UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Details "Good, Physical Practice"
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ATHENS — University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart spoke with the media on Tuesday and offered the following comments.
On how practice has been this week...
"It was good yesterday and I thought it was good today. We had a lot of things to clean up today so I didn't love the results, but I loved the energy, focus and the enthusiasm. We know it's a rivalry game. Our guys are passionate about this game and I thought they practiced hard. Not always smart but we got after it today, had a good physical practice. It'll be a physical game, so we need to be ready for it. Expect for it be hot and practice in the heat."
On what Auburn is doing defensively to create turnovers...
"They get a lot of havoc. There are a couple clips against [Texas] A&M you know they're punching balls out. You can tell they are coaching it, and they are violent, stripping at balls, going after it. That's the growing rate in the country. You got to protect the ball at a higher rate now than ever I can remember. The art of getting turnovers and forcing them is so hard and coached upon on defense. It's almost double that on offense now, protecting it, so the two are like meeting in the middle. They are protecting it more and we're coming after it more and it just keeps raising the standard of people getting after it. They've done a good job of that. They've also got some interceptions and that's helped with that."
On chances that Ladd McConkey plays against Auburn...
"I don't know. He did some things today. He got to practice. He didn't do much Monday. He ran routes and caught balls and then today he got in plays and ran routes. I saw him some, but I didn't get to see enough to really judge him. I'm going to go watch the tape of what I went over with him and see what he looks like. We're just trying to progress him back slowly whether it's this week in a role or whether it's the future. Not trying to rush him back."
On Payton Thorne and Auburn's offense...
"Extremely athletic. Robby Ashford is an elite athlete. He is so fast and so quick, but the thing is Peyton Thorn is a great athlete too. He can take off, run anytime and he can do all the same runs. He's made some pretty impressive cuts and touchdown runs. They both are really good athletes."
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On what he's seen from Roderick Robinson and Kendall Milton this week...
"Roderick hasn't gone much. He's been in the training room dealing with the high ankle. Kendall was able to go some today and did some stuff. I saw him out there. I didn't get to see how much he did or how he looked doing it. I'll evaluate that on tape, but he was able to take reps and go, cut and do some things."
On differences of Georgia-Auburn's rivalry compared to Alabama-Auburn...
"They're both rivalries. I mean Georgia-Auburn is a border-war rivalry. For Alabama, Auburn is obviously an in-state rivalry. That's on another whole level of difference from being over there because they live with that for 365 days. We share that with several other out-of-state rivalries. There is no diminishing of a rivalry. I tend to agree with coach [Hugh] Freeze. It's not about hate for me. I don't look at it as 'I hate any of their players.' I recruited a lot of them. I don't look at it and say 'I hate any of their coaches' because I like a lot of their coaches. I've known all those guys for a long time. I have a lot of respect for Hugh. I look at it as a hell of a fierce rivalry and that's really why you do this business. Why you get in this business is to play in these types of games and this type of atmosphere. Fanbases won't like to hear that because they like to hate each other. There's not a lot of difference between our fans and their fans a lot of times. In terms of where they are from, their players are similar to our players. So I have respect for them, not hate."
On if the offense is installed or still developing...
"I don't know how to answer that. You're never fully installed ever. If you say that you're fully installed, you're saying that you can't get better or that you can't do anything else. So, you're constantly looking for a better way or a new play or something to do. We do have what we have, and every offense carries over plays, and they might present it a different way or change it up. There are coaches all over America watching games on Sunday to see a new wrinkle. Not necessarily a trick play, but just a different way to do the same thing."
On explosive play margins, run-pass definition and the importance of defensive success...
"Well, I'm embarrassed to say that I don't actually know the number. I think it's 15 to 20. 15 run and 20 pass, but we changed it over the last couple of years because we have what we call 'big play' that was 12 and 15, and then we had 'explosive play', and it was 15 to 20. People tend to slant those to whichever one is more favorable to them, meaning if you have a bunch of those that fit in the medium area in between those two borders, you say 'hey we had the most big plays' or 'hey we had the most explosive plays.' So, coaches across the country kind of tilt that and when we do a stat --- one of our quality control guys does it --- I want to say its 15 to 20 but I can't verify that. It's differential more than anything. We're not even leading the SEC in differential the way we do ours, Kentucky actually is. We've given up slightly fewer than them, but they have gotten slightly more than us. So, the differential is just like one or two ahead. Last year we were second almost the whole year to Ole Miss because of all the explosive [plays] they had. Ole Miss is actually the one who sent the chart to us and I kind of fell in love with because it showed a greater indicator of who won and lost than turnover margin. I can't answer your question on the exact number of yards."
On status of Javon Bullard and Mykel Williams...
"Mykel did some exercise today and felt better. Hoping he'll be able to go, but don't know that yet. We'll probably know more tomorrow. Javon was able to do more today, and he felt the best he had. He did walk throughs, he ran on the side, he did some scout period stuff. Again, those guys are probably going to be very close right there with Ladd and Kendall so it could be into the weekend before we know."
On gameday time element differences with home and road games...
"They would be with the exception of traveling to the game site. Obviously here, we travel to the game site and we're 15 minutes away or whatever, but it' really close. In these towns we play in, sometimes you don't stay in the town. The travel from where you stay to where you are going dictates you have to move things up. We stay in Montgomery, so we can't click our heels together and appear in Auburn because it takes an hour. Sometimes we have to move our time markers, I call them, up some. Well, their traffic has been tough getting there from there to the game because of gameday traffic. We get escorted through it but sometimes we've found that it takes a little longer than normal, so we have to move things based on our history of what that travel took two years ago."
On Warren Brinson's development since arriving at Georgia...
"He's worked hard. He's gotten more opportunities. He's trained behind some really good football players who are gone, and he's developed. He's gotten tougher. He's gotten more physical. He's gotten stronger. He's more disciplined, so he's improved. When he plays within the scheme of things, he's pretty athletic and twitchy. He has to do that first and play hard - and play more snaps. I mean, he's got to play more snaps than he's ever played, so that's important."
On Dan Jackson taking more reps at safety...
"He's done good. Dan, when he's been healthy, he's played really well. He played a dime role two years ago, and then last year he dealt with the injury most of the year. That was really frustrating for him. It set him back. He's just now, to me, just getting back to his old play speed. He can run. Dan has good play speed, and he has good eyes. He understands our defense and recognizes things, so I was really proud of him the other night. I thought he played well, and if Javon [Bullard] can't go, we'll need him to play well again."
On his evaluation of Micah Morris against UAB...
"He did a good job. He came in there and gave those guys a rotational blow. I think that's important when it's hot and you're playing in early fall. He jumped in there and competed and played. He's really physical. He had a different presence that the other guards at times. He has some strengths that they don't have, and he has some weaknesses that they don't have. We have to measure those within each game and see what we need."
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On Marvin Jones' progression this season...
"He had gotten better. I thought he had a good week of practice this week so far. He was crushed when he didn't get to play in that game [South Carolina]. He's recovered from all that. I think he is getting better, and he understands our defense in terms of knowledge and system. A lot of those guys in that room are young and new. He's been able to grasp that and have a feel for things. I'm hoping he comes along and starts making some plays."
On the expectation for Carson Beck on explosive plays...
"I think he's done a good job. I mean, we had the one drop intended for Arian [Smith], but he works really hard on it. He spends extra time after practice - he's probably out there right now because he had an opportunity to grab it. He probably overthrew Jackson [Meeks] a little bit, but Jackson will tell you that he didn't extend the play probably the way the other guys did. It's different timing with different receivers. He probably put too much air under it rather than hitting him right in stride. I think he has done really well with the deep balls; I really do. I don't listen to the noise out there. We've missed a couple because they have been covered. He's overthrown a couple, but a lot of that is the aim. Are we leading the receiver to the open grass or are we leading the receiver to a landmark? There is difference in the two, and sometimes it's the quarterback and sometimes it's the receiver. We'll continue, if we can run the ball well, to have an opportunity to take shots down the field."
On his impressions of Auburn's Eugene Asante...
"He's an athletic dude. He's the kind of linebacker that everybody is playing with now, and a lot of teams in the NFL are playing with. He's quick, he's fast, he's twitchy. He can blitz. He can play in space. He closes so fast. He covers down. A lot of his plays have been cover down, strips outs - cover down, effort plays, I call them. We showed our guys him, and then we showed the scout linebackers how hard this guy plays. Coach Searels was with him there in North Carolina, and he has played very well this year. He's a force."