Richt’s Message To Team Is Clear, But UGA Players Sharing That Message Could Fire Up Bama

 Send This Story To A Friend

I’m starting to get the feeling that Mark Richt has been telling his team that they have zero reason to be in awe of Alabama.  Before you say, “of course,” keep in mind that Alabama’s been so dominant in recent years that Richt may want to make sure that his guys know Nick Saban’s players put their pants on one leg at a time, too.

Why do I think Richt has been beating this particular drum?  Because players tend to repeat to the media what their coaches tell them behind closed doors.  And Georgia’s players are flapping their gums without end regarding Bama.

Bulldog safety Bacarri Rambo was the first to pop off:

“I feel like we’re more talented.  We have better players at each position, across the board, especially on defense.  It’s going to be a great challenge for us.  I know it’s going to be a battle.  It’s going to come down to who has the best defense and who makes more turnovers.  It’s going to be a battle of the defenses.”

UGA corner Sanders Commings wouldn’t bow before Alabama either:

“I think we’re the best defense in the country.  I thought we were last year and we have 10 out of 11 or 12 players back who are part of the starting rotation.  So there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be the top defense.  Everybody on this defense thinks we are…

It’s good to play with confidence.  Confidence is just another word for swagger.  We step on the field and that swagger is turned all they way up.  We feel like we can shut anybody down, shut anybody out.  In order to play good, you have to be confident, you have to have swagger.”

Enter Georgia tight end Arthur Lynch:

“This year, we know what to expect.  With all due respect to Alabama, we’ve been in this game in the past two years more than they have…

When you go against a team like Alabama, you’re not taken back by their athleticism, their size (thanks to going against UGA’s defense in practice).  I’m impressed by them, but I’m not overwhelmed by the fact that, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Alabama’s defense.’…

I’m not the least bit intimidated… but it’s probably going to be the best defense we’ve faced all year, right up there with South Carolina and Florida.”

See what I mean about this being a message Richt is sending to his players?  (Though here’s guessing he’d just as soon they not send it right down the road to the folks in Tuscaloosa.)

Asked if he thinks some teams have lost to Alabama before their games have even kicked off, Commings said: “I definitely think that’s the case.  They have a history of being great, and they are a great team.  But at the end of the day, here at Georgia, we realize those guys were recruited here and we were recruited there.  We’re all great athletes.  We’re both great football teams.  We both have great coaches.  We see them as everybody else we’ve played this season.  It’s just another game for us.”

Richt’s approach is probably a sound one.  Now if only his players would stop sounding off about it…

(SIDENOTE — Anyone who wants to say, “If Alabama needs bulletin board material to get fired up… yada, yada, yada” doesn’t know a thing about college athletics.  There’s a reason there’s such a thing as bulletin board material.  Every coach and every player uses it.  And Georgia is giving plenty of it to Alabama this week.)