else, they keep players healthy. Injuries have probably cost Georgia 4-5 games the last 2 years.
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If either can be bought, buy Scott Cochran or Shannon Turley.
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I know nothing about S&C, but I hope we get the right guy who can combine strength with conditioning. It seemed we were in better condition last year, but especially on defense, we didn’t look as strong between the tackles.
My main question is how do our S&C facilities rank with our peers. In other words, do we have the guy to lead the program combined with the right facilities and equipment to get the job done?
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I’d say they’re in the top 5 in the conference. The weight room is impressive, just not Alabama impressive. But Jesus Christ, the Tide weight room could hold a squadron of Apache helicopters.
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I have walked through the UGA weight room, while nice it wasn’t that impressive to me. I haven’t been in any other college weight rooms but I guess I expected more. Sure it looks nice and has several stations but many of them are repeat stations. The weight room is set up to run ~5 guys through at the same time on each station (~5 squat racks side by side and ~5 flat benches side by side and etc.). I have been in private gyms a fair amount over the last few years (I go tot he gym 4 times a week) with more pieces of different equipment but those gyms are not set up specifically for football training of 100 guys. IF a full size IPF is built the current IPF is next to the weight room and I could see some if not all of it taken over by the next wt. room expansion.
I believe that with the new rules UGA should hire more training staff. Training for linemen (OL and DL) should have a guy, RBs and LBs have a dedicated trainer, WRs and DBs have a dedicated trainer. It is difficult for 1 guy to train all these different positions with each guy needing to focus on something slightly different. While someone that is very knowledgeable about training overall is needed I feel more guys responsible for specific grouping is needed. But I don’t know specifically about football training and how UGA runs the program now (they could have that already but I only see 3 guys listed as full time training staff).
But I have been wrong before, ask my wife.
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Not to inflate the LEGEND OF PRUITT..but this sure smells like it will have his finger-prints all over it. It’s funny…listening to Seth/Gentry podcast last week talking about the ‘trade off’ b/w Grantham’s beefy line and Pruitt’s svelte line and all I could think about was “Pruitt wants both.” I think you see that in the recruiting…best DLine recruits I can remember under Richt with a chance to add a few more. I’m sure whoever it is will fit the pitch that Pruitt, Bobo, McClendon, etc. have been making about SC and the IPF.
BTW, anyone know the count on how many they can sign? I’ve got 31-32 if they back count some to 2014 and get a waiver for Rico Johnson.
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Whatever Bama did with their D-line this year looks like a good mix. They don’t have any Mt. Cody-sized NTs, but absolutely shut down the run, and had a good pass rush (the meltdowns vs Auburn were on the secondary players.)
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Actually Bama lacked a serious pass rush this season, they weren’t awful with pressure but they were mid-conference level, imo. Most of their fans are very concerned about the secondary threat against the deep pass. Auburn burned them with it several times, but they didn’t play many passing attacks that had the ability to throw deep….A&M’s is a dink and throw offense. But you are right, the front 7 was impressive.
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Find someone who can strengthen the ACL and keep it healthy…. (i know… but just saying)
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Just look for someone that can make our boys look like Bama’s dline.
And Bama’s dline is built to do 1 thing: stop the run.
They are 1st in the conf in run def, 11th in pass def, and 10th in interceptions.
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Until UGA recruits some tall thick linemen like Bama and FSU it won’t matter who the S&C coach is. Too much signing of easy gets. I won’t call names but just look at how many lineman recruits never touch the field for UGA. There was a string of them on Senior Day.
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LifeTime and Gold’s Gym are running holiday specials!
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They use planet fitness at LSu with the plum crazy purple and fools gold yellow colors.
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Comments by Bright Idea and CousinEddie are very good and on point.
Think the way Coach T handled Gurley during the suspension period may not have been satisfactory. Too many skilled people with ACLs past 2 season. Has to be some tangible reason for that.
Like to see program get more players rotated in during games…more depth. Have 85, but there has to be a closing of 1’s and 2’s not only in skill and technique but S&C.
Sounds like AD runs everything on the “cheap”. Get an indoor facility up now, not tomorrow.
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This is, imho, the most important issue for the Bulldogs off season.
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