UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Goes Off On His Players After Latest Spring Practice
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ATHENS – Georgia football coach Kirby Smart spoke with the media on Tuesday afternoon and offered the following comments.
On practice this week…
“Long way from good. We are a work in progress. We have the least number of players who have gone through three spring practices since I've been here, so that should tell you something. I'd ask the guys to stand up who have practiced at least three spring practices, so this obviously would make their fourth, and there was basically nobody standing. We have a very young, inexperienced group. We really can't practice to our standard because they're all tired. So, we go to practice, and it's great energy, great in shorts, guys learn what to do, and then we start going, and it's like, they can't go. I'm tired. So, we got to do a better job getting them in shape. We got to probably simplify some to get guys just to go play and not be thinking out there. But a lot of young players, and I need the older players, when old to me is year two, year three, that's old, to lead the year one guys because I feel like half the roster is in their first season at Georgia, not necessarily their first season of college, but their first season at Georgia. That's been tough. So, we got a long way to go, but I am optimistic. We do have good kids, and they do work hard.”
On the freshman wide receivers…
“They got to get in shape. They're constantly tired at practice. They got their hands on their hips, exhausted. I think there's a little anxiety in that, so it's not like it's all they're not taking more reps. It's like the older players might have 25 reps in a practice. They might have 20, but they can't sustain their 20 reps. Throughout practice, they get really tired, so they're trying. There's no lack of effort, and they're talented, but they got a long way to go in terms of learning what to do, and that's our job. Our job is to get them ready to go. They are not where they need to be.”
On coaching his players…
“No, we have to coach it. That's what they pay us to do, to coach them. They have to be willing to receive coaching, and on the whole, my whole preach after the practice was we have got a lot of guys that put their hands up. They're offended when you coach them. I'm not talking about the freshmen. I'm talking about in general. So, we had multiple NFL coaches come through here, go to practice, and they talk about how their players love to be coached. They love to be given a nugget, a technique that might help them play longer or play better, and some of our guys were offended by it. It's like, ‘You're coaching me hard?’ Like, ‘You're telling me I got to play with effort?’ And some of them, I guess, have never been held to that standard, but that standard is not going to change here.”
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On the safeties…
“A lot of guys, man. It's just a lot of guys, and there's nobody really standing out. K.J.'s [Bolden] there, and he continues to bulk up, get a little bit bigger and be able to take care of himself and tackle like he needs to in terms of size, but he understands the defense, and he's a good athlete. He can do things and cover. JaCorey's [Thomas] working in there. Zion Branch is working in there. I mean, we got [Adrian] Maddox working in there. Jaden's [Harris] working in there. JaCorey, I think I mentioned him. Todd Robinson. Joenel's [Aguero] gotten reps at safety as well as star. Jaden's working at star some. Kyron's [Jones] working at star. Kyron's working at safety. I mean, it's a lot of people, but there's no, like, you know, the solid foundation that Malaki [Starks] and Dan [Jackson] provided is not there, so it's a by-committee group. I'm thinking it's too early to have anybody, like, out in the lead. They're all swimming a little bit. They're trying to survive practice instead of thrive, and we want to thrive, not survive.”
On the impact of NIL of players being ‘coachable’…
“Yeah, if it makes it about the NIL era, then there will be nobody successful. You know, it's picking the right people to coach. Kids that want to be coached don't care what they make.
I mean, the guys in the National Football League make more than these guys, and they still want to be coached, so it's not a relatively new thing. I think it's more prevalent than it's been. It's just not new. I mean, guys have always maybe not been used to being coached and being corrected, especially at the volume and level of which we do things, but I think they'll get there. I mean, if they won't, then somebody else will be in their spot.”
On the status of G-Day…
“I want to have G-Day, but, again, we went through practice four, so practice one, I couldn't say with certainty we were going to have it. Through practice four, I still feel good about it.
We've been very fortunate on the injury side of things. We're very deficient at a couple positions, and if we lose one or two or three, it would convert into some kind of controlled practice, some kind of other format. But right now, we haven't been through scrimmages. We'll see where we go. In terms of TV, I think it was more about being controlled on what time, and in terms of we like to have recruits there. We like to have prospects come in.
It's a big event. We have official visits, so we want to control the timing of it more, and we want to be able to play at our pace and not have to worry about the constraints of being inside a window.”
On K.J. Bolden…
“I mean, he seems like a vet to me now because there's just very little veteran experience out there. He learned from two guys that knew how to do it in Malaki and Dan, and he doesn't overstep his bounds. He doesn't try to force himself on older, on players that are older than him. He just, you know, he pulls for Georgia. He pulls guys in the right direction. He coaches guys, so he got a lot of reps last year this time, and he got a lot of reps in the season, so he continues to develop his body. He's got to put his body in a position where he can play more snaps, play every snap, but in terms of leadership, he's doing a nice job.”
On Bo Walker…
“Yeah, I want to be clear. I'm not calling out the freshman receivers for not being in shape. I'm calling out all the freshmen for not being in shape. There's not a guy out there, a freshman, that's sustaining his reps and just flourishing. They're not used to the tempo of practice, nor should they be, right? There's not a high school program in the country that can practice like we do, so the number of reps and the tempo of the reps, you know, they might take the same number of reps that they're practicing, but they took it over three hours. They're taking it an hour and 40 minutes, that same repetition, so Bo's doing a nice job. Bo's very bright. He's had some really good runs. He's had some mistakes, and what I like about Bo is he's very teachable, he's very coachable. He's got natural rush instincts.”
On Oscar Delp, Lawson Luckie and Jordan Hall…
“Yeah, Lawson and Oscar are two of our leaders on our program. They lead in toughness. They lead in carrying the torch for young tight ends in the room who we expect to be good.
They're both physical competitors. Lucky to have two guys that have played as much as those two guys, so I'm glad you guys get to see them as well as those other guys that are going to be here. Jordan is, I don't know if I'd say completely back. I mean, I feel like he's completely back. He might not feel like that. He would say he's still, you know, banged up and bruised up and getting used to the gauntlet of practice, the good thing about spring, he gets a day off in between to recover, but he's looking much better and much more healthy. He had his pins taken out, screws taken out, so he's practiced much better so far this spring than he did at the finish of last year, and we need him to be an integral part of leadership on this team.”
On ‘selling’ special teams to his players…
“Yeah, you sell team. I mean, special teams give you a chance at an NFL career. Special teams help you win, and special teams are about believing in something other than yourself because 99 percent of what you do on special teams is for others. We sell that really hard here. And, you know, if you don't buy into that, you probably won't play a position.”
On the depth of the offensive line...
“Yeah, it's brand new. I mean, there's a lot of snaps that have left the building in terms of that. It's funny because I look at it as four starters left, four guys will be drafted, so your whole line's turned over. But then you look and say, Micah Morris started several games and played a lot. Drew Bobo started several games and played a lot. Earnest Green started several games, played by Monroe Freeling. So, we're very fortunate that we had to play a lot of guys due to injury. So, it's like you got some guys that started to play. And then behind that, it's a new cast of characters, and they've got to grow up and play. So, Bo [Hughley], Jah Jackson, Nyier [Daniels], fighting Malachi [Toliver] , the guard guys, I guess, Michael [Uini], easily. And then, you know, Juan [Gaston Jr.] being one of the new freshmen who's continued his journey to lose weight. He's really fighting that. He's had an impressive two weeks at going down on his weight. I've been proud of him for that, but he still has a ways to go. And then Mason Short, Cortez [Smith] , I mean, all those guys are really competing. So, I mean, we’re fortunate that we have probably three deep on the offensive line at spring practice. I think most of my peers don't have three deep, but it's not the quality depth that we've had the best.”
On adapting to Ron Courson stepping down from his role…
“Well, it's funny because I still talk to Ron all the time. He's still in every morning. He comes in, works out. He's around. I talk to him at baseball games. So, I don't feel like Ron's gone. But Ron did a great job last year of having Ryan Madaleno and Connor [Norman] do things so they would be prepared for this transition. So, it's not like a cold turkey meeting. Like they were in the staff meetings. They ran things. They had practices that they were the head guy, and it was more of a just a, I don't know what the right word is, but it was over a course of time, slow deal that we prepared for so that we wouldn't have a huge transition. So, Ron will always be part of this program. I mean, Ron's done probably as much or more than anybody that's ever been part of this program because the number of years and head coaches he worked for over so many staffs. I mean, I would think he and [Bryant] Gantt's service to this community and university are unmatched.”
On the defensive back room…
“Yeah, it's good and bad, right? It's flashes. I just want to see fire and compete out of everybody. So, it's like I can't label that position as the one, but there's days that you have flashes. I just, you know, competitive toughness is so hard to find nowadays because kids like to take the easy way out, and it's not easy here. So, between Daniel [Harris], Demello [Jones], Ondre [Evans], Dom [Kelly], Jontae [Gilbert], Ellis [Robinson IV], they all are out there competing. I'm proud of them all, and Daylen's [Everette] doing a nice job teaching those guys and setting an example. He's doing more than you probably realize. He goes to Indy and does work and moves around and continues to improve his own skill set.”