by MARK BRADLEY; Staff , The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"I've been hearing a lot of talk lately, even on my call-in show, about next year, next year, next year," Richt said. "I'm like, 'Hold on, folks. We've got the most important game of the year right now. Let's not forget.' "

As tempting as it is for fans and media to write off 2008 as a failed mission, the Bulldogs coach sees two more games --- Georgia Tech next Saturday and a bowl, probably in Florida on New Year's Day. And that "failed mission" can turn into the sixth top 10 finish a Richt team has managed in the past seven years. ("We've got a very realistic shot at that," he said.)

So, when a visitor asked if Richt is disappointed over this season, he said: "I'm not. I was very disappointed after Alabama, very disappointed after Florida --- but not disappointed at being 9-2."

Georgia is where it was a year ago entering the Tech game, with one huge difference: The 2007 team wasn't ranked No. 1 in preseason. Being No. 1 mattered to a lot of people. It mattered less to Richt.

"It was the first time in the history of Georgia football we're preseason No. 1," he said. "From that perspective, I didn't think it was a bad thing. But you've got to play the cards you're dealt --- it's not like I tried to mastermind [being No. 1] in any way. As it became pretty evident it was a real possibility, all I was trying to do was say [to his players], 'Men, this doesn't mean anything except that it's a compliment to what you've done and it's a responsibility.'

"And I wouldn't say they didn't work hard. We did work hard. We did prepare."

Did Richt ever regard his team as the best in the land? "I don't feel like this team was any better or any worse off than some of the teams of the last six years. I felt like this team had a chance to win the East and, if you win the East, to win the SEC , and who knows at the end? But I thought that the year before and the year before that and the year before that."

That shouldn't be read as an indictment. "It's not a downgrading of this group," Richt said. "Every team's got some things going for it and every team's got some issues ... I really believe it was just another year that we had a chance to do the things we've been trying to do all along, I guess."

At issue, at lEast in some fans' minds, is whether coordinator Willie Martinez will take the fall for the defense's underperformance. Richt declined to address the issue of possible staff changes. He did, however, bristle when his visitor opined that the defense had "fallen apart."

"Last week [at Auburn] they didn't fall apart. In the fourth quarter of the Kentucky game they didn't fall apart. They had three stops in a row when the offense was fumbling the game away. This last game we held [Auburn] to 13 points. We wouldn't have beat South Carolina if the defense hadn't played good."

As for the egregious 49-10 loss to Florida: "I felt bad for our defensive players. They started out playing pretty stinking good. [Florida took the] ball on the 41, the 29, the 1, the 9 --- it's tough to defend any offense there, let alone the highest-scoring team in the league. We had three shots in the red zone. What if we score touchdowns in the red zone?"

Nor was Richt particularly illuminating about the status of Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, who could declare for the 2009 NFL draft. "They will have a lot to think about, not that they're not thinking about it now," Richt said. "Hopefully they'll get some good, solid, unbiased information and make the decision that's best for them."

With the conversation near its end, the visitor posed "one last question." Smiling thinly, Richt said: "You've already had three or four 'last questions' ... You sound like a Baptist preacher."

The question involved the rash of arrests that have dogged Georgia this year and the number of penalties the Bulldogs have incurred: Is there a correlation? Said Richt: "I'd say it's more coincidental. If somebody did a study ... I don't think there would be a pattern."

Moments earlier, it had been suggested that, should Stafford and Moreno return to play behind an offensive line that Richt claimed has "done a terrific job" and isn't yet "what it's going to be," his Bulldogs could be preseason No. 1 again in 2009. To this, he said:

"That's interesting. But not before [playing] Georgia Tech."

mbradley@ajc.com

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