The Dawgs worked out
for a little over two hours on Tuesday afternoon in preparation for their
non-conference match-up this Saturday at home against Samford.
Following are comments from
head coach Kirby Smart, as well as selected Georgia players:
Opening Statements
‘’We’ve had two
practices. We’re very fortunate to have the facility we have, to be able
to get in and practice. Yesterday, we lost a little power during
practice, but we had some lights and generators in there. The power came
back on about 15-20 minutes after they went off, so it was good to be able to
practice, especially under the circumstances. We were trying to get our
thoughts off so many people without power, and trees down all across
Georgia. I know a lot of our players’ families are spread out across the
Southeast. We had a lot of concerns, and we’re thinking about all of
them. But we’ve had two good practices. I thought the energy was
good. I guess that’s kind of the luxury of being inside. Our tempo
seems better when we’re inside. We hope to get outside tomorrow so we can
use a little more space.’’
What has (Samford head coach)
Chris Hatcher meant to you, being the person who gave you your first full-time
coaching position?
‘’I’m very thankful of the
opportunity he gave me. I really enjoyed my time on his staff. Some
of my greatest memories are at Valdosta State. I was young then and a
whole lot different as a coach. For two years there, I just had a lot of
fun, and he’s a great guy to work for. Very family-oriented. He had
his first son, who’s now a junior or senior in high school, in
Birmingham. His dad’s a great, legendary high school coach, which we
kinda grew up in the same household. So Chris has always been a good
friend of mine. He’s always been real positive.’’
What was the reasoning behind
Mark Webb’s position change and how permanent is it?
‘’Let me say this first. I’m very disappointed in you guys. He’s been there (at DB) for two
weeks. I really don’t know where you guys have been, so I’ve been a
little bit shocked. I mean, we didn’t try to hide it. We didn’t
move him around in Individuals. We didn’t put him in a black
jersey. I kept asking Claude, ‘What are these guys doing?’ Then it
shocked me that y’all got it during the game, and it came by way of a, I guess,
a roster announcement or something. We probably shouldn’t even have done
that. Y’all still wouldn’t have known.
‘’But obviously, we’ve had
concerns with injuries at that position, and we have a little more depth at
wide receiver. He (Webb) has been making plays on special teams. He
tackles people. He played corner in high school. It’s not
necessarily permanent, but he’s done a really good job. I really think
he’s got a bright future there. We’ll sit down and revisit it when the
time comes, to see what he really wants to do. He originally wanted to
play receiver, but I’ve never met a more selfless kid that said, ‘It doesn’t
matter, Coach. I just want to play.’ He’s playing on punt returns,
on kick returns, so he’s a valuable asset that we felt like, if Aaron
Davis didn’t improve and get well, and Malkom Parrish — we don’t know when
he’s getting back for sure — we just didn’t have enough guys. So we moved
him over there and, to be honest with you, he’s been a really pleasant
surprise.’’
Any updates on Jacob Eason and
Malkom Parrish?
‘’They’re both really
improving, so we’re excited about where they are, and I think progress is being
made.’’
Do you wish you had had a
chance at the Golden Spikes award, and do things like that come across your
desk for approval?
‘’No, I had not gotten involved
in that. I was more involved in the belt that we started at Alabama and
thought it was a good idea. I thought it generated a lot of popularity
and it’s kinda caught fire from there. Everybody’s getting their own toy,
I guess. It’s cool. It’s cool because of our fan base and the Spike
Squad that we have. I think it kinda honors them, and our players take a
lot of pride in it. I’m just glad we finally got to bring it out. First game, we never got to show it. Coach Tucker was killing the defense after
the first game. He was like, ‘Everybody in the country is talking about
their deal and we don’t even get to show ours.' So it was nice to get some
turnovers.’’
How much freedom does Jake
Fromm have to adjust plays at the line of scrimmage?
‘’He doesn’t have freedom to
adjust plays. It depends on the play we call. I mean, there are
some plays that we call where he can adjust. Some plays that we call that
are straight run it. So it depends on which one we call. But there
are those that he checks. We try to base it on simple things, like most
offenses do. He’s very knowledgeable at that. That’s an asset that we
have with him. He’s very comfortable with that.’’
Is it safe to say that the
offense is different under Jake Fromm than it is under Jacob Eason?
‘’I wouldn’t say that. You’re saying that Jacob would have more latitude than Fromm? They both
went through an entire camp doing the same plays and same scripts and same
things. We call the same plays with them. We check the same plays
with them. We don’t say, ‘These are Eason plays and these are Fromm
plays.’ They’re both very intellectual guys. Jake is a little more exceptional
for a freshman, as far as knowledge. Eason in his second year has picked
up everything, is able to check and do things. Fromm did a little more of
that stuff in high school, so he’s a little more advanced than a normal
freshman would be. I’m not saying as compared to Eason. I’m just saying
as compared to a normal freshman. They both do a good job of that, and
the quarterbacks are expected to do that. That’s the advantage of having
a smart quarterback. He’s supposed to get you into the right play.’’
Has there been a conscious
effort to try and do more out of the shotgun, in order to soften up the box a
little bit?
‘’It’s been a conscious effort
to loosen the box. It doesn’t have to be in the ‘Gun. I think most
of the time you open formations up. Obviously, the gun helps you. Anytime you’re going to throw RPO’s it helps to be from the ‘Gun because it’s
hard to do that from under center. So the conscious effort has been to
loosen up, but not necessarily from the Shotgun. I think the two go
hand-in-hand. You’ve got to be able to block on the perimeter to run on
the perimeter. So we’ve got to improve in that area and it’s a challenge,
every week, to run the ball. I mean, look at teams trying to run it on
us. It’s hard to do. So it’s not just a given that you can go out
there and run it. You have to earn every yard you get when it comes to
that. The good thing is, we’ve got a good stable of backs to try to
accomplish that with.’’
What’s impressed you the most
about D’Andre Swift, to have put himself in his current position?
‘’Just his maturity. I
mean, very similar to Andrew Thomas. He’s a very mature kid. He picks it
up the first time. He doesn’t need two reps. He understands the
game. He’s got great instincts, great hands. You could put him in
the slot, you can put him in the backfield, you can put him on kickoff
coverage. You can do anything with the guy. He kinda gets it. That’s why, when he was injured earlier in camp, we wanted to get him
fixed. We knew he was going to be a player. He didn’t need the
reps. He needed to be healthy to play. So when we sent him to
Philly to see the doctors, he had to go up there and get well and come back.’’
Have you done anything specific
to try and limit penalties?
‘’We always talk about
penalties. We talk about penalties every day in our meetings. I
just laugh because last year, we were one of the least penalized teams and now
we’re leading. It’s always funny to me when you look at stats because
they can say what you want them to say. Sometimes the most aggressive
teams in the country are the most penalized and they have the best teams. And we certainly feel like we’ve been aggressive on special teams, and we’ve
had some penalties in those areas. We’ve had some unfortunate ones, with
hands to the face. I don’t necessarily call all of them
undisciplined. You know, you think of your team being undisciplined when
they have a lot of penalties. Some of those penalties are not
undisciplined. They’re aggressive. And I don’t go after aggressive
penalties all the time because I think you can coach caution in your
players. But we bring it to their attention and we show them a lot of
stats on penalties.’’
Thoughts on the play of Roquan
Smith thus far this season?
‘’Roquan is a special player. I
knew when he was in high school that he was going to be a talented
player. Everybody in the country saw it. It’s why he was so highly
recruited. He does it the right way, man. What y’all see out there
on Saturday, I see every day in practice. So, there’s not like, when you
go into the game you’ve gotta worry about Roquan. Because he’s already
put the work in the bucket. Some guys don’t think practice is
important. That’s not Roquan Smith. He goes out there and plays
full speed every day.’’
Senior Offensive Tackle Isaiah Wilson
On if Hurricane Irma affected
their schedule and his family in St. Petersburg…
‘’We had a normal Sunday,
Monday. We came here a little bit earlier on Monday morning and went over some
stuff and went about our normal Monday schedule. My family wasn’t affected,
thankfully.’’
On what the team gets out of
Saturday’s big win…
‘’Just that we have to fix a
lot of little stuff. We left a lot of points on the field just off of minor
things that we can fix. We got those corrected yesterday and we are going to
continue to correct them the rest of the week.’’
On description of this past
Saturday at Notre Dame…
‘’Magnificent. It was a great
experience. It was a vibrant atmosphere and a great amount of the Dawg Nation
was there. It was just a great win.’’
On what stands out in Andrew
Thomas’ play thus far…
‘’His physical play. He is very
physical for a freshman. It is unheard of for a freshman to come in and start
especially at tackle and on offensive line period. But he is a great player and
is going to be really good.’’
On playing in the night games…
‘’I enjoy it. I think it makes
the atmosphere a lot better. It gives a chance for all of our fans to be there.
It is a great feeling and I think a better atmosphere sometimes as opposed to
during the noon games.’’
Senior Outside Linebacker Lorenzo Carter
On Notre Dame saying they were
impressed by Georgia’s team speed…
‘’Yeah, I heard they were
impressed by our speed and physicality, but that is what we try to do. We want
to be known and build that statement that that is us. That is our identity. We
are a fast defense that is physical and will fly around all game.’’
On play of Roquan Smith…
‘’It is crazy, because you just
come to expect great things from him. He is a leader and heart and soul of our
defense at inside linebacker. He makes everything work. I’m proud to have a guy
like that on the inside when I look to my left.’’
On his big game…
‘’It is just the beginning. We
are just getting started. We can’t live off this one game, we have a long
season ahead of us. If we plan on planning on getting to where we need to go,
we have to move on past this fast.’’
On learning that he earned SEC
Defensive Player of the Week honors…
‘’Davin told me. It is big, I’m
honored but we still have more work to do. That was last week. That isn’t going
to do anything for this week against Samford.’’
Senior Running Back Nick Chubb
On still prevailing despite
missed opportunities…
‘’I think that’s a sign of a
good team. With penalties and turnovers and all that stuff, we still pulled it
out. We have potential that we could have played better.’’
On playing at Notre Dame…
‘’It was a great experience. It
was almost a home game. A lot of fans traveled up there, and they were loud and
effective and a huge advantage to us in that game.’’
On the depth in the backfield…
‘’It is tough to get everyone
enough carries and enough touches. But I think they do a great job with it.’’
On more plays in Jake Fromm’s
second week…
‘’I mean every day he knows
what’s going on, even when he was working the second string, same amount of
reps.’’
Graduate Inside Linebacker Reggie Carter
On being a part of this
defense…
‘’The sky’s the limit for what
we can do as a defense and as a team. We’re working on getting better each and
every week. The sky’s the limit.’’
On team improvements….
‘’Last week we didn’t do good
with turnovers, so at practice we were working on getting turnovers. And it
paid off late in the game.’’
On preparation for the season…
‘’Both sides of the ball are
working hard. We both got the same hours of the day working hard.’’
On the ramifications of the
spikes on the defense…
‘’Once that possession is over,
we give it back, and the person that gets the next turnover gets the spikes.’’
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