The More Animated Mark Richt

The New Orleans newspaper wonders aloud if the schedule is too much for the Dawgs. My favorite part of the piece includes this exchange about the more animated, more emotional Mark Richt:

The icy Richt demeanor, one forged as offensive coordinator at Florida State and then honed as the sole play-caller at Georgia, had a chance to melt when he turned over game-day signals to offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. Untethered at last, Richt realized he could show more emotion on the sideline.

Despite the obvious success against Florida, Richt said the new persona had some critics. After he'd spent "two or three games getting in the ear of officials, " he said one of them looked at him with astonishment during a game and said he thought Richt was a class act.

"I am a class act, " Richt said he barked back.

Like I've said numerous times. Let "Nice Richt" do the press conferences, but let Evil Richt out of the cage for game day. Man, we'd never lose.

Other Dawg Headlines from Cajun Country:
-- 3 in a row for SEC-based national title winners? - Baton Rouge Advocate


PWD

Coach Richt answers The Celebration questions

"...and when we score, we're going to celebrate right over there."
At SEC Media Days, Richt was asked if The Celebration may have intensified the rivalry with the Florida Gators. His response (per the AJC):

"I don't think there's any doubt it's intensified the rivalry," Richt said Thursday. "But what intensified the rivalry is that we won. OK? I mean, that's the reality."

"You know, people want to talk about streaks in that game. The way I see it, we won last year. We won two out of the last four," Richt said.

"And if you want to start going back in history, you might as well go back to the beginning of the history of the series and see where Georgia is there. I don't know why everybody wants to go just 15 games back. I mean, if you want to go back, go back to the beginning. If you want to talk about recent history, let's talk about last year, the last few games, you know."

In other words, 47-37-2. So check yourself.

John Kaltefleiter at the ABH wrote this, and I loved the wording:

As for Meyer's retaliation plans for Nov. 1, who knows? One thing's certain, though — what was a one-sided rivalry for the last 18 years is now all-compassing. For the first time since Georgia dominated the series before Steve Spurrier's arrival in Gainesville, Florida has more venom for Georgia than any of its other opponents.

Shouldn't it be that way every year with these schools?

More more Georgia vs. Florida headlines:

-- Winning grows the rivalry - AJC
-- Meyer's Grudge Good for the Rivalry - ABH
-- Georgia / Florida looking toward November match-up - USAToday
-- Win spiced up rivalry - ESPN
-- Urban Vows to Get Even - Orlando Sentinel
-- Richt's Wrong Ploy - Gainesville Sun (Pat Dooley)
-- Richt: "I shouldn't have done that" - Gainesville Sun (beat writer)
-- Gators still miffed - Tampabay.com
-- Richt's Regret? - Rivals.com
-- Meyer still irked - Palm Beach Post
-- Let it go already - Columbus Ledger
-- Coach finds his fire - Kentucky.com

PWD

As much as I heart Evil Richt....

...I gotta tell ya...Normal Richt pretty much kicks ass, too. The Oklahoma State student newspaper has a great article about the recovery of OSU wide receiver Artrell Woods. You may remember that Woods was almost paralyzed during a weight lifting incident in Stillwater prior to the season opener with Georgia last year. Woods talks about his time in the hospital and the support UGA game him:

Woods said the level of support he received was a motivating factor in his recovery.

“I got tremendous support,” Woods said. “Nurses would walk in with a stack of e-mails from people from all over the place, not just Oklahoma. People from OU, Georgia, Texas, wherever, just everybody.”

The University of Georgia football team and coach Mark Richt sent Woods an autographed football and the players and coaches sent their best wishes. That gift meant a lot to Woods.

“They were so nice to me; I still have that football,” Woods said. “It’s like a showcase thing for me. “It just meant the world to me.”

Damn. What can you add to something like that? Nothing.

Separately, the expanding national story that is the 2008 Georgia Bulldog team, grows daily. Today, the LA Times suggests that Georgia could be the team to beat. However, a much larger media super power (The Tifton Gazette) interviews Richt and says the coach cautioned fans not to book travel to Miami for the title game ... yet.

PWD

Of grumpy coaches and nerds on the run

As you know by now, this blog stands firmly in support of Evil Richt. Whether jumping off bridges to pick up chicks, fighting Al Qaeda, chewing Penn Wagers a new a-hole, or celebrating in your end zone and laughing about it, Evil Richt rolls hard.

So I'm pleased to see Evil Richt in a grumpy mood post practice yesterday complaining about the effort and generally in a foul mood.

"It was half-hearted at best. It was almost like they were looking around and waiting for me to cancel practice. If not for the four-hour rule, I would have started the whole thing over."

Normal Richt does the recruiting and schmoozing. Great. Love it. But letting Evil Richt out of his cage a bit more will win us a national title. Other headlines from yesterday:

-- 11,000 tickets pre-sold for G-Day. 40k possible - AJC
-- King gets a boost - ABH
-- Better Bean - Macon Tel
-- Context for Richt's 62% completion mandate for Stafford - GTP
-- Moreno ready for Action - Chattanooga Free Press
-- Baseball: Dawgs clobber Clemson - DawgSports

And in nerd news, Paul Johnson continues to struggle to find anyone excited about playing in his leather helmet offense. Leading WR James Johnson has quit the team.

PWD

PS --> Check out the new poll on the right. What are your thoughts?

Evil Richt Radio rocks 790theZone

Evil Richt rocks the airwaves

Mark Richt spent several minutes with the 790theZone morning crew on Wednesday. During the interview, Richt ditched the "Awe Shucks" routine that he learned from Papa Bowden. Instead, the humble coach went straight for the Evil Richt Black Hat, and he gave an incredibly entertaining interview covering topics such as:

-- The BCS
-- Playoffs in college football
-- LSU and The Ohio State University
-- The media
-- Sugar Bowl Match-up with Hawaii
-- "No Win" nature of the Hawaii game (he blows that idea up)
-- The Hawaii offense
-- His expectations for the 2008 Pre-season Ranking
-- Caleb King

I think he did a great job of recapping his positions on the final weekend of football without sounding bitter or defensive. He comes off as very impressive and credible. Most importantly, he doesn't shy away from calling the Hawaii Game exactly what it is....we are auditioning for the 2008 Pre-Season Pollsters.

The 790theZone guys asked him, "Do you think you should be ranked #1 next year?" Normally, Richt would poor mouth and awe shucks here and say something like "Well...I don't know about that. There are lots of good teams out there. We just have to take care of business, and that will sort itself out." Not this interview. This time he says (paraphrase because you can listen for yourself) "We should start somewhere between #1 and 3."

BOOM! That's how you embrace the expectations without heating the flames to new heights. Every UGA fan will be expecting us to be pretty damn strong next year so why run from that? Embrace it. I about wrecked my car when he said it because I wasn't expecting him to be so blunt.

I felt more confident that we're showing up ready to ball in New Orleans than ever after listening to the interview.

Here's the Audio.

See Also:
-- 2008 Sugar Bowl Tickets -- Stubhub
-- Douche bag Falcon player picks Hawaii to kill UGA - AJC

PWD

Sugar Bowl News & Tickets

The Athletic Department has announced all season ticket holders who requested Sugar Bowl seats will get them. UGA has sold over 22,000 tickets in the pre-order period. For those of you with scores of below 6,000, remember to bring your oxygen mask, crampons, and a Sherpa because your seats at the Superdome are likely to be over 6,000 feet from the action. It will be a climb.

Also, Coach Richt announced that the Dawgs will wear their black jerseys again for the Sugar Bowl. Fans are asked to take the blackout on the road, all the way to New Orleans. Uh, don't the Warriors wear black, too?

Quinton

Evil Richt Rocks the House

After the Florida game, Orson Swindle told me that Georgia brought Evil Richt to the Cocktail Party. Well, it looks like Kathryn sent Evil Richt to his second game of the season. (Image: DawgPost.com)

Evil Richt knows how to party. Evil Richt would drink you under a table. Evil Richt shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Evil Richt stares down officials and eats them for breakfast. Evil Richt fell into a burning ring of fire and laughed about it. Evil Richt once spent a night in the Starkville City jail for picking flowers. Evil Richt wears black.

I heart Evil Richt. Frankly, I'd like to roll with Evil Richt, but I'm not man enough. Plus, I just said, "I heart..." That's a good way to get your ass kicked when riding with the Coach in Black.

The AJC has the story of the uniform change. Actually, they have two stories on the making of the Blackout. Apparently, the seniors knew, but no one else new for sure.

Someone tell Mark to grow a goatee. It's the only thing missing from the Evil Richt look. More on the game later.

See Also:
-- Officially outrageous - DawgPost.com
-- Audio from Richt - AJC
-- Game pics - AJC
-- Blackout a success - AJC
-- Richt wears the black hat - DawgPost
-- Stafford Shines - Mark Bradley
-- Kelin Johnson directs the Band - ABH
-- Best streak since 1942 - AJC
-- Blackout becomes Wipeout - ABH
-- Devotion to senior class pays off - ABH
-- Worst kept secret in UGA history - Ching
-- Richt victory watch - DawgSports
-- Notes from the blackout - Get the Picture

Related Merchandise and Items:
-- T-Shirt: Blackout Auburn - Footballfanatics
-- Tickets: Kentucky vs. Georgia - Stubhub

PWD