Everything UGA Football's Kirby Smart Said Before 2024 Camp Starts | "Mindset Over Muscle"

ATHENS - UGA Football coach Kirby Smart gives a full update on the Georgia Bulldogs as the Dawgs get set to open the season against Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers in 30 days.

“Looking forward to kicking this thing off. Our kids reported for camp last night, but I'll open with some roster and injury updates. On Rara (Thomas), I had a chance to sit down and meet with him face-to-face Tuesday, which I think was really important, and let him know that he can no longer be a part of the football team. He understands that, and we wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”

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“In terms of injuries and things we have coming into camp, I think I've got a note here from Ron (Courson). We've got some guys that are banged up from the summer and just different injuries. Warren Brinson's dealing with an Achilles tendon, so he'll be in and out. It's an opposite one of the one he had in spring, but it's not long. We injected it, and he should be back shortly. Marcus Harrison's dealing with a stress reaction on his foot. Should be back shortly. Jordan Hall has a tibia stress fracture that we ended up having to do surgery on. We expect a full recovery. He'll be back hopefully by the first game, but he will be close. Ty Ingram [Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins] is coming back from an injury that he's dealt with. He's not 100%, but he's close. Smael [Mondon] is able to do some stuff, not everything, but he's almost back. Then Chris Peal had a labral repair at the end of spring, so he'll be limited a little bit. Branson [Robinson] will start practice without limitations, but we will have some load management with him. Then Cole Speer’s dealing with a little bit of mid-foot sprains, but you guys will see most of those guys that I named involved in some way in practice. Some are just completely out, but others aren't. So, we're able to bring 120 into camp. I'm fired up about that. That's good numbers for us. As you know, in the future, it won't be that. So, we've got good depth in camp, and we're looking forward to creating some mental and physical adversity through the heat and through practices that we can kind of start to form our team.”

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On what he is looking to learn about the team in camp...

“That last statement. You know, what's our response going to be to the mental and physical adversity they face? I don't know that in spring practice you can simulate that. We try to simulate it in the summer conditioning program, but it's not the same as having all these pads on, helmets on, equipment on, and I can't simulate the heat they're going to have with that equipment on. So, I don't know how this team's going to respond to when stuff gets hard and stuff gets tough and guys start complaining to each other and they're not running and they're not getting to the ball and practice is tiring, but that's what camp is. Our introduction last night was very deep into why do you have a training camp? What is the purpose of a training camp? It's to build the toughness within our team.”

On Branson Robinson returning to action...

“Well, he's, you know, I don't know what the number of months is. It seems like it's almost a year because it happened preseason last year. So, I think it's not a shock to me that he's able to start and go without limitations, but the load management's critical because you can't take someone who hasn't done everything and just throw them into everything. So, we have to be smart about that, but it's certainly promising. I thought going into, I forget what practice it was he got entered last year, but he was having a really good camp. He looked really good, and I remember thinking, golly, this guy was getting ready to, you know, have a great season, great camp, and then he has to go back, and you forget the blitz pickups. You forget all the things that he missed out on that he didn't get a chance to do that he'll be doing now. I know he's looking forward to it. We're excited to get him out there.”

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On support staff members being allowed to coach on field...

“Well, we'll use more coaches now and have the ability to maybe move some coaches around in terms of if you've got one drill going on, you've got another person that’s an allowable coach that maybe has really good experience coaching or knows our system to be an extra set of eyes, ears, and coach guys. So, we're excited about that. I'm excited for some of the special teams periods. We're going to be able to take kids that aren't in special teams where we had a lot of our coaching dedicated to special teams. We have people on the outside now that may be able to do special teams and free our coaches up to give a little time to guys that aren't in, like skill development. A guy can go over there and work on things he needs to work on and not lose time, so it's helpful organizationally to do that.”

On familiarity with lofty preseason expectations...

“I don't feel like we're familiar with it because we just don't pay attention to it. You guys are probably more familiar with it than we are in terms of, well, that's the expectation. They're going to start the season top five, or they're going to be predicted to win the East or West when it was there, or they're going to be predicted to win the SEC. I've never honestly paid any attention to it, and we don't talk about it as a team. The expectation is we're going to develop and worry about today's day, and we don't think about that.”

On the team's leadership...

“We identify with team leaders, and we have groups within our team that are leadership. I don't divulge what I do individually with players or with a group, but that's something that we've always employed. We can't develop leadership at the top if you don't start with kids when they enter, and that's part of our school session process. That's part of our leadership training we do and where we take guys in the summer, and we've definitely started that, and that's very important, and we think it's a key to our success, which is mindset over muscle.”

On the wide receiver group...

“We've got a lot of guys that are pass catchers back. We've got a lot of guys that have played in the Dillon Bell, Arian [Smith], and Colbie [Young] for another team. Dom [Lovett] has been very successful and got a lot of catches. We have depth at the top. I think we've got to find more guys that can contribute in that room. Maybe they haven't had their opportunity. Maybe they're talented and pick things up quickly. We have several guys that came in from the portal with Mike Jackson and London [Humphreys], so I'm looking forward to see the opportunity that each one gets to grow and get better, and it really starts today. I'm fired up about that group because we got a good group of protectors around them, a good quarterback to get them the ball, and a good group of tight ends.”

On the SEC tiebreaker process...

“Zero that I'm aware of. I mean, it's not something that we've talked about or concerned ourselves with. It gets so deep and so far. I think the Big 12 kind of has had that come up, and people have learned from the way they made their tiebreakers, and very little does it get past the first three or four tiebreakers.”

On the defensive line group...

“Well, they have been here a long time. I'm pleased with where they are in terms of when Warren [Brinson] is dealing with a little nagging injury that he's dealt with, and he'll push through that. Naz [Stackhouse] has been great. We got to get the young guys ready to play. You never have enough defensive linemen, so just from the jump street, we got some big bodies in that room, but we got some inexperienced big bodies. So it's really important that we establish depth, that we're looking at a potentially longer season. We have, I want to say it's four or maybe five new guys, meaning first year with us, because that includes a portal transfer and four high school guys, that are 300 pounds or greater that haven't played a snap for us. They will provide our depth in that room that when guys get injured, and guys get injured at that position, they got to be able to step in and play, and that's an area that we got to continue to develop and grow. I mean, everybody does. Nobody has enough of them.”

On adjustments for young defensive backs...

“Well, work ethic. I mean, experience, confidence, practice habits. There's a lot of things that go into being able to compete at this level, and some of them already have competed at this level just as a two or a three in practice. We put more value in that because maybe you're going against a better guy at Georgia in practice all spring, then you may get a chance to go against him this season. I think they establish confidence in that, and they know and trust that their training is going to carry them.”

On Anthony Evans III's development...

“Well, he's gotten a little stronger. He's going to have to continue to work to be competitive and compete every day. He's a guy that we think has great potential, but potential means nothing if you don't actually realize it and push through it. So, camp's going to be critical for him to show toughness. You can't play the position he plays on offense without establishing physical toughness, and he's shown the ability to stick his face in there and do things. He's going to be in competition to be one of our returners. So we need him to have a successful camp, and that really doesn't come through wanting to have a successful camp. It comes through the mindset of what it takes to be physical and do your job each and every day, which will be key for him."

On Daylen Everette...

“Proud of Daylen and his leadership in that room. He's one of the few guys coming back with play experience in that room outside of Malaki (Starks) and Dan (Jackson), and I think he exudes confidence that maybe leaks over to others, and he sets an example where maybe he followed Kamari’s (Lassiter) example for a while and learned from those older players. He's got to carry the torch in that room, and I'm excited to see him do it."

On Oscar Delp...

“He's a leader by action. He's a kid that's taken a lot of reps here, so everybody will want to compare him and say he's filling Brock Bower's shoes. That's not happening. We're not asking anybody to fill Brock Bower's shoes. We're asking Oscar to be Oscar, which is extremely physical, extremely tough, extremely dependable. You talk about a guy that -- I don't know that he's missed a practice since being here. And there's a lot of times that Darnell (Washington) was out, or Brock was out that Oscar took double the load, so his durability has been incredible. He doesn't necessarily have to lead by what he says, although he does speak up. He leads by his actions, and I appreciate his work ethic."

On expectations for Arian Smith...

“Well, I think Arian has reached his potential. I mean, he's a guy that every time we've needed him to make big plays, he's made a bunch of big plays. I don't think a lot of the health, he can control that. There's some things you can control, some things you can't. Most of the injuries he's had have occurred by circumstance or collisions, so I'm very pleased with where he is. I'm excited of the leadership he showed in that room spring through the summer, and even now he's much more confident in himself, and I think he feels like he and Dillon Bell and Dominic (Lovett) are the leaders in that room, and I'm excited to see what he can do with it."

On managing camp differently with expanded schedule...

“A lot of people have talked about that and discussed it. I don't really know what the camp has to do with that. The NFL has extended their preseason. They've added games to the season, but there's not a lot of changes to the camp. The camp is the camp, so maybe something changes within the season to the season because as we go and we have more information and we play along the season, we may know the duration of the season may change. We don't know that for certain right now. What we do know is that we've got a really tough opening opponent and we've got a really tough schedule. I don't know that employing a back-off pace, take-it-easy pace lends itself to success when you're talking about facing the schedule we have to face."

On the running back group...

"I'm excited about the room. Roderick (Robinson II) is a guy that took a ton of reps last year for us in a position of just being here on the team, just getting here, and he's had a great offseason. Branson (Robinson), we talked about in his back. Cash (Jones) has been a veteran leader in that room. The young guys that are coming back in that room that we just signed that have had great summers, that's Nate (Frazier), Dwight (Phillips Jr.), and Chauncey (Bowens). I think we've got a room of good backs, as talented as we've had, but inexperienced. And Trevor (Etienne) does a great job of leading that room and holding people to a standard in that room."

On Tate Ratledge...

“His maturity has grown. He's always been a great practice player. He loves football. He's become kind of the centerpiece of that group. I think him coming back just validated to the others that they want to do something special. Both he and (Xavier) Truss made that decision. Their leadership has really been the different mindset, at least in the spring, in terms of our identity on offense and what they want to do in terms of forcing people into being physical. I could see it. It permeated our spring by the physicality that our offensive line played with, and they've got to continue to do that because they'll be challenged this year.”

On the new wide receivers...

“They've done great. They've done an awesome job. I don't think that that would be a concern. They're very bright kids. All three of those kids have played in systems that are similar to ours and very bright, adjustable, can play multiple positions. No concerns there.”

On Ben Yurosek...

"It's a hard question because I really hadn't got to see him. Most of these guys I saw through the spring, so the new arrivals of late May, early June, he would be included in that. I'd be remiss if I could tell you really what he can do and what he's going to do because outside of some summer workouts, I hadn't got to see him do a lot. I'm excited. He's very intelligent, very conscientious and I love the way he's kind of approached our team. I see him meeting guys all the time, talking to guys. He's not like just here for a one quick season and roll. He's invested. He wants to be part of something special.”

On watching his children compete in sports...

“The pressure doesn't equate to what we do day-to-day, what we do with these kids, what we do with our program and the decisions that go into our games. I'm awful proud of all my kids, including Julia, and I got to spend a lot of time in recent last month with them. I appreciate that time that we get away. You don't get it back. People have told me over and over, they're going to be gone before you know it. They're going to be out of the house, and you're going to be wishing you had done more. I don't want to have any regrets. I spent a lot of time with them over the last month, really.”

On KJ Bolden...

“I don't think there's any pressure in terms of hype as a recruit. He may put that on himself, but we don't. We don't pick kids and say, well, this guy's got pressure, this guy doesn't. I think we've got to prepare him day to day with intensity. Each day is an opportunity for him to grow and get better. Sometimes freshmen, they can't rise to the occasion that number of times, and they have these off days because they've never had this intensity. He's going to be able to handle that well. Number one, because of where he came from, the program he played in, but he's also a conscientious kid. We're going to push him, we're going to challenge him and we're going to test him because he'll certainly get tested in the schedule we have.”

On adding Jahzare Jackson to the roster...

“He was a kid that we had in camp, and he was a unique situation where he was eligible right now. He was a tremendous athlete, raw, hadn't played football since eighth grade. You recruit size. You recruit athleticism. We don't have an expectation of he has to help us right now. We have an expectation of he has to grow, get better and develop. We saw that as a kid that has the ability to be a good football player if he has toughness and all the qualities it takes to play offensive line.”