Was Kirby Smart Pleased with UGA Football's 1st Scrimmage of 2023?
INSIDER: What Happened During UGA Football's 1st Scrimmage?
ATHENS - Kirby Smart and UGA Football just had the first scrimmage of the 2023 season - how did it go?
Opening Statement
“I was excited today to get to see our guys go out, compete, cut loose and play with our coaches on the field. It is always the first time of the year you get that little bit of butterflies. Coaches are down there telling me what to do. We made a decision to go out and get after it Friday afternoon as well. We went in pads Friday outside and challenged them. Then turned around and had a practice a little earlier today than what we have bene doing. We typically start our scrimmage on Saturday around lunch and practice around two or three in the afternoon. It was good to find out who really wants to be a part of this, who really wants to go out and compete and get better. That part, we got to identify some guys who are ready to play versus some guys who want no part of it because they can’t sustain and keep their level of focus up during a scrimmage. I was glad that we got the conditions we got. We have an extremely long way to go as a football team.”
“So many people make an assumption off of last year’s team and their accomplishments. I asked this team, after the scrimmage and after we ran, what have you done to deserve anything you have gotten? They have done nothing. We have got to get the right guys in the right spot, find the guys that can really compete. We may play four or five of our first four of five or five of five of our games in this tough heat. I kind of hope we go because I want to see where we are as a team. You find out a lot more about a team if you have to do kicking, offense and defense with 22 people on the field of your team the whole scrimmage. I got to see a little bit of that. Guy that are serious and guys that just physically could not scrimmage and are not ready to contribute yet. I know you guys are going to ask about the quarterback position. I can’t tell you anything until I watch the tape. I can tell you that I would like to see all three of them play better. The people around them have to play better. When you evaluate a quarterback and say, ‘well, he threw an interception,’ or, ‘he hit a guy in the hands,’ or ‘it bounced in his hands and it got intercepted,’ we judge that. There were seven drops in the scrimmage because of wet hands and heat, and you evaluate that. I don’t think any of those quarterbacks would tell you they played their best game. We need each one of them to get better to get where we want to go. A lot of that has to do with a cut down of some of the offense and deciding what we want to use. That wasn’t today’s goal. Today’s goal was to find out who has got some toughness and can push through.”
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On the offensive and defensive lines…
“It is the same typical thing. The one offensive line didn’t start real well. We got three and out then four or five and out. I don’t know for sure, but I feel like the one offense kind of ran the third down challenge. The red area was kind of a toss up. The two minute was back and forth. I could say all these good things the offense did on the offensive line and the bad things the defensive line did then it flips back and forth. I am looking for a bit more consistency. I certainly think we have a very talented first group of offensive line and a couple backups. We have seven or eight guys who played winning football. I don’t know if we got their best effort. If you were to say, ‘I am going to grade our line over the practices so far then I am going to grade them on this practice,’ I would argue that the practices up to this point have been a little better and a little more dominant than they were today, at least in the run game but maybe not in the pass game. I am pleased with the leadership of both of those groups. I am not pleased with the where we are.”
INSIDER: What Happened During UGA Football's 1st Scrimmage?
On Carson Beck managing the offense…
"He did a really good job. All three of them [Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff and Gunner Stockton] did executing the offense. You have got to remember all three of them were in it last year and have been in it for a while. They know they can execute the offense. The players around them have to make plays and they have to avoid the catching situations. We have a defense that causes havoc. We have a defense that can be disruptive in the skies. There's got to be a player now that has got to get us to the next play. You don't have to make a superman play, you just got to get us to the next play. I don't think that Carson [Beck] or any other of those quarterbacks don't understand what we are trying to do offensively or what we do to execute. They need 10 people around them focusing at a high level and a couple of those 10 to make explosive plays for them."
On installing the offense with multiple quarterbacks…
"I think the first part of that question, I would disagree with. I don't know how diverse it is. You may feel that way or someone outside might feel that way, but I don't really see any of our three quarterbacks run. Obviously, I didn't see Stetson [Bennett] that way. Could Stetson run? Yeah, but we didn't design runs. Maybe a few in the red area, but we didn't design runs. We don't really want our quarterback physically getting hit. Your question makes it sound like there's certain guys that we're going to have run-packages for and certain guys we probably wouldn't. Not the case. Can one of them maybe run a little better than another? Maybe a little bit, but these three guys are all really good athletes. I don't know how diverse or how all three are really different. They're all really more of the same than they are different. If you line them up in the 40 [yard dash], one might be a little faster than the other. One might be a little more instinctive in the pocket than the other. One might be just a better runner at reading blocks because he ran better in high school. I don't see them that different, and we will not have an extensive quarterback-run package. We're just going to give the ball to our [running] backs and we're going to put the ball in our skill players."
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On the status of Rara Thomas, Kendall Milton, Kamari Lassiter, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins and Chris Peal…
"Yeah Rara [Thomas] did everything today. He was good. I think he had a hamstring spasm. He just didn't start with his position. He's practiced each day, hasn't missed a day but he's been held out of portions. Kendall [Milton] has not been able to completely go, but he's trying to get back to the best he can. Kamari [Lassiter] is much closer with the foot sprain. [Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins] is much closer. You all always love to ask these questions. I'm not hiding from them, but I just want to know who you are asking about. We don't play for another two weeks so I don't know what the paranoia is there. Is there anybody else I'm missing? Chris Peal has got turf toe. He's been battling, trying his best to get back but he's not back yet."
On the status of Branson Robinson…
"Branson [Robinson] goes into individuals so that's what you are seeing in the assumption that he is back. He is not cleared to go yet. He's on track to get back earlier than we originally thought, but he's not back yet. He does individuals because that is great exercise for him. That's reps for him to catch in the backfield, but no, he's not back."
INSIDER: What Happened During UGA Football's 1st Scrimmage?
On managing the running back group…
"Daijun [Edwards], Cash [Jones], Andrew Paul, Rod Robinson, Sevaughn Clark. That's five guys. JD [Joseph Daniels], those guys all got reps. In terms of when the season starts, we'll take a picture of what we have healthy and make a determination. Daijun is doing a great job. Cash Jones is doing a great job. I think Andrew Paul is still trying to get his confidence back. I don't think he was 100 percent today. I think that was a big psychological hurdle for him to go out there and get tackled live. Rod had a real nice run and some good pickups lately. I still think sometime before the season – I don't know when – Branson [Robinson] is going to be fine. Kendall is hopefully going to be fine. We got the backs that we got, and there's ways to be creative around your running backs and use the skill players you have."
On the cornerbacks in the scrimmage…
"There were some big plays hit. We gave up some big plays, but people didn't get behind us. There were a couple plays that were behind us that were overthrows that I thought maybe we should have hit. We did hit a couple of big plays, but those weren't necessarily on our corners. Our corners don't play man every time. We have to have them when they're in the flat, and they might be behind a safety. Just because there's a bomb hit doesn't mean it always goes to a corner. It could go to a safety. It could go to the protection in the rush. I think that we had four guys get to play. Julian was a little under the weather. He was sick and cramping a little bit, so he played but he had less reps. Kamari's dying to get back, but Kamari needs work. He started for one year, and he's got knock the rust off a bit and go out there and play too. There's no assumption that just because you played last year that you're going to come in ready to play. I think that people assume that, but these kids aren't NFL players who are playing for 10 or 15 years. He's got to get back and knock some of the rust off."
On the players’ readiness in the scrimmage…
"I can't say that I was impressed with anybody's readiness today. The readiness came about third down period after about 66 percent of the practice was over. I thought that it ramped up and the competitiveness went up, but it wasn't like that earlier. So I don't know if they just decided, 'I'm going to push right through this and get through it,' but I didn't see a group where I was just like, 'Oh man, they're dominant. They came out here today to really make the opponent not want to play a lot.' I didn't see that."
On the status of De’Nylon Morrissette…
"De'Nylon's going to join us as soon as school starts, which is Wednesday. He's been part of the team. He's been with us. He's just not practicing. He's allowed to go to administrative programming. He's allowed to go to a lot of programming we've got in place for him and the whole team, so he does that and he's here every day."
INSIDER: What Happened During UGA Football's 1st Scrimmage?
On the defensive line group…
"We've got some really tough, hard workers in there. I don't know that we have any dominant, disruptive, super hard block guy. I think that we have to create that through our athleticism on the perimeter and our athleticism at backer, but we have some guys who believe in the core values of our defensive program, which are to strike blockers, knock the hell out of them, knock them back. I think Jordan Hall is coming along. He had a tough day today. He's got to grow up and be able to help us and play and be disruptive. We have very good experience there and we have very good toughness there when you count Naz, Z-Lo, Warren, and Jonathan Jefferson. Those guys have really pushed hard and give us more quality SEC players in there to help us."
On the new safeties…
"Joenel has been working at STAR most of the time. I haven't tried to cross train him with him being a freshman right now. Obviously, Bullard, David Daniel, Malaki, and Dan a little bit - Dan is still injured. He had a little bit of a hamstring pull early in camp, like on the first day, and he's been battling trying to get back from that. He scrimmaged today, but he couldn't go as much as he'd like to. Tykee's got a little bit of a place there. I think that JaCorey and Justyn Rhett are the guys who are really battling to get in that rotation and play winning football. I thought that both of them made some plays today. JaCorey made a really nice play, and Justyn Rhett made really nice plays, but they both have a long way to go too."
On preparing for an unranked opponent in the opening game…
“I don’t sense any difference because we don’t talk about that. Whether we play Oregon, Clemson or the national championship game first, we don’t talk about it. We just try to get better at us because we know we have multiple games to play after that. I know that’s a big deal that people say all season and all that, but the kids aren’t thinking about that. They’re thinking about, like, ‘How do I lift today? How do I workout today? How do I scrimmage today?’ Today was about playing Georgia. You’re not going to play too many teams better than Georgia. So, let’s go play Georgia and worry about that and not who our opponent is. Does that concern me? No, because I’m not worried about who we’re playing until about nine days out.”
On the status of Raylen Wilson…
“Raylen had a hyper extended knee. As of right now, we’re going to reserve judgement until we know for sure, but the ligaments are intact, we think he’ll be fine. It was a scary play, but he seems to be fine. He walked off the field on his own and Ron [Corson] feels good about it, but you never know, you have to do the whole due diligence. Coming out of it, I think we’ve got a couple guys dealing with a couple ankles, I don’t think we had a significant injury other than Raylen, and I don’t know how long it’ll be, but we don’t think it’ll be ligament damage.”
On Smael Mondon’s progress…
“Smael’s been great. He works really hard everyday. When you’re dealing with that kind of injury, it’s a very sensitive injury. It’s one of those deals where you have to be patient. We knew that when we found out about it in the very beginning of the spring. We knew from the minute that he had it that it was a long-term deal. He’s fighting similar to what Dan Jackson had, and also fighting what Xavian [Sorey Jr.] came in with as a freshman. Luckily, we caught it a little bit early and we were able to start that process. The worst thing would have been to not catch it and not figure out about it in fall camp. He’s doing really well – he’s running on the side and he's on progress.”
On what he’s looking for in the quarterback competition…
“Consistency. Accuracy, consistency. Those are the things that always come out. If you’re accurate in our offense, you’re going to have some easy, free throws. Decision-making on third down. We’re going to be put in some third and 10, third and six, third and eight situations. What you do on first and second down, it’s a shot – it’s either there or it’s not. It’s either a boot or a naked – it’s there or it’s not. It’s a run play, and that’s not a lot of control from the quarterback. It's going to come down to who’s accurate, makes good decisions on third down and who can be explosive.”
On Austin Blaske and Earnest Greene III…
“Blaske has been battling some sickness. He was sick and there was one or two days in there that he didn’t get to practice, but when he’s been there, he’s done really well and been really competitive. I think the heat’s been really tough on him. He’s a fighter, man. He’s one of the toughest kids I’ve been around. Earnest has gotten more reps than him at the ones, but I feel really good about Blaske. [Xavier] Truss has been kicked out there and played tackle. Dylan Fairchild has played at tackle. Micah [Morris] has played at tackle. Obviously, Amarius is able to flip and played both. Monroe Freeling is a young kid that’s gotten better every day. Chad [Lindberg] stays out there and plays. We have kind of a working committee, because the last thing that you want is to not have a tackle ready to play in a game. For us, we’re always trying to develop that tackle position, knowing that we’ve got a lot of guards that can come in there and play.”