UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Gives Latest Update - Talks Ole Miss Rebels

ATHENS - Georgia Bulldog head coach Kirby Smart spoke with reporters about Ole Miss, the latest injury update, his coaching staff, and more.

COACH SMART: Yeah, open up with our practices we've had leading up to finding out who our opponent is. We did a good job of prepping before. Our coaches did a tremendous job of looking through college football, finding different ideas, people that are doing things well in different areas. Studied some different teams and got to look at teams that are doing well in their specific area. I thought that time was good for us.

I thought it was really good for our young players. We got a lot of reps and a lot of work on young players developing. Some guys are going to have to step up and be able to play for us. We've got a lot of recovery and getting healthy and trying to get guys back. I know you guys will have a lot of questions for injuries and things. I won't be able to answer all of them, because I still don't know. We're still 10, 19 days away trying to get guys back. Had a good, spirited practice this morning. Guys were excited to know who we're playing. I think that's always important once you get the opponent defined to start that prep and getting ready.

Q. Sorry to hit you with a housekeeping question. How will Dontrell [Glover] and Bo [Walker] handle any in-house discipline they received following their arrest, and do you anticipate them playing in the Sugar Bowl?

COACH SMART: Both those guys, disappointed in their decision-making. We always say decision-making is a skill. Make poor decisions, they pay the consequence for that. They're continuing to pay the consequences for that, and they'll finish up their consequences for that. I hope both of them make better decisions in the future.

Q. How is Gabe Harris doing and what makes him such a valuable part of what you're doing?

COACH SMART: Gabe is a wrecker, man. He wrecks things. He's tough, physical, relentless. He's been a force with our defense. He's one of those guys that doesn't question things. He just gets out there and works, competes, and gets better. And really proud of the improvement he's made for our defense.

Q. Is Gabe [Harris] dealing with a turf toe and is he going to be able to play in the bowl game?

COACH SMART: He's got a little bit of a turf toe. We're hoping to have him available.

Q. Let me ask about the offense role in this with Lane [Kiffin] not there. What sort of changes did you see when you watched the game this Saturday?

COACH SMART: I don't understand the question. The offensive coordinator and the staff is still all there. You're not going to make overhaul or large changes. They've got something that really works well. They got really high powered, explosive, really good tight end. One of the best backs in the country. Arguably the quarterback that may be playing the best in the country in terms of his ability to make throws in all areas. The guy is elite. He was elite last time he played him. He's just as elite or more now because he's got more experience and more confidence.

“They're playing at a really high level offensively. Lane had something to do that because he helped build it and get them there. But Charlie [Weis] has done a tremendous job calling the plays and doing those things.”

Q. During the Oregon broadcast, they mentioned Coach Lane [Kiffin] had gone as far as to play a simulated game inside their stadium to stay fresh. Have you thought about anything like that? And what lengths have you gone to to make sure you're fresh when this game comes around?

COACH SMART: We've done the same thing, simulated games and situational football. Whether that's two minutes into half, four-minute offense, red area, all the different situations you have. And trying to make them more game-like with the anxiety, the crowd noise, the atmosphere, the matchups. And try to go good on good to keep crisp. But at the end of the day, all those simulations are not real games. And anybody that tells you they've got it figured out probably haven't coached long enough to know that it's a lot more about how you play than how you practice leading up to it. You just do the best job you can to try to prepare.

Q. You mentioned after the SEC championship game the grind of a 13-game schedule. How important has this time been? I realize you've still been practicing, but in getting some recovery for your players leading up to this game.

COACH SMART: Yeah, I think it's been good. You have to make it a positive by how you handle it. The positive is the mental practice you get, the recovery you get, the extra lifts you get. The negative is when you're playing good football, a lot of times you want to keep playing. You want to stay in rhythm. You want to stay in a weekly schedule. And that schedule gets thrown off by the break, because we have players taking final exams. We gave the players more time off in terms of before they came back and really started grinding. So you do the best you can with the calendar you have. You try to talk to other people and find out what the best way to do things is. But I'm excited about where our team is. I'm excited that they're practicing the way they are and are excited about the opponent. They have so much respect for the team we have to play.

Q. I remember you saying you were optimistic that Colbie Young and Drew Bobo will be back in time. Realistically, do you think they'll be back healthy in time for the Sugar Bowl?

COACH SMART: We're hopeful to get those guys back and get them back recovery and get them going. They are good football players and they're going to help us. We'll hopefully get a lot of those guys back. We've had guys dinged up from the practices we've had, too.

Q. You've had a good amount of success playing a team for a second time in a season. Can you give us some insight into that process? How do you balance showing new wrinkles, versus sticking with what's worked for you, for instance?

COACH SMART: Yeah, I think as we talked about with Alabama, it's really overrated in terms of re-matches and things like that. I think how you play defines what the outcome of the game is; your ability to be explosive, turn the ball over, win situational football. There's all kinds of things in that thing to figure out, and it really has very little to do with the time before you played them. Everybody is going to watch the time before you played them because you've got to look at the matchups. But I don't think either team is exactly the same. Both teams have evolved some. And everybody will have new wrinkles. That's what you do during this time.

Q. Seems like something clicked defensively in that fourth quarter against Ole Miss the first time you played. How much did that moment lead into the performance we've seen late in the season?

COACH SMART: I don't even remember the sequence of games after that. I do think those stops were huge for us from a confidence standpoint, but there's a lot of games there weren't stops. They do a really good job. They're hard to stop. They're explosive for a reason. They have good players. They have good tempo. They have good schemes. The quarterback makes things go, so does the back. I don't know if that was the moment that kickstarted us to improvement on defense, because I don't remember the exact games after that. But we have played better down the stretch defensively.

Q. From a roster management standpoint, have you had a chance to meet with most of the guys in terms of knowing the future? I know you're going to be focused on this game, but typically this is a time you meet with guys.
Follow-up, same site, same stadium, how different has the approach been I'm guessing part of that would have to do with the team and the team's health.

COACH SMART: We're focused on this team. I think it would be remiss to say that we're focused on roster management. We're not focused on it. We're focused on prep and getting better. For a while, it's been intrinsically looking at ourselves and asking each player: Did you come here to develop? Did you truly come here to develop? If you did, all your buddies are out there right now. They're announcing what they're doing. Announcing I'm going into the portal. I'm announcing that I'm re-signing. How about you announce you're getting better and you're going to practice and do what the 20 and 30 years of college football players did before you, which was practice in December when they're on good teams and get better. If you're going to play somewhere else, you know what you need to do? You need to get better. If you're going to play here, you know what you need to do? You need to get better. If you're going to the National Football League to play, this is your last chance to get better. Because they're not going to give you much opportunity. They're going to cut you or keep you based on how you do.

“Development occurs in December for us, and that's what we've been focused on. As far as changes going to New Orleans, there hasn't been a tremendous amount of change. We don't think we did anything wrong in the prep last year. We didn't necessarily play a really good game, but we also played a really good football team. Extremely talented defense. We've got to play better and we've got a block of middle eight where we played really poorly. But I don't think there was anything wrong with our prep. I think it has to do with when you play a quality team -- it's like, in the SEC, every game we play in the SEC is tight. When you play in a playoff, you're going to play a good team. We trust the prep we have. We trust the rest and recovery we've had. And we're going to trust the plan we have to go out there and play at a high level.

Q. Were you aware that Will [Muschamp] was interested in coming back to full-time coaching? And what was your reaction for him taking the opportunity at Texas?

COACH SMART: I'm so happy for him. He loves coaching. He loved coaching when he was here. It was hard for him to step away. He felt like he needed to. I have so much respect for him. He helped us replace him with the guys we got. He helped us tremendously in that role. He helped us tremendously this year throughout the year. And he's been really good to me personally, and he's been great to Georgia, and he's been really good to a lot of players that he's recruited. When he had an opportunity to jump back in, I know he loves it. I think he missed it dearly. He talked to his family about it, his wife and his boys, and they all supported him. He's going to a great place to work for a great man. There's not many better opportunities out there to go coach and play than a place like Texas, where you got a lot of infrastructure in place to help you. Wish him nothing but the best.

Q. Speaking of coaches, [Mike] Bobo is a finalist for the Broyles. What do you think is the main thing he's done this year with the offense? Just basically what he has done to deserve this honor?

COACH SMART: Well, you take the number of guys we lost. I think we had four O-linemen make NFL rosters. He had to replace four O-linemen. Basically a new quarterback situation outside of the end of last year. Really, an entire new backfield, because [Trevor] Etienne was our leading guy last year. Replacing a lot of really good wideouts. I think he's done a great job. I think he would give a lot of credit to his staff. And what he's done with our offense, where we're not a stat-padded, hurry up, take a lot of snaps, get a lot of plays. He doesn't chase numbers. Look at what they've done in the red area. It's been incredible. The ability to run the ball has been really well.

“I think he's a credit for that, because he puts the game plan together. Ultimately he has to decide what's in and what's called. He's done with a really tough schedule and two freshmen O-linemen and a lot of O-linemen out, that have been injured in and out. Really pleased and proud of what he's done.

Q. Yeah, we didn't see Joenel [Aguero] in the SEC championship game. How is he doing healthwise? What's his status? And what have the past couple weeks meant for Rasean Dinkins to have these practices after getting the playing time he did in the SEC championship?

COACH SMART: He's trying to get healthy and get better and make himself able. Dink's (Rasean Dinkins) got a lot of reps. Jaden's [Harris] gotten a lot of reps in his absence. We've rolled some guys through there, but it's always good to get more reps. Dink has repped all year. All of our kids practice every day. Sometimes we think they have to go out there and play without having practiced. They get lots of reps. He's growing up and getting better.

Q. What do you think the experience of having gone through last year's playoff game, and obviously it not being the outcome that you wanted. Did it leave sort of an unfinished business taste in the mouths of your team? Do you feel like you're better this year because of having gone through that?

COACH SMART: Yeah, I can't say we're better for having gone through it. Would we be better if we won that game? Would we be as motivated if we won that game? I don't know that. I think the two teams are very different. I think we're a different leadership group, a different team. It's been a different kind of team all year, and not in a good or bad way reflected on last year. We've been there before, but a lot of these kids weren't there. Some of them were. I think the two years are independent of each other, just like this game will be independent of the game against Ole Miss previously.