The Dawgs worked out
for a little over two hours on Tuesday afternoon in the third week of
pre-season camp.
Following are excerpts from
head coach Kirby Smart's post-practice press briefing on Tuesday:
Opening Statements
‘’First off, I’d like to send
my condolences to the Frank Broyles family. First of all, a great
college football family. It meant a lot to me to win that award named
after Frank Broyles, and also his grandson Lex and I were good friends in
college. So I just wanted to send my condolences out to the family for
their loss and really all of college football’s loss.
‘’As far as today went, it was
another heater, so I’m proud of the guys. They did much better the last
two days, pushing through the heat. They kinda responded to not doing so
well in the heat Saturday. I thought they really pushed through yesterday
and today. We’re still in camp mode, running camp-type practices.
We’re getting guys back. We’ve had a couple of guys out. We’re back
and forth. I’m sure you guys will ask me about that. We had a
couple of changes on the offensive line. But I’ll be honest with
you. I think the guys are playing really physical. They’ve bought
into the physicality of the right way to practice. We are nowhere near
where we need to be. We’re not ready yet, especially on special teams,
but they’re pushing hard. They’re answering the call.’’
Update on status of freshman RB
D’Andre Swift:
‘’D’Andre was out today.
He was getting some medical things checked on. We expect him back
tomorrow. Should be fine. He just had to get some things checked
on.’’
Update on snapper Trent Frix:
‘’He’s got a little bit of a
hamstring, but we think he’s going to be fine. He’s down right now, but
we hope to get him back. (Backup) Nick Moore does a good job. He
snapped all spring and has done a good job the past two days.’’
In terms of special teams
coverage units, what are you looking for to shore up those areas this year?
‘’Number one, is a great kick
because the best way to shore up your areas of coverage is to kick the ball
where it’s supposed to be, how high it’s supposed to be with what hang time
it’s supposed to be done with. We’ve improved first and foremost in that
area. Rodrigo Blankenship did a great job of kicking off in Saturday’s
scrimmage. He had some of the best hang times we’ve had. David Marvin did as well, but Rod had a little better hang time. Punting, Cam Nizialek got great placement and hang time. But, the number one thing,
coverages have fast, big guys. We’ve got a lot of starters playing on our
punt team. We’re still assembling the kickoff team. The goal is to
have guys buy in and realize the importance of it. It’s not a down
off. So we have a lot of competition. That’s the biggest difference
I noticed from last year. There’s a lot of guys fighting for spots on
special teams because they know that if they don’t get those spots, they might
not make that travel roster. So we’re looking for fast guys that make
good decisions.’’
How many of the true freshmen
do you think might make these units?
‘’I don’t know an amount.
I mean, Swift was showing up. Mark Webb was showing up. Walter
Grant is showing up. Several guys…Nate McBride is showing up. There are a
lot of guys that are showing up. They’re all in the mix, and I think
after Saturday’s scrimmage we’ll know more of the 2-deep on the special
teams. And there’s some real good competition. But that’s where
those guys are going to make their waves early.’’
Did you anticipate that J.R.
Reed would push for a starting job this soon when he transferred?
‘’I didn’t know what we were
getting. He’s a really good athlete. I knew he was really fast. We
didn’t know much. We had heard. We talked to the coaches where he
was and they all said he was a good player and we were a little deficient in
that area. And he’s turned out to be probably the best decision that
we’ve made from a standpoint of transfers, junior college players. That
was a huge get for us because we’re struggling a little bit right now in the
secondary from the standpoint of depth. He’s made it where we’ve got five
guys that we can really play with. Without him, we might be four or
less. So he’s done a good job. He’s really competitive. I
thought he played well in the scrimmage the other day.’’
Early observations on freshman
OL Netori Johnson:
‘’Netori’s doing well.
He’s pushing along. He’s getting a lot of work, a lot of reps. I
think the next scrimmage is going to be the best way to get the best barometer
for those guys because at the first scrimmage, you realize some of these guys,
after watching the tape and having not seeing you guys, you see that there are
some ‘rat trap’ players. Rat trap means ‘I forget completely what to do
because I’m in the stadium and I’m nervous from my first scrimmage. Not
saying that he (Johnson) was that way, but there were a good bit of those
freshmen that were. They were very nervous, playing with anxiety.
I’ve seen the most growth in them in these two practices, where it’s like, ‘OK,
they got that out of the way. Now I want to see what they do in this next
scrimmage.’ Kinda find out where they are. But Netori is working
with the 3’s. He’s fighting to get in that 2-deep so can be a contributor
at guard.’’
What was behind the decision to
move Pat Allen back to left guard?
‘’Well, we’re trying to get the
best five, so Pat had played all spring at left guard. Really, the move
wasn’t so much the right tackle as it was right guard and right tackle, but he
was playing a lot more right guard when y’all saw him at right tackle in
practice. He’s done a good job. He didn’t pout when he got
moved. He competed. Played pretty good in the scrimmage. We felt
like Andrew Thomas could give us the best help at right tackle and Pat was
playing pretty good in the spring at left guard. So we were able to move
him back and we’re looking at it this way right now. Those guys are
interchangeable parts. The really bright ones can switch and move and it
doesn’t affect them. The ones that struggle with a move, we try to keep
them in the same place.’’
Will the solar eclipse next
Monday affect the scheduling of practice at all?
‘’Not that I’m aware of.
I know my kids and my wife are really excited about it. I’m a lot more
worried about practice than the solar eclipse. Y’all keep reminding me of
that and maybe we’ll take the team out and watch it. We’re never off on a
Monday; I can tell you that. I’m not off until sometime in December.’’
Do you see Ahkil Crumpton
contributing as much as a receiver as you foresee as a return specialist?
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