UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Talks About His Freshman Players
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ATHENS, Ga. – Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart spoke with the media on Tuesday afternoon and offered the following comments.
On practice this week…
“It's been good. They've done a good job being locked in. I thought yesterday was good. We were a little beat up and sore and had a little bit shorter practice. Late game Saturday, not good sleep Saturday night for the players, but then today was really good. So, I thought today was one of our best Tuesdays we've had. We had to go inside, so maybe that had something to do with it, but there was a lot of energy and a lot of speed and a lot of pads popping.”
On Nate Frazier…
“First of all, I think he's very mature. He came from probably one of the best programs in all the country with Mater Dei. They have put out more players and won more high school national championships than anybody. So, he's a kid that's very mature, knew exactly what he wanted, and I think our national exposure helped us recruit him, but he didn't come in like everybody else. He came in May or June, and that's hard to do. It's not particularly hard for a running back to play as a freshman, but he didn't come in midyear. The last guy I think maybe was Swift (D’Andre) because Swift went to a private school and didn't come in midyear, he came in in the summer, and Nate's [Frazier] picked things up really quick. He's talented. He's conscientious and just been really pleased with his overall work ethic.”
On Nitro Tuggle…
“He's worked hard. He had a good practice today. I think he gained some confidence from that because he went against a really good defense, and he did some nice things, but he goes against a good defense every day in practice, and there's times that he's been frustrated. He would tell you openly that he wants to play. He wants to help. All freshmen want to play, and this has been a weird year for us because we have not had a lot of breaks in action to get those guys playing experience. I could go through Jaden Reddell and Colton [Heinrich], Ellis (Robinson], Demello [Jones], Ondre [Evans]. There's just so many guys, the O-linemen, the other backs who are starting to get a taste. I probably met with that group, I don't know, three or four times this year as a group who just said, stay the course. You're going to get an opportunity because so many of them come in with high expectations, and they want to play, and Nitro's [Tuggle] one of those guys. Ellis and Demello are so close. They've practiced so hard and so well and done so good, and you're used to having these games where you can. I think [Glenn] Schumann said we averaged 100 snaps for our twos and threes over the last couple years. We're not even close to that right now. We just haven't been able to, and they're getting better, and I'm excited about all of them, and I'm excited about Nitro.”
On allowing younger players to get opportunities this weekend…
“You don't ever count on that. What you count on is you want to play well, right? You want to kill turnovers. You want to get turnovers. Sometimes these games get shrunk on you because sometimes teams throw the ball or get the ball out quick or they run the ball more to shrink the game, and that can be frustrating because you might go in with three possessions or something and a half, and that's tough. You want to get snaps, but we're not counting on anything. We want to go play well, and to do that, we got to practice well, and we did today.”
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On the tight end production against Tennessee…
“People always ask about that. Our offense is not built to say, we're going to throw the ball to this guy all game. No, it's what they play, so if they play split safeties, ball's going to go here a lot. If they play single high, it's probably going to go here a lot. If they play quarter halves, it's going to go there a lot. If they play blitz a lot, it's going to go here. Carson, has full field reads, progression reads, and it just dictated the ball went there some, and I feel like every game our tight ends are part of the game plan. It just worked out better in this one where they made some plays.”
On Carson Beck in practice since Saturday’s game…
“There's been no difference in Carson, so Carson's been consistent all year to me in terms of his practices, his habits. That doesn't change. He doesn't go with the emotional roller coaster theory. He's level. He practices his technique right. He puts us in the right place. He gets the game plan ready. He studies the defense. He has steps that he goes through each week, and he follows that the same way I do. I think that's what makes people successful. They have a process, and they believe in that.”
On Brett Thorson…
“He adds levity. He's funny. I was telling [Will] Muschamp last night, there was a guy, golly, must be 20 years now, ago at LSU, a punter by the name of Donnie Jones, and Donnie used to get up in front of the team. Coach [Nick] Saban would let him talk to the team and break the team down every Thursday, and he would talk about the upcoming opponent. When a punter gets up there and talks about an upcoming opponent and just how we're going to dominate them get after them, it always provided some levity. It provided some humor. I think of Brett when I think of Donnie. He's just a funny guy, and the players really enjoy him and like him. We thought it was a good opportunity for him to take advantage of what he did, and we've struggled to tackle for whatever reason. We haven't tackled well, so we're searching for any answer we can, and we wanted to drive that home to them that he did it.”
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On Trevor Etienne’s injury…
“We think it occurred during the week of practice last week, but he didn't take any hits. He was black shirt, not taking hits. He was running a route, and he felt something in there when he planted and pushed. So, we don't know. I assumed it was probably during the Ole Miss game, but he didn't complain of any pain. He didn't complain of any soreness. We did a re-X-ray, and he felt good. He went out to practice Monday, felt good. He went out to practice Tuesday, and then something happened on Tuesday, but it would have been non-contact because he wasn't getting touched. That's when we checked it, and that's when we found it, but we still hope we can get him back soon.”
On what Branson Robinson has been able to do this week...
"Yeah, he's running. I think I'm saying this right. He started to cut yesterday, and he's cutting. He did not do anything with us, but he did do a lot of running. He hit good speeds. He's getting his confidence back, planning and cutting. You know, he's in meetings. He's in game-plan stuff, and he's showing progress, but he is not taking reps with us."
On why the CFP committee seems to value the Big Ten over the SEC...
"I don't think they value the Big Ten over the SEC, I think they value wins and losses. So, they place people based on a column, a column of wins and a column of losses, not on the eye test of going to watch them play and see who they play. I think they base it on wins and losses. I don't think they say, well, this is better than that. They just say this record's better than that. That's the most simple way to do it. It's not necessarily the 12 best, so we'll see what happens. I'm not worried about it much. I got to worry about our team and what we got going on."
On voicing his opinions...
"No, I don't think it's any different. I never, I don't really know that I had a lot to say. The two years previous, I mean, there wasn't a lot there. The year that we were 14-1 and 15-0, there's not a lot of complaints. There's not a lot to fight for. You take care of business on the field and handle your business. You don't have to say a lot of things. I mean, that was a pretty unique situation if you're referring to Texas. I mean, I don't know that I've ever been a part of anything like that, and I'm not. I wasn't upset with them. I just didn't understand, like, never seen that happen, but I would have said that any year. I don't know what else you're referring to in terms of stepping out. I just want to fight for my team and fight for our program because I think we've got a deserving group of young men who work really hard, and I'm sure every coach would fight for their guys."
On scheduling out-of-conference games...
"Just, I guess, the happiness of our fans. That's the incentive, right? Because fans want you to be in the playoffs, but they sure don't want you to play cupcakes. They want you to go play, you know, quality opponents, and I like the homing. I mean, going to schedule on a great team and going to play somebody in a neutral site game, a kickoff classic, I love all that stuff. So, I want to do as much of that as I can, but I don't know. We'll see where all this stuff goes, guys. I don't think you can sit here right now, not in the middle of it, but maybe, whatever, three-quarters of the way through it and truly judge it. We all knew when they started this new process, guys, we knew that the argument would be 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, first out, you know? It's just it seems so much bigger than your first out in basketball because there are 64 in. You know, so, like, nobody really cares when it's 65. When it's 12, 13, 14, it just seems so big, just like the fifth team used to be, but we'll see what happens. I mean, everybody gets a chance to go on the field and play. They need to really decide what they want, though, and that's the frustrating thing because it's record-based or it's, you know, quality of opponents. It's hard to say that you shouldn't have a strength of schedule factor in there."
On hiring Mark Robinson in the summer...
Yeah, I would say it's, yeah, I would say it's the same as Neyland [Raper]. I mean, it almost overlaps. I don't even, I hate to say it, I can't keep up with titles. I don't even know what Neyland's title was or what Mark's is. You just said it, so that's not important to me. What he does is important to me in terms of helping manage staff, helping me with our staff, helping me with, you know, there's these silos. There's player development. There's academics. There's strength staff. There is recruiting staff. There is support staff of the coaches. There’re the coaches. There’re just nine million silos, and I like to coach. He helps manage a lot of things. He's been part of Florida State programs, Texas A&M programs. He's been places. He was at Florida. When you have someone that experienced, it's very valuable, especially when he's been in our league, and he creates a lot of value and knowledge and experience in areas that I don't have to deal with. So, he does a lot of management-type things."
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