ATHENS — Another week, another big game for Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs.
For the final time in the regular season, Georgia will go on the road. This time, Smart’s team visits the No. 16 Ole Miss Rebels.
Lane Kiffin’s team scored 63 points against Arkansas this past Saturday and enter the game on the fringe of playoff contention.
Smart shared his opening remarks ahead of Saturday’s game on Monday. You can read a complete transcript of those remarks below.
What Kirby Smart said about Lane Kiffin, Georgia offense as Bulldogs begin Ole Miss prep
Opening statement...
“Yeah, we’re excited about this opportunity to play in another road big game. Ole Miss has got a tremendous team. Lane’s done an incredible job of getting talented players, big, physical. The improvement on defense for them is extremely noticeable. These guys are disruptive, powerful, fast, tons of sacks, tons of tackles for loss.
I think Jaxson Dart is playing (like) probably one of the best quarterbacks playing in the country in terms of explosive plays. A lot of respect for how he competes. I mean, the guy runs extremely physical, like a SEC running back. He doesn’t try to avoid contact — he actually seeks it. You can tell he’s got a fiery, competitive attitude, just like his coach does, just like Lane does. So they have a lot of the same personality traits.
Tremendous team that really should probably be undefeated. At the end of the day, they’ve had two really, really close games, both games that they could have easily won. So great challenge ahead, and our team’s looking forward to it. We’ll start getting ready today.”
On if Ole Miss and Dart are similar to Joe Burrow and the LSU offense in 2019…
“Different offense. I think a very different offense in terms of that. But certainly the talent’s there. I mean, they’ve got several draft-pick receivers that are good players. They’ve got good tight ends. They got a really good scheme. I think LSU had the same thing, but different scheme. Those two were not the exact same. LSU could go a whole game without trying to run the ball. Ole Miss will run the ball. They commit to the run and they create shots and RPOs off of the run game. That wasn’t really the LSU MO.”
On playing with physicality against a QB when QBs are often protecting from an officiating sense...
“Yeah, we talk all the time. We’ve played a lot of quarterbacks that are good runners this year. You tackle the quarterback like he’s a running back. You have to. You have to approach it that way. I mean, he’s 225 pounds and he lowers his shoulders and he’s physical. He doesn’t give himself up very often, so we don’t coach it any different than tackling a back. He might drop his shoulder. He might choose to slide. You have to react to what he does. But you have to be physical, now. You can’t approach this guy like he’s gonna give himself up because he’ll run right through you.”
On what makes Ole Miss’ run defense so successful...
“They’re big. I mean, they’re physical. The only remedy for stopping the run is have big people that are hard to move. I mean, in our history here at Georgia, we’ve traditionally been pretty good at stopping the run. You go back to the Jordan Davis days, which were probably the best we had, it’s a strong physical defensive line, and they have it now. They’re physical at the point of attack, and they’re good at attacking and stopping the run.”
On the growth Jaxson Dart has made from last year to now...
“Well, he’s more comfortable. I mean, he’s played more football. He’s got more experience. He’s playing at a really high level. He sees things well. I think he and Lane and the offensive staff are further along. They know what they’re looking for. They know when you get in something what beats that, and they know how to attack it. So he’s just a proven winner, and he’s a fierce competitor. He’s hard to stop.”
On the key things for Carson Beck to help limit turnovers...
“Just decision making. I mean, I think that’s the bottom line. I think I was more pleased after watching the tape than anything, because I mean, out of 73 snaps, he had 68 winning decisions, really good decisions. I mean, 68 for 73, pretty good in any sport I’m in, that you’re in. I think the concern is the mistakes can’t be catastrophic. You’ve got to make good decisions. And the two plays that he ends up turning the ball over on, they weren’t great looks defensively against that call, like we were expecting something else. So when that happens, you’ve got to play for the next down, right? It’s the most common thing in football. You’ve got to be willing to concede a down and move on, especially when it’s first down. And both those were, and two of those were those situations. But I still think that 68 out of 73 decision-making processes, he did the right thing and made some really, really elite plays and throws within the game. So it’s cutting down on the catastrophic things.”
On if Carson’s interceptions are a product of throwing the ball more…
“I don’t know. I think it’s, I just think first and foremost, he’s done a tremendous job overcoming any mistakes he’s had in the ability to go out and close things. There’s a quality now that when you look across the NFL, you look across all sports, you look across the quarterback position, resiliency is a huge trait. And the one thing that this guy has done is when he’s had to, he’s gone out with his back against the wall and made some throws. He’s overcome some bad throws earlier in the game. But I think he continues to show that. I think that’s a good thing. I don’t know that it’s a product of the throwing. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s not that far off from previous years. I think people look at our stats and say that, but there’s a skewed game in there. There’s a game where we threw the ball the entire second half, just about. So you keep looking at stats and say, well, you’re throwing the ball more, therefore you have these. I don’t think that’s a correlation, because we had games last year that didn’t matter what we did in the fourth quarter because we were up by 30, we were up by 20. And you run the game in those, you run the ball sometimes in those, and that’s been different. So I don’t know that our differences in stats is more indicative of the games we’ve had to play in.”
On the growth from Ben Yurosek...
“I think he’s learned the speed and the way to approach practice here. I think sometimes it takes guys, it takes freshmen a long time, but it takes transfers sometime. They’ll say, golly, I didn’t really know what it was going to be like. Usually younger guys that come in, transfers, not necessarily older guys, but his ability to practice well has got better with every week. And then it’s translated to what he puts on the field. And he plays more physical, he practices more physical. He bought into the idea that, if I actually practice like a game, I’ll play better in the game. And that’s helped him, it’s helped us.”
On how he would assess the contributions of Georgia’s transfers...
“I’m trying to think of who all we’ve got. I mean, Ben Yurosek is probably one of the primary contributors for us. We’ve got some guys in the secondary who came in that have probably helped some on special teams roles and helped some there. I think it varies position to position and year to year, depending on what you need. We’ve also got some really good young, talented freshmen that have come in that are going to be good players that we took over some transfers.”
On CJ Allen...
“Yeah, I think his confidence has improved. I was watching the Ole Miss game from last year, and I’m remembering him and Raylen having to be out there together and playing in that game. And that’s not normal for an inside linebacker to be playing as a true freshman in that magnitude of a game. And I think about seeing that picture and then seeing the picture of him playing against Florida. I thought the Florida game was one of his best games since being here. All in all, he had a couple touchdown saving type tackles. He had a couple checks on our defense. The obvious was the interception.
He’s a high motor, high energy, and you know what? He practices really hard too. So it carries over for him, and we have to keep him improving at that same rate.
What Kirby Smart is focused on with Ole Miss…
“Getting better. I mean, it’s not always just about Ole Miss. It’s about, we’ve got a tough schedule remaining, and Ole Miss is who we’re focused on this week. And it’s about us looking kind of inside and saying, what can we improve on and get better at that’s gonna help us in this game? It’s gonna be a very passionate, competitive, high-stakes game on the road in the SEC.
Which I’ve been to Ole Miss a lot of years, and it’s a really tough place to play, and they’ll have a great environment. So we’re focused on us and getting better.
On the Ole Miss run game...
“Well, they do a great job of spreading you out. They’re almost always right in the box count. So when you look at their runs, they got one more hat than you do. Whether that’s, I think at one point, I don’t know if he still is, Jaxson Dart is their second leading rusher. And that’s just telling you, man, they got, and they get rushing yards too when he takes off and runs. And he’s a tremendous athlete, hard to tackle. The backs are good, they do a great job getting the hat on the hat up front.
And if you counted the passing yards they get on the RPOs in their run game, they lead the country because they get a lot of yards off that as well.
On Lane Kiffin...
“Yeah, he knows scheme, Lane’s been around a lot of football. You know his dad’s one of the greatest defensive minds there ever was. And when you start talking about Lane being around him, talking ball, being with him, he knows how to attack defenses. Probably at a higher rate than most offensive coordinators. He just, he’s been experienced with that. He knows the difficulties that come with it.
Now, that’s one thing to know it. It’s another thing to have players that can take advantage of it. So he has that too. So when he has a quarterback that thinks like he does, and they understand things, his offensive coordinator, Charlie (Weis Jr.), he does a great job too, and they got Joe Cox, who was up here, they got really good offensive staff.
So they know how to attack defenses, and at the end of the day, you can’t make it about scheme. You gotta make it about, do I play harder than the other guy across from me? Do I play smarter than the other guy across? Do I play more physical than the other guy? It still comes down to blocking and tackling a lot of times, and both teams do that well.
On the miscommunication wide receivers...
“Same as we’ve done every week, practice it. I mean, put it on tape. That’s what we do. We practice it each week. We do it with crowd noise. We do it with different ways to communicate, and it doesn’t take but one. You can do 52 of those right, and you do one wrong, and the one wrong is the one that people talk about. So you just gotta do it right all the time.
On the weather…
“Yeah, we keep an eye on the weather at all times. We get updates each day, so we’ll see kind of what happens with that.”
On Trevor Etienne...
“Etienne, I feel good about. He felt good yesterday and did some things yesterday with our guys, and I don’t know a lot until we get out there and practice today. But we’ll certainly see how he feels. The trainer feels good about him. The big thing is just his ability to sustain and deal with a little bit of pain, he’s gonna have some there. But he is a tough kid, and I think he’ll do well with it.”
On mental prep each week to take on tough road environment...
“Every week is a season, and so we’re on a new season this week. And I honestly think you prepare for things like this in the offseason, with the mental fortitude of your team, the conditioning that your strength staff does, the adversity you put in front of them.
“I mean, there’s nothing that can simulate the schedule that we have. I can’t go in the offseason and simulate the schedule. But we try to be businesslike and intense throughout the season, and not treat one game bigger than the other because when you do that, the kids kind of read into it. So for us, it’s a lot of big games. And I think the elasticity of someone’s ability to focus can be stretched, and we’re trying to stretch that mental preparation so that they can do it over and over again throughout the season no matter how many games it takes.”
On Smael Mondon, Roderick Robinson, Anthony Evans...
“Yeah, again, we’re hopeful to get those guys back. I mean, I don’t know at what point it’s gonna happen. But each one of those guys are rehabbing, working their butts off, and hoping to get back to help the team soon.”
On Ole Miss pace...
“Well, Ole Miss is a super high pace. They get tons of snaps. Lane does a great job of doing that. It’s not always tempo, although tempo factors into it. They want to get you worn down. They want to get you tired. They want to go quick. But they do a little more than your traditional just fast ball teams. They’ll formation you. They’ll motion, which some teams don’t like to motion because it slows you down. They’ll motion. They’ll have different splits. They’re creative within their tempo to not just do the same thing over and over.
“They do a good job mixing it up. It helps them in the run game. It limits defenses from doing as many things. But it’s hard to simulate. I’ll say that, and they’ve been very successful at it.”
On fake injuries in the SEC...
“Yeah, I mean, I respect Commissioner Sankey and what he sends out. We don’t condone that on our team or within our program. So we don’t have to address it. We just keep telling them that if you’re injured, you stay down. And if you’re not, you get up and go play. That’s our philosophy.”
On young defensive linemen...
“They’ve played. Xzavier’s played a few snaps in each game, and I want that to continue to grow. I think both Jarrett and Xzavier are going to be really good players and still hopeful to get Jordan back in the mix with that too. But those guys practice hard. I think it was the temperature was a little bit warmer down there and the volume of snaps we were taking and the physicality of the game.”
“So the more guys you can play, the harder your guys can play. So we want to get as many guys as we can that can play winning football so that we can play more people.”
