Georgia doesn’t take the practice field until Thursday, but Georgia head coach Kirby Smart still had plenty to say while addressing reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
Whether it be Georgia’s injury situation or what Smart wants to see from his quarterbacks this August, Smart offered up a variety of thoughts on the team.
The Bulldogs will have 25 practices before they play their first game of the 2023 season, which comes against UT-Martin on Sept. 2.
Below is the full transcript of what Smart had to say about the 2023 Georgia football team. You can also watch the press conference in the video player at the top of the screen.
Opening statement:
“I’ll start with the release that was distributed yesterday about the improvement to Sanford Stadium. We’re certainly proud of those. We value fan experience, Josh Brooks and myself both do. We’re looking forward to those improvements and they’re certainly needed in those areas of the stadium.
We’re opening camp today, and we don’t open practice but we are practicing earlier tomorrow. That’s not a seven, eight year tradition for us. We traditionally practice in the afternoon, but we’ve got some guys still doing final exams. That was going to cost us to miss a few guys so we flipped the practice schedule around and are going to go a little earlier - at least tomorrow and then go back to our normal practice time in the afternoon moving forward from that. That probably prompted this meeting to happen today as opposed to tomorrow with us going earlier for the first practice.
I’m excited to get these guys out there. They’ve had a great summer workout session. You usually measure summer success by where you are injury-wise in terms of soft tissue injuries and trying to avoid those, but also trying to be in shape. The only way to get in shape is to run and run in the heat. I felt like up until the July Fourth break we had not had the heat exposure we needed, we had not been outside and conditioning in the heat. As soon as I said that, it flipped really quick and it got really hot. From out July Fourth break on, our guys have trained really hard in the heat, had a lot of acclimation. We don’t do ‘testing’ anymore where you have to come in and run a test, but I feel really good about where our guys are from a conditioning level.
The biggest focus for us in training camp is physical and mental toughness. That’s why we do training camp. We try to expose our guys to a lot of scheme, a lot of getting to know each other moving in to one central location and really just focusing in on ourselves. I think the difference in the two teams from the last two years is they connected well in training camp, and that’ll be a goal in this training camp: to see how well we connect and how well we compete.
We’ve got a lot of jobs that are going to be up for grabs, up for competition, and I’m very eager to see our guys compete for those spots.”
On quarterbacks and what he wants to see from them in fall camp:
“I want to see them be where their feet are. I just got finished talking to the team 10 minutes ago and I had three or four older players, fifth year and fourth year players tell the younger players what the expectation for training camp is. That’s exactly what I think about when I think about quarterbacks. To worry about today’s walk through, today’s recovery period, today’s meetings, whatever we’re allowed to have we’re going to have today and the only thing you should worry about is that. Tonight, you can start worrying about tomorrow. For those quarterbacks, it’s not to overwhelm themselves with results, it’s to overwhelm themselves with the process of getting better. They’re going to get a lot of reps in the next 25 practices. They’re going to get a chance to compete in the next 25 practices. Each one of them has things that they need to work on, but for the whole, I want to see them manage the offense, understand the offense, get people lined up and execute. The guy that does that best in the critical situations will be the guy that becomes the quarterback.”
On evaluating the safety position and Javon Bullard:
“We have really good leadership in our secondary. I think coach (Will) Muschamp and coach Fran (Brown) do a really good job of developing leadership. Probably on of our strongest leadership position between (Javon) Bullard, Tykee (Smith), Kamari (Lassiter), Malaki (Starks), Dan Jackson. The names go on and on about the good leaders in those rooms. The second part of your question as far as Bullard, you don’t always weigh it based on what is Bullard’s best position for the team but who can play the best position around him. So we’re weighing that option. We feel like he’s a very experienced star. He spent the majority of his development at star since being here. So we have really tried to push the safety issue in order to create more depth there and then figure out who is the best around him. I think Javon is one our best 11 football players, but who is number 10 and 11 and where do they fit? I think all that should play out in camp.”
On cross-training in camp:
“I would say cross-training is probably more contingent on the age of the player, the experience level of the player. We don’t like to have an incoming player try and cross-train. That is usually not fair to them. We have volume in our defense. We’ve proven that you can play as a true freshman and be successful in our defense. So it’s not too much to learn like some people say and try and use against us in recruiting. We had a kid in Malaki Starks that walked in and played every since game at safety from a true freshman perspective. But we’re not going to ask that guy to cross-train. We usually do cross-training based on the volume they can withstand and how much they can learn. We make those decisions very, very delicately. Because there is a lot of guys you’d like to cross-train that you can’t and you have to pick the right spot. And part of being a good coach is where do you put the players and where do you put the seats on the bus.”
On injuries:
“Smael and Branson will both be running. They’re cleared to run, land running, and do things. But they’re not going to full-speed practicing. Smael and Branson, those are the two that are both ahead of the schedule we thought five, six weeks ago. But they’re not going to be cleared to go out there and practice.
Mykel has been able to do some activity, do some football activity and conditioning with us. It should be a lower volume, but he should be able to practice some.
Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins has been dealing with a little bit of a navicular foot issue but it’s not a break or anything right now. It’s a stress reaction that we’ve had to hold him out some and keep him out of activity some. But he should be cleared soon.
I don’t think there is anyone else. We’ve got a few hamstrings and things like that. The major deal right now is Ty, Smael, Mykel and Branson.”
On the goal of training camp:
“I think that’s the goal of training camp, to establish physical and mental toughness. Well how do you do that? You don’t say ‘Oh god, please don’t get hurt.’ Football is a tough, dangerous sport. We practice as smart as anybody in the country. We feel like we have a method that allows us to be physical and be tough and also protect our players. We’ve been very fortunate in terms of training camp in the past and we’re still a month out. We want to get better and we want our players to grow and get better. You don’t get better by not practicing. We’re going to be physical, we’re going to go against each other and we’re going to compete.”
On what kind of a leader is Carson Beck is:
“Carson is a very even-keeled individual. He’s been that way ever since we recruited him, all the way back in his 11th grade year. He’s not a highs and lows, he’s not a real emotional guy. He’s not a real fiery guy. He’s very laid back. He understands his job. He’s very intelligent. Every leader has their own way. He certainly commands the room. I think the players around him understand how bright he is and they trust him. Carson’s had a lot of reps and a lot of work, which hasn’t all been game reps. He’s had a huge mass of reps against a good defense, against a really good defense in ours. His leadership method’s kind of still being developed. It’s no different than Gunner and Brock. They each one have different ways about them. That’s true with the guy that just left, too.”
On Austin Blaske’s progression at tackle and what kind of player he is:
“He’s extremely tough. He’s extremely dedicated, very prideful in his work. He’s one of the most versatile linemen we’ve had. He’s played center, he’s played tackle, he can play guard, smart. He strains so hard that he makes himself relevant in terms of the movement he gets in the run game, screen game. He can go out on the perimeter and block guys, good athlete. He was a real good wrestler in high school. Just been really pleased with how much he’s improved to put himself in a competition to where he can contribute and play.”
On having “Havoc-Makers” along the interior defensive line and seeing that in the summer:
“I don’t know that I could measure by anything we see in the summer. Summer is built so much around conditioning and weights, which that’s not pertinent to being train-wreckers and havoc-makers with football pads on. It may can measure strength and be a measure of stamina, but not necessarily disruptive nature. I don’t know where we’re at in terms of that. I certainly concern myself with depth at all positions, but that’s a position, the defensive line, so I would say end, tackle, and nose all in one, concerns me in terms of depth. A lot of positions worry me with depth. Offensive tackle concerns me at depth. We’ve been spoiled at some positions. Every year it’s different, a different issue each and every year. That’s one of the issues we have this year is do we have enough players to play winning football at each position group.”
On how the non-conference schedule may affect Georgia at the end of the year:
“I mean, the thought’s never even crossed my mind. I mean, is there any part of that that I control? No, so I cannot concern myself with any part of that. I mean, all we can do is go out and try to schedule the best we can, and when we scheduled the game with Oklahoma, we were trying to do that. We were trying to create this identity of we wanted to play our conference schedule, we wanted to play Georgia Tech, and we wanted to play others. And, you know, we lost out on that because of realignment — adding teams to the conference. That just is what it is. I certainly don’t concern myself with the thoughts of the College Football Playoff committee because I don’t have any control over it.”
On how hard it will be to replace offensive coordinator Todd Monken:
“Yeah, I think anytime you lose a coordinator, you could rank it up there with, like, is that equal to an assistant coach? Probably not. I mean, you would think losing a coordinator is greater than others. I think retaining the rest of the offensive staff — and I think Todd would be the first to tell you, you know, once I knew he was leaving and I sat down and had a long meeting with him, he re-emphasized how good this staff was at doing their job of presenting him ideas. I think a lot of people look at offensive coordinator as an island and this guy just sits over there and comes up with this stuff himself. Well, they have 15-20 meetings a week on Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday where each coach gives a presentation of ideas or things they can do offensively, and he gets to sit back and be the decision maker on what’s in and what’s not. And those ideas really helped him, and he was quick to say, ‘Coach, you’re going to be fine no matter who you put in that position because you’re going to oversee it and make sure they do it right as the leader, and then they’re going to do a good job because they have pride in their performance as assistant coaches on offense and then whoever you put in that position is going to have good players and be able to have good players and be able to be successful. We were very fortunate to have Todd the time he was here, the growth he allowed us to make, the confidence he exuded with the players. He had a package of offense that he felt confident in that fit the players that he was given. He made the personnel fit his scheme. I don’t see that changing. You know, obviously the quarterback is a major, major part of that, and we had really good quarterback play last year. So a lot of times your offense is predicated off your quarterback play, so how well will our quarterback play? And that’s the question.”
On some of the other college teams that Georgia hosted and some of the programs that Georgia’s coaches visited:
“Yeah, since the COVID year, we’ve kind of quit doing it because we found that it’s a lot easier to do through ZOOM methods. So we didn’t go out and visit as many. Now, several of our coaches went to pro camps or went and met with maybe a d-line community or an o-line community group, and they all kind of share ideas. But we didn’t per se have anybody in particular we went and met with. But our individual coaches certainly studied teams that had the most turnovers, teams that did the best in the red area, teams that did something well. We try to pick their brain on how they did it without getting into any specific schools.”
On the emotions before the start of fall camp:
“I get excited, yeah. Not so much for today, but for tomorrow, I do. Tomorrow, being the first day we can go out and practice. The NCAA has allowed you to do so much more in the summer. I was just telling our players. It’s so different. We didn’t see our coaches when we were here in the summer. We had testing when we got back. It was the first freshmen reported was today. Now, we had 19 kids here in the spring. We had 4 or 5 show up in the summer, but they’ve even done workouts. It’s not like the build up of an NFL training camp where you haven’t seen guys. We’ve seen our guys. They’re here. They work out every day. It’s very important to separate summer to training camp. Sometimes, as a kid, you can’t see the separation because it’s just constant. It’s just all in a row. We try to make a clear delineation that this is the end of this, and this is the start of this.”
On Xavian Sorey’s development:
“Probably the most growth that Xavian has had has been in the last, I don’t know, five months, sixth months. Since Smael’s injury, he has exponentially grown in terms of confidence, ability to execute. He’s been healthy, No. 1, and he’s had a lot of opportunity of reps of being out there with the 1s. He’s a guy who’s really picked it up in terms of leadership, growth, and he has a lot of athletic ability.”
On Jalon Walker’s position fit:
“No, he’ll start at inside. That’s his natural position. That’s what he wants to grow at. He’ll be in that competition for guys that get an opportunity to play. He has a unique trait of being able to rush the passer, which not all inside linebackers have. So he has some outside linebacker characteristics, and he helped us a lot last year on third down. Because of the injuries we had, we were like, he’s got a better chance of playing OLB than ILB. This year, really the entire time he was out in the spring with a shoulder, he was still in the ILB room, and he’ll start in the ILB room. He’ll be part of a third-down package that allows him to rush the passer.”
On getting the most of the outside linebacker room after losing Nolan Smith and Robert Beal:
“Well, I don’t think hitting the quarterback makes you a better outside linebacker. I think we can determine whether they win or lose each rush based on the result. I’d love to be able to practice finishing, but we never get to practice that. I’m excited to see that group grow. We have a lot of young eager guys that need to grow. The oldest vet in the room is Chaz, and he sets the tempo and tone of the room all the time. I’m looking forward to seeing those guys grow. We’ve got to find unique ways to use those guys because some of them have really good athletic traits, and we’re going to have times where we have two and three guys on the field at that position.”
On what Kirby is hoping to see from the running backs, specifically Daijun Edwards:
“That will be the challenge. Andrew, coming off the knee, it’s where is he in terms of catching the ball, stamina, burst, acceleration? Branson, when can we get him back? Obviously Kendall and Daijun have the most experience. A guy who had a great offseason and put up really good numbers in the weight room is Cash. Cash is maybe our fastest back. Pound-for-pound, he may be the strongest guy on the team. His unique ability is to catch the ball out of the backfield. Daijun has got to be a guy that’s consistent, stays healthy, durable, and be kinda — he and Kendall both — be the leader of that group in terms of the way they work, catch the ball out of the backfield. I’m just excited to see all those guys work. I don’t know that we have a superstar in the group. We’ve got a group that, by committee, does a tremendous job, and they work really hard, and they put the team first. All those guys play on special teams, and they’ve been a huge help for our special teams units.”