Just a week after Georgia’s loss in the Outback Bowl to Michigan State, Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt has already turned his attention to the areas where the team needs to improve in next season.

Georgia coach Mark Richt commented on many different topics regarding his team in this final teleconference with media members on Monday. FILE PHOTO

“I think there’s no doubt that we’ve got to be a whole lot better on special teams top to bottom,” Richt said. “We went through some growing pains with some young guys, I bit the bullet with some true freshmen and some inexperienced guys. The good news is that they’ll be a year better.”

Richt said that while improving on the field is the focus, he will undertake an evaluation of all levels of the program.

“We as coaches are going to review everything we do,” he said. “Make sure we feel very confident we’re doing the right things with the right personnel and that’s going to be big for us.”

With the loss of several key players to graduation as well as further departures possible with the Jan. 15 deadline to declare for the NFL draft fast approaching, Richt knows the Bulldogs need to get deeper.

“We also want to create as much depth as we possibly can so we can continue to try and finish better,” Richt said. “We definitely want to be able to run the ball — that’s going to be a big challenge for us breaking in some new linemen offensively.”

Despite finishing the season with two straight defeats, Richt struck a positive note in regard to the 2011 season.

“I think we came a long way this year,” he said. “I’m proud of the effort, I’m proud of the progress, but we’re still on a journey to do even greater things, so that’s going to be the goal.”

Richt has talked to NFL Draft prospects ‘off and on’

Richt said he has been talking to all underclassmen who may leave early, but refused to say who might be going or staying.

“I’ve talked to those guys off and on,” he said. “We had a team meeting last night [and] all those guys were there — that doesn’t guarantee everybody’s going to stay but at least they were all there.”

Despite the presence of all members of the Bulldogs at the meeting, the head coach didn’t read too much into their presence either way.

“I guess it just meant they aren’t 100 percent sure what they are going to do yet,” Richt said. “I think there are still some guys [whose] heads are spinning a little bit.”

He did admit, however, that as of Monday, he hadn’t heard from anybody who has decided to leave school early.

“There’s a bunch of them staying — I can’t say every single guy,” Richt said. “Normally the protocol for a young man to come to me if a guy does decide to go [is] he usually is going to let me know before there’s anything announced… That conversation hasn’t happened with any of them at this point [and] it may not.”

Richt wants to see ‘consistency and maturity’ at tailback position in 2012 

An area of constant frustration for Richt and Bulldog fans was the constant instability of the running back position.

Richt said he hopes to see two things from the position going forward.

“I think the biggest thing will be consistency and maturity,” he said. “That’s what we’ve got to get. We played a lot of inexperienced running backs as well, and those guys have gained some experience and hopefully because of that, they’ll become more mature players and more consistent players. So I think that’s going to be the two things that I would say would be the most important for me.”

Inconsistency at the posoti aside, Richt was pleased to see the arrival of five-star recruit Keith Marshall, who managed to impress his new coach before he had even taken his first class.

“He’s very focused,” Richt said. “Matter of fact, I walked into the team meeting last night and he had a play book in his hand. He was looking over assignments and [that] just gave me a moment to grin as I was seeing how excited he was about being at Georgia.”

Richt said he was sure that Marshall — as well as fellow early enrolee’s Faton Bauta and Mark Beard — had mixed feelings about their first days at the University.

“I’m sure he’s a little nervous, too, like a lot of guys when they first get going,” Richt said. “I remember my first night I spent away from home. There’s a little bit of anxiety but it’s also mixed in there with excitement.”

Boykin commended as player, person 

With the excitement of new arrivals growing Richt was reluctant to lose one of his most recent stars in Paul Hornung Award winner Brandon Boykin.

“Brandon is an awesome young man,” Richt said, “A year ago he was trying to decide, ‘Should he stay, should he go?’ and he decided to stay. He decided to lead [and] he decided to be the very best player that he could possibly be, and for him to win this award as the nation’s most versatile player I think is just fantastic.”

The head coach gave the departing senior cornerback one final endorsement.

“Just a super player and a great person,” Richt said.

Richt not worried about assistant coaches leaving in offseason

While Boykin and several others will be leaving Georgia, Richt was certain that there would be no coaches amongst those departures.

“I feel like everyone’s excited about the future here,” Richt said. “I’ve not heard one thing, so everybody’s moving forward and I’m excited about that.”

He was also quick to give his coaches a lot of credit for the Bulldogs’ success this past season and looked forward to the future with his current coaching staff.

“I’m very excited about these men,” Richt said. “I thought they did a great job of coaching and teaching but also staying positive and holding down the fort when things got a little tough. I really appreciate every one of them and I know the administration does too.”