ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart and players spoke to the media on Monday ahead of the Kentucky game.
The Bulldogs will travel to Kentucky to open Southeastern Conference play. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. Below is everything they had to save.
Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement…
“I got to work yesterday and put that game to bed and started on Kentucky yesterday afternoon. I have immense respect for Mark [Stoops]. He and I have grown to be really good friends. He's one of the best in the business. He's done a tremendous job at Kentucky over the time he's been there. His teams are always very disciplined, very physical. That's a really tough place to play. When you go there, as you can see from every time we've played there, it's been really tough. A lot of excitement playing an SEC opponent on the road. I think we know around this place how hard that can be. You get an opportunity to play at night on the road, and you know the environment is going to be really loud. We've got to prepare for a tough, really physical game, which is that way every time we play Kentucky.”
On the last three years playing a role in planning against Brock Vandagriff…
“Very little. I have a lot of respect for Brock, his dad, his family. What Brock did for this university was awesome. He was a wonderful teammate and just a great kid. Always put the team first and would do anything to help the team, and really helped our culture while he was here. So, I have a lot of appreciation for what he did. In fact, he graduated from here. It was really cool when he told me he was going to do that and that he was going to go play, and he did that.”
On if Kentucky’s loss on the weekend changes the team’s approach…
“I don't know. I think it's all about perception and how you perceive things. They are just as dangerous whether they won or lost that game, in my opinion. I mean, I don't get into the whole – we're going to prepare the same way regardless of what happened in that game. A lot of things went wrong quickly for them in that game, and it snowballed in some ways. I know what they're capable of. I've seen them on tape. I know the football players they got. I know how physical they are. I know how they're coached. And we've got to get ready for a really tough opponent.”
On Brock Vandagriff’s strengths, Kentucky’s offensive identity…
“I think we'll see. I think that's part of their identity is figuring out who Brock is as well as their other quarterbacks that's playing. So, I think that's something that they've got to answer, and our job is to stop whatever they do, and we've got to work hard on that. We've got to worry about us.”
On the annual process of players entertaining the transfer portal…
“I think it's different for each kid. You know, like every kid is different. Every kid is in a different spot. You know like, ‘What age am I? How much am I playing? Will I get an opportunity somewhere else? What's going on with my family, my family dynamic?’ I don't think there's a cookie-cutter answer to that question. It's – you know, I wouldn't delve into specifically each kid that I deal with. I think that's relative to me and the kid, not for public consumption. But certainly, there's conversations I had and, you know, the transfer portal is an option for some guys to think about going somewhere else. You know, it's unfortunate because the feedback we get from the NFL is there's nowhere they'd rather have players than here developing. Countless GMs have told me that the kids that come out of your program are so much better off and developed for having stayed even over playing because of what kind of practice they get and who they get to go against practice. They feel like their best evaluation is when they come to our practice and see guys go against each other. That's not anything directly at Brock [Vandagriff] and Pop [Jamon Dumas-Johnson], not at all. Both those guys were awesome young men, great young men for our program. But just as a whole, asking about transfer portal stuff.”
On why Kentucky is a challenging opponent…
“They’re physical. So you play defense, you have physical lines of scrimmage, you have huge people on the offensive and defensive line, and you're hard to move the ball on. So the environment they create is very good. They've got great fans. They've got a great stadium. They've reduced their stadium to have more premium seating, so they actually get less people in, but they're louder when they're there. They're passionate. They play really hard. They're well-coached. That's what makes it tough.”
On Kentucky defensive tackle Deone Walker…
“He’s an extremely physical, versatile player who can play inside-out. It seems like he's been there forever. He's a kid we recruited – highly-recruited kid, tremendous athlete, just like a wrecking ball. He literally can wreck a play from any position, and they even dropped him last year. He’s a tremendous athlete.”
On weather affecting a game plan…
“We looked at it last night and start tracking it each and every day. We do, every two weeks, wet ball drill and practice with wet balls like we're going to play in the rain. We've been able to practice some this year, a couple times, in the rain, and sometimes the weather up there –¬ typically it's later in the year we play them and typically it's much colder, which we've had some really tough games up there in the cold and the wind. This year it looks like there may be some inclement weather, and we've got to prepare for it.”
On Oscar Delp’s status and Lawson Luckie’s development…
“Oscar’s good. Oscar’s fine. Lawson has done really well. He would have had the same progression – he got injured last year in camp, and so he missed some time with that significant ankle injury he had. But he's been growing since the time he came back last year, and he wasn't really 100% when he came back to play. But he was able to play, and he was coming off that high ankle, and he got better and better as the year went on. He had good bowl practices, a good bowl game, he had great spring practice. He's worked really hard at the things he's got to improve on during fall camp, and he continues to work to get better.”
On the interior defensive linemen…
“I’m excited about that group. They’re working really hard. They've gotten a ton of work this fall camp in terms of the youth. Our older players, which we've got a good group of old and a good group of young in that room, we're really pleased with where they are. The amount of work the young guys have gotten is probably more than we've ever gotten a young group. It's been great because we've been able to take care of our older guys and get them engaged and get them going but then also improve the younger guys. So we've got a lot of depth in that room.”
On what he has seen from Jamon Dumas-Johnson as part of the Kentucky defense…
“Too early to tell. It's one of those things – I just got to look at their offense first, so I studied the offense all day yesterday. This morning, I got to look at a couple games. So I think you'd be better to ask an offensive coach that question.”
On Nasir Johnson’s status and CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson…
“Yeah, Nasir had a little bit of a sublux he's had before. He should be fine. Raylen and CJ are both very intelligent, mature beyond their years. They're guys that we've talked about repeatedly. They've been thrown in the fire. They've had to get in the fire and do it at a young age, and they're both growing. Most of the time you're playing your first real meaningful time at linebacker at Georgia in your second season. Both of them had to play in their first season due to injuries, and that seems to be happening more and more across the country. And these guys have prepared well. They're very intelligent, and they're very well coached.”
On the 2022 NFL Draft, helping playing time be sold to players…
“We sell that. I mean, we sell the use of our personnel and the playing of our players. We sell it immensely. People try to sell against it, but all you got to do is talk to one NFL person. They'll tell you that they'd much rather have quality over quantity. They'd much rather judge you on the plays you play. And they'd much rather you be training at Georgia than anywhere else. So, there's not a lot to argue in regard to that. I think the ‘22 draft was just an exceptional group of defensive players. who were all at one time here. And, yeah, we use that. It's a great sell. But regardless of if ‘22 happened we would still have the same defensive philosophy. You need depth. You need players. You need a lot of guys who can play winning football. If you can prove to us you can play winning football, you'll be on the field. You'll get an opportunity to put on tape what you can do. It's not about stats. They could care less about stats.”
On Mykel Williams returning to play…
“He's got to be able to practice. He's got to be able to go out and compete and run, put pressure on it. He's doing a great job of rehab. He did a great job this weekend of getting extra time in, and we'll see where he's at.”
On objectives from the Tennessee Tech game…
“I don't know if mission accomplished means playing guys. Probably yes. Mission accomplished in terms of how we played. Maybe no. We got a chance to grow kids and go out and play, and that's probably an individual basis judgment. How did this guy play? How did that guy play? How did we play as a unit? How did we play as a unit on special teams when other guys got in? A lot of these kids early in their careers,. this is the opportunity they get to play in front of their family. This is the opportunity they get to play in front of their community or TV, and that's important to them. They practice hard too, so I'm very thankful we got to get some guys in the game.”
On Xavier Truss and Chaz Chambliss…
“Both kids extremely tough, physical. They carry our culture really well. I don't think you'll find two individuals who have had more contact at the University of Georgia than these two guys, especially Truss with the amount of time he's been here. And Chaz, he seeks contact. They're both kind of what we want our program to represent in terms of toughness and discipline. Nowhere is that more needed than this week, and that's probably why they're in front of you guys because they carry the water in terms of discipline and toughness.”
On Warren Brinson’s injury and quarterbacks in the transfer portal…
“On Warren, he looks good. Hopefully, he'll be able to go today. We'll find out more. I don't honestly know until we get out there, but he seems to be good, and he did some stuff yesterday in the weight room. I think everybody wants to play right now. I haven't met a player that doesn't want to play. I don’t understand what you're asking. If you're trying to say, was Brock's situation different than Carson’s. Not everybody's looking to transfer early and often. They all want to play; they don't all want to transfer. I think that would be a generalization that's not there. I say at the quarterback position, there comes a point in time. when if you haven't played, you're running out of time to play. So, I don't know what you want a kid to do. Wait out his whole career and not play? He did graduate, he became a better player. He certainly feels that he had a great experience at Georgia, and he has two national championship rings. So, I think that that's a positive more than it is any kind of negative.”
On Anthony Evans III as a kick returner…
“Anthony is, number one, tough, he's aggressive, he has a lot of confidence in his return skills, and he has a lot of confidence in his receiver skills. He has worked really hard at two positions in our offense, both the slot and the Z, with some receiver injuries through camp. and just not a lot of depth. He worked at two positions. First of all, to play those two positions in our offense, you have to be extremely smart, and he's gone out there and done a great job of repping at Z and F. I'm really proud of what he's done there. He's had a bigger impact on the games as a returner and he works really hard at that. I'm hard on him as a returner because I have a high standard of what that position entails and what the decision-making should be. He's extremely aggressive and I want him to keep being smart with the ball.”
On monitoring former players in the NFL…
“I don't monitor it. I do get text messages, whether it's from my family, my son, friends. People put it out there, and I see it on my phone, so, it's one of those things, but I don't have a report. I don't monitor it. I get a text, and it's like, hey, Ladd scored a touchdown, and I see a video of it, and I think it's pretty cool. Also, Brock (Bowers), he had a good day. There's a lot of those guys that played, and three defensive guys started in secondaries, I think, there's a lot of good that you get, but I don’t have time to think about it right now.”
On dealing with rain in games…
“I'd rather not even get into those.”
On Chambliss improving during his career…
“He's gotten much more intelligent in terms of football knowledge. So, he can do recognition, he can tell you tendencies, he knows snap count cadences. He does tackle reports on what their weaknesses are, what their strengths are, what the backfield set is to run, pass. He's really tough, physical and he understands our defense. We give our defensive players tools that they can use, but we can't practice them all because there are things that happen on this formation, this play with this defense. It's basically a very low probability that it happens, but if it happens, you can do this. He hits on those. He gets those. He understands it, and he puts himself in an advantageous position when that multiple hits, and it makes him valuable is his toughness and kind of the way he practices.
On Jared Wilson’s performance…
“Jared's doing a good job. He's practiced more the last two weeks than he did at camp, and I think he's shown rapid improvement because of the amount of work he's been able to do in practice. We need him to continue getting better, and we need Jared to be a leader. The center has to make a lot of decisions on our offensive line.”
#73 Xavier Truss | OT | R-Sr.
On what Trevor Etienne is bringing to the team…
“Extremely impressed. We had a great fall camp. I got to see a lot of the young guys get to go out there like Nate Frazier and show the talent they have. I think we have the best running back room in the country and as long as we do our job up front, we’ll get to showcase those guys all season.”
On his first game at Georgia…
“My first FCS game was against Murray State back in 2019. I think I got out there in the third or fourth quarter at offensive tackle. That was my first time playing in Sanford. I just remember how excited I was to get out there. We worked so hard in the offseason and it was just a really exciting feeling to get out there for the first time.”
On how the offensive line is executing in the run game…
“I think we’re great. We work on those plays every day. We have different periods. I like our goal line periods because that’s when we’re running our zone plays. It’s great to get out there and get a chance to hit somebody and move somebody against their will. No matter what play we’re running, we have to execute.”
#32 Chaz Chambliss | OLB | Sr.
On his best Brock Vandagriff and Bowers story…
“We always used to have a competition, we called it B’s versus C’s. Brock and Brock, and me and Cash. We always competed, we always wrote it up and counted it down, we would fish to compete, play pool to compete, golf, anything you can think of. Brock’s just the ultimate competitor. I mean both of them are, everything we did was just always a competition between us.”
On Brock Bowers making his NFL debut...
“It’s just kind of an amazing thing. Especially coming in with him, being roommates with him, just seeing him go into the next level and seeing his dreams come true. It’s just a great experience overall.”
On playing on the road in the SEC…
“It is always hard to go on the road in the SEC. Fans are always going to be there, everyone is going to give it their best shot. We talked about it last week, we want to give everyone our best shot. That is what is required whenever you go on the road because you are in their element. You are not at home, you do not have that advantage. The only thing you have is how you play on the field.”
On getting snaps as a young player...
“It is huge for the young players because you practice every day against the same people. We say every day, ‘Our best competition is in practice.’, but it is different when you are in that stadium. There is no coach out there to hold your hand, there is no Mike out there. It is just you and the other team. It instills confidence in them. Confidence only comes with snaps.”
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