ATHENS - UGA Football coach Kirby Smart met with reporters before the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs kick off their season against the Tennessee State Tigers Saturday Between the Hedges in Sanford Stadium. Here is everything Kirby Smart said Monday before the season opener.
Of note: Saturday the Bulldogs will not be on TV. Here is how to wath them play.
On younger players playing this weekend...
“On the field they’ve got to go out and react to an opponent. Somebody that you don't always know exactly what they're gonna do. So you get to see a reaction of the players, and you get to see growth, confidence, exposure to playing in front of fans. Nobody goes out and just does something phenomenal they haven't done in practice. What we see in practice - we see in games. But maybe the reaction to a play they gave up or they get beat and how they respond to it is what I'm looking for. The response more than the actual event.”
On Bo Walker...
“Bo's got really good vision. He's low to the ground. He's hard to tackle. He runs physical. He protects physical. He's a good football player. What he may lack in speed he makes up in vision and quickness, and he's had a good camp.
On Drew Bobo and Gabe Harris...
“They’re great. They've taken every single rep. I don't know what else to say other than they're good to go. “
On Nate Frazier’s progression...
“His leadership in that room. I think he takes personal ownership in the energy. You know, those three guys are all came in together, Chauncey, Dwight, him, and he takes a lot of pride in having positive energy to affect them. Stamina, carrying the ball further downfield, pass pro and pass receiving, becoming a weapon, a weapon catching the ball out of the backfield has been a big focus for him. All in all he's worked really hard this camp.”
On dealing with high temperatures...
“We've been in it. We've been in it more than we've been in years past. It's been really one of the hottest camps we've measured in terms of practices. We practiced outside and practices we practiced inside. We measure all the outside ones against previous camps, and it stood out to be probably the hottest camp we've had. So I always worry about our players being acclimated to a game type atmosphere in that heat because you don't ever play games a lot of times.”
“We practice in it and we did get to scrimmage in it. So I'd be interested to see as much about our players as I do about our fans and see if they can handle it. Y'all get out of that air conditioning, and y'all come out there with us. See if y'all can handle a 110 heat index and go up and down the field with 25 pounds of pads on.”
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On Chase Linton...
“Chase is a great kid, man. What a great family he comes from. He works hard. He's tough. He's gotten better. He's gotten better with every opportunity that he's had and I'm excited to see him continue to grow.”
On Tennessee State's offense, Daniel Leigh and Jayden Guy...
“He's very smooth, hard to tackle, gets out of trouble, great, efficient passer. I thought he played with a lot or moxie and confidence the other night. And you can just see kind of he understands what they're trying to do offensively and executes well. So excited to see as a transfer guy that has played well, and get an opportunity to come out and play against us.”
On the competitive character of his team...
“I think competitive character is yet to be completely shown. We've seen it, and we've been privy to watch the guys compete against each other, and some handle that better than others. They're going against a formidable opponent every day they go out there. And I enjoy watching them compete and go against each other, and all the things they've done so far leave me no doubt that they will go out and respond in game time situations.”
On the interior defensive linemen and what have you seen from them throughout the last couple weeks...
“They work hard as a group. They're a very by-committee group. They compete. They go against a big physical offensive line. We've got a few more twitchy guys in there with JJ sliding in playing a little more time inside. We've got the size with Nnamdi Ogboko in there and Nasir Johnson playing in there. Both those guys have been good at run stopping for us. What we need is the twitch, the athleticism to make us better passers.
On Justin Williams...
“Well, number one, he was an extremely high character kid from the first time we met him. I remember he came to a junior day, and he was just all in on the junior day. He was at every competition we had. He was in the punt line. He was smiling, laughing, meeting other recruits. Like a ball of energy and that's carried over into his play. He plays really hard. Plays with a lot of passion and energy.”
“He leads that way. There's not something that we do as a team that he's not right at the front of the line. He and Chris Cole kind of have the same personality in terms of they find joy in whatever they're doing. I appreciate that from, from Justin. He got a lot of opportunities to play last year. He's going to get more opportunities to play and he needs to play well, tackle well, and he plays fast and he plays physical. But his biggest thing has been maintaining his weight, being able to keep his weight on him.”
On Tennessee State’s defense...
“Yeah, they're, you know, they're really a group that knows how to play box and strike box. They gave up a couple explosives early in the game, and then went back and forth for a couple quarters there with those guys. They do a tremendous job. I know defensive guys there, some of the guys on, on their staff. They're going play hard. They're gonna play physical.”
“And, you know, this is an opportunity for their kids to play even on a bigger stage. They just got to play at Vanderbilt Stadium. They got to play on TV at night. Bow they have an opportunity to come in here and play at our place.”
On GPS numbers and determining who is in shape...
“Just listen to the numbers. I mean, we have people assigned. They're experts at that. I'm not. They bring the data to me daily, and we look through it. If somebody's losing velocity, or they haven't hit a max velocity in a while we have to look into it. We try to hit max velocities one time a week and make sure players are still running fast.”
“I mean, ultimately, to maintain your speed and prevent injury, you've got to run fast. So we look at the data that comes in each day. We try to have a plan for the week, how we're gonna utilize it, and if guys are struggling, then we, we cut them back.”
On what he wants to see from the wide receivers…
“Execution. I don't know why I'd want to see anything different out of them than I see out of the quarterbacks, the defensive backs. Superior position play. It doesn't matter who the opponent is. Our opponent is ourselves and that's pretty much the case every week. I mean, the wideouts are no different.”
On young players getting game reps...
“They're valuable but I put value on scrimmages so I don't know that I can say any game rep is more valuable than the first two scrimmage reps we had. We certainly prepare differently for them because we're not tapering off going into scrimmages, and we will taper off going into this game. But I put value on everything we do and try to put them in game-like situations because game-like situations matter. So I don't want to devalue what we've done or devalue what we're going to do in this game, but they just need reps. And I've come to the conclusion that every freshman needs a certain number of time, and every freshman's different. One freshman might be three reps, another freshman might be thirteen hundred reps. I don't know what that is, but I know we've got to get to that number to get them in a position where they can help our team.”
On Brett Thornton and Dillon Bell making NFL rosters…
“Dillon reached out yesterday and thanked the staff and myself for how hard we pushed him and how we challenged him.”
“He felt like it came down to his versatility and the things he can do as a wideout, but also his special teams value. They went after him because we told them that's what he was. He had great special teams value. He can do everything on special teams because he's built like a running back, runs like a receiver, and then he has great ball skills. So I think anytime you look as far as the kickers and the specialists themselves, I mean, typically those are not drafted positions. In the last couple of years a few of them get picked. But as good as our guys have been, not many of them have been picked. But they make teams and make rosters. You’ve got to be one of the best thirty-two in the world at what you do to make a team.”
On Ekene Ogboko…
“He's come a long way. He continues to get better. He's added some weight. I think the conditioning part and the level of play and how long, how many snaps he can play, things like that, we'll find out. We hope to be able to get him in there and play some and get better.”
“And the only way he's gonna get better at this point is to be able to play some. But he goes against good guys every day, and he is an extremely hard worker who takes pride in his performance. Traditionally, the people who are extremely hard workers and they take pride in their performance, they are successful. So if you want a remedy for success, be extremely hard worker that takes pride in your performance, and he does that”
On offensive line versatility…
“We have a lot of guys that are going to play multiple spots. Basically every offensive lineman plays two spots. I mean, some play three, some play five, but every one of them has to play two, otherwise we can't have enough backups. I mean, we'll probably have nine to ten guys that I hope can play winning football. We do year in, year out. We probably sit in a bubble of seven or eight right now, and, you know, depends on who you're playing and it depends on how you're playing. But some are better than others at run game, some are better than others at pass game, and we're trying to get them best at both. There will be multiple guys play multiple positions Saturday because they have to.”
On Elyiss Williams…
“Really hard worker, man. I mean, he is as physical a blocker, as maybe I've seen in my career of coaching for a tight end. He strains. He enjoys the physicality of what he does. He's really improved as a pass catcher. He's improved as a run after catch guy. To do what he does without complaint or worrying about his individual numbers, he just works, man. Whether it's in the run game, pass protection game, or the passing game, I’ve been really pleased with his effort. Really, the tight end room as a whole, everybody knows that's a strength. But it's their attitude and love for each other that makes them different.”
On Ethan Barbour…
“Yeah, he's tough. He's physical. To come back from that injury he came back from and even come back in the same season was incredible. That he fought really hard to make it back and came back with the same intensity. There was no timidness. There was no, "I'm scared of contact" after, you know, he got rolled up on before. He and Elyiss are physical. Not afraid of contact. Different in different ways, but the other guys in the room complement them. They work really hard. They’re an asset to our team and I'm proud of Ethan's work ethic and his leadership.”
