Kirby Smart on D'Wan Mathis "It Affects You Emotionally"
ATHENS - UGA coach Kirby Smart talks about getting ready for the No. 4 Dawgs' game with No. 7 Auburn.
Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement
"This is a big game at home. We are excited about College Gameday being here and a top-10 matchup- which is what the SEC is all about. You have an opportunity to play a great program at Auburn. Gus [Malzahn] and them have done a tremendous job—always have. Their kids play with tremendous toughness, very physical team. Every time we play them, although it's usually later in the year, it's extremely physical."
On keeping D'Wan Mathis' mentally focused this season and an update on JT Daniels...
"Well, with the D'Wan [Mathis] question, he is working. He's continuing to work. He's getting better. He's growing as a player. He has learned from some of his mistakes, and [we're] trying to get the players around him to play better too so that allows him to have success. Really the same thing with JT [Daniels], he's continuing to work. He's doing a great job—glad he's cleared because he is able to play now. We're excited to see him and see what he does."
On the deep rotation in the backfield...
"It just depends on how far it needs to go based on injury and things like that. We have five guys we feel comfortable with. Good thing is the young guys have gotten a lot of reps with some of the other guys—Kenny [McIntosh] was dinged up in camp. We were able to get Kendall [Milton] and Daijun [Edwards] on a lot more reps because of that. I have a lot of confidence in all five of those guys. They do a good job and work each day. Not to say we are going to play five every game, but I have confidence in all five."
On addressing the team about the differences of this season and gameday with COVID-19 protocol...
"We addressed all of that earlier in the year and that's been the mantra the whole time. We've played scrimmages with nobody in there and with parents in there, one time with donors in there. Anything in the stadium is more than what we've had for our game-like scrimmages. The psyche part of that is what we have already addressed that."
On how valuable Jake Camarda is for the team...
"Jake [Camarda] has done a tremendous job. He's worked really hard. That was one of his goals for the year is to obviously pin some more people inside the 10 [yard line]. He was able to do that with some help from some really good gunner play."