Post Game Quotes

UGA Sports Communications

Coach Kirby Smart

On the win …

“That was a hard-fought game. I have a lot of respect for Notre Dame and their program and how they battled. But man, our kids played hard. … That was a huge win for them. They play so hard and work so hard and play with toughness. I was happy to see them pull that out.”

On the attitude at the half … 

“We were confident we could do some things because we were moving the ball. Our defense was playing pretty well and made some stops, so I was pleased with the effort. We made some adjustments and felt like we could come out and score some points.”

On the crowd … 

“They impacted those guys. They had 5-6-7 penalties and had to use their timeouts. Our fans caused their quarterback to have some issues. … We need that out of our fans all the time. That is a real homefield advantage. You need that in college football.”

On D’Andre Swift … 

“That was the heart of a warrior. He ran so hard and did a great job. He played with passion, energy, and toughness, and he had a good offensive line in front of him.”

On players replacing injured players … 

“It’s a tough deal when guys go down and you have to step up at the spur of the moment. We kept battling through. … We’ve got some guys who are out and some who are banged up, so we’ll use the off week to try to get healthy.”

On winning the turnover battle … 

“Winning the turnover battle against these guys is huge. Rarely do they lose that battle.”

Divaad Wilson, Redshirt Freshman, Defensive Back

On his first career interception... 

“I was a little beat on the route. Chris Finke is a great receiver for them. I mean, I just lucked up, basically, but I had to snatch the ball and just play ball.”

On the defense closing out the win… 

“Stepping in with the defense, I mean defense wins games, but I’m not new to big crowds. I’ve been playing in big crowds all my life. It wasn’t really a big difference for me.”

Rodrigo Blankenship, Senior, Place Kicker

On playing in two close games against Notre Dame in 2017 and 2019... 

“It’s crazy. It’s awesome. It’s a blessing, it’s really just a blessing to be here and be a part of this team, part of this program and part of the University of Georgia. It’s just an incredible blessing. When you come to the University of Georgia, you can find yourself playing in some pretty big games. It’s just really special and really just a blessing to be a part of this team and be in these kinds of games.”

On whether he is happy to survive this game… 

“I definitely think that there was a sigh of relief there at the end. I think we’re going to really try and enjoy this moment, enjoy the next 24 hours so that we get to enjoy it. Then, after that we’re just going to see how we can get better as a football team.”

J.R. Reed, Senior, Defensive Back

On the fan support and crowd forcing Notre Dame penalties... 

“Any time Georgia can show up like that… we’ve got to do that every game. Not just this one, but every time we’ve got a home game, it matters. If it’s at 12 or it’s at 9 in the morning, we need them to show out.”

Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly 

Opening statement… 

“It was a disappointed locker room. We certainly don’t come down here to play these games, and feel good after a physical game like that, and come up short. Congratulations to Georgia. They are a good football team, obviously. It was a good, physical game on both sides of the ball. You could hear it out there; the physicality was real. It was probably one of the most physical games that I have coached, against any team that I have competed against, and I have coached a lot of games. Georgia made a couple more plays than we did. I know these all sound cliche, but when you break it down, our guys fought to the very end. Georgia just made a couple more plays. We have to coach a little bit better. We have to make a couple more plays. That was really the difference.”

On whether he feels better about his team leaving UGA than when they arrived... 

“I certainly know a lot more about our team. It’s hard to measure your team early in the season. We’re a physical, fast team that’s persistent and will play for four quarters…We were a little sloppy today— uncharacteristically— and that goes to coaching., We’ve got to coach better and clean up the mistakes that hurt us today, because they’re correctable. The core of this football team is one that’s gritty, hard-nose and physical. We were short a number of playmakers [tonight] that we’re going to get back in the next few weeks. So, yes; we feel pretty good about our football team, even though we’re disappointed with what happened today.”

Ian Book, Senior, Quarterback 

On what different looks Georgia had in the second half… 

“I think they stayed true to what they were running. It was just on us, they had a great game and a great game plan. I respect that team a lot. It was on us to focus on the small details of what we were running and the game plan that the coaches made for us. It was ultimately up to us to keep doing what we were doing. It is tough to not come out on top of this game but I am proud of how this team played.”

On the 12 penalties, most of which created by the atmosphere, and how difficult it was to play in an atmosphere like the one tonight… 

“It was a great atmosphere. This is why you come to Notre Dame, to play in big games like these. Again, it goes back to really focusing on the small details, whatever the cadence may be. We just need to focus on ourselves and the small details. It comes down to the attention to detail and maybe the atmosphere did play a role a little bit but I thought the guys this week did a really good job this week preparing for the atmosphere with crowd noise. Also, coming to an environment like this you just want to have fun as well. And our guys were having fun out there.”

Alohi Gilman, Senior, Safety 

On how difficult D’Andre Swift is to deal with and the pressures he puts on defenses… 

“He is a great running back and a great player. He is an explosive, big back and a guy that is just competitive as well. He is tough for anyone to match up against.”

On the ability to dig deep at the end of the game … 

“As a team, we are never going to back down. We are a team that is going to step up to any challenge and is going to fight till the end. It is nice to see that in a team, what we can do. The sky is the limit for us. We are going to take it one week at a time and see where it goes.”