Post Game Quotes

UGA Sports Communications

Kirby Smart 

On the win …

“That was a hard-earned win against a good football team. Credit goes to these kids who played hard and played with grit. So many people doubted and they never did. I am just happy for these guys in that locker room.”

On third downs …

“We played really well on third down on both sides of the ball. When I was on the set of SEC Nation this morning, I told them that would be a key today. We executed well on both side and that really was a difference maker today.”

On no sacks given up today …

“The credit goes to Sam Pittman and Jake Fromm. Sam put in some really good pass protections, and we challenged those guys that they would be put on island. They did a fantastic job.”

On the offense’s performance …

“I am proud of Jake Fromm, those receivers and our entire offense. Those guys at receiver have a chip on their shoulder and did a good job today. There are things we need to do to get better, but it was good to see them play well today.”

On if this win gives his team confidence … 

“It certainly helps confidence wise, but this team never lacked on that. We turned all the noise on mute and focused on the task at hand.”

On Brian Herrien’s catch …

“He has unreal ball skills. I was standing right there and thought there was no way, but he made a great catch and that was a huge play in the game.”

On Florida’s last drive that took seven minutes off the clock …

“I thought we should have stopped them on 4th-and-2. We did not get the stop, but our guys played well and did what they had to do.”

Jake Fromm, Junior, Quarterback

On the team’s performance...

“Today was an opportunity to go ahead and play. Guys took that and were ready to roll with it. We responded and came out and played a great football game. It feels great. I’m extremely thankful, blessed to be here with my teammates in the locker room and this coaching staff.”

On the offensive line...

“Man, they balled out—all five did. I can only remember one scenario where we ran the same play twice and it kind of got loose. Besides that, those guys played great, played physical. We knew it was going to be a really physical football game, there was going to be a lot of body blows for those guys on the line of scrimmage.”

Lawrence Cager, Senior, Wide Receiver

On playing through injury...

“I wasn’t going to miss this game for anything. I wasn’t going to miss this game. I used to watch this game every year as a football fan. This is a great game, everybody knows that. Big rivalry, so I wasn’t going to miss it.”

On his 4th-quarter touchdown catch...

“It was a great play call by Coach Coley. We had practiced it all week—new play—thought we could get it in there on man coverage. We knew that they played a lot of 42, so we got the look.”

Monty Rice, Junior, Inside Linebacker 

On the offensive line...

“Our offensive line had great run schemes—Jake Fromm didn’t get sacked once, and it was on those guys. Andrew Thomas, Solomon Kindley, Ben Cleveland, all those guys were great.”

On the team’s mindset entering the game...

“This game always decides who’s going to Atlanta, so we wanted to get this one. But, we just take it one game every week.”

On the defense’s performance...

“We played very well up until late in the game. They had a very long drive—it was probably about 15, 16 plays. We had some fourth downs that we didn’t stop them on. Next time we get an opportunity like that, we’re going to put the fire out. We don’t have to put it on Jake Fromm to execute that third down to Eli Wolf to end the game.”

Florida Coach Dan Mullen

Opening statement…

“I would have liked to fix this and that. There were no turnovers in the game and we really would have liked to create a turnover or two in the course of the game. There were a couple mistakes and some negative yardage plays offensively that I thought really set us back at times and set us off-schedule. It’s hard to do that coming back. Our third-down defense was really good, and I thought our red-zone defense was good for the most part, but we didn’t get off the field on third down. With a team like that, you’re going to let them drive and then eventually stop them in the red zone. We did that for most of the night, but third down defense was a big one for us.”

On the length of the offensive drives…

“When you’re down two, you have to score once first. It’s ‘let’s make sure we put a solid drive together and get the touchdown first’ and we did that. That’s kind of the whole thought that goes into that. We don’t need to panic, just run and execute our offense. Let’s take it down the field. We executed clean and we punched it in. I thought we played okay on offense at times. Some mistakes kept setting us back at different points in the game. Obviously, we only ran 52 plays offensively which is not very good. We needed to stay on the field better on offense and get off the field on defense.”

On struggling with the run game…

“We wanted to take the lead and we fell behind early, so we were throwing a bit more. The goal was to try to take the lead. They scored that touchdown to take the lead and that was the biggest play of the game. We were off the field on third down and they got sent back on. I don’t think we tried to call many running plays. When we ran the ball, Lamical Perine had seven carries and 31 yards. Dameon Pierce was three for 13.”

On Jake Fromm …

“I thought he did a good job. Give their offensive line credit. They did a good job with not allowing pressure.”

On Georgia’s success on third down…

“You can go in any direction you want to go. We had missed tackles, they got helped out a couple of times, and we missed coverage.”

On the future after this game…

“Every year is independent. There’s a lot of football still left to be played. The division hasn’t been clinched by anybody and it wasn’t going to be clinched by anybody today. Win or lose this game, next week’s game is really big for us. That’s how it works.”

On the defensive schemes…

“We called a lot of different defenses. There’s a lot of different answers for why they were good on third downs, not one thing. We mixed up different looks. There were 18 third downs and each one is going to be pretty independent to be honest with you. We had a penalty that gave them a first down, we had a ‘call stands,’ which I thought that was one of the biggest plays of the game.”

On timeouts…

“We had the wrong personnel on the field. The first two drives, we had two different things. We had the wrong personnel on the field for the play call. We had ten men on the field and then they didn’t get lined up right. One I got in late and the one in the fourth quarter, I think they signaled the wrong formation and the receivers weren’t lined up. At that point, it was too big a point in the game to not use the timeout. I was frustrated because there’s little things you can point out. That’s a very manageable situation. It’s signaling and formation and getting lined up right.”


Kyle Trask, Redshirt Junior, Quarterback 

 On how key the first drive would’ve been had they executed and took the lead… 

“The only people we can be disappointed with is ourselves because they did nothing that we didn’t expect them to do. We prepared for everything and it was more disappointing because we weren’t executing on things that we expected we should’ve done right.”

On what started clicking in the fourth quarter… 

“We kind of just found our identity in this game. It took us three quarters to find out what worked best and we started executing at a high level. Obviously, we showed our potential and what we can do with our athletes in the open field. We just have to find a way we can do that sooner.”

On how to stay focused on what’s left to play for… 

“I mean we do have a lot to play for. We have to finish this season strong. This is going to be a big character moment for us to see how we finish. I have 100 percent belief we’re going to finish the right way and continue to get better each and every week. There’s still a lot to play for and we still have a shot at this thing, but we can only control what we can control and we have to do all we can do to finish the season the right way.”

Freddie Swain, Senior, Wide Receiver 

On how he talked to the team when things weren’t going well… 

 “I think that just comes from having a captain roll and having a leadership roll on the team. If things aren’t going good, guys have to look for someone to lean on and tell them that everything is going to be okay. We just have to come out and execute cleaner.”

On what worked offensively for the team on the last couple of drives… 

“Just executed cleanly. It was basically the same play calling, we just weren’t executing before. We just came out and executed.”

On if there was a belief that they would find a way to win… 

“I always believe we’ll win, no matter what the score is. That’s just me, I’m a competitor. I don’t like to lose. I just try to instill that in my teammates and fight until the end.”

On Coach Mullen’s message to the team after the game… 

“We got a lot of football left. Coach was just trying to tell guys we have another big game next week and the week after that. We still have a lot of football left and our future isn’t decided, so we just have to come out and play clean and execute.

David Reese II, Senior, Linebacker 

On how the team struggled with third-down defense … 

“I felt like that told the story. We did a good job sticking around, but we had to get off the field, and we didn’t.”

On Jake Fromm and Georgia’s issues in coverage… 

“He did a great job. Some parts of the scheme, they made some unbelievable catches, but we didn’t get off the field.”

On the controversial catch that wasn’t overturned by the goal line… 

 “It’s tough, referees aren’t always perfect. It happens, its football.”

Jonathan Greenard, Graduate Transfer, Linebacker 

On how the team moves forward after tonight’s loss… 

“We just have to get back to work. It is a tough lost. We all came in here with high hopes of getting a ‘W.’ It did not come out that way. They were a good team, really great team. We had missed a couple things that we needed to get off the field on third down; a lot of stuff that could change the game. We just had to execute. It hurts but we are just going to bounce back.”

On how it feels being back… 

“It felt really good. Just being out there with my teammates, everybody back and somewhat healthy. Still no excuse. We are out there playing, they’re really good. They did their thing. But it felt good to just get my feet back in there and just make some plays.”

On what he attributes to Georgia’s third down success… 

“No good route running. No good play calling. They have some really good o-line men. I have to do better. I wasn’t in effect today. No excuses. I did not get to the quarterback as much as I needed to. I did not affect the game as much as I needed to. I say that as weakness … I take pride and want to be a game changer. I have to do better. I did not do anything today.”

Nick Buchanan, Redshirt Senior, Offensive Lineman

On what happened on third down… 

“It’s very frustrating. Third downs are a big part of the game. When you get in the big games, usually the team who stops them on third down on defense and converts on third down on offense wins the game, and we saw that tonight.”

On if it was surprising about how the team started out slowly… 

“Everyone coming out at the start of the game like that, I wouldn’t say it was a surprise. It was just things happening that you can’t control, and so I feel like we did a good job bouncing back from the chaos that happened at the beginning of the game and stuck to our game plan as the game went on.”

On what they did to stay in it and come back in the fourth quarter… 

“We always keep each other up. We’re going to believe we can win until the clock says zero. There was no downtime and feeling sorry for ourselves. We were up. We knew that we just kept telling ourselves that we can make the next stop, and they did make some stops and we didn’t capitalize on all of our opportunities on offense. It’s a team game, so we’re going to pick each other up and keep on moving to the next one.”

On how Kyle Trask rallied the team in the fourth quarter… 

“Kyle is a fighter. We’ve seen him do it before. This team, throughout the season, we’ve been very good in the fourth quarter, and we’ve always brought another one, but it’s the little things and details that we didn’t get accomplished this game. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and figure out what we did wrong and make sure it doesn’t happen in the next one.”