Coach Kirby Smart
Opening remarks
“I want to give a big thanks to our fans. I thought they turned out and took over the stadium as they’ve done so many times when we’ve played on the road. There was a lot of red in the stands today, and I’m proud of that. I’m proud of our seniors. The senior class that’s going out of here, somebody told me, may be tied for the second-most wins of any senior class to ever leave Georgia. They got the benefit of some extra games with the format we’re playing now, but the second-most wins in the history of our school, which is pretty incredible when you think about what the seniors have been able to do.
“I’ll address the George Pickens situation. He was suspended for the first half today for violation of team rules, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. Then, unfortunately, he got an undisciplined penalty, and when you make undisciplined decisions, regardless of what’s done first, you pay a penalty for that. So he won’t be able to play the first half of next week. When you make emotional decisions, that’s what happens. We’re going to help George, help him grow up and make better decisions so that he can help our team. But that’s unfortunate.
“DeAndre Swift … I think he’s going to be fine, he’s got a shoulder contusion, and we think he’ll be fine, he should be back.”
On turnovers in the second quarter
“I didn’t address it at halftime. The kids understand. When you turn the ball over, it’s hard to be successful. The defense went out and had a sudden change and made some big stops. They didn’t make a stop once and cost us one score. Then we had the surprise onside that we work on all the time. He had it, but he just lost it. He didn’t possess the ball and we turned the ball over. Our kids are resilient. They like to play, so when you have a sudden change, our defense is fired up. They want another opportunity to go out there and play, and I thought they did a good job of that.”
On the play of the receiver group
“We did some good things, and we did some things we need to do better. We’ve got to put them in a position to be successful. We need to run the ball to create play-action, and do more in that mentality. A lot of our scores were set up, either by punt returns, or one fumble in the end zone by those guys. We’ve just got to keep improving. I’m proud of the way the receivers have worked. They’ve had a ton of reps this week, and a lot of work through low volume of guys. We’ve got less receivers than we’ve ever had. They did a good job. I thought Tyler Simmons really stepped up during the week and had a good game.
On your defense on third down
“They continued to play really well. I mean, I thought our defensive guys played super hard. They’ve got an unbelievable challenge in front of us this week. It’ll be a whole lot different than the team we just played, I can promise you that. They have passion, energy, juice. They love just playing football. They love to get in those situations, and I think they were 3-of-17 or something. Our guys really enjoy that.”
On Charlie Woerner’s first career touchdown
“Awesome. Think about how many blocks that guy’s had, and one touchdown. He told me before the game, he asked and said ‘what was your record against Tech?’ I told him 3-1, or really 4-1 if you count a redshirt year. He just said, ‘I want to go out on top so bad.’ For a kid who’s meant so much to our program, golly, the blocking value that he has had, and not getting as many catches as he deserved, for him to get that play was huge.”
On Jake Fromm’s performance
“We put a lot on him. You start talking about checks, making decisions, doing things. He did a good job adjusting. Geoff’s defense has always been good at disguising things, give you different looks. They did some good things. Jake made some good decisions when they got us. He threw the ball away a couple times and made good decisions. He’s got to continue to improve and play better. Jake gets us in and out of a lot of situations.”
Jake Fromm, Junior, Quarterback
On using the quick score in the third quarter
“For us on offense, it was up to us. We were kind of stopping ourselves most of the time and I think we committed to say, ‘let’s go out and play football, have a little fun, and score some points.’”
On being in sync with Tyler Simmons
“Tyler Simmons is an awesome guy who has been with it all season. It’s really awesome. I’m really proud of him to have a big moment here and to play Georgia Tech and to have a really big game. I know it means a lot to him and I’m really thankful he’s kind of come on here.”
On his level of trust in the receivers
“I’m with them one hundred percent. I think every single guy that we put on the field is able to make a great play at any given time. We’re ready and I’m behind them one hundred percent. Let’s go play football.”
Charlie Woerner, Senior, Tight End
On celebrating his first career touchdown
“It was special. The first person I celebrated with on my touchdown was Tyler Simmons and then when Tyler scored, I was the first one there to celebrate with him. It was definitely cool. For the last regular season game, I think it was the first time Tyler scored this year and the first time I scored in my career here, it was awesome.”
On finally getting his first career touchdown
“It was so cool to finally score. It wasn’t a million monkeys on my back it was more of a, I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it or let it try and bother me. Now I finally caught that touchdown, I celebrated with Tyler and I remember I just fell to my knees and took in that moment and praised God for that moment. It’s been a long time coming.”
James Cook, Sophomore, Running Back
On the win over Georgia Tech
“It feels great to help my team in a great rivalry, a classic rivalry. I’m honored to be a part of my team and get a win.”
On the message from the coaching staff after the game
“Just getting everybody motivated and into the game.”
Opening Statement
“Obviously have to give hats off to the team that we just played. I still remember three years ago I was the defensive coordinator at Florida, first year in the development of that program, and just to see the impact they’ve made through recruiting, through development. That’s the way it should be. So we’re actively engaged in that part of the process right now but the part that was promising is you go into halftime being ready to go one score down against the No. 4 team in the country with an absolutely depleted roster of guys that are just fighting and battling and giving us a chance to be in that game. It bodes well for what’s going to happen with this program going forward.”
On what happened in the third quarter
“The level of attrition does catch up to you, but there are some things, the first sky kick to open up the second half, we did it because the sun was right down exactly where we were going to kick it. The kick was 15 yards shorter than it was supposed to be, and the guy was able to get it out to the 50 and get field position. And then the entire third quarter was completely a game of field position. I thought Pressley Harvin, Nathan Cottrell did a great job. Jaytlin Askew before he got hurt. We’re changing the field, but once field position gets tipped in the other way, that was hard to overcome. Our guys kept battling but it got away from us there in the third quarter, and you can’t let that happen against the No. 4 team in the country. But it did, and the whole thing this year has been completely learning experiences, and one of the big parts of our offseason program is we do tug-of-war all the time, and one of the cardinal sins of the program is letting go of the rope, and I thought at times in the third quarter we let it slip and couldn’t find a way to get it back. We’ll make sure that we continue to build on that when we get back in the offseason.”
On not being able to capitalize on the three forced fumbles
“They’re really good. I thought we had some good momentum going into halftime, 17-7, thought we had a chance to get a little chip shot to make it a one-score game. Obviously that didn’t happen and we’ve still got to rally and find ways to get stops and move the ball.”
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