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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 20, 2017

Kirby Smart

Athens, Georgia

KIRBY SMART: We'll start preparing today for Georgia Tech and the team, with Thanksgiving break, going home they have a little more time, which is good this week, especially, because they get to come in and watch a little extra tape against a unique offense that we don't get to face every week. I know our kids and our seniors will be excited to go play in Atlanta and also play a team that the last three years has beaten us twice, so it gives us an opportunity to send these seniors out the right way. And a great rivalry game it's been against State for a long time, I think they have got a really good offensive football team and a very good defensive football team that is doing a really good job on third downs. I think Coach Roof does a good job executing and they're very sound in what they do, and obviously Coach Johnson is one of the best in the business at what he does. He knows the answers to it, he knows the problems with it, and you're not going to trick him. You got to be very disciplined and you got to do a great job of getting off blocks and tackling the man with the ball. So that will be the objective this week as we prepare for Georgia Tech.

Q. A couple of months ago Pat Narduzzi said there were elements to Georgia Tech's blocking that, described it as dangerous football. I'm curious, do you see anything as far as danger, from a health standpoint, whether it's playing them or preparing for them when you don't see it very often?
KIRBY SMART: There's cut blocks, but there's cut blocks in all of football. They're just really good at what they do. They're probably better at it than most people because they work really hard at it and it's what they specialize in. Everybody's got what they're good at, that's what they're best at is running the football. And they do it on the perimeter, inside, outside, they mix it up, they wait and see what you do and they have got answers for what you do. So at the end of the day it is your job to stop it and that's what we got to do. That's the challenge ahead.

Q. There's no danger element to it?
KIRBY SMART: There's danger in all of football, isn't there? So you got to do a good job of executing, playing the blocks. And we're allowed to cut them, too.

Q. How tough is it to -- you kind of alluded to it -- to prepare for such an offense that nobody else really runs, and on top of that, how much time during the season, whether it's bye week or any other time, do you get to familiarize our players with that kind of offense?
KIRBY SMART: What's the first question? You're saying how difficult is it?

Q. When you have a certain style of offense you're normally preparing for and then to get this offense.
KIRBY SMART: It's a challenge. It's why they're really effective offensively, because they're not the norm any more. People don't prepare to play that. When you think about high school football, it used to be that people ran the triple in high school offenses and a lot of the most successful programs in this state had been a part of that. It's slowly gone the other way, where teams, it's almost like a dinosaur, people don't do it any more, so people don't know how to defend it. So it's challenging. The kids on your defense didn't come from high school programs that had to play against it, where, back in the day, they might have done that more often. So that's the game within the game. That's the motivating factor for our players to go out and -- they're trying to win one for the seniors, trying to win one for the University of Georgia and they're playing a unique style of offense and they got to buy into that, they got to embrace it. I think our seniors will. As a matter of fact I know they will, they have already talked to me about some ways we're going to practice and things we're going to do to help with that. So I'm excited about that part and they're ready to take the challenge on.

Q. This is kind of a long the same lines, but I remember in the preseason you mentioned doing some prep for Georgia Tech and then during the off week, if I'm not mistaken, you said of looking into it a little bit. I'm not sure if that was on the field or coaches in the room, but how much preparation have you done before this week, specifically on these guys?
KIRBY SMART: A lot more than we did last year. We have taken every Monday in the season and we have targeted certain amount of time each Monday, depending upon who our opponent was, towards Tech periods, because I felt like you have to familiarize yourself, really the players, if nothing more than your scout team, scout team can only be so efficient doing something they don't do all the time, but they can be as efficient as possible. So those Mondays have been really critical for them, those Mondays have been critical for our young players who haven't been exposed to it. We have worked really hard on that. And then we spent some time in the off week, but the off week we spend time on all of our upcoming opponents but Georgia Tech being one of those, we did work on them.

Q. I know how coaches say winning on the road is difficult, what do you make of Georgia's success in Atlanta, it's kind of unique, obviously.
KIRBY SMART: I think it's been more to do with the fact that Georgia has played well there, I think a lot of the kids are at home, a lot of kids are from that area. I don't really know what to attribute that to. Usually has something to do with the X's and O's and the players involved in the game and I haven't really been part of that series for a long time, so I can't attribute it to anything.

Q. Last year's issues and the red zone defensively kind of came to a head against Georgia Tech with those two late touchdowns, how much better is this team defensively in the red zone at this point in the season than it was last year and how important is it to you that they kind of prove that against Georgia Tech?
KIRBY SMART: Well it's important, but you got to take all your stats and all your numbers and just throw them out because what we have done in the red zone has zero to do with Georgia Tech. So Georgia Tech will not be concerned with what we do in the red zone because nothing that we have done is indicative of what they will do. You know what I mean? Their offense is completely different. So we have got to play good red zone defense in this game and we did not do that last year, but what we have done up to this point has nothing to do with what's going to transpire on Saturday.

Q. You have mentioned a couple times, and we're talking about the pass rush, about how you guys work so hard on stopping the run and that that maybe having a little bit of an affect on rushing the passer and those situations. But then there are other philosophies out there where guys kind of play the run on the way to the quarterback. What goes into you making that decision on how that's how you want to play it, as a philosophy, and what are maybe some of the benefits and drawbacks of playing it that way?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I think you assumed a philosophy that I've never claimed. My philosophy is to get after the quarterback, to affect the quarterback, to make it hard on him to execute. But it's easier in football to hand the ball off to someone and run it than it is to throw it to someone and catch it. So if you don't stop the run, you don't control the run game, you will not be able to stop anything. So, the important thing for us is always to affect the quarterback. This game's completely unique, playing Georgia Tech has nothing to do with that, I'm assuming you're talking about a base philosophy, but the philosophy is to get after the quarterback, the philosophy is to make it difficult on him through coverage, through rush, through everything. But first and second down you have to be able to convert to a pass rush, because you got to be able to stop the run. Our defensive front is built to stop the run, it's not built to rush the passer with a 300-pound man that's playing nose guard or 4 I. That's not what they're build to do. They have to be able to convert, they got to be able to push the pocket, you got to affect them with disguise, bat balls, and then when you get a chance to get after them, you got to get after them, but that's not really this week.

Q. The last part is, I wasn't saying that you guys don't try to rush the passer, I was just saying it was more of the first two downs and the heavier guys in the game and stuff like that. You just -- I don't want to say that you're not trying to --
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, you always want to, when they pass it, they have got to get after the quarterback, everybody's got to be able to get after the quarterback, ultimately. You want to be able to get sacks, get lost yardage plays, but we have had more TFL's this year than we have been having, so we have changed some in regard to that because a tackle for a loss essentially is a sack, even though it's a run play.

Q. I wanted to ask about your own run/pass ratio. I know, obviously, you all have run it so well there hasn't been a need a lot to pas it but I think it's about 70 percent or something like that. Do you, philosophically, do you think y'all can continue to run it as much as you have and do everything and win championships this year?
KIRBY SMART: I think that each game is different. I think each opponent is different. I think each opponent is different. I think that you have a base foundation of balance and balance is what we want. Some of our imbalance this year has been indicated by the games, the scores. If you take one-score games and you do the ratio run to pass it's not going to be the same as the games that we have had leads and we're running the clock out. There's a distinct difference in those. So to be able to win a championship you got to have balance. We continue to improve on our balance. Our ability to throw the ball down the field, our ability to open things up. But if we open things up and threw the ball down the field, I would beg to question what we're doing with 27 and 1 the rest of the time. So it's a Catch-22 to be balanced, but at the end of the day to win you got to be able to do both and you play really good teams you got to be able to do both. But we have also had some statistics this year that are probably not exactly accurate when you talk about leads in the games.

Q. Rivalry games tend to get a little chippy. You look at last week's Oklahoma, Kansas, it started at the coin toss. How do you prepare your guys, particularly when you're going on the road and more than likely that's going to be part of the home team's philosophy is to try to get your guys out of their discipline.
KIRBY SMART: Well you said the word. The word's discipline. It's not about what they do, it's not about anything they say or anything they do before the game, that controls nothing of the outcome of the game. Our focus and concentration is on playing our best football game. Our job is to go over there and get ready to play at noon, get ready to go and get after it and have the best possible plan we can put together to allow our players to be successful. Their focus has to be on executing the plan, not on all the drama with the rivalry.

Q. But when it kind of starts to unfold a little, how do you get your guys to --
KIRBY SMART: The leaders. I mean, the leaders got to control that. The message throughout the week. You've already made a decision on Monday what you're going to do on Saturday when a guy shoves you. And you either make the decision to do the wrong thing or you make the decision to do the right thing. We talk to our players all the time about that. It's something they have got to be able to control. They got to have discipline, they got to make good decisions in the heat of the moment. A rivalry is a rivalry, I'll be honest with you, our guys want to win every game and we got a lot of rivalries and this is one of the biggest ones. But our guys have got to make good decisions in the heat of the moment, because the heat of the moment's going to happen.

Q. Malik Herring seems like a guy who has had a bigger role in terms of rotating on the D-line. Do you think he's kind of gone as one of those unnoticed freshmen and what do you kind of see from him that's allowed him to have an increased role?
KIRBY SMART: He's very conscientious about his job. He's very prideful in knowing what to do. He's increased his role throughout the year because he's continued to get better. He works kind of half the day on our scout team and does a good job working down there and then he gives good effort and we tell him he earns reps with us by how he performs on the scout team and he's done a good job of that. He had a little more role last week, so he was able to go in and play some. He'll continue to grow that role this week. He's extremely athletic, I think he's a talented young man that's got to continue to get bigger and more physical.

Q. You touched on this a little bit last week, but the guys who came back that could have gone pro last year and what have they meant off the field? We can see their on-field contribution, particularly this past Saturday, what have they kind of helped this program advance along and what do you, do you feel kind of fortunate when somebody guys leave after their third year to have that you've got this pretty incredible group of seniors that all came back and maybe kind of fast forwarded this rebuilding job a little bit or what you were trying to put your job, your stamp on the program.
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I go into each off season with a plan to talk to the third year guys. I'll be honest with you, you know, that's not, you really shouldn't be leaving after your third year unless you're going to be a first, maybe a second round pick, depending upon the positions. So I think that every year you go into that with that approach and if they understand what's best for them, then they usually handle that the right way. So I'm really proud of these guys that decided to stay, because I think it was the right decision for each one of them individually. That's the most important thing. The next thing is, what have they done for this team? They have been great leaders off the field. I know you see it on the field, but you don't get to see it in the meeting room, you don't get to see it when a guy's late, you don't see it when a guy does some undisciplined penalty out of bounds and they grab the guy. That part is what they bring of a setting a standard, the standard that we want to play to, they help set that standard. So the guys that are younger in the room, they will then try to emulate the older guys. And when you have that, you have what you want. To have seniors, usually the best teams in the country, they have seniors, because the seniors have been there the most, they make the least mistakes, they have been through it, they're very calm and that's what our group has been, good leaders for this team.

Q. Georgia Tech doesn't throw the ball that often, when they do it seems like it's a deep shot down the field. What's the key for the secondary, whether it's eye discipline to avoid those receivers leaking out when they hit you with so many runs?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, that's exactly what you just said, eye discipline. It's what got us last year. You don't have good eye discipline, you don't have good eye transfer, they can get you. And they watch every play. They know when you mess one up. It doesn't take them long to figure out, whoops, he's not looking at the right thing, and then they expose you. And you say, well the alternative is don't be so aggressive with them, but you got to stop the run and they do a good job with what they do, it's one of the focuses of this week is doing my job, executing my job, having great eye discipline, eye transfer. And everybody you talk to that plays them that's one thing they come back to is not giving up the cheap, easy touchdowns. And when you watch them play throughout the year, they have hit bomb after bomb after bomb, people have the same problem. So it's an eye discipline thing and you got to play really well on the back end.

Q. When you say those four seniors again or four juniors who came back, when you say there was stuff they needed to do I'm curious specifically about Lorenzo. What you did see that he needed to work on and where has he improved in that area?
KIRBY SMART: Well, biggest thing he's become an every down player. He's gotten a little bigger, gotten more physical, he's been able to play some in nickel packages. We moved him around so that he could play field boundary. He can do different things, he can stand up, match patterns. He's improved that part of his game and that's the part that he probably needed to improve the most and I'm glad he came back to do it.

Q. You mentioned 27 and 1. When you have a one-two punch like that does it take something special for the second guy to kind of put away ego, if he's not the starter this week or that, and what does it do for a coaching staff to know that the level of play doesn't drop off when you bring in the next guy?
KIRBY SMART: Well, it gives you a confident coaching staff. Certainly you feel good about either guy being in. They don't have egos, that's what the beauty of those two guys is. Sony probably could have don't anywhere in the country, just like Nick probably could have. They chose to come together and what started as a really good rivalry has become one of the best friendships in college football. Those two guys deserve every accolade they get if not more and they are what college football's all about. They're unselfish, they're program guys, they represent the university the right way. I mean, when you start talking about ambassadors for this program, they will be ambassadors for a long time.

Q. Today Roquan was named one of the five finalists for the Butkus Award. I know you said you're not overly concerned with individual awards, but I guess just the fact that he's considered for that what, does that say to his contributions to the team?
KIRBY SMART: Well I think it says a lot to his overall leadership, the way he's played, the passion and energy he plays with and says a lot about the defensive front in front of him who have been able to hold people and keep people off of him to allow him to make the plays. He'll be the first to tell you that when he goes unblocked, he's a really good player. Those guys up front deserve a lot of that for taking on 600, 700 pounds a lot of times so that Roquan gets to run free and he's done a tremendous job of leading this defense. He is the signal caller, bell cow, spokesperson, he does a great job of that and no greater honor than to be considered among the best in the country at your position and he's very deserving of that.

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