UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Gives The Latest On Georgia's Offensive Line
GREAT OFFER: 30 days of Get Dawg Post for $1
ATHENS – Georgia Bulldog head coach Kirby Smart met with the media Tuesday evening and offered the following comments.
On practice this week…
“It's been good. Feels a little crisp and cooler in the air. Hasn't been as hot. Guys have been spirited; they know it's a big matchup. Had a good day of about a little over an hour of work on Monday and then about an hour and a half, two hours today, just finishing up. So, they've been in good spirits.”
On what has stood out about Gunner…
“Well, we've only had two days, they’ve been very similar, Monday, Tuesday that we've had in the weeks past. Good decision maker, protecting the ball, taking care of the ball, making good decisions. But it's been very similar to recent weeks in terms of his work.”
On Tennessee offense evolving under Josh Heupel…
“It's hard to say because, you know, he has different kind of ways to attack you defensively. They don't do the same thing year to year. I think he utilizes the skill sets of that offense. They've had different types of wideouts, different types of quarterbacks, different types of backs. They do what good coaches do, they utilize the skill sets of the good players. I think they've used wrinkles from other teams. They get all this tape of teams that they play against, and there's certain plays that maybe don't fit their offensive philosophy, but they're good plays, and then they turn them into theirs and do a good job mixing like everybody does. We call it copycatting, but they'll look at plays and say, that play really works. How do we make it work for us? I think he's done a great job of that over the years.”
DON’T MISS OUT: Get our insider newsletter today!
On what this rivalry means to Georgia…
“There are so many rivalries because of our state. It's an area in Georgia geographically that it's obviously the most important primary opponent we play. Now, you talk to somebody in South Georgia or West Georgia, it might not feel the same way, but they all have their passion and energy. It's a historic rivalry because it's been played for so many years over time, and there’s been a lot of big games. A lot of big games during Coach Richt's era, during Coach Donnan’s era, there have been a lot of big games played between Tennessee and Georgia. So, there's not a lot more I can say than that. All of those border wars are big-time rivalries.”
On how the offensive line is preparing…
“Being physical. They've [Tennessee] got a physical defensive line that comes off, hits you, and we've been physical at practice. I think it's important. I don't think you can say, all right, well, let's go out here and rest up and take it easy for the game. If you want to have physicality, you've got to reflect it. It would be unjust for me to not have them be as physical as they need to be at times during the week to put them out there in a situation that's going to be extremely physical. You've got to have enough left in the tank, but you've got to test the tank and make sure that you're calloused, tough and physical.”
DON’T FORGET YOUR FANDUEL BETS!!
According to FanDuel, the Georgia Bulldogs have +330 odds to win the SEC Championship this season.
On what Kirby’s done in the off season to prepare…
"We don't do a lot in the offseason to prepare for crowd noise and things like that. We do practice with it during the spring, but I do it all the time because I don't like both sides of the ball hearing each other talk and make their calls. I think it's important to have crowd noise during that. We ramp it up as we get closer to road games. The overall mental mindset and makeup of our offseason program is to play with toughness and composure and try to win more moments than the opponent. And there's going to be a lot of moments in this game. You may lose one or two, but we're just trying to win more moments. If we can win more moments, then we increase our chances. If we worry about past loss moments or future moments, we can't focus on the current."
On what Earnest and Juan have been able to do this week…
" they've both done some individual work, done some work against some scouts and things, and they're both moving around. Not sure where they'll stand. I get to go watch the tape of what they did today here in a few minutes. But they moved around pretty good in Indy."
On what Joey Aguilar has been able to do with Tennessee’s program so far…
"It looks like he has on tape. It's like he's been there for a long time. He's very similar to the quarterbacks they've had. He plays within that system. He's a really good athlete. He can take off and really hurt you with the scramble. He's made some big plays on the scramble. He plays within the system. He throws the RPO as well. Makes good decisions, accurate, very strong arm, which their offense requires. He fits in well."
On Jahzare Jackson getting banged up… On missing Earnest as a starter…
"Jazir got banged up on, the second drive. It was after the drive with the fumble, the opening drive. He got a lateral ankle. He felt like he could go, and he was struggling to move around on it. It was hurting him, but he pushed through because we were down some guys, and it's been bothering him even this week, but he keeps pushing through. Do we miss Ernest? We miss Ernest if he's not out there and in the game, but he was over on the sideline, leading, talking to guys, and trying to help Jazir.
On what Kirby’s seen out of Joseph Jonah-Ajonye...
"He plays hard. He had some nice plays down there on the goal line. He's really tough. He's strong-headed. He's physical. Contact tough, and he continues to get better within the system. I think his play stamina is getting better."
On what you’ve seen from Kyron Jones and what challenges the safeties face against Tennessee…
"Space. I mean, the problem with Tennessee's offense is that everybody's one-on-one every play. I mean, they just put you out on an island, and you have weaknesses. They can expose them very quickly, so it's challenging to try to present them with issues and complications, but Kyron [Jones] has been great. He's had a good camp. He's been in our system now for three years, and any time you've got somebody that's been in your system for three years, they kind of know the checks and balances, and they know how to make calls and how to adjust things and what to expect, and he's physical. He's a good tackler. He's fast, and those three qualities make for good defensive backs."
On what the balance is approaching big games…
"Just living in the moment. I don't get ahead of myself. There's going to be big games after this one. I mean, there was last year. Welcome to the SEC, where it seems like every team's ranked, and every team's got a ranked opponent every week. I mean, it's just a physical gauntlet, and there are no easy pathways, so I don't get too caught up in one game. I try to look at it like every game's a big game, and we'll get ready for the next one when the next one's up."
On the value of playable depth…
"It's valuable when you've got guys that can go in the game and play and stay fresh if you don't drop off in play. The problem is getting that many guys' quality reps against it, so it's hard to prepare more than 22 guys because you're getting ones and twos, and you try to make your defense simple enough that you can execute it and play it and have more people play. They complicate things sometimes with the tempo, and they try to dummy you down and limit what you do, and it does, to a sense, do that to you."
On how the absence of Tennessee’s starting cornerbacks impacts your offensive game plan…
"I don't know that it does. They've had the same corners playing since the first game; they've got good corners. The two kids they've got playing are good players. I think a lot of people look into those things and read into them sometimes. When you've got good players that are playing and have played, it just becomes more experience. I don't know how much it changes anything for us."
On how you evaluate players like Kyron and Todd Robinson who played different positions previously…
"Size and speed is how we evaluate them. They've got size and speed. It's a criteria for that position. Toughness would be in there, too. I think it's hard to take a kid that plays quarterback and move him to defensive positions if he's just a quarterback, but Todd [Robinson] had some physicality to him. Kyron [Jones] had physicality to him from being a running back, and it's a requirement that you've got to be able to tackle, so everybody thinks a good athlete quarterback can play anything. It doesn't always equate. That's all the kid played growing up, but most of these kids that play quarterback nowadays have played multiple positions growing up."
On what Kyron has done to earn the trust of coaches…
“Well, he's practiced the best. That’s why you earn things at Georgia, it’s what you do in practice. He's nowhere near where he needs to be and he knows that, but he is strong-handed. He is tough and fiery. He is quick. He's a quick learner, but you can imagine a guy like Jared Dillon and Tate being here three and four years, some of them before they started, and that kid's being thrown out there right now. It just tells you where he is in intelligence and where we are in depth.”
On Monroe’s development from starting opportunities last year…
“Confidence, understanding where his help is, development. He works really hard. He works hard on his body. He works hard on leading. He's been a very consistent piece and continued to lead our group and push.”
On how important Drew Bobo is in helping the defense…
“Yeah, Drew's been a huge bright spot for us because his quickness, his intelligence, his awareness. I think he understands what defenses are doing very well. He's a really good athlete. He handles people on top of him, and he handles four down when he's sometimes a puller. I mean, he does a really good job athletically in space, getting on people and knowing the leverage of things. But he communicates well for the quarterback. He's the leader in terms of making calls and directions up there, and he comforts those guys on the right side.”
On how you would assess the run defense…
“It's been good. I would say that it really hasn't been challenged, but I promise you it will be this time because these guys are good at it. They know what they're doing. They know how to attack you, and they have wrinkles, and they do a really good job. You better be able to strike blocks and get off blocks and tackle people because they're very physical.”
On Tennessee’s volume affecting Georgia’s offense…
“Loud affects your offense. It affects your ability to communicate. The communication goes down the line a lot of times, and you got to talk all the way out, and there's communication between parts of the offense that have to happen. Loud most certainly affects that and Neeyland is one of the loudest. We played in some loud places last year, and it affected communication, so you have to be smart. When you game plan, you can't maybe do quite as much as you could do at home. You just have to be smart about what you ask guys to communicate and say, because it can be frustrating, and it's loud. At some point, it's deafening, but they have an extremely loud environment, and we've got to push through it. There's nothing you can do about that. What you can do is focus on your task during the week so that you don't have to question what you're doing in that environment.”
