ATHENS — There’s an old cliche about the biggest improvement a team makes is from its first game to its second.
Kirby Smart does not subscribe to that theory.
“Everybody talks about your greatest improvement from game one to game two,” the Georgia head coach said. “I don’t think that’s necessarily true, unless you make it true. And you have to learn lessons from that.“
It’s hard for things to get better after the Bulldogs opened the season with a 63-3 win over Tennessee State.
Georgia is a heavy favorite once again this week against visiting Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers lost 49-14 to open their season against Nevada.
As the Bulldogs gear up for their second game, Smart addressed a number of areas with his team on Tuesday.
Below are Smart’s full remarks from the press conference.
Kirby Smart explains why improvement for Georgia is guaranteed this week
Opening statement
“Yep, we got started as usual on Western Kentucky yesterday. I know Tyson Helton, have a lot of respect for him as a coach and the program, they’ve done a tremendous job with their program over years — a lot of years. And they’ve got several members from our staff that are working up there and got close connections. Their coaches come down and work our camps in the summer, and they’ve got a lot of Georgia kids on their program.
“So it should be a great opportunity for us to continue to get better. And we have a saying around here, ‘You don’t have to be sick to get better.’ And that’s been the motto of last weekend this week.”
On the offensive line in Week 1 and how players rotated to different spots...
“Well, they practice next to different guys every day. Very minor deal. Played hard, played well against an overmatched opponent size- and speed-wise, so tough evaluation to be honest.”
On Georgia’s OLB room, especially with Chase Linton and Amaris Williams hurt...
“Feel good about those guys. Those guys have kind of been that way for a while in terms of getting reps, growing. Q does a good job leading that group, helping them out. Amaris is doing it in the meeting room, and Chase has been in there with them as well, done most of the camp. And all those guys are getting better: Khamari, PJ, and Darren. Even Duncan Carpenter got to jump in there and get some reps Saturday and did a nice job.”
On Chris Cole’s role in the defense and how he differs from Jalon Walker and Quay Walker...
“He’s probably similar — more similar than different. He’s probably a little faster and has a little more length than them. Probably doesn’t have the density and the size that they have, but he’s sideline-to-sideline faster. He’s really good on the edge just like Jalon was. Probably hasn’t played as much inside ‘backer as Quake has, but we don’t really do many comparisons around here. We kind of keep it to he’s his own person. He’s a tremendous leader, and he’s one of the hardest workers, practice guys we’ve had.”
On the SEC going undefeated in Week 1...
“Hard to comment on because I can’t sit here and say what I saw and didn’t see because I didn’t see much. Don’t get to watch the totality of what, I guess, 15 games outside of ours that were non-SEC versus SEC opponents. So I’d rather not comment because it’s too early.”
On what impressed Smart about Kyron Jones since the start of fall camp...
“Yeah, it’s not what he’s done in the last five or six weeks. It’s what he’s done since he’s been here. He’s high character, he’s tough, he’s fast. He was more of an offensive player coming out of high school that we thought could transition to defense. And when you look for defensive players, you look for size and speed. He has good size, good bulk, and he has good speed.
“He had to work a lot when he got here on instincts and playing that position. It’s not a position that you can just go play and you haven’t played a lot in your history, and he got better with that. He’s one of the toughest kids I’ve been around. He practices hard, he’s dealt with a lot of injuries, and he’s overcome them. He sets his mind to something, and he does it. And that’s what’s been impressive about him is that he works really hard.”
On Chase Linton’s timetable for return and the pass rush’s play Saturday...
“Hard to evaluate it based on those guys they were going against — no disrespect to them. But there was not a long time for the quarterback to be able to throw, and the quarterback got it out really quick as well.
“Chase is week to week.”
On how Drew Bobo played in his first game back from injury...
“Yeah, thought he did a good job. Did what was asked of him. He makes good checks, and he commands the huddle. He’s a high effort guy. He didn’t play a ton of snaps. So, he did a good job.”
On if Ja’Marley Riddle is good health-wise...
“Yeah, he should be fine.”
On evaluating players to play different sides of the ball in college than they did in high school...
“Yeah, what’s his temperament? Is he going to be able to deal with failure? Can he push through hard times when it’s not going right for him? There’s going to be a learning curve? What does he weigh, and what does he run?”
On Khamari Brooks...
“Got great work ethic. I think it’s still yet to be determined how ready he is. I think there’s a lot of guys that get battle-tested in practices. They’ll get battle-tested today. They got battle-tested in the first scrimmages to find out where they are. He missed some time in fall camp with an injury, and he fought back from that. He’s really just now coming back from that, so we’re trying to grow him and expedite his learning process so he can help us.”
On what it says about Tyson Helton that WKU has been as consistent a program as they have in modern college football...
“Yeah, it shows you they have a tremendous evaluation process. They’ve done a great job of developing players. I think it’s changed, and he’s changed with it, because they’ve had to dip into the portal and take more kids out of the portal, because more of theirs have moved on through the portal.”
On if they’ve had to fight more national teams in recruiting with NIL...
“Yeah, I think it’s moved that way over a 10-year trend. I can’t say that it’s more because of NIL. I think it’s more because of social media. These kids travel, they play more seven-on-seven. They know more kids across the country, so that trend was trending that way before NIL. NIL probably just sped it up even more.”
On Dante Dowdell...
“Yeah, I think our medical staff, they do a tremendous job. Connor (Norman) and Ryan (Madaleno) have been unbelievable with communication, talking to his family, talking to Shepherd Center in different places. And they’ve been with him every step of the way, along with Coach (Josh) Crawford in the running back room. They got to go over and visit him and see him in Atlanta, and reached out and have talked to him a lot. He’s been around the team some, and he knows what his priorities are right now, and that’s trying to get healthy.”
The benefits of having a game’s worth of film to look at...
“I think it’s helpful for them to assess, maybe effort, how they ran the ball, how they performed in a small window. Because nobody played more than 30 or 40 snaps, and assess where they need to go from here. Everybody talks about your greatest improvement from game one to game two. I don’t think that’s necessarily true, unless you make it true. And you have to learn lessons from that.“
On when Elyiss Williams’ physicality was first evident...
“Yeah, when he first got here. He’s never been shy from contact. You never know sometimes where guys are from, how much football they play. He played basketball, and he’s a tremendous athlete, but he was never afraid of the physicality from the time he got here. He’s gotten better at that, but it’s more technique-based than it was toughness-based.”
On Jeremy Bell...
“Well, he’s a kid that’s from our state. We comb the state for good football players. He was a tremendous athlete, a very rural area. And we’ve had several players from his school, and we have relationships there with coaches. So they reached out to us, and we pursued it, and he took advantage of an opportunity, and he continues to get better. He’s worked really hard, and he’s had some really good springs, and he’s getting better with each and every week. He still is, sometimes when you come from those areas, you’re not as polished as a receiver as a kid that played in some kind of system in high school. He was not fortunate enough to play in some elaborate passing scheme offense. He worked really hard at what he did, and he’s continued to hone his skills since being here.”
On Isiah Canion...
“Yeah, it’s hard to measure a lot in that small number of snaps sample he had. I go more off of the camp he had, right? And he’s tough, physical, works hard, plays fast. There’s things that he does really well, things that he’s here working to improve on. And we need him to have a big year to create matchups and stay healthy.”
