Everything Kirby Smart said as Georgia preps for Week 2 game against Ball State

Georgia coach Kirby Smart spoke with reporters on Tuesday night following Georgia’s second practice of the week.

Below is everything Smart had to say on the matter, ranging the latest on Ladd McConkey’s injury to the progress of CJ Smith.

On how practice has been this week…

”Yeah, I thought it was really good Monday. I thought it was really good today. I’ve been very pleased. We probably got a little blessed by the weather today. It was not as hot as I was expecting it to be. It was overcast. We were able to go outside the whole time, pretty good humidity. Guys worked hard out there and had good spirits and good tempo, I think. We challenged them to have a better week of practice. So far, we’ve done that. But we’ve done two of the four.”On recruiting different nowadays with teams getting rid of the ball quicker…”No, because to win football games you can’t throw the ball in 2.1 seconds all the time. That’s your early downs. As you get into third downs and more sophisticated teams, they’re going to drop back and pass on you and you’ve got to affect the quarterback. That’s one of a number of things you’ve got to do on defense. You have to have people who can rush the passer, especially when you get into the upper echelon and you start playing your SEC opponents. It’s not like that. It’s usually like that in a team that might feel like they’re outmanned on the defensive front, the offensive line’s outmanned by the defensive front. They get rid of it quicker, they want to protect their quarterback. But we don’t see that the further up we go. It doesn’t really affect, you have to have guys that can block, tackle, run, catch, hit, intercept. That doesn’t change how we recruit.”On seeing growing up moments from the corners that played on Saturday…”Well they probably grow up more in practice because they get challenged a lot more in practice. We don’t put any greater value on the game reps they took the other day than we do the practice reps they took today because they get to go against really high-quality people. I thought they held the point, played a little more physical out there than I expected in regards to AJ, Julian, and Nyland. Daylen’s played quite a bit because last year he got to play a lot in some games, and then Kamari’s played a good bit. But nothing really stood out. I thought those guys played with confidence.”On Smael and Raylen Wilson…”Raylen is back in a black shirt. He’s practiced the last two days. It’s so great to have him out there. I don’t think he’s 100 percent, but he’s coming off a hyperextended knee. He’s wearing a little bit of a brace and there’s a little bit of a lumber there. But he’s really a bright kid. It’s like he didn’t miss a lot mentally. He was able to stay in tune with what’s going on while he was not practicing, which is really hard for a freshman to do. Smael has been good, like you said. I didn’t know how much he played the other day, but in our mind he was playing. He was playing in sub situations. He’s played a few more snaps this week, kind of building him up, trying to ramp him up slowly to a full game’s quota of snaps. I don’t know how much that’ll be this week, but he’s practiced well.”On rotating guys in on the offensive line…”Yeah, I don’t know the exact score (that some guys came in). Our plan was Dylan Fairchild was going to play some. I thought he did, but maybe he didn’t before then. You know better than I do because I don’t check the scores when they go in. And then Micah was going to play a little bit. He’s got to play with more consistency. He has the ability, but there’s days he doesn’t do his assignment. It worries you because one of those things could be a tackle for loss that costs you a drive, a hit on a quarterback. He’s got to do that at a more consistent level. And then Jared Wilson’s the other guy. Those three guys have played a lot, Blaske has done well. I trust Blaske to go out there and play.”

On Xavian Sorey’s play in his first start...

“He did some good things. He had a couple mental errors. I think the anxiety of playing in that game and starting — he’s played in games, but he’s played more as a sub rusher. So to play stack inside ‘backer and sub rusher, which we ask our guys to do, was a daunting task for him for the first time and first game. But he played hard. He missed a couple run keys, and he missed a couple walk-aways we call them where you have to walk out of the box. But I’m pleased with Sorey’s development, and he’s been very coachable.”

On dealing with college football’s new clock rules...

“Really wasn’t a big change or a big deal of any kind. I mean, we anticipated those things being different. I think that’s going to be a lot more significant the tighter games are. With ours not being as tight in the second half, it probably didn’t matter. It didn’t show up. You know, before the half we kind of talked and communicated about the drive there where it’s over two minutes, so we knew it was going to run until it got below two minutes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have but one timeout to play with, so it didn’t matter. In a situation where we had three timeouts, we might’ve chosen or elected to use those. It was not significant in terms of anything. I think across the country there’s a lot of scuttlebutt about the number of snaps, but I don’t think we can significantly say anything until we get more data to kind of get a good barometer of that.”

On Mykel Williams’ progress, especially after missing time due to injury...

“Maturity. He carries himself well. He’s a leader. He’s very mature. Practices hard, plays hard. He’s what you want a football player to be. He’s tough, physical, does what you ask. He really handles coaching well, you know, for a guy as talented as he is. He doesn’t think he has all the answers. I’m very pleased with where he is. Need to find a way to keep him healthy.”

On Jordan Hall and if Georgia needs a ‘difference-maker’ on the interior d-line...

“Need or want? I mean, you always want really disruptive, violent, quick, twitchy players. Everybody wants that. You need both. You need someone that can do that, you need somebody that can anchor and handle double teams and strike blocks. We have guys that can be disruptive — I just don’t know if they can do it consistently and do it and stop the run as well without guessing sometimes. Our defensive linemen are perfectly capable. There’s not that kind of guy. And even when Jordan [Davis] and Devonte [Wyatt] were here now, they were not that kind of guy either. They were big, physical guys. Devonte was twitchy and quick, but he was not what Jordan was and Jordan was a very unique player in terms of stopping up two gaps and not necessarily being an elite pass rusher.

But I’m very comfortable with the guys we’ve got and very comfortable with what Jordan’s doing being able to help us. We want to keep bringing those guys along so that we have more of those guys than anybody in the country.”

On Daijun Edwards and Ladd McConkey...

“Daijun has looked good. He’s practiced and done well. He’s not in a black jersey but still has a knee brace.

Ladd has not practiced with us. He’s done routes on air, he’s run, he’s cut but he has not taken hits and done reps, practice reps. He’s done reps on air.”

On who Malaki Starks reminds him of...

“I’ve been around some thumpers. I think of all the guys, the Mark Barrons, Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, Dom Sanders here, Lewis (Cine), Chris (Smith) and Richard (LeCounte). He’s really different than all of those guys. He’s probably the one guy that could go out there and play corner if he had to. He’s got a coverage skill set and speed skillset that most safeties don’t have. He’s a good tackler, maybe not as physical as those guys as far as a knock-back tackler but he’s a good tackler. Good range and he’s very intelligent.”

On limiting big plays...

“Well historically it’s hard to run the ball against us. Historically, over the history of seven, eight years, we’ve been very high in run defense. When you do that, you force people to throw the ball. We say you do more with less. You can cover more with less in the box and occupy gaps if you’re a defensive lineman or have the ability to strike, play the run. We have been good at that and we have to continue to be good at that. That sometimes can limit explosive plays because you don’t run the risk of bringing five or six guys that often.”

On how Javon Bullard played...

“Well, I wouldn’t say you get a true observation, it’s hard to get an evaluation when he didn’t get tested. The longer they hold the ball, the further their receivers can run. The more the ball goes down the field. I don’t think are a lot of downfield throws. I think what he did well was tackle. He was in the right place. He really did a nice job in the perimeter RPO game, which everybody runs now. It’s millennial Oklahoma, I call it, out there on the perimeter. He’s really good at that but he didn’t get tested on hard play action, eye transfer, shots in the middle of the field. That’s the area where we work with him every day on so he can be really good at it. The most different part of playing safety is playing the middle of the field. He didn’t get a lot of chances.”

On Jackson Meeks’ injury...

“He’s running. He’s over there with Ladd a lot of times running and cutting. I would think Ladd is ahead of him if I had to say based on what I see. But he’s off out of the boot and off the treadmill. He’s out there on the real grass running.”

On what he knows about his team coming off a game against UT-Martin, compared to playing Clemson or Oregon:...

“I don’t think you do. I really don’t. I don’t know what we learned last year in that Oregon game where everything went our way offensively. This year, everything almost went our way defensively. Obviously two very different opponents. I’m not comparing the two opponents but I’m comparing what I know about our team, which I don’t. In each of those years there were games immediately after that where we had question marks. I think you’re always going to have question marks. Nobody says you have to be the best team after Week 1.”

On if Ladd’s back injury is more frustrating than ones he sees more often...

“It’s tricky to me because I don’t understand it. It’s one of those where I listen to Ron instead of talking about it,” Smart said. “I couldn’t even explain to you exactly what it is. It’s a really big word, but it’s frustrating for him because he doesn’t control - when he runs, he does great, everything is fine and then one sudden movement it sets him back. He has pain and he’s back down. He’s battling his tail off, he rehabs three or four times a day, he’s like, ‘I can go coach. I can go. Let me go out there and practice.’ We’re not going to do that until we’re certain. So yeah, in some ways it’s probably more frustrating.”

On the Ball State tight ends...

“They’re big, really good, talented tight ends. One kid didn’t play last week and the other kid did play and played really well. They’ve got good tight ends.”

On “modern day Oklahoma” and the key to tackling in space...

“Understanding leverage, leverage and blockers, where’s my help. We don’t let guys just do what they want to do. There’s a play in the game the other day that Bullard trusted Tykee. He said, ‘Tykee’s going to be there, I’m going to fit here and we’ll build a wall.’ I think Tray Scott and our defensive staff do a great job teaching the defensive backs that on the perimeter, throw game, run game, it’s really just defensive line play. I strike my blocker, I hat and hands, I check my gap, I stay in my gap and trust that my buddy is going to be in the other gap, and then if I have to shed and get off and go finish, I’ll do that as well. We practice that a lot because we see it. Our offense does that, we see it, we do a lot of perimeter drill work.”

On how big it was to get Tramel Walthour back as a super-senior...

“It’s been huge for us. Look at the situation we’ve been in. That’s the position we’re probably the thinnest on our entire team more so than running back and tight end, it’s defensive end - what I call big end. We have defensive tackles, but we have a deficiency there. Ty (Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins) has been injured back and forth. Mykel was out almost all of camp. Where we would be without Tramel, we would be forced to play undersized outside backers at that position. Tramel’s given us great leadership and great consistency.”

On when the light came on for CJ Smith...

“There is, but I can’t define that moment. There were several little times I was like, ‘Woah. Woah.’ Number one he’s been present. He has not been injured. It has almost mirrored Arian’s early years where he had this and this and this. All the sudden he was there for 10, 12 consecutive practices and he started showing up. Like ‘Dude, that guy’s blocking good. That guy’s running good routes. He’s catching the ball with his hands. He looks good.’ And then boom, he had a little battle with a hamstring. Boom, he had something else. He battled back, got through that and I’ve been impressed with his physicality, blocking and his speed. We knew we were getting somebody who could really run if we could get the rest of the traits to show up. He’s still a work in progress as a receiver, but man he works hard it and does a nice job. He’s starting to understand B-Mac and Bobo are doing a great job developing him.”

On having Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint back this week...

“It really helps Carson’s confidence. That’s one of the things about having Marcus around. It’s like (let’s out a deep breath), Marcus knows every fast ball play, Marcus knows exactly what to do when he checks, Marcus knows the route tree. Marcus gives you comfort as a quarterback that he’s going to do it right. Now just the physicality and blocking because he’s more than a blocker. He goes up and makes plays on the ball. He had huge catches last year over the middle, the end zone catch against Tennessee. He’s very reliable, and I think having him back gives all those guys a little more swagger and confidence at receiver because he’s out there. It also takes a little bit of a load off of the other guys in terms of volume.”

On if they fight the lack of sack stats on the recruiting trail...

“Well, we usually fix that when we show them how many have been drafted. Then it’s silenced. We put Travon’s sacks up there and say he went 1-1 overall. We put Devonte’s up there and say he went first round. We put Quay’s up there, we put Nolan’s up there, we put Jordan Davis’ up there and then they don’t say anything.”