Kirby Smart Gives Massive Injury Update for UGA Football
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ATHENS - UGA Football coach Kirby Smart talked about the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs‘ second scrimmage, injuries and how the Dawgs are preparing for the season opener against the No. 14 Clemson Tigers.
Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement…
“We finished up the scrimmage two Saturday, and players had Sunday and Monday off. It's a big recovery time for us. We kind of finished what we consider to be training camp on Saturday afternoon, and we are still working on us and focusing on us and getting better.
We're going to work on opponents for a couple days before we dive into Clemson later this week.”
On what he learned about his team in fall camp…
“We're in a good spot in terms of physicality. They've grinded. We're not where we need to be by any means, but we have made progress. Scrimmage one to scrimmage two progress was good. I saw things that I needed to see in terms of tackling, playing better without the coaches on the field. All the things you look for in young players to see them grow. There's a small body of guys that have played a lot of football here that I know can go out there and execute. Then there's a larger body of new players that have to prove that, and I thought we had more guys execute without the coaches on the field Saturday and push through the heat, which is mentally tough. You have to be able to get through that to grow and get better, and I'm pleased with where we are coming out of camp.”
On the status of Roderick Robinson II and Warren Brinson…
“Roderick's dealing with a little bit of a turf toe, and I don't know when he's going to become or be available. We had a good group of backs where they do good things Saturday. Warren's been working his way back. He's hitting I think around 75 percent, 85 percent on his GPS. He has improved each and every day. He's been dealing with a little bit of Achilles, but that was coming into camp. It was something we were aware of, and today he's supposed to get back and do a lot more work with us.”
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On the transfer wide receivers…
“Colby's been dealing with a hamstring some, so he hasn't been 100 percent. London had a big jump from scrimmage one to scrimmage two. Michael Jackson is a guy that's been really reliable for us, a hard worker, competitor, continues to improve and get better. I'm pleased with all three of those guys.”
On the cornerback group
“We've got probably five to six guys operating and repping there. We've got some guys that work at both, go inside and outside, and so Chris Beal's a guy that we've used at safety and at corner. Daylen (Everette) plays some star and corner. Julio (Julian Humphrey), Daniel (Harris), Ellis (Robinson IV), Demello (Jones), all have grown, gotten better. Ondre Evans is continuing to grow and get better. All those guys, they work really hard and really pleased with the camp that all really six of those guys have had.”
On Tate Ratledge playing at center…
“Tate's done great. He's a really good athlete. He's a tremendous athlete. He can move, do things. Drew Bobo's done really good things there. Jared's (Wilson) been back and practiced in scrimmage Saturday and done some good things. We've been controlling his volume, but he's been out there working and getting some continuity. He has the largest body of work over the last two to three years at center of anybody. Drew has continued to impress and done a great job. Tate's gotten a lot of work there through our OTAs, training camp days, walk-throughs. Tate has had a lot of reps, and he's been right next to the center making all the calls. The mental part of it's been great, and his snaps have been really good too. He's just creating value for himself in that he can play multiple positions now.”
On Xzavier McLeod and Smael Mondon, Jr…
“Xzavier McLeod has been dealing with a little bit of an injury. He's been pushing through and working through. We're trying to get him back. We don't know when he'll be back. Smael has practiced every practice this camp. He's had some days of higher volume, some days of lower volume, but Smael's been out there doing everything.”
On any possible suspensions for the Clemson game…
“We'll deal with all that when it comes time.”
On Mondon leading the inside linebacker group…
“It was hard for Smael because he wasn't able to do everything last year. He was dealing with a nagging injury. Then he had the same thing in the spring. I feel like he's been a little more assertive now that he's back working, operating at every practice, getting reps. Even though his reps might one day be 80 percent, and then another day 40 percent, and then he goes up and down with the volume he's been out there. He's been able to be a leader. CJ Allen's a natural leader who does a really good job, and you don't really see him like a sophomore out there. He plays like he's a little bit older, and Raylen's done a good job. The guy that has really stepped up is Terrell Foster, who's probably been here longer than any of them. I don't know if he's been here longer than Smael, but it sure seems that way. Terrell's done a great job for us. He is a warrior in terms of competitive toughness, special teams and makes plays. That room has no shortage of talent. It may have a shortage of experience, but they rely on each other, and there's several good leaders in there. The freshmen are great leaders. Chris Cole and Justin Williams are going to be tremendous leaders and players in our organization as they get older.”
On Branson Robinson’s recovery and Trevor Etienne leading the running backs
“Branson is a really hard worker. First of all, he came in with some tendinitis, so it was really hard for him his freshman year to push and get through. There were times at camp he couldn't even run. He never complained. He's just a tough mentally and physically kid. He's got great parents. They pushed him. He's a great leader. From the time of the injury, he never pouted, cried. He just understood that was part of the game, and it was a significant injury. For him to come back and not even get to really go through spring full speed, he did some things in the spring, but he didn't get to go full speed. It's been great having him back from a physical toughness standpoint, a reliability standpoint, ball security, third down pickups, special teams. He's just a really good football player. I love the way he went about doing things. Etienne is a natural leader. He's been that way since he was even in Florida. He was that way. He's a very confident kid. He leads by example. He gets up there first. He's hard on guys when he needs to be. He speaks up in front of the team, and he's a tremendous asset.”
On the young defensive tackles…
“They're working hard. I wouldn't go as far as say flashing. I mean, they're working hard. They're getting better. Jordan Thomas, Jamaal Jarrett, Nnamdi (Ogboko), all those guys, (Nasir) Johnson, the quality of work they've gotten and the amount of work they've gotten has been inordinate based on years past where a guy like that would not have gone against maybe the 1-0 line much. He would have gone against maybe the 3-0 line. Well, they've been forced to go against twos, threes, ones. They've gotten a lot of work. Nas has, who's been a staple for us. Christen (Miller) has. (Xzavier) McLeod has, and so has Warren Brensin in terms of that. Those guys all getting back and getting back healthy has provided us an opportunity to build depth with the younger players.”
On Justin Williams and Joseph Jonah-Ajonye…
“Both working. They're both getting through their first camp, which is not easy here. I don't set real high expectations like you guys try to do for these kids. I tell them that if they can help and contribute, I want them to. I think both those guys will help us and contribute this year. To what extent? Maybe based on injury, how many snaps we have to play, what packages we play. Justin's probably going to help on special teams before anything else. Joseph has done a tremendous job. You feel like they're older than that because they went through all spring. Joseph has asserted himself as a physical presence. He's a good sub rusher. He's really physical on the edge. He's gotten matched up a lot of times against our older offensive tackles, and he holds his own. We're looking forward to being able to play those guys.”
On Christen Miller’s improvement…
“I think he is an every-down player in that room. I think he's shown that even last year. We had the luxury of some depth, so we didn't have to play him every down. We got to rotate him and play him, but he's been much more dependable, reliable. Available might be the best word because he's been doing a good job of staying healthy and working. He's had some nagging injuries the last couple of years that he didn't get all the way through camp, so availability sometimes is the best ability, and he's been that.”
On if Gunner Stockton is the backup quarterback…
“We have a group of quarterbacks that have done a great job. I think we've got depth at the quarterback position that we're not used to having in terms of guys that have experience, some guys that are young, some guys that have played like Gunner and Jaden (Rashada), and they've done a tremendous job.Gunner's had two of his better scrimmages, and had probably his best scrimmage since being here in the last one. I'm really pleased with where all those guys are.”
On Carson Beck developing chemistry with newcomers…
“I think that's a work in progress because we don't have a complete full deck out there. I would venture to say everybody in the country is that way because you've got one wide out out, maybe a tight end out, maybe a back out, and the next thing you know, you don't have everybody out there. You're really trying to develop two things. Is chemistry with your number ones more important than developing your number twos? At the expense of chemistry, we want to have depth, and we've done a really good job pushing the envelope with London (Humphreys), Michael Jackson, Sacovie White, Nitro Tuggle, Jaden Reddell, Colton Heinrich, making sure they're on the same page as Carson (Beck). Sometimes when you do that, you might lose a little continuity or rhythm because you don't have your top guys in there. We've got to force guys to get ready to play that are going to have to play throughout the year and then try to really get that continuity here the next week or so.”
On Sacovie White, Nitro Tuggle, and Cole Speer…
“I can tell you all three of those guys are really hard workers, very intelligent, extremely athletic. Cole's been a dominant special teams player, and he's going to take on more role this year at receiver on top of being a good special teams player. He's a core product of our system. He came in probably under-recruited, not highly touted. He's gotten better every year. He's really tough. He's really physical. He's really fast. He can dominate on all four phases of special teams, but he's also created a role for himself at wideout. Sacovie and Nitro are still learning. They need to play football. They need to go out there without coaches and have to execute. They're talented football players, but I don't know that they're 100 percent reliable right now. We have to get more reliability out of them.”
On Joenel Aguero in his second season
“His ability to process information faster. Everything was really fast on Joenel last year in terms of get the call, get lined up, execute. Get the call, get lined up, execute. That was tough, man. He's going from a system where he never had so many words. He didn't have to learn things. He had rules he had to get, and he took a lot of lumps last year. He learned from Tykee (Smith). He got frustrated at times, but it's paid off this year in terms of he understands the defense. We're still challenging him to communicate a little better, meaning verbalize things to people in front and behind you. He does a really good job with see ball, hit ball, cover people, strike people. He's a good football player.”
On Dylan Fairchild’s best attributes…
“Toughness. Character. What he stands for just as a man. I have a lot of respect for Dylan and the way he's gone about his approach. He stood up in front of the team and told his story. He talked about the years he spent on the scout team and how much it meant to him to earn what he's gotten here and how hard he's had to work for it. So, a lot of respect for him. His greatest attribute is probably his toughness or his power.”
On preparing for future opponents in practice…
“We're just looking at future opponents and the things that we don't see from ourselves. If we don't play a certain coverage, certain front, we're going to look at it and work on it and try to expose our team to it. You've got to be careful about you don't get programmed into playing us. We don't play us this year. Same thing on offense. There are teams that do things we don't do offensively that we just try to explore. That's probably 10 or 15 percent of practice. It's not the majority. It's a small piece. We continue working on fundamentals.”
On Peyton Woodring…
“He's been great. It's relieving that we don't have that stress of trying to figure out who that is this year. I feel great about that. We do have good competition going on for kickoff battles, and Peyton's consistent. He's been good all camp."
On Anthony Evans III…
“Anthony's done a good job. He's very consistent back there. He's done it in the game. Sacovie (White) continues to grow and get better. Sacovie has a lot of potential. Other return candidates would be Michael Jackson, who's done it. Malachi Toliver has done it all through high school. He's done it since he's been here. (Trevor) Etienne does it in terms of kickoff. Dillon Bell, Cole Spear, Cash (Jones). We've got a lot of guys. Nate Frazier. We've got a lot of guys back there that catch kicks and bunts.”
On Georgia-Clemson
“We don't see them on the road recruiting as much as it seems like we used to. I don't know if it's died down some. There’s a lot of overlap. They recruit our state hard. We recruit their state hard. A lot of respect for their players, their teams, their coaches, for what Dabo (Swinney)'s built there. I had a good relationship with Brent (Venables) when he was there, and he's in our league now. They've been one of the premier teams in college football in terms of the last ten years, you could say. It's probably longer than that, but they've done a tremendous job. We do see them on the road some recruiting, but I think the matchup is more about our fans. Getting that caliber of a matchup to start the season is important. We've got issues on our hands today we're trying to deal with over the game.”
On the redshirt freshmen defensive backs…
“Growth. (Justyn) Rhett has gotten better with each and every practice. He continues to improve. He's gotten better this camp from spring. (Chris) Peal has been dealing with a shoulder surgery that he missed some time at the end of spring, and so he was not clear for the start of camp. He's just now getting cleared as in today. He's been practicing. He just hasn't been completely cleared to do full contact, so he'll get to do some of that. And then Kyron (Jones) has had a good camp. He's really fast. He's really physical. He was a running back in high school that had really never played defensive back. We told him it's going to take a while. It's not overnight. You just snap your fingers. He's starting to show up more on special teams as a really competitive and dominant player. He's still working at DB to grow and get better because it's not something that you just click your heels together and get it right.”