ATHENS — As hard as it is to believe, Georgia is entering its 10th season under Kirby Smart.
The Georgia Bulldogs began fall practice on Thursday. Smart and Georgia will have 15 practices over the next 18 days to prepare for the upcoming season.
While there will be plenty of eyes on Georgia ahead of its season-opener against Marshall, Smart is focused on taking things one day and practice at a time.
Below are Smart’s full comments from Thursday’s press conference.
What Kirby Smart said about Georgia football as it starts fall camp
Opening statement...
“Excited to be here, excited to get started again, year 10 for us. And really pleased with the offseason work ethic of this team, the summer program. We had some outstanding testing numbers that I’m really excited about for our guys. We did our traditional combine, and then we also did a lot more non-impact cardio. We’re trying to get guys in shape without putting the mileage on some of their feet. We’re probably the healthiest we’ve been starting into a camp in terms of looking at the last five years, in terms of guys that were out, limited soft-tissue injuries.
“So we are young, we’ve talked about that at media days, but we are hungry. We got a team that’s fun to coach. We go out to practice each day, they’ve been enthusiastic. They’ve been out there working out, just doing all the things you ask. And like I said, a lot of them haven’t had an opportunity to play, and now this is their opportunity. So sometimes when you’re coaching, it’s a lot more exciting for guys when they’re having their first time. Now, that being said, the lack of experience sometimes can show. We’re gonna try to get through that in camp. We are taking the approach in camp like we have in past years.
“Our numbers are still pretty good. So we’ll approach the camp, in terms of physical and mental toughness is one of our biggest goals to achieve. The second is probably creating good habits, like being on time, resting, recovery. Camp’s a grind, and ours certainly is a grind. And then connection, leaning on each other, staying in a hotel for, I don’t know, eight, nine, ten days, 15 practices in 18 days, two scrimmages. It’s not easy, and it’s hot. So we wanna really develop this mental and physical toughness. We think carries us through the season. So our coaches have done a great job preparing for this and getting a lot of informative tape, NFL tape, NFL quotes, past history camps here, watching guys that are now in the league that came through here. The messaging has been real good, and we get to kick off today on the practice field.
“And I mean, I’ll open it to questions, but anything you guys wanna know about injuries, I can fill you in, as well.”
On Year 10 and keeping his message fresh...
“Well, the message is fresh because it’s a new team. And you have a new team, you have new years, and you got new guys. And we talked about it before, I think we’ve got 40 or 50 guys around maybe, it’s completely new, first or second year. So I don’t think you have to worry about your message staying fresh when you have the turnover you have, but you gotta keep your message fresh based on what’s changing in college football and offensively and defensively schemes, things people are doing outside of it, and just the demand you have. So our coaches do a great job of changing things up, and I’ll do the same with our guys.”
On the difference between fall camp now and 10 years ago...
“Yeah, I don’t know, you’re asking specifically about fall camp? I don’t know that fall camp changes from year to year. We’re not changing a lot of what we do. Our number of players in camp is still a good, healthy number. Actually, we have more because we had limitations on what we could bring into camp previously, and we’re gonna have more people in camp than we typically do. We may not have as many kids when school starts out as we typically do. We’ll start to drop there with the limitations. But my role has changed over ten years, certainly, but not in camp. Camp is meant to be a grind, physical toughness, focus, stamina. Can you stay awake in a meeting? Can you lock in? Can you learn from walkthrough to practice, walk through to practice? Can you focus kind of on what’s next? I think Coach Schumann and Coach Bobo both played a tape of some NFL players talking about camp is really where you get to hone your skills and develop your skills, because within a season, you’re in a routine. You’re trying to beat an opponent. Right now, you’re not trying to beat an opponent. You’re trying to better yourself, and the only way you can do that is really focus on the process of what’s next.”
On both lines embracing running the ball and stopping the run better...
“Yeah, I want to see improvement. I want to see experience. I want to see depth building. We talk about it a lot. We’ve talked about it a lot in our messaging about what the standard is at Georgia in terms of, it’s not the number of runs as much as it is the efficiency of the runs. It’s not the yardage given up rushing as much as it is the yards per carry. We want to be very productive in those two areas. Our best teams since we’ve been here, they’ve been able to run the ball when they have to run it, and they’ve been able to stop the run when they have to stop it. And that looks different in every game.
“So, what do I want to see out of those guys? I want to see improvement, I want to see buy-in. It’s a culture thing. It’s like, you get what you demand, and we’re going to demand that we stop it and that we’re able to do it and run it.”
On preparing Gunner Stockton and Ryan Puglisi and balancing reps during camp...
“Yeah, I think everybody in the country has that problem. That’s not unique to us. So as coaches, the problem is not getting the one and two enough reps. Absolutely there’s enough reps to go around. The problem is getting the three and the four enough reps to go around, and we have to be creative to do that. We have to ask more of our coaching staff. We have to be more organized and detailed than others to get, okay, while the ones and twos and threes are going over here, can we get the fourth guy reps? When we’re going two-spot and we got ones and threes here and twos and fours there, how many reps can we get those guys?
“But as far as quality reps and getting Ryan and Gunner reps, that’s not an issue.”
On what he needs to see from the offensive line room over the next month...
“I think them gel. Them play with a chip on their shoulder. We talk about playing with an edge. Passion, fire, energy, right? PFE is one of the things we’re looking for. No greater position that you possess passion, fire, and energy than O-line. There is something about breaking someone’s will or saying ‘I have to move you from point A to point B,’ and movement is exactly that. Movement is what creates run game.”
On handling the heat in terms of preparation and safety over the years...
“Yeah, we face it. We face the heat here. We don’t really run from it. To me, the rules and regulations that have been put in place by safety and health boards across the NCAA protect the players from that. I mean, look, as short as 20 years ago, we were doing two-a-days every day in both pads outside. There was no indoor. So it’s changed progressively to make it safer. You can’t practice twice a day. You can’t have pads on twice a day. So we need to face the heat and go.
“The practice intensity of the practices has increased because people know they don’t have another practice that day. So with it being one-a-day practices — and we have a walkthrough in between but we do that indoors — we go face the heat. We’re going to play in the heat. We don’t run from the heat. Our practices are really tough in terms of volume and intensity because we get a lot of reps in a short amount of time.”
On Jahzare Jackson’s status with the team after his recent arrest and evaluating recruits who have run into legal trouble...
“Yeah, Jahzare, disappointed, obviously, in the decision-making process. He’s being disciplined internally, but he’s with the team.
“As far as the other, I can’t really talk about recruiting, so I can’t comment about those.”
On what this team needs from Christen Miller...
“Yeah, we need him to be a playmaker. We need him to be disruptive. We talk about havoc. We talk about quickness, speed, experience. He’s our most experienced player. He has taken on this role of knowing the burden lies with him to set a standard for that group. And if we’re going to be good up front and we’re going to stop the run, it starts with that group. I mean, it’s everybody, but it really starts with the defensive line and what kind of mentality that room has.
“And so far he has approached that the right way. He did not get to go through spring because of a labral repair. We’re looking for him to have a great fall camp and push the other guys and help lead that room along with Jordan and Xzavier and some of those other guys.”
On the linebacker room and getting so many guys on the field...
“Yeah, we’ve done that every year in that room. That room has been one of our strengths throughout the time we’ve been here. Schumann’s done a great job recruiting, he does a great job developing, he does a great job packaging things to where you can get multiple inside linebackers on the field, and we play a lot of them. Naturally, there’s two out there every play, but sometimes we have three. And we’ll continue to do that, we’ll put the best players on the field. C.J. and Raylen have been leaders since they got here. They just haven’t had to be in the forefront. And last year, even with Smael’s injury, they were in the forefront more than a typical sophomore would be, and they both embraced that leadership role.”
On what has changed in college football over the last 10 years...
“Yeah, the biggest area that’s changed is the demand and decision making is put on a quarterback. I think 2016, you would have said RPOs were existent and people were doing them. They’re at a higher rate now, but it’s just a combination of motions and width of the formation. I mean, 2016, you were seeing 50, 60, 70% of spread out formations. They called it a spread offense because it was spread out. Well, now it’s, okay, there’s a taste of tempo in our league. There’s a taste of shift motion. People are always moving sideways, trying to leverage the defense. Eye candy, I would call it, along with a decision for the quarterback. Do I hand it, A. Do I pull it, B. Or do I don’t hand it, don’t pull it, and throw it, C. They’re getting three options on almost every play.
“So a lot of people don’t... the average fan is not aware of the demand of what the quarterback’s having to decide, and they certainly aren’t aware of what the defense is having to defend. Because the eyes of the defense have to be in multiple places. There’s a play on this side of the formation, there’s a play on this side of the formation, and then there’s an interior play. So there’s three plays, and the defense is having to defend more of it. So it’s become tougher to defend. It’s also become probably less of a quarterback having to change the protection and play the quarterback position that the NFL would like to have, and more of a go-tempo, dummy it down a little bit, and let the quarterback make easy decisions and make throws and runs that make it really hard to defend.
“So it’s become much harder, and our game is trickling up to the NFL, because you see it more and more in their game.”
On seeing fire, passion, and energy going into fall camp...
“Yeah, I feel it every day, because if you don’t have it, it’s hard to be successful. You can’t keep up. Our staff has it. Our staff has great juice. We’ve had a chance to reenergize. That’s what the summer’s about. We’re coming off of three to four weeks where we got to go be with our families before last week. But yeah, I see it in the players every day. And it starts with 110 heat index last week, seeing them out there running in that and facing it. And they don’t always have it all the way through that 110 Heat Index with five or ten or 20 53s they got to run. But they do push and challenge each other. That’s what I’ve enjoyed about this team so far, is they’re not afraid to hold each other accountable and get after each other, because they know that they’re stronger together than they are apart.”
On the loss of his father...
“Well, it’s been unique. I didn’t talk to him a lot. I didn’t talk to my dad a lot about football. He didn’t want to spend time on that. I mean, if I wanted to talk about it, he was more than happy to. But he didn’t bring football up a lot. He talked about my kids, his grandkids. He talked about his golf game, and my mom and his relationship, which they would have had their 53rd anniversary a couple days ago, two days ago, and she’s the one I’m concerned about. My dad’s in a great place, and he’s done a wonderful thing for so many people while he was here on Earth, including me and my brother and sister. So he was an unbelievable role model, and I miss him daily. I’m gonna continue to miss him, but I know he’s proud of the accomplishments of all his grandkids and kids, so my focus right now has been on my mom and her well-being.”
On what Oscar Delp’s role can be in the offense...
“Yeah, running the ball. I mean, yeah, Oscar’s a great player. He’s gotten better and better. He has been a better leader. He got one of our most improved awards in terms of work ethic in the weight room, in the jumps he made, so he knows this is an important year for him. But for him, for us, is have a Y that can physically hold up and block, which no tight end likes to hear that, but the NFL loves that. They like to have somebody that’s physical at the point of attack. He is strong, he’s physical, he’s good in play action. He’s tough. I mean, he has taken a lot of reps since being here at the University of Georgia, and blocked a lot of good defensive players. So we need him to be a factor at the point of attack.”
On what drives Kirby at this stage of his career...
“Yeah, it’s putting the pieces together. It’s like the puzzle of this team is different than the puzzle of last year. And being able to decipher the difference in the two teams and maybe what the wants and needs are from me. What does this team need from me? What does this staff need from me? Where can I be at my best for our team? That’s my why, and seeing a guy graduate. I just came over here and Earnest Greene’s got one project left, and he’s going to graduate this summer. That, to me, is like the be all and end all when these kids get an opportunity to graduate from a university that I went to, and they get a chance to start, play, and carry on their career afterwards, that’s success. There’s probably not enough stories about that or self-gratification about that, as opposed to when one fails or doesn’t make it. That’s what my why is, pushing these guys to get that piece of paper and also become better men.”
On if having so many young players changes the way he approaches fall camp...
“Well, I think the way, it is 54 percent, and it’s a lot, and it worries me as a coach, but it’s not any different probably anywhere else. It’s not like anybody’s sitting back saying, well, we got 80 percent guys that have been here and 20 percent new guys. We have all, as coaches, evolved, and we have more kids coming in in the spring. So we’ve done more with these kids than we’ve ever done before. I’m talking about spring, walkthrough. Post-spring this year, we even took it and said, you know what? We’re going to do 30 minutes a day of football school. We’re going to dedicate our time to football school 101. So the onboarding and the process you go through, the summer plan, every minute we have by NCAA allow, we use. And we have done more to this point with kids than we’ve ever done before. So, am I worried? Am I concerned? Yeah, always worried and concerned about new guys, but we’ve onboarded guys. We’re going to continue to install at a fast rate because we want to see what they can learn, especially during this 20, 18, 20 practice window. And find out who can play football and then move into the season of game planning.”
On what young players can focus on in fall camp...
“Mindset. It’s the only thing they can work on. Because they’re going to be overwhelmed by the speed, the tempo of practice. Can I fail, and can I pick up and go again? And it’s been seen over and over again. These NFL guys come in, how does he learn, how does he learn, how does he learn? Like, if they come from our program, they’re going to learn well. They’ve had to learn well. But can they overcome failure and adversity? So many of them come in with, because of social media, heavy accolades, heavy expectations. And the drop from how high they come in to where they fall to when they fail is so deep in depth that it’s really hard to build them back. So we have to be really careful as coaches that we’re making sure we point out when they do things right. And make sure we explain to them that it’s okay to fail. You actually grow through that failure. A lot of our guys are starting to realize that.”
On Phil Rauscher and John Lilly and their role in helping the run game...
“Well, they both have run backgrounds. Most tight end coaches in the National Football League either evolve into O-line coaches or tied into the run game. So both of those guys have great ideas in the run game. It may not be a new run by design, because you can’t reinvent the wheel. There’s inside zone, outside zone, there’s gap scheme. There’s different ideas. We have a quarterback who allows us to do more. They both have been around systems that involve that. And they both, technique-wise, have different ways of doing things maybe than we do. Some part of it is who you play. Some part of it is what you call. Some part of it is how hard you play. So all that’s a factor. And those guys have been great assets and will continue to be to help us improve that.”
