ATHENS — It wasn’t always pretty on Saturday, but for the 26th time in a row, the Georgia Bulldogs came away with a win.
The Bulldogs scored on their first four drives of the second half while Naz Stackhouse and Javon Bullard came down with second-half interceptions in the 30-21 win.
After the game Georgia coach Kirby Smart provided an update on a number of aspects following the win.
OPENING STATEMENT...
“First off, I’m really proud of our players. I think that we’ve built a group of men and a team that knows how to play with resiliency and composure. Really, we talked all week about having discipline to execute in crunch times, and they did that. They had discipline. I thought that our first three points came on them jumping offsides, and our kids were disciplined enough to stay onsides and we stole a drive there.
Give Missouri a lot of credit. I think Eli does a great job. Man, that team’s hard to play. They’ve got a — I count him as a three-year starting quarterback. I don’t know if that’s exactly right, but he played against us here three years ago. And they’ve got tremendous skill and great size on the defensive line.
Our kids played really hard. The difference in the game was probably kicking game this time, and Woodring coming through and Mews’ returns and some critical red-area stops. That’s what games come down to. You know, he actually said it during the week: third down and red area we would look back on as being major, critical spots. They played well in the red area defensively, and we played well in the red area defensively.
Great team, great game. It’s what the SEC’s all about. Our reward is we get to do it again next week. It’s what the life in the SEC is. With that, I’ll open it up.”
On Nazir Stackhouse’s INT...
“Huge. Biggest play of the game. It was slow motion. We told him after the game he had to get his piano off his back. He said he took out and he just knew he was going to score, and he didn’t realize how far he had to run. He was out of breath about halfway.
I thought Jalon Walker did a great job — just a great example of having discipline to not block somebody or clip somebody in the back. I thought he did a great job there.”
On Peyton Woodring’s fourth-quarter FG to make it a 9-point game...
“Yeah, it shows we have a lot of faith of him and trust in him. I think the toughest call I had all night was the fourth-and-5, you know? There’s a lot of analytics that will tell you not to kick that field because a six-point differential just tells them that they get four downs and you just invited them to have four. But I thought there was a chance that we might have another chance at a field goal. Three and three would’ve made 9, but if we don’t hit the field goal or we hit it and they go down and score it’s certainly a tough situation. You’ve got to have confidence in the rest of your team they can stop them. We got about half of that third down back, and there was a consideration there on fourth-and-5 to go for it, but because of Peyton and what he’s been able to do we kicked it.”
On Kamari Lassiter covering the slot...
“Well, Kamari’s a talented football player, and when he first got here as a freshman we had times that we worked him in the slot and we cross-trained him because he’s a matchup, really physical tackler, really tough guy. As we watched him during the week, we felt like we needed to have a weapon and some answers in the slot. To do that, you’ve got to have guys that go out from outside.
And, you know, Daylen and Julian had to go out there and play, and you know, they made some good plays. They had some really close PI’s that were tough calls, and they had some really tough back-shoulder throws. when you take Kamari off that boundary spot, you open yourself to those things.
We think we have good corners that can play, and Kamari allows us — we’re lucky that we have defensive players versatile enough to try to match up to some things they do.”
On this team making plays to win tight games...
“They believe in our system. We have built a culture of competitive edge in the fourth quarter, and we believe that we’re the best conditioned team that’s going to win games in the fourth quarter. We’re going to align with each other. I got goose bumps going down my back when they went down and scored and Sedrick Van Pran was yelling at the defense to run off the field. ‘We got your back. We got your back. We’re going to be fine.’ Missouri put together a really good drive, kind of drove the ball right down our throat and hit us on a lot of fast ball runs. Sed was telling those guys to jog off and that we were going to be fine. There’s a lot of leadership out there, some really positive leaders.”
On if the locker room seems the same in tight games...
“All games are going to be tight. Y’all are acting like we’re having tight games. Tight games are what you do in the SEC. The margin of victory, it’s hard to win. Kearis (Jackson) and Broderick (Jones) just came up to me and said, ‘Coach, it’s hard to win. Make sure these guys enjoy it,’ because they realize how hard it is across the NFL. It’s hard. You’re going to get every team’s best shot. I thought our guys played a really good football team tonight, and we practiced and prepared for it. I was proud of the way they played. The locker room is great. They’ve been in these kind of battles.”
On second-half offense and what changed...
“I don’t know. I’ll have to watch it to tell you what changed. I couldn’t really tell you what changed. I know we have a potent offense with a lot of guys that we can use and a guy that can get it to them. We’ve got good pass protectors, good run blockers. I didn’t really feel like we ran the ball overly well in the first or the second half. Now, the second half had some moments. You’ve got to be able to control the line of scrimmage. You can’t live life in second and long all game. I thought we had a lot of second and longs. They won first down more than we did. I thought Mike did a good job staying with it, sticking with the plan. We were very committed to the run when most teams would have abandoned it.”
On Carson’s scrambling...
“It’s hard. Look at us. Their quarterback was probably the leading rusher in the first half. It’s hard on a defense when you cover everybody and he takes off. Their guy made it hard, and our guy made it hard on them. The conversions he had with his feet, it makes you as a defensive coordinator not want to call certain things. It takes you out of your element.”
On what Carson has shown him this year...
“I say it often because everybody asks that question. I always had a lot of confidence in Carson. All the things he’s doing now, he did them in our practices. He did it against a 2021 defense that may have been one of the top 3 defenses ever. And he did it everyday out there. And he would go against those guys and they were like, “man this guy ain’t flinching.” I’ve seen all these things before.
If anything has surprised me, it was probably his feet. Because he didn’t get to use those often. In practices, you know, it’s like you can’t hit him. If he takes off running, we don’t know if he’s got it or not. His composure and his decision-making, his ability to change protections and know what defenses are doing.
I mean you have to give him a lot of credit. First touchdown is probably all his. He saw something, made a change and did a great job.”
On Jamon Dumas-Johnson...
“I’m not sure, I think it’s a tibia [sic] or a fracture of something in the forearm.”
On how the linebackers played after Dumas-Johnson got hurt...
“Good and bad. Those guys played before he got hurt. Those guys have played all year. We need those guys to keep coming and keep growing up. They’ve done a tremendous job. Got a lot of respect for those young guys. They’ve worked for this opportunity. They go out there into practice every day as hard as they can. And they’re really good football players. CJ and Rayeln are really talented football players and they got thrown in the fight tonight more than normal.”
On if he likes games or the preparation more...
“I like both. If you don’t like it you shouldn’t do it. What am I doing this for if I’m going to spend this many hours, countless hours, at the office till 10, 10:30 at night and come in the office at 7 the next morning? There’s a lot of preparation. It was a lot of fun to gameplan for this one because it was more of a chess match with them with the way they’re playing. They’re not traditional. They get in some four wide sets. Everybody is in 11 or 12 and they’re in 10. We got to do some different things with it. They create tough matchups. They get the best personnel on the field when they do that. So I enjoy that part, I enjoy seeing the kids play on game day. I enjoy the decision making process that as a head coach I don’t have to worry about calling it. I have to worry about what is our next play, what’s our next advantage.”
On matching Vince Dooley’s home win streak...
“It means I have a lot of respect for coach Dooley. I want him to keep his name on that forever.”
On the drive where Missouri ran the ball...
“Tempo. They didn’t do anything they haven’t done all year. They didn’t scheme us up, they went fast.”
On the key to being successful on offense when facing pressure…
“They blitzed us all game. It’s what they do. They’re aggressive, they come after you. They make you beat them and they come hard. They got three sacks on a team that, we had not given up many sacks. I think they ended up with three sacks. They’re very aggressive. You’ve got to have answers, we worked hard on that. They know your answers. It’s a cat and mouse game of, are you going to get a better answer than they’ve got and respond to it? They won some and they lost some.”
On facing Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin next week…”Yeah, got a great team. I’ll get to work on them tomorrow. Lot of respect for what Lane’s done and built there. He’s a tremendous offensive mind. He’s gone out and they’re playing good defense now too. It’ll be a hell of a matchup because they’ve got a really good football team.”On Kamari Lassiter going down…”He just had a back spasm. He was fine. I think he just wanted to get up and celebrate so everybody would cheer him.”On Xavian Sorey not being with the team…”He wasn’t with us for personal reasons.”
On the play of Ladd McConkey…”Awesome. Great competitor. We finally completed a post for the first time all year. He drove in there and Ladd went up and made a play. I thought RaRa had a chance for one early. I thought the guy might have gotten there early, but we didn’t get the call. Then Ladd hit the one later. He made some people miss, made one play where we didn’t block a guy. We threw bubble out there and we didn’t’ block it right and Ladd made him miss, big play in the game. Players make plays, and he did.”
On Stackhouse hitting 18 mph on the interception…”No chance. I think the only thing he could hit 18 miles an hour on is his bike or a car.”On if this was his toughest test of the season…”They’re all tough, bro. They’re all tough. There’s no difference, they’re all tough.”
On what he learned about his team from this year’s Missouri game compared to last year…”A lot of the same things. We’ve got a disciplined football team, they did what we asked. We don’t get a lot of stupid penalties. They believe in each other. They believe that if they don’t win the last moment, they’'ll win the next moment. If you win enough moments, you can be pretty good. We won enough moments tonight.”
On the key to playing good defense in the red zone…”Stop the run. If you can stop the run, you’re going to make them do what? Throw. If you have to throw with less area, there’s a back line back there. They don’t give you seven for catching it behind it. You can sit on routes, squat on things. It forces you to run the ball. If you can’t, it shows up big-time in the red area. If you can’t stop it, it shows up big time in the red area.”
On Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint and his injury…”Don’t even know the answer to that. I didn’t realize he didn’t go back in. I remember the play you’re talking about, but I didn’t get any updates. Don’t know, I think he’s okay. He was talking after the play, but I can’t confirm.”
On how Missouri was different from last year…”They were very similar, a lot of the same offensive plays. He went out and hired an offensive coordinator that brought some new wrinkles in. They’re big defensively. Number six is a grown man, one of the hardest people to block in our league. They are really good, have a good football team. They play sound, good, everything. Special teams, they’re sound. It’s not like you go in like, ooh, I’ve got them here. You’re trying to create an advantage. It’s hard because they’ve got a great field goal kicker.”
On whether they’re playing their best ball in November...
“I don’t know. I think we’ve gotten better. I think we’ve got to continue to improve. I thought we had a great week of practice Florida. I thought we had a really good week of practice this week. I expected to play well, and thought our kids came out and competed.”
On Missouri’s running game...
“Yeah, he’s a great runner, but they’ve got a great scheme. They know when to run the ball. They’re not running the ball into loaded boxes. They do a good job in the stretch game. They run the stretch as good as anybody in college football. I mean, they hurt us with it.”
On if Dumas-Johnson could play in a cast...
“Uh, I don’t think so. I don’t know that. I’ll have to wait to see. I just got a text with the X-ray on it, so it’s one of those I doubt he’s going to be able to, but I don’t know about that.”
On Oscar Delp...
“Great kid. Great competitor. Blocks his tail off. Works hard. Made some catches down the field today. That’s what we recruited him. Oscar’s a great football player.”
On Brock Vandagriff red-zone package...
“Well, we saw a look we thought we liked. I’ve told Mike that he gives us an extra dynamic there. We didn’t execute it very good, wasn’t his fault. I’m just glad they used it because I trust Brock. He brings an extra dynamic to the game.”
On Dominic Lovett scoring against his former team...
“I think it meant a lot. There was a ton of players out there hugging him afterwards. He’s such a great teammate and competitor that I know it meant a lot to him, but it meant a lot to them too. That can be emotional. We talked about two things that cause you to lose discipline are loss of emotions and loss from fatigue. And you don’t let fatigue set in because you lose discipline. You don’t let emotion set in because you lose discipline, and he didn’t do that today. I’m really proud of him.”
On being disappointed in not taking advantage of the end of half...
“Absolutely not. We didn’t let them take advantage of it either. So, if we hurry up and punt to them, they’ve got more time. The goal is to get a first down and score. If you don’t do that, then don’t give them the ball. Am I disappointed we didn’t quite convert? Yeah. But he didn’t call timeout either because he’s sitting there thinking, oh Lord, if I call timeout here, it’s going to help them. Then we kicked the ball to them, and they didn’t think they had time either.”
On fans booing...
“Which time? They were booing at the two-minute mark he’s talking about, where we stalled out. But I’ll be honest with you, I’ve gotta make decisions based on what wins games, not what wins spreads.”
