ATLANTA — Georgia’s offense didn’t play great on Saturday against Florida.

That’s perhaps the scary part for the rest of college football, as the Bulldogs cruised to a 27-8 win over Florida.

“I do think there’s some things tonight that Gunner missed that he knows he can do better, and he can hit, and if he does, it takes us to another level,” Smart said. “Because we really haven’t played where the offense was clicking completely and the defense was, we haven’t done that yet. But that’s what complementary football is. You’re gonna have an off night, you’re gonna have a mistake, you’re gonna have a turnover. Well, can each other, can the two work together to play really good football? And I don’t know when that’s gonna happen for us. But we can be really good if we’re clicking on both sides of the line.”

Smart didn’t just talk about the future, as he also touched on what took place during Saturday’s rivalry game.

Below are Smart’s full comments from his post game news conference.

Everything Georgia coach Kirby Smart said

Opening statement...

“Yeah, I appreciate our fan base and really the atmosphere that was created today. We have an awesome atmosphere, a great theme to play in. You know, next year, I guess we’ll be playing in a no spot, but this one’s good because it’s been good to us in terms of the atmosphere created. I did think that both fan bases had a great turnout.

“I’m proud of the way our guys played, fought. You know, we left a lot out there that we desired. Think we can play obviously a lot better offensively. But we did what we had to do, and we avoided turnovers for the most part and we got turnovers. The Dawgs didn’t beat the Dawgs today. The Gators helped us with some of the turnovers they had.

“But really proud of the way our guys worked during the off week. I thought we had a really good off week, a good week of planning. And then to execute the plan during the week, it paid off for us. But overall, a lot of credit goes to the players for their work ethic and the coaching staff did a great job of their game plans.”

On Quintavius Johnson’s forced fumble and Chris Cole’s scoop and score...

“Yeah, I mean, that’s football, right? Like, if you get sacks, then you get turnovers. Most fumbles occur on sacks. We got pressure on the quarterback, we affected both quarterbacks. And anybody will tell you, if you can’t run the ball and they struggle to run it, it makes you one-dimensional. And then, you know, everybody gets to feast and rush the passer.

“That was a big play in the game. A huge momentum play because, again, it’s really a 14-point swing if they go down and score. Fumble, Chris picks it up and scores, which he has a knack for doing. It’s a big play in the game.”

On KJ Bolden’s big open-field tackle on Jadan Baugh early in the game...

“Yeah, he’s a physical player. He’s a 195-, 190-pound guy that plays bigger than that. He’s tough. He grew up in Atlanta playing youth football against guys like Baugh. And I thought that was a great play for him to show his ability to knock-back tackle and get low.

“Really was proud of him. He didn’t have to play in the game — he wanted to play in the game. This day and age, you’ve got guys that they might think twice about playing. I think he is a warrior, he is a competitor. He’s everything you want on your team. I knew Thursday when he went out there and said, ‘Coach, I want to play.’ He’s hard to take out of the game.”

On the carnage we’ve seen in the SEC this season and if it seems different...

“Yeah, it does seem different. I’ve asked several coaches about it, and we all have speculation. I don’t wanna give judgment on what it is. I mean, everybody’s practicing less, but everybody’s getting injured more. And it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t add up. We’re not at the point of, you know, the ninth game yet. Nobody’s played any more than they normally would have right now.

“So I don’t have a good answer for that. I do think that it was a big decision to make when they did the rosters to what they did the rosters to [the 105-man limit]. We debated with a lot of higher-up people to come to the roster limitations we came to.

“It’s gonna be interesting as this thing going down the stretch because I think people’s depth is gonna show up. You know, people have to make a choice how you wanna practice. Do you wanna practice at all, or do you just wanna try to save everybody? It’ll be interesting because I don’t know that the players are any different. I think about the teams we had in ’21 and ’22, how physical they were and how they practiced. I’m like, we can’t even get close to that now.

“Is it — I don’t know, I mean, is it a different culture that guys don’t want to as much? I don’t know because they were definitely hungrier because there was a motivation to make it. You know, a lot of these guys, honestly, they make more than I made ‘til I was 40. So it’s just a different day and age.”

On what led to the amount of negative plays that the defense created...

“You know, I thought Schumann had a good game plan, a very disruptive game plan, but the defensive staff did a tremendous job. We tried to keep things simple because Buster causes a lot of confusion. And we didn’t do a whole lot. Like, we kept it simple and played fast, played hard.

“And I thought the front — you know, this game meant a lot to Jordan Hall. I mean, he practiced so hard this week. EG, Q, Gabe, Josh Horton. They have a chip on their shoulder to try to control the run game with less. And once you do that, you fill up some lanes, some throws. I think it disrupted the quarterback.

On how important it was to put together a performance like this after the loss to Auburn...

“Yeah, it was important. It’s just as important as it’s going to be next week. So it’s no more important than it was for us to do against Auburn when we didn’t. They’re all important. That’s what we’ve learned.”

On Ellis Robinson not playing in the second half and what he’s dealing with injury-wise...

“Yeah, his knee tightened up on him. I don’t know if it happened on the interception, because I saw a replay of the interception. I thought he got hit right on the knee. But we don’t really know. Don’t think there was anything structurally wrong. It just tightened up on him. It looked like a Charlie Horse or a bruise, but honestly, I don’t know.”

On the defensive tenacity shown today...

“Yeah, they played hard, man. They played really good. I thought they had a good plan, and it was an effort deal. They stayed behind the sticks. Even when we gave up throws, we got them on the ground quickly. No yards after the catch, and they helped us. They did. One of those balls was tipped, one of those balls should have been caught. It bounces out of the kid’s hand, into our hand, should have been a completion. Quarterback made a poor decision on the first one, just throwing it up. Then we got another one on the pick, so it’s like, sack fumble. They played hard on defense, I was really proud of them. They worked really hard. The most proud I was was the red area stop down there. That was huge, because we needed to win in the red area some. We worked really hard on the red area.

On investing in players who spend multiple years in the program vs. building via the portal...

“Yeah, I don’t know. I think there’s really good portal players out there that have come to programs and made huge differences. They might be culture builders, not guys to take away from the culture. But that’s just not who we are. I mean, we do take guys out of the portal, and we’ve taken some guys that really blended in. I saw Etienne on our sideline tonight, what a great kid he was. Saw lot of guys that have been around our program that came from the portal. But our culture’s good. Our kids enjoy the work. They know, they take pride in that. I like the player that stays two, three, four years. Then if he’s not playing in the third year, I get it. He wants to go play, he needs to go play, but he’s been invested. I want him to get his degree, I want him to stick around and do that. I can’t say that we’re going to do that all the time. I don’t know. I want to sign good high school football players. I want to coach people that want to be here. I’m perfectly fine. They make whatever they need to make. That’s great. That’s not going to change how we coach.”

On Sacovie White-Helton’s ball security struggles on punt return...

“Ball security? He didn’t fumble. You talking about him catching the bounce ball? Would you prefer it roll down to the one yard line and us start backed up? I don’t. I like what he did. I thought he was aggressive. If he does it, he’s got to field it properly and take care of it. I’ve played with a lot of guys that are scared back there. So I don’t think Sacovie’s scared. I think he loves our team. He stays after practice every day for 20 minutes and fields balls and does stuff. That was a banana ball. It was them trying to get a turnover. We’re not going to ever play scared here. So I don’t believe in letting that ball just roll down there. Now I’d like for him to make a good decision and catch a high hop, a Sunday hop. We work really hard on that. That’s a field position play. He’s made a lot of catches on balls. He had a great return tonight. So it really wasn’t ball security. If you want to question his judgment, then the Alabama one, sure, you question that.”

On if he allows himself to celebrate games like he used to...

“Like I used to? When did I celebrate them and not go to the next one? I don’t know what you’re referencing. I mean, I enjoyed this win just as much as I did the first one over them, whenever that was. I mean, it’s not like it’s more sweet because it’s Florida. It’s sweet because it’s an SEC victory. It moves us closer to a goal. I’m happy for those kids in there. It’s not about me. But, I mean, I like the Pat Murphy statement of, worry is a waste. What good does it do? Ninety-nine percent of what you worry about never comes to fruition anyway. So taking that off and making fourth-down decisions and being free to decide to do things aggressively and trust your players. I think that’s important. I enjoy that more than I do just the victory. The victory’s great, but if we lost this game, it’d have been second in the SEC and we’d be going play Ole Miss. So I think people make too big a deal about the outcomes. That’s your job. I respect it, but we’re in a league where it’s going to be brutal. It’s going to be tough. And the team that’s standing at the end is going to be the one that pushes through everything and perseveres.”

On Gunner Stockton getting more carries...

“I don’t think so. I think we felt like there were some things we could do with Gunner to get the extra hat and get the run game going. I didn’t think we got the most out of those. I thought that some of the plays would be better. He slipps and falls on one and he took some hits I don’t want him taking. But the plus one run game guys, look, I don’t care what you say, it’s hard. We learned that against Auburn. So when you got that extra head in there and you can run it, we got it better. Still tonight, the bootleg naked he does, he runs down our sideline. He had three or four times he kept the ball. His legs have been a huge weapon for us. And he’s really one of the toughest kids I’ve ever seen. He just never flinches.

On Demello Jones...

“Demello’s got great ball skills. He is a competitor. He worked really hard last couple weeks to get better. I’m proud of him. I mean, I think he had two picks tonight, or one? Two. So the one that was tipped was a little lucky, you know what I mean? Like, the ball tipped and went right to him. But he’s had good ball skills. I thought the play of the night was the fade down our sideline to six to Dallas. That he gets the ball out, and that was a good throw. I mean, I got to watch it, but I felt like Demello affected it right at the last second. It was his natural little hands that he punched the ball out. That would have been a big play of the game to start their momentum.

On playing in Atlanta...“No, they’re awesome. The venues are great. They’re pro venues. So the Jacksonville venue’s incredible. Apparently, it’s gonna be even better. Be one of the best in the world, possibly, with what they’re doing to it. And this is one of the best in the world. So I love them. Yeah, you tell me I can play in Atlanta every year for travel. We get home a lot faster, that’s great. But we all know the ramifications that come into that, financially, both ways. I mean, if we’re gonna pay these players, we gotta make some money.”

On Gunner Stockton winning but not looking pretty...

“Yeah, it says he continues to improve. He does what he has to do to win. He gets the tough, dirty yards. He usually doesn’t put us in situations, Dawgs don’t beat Dawgs right? He doesn’t turn the ball over, and then play good defense. And I don’t know how far that can take us. I do think there’s some things tonight that Gunner missed that he knows he can do better, and he can hit, and if he does, it takes us to another level. Because we really haven’t played where the offense was clicking completely and the defense was, we haven’t done that yet. But that’s what complementary football is. You’re gonna have an off night, you’re gonna have a mistake, you’re gonna have a turnover. Well, can each other, can the two work together to play really good football? And I don’t know when that’s gonna happen for us. But we can be really good if we’re clicking on both sides of the line. And that starts with him. I don’t think he played poorly tonight. I think he had some, looking back at the video, the game he had a couple times, he had some shots that we might have missed.”

On the offensive line play...

“Yeah, I reserve judgment of this one. I don’t know that I watched enough of it to see. There was enough things being said on the headphones that We missed a couple blocks, runs that would’ve sprung and been more explosive. They got us a couple times in the pass rush that Gunner did some things with his legs. So I would be remiss to say how they played tonight. Overall, very pleased. I mean, we’ve been very lucky to stay healthy. We’ve been playing five past six sometimes in goal line packages. But I know we have to get better to go where we want to go. And those guys won’t shy away from the work that’s required to do it.”