What The SEC Coaches Are Talking About This Week

Published November 3, 2011 - 7:08am

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Georgia coach Mark Richt on the timing of the suspensions of his running backs that included Isaiah Crowell:

“We’ve always had the utmost integrity in everything we do and we have policies in place in our athletic association that we follow to the ‘T,’” Richt said. “That’s the case here and that’s been the case since I’ve been here at Georgia. We all know we do our business the way it should be done and we do it with integrity.”

“People who make comments, who don’t know, probably shouldn’t, quite frankly, because they don’t know,” he said. “I’d be able to prove 100 percent that they’re wrong, but I’m not gonna spend the time doing that. The bottom line is we follow our rules. We have rules and we follow them to the ‘T’ and we have the utmost integrity in how we go about our business. That’s how we’ve tried to build this program since the day I got here and we’re not going change for any reason.”

Richt on the all-important matchup between Arkansas and the leader of the East in South Carolina, and the possibility of ‘Calling the Hogs’:

“I gotta learn how to do that,” Richt said. “I was trying to do it. I know it has something to do with [saying] “sooie,” but I gotta learn how to do that right. If I do, I might try to get the boys to be ready to cheer on Saturday night.”

Vanderbilt’s head coach James Franklin on Florida’s dominance over Vanderbilt heading into this weekend:

“We don’t talk about things like that,“ Franklin said. “It’s not a focus for us. Where we’re at as a program, every win, every week is a significant win for us. We don’t look at one game or one venue, whether it’s out of conference, whether it’s in conference, as any more significant than the other. We try to be the best Vanderbilt we can be, week in and week out. We want to be at the end of this week. That’s our schedule and our philosophy in how we do things around here.”

South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier on a possible Alabama-LSU rematch in the National Championship game:

“It’s interesting. I keep reading that no rematch for the these two teams and I’m not so sure that’s the truth or not,” Spurrier said. “And I’m not so sure a rematch, if they both win out all the way through, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

“I’m a believer that if a rematch does occur that the formula that we have in place is to get the best two teams at the end of the year and this is certainly not the end of the year for LSU or Alabama,” he said.

Florida offensive coordinator Charlie Weis on the Gators’ wretched offensive production:

“I thought the rest of that Alabama game (without an injured John Brantley in the second half) was going to be a bit of a struggle. And going into LSU I thought that would be a bit of a struggle, especially when young Jacoby (Brissett) was dialed up after he hadn’t had a snap, I thought that would have been a bit of a struggle. … I’m probably most disappointed that in the last two weeks, we didn’t make enough plays on offense to win the last two games.



I think that’s probably my biggest disappointment. They were two games that you can’t say were mismatched opponents. That’s the thing I’m discouraged about the most.”

Dan Mullen on Mississippi State’s less than impressive showing this season:

“I’ve said all along, this is one of the most important seasons in school history, and we’re battling through that right now. We get ourselves to a bowl game this year, and hopefully a really good bowl game, you know what, we’re going in the right direction we want to go with this program.”

Ole Miss’ head coach Houston Nutt on job security:

“I don’t look at it that way, going into the office like, ‘Uh-oh, this could be it.’ I don’t look at it that way,” Nutt said yesterday. “I’m in charge or responsible for about 120 guys. I love it here. But I know this, they pay me to win. Right now we’re not winning”

“I’ll take every single day and give you everything I have,” Nutt added. “I’ve done that since the first day I got here, worked from daylight to exhaustion. Everyday, giving it. Trying to make a difference in a young person’s life and try to win football games. We haven’t done that this year. I don’t like that. I hate losing.

A lot of it, when you look back, you look at guys that should be here. Guys like Clarence Jackson, a Patrick Patterson, Tig Barksdale. You look at guys that bottom line, for whatever reason, didn’t work out, hurt your numbers.”