ATHENS, Ga — Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart, along with linebacker Jalon Walker and redshirt junior offensive lineman Dylan Fairchild, spoke with the media on Monday and offered the following comments.
Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening statement
“I'm excited for this matchup. Two top teams in the country, getting ready to play. Thank goodness it's at our place, we get to come home and play. Night game, should be an electric atmosphere, it is every time we play them. They've got a tremendous team; Josh [Heupel] has done an unbelievable job with this team. They're playing at a high level, just got through watching a bunch of their special teams. I always say you can tell the character of a team and how good a team is, how hard they play by their special teams. They play really hard, defense, offense. I think they're top in the conference, maybe top three, top two, in almost every category on offense and defense. Which, as you know, that was what we faced last week, they were pretty high in both. But this team is playing defense at an extremely high level, and they have an extremely explosive offense, and extremely physical offense. So, it's a great test, Nico [Iamaleava] is playing really well in terms of athleticism, and he's got great arm talent. As you sit down and watch games, you start to realize how good this team is, and how well they've played. So, they've got a tremendous football team, and we've got a tremendous football team. And it's going to be a great opportunity for these two to go play and square off in what's a pivotal matchup. I mean, it's going to be a great matchup at night, at our place, and on a national stage. So, it's what you come to Georgia to play in, and it seems like we have been in a bunch of these type games, especially this year. So, we've got to get our team prepared as coaches to play their best game, and they've got a great team.”
On approaching the game as a “Playoff” game:
“I don't ever take those approaches. I don't think they're the right way to go about things. I think you're trying to win your conference all the time, and to do that you've got to win your games at home. You've got to play well on the road, which we have and haven't. We've done both, but I like making it about who we play and how we play, and less about just outcomes.”
On changing the offensive approach:
“Execution would be the biggest thing. I feel like there's been a couple, you call them wasted plays or wasted drives, where we have a stupid penalty, we have a good play with a negative play with a penalty, and you start kind of backed up and screw things up. We haven't had a lot of great field position the last couple games, where we have had some unfortunate things with special teams that have happened. But, you know, being more efficient is the most important thing. And that's our biggest struggle, is staying ahead of the chains for third downs and putting together drives where we don't have turnovers. And at the end of the day, you have two to three turnovers a game, more than the other team. You're not going to win a lot of games if you have that many more turnovers than them.”
On preparing for a top opponent while managing injuries:
“Well, you go with what the medical people give you, you know what I mean? If a guy's healthy enough to practice, he practices. If he's not, then he doesn't. So, I go with the recommendation of the tremendous training staff we have. Those kids want to practice. They want to go out there and do it, and sometimes they can. Sometimes they can do certain things, and they can't do others. I defer to those guys. And most of the time, especially on your offensive line, it's like the toughest unit you have. So, they're going to give you everything they've got, and they want to go out there and practice and play. But in some cases they can, in some cases they can't.”
On Earnest Greene, III’s development:
“Yeah, Earnest is, number one: he plays the hardest position in all of football, which is the left tackle position. I think he's done really well. We've rolled some there, and Monroe [Freeling] spells him sometimes. Earnest has been dealing with an injury, a really tough injury to manage. He has burners. He's gotten some stingers and burners over there on his shoulder. So even he last week was limited in how much reps he could get in practice. So, for him, he's frustrated because right now he's trying to improve and get better, and sometimes you can't do that when you can't practice every single day, and you can't go out there and maybe bang and compete like you want to. But for a guy that's played left tackle for really two years in major college football, and he's been part of an offensive line that has done a great job protecting the quarterback over the course of two years.”
On similarities between the Ole Miss and Tennessee offense:
“Not real similar. Two different offenses.”
On the offensive line’s performance at Ole Miss:
“Yeah, I think there's a lot of plays where we blocked really talented, good players, and we were able to run the ball at times effectively against a really talented defense. There were others where we didn't block them, and our backs made some extremely, really good plays. I thought Trevor [Etienne] and Nate [Frazier] had some of their best runs of the year considering what the blocking was or what we got done up front. And then you go to the pass game, and there were times we blocked them and times we didn't. And at the end of the day when you play from behind and a team can rush the passer like they did. Their number one is an elite rusher. He did not play against LSU. They threw the ball. LSU threw the ball I think 50 times in that game. You've got to wonder, if that guy's out there for 50 passes, does he have an impact on the game? He did not. He had an impact on our game, for sure. And he does a really good job. But our guys, I'm completely confident in our offensive line. I think our offensive line has got a good offensive line. We can't put them in harm's way. And when you play on the road, guys, there's not a guy in this room that's lined up at left tackle with 80,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs and he knows it's a pass. He gets a distinct .5 advantage, and .5's a lot. Trust me. I know from coaching this league, it's hard to do. You've got to find ways to help people. You've got to be able to run the ball to slow it down. And you've got to help them out some.”
On managing a quarterback during adversity:
“Well, there's a need to hear and then there's a need to reaffirm what's true. What's the actual truth? Because we don't deal in narratives and themes and what people say and social media fodder and what you guys think. We deal in truths, and the truth is what we usually say to tell them. That's a good decision. That's a poor decision. That's a good drop. That's a bad drop. That's a good protection of the ball if you don't take a sack. That's a poor protection of the ball. We deal in truths, and we don't go much past that.”
On considering a quarterback change:
“Absolutely not. We've got the quarterback we've got who is completely competent, capable and understanding of our system that gives us the best chance to win.”
On the lack of production on offense:
“Well, we played really good defenses. So, you guys will look at a stat sheet and you'll say, where do they rank? And I'll say, well, against who? Because relative to who we've played, we've played some really good teams. But I would be remiss if I would say that we're happy with where we are. We're not happy with where we are. We played some really, really, really, really good defenses I think this year, more than most people in terms of their schedule. And when you look at the SEC games, the ones that matter the most, SEC versus SEC, and you look at all those, it's not as glaring as a difference because there's some really good defenses in our league in terms of what you play against. But we want to be more productive. We want to be able to throw the ball vertical down the field. We want to be able to shoot and play action. Play action is set up off of your backs and off of your ability to run the ball. In some games, we have been able to run the ball better than others. In some games, we've been able to drop back pass better than others. But regardless of those two things, you must protect the ball and we have not done that. And that's the key to the drill. If you don't turn the ball over, guys, you're going to have a chance to win. And then the flip side of that is you've got to get turnovers. So where are our strip-outs? Where are our rip-outs? Where are our takeaways, I would say? Because to win turnover margin, it's a two-way street. It's not just a one-way street.”
On Colbie Young’s status:
The legal process has got to play itself out. We want to support Colbie where we can. We continue to provide him with access to our facilities and the support resources we have, whether that's Rankin, the training room, mental health, the weight room. But the legal process has to play itself out before we can do anything.”
On Jake Pope celebrating with Ole Miss fans:
“Just stupid. I didn't see it until today, but he's embarrassed about it. He's upset about it. That's obviously a childhood friend of his that he grew up and played with there at Buford and he knows him, hadn't seen him in forever, but just not real smart. To be honest with you, I don't have time to waste energy on that. My focus is on Tennessee. I'm not worried about that.”
On bidding wars developing with commitments over NIL:
“I've been worried about people committing to us before NIL. There's no commitment that is done until it's signed. Even when they're signed, they're not done. I don't know if you're trying to make it about NIL causing this. I can't say that because it was that way before NIL.”
On Tennessee’s defensive front:
“They're extremely disruptive with four people. They don't have to add in. They do pressure, and they pressure well, but they don't have to. They get after people with four guys rushing. They two platoon play a lot of guys. They've got elite rushers on the edge, which we all know about, but nobody talks about how hard they play internally. I think Coach [Rodney] Garner's done a tremendous job with the physicality they play with across the board on the defensive line is tremendous, and they play really hard.”
On the SEC being more competitive:
“I think statistics say there's more parity. Just looking at the sheer differentials in games, looking at the matchups, looking at the number of teams that are still in it. Some of that's because of the non-divisions. It brings everybody into it, but there's a lot of good football teams, and it's a war of attrition. I've talked about all year, it's an emotional roller coaster that you don't want to be a part of. You want to navigate this thing with a long-term mindset in your approach to it, and there's a lot of good football teams out there, and there's a lot of good games left to be played. There's a lot of good teams left to play games.”
On Carson Beck communicating on offense:
“He's elite at it. He does a great job. He's really smart. There's no communication issue there. It's blocking. You've got to go physically block them and get them blocked. It's not a communication thing. It's one-on-one. The same way our guys beat people at times, one-on-one pass rush. Sometimes you get beat, and it's usually not a communication error for us.”
On where the team has improved since the bye week:
“I would say the tackling on defense was important for us, and at times we've shown the ability to prove that. I don't know which bye week you're referencing. I guess you're talking about the last one, after the Texas game, we worked really hard on some protection things that we wanted to do differently on offense. We've been able to utilize some of those. Some of those were in the Florida game, not necessarily in the Ole Miss game where we were in a little bit more pass-happy situation. I thought that Nate Frazier's improved a lot during that time. He's gotten better. I think special teams-wise, we've added a few wrinkles. We've changed a couple things schematically defensively that we're doing different. The improvement is not seen sometimes in two games. It's seen over a course of time, and it's a continuum. It's not like we're saying, okay, it's this jump. Every practice we have since the bye week, we've had, I don't know, not 14, but 14 days. We've had a lot of practices where the improvement for us is these younger players that have gotten more reps and continue to get better. Unfortunately, sometimes they don't get to play because the games we've been in have been a lot tighter.”
#53 Dylan Fairchild | R-Jr. | OL
On schematic changes to help the offensive line…
“Trusting in fundamentals. That is what it comes down to, which is how good your fundamentals. Just going back to the basics and just try to focus on that.”
On re-watching the Ole Miss game…
“It’s a fundamental thing. Offensive line plays a lot of habits. Fundamentals are key in offensive line play. When you lack fundamentals, you lack those habits that are going to keep you on that right course during the game. It is not what you want. You got to go back to work, you got to get better, you got to get the basics of things, and just get better.”
On Smael Mondon, Jr.’s return…
“He’s so positive. Smael has had a couple of injuries now and it is easy to let that get you down and discourage you. He is so positive every time I see him and he always got a smile on his face. He has just attacked everything that has happened and everything that you got to do to get back out there.”
#11 Jalon Walker | Jr. | ILB
On Tennessee QB Nico Lamaleava…
“I've been seeing him all throughout the year. He's a talented quarterback. Being able to throw the ball and being able to use his legs, that's what you see in a dual quarterback at this point in time, so he's very talented.”
On Smael Mondon, Jr. returning…
“Smael's a resilient person and player. It was just a great opportunity to see him go out there. I actually shared his first snap with him. It was a full circle moment.: me coming in as a freshman, him being the guy who was starting and him finally getting back on his feet and getting the opportunity to play. It was just a great thing to see him back out there.”
On the process of overcoming a loss…
“We move on and just get ready for our next game. We're very process-oriented and that's part of the process. Just getting over that hump and moving on to the next week and what's important at hand.”
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