Everything UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Said About Missouri On Tuesday
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ATHENS - UGA Football head football coach Kirby Smart met with the media on Tuesday evening after practice and offered the following comments.
On how practice has been so far this week…
“It’s been good. They had a good day yesterday and got introduced to Missouri, and then had good spirits today. It was nice and cool out, and we had a good practice.”
On what he is dressing up as for Halloween…
“When’s Halloween? Oh, it’s tonight? No, I’ll be up here working. I’ve been grinding. My kids are past the age, really. Andrew might be doing something, but we’ll be rolling tonight.”
On his confidence level in the secondary going against a talented Missouri offense…
“We’ll find out Saturday. I’m always confident in our team and our players, but it won’t be on just them. It’ll be on safeties, the rush, the linebackers, the down and distance, the field position . . . A lot of things go into stopping a good passing attack, and they’ve got a great running attack, so it’s not like it’s just one-sided. But it won’t just be on our DBs. It’ll be on a collective group. It’s not an individual unit.”
On Roderick Robinson’s health this week…
“He looks much better.”
On the added challenge and different preparation for facing a team coming off a bye week…
“There’s no difference. What can you do? What would your different prep be? There’s not. I mean, you get ready for the team you play regardless of the time they have off. There’s a lot of things you don’t control. You don’t control that. You control the time you have, which I think that’s what you try to maximize every week.”
On what stands out about Nathaniel Peat and Cody Schrader and how you prepare for two running backs…
“Well, everybody we play has two running backs. They’re physical. They’re tough. I mean, we play teams with three running backs, or four running backs. You can’t have one running back in the SEC. You’ll have none if you have one. But they’re really physical. They run their tracks, they have great vision, and they catch the ball out of the backfield. They protect – they’re complete backs. It seems like everybody we play in the SEC has good, physical backs. They certainly do, and they’ve had a lot of success in the run game because it works together, pass and run.”
On if they do anything in practice to try to improve red zone defense…
“We’re doing the same thing we’ve done every year. The result has been different, but the process has been the same, so we’ve tried to make a bigger emphasis on it. You say try doing anything different, just trying to do more of doing it right, like I control doing your job, stopping the run, those things.”
On what he has seen from Jalon Walker’s development as a pass rusher…
“Work ethic. I mean, he’s committed to it. He works his trade, his craft every day. I felt [Glenn] Schumann did a great job pointing out, he took every rep on a Friday walkthrough to really work his pass rush move in a walkthrough – physically, mentally, taking his steps, dropping, rushing, stripping the quarterback – and then I’ll be danged if he didn’t do the exact thing in the game. We can put those three clips he had of doing that back-to-back and show the players that being intentional in a walkthrough and being locked in in a walkthrough can have incredible value.”
On what he saw from Marvin Jones, Jr in the game against Florida…
“Marvin’s growing up. He’s playing well. He’s doing some good things. He had a few good plays, he had a few bad plays. He had a couple he wished he had back, but he did have some discipline and played a screen well. He had the fumble recovery. He’s becoming more and more confident in his gameplay.”
On how he has seen Oscar Delp handle the last few weeks since Brock Bowers’ injury…
“I don’t see any difference. I know y’all find that hard to believe, but he played when Brock was here, he plays when Brock’s not. He took a load of reps before Brock was injured, he takes a load of reps with Brock injured. He fights his tail off every day at practice, he works hard – if anything, he’s just gotten more opportunities, and he’s made the most of them.”
On the importance of the strong home winning record...
"I think it's a collective effort, right. I mean, it's, 'Hey, we all have to chip in on this.' We practice hard. We beat the hell out of each other out there at practice, and we want to put a good product on the field. We want to defend out turf. We feel like championship teams at Georgia have not lost at home, so you better not lose at home if you want to be a championship program. We have a wall that kind of says that. You better not lose at home if you want to do something special. The atmosphere has helped with that, but sometimes teams come in and play well. You have to rise to the occasion to play against them."
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On Missouri's Brady Cook's quick release in the pocket...
"I probably wouldn't have a great answer on that. That was only in my head because it's so quick that he gets it out. There are averages in there. There are play actions. There are rolls. He's not 2.2 [seconds] all the time, but the ball comes out quick. So, we've been thinking about dropping all 11, just seeing if it works."
On what Missouri did well last season against Georgia and if that plays into this year's game plan...
"I'm sure every coach, if the staff remains the same, maybe even if the staff doesn't remain the same, they evaluate the last game. We have a history with Missouri now with Eli [Drinkwitz] there. You look at both sides of the ball. You look at matchups. They did a tremendous job. They kept us off-balanced offensively and kind of dominated the line of scrimmage defensively. So, what are you going to do to answer that. You have to impose your will. You got to be able to run the ball, play-action. You have got to be efficient. You can't waste down and distances. You can't get negative, loss-yardages plays. You have to stay ahead of the chains. The same things they're saying they have to do offensively on us, we have to do on them."
On what allows success on special teams...
"I don't know that we have been as successful as I would like to be on special teams, but what allows you to be on special teams is good players. What allows you to have good players is good recruiting. You have to have a staff that is committed and dedicated to special teams and involved. I don't think; I don't coach the special teams, but I'm going to be there for every minute of it because I think it's important. I think when you demand excellence, and they see the head coaches go in the special teams stuff, it allows them to see that it's important. We try to put a really large value on the special teams game."
On Malaki Starks' growth this season...
"Confidence. Knowledge of the system. Leadership. He's a great kid. He works every day. He listens. He's extremely coachable. I mean his parents did a wonderful job raising him. He's a joy to coach."
On defending the slant at the cornerback position in college football...
"Well, if it was the hardest play in football, then everybody would run it. Why do some people not throw it? I think you would have to ask an offensive coach that. We certainly did not play it very well the other day, but a lot of it has to do with the coverage that you are in. It's a very often batted ball. A lot of times it has a lot to do with spacing, time of the game, down and distance. There's lot of things that go into slants. They [Florida] did a really good job of executing it last week."
On Christen Miller's growth this season...
"Gotten better. He's gotten better with each week. He still hasn't tapped or reached into his potential, but he's getting better. He works hard. He's one of the kids who enjoys taking reps in the scout team against the offense because he wants to go against Sed. He says, 'Coach, I only get better against the really good offensive line.' So, I love his work ethic."
On how much confidence a team gains from winning on the road...
"I think it gives you the belief that you are in every game. You can win any games in any circumstance with anything going on. This team has kind of had those qualities, probably since last year against Missouri. It's not a situation you want to put yourself in often."
On what Missouri's offensive coordinator Kirby Moore has brought to their team...
"I don't know how to separate what is his and what is Eli's. There is a lot of Eli flavor, and that's probably why he got hired because they have a lot of the same philosophy. There's new wrinkles. They're doing some really good things. They have talented players to do it with. He's done an unbelievable job coordinating it and calling it. He was successful where he was. He won a lot of championships and plays a really good offense. He's got a great name, too."
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Georgia is 42-4 at home in the Kirby Smart era, including 11-1 against ranked opponents. In fact, the Bulldogs have won their last 11 games in Athens versus ranked opponents. This year, Georgia crushed No. 20 Kentucky 51-13 on Dooley Field.
Balance Signals Success
The Bulldogs are one of only three teams in the country who are ranked in the top seven in both Scoring Offense and Scoring Defense. Georgia is tied for seventh in Scoring Offense at 40.5 points per game. The Bulldogs rank seventh nationally in Scoring Defense at 14.8 ppg. The other two teams are Michigan (8-0) and SMU (6-2).
One of the keys to Georgia’s success is its third down defense. The Bulldogs lead the country with opponents converting just 25 percent of the time. In the past four SEC games, Georgia opponents are a combined 10-for-43 on third downs (23 percent). The Bulldogs are third nationally in converting third downs (56 percent).
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