Daily Dawg Thread – October 31, 2021

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Daily Dawg Thread – October 31, 2021


Transcript: Dan Mullen’s Postgame Presser

Opening statement… 

“Obviously, a tough game for us against a very good football team. I give them a lot of credit. They  have very talented players and they play with great effort. They take advantage of opportunities.  They play really good team football and you have to give them a lot of credit. Looking at us right  now, we’re not where we want to be. I’m certainly not where I want to be and our players certainly  are not where they want to be at this point of the season. It’s a mindset right now that we have to go  change. Football is a great team sport, the ultimate team sport. As the head coach, the mindset of  the team falls on me… Where we’re at, the attitude, the approach and everything falls on me.  Obviously, I know we’re two-thirds of the way through the season right now. I’m certainly not pleased  with where we are and I know our players are not pleased with where we are. I know Gator Nation is  not pleased with where we are with the standards and expectations within this program. But, in this  final third of the season, that’s on me to get this fixed. The approach I take and mindset that we play  with, that’s on me to get fixed and I certainly plan on doing that – on changing where we’re at right  now with us, creating some positive energy and some confidence for us, and the expectations to  feed off of each other. I’m going to work and make sure I get that right.” 

On the fans who are feeling the program isn’t going on the right trajectory… 

 

 

 

 

“Here’s the deal – as you start slipping and the rope is slipping, you go on a little rope pull. It really  pertains to everything… It pertains to individual games. At times we play really well, and then the  rope slips and we kind of let a lot of it go. Against good teams, you can’t do that. Offense, defense – The entire team has to grasp on [the rope]. There are going to be ebbs and flows in the course of  each game. As the rope slips throughout your hands, you can either let it drop, which isn’t the answer  and won’t fix anything. Then, you’re going to feel that burn and you’re not going to squeeze as tight  because of that burn, and that’s not going to fix anything. Or, you can just grab on tight, you hold  on, you dig your heels in and you start pulling in the other direction. But a negative attitude or  dropping the rope doesn’t fix anything. Grasping the rope does, holding on tight does, and  squeezing as it’s burning does. I will say something about me – I don’t drop the rope. I’m not going to  even let you rip it out of my hands. You can drag me around by my face if you want, but I’m going  to squeeze it and I’m not going to let any inch of that rope go… And I know our players won’t either.  For Gator Nation, we have one-third of the season left. Listen, this is not where I want to be right now.  At 4-4, this is not where they want to be. But we still have one-third of this season left and we’ll see  what we define ourselves by at the end of this season.” 

On Dameon Pierce and his carry total throughout the game… 

“We roll guys through with different things that are happening. Obviously, there are different scenarios  throughout the game. I thought Dameon ran the ball pretty hard today. Because of our injuries, we  played some two tailback sets. We had to play multiple backs in the game, which changed things  up because of the some of the injuries. I thought he ran the ball hard.”

 

 

 

 

On Anthony Richardson starting and how he played today… 

“We have a lot of things he still has to grow and develop on. He has a great work ethic, I think he’s an  extremely talented young man, and I think he does put in the effort and he does put in the time in  learning the offenses, the defenses and making the reads. Obviously, when you’re playing a great  defense like Georgia has, you give them credit for having really good defensive guys. Overall,  Anthony did some things really well and he made a couple of errors as well. But, that’s something  we’ll coach him up on and get him better at.” 

On his decision to go with Anthony Richardson over Emory Jones for the start… “When we were playing against LSU, I thought he had such a hot hand and played really well in the  second half of that game. Both of our guys split reps evenly at practice. Both guys were ready to  play, but I kind of kept sticking to where we were when we finished the last game. Today, we’re  going to go with Anthony right here and Emory be ready. I think Anthony did some really good things  out there on the field, with a couple of mistakes here and there. Unfortunately, a couple of them  were big mistakes for us. Emory though, you want to see the character he has – He doesn’t flinch.  When we said we were going to go with Anthony right here, his response was, ‘Whatever it takes to  help the team win, I’m all in and I’ll be ready. Coach, you just point to me and I’ll be ready to go.’ He  came in and I thought he played really well, also.” 

Photos: Georgia vs. Florida 2021

Zamir White (3) scores in the fourth
Watch a fullscreen slideshow HERE.
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Greg is closing in on 15 years writing about and photographing UGA sports. While often wrong and/or out of focus, it has been a long, strange trip full of fun and new friends.