ATHENS — Georgia completed its second practice of the week on Tuesday as the Bulldogs continue to prepare for Auburn.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart met with reporters following practice to give further insight into how the team is doing as it readies for its first road game of the season.
Below is a full transcript of everything Smart said on Tuesday. Georgia and Auburn meet at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, with CBS airing the game.
On practice so far this week...
“It was good yesterday, and I thought it was good today. We had a lot of things to clean up today. I didn’t love the results, but I loved the energy and focus and the enthusiasm. I mean, it’s a rivalry game. Our guys are passionate about this game. I thought they practiced hard, not always smart. We got after it today and had a good, physical practice. It’ll be a physical game, so we need to be ready for it. We expect it to be hot and practiced in the heat.”
On Auburn’s defense forcing 8 turnovers through four games...
“Yeah, they get a lot of havoc. I mean, there’s a couple clips against A&M, you know, they’re punching balls out. You can tell they’re coaching it. They’re violent, stripping at balls, going after it. You know, that’s the going rate in the country. You’ve got to protect the ball at a higher rate now than ever I can remember. The art of getting turnovers and forcing them is so harped and coached upon on defense that, I mean, it’s almost double that on offense now protecting it. So the two are like meeting in the middle: they’re protecting it more, we’re coming after it more, and it just keep raising the standard of people getting after it. They’ve done a good job of that. They’ve also got some interceptions that’s helped with that.”
On the chances of Ladd McConkey playing Saturday...
“Don’t know. He did some things today. He got to practice. He didn’t do much Monday. He ran routes and caught balls, and then today he got in plays and ran routes. I saw him some, but I didn’t get to see enough to really judge it. I’m going to go watch the tape of the periods I wasn’t over there with them and see what he looks like. We’re just trying to progress him back slowly, whether it’s this week in a role or whether it’s, you know, the future. We’re not trying to rush him back.”
On Auburn QB Payton Thorne and the Tigers’ style of offense...
“Yeah, extremely athletic. I think, you know, everybody gets — I mean, Robby Ashford is an elite athlete. He is so fast, so quick, but the thing is Payton Thorne’s a good athlete, too. He can take off and run at any time. He can do all the same runs. I mean, he’s made some pretty impressive cuts and touchdown runs. They both are really good athletes.”
On what he’s seen from RBs Kendall Milton and Roderick Robinson this week...
“Yeah, Roderick hasn’t gone much. He’s been in the training room dealing with the high ankle, but Kendall was able to go some today and did some stuff. Again, I saw him out there. I didn’t get to see how much he did or how he looked doing it. I’ll evaluate that on tape. But he was able to take reps and go and cut and do some things.”
On his view of Georgia’s rivalry with Auburn compared to Alabama’s rivalry with Auburn...
“Yeah, they’re both rivalries. Georgia-Auburn is a border war rivalry. Alabama-Auburn is obviously is an in-state rivalry. That’s on another whole level of difference from being over there because they live with it 365 days. You know, we share that with several other out-of-state rivalries. There’s no diminishing of a rivalry. I tend to agree with Coach Freeze, you know? It’s not about hate for me. I don’t look at it as I hate any of their players. I recruited a lot of them. I don’t look at it as I hate any of their coaches ‘cause I like a lot of their coaches. I’ve known all those guys for a long time. I have a lot of respect for Hugh. I look at it as a hell of a fierce rivalry, and that’s really why you do this business — like, why you get in this business is to play in these type games in this type atmosphere. Fan bases may not like to hear that because they like to hate each other. There’s not a lot of difference in our fans and their fans a lot of times in terms of where they’re from, that kind of thing. Our players are similar to their players, so I have respect for them, not hate.”
On being fully installed on offense...
“I don’t know how to answer that. You’re never fully installed. Ever. Like ever. If you say you’re fully installed, you’re saying you can’t get better, you can’t do anything else. So you’re constantly looking for a better way or new play or something to do. So we have what we have. Every offense carries over plays and might present it a different way or change it up. But there’s coaches all over America watching games on Sunday to see a new wrinkle. Not necessarily a trick play just a different way to do the same thing.”
On explosive play margin...
“Well, I’m embarrassed to say I don’t actually know the number, I want to say it’s 15,20. 15 to run, 20 to pass but we changed it over the last couple of years. Because we had big play, which was 12-to-15. And then we had explosive play which was 15-to-20. People tend to slant those to which is more favorable to them. Meaning if you have a bunch of them fitting in the medium of them in the border, you say ‘Hey we had the most big plays.’ Or hey we had the most explosive plays. So coaches all across the country kind of tilt that. And when we do that stat, one of our quality control guys does it. I want to say it’s 15-to-20 but I can’t verify that. But it’s differential more than anything. We’re not even leading the SEC in differential. The way we do ours, Kentucky actually is. We’ve given up slightly fewer than them but they’ve gotten slightly more than us. So the differential is like one or two ahead.Llast year we were second almost the whole year to Ole Miss because of all the explosives they had. Ole Miss is actually the one who sent the chart to us. I kind of fell in love with it because it showed a greater indicator of who won or loss than turnover margin. But I can’t answer your question as far the exact number on the yards.”
On Mykel Williams and Javon Bullard...
“Yeah Mykel did some exercise today. Felt better. Hoping he’ll be able to go. Don’t know that yet. Probably know more tomorrow.
Javon was able to do more today. He felt the best he had. He did walkthroughs, he ran on the side, did some scout period stuff. Didn’t go with the good-on-good stuff. Those guys are going to be probably really close. Right there with Ladd and Kendall. Could be into the weekend before we know.”
Team meeting times...
“They would be with the exception of traveling to the game site. So obviously Here we travel to the game site and we’re 15 minutes away and we’re really close. In these towns we play in sometimes, you don’t stay in the town. If the travel if from where you stay to where you’re going dictates you have to move things up. You know we stay in Montgomery, we can’t click our heels together and appear in Auburn. It takes an hour. Sometimes we have to move our time markers up some.”
On if it’s 45 minutes up across the board...
“Their traffic, it’s been tough getting from there to the game because of game-day traffic. We get escorted through it but sometimes we’ve found it takes a little longer than normal so sometimes we have to move things based on our history in terms of what that travel took two years ago.”
On Warren Brinson...
“He’s worked hard. He’s had more opportunities. He’s trained behind some really good football players that are gone. He’s developed. He’s gotten tougher. He’s gotten more physical, stronger, more disciplined. He’s improved. When he plays within the scheme of things he’s pretty athletic and twitchy. But he has to do that first and play hard. Play more snaps, he’s got to play more snaps than he’s ever played so that’s important.”
On Dan Jackson...
“He’s done good. Dan, when he’s been healthy he’s played really well. He played a dime role two years ago, last year dealt with injury most of the year, and that was really frustrating for him, set him back. He’s just now, to me, getting back to his old play speed. He can run. Dan has good speed, good eyes, he understands our defense and recognizes things. I was really proud of him the other night, played really well and if Javon can’t go, we’ll need him to play well again.”
On Micah Morris...
“He did a good job, came in there and gave those guys the rotational blow. I think that’s important when it’s hot and you’re playing in early fall. He jumped in there and competed and played. He’s really physical. He has a different presence than the other guards at times. He has some strengths that they don’t have, and he has some weaknesses that they don’t have. We have to measure those within each game and see what we need.”
On Marvin Jones Jr...
“He’s gotten better. I thought he’s had a good week of practice so far. He was crushed he wasn’t able to play in that game, he’s recovered from all that and I think he’s getting better. He understands our defense in terms of knowledge and system. A lot of guys in that room are young and new, and he’s been able to grasp that feel for things. Hoping he comes along and starts making some plays.”
On Carson Beck’s deep balls...
“I think he’s done a good job. We had the one drop, hated that for Arian. He works really hard on it, spends extra time after practice - he’s probably out there now doing it because he had an opportunity to grab it. Probably overthrew Jackson a little bit, but Jackson would tell you he didn’t extend the play like the other guys did, timing wise with other receivers. He probably put too much air under it instead of hitting him right in stride. I think he’s done really well with the deep balls. I really do. I don’t listen to what’s out there. We’ve missed a couple because they’ve been covered, and he’s overthrown a couple, but a lot of that is aim and are we leading receivers to open grass or throwing it to a landmark. There’s differences in the two, and sometimes it’s on the quarterback, sometimes it’s on the receiver. If we continue to run the ball well, we’ll continue to have opportunities to take shots downfield.”
On Auburn LB Eugene Asante...
“He’s an athletic dude. He’s the kind of linebacker everybody is playing now, a lot of teams in the NFL are playing with. He’s quick, he’s fast, he’s twitchy, he can blitz, he can play in space, he closes so fast and covers down. A lot of his plays have been cover down strip outs and effort plays. We showed our guys him and showed the scout linebackers how hard this guy plays. You know, Coach Searels was with him there at North Carolina, and he’s played really well this year. He’s a force.”
