It was at the beautiful Walnut Creek Shooting Preserve in Jones County. Great weather, plenty of folks decked out in their Red and Black, a couple of cold beers and some BBQ made it feel like the fall and the Dawgs were about to tee it up Between the Hedges!
Good crowd...but not as full as last year.
Last year when I went, highlights from the 2008 season were playing, because as Coach Richt said, “There weren’t too many highlights to show from this previous season (2009).” Funny guy. So, since 2010 was worse than 2009, I wondered what would be playing. Well, we were treated to watching some of Munson’s greatest calls, and one game’s highlights that came up was the 2004 LSU game. Ah, those were the days.
It was a fun time. If you read the blog yesterday, I said how boring Coach Richt is. He doesn’t offer too many zingers. Well I was wrong.
First, Coach Fox spoke for just a few minutes. He didn’t offer up anything really insightful, but when someone asked him if we were still recruiting someone whose name escapes me, he said that if you were 6’11” and weren’t signed, odds are UGA was going to recruit you. He told a funny joke and went back to his Fincher’s BBQ.
Coach Richt was next, and received a surprising standing ovation. He spoke about the Dream Team and how excited he was about the competition in the spring. He specifically praised Kwame Geathers.
All black...Evil Richt in da house!
Then it got interesting.
Coach Richt took questions from the crowd, and the first one was the only hostile question. I couldn’t hear it well, but the guy was talking about the poor offensive play calling in the redzone, asked why couldn’t we run the ball better, and something to the effect of why isn’t Robert Edwards coaching the running backs.
Now, Coach Richt took all this in stride and tried to respond. But they guy kept interrupting and ranting. We got it. He had some valid points, but was being a jerk about it. He kept going on, and on and on and on (just like that!). Finally, Coach Richt snapped. I am paraphrasing, but he said something like this:
“I have been coaching football for 25 years and I know what the hell I am doing. I haven’t forgotten how to coach…When we had Knowshon, we were pretty successful running the ball then, right? Bryan McClendon is a hell of a coach and a hell of a recruiter and I am glad we have him.”
The crowd erupted in applause.
Wow. Not only did he snap, but he said the “h” word 3 times. He wasn’t done. He kind of rambled when addressing another question and went back to this topic:
“When we were at Florida State, we ran out of the shotgun and ran no huddle. Opposing defenses said we were soft as hell, but we scored some points. There are lots of different ways to score.”
Dern, coach. Now, I wrestled with some journalism integrity. Coach Richt later apologized to the guy and thanked him for his passion. He said he didn’t mean to say “h-e-double hockey sticks” (yes, he really spelled it out). He asked the media members not to report that, to do him a favor and report that he said “heck”. He said he didn’t want to catch grief from his Sunday School class. He then said that he probably doesn’t know what the heck he is doing sometimes.
But I am not a journalist, just some anonymous internet hack blogger, and I thought it was funny as h-e-double hockey sticks. I wanted to share.
A couple of other notes:
*He was asked who he thought was UGA’s biggest Rival: He said in terms of historical significance, and in state implications, he would say Georgia Tech. But he doesn’t much care for Florida, Auburn or South Carolina. In fact, he said he doesn’t like any of them. But I gathered he thinks Tech is the biggest rival. Interesting.
* A kid asked him what position gave him the most concern. After some thought, he said running backs. I was surprised, but he later said that he was frustrated with the running backs because they have been here a while and have not yet to separate themselves. Interesting comments.
All in all, a GREAT night that just made me wish September 3rd would get here sooner. Go Dawgs!
Corbindawg
The Grit Tree 
I love Richt as a person and a coach but of course he is going to pick Tech as the biggest rival, he is 9-1 against the bugs.
Thanks for more of the story about Coach Richt. Not only did the journalist in the room not honor a valid request, they also failed to provide the whole story about they guy interrupting him before he got testy.
-Well I think Tech was a good answer. We take for granted beating them, but I bet the two victories after our last loss were sweeter than the 7 wins before.
-BIE-I wrestled with posting it but I did so because it was funny. The rest of the crowd was cordial. You can see the guy un the picture I posted. He is in the bottom left corner near Coach with a white shirt and red sweater vest. He didn’t just ask a question and Richt snap. He was being a for real ass.