University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart, along with
several players, previewed the upcoming game against Kentucky with media on
Monday. The Dawgs take on the Wildcats at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday at Sanford
Stadium.
Smart and the Dawgs offered the
following comments on Monday.
Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening comments …
“We are excited about honoring the
military and all they do for us. Serving our country certainly makes it a great
place to live, so we are happy to honor them. Obviously our seniors, being
Senior Day, it is the last home game for a group of guys that have been really
special to me and they have been really special for this Dawg Nation and the
legacy they leave behind. A lot of them had opportunities to come out, and it will
be their last chance. I really want to challenge our fanbase to come out and
support these guys to end it right at home. We have an opportunity to do some
things that teams have not done around here before, and they can do that by
finishing it right Saturday.
“We are playing a really good Kentucky
team. I think Mark Stoops is a really good head coach. He has done a tremendous
job up there. The energy and enthusiasm of that game last year when we played
up there was incredible to me. It’s not really how I remembered when I was here
before as a player. Their offensive staff does a great job. They have a senior
quarterback (Stephen Johnson) who is playing really well and one of the best
backs in the SEC (Benny Snell, Jr.), a veteran offensive line group and some
big receivers. Defensively, they play a similar style to us — big guys, 3-4
defense — and they do a really good job as well. So, the challenge is in front
of us with a great Kentucky team rolling in here that I know they want nothing
more than to come in here and try to prove they are the best team in the East.
We get an opportunity to play them at home, it will be a Senior Day, so we are
excited about it.”
On Kentucky running back Benny Snell, Jr.
and similarities with Auburn’s rushing attack …
“They have some similar plays. They might
present them differently. I think Eddie (Gran) does a really good job of each
week having a different presentation of what people label ‘wildcat.’ Then
looking at the picture of what Kerryon (Johnson) did in that package — Auburn
does it a little different than them, but Kentucky does a really good job.
Their percentage of ‘wildcat’ based on this year was actually higher last year
versus us, and that is usually predicated on how much success. If it is
working, you do it more. They had a couple of drives last year, particularly
one at the end, they ran almost the whole series in the ‘wildcat.’ They are
good at it. They are physical. Our kids talked last year about that was the
most physical game they played in from a defensive standpoint because it was so
much grinding and hitting. They pride themselves on that, so it will be a great
challenge for us. When we did not stop the run real well last week, we are
getting an opportunity this week to play a team that is hell-bent on running
the ball.”
On how the team has responded to
Saturday’s loss …
“First thing I have seen is guys came in
here with a good attitude yesterday ready to work, good spirits, leaders
talking and communicating. I got to be around the players and eat with them
yesterday. These players they will respond the right way. They are made of the
right stuff and that is all we can ask them to do is to come in with a really
good attitude, get to work. I expect them to do that. I am excited about moving
on getting a chance to go get to work on Kentucky today. That is what they have
to do. The focus for us is totally on the Big Blue because we have to go out
here and stop these guys.”
On if Saturday’s game was also a wake-up
call for the coaching staff …
“Anytime you get a chance to look at
everything from that standpoint, there’s a lot of good things that happened in
the kicking game but there’s a lot of bad things that happened. It was not like
they went out there and whipped us in special teams. It’s a situation where we
have to continue to get better. We think of special teams as one of our best
weapons and we want to be aggressive in our special teams and use it as a
weapon. Well, today is a chance for us to go out and get better on special
teams, and we are going to try to improve that. It’s the same thing on offense
and defense — today is another opportunity for us to go out and improve and get
better and develop our team to get better so that we play better in this next
game.”
On the concern of his team’s tackling
during the Auburn game …
“I have been really concerned about our
tackling all year. I have not been happy with it anytime. You measure tackling
by how many one-on-one situations you get in and how many of those you win
Typically, our ratio has been the same all year. It has not been real good.
People measure things differently. When there’s two guys standing there to
tackle a guy and one of them makes it, it’s a whole lot different than a
one-on-one situation. We lost a lot of one-on-one situations but we lost a lot
of one-on-one situations throughout the year. When you go to tackle a back like
Snell and King and these back they have — they have some good backs, so we have
to improve in that area. That has been the case all year long. Good thing is we
get to practice against some pretty good backs in our practices. We get to thud
them, we do not get to tackle them, but we have to do a better job for sure.”
On if fundamental flaws were exposed
against Auburn …
“I will be honest with you — I am worried
about Kentucky. I really am. I know you want to ask about that and focus on
that. Our concern — we had mistakes. We had really undisciplined penalties.
Things I talked about in the postgame presser. But, our players, we have told
them we have moved on. We have to go get ready for Kentucky and that is really
where our focus is.”
On how a loss benefits a team …
“I think you refocus, you recenter — like
we talked about earlier. You have to really focus on the things you did not do
well and the things you do. It is not any different after a loss or a win
because after every win we have come in here and said we have to refocus and
recenter on the new opponent, new team and not let that carry over. It is no
different this time. We have to refocus, recenter on who we are about to play.
We have to improve the things we messed up. Every game we have won, we have had
areas of concern for me. So, we have to continue to do that and our players have
to kind of embrace that and understand that Kentucky is the target. We have to
go out and play our best game because they have a really good football team.”
On the SEC having three interim coaches
and is this a trend with an early signing period now …
“It may very well be. It is nothing that I
have really thought long and hard about. It could be the norm. I mean obviously
they are going to have to make a decision really fast because that signing day
is going to be right upon the end of the season. It is not something I have
really concerned myself with.”
On how big of a concern fatigue is and how
to fix it…
“I don’t know that you can
concern yourself. You think about it everyday. We measure it
everyday with science and GPS numbers. We looked at the data from the game the
other night to see how many guys hit max velocities and are they still
running fast. We've averaged anywhere from 20-25 over 19 miles per hour
and that held true the other night. We continue to measure those things and
talk to the players. Recovery is a big part of what we talk about.
Sleep. Rest. Getting their legs back at the end of the week. I’m a
big believer in work. I’m a big believer in practice. And we’re
going to continue to do that. This team knows what brought them here and
we have to continue to do that.”
On his message to the team this week…
“We do it through the organization, top
down. We talk to the strength staff, the support staff, Jonas’ [Jennings]
staff, coaching staff— all the people that get to be around the players day to
day. We talk about how we are going to approach them. The approach
is— it starts from the man in the mirror. It starts with me, myself. It
starts with each one of them and they have to look at themselves internally and
say what can I do better to help this team moving forward. That
starts this week. What do I have to do this week as an O-lineman to play
my best game? What do I have to do as a secondary player to play
my best game. What do I have to do to be more disciplined
and not make mistakes or make really poor decisions and lose focus. Everybody focuses on that. We preach the message and a lot of that
demeanor is created through the body language of the coaching staff and the
training staff and the players. The leaders. How do they approach
it? How does Roquan Smith go out and practice? How does Nick Chubb? How does
Sony Michel? A lot of guys will be looking to them and how they respond is
kind of the right way to go about it.
On discipline for penalties…
“There’s not a lot you can do at the time. Those decisions, I always tell people, are made long before the moment
happens. You’ve made your mind up, if a guy shoves you late or pushes you
late, that you’re going to retaliate or you’re not. You’ve made your mind up
that when you have an opportunity to hit a guy on the sideline that you’re
going to do it or you’re not. The decisions are made long before it actually
happens and you have to make sure they make the right decisions. There were a
lot of time that we didn’t the other night.”
On what this senior class has meant to
Georgia…
“This is a special group. I think
it’s a special group because they have really good leadership. They have an
opportunity to win what may be their 38th, possibly 39th, game of their career,
which could rank them right in the top-10 senior classes to ever play here. If they can pull that off. The big thing for me is that everybody
else on the team acknowledges that it’s their last home game and that you
prepare and play as if it was yours. I know what that last home game in
Sanford Stadium means. It’s the one you remember the most. These guys
have meant a lot to this program, meant a lot to me personally, meant a lot to
the staff, and they’ve meant a lot to this university. I think we all owe
it to them, as a fan base and as a coaching staff and as a team, to make sure
that we give them our best effort.
On the improvements of the offensive line
compared to against Auburn…
"Some good, some bad, some ugly.
Mostly the latter. But we’re moving on to Kentucky.”
On Gus Malzahn’s comments post game…
“I’ll be honest with you, when you perform
the way they did on the field you earn the right to say really whatever you
want, so I don’t get into what Gus says and he probably doesn’t get into what I
say.”
On the relationship between Jake Fromm and
Javon Wims and their ability to make plays…
“He’s done a good job of that. I
think he’s improved probably immensely at attacking the ball and not letting
the ball get into his body. He’s really become a hands receiver, which is
what you want. He does a good job in the 50-50 ball. He reacts,
responds, snatches. Through a lot of the drills that Coach Coley does with him
he’s been able to do that. Recently he’s been able to make some big
catches. That’s been a big help for us because you take some those 50-50
balls out of these games and there are some tight ball games that he’s been
able to win for us. We need some more of that.”
On his evaluation of Trenton Thompson…
“I really don’t think the injuries are
affecting Trenton at this point. He’s healthy— practicing good, playing
good. I think across the D-line as a whole, I’m not talking about
Trenton, I think we can play better. We have to strike and get off blocks,
but every player on our team can do that. It’s easy to look at a lot of
the things that reared their head in the last game, they were in the game
before and the game before that. You may not have noticed them because
the results weren’t the same. We as a coaching staff have been saying for
a while that we have to fit runs better. We have to tackle better, we
have to strike and get off blocks better. It only comes to your sights
when the results aren’t the same, but we have to do a better job up front of
striking and getting off blocks.”
On the opportunity to go undefeated at
home this season…
“I will say that it is important to the
senior class that they finish it off the right way. They want to be one of the
first teams to win the SEC East and beat every team in the East. That’s a first
for them and the chance to go undefeated at home, which hasn’t happened since
2012 or 2011. They want to do those things and ear mark, especially after
last year’s home schedule, that’s important to them. I wouldn’t say it’s
a written down goal of any kind, but it’s important to the senior class to do
it the right way.
On Mecole Hardman’s play on special teams…
“I’d agree with you there. I hate [the
muff] for him because he works really hard. I’m in my office ready to
watch tape and he’s still out there catching kicks and catching punts after
practice. It’s important to him that he does it. We have to do a
good job of simulating some of those kicks and making him catch the hard ones.
He’s doing a tremendous job and the units around him are really doing well. I
think if you ask the other coaches in the league, they’re saying ‘good grief,
they have all these people blocked’, so there’s some space there and he’s had a
good opportunity to make some plays. He has taken advantage of that. I’m not disappointed in anything he’s done. I think he’s gaining
more confidence and he’s making some plays in the kicking game. That was
no more evident than Saturday. A lot of that was people getting hats on people. We work hard on that. I think that’s one of our best weapons. It opens us up to, you know, people want to fake kicks. We have to
rep a ton more fakes because they’re like they just assume fake it than kick it
to the guy because they’re back there returning it. That has been a
positive for us, even though we did not play well on special teams because of
the muff, because of the penalty, but if you take that out there’s a lot of
positive in the kicking game.”
Graduate NT John Atkins
On thoughts going into his last game at
Sanford Stadium and whether it has gone fast or slow…
“I was thinking about that yesterday. I
was thinking it was going to be my last Dawg Walk. It is just unreal that it is
my last game in the stadium.”
On bouncing back from the loss…
“We came in yesterday and got some work
in. Everybody has the same attitude. We aren’t walking around with
the “poor me” attitude. We are just focused on bouncing back because we
are still in it. It is the same thing as a win, we get 12 hours then you have
to get ready for the next team."
On facing Kentucky’s Wildcat Formation
with Benny Snell…
“The Wildcat is always challenging,
because you never know where the ball is going. You also have to be more
patient. Every time a team has success in an area, another team is going
to try to do the same.”
Senior WR Javon Wims
On moving on after the loss and if it
affects motivation…
“We are moving forward and focusing on
Kentucky. They are a very good football team that we are getting ready to face
this weekend. Naturally you are motivated by a loss or a win but we are
motivated by each other. We are just going to get back to doing what we do
best. We are going to go back in the lab, we work, we grind and go back to that
physical brand of football that we know."
On senior night…
“Personally, the seniors mean so much to
me. I came in my first year and they embraced me. They treated me like
everybody else and as if I’m one of them. It meant so much to me to have them
like brothers and be a senior with them.”
On quarterback Jake Fromm’s trust in you
winning the 50/50 balls…
“It feels good that he trusts me enough to
throw the ball up for me to make a play even when I’m not even looking
sometimes. He is one of my good friends on and off the field.”
Senior TE Jeb Blazevich
On the outcome at Auburn...
"It was just, I guess, a reality
check. One of those things, where at the end of the day, the coaches have what
we need to fix ready and geared up on film, and we just need to get back to
work. That's the only thing we can do. All we can do is fix our attitude and
adjust what we need to adjust, and get back after it. All we're worried about
now is Kentucky."
On the attitude of Georgia going into
Kentucky...
"Really, we don't have enough time.
We don't have the luxury of time to sit around and feel bad for ourselves. It's
something where we can't mope around, we have work today. I think that's the
main message, it's get back to work, that's all we can do."
On his last game in Sanford Stadium...
"It's crazy. It's going to be my last
game. A lot of sentimental feelings. I'm feeling very grateful and blessed to
be here. Thankful for God for all the experiences I've had here. I'm excited to
strap it on one more time."
On the legacy of the senior class...
"Everything we want to accomplish is
in front of us. We obviously have a lot of work to do, and that starts today.
But, one loss doesn't define our season, and everything's still out there for
us, and so we're still trying to write our legacy and determine, 'What can I do
this Monday that will help achieve that?'"
Graduate DB Aaron Davis
On one of his favorite memories...
"It has to be my first game. I had never
experienced anything like that. Coming out of high school, and then coming
to Sanford Stadium to play Clemson in a night game. It was a huge game, the
stadium was unbelievable. It felt like an earthquake, the ground was shaking
out there. That was one of my favorite moments so far."
On the legacy of the senior class...
"I just feel like we have so much
ahead of us, we've just got to go out there and take care of business, in order
for those things to be possible for us. As long as we continue to do the things
we need to do, and be able to regroup and not let one game define us, we should
be able to continue to be better."
On how to defend a wildcat offense...
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