Coach Kirby Smart and select players offered the following comments leading up to Saturday's home opener against UAB at 3:30 p.m. ET. Coach Smart sat in on the SEC's weekly teleconference call, while players met with media.
Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement
"I'm excited about UAB. Bill Clark is a good friend, and I have a lot of respect for what he's done with their program. What a tremendous job they've done since cutting football and then rebuilding it back really quickly. A lot of talented, really fast players, especially defensively. They've been a Top-5 Top-10 team in the country four or five years in a row now. They play really hard. They are physical, up front offensively. You find out a lot about a team when you see their special teams and see how hard they play. The punts they've blocked. They do a tremendous job. We're excited to be back home in Sanford Stadium in front of a packed crowd, and get this game going."
On the COVID concerns…
"We've had the highest amount we've had since the beginning of fall camp, and that is a spike. But that's staff and players combined. The total number is not over five, but again that is staff and players. I think that got blown way, way out of proportion. A spike to me is zero to five, but that is staff and players included."
On inside linebackers today…
"The way the game has changed, inside backers are athletes. You look across the NFL. They are not taking on Iso's, full-backs, and leads. They are in space, playing empty, playing five out. Playing Alvin Kamara, Christian McCaffrey, people like that, so inside backers have to be much better athletes than they've ever been. It changes kind of who you recruit and how you recruit. you have to look at alternative positions to find the best inside backer. Sometimes high school football teams are not even playing inside backers."
On Nakobe Dean's biggest improvement…
"Confidence and Leadership. He's always been a great kid. A hard worker. He's one of the fastest to learn things and understand the defense that I've ever been around. He came in and immediately picked up the defense. He's very conscientious of his work ethic, but the biggest area of improvement has been his confidence and leadership."
On Zamir White…
"Toughness. Hard nose. Physical runs. He doesn't shy away from contact. He has toughness and cares about his teammates. He's selfless. That has kind of been the mantra of our team, but also our running back room because we have talented guys in there. They have to understand that they serve an even greater purpose in their role on special teams and all-around team morale even though not any one person is going to get tons of opportunities and carries. You're not going to end up with a guy with 20 carries probably. Not with a backfield like we have, but it's still demoralizing to other teams to have a fresh back coming at you all the time."
On UAB's multiple QB's…
"They both have a lot of experience. They do a great job. that offense sets up nicely for them. Tyler Johnson III seems like he's been playing forever, and Dylan Hopkins has great arm talent. They have a really good pairing there. they understand their route system. They are a play-action, launch it, team, on you. They run the ball really well. They don't get themselves in long-yardage situations and that helps them be efficient."
On Jordan Davis…
"Jordan has been tremendous. He's worked really hard. He continues to work and keep his weight down. Part of staying humble is particularly to work and be explosive and affect teams in the passing game. Obviously, he's a space-eater. A dominant guy against the run game. He's hard to move. I think it was great for him to go back to Charlotte and have a good game because that's home to him and his mom lives there and works. His little brother is there. It just means a lot to him to go back. That's why he decided to come back. He wanted to have a big game."
On the ideal weight for Jordan Davis…
"You know it's body mass, body fat, bone structure. A lot of things go into that, so it's hard to say what is optimal. One 6'6" guy could be 200 pounds and one 6'6" guy could be 350-360 pounds. It's not the weight that concerns me as much as the stamina, and stamina is much more important than just weight alone. If he can play 15-20 snaps in a row at 350 or 330 or whatever weight he's best at, and we like to think that is maybe around 340-345lbs and that's what we try to work with him on."
Ladd McConkey, Redshirt Freshman, Wide Receiver
On playing in the opening game…
"Like I said it was an awesome experience just kind of getting out there for the first time, just kind of feeling everything that comes along with actually playing for the University of Georgia and being there with my teammates. So, it was a great time.
On growing up a Tennessee fan…
"It's kind of a funny story. I grew up and every bit of my friends, everybody around, was Georgia fans, except for my family. We kind of grew up Tennessee fans. This is not how my grandfather was, so my dad was raised, kind of grew up, a Tennessee fan. So, I grew up with Georgia fans harassing me all the time, trying to convince me to change over. But I mean, once they offered me and I got up here, there was no denying that this was the place I needed to be.
On missing a "catchable ball"…
"It was just something I can work on, getting off the ball and just not really getting re-routed and standing back. So, I mean, there was just kind of little things to it that we have worked on this week, and we fixed up to make sure that won't happen again."
Warren McClendon, Redshirt Sophomore, Offensive Lineman
On working on pass completion after the Clemson game and what Clemson's defense was giving Georgia during the game…
"I was probably just what Clemson was given us. We're still working on our playbook running all the plays that we have. And we're just focused on UAB now and just working on our game plan for that"
On focusing on UAB this weekend after the buzz of the Clemson game…
"You know, everybody's been talking about Clemson the past week, but we've been focused on UAB, they have a good team. They have a bunch of us returners coming back. They've won conference championships for their conference, they're a good team, so we're focused on them and our game plan for Saturday."
On run blocking in the Clemson game…
"In the beginning of the game, it wasn't a standard that we wanted but towards the end of the game we started clicking and moving the ball down the field. Well this week we want to put an emphasis on running the ball more efficient and just being better off."
Opening Statement
"I'm excited about UAB. Bill Clark is a good friend, and I have a lot of respect for what he's done with their program. What a tremendous job they've done since cutting football and then rebuilding it back really quickly. A lot of talented, really fast players, especially defensively. They've been a Top-5 Top-10 team in the country four or five years in a row now. They play really hard. They are physical, up front offensively. You find out a lot about a team when you see their special teams and see how hard they play. The punts they've blocked. They do a tremendous job. We're excited to be back home in Sanford Stadium in front of a packed crowd, and get this game going."
On the COVID concerns…
"We've had the highest amount we've had since the beginning of fall camp, and that is a spike. But that's staff and players combined. The total number is not over five, but again that is staff and players. I think that got blown way, way out of proportion. A spike to me is zero to five, but that is staff and players included."
On inside linebackers today…
"The way the game has changed, inside backers are athletes. You look across the NFL. They are not taking on Iso's, full-backs, and leads. They are in space, playing empty, playing five out. Playing Alvin Kamara, Christian McCaffrey, people like that, so inside backers have to be much better athletes than they've ever been. It changes kind of who you recruit and how you recruit. you have to look at alternative positions to find the best inside backer. Sometimes high school football teams are not even playing inside backers."
On Nakobe Dean's biggest improvement…
"Confidence and Leadership. He's always been a great kid. A hard worker. He's one of the fastest to learn things and understand the defense that I've ever been around. He came in and immediately picked up the defense. He's very conscientious of his work ethic, but the biggest area of improvement has been his confidence and leadership."
On Zamir White…
"Toughness. Hard nose. Physical runs. He doesn't shy away from contact. He has toughness and cares about his teammates. He's selfless. That has kind of been the mantra of our team, but also our running back room because we have talented guys in there. They have to understand that they serve an even greater purpose in their role on special teams and all-around team morale even though not any one person is going to get tons of opportunities and carries. You're not going to end up with a guy with 20 carries probably. Not with a backfield like we have, but it's still demoralizing to other teams to have a fresh back coming at you all the time."
On UAB's multiple QB's…
"They both have a lot of experience. They do a great job. that offense sets up nicely for them. Tyler Johnson III seems like he's been playing forever, and Dylan Hopkins has great arm talent. They have a really good pairing there. they understand their route system. They are a play-action, launch it, team, on you. They run the ball really well. They don't get themselves in long-yardage situations and that helps them be efficient."
On Jordan Davis…
"Jordan has been tremendous. He's worked really hard. He continues to work and keep his weight down. Part of staying humble is particularly to work and be explosive and affect teams in the passing game. Obviously, he's a space-eater. A dominant guy against the run game. He's hard to move. I think it was great for him to go back to Charlotte and have a good game because that's home to him and his mom lives there and works. His little brother is there. It just means a lot to him to go back. That's why he decided to come back. He wanted to have a big game."
On the ideal weight for Jordan Davis…
"You know it's body mass, body fat, bone structure. A lot of things go into that, so it's hard to say what is optimal. One 6'6" guy could be 200 pounds and one 6'6" guy could be 350-360 pounds. It's not the weight that concerns me as much as the stamina, and stamina is much more important than just weight alone. If he can play 15-20 snaps in a row at 350 or 330 or whatever weight he's best at, and we like to think that is maybe around 340-345lbs and that's what we try to work with him on."
Ladd McConkey, Redshirt Freshman, Wide Receiver
On playing in the opening game…
"Like I said it was an awesome experience just kind of getting out there for the first time, just kind of feeling everything that comes along with actually playing for the University of Georgia and being there with my teammates. So, it was a great time.
On growing up a Tennessee fan…
"It's kind of a funny story. I grew up and every bit of my friends, everybody around, was Georgia fans, except for my family. We kind of grew up Tennessee fans. This is not how my grandfather was, so my dad was raised, kind of grew up, a Tennessee fan. So, I grew up with Georgia fans harassing me all the time, trying to convince me to change over. But I mean, once they offered me and I got up here, there was no denying that this was the place I needed to be.
On missing a "catchable ball"…
"It was just something I can work on, getting off the ball and just not really getting re-routed and standing back. So, I mean, there was just kind of little things to it that we have worked on this week, and we fixed up to make sure that won't happen again."
Warren McClendon, Redshirt Sophomore, Offensive Lineman
On working on pass completion after the Clemson game and what Clemson's defense was giving Georgia during the game…
"I was probably just what Clemson was given us. We're still working on our playbook running all the plays that we have. And we're just focused on UAB now and just working on our game plan for that"
On focusing on UAB this weekend after the buzz of the Clemson game…
"You know, everybody's been talking about Clemson the past week, but we've been focused on UAB, they have a good team. They have a bunch of us returners coming back. They've won conference championships for their conference, they're a good team, so we're focused on them and our game plan for Saturday."
On run blocking in the Clemson game…
"In the beginning of the game, it wasn't a standard that we wanted but towards the end of the game we started clicking and moving the ball down the field. Well this week we want to put an emphasis on running the ball more efficient and just being better off."
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