Ahead of its first-ever game in the SEC, Missouri’s Sheldon Richardson gave Georgia a cornucopia of bulletin-board material, scoffing at what he called the Bulldogs’ ”Big Ten... old man” style of football.
The defensive end punctuated those remarks with a warning to the entire conference: “If we execute, nobody in (the SEC) can touch us. Period.”
Needless to say, those words caught the attention of UGA. And his football program as well.
Scheduled to meet with the media Monday, Richardson was instead muzzled by Mizzou, with a team spokesperson stating that the player had “earned himself a vacation.”
Head coach Gary Pinkel said the situation with Richardson’s comments was handled internally, while also acknowledging that UGA will use the words as an extra set of motivators heading into the game this weekend.
“Well, you know we certainly want to say the right things, do the right things,” Pinkel said. “I think he just got carried away a little bit, but I handled that internally. ...
“Without question I think anybody looks for things. We want to say the appropriate things. He felt sorry for saying it, he just got excited. He’s got great respect for Georgia, as I do. We’ll learn the lessons and move on.”
Georgia will travel to Missouri Saturday night for a game scheduled to kick off at 7:45 ET.