Georgia Vs. Florida: Mark Richt reflects on big win for the Bulldogs

Georgia Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt spoke with the media following his team's 17-9 win over the Florida Gators on Saturday. Many of the questions were in regards to the team's seemingly fragile mindset the week before the game, stemming from comments by senior safety Shawn Williams in which he called the defense soft. The quotes are courtesy of Seth Emerson of the Macon Telegraph.

On Williams' comments, and how the other members of the defense reacted to being called out like that:

"They had been accused of some things that guys didn’t like being accused of. And I think that helped motivate them. I don’t think there was another game this year where we quite came out of the gate the way we did this one. Maybe Vanderbilt, where I think some guys were a little bit mad about some things that happened the year before. So I gotta do a better job of figuring out how to motivate, I guess."

On his overall impression of the game, and how it measured up to his expectations:

"Not many people gave us a chance. I don’t blame them. If I’d had watched the film, if I really knew football, if I was a fan and I knew football and I’m studying it, I’d say Georgia would win the game. If I was just totally impartial, if I was watching what was going on, I would say I can’t really see how Georgia can win this game, just on what was done up to this point. But I did feel if we played our very best, then we’d have a good chance of winning. I feel like if we played our best. I just hadn’t seen us play our best very much. But at this point we’re OK."

With the win, the Dawgs move to 7-1, and now control their own destiny in the race for the SEC East title. They finish conference play against Ole Miss and Auburn, and stand a good chance to clinch a second straight trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship before it's all said and done.