ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart has made his closing remarks before his team competes for an SEC Championship game.
The Bulldogs will take on the Texas Longhorns on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. Smart spoke to reporters on Thursday ahead of the big game.
The Georgia coach touched on a number of topics, from Signing Day to the Texas program. Below are the full comments that Smart made prior to Saturday’s game.
What Kirby Smart said about Texas’ path to the SEC Championship game, why it still matters to him
Opening Statement...
“Yeah, before I begin, I’d like to take a moment on behalf of all of Dawg Nation and all the Georgia Athletic Department and send our condolences to the family and friends of Bob Holt of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I know he embodied what this conference is all about. He was a great man, one of my favorites every time I went to SEC media days. Always had great questions and great candor in just a part of this conference that I think is really special. So our condolences go out to his family and the Arkansas community.
With that, I’ll open with what a great opportunity in front of us. I’ve always made mention many, many times and sounded like a broken record, but this is the greatest championship game of them all in terms of conferences. It means a lot to a lot of people. Atlanta has been the really hotbed home of this game for a long time. I still remember my senior year in high school playing in the playoffs and it was a Saturday night game and in Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama was playing Florida in one of the greatest SEC Championship games of all time. And I remember listening to the radio and hearing the outcome of that game as I was getting ready to play in our game. So it’s been a long time because I’m old now and it’s a great game. And it’s one that I’ve played in a lot of times and had a lot of heartbreak and a lot of triumph. But that’s what makes this conference special is that this game is tough and the atmosphere, the electricity around the game is really awesome. So we’re looking forward to it.
Honored to be playing Coach Shark and his team in Texas. What a tremendous job he’s done there. Getting them into this game is a gauntlet and it’s a reward to play in it and both teams have earned that.”
On what has changed with Texas’ run game...
“It’s both, I think. There’s a commitment to it. When you have 30 and 40 carries in multiple games, there’s a great commitment to the run. They’re extremely physical. They’ve got really good backs. Their offensive line is massive and the quarterback does a great job putting them in the right runs. They attach RPO pass game to those runs. They change tempos on you. It’s traditional Sark football. He formations you. He takes shots on you. Don’t lull to sleep and think that he’s just gonna run the ball because they have every protection and every pattern, every use of personnel available. They’re really good at what they do and I do think that he’s played in some tough conditions, whether it’s really cold on the road playing somewhere. He knows how to win in the SEC. You don’t win in the SEC with a beauty contest and he’s won with really good defense. So I think it’s been one of his best coaching jobs in terms of the way he’s won, the style of games he’s won.”On Texas making the SEC in year one...
“Yeah, they earned it. I mean, they played an SEC schedule. They won the most games of any SEC team this year. They have a tremendous program. They’re built that way. They’re built to do that. They’ve got a tremendous amount of talent and they’ve done a great job building to that, recruiting to that, really, that fan base or that team and they’ve done a great job of that.”On Christen Miller and Trevor Etienne...
“They’ve been taking part in some parts of practice and taking reps and, you know, hopeful that those guys are able to do something. You know, they’re both listed as questionable right now. All right, next question.”
On Smael Mondon...
“Well, he provides depth. You know, that’s not a position that I think you can go out and play every snap inside linebacker. It’s a conditioning position where you have to rotate and play guys and he’s given us flexibility to play multiple packages. His coming back has made us a little deeper and not have to play as many snaps with the other guys. He’s allowed Jalon to do more things and take a little bit of the inside backer off of Jalon. So those are all key components to the success of our defense. He gives us a lot of experience in third down. He gives us a lot of experience in being multiple because he matches up well with guys, whether it’s out of the backfield or tight ends. So we’re thankful to have him back. Wish we’d had him the whole time.”
On the Texas pass defense...
Texas does a tremendous job. First of all, they have good players. They have very sound schemes. They out-execute you. They figure out your tendencies and they do a great job of recognizing formations and routes. They have instinctive defensive football players, especially on the second level, where they read routes, they jump routes. They do a tremendous job. So that adds a lot. Do they get hands on the ball? Do they get a lot of tips? And when you get tips, you tend to get a lot of interceptions. They are one of the best in the country at doing that.
On relationship of Carson Beck and Tate Ratledge...”I think Tate, he had a different path. He obviously was playing early in his career. His path has been marked by some tough injuries and overcoming those injuries and battling back. He embodies that offensive line toughness mentality.
Carson took a different path. He didn’t play as early as Tate did, but he did fight for what he got. He fought for his position and he grew while he was waiting. He worked while he was waiting, which we say around here, will you work while you wait? He did that and he grew and got better.
The two of them have been close for quite some time. I think anytime you have a veteran offensive line and a veteran quarterback, those two groups will always bond because they protect each other.”
On timing on National Signing Day...
“It’s not really a good time to, I mean, there’s no good time to have it. So it’s, do you wait longer into December where we were and you’re dealing with not knowing your roster? The point in moving it up was to solidify your signing class and be sure of that, and then focus on your own roster. So it may be the lesser of two evils. I’m not sure.
It was tremendously tough, I’m sure, with Sark and Texas as well. You got a lot going on and you’re trying to manage a tough situation in terms of prep for a game and a signing class. So, you know, others weren’t in the game they probably like it better because they’re not dealing with issues that will be coming up next week.”
On if the SEC Championship means as much in a 12-team Playoff era..
“Well, I certainly think so because I’m a SEC enthusiast that believes in an SEC title as a significant marker to your season and the kind of season you had. It also gets you a bye and it gets you an opportunity to rest and recover while others play formidable opponents and tough opponents and removes you from that. So you’re playing for an opportunity to rest, possibly.”
On analytics and what it means to him...
“Well, analytics don’t change your game plan. I think that’s maybe a mistake in the way we’re seeing it. It does not. Game plan is something you do before the game, right? Analytics is something you’re deciding in the flow of a game and it’s changing by the second - remaining time, situation, what’s going on, it’s taking all of that stuff into account.
So it’s changed over time. I’m not a person that believes every single time you go to the analytics. I know we talked about that with the Georgia Tech situation. I like knowing what the analytics say and I like making decisions based on the flow of a game. So it’s good to have the knowledge. It’s good to know it, but ultimately you have to make the decision in game, how you feel.”
On preparing for Texas offense and the potential of Arch Manning...”Yeah, I mean, first of all, there’s not enough time in the week to worry about the stress that Texas’ offense puts on you. Like you can’t cover it all. There’s no, we could have two weeks. We still will feel like, well, what if they do this? What if they do that? There’s too much offense that they can select from to try to chase ghosts.You got to do things on principle. That’s no different with Arch. I mean, we practice knowing that Arch could be in there. We’ve had to defend quarterback runs a lot this year. Look, Arch is not just a quarterback run guy. He’s a really good athlete that can take off and run at any time, which is the toughest kind of defend.I’d much rather have a guy that only runs than a guy that does both and he certainly can do both. He opens up the playbook for them in terms of the plays he can do with his feet. But Quinn does a great job too. So, you know, we have to be prepared for both guys. It would not shock me at all to see both those guys play and Arch be able to play because he has a different element that he brings to the game as well.”
On the future of the bowl system...
“Yeah, you know, that’s a tough question because I’m a big believer in development of your roster. I mean, if you want to make the assumption that 40%, 30% of your roster is going to turn over and people are going to leave, then it’s going to be hard to continue having bowls. But I’m still of the belief that the kids want a reward for their season. Still get an opportunity to play an opponent. Yeah, it may look a little different. It may be younger players and it may be a forecast to the next season. But I think that’s a reward for young players who maybe didn’t get to play as much during the year or the guys that maybe injured. We’ve had guys that were injured and didn’t get to play and they want to play that last opportunity to play for their University.So I still think it matters and is important. I certainly don’t minimize the fact that the turnover rate has increased. And with an increased turnover rate, you could make a case that it makes those gains either less significant to some or it makes those gains harder to manage and have.”On Joenel Aguero...
“Yeah, since the Ole Miss game, he’s had to have a surgery and a pin put in and he’s been trying to practice and play with the club. It’s been tremendously tough for him to be able to do that. He’s out of the club now and in a much better position to be able to practice and play. I mean, he’s practiced each week and stayed with us, but it’s just been tougher as you can imagine playing with the use of really one hand. And he’s back now and able to do a lot more this week and hopeful that he can help us.”
On delegating during signing day...
“I mean, my focus is on Texas. I’ll be honest with you. I think it’s hard to navigate, but we try to recruit kids that, you know, that when they say that they’re coming, they’re coming. And we’ve had a large sum of commitments for quite a while. And it doesn’t keep teams from reaching out to them and throwing things at them late. And it’s never different than it was. It’s only higher-priced and more money being thrown now, which is unfortunate, but fortunate. You know, the kids think it’s fortunate to have an opportunity to make more, but it’s unfortunate that it gets done the way it gets done in terms of people throwing pieces of paper in front of them at the 11th and 12th hour while we’re trying to prepare for a game. And I just kind of go on the relationships we’ve built over time and assume that people that told us they were coming, they’re coming. And for the most part, we’ve had pretty loyal constituency when it comes to our commitments. So my day yesterday was as close to a normal Wednesday as it could be. We did third down in red area and we focused on that.”
On Will Muschamp...
“To be honest with you, I’m not even sure he’s with us right now. He’s with us today, stays with us throughout the week, I think until usually on Thursdays, but I can’t even answer that question to be honest because most of the weeks he leaves after Thursday.”
On Quinn Ewers...”Well, he’s experienced. I mean, I think the number one thing when you look at the quarterbacks playing in the SEC Championship, the two common denominators is I don’t know there’s anybody across the league that had more experience than these two.And I tell people all the time, the SEC, you don’t know what it’s like playing on the road till you do it. You don’t know what it’s like playing at night until you do it. These guys have been in some tough fights across this league in terms of Quinn playing in the playoffs last year, playing SEC opponents last year. He’s been around it. So I’m most impressed with his toughness, his ability to stand in the pocket, to navigate the pocket. He’s made plays with his legs and he makes plays with his mind. As great quarterbacks do, they can change protections and they know where to go with the ball and stand in there. He’s got tremendous experience and he’s also got tremendous arm talent.”
On his position on rules committee, simplifying football...
“Well, they’ve been doing it for a long time. I sit on these rules committees, Steve Shaw is a bright man and so are the people on this group that I’m a part of for rules changes. Most of the time it’s health and safety. You’re talking about, I think, maybe the simplification of some things. There’s usually a rhyme or reason why they have the rule. So I don’t know which specific ones you’re referencing, but they will look at them each and every year and try to make the best decisions for the game of football.”
