ATHENS — It’s a busy time of year for the Georgia football program.
No one understands that better than Kirby Smart, as he juggles putting together a signing class, the transfer portal, the SEC championship game and the College Football Playoff.
Smart spoke on a number of those topics on Monday, all while getting his team ready for Saturday’s rematch against Alabama.
Below are the full remarks made by Smart during his Monday press conference.
The SEC championship game against Alabama is scheduled for a 4 p.m. ET start on ABC
Kirby Smart ‘doesn’t envy’ Lane Kiffin, shares thoughts on issues with college football calendar
Opening statement...
“Yeah, I guess most of you guys were on the conference last night, so there’s not a lot to say that hasn’t been said. SEC Championship Game, awesome opportunity for our guys. I told them last night, you earned the opportunity to play in this game. This was not given. This was earned. This was not picked by a committee. It was on the field. Two teams that already played once. Both played really daunting SEC schedules and get a chance to battle it out and see who the SEC champion is, which a lot at stake and always is. But playing a really good football team. Coach DeBoer’s done a great job with them, playing at a high level when you look at both sides of the ball. They complement each other, playing really well offensively and defensively. I think that’s important to being successful in our conference. They’ve got a good group of players, and their staff’s done a great job to put them in this position, so this will be our guys’ opportunity to go out and play in a place that we’ve played a lot of games in and excited for the opportunity. It’s always a great atmosphere and crowd and then the viewership, the people that watch it across the country is always really high, so excited for our guys.”
On Alabama’s offensive development this season...
“Yeah, I wouldn’t call it a deep dive. I got to watch the games between our game and theirs. I don’t think you change a whole lot during the year. You play to the skill set of your playmakers, and they’ve got playmakers. They play to the skill set of those guys. Ty’s still playing really well. He’s extremely athletic. He can extend plays. He knows where to go with the ball. He knows defenses. He’s played with a lot of confidence. I don’t think there’s a lot of change. They’re really good at what they do. They do a good job with shift, motion, keeping you off balance with tempo, vertical plays, horizontal plays. They do a great job.”
On offensive identity vs. preseason expectations...
“I’m not sure your question. Is our offense what I think it would be? Yeah, I’m very pleased with what our offense has done this year. I’m very pleased with the total package of how they utilize the skill set and strengths of the team, considering 2-3 freshmen linemen have been in there a lot. I’ve been really pleased with that group, the ability and the commitment to the run complements what Gunner does well. I’m pleased where those guys have been.”
On importance of defensive line maturation...
“I would say it’s more the experience has been big for young linebackers, outside linebackers and safety maybe than defensive line. Outside of EG, a lot of those guys have played football. EG’s a guy that’s gotten better with time and gotten more comfortable. But a lot of those guys were experienced coming into the year. I don’t think any of our early struggles were a testament to anything about the defensive line. It more just a matter of growth and getting more experience and executing at a higher level at all positions.”
On Glenn Schumann’s coaching progression this year...
“Honestly, I don’t, I mean, I think he’s grown over the course of his career, and he grown over the course of 10 years being here. But specifically this year, I don’t think he’s had to grow. He’s had to do a great job of deciding what this group does best and try to utilize and improve the skill sets. We don’t have a dynamic, clear-cut, dominant rusher. We’ve had some of those in the past with Jalon and Mykel both coming out early and Ty. Those guys not being there was a little bit of an adjustment to get the younger players groomed faster. I can’t say Schumann’s had to grow. He’s had to utilize what we had.”
On who Georgia has become on defense and the changes made...
“I don’t know there’s a lot of changes made. I think y’all are making a bigger deal about something. We’re improving. We’ve played better, but some of the offense we played have been really explosive. Ole Miss is a really explosive offense. Tennessee is a high-octane offense. They get a lot of snaps. They go tempo. They score points. Alabama’s done that. So some of it is how you play. Some of it is who you play. Some of it’s how you change and adapt, and I think we’re always trying to change and adapt.”
On advantages and disadvantages of Signing Day and SEC Championship week all in one...
“I mean, change to when? When’s a good time to have it? Last week? Next week? I mean, there’s no. They made the decision a long time ago to move this in front of your roster changes and additions to your own team so that you would have one thing squared away. You’ve gotta remember as little as 2-3 years ago, we had portal going on and Signing Day going on. I was in the decision-making process when it went to signing on the week of the SEC Championship. I don’t like it then. I don’t like it now. But I don’t have a better answer. There’s a calendar timeline. There’s an academic calendar to universities and also high school kids. There’s not an opportune to time to have it and so you do what’s best for the most and not necessarily the least, or the teams that are playing. It makes for some tough challenges this week for sure. But people understand that, they respect teams that are still playing.”
On how helpful the experience is of having coached in a championship-like atmosphere before...
“Yeah, it doesn’t change game to game. I mean, the championship game is no different than the game that gets you to the championship game, right? We’ve been playing championship games every week, in my opinion. What wins football games doesn’t change. Good players win football games, not turning the ball over wins football games, being explosive wins football games, and that will not change in this game. I mean, the turnover margin of the last game was a factor. Explosive plays of the last game was a factor. There’ll be factors in this one, there’ll be factors in the next one after this one.
“So that doesn’t change, and if anything the experiences you learn from playing in this are more about time management with Signing Day going on, practice management with the load your players got this extra week in the season. That’s what we try to lean on from an experience standpoint.”
On how the identity has changed over the course of the season if it has...
“Yeah, I wouldn’t say the identity has changed for us of needing to be able to run the ball to be successful. That can’t change, not for us.”
On if the identity has broadened at all...
“No, the things that are important to our identity, the physical toughness required, the discipline, all the things that we require to be successful have not changed week to week or since the beginning of the season. We might do better at them one week or the other, but they don’t change.”
On now being the dean of SEC coaches...
“Got a great program, great administration, great supporting cast here, and it’s allowed us to be successful. I mean, I talk about it all the time, if you have good players, you coach them the right way, you coach them hard, you can be successful, and we’ve been successful. It’s hard to sustain anything and stay consistent, especially in this league where it’s really competitive.
“I don’t think a lot about the tenure or the person that’s been there the longest. I’ve got a lot of respect for Mark, and he’s a good friend.”
On some things that have allowed the Georgia program to be consistent...
“Things like Jonas Jennings being part of our staff since I’ve been here. Scott Sinclair, Glenn Schumann, Tray Scott, they’re pillars in this building. They believe in the core values of the head coach. They help push those. I think reinventing yourself as much as you can every year and trying to be a good teacher creates consistency. I think the player buy-in and the players we select to be part of our program, that’s the only way you’re going to be consistent is not be afraid to make tough decisions. We’ve talked about qualities of great leaders require you to make tough decisions.”
On how Drew Bobo has helped the freshmen on the offensive line...
“Yeah, he’s very knowledgeable of the game. He grew up around it, in it. He understands football. He knows leverages. He knows a lot about what’s going on. He and his dad have a great relationship. It allows him to know a lot of things and make a lot of checks and put us in the right situations a lot of times. So he’s certainly a really good football player.”
On if the gap between games matters in rematches...
“No, I mean, unless you’re just beat up and got a lot of players missing, which they’re pretty beat up, we’re pretty beat up. The gauntlet of the stretch that they played and we’ve played has impacted both of our seasons. I think we both had people coming in or coming out of lineups the last time we played. Now you look at the long spell between games, seven, six, seven, eight games, whatever it is, both teams are coming out of and coming into injuries. But in terms of the X’s and O’s and the schemes, in terms of the gap, I don’t think so. I mean, you evolve as a team, you have trends, but good teams do what they do. There’s not going to be a lot of change if both these teams are good teams.”
On how Gabe Harris and Quintavius Johnson have improved since the first Alabama game...
“Confidence in repetition. And I think they both are very knowledgeable, a little more experienced, a lot of practice reps between that game and this one, quite a bit of game reps between this one and that one. I mean, Gabe’s a little older, Q was still kind of coming into his own. He was young and he’s grown up a lot. He’s had to grow up because he got forced into a playing time at an early age last year and even this year, and he’s accepted that role and he’s improved.”
On how all the new coaches in the league impacts offseason prep...
“I mean, I think most of these guys are descendants or they come from a tree of coaching, and there’ll be similarities. I mean, we have tape of every team we play, we have tape of every team that those guys coached. So there’ll be some carryover in terms of the new coaches, but it’s a long way away before we start worrying about that.”On Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for LSU...
“I don’t envy the position he was in. I think it’s a really hard position to be in and to navigate. I think Coach Saban addressed it best. It’s not a, we’re in a time frame where ADs and people are making decisions in a timeline that’s not congruent with the season and the playoffs. So it makes for really difficult decisions.”
On Drew Brannon possibly helping with Alabama this week...
“He’s helped every Alabama game since 2020. He does a great job.”
On Gunner Stockton’s decision-making this season...
“Yeah, he’s had to make them. You get more comfortable doing things the more you’ve done it. It’s called experience, and he’s gained that. So he’s forced into every play. Do I do this, this, or this? There’s very few plays that are just as simple as you do this. And I think that gives you options. It makes you right more. And I think more teams in the entire country is really doing it. It’s putting a lot on the quarterback, and he’s done a great job in terms of making the right decision with two, three options, and that puts you in advantage. It also puts stress on that position, and they gotta be able to handle it and make good decisions.”
