Georgia Post-Game Quotes - Georgia vs. Vanderbilt
October 04, 2014 | Football
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Georgia Head Coach Mark Richt
Opening Statement...
""There's no doubt, victory is great. It sure beats losing. The guys did play hard. Defensively, we were outstanding most of the day. On offense, we ran the ball well and we threw and caught better. We had more balance in the attack today. To me, balance is if they pack the box being able to throw to get them out or when there's double coverage being able to run well enough to get them out. Are we there yet? I don't know. We hit the deep ball for a touchdown, which was nice, and we need to keep stretching the field. We need to make sure defenders know we can go deep if we need to and throw and catch if we need to."
"Our special teams were good and not so good. I was disappointed how we punted today. We're better than that. We need to work on that consistency. At practice, we're ooh and aah, but we struggle in the game. We need to do a better job of punting like we do in practice."
"A lot of freshmen have come in and helped us. You see a lot more high school kids being 1-sport guys and practicing their trade year-round now. By the time they get here, they are ready to help us."
"Hutson (Mason) practiced well this week. We made a conscious decision to get Brice (Ramsey) in the game early on, so everyone knew that going in. Other than the pick, I thought Hutson played extremely well today. For Brice, there's nothing like a game. You can practice all you want, but you can't simulate the feeling of a game. It was good he got a couple of snaps under his belt. He missed a couple of passes high, but he's got to get used to the sensation of being out there."
"Todd (Gurley) is a big, physical guy. As the game wears on, he's in good enough condition where tired tacklers struggle to get him on the ground. And the linemen see that and they get excited to block in the third and fourth quarter."
"We're improving in a lot of areas. Defensively, we're getting closer to communicating the things we need to do and we're executing better. We're getting more reps and more confidence. We've got a chance to keep improving as a football team. If we do that, we've got a chance to get back to Atlanta."
"Missouri won the East last year, they've had this week off and an extra week to prepare for us, and they're at home (next Saturday). I'm not sure what else they could be looking for right now."
DB Damian Swann
On today's game...
"This is a great victory and a good momentum builder for us. Now it's just time for us to go and start getting ready for Missouri next week."
On Devin Bowman's play today...
"He played big for us. That pick-six was a huge play and it changed the momentum for us. I think Bowman has really developed into someone that we can depend on a lot down the road."
CB Devin Bowman
On wearing Rico Johnson's No. 19...
"I wanted to wear his number because he's my friend and my teammate. He and I are really close and I just wanted to surprise him. I think I honored him today."
On how the secondary is playing right now...
"I think we're going up every day and getting better every game. We're putting in a lot of work and doing our best to get better each day. We'll have to see where we're at next week."
QB Hutson Mason
On the game...
"I thought this was probably one of our better performances of the year in the passing game. I had to kind of sit down and gut check myself this week and see what I had to fix. It was something as simple as changing my mentality. I just needed to stop trying to be somebody that I'm really not. I'm one of those guys that performs better by trying to keep it simple and that's what I tried to do. I wanted to come out and make it as simple as possible."
On building a rhythm with his receivers tonight...
"I didn't really think it was an issue today. I just had to o out and let it rip. I told myself all week in practice that if I saw guys get separation then I would just let it rip and that's what I tried to do today."
FLK Chris Conley
On this year's team compared to last year's team at this point in the season...
"This is a different team and a younger team. We're trying to make progress every week. This is a younger team with a lot of talent. We just have to try and treat each week like a learning experience and get better."
On getting the first SEC win of the season...
"We feel great about what we're doing. We feel good that we're getting better each week. In order to get back (to the SEC Championship) we have to get better each week and that starts in practice. We got some good film today and we just need to keep working and getting better."
Vanderbilt Post-Game Quotes
Vanderbilt Head Coach Derek Mason
On the game...
"This was a tough football game and tough loss. Georgia is a good football team and Todd Gurley is a good back. They did a good job of establishing themselves early and we didn't do a good job of getting ourselves off the field. They established the tempo and put together a couple of long drive that ended in touchdowns. I thought we did some good things in this game. I thought we showed the ability to have long drives, but weren't able to finish those drives. "
On the late turnover...
"We had a costly turnover late in the ball game. We had a little bit of momentum and then wrong play was called and you look up and the ball is going the other way. It was a bad play all the way around for us. I thought we were just starting to get our feet going and get some momentum."
On the effort...
"It was disappointing to let that last touchdown get away from us. Tackling is an effort thing and we were late on guys and didn't finish. That is disappointing and we have to get back and make sure we fight until the end. We didn't have enough consistency all the way around, on offense and defense, to come in here between the hedges and get a win."
TE Steven Scheu
On the pick-six being the wrong play call...
"We thought the play call was kind of funky. Once we heard it in the huddle guys were kind of looking around thinking that probably wasn't the best call, but nobody stood up and said anything about it, unfortunately. It was just obviously the wrong play call against that sort of defense that they were running so that's a tough break."
On whether or not having to shuffle around QBs due to injury affects the play calling...
"It might, but honestly I think that's just kind of an error that typically doesn't happen regardless of who the quarterback is or how many reps they've been getting during the week. That typically just doesn't happen. Unfortunately it did in this case, but typically it doesn't."
On whether or not he feels better about the team's quarterback position going forward... "We definitely made some strides and we have been making strides in the passing game. Unfortunately there's no moral victories. We did improve today but a loss is a loss and it's tough regardless of how you play."
ILB Nigel Bowden
On how he felt the defense did containing Gurley...
"I feel like we didn't start off good at first, but once we started going we got the feel for him. They did a good job switching the backs in and out so we had to change up for No. 27 [Nick Chubb] and then go back to Gurley, but I felt like we did a good job going against him and slowing him down."
On how the defense was tricked by the Wildcat pass...
"On the Wildcat we were mostly expecting him [Gurley] to run, but they kind of just threw us off. Everybody was coming downhill, so they got us off-balance and got their tight end to go downhill."
On giving up a touchdown right before the half...
"I feel like we just made small mistakes. That's it. Not getting back, not tackling. But we're getting better and better each week. We've just got to limit the mental mistakes."
