ATHENS — Kirby Smart didn’t hold back when he was asked about the transfer portal.
The Georgia coach was asked about how he manages that potential distraction as the Bulldogs focus on their upcoming College Football Playoff game.
“How about you announce that you’re getting better and you’re going to practice and, like, actually do what the 20 and 30 years of college football players did before you, which was practice in December when they’re on good teams, and get better,” Smart said.
“Because if you’re going to play somewhere else, you know what you need to do? You need to get better. If you’re going to play here, you know what you need to do? You need to get better. If you want to go to the National Football League and play, this is your last chance to get better because they’re not going to give you much opportunity.”
To date, Georgia has lost two players to the transfer portal in tight end Pearce Spurlin and cornerback Daniel Harris.
The transfer portal was not the only topic on Smart’s mind on Monday, as the Georgia touched on a number of issues ahead of the College Football Playoff game against Ole Miss.
Below is a full transcript of Smart’s remarks.
Kirby Smart goes off on transfer portal: ‘How about you announce that you’re getting better’
Opening statement
“Our practices we’ve had leading up to finding out who our opponent is, and we did a good job of prepping before. Our coaches did a tremendous job of looking through college football, finding different ideas, people that are doing things well in different areas. Studied some different teams and got to look at teams that are doing well in their specific areas, so I thought that time was good for us. I thought it was really good for our young players. We had a lot of reps and a lot of work on young players developing. Some guys are going to have to step up and be able to play for us. We’ve got recovery. We’ve got a lot of recovery and getting healthy and trying to get guys back.
“I know you guys will have a lot of questions for injuries and things. I’m not going to be able to answer all of them because I still don’t know. We’re still 10, 9-10 days away, trying to get guys back and had a good spirited practice this morning. Guys are excited to know who we’re playing, and I think that’s always important once you get the opponent defined to start that prep and getting ready. So with that, I’ll open it up.”
On Dontrell Glover and Bo Walker discipline...
“Yeah, both those guys, disappointed in their decision-making. We always say decision-making is a skill, and they made poor decisions. They paid a consequence for that, and they’re continuing to pay a consequence for that, and they’ll finish up their consequences for that. So I hope both of them make better decisions in the future.”
On Gabe Harris availability...
“Yeah, Gabe’s a wrecker, man. He wrecks things. He’s tough, physical, relentless. He’s been a force with our defense, and he’s one of those guys that doesn’t question things. He just gets out there and works, competes, and gets better, and I’m really proud of the improvement he’s made for our defense.”
On Gabe Harris turf toe...
“Yeah, he’s dealing with a little bit of a turf toe, and we’re hoping to have him available.”
On Lane Kiffin’s absence changing things...
“The offensive coordinator and the staff is still all there. So, I mean, they’re not going to make overhaul or make large changes, right? They got something that really works well. They got a really high-powered, explosive, great wideouts, really good tight end, one of the best backs in the country, arguably the quarterback that may be playing the best in the country, in terms of his ability to make throws in all areas. I mean, the guy’s elite. He’s elite last time he played him. He’s just as elite or more elite now because he’s gotten more experience and more confidence. So, they’re playing at a really high level offensively, and, I mean, Lane has something to do with that because he helped build it and get them there, but Charlie’s done a tremendous job calling the plays and doing those things.”
On Dan Lanning playing simulated game in stadium...
“Yeah, we’ve done the same thing, done simulated games and done situational football, whether that’s two-minute end-of-half, four-minute offense, red area, all the different situations you have and trying to make them more game-like with the anxiety, the crowd noise, the atmosphere, the matchups, and try to go good-on-good to keep crisp. But at the end of the day, all those simulations are not real games, and anybody that tells you they’ve got it figured out probably hasn’t been coached long enough to know that it’s a lot more about how you play than how you practice leading up to it. You just do the best job you can and try to prepare them.”
On how important the layoff has been for recovery in the midst of a long season...
“Yeah, I think it’s been good. You have to make it a positive by how you handle it. The positive is the mental practice you get, the recovery you get, the extra lifts you get. The negative is when you’re playing good football, a lot of times you want to keep playing. You want to stay in rhythm, you want to stay in a weekly schedule. That schedule gets thrown off by the break because you get players taking final exams. We gave the players more time off in terms of before they came back and really started grinding. So you do the best you can with the calendar you have. You try to talk to other people and find out what the best way to do things is. But I’m excited about where our team is. I’m excited that they’re practicing the way they are, and they’re excited about the opponent because they have so much respect for the team we have to play.”
On the health status for Colbie Young and Drew Bobo...
“Yeah, I’m optimistic we get all those guys back…. We’re hopeful to get those guys back and get them back recovered, get them going. They’re good football players, and they’re going to help us. We’re hopeful to get a lot of those guys back, and we’ve got guys dinged up from the practices we’ve had, too."
On the balance of showing new wrinkles vs. sticking with what works in a rematch...
“Yeah, I think as we talked about with Alabama, it’s really overrated in terms of rematches and things like that. I think it’s, how you play defines what the outcome of the game is. Your ability to be explosive, not turn the ball over, win situational football, the middle eight. There’s all kinds of things in that thing to figure it out, and it really has very little to do with the time before you played them. I mean, everybody’s going to watch the time before you played them, because you’ve got to look at the matchups. But I don’t think either team is exactly the same. Both teams have evolved some, and everybody will have new wrinkles. That’s what you do during this time.”
On how the fourth quarter against Ole Miss set the defense up for his play since then...
“I don’t even remember the sequence of games after that, so I do think that those stops were huge for us from a confidence standpoint, but there’s a lot of the game that there weren’t stops. And they do a really good job. They’re hard to stop. They’re explosive for a reason. They have good players, they have good tempo, they have good schemes, and the quarterback makes things go and so does the back.
“So I don’t know if that was the moment that kick-started us to improvement on defense because I don’t remember the exact games after that, but we have played better down the stretch defensively.”
On meeting with guys about their future...
“No, I mean, we’re focused on this team. I think it would be remiss to say that we’re focused on roster management. We’re not focused on it. We’re focused on prep and getting better, and for a while it’s been, like, intrinsically looking at ourself and asking each player, ‘Did you come here to develop? Did you truly come here to develop because if you did — all your buddies are out there right now. Everybody’s announcing what they’re doing. I’m announcing that I’m going in the portal. I’m announcing that I’m re-signing. How about you announce that you’re getting better and you’re going to practice and, like, actually do what the 20 and 30 years of college football players did before you, which was practice in December when they’re on good teams, and get better?
“Because if you’re going to play somewhere else, you know what you need to do? You need to get better. If you’re going to play here, you know what you need to do? You need to get better. If you want to go to the National Football League and play, this is your last chance to get better because they’re not going to give you much opportunity. They’re going to cut you or keep you based on how you do. They don’t get to practice in pads in so many days. So development occurs in December for us, and that’s what we’ve been focused on.
On any changes the second time around going to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans...
“As far as changes going to New Orleans, there hasn’t been a tremendous amount of change. I mean, we don’t think that we did anything wrong in the prep last year. We didn’t necessarily play a great game, but we also played a really good football team, extremely talented defense, and we’ve got to play better. We had a block of middle eight where we played really poorly, but I don’t think there was anything wrong with our prep. I think it has to do with when you play a quality team — it’s like in the SEC. Every game we play in the SEC is tight, and so when you play in the playoff you’re going to play a good team. We trust the prep we have. We trust the rest and recovery we’ve had, and we’re going to trust the plan we have to go out there and play at a high level."
On if he knew Will Muschamp was interested in coming back to coach full-time and Muschamp going to Texas...
“Oh, I’m so happy for him. He loves coaching. He loved coaching when he was here. It was hard for him to step away, and he felt like he needed to, and I had so much respect for him. And, shoot, he helped us replace him with the guys we got, and he helped us tremendously in that role. He helped us tremendously this year throughout the year. And he’s been really good to me personally, and he’s been great to Georgia, and he’s been really good to a lot of players that he’s recruited.
“When he had an opportunity to jump back in, I know he loves it. I think he missed it dearly. He talked to his family about it, his wife and his boys, and they all supported him. And he’s going to a great place to work for a great man. There’s not many better opportunities out there to go coach and play than a place like Texas where you’ve got a lot of infrastructure in place to help you. So wish him nothing but the best.”
On the job Mike Bobo has done...
“Well, you know, you take over with the number of guys we lost. I think we had four O-linemen make NFL rosters. He had to replace four O-linemen, basically a new quarterback situation outside of the end of last year. You know, really an entire new backfield because (Trevor) Etienne was our leading guy last year and replacing a lot of really good wideouts. I think he’s done a tremendous job. I think he would give a lot of credit to his staff. And what he’s done with our offense where we’re not a stat-padded, you know, hurry up, take a lot of snaps, get a lot of plays. I mean, he doesn’t chase numbers. Look at what they’ve done in the red area. It’s been incredible. The ability to run the ball has been really, really well. And I think he’s a credit for that because he puts the game plan together. He has to decide ultimately what’s in. He has to decide what’s called. And he’s done that with a really tough schedule and two freshman O-linemen and a lot of O-linemen out that have been injured in and out. So I’m really pleased and proud of what he’s done.”
On Joenel Aguero and Rasean Dinkins...
“Yeah, Joenel’s with us every day. He’s trying to get healthy and get better and make himself available. Dink’s gotten a lot of reps. Jaden’s (Harris) gotten a lot of reps with his absences. We’ve rolled some guys through there. But it’s always great to get more reps. You know, Dink’s repped all year. All our kids practice every day. I don’t know, sometimes we think that, you know, it’s like they have to go out there and play without having practiced. They get lots of reps. And he’s growing up and getting better.”
On if last year’s College Football Playoff experience made Georgia better...
“Yeah. I can’t say we’re better for having gone through it. I mean, would we be better if we won that game? Would we be as motivated as we won that game? I don’t know that. I think the two teams are very different. I think we’re a different leadership group, different team. It’s been a different kind of team all year and not in a good or bad way reflected on last year. So we’ve been there before, but a lot of these kids weren’t there. Some of them were. I think the two years are independent of each other, just like this game will be independent of the game against Ole Miss previously.”
