UGA Sports Communications
University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart, along with
several players, met with media members on Monday to preview fall camp. Below
are comments from Monday’s media session.
Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening comments …
“I'd like to start off by thanking Karen
Huff (Georgia sports communications media operations coordinator) for her 20
years of service to UGA. I think that's pretty remarkable. She was here when I
was here, even before. Thank you for all you've done. I know, UGA, we
appreciate it. I know Claude (Felton) does and I do.
I'm thrilled for this day to get here.
Excited to find out how a lot of these new guys learn. It's hard when you're
out there in summer workouts to see if a guy learns well, see what a guy does.
But when you get in these meetings and you do these walk-throughs, and you have
a lot of stuff going on really fast, you find out a lot about guys. There's
only so much you can get done in shorts, and we're going to be in shorts for
two practices, but as we move out of shorts we'll find out a lot about guys.
Football is a tough, physical and demanding game. We have a camp window, we
call it, and we've been in these seats that you guys are in right now (in the
team meeting room) and we've been talking about being demanding, being
physical. These practices are not easy. The idea is to create adversity for
your team, find out who the leaders are and we're going to be able to do that.
Not necessarily right away, because you've got shorts on, but as you move into
it, you get into scrimmages, you move guys up and down the depth chart and you
find out how they respond to things and how they react.
I would be remiss if I didn't say
something about the summer program. The summer program goes unnoticed, and I
think the people behind the scenes like, (Director of Strength and
Conditioning) Scott Sinclair, (Sr. Associate Director of Strength and
Conditioning) Ed Ellis, (Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning) Aaron
Feld, (Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning) Rodney Prince and
(Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning) Jamil Walker, our strength
staff, those five guys do a tremendous job. That goes kind of unnoticed, but
not by us as coaches.
Our coaching staff spent a little more
time this summer with our players maximizing the time we could be with them.
You know, Some staffs choose not to be out there at all; some choose to be out
there more than others. But for the things that we were allowed to be out there
for, we were there, because we felt like there's 20 to 25 guys who are going to
be impacting our roster this year and be able to play and help us. So, we
wanted to see those guys work early on, and we were able to do that. Now the
next step is can they learn, can they do the things, can they play physical and
move around.
We certainly have some goals for this
camp. You know, the areas of concern and areas of improvement for us, special
teams would be No. 1. We are going to try to change some things up special
teams-wise, as you guys know, from a quality control standpoint, Scott Fountain
has joined us. I think he did a tremendous job at Auburn, always has. Has
brought a lot of insight to our coaches. He's going to help us be better
special teams and just in practice and organization and things we do. We have
to improve in that area. We counted, I think we had, I want to say it was 250
snaps on special teams played by true freshmen last year. So the question
becomes: Can the true freshmen this year unseat some of those guys or create a
competitive environment to make each one of those better. We've got to improve
in our kicking units — that's punting, kickoff coverage, return game,
everything. But we plan to do that and we'll do that in camp.
Offensively, obviously throwing the ball
more efficient is a big goal of ours. Because I think if you throw the ball
efficiently, you'll be able to run ball with the backs we've got. When you
can't throw the ball, it makes it hard. It doesn't matter who your backs are.
We're going to have a lot of shuffling across the offensive line throughout
camp. I'm excited about the opportunity for those guys. I think they are up to
the challenge. I think it's going to be a really key, integral part for our
success to figure out who are the best eight, who are the best 10, how many do
we have that can play winning football on the offensive line, and you can't
find that out on day one. You can't find it out on day two because you've got
still shorts on, but you start seeing who can learn and who is really serious
about it early on. And then the red area offense was not where it needs to be.
We have to score touchdowns and we have to cash the ball in, which when you get
in the red area and the field shrinks, you have to be able to run the ball.
You've got to be able to run the ball because the throwing area is very short.
And I know that from being a defensive coordinator, and I also know that
defensively, we've got to improve in the red area. That was probably
statistically the worst thing we did on defense last year was red area. So,
with that in mind, we practiced it a lot last year. We practiced it more in the
spring. We're going to even focus on it more this fall camp so we can improve
in that area.
Then obviously the pass rush, creating
turnovers, things that you always emphasize on defense, we'll continue to do
that. That was one of the areas that we were actually positive, almost reached
our goal in, was the turnover ratio. So giving up 19, gaining 27 — that's the
window you want to be in. Now, sure, I'd like to be better than that, but
that's the window you'd like to be. There were so many other areas that we were
deficient in that we've got to improve that. And we think we've done that
through getting a good group of freshmen in here and also developing our older
players.
Before I get started with questions, I'm
going to update on some guys. I'm glad to welcome Ahkil Crumpton and David
Marvin to our roster. Both those guys are joining our team. I don't have any
updates on Robert Beal or Devonte Wyatt — that's still an ongoing process, and
a lot of places across the country are experiencing the same thing, waiting on
guys to qualify and get eligible. Trenton (Thompson) and Roquan (Smith) are
both cleared to go. I know you guys probably know that or have asked that, but
Trenton and Roquan are both good to go. Shakenneth (Williams) has applied for a
medical exemption. We think we'll get that back any day now. The only other
thing, I think some people had asked about, Odell Thurman. Odell Thurman has
joined our staff as an intern. We're only allowed to have five coaches, so he's
allowed to do what an intern does and we're glad to have Odell helping out in
the weight room assisting in the roles that he's allowed to.
With that, I'll open it up to questions.”
On the process to get junior college
transfer Ahkil Crumpton and any comparisons to Isaiah McKenzie …
“We
combed the country looking for an elite returner. We didn't feel like we had an
elite returner. Really don't have any experienced returners because we lost two
guys. You know Isaiah had done it so long and we weren't really expecting to
lose him. So when that situation arises, you try to fix your roster as fast as
you can. I certainly think that Terry Godwin is very capable. He's got great
hands. He's got some of the best hands and judgment I've ever seen on a
receiver. I have no concerns about Terry as a possession guy, catching the ball
— still to be determined whether he's an elite returner. We're going to give
him an opportunity to compete for that position. That's one of the things
special teams-wise we're trying to do different this camp. Probably going to do
some live returns to find out on those guys. We can't test them September 2.
We've got to find out before then.
But we identified him (Ahkil Crumpton) as a guy that
we thought was a really good player. Of course we watched tape on him and
thought he really did a good job. He was not going to be eligible for the SEC
unless he took a math at his home college out there in California, so he was able
to do that. We think he upgrades our roster. He helps us. He's from Philly,
where we've got D'Andre Swift and Mark Webb, so both those guys knew him.
Does he remind you of Isaiah? I think that's hard because
we're just now laying our eyes on him. You know, we really haven't been able to
see him other than tape. So, I would be remiss to say now. I've got to wait and
see how practice goes and we put the pads on. He's built similar. Isaiah's
pretty good, by the way.”
On the development of the offensive line …
“I
don't know that they are going to be really young. I think it's going to depend
on how those four freshmen come along. I think inexperience might be a better
word, but not necessarily really young. We had 15 days of spring practice to
watch the kids on our roster currently. To see Ben Cleveland grow, Pat Allen
grow, see LaMont Gaillard move inside, Dyshon Sims played a lot of multiple
positions, a lot of guys have come on to start and help. Solomon Kindley got a
lot better. Those guys we were able to get right there at the end; I guess Ben
doesn't count but Solomon did, when he first got here. I got to see both those
guys grow because you know, that class didn't have a lot of linemen in it like
we wanted. But those two guys have gotten better.
Now the influx of these four, including now the junior
college kid, D'Marcus Hayes that was here, we've got more depth and competition
across the board. It's not necessarily saying, do you have the pieces to the
puzzle. It's where do the pieces to the puzzle go, and we've got to figure that
out early on. I think if you make a decision on day three or four, you can make
a fatal decision and put a guy somewhere he doesn't belong, and you can put him
up too fast. We've got to let it happen and we've got kind of a 12- to
14-practice schedule where when we have a scrimmage, we're going to be able to
say: Okay, Game 4, this guy is going to be ahead of this guy; let's get him in
the spot. Might cost you an off-sides early, might cost you a blown assignment
early, but where is he going to be Game 3, 4, 5, 6, as opposed to right now who
are the best ones. If we had to go play right now, we'd have to go like we in
did in the spring. We aren't going to stick a guy out there that's never done
it. We've got to give these guys an opportunity to do it, and that's where the
summer, the off-season, all the things they were able to do, we're hoping we
get some help with.”
On the growth of junior ILB Roquan Smith
and sophomore DB Tyrique McGhee …
“Roquan is really special. I've never had a kid, even the
years that I've been at other places, that was able to lead while being out and
being injured. That's hard to do. I mean, put yourself in that situation:
You're not out there. It's hot, it's 100 degrees, you've got pads on and you're
not practicing , and yet you're still willing to go say, hey, come one, we've
got to pick it up, that wasn't good enough. Y'all can say what you want all the
time about I made it up about the defense — we were getting our butts kicked
early in spring practice, and he was one of the guys that was confronting
people. I was very impressed with that. He's continued that role because we
talked to him about, look, you have to be the leader whether you're out there
or not. He's out there every day and he's backing it up. There was a day we
conditioned in the summer that he was just first coming back — what we say is
you get to a point of failure. He got to failure real quick because he had not
done anything. He didn't shy away from it. So many kids shy away from failure
because they don't want to get to that point. Not Roquan. He hit it head on. By
the end of the summer, he was jumping up there running with receivers and asked
DBs instead of running with the linebackers because they had to make faster times.
So he caught up quick. I'm excited about where he is. He has to do it with
consistency, but effort has never been a question for that young man.
Tyrique McGhee is a guy who is a really serious football
player. I would put Tyrique up there as one of our best tacklers. I learned a
long time ago when you sign a young man from Peach County, he's going to know
how to tackle. They play tough, physical football, and Tyrique identifies that
each day. We're excited to have him. Tyrique is one of those guys that's going
to be in a big competition, who is going to replace Mo Smith at the nickel star
is one of our biggest questions, and Tyrique is in the thick of that. But he's
also in the thick of corner and he also had the No. 1 special teams snaps of
all our true freshman. So he's a guy we're really counting on for leadership.”
On transition from first season as head
coach to second season and any comparison to first year at Alabama …
“I
think that's a great analogy. Last night, I had a guy that we used consulting
with our team, Trevor Moawad, who does a great job. He actually sent me some
bits and pieces of video from this day, the second year at Alabama. Now it was
just the players. It wasn't coach. Just the players, and the players talking
about how they felt much more comfortable understanding what the standard was,
what the expectation was and that no matter what, you can't really relax out at
practice because you don't know what's coming — to expect the unexpected. We've
tried that a lot here to make these guys uncomfortable in summer workouts. We
would say the workout is going to be one thing, and then we would change it
while we're out there to make it uncomfortable. That's the experience we want.
So, I draw back on that year coming off a pretty average year, just saying, how
we're going to get to the next spot. Well, first way you get there you is get
really good players on your roster. You improve that through your recruiting
process. You develop the ones you've got. We're hoping to develop the ones we’ve
got. The biggest difference that I compare that to is you had a senior
quarterback who is probably one of the best in the conference compared to a guy
who a sophomore coming into his second year that we're expecting high things
from.”
On if he remembers any doubts going into
his season offseason at Alabama …
“No,
I don't think so. I don't think it's that way here. I think it's more when you
come in as a second-year coach, when we got here, I knew I had coached against
University of Georgia. I had recruited against the University of Georgia. I
pretty much knew what was here and I knew the expectation level was here, and I
also knew the expectation didn't necessarily meet the quality of players that
were here, and I think that's indicative of what the NFL thought of our roster
last year. I think now moving forward, as you start looking forward, you
say,where are we going from here. Are the kids buying in here and doing what
they have to do, and I think they are. They are adjusting well. They know what to
expect. They know this camp is going to be tough and physical. They know we're
going to tackle. So all those things are there, and that's what makes them feel
a little bit better that they are in year two of the offense, year two of the
system, and that stuff helps.”
On redshirt-freshman OL Solomon Kindley …
“Solomon
is a kid that's real serious. Football is really important to him, and I like
those kind of players. He struggled last fall camp. Like when you just put him
on a board drill, he can block most three techniques, he could block all of our
freshmen, but he struggled getting the call coming to the line, knowing the
snap count, a lot of things that freshmen struggle with. In the spring, he
erased about 70 to 80 percent of those mistakes — still had mistakes but a lot
less. And if he continues to do that, he's a powerful guard. Powerful guards
can play because they can get movement. They can get their hands on people and
get movement. And he's got to continue to do that. He's got some guys that are
coming in behind him. He's got the potential for tackles to move into guard
because they are going to play the best five. If he continues to do what he
does, he should be fine, but he can't relax because we've got some great
competition at that position.”
On expectations for freshman DB Richard
LeCounte and freshman LB Nate McBride …
“I think expectations is a big word that you say for a
freshman. My expectation is to go out there today and know how to line up and
do the five coverages. That's my expectation. Then when we do special teams, my
expectation is for them to be first in line, and be first down in coverage,
because they are both fast, they are both physical and that's it. I can't put
an expectation to say you're going to start, you're going to be this or this.
You can't do that to a kid. What you do is say worry about day one and then
we'll worry about day two. We put a calendar up here and show them the
calendar. We don't even look at the next day. We look at the day that we're on,
and that's really all that matters. I know you guys want to forecast and you
want to talk about the first game, you want to talk about the second game, but
we don't do that. All we're thinking about is what's going to give Richard the
best chance to be successful, today. Nate, what's going to give him the best
chance to be successful, today. And if he does that for 28 days, 29 days or 27
practices, he's going to be fine.”
On going into this year’s fall camp
compared to last season’s fall camp …
“I don't think you ever feel different when you're coming
into a season because every team is different. It's a different set of
problems, a different set of issues. Like I said, our biggest concern is what
are our areas of focus and how do we get better at them. I think every college
football team has those questions but they change year-to-year. You're right,
last year, it was running back, uncertainty at quarterback. Now, the running
back thing is the last question right now. I mean, knock-on-wood, you've got to
stay healthy but we have a running backs, so it's how do you use these guys and
how do we get these guys the ball with efficiency and throw the ball and catch
the ball, because they can run the ball. That's not the question. The question
is can we get them in situations where we have successful box count numbers to
help them.
Defensively, a lot of people talk about, well, you've got
everybody coming back. Yeah, we've got a lot of guys that are in their second
year, and sometimes their first year. The secondary is one of the spots nobody
is talking about. We've got guys back, but how well do those guys play. Do they
play to the standard of what University of Georgia is? I don't think so. I
can't sit here and say we play to the level of expectation that a secondary
should play to. Who are their backups? I think we are four or five true
freshmen in the two-deep in the secondary, so they are one snap from
playing. You've got these guys that y'all know as vets that have been here a
long time, I mean, Dom (Dominick Sanders), AD (Aaron Davis), D'Andre (Walker),
Malkom (Parrish), those guys have been here a long time and played a lot of
games. But the guy behind them just got here. So we have to be sure that we're
developing those guys without holding the older guys back, and the older guys
got to play better.”
On any specific goals he has for himself
and the coaching staff …
“With
our coaching, absolutely. I think the big demand for us is what can we do to do
a better job helping our players be successful. To pinpoint one of those, the
No. 1 goal for me is to reach our goals. We have a goal on punt, we have a goal
on kickoff, we have a goal on defense. For every statistic, we have a goal. We
didn't reach many of those. Now, do you change your standard? Do you change
your goals so you can make them? Or do you say, oh well, we're not going to be
very good in this area, we'll lower it. No, the standard is what it is, and we
have to try to get to that point. But that's true in our coaching staff, as
well, whether it's delegation of time, who has got what responsibility. All of
that's off-season stuff, who has got what opponents, what your job is in the
off-season. All those things have been delegated and some are very similar to
last year, and some are different, but each is its own entity with each guy.”
Senior Offensive Tackle #77 Isaiah Wynn
On how the offensive line can develop...
"Really just narrow down on being
very good technically. Having hand placement and movement and little stuff like
that that can help the quarterback running back and make plays and get in the
end zone."
On building the offensive line...
"For the offensive line, our goal is
to work as a whole unit. A lot of times we've had some missing pieces, but now
we just want to all be on the same page."
On facilitating the run game...
"We've got to be more physical at the
point of attack."
On adjusting to new positions on the
offensive line...
"You just have to be eager to learn.
That's all it is. As long as you're eager to learn and pick the coach's brain."
Senior Tight End # 83 Jeb Blazevich
On preseason expectations...
"We can't look ahead. We're
focused on the here and now. If we look ahead to App State and further on,
we have a huge chunk of practices in there. You can't get ahead of yourself.
We have to focus on the here and now, whether it was the meetings this
morning, or last night, or practice we're getting ready to have, we need to
focus on what we're doing right now and how we can maximize that."
On developing in practice...
"That's when the details matter.
That's when we need to get more creative. We just need to put the pressure on
ourselves when we're out there to perform well, and that will carry over in the
game."
On the return of Sony Michel and Nick
Chubb for their senior seasons…
"It's like anything, we've depended
on them, like any teammates. They're special, talented guys, and I'm happy
they did come back, and I'm excited to continue to watch them progress and
grow."
Junior Inside Linebacker #3 Roquan Smith
On knowing Odell Thurman, new strength and
conditioning intern…
“I actually did. My high school coach used
to talk about him, so I heard about Odell through him as well as just being one
of the Georgia greats. I’ve heard a lot of great things about him. I think he
is a great guy. He went in the second round so he obviously knows what it
takes, so getting information from a guy like that is definitely beneficial.”
On eagerness to getting back on the field…
“I’m very excited to get back out. Just
the opportunity to take advantage of each opportunity that I get, so being able
to get back out there today is big. I’m excited and words can’t really describe
how I feel.”
On leadership…
“There are a lot of leaders out there that
tell the guys to step it up if we need that. I’m just one of those leaders as
well that tells the guys to get going when they need it. I love being vocal and
being able to be there for my teammates, so they can depend on me. As a
sophomore, it was my first year really starting so I wasn’t quite sure about
certain things here and there, but after you get that year of experience then
it’s like hey I’m one of the leaders on the defense and I feel like you are
more confident."
Senior Outside Linebacker #7 Lorenzo Carter
On his feelings starting fall camp as a
senior…
“It is a lot of
excitement – just walking from the Georgia Center to here, being able
to be on the field, and just this morning in the walk through. I’m
happy to be back on the football field. It is another football season to play
with my teammates.”
On year two of the new system…
“It
is not a new system anymore. It is our second year under our belts. We have
been with Coach Smart and the whole coaching staff for a second year so
everybody is a lot more comfortable. We know what to expect and what the
coaches expect from us, so we just have to go out there and produce.”
