ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart had plenty to talk about when speaking with reporters on Tuesday, even with Georgia not having a game on Saturday.
Be it from a possible timeline of recovery for Brock Bowers to his thoughts on the field conditions at Vanderbilt, Smart gave his thoughts on a number of issues.
Below is a full transcript of what Smart said following Tuesday’s practice.
Opening Statement...
“Got started on our off week, bye week prep. Thought guys had good energy. We didn’t have a great practice but had good energy, and that was important. Really working on our conditioning and connection trying to get some guys well, but also get some good work in. Our offensive and defensive coaches have targeted some different areas, some I can share, some I can’t, that we want to work on, and then special teams as well. We kind of take a picture of where we are, what we can do better and how we can practice it better to maybe get better results. That’s what we started on today. We do work on future opponents. Worked on some teams that are further out today, less further out tomorrow and then we’ll start on Florida prep probably tomorrow or Thursday.”
On Lawson Luckie...
“You don’t fast track an injury. Really with any injury you do what the medical staff tells you and what the body tells you. Lawson has done a fabulous job rehabbing from his. Both his parents were college athletes, he’s not afraid to work, and he’s done a great job. I still don’t think Lawson’s 100%, but he’s been cleared to play since Auburn, just hasn’t quite been ready to play.”
On the field turf issues at Vanderbilt...
“I don’t get into that much. I haven’t read that or seen that anywhere. We had guys slip, sure, we have guys slip every time we play on turf. A game Kentucky played, I can’t remember who we were playing but they had about 15 guys slip, and that was Kentucky at home. Traditionally, a lot of our college teams don’t practice or play much on turf, so when they do, they slip more. We did a big surface study last year to get our indoor better and up to date. Ours in on year 8 or 9 or 10, and we’re looking at the modern fill that more NFL teams are going to. That’s actually what Vanderbilt has I think, so it’s very standard.”
On Brock Bowers, how you weigh the NFL potential against coming back to try to win a championship...
“I don’t think it’s as much about any of that as it is - the more I’ve learned, and I’ve slowly become a bigger expert on this tightrope surgery, not just because of Brock but we’ve multiple guys and I’ve talked to other teams, Hugh Freeze, Shane (Beamer), several of the guys in our conference have dealt with this injury. It’s much more common. It’s all over the NFL. It’s happening at a higher rate I guess, and a lot of studies have been done on it. To get healthy, you need to get back moving that ankle as soon as you can, meaning get on it, get weight bearing, and we’ve had guys go through this process. Brock will take on that same rehab process, and his surgeon and Ron (Courson) will work together on that to get him back. It won’t be done any different. The key is, we’re trying to get him back healthy. There is no timeline for when he comes back to play. The timeline is when he’s healthy, and I don’t think you could put a timeline on it because historically there’s been guys that came back really fast and guys that have come back really slow. Each one is different.”
On the injury status of Xavier Truss and Amarius Mims...
“Don’t know, Truss did not practice today. He was weight-bearing on the second half of the game. He was on the sideline. His deltoid was a little bit hurt but it’s not tightrope or anything like that. We think he should be fine. I don’t know if he’ll be good to go by Thursday but should be good to go by Monday.
And Mims is working his way back. He’s weight-bearing, he’s running, he’s moving around. I thought he looked much better yesterday when he did some stretch and stride stuff. He’s been out there at practice but he hasn’t taken any reps. There’s going to be a timetable on him for the same as everyone else with those injuries. When they’re cleared and they’re comfortable and they can play at a winning rate, they’ll get a chance to go back out there.”
On who can step up with Brock out...
“Yeah, I’ve talked to the team about, you know coaching football for 25 years and every year you have different challenges. This year is no different than any other year, the challenges are only different. One of big key DNA traits is resiliency. So this team has been extremely resilient. I have 100 percent confidence they’ll be resilient. If they think one guy is going to replace Brock Bowers, they’re wrong. If anybody thinks they have to be Superman, they don’t need to be on our team. Because they’ll be disappointed. Superman is not real. He’s dead. He’s not alive. He’s not real. You can’t try to be that guy. There is no player that we’re asking to step up and do more than you can. As a collective effort, every player is going to do more.That includes defense getting turnovers, special teams getting better field position. Other guys get the opportunity to touch the ball and make the most of it.”
On Kendall Milton...
“He did some stuff. He was able to go out there and practice. I feel good about Kendall. It was not a high rep day for him, no. But he was out there and I’m pretty sure he went. I think he did.”
On speaking to Brock and how he’s doing...
“Brock Bowers is great. Brock Bowers is rock solid. He wanted to get thing done as soon as he found out it had to be done. We were able to expedite that process. He’s great, he looked everybody in the eyes today and wishing he could be out there. He’s in great spirits, he’s got a great family, he’s got great heart. He’s a warrior so he’ll handle it the right way.”
On Monroe Freeling...
“Yeah you get thrown in there and it’s great. About three weeks ago I called him and told him, ‘Monroe you realize you’re one play away and every rep you take in practice you should be imagining you’re in a road game stadium and ready to go. Sure enough, it happened. I thought he did a good job. There’s a lot of things he could work on. There’s butterflies with that. Fortunately, he had gotten to play in some games but not in that situation. I was thrilled he got to go out there and get some confidence. He’s a really good athlete and he’s a worker. So he’ll work really hard to get better.”
On seeing Brock deal with this...
“I mean, it’s hard for Amarius Mims. You know, it’s hard on me for Lawson Luckie. It’s hard on me for Branson Robinson. I don’t mean that in any negative way towards Brock. There’s a lot of guys on our team that have been dinged up and hurt. I mean, Ty Ingram-Dawkins hasn’t been able to go the entire year. I mean he went one game I guess and we had to shut him down. Brock is aware other guys have to deal with this too.
Brock’s aware that other guys have to deal with this, too. We had, at one time, I think seven or eight starters that had been out. I have empathy for all of them and not one more than the other, you know? I don’t look at Brock’s as more significant because he’s a greater player asset. They all have value. We’ve got walk-on kids that are having to have surgery. It’s tough anytime a player loses practice time and play time.”
On what he’s seen from Oscar Delp as he prepares to step into a bigger role...
“Yeah, he’s not in a bigger role. He’s in the same role he was in, which is to help our team. I don’t believe that for one second that he’s in a bigger role. You know, the plays that you design — guys, y’all think of them as ‘Brock Plays.’ There are a lot of positions that can be in those spots. Delp could be in those spots, Dom could be in those spots, Dillon Bell could be in those spots, Marcus Rosemy could be in those spots. Our offense is not built around, like, one person doing one thing. It’s built around plug in and you can do it in 10 personnel, you can do it in 11 personnel, you can do it in 13 personnel. I think every offense that’s a good offense is that way because if you limit yourself to just one player — I mean, we’ve had scenarios and catastrophe plans that are like, ‘What if this happens in a game? What is our answer?’ We went immediately to that answer and said these are the things we have to do. I’m not going that route on the Oscar Delp thing because Oscar Delp’s got to do what he’s always done. It’s play as hard as he can and play winning football.”
On Ladd McConkey’s comeback and initial thoughts on Florida...
“Yeah, I can’t give you comments on Florida. I just, I’ve been able to watch a couple games. I’ve watched other teams, and I’ll watch more as the week goes.
As far as Ladd, he did well today. He practiced today. Probably did more today than what he’s done on the Tuesdays in the past, but he also had Monday and Sunday off, you know? I feel good about where he’s at, but also he’s day-to-day.”
On the objectives for the offense and the defense during the bye week...
“Well, the obvious areas that we can improve in: defense in the red area is a key area and forcing more turnovers is a huge area. You know, offensively, the ability to run the ball and be explosive running the ball. We want to continue to do that, and improving in the red area where we’ve been — we’ve had games that we were elite offensively in the red area. Then we’ve had games where we were forced to kick field goals, and it usually came way of losing first and second down, not really third down. So those are the areas that we can get better at. Special teams is kind of one by one. There’s some things we can do better.”
On the issues he’s seeing with red zone defense...
“You know, it’s hard to pinpoint because every game it’s been a different person or a different thing. There is no common theme. There’s no, like, ‘Well, they’re throwing over our head.’ ‘Well, this guy’s a weakness and he’s getting beat.’ No, everybody’s taking turns. You know, this guy got beat. He had bad eyes. This guy had great leverage. He got beat. This guy gave up a run in his gap. He didn’t run the right stunt. And then sometimes they just whip you. They whip you. South Carolina ran it in on us. You know, we say at Georgia that we’re not going to let you run it in. Well, some teams have.”
On Carson Beck’s play and how he’s grown this season...
“Yeah, he plays very consistent, winning football when he plays within the system. I think sometimes when he tries to do too much he gets himself in trouble, but he’s played at a really high level to me. You know, like a 90% success rate and keeping the 10% from being catastrophic is critical because that’s the ones you want to get back. If he can take those 10%’s and throw them away and keep his 90% and his accuracy, we’re going to be good offensively when he’s good.”
On Mekhi Mews returning punts and if there needs to be a change there…”Have you ever caught one? Have you ever caught a rugby, left-footed, in the wind? I have. I’m glad I’m not back there and I’m glad Mews is. I trust him and I think I’ve got a lot of confidence in him. But until you’ve gone back there and seen Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball do this through the wind, because the other option is don’t catch it. I don’t think that’s a good option either because the ball rolls. Check college football right now and see how many drops and fumbled punts there are. They’re not your traditional kickoff and not your traditional spirals. They’re really hard to catch. I’m proud of what he’s done.”
On Smael’s performance this year and him mentioning communication breakdowns on defense…”I don’t know what he’s referring to. When you say communication breakdowns, we didn’t have a busted coverage. We just have a rule that two guys weren’t on the same page… Smael’s been a good leader. Smael’s closer to 100 percent. I think he played early in the camp on an injury that a lot of people take a long time to come back from. I think he made it back in four months and was able to go play early in the season. The early season was like his camp. He didn’t get a camp to go through. He’s back up to speed and doing a good job. I think he’s really wanting to have a good back half of the season and play physical, play faster. I’m confident in him to do that.”
On learning from the experience in recent years of playing without key players…”I don’t know. I don’t know that I would agree with that statement. We’ve always had somebody that was impactful. I think you’re maybe referencing George or some of those guys. We’ve always had other guys that were impactful. I still think we have impactful players on the offense now. We’ve got good football players. Our guys are excited for the opportunity. We have good coaches that’ll find ways to get good players the football.”
On his confidence level that Brock will be back at some point this season…”You really think I’m going to answer that question? Is that all this is about? You guys, all y’all want to talk about is whether he’ll be back or not. That is the furthest thing from my concern. My concern is this team and getting Brock Bowers healthy, and this team and getting Brock Bowers healthy. To answer that question is speculative. I’m not going to speculate.”
On the key to 2-minute situations recently…”Getting the ball back for the offense to let them go two-minute. They have been good. We’ve been historically been good here. Middle eight numbers have been really good for us. This year is probably our worst year middle eight, but it was good Saturday and was the difference in the game. Getting the ball back’s the biggest thing to get them going, get them started.”
On if the team uses the doubt out there with Bowers’ injury as fuel…”You said it. I don’t think we need that to have motivation. The motivation is to be great. I don’t know if it creates that edge or what. I’m just focused on what we’re going to do tomorrow.”On what he wants the focus for the players to be this week…”The back half of the week will be about Florida. The front half of the week will be about us. The focus is on us and how we can get better.”
