UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Tells The Truth About Targeting Calls
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ATHENS, Ga – Georgia Bulldog head coach Kirby Smart spoke with the media on Tuesday afternoon and offered the following comments.
Opening Statement
“We had a good practice today on ourselves and tried to take some target areas that we think we can get better at in terms of offense, defense and special teams. Did some quality control work and then worked on some future opponents. Then we'll take a day tomorrow and do a lot of the same, wrap it up a little bit tomorrow and then get to work on Florida on Thursday.”
On the two targeting calls against Texas…
“Not duck his head. That's what the defender is supposed to do. If that's my son out there and he's got the ball and he's running the ball, I don't want him ducking his head with the ball like their offensive player did. I certainly don't want our defensive players ducking their head or the crown of their helmet being used. It's very dangerous. I can't get into the commentary, but both of those were really close, unfortunate, borderline situations. Because one came from an offensive player lowering his head, and then Dan [Jackson] mirrored it.Joenel's [Aguero] is really tough because he's trying to avoid helmet-to-helmet. He's trying to avoid going high, which most NFL offensive players would rather you hit them high than hit them low because their legs are their career. They're tough calls in both situations. Everybody's trying to work on the safety of the game, and that's the focal point.”
On the secondary…
“We've been a work in progress. I don't know if I can say how young we are, but we are new. We're relatively new. We've got three guys that are starting in the NFL. Any time you have three guys that are starting in the NFL, that probably means they played for you at least two years. Those guys all did. So, there's a lot of growing up that's had to do back there. They continue to work to get better. And all you can ask your kids to do is work, compete, be competitive, be tough. They do that. I'm pleased with how hard they work and compete. We haven't made some plays on the ball that I think could have rewarded us. Or maybe when offenses make mistakes, we don't capitalize on that mistake. A lot of dropped picks. That was my reference last week. After the game, I think some people took it to be about the offense. My comments were about the number of dropped picks we had in one game. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that. That's where you have to hurt teams.
You have to turn those into turnovers. And when you don't, they're just incompletions. So, we've got to play the ball down the field better.”
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On Smael Mondon Jr.…
“We're hoping to get Smael back. Can't wait to get him back. Hopefully it'll be soon. He's out there with us right now. And don't know when it'll be.”
On K.J. Bolden and JaCorey Thomas’ roles following the targeting calls…
“K.J.'s played all year. He's rotated and played a significant amount of football. So, we look at K.J. as a starter and he'll be prepared to play. JaCorey started and played against Clemson the whole game. We've got other guys that are capable of other packages and things we can play. We'll have to rely on that to prepare. But, again, we're not really worried about that right now. We're worried about how do we block better, tackle better, cover better, so many things we can get better at, including those guys, including the guys that may or may not be out. They've got to get better.”
On the squib kick to start the second half against Texas…
“We were not trying to do what we did. We know about the Oregon play. That's usually a tactic you use after a 15-yard penalty in which the ball would be kicked off from the 50, therefore recovered on the 35, maybe 37. That’s not what we're trying to do at all, and it was a failed attempt of something that we worked on. It was not what we were trying to do. So, it's not worth elaborating on because we may play them again. So, I don't really want to explain it.”
On position groups that have had significant growth since the last bye week…
“I think everyone's grown. The experiences we've had since the last bye week have been on the road at Alabama, home games against two tough SEC opponents, on the road at Texas. I mean, it's been a journey. And the next journey I think is five-game stretch, if I'm not mistaken, and it'll be a hell of a journey, too, because every week is a season right now. And I'm proud of the guys working. I can't single anybody out. I think a lot of guys have shown improvement. You know, our outside linebacker group, we've gotten production out of Damon [Wilson], Gabe [Harris], and Jalon [Walker] when he plays that spot. Chaz [Chambliss] had some big plays in the game. I thought those guys have really stuck out. But it's hard to single out one group.”
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On the final touchdown drive against Texas…
“Yeah, that was special. I told them after the game. The one thing that this offense has shown outside of at times being inconsistent, it's shown unbelievable resilience. You think about the games we've been in that we had to respond to a score. It seems like every time in the second half somebody scores, they respond. I feel like that happened in Auburn. I feel like that happened in Mississippi State. I know it happened in Alabama because it was the entire second half. So, they show great resilience. That is a quality, although there are higher-ranking qualities possibly, that is a very high-ranking quality that not all teams have. I don't like the back-against-the-wall mentality that you come out fighting because I don't like to play with my back against the wall. I want to start aggressively and attack. But there's times where you lose momentum and you have to respond to that, and they have been very good at that.”
On the targeting appeal process…
“I'll be honest with you. I'd rather not talk about it. It's one of those things that I don't really know the process, to be honest with you. So, we'll see how it goes.”
On balancing life and football in lieu of the birth of Coach Schumann’s third child…
“Yeah, he did a tremendous job. I think, first thing as a coach, you don't plan to have a baby in season, so that's the first mistake he made was that. You've got to get your priorities in order when you do that. It's also his third. Lauren is an incredible coaches wife. She does a tremendous job supporting him and his players, and she's a wonderful mother and a great wife. She was at Alabama with Glenn and I and worked there in the football office. She does wonderful things for the players and does so much, and she's done a great job with her kids. We knew it was around that time. He said he was going to have a plan for it, and he executed the plan to a tee. So, he didn't miss a beat. He got things set up where everything could go down Wednesday after practice, which we go home then. He was back in work Thursday morning at 7 o'clock with a smile on his face and a baby born. He did everything he needed to do to not really miss a beat. We have guys miss all the time. Our special teams coordinator, Kirk Benedict, just had a baby as well right after the Texas victory. So, he planned his a little better for the bye week.”
On Chris Cole…
“First off, if you want to say the player that's made one of the biggest jumps, going back to your question, Chris Cole has made from the time he arrived to now, he has improved immensely. He and Justin Williams are so high character with toughness and intangibles. They almost compete against each other and drive each other off the scales in terms of competitiveness and doing things right no matter who's watching. I think that's a really good trait for young players to be like, ‘It really doesn't matter who's watching. I'm going to always do it right,’ that's Chris Cole and Justin Williams. But Chris has put himself in a position because he has really elite speed and flexibility to be able to cover and he's got great length. I think Schumann did a great job identifying those two guys as high character, high intangible players. Chris has helped us. He's gotten smarter and smarter. The Smael situation is for him that opportunity. He and JaCorey have played in that role some in third down.”
On drops of the offensive side of the ball…
“I think you have to be careful. You have to ask yourself why. You go through and watch them. You try to analyze it, and you want to create confidence. You want to create an environment of learning and teaching. I thought [James] Coley did a good job talking to them and explaining to them that I think we're second in the SEC in passes per game. So, we must have confidence in them if we're second in passing attempts per game in the league. So, we do have tremendous confidence in them, the backs, and the tight ends, and we're going to continue to do that. I don't think you can be a good football team if you can't throw and catch the ball. We have a guy that's a weapon. There are a lot of teams out there in the country that wish they had a quarterback that could put them in the right play and has the ability to fix the protection and has the ability to get the ball to the right guy efficiently. So, I know a lot of receivers want to play with a guy like that.”
On the value of having a punter like Brett Thorson…
“He flipped the field great the other night. It wasn't so much the distance and the hang, which both were elite, but the ball placement. When you put somebody on the sideline, there's only one way to go, and he did a tremendous job of directional kicking and placing their returner, who we thought was really good, in tough spots. He was clutch, and I thought he did a great job.”
On Tate Ratledge…
“I've seen a lot of hard work. He could be one of the toughest players I've ever been around. You don't question his toughness. He had a very significant tightrope injury, to the point it was more significant than Brock's [Bowers], and he is fighting his way back. He wasn't ready to play, but he was an emergency guy that could have gone in the game if we needed him to. We're hopeful he keeps getting better.”
On the importance of Trevor Etienne against Texas…
“Trevor didn't do that by himself. There would be a lot of people that would admit that no running back runs on the number one defense in the country by himself. Somebody's out there blocking. Somebody's cracking people. Somebody's taking on hits. So, he had tremendous help, but he did a great job. He has been a bright spot, especially off the field with his energy, enthusiasm and leadership. He cares about those O-linemen. He does things for them that we haven't had guys around here do that. He was big that night for us. He made some really big cuts and runs and exploded through the line, and it gave us a weapon that we needed.”
On Oscar Delp…
“Oscar's one of the best blocking tight ends in the country. He works really hard. He's a tremendous kid. I think he would tell you he's left some plays on the field that he wishes he could have back, but he made the most of those. That's what you're judged on is your competitive character for the next play. He made that play and has continued to do it and hopefully he gets a bigger role in the passing game as we keep going down the road.”
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