Kirby Smart was all business when speaking to reporters on Tuesday following the second practice of the week for Georgia.
He did not mince words on how the Bulldogs have been practicing. But the Georgia coach did share some details on how things are going for the Bulldogs as they prepare for their SEC opener against South Carolina.
Below is everything Smart said following Tuesday’s practice. Georgia and South Carolina will play at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
On how practice has been this week...
“Better today than yesterday. It was good.”
On wanting to keep Spencer Rattler in the pocket versus making him scramble...
“You’ll carry a game plan to do both pretty much against every quarterback. A traditional pocket guy that nobody moves doesn’t exist anymore really. We call them statues, and teams just don’t play with those guys anymore. You wouldn’t have a lot of alternative rushes for them, but the guys that we play now days, you have to have a rush plan to do multiple things based on situation, score, down and distance, coverage. A lot of things go into how you rush the quarterback.”
On Roderick Robinson...
“He got the spring ball to learn and figure some things out. He caught up to speed, and he’s gotten an opportunity. We’ve had some injured backs, he’s been healthy. I’ve seen him mature. He’s very bright. He has good vision. He continues to improve picking up pass pro. He should be a weapon doing that because he’s big and physical, so he should be able to do that. It’s something that all freshmen go through where they have to learn that, they have to get comfortable. Picking up blitzing backers at our level is not something they do at their level. He continues to improve, and I’m proud of the work he’s done.”
On Ladd McConkey and the impact of his absence...
“We have guys that have similar skillsets, we just don’t have the experience. We have guys capable of filling the void left by Ladd, but we don’t have guys with the experience in this offense. Two years, 15 games a year, 30 games of experience is immense. That’s the part we miss. As far as his availability, he hasn’t been available. He’s been injured. He’s trying to come back, and we’re trying to figure out all we can do to speed that process up.”
On David Daniel-Sisavanh...
“Very instinctive. He’s got good speed. For two years now he’s come in in situational football. DIME he’s played. Third down he’s played. Late in games he’s played and played well. He’s had some really good hits. He had a hit against Oregon last year that was a really good hit. He had a hit against South Carolina late in the game. He’s shown up and played when we’ve asked him to. He’s played on special teams. He’s a product of the development and growth, intelligence and persistence.”
On Broderick Jones/Darnell Washington and their impact...
“I don’t know that the Broderick effect is anything relative to the Darnell effect. Obviously they’re two different players. We have two different guys, really multiple guys filling the shoes of those guys. Darnell is just different. He’s a generational player. You may not coach a long time and have someone that size that’s that physical at that position. But Broderick was, he was more pass pro. He was elite at pass pro, really good athlete. He could pull and run, get in space, do a lot of things. I feel like our tackles now can do those same things. So, it’s not as big a difference. I’m not talking in terms of ability. In the run game, there’s not as big a difference in the tackle and tight ends.
On the place-kicking competition...
“There’s competition for everything. It’s hard within a week. We get maybe 10 to 12 kicks a week. I’m talking about 11-on-11, not off on their on. We chart it. We keep up with it, we monitor it. We put weight on preseason camp. I got a lot of confidence in our kicker, I got a lot of confidence in both our kickers. Both our kickers are a weapon.”
On Javon Bullard and Austin Blaske’s statuses...
“Blaske is working his way back. He might be available. He’s one of the toughest guys I’ve been around so he’s trying to speed up that recovery and make himself available for this game.
Javon is still in non(contact) right now. He’s out there at practice, but he wasn’t able to do a lot.”
On ways to become a smarter football observer...
“Join a staff of an SEC program. I don’t understand what you’re asking. If you want to be a better football coach, go be around football coaches, right? If you want to understand football better, get in the tunnels and the dark spots and the organizations and watch it and learn it I guess. Is that what you’re asking? Football in general, I don’t think you can learn it on Twitter and I don’t think you can learn it on TV because it’s scary what people think they know.”
On if he studied coaches as he was getting started...
“No, I just worked. I respect coaches and I love to learn from them but I don’t study them. I don’t go out and say what is his win-loss record. You learn from the people you work for. I spent a long time working for some really good coaches. Bobby Bowden, coach Richt, my dad, coach Saban. You emulate those you work for and admire most.”
On what goes into electing to receive the opening kickoff after not doing so since 2019...
“The biggest thing is weather. It’s a concern of rain, so you want your possessions to be in non-inclement weather. If there’s any percentage of chance, you’ve got to make a decision based on that. I mean, wind, sun. Those are the biggest factors, which, you know, you can say they’re not a factor because we’re both going to have to play both directions, right? But it’s just a matter of which one you want to start out with, and I think trying to get momentum and field position in a game sometimes impacts the game.”
On the Tyler Simmons offsides call and how long it took him to get over that call...
“I mean, I was over it after it happened because I just assumed that, you know, they made the call that they saw and they felt confident about. But in all reality it should’ve come back anyway because they had people moving before the snap. So it wasn’t about whether he was onside or not — the movement pre-snap should’ve negated the play. It’s something we work hard on.”
On if he got what he wanted in terms of snaps for so many players in the first two games...
“Are you saying pleased with the performance or pleased with the number of snaps?”
The reporter leaves it open to Smart to decide...
“I didn’t have a pre-set notion of what it should be or shouldn’t be. I certainly would like to get more players playing time. Therefore when they do play they can lean on the experience of their game time. It concerns me that we haven’t played as many snaps with our starters. That’s the concerning thing because you’re going to catch a hot game where you’re playing 80-90 snaps. That’s what we condition all summer for, that’s what we condition in practice for, that’s what we work really hard for. The concern is on the ability to play as many snaps as it takes. Am I happy that some of those guys got to play and some of those got experience? Absolutely. They’ve worked their tail off, and they need it. And they need a lot more.”
On the biggest challenges for a secondary facing a quarterback like Spencer Rattler who can extend plays...
“Yeah, poise and performance. He’s going to hit some plays. He’s going to hit some shots. That’s what he does. He does it well. Playing the ball in the deep part of the field is one of the number one characteristics of a defensive back. If you have that flaw, it can be fatal. It tends to show up in games like this because he’s going to get opportunities. He’s going to throw the ball down the field. They have big, physical, fast wideouts. I mean, there’s a reason why they’re third or fourth in the country in passing yards because he throws the ball extremely well. He sees the field extremely well. He can throw the ball to all parts of the field, and he’s throwing it to people that can do something with it after they catch it. It’s going to be a big-time test for our secondary to play the ball in the air or tackle the man with the ball after it’s caught.”
On if he’s at the point where he can narrow down the rotation at corner...
“It’ll be based on practice week like right now. Like, we’re out there practicing right now. We’re shooting balls out of jugs, deep balls. We’re throwing the ball all over the yard. We’re getting extra throws. We’re getting extra scrambles, and we’re judging how guys play. We’re trying to simulate what may happen in the game. We’re going to play the guys that do the best job in practice, whether that’s five guys or two guys.”
On Andrew Paul as he continues to make his way back...
“Just that. He’s continuing to make his way back. He’s feeling his way through it. He has not, probably, cut loose. I think he would tell you he’s feeling his way through contact, trying to feel his way through it. He hasn’t had a lot of opportunities. He’s had a few, but with Kendall coming back, he’s been a little more limited. I think he’s a young back that’s still getting his confidence back. He’s flashed, had some really good runs in camp, and I’m hoping we get to see more of him so we get to see that.”
On defensive personnel on third and long, pressure situations, and why Jordan Hall and Warren Brinson rotate the way they do...
“I think it’s by series. So, relative to who’s playing, you may have seen one first the other, but if Warren plays a lot of snaps, then it’s Jordan, to be fresh. If it’s Jordan who’s played a lot of snaps, then it’s Warren. It’s interchangeable as far as no rhyme or reason. They’re both very capable, both very athletic.”
On Dillon Bell being selfless...
“We’ll always have that element, whether it’s he or Mews or the other guys who can line up in the backfield. That’s always going to be there. We have backs capable of doing that too when we are 100 percent healthy. So, I don’t know if I can answer that. But we’ll probably keep it there. It probably depends on what wideouts are healthy, what we have week to week and what the game plan is.
On Kamari Lassiter and his performance coming back from injury...
Really good leader. Solid, tough, physical tackler. Confident. He’s playing really well right now, playing hard. I just like the way he goes about his business. He practices like a pro, he walk throughs like a pro, he takes notes like a pro. He’s very driven and focused.”
On the home win streak and South Carolina being the last loss...
“No, I wouldn’t want to give B-Mac and Will pleasure.”
On analyst Brandon Streeter and if he’s helped this week...
“I can’t answer that good. I know he helped with the offensive staff in terms of coaching the coaches and gave input he knew about the kids, maybe the ones he recruited. I wasn’t in that meeting, but I know he did do that earlier.
On how many takes it took him to do the Regions commercial...
“I don’t remember. It was shorter than I thought it would be, but it was more difficult than I thought it would be in terms of trying to keep my composure and not laugh.”
