Considering all the turmoil that's taken place in the Georgia football program's orbit this summer -- Damon Evans, Dontavius Jackson, the rumblings of a new chapter in "Agentgate," the continued "hot seat" murmurs from columnists with no better pots to stir -- SEC Media Days went off more or less without a hitch from a Dawg fan's perspective. This was aided, of course, by a pre-emptive refusal on Richt's part to talk about anything related to the NCAA's "inquiry" into wide receiver A.J. Green, but it was also aided by widespread understanding at that point that there really wasn't much to inquire about to begin with.
So Richt was in and out of the press room in a highly efficient 18 minutes, according to our intrepid correspondents on the ground in Birmingham -- and aside from one question about the hot seat (which wasn't even asked by any of theRed & Black columnists in attendance, wonder of wonders!), that 18 minutes was mostly filled with actual football talk. Asked about the ongoing switch to a 3-4 front under new defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, Richt spoke thusly:
First of all, all of our players are, 'What position am I going to play?' They were uncertain where they were going to fit into the scheme. Quite frankly, when Coach Grantham came in, he wasn't sure where everybody would fit. He had our graduate assistants break down film and try to get 30 clips of all of our players so he could study them and place them in the right spot.
We started spring ball. We made a few more adjustments as we went. We moved Darryl Gamble from inside to outside, moved Richard Samuel from running back to outside linebacker back to inside linebacker. We're trying to get everybody in the right place. We think we've got them placed in the right spot.
Now it's a matter of learning what to do and be able to play fast and play physical, play with confidence. I think we got a bunch of guys that want to do that. We probably don't have as much depth at the outside linebacker position as we would like to have. I think we must stay healthy there or we'll have to make a few fairly radical changes.
But other than that, we've got pretty good depth at most other spots. We might have some youngsters. Defensive line, I think we had five scholarship defensive linemen, interior defensive linemen, leave our program last year, so there's a bunch of young guys in there. We do think we have the right kind of guys to get the job done.
Exciting? Not necessarily -- but again, this is the kind of thing Richt should be focusing on in the offseason, not DUI arrests (his players' or the athletic director's), much less questions about his own job security. As fall practice kicks into high gear over the next couple weeks -- which, incidentally, will include one session of two-a-days, but no more -- it appears that the coach's priorities and his head are in the right place.