UGA coach Kirby Smart met with the media on Wednesday to review UGA’s 2016 recruiting class. Here’s the transcript:

Opening Statement

“Just wanted to open up by saying thanks to the president, President (Jere W.) Morehead and (J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics) Greg McGarity and the athletic department staff and the faculty on campus. A lot of people gave a lot of help and had a hand in helping us out, especially with the short turnaround to get ready for this day.

“I want to thank our players, who I’m looking forward to getting more hands on with those guys, getting with them. They’ve done a great job to the prospects who have come in on the visits to help sell the program. A lot of them were tough on our players because they don’t know our staff that well. Obviously, the six mid-year enrollees were critical for us to have a successful class because they could sell us as a staff probably better than our older players could. Our six mid-years kind of held the glue. Keeping Jacob (Eason) a part of this class was critical — showed momentum, showed confidence in our program and the University of Georgia. Coach (Jim) Chaney keeping him involved, and then obviously them blending with our current players in the recruiting process helped a lot.

“Today, for you guys, may be about stars and rankings. To me it’s about new Bulldogs, new members of the family and making sure these kids understand what’s important to their success is graduating and becoming great players and becoming productive players as a whole. That’s what this class will be judged on. How productive are they four years from now? Then walking across that stage and getting that diploma. I’m excited currently, not only about the class and filling some needs that we needed, but also about now it’s time to move on and developing the players that are here and getting a relationship with them and getting in the offseason conditioning program. With those comments I’ll open it up for questions.”

On the number of players in this 2016 class…

“It’s always hard to say at this point. You’d like to get a few more, add a few more. We’re not in desperation mode by any means. I’m not in a hurry, I’m not in panic mode. I’m completely comfortable if we end up anywhere from 18, 19, 20, 21 – anywhere in there, I’m good with that. We’re not going to rush off and make any reaches. I think it’s important in your first year to have those.To have those spots available for next year when you get a full recruiting cycle – I’ve talked to a lot of guys that have been in a similar situation I’ve been in. A mistake they made was to try to fill holes, fill spots, and when you do that you hurt next year’s signing class, which I anticipate being one of our better ones because it’s our first full recruiting cycle.”

On the importance of getting in-state recruits to UGA…

“You look at the production of players in the NFL, per capita the state of Georgia is very talented. I was at a Macon event yesterday, a state champions for the region winners (conference). When you look at it, the quality of coaching the kids get, the programs in the state of Georgia are really, really good. When you look at all the rosters in the SEC, that’s the one common theme is every team in the SEC is coming to the state of Georgia to get players. It’s critical for us to be successful to get good players out of our state. To say you’ll get them all, I don’t think that’s realistic. It’s a state that’s attacked by so many because it’s got Atlanta and it’s got a network to get out and go to the other places. Obviously, it’s important to us, critical to our success. There’ll be needs we’ll have each year that we won’t be able to fill in our state. So, it’s not to say that we’ll only recruit in our state. We’ve got to go out to Florida. We’ve got to go out to North Carolina. We’ve got to go out to other areas and get needs. Just like our quarterback (Jacob Eason), you’ve got to find what you need and try to fill voids there.”

On the difficulty of holding on to the early enrollees…

“I’d say it’s challenging. Of those six, thinking back, I knew and had a relationship with all of them except for Jacob (Eason). Five of the six I had either met, seen in recruiting, knew from the summer, they had come to our camp at the University of Alabama. So they had some relationship with me and they knew of me. That helped to have somewhat of a bond there. Those guys, it’s also a bit of a credit to the rest of the staff that remained, the guys that were here already and that stayed. They had a lot of relationships in the building with guys from coming over here a lot. That helped tremendously. Going in those home visits, it’s a little awkward at first. You’re trying to sell yourself and sell the program, which is easy to sell here at UGA. I think those six staying in place gave confidence to the rest of the class that everything’s good, everything’s going to be OK.”

On his impression of Jacob Eason’s acclimation to college…

“That’s a hard question because I haven’t been on campus any. I’ve been out recruiting, flying around in the helicopters, doing all the bits trying to recruit. Obviously, I’d been communicating with Jacob. We’ve had some academic meetings. We’re catching up to speed now. He’s acclimated well, doing a good job in the classroom. We’re holding him to a high expectation as a leader on this team.”

On addressing size along the offensive and defensive lines…

“I would definitely say that getting bigger is a goal of ours. We want to get bigger up front on both sides of the ball. I would say we’ve most certainly addressed that on the defensive line. I think when you go to the offensive line, it’s not exactly what we want. We want some offensive tackles. If you say what’s the number one need going into 2017? It’s offensive tackles is what we need. That’s the most deficient area on our front. I think if you combed the country and asked every SEC coach he’s going to say we’re most deficient at offensive tackle. It’s the rarest find. You want a 6-5, 6-6 kid. They don’t grow on trees. Those guys are just difference makers. You’ve got to try to target them early and a lot of those relationships are already established. They’re being established now with 2017s and 2018s. When you come in, that’s one of the toughest positions to recover at and that’s one of the toughest positions to have that one-on-one relationship that your o-line and your head coach want to have with players. That’s probably the area I’d say if we’re most disappointed in it’s on the offensive line. We’ve got to improve the offensive line. I’m very pleased with where we are on the defensive line. We’ve got some good young players and we’re trying to continue that.  A lot of times if you can just recruit size and good football players you leave yourself open to other areas on the offensive line.”

On managing expectations with Jacob Eason…

“Some of it came up during recruiting that the pressure’s not on Jacob, the pressure’s on me. I’m the first-year head coach. The pressure is on me and Coach (Jim) Chaney to protect him. There’s no pressure on him, no expectations on him. He’s a kid coming out of high school for mid-year (enrollment). He’s going to have 15 practices, he’s going to have 27, 28 practices in the fall to get him ready and prepare him. We’ve got to put him in good situations and we’ve got to be able to run the ball if he’s the guy. We don’t want him coming in and thinking he’s got to win the job. There’s some other guys here too that played some football last year. We’ve got to find what the best remedy for our offense is. That’ll be very important in spring practice. To say that it all falls on Jacob, I don’t think that’s the case. I would rather take that burden myself.”

On having to recruit against Alabama…

“As far as Alabama, I don’t think you look at it as head-to-head. I think you look at it as a relationship with the kid. I certainly think they look at it the same way. They’ve got relationships with the kids they signed, we’ve got relationships with the kids we signed. We’ve both got great things to sell. The University of Georgia is a great place. When I go see a kid, I sell the University of Georgia, our program, our development, what we can do. That’s enough in and of itself, which proved true on several kids in the state.”

On what’s next for the staff…

“Get our hands on our players. Get into the offseason conditioning program and get around them. We can start some meetings on some football stuff. As a staff, we’re starting some on quality control next week. I’m really looking forward to that. That’s the part that I enjoy most, the relationship with the players, not the chasing and not the recruiting part as much as the guys that are here, building a trust and bond with them and convincing them that the core of our team next year is on this campus. We’ve got to develop that so that we can be a good, productive football team next year.”

On whether he upgraded depth of talent on the perimeter…

“I certainly hope so. I think the experts could say, but I don’t think anybody knows. I really don’t. I don’t think you ever know until you get them out there and you get around them. Obviously Tyler (Simmons) is a track kid that can really run. We think he’s an explosive playmaker. Where Mecole (Hardman) ends up, who knows. He wants to play DB, but who’s to say he can’t touch the ball some type of way. He’s done a great job of that throughout his high school career. Javon Wims gives us size that we didn’t have. He’s made a lot of plays at a probably more competitive level than the other kids we’ve signed, being that he’s a junior college kid. It makes it good for us. Then you’ve got Riley Ridley who competed at the highest level down there in Miami against really good players. I got to see him first-hand in camp this summer and know what kind of competitive fibers he’s made out of. He’ll compete and fight you for balls.  Let’s hope that they at least increase the competition in that room. If you increase competition sometimes you increase production, and that’s what we’re hoping.”

On the assistant coaches…

“I can’t thank these guys enough. I told the staff upstairs no matter how this thing ends, no matter what happens in the next two, three, four hours, I couldn’t be prouder of the effort that guys put forward. The weekends, the demands that they put on their families – a lot of them are a long way away from their wives and kids. They grind, they got kids in here, pushed themselves over the weekend. Spent a lot of time with these kids and families. I’m really pleased with the staff I was able to assemble – not only the nine full time guys, but the support staff. Where everybody is involved in recruiting, everybody develops relationships – it made me feel better when I went out into the homes.  Even kids we didn’t get said ‘Coach, you did such a fabulous job on our official visit weekends. I felt important, I felt like I got individual time with everybody.’ That, to me, makes me feel good when you talk to people and they know you’re doing it right and you’re doing it the right way. Our staff did a great job of that. We’re going to continue to look at it, improve it, and find out what we can do better.”

On recruiting against Nick Saban…

“I don’t recruit against Nick Saban. I recruit for the University of Georgia. I’ve been with him for him for nine years, and I know he does the same. That’s why I have the utmost respect for him. It’s never about him or about me. It’s about the University of Georgia or about his university. To me it was never a personal thing. I’ve been with him, I know how he recruits. I’m not going to sit there and attack him and his character when he’s got four out of the last however many national championships. I don’t think that’s the way (to recruit). You sell what you have. You sell your strongest points. I think that’s what we sold in recruiting. It was never an attack on him because I know he’s not going to do that to us.”

On Mecole Hardman…

“The kid’s got an unbelievable personality. All of you guys in the room that have ever met him or know him, you know that he’s got an infectious personalty. He affects everyone around him. To me that’s one of the critical aspects on your team is can  you positively affect each kid each day. To me that’s one of the great things about him. He’s going to bring about a competitive attitude on the field. He’s going to come in here and challenge for a job. But he’s got to develop his body. He’s got to lift and work out and get stronger to compete at the SEC level. You can’t tell him that he’s not ready, because he believes he’s ready. He’s got confidence. He’s special with the ball in his hands. He wants to develop as a DB. I think the marriage between he and Coach (Mel) Tucker is critical, because Coach Tucker is a great developer of DBs and can teach Mecole a lot of things that he needs to learn as far as defensive back. He is special with the ball in his hands. When you go across the state and you talk to the high school coaches, a lot of people talk about his ability to affect the game. Tyler (Simmons) gives you that in a lot of ways too. When you look at Jim Chaney’s history, he’s got a history of really being able to use guys like those guys. It made it a good sell for us.”

On signing a punter and his thoughts on the kicking kicking game…

“Scared to death is what it is (laughter). The decision on the punter was, in my history, I found that you can find more quality kickers through the walk on route than you can quality punters. After sitting down, sharing ideas, talking to people in the NFL and people who have experience at the college level – as a staff, we felt like it was going to be harder to manufacture punting than it would be the field goal and the place kicking. Obviously we felt like it was the right route to go ahead and offer a punter that thought was very reputable and does a great job and is held in high regard across the country as punters go. We feel like he can fill a void. He can fill a void for four years and be a good one. At field goal kicker, we want to find out what we have here in the spring. We really don’t know as a staff exactly what we’ve got. We’ll find that out in the spring. We’re going to try to get some kids in here whether it’s by way of transfer or by way of walk-on. We’re going to try to get the best kickers we can to try to make that a competitive environment and improve the kicking game and essentially find a guy that can be the field goal kicker for us. It’s a little scary coming in, especially for (special teams coach) Shane (Beamer), he’s going ‘wait a second, we don’t have a punter, we don’t have a returning snapper that started and we don’t have a field goal kicker.’ That’s a little overwhelming but we didn’t want to commit a scholarship to a kicker as of now. We’ll see how that goes.”

On helping recruits adapt to smaller roles than they’re used to in high school…

“It’s a tough adjustment for all kids. I don’t know if it’s exactly right, but my theory is kids that commit early and focus on getting ready to play have been a lot more successful their first year than kids who wait until the end to decide. There’s been a big difference because the focus for the kids who have committed is getting ready. The focus for the other guys is how am I going to make this decision and how am I going to make a big splash and how am I going to trick people? To me, the guys that get that down early and focus on what they’ve got to do to grind and play and they see it, they usually have a little more success because it’s less of a ‘de-recruiting’ process for them. We obviously want every freshman to contribute. We obviously know that every freshman probably won’t be able to contribute. A lot of that will be dictated by fall camp, the way things play out for us. Injuries have a lot to do with that. Physical development in the SEC is a great challenge. But if you’re going to play as a freshman, it usually comes easier at skill positions than it does at the o-line or d-line because the physical development is so different.”

On filling the support staff…

“The support staff is a continual process. It’s not something that’s just ‘alright we’re going to be done by this date.’ A lot of places want to get through signing day so guys can then move after signing day, hold their spots. We have more support staff to hire. That’s kind of next on the agenda. Some of those issues were not pressing for recruiting. The time dedication for me in the last two or three weeks was all in on recruiting. Now the time dedication moves to our team and getting our team better, which includes some of the support staff roles. We’ll have some more to hire. Specifically which ones I can’t tell you that right now. But we’re going to have a few more guys come on board in the next few weeks.”

On Charlie Woerner…

“This kid commits early, there’s no drama there. He decides to come to UGA. In my past, at the University of Alabama, we watched this kid for a long time. He’s a talented kid. What exactly is he? He’s a utility player that can do a lot of things. He’s 245 on his visit here, he’s getting bigger, he runs track. He’s played defense, he’s played offense. He’s not a guy that’s coming in and looking for the high profile situation. All he wants to do is come in and play and compete. I’m excited because, having gone against Jim Chaney’s offense, I know the way he uses players like that. I watched him do that with Hunter Henry, I watched him do that with guys at Tennessee. He’ll find ways to get the guy the ball and put him in unique situations for his body size and matchup. We’re obviously excited about Charlie.”

On his adjustment to head coach…

“To me it’s the time constraints, trying to manage the situation I was in, dealing with the whole recruiting process, hiring of staff, trying to win a national championship and contribute to the players that I had. We’ve kind of been there, done that, we’ve been over it. The last two weeks have been a blessing in disguise because I get to go out and do what I love to do and go recruit and see all of the relationships that I’ve had over the years and all the people that say ‘hey man, you’ve done it the right way, you were patient.’ You see all your mentors, all the people that I’ve had a relationship with through my dad. That meant more to me and going out to try to sign the kids. I was comfortable with that. As far as the work hours and the demands and the stress level, I think it was a great start to be doing all of that at once. Now it feels like it’s easing off because you had the pedal to the metal to start out. It was a challenge to do all of that early on.”

On flipping recruits’ commitments…

“Recruiting is a constant process. If a kid is committed to you, you are the target. He’s not committed to you, you are the target and you have to know that. Every one of the kids who committed to us, you’ve got to stay on the phone with, continue to talk to. People don’t see the commitment as it’s over. Until a guardian or a kid says ‘It’s done, that’s it, I’m done talking.’ A lot of those kids that you’re talking about, I had a relationship with or a personal relationship with for the last three or four years. That relationship was close enough and the opportunity I was allowed to get them to come to a great university and sell this place as a great academic institution, a place for life after football, that kind of won those kids over. To me it’s more about selling the University of Georgia to the kids. We did that with all kids. You’re going to strike out 10 times to get one guy, two guys. That’s just the law of averages. Those were just the two that hit that there was a good relationship there. There were a lot of other kids that we attempted but didn’t get.”

On the ability to retain commitments…

“A lot of it is they’re solid-character kids that they don’t want to change. They wanted to come to Georgia. Staying on top of them, we’re relentless with our coaches. Have you talked to everybody? Have you talked to every kid today to make sure there’s no problem? The big thing there is having the relationship. It’s not like it was an overnight flip. It was a continual process of hammering away for a month that there was a relationship there.”

–– Transcript courtesy of UGA sports infornmation