Everything Kirby Smart Said After No. 1 Georgia Football's 48-21 Win over Missouri

ATHENS - Kirby Smart had a lot to say following Georgia football’s big 48-21 win over Missouri...

 Opening statement...

“Great atmosphere. Felt like a night game because it got dark soon enough. Our fans did a great job. Thought the energy early in the game was big. We seized momentum with the kickoff and then the turnover. And any time you turn it over early, you can lose some momentum.

Our offense did a great job being aggressive. A lot of guys got to play tonight. Proud of our guys. Proud of Isaiah Canion coming back and getting a chance to play. Proud of Cortez stepping up, having an opportunity to play. He works his tail off every day to get those opportunities. I thought Gunner played well.

He led. He's efficient. Defensively, we did some nice things to get some three-and-outs to get our guys the ball. Didn't always control the run game like we'd like to, but that's a good football team too. So proud of our group, proud of what they were able to do, and now we get ready for the next one.

On the first INT to start the game...

“It was huge. When you play on the road I think you try to seize momentum. They were probably trying to seize it, taking a shot the first play he made a nice play. You know, there's some other opportunities we had that we didn't make. We had interception opportunities and we didn't capitalize on, but we made that one, and that gave the offense great starting field position and they capitalized on that.

When we're efficient and we play complementary football, we got a good football team. But it's not about where we are now, it's really where we can go and can this team get better? I think they can.”

On Isaiah Canion...

Yeah, he's a great kid. He works really hard. It's important to him. Nobody's been more frustrated with the injury than him. He had a very similar injury to some other guys in our conference that have had to deal with this, and it's one of these ones that you, you gotta be really patient with.

And I think it frustrated him. You know, he didn't ever lose confidence, but he tried to come back, tried to come back, and couldn't really get to be himself. And then tonight he came out of the brace, played without it, andplayed with confidence and I was proud of him.

On what he learned from his team...

“I don't know. We learned some things that the Dogs can't beat the Dogs, and we've done a good job of not doing that, right? Not turning the ball over and not getting stupid penalties. At one point in time, every drive that we had been scored on on defense was either an explosive or a penalty.

And when you take out explosives and you take out penalties, nobody had scored on us until late in the Ole Miss game. And when you're efficient offensively, don't give up, you know, tackles for a loss, stay ahead of the sticks, operate well on third down, you know, you're hard to beat because so many teams just beat themselves and we've avoided that.

We've grown as a team because with Isaiah out, it was thrust into, get more balls to the tight ends, to Talyn, to Craig, and now we're operating with some guys that are out there playing efficiently and it's helping Gunner.

More on Isaiah Canion...

“A physical presence. He's heavy, he's strong, he's fast. He's a good 50/50 guy, he's hard to cover. I don't think we've seen his best yet, so I think his best is still ahead. He's going to gain more confidence you know, he's different than the other guys. Craig and Talyn are certainly very talented and when they're all on the field, it, it makes us a better team.”

On the offense...

“They did a great job. Gunner did a nice job putting them in the right runs. I thought Nate and Dwight, did a great job of hitting holes and getting vertical. wight had a couple of really nice runs. Nate had a couple of really nice runs. That was good to get them in rhythm.”

On Talyn Taylor...

Yeah, he does that every day. I mean, we see those kinds of catches out of him. I thought the adjustment to the ball was really good. It was very similar to a play he got hurt on last year in practice where he turned backwards and dove to catch the ball, and then he landed on it. He made that play then, and he made that play tonight.

You know, he got the foot down as well. So, a very talented young man.

On how this team compares to other No. 1 teams he’s had...

Yeah, I don't know how to compare because I think about those ones I had that were so dominant, and we were so dominant defensively in Stetson and so efficient. I don't know how to answer that yet because this team hadn't been ranked really number one long enough to know.

In one of the spots we were number one, we didn't handle very well. We handled it better this time. I don't think many of our teams care about that. So it's more about how is this team dominant like the other teams, not necessarily the ranking. The dominance we have or don't have is not contingent on the ranking we have.

On if he gets the opponents best effort...

“We don't really care about that. Teams aim for you more and there's more incentive for somebody to beat the number one team. But like I said, this team is player-led. This team has done a good job buying into what we've asked of them. They just can't get tired of doing the little things, 'cause that's what I see in college football right now.

 I just can't keep doing it. Week, week what? 10, 11, 12? I don't even know what we're on. But they, they run out of juice, and this team's gotta keep getting better.”

On the passing of 2027 DL commit Marcellus Young-Casario...

One of the toughest calls I've ever gotten, right there with, you know, one other call. And it was heartbreaking because I know his mom, I know his dad, I know his family. He's been down here for every game. It's really not a hard drive.

It's just tragic. To have a loss of life at that age, can you imagine if that's your child? And he was such a great kid. I mean, he was always smiling, always positive, and had a great future in front of him. So, you know, it, it puts things in perspective for me.

You know, you start getting nervous, you start worrying, and I'm like, "What good does worrying do?" And you think about relative to what they're going through and, uh, what this team did tonight, it just makes it, you know, irrelevant compared to what that family's going through. So I have a lot of respect for him and his family, and we're praying for him.

On where his team goes from here...

I mean, they have to keep getting better. They’ve got to keep getting better. We're going to go play a really, really good, hot team on the road. The teams that tend to go the longest are the ten teams that stay the hottest or get the hottest.

We'd done a lot of good things in November, but this team will be measured by November and months afterwards. So we have to stay level-headed and get better, and that is harder than ever because the noise gets louder. They're closer to decisions that impact them the rest of their life, and distractions just mount up.

I don't know if that helps me be player-led. I mean, the players need to do it. The best teams I've been on, they had guys ready to kick somebody's ass on the sideline because of the same things I saw. So the player-led version I'm seeing now is like a millennial player-led, because 10 years ago, it would have been player-led.

I wouldn't have to. They would have been pissed off at some of the things that happened late, and they would not accept it. I don't think in this day and age, more kids want to confront and demand each other. So if they're not willing to, then I'll volunteer. We just didn't manage it well.

On blunders right before the first half...

We just didn't manage it well, right? We had one of our worst drives we've had defensively. We wanted to be aggressive after the return. I guess we had something that set us up to go be aggressive before the half, and we wanna be aggressive before the half. We didn't make real good decisions, and just not indicative of who we were for that moment.

On Cortez Smith...

He snapped. I mean, he's just like all of them. He goes out and he works and he competes. People only see the five linemen, right? There's 12 other linemen that are out there going against the defense, the offense getting better, and they don't get an opportunity to play. He was one of those guys.

He did everything that he had to do to put himself in position to go play, but he's not the only one doing that. I mean there's a bunch of guys out there that practice every day that don't get to play.

On the line of scrimmage play...

“Good preparation, good intentions, dominate the line of scrimmage, give multiple looks. Good defensive plan by Schumann and the staff. That's how you start fast. I like to think we get a really good look in practice and, you know, maybe the team we're playing doesn't get the same look we do.”

On the tight end play...

“They are physical at the point. There was a couple of plays early in the game. I thought they had really good blocks. He's tough. He's proven to us he can do things with the ball in his hands. Almost got out of a tackle on a screen play that we had. I mean, really all those guys in the tight end room, they're unselfish because any one of them could be the one at a lot of schools, but they all buy into the fact that we have packages built around them here, and they grow and develop.”

Look, you get better by who you compete against each day. Because you're the one at some other school does not get you more prepared for the National Football League. What gets you prepared for the National Football League is what you do each day. And when you go out there each day and say, "I gotta out-compete this guy, this guy, and this guy," it drives you to greatness. And that we've seen that work in that room.

On Sacovie White-Helton...

“Happy for him. Nobody works harder at the return game than he does. It's important to him. He asks questions. He competes. He loves the guys that block for him and I thought he hit both those vertically and, and he was able to hit a seam.

On the kicking game...

“I didn't diagnose anything. I don't know the first thing about kicking. I know that I’ve got a lot of confidence in him, and the team's got a lot of confidence in him. He’s a great young man that wanted it just as bad as all you fans do, and just as bad as coaches do. He wants it just as bad.”

On injuries...

“I know the team is banged up, everybody is, but just how are you guys right now from a physical standpoint? I mean, we're banged up. Everybody is. I don't know that we're any more banged up than we have been in years past. I think the sign that'll tell the tale will be the end of the year after we play South Carolina and Tech.”

It'll be like, okay, you know, because there's two more really tough physical weeks left where in most years there's, you know, usually a non-conference and a, and a, and a tough one with Tech. But, you know, we're staring down the, you know, we, we could have three more. I mean we don't know, but I don't think people can really measure that.

I mean, we're trying to measure something that's, I don't think you can quantitatively measure the injury thing. You can just look at stats and say, what are they? But, um, people are practicing less, so that could be the reason for less injuries too, because they're just doing less. But I mean, we got some guys back, so it actually was kind of weird as we got guys back, we lost guys and that's just football.