UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Gives Latest Injury Update And More

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ATHENS — Georgia football head football coach Kirby Smart spoke with media Monday to preview the Bulldogs’ matchup against UMass on Saturday and offered the following comments. 

Opening Statement…

“We jumped into UMass yesterday and got started on these guys. Got our players in and we'll be moving forward with them. Heard the unfortunate news about [UMass Head Coach] Don Brown just recently, and I know Shane [Montgomery, interim Head Coach] from the past and recruited together on the road and been around Shane before. He's a tremendous coach, and we look forward to preparing for this game.”

On Dillon Bell and Trevor Etienne…

“No update on Dillon really, I just ran into him a few minutes ago. He got an ankle sprain, not going to require - it's stable. It’s not going to require any kind of surgery or anything. So, hopeful to get him back, and same with Trevor.”

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On the offensive line’s performance against Ole Miss compared to Tennessee…

“I don't know. It's easy to say they played better against Tennessee. I mean, it's pretty obvious. Number one, they were healthier. Number two, the environment was a little different. We did get behind, and we had to play from behind, but I think that they executed at a higher level. We didn't really run the ball great, but we had the ability to run the ball. Success in running the ball comes in different terms these days, especially in the SEC.”

On Earnest Greene and Micah Morris…

“Earnest was going to be a game time decision, and he's still struggling with that arm that he was out there giving everything he had against Ole Miss. Didn't have complete strength in his left arm, which is hard to use at left tackle. We're hoping that he continues to gain strength. Micah was close to being able to go and might have been in an emergency Saturday, but it's not completely healthy. He’s going to be out there working today and trying to get back in.”

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On Monroe Freeling…

“He had some oversets. He had a couple times that Carson did a nice job moving in the pocket and gave up some pressure. He really competed hard, played physical. Got better kind of as the game went on. Thought he had some jitters early, but he's very bright and continues to work really hard.”

On ball security against Tennessee…

“Well, it's funny because I look at it as a defensive coach when I watched our offensive tape and actually thought we had better ball security against Ole Miss than we did against Tennessee. And a lot of people don't, they can't acknowledge the difference. So, I was very positive with our team after Ole Miss and emphasized that there were less exposures of the ball than what we had. Although they took the ball away from Nate [Frazier]. He didn't have bad ball security, he just, there's a difference. There's a takeaway and then there's exposures. And unfortunately for your business, they just look out in the same and that is not the case and we had bad exposures Saturday. And we've had some bad exposures throughout the year, like when guys catch balls, and the ball is loose. I'm honestly more focused on our defense, why we don't get people with bad exposures. Because the teams we play have more bad exposures than we do, but we don't get more out, so I'm trying to solve that problem.”

On going to the SEC Championship…

“I don't think that's a hypothetical, the focus is on UMass. I mean, it really is. So, why would I put energy or time into trying to figure out what the best pathway is, including the SEC Championship, when I'm worried about UMass? I just don't think it's a quality conversation.”

On the rules of in-game substitutions on defense…

“I mean, the coaches know how it's supposed to work, or at least they're supposed to know how it works in terms of what you're given, and the issue is every conference officiates it differently. I've watched teams really late at night, so you can imagine where they're playing, what part of the country they're in, where that's completely accepted in terms of ‘take as long as you want.’ They don't actually let you do that in our league, and that's really to benefit the teams that play with pace. Because if they allow you to sub and take all the time you want, then you really slow teams down. And there's not a game that I've played in that they don't come over there and tell you, ‘You either got to speed your guys up or we're going to set it on the ready for play, and we're going to wind the clock.’ Because people have made it where if an offense makes a mistake and subs late, they're going to make them burn a timeout. Everybody tries to do it, we even try to do it, but you can't do it at the expense of, there's 24 seconds, there's 23 seconds on the clock, and we're going to go sub a guy and take 20 seconds up. Because that isn't what it takes. A lot of people say, ‘well, they say you have to sub in three seconds.’ No, you have to start the substitution process in three seconds. That's how long you have to start the process. But it doesn't say once you start the process, you can go at a snail's pace off. They give you a reasonable amount of time, and they give you an opportunity to snap the ball. So that's the rule, and if somebody subs with ten seconds left on the shot clock, they're probably going to get a delay of game if somebody tries to sub on defense. But if they do it with 20, there's reasonable time to sub.”

On Tate Ratledge’s performance against Tennessee…

“He was healthier. I mean, he dinged his ankle in Ole Miss, and it was a tough situation that he felt he needed to try to go and help the team. And that's just what I respect about Tate is some guys would say, “Well I don't want to look bad. I don't want to, I'll hurt my draft status.” Tate said, I'm going to go out there and fight. I'm going to give you everything I got. And he probably shouldn't have been out there. But he stayed out there and fought. But he's still not healthy, but he was healthier this week. And practiced and played better.”

On Chaz Chambliss’ sack production and performance at fullback…

“He's tough, he's physical. When we had the offensive line injuries, we were forced to find a kind of another fullback body type because we had been using Micah [Morris] there. And we've had guys out. I think Chaz's work ethic, his buy-in, his leadership, his film study. Chaz knows what people are running before we do as coordinators sometimes because he looks at so much tape. And he uses those cues to help him and make plays. He benefited a little bit Saturday. They weren't all, all sacks are not necessarily your play. Somebody else did a really good job and forced the guy to you. He capitalized on opportunities. And I love the way he's working and playing with toughness.”

On Tate Ratledge’s leadership while being out with injury…

“He's Tate (Ratledge). He's a lunch pail, working man's guy. That whole offensive line unit – there's a lot of snaps between Dylan Fairchild, Jared (Wilson), Micah (Morris), Truss (Xavier), Tate, and Ernest (Greene). No bones about it, those guys are the core of our team.”

On if Carson Beck should run the ball more…

“I look at it as Carson (Beck) making good decisions on when to run. He's done a great job this year. There's no way I could say, ‘ooh, man, I wish you'd pulled it down and ran’. I could say ‘I wish you'd have thrown it to the check down’. But I can't say that he should have pulled it down and ran. I think he makes good decisions on when to do that. I think our offensive staff does a tremendous job of utilizing his ability to run on certain plays. That was a design run on one of those plays. People think it was a scramble, but there was a scramble for a touchdown, and there was an empty play where he counted the box and knew what we wanted him to do, and he broke tackles.”

On Trevor Etienne’s injury status and Joenel Aguero…

“Joenel (Aguero) had a pin, so he got injured in the Ole Miss game. But he's available to play. But he got a pin put in his hand, his pinky. He was cleared to play but was going to struggle to play in a club. So, he practiced last week and was available to play, but he didn't get to really use the hand really well, it was a little tender. So, he's in the same situation this week, but he's post screw getting put in. So, we think he's going to be closer to being able to play. In terms of Trevor (Etienne), we're hoping to get him back. It's what I can tell you, He's going to have an opportunity. Ribs are a painful injury, right? I don't know if that's the exact term, but he does have a rib injury, and we hope to get him back.”

On getting game repetitions for the running back room…

“Every rep's valuable. Today's reps are valuable, tomorrow's reps are valuable, and guess what? Last week's reps were valuable. We had guys out there in practice. London Humphrey's dealing with a very tough injury and doesn't take reps hardly in practice. Cole Speer's dealing with injuries. So, when you start talking about these guys that have injuries that are preventing them from practicing, but they're able to play, who are we practicing at receiver? Because y'all probably think that London and Cole and these guys are taking the reps. It's been a challenge to be creative in terms of how you practice and how you get guys to the game healthy, but also in shape because of what's happened at wide receiver. Our number of reps have gone up for the guys who are getting the reps in the game. So, their volume has had to increase. I would commend Anthony Evans because he actually fought to come back early and took a portion of that rep load off. He was playing his best football when he got injured. So, he had a great off week before Florida. I think it was the week of Florida game when he went down. But all those guys are getting reps and getting better. I don't necessarily qualify a game rep against UMass or next week's game as any more quality than I do today's reps we're going to get out there.”

On utilizing three tight ends against Tennessee…

“We have 13 (personnel) plays every week. I think people mistake 13 for 12 and 11 (personnel). We have the same plays in 11, 12, and 13. You're just different human beings in the same spot. So, the casual observer would think that 13 meant something, but we have 13 in every game plan. When you lose receivers, it does make the 13 more valuable, because Lawson Luckie might be doing what Dom Lovett does. Dom Lovett might be doing what Dillon Bell does. You're just moving people and trying to put your most valuable players on the field.”

On where he sees the resiliency of the team…

“I don't see it necessarily in the week of practice. I see it when things are really adverse. We have adversity in practice, but not the same adversity in maybe stress levels as a game. This team's been in some tough situations this year, and they've never cowered it down from those opportunities. They've shown resiliency, and they've battled back. I think they do that because of how we practice, but I don't think they get a chance to show resiliency every day in practice.”

On Daniel Harris…

“Daniel has been playing a lot lately. I don't know if you've been watching, but that wasn't just the only time. He's played significantly more in recent weeks because he's practiced better. I thought his practice habits really began to change after Texas during that off week. I thought he stepped it up and had really good practices. His playing time has increased since then.”

On UMass scheduling multiple SEC teams this season…

“They played multiple SEC teams. I think it's good because you get to watch how they played those teams. Unfortunately, sometimes those teams don't have the same schemes we do. It's harder because maybe Mississippi State is different offensively than we are. It helps when the team you're playing is more similar to you, regardless of what conference they're in. Uniquely, UMass’ quarterbacks out, so the guy that played against some of those games. They're using two quarterback system now with two different guys that aren't on those tapes. It's a little bit, you have to anticipate." 

On Mykel Williams performance as an impact player…

“I'll start with Mykel. I thought he had his very best week of practice this entire year last week. When you play Tennessee, it's sometimes hard statistically to get that to show because of the way they play, their passes are really runs. They throw a lot of RPOs. A defensive lineman is not going to affect RPOs because he's playing the run. Mykel had his best practices. Mykel's evaluation is going to come by people that are out there at our practices because he's playing against an NFL style offense every day at practice. He had just, I mean, the guy was running to the ball, covered down extra, stayed after and worked extra. He was committed to getting back in shape. I thought he had a great week of practice,  and I thought he had a really good game too.”

On KJ Bolden’s growth this season…

“KJ's done a tremendous job. He's very intelligent. He understands football. He has great instincts. He's gotten more confident as a player. Last week he had to play strong and free because of the tempo, and he didn't get to play just one position. He played a lot of snaps for a freshman. He continues to grow and get better. I like his humility and the fact that he's a sponge. He's in meetings, he takes notes. He's not a know-it-all. He wants to get better."