ATHENS — The Georgia Bulldogs have completed their first two practices of the week as they continue to prepare for Saturday’s game against No. 9 Ole Miss.
Following Tuesday’s practice session, Georgia coach Kirby Smart spoke with the media on a number of issues.
Below is a full transcript of what Smart had to say.
On practice this week...
“It’s been good. They’ve had two good days. Intro to Ole Miss yesterday and then some regular down stuff today. We’ll do some more third down and red area tomorrow. They’ve been locked in. It’s a tough prep because they do a lot of different things offensively and create a lot of problems on defense. I mean, they create TFLs and havoc. They create a lot of havoc, so trying to stay ahead of the sticks and ahead of the chains. They do a good job. It’s been a good prep though.”
On coaching Georgia to hit Jaxson Dart outside of the pocket...
“No. Once he’s a runner, he’s no more protected than a running back. I mean, we’re going to tackle him like we tackle backs. He’s physical. I mean, they’re backs are physical. They’re all hard to tackle in terms of size and stature. If you get over 210-215 pounds and they’re running 4.4s or 4.5s, it’s physical. He lowers his shoulder and competes to play. I have a lot of respect for the way he runs, but in terms of us tackling him it’s going to be like we do a back.”
On what Brock Bowers has been able to do this week and how has he looked...
“He’s working hard. He’s doing all he can in terms of trying to get himself in shape and get better. I mean, he’s back running now on dry land. I mean, we’re hopeful that he keeps getting better. I mean, that’s kind of the MO on this injury. Every kid we’ve had so far that’s had it, Week 1 they do this, Week 2 they do this, Week 3 they do that, and Week 4 — I mean, he’s right on schedule for the things he’s been doing.”
On how much pain tolerance goes into someone who had tightrope surgery coming back...
“Yeah, I’ve never had it either, Anthony, so I can’t answer that, you know? I don’t know. Some guys say it hurts worse than others. I mean, Luckie shared his experiences with Brock. Jah’s had two of them. Cash has had one. Mims has obviously had one, so from what I hear it’s more painful in the beginning. It’s like a rollercoaster ride: it has its ups and downs and moments. You continue to push through it, and you get better as you go.”
On Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint…
“When we recruited Marcus, we knew we were getting that kind of kid. He went to a great school down in South Florida, St. Thomas. He’s a great kid, comes from a great family. He’s very passionate about football. I don’t know, when you rank the leaders at Georgia, there’s been some great ones since we’ve been here in terms of the command and respect that they’ve earned by what they’ve been through and what they’ve done. He would be right there at the top of those guys in terms of when he speaks, people listen. The way he competes, his toughness, his effort. He upholds our culture, begs to be on special teams. He just embodies what you want a Georgia football player to be. I have a lot of respect for him as a competitor.”
On Pete Golding’s defense at Ole Miss and if it’s similar to what he did at Alabama…
“Well he doesn’t have the exact same players he had at Alabama. I think he’s done a good job of making his scheme his scheme. There’s similarities, but you don’t just do the scheme. No defensive coordinator just goes, oh well, I’m going to cookie cutter this, this is what I do, this is what I believe in. You do what fits your system. He’s taken what players he has there and he’s made them better on defense. They fly around, they attack the ball. They do a lot of really good things. It’s not the exact same players that they had at Alabama in terms of just sheer size and numbers. They’re very talented in what they do.”
On Sedrick Van Pran and what he’s brought to the program…
“Character, leadership, charisma, heart, not afraid to speak up. But look, all the great leaders we have this year, they learned two years ago from a great leadership class. That leadership class learned from a really good, you learn from those before you. Those that laid the foundation all the way back to Nick and Sony have trickled down to everybody else. When you have good core people, you’re not going to win every game. It’s just not going to happen. You’re not going to do that. But if you put good people in the program and you demand excellence and you hold them to a standard and you pay attention to every little detail, eventually you get pretty good leadership out of people. We’ve been bearing the fruits of a lot of work that we’ve put into these players really from Covid on.”
On any indication that CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson would step in and contribute early in the year...
“I don’t know that I can sit here and say anything set them apart to make them able to. You don’t know if a guy’s going to be a place a freshman until they get here and see how they learn and process. They were both bright kids and they were both really talented kids. So physically, they had the gifts to be able to play but I mean, within our defense, there’s a mental rep count you got to get and luckily, they had all spring. They got it down in the spring, then they had all summer and they’ve had all fall camp. Raylen would be probably at least where CJ is or ahead if he had not had the injury in camp. That set him back, but he’s caught up really quickly and they’re both really good athletes.”
On his relationship with Lane Kiffin and if it brings any uniqueness…
“No. I have a lot of respect for Lane, I told you that. He and I shared seats next to each other at Alabama for two years, I guess it was, maybe three. I don’t ever know how long we were there together because it all runs together, but a lot of respect for him as a coach. He was a head coach at a really young age. He taught me a lot of things about what he believes in being a head coach and doing it your way. He’s certainly had a unique experience in terms of the places he’s been able to work as a head coach, and he draws on that. There are times we share ideas or GPS numbers or whatever, but there’s nothing outside of just a really good friendship and respect.”
On Branson Robinson’s rehab and if he will be ready by spring practice…
“You know, I don’t know the answer to that. The closest thing we had was Rian Davis went through this the one year, and it’s a long, arduous process. I can’t answer that. I think he’ll probably be cleared, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to go through live tackling and everything.”
On where he wants to see Carson Beck continue to improve during the season’s final stretch…
“His leadership to continue to improve and exert his confidence and put his touch on his personality with those guys is something. He’s into all the ball stuff. He could be cleaner on some things in the pocket. He could be cleaner on some protection things, but he’s going to make mistakes because we put him in a position to make three to four decisions every play. So he’s not going to be perfect, but I can accept that. I just want him to continue to grow as a leader and commanding of the offense.”
On more parity with NIL/transfer portal...
“There’s nothing easy about this league. I can assure you that. I think so, but I don’t know that we’ll know the totality of NIL and portal until we look back in a five, ten year window. You don’t really have enough substance to judge that. There seems to be more parity. Teams don’t seem to have as deep of rosters as we used to.’
On crowd impact...
They can have a huge impact, and we need them to. I’m counting on them to have a huge impact. Look, Ole Miss has played in some tough stadiums. Not only this year but last year, they’ve gone across the SEC West and seen all the tough places to play. It’s not going to be foreign to them to play in a tough environment. We certainly need to create it for them, and we need to create problems for them on defense and make it hard for them to play against us on defense along with the crowd. The crowd needs to have an impact and pull in the same direction for our players.”
On Javon Bullard...
“He’s a great leader. He’s the heart and soul. He and Kamari have such passion for the game. They compete against each other every day in practice. They’re both physically tough. They love football. They’re at the edge of their seat every meeting taking notes. They love nuggets. He’s just a great kid and a great leader that loves football.”
On Earnest Greene...
“He’s done a really good job. He’s come into a league it’s really hard to play left tackle in, and he’s done really well. He’s had his snafus. He’s had his mistakes. He’s had some jumpy moments, but I think the fact he’s played through all that and is playing with more and more confidence -- we’ve really challenged him to get into shape to play four quarters full speed and give max effort. He’s taken that on and is really working hard at it. He’s very conscientious about working his stuff.”
