Georgia playing through the noise after loss to Florida

ATHENS -- It's getting hard to ignore the noise.

Georgia lost its third game of the season Saturday, leading to a fire storm of social media backlash against head coach Mark Richt, questioning whether he should continue to be the head coach of the Bulldogs.

With four games left, the Georgia players will have to continue to try to ignore the noise anyway.

"I don't pay attention to that," senior offensive tackler John Theus. "You get a lot of people that have never played the sport, don't know what's put into it, don't know the time or the effort, what all goes into a win and what all goes into a loss. We all have a little slice of the pie when it comes to losing; everybody on this team, whether it goes from a scout team giving a good look to a starting guy to a coach, whatever."

For Richt, it's just part of the job, especially given the length of his career at Georgia and the fact that his teams are usually in contention in the SEC and on the national stage. Georgia is 5-3 overall and 3-3 in the conference.

Knowing the circumstances, the players aren't surprised that Richt is taking the heat that he is.

"To be honest, that's a part of this game," Georgia junior receiver Reggie Davis said. "I'm pretty sure there are people, where if a guy loses one game, they'll want him gone. It's just a part of life. You can't make everybody happy. Once you realize that, it'll be a lot easier on yourself. We'll definitely try our best to win out these games. And whatever happens just happens."

For the players, it's harder to ignore. In the social media age, they are right in the middle of the talk. Senior offensive tackle John Theus admitted that players come across what people are saying, but players have "got to ignore it."

"In today's world, the way we grew up, social media's a part of our life. It's just the way it is for the most of us," Theus said. "You're going to see stuff, and it's up to the guys how to deal with it. Do we want Coach Richt to go out with four wins to finish the season? Yeah, just as much as we want to go out ourselves. We're playing for each other. We're playing for our coaches. We're playing for the fans. It hasn't changed."

The Bulldogs' four-game closing stretch begins at home Saturday against Kentucky. Then there are games with Auburn, Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech.

"We're talking about how we're going to handle adversity," Richt said. "When things get tough, there's a lot of things people like to do that aren't good. Sometimes they run. Sometimes they point the finger at someone else. Sometimes they divide, whether it be a team or a family. ... What we decided was, first of all we're going to fight, and we're going to fight together. And we're not going to run, and we're going to own up to our issues."

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Georgia playing through the noise after loss to Florida ."