Georgia coach Kirby Smart spoke with reporters on Monday to preview the team’s upcoming game against South Carolina.
Below is a full transcript of what Smart had to say ahead of Georgia’s SEC opener.
Opening statement…
“All right, turning the page to an SEC opponent at our stadium, 3:30, CBS game. It seems like most of the years, Georgia opens with South Carolina. This game hasn’t always been that since I’ve been here, but it’s always been early in the schedule as it is this year. Got a lot of respect for Shane and his staff, the staff he’s assembled. They do a tremendous job with their players. They play really hard. Got a lot of respect for those guys. I know they tend to have players from our state and we tend to have players from their state. It’s always a really important game when it comes to playing a school that’s this close geographically to you. I know both teams will be up for the game, should be a great atmosphere. Hope our fans can give us a homefield advantage for this game.”
On Kendall Milton’s pass protection and trusting RBs on passing downs…
Yeah, he had two really key pickups in the game. He did an unbelievable job. The key to doing it is experience. He wasn’t, when he got here, the same player he was at picking it up now. He’s probably our most experienced, he and Daijun have both had a lot of reps. Dell does a good job of bringing those guys along in terms of freshman year, sophomore year, junior year. They get to pick up a lot of stunts and blitzes from us. There’s probably not a look they haven’t seen, but seeing it and knowing who to get is one thing, and physically being able to do it is another. He had I know two key pickups, one of them wasn’t even his and he picked it up and did a really nice job. He helped us out a lot in that regard.”
On Javon Bullard and his health…
”I have not seen Javon yet because of Sunday being off and then today coming in. He will not practice today, I do know that. As far as where he is, probably won’t know until Wednesday’s practice whether he’s going to be able to go or not. We’ve had guys in that position with that similar injury be able to play. But I really have no clue until we get further into the week.”
On Spencer Rattler…
”Well he’s got elite arm talent, I can tell you that. The throws he’s made, he can make the touch throws, deep, vertical, back shoulder throws. He ‘s thrown a couple field outs. He had a throw against Clemson last year on third-and-10 that was a rope. He’s very elusive, very accurate with the ball, hard to finish on. There’s a lot of people that miss tackles on him when they have an opportunity to try and get him down. Tremendous player, sees the whole field. Some of his best plays come off schedule, meaning somebody misses somebody or he scrambles and he hits you on the shot. Very dangerous.”
On Dillon Bell at running back and if Daijun Edwards will be available this week…
”Yeah, we expect Daijun to be able to go. Like I said, he could have gone last week, he could have gone the week before that. We’re just trying to go from 80 to 90 to 100. We think he’s going to be closer to that. I can’t say what he’s at, but he certainly felt good enough to go Saturday. So having him back helps tremendously. First of all, Dillon Bell has been a selfless player. He’s done whatever we’ve asked. He’s a really good wideout. This has been going on for a while, so this is not something that’s new. We’ve done this a lot with a lot of players that are situationally at running back, having guys go back there and look, understand the certain plays they can run. He’s big enough, 200 pounds plus, to pick people up. He’s really physically tough, strikes people, so he can protect. He can do a lot of things from the backfield. It’s something that we’re always going to have as an option or in our package, but a lot of it has to do with the health of our backs.”
On the play of the defensive line...
“It’s hard to evaluate because the teams they’ve played have been overmatched sizewise. We have more size than the teams we’ve played so it’s a tough evaluation. We usually evaluate it on effort, how hard did you play, how hard did you strain. We’ve played a lot of guys up there, so nobody’s played a large amount of snaps. I think it’s week to week. You’re going to watch and see the guys practice - I will say, they get a lot more work against a really good offensive line in practices and they’ve hit that head on. They’ve practiced hard. They’ve practiced physical. A lot of them took more reps on Tuesday and Wednesday than they did on Saturday in terms of the number of snaps.”
On the captain process...
“Nothing’s changed in terms of the captains process.”
On the JACK linebacker spot...
“The JACK linebacker position has been, several of those guys rotating there. Chaz has played a good bit. Darris has played, Marvin has played, the other guys have gotten to play with the game situation. We have several packages where two guys are in, two JACKs are in or three JACKs are in. We have regular where there’s a SAM and JACK in. It all depends on what the offense is doing.”
On Christen Miller...
“I think it was a cervical strain. He’s fine. Should be ready to go.”
On intrinsic motivation and finding an identity...
“I think every day is an identity build. I look at every day independent of the previous. This is not something of this is where you are and this is where you stay. It’s constantly moving. We’re constantly trying to improve.
I said the other day, we want to be elite at getting better. So our goal on today, Monday of South Carolina week, is be elite at getting better. The teams that get better and improve tend to ascend as the year goes on, and that’s ultimately our goal.
As far as intrinsic motivation, I think any good team needs to have that. You can’t do it on outward things, things that are tangible all the time. You have to have the motivation to be as good as you can possibly be to reach your full potential because you’re not going to have an exterior motivation all the time. It’s got to come from within you, and we’ve got some guys on the team that have that and some that don’t. Every team does.”
On Ladd and the transfer wide receivers...
“Ladd is day by day. Trying everything he can to get back, he’s trying everything he can to get back. I don’t really know how to answer it other than I don’t know anymore than I did on Saturday.
As far as the other two, I got to see some of the highlights from that game. It was back and forth between the other games.
Our guys are coming along in terms of Rara and Dom. I think both of them are in growing stages. I think Dom has been able to pick the offense up well. He’s intelligent. He has become a better perimeter blocker. Made some plays for us. Big conversion on third down, touchdown called back. Made some nice plays for us in the passing game. He’s really been a weapon for us on special teams at gunner. Rara has continued to grow. Getting better with each practice.”
On the perimeter blocking and missing Darnell...
“Not a concern. Darnell is a very unique player. He had a very unique skillset. We have more depth at some positions and less depth at some positions. That allows us the freedom to do things. My concern is not about not having Darnell. We’ve known that for a long time. It’s really trying to figure out who our best 11 are. What those plays look like. I think we have a very good perimeter blocking team. They’re going to get an opportunity to show it for next however-many games we have. WE work really hard on that and when I watch our guys do it in practice they really do a nice job. But I don’t know if that answers your question.”
On Jared Wilson...
“Well he’s dependable, he’s accountable. He plays really hard, he’s smart, he’s in great shape. I wouldn’t say he jumped up the depth chart. He plays like a starter and we’re going to give him the opportunity to play. He’s the backup center so he works at center and he works at guard. He works at both of those. We want to have depth at those positions so you want to have two guards that can swing and a center that can play. He earns what he gets and he’s earned it.”
On Jarvis Jones...
“Yeah I’ll be honest with you, I talked about it the other day. That is a personnel matter. We decided as an athletic department and moved on.”
On evaluating the inside linebacker’s play, especially with Smael Mondon not being able to play as much...
“Explain what you mean about — he did play. Like, he did start, right?”
On Smael Mondon playing a bigger role as he’s getting back to full health...
“I’m still confused what you’re asking me. The other guys got to play when he was out of the first game, so we got to get depth from those guys playing. But I thought he played well the other day. He’s still not — like, he’s gone a long time without practicing, so when you go 20-something practices without practicing, you could say, ‘Well, he’s played for two other years.’ Yeah, he started one year. He went through most of spring. I can’t remember how many days he got in in the spring, but he missed all of fall camp. So I think he’s still kind of knocking the rust off a little bit. He flashes. He’s really smart, man. He’s a really good leader. He and Pop together are comfortable, but we have to have three or four guys to be able to play that position, and that’s the part that we’re still a little unsettled on is really the rotation there of who’s going to be the guy that goes in like Rian and Trezmen did last year or Channing did the one year.”
On improvements South Carolina made from Week 1 to Week 2...
“Well, I don’t evaluate it that way. I evaluate it as who are they? I look at last year’s games. They’ve got some players back from last year that are explosive. They’ve got good football players across the board, and they play really hard. I think when you look at the end of the year schedule last year with what they did with Tennessee and Clemson, it speaks for itself. Their kids don’t listen to the outside noise. They go out and play like they’re coached to play. It’s going to be the same way this week for us.”
On breaking down how the offensive line played against Ball State and Tykee Smith’s journey...
“I’ll start with the offensive line. I think there were times that we functioned at a high level, and there was times that we had some sloppiness. We had a couple — one lapse in a protection. One time we got beat that we probably shouldn’t have gotten beat. It’s game speed-type things. It’s making sure that I know if this guy’s running a stunt or a twist that I’m going to pass it off by getting my hands on the other guy and not letting leakage in there. But they also pick up a max blitz, pick up some tough things to pick up. So there’s some positives and negatives like there is every position. What I’m looking for is more consistency in performance for every position group, but also the offensive line — especially with some of the experience we have there.
And then Tykee’s done a nice job. He’s practiced really well, he’s a leader, he’s tough, he’s physical, he’s in better shape. You know, last year like I always say, he was coming off of an ACL and was probably not the same person he is now. He’s in better shape right now than he was. He’s starting on three out of four special teams. I mean, the guy’s been a really good player for us through two weeks.”
On the Sanford Stadium fans and Tonka Hemingway not mentioning the stadium as one of the toughest he’s played in...
“Yeah, I’m expecting it to be that. What people want to question whether our fans are elite, we’ll find out Saturday, right? It sounds like Tonka called ‘em out. Maybe we need to use Tonka for motivation and let him be the one that spurns our group to come out there at 3:30 and be really loud and fired up. I certainly hope our fan base will be. They’ve answered the bell every single time. I don’t know why they wouldn’t now.”
On memories of winning the SEC East...
“I mean, I’ve never had significance of worrying about — I mean, you just worry about every game, you know? There’s times that we’ve clinched that, and it’s like, OK, well, you’re going to go to Atlanta, but that time’s so far away right now. That’s the least thing I’m worried about. I guess it’s a hypothetical. I don’t really know how to answer it.”
On second-generation of Beamer ball...
“Yeah, they were tops in the conference last year in the little composite thing we do in terms of looking at all of them and ranking all the special teams units and taking a composite of that. They were 1 in the SEC. It’s something they do a really, really good job of. I know he’s very hands-on with that. He’s passionate about it. It creates an identity for his players. You can see them, they play that way on special teams. They play really hard on special teams unit. It’s an important part of the game. If you look at our second game — I don’t know about our first one — but it was impactful for us too. So you’re going to have a lot of momentum plays in those units.”
On SC coordinator change and how you evaluate his defenses during film study...
“You look in the offseason. We spent a lot of the offseason looking at things he had done in other places he’s been at. You watch what they currently do. You see the impact of what they’re doing this year is probably the biggest priority. But you also watch where he’s been and what they’ve done last year. They were really successful at the end of last year, and he wasn’t a part of that, so it’s a mesh of all those guys in terms of what they’re doing now. We look as far back as we can. We want to get all the information we can.”
On upsets in the SEC and how much of that is about the portal vs. cyclical nature of CFB...
“Yeah I really have no idea. I can’t put a finger on it or explain it. I think every team you mentioned that beat an SEC team is a really good team. Really good teams. Most of those teams have been improving for a while. I don’t know really know why and don’t think I have to concern myself with why because I’ve got enough to worry about with the opponent I’ve got to play.”
On what you want to see Malaki Starks improve on...
“Disguises. Tackling in the open field. Being a leader. I think he’s taken ownership of improving in a lot of ways. I can go back and watch last year’s game of every team we’ve played that we repeat. You’re getting to see him as a freshman to now, and it jumps out at you, like, wow, man, he got really nervous last year. He was really struggling. He’s more confident. He understands the defense better. But there’s still a lot of things he can improve on. But when you watch him last year in this game, he was certainly nervous.”
On Spencer Rattler arm talent and the secondary getting tested...
“We’ve got to be prepared. It’s not just Rattler. It’s the weapons he has around him. They’ve got an elite group of wideouts and even tight ends they use. He makes a lot of plays. They’ve got guys that can play the ball down the field. I mean, explosive plays they’ve made in the last four or five games of theirs is pretty special, pretty elite. A lot of them are down-the-field throws. We will have to play that part well.”
