Spring Break
Richt not too P.O.'d over Gators' TOs
FLETCHER PAGE
Issue date: 10/28/09 Section: Sports
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Call the silence avoiding bulletin board fodder or just a facade in place of true feelings, but Richt isn't caving in.
"I don't know about the guys individually," he said. "There may be some guys who are more worried about that. I'm more concerned about this game, this plan, this team. I've been focusing on the preparation for this game."
Many labeled the unnecessary timeouts called by Gator's coach Urban Meyer as revenge for Georgia's well documented mass celebration after a touchdown two years ago.
With the back-and-forth unsportsmanlike gimmicks adding to an already seething rivalry, Richt denied any lingering thoughts about years past.
"I think every season has its own issues," Richt said. "We certainly have ours and they don't have many. Any issues they have, they've been able to solve with victories. I think we are most concerned about what it's going to take to win the ballgame more than anything else."
Richt said he doesn't see the need for "extra motivation" in a game against Florida. Contrast that sentiment to Meyer's reaction in '07. He used Georgia's celebration in the offseason to fuel a national championship run.
"That wasn't right," Meyer wrote in his book published after the '07 season. "It was a bad deal. And it will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team."
Meyer, in the third person, used the word forever.
Richt, at least on the record, says, "I just don't think we
need that," when asked about extra motivation a second time.
But Georgia players say they remember how it felt, down by 39 and subjected to the clock stopping twice.
The stoppage left more time to stand in humiliation, watching Gator chomps, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow waving towels and pondering what-ifs.
