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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 3, 2018

Kirby Smart

Athens, Georgia

COACH KIRBY SMART: All right, guys. We're moving on to South Carolina. Obviously I have a relationship with Coach Muschamp, and they do a tremendous job over there. Watching them progress their program over the last couple of years, they've gotten better with each season. We had a hard-fought battle two years ago on the Sunday game, and then last year's game was probably one of the most physical we played in. It was a really tough, physical game. A lot of breaking the wheels when it comes to running the ball, them and us. And they've got a great special teams unit that does a tremendous job in all phases.

So obviously the challenges of going to Columbia and playing; we've talked to our kids about it a lot over the summer, an opportunity to go into an environment that'll be as tough as any, as I well know playing over there, from a crowd and a fanbase, and it sounds like we'll also be playing the heat and the sun along with their team, which is always a challenge.

So we're excited for the opportunity; got a lot of respect for their program, and ready to get to work on them.

Q. Kirby, after looking at the film of Saturday, how would you assess the way Deandre, Elijah, Brian ran the ball, and what must you all do better to have that kind of success that you all did two years ago over there?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. Well, the first thing is we've gotta have some more explosive runs. Our run game we probably have not been as explosive as we were last year, which that includes scrimmages. We didn't have the number of explosive runs you might have expected Saturday. I'm not going to say those guys ran the ball poorly. They ran the ball hard. But they probably missed the hole a couple of times and probably a little impatient at some times staying behind their blocking schemes and trying to bounce things out when we've gotta commit to keeping it inside. They would be the first to tell you that. As a matter of fact, a couple of them came off the field and said they missed it at the time. But their effort was there. If they continue to work hard with good ball security, then we can have a positive running game.

Q. Coach, obviously Bryan McClendon is another new wrinkle in this whole thing. Were you able to learn much from the first game? And I'm just curious about your personal relationship. I know you've crossed paths a few times.
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah, when I coached here previously under Mark Richt, Bryan was a player and did a tremendous job for us. I've always had a lot of respect for him as a leader, really good recruiter. He did a great job with receivers when he was with those guys, and now he's calling. He called it in the bowl game, and I thought for a guy that started off slow in the bowl game, he was very patient, committed, called a great game, especially the second half; kind of won that job by the job he did and got a great amount of respect.

What we can learn from the first game, probably tough. They're not the same defensively as we are. They were able to get a lead, very similar to our game, but I know he's a good football coach, and he's got a great staff around him of other guys that we've had to compete against, and I'm sure he'll rely on those guys to help him out.

Q. Knowing Will as well as you do, were you surprised that he ultimately decided to go up tempo?
COACH KIRBY SMART: No. Tempo is in every offense in America now. So for it to be involved in it, I think it's the way of the world. If you can create an advantage by going up tempo and you have the kind of quarterback he has who can lead and coach on the field and do the things he does, I certainly think it's a big advantage. And I think you see a lot of teams out there. I think the key is can you go up tempo and still run the ball, which they can. And that's the key to going up tempo, because up tempo does nothing if you're three and out, and I think he'd be the first to tell you that. That's why they've been able to speed things up because they've got a quarterback that can make good decisions with the ball in his hands, and he makes them right a lot of times.

Q. Coach, one of South Carolina's most well-known weapons is Deebo Samuel at the wide receiver spot. He's a guy that came back from injury after last year and had a couple of highlight catches already. So how do you all go about stopping a guy like that, that's so dynamic that can also play on punt return and kick return?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah, he's probably the most underrated player in all of college football, because I don't know that everybody in the country knows what the SEC knows about Deebo Samuel. I mean the guy is phenomenal. When you look at what he's done, even two years ago, he gave us fits in that game. And then you turn around and say, okay, he has a tough injury he has to deal with, but before he had that injury he had some of the most electric kickoff returns in the country.

You see what he's already done in this game, in one game how explosive he's been at whether it's running back, receiver. And they're creative in ways in finding getting him the ball. He's a ten-touch guy a game, 15-touch guy a game. They're going to find ways to get him the ball, through the screen game, return game, handing it to him. He's an electric football player that's extremely powerful, confident, hard to tackle and he'll be a key guy for us. You gotta get him on the ground when he gets the ball, because you'll never know when it's going to him.

Q. Your thoughts on the play of the offensive line this past week and the biggest challenges they're going to be facing against South Carolina.
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. I didn't think the conditioning was where it needed to be, and I told those guys that. I thought at times they did some good things. The team they were playing was probably overmatched in a lot of the situations they were in.

Pleased with assignments. Pleased with communication. But will be a whole new ballgame this week. They're going to be playing bigger, more physical guys. It's going to be loud. They've gotta do a better job of creating movement and they gotta do a better job second-level blocking, getting to the second level and protecting our ball carriers down the field and covering down which takes more effort.

Q. Kirby, I know that the calling card that you want Georgia's offense to be is physical, downhill running, but when you have the kind of speed on the edges that we all saw Saturday, how do you incorporate that? Do you change that philosophy at all?
COACH KIRBY SMART: I don't think you ever change it. I mean whether you run the ball with a speed sweep or you run the ball with an inside zone, everybody knows in college football those plays are packaged together. So a lot of times it's what the defense gives you. Y'all may see it as a hand off to Demetris Robertson, but that's not actually what the play was. The play has two options to it.

So with every play there's two plays, usually an inside play and an outside play. That's what college football is. It might be a run. It might be a pass. It might be a handoff, but I think you use the tools you have, but you take what the defense gives you. If it gives you the outside run, then you run it outside. If they give you the inside run, then you run it inside. If they give you neither, then you gotta find a way to throw the ball. We gotta be good at inside, outside run and the ability to throw the ball, because it's just hard to run the ball in our conference. Whether it's perimeter or inside, you've gotta be able to create plays through the passing game.

Q. Kirby, when you looked at film, how did Tyson Campbell look to you, and I guess they had a play down field where maybe he was beat. I don't know if that was a learning experience on that play in particular.
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. I don't know what play you're referring to, but he did a good job of what he was asked to do. He communicated well. I think he got settled down more as the game went on. He's got a lot of speed. He's got a lot of toughness. He's a competitor. He hadn't been in the environment he's going to be in Saturday, but I mean a lot of teams across the country got young DB players, and the only way they grow up is to go play. So he needs to go play. And we've got other guys that can roll in and play. Eric Stokes came in and played well. So did Mark Webb.

So I feel a lot better about where we are at corner this year right now than I did at times in the past. Just need to go play. Those guys gotta go play, and they're going to have to play well this week because they've got some really good wideouts.

Q. Coach, I think you said Saturday you expected Terry back. If he does come back, what does he bring you? What does he bring the room and how up to speed do you expect him to be considering he hadn't played in scrimmages or a game yet?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. He's run the last few days. He's had a couple times. He's had a couple times he's come back where we thought he was going to be back and he just hadn't been able to push it over the edge, but he was able to work out Saturday prior to the game and run, and then he was able to work out some yesterday, and we're expecting him to go out there today and do a lot more. So we're expecting to get him back, but I won't know that probably till later in the week. But what he brings is some experience and some confidence. He's got a really good feel with the quarterbacks. He's got a lot of experience. I mean he understands the game. He's a really good route runner and he's got great hands. So for us that value of confidence of having an extra guy it frees up some other guys to play on special teams when Terry is able to eat up some of the reps out there on offense.

Q. Kirby, a couple of players after the game Saturday said that what they went through last year at Notre Dame, second game of the year, first big road trip, they can maybe draw from some of that experience. I know you've got some new kids that weren't a part of that, but I was curious if you felt the same way. And also, because this is such a big league game, do you ever bring up the fact that if you lose this, they've gotta lose twice? I know with Alabama a couple of your years late there Ole Miss got you and you had to have them lose twice and it worked out for you. Do you discuss that aspect to it or do they already know?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. I don't compare this to Notre Dame because our fanbase was, felt like, 50 percent of the fanbase. It won't be that way in Columbia, let me assure you. Okay? Their fanbase will be turned out and have a lot of people there. So that environment is probably not a good analogy for what we're going into. Because I know; I've been there, I understand. Not a lot of our guys have because the last time we played there was a Sunday.

But all things considered, that's not what's important for our team. What's important for our team is how we practice today, how they listen to the scouting report and what they prepare for.

You guys are focused on the game. We're focused on today trying to get ready for practice.

Q. Coach, what's going to be the biggest challenge of coming up with the right 70-man roster to travel to Columbia for this contest?
COACH KIRBY SMART: The biggest challenge will probably be figuring out the injuries with some guys. If one guy can't go here, then you gotta take two extra guys there and making sure that Kearis and Jason are good to go, who were not really cleared to play the other day. We're trying to get those guys back.

That's probably the toughest thing is just being able to foresee the injuries and who gets the reps to decide. And a lot of that will be determined by special teams for us.

Q. Obviously you mentioned Deebo. They have more than him, obviously Bryan Edwards and some other guys. What that entire wide receiver group from South Carolina, what kind of challenge does that present beyond obviously their star in Deebo?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah; physical. They're big, they're physical. They throw the ball vertically down the field. I think Jake Bentley does a tremendous job of throwing the touch passes, throwing fade routes, throwing vertical patterns; and they catch them at a high percentage. I think if you look back over the last few games, they've hit a lot of those long balls, and they've got big wideouts to do it with. And they're committed to the run game to the point where you can't sit there and cover up the pass the whole time. So they take their shots; you gotta cover them. And it'll be the same way for them against us. The game can be a simple game; when you get down to it, you gotta make plays when you get an opportunity.

Q. Kirby, you mentioned earlier in the season y'all have been in search of your leaders for this year's team. How much closer did you get to learning who those leaders are, and how important will that be going on the road into a hostile environment on Saturday?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I think those guys start to come to the forefront when you get adversity. We didn't have a lot of adversity Saturday, but leading up to the week, practice, there's guys starting to rear their heads, guys that practice hard all the time, guys that step up and speak after practice or speak before the game. I think we're starting to get some guys to show some of those qualities, but it's the same guys you would expect. And that's what we expect; and we want to continue to develop that. But a lot of that true leadership doesn't show until things get tough.

Q. Kirby, just curious what you got out of Jack Camarda's performance on Saturday and how big is that going to be going into an SEC game?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I think it's good to get a game under his belt. He's a tremendous talent. He works hard day in and day out. He probably had some adrenaline pumping and he lost a couple that ended up going into the end zone, but it's hard to predict from how far he was punting it that that was going to happen. I just hope given the opportunity to do some sky kicks he can do it with good percentages of getting them down like Cam did. Those probably weren't fair to judge him off of because we weren't telling him to sky those.

Q. You mentioned Bryan McClendon obviously going to offensive coordinator and your relationship with him. Is that a guy that you've stayed in touch with over the years, and when he was making that transition from the interim to becoming full time, did he reach out to you at all during that time?
COACH KIRBY SMART: No, not really. I talked to Will periodically, and I've worked with Lance a long time. I know a lot of guys on their staff, but B Mac is probably closer to Bobo and some of those guys that he's worked with longer, but I have a lot of respect for B Mac. I see him a lot of times on the road recruiting.

Q. Coach, when you were a player, South Carolina was always the first conference game on week one or week two, but the rivalry has grown a lot since then. Do you think sort of the significance of this game has grown even more than it did back when you were a player?
COACH KIRBY SMART: They're all significant. That's all I can say. They're all significant.

Q. Coach, I think you refer to the front seven as a committee a lot in fall drills. Can you assess how they played in that opener and some thoughts about moving forward in that front seven?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Probably didn't get tested. I mean to be dead honest with you, probably didn't get tested. I know it's easy to say that now, but that's not the caliber of offensive line we're going to have to face. And I got a lot of respect for Austin Peay and the job their coach does, and their kids played really hard. But we know that we're going to face a bigger, heavier, quicker person, and we're going to have to play better. For what we asked them to do, you can't say the kids didn't play hard. They played hard, ran to ball. We didn't play with real good technique all the time, and it will continue to be a committee because the committee in the defensive front in the SEC is you gotta play a lot of people, especially against a team that goes up tempo.

Q. Do you guys talk about targeting like on a weekly basis or how much do you do a reinforcement after what happened with James?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Well, we try to reinforce it every opportunity we get; when we have a learning opportunity from an opponent that has one or we have one come up in practice, we show it to the team. We have an SEC official that comes in and speaks to the team in the preseason, does a tremendous job of showing do's and don'ts and not leading with the head. And I don't think you can do enough education on that. But our biggest education is when we have something in practice, we show it in a team meeting that, hey, this is not how we want to practice. It's not safe for you, but it's also not safe for the guy opposite that.

I think James understands that. His intent was not to be violent and hurt somebody. He's a freshman that made a mistake and will learn a valuable lesson from it.

Q. Kirby, you mentioned about Deebo being underrated. It seems like a lot of times when you talk about quarterbacks in this league you hear about Stidham and Lock and Jake. But what do you like about what Bentley does for them?
COACH KIRBY SMART: A leader. I mean he understands the game. There's games I've watched him play over the years, it seems like 30 games now seeing the kid in the game, understand it, whether it was on TV or watching him on tape, comes down to a two-minute situation. You like having a coach on the field. He's more athletic than you give him credit for. He scrambles for first downs when things are covered. He handles pressure well. He knows where to go with the ball. He's unbelievable in the RPO game. I mean he's a really good quarterback, and as an offensive coordinator it's a lot easier to call the game when you've got a guy that you know makes good decisions with the ball. And that's what he does best.

Q. Coach, I want to ask you about Channing Tindall, with him being a guy from the Columbia area that you guys were able to weigh this past off season. Can you kind of recall anything, I guess, about the recruitment and going to Columbia, I suppose, and kind of just being able to land over Carolina and other schools, but also if he is able to travel, I mean what does that mean for him to go back home and play in front of family?
COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I think it's special anytime you go back home and get to play in front of your hometown and your family. And that's a special moment for him.

His recruitment was a long process. He handled it the right way. He communicated throughout. He took a lot of visits. But I think a lot of him as a kid. His family is a great family. I've enjoyed getting to know them, recruited them in Columbia. And he's an exciting player. He's gotta grow up and mature and learn some things, but as far as competitor, toughness, effort on the field, he gives that. And he's really fast, and speed is hard to coach. And he continues to grow as a player, and we're trying to develop him because we think he's really talented.

Q. Kirby, I guess I'll be the one to ask about the quarterbacks this week. I guess Justin came in fourth series or so and then played a good bit. Is there a plan per se for him or will Jake start and the game will dictate what you do after that?
COACH KIRBY SMART: The later, for sure. It's just a situation where there's no plan. You know, we gotta go with how things go and how the flow of the game goes. I thought he did a good job Saturday in the game, handled things well, but I don't know what this game is going to dictate, what this game is going to bring. So we'll see.

Q. At this time last year you guys were getting ready for Notre Dame. You didn't really know what you would see from Fromm. He stepped up to the plate. On Saturday Fromm was asked, "hey, have you talked to Fields at all about handling such a big environment?" Have you heard them speak at all about it? Have you heard Fromm give him any advice for Saturday's game?
COACH KIRBY SMART: No. I've not been privy to any of those conversations. But I know all camp they roomed together, and they're around each other every day in meetings, but I'm not privy to their conversations among each other.

But they're both great kids. They're both UGA fans. They both pull for us, and they compete hard against each other, but they're pulling the team in the right direction. That's one thing I'll say about both those kids. They just want to make our team better, and they've done that by how they've competed.

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