ATHENS — Kirby Smart made his respect for Lane Kiffin perfectly clear when speaking to reporters on Monday.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Lane. He does an incredible job,” Smart said. “Probably one of the best things he does is in-game coaching, having coached with him and watched him for years.

“His having impact on the quarterback and the offensive play and the ability to communicate with the quarterback, whether it’s by headset or by sideline, he does a great job of getting the quarterback’s attention and getting them in the right plays based on looks. Probably better than anybody else in the country.”

Smart’s praise for Kiffin and the Ole Miss program wasn’t the only subject on his mind on Monday.

Below is the full transcript from Smart’s press conference.

Everything Kirby Smart said as Georgia readies for Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss:

Opening statement...

“Volleyball’s 10K Day, this Friday. They’re playing Alabama at 7 p.m. I have a lot of respect for Coach Black and the volleyball team and the job they’ve done. They’re trying to top last year’s state volleyball attendance record of 10,000 fans, so the first 1,000 fans will get a black T-shirt and the first 1,000 UGA students will also get a T-shirt and free food. I know we’ll be walking across that way heading to the Georgia Center to stay. We’ll want a big turnout and see them top 10K for our volleyball team and try to break that record that they set last year.”

“With that, I’ll turn to looking forward. I want to thank our fans who were in Auburn. I thought they were incredible. There were times late in the game, I really thought, that we had an impact in terms of that end zone. The turnout. The passion and energy they showed at the end of the game and after the game, and that leads into my comments about this week. We need the best atmosphere we’ve ever had in Sanford Stadium. I’ve got a lot of respect for Lane. He does an incredible job. Probably one of the best things he does is in-game coaching, having coached with him and watched him for years. His having impact on the quarterback and the offensive play and the ability to communicate with the quarterback, whether it’s by headset or by sideline, he does a great job of getting the quarterback’s attention and getting them in the right plays based on looks. Probably better than anybody else in the country. He and his staff do that. I won’t give him all the credit, but he does a unbelievable job, and we need to make that extremely difficult. So the issue and the challenge has been issued for our fan base to be extremely difficult for them to communicate and do things offensively that they do, especially at home and sometimes on the road when it’s not the right environment.”

“With that, I’ll open it up.”

On Trinidad Chambliss playing well and role in run game...

“Yeah, you said it. He’s explosive, right? He’s quick. He’s fast. He’s tough. He’s got great lower body. Great instincts. There’s a difference in being a fast guy and being a runner. He’s patient behind blocks, quick when he needs to be. Some guys can only run perimeter runs well. Some can only run internal well. He runs both. He does a great job in the draw game. He sets up blocks, and he’s a good passer. But I mean, they should get the greatest award there is for finding this guy and having the department within. I don’t know who scouted him, who found him, but he is a really good football player that they went out and got and did a tremendous job.”

On facing Jackson Arnold as runner helping this week...

“Yeah, I don’t know. I can’t go back and think about the guys we’ve had. Some of those teams had some guys that could run the ball well. He certainly was a physical, downhill runner. But it’s a combination of things, right? Really good excellent wide receivers on the perimeter, really big physical offensive line. Sometimes you have a runner like him, and maybe you’re playing somebody that doesn’t have the same offensive line. You have an extremely physical offensive line. You have a lot of sideways, perimeter runs packaged together with the quarterback runs. And look, Ole Miss has all those same plays. You turn on the tape. They’re tremendous offensively. There’s not a run that Auburn runs that they can’t run. They have a lot of the same weapons that Auburn does on the perimeter. What Jackson did was really good. They had a good plan. We’ve gotta find ways to stop it.”

On Kewan Lacy and Ole Miss run game...

“He becomes more effective because of the quarterback. He becomes more effective because of the tempo. They use tempo. They go really fast and wear people down. You get lots of snaps against them. We’ve had a lot of practice getting a lot of snaps, that’s for sure, defensively. They get lots of snaps. They wear you down. He’s a good back. He’s vertical, sideways, catches the ball, explosive. Really good player.”

On Chauncey Bowens’ health...

“It was a deal going into the game, we felt like he was going to be able to go. It bothered him some. It bothered him some last week, but it never got to the point he wasn’t going to be able to play. But he was as effective probably early. We weren’t effective. I don’t know that it was him. But we struggled to run the ball a little bit early. When those other guys got going, we went with those guys. But he should be find. He should be ready to go this week.”

On Daylen Everette, Ellis Robinson and Demello Jones...

“Yeah, there’s some good and bad. Daylen had some good plays and had some tough plays where he ended up grabbing the receiver and got out of position some. Same thing with Ellis and same thing with Demello. In this league, you’re going to be challenged every week. These guys got great wideouts and a quarterback that can get them the ball and a quarterback that’s very accurate. So the challenge will be every week to step up and play.”

On if Georgia is among upper tier of SEC that has more parity...

“Absolutely.”

On evaluating that...

“I don’t evaluate it because I want to evaluate the teams we play, so I think we’ve got a really good football team. I think it shows every Saturday when we go out and compete. I don’t study the film of the ones we don’t play, although most people you don’t play you get on crossover games, but I’m not in the process of evaluating. I’m evaluating us and Ole Miss right now.”

On Cayden Lee and Duce Alexander...

“Both really good players. They’re both very experienced, talented guys. They came up in our state. They’ve got a bunch of guys from our state. They recruit our state hard. They do a good job in our state. They have coaches that played here. They’ve got ties to our state. Our state supplies every team in the country with players. But Ole Miss does a great job of recruiting in our state. Both those players are really good players. They’re getting a chance to come home in front of their families and have an opportunity to play.”

On the timeout saga vs. Auburn...

“I talked to no one the SEC office-wise. I stand by what I talked about after the game. I’m worried about Ole Miss.”

On forcing fumbles and punching ball out...

“Has the emphasis changed? We’ve always emphasized it. We’re just doing more of it. We’re just trying to practice it more, get more looks at it. We’ve taken time out of practice to get it. It’s nothing anybody in the country doesn’t do. It’s just how much time do you spend on it? We’ve tried to take cutups of every play in a game that we miss an opportunity to take a shot at the ball and show that. Then we also flip it around, or our defensive staff flips it around, and shows where we did take the opportunity to. It’s a compilation of clips, so you’re getting all these small clips of shots on ball, hitting the ball, trying to do something different so maybe we get a different result.”

On Lane Kiffin in-game adjustments...

“Yeah, mainly, in-game, might even be one play within a one-play window, the 40-second play clock, they’re able to. Everybody can do the same thing. They’re quick to the line, so they allow their quarterback, they can talk to their quarterback down to 15 seconds in terms of communication. Then 15 and below, he’s on his own. But a lot of their snaps are above 15 seconds, so they’re able to communicate to him, looks, talk to him, see what’s going on. It’s smart, right? It’s what you do in order execute at a higher level, especially for a guy that wasn’t in their system last year and is in their system now. They do a good job of finding looks, saying they’re in this, they’re in this. Because if you’re a good defense, you’re predictable. You can’t change what you do week-in and week-out. They do a good job of IDing that, and they’re in the right play a lot. They’re in the right look against the look, which is critical.”

On Ole Miss defensive front...

“Really impressive again. I’ve gotten the time to watch about four or five offensive games yesterday of Ole Miss and only got through two defensive games. Pretty impressive, to be honest with you. They’re very disruptive, constantly moving, causing havoc and problems and movement. Disruptive. They’ve got a couple of the best inside guys we’ve seen.”

On Juan Gaston health...

“Yes, Juan, ankle, kinda re-injured, bothered. He went back in. As I understand, he came back out and bothering him. He’s trying to go today. We’ll see where he’s at.”

On second-half pressures against Auburn...

“I think it was situational. You look and say, where did the pressure occur? Some of them were third downs. Some of them were two-minute. Those opportunities present themselves more. When you get people in those situations, you’re able to create pressure. But pressure is created by down-and-distance situations and how much you’re willing to commit to a run versus a pass.”

On six different OL combinations to start six games...

“Well we’re blessed to have the two freshman come along as fast as they did because those two guys have helped us. Injuries happen. I wasn’t aware we had six different combinations, but it doesn’t surprise me because it certainly feels that way. It feels even crazier in games because we’re having to rotate guys in games. It’s not rotation based on stamina sometimes. It’s rotation based on injury here, something there. That makes it tough. Look, I’m proud of their toughness and the way they play. That drive they had to end the game shows something about their character and their ability to overcome and convert some third downs. But look, we’ve gotta play better as a team, and that starts with what we do today. That’s really what we’re worried about today.”

On James Franklin firing...

“I don’t really know. I don’t think about it, to be honest with you. I’m just so engulfed with everything that’s going on right here right now. Like, how do we prepare for this game that the outside stuff is offseason stuff to me. I’m focused on Ole Miss.”

On hidden gems in recruiting...

“I don’t know. There’s two types of recruiting though, right? I think you’re talking about portal as opposed to recruiting. Maybe you’re talking about both, I don’t know. High school kids are hidden gems or harder because there’s so much exposure these kids got. You’re seeing almost a matriculation of guys to certain schools. As they’re better, they’re brought to certain places, and they get put in the forefront. You don’t find out a guy is a great player somewhere, they go somewhere else. But as far as finds in the portal, they’re there. I know Lane and them do a great job of searching that out. They’re a higher portal team, I don’t know, maybe they’re middle of the pack SEC now, or maybe they’re high end. In the past, they’ve been high end. I don’t know where they are right now. But they do a great job because when you look at the list, there’s guys on this sheet that are good players from other schools.”

On CJ Allen performance...

“Yeah, I thought he really showed up. When you go back and watch the tape, it’s one of the better games that I’ve seen him play. He was frustrated and disappointed after some of the earlier games. We thought it was the first time he looked as fast as he’s been. He’s been dealing with a hamstring, and he’s played through it. He’s a leader, man. He’s a special kid in terms of what he’s willing to sacrifice and give up for the team and how much he pushes our team. I thought he had a good performance.”

On offense not being as dynamic...

“Yeah, I don’t know. I think a lot of it revolves around the run game because our explosive plays, which we’ve been really good at 2-3 years. Outside of last year, we were really good at explosive plays going back, but they came off of play-actions. They came off of tempo plays. They even came off of runs prior to last year. Where do you get explosive plays from? You look and you do track them. You see other people, and you say these players make explosives. They need to touch the ball. That’s what we try to look at because explosives are the biggest indicator of who wins games right there with turnovers and the middle eight. We want to be more explosive obviously. We played some teams early that played us in a very different way that made it hard to be explosive. We’ve actually been more explosive against some of the better teams that we’ve played because they play you more aggressively, which exposes them to risk. But can’t pinpoint or say exactly what’s going to allow it. I’m comfortable with who we are, although I want to be more explosive. But being a team that can grind it out and be physical in a day and age when a lot of people don’t want to be physical, it makes you different.”

On Monroe Freeling SEC OL of the week...

“Guts, toughness, grit. I mean, if you had told me, after watching him Wednesday or whatever day it was Thursday, when he just tried to run and workout, I was questioning whether we should even bring him on the trip. He texts me and says, I’m going on this trip, and I’m playing, and I’m going to be ready. It just says a ton about his competitive character in a day and age when some guys have to look out for themselves or whatever, and he’s all about the team. He made it clear that he wanted to help the team win that game. He played a huge role in that game, especially after the Juan ankle came, and we had to start flip-flopping.”

On Noah Thomas’ role...

“Well, he’s played well in that stadium before. He had a really big game when he played before. We knew he had a lot of confidence against some of their guys. He continues to show confidence. There’s nobody on our team that pulls harder for our team. He’s in every huddle. He’s cheering on the defense. He’s cheering on the kickoff team. He has been the embodiment of a team player and competing. We’ve gotta continue to find opportunities to get him touches and make explosives. We had several balls that went at him the other, and we gotta continue to do that.”

On Ole Miss scenes from a year ago...

“Not a big revenge guy. They coulda said that last year about us because they came here and played the year before. I’m big into what gets us to play our best, and that usually comes from intrinsic stuff for me, not looking in the past. Those teams were different teams. This team’s a different team.”