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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 18, 2019

Kirby Smart

Athens, Georgia

KIRBY SMART: I'll open with excited for an opportunity to play Baylor in the Sugar Bowl. I haven't gotten to address that other than the media teleconferences we had. We're four practices in, and we've got a lot of respect for this team. When you watch them on tape, they really play hard, toughness, competitive. I think Coach Rhule does a tremendous job. The turnaround he's been able to do there is incredible. They've played in a lot of really tough games this year, got a lot of respect for their conference, having played Texas from their conference last year, and they do a fabulous job.

Our guys, we really just kind of started on them specifically today, but we've had three or four practices that were more fundamental based, and the coaches have been working towards getting ready for Baylor. So excited about the opportunity to play those guys, and I know our players are too.

Next thing would be Signing Day today, which is kind of a weird timing for everything because we've still got the February signing date coming up, but we were able to address a lot of our needs today. I really feel like, when you talk about wide receiver and you talk about offensive line, what we've got leaving and what we need on our roster, we were able to attack some of those areas and still have work left to be done hopefully in both those areas.

We've got a really good strong group. We've got some really strong academic kids, which matters a lot to me at this university, and some great competitors. A couple guys, I think four guys played for state championships. Two guys won state championships. I'm really excited about this class. It's not completely done yet, but obviously, a lot of the pieces are in place. With that, I'll open it up.

Q. Kirby, since we haven't had a chance to talk to you recently, can you confirm that you had interest in bringing Mike Bobo back as offensive coordinator? And also as a followup, would you anticipate, or are you interested in making any change at that position?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I talk to Mike often, and we're really good friends. But as far as any conversation about coming to coach at the University of Georgia, no. He and I conversed about what he was going to do when he was let go, but that was during the week of the LSU game.

As far as any other changes or anything like that, that's decided after the Bowl game, after we look back at the whole year. We're working really hard right now on Baylor, on giving our kids an opportunity to play, and that's really where our focus is.

Q. Coach, obviously a lot of wide receivers in this class. Can you just address, it looks like that was a point of emphasis, and then you got two guys kind of late in the day.
KIRBY SMART: Yeah. I'm not allowed to comment on but the guys that have got the paperwork in, but really excited about those guys. We've been excited about Justin for a long time. Marcus too. They both came to our camp over the summer and were as competitive of kids as you've seen out there in one-on-ones, and both of them had good senior years, and both of them won state championships.

Arian's a kid who's got a lot of speed. It's pretty obvious he can run fast. He wants to be able to run track here, which we've been very open to and had success with Mecole doing that, so that was a big selling point for him. We had a lot of other kids join us today that we think are going to help us.

Q. Coach, following up on the wide receiver aspect, specifically with Marcus and Arian being from the South Florida area there, how much of an asset does Coley play on the recruiting trail this time of year getting guys from that area that have been so important to your program over the last few years?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I don't know if Arian would say he's South Florida. He's the Lakeland area, which to those kids is not really all the way down in South Florida. But I think Coach Hankton did a tremendous job with Marcus and his family. We've got great relationships at that high school. Jason Taylor is a coach there, a guy that I was with at the Dolphins, Coach Harriet and Coach Coley have had great relationships for a long time.

Those relationships help, but ultimately Georgia sells those kids on coming here. When they come up on visits, when they come up and see the place, the academics, coming to camp the relationships that are formed have been big on commits. And those wideouts know that we have a need. They know they have an opportunity to play.

Q. Kirby, I guess, if you talk about Carson Beck, but also the quarterback situation, are you going to look for another one in this class, and what kind of communication have you had with Jake about whether he's going to come back?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, start with Carson. Excited as I can be. This guy's come to camp since maybe his ninth grade year to our place, has grown up and gotten better with each and every year. He came this summer, hung out with our guys. Can't say enough about Carson and his family, the competitive nature that's inside him. He's been a winner. He won a state championship last year at Mandarin, which has probably never been done before, I think at their school. So he led those guys to that and did a great job.

As far as any others, we're looking for all positions. We've got some spots left, and we're looking at every position out there to sign best available players. And at that second signing, quarterback is not out of question, but it's not necessarily something we have to do.

As far as Jake, we do with Jake exactly what we do with every player on our team. We bring him in. We talk to teams. I talk to general managers. I talk to organizations. We get information. We give those kids that information. This is a time when they're able to do that, and then when we get closer to the Bowl game, we put it away, and then we come back and revisit it, and we've done those things for Jake.

Q. Regarding the running backs, are you expecting Swift, Cook, Herrien, and Hudson to be playing in the Sugar Bowl?
KIRBY SMART: All that is still to be determined. All those guys healthy right now. Swift is recovering from his injury, but he's out there practicing, and he's doing everything we ask.

Q. On Cook specifically, any punishment that he's -- because of the incident that he had? And to follow on that, are there any players at this time that you know of that are not going to be eligible to play in the Bowl game that might have lost their eligibility?
KIRBY SMART: With Cook, it will start with the internal discipline we have, and as far as anybody else, we're still gathering information as far as anything grade-wise, any of the stuff we would have, we're still gathering all of that from school.

Q. Coach, with Kendall Milton and signing him at running back, I mean, obviously, he's a highly rated guy, so a lot of people knew who he was. But what was kind of the appeal to pull him? How did you guys sell him on joining that running back room that has a lot of names in it? And also with Carson, is he going to join you guys for practice for the Bowl game?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, we're hoping to get Carson here for Bowl practice as soon as possible. Kendall, on the other hand, I think was attracted to the fact that he knew he had the potential of two guys leaving with Herrien being a graduate and being a senior, and then with the likelihood of Swift possibly coming out, he's sitting there going, you know what, there's an opportunity there.

I think any time, when you look at it as a running back and you say they could be losing two guys, very similar to years past when we had Sony and Nick, you're always exploring those options, and we certainly felt that Kendall comes from a really strong family. Dell formed a great relationship with their family, and they came and visited all the schools across the Southeast and really liked what Georgia had to offer.

I'm super pleased to get him. He was one of our leaders in the class, and I'm excited about what he's going to bring to the table.

Q. Coach, what was your level of familiarity with Matt Luke before the hire? I guess I went back and looked. You guys were actually on the field a couple times against one another back in the day. What do you expect him to bring? I mean, obviously, he's an offensive line coach, but what does he bring beyond that?
KIRBY SMART: We were really fortunate and excited to get him. The minute that I found out about Sam, he's the first guy that came to my mind and wanted to visit with, I've had a lot of respect for the job he's done, everywhere he's been from the years he was at Duke. He kind of came up under Coach Cutcliffe and played for him and has been a good friend of mine for a long time.

Got a lot of respect for what he does, how he does it. I've been in SEC meetings now with him for a while. Very sharp, very intelligent guy. That's kind of come to the realization on the road. When you go into home with him, he's got command. He's got presence. Kids like him. His team there, all the guys on their team loved him as a head coach. To do what he's done in the short amount of time he's done it is pretty remarkable because it was a tough timing situation.

So happy for Sam and Jamie and the opportunity they've gotten. He's come in, Matt's come in and put the Band-Aid on the bleeding and done a tremendous job and turned those three guys around pretty quick. We'll continue to recruit the others.

Q. Kirby, I know you were asked about offensive philosophy after the SEC Championship. I'm wondering if a couple weeks since then you've had any time to reflect more basically on the struggles this year on whether scheme is part of it, whether you're going to look at the philosophy or if there's anything you'd like to clear up about that.
KIRBY SMART: Yes. We've looked at it. But we want to score points. I mean, you guys want a simple answer like it's just going to poof and happen. It's all philosophy. It's all the plays that are called and the play designs. It's not everything. There's a lot of things that goes into having a successful offense, and we need to be better. I think everybody acknowledges that. And that's what we're working on really hard.

Q. With Thomas and Wilson deciding to go to the NFL, how did that impact your offensive line recruiting? And I don't know if there's others, from a position that might be looking at the same thing. Then also at that position, not having those guys for Baylor and the way that they get after the quarterback, how tough about that make it?
KIRBY SMART: Any time you lose two, one -- probably the first round pick, one potential first round pick, it's tough, right? Those kids have an opportunity to go do something they wanted to do all their lives, and we give them the information, and we let them make the best decision for them.

For us, it's not like this is something new. We've known this was the potential to happen with these two guys all year. We knew it as much as last year. So you're always trying to look ahead, plan ahead, develop players, develop your roster. Those guys have been out games, both of them, in the last two years, so we've had to play without them.

There will be challenges, absolutely, and there will also be opportunity. With opportunity, a lot of times guys get to answer the bell. We're going to get an opportunity to find out some other guys that can play the position. A lot of guys have been working really hard all year to develop that are going to get opportunities in this game.

Q. Another quarterback question, Coach. When you say you may or may not pursue another quarterback for this class, does that also include possibly receiving a graduate transfer?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, we don't ever take anything out of the realm. I mean, when we have graduate transfers in the past, that's like a constant study. We're looking at that for every position. Guys, it's simple. You want to make your roster as best as you can. That's our job as coaches. So we're in constant pursuit of every opportunity we have. There's nothing that's off limits in regards to recruiting or making your roster better.

Q. Coach, with Bowl preparation this year with the performance from last year, you got your recruits in the early signing today. How important is what you put on the field for your Bowl solidify who might sign later? Because they'll make a choice on how they think you guys look in the Bowl game as well.
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, maybe. They may look at it as an opportunity. But what's important for our university is that we go play the best football game we can and that we have a really positive attitude and outlook on it and we've had four great practices. Our kids have been tremendous in those four, and we've been really fast, physical, and fundamental, and we've been doing it quick.

But what those guys that you're talking about in the future are going to make their decision based on usually pertains to what opportunity they have to play, what our institution offers from an education standpoint. I don't think it's all based on the outcome of one game.

Q. Coach, looking at the transcript from the SEC Championship game press conference, you said something to the effect of not bringing guys to Bowl games that weren't engaged. Does that mean, if they're not playing in the game, they're not going to be there? Is it that cut and dry? And also, about lessons learned last year, specifically, is there a team-wide sentiment that what happened last year isn't going to -- has anybody come right out and said that?
KIRBY SMART: No, I think we have good leaders on this team, though. A lot of guys have addressed the attitude and the practice habits and all those things. Like I just said, they've been really great. They've been awesome. They've handled that really well.

As far as going to the Bowl game or not, those two guys have been tremendous. They've been awesome. They let us know what they're going to do. They're working out. They're getting ready and preparing for the draft. We don't really have a decision to be made there.

Q. Kendall, I think, is the first person, first recruit from California for Georgia since 2006. Is it an emphasis to try to get more out-of-state guys? Because it's been that way this year and last year.
KIRBY SMART: It hasn't been an emphasis. It's been more of what are our needs and who can we get? We try to go out and evaluate and find the best character, football player, students -- all of those factors for us are important. Kendall certainly checks the box on all those, and he just happens to be from California. That's not a prerequisite. We want to get the best football players we can and student-athletes we can.

Q. Coach, can you confirm reports that Ben Cleveland is not going to be able to play in the Bowl game?
KIRBY SMART: Cannot confirm that, no, because there's still things out there. So nothing's final yet.

Q. I imagine you have a good sense of what's left between now and February for your class. Can you kind of speak to how you feel about how it might shape up with the final stretch here beyond what you're going to have today with your signees?
KIRBY SMART: No, I can't really. We've got guys that I can't comment on. So I can't say anything about them. I don't really know what you're asking.

Q. Well, just that you might have (inaudible) today, but what you have in February might look different from what you have with other targets. I'm sure you have a sense of how guys feel as they make their final decisions.
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I can only comment on the ones that have signed today. That's all I'm allowed to comment on. I'm excited about the ones that signed today and looking forward to finishing off the class with another great class. I'm very pleased with what we brought in today, and I'm very pleased with what we've got coming forward in February, but I can't talk about it.

Q. With the guys that you signed today, how many of those guys will come in tomorrow, next week, early enrolls, and how many of them are you going to take to New Orleans with you?
KIRBY SMART: I think we'll have six or seven mid-year enrollees, but some won't be here for Bowl practice. Some have elected to play in the All-Star games. Some have to get their academic paperwork in to be able to enroll mid-year, and some will be here for the practices.

Q. Coach, you touched on this in one of the teleconferences that you had earlier about the Sugar Bowl, but how seriously do you think your guys are approaching this game as opposed to last year?
KIRBY SMART: I thought they approached it serious last year. We didn't play real well, but we had a bunch of young guys that got to play on defense. Offensively, we had turnovers, and when you have turnovers, you don't win football games. We've kind of gotten to that point. We're at a zero turnover margin, and they're at plus 14. So for the last four days, we've been banging that home. We can't have turnovers and win football games.

Certainly excited to give our guys an opportunity. They've all embraced the challenge. That's what you do as a leader. You confront and demand and say this is how we're going to do it, and if you don't do it to the standard, then you don't play. All these kids have been great. They've done a good job of that.

Q. How would you evaluate the guys, the defensive guys you got today, particularly on the defensive line?
KIRBY SMART: Excited. I think those three guys, when you start looking across the country, defensive linemen are hard to find, 6 foot, 300-pound plus athletic guys. They don't grow on trees. You don't go pick them and grab them like they do DBs or finding wide receivers. They're hard to find, big, physical presence guys. We needed that. We're losing some core guys, and those three guys to me, they're as good of a group as you'll find in the country with three of them coming in together that we really need.

Q. Coach, I was going to follow up on that. Just from a numbers standpoint and a needs standpoint, what were the areas you wanted to address, and what's left? I know you said the best player is still out there, but from a numbers standpoint, what did you really want to hit on, and what numbers do you think you've got to hit now?
KIRBY SMART: I don't know what you mean by numbers. If you're asking me how many more we're going to sign, I don't know that.

Q. Just positions, as far as the priority and making sure you get them?
KIRBY SMART: I would say O-line and receiver were the biggest areas we had to improve our roster, but you can't say that in a class because a class has all the parts, so if it's missing one part, then you could be deficient two years from now, three years from now, maybe next year. So I don't feel like we're going, oh, man, there's a major deficiency here. We've got a good, really balanced class. You could say linebacker, but we felt like it was not a need to have to go take a guy at inside backer because we had some young guys there.

I don't know if that answers your question, but that's what I'm getting at.

Q. Going back to the SEC Championship, when you had guys like Lewis Cine and Tyrique Stevenson, especially with Lewis Cine, I guess, what was it about his growth that led you guys to give him some more playtime? And I know the scheme of LSU probably played into that. Also, we talked about it throughout the year, but the fact that a lot of these freshmen contributed, did that help with you guys signing some of these guys?
KIRBY SMART: I don't know how many of these guys look at that and acknowledge that. I don't know if that's really important to them because it's twofold. Yeah, they play a lot of freshmen. Everybody in the country plays a lot of freshmen because our rosters aren't as deep as they used to be. Also, sometimes they see that as that's another guy in front of me. So I don't know that that has bearing all the time other than we will give good football players opportunities to play. If you're good enough, you're old enough. You don't have to be a certain age. If you're good enough, you're old enough. We've always had that mantra around here.

Lewis had done some good things during the year. He played well when given the opportunity, and he did some good things in that game. He's one of our faster players, and he helps matchup-wise, and he's one of our best tacklers. So that was why he got the opportunity.

Q. How many practices are you having on campus? And given that it's the same Bowl, are you changing anything up in terms of so it's not like a repeat of everything last year in terms of activities for the players and just the whole approach?
KIRBY SMART: We don't get to pick the activities for the players. The Bowl picks a lot of that, and having been there a lot, a lot of them carry over their traditional activities.

But as far as us, we did a quality control last year when we got back of everything that, if we had to do it again, what would we do different? What can we do better? We took those sheets out, and we're looking at that. We made some changes, some subtle, some major, and I'm excited about the opportunity.

That's why you do that when it's fresh on your mind right when you get back. We're very detail oriented of, okay, would we stay there? Would we go there? Would we do this? Would we have this game or that game? Would we practice this way or this time? Look at all that and try to find the best available option.

At the end of the day, it's really what kind of person are you inside. Like when you look at yourself in the mirror, can you accept that you did your best and you know you did your best, or do you feel like you did less than your best? That's what we're challenging the guys to do. That comes from inside.

Q. With the coaching change on your staff this year, with players coming and going, I'm just wondering, you personally, how you've adjusted. This has been four years for you, but it looks like this off-season has been a busy one. I just wonder how have you adjusted, and what have you learned from just this particular off-season with all the transactions that have been going on around you?
KIRBY SMART: I don't know that it's any different. We had somebody last year, right? He was at Colorado, and he was the defensive coordinator. To me, this is part of the profession. When you win football games and you win your division three years in a row, people get opportunities, and I am happy that Sam Pittman gets the opportunity. We've had other coaches on our staff get opportunities that have elected to stay, and that is a good thing.

But for me, the next step is getting ready to play Baylor. It was signing the signing class today. Tomorrow it's getting our players ready to go play Baylor. The next step is a Monday practice for Baylor. So we're working on game prep for those guys.

I don't really get into where this is compared to last year or the year before. It's next thing up. What's important now.

Q. Coach, I don't mean anything about it, but I'm just curious, no media availability this week for players. Kind of what comes behind your decision for that this week?
KIRBY SMART: A lot of it comes from our players. Our players have felt like during the year there was a large burden and taxing on them with schoolwork and a lot of the things they had and a lot of the same guys doing the media and the younger guys not doing it. That's just philosophical to be honest with you. Our guys have enjoyed the break, and we're going to focus on us, and we're going to do that in house. It's just a choice I get to make.

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