ATHENS — Bloody Tuesday has become Bloody Monday at Georgia this week.
That’s due to Georgia’s game this week being moved up a day to Friday, as the Bulldogs will travel to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart spoke to reporters on Monday to preview Friday’s game.
Below is a full transcript of Smart’s remarks. Friday’s game is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET start, with ABC broadcasting the game.
Everything Kirby Smart said about Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry game
Opening statement...
“Georgia Tech week. A lot of respect for Brent and their program. He’s done a tremendous job there. They’re extremely physical. You can tell they’re modeled kind of after what he believes in, which is running the ball and stopping the run. Quarterbacks playing at an elite level, just a lot of respect for the way they play the game, and we got a short week. So we got a quick turn here to get ready for these guys and obviously play in Mercedes-Benz on Friday. And with that, I’ll also, I know you guys want to ask about Nyier. I have not had a chance to talk to him or his family. But obviously, he can no longer be with us. So with that, I’ll open it up.”
On comfort level with Georgia Tech offense...
“I wouldn’t say a sense of comfort. I mean, nothing’s comfortable about defending an offense that can hurt you in so many ways. First of all, Buster does an incredible job, he did here too. He’s a really good football coach. He knows where things, where all the nuggets are on defenses. He knows how to attack them. He knows answers for things that when you do them. I mean, at the end of the day, they got a block, we got a tackle, and somebody’s got to do it better. And that’s a very tough thing when you play them because they stretch you horizontally. They stretch you vertically. They stretch you with tempo. They stretch you with numbers counts because of their quarterback. So Buster does an awesome job, and that’s continued this year. So there’s no level of comfort dealing with it. It’s more of a, how do you inspire your players to play harder?”
On Haynes King’s importance to GT offense...
“Yeah, I mean, just look at the numbers, right? I mean, anytime you have a quarterback that has the experience he has. Now I don’t know if he’s played five years, six years, I don’t know what it is. But he’s extremely experienced, extremely tough. I don’t think people understand how fast this guy is. He can run, and he was a great athlete in high school, track guy. I mean, the stories are all over of his success and his stories of where he’s been and the injuries he’s been through. And you see the hits he takes. I mean, he just gets stronger with each hit. So he’s extremely valuable in terms of what they do and what they ask him to do. He’s hard to defend on all levels, throwing the ball. I mean, people think, well, he doesn’t throw the ball. He throws the ball really well, and he’s really efficient. And they do a great job with the passing game, Buster does, because it’s screen, RPOs, perimeter, and it’s vertical.”
On playing in Mercedes-Benz...
“No, we don’t change our approach. I don’t really think about those things.”
On Chris Cole and Justin Williams with CJ Allen out...
“Yeah, they did a good job, played against an overmatched team. And they both played with confidence. It was a good thing that they’ve played as much as they have this year. So it wasn’t their first time really being out there. A lot more challenging this week in terms of vision, eye control, keys. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the backfield. There’s a lot of motion shifts. You’ve got the extra element of the quarterback run. So fitting things properly, being thick on things, keying things, striking and getting off blockers, no one for ones. They’re all things that’ll be important in this game.”
On Georgia Tech’s defensive struggles...
“I’m not understanding your question there. You gotta rephrase that for me. Are you asking about. Yeah, I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t seen enough. I’ve watched a bunch of their offense. I haven’t seen as much of their defense. I’ve watched bits and pieces of our game last year. And then the game the other night is a two that I’ve seen. They had some explosives in there they’ve given up. They play really hard on defense. Play with a great pad level. A lot of respect for how they play the game and how hard those guys play. They do a good job on perimeter blocks with their DBs. It’s something we talk about every week. You can kind of find what a team’s like by how they play with their skill players. All linemen are tough by nature, but sometimes skill players aren’t. And theirs play with great toughness, get off blocks, attack blocks.”
On Chauncey Bowens’ availability...
“He looks good.”
On Brent Key’s teams...
“I knew, I mean, Brent played at Georgia Tech when t I played here. So I didn’t know him personally, knew of him. And then he got into the coaching profession. And he worked for a while with Coach O’Leary. And I think I didn’t really meet him until he was down at UCF, and we got some common, mutual friends in the coaching profession, a couple guys had passed through Alabama that had worked with him. And so I met him that way. But yeah, he does a tremendous job. Guys take on his personality traits, in terms of how physical they play. And I’m sure they practice physical just like we do because you see it on tape.”
On teams feeding off Haynes King, Gunner Stockton...
“Yeah, I don’t like reining anybody in if it’s beneficial to their play style, in terms of toughness and doing the things you need to do. I don’t know what similarities they have because I don’t know Haynes well enough to know that. I know the play he puts out and the product he puts out, the production he’s put out, has really been incredible for what he’s been able to do and the toughness and the durability he’s done it with. That’s been similar for Gunner. He just hasn’t done it as long as Haynes has.”
On Drew Bobo and Earnest Greene...
“They both are doing great and both completely available.”
On evaluating toughness in recruiting...
“Well, talk to people you trust, whether it’s a high school coach, somebody that’s been in their lives, somebody that’s maybe coached them. Toughness is not talked about. It’s earned. And you know that usually about who they played for, who they played with. Or you just talk to people. That’s the best source of information you can get is talking to somebody.”
On Kyron Jones’ return...
“Yeah, we were hopeful to get Kyron back last week. He was hurting a little bit, still dealing with some pain down in the ankle. And we’ll continue to progress in this week.”
On Nyier Daniels’ removal from the team and taking a harder stance...
“No, I think those would be your words, not my words. I think my words would be each case is a case-by-case basis. And we’ll always evaluate things that way based on the total history of the student-athlete, what the actions were, what they entailed.”
On anyone that stood out after Charlotte film review...
“Just hard to say. I mean, the team was overmatched. We were bigger and stronger and faster at almost every position. It’s probably not fair to evaluate it in terms of who gets more playing time. I mean, our guys get to go and practice and go compete today to get more playing time. And they’re gonna do it ones on ones, and they’re gonna do it twos on twos. And we’re gonna get a better measure of who’s growing and who’s getting better. And that’s no disrespect to Charlotte. I’m not being disrespectful. It’s just there were some positions that were outmanned.”
On value to playing Charlotte...
“Yeah, great value, great experience for a lot of guys. Guys go out and play and compete. And I think you ask their parents and their families if there was value in it. Absolutely.”
On last year’s postgame embrace with Brent Key...
“Yeah, I would agree with you, it was an intense game. There was a lot of back and forth. I’ve never been a part of a game where there was a one play outcome 14 times or whatever it was, and that makes things tough and going back and forth and back and forth, things like that. But coaches are human, too, and there’s a respect level for people that do this business and do this profession. And there’s a lot of respect for the toughness they play with.”
On Buster Faulkner’s evolution...
“Yeah, he did an incredible job for us, always innovative, always looking at new ideas, good teacher, aggressive, and does a great job. And the way he does things, and I’ve seen that carry over there. He does a really good job with their offensive unit, utilizes the skill set of the players he has, and looks at things in perspective of touches, who has to get the ball, how do you win, and how do you adjust, but not losing the core values of being able to run the ball and having toughness?”
On last year’s game...
“Physicality, I mean, it was a physical game both ways.”
On CJ Allen’s availability...
“Yeah, he’s working his tail off, doing the best he can to be available when he can.”
On any carryover from last year’s heated battle...
“Don’t understand that question, sorry. The teams are trying to win the game, regardless of what happened last year. I don’t know what eight overtimes would make people want to win more or less this year. I assure you, they want to win the game just as much as we did, regardless of the outcome last year.”
On Elijah Griffin’s freshman growth...
“I think he’s getting more confidence, less maybe pregame and early game jitters in terms of anxiety. He’s comfortable, practicing well. He’s doing things for the second and third time instead of the first time in a lot of cases, and he continues to get better, and we need him to continue to get better.”
On CJ Wiley and Landon Roldan’s growing roles...
“Yeah, knowledge, experience in the offense, being able to process information quicker. It’s so much more than, can he run a good route and catch the ball? There’s just tons more than that. What defense are they in? What check are we making? Are they blitzing? Do we have a side adjust? Do we have a different guy to go block when the coverage shell changes? You can’t get those guys enough reps, and they’re maturing to the point where they earn the trust. They can go in and execute all things, and it requires you to do all things in our offense because they’re involved in everything.”
On Alijah Clark’s special teams play in NFL...
“Yeah, I talked to Fran about him. He played there for Fran, and Fran recruited him and knows him well. And a pretty incredible play by a kid.”
