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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 17, 2018Kirby SmartAthens, Georgia COACH KIRBY SMART: Onto Missouri, who Barry Odom, similar to myself, is coaching at his alma mater and through the SEC head coaches' meetings I've gotten to know him well, got a lot of respect for him. He's a really good ball coach. I thought the job he did last year was just remarkable to go through the tough start they started with and then to come in and really play us tough and then to go on, I guess, a nine and one streak is what they've been on, and they've got a really good football team. Obviously a premier quarterback in the country, a premier wideout in the country. They're really big. They've got massive tight ends. Their front on the defense is leading the SEC in rushing defense, and they're really physical up front. So when you look at them as a whole, they're built SEC built. They're really a physical team, and I think he's done a tremendous job. They've made a commitment to the run game this year with the hiring of Derek Dooley. They're trying to run the ball and be more physical, and they've done that in their first games. They've got good backs. So our guys are excited for the opportunity and we'll get to work on these guys today. Q. Coach, how has Drew Lock gotten better since the last time you all played him last season? I know you have a lot of film on him going back to two seasons ago as well playing him in Columbia. What's the progression been like for him as you GUYS prepare for him for a third time? COACH KIRBY SMART: Well, I don't know, I don't know if his arm can get any stronger. So his arm is -- he can make every throw. He threw the ball on the side of the stadium last year on us. I think the biggest thing is his maturity level, his confidence. He's seen the coverages. He's seen the checks. He understands where he wants to go with the ball. He's got as fast of release as I've ever seen. He can get the ball out so quick, and he does such a good job of keying your defenders and knowing where to go with the ball. You can tell they really work hard on it, and I think he's just more mature. I think anytime you play in this conference and you go to the venues he's gone to to have three years under your belt or being in your third year, it makes it a lot more comforting. He throws the ball with purpose. And he puts them in the right play a lot, and he's a really good athlete. The guy takes off running on his some zone reads, he keeps the ball and he exposes people. He runs for 20 and 30 when he takes off and does it. He just doesn't do it very often. You can tell he's a good athlete. So I got a lot of respect for him, and you can tell the way he runs and scrambles and throws the ball he's a competitor. Q. Coach, would it be fair to say you guys have held back on some of your pressures maybe not showing your hand just because of the nature of the games so far? COACH KIRBY SMART: Probably not fair to say that. Probably fair to say we haven't pressured much. Obviously based on the statistics, we haven't pressured a whole lot, but I don't know that we've held back on any. I mean we're a run-stop-first team, and we haven't had a lot of opportunities. Like I said after the South Carolina game, I didn't think that we rushed the passer real well and affected the quarterback. I don't think we had many opportunities last week. But no, I wouldn't say we've held back. We are who we are. We're not keeping secrets. We've got tape out there of what our defense is, and they've got tape out there of what their offense is. I think that's -- a lot of times you do special things in certain games and you might have your change-ups, but for the most part you are who you are, and I would say the same thing offensively. Q. Coach, I'm not even going to try to pronounce his last name -- COACH KIRBY SMART: Me either. Q. -- but the tight end at Missouri (Okwuegbunam). What type of problems did he give you all last year, the guy of his size and he's athletic, but what are the difficulties in going up against say a tight end like that who can make plays like that? COACH KIRBY SMART: He's like -- I'll call him Albert for shortness sake. But he's a really good player. I mean the guy is -- and Derek being a tight ends' guy, they know how to use this guy. He's really talented. And the other kid, Blanton, is a great player. I don't know that you'll see a combination of two tight ends -- everybody talks about our tight ends, these guys when you watch them at warmups, for the last two years when you go over and see this Blanton in warmups, he looks like an offensive. He's huge. And he can run. And 81, Albert, is a tremendous athlete. They put him in receiver locations. They do things with him that they do with receivers. But he can also double up and come block. So that creates an issue for us, because you don't have many defenders that match up as well with 6'5, 265 out there on the perimeter. So they do a good job using those guys. They've got talented players on offense, which is why they've got really good numbers. Q. Kirby, I think a lot of folks had you guys penciled in for getting to Atlanta, winning the East in the preseason, and 3 and 0 now. What do you see in your division and Missouri in particular, the challenges when you line up with this stretch of SEC games? COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah, we're focused 100 percent on Missouri because we know what they've done and we know how we felt during the game last year. There were some times they were really explosive on us, and we've gotta go out and focus on playing these guys. As far as the rest of the SEC East or SEC, I can't tell you. I'm not concerned with it. I'm really focused on the challenges that Missouri presents, which is really big, physical players, experienced quarterback, a tough place to play. All the combinations that you look for, they've got good players at each position. Q. Kirby, you mentioned Derek Dooley taking over as offensive coordinator at Missouri this year. With that in mind how much will you look at what Missouri was able to do last year to have success against your defense? Are there similarities between what they did last year and what they're doing this year? COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah, you always look at all of it. You look at everything and you kind of put it in a compartment and say, okay, what can they pull from. So yeah, we look at last year. They have some similarities to their offense last year, and they've also got some differences. They've got some differences in their run game, and they'll have different things. Every offense has different things for each game. So they'll have some new wrinkles, and they've got a good team. So we'll have to go out and play well. Q. Coach, last week you talked about how Rodrigo has started becoming a weapon on special teams. This week Mecole takes his first one back. Camarda is averaging almost 48 yards a punt. How big of an advantage is it for you guys to have playmakers touching the ball pretty much every special teams snap? COACH KIRBY SMART: Well, if they continue to toe meet leather well like Rod has done I think Jake would be the first to tell you he's gotta get some more hang on some of his kicks and his distance has to match his hang, and we've gotta do a good job covering him better, and that's something we continue to work on. Mecole has always been an explosive player with the ball, and I was very pleased to see him get his first opportunity to return one all the way back. And looking at it, there were a lot of guys that helped him do that. And we always demand excellence in special teams. We work really hard on it, and we'll continue to do that to try to create advantages in the kicking game. Q. Coach, you alluded to Drew Lock. A lot of times the philosophy of a good defense is the best against an offense like that. But you can't miss what Purdue did through the air against Missouri. So I'm wondering, is there a temptation to match them and play that way or will you stick to your run game, and will you be 100 percent at the running back position? COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. We expect to be 100 percent at the running back position like we were Saturday. As far as what our game plan will be, I don't think I should divulge that. I mean it's not exactly -- I mean are we going to stick to our plan to be balanced? Absolutely. Are we going to go out and try to throw it every down? They don't throw it every down. They score a lot of points, but they do it in different methods. So we're going to do and prepare to be able to score points the best way possible and stop them from scoring points is the objective. Q. Coach, to follow up on Camarda about how he needs to improve and everything -- COACH KIRBY SMART: I would say he's gotta improve where his distance and his hang match. Not necessarily -- he's kicking the ball well. It's just sometimes that he outkicks his coverage, and we want our distance and hang to match, meaning if we kick it 50 yards, we want five-second hang. And he's done it for the most part. We just had a couple Saturday that he didn't do that. Q. Well, do you all ever focus on at all like pinning teams inside instead of the ball going for a touchback on every punt? COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. We try to do. I mean that's the goal. He has a certain yard line that we have that he sky kicks it, which would be pinning it. At a certain point we want him to kick it full. Well, there's a couple yard lines that he's hit it full and he's hit it so good that he kicked it in the end zone, not where that intent. So he's probably gotta use his pitching wedge instead of his eight-iron sometimes and just be able to do a little better job with it. But that's something that we always work on. There's never the intent to kick it in the end zone, and I think a lot of those -- he hasn't had many sky opportunities. The one he had against South Carolina right before the half I thought he did a great job. I think he pinned them on the eight or nine or something. But some of his other kicks have been out of sky territory and he's just bombing them. Q. Coach, we saw you all come out with four corners early against Middle Tennessee. What did you think of the way William and Mark played in that formation and how much more are you going to need them against an air attack offense like Missouri? Do you think they're ready to play really well against that type of style? COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. I don't know that I would say we had four corners. I don't look at it that way. That's not how we explain it. I mean Mark is a corner, but Mark plays multiple positions. Poole is a star. He's a nickel. So he's not really a corner. But we'll do the things we have to do to try to contain him. It's not necessarily -- I think you guys see the stats and you say, oh, they gotta play a lot of DBs. This team is big who we're playing. They are huge on the offensive front, including their tight ends. They have much better backs than they've had in the past. They are a more physical team. So to put four corners out there, they have a 6'5 and a 6'6, 265-pound tight end, I don't think those corners are going to match up real good with those tight ends when it comes to them being able to be multiple in their formations. So they do a good job of keeping you honest in that regard. Q. Coach, could you update us on the status of Andrew and Terry, what the plan is for them this week? COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah, Andrew we're hoping will be able to get active a little more. He's been running. He's been moving. I don't know that he'll be able to practice today, but he's probably going to be rehabbing and be out there with us. Hopefully we can get him back. Terry is okay. Terry should practice today. He does have a contusion. But I think he'll be able to go today. Q. What's your relationship with Derek Dooley from working with him in the past, and what have you noticed in terms of tweaks to the offense under him? COACH KIRBY SMART: I think Derek has brought some good changes for them. The physicality, I think, is what Barry's intent was in getting Derek devoted to running the ball, which they did at the Cowboys and Derek's been throughout his career. The commitment to that, to running the ball, even though you got a potential high-round draft pick at quarterback, they still have a commitment to running the ball and being physical. I think that's important in this league. And they've made that. That's the biggest change that I've seen is that, but they've kept a lot of the elements that are tough to defend in this offense. So he's done a good job of that. As far as Derek and my relationship, we worked together at Miami. We're good friends, and we were at LSU at the same time. I have a lot of respect for his dad, and Derek and I have always been good friends. Q. I guess this came up with defending Deebo Samuel in the South Carolina game. Emanual Hall, Missouri, kind of similar situation, they've got one very accomplished guy and other good receivers. With Deandre, is the overall strategy to still kind of keep him on one side of the field when possible or do you like to have him follow around guys or what? COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I don't know how that's going to work out because I don't know exactly what they're going to do. So it'll be a little bit of a chess match when it comes to what will they do. I'm certainly not going to show our hand to what we're going to do. We have to wait and see what they do with their wideout, who's an exceptional player, seen last year by everybody. I mean he lit up the stadium; and he's lit it up this season, and nobody's really been able to keep up with him. So we'll have to see how they play with him and see what we do. We have the ability to do a lot of things with our guys. Their place of play doesn't make it easy. Everybody would just say, well, just put Deandre on him. Let him shadow him. Well, it's not that easy, because the ball could be on this hash, that hash, fastball. They go quick; they have a lot of tempo. It's not that easy. Q. You mentioned Saturday that what you see from Elijah on game days is what you see in practice. COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. Q. Can you talk about what you saw from him in practice as he waited for this opportunity for the last two years? COACH KIRBY SMART: Yeah. Same thing that I see now. I mean he practices tough, physical. I mean every day for him is physical. I mean he doesn't have -- there's not a day he goes out there and says I'm taking this day off or I'm not going full speed today. He's not a guy you have to motivate. He loves the game. He practices hard. I think he really like competition because when he gets thudded by a guy, he always likes to come back and get that guy back. And you kind of see that out there in his play. He likes contact, and he's a bowling ball. He's hard to bring down. He's really tough. Q. Kirby, how would you assess your quarterback play so far? And what did you see from Fields on Saturday? COACH KIRBY SMART: I've been pleased with both guys. I think both guys are improving. Both of them have room for improvement, and they both continue to work hard and prepare. And I think the biggest thing for each one of them is can you continue to prepare at the right level so that you're prepared for every situation you could be presented in the game. As far as what Justin did in the game the other day, I thought he did a good job. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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