ATLANTA — Kirby Smart had plenty to say after Saturday’s epic win over the Texas Longhorns.
With starting quarterback Carson Beck knocked out of the game, Georgia found a way to beat Texas 22-19 in overtime to give the Bulldogs their third SEC Championship game under Smart.
Afterward, Smart sounded off on a number of topics, from the status of his quarterback to the upcoming College Football Playoff.
Smart and the Bulldogs will learn what comes next on Sunday at 12 p.m. ET, as that is when the College Football Playoff field is announced.
Below you can find Smart’s full remarks after the win.
What Kirby Smart said about Carson Beck, Georgia football beats Texas in SEC Championship game
Opening Statement...
“I’ll start like I traditionally do. This is an unbelievable event and venue. The SEC Championship, we’ve told our players, it’s just incredible in terms of the atmosphere, the opponent you play. I mean, typically for us, it’s been a play in or play out game. I just have a lot of respect for this conference, the universities in it, Greg Sankey, our president, President Morehead, Josh Brooks. The support they’ve given us has given us an opportunity to be at the point we are right now.
Texas is a tremendous football program and team. They have got big physical defensive linemen, offensive linemen, and they are a really strong SEC team.
But our team never quit tonight, I’m really proud of them. I thought our fan base helped us, so I’m really proud of the win.”
On the last sequence...
“No, I can’t remember what game it was this year, we had a target somewhere where a helmet came off and the officials came over and told us that the kid could stay in if it was confirmed targeting, and he had to come out if it wasn’t. And so it immediately came to my mind, when it happened with Gunner, I just assumed he’d be able to stay in because I thought I was gonna be targeting, and then I saw the replay, and realized he led with his shoulder and we were gonna have to take a snap with another quarterback, which we were prepared to put Ryan Puglisi in, and he knows the system. He knows what to do. But we felt like, one the offensive coach called and said, Carson can take a snap, it’s not an issue.
So we did that, and Mike and them had a good plan, really good plan on that play, and executed it, and it was a really physical play. And it’s a good, quick decision, because we had already burned our time out on defense. So we wanted to be efficient and not run down the play clock.”
On the place of conference title games in the playoff era and the wear and tear that Texas just endured...
“I don’t know what to say about that. I mean, you play football to play the game, you know? Like, you play football to win your conference. You’re asking the wrong person about that because I have almost the same number of national championships as I do SEC championships. And I’ve had years I won the SEC that I didn’t win the natty and then years I won the natty that I didn’t win the SEC.
They’re really hard to come by, and I don’t know. I think it’s gonna be interesting, the direction of college football. I hate to say it, but I didn’t think early in the, like, pregame that the game had the same juice. It didn’t have the same atmosphere that I’ve seen it have before. Now, once the game started, and I don’t know if that’s because more Georgia fans know where to tailgate and they’re hanging out outside ‘cause they’ve been here for seven straight years and they just hang out till the end, but the atmosphere improved. But it wasn’t as electric early, and I think the game made it more electric because it was a great game.
And the games that have been played in this venue for the conference championship are incredible. For people to devalue that over a playoff, I just don’t see it that way. I value SEC championships. I hold them in high esteem because the work it requires to do that is incredible.”
On why this team is so resilient...
“Yeah, I think Mike said it best when I was talking about our team. I said, ‘Man, we’re beat up, we’re tired. I was talking to our staff this week about how to practice. This week was just absolutely absurd for Sark and I cuz we’re trying to sign a signing class in the middle of a championship game week, which is one of the craziest things ever. And Mike said, ‘We’re mentally fatigued, but we’re one of the [most] mentally tough teams that we’ve ever coached. Now I’ve had more physically tough, I’ve had more physically talented, but I don’t know that I’ve ever had a more mentally tough team. They just keep coming and keep coming, and they never say die.I have a lot of respect for the leaders in that room because of what they’ve been through, probably the hardest schedule in the history we’ve ever had. And they endured it, they came out on top, and they fought their way through it.”
On the fake punt...
“Yeah, I got some history of fake punts in that building. It’s one that went our way, and something we’ve worked on, we carry it. And it’s great design by our staff, Kurt Benedict and Coach Hartley and those guys. And they do a lot of work on punt, we have a lot of formations on our punt. The biggest risk of snapping it to Drew Bobo, he had to catch it and toss it, so he’ll go down in history with a higher passing percentage than his father. I had one for one, so he should be 1,000%. But I just really appreciate Arian, I bought Dom, Dom Lovett had made an incredible play on that play, because he got a look that we had not seen. And he made a decision, versus two guys holding him up to go. He did what we told him not to do, but he did it because he got a different look. And it freed Arian up, Smael Mondon had a key block on that. I don’t remember, did we end up scoring on that drive or no? Field goal. I got a field goal, yeah. So it gave us a field goal, gave us a little momentum, a little juice. And we had lost a little momentum at that point. I think that was after they scored the touchdown. Look, it’s a lot easier to call it when you think you’re gonna be in the playoffs either way.”
On Carson Beck’s injury...
“Yeah, he’s got an upper extremity injury. We don’t know to what extent. Basically, we looked at it in there, and it looked okay. But he couldn’t have grip strength and throw the ball in the locker room. So it was a little bit painful for that. So we need to find out exactly what’s going on and have to MRI and look into it.”
On Gunner Stockton...
“Incredible. I mean, the players believe in Gunner. They love Gunner. The juice that he brought and the passion and energy. And he lives with three or four of those guys, Drew (Bobo) and Oscar (Delp) and some of them. And it was like it gave us an added boost of energy. They were fired up. They were trying to keep him composed. And I thought the offensive staff did a good job helping Gunner out, with the way they call the game. And he did a good job executing. The only mistake he had, and I feel like it was partially on us, is we just didn’t get the call in. He got the call in early. He didn’t get the call out. He didn’t have time to evaluate what they were doing. If he sees that, he can pick it up and do some things with it. But again, we were down on the shot clock. And he had the third down, he throws the pick there that could have been costly. But, man, the kid played just tough as nails. I mean, and he hadn’t had to play much this year. That’s the hardest part is you don’t get a chance to play these guys. The Florida State game is probably the most he’s played. But can’t say enough about his toughness, character, whatever you want to say. The guy’s a phenomenal leader. He made some good plays. And everybody else rose up around him.”
On the offensive line in the second half...
“I got on them at halftime. I was disappointed because I think we’ve got a good offensive line, we have good backs. It wasn’t that they were stoning us. We couldn’t get the run game going. I mean, I didn’t feel like it was just mashing us. I mean, we’d get three or four. It’s hard to run the ball in the SEC. They’re the number one defense in the country for a reason. But man, if we were going to go out and have a chance to win, we’re going to have to rally around Gunner. We’re going to have to be able to run the ball. And we challenged the offensive line to say, look guys, I do think that as we went, we were physical. You wear people down on snaps, long drives, they did it to us. I mean, there was long drives, it felt like for them. But look, it’s a line of scrimmage game, Sark knows that. That’s why he recruits the way he does, and he gets big people. We get big people. And that’s the difference in our conference and the other conferences. I mean, everybody can find skill players. Everybody can find quarterbacks, receivers, DBs. But the mass in the defensive offensive line is the difference in it. And tonight, ours helped us in the rushing game. It’s the only, probably the only stat we outperformed them in was rushing.”
On Arian Smith’s fumble recovery in the fourth quarter...
“Yeah, I don’t even remember either. I think Nate made a great run, broke through there. And it looked like the guy did a great strip out. And then Arian, like a missile, dove in between two other players and recovered it. I feel like that ended in a field goal, though, because I had a tough decision there of fourth and three to go for it or take the points. And I felt like our defense was playing good enough that taking the points would be fine and we would hold them. We had a lot of momentum at that point. And I think they came back and scored a touchdown.”
On Trevor Etienne...
“Yeah, to me, Trevor Etienne probably, no disrespect to Daylen, I know Daylen had a big game and he got the MVP. But that’s Trevor Etienne was the MVP. Because he came and said, Coach, I want to play this game. I came to this school because I want to win a championship. He stood up in front of the team and told the team, like, I don’t know how y’all feel about this game because I haven’t been here. But y’all have played in it a lot, and I haven’t. And I want to play in this game. This game means something to me. I want to win this championship. It’s part of the reason that I came here. I want to win the SEC championship. And he spoke from the heart. And I knew right then, I said, this dude is going to play if he can. And he plays physical. He’s got cuts, and we’ve got good backs. But he made some special runs tonight that gave us some juice and energy. And he took some pressure off of Gunner.”
On the fake punt...
“Yeah, I mean, again, we talked about it earlier. I just felt like we were losing momentum, and we needed a spark. And that gave us one, and you’re playing with your backup quarterback. So you’ve got to be willing to take some risk at that point and get some things going.”
On if Gunner Stockton sustained a concussion….
“No, he’s fine. He was prepared to come back in the game. We won the game on the play that he was out, so he was fine.”
