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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 23, 2017Kirby SmartAthens, Georgia, Kirby Smart KIRBY SMART: I'd like to open with a congratulations to Carla Williams. What a great opportunity she's been presented with. Tremendous job she's done for Georgia athletics. I've known Carla for a long time, happy for her and her family, for the opportunity they are getting. Getting ready for Florida. We prepared a little bit Thursday. Worked some on Florida Thursday, about 50% of the practice on Florida, 50% just on us getting better, like we did most of the week last week. An exciting game when you talk about a neutral-site game in Jacksonville. I think all the players really enjoy that atmosphere, the 50/50 stands. Great opportunity to go play a good football team. We're going to continue getting ready today. Q. Last year you struggled to run the ball against them. They're always good up front. What gives you the confidence, and what happened last year, what gives you the confidence that this can be a different story running the ball this year? KIRBY SMART: I think they have a tremendous front this year. Last year they probably had more depth, more guys up there. Still have a quick, athletic front. They get off the ball really well. I've seen a lot of their defense because we've had games that we've played crossover teams. Certainly explosive, quick. It will be a challenge. It's hard to run the ball in the SEC. I keep telling y'all, it's really hard. It's something you got to be committed to. You have to do it a lot. You have to try to wear people down. But they get off the ball. They do a really good job. They did last year, as well. We'll find it tough sledding, I'm sure. Q. A true freshman quarterback starting in Jacksonville, is that something that is an issue at all given that Jake has already played at Notre Dame, at Tennessee, had these big moments? KIRBY SMART: You know, I think any time you got a true freshman starting, it's challenging. I think this kid has grown. He's gotten better each week. Hope that continues through the bye week. But you reference Jacksonville. I think what makes it challenging is the Florida defense that happens to be in Jacksonville. It's not just the fact we're playing in Jacksonville, it's that we're playing against a caliber of defense that has been really, over the last 10 years, one of the best defenses in the country. So you look at what they've done, the players they've had, style of defense they play. They're attacking, they're aggressive. Randy Shannon does a great job with them. So it's always a challenge. Q. I wanted to ask about the fan support this year. You've been around some good fan bases, had some good years. Has there been something different, special about turnout, road games, even the home environments this year? KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I mean, I think you start with the first opening game for us against App. Incredible atmosphere, packed house. Then you go to the Notre Dame game. Each of the road games, they've been really incredible as far as the atmosphere they've created for the players. I think the energy of our fan base has been great. A lot of that enthusiasm comes from playing good. I mean, you play good, you create a good atmosphere. The night games have helped with that. Whatever the magic potion has been, it's been good for our players. We certainly hope it continues in Jacksonville. Q. You were a part of the series in the 1990s when it wasn't going very well for Georgia. We obviously pay close attention to these trends, how many wins and all that. Does that manifest itself at all on the field of play, players feeling pressure that we haven't won in X amount of years? Do you even address it? KIRBY SMART: Yeah, you know, I think trends are pretty commonplace. It has a lot to do with who the quarterback is, who the defense is, who the players are. At the end of the day it boils down to players, guys making plays, not turning the ball over, how you respond to a little adversity. In this game, it's traditionally been a seesaw type game. I mean, I don't get too much into who won last year, who won the year before that. It's a whole lot more about what we're going to do this year, because that's really all we can control. We can control how we play this year, worry about the things that matter. I don't think any of that matters. Q. You've dealt already this year with several situations where you were a large favorite. Just from dealing with the team, this being Florida, how different is it this week now that you're in that situation again? KIRBY SMART: You know, I mean, I just don't think that you worry about that. I mean, it ultimately comes down to how we play. The number one thing we're concerned with is what is going to allow us to play our best football game, what is going to allow us to be more sound in execution, what's going to allow us to protect the ball, attack the ball better defensively and offensively. It's not about what the favorite is, what the line is. I mean, it's going to boil down to how we play. That is the one thing we can control, is how we play. That's all we can worry about. Q. By having to replace three starters in the off-season, I guess you could say there's a noticeable improvement on the offensive line. What do you think has led to that? Why do you think there was that kind of buy-in amongst the unit? KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I don't know if I could pinpoint one moment there was a total buy-in. I think the group as a whole, it's a little different group. I mean, we've got guys that have done it by committee for the most part. We've rolled some guys in there. We've got good backs. We had good backs last year. I think the fact that we've been a little more open in our personnel groupings has helped. I don't know one thing, one overriding factor. I think the receivers have played better and blocked better. That's allowed us to spring some more runs, do some more things. A few more RBO's mixed in there have helped. There's a lot of things that are cumulative. Second year in the same offense. A lot of things affect that. I don't think it's one thing that we can pinpoint. But I do think the offensive line has matured and is playing a little better. Q. Generic question. How important is it to have a strength coach in this league who understands what it takes to win in this league? What specifically has Scott done these two years? KIRBY SMART: Well, he's built confidence in our players. I think they recognize they're stronger than they've ever been. They see that in their gains, in their body weight. As far as his experience in this league, he really didn't have much experience in this league. I do think that part is somewhat overrated because I think if you're a good strength coach, you're a good strength coach. I don't think it has to be your understanding of this league. This league is very unique in size, speed, toughness across the offensive lines and defensive lines. I think he understands that. He's coached good players before. He's been places before. He and his staff do a great job of motivating our players, but also convincing them they are stronger, they are more physical by the way they work in the weight room. Q. Even though Feleipe is a young quarterback, hasn't put up good stats, but how aware does your secondary need to be? KIRBY SMART: They have tremendous wideouts. They've probably got the best wideout group we've faced combined with the fact that their quarterback has one of the strongest arms I've ever seen. I knew Feleipe well in high school, recruited him. Know the arm talent that he has. I mean, they'll see the Missouri game. I mean, we know what we're in for. We got to do a good job covering those guys. The toughest part is they're a lot more physical up front and bigger than, say, Missouri was. So it's going to be a task. We've got to do a tremendous job defensively against a good quarterback and a group of wideouts that are very talented. Q. What is your assessment of the strength of the SEC this year with some speculation about whether it could be worthy of getting two teams into the Playoff, maybe the bottom half of the league, the depth is not as strong as it has been? How does it compare to other years you've seen? Would the SEC be worthy of two teams if that came down to it? KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I have no idea. I'll be honest with you. I don't get to watch enough games. I'm not a good judge of how talented the SEC is. I've spent the last seven days watching Florida, getting ready for future opponents in the SEC. I'm going to leave that to you guys. I'm focused on getting ready for Florida. Q. When you look at this game, obviously they're all important, but growing up in south Georgia, playing in this game as a player, being the rivalry that it is, does it carry a little something special to you as a coach, reflecting as your time in this game as a player, too? KIRBY SMART: Every game is special to me as a coach. I'll be honest with you. I don't think there's one that's more special than another. I think it's special to these kids. I mean, we recruit a lot against Florida, but we recruit a lot against all the SEC teams. We have several teams on our roster from Florida. It's the second most represented state for our team. So, I mean, I think that makes it important. But, I mean, at the end of the day we're trying to go 1-0 this week. Florida is the next opponent. That's the most important thing. Q. I know you had a late night after the Notre Dame game. Since league play started, some of your road trips, you've gotten back at a good time. Some coaches on the teleconference last week were complaining about road games at night. What is the biggest challenge about doing that? Is it more the concern for the players being tired or just you get behind in your prep work? KIRBY SMART: Both. I mean, there's rest and recovery for the players. It's really challenging for coaches. I think that's part of the job because you might be back up after getting in at 3, 4 in the morning. You got to go back in and start to work on the next opponent, turn it over quickly. The players it affects more than anything. I think their sleep habits get screwed up. They sleep in on Sunday morning. Next thing Monday morning they have 7 a.m. study hall or class at 8 a.m. It's tough on them to get a routine going. That part is challenging for the players. I think each and every one of us in the SEC will admit the reason for it is the fact that we're playing on ESPN and they're making more money for it. Q. You're playing in Jacksonville, a neutral site. Certainly makes this an unusual game. You've been on both sides of that at another program. Do you have any feelings about advantage, disadvantage? Certainly CBS gets a lot of national notoriety because of it being played. What is your opinion on that? KIRBY SMART: I think it is what it is. The biggest disadvantage, advantage to me is the recruiting aspect. I've always said you lose a great opportunity once every other year, and you figure in your state you're going to have a hundred top players. Every four years they're in high school, there's two opportunities to bring them to a big game, to an environment that would be second to none. You lose that opportunity. You don't get that opportunity. They also lose that opportunity. So the both of us, if anything, that's the impact. I don't think it's an impact on the outcome of the game. I don't think it's an impact on anything other than the fact you lose an opportunity at a good chance to recruit prospects and have them on your campus. Q. The injury updates on the D-linemen, how much was Trenton able to do last week, and Daquan and David Marshall, did they get back? What's the outlook for this week? KIRBY SMART: Yeah, Trenton was able to practice, do mostly everything. We think he'll be fine. He's cleared to do to go practice. Daquan is still battling back. David Marshall is cleared and ready to go. Q. When you look at your defensive backs, we talk about the Missouri game, big plays that were made. When you went back and looked at the film, were those the results of communication issues, technique issues? What have you been able to do to address cleaning up and preventing those type of plays going forward? KIRBY SMART: I think the biggest thing is play with better technique, understand where your help is, try not to put them in those situations. A lot of things combined. Throw more deep balls. Let us play more deep balls. Cover guys, cover fast people. Practice. You try to address them on what you call, how you play what you call, then the technique you use when you call it. The only way to get better at stuff like that is really to work on it. We tried to attack some of that. We'll continue to. Q. You talked about especially in the Missouri game not disrupting the quarterback enough in the pass-rush. Having so many guys back on the D-line, do you think that will improve your ability to affect the quarterback? KIRBY SMART: I think the depth will keep us a little fresher. I mean, it's not a matter of getting back some elite, great rusher. It's not the case. I think it's a matter of how many guys they keep and protecting with. They keep seven guys in and protect, it's tough to get rushed with four guys. They've got seven. You have to be able to hold up in coverage when people max protect. You have to do a better job of affecting the quarterback when they don't pass protect. Hopefully having more depth will allow us to do that. Q. You started talking about Carla at the beginning of the news conference. What was it like the last years working with her on a weekly basis, your interactions? KIRBY SMART: It's great. I think Carla has a great relationship with the student-athletes. She cares. They know she cares about them personally. She's done a tremendous job for the University of Georgia in the way that she represents Georgia, she represents student-athletes. She did a tremendous job with the academic side of things. She was a great asset for me, especially when I first got here from bouncing ideas off of, finding out how things worked. She did a tremendous job. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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