ATHENS, Ga. – Third-ranked Georgia continued preseason practice Wednesday with a two-hour workout in full pads and afterwards head coach Kirby Smart provided an update on preparations for the 2018 campaign.
(On practice Wednesday)
“We got a lot of guys back from injuries that are maybe not 100 percent but they’re out there practicing and close to healthy. The defense didn’t practice very good today so that was disappointing but the offense was much better.”
(Update and Concerns in the Secondary)
“The biggest concern would be depth. I’ve talked about the safeties and Tyrique (McGhee) being out for how long we don’t know. It puts us thin there. We’ve been working Christopher Smith more at safety because we think he’s a really good athlete, not a real big fella but a good athlete and good tackler so he’s worked some there. We got four or five corners that are competing and (Deandre) Baker is probably ahead and after that you can put (Eric) Stokes, (Tyson) Campbell, (Ameer) Speed and Mark Webb all in the pool. Then at safety, you got J.R. Reed a little bit ahead and then Richard (LeCounte), Christopher Smith, Deangelo Gibbs, Otis (Reese) and Jarvis (Wilson), all those guys. We don’t have a lot of guys that have played. It was frustrating today because we didn’t play really good in the secondary. The youthfulness can be good because they’re eager to learn; they come in and meet extra but experience is valuable. We don’t have a lot of experience in some of the adjustments that you have to make. We challenge them and throw a lot at them.”
(Update on the Quarterbacks)
“I don’t see those two as that different. I think you guys see Jake (Fromm) and Justin (Fields) a lot different than maybe we do. We run the same offense with both those guys. Can Justin take off running better? Can he run some gun-run stuff, yeah, certainly can, but I don’t think our two defenses are seeing something different. We scramble. We practice scrambles. Jake Fromm scrambles in practice so does Justin, a lot of your plays ended up being scrambles. I don’t think there’s a lot of difference in what our defenses see from those two.”
(Have you decided and will you announce a starting quarterback and playing two quarterbacks)
“I haven’t really thought about it to be honest with you. We’re letting those two guys compete. Jake (Fromm) is going with the ones almost the whole time so we’ll handle it as it goes. It’s not like it’s a predetermined announcement on this date. It’s not really the plan. We don’t look at it that way. We look at it as those two guys are competing and will continue to compete.
“The plan is to say alright I want the best guy to play. If a guy brings something to the table that another guy doesn’t, and we feel like it’s advantageous for us whether we have a package or we do something with him, but I won’t sit here and tell you there’s a plan for anything. Right now, our plan is to get both those guys ready to play. We give them reps. They run a lot of the same plays during the day. It’s not like, oh it’s Justin Fields offense and there’s this Jake Fromm offense. We’re not doing that. We’re letting both of those guys grow and develop. We learned last year that we don’t know what the future holds at quarterback so you got to have guys ready to play. We’re investing just as many reps in our third guy because he’s got to be ready to play. It would probably be Matthew Downing; he’s taken a majority of the reps.”
(How has Zamir White handled a tough situation after going through one knee injury already in his career)
“Zamir is great. I know several players have talked to him. Malcolm Mitchell has been around here and talked to him about his issue. Nick (Chubb) reached out to him and talked to him. Todd (Gurley) reached out to him and talked to him, a lot of guys have talked to him. He’s in great spirits. He still sits in on meetings and been really positive. We’ve got a great family atmosphere. Those (running) backs all care about him. He understands. That’s the one thing about once you know what you’re headed for, before you have no idea of the road you’re headed down. He’s done this once. He knows he can come back and will get after it.”
(On the running backs and Assistant Head Coach/RB Coach Dell McGee’s telling them “Think Less, Work More”)
“I haven’t actually used that saying but it’s a good one. Think Less, Work more is good for a running back and a lot of times that’s what it’s about. Don’t sit there and think about where you are on the depth chart. Be instinctive. Respond when you get the ball and do what you naturally do. If you’re here as a running back, you’re probably pretty talented. Think less, don’t overcoach things. Work more. Those backs work; I’ll give them that. They compete. They’re on special teams. They do it all.”
