Georgia football coach Kirby Smart challenges Bulldogs to 'knuckle up'

ATHENS — Georgia football coach Kirby Smart isn’t wasting words this week where Saturday’s showdown at LSU is concerned.

“As far as questions about our defense or our defensive line, they’ll be answered this week,” Smart said at his Monday press conference. “They better knuckle up, because it’s going to be physical, hard-nosed football game.”

The No. 2-ranked Bulldogs (6-0 4-0 SEC) travel to play at No. 13 LSU (5-1, 2-1) at 3:30 p.m. next Saturday (TV: CBS, Radio: WSB 750 AM, 95.5 FM).

It’s the 11th meeting between the teams when both have been ranked, and first since 2013.

Smart said he expects Saturday’s game to be as physical as any of the games between the teams have been.

“Coach (Ed) Orgeron has installed a lot of toughness in their program, they play extremely physical,” Smart said. “They’ve got big people, that’s how LSU is built. They are physical across the board, that’s who they are,”

Smart had said after the 41-13 Vanderbilt win last Saturday that Georgia would need to step up and play more physical.

“We’re a physical football team, but we’ve got to play physical,” Smart said. “I haven’t seen this team play with physicality, at least defensively, that it needs to.

“At times, offensively, we do (play physically) offensively because we’re big, especially when we’re healthy. But defensively, I don’t know, we’ll find out.”

Smart said it’s up to himself and the Georgia coaching staff to get the Bulldogs prepared for what figures to be the most physical game of the season to this point.

“We have a lot of guys bought in, and they are trying to, but we’ve got to help them and do a better job as coaches,” Smart said. “We certainly have to play the run better.”