ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart did not share the same excitement as everyone else would for the first College Football Playoff rankings.
The Georgia coach spoke to reporters on Tuesday before the initial rankings came out. He was much more focused on Ole Miss.
Below are Smart’s full remarks following Tuesday’s practice. Georgia takes on Ole Miss on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
What Kirby Smart said about first College Football Playoff rankings, UGA quarterbacks ahead of Ole Miss
On how practice has been this week....
“Really good, really good.”
On Trevor Etienne...
“He’s been great. He did some extra conditioning, taking some reps, been in a black shirt, but, I mean, he’s toughing it out. It’ll still be... you’ll have to figure out all the things he can and can’t do. Hard to say after the Monday practice. He didn’t do much. He was still stiff and sore. Ran around a little bit, loosened up, and then he did some more stuff today. Took some reps.On the College Football Playoff rankings...
“Not much. I’m going to do my Tuesday night routine. I don’t think you can worry about it much. Certainly, whatever it is today, it won’t be next week or the next week or the next week. So it’s great energy and buzz for you guys and for fans, I guess, but every minute you’ve been worrying about that is one less that I’m worried about our team.
On the Ole Miss run defense...
“Big humans, large, fast humans, immovable objects with twitch, twist. They’re fast and big. I mean, you want to see a good defense, look at fast and big, and they got both.On Mykel Williams...
“I don’t know if I’d say that. I mean, I think he’s had a great season. He’s had a tremendous work ethic. He’s had the best camp he’s ever had, and, you know, there’s value in that. We have 10, 15 NFL scouts at practice. We have that many out there today. We have that many out there in camp. So, I mean, the reps he’s taken against really good players on our team, I think all that creates value for him. So, he’s been really level-headed. He doesn’t let things get him down. He’s not real emotional. He doesn’t take up highs and lows. He’s worked really hard to get healthy, and I still don’t know that he’s 100%, but he’s much closer.
On Dwight Phillips Jr...
“Yeah, I mean, he can do some more things. He’s a bright kid. He’s smart, really smart. You know, he’s 193 pounds or something. I mean, he’s a kid that’s getting better with each and every day, and he’s growing a lot. He wasn’t here in the spring, so he didn’t get to go through spring, and he hasn’t played in an offense quite this style, so he’s growing. What’s crazy is you tell him something once, and he remembers it, and he does a good job of learning it.
He’s grown a lot. He wasn’t here in the spring, so he didn’t get to go through spring, and he hasn’t played in an offense quite this style, so he’s growing. What’s crazy is you tell him something once, and he remembers it, and he does a good job of learning it.”
On ability to defend pass catching weapons, how they compare to Texas...
“Hard to compare. I don’t like doing those comparisons because they’re different offenses, different style offenses. They’re both very talented, and Sark and Lane have a lot of history together, but if you don’t watch the two offenses and think they look the same, different style passing game, they have really good wide outs at Ole Miss. I mean, they’ve been through injuries, and yet they’ve still continued to throw for lots of yards. I mean, they’re one, in my mind the top passing team in the country, in terms of statistics, passing, throwing.
They’ve done it with tight ends. They’ve done it with backs, and they’ve done it with wide outs. It doesn’t matter who it is with Lane. He’s going to plug somebody in there. They’re going to figure out where your weaknesses are, find match-ups, and look for coverages, and find ways to beat those coverages, and they’ve got a guy that can do it. I mean, this guy’s playing uncanny football when you talk about the accuracy, the completion percentage, the yards he’s throwing it for. He’s not throwing dink and dunk passes now. This guy’s throwing the ball vertical down the field, shots. And then when you do that, let’s say you cover all that and you do that, he can take off and run. I mean, you watch a quarterback run reel on this guy, and you don’t have enough people in the box. So the reason they’re successful is because of the scheme and the players that are in the scheme.”On punt return...
“Yeah, I don’t know. It’s going to be a matter of whether Anthony’s healthy enough to. I think Malaki’s going to do nothing but get better and get more confidence. He’s done it before in his life. He has been in a game. So, you know, that game changed a little bit. We weren’t asking him to do that at the point that they lost their quarterback. We got wind. We had a couple opportunities we wanted to play safe on the punt return team and make sure we defended the fake. We didn’t set up returns. So there were probably some yards there, but we were not asking him to do that.
On Daniel Harris...
Did some good things. He’s got to tackle better, and he and Julio both had some situations there they didn’t get the guys on the ground. Got to do a better job tackling. You know, I don’t grade him based on one flash play or one big play. You know, it’s more a cumulative effect of where his eyes are. Is he looking at the right things? Is he doing what he’s supposed to do?
On how he feels about Georgia’s wide receiver depth...
“I’ve told you 100,000 times. Y’all can ask me that question every day. We don’t have enough depth at any position. I don’t know one coach that’ll tell you, ‘I got the greatest depth in the world. We’re great there.’ Like, I don’t feel good about our depth. I don’t feel great about our depth at snapper. I don’t feel great about our depth at holder. I don’t feel great about our depth at field goal protection. I don’t feel good about our depth at wide receiver or anything because I don’t ever think you have enough to practice the way you need to practice.”
On throwing different pitches at the offensive coordinator like you would the quarterback...
“Well when you’re pitching to the quarterback, you are pitching to the coordinator. I mean, the coordinator and the quarterback. You’re doing both because they see it. I mean, they can talk in the helmet deal. They’re talking down to 15 seconds. Whatever you’re giving the quarterback, you’re giving the coordinator, and in some cases, you know, the quarterback does all the control and checks it, and I’m sure they have the ability to do that. Jaxson’s played a lot of football. I mean, this guy, he can do it without them telling him, but that’s, you know, that’s what good coaches do. They try to figure out what you’re in, and then they figure out how to attack it.”
On if there’s any extra intrigue now that the CFP is 12 teams...
“I don’t really know what you’re referencing. I mean, am I looking at it like, you know, I don’t know what you mean.”
On if the change makes him more curious...
“You’re going look a little further down. I mean, you would look at 12 last year and figure out, does the 12th team have a shot to get to the 4th? What’s got to happen for those teams to lose? Now, you’re looking at 20, you know, 21, 22, the automatic qualifier, who’s got the best shot, how are they going to perceive these teams, and what’s going to change the perception? That’s all the talk out there. I could care less because what is a quality win and a quality loss right now, they’ve been known to change their mind before it comes time. And, you know, we’ve probably been a casualty of that probably more than anybody in the country, so I don’t put a lot of stake in it.”
On what stands out about Ole Miss WR Tre Harris...
“Vertical speed, size. You got somebody that big and that size, I mean, he can take a hitch and go to the house. He can take a post and go to the house. He is a dangerous player, and you see it on tape. Like, I mean, it’s amazing what they’ve done without this guy now. I mean, because they’ve been explosive. We do those explosive plays and put it up on the chart of all the SEC teams every week, and it’s like there’s is like a dang slot machine just going up. They’ve done it with and without him, which is a credit to their offensive staff and their players.”
On how Tate Ratledge felt after the Florida game...
“Sore. You know, we had two guys really sore and hurting in there, Micah and Tate. Both were really tough, tough guys. You can see on the tape they pushed through some injuries and played with some great toughness.”
On the development of Gunner Stockton and Jaden Rashada...
“Yeah, they get work each and every week. We throw them in there and mix them in. They get reps, Ryan Puglisi gets reps. They come down sometimes and throw with us on the scouts to get even more work. I think every rep you can possibly get right now, you’re just like, how many times can I get a quarterback to go back there and have to make a decision and grow as a player? And I like to take pride in getting more quarterback development than anybody because we dedicate reps to threes every day. We’re going to do something with our threes, and not everybody’s willing to do that because you can make a case it’s wasted time, meaning it’s not going to affect that week’s game because you’re not going to get to your threes. But we’re constantly looking at it and saying, okay, this is the future of our program. What do we have? Who can play? Who can’t? But both those kids and Ryan in that same group do a great job. They sit in meetings, take notes, and continue to be ready. I mean, look at Florida. You just don’t know.”
On his visor selection process...
“No process. It’s whatever they give me. So, for the game, they put one down there and I wear it, and then I take it off after the game. The next game, there’s another one there. There’s two or three sitting in my office, and I just get one before I go to practice. I don’t waste a lot of energy on things like that, Chip. Sorry.”On player-led teams and Jared Wilson talking to Nate Frazier after his penalty...
“Yeah, I mean, I think we’ve had player-led teams since I’ve been here. The degree of which that is might vary, but I’ve been very pleased with the player leadership of this team. I meet with those guys on a regular basis, and they hold each other accountable, which is probably the most important thing, and they try to hold other players to the standard. And, look, Nate made a mistake. He’s not a bad kid. He’s a good kid. He made an emotional mistake, and he knows that, and his players, his brothers let him know that, and I think that’s important.”
