Oct. 11, 2010
Players Discuss UGA Game | Caldwell’s PC | 
Game Notes & Depth Charts
Robbie Caldwell’s opening statement:
“Saturday was a great day for us. We had an opportunity to make some plays and we did. We did what we were supposed to do and took care of business and I’m very proud of the team in all phases. Did we play perfect? No. We turned the ball over and had some fumbles that we shouldn’t have had. Bad snaps continue to plague us. It’s hard to explain, but we keep working on it and keep pounding on it and we’re going to get it right one day. We are making progress and getting better. I already told you that I apologize for the mishap in the kicking game. It appeared to be an onside kick but I’m sincere in that and it’s my fault, totally. Otherwise, in that two-minute drive before the first half [Larry Smith] was seven-for-seven and I’m very proud of that drive. These are things we work on and we don’t do very well in practice and our people are coming from everywhere. It goes to show that we were getting better at it. [Larry Smith] had an excellent game. We all saw the pass that he overthrew in the endzone. That happens to the best of them and I’m proud of the progress he made. The running backs did extremely well. You can tell they’re healing. They look quicker and faster. You can tell that John Cole has healed up from his nicks and showed some speed. He knows and we knew that he had that but getting nicked up a little bit affected him. Defensively, our young defensive front did a good job coming through without T.J. Greenstone and we haven’t had [Adam] Smotherman at all. We certainly missed our leadership in there without Chris Marve in the middle. Some guys stepped up and we got to play a lot of people. That was a plus. I think that was the first time we’ve done that since I’ve been here, getting to play everyone on the sideline so it was a big boost for us.Georgia, it’s going to be rough. Both of us need one. I’m glad to see them get on track; it just always seems to be at the wrong time. They played extremely well on Saturday. Of course, we have to go into their house so it’s going to be quite a challenge. It looks like they are getting to full strength and it’s going to be quite a task for us but I’m certainly looking forward to it. Can’t wait to load up and go down there. They’re very sound defensively. They do a great job adjusting to schemes and moving. They have a pretty sound front, big guys and they have good speed in the secondary. It’s going to be a challenge for us. They play several different coverages so we’ll have to be on our P’s and Q’s. Offensively, their quarterback is playing extremely well I think and know they have the big boy [A.J. Green] back and they fling it down there and he’s hard to stop, so we’re going to have to come up with quite a plan to slow that down. They are a sound football team and they’ve had some tough luck like ourselves. The challenge is going to be great and we’re excited about it and can’t wait to get going.”
On the confidence of the team after a big win:
“We’ve been working on throwing the ball down the field and adjusting our receivers. One thing Larry [Smith] faces that’s difficult is that we are having to play a lot of folks and the reason for that is we know that injuries are forthcoming, it’s just part of the game. We have to be prepared and sometimes in the passing game we’ve held those guys, which is going to happen sometimes because we have few numbers, so we are trying to prepare more people. How many people caught balls on Saturday, 11 or 12? I thought it was a good many. Sometimes it’s difficult because not all the receivers run the pattern like they’re supposed to. He’s adjusted well and is very confident and played extremely well. He was one of our offensive players of the game.”
On carrying over the execution from the game:
“It gives them a great deal of confidence. Getting to do some things more than once was big for us. We got several running backs in the game. For example, Zac Stacy broke a play that Warren [Norman] had run previously a couple of times and scored on the same play. Zac [Stacy] broke a tackle and took off. The repetition of it all and getting to do it against other people is very important.”
On Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray:
“He seems to have a great grasp of what they are trying to do. He has a good command of the offense it appears. They’ve been scoring points. They’ve just had some tough luck and have come up short just a couple of times, but against Colorado they fumbled and had a chance to kick a field goal and win the game. He’s a great player who commands the offense and can throw the football. I think he sees the big picture of what they are trying to do.”
On if there is an advantage of playing during the day on the road:
“I don’t know. We’ve gotten up early. What we’ll do for an early meeting like that, we’ll get up and have a 7 a.m. meeting and wake them all up and kiss them good morning and send them off to class, and get some breakfast and make sure they are up and not sleeping in because we have to get in the habit of it. We’ve been doing it every time we play early and it seems to help. At first they didn’t want to hear that and afterwards they say, `Coach, are we going to get up early?’ So they are buying into it and confident and are seeing what we are trying to do so it’s all for them. They are all for it now.”
On Chris Marve and T.J. Greenstone:
“T.J. [Greenstone] has a possibility of being ready. [Adam] Smotherman won’t be 100 percent but he’s going to go tomorrow so we’ll see how he holds up. [Chris] Marve is still questionable. Wednesday he had his knee scoped. It hasn’t been a week yet. He says he’s going to play. He’ll probably practice towards the end of the week, if he does at all.”
On feeling pressure when the team is a favorite to win:
“That’s a great question. Everybody asks that. They don’t paint a picture of victory. Two days from now you don’t care. You just want to know if they lost or won. If it’s a `W’ then I’m happy. Now, behind the scenes, we’re going to go to work on what we didn’t do well. Let’s face it, if you beat your buddy in golf by one stroke or 20, what difference does it make? You took his money. They don’t paint a portrait now. We just want to win. It was nice to win big now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t care how they come, as long as they come up as a `W’. As I said a few weeks ago, that `W’ train rides a whole lot better than the `L’.”
On getting on track in the second quarter:
“I don’t know why. I wish I did because I would switch it and do it the first quarter. I think a lot of it is a tribute to youth maybe. They are all excited and pressing real hard and make mistakes. It’s like the fumble going in early. We’ve run that play 10,000 times, almost literally. If you ask Larry [Smith], he says he thought he had it. You ask someone else and they thought they pulled. I mean, we ran it another twenty times in the game and never had a problem. What it is, I don’t know but we are working on it. If I had that miracle I would be set. We are working on it everyday. That’s the first thing they do in ball handling, is that same play over and over. We then settle down and make adjustments and they see it. We do nothing different, just instill a little more confidence in them.”
On using new players on the offensive line:
“It can be very difficult according to who you play. By that I mean their defensive scheme. If they are doing a lot of moving and stunting it can be very difficult for a person to step in. If they stay in one front, that usually means they are very good, but at least you know where they are. It doesn’t matter who you do it to, just how you do it. That’s what we’re faced with. We have to teach both. Who you block and how you block. If you can teach them one they can usually settle in pretty good. It’s an adjustment and they did very well. They were like us, it appears they went back to the drawing board and changed some things. They put some new people in there.”
On Rajaan Bennett:
“Rajaan is a very sensitive subject to us. This freshmen class is a very close group. They’ve already been to me twice this week about different things they have planned and the university has planned. As I’ve said before, everyone knows he’s a great player. His record stands alone there. But I just hate that the world won’t get to know him like we did. I hate that you won’t. You would have been impressed. I know you’ve all interviewed a lot of people in your time but there is none more special than that young man. He wrote papers in the eighth grade and ninth grade that just mirrored exactly what he said he was going to do and he did it and he accomplished it. He lost his dad at a very early age to a car wreck and has always been the head of the household. He had a special needs brother and he didn’t play other sports so he could help take care of him. We’ll never forget him, ever. This freshmen class, he’ll be a part of it and they are making sure of that. There will be a lot of things you won’t see or hear or read about but time will move on. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too much on what we have planned. He’s a very special person. It’s hard for me to talk about him after getting to know him the way we did and getting to know his family.”
