9:50 a.m. The scene right now is somewhat surreal. St. Richt is speaking to a packed ballroom. Outside, no fewer than a dozen television and still cameras -- and that's a conservative estimate -- await the arrival of St. Nick. We are bathed in the glow of saints.

Richt says he became more "emotional" last year because emotion had hurt him when he was a play-caller. Freed of those responsibilities, he could let his emotions go when his team slipped.

9:55 a.m. "We know everyone on our schedule can beat us." Even Georgia Southern?

9:56 a.m. Richt raises the possibility of using designed runs with Stafford. Just something to toss out there; I can't remember off the top of my head right now how much the spelling-challenged Dawgs actually did this last year.

10:00 a.m. Second reference to "the Georgia way."

10:01 a.m. Richt says he's always gotten "riled up...fired up" over the game.

10:07 a.m. Richt initially wanted the team on the field to celebrate, not everyone else. But he didn't want the spiking or dancing he was seeing against the scout team, because they were individuals. He told the team it was to be a "team celebration." Someone took that too literally. "I was in shock as much as anybody else."

10:10 a.m. Richt notes that the play was under review when the celebration began, so "it could've been third and 30." He also says that acting the players to commit an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was, well, unsportsmanlike. "In hindsight, I shouldn't have done it."

10:17 a.m. "The BCS as it is, I'm fine with it." But he thinks a four-team playoff "would work." He does agree with the minimalists. "I think eight would be the maximum we could have ... without destroying or damaging the regular season."

10:20 a.m. Richt is done. The Georgia players are next, and then St. Nick.