The Dawgs continued their preparations for the 2017 season opener against Appalachian State with a 2-hour practice on Tuesday afternoon.
Following are excerpts from head coach Kirby Smart’s post-practice press briefing:
Opening Comments
‘’Yesterday
we didn’t have the kind of practice that you want to have. The focus and
intensity weren’t where they needed to be. We challenged them
today. They picked it up. I thought it was really cool, unusually
cool both days, and they practiced much better today. Good competition
out there. A lot of guys trying to learn and get ready.
‘’I
will say that Chauncy Manac has decided to transfer to Garden City, in Kansas,
and he’ll be moving out there. We wish him the best and appreciate all
he’s done for us.’’
Has
Kendall Baker earned the right to be in the offensive line competition
‘’Y’all
are incredible. I got reports during practice. Everybody’s telling
me that Kendall Baker’s the starting right guard or something. It amazes
me where some of this comes from. Kendall Baker is in competition with
Dyshon Sims, who’s in competition with Solomon Kindley, who’s in competition
with Pat Allen. And to be honest with you, those four at guard are really
about dead even. That’s just where it is. I know y’all want to know
who the starter is, but there’s not a starter right now. Those guys roll,
they rep. We come out to practice and they take 50 percent of the 1’s, 50
percent of the 2’s. Therefore, it ends up equal because we’re trying to
figure out who the best ones are. To be honest, we practice so many reps
that they have to take each other’s reps and share them. So a starter has
not been named at right guard.’’
Have
you seen what you’ve wanted to see from your pass rush during preseason?
‘’At
times it’s been flashy. Other times it’s been spotty. That’s one of
the big things we’ve tried to improve. You can improve your pass rush by
bringing more guys, or you can rush four better. Obviously, I like to
rush four better than bringing more guys. So we’ve tried to find ways to
do it. It’s not always been exactly what we wanted to create, but we’re
improving.’’
What’s
the advantage of having the experience of Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy at
OLB?
‘’Knowledge. It makes you feel comfortable that they’re going to be able to in-game
adjust. They (opponent) do something new and those kids have seen it. They’ve played a lot of football around here. Both of them make you feel
comfortable that if we have to put both of them on the field at the same time,
they can do it. If just one of ‘em is on the field, they can spell each
other. D’Andre Walker is another guy that’s picked it up and done good
things. And Walter Grant has come on and played well. So between
those four guys, we feel good at outside backer, that we can be effective.’’
What
has Walter Grant done so far to impress you?
‘’He’s
very intelligent. He does a good job learning the system. Most
freshmen come in and go through this learning curve of learning the
defense. It just seems to come naturally to him. I don’t know if
it’s a football IQ or what. He’s not flashed just unbelievable speed or
athleticism, like you might say a Leonard Floyd would. But he
understands football. He leverages blocks, he plays with his hands
well. He’s a good football player and he has not struggled to pick up our
system. He doesn’t play like a freshman.’’
How
closely are you watching the weather at this point and are you anticipating
having to prepare for weather this weekend?
‘’We’re
watching it, obviously. We tried to practice some today with wet
balls. We try to do that from time to time, whether the weather’s
imminent or not. But we know it is, so we went out and practiced a couple
of periods today with wet balls, focusing on catching it. It makes the
receivers focus a little harder, and quarterback think about it as well. So we know it’s a possibility and all you can do to prepare for it is to dunk a
ball in water.’’
Could
you rotate a lot on the offensive line this weekend?
‘’We
certainly could and that’s the thought for the first game. Conditioning could
be an issue, depending on the temperature at the game. We want to have a
lot of guys ready. I don’t know if it’ll happen. It will probably
depend on the flow of the game and how guys are playing. But the guard
spots are probably where most of that can happen.’’
What
are some of the biggest areas where the offensive needs to show improvement
this season?
‘’No.
1, we’ve got to score points and that goes back to a lot of things. The
play of the quarterback is really key. He’s got to put us in the right
play. When you have a chance to make big plays and expose defenses,
you’ve gotta do it. You have to have some playmakers on the outside to
open things up. We’ve gotta get the ball to the playmakers in space, and
that doesn’t always mean receivers. That means running backs and tight
ends. So, I think when you look at the whole picture, we’ve got some guys
that have some athletic ability on offense. We’ve got to block on the
perimeter to give those guys a chance, and those are things we’ve worked hard
on all season. So that’s what football is now. It’s playing a lot
of the game in the air. We also have some backs that can grind it out
pretty good and we gotta find out if we can do that.’’
You’ve
had Lorenzo Carter for close to two years now. What have you seen from him that
sticks out?
‘’I
tell you, if you had to pick one player on the team that I’d say has improved
the most, in my opinion, from last year to this year — of the guys that played
a lot — he’s one of those guys that’s playing a lot better now than I
remembered from last year. He’s playing more physical, he’s really
comfortable. He’s playing at 247, 250 pounds. I remember last year
he was playing at 239 or 240. It just seems like he’s playing a lot
better, so I’ve been really pleased with that and his practice habits. He
practices really hard every day. He deserves to play well.
 |
| Roquan Smith (Photo by Steven Colquitt) |
‘’I
think he’d be the first to say that he could do some better things, but scheme
affects that some. There were times last year that we asked him to cover
a back so Roquan Smith could rush. We asked him to mirror a
quarterback. So when he had to rush, he was effective, but we didn’t rush
him all the time because there are certain quarterbacks you’ve got to be
careful about when you do that. I don’t think he was completely happy with
where he finished, but I also think he’s worked really hard to improve that,
and he has. He’s worked really hard this camp to improve in a lot of
areas. And he’s a very diverse player, so it’s not like you grade him on
pass rush and we grade him on strike, the ability to play the run, drop to the
flat. I mean, he plays man-to-man on receivers sometimes. You don’t
ask outside linebackers to do that, but he can.’’
Any
update on the kicking situation?
‘’As
far as kickoffs, Rodrigo Blankenship will kick off. Rodrigo will also
do the placekicking. So we’ll start with him as the placekicker. David Marvin will do some other things for us. But Rodrigo has done a
really good job. He’s been really consistent. We’re excited for where he
is. We told Rodrigo that it’s really important that we get a high
percentage of our field goals and he’s competing to do that. It
(competition) was really tight. I’d say that his consistency was the
biggest difference.’’
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