What Mark Richt said about UGA's OT loss, squib kick decision
Here’s what Georgia head coach Mark Richt had to say about Georgia’s devastating overtime loss to Georgia Tech.
Mark Richt, Georgia
Opening statement
“First of all, I want to say how proud I am of the team and the coaching staff and how hard they worked and how hard our guys played. I want to also thank our fan base. Dawg Nation showed up and did a great job … I’m probably as sick as I have ever been after a loss. I’m as sick about any call that I made when it came to deciding to squib the kick at the end, basically giving them enough field position and enough opportunity to give them position to get the kick. Not a good decision there. A lot of heroic play by our players even to the very end … as it turns out Georgia Tech found a way to win it and you have to give them credit.
On decision to squib the kick
“If you kick deep, then there’s a chance they can set up a return and take it to the house. If you squib it, then it’s hard to get a touchdown on the kick. Your squib does tend to give them more field position. That’s the difference. If you kick deep and a team that sets up a beautiful return and takes it to the house, that’s a bad decision there. But we’ve been covering kicks pretty good and Marshall [Morgan] does a good job of getting the ball up and getting our guys in position to make tackles. And our guys did all day. Obviously, hindsight is helpful but I should have kicked it deep and let them cover the thing and see what happens from there.”
On emotions of last 24 hours following Missouri win
“Obviously, we would have love to be playing for the SEC Championship, but that’s not the feeling that we’re dealing with now. We’re just dealing with the loss of a game, a loss of game where guys fought their hearts and seniors here on their last game here. That’s the thing that hurts the most.
On Justin Thomas’ run late in the game to set up FG
“He’s a good scrambler and it’s hard to keep a guy like that wrapped up. We’re playing to make sure they didn’t throw the ball down into that position, so we played more coverage. But as we covered it created space and he did a good job of scrambling. He’s a really good athlete. Nothing wrong with the play call, he just made a really good play.”
On GT’s time of possession success
“They had a lot of time of possession. They had a long drive [in the third quarter], then we ripped it out and scored and we had to go back out and play defense again. That’s just part of the game. They did a good job of being methodical running the ball. We got some stops when we needed to, but we just didn’t get it done in the end.”