ATHENS — Kirby Smart doesn’t like to rank rivals, he knows this week is big as the Bulldogs host in-state rival Georgia Tech.
The Georgia head coach had plenty to say about the Yellow Jackets, former Georgia analyst Buster Faulkner and plenty more ahead of Saturday’s game.
Below is a full transcript of what the Georgia head coach had to say. Georgia takes on Georgia Tech on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
Opening statement...
“Thanks, guys. We’re onto Georgia Tech and excited for the prep and love rivalry week across the country. What makes college football really special to me is all the rivalries you get to watch on this week, a very unique week timing-wise. A lot of distractions with Thanksgiving going on. Those are good distractions, but they are different. So how you manage that and how you deal with that is important. A lot of respect for Brent Key and his staff. I’ve known Brent a long time. He played at Tech when I played here. His staff does a great job. There’s obviously a couple guys on his staff that we have worked with before, a lot of overlap. I think we’re both very thankful for a state of high school football in Georgia that provides both of us with a lot of really good football players. He’s done a tremendous job this year. Buster’s done a tremendous job for them, and Kevin taking over the defense, kinda midstream there, has done a really good job. With that, we’ll turn it to Georgia Tech.”
On Georgia Tech being No. 1 rival...
“Well, geographically, they’re close, right? They’re in our state. You’re playing for something every time you play them because you’re playing for a state championship. I think that’s always important. They do a good job. It’s the next opponent. You know, I don’t rank them any higher than anybody else because I look at all the games as rivalries, and I let everybody else debate what’s the highest. I don’t get into those comparisons. A lot of respect for Brent and the job they do.”
On the difference in GT this year and on Haynes King...
“They’ve won games because they’re playing good football. No. 1, they’ve done a good job upgrading talent. He understands what it takes to win at Tech, what kind of players to go recruit. I think as he gets recruiting classes in there, he’s not going to do anything but get better. But when you’ve got an offensive line coach as a head coach, you’re going to have a physical, tough team. That’s No. 1. Haynes King is like that. He’s fast. He’s athletic. We’ve got several coaches that came from the Texas area that talk about his athleticism in high school, and you see it on tape. Buster’s done an unbelievable job with him, and he utilizes his entire skill set. These guys know how to run the football now. They are really good at running the football. They find best runs available, scheme runs, quarterback runs, unbalanced runs. Good backs, really tough O-line. It’s a day’s work when you go to play these guys with the way they play in terms of toughness and those things. That’s what’s allowed them to win is they have identity.”
On Ladd’s ankle injury...
“Yeah, he’s got a tweaked ankle that he tweaked in the game here at home. He was able to go a little bit at the end of the week but didn’t practice much. It bothered him a little bit Saturday, but nothing any more severe than that. We’ve done MRI since the game and are doing even more testing. We feel good that he’s going to be able to return. Right before I came in here, Claude said there’s questions about tightrope surgery, but that’s not the case at all. I don’t know where that’s coming from.”
On familiarity with GT staff and needing to change anything...
“No issues.”
On playing at night...
“Not a lot of change in preparation. It’s different because of the timing of our kids coming back from Thanksgiving, getting here, going over there. The Saturday will be different, but that’s really the extent of it. Cooler night, but that’s what we deal with all the time, right? We’ve had a lot more night games than we’ve had in the past.”
On keeping team ready to play physically but not get injured...
“I think there’s mental and physical exhaustion. They’re two different things. You’ve gotta balance those two things and weigh them. You could have both. You could have one or the other. You’re trying to have neither. As a coach, you’re trying to balance those two pendulums the best you can. I don’t think you ever know for sure. I think you sense things and talk to your players. If they’re honest with you, and they tell you how they feel, you listen to them.”
On Warren Brinson and Rara Thomas injury updates...
“Rara has a foot sprain. We don’t know the severity of it. It’s really probably better listed as a bone bruise on his foot. I think he’s going to be OK, but we don’t know that. We’ll see here during the week if he’s able to go. Then Warren has the calf strain, yeah. We wanted him to go get rehab and stay here and get well. Hopefully he’s able to go today.”
On Shelton Stevens from CHOA and Governor’s Cup...
“Shelton is a great, great man. I’ve got a lot of respect for Shelton and what he’s done. The immediate image I get when I think of CHOA is Shelton Stevens. He embodies and embraces everything they stand for, and did such great work for them for a long time. I’ve known Shelton for a long time. I didn’t really get to know Shelton until I got to be a head coach. One thing I’ll say about him is he always did the duty that lies nearest. That’s the kind of person he was.”
On the Georgia Tech scoring offense...
“I talked about it a little bit earlier. They have a quarterback that can run the ball, which gets you an extra hat in there. He’s really fast and really athletic, who happens to throw the ball really well too, and he has speed on the perimeter. They’ve gone out and gotten some really good, fast receivers, some through the portal, some through the high school ranks that are playing at a really high level. They know what they’re doing in the run game. They know how to attack you, where to attack you. They understand it and have good backs. Same questions you have against our offense. When you have people who know what they’re doing, and they have good players doing it, they become really hard to stop. They are really good offensively.”
On Georgia not giving up a punt return yet...
“No, never had that in the career. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it. I’ve actually seen negative more than I’ve seen zero return yards because we’ve held a couple teams that have held people to negative return yards, meaning the return went backwards, but he got a return. Ours, just the fact they haven’t given up a return, it’s really a credit to the staff, the punt coaching staff, the punt players, and the punter who has to match distance with hang. You have to have elite coverage with gunners. I don’t think people give enough credit to Arian and Dom. They’ve been our gunners, I think, on every single rep of every single game that the game was in hand, they’ve been in there, and they do an incredible job. It comes down to your punter and your gunners, to how you do things. It’s been pretty remarkable what they’ve been able to do. We’ve also had fewer punts than what most teams have, which helps with that stat.”
On what he knew about Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings teams being from Alabama...
“I was too young on the Bear Bryant teams. My parents would tell me about them. My dad coached during his tenure there. Gene Stallings, I was actually in Georgia, so was starting to follow college football in and around the South at that time, but not a lot. I was too young.”
On Thanksgiving meal affecting anything...
“Just time. Our times are off a little bit. We moved practice up a little bit Wednesday, up a little bit Thursday. Do some extra things Friday to help activate and get going. Change in times, not change in routines, which a change in time makes for a change in routine. But that’s the biggest changes.”
On what’s made Carson Beck consistent...
“Protection. Scheme. Hard work on his part. That’s probably it. Protection. Scheme. Hard work on his part. Watching tape, and really good skill player play.”
On Mike Bobo and Buster Faulkner’s roles last year and Faulkner this year...
“I think I mentioned it early. He’s done a phenomenal job. I think he’d be the first to tell you it’s not he that gets all the credit. He’s got a great staff of offensive coaches with him. They do a great job. Their offensive line is dirty, nasty, physical. They play hard. Everything you want in your offensive line, you can tell they’re a unit. Like I said, when your coach is an offensive line guy, that’s what you’re going to get. Buster’s done really well offensively everywhere he’s been, statistically. The reason he came here is because he wanted to get an opportunity at a bigger Power 5 school. He got that opportunity. He came here and did good things. He helped us tremendously. He helped the coaches. He brought ideas to our staff. I think he and Mike both played a major support role for Todd last year. Todd would be the first to say they’re both idea guys. They brought ideas to the table. They’re great to bounce ideas off of. It’s always great to have an extra set of eyes. The thing about Buster is he never cared who got the credit or what the role was. He played a key part in helping Coach Monken with Stetson in terms of developing.”
On Dom Blaylock...
“Selflessness. Probably the No. 1 thing that stands out. Toughness. He’s such a great competitor. Dom’s one of those that never says anything. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t moan. He goes to work every day. He made some really, really big critical plays for us over the years, in terms of the stretch run, going back to his freshman year touchdown catches, all the way to last year making plays. He’s just very dependable. You’re seeing the same things there. They’ve got him returning punts and doing things offensively. You can see his value as a football player.”
On whether you change anything because of Buster and Dom familiarity...
“No. There’s this thing called tape. They watch it. They see what you do. There’s no secrets. There’s no secrets out there. They’re not going to go out there and trick them and say, oh man, Buster knows when that double reverse throwback to Brock Bowers is coming. He doesn’t know when that’s coming. I think you waste a lot of time and energy thinking about that. I think it’s great for you guys to write about. Sorry I didn’t give you more juice on it.”
On Tate Ratledge’s injury and how Micah Morris played...
“Micah has been playing. Micah has been playing a good bit. I thought he did a good job. Continues to work hard, get better, condition himself.
Tate is good. Tate has a bone bruise. He banged knees like we thought. He’s sore, yesterday. Is sore today, limping around. No structural damage, which is good. Will be just a timetable for how long it takes to turn around.”
On Georgia Tech’s fast start against Georgia last season...
“They had a good plan, they did a good job. They have good players. I thought they had a good plan. We didn’t play exceptionally well early for whatever reason. They did a good job. You’ve got good coaches and good players. That’s what you have to go out and defend. They certainly did a great job starting it off last year.”
On Georgia Tech forcing turnovers...
“I think Kevin, having worked with him before, we all know games turn on explosive plays and turnovers. You’ve got to find ways to get those. They’ve been really disruptive doing that. I know how hard Kevin and them work at it, just like we do. They’ve been able to capitalize on those things. That’s big. Turnover margin is one of the biggest stats out there.”
On Malaki Starks and his ceiling...
“He’s really athletic. He could probably go out and play corner for us if we had to. When you look at players, what can he do and what can’t he do? He can do a lot of things and there is very little he can’t do. He’s gotten more physical with his tackling. He’s much more knowledgeable and confident in his abilities. He understands the check system. He gives us the luxury of being able to do extra things that people can’t do. A lot of safties can’t tackle well and play man. He gives us the ability to do both of those things. He’s done nothing but get better and lead since getting here.”
On Brock Bowers...
“Brock feels good. He’s a little sore. What’s happening is he’s on his ankle more during the game and obviously getting live-tackled. With the catches he’s got, there’s more soreness after the game than there is during the week. So the recovery takes a little longer with that process. We go lighter on him early in the week because if you don’t he’ll overwork himself.”
On Julian Humphrey and Jamon Dumas-Johnson injury updates...
“Both of those guys are fighting to get back. They’re week-to-week. Trying to get back as soon as they can.”
On getting out the competitive juices...
“In the season, no. In the season, every hour is accounted for. The hours that aren’t, we want to be with our families. It’s not like a, hey man we’re going to go play basketball at lunchtime today. We don’t have time.
With the offseason, there’s a lot of things we do. We get a lot more time. But iIenjoy being with my family during my off time. And most of the coaches do that too. unless you’re doing something within the work hours, it’s harder to do things as a staff. We do them with our team a lot.
On being competitive with the players...
“Offseason, yeah we do stuff like that all the time. We have chipping contests, putting contests, field goal contests. In a work week we’re trying to use every minute we can towards work. There’s a time for fun and things like that, especially when you get a break in the action. But when you’re in a week-to-week routine, it’s hard to do those things.”
