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CHICK-FIL-A KICKOFF GAMESeptember 3, 2016Kirby SmartNick ChubbAtlanta, Georgia Georgia - 33, North Carolina - 24 KIRBY SMART: Well, first off, I want to thank the Chick-Fil-a committee for inviting us to play in this game. We think it's an honor to get to play at home in front of our home fans. What a special event and special atmosphere they put on here. Gary Stokan and his staff do a great job. Our goal tonight was kind of twofold. We wanted to help our players understand how to play Georgia football and what that is and get them to give the effort to go out and play with the competitiveness that we want, the relentless toughness, effort, all the things we talked about. That was it. It wasn't about the scoreboard. It was just about doing that. I felt like if we did that, then I'd be comfortable with how they played. Change is a process, and we're trying to change the culture and the demeanor, and these kids really played hard. They were resilient. They had adversity, and they kept fighting. You know, there was a lot of doubters out there when that ball got kicked off and ran back the second half. A lot of here-we-goes. But not one kid on that sideline doubted it. Those defensive players were cheering for the offensive players, and the offensive players were cheering for the defensive players, and I really felt that our line of scrimmage was the difference in the game. Appreciate it. Q. Coming out of that touchdown by Carolina, was that the sort of mental toughness you wanted from your team? You said here we go again; I think that was the feeling amongst the folks in the stands. How did you prevent that from spreading through the team? KIRBY SMART: Well, I don't know that you prevent it in that moment. I think you prevent that every day in practice when you're out there for stretch, flex, and you're walking through and you're demanding excellence. I've really been hard on these guys, and that's not going to change, and sometimes they wonder why, they wonder if I'm crazy. But that's why; because if I can make it harder on them in practice when things like that happen, they tend to respond better, and I'm really proud of the way they responded. Q. Is the plan still to rotate the two quarterbacks? KIRBY SMART: There is no plan right now. Right now we'll assess the tape. We'll make another decision. I'm sure all you guys will want to know who's going to start the next game, and we'll start it all over again. Maybe you'll know by Thursday, maybe you'll know by Wednesday; who knows. We've got to figure all that out. I don't want to jump to any conclusion. I do think this: Both kids competed hard in the game. We struggled a little bit with the execution with Jacob in there as far as getting in and out of the huddle and communicating and doing things, but he's got some other strengths. I'm really proud of both of them because I went to Greyson several times while Jacob was in there and he was cheering for Jacob. He wanted him to do well, and he knew that he was going to have an opportunity to come back in in certain situations. So only time will tell, but I know this: There's a lot of good football players out there besides those two who deserve a ton of credit. Q. Nick, a lot of carries your first game back. First off, how you're feeling; second off, was there ever a time where maybe you had some heavy legs and had to battle through that? NICK CHUBB: I'm feeling good. We got a chance to come out here and finally play as a team. We worked hard all season, and just to come back out here, for me my first time out here, back with my team, it felt amazing, and I took my mind off everything else, just playing for my boys that I've been with for the past couple years. You know, throughout the game, I felt good. I felt good the whole game. Just I didn't know where I was at at any given point, carries, yards. It doesn't matter to me. If the team calls on me, I know the whole team is behind me, great offensive linemen making holes, making room, and just give me the ball. We have a great team. Q. Kirby, just your assessment of Nick, and for him to go 32 carries for 222. And then Nick, did you feel like this was kind of a statement of return for you given that you've had the long layoff with the injury? KIRBY SMART: Well, I'll go first. Somebody asked me if he was on a pitch count. I guess not, huh? He did a great job. I think first, you should give a lot of credit to Ron Courson and his staff, okay, because they really pushed Nick. And then the second is Nick Chubb is a special person. He's got great humility, a great family, and he works so hard. Not many of you guys know what this kid went through, when you're going out and doing extra Taekwondo at night, early mornings, there's a reason why he's in the shape he's in, and it's because of the way he works. NICK CHUBB: Yeah, so a lot of things came, a lot of things I went through to get here, and not only -- I didn't do by myself at all; like he said, Ron Courson and his staff, my family, friends, Coach Smart texting me late at night keeping my head in it, and just my teammates, everyone pushing me, and myself, I'm doing it for them. I'd get up every morning, work out at night, Taekwondo workout, a little track stuff with the track team, and it wasn't for myself, it was for my teammates. Ten months ago I was injured. It was bad. Never been in that position. I was down, a lot of pain. I could have done two things, either laid down and never got up, or what I did, and pushed myself. I had a lot of support from everyone around me, and this game, I wasn't out there by myself at all, there was all the other guys out there with me and allowed this type of performance. I'm just proud of everyone. I'm glad to be a Georgia Bulldog. I'm truly blessed. Q. Coach, you mentioned the line of scrimmage; comments about both DL and OL, especially a lot of big holes for Nick and all the running backs? KIRBY SMART: Yeah, they did a great up front of being physical. We told them that's our identity, and if we came out of the game with that identity, then I'd be comfortable, and I mean that, regardless of the score. I had a lot of thoughts about this press conference and thought, what if things don't turn out right. I just knew if we dominated the line of scrimmage and we were more physical than them that the scoreboard wouldn't matter if we never quit, and the kids kept fighting, and they won the game up front. They really did, because our ability to run the ball was the difference in the game. Q. Coming back from a 10-point deficit in the third quarter, how do you think this game serves as a source of momentum as you continue on towards the rest of the season? KIRBY SMART: I think it shows two things: A, we've got to work on kickoff coverage. B, we've got to continue to improve all special teams. But it shows that these kids will never quit. They've got to push. It's going to happen again. Teams, especially in our league, are really good teams, so we're going to have those situations come up. Sure, we want to build on it, but we've got to be careful, too. This is one game, and we can't fall into that trap. Q. Can you talk about Brian Herrien and the job he did? KIRBY SMART: I'll tell you what, tears almost came to my eyes when that kid had that touchdown run because a lot of y'all how far he came. He's sitting in his second semester, he's got to make four or five A's to even be eligible. I had a great relationship with him from Alabama. We thought he was a really good player when I was over there, and I was like just hang on, don't sign, just wait, we'll be there for you if you can make your grades, and for that kid to come as far as he did, get thrust into the limelight and go out there and do what he did, it's really special, and he's got a lot of improving to do. He's got to improve on his protections, he's got to improve on his ball security, but he's two great guys to learn from, so I'm really proud of Brian. Q. The experience of being in game as a head coach for the first time, was it about what you expected? Were there any surprises, and to get a one over ranked opponent first game, what does that mean for you? KIRBY SMART: It's a great feeling, but it's one game, and to be honest with you, how I felt, it was really weird. You know, comedy of errors, flipping over on the headphones, trying to figure out who I'm talking to because I didn't have to do that before. That was different, trying to find special teams, not feeling like I'm coaching my players because I've always thought that was my best asset, to go coach the players, and tried to stay really positive and not get down on the guys. So it was a unique experience for me that I'll build on and learn from. Q. Nick, given all the buildup for this game with you coming back and the new coach and everything, how important was it to win? Did you feel like it was a must-win game? NICK CHUBB: Not necessarily a must-win game. I know we prepared in the off-season and in fall practice, and every day Coach demanded us to work hard and at any given time just give our all, and that's what we did. We worked really, really hard, all our team, we brought into the new system, and we prepared for it, for anything that was coming at us. Q. Kirby, how pivotal was Roquan Smith's safety and how that set up the rest of the game? KIRBY SMART: Well, that's the loudest I've ever heard it. I've been in this stadium a bunch of times, and I felt that was the loudest I've ever heard it, and it was pretty impressive. Who could deserve it better? You're talking about a guy that works so hard and buys into everything we preach. He practices faster than he plays sometimes. I mean, he literally loves the game of football, and everybody told the kid he was too small, and all he's done is overcome that. I thought that momentum change was great. He saw something, bit on it and attacked it, and it was a big swing in the game to get the momentum back our way. Q. Nick, what was it like to finally get that in-game contact, and Kirby, I know you talked about what he's gone through, but to see how well he ran from the first quarter to the fourth, what did that mean to you to kind of see tonight? NICK CHUBB: It was definitely preparation. I didn't come out here not knowing what's going to happen or how the game was going to go personally for my leg, whatever, because I already been through it in practice. I've practiced hard, been tackled in scrimmages, so I was prepared. The coaching staff, training staff did a great job with just the whole team. It was a great outcome. Q. How would you evaluate your special teams play tonight? KIRBY SMART: Well, I'll be honest with you, I want to watch the tape first, but we did not execute, especially on kickoff. We had a contain man that was not in the right place, and it could have cost us the game, and that's deadly. We've got to improve in that area, especially in the coverage units. They've got a really good punt returner that we had sleepless nights over. I had a coach that used to coach there at North Carolina that texted me and said, don't kick it to him, so we had some long hard thoughts about whether we were even going to kick the ball to the guy. I'm talking about the punt returner, not to mention the kick returner did a great job. But we've got to improve in that area. The one thing I'll say, though, we worked really hard on that, and we tried to put our best players -- Nick is a starter, on that punt unit. We tried to put our best players out there, because those snaps are really valuable, but we've got to improve in that area. Q. The decision to start Mo Smith and what he did out there considering everything he did to get to this point. KIRBY SMART: Yeah, you know, the decision boiled down to how you practice. We tell our players all the time, we put a lot of value in practice, so Mo is a really hard practice player. He believes in doing it right. He believes in being physical, and I've been fortunate enough to see that for three years, and then he did that when he arrived, and he plays with physicality. He's a competitor. He's a good leader. That gave him -- and he knew the system, so he's very comfortable out there to do things. Now, as far as how he played, I can't tell you that truthfully because I didn't get to see all of it. I feel like he played really good, but we had a couple balls that scooted out on us that he's got to improve on. There's not one guy on our team that doesn't need to improve, and we've got to use this as a stepping-stone. Q. Nick, when you crossed the goal line on the 55-yard run, did it feel like an exclamation point, a statement you wanted to make for you and the team? NICK CHUBB: Man, it was good to get to the end zone. The position we were in, we could have ran the clock down or got a touchdown. We ended up getting a touchdown, so that was great. But man, it just feels good any time to score. I mean, it felt great, great blocking. It was wide open. The O-line did a great job, great call. Just a team effort. We did great. Q. Can you share some thoughts about opening the season here at the Chick-Fil-a kickoff game? KIRBY SMART: Yeah, it's an unbelievable venue. We asked Gary if we could just come every year and not have anybody else, make it a home game. It would be all right with me. So let's get that done. Can you call the guys coming next year and get them out? No, we would love to do that. First of all, guys, I know that there's a lot put into this game as far as win or lose, but with the College Football Playoff the way it is, it's great to play in a game. We're going to be better when we go play at some of the places we've got to play in the SEC because we played a really good football team, and you need to give those guys credit. Larry Fedora does a good job. They've got a very good football team, and that's going to help us in the long run by giving us good competition. Q. Kirby, when they go five plays, 75 yards in a minute and 43 and take a 10-point lead, did you say anything to your defense, change anything schematically to kind of shut them down the rest of the way? KIRBY SMART: No, I think Coach Tucker and the defensive staff, Rocker and Sherrer and Schumann, they challenged those guys and pushed them, and they knew that it was things we were doing. It wasn't what they did. It's what we did. We lost contain. So if you keep contain it's not that they're doing something so right, we're doing something wrong, and we really believe that when we play right and everybody does their job that teams can't do that, so we just have to focus on doing that and not focus on the outcome of 10 points or however many points we're down. Keep chopping wood, and they really did a nice job of that. Q. Kind of hard to ask this question, especially after Nick's performance tonight, but Sony Michel looked really good in the pregame warmups. KIRBY SMART: No kidding. I said, hey, Sony you got all these folks fooled, man, because he was tearing it up. I'm sure there were scouts and their coaches were over there going, good grief, he looks fast. Q. I was wondering how far out is he? KIRBY SMART: He's not cleared yet. He's day-to-day. Let me say this, too, guys: Our receivers tonight blocked their tail off, and we haven't talked much about the receivers, but there was a lot of times that they were going in there cracking heads, so give those guys some credit because I certainly am. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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