ATHENS — Georgia has moved on from its big win over Florida this past week, knowing it has an even tougher test this coming Saturday against No. 14 Missouri.
The Tigers get the added benefit of coming off a bye this past week. Missouri is 7-1 on the season, and the winner of this game moves into first place in the SEC East.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart had plenty to discuss at his Monday press conference. Below is a full transcript of Smart’s remarks.
Opening Statement...
“Eli has done a tremendous job with this team. We thought they were really good last year when we went to play them, and that proved to be true. They’ve gotten better. Their quarterback is very experienced, which is the No. 1 quality you look for. How many games has be played in, what experience has he had, has he played on the road in our conference? He’s done all those things and he’s done them really well. They’re using him, his legs and his ability to run really well. He’s a competitor, he’s fast on tape and he’s playing at a high level. He’s doing it with some weapons offensively.
Defensively, they’re extremely aggressive, one of the best defenses we’ve played against since we’ve been here. Even last year, they were just dominant and just love the style of play they have. They’re aggressive, they’ll get after you, and they’re doing the same things this year. All in all, they’re a very well-coached team. They do a great job, they could easily be undefeated. That game was back and forth with LSU, and coming off a week off, we’ll need to get ourselves prepared for a battle at home.”
On Dominic Lovett facing his old team...
“I think he’s fired up for every game. Dom’s a great kid. He’s quality young man and he works really hard. He’s busted his butt since he’s been here, he’s very humble, and bought into what we’ve asked him to do and has been very selfless. He’s trying to improve his game as a blocker, it’s one of the things he had to work on, but I’m not overly concerned about that. As much as a story for you guys, it’s not for him as it is the next opponent.”
On Mizzou’s recruiting and the recruitment of Luther Burden...
“Luther is a great player. Everybody in the country wanted him. It wasn’t just us. They’ve got a very fertile recruiting ground. They’ve got some very good players in their state. Eli does a really good of taking that circle, say a five-hour radius, and because of where they are geographically, they don’t cross with a lot of SEC schools like maybe we do with each other. So, comes into Georgia, I think he has six or seven kids on the roster from Georgia, six or seven from Florida, and they’re able to get guys from that five- to six-hour radius.
Eli’s done a great job. I mean, you’ve got a great program to sell when you create environments like we played in last year at their place, when you play on national TV and you play the style of play they played. They played really well on the road against Kentucky, so he’s got a product to put out there and sell to kids to come play there.”
On how big coming back against Missouri was for last year’s team, particularly when they came back against Ohio State…
“Yeah, it helped. Being down in a game or not playing well maybe because of them playing well and you not playing well, it makes you question yourself. That was a point in the game — there’s a lot of things they did to help us and a lot of things that we did to help them, but at the end of the day we didn’t play very well until the fourth quarter and a lot of that had to do with them. And give them credit for the way they played. But, yeah, last year’s team, in retrospect, it helped build the resiliency of that team.”
On how Brady Cook’s game has progressed…
“He’s very bright, sharp, athletic, gets the ball out in something like 2.3 seconds, 2.2 seconds. He knows where he’s going with the ball, he understands coverages. I mean, it’s like all the quarterbacks you’ve played that have experience: they make good decisions, they don’t make many mistakes. I mean, maybe he broke a record for number of consecutive passes without an interception or something? The guy doesn’t make very many mistakes, and he’s accurate and he’s athletic. So I don’t know what else you can ask a quarterback to be than those things.”
On Carson Beck’s confidence making difficult throws…
“He’s bright. He understands the game. He’s played a lot of snaps. He’s more experienced than you give him credit for. A lot of the stuff he had when he got here, you know? He didn’t just develop it. I mean, he was a good quarterback. He had great demeanor coming out. He’s got all the traits of a guy that can, you know, win games with his arm, his mind, and if he has to his feet. He’s done a good job of doing that, and continuing to improve is the goal.”
On Jalon Walker…
“Yeah, you’re starting to see some of the things we see in practice. He has some physical tools and traits that we’ve seen and maybe he hasn’t gotten to showcase in a game for whatever reason, and he’s getting better. He’s explosive, twitchy, can bend, has really good pass-rush ability, but he also has the luxury of playing inside backer where he can stack off the ball and do things to help our defense be multiple. You’re not going to find a higher-quality kid in any organization than Jalon. He is unbelievable in what he stands for and what he represents and how he works, so I was happy for him to have the success he had.”
On the Missouri run game...
“Toughness. It’s just incredible toughness. He doesn’t get tackled by the first guy. He’s another guy that seems like he’s been there forever. I’ve seen this kid playing forever and ever for them. People bounce off of him when he hits them. He plays on special teams. He embodies what a football player should be and what a committed-to-his-university football player he is. He’s had games early in his career where he was the feature back then he wasn’t then he was then he wasn’t. He stayed the course, and extremely physical.”
On Darris Smith and CJ Allen...
“Um, Darris is focusing on academics and working out and conditioning and doing some things, but he’s not necessarily with us. Then CJ is day-to-day. He felt a tweak in his hamstring, but think he’s going to be fine. We’ll find out more today.”
On defending Luther Burden...
“Size, speed. He looks like a running back. He’s explosive, fast, he’s different. They move him around. They do a great job using his skillset.
On Burden being used in the slot and how Georgia defends it...
“I think it depends on the coverage. We’ve got a lot of variance in our defense in terms of multiple ways to play the slot and do things and they’ve got multiple ways to move him around. They can make him slot, they can make him a running, the X, the Z. They’re very unique in their ability to slide guys to spots. And they don’t do it just based on plays. They ask guys to run multiple different routes from different positions. In terms of what they do, they’re very varied and so are we. It should be a good matchup.
On Dan Jackson...
“He’s dealing with a bursa, his knee has a bursa sack in there that has been bothering him and actually got infected. The Vanderbilt game it happened while we were there. Didn’t find out till the morning so we didn’t get him Vanderbilt game last minute and then he was unable to go last week. We’re hopeful to get him back this week and give us some extra depth in the secondary. He’s supposed to be able to do some stuff today for the first time. We’ll see how he does.
On the Missouri defense...
“They’re physical, they’re fast, they’re aggressive. Played well. I think they’re coming together with what they do. They’ve had some extra guys come from last year but they’ve got a lot of returning starters. I don’t think anybody has played real well defensively against LSU. So when you say tighten things up, LSU is all over the explosive sheet in terms of the number of explosive passes or runs.
On the punt block and if the special teams checked to the block...
“Without getting into the particulars, we don’t let players check things themselves. Quarterback might but nobody else checking things on themselves. If we start doing that we could get in trouble because they’re exactly not the best decision-makers. It was more of a recognition of what it was and it was more of a correction of how we wanted to be aligned. It was not a check per say. It was a ‘you’re supposed to be over here’ type deal.”
On Ladd McConkey…
“Explosiveness, quickness. Separation is one of the No. 1 qualities. We talk about body quickness. A guy could be straight line fast, but he doesn’t separate. Can you come in and out of breaks? That was the first thing we saw in Ladd when we looked at him. He’s quicker than he is fast, but he’s fast. When you’re quick and fast, that’s when you’re good.”
On Daijun Edwards...
“He’s got good offensive line blocking for him, good vision, great experience. I think he knows when to hit it and when to be patient. Some of that is based on the front that they’re in, the pressure that they’re in, the amount of space that there is. Every back has their style, and I think his fits him well.”
On Amarius Mims...
“He’s got be healthy enough to play and be the best available player to play. He’s working his butt off. He did extra work Friday, Saturday, yesterday. He’s going out today to continue to work, bu at the end of the day he’s got to be confident to go out there and play. He’s much closer to that today than he was last week.”
On McConkey’s injury situation...
“It’s been frustrating for him, not me. It’s frustrating for him because all he wants to do is have a great year. He came back to have a great year, and then to have something unexpected like that has been frustrating for him. He came out of the game looking great. We’ve got a little routine in terms of what we do Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and now that we’ve got that routine it seems (knocks on wood) to be working, and we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”
On Missouri contending for the East...
“They’ve got good players. Eli would tell you it starts with good players. It starts with quarterback play. You look across the league and you say, ‘Man, who’s playing good in the country?’ They’ve got good quarterbacks, and they’ve got a good quarterback. When you’ve got a good quarterback, you’ve got a chance. He makes too many decisions throughout the game that if he is not making the right decision, you’re not going to be in the game. They’ve got a quarterback matched with great skill and a really aggressive, sound, tough defense. That’s the recipe for winning. He’s accumulated that talent through the portal, through high school. He’s a talent evaluator and trying to get guys on the team to buy in. Eli does a great job, and I have a lot of respect for him.”
On Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins and the potential impact of him coming back…
“Well, it’s getting him back in the right shape, stamina, all the way back. He hasn’t been able to practice much and didn’t do much last week until Thursday. He’s at a position where he rolls over there with Mykel (Williams) and Tramel (Walthour) and hopefully he can take a load off those guys and keep them fresher and give us a little more size.”On Mizzou cut blocking on the backside, coaching to prepare for that...
“No, a lot of people use it. It’s not unique to them. They’re good at what they do. They have their run style and the way they coach their guys to do it. They do a good job in the run game. We prepare for what every team does. It’s just a different team this week.”On Eliah Drinkwitz, his personality, and how much Smart has gotten to know him...
“Eliah’s got his personality. He’ll tell you. He doesn’t seem to stress and worry about things a lot. He takes it as it comes and enjoys it and I try to do the same myself when it comes to enjoying the moment. He says all the time that you better enjoy it or why did you get in it. That’s what you come to this big league to play, to play in big games like this one.”On the lack of penalties for Georgia and whether that’s a concentration...
“Nah. It’s kind of like turnovers. We concentrate on that and it doesn’t always happen. It’s like you don’t control a lot of that, circumstances. I do think we’re a disciplined football team. We do what we’re supposed to do and try not to get excessive things but least penalized can be a bad thing, most penalized can be a bad thing. Maybe you should have more penalties, means you’re stretching the limits of it. Just try to do it the right way and sometimes it comes out that way.”
