Everything Kirby Smart Said Before the Georgia Bulldogs' Game With Vanderbilt
ATHENS - Georgia football coach Kirby Smart talked with reporters Monday about the Bulldogs' next SEC game - against the Vanderbilt Commodores.
On Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea…
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Clark. He does a lot for college football. He’s super intelligent and I enjoy the friendship I have with him. We’ll start getting ready for those guys today. Arguably should have made the playoffs last year. He’s got a physical football team.”
On Jared Curtis…
“Tremendous talent. Better athletically than people give him credit for. He’s strong, quick, powerful. Everything everyone thought about him is true.”
On the value of practice reps…
“There’s value in the opponent we play every day at practice. We get more reps in the week than in games. The quality of those reps have to be at a high level.”
On strong starts…
“Turnover ratio has been better. We’ve taken more than we’ve given.”
On recruiting…
“Nobody is committed until they’re signed. At the end of the day they’re not bound unless they sign something or enroll. There’s no challenge in keeping a commitment because they aren’t yours. They have an option to go to another place and we have the option not to keep them.”
On Thomas Blackshear….
“Thomas has been afforded the opportunity for playing time because he’s worked really hard and Isaian Canton’s absence has helped. He’s had a good camp and had an injury that held him out but he’s worked hard. He practices with physicality and I’m excited about the future he has.”
On London Humphreys…
“He’s helped us with his consistency. High level of character and toughness. Just his and attitude. He’s great human who loves this place and loves football. Never too high or too low. He’s fast and he’s a weapon. He can improve on a lot but not his attitude.
On the running backs…
“Really proud of those backs. Bo (Walker), Nick (Peal) and Jae Lamar picked up the reps in practice. Bowens and Dwight got the reps in the game.”
On JJ Hane…
“Y’all are in for a treat because he’s one of the most positive and optimistic guys. He plays with the right energy and tenacity. He’s always got a smile on his face. His experience in life puts him ahead of other kids. He does not take for granted this opportunity.
On Dwight Phillips…
“Well, it says something about his character. Last year he flashed and had some really good plays and he's gotten some opportunities when guys have been dinged up. But he's one of the consistent guys in the room in terms of work ethic.”
“He has an elite trait, which is speed. He works really hard at special teams. I was more proud of the tackle than even the run because he's worked really hard on that. He got opportunities in the past on special teams that he wasn't maybe ready for or he didn't capitalize on and it bothered him, and he worked really hard.”
“He's taken thousands of reps to get that one rep that he covers down there and makes a tackle on the best punt returner, you know, probably in the country or maybe in the conference, and he makes a big play. But the run, we've seen those things before. We've seen those at scrimmages. We've seen those against our defense and we know the caliber of player and even better person that Dwight is.”
On Jordan Hall...
“Yeah, Jordan's fast. Jordan's always been fast. He can run. He cares. He's a great effort player. I mean, we have the saying, "Effort counts twice” in this organization, and he embodies that.
He gives great effort. He runs to the ball. He leads. I appreciate how hard he works.”
On making sure defenders hit mobile quarterbacks...
“It's always important that you tackle well, right? No matter if it's a running back, a receiver, a tight end, or a quarterback, you got to tackle well.
I mean, who's not mobile? I mean, tell me someone that's not mobile that plays quarterback. I don't know if there is one. So they're all mobile, they're all athletic, and they all have good arms, and they're all good players.So it doesn't change what we have to do each week.”
On Vanderbilt’s defense...
“They’re athletic. They've got twitchy guys. They've always had really good defensive players in my opinion. They do a good job. They're sound fundamentally and play really hard. He's got a defensive staff, but he's also the head coach that's a defensive guy, and he does a good job with them.”
On quarterback slides...
“You know, one, you're giving yourself up, and you're losing yards 'cause people don't realize how far it goes back when you start the slide. The other, when you're closer to a first down, you know, you want to be able to go headfirst and get every yard you can as you dive forward. I'm not a trainer or a exercise scientist that can tell you which one has more risk of injury. It probably has a lot more to do with who's coming at you and what their speed is.”
On Josh Horton...
“I think Josh Horton was a good player last year. I think he's a good player this year. If I had to say a difference, I would say that he's more comfortable in our scheme, and he's a year older. And typically, when you're a year older, let's hope you're a better football player than you were the year before. So I do think he's playing better.
He understands how we practice and he understands how we do things. He was really active the other day.”
On Demello Jones...
“My message to him was go play and have fun. DeMello practiced really well last week, and it's very important to DeMello, and you can tell that by the way people practice. So wanted him to go have fun.”
On misscommunication in the passing game...
“ would say coverage dictates some things and that can create communication issues, but sometimes it's just mistakes.”
On the offensive line...
“Physical, tough, like we expected. Hard-nosed. I think the complement of run, drop back pass, play action, pocket movement helps them. We have a lot of plays that we can run.”
And so when you have that, you've got things that complement your offensive line and allows them the freedom to not have to constantly drop back pass. They practice hard, they play hard. Things they could've done better. A lot of things they could've done better, but a lot of things they did well against a good defense.”
