ATHENS — NFL teams had to trim their active rosters down to 53 on Sunday.
For Georgia and the rest of the SEC, rosters must be capped at 105 players by Friday.
And while there’s uncertainty with regard to whether LSU will add players to its team, Georgia coach Kirby Smart has a very clear understanding of where his roster sits.
“We’re set in what we’ve got,” Smart said confidently on the matter.
The Georgia coach didn’t just talk about the state of his roster ahead of Georgia’s season opener.
Smart, entering his 11th season, covered a number of topics on Monday.
Below is a full transcript of Smart’s remarks ahead of Georgia’s season-opening game against Tennessee State. The game is set for a 3 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart gives blunt answer on possible roster cuts
Opening statement...
Game week. Excited about game week. I know our players are ready to play someone other than beating up on ourselves in practice. Guys are excited. I know the fans are excited. I’m excited for this team to go out and play their first game. We’ve got to play somebody else to get better. That’s the stage we’re in. We had a really good camp. We had 20-21 practices. We’re in a really good spot to get better. We worked hard Friday, Saturday. Players had Sunday off. We’re getting to work on Tennessee State today, and they played a really tight exciting ball game, had a tough loss, played really well against Jackson State. We’ll prepare for these guys today.
On what to accomplish in game that can’t be accomplished in practice...
Coaches aren’t on the field. They’ve gotta go out and react to an opponent, somebody that you don’t always what they’re going to do, so you get to see a reaction of the players. You see growth, confidence, exposure to playing in front of fans. In my coaching history, there’s guys, nobody goes out and just does something phenomenal that they haven’t done in practice. What we see in practice, we see in games. But maybe the reaction to play they gave up or they get beat and how they respond to it is the response more than the actual event.
On Bo Walker’s offseason...
Bo’s got really good vision. He’s low to the ground. He’s hard to tackle. He runs physical. He protects physical. He’s a good football player. What he may lack in speed, he makes up in vision and quickness. He had a good camp.
On Drew Bobo, Gabe Harris health updates...
They’re great. They’ve taken every single rep. I don’t know what else to say other than they’re good to go.
On Nate Frazier’s growth...
Leadership in that room. I think he takes personal ownership in the energy. Those three guys all came in together, Chauncey, Dwight, him. He takes a lot of pride in having positive energy to affect them. Stamina, carrying the ball further down field, pass pro, pass receiving. He’s becoming a weapon catching the ball out of the backfield. That’s been a big focus for him. All in all, he’s worked really hard this camp.
On high temperatures in Week 1...
We’ve been in it. We’ve been in it more than we’ve been in it in years past. It’s been really one of the hottest camps we’ve measured in terms of practices we’ve practiced outside and practices we’ve practiced inside. We measure all the outside ones against previous camps. It stood out as probably the hottest camp we’ve had. I always worry about our players being acclimated to a game type atmopshere in that heat because you don’t play games a lot of times in it. We practiced in it. We did get to scrimmage in it. But I’ll be interested to see as much about as our players as I do our fans. Let’s see if they can handle it. See if you guys can handle it. You can get out of that air conditioning and be right here with us. See if y’all can handle 110 heat index and go up and down the field with 25 pounds of pads on. Think you’ll be all right? You wear all the equipment, I’ll give it to you. I’ll put your ass out there. You’ll be like these pro players coming back. Just slower. And older.
On Chase Linton’s development...
Chase is a great kid. What a great family he comes from. He works hard. He’s tough. He’s gotten better. He’s gotten better with every opportunity that he’s had. We’re excited to see him continue to grow.
On Tennessee State’s offense...
The quarterback does a great job. I’ll tell you what. He’s very smooth, hard to tackle, gets out of trouble, very efficient passer. I thought he played with a lot of moxie and confidence the other night. You can just see he understands what they’re trying to do offensively and executes well. He’s a transfer guy that’s played well and he’ll have an opportunity to come out and play against us.
On competitive character of this team...
I think competitive character is yet to be completely shown. We’ve seen it, and we’ve been privy to watch the guys compete against each other. Some handle that better than others. They’re going against a formidable opponent every day they go out there. I enjoy watching them compete against each other. All the things they’ve done so far leave me no doubt that they will go out and respond in game-type situations.
On interior defensive line group...
Work hard as a group. They’re a very by-committee group. They bust their butt every day in practice. They compete. They go against a big, physical offensive line. We’ve got a few more twitchy guys with JJ sliding in and playing a little more time inside. We’ve got the size with Nnamdi in there and Nasir Johnson playing. Both those guys have been good at run-stopping for us. What we need is the twitch, the athleticism that EG [Elijah Griffin] and some of those guys to make us a better pass rush.
On Justin Williams’ recruitment and development...
Well, No. 1, he was an extremely high-character kid from the first time we met him. I remember he came to a junior day and was all-in on the junior day. Every competition we had, he was the front of the line. He was smiling, laughing, meeting other recruits. He felt like a ball of energy. That’s carried over into his play. He plays really hard. He plays with a lot of passion and energy. He leads that way. There’s not something that we do as a team that he’s not right at the front of the line. He and Chris have the same personality in terms of they find joy in whatever they’re doing. I appreciate that from Justin. He got a lot of opportunities to play last year. He’s going to get more opportunities to play, and he needs to play well, tackle well. He plays fast. He plays physical. His big thing has been maintaining his weight, being able to keep his weight on him.
On Tennessee State defense...
They’re really a group that knows how to play blocks, strike blocks. They gave up a couple explosives early in the game and then went back-and-forth for a couple quarters there with those guys. They do a tremendous job. I know defensive guys there, seeing guys on their staff, they’re going to play hard. They’re going to play physical. This is an opportunity for their kids to play on an even bigger stage. They just got to play in Vanderbilt’s stadium. They played on TV at night. They’re going to have an opportunity to come in here and play in our place.
On how technology has changed the way you condition players...
You just listen to the numbers. We have people assigned that are experts at that. I’m not. They bring the data to me daily and look through it if somebody hasn’t hit a max velocity in a while. We look into it. We try to hit max velocities one time a week and make sure players are still running fast. Ultimately to maintain speed and prevent
injury, you’ve got to run fast. So we look at the data that comes in each day. We try to have a plan each week of how we’re going to utilize it. If guys are struggling then we cut them back.
On wide receivers in Week 1....
Execution. I don’t know why I’d want to see anything different out of them than I’d want to see out of the quarterbacks, the defensive backs. Superior position play. Be the guy that executes better than the guy you’re across from. Tight end, kicker, any position we’ve got. Defensively, outside linebacker. I want all those guys to perform at a high level and do it regardless of who the opponent is. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is. Our opponent is ourselves and that’s pretty much going to be the case every week. Wideouts are no different.
On getting down to the 105 number...
No I don’t know so much of what you’re talking about. We don’t have to get to a 105. We’re at 105. We have over 105. We have DSAs. We’re not making roster cuts or anything like that.
On getting young players ready in early games...
They’re valuable. But I put value in the scrimmages, so I don’t know that I can say any game rep is more valuable than the first two scrimmage reps we’ve had. We certainly prepare differently for them because we’re not tapering off going into the scrimmages. We’ll taper off going into this game. I put value on everything we do and try to put them in game-like situations because game-like situations matter. I don’t want to devalue what we’ve done or devalue what we’re going to do in this game. They just need reps, and I’ve come to the conclusion that every freshman needs a certain number of time, and every freshman is different. One freshman might be three reps. Another freshman might be 1300 reps. I don’t know what that is. I know we’ve got to get to that number to get them in a position where they can help our team.
On special teams unit, especially Drew Miller...
Drew, you guys now, he’s punted. It’s not like it’s his first time going out to punt. I think people forget that. He’s had a really good. He’s had some good matching distance and hang time, which is important to us, not outkicking his coverage, doing the sky kicks. He’s getting pushed by Wade, so he’s got a challenge. He’s got competition, and I’ve enjoyed watching those two go at it. Peyton’s had a good camp. Harran’s had a good camp. Snapping, Snelling’s done a good job. It’s in good hands considering what we lost. We lost some guys there. In the return game, we’ll find out more details this week about where we go from there.
On Dillon Bell, Brett Thorson making 53-man rosters...
I think it happens all over the league. I’d have to have somebody tell me the numbers on that, how many UDFAs made it. It does happen. It happens from here a lot because I think they know how to practice. Dillon reached out yesterday and thanked our staff for how hard we pushed him and how we challenged him. We felt like it came down to his versatility and things he can do as a wideout, but also his special teams value. They went after him because we told them that’s what he was. He has great special teams value. He can do everything on special teams because he’s built like a running back, runs like a receiver and has great ball skills. I think anytime you look. As far as the kickers and specialists themselves, typically those are not drafted positions. Here in the last years, a few have been picked. As good as our guys have been, not many have been picked. But they make teams and make rosters. You’ve got to be one of the best 32 in the world to make a team, and Thor’s proven that, so I’m happy for him.
On Ekene Ogboko’s growth...
He’s come a long way. He’s looked better. He’s added some weight. The conditioning part and the level of play and how many snaps he can play, we’ll find out. We hope to be able to get him in there to play some and get better. The only way he’s going to be able to get better at this point is to play some. But he goes against good guys every day. He is an extremely hard worker who takes pride in his performance. Traditionally, the people who are extremely hard workers and they take pride in their performance, they are successful. So if you want a remedy for success, be a hard worker who takes pride in his performance. He does that.
On NFL affecting roster decisions...
I really don’t even know what you’re asking. I’m confused by what you’re asking. We’re set in what we’ve got.
On players play multiple spots on offensive line...
Yeah, we’ve got a lot of guys who are going to play multiple spots. Basically every offensive lineman plays two spots. Some play three, some play five, but every one of them has to play two. Otherwise, we can’t have enough backups. We’ll probably have 9-10 guys that I hope can play winning football. We do year-in and year-out. We probably sit on a bubble of 7 or 8 right now. Depends on who you’re playing if you can play 9-10. It depends how you’re playing. But some are better than other in run game. Some are better than others at pass game. We’re trying to get them best at both, but there will be multiple guys playing multiple positions Saturday because they have to.
On Elyiss Williams’ fall...
Really hard worker, man. He’s as physical of a blocker as maybe I’ve seen in my career coaching for a tight end. He strains. He strains to block you. He enjoys the physicality of what he does. He has really improved as a pass-catcher. He’s improved as a run-after-catch guy. But to do what he does without compliant or even about his individual numbers, he just works. The guy works. Whether it’s in the run game or the pass-protection game or the passing game, I’ve been really pleased with his effort. Really the tight end room as a whole. Everybody knows that’s a strength, but it’s the attitude and love for each other that makes them different
On Ethan Barbour’s nastiness...
He’s tough. He’s physical. To come back from that injury that he came back from and to even come back in the same season was incredible, that he fought really hard to make it back and came back with the same, there was no timidness. There was no scared of contact after he got rolled up on before. He’s proven that again. He and Elyiss are physical and not afraid of contact. Different in different ways, but the other guys in the room complement them. They’ve worked really hard. They’re an asset to our team. I’m proud of Ethan’s work ethic and really his leadership.
