Kirby Smart Tuesday Press Conference Ahead of Georgia vs Kentucky
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00:00 Questions today, raise your hand and we'll give you a remote mic.
00:04 And a reminder to watch for anything.
00:07 Thank you, Cole.
00:10 Kirby, how has practice been so far this week?
00:13 Been great.
00:14 Thank you for asking.
00:20 I meant to ask yesterday, Javon was limping pretty good out of the post game
00:24 locker room on Saturday.
00:25 How did he come out of that game?
00:27 How does he look this week?
00:29 He's scathed, sore, long game.
00:34 Had not had that much running physicality and use in two or three – two weeks,
00:40 whatever it was, 14 days.
00:41 It just – I mean you get sore when you don't do anything for that long
00:43 and then you go do that much.
00:45 It's just typically what your body does.
00:47 But he's been good, he recovered.
00:49 Sunday, Monday he was great.
00:53 We had a lighter day Monday and then got after today and he seemed good today.
00:58 Coach, just how multiple are they in the run game
01:00 and how do you go about preparing your guys for a variety of looks
01:04 that they're going to get in terms of a difference in runs?
01:09 Well, I mean you can go against our offense who runs some of the same runs they do.
01:14 It's very pro-style based in terms of what they do run game wise.
01:19 They do a tremendous job of – you know, they put window dressing around all their runs.
01:25 They have really good people blocking it.
01:27 They have very experienced tight ends on the edges.
01:30 I mean, they got kids that are – have been there for two and three years
01:34 blocking on the perimeter.
01:35 They got a great back.
01:36 I mean, so they got a great run system that has all the ingredients to be excellent
01:46 when you have a physical offensive line, a head coach
01:49 and an offensive coordinator committed to running it.
01:51 A great back, several great backs.
01:54 And then they have weapons outside.
01:55 So, they are a very talented group and got a lot of –
02:00 guys who've played a lot of football in the SEC in that group.
02:05 Yeah, Kirby, you've alluded a couple times to the pressure periods in practice
02:08 and Peyton wanting more of those pressure periods.
02:10 Just what do those periods look like and how do you try to simulate the pressure
02:14 of like the kicks he had the other day on the road to take it at Auburn?
02:18 Yeah, I won't get into the details of them.
02:20 I think that's more private for our team.
02:23 But I do think it's great for the team morale and great for him.
02:27 And you can't simulate what he had the other day at Auburn.
02:30 I mean, you just try to.
02:32 So, we try to put him in a thought process where he has to come off the sideline
02:37 and he's got one shot.
02:38 It's different than kicking five field goals in a row.
02:41 Because, you know, it's three for five, four for five.
02:44 You feel like you got another shot.
02:45 It doesn't feel that way in a game.
02:46 So, we do it that way more in the practice.
02:52 What are you seeing out of Jalen Walker this season as he continues to try to
02:55 develop as an inside linebacker while also playing sort of that edge role
02:58 and pressure packages for you guys?
03:00 Yeah, he's growing at two positions.
03:02 It's exactly what we talked to him about when we recruited him
03:04 and some of these other inside backers is that, you know,
03:06 a lot of kids don't play high school inside backer.
03:08 Their coaches put them on the edge so they can defend the grass
03:11 or they put them at the edge so they can run and set edges.
03:14 They don't get to play inside backer because there's probably another kid
03:17 on their team that can play that.
03:19 So, his skill set has grown because he's very natural on the edge.
03:24 He's a rusher and get off and he has some of the best pass rush moves in our group.
03:30 So, but he needs to be able to play all down.
03:33 So, he's continuing to work at inside backer.
03:36 And the beauty of Jalen is he goes down and takes reps, you know,
03:39 against our offense and reads keys and gets better at that position
03:43 while at the same time being a dominant special teams player
03:46 and a great third down player for us.
03:52 Kirby, how similar is Stoops in how he builds his teams
03:56 to the way you build your teams?
04:00 Well, I only know by the way it looks because I don't –
04:02 I never talk to him about it.
04:04 You know, I don't know philosophically if they have a certain number of,
04:07 like this position and that position.
04:09 And I don't know – I don't know enough about how he builds his team
04:14 to answer that fairly.
04:16 I think they're close, but I don't know that.
04:19 I know that they play really physical and our kids always feel like it's the –
04:24 it's one of the most physical games of the year.
04:25 Just the size they have, the way they play the game.
04:29 You know, the game really shrinks when you play them.
04:31 The clock's running.
04:33 I mean, we had a drive in '21 here that was the longest drive I've ever seen.
04:39 So, I would think that we both build them in a similar way,
04:43 but I can't say how he builds his.
04:54 Sorry, bring up slow starts again.
04:57 I mean, you know, 17 points in the first quarter.
05:00 Is that something that you feel like you need to address?
05:03 Like we've got to get it going faster or is it just a fluke of circumstances
05:08 and things?
05:09 And possessions have been pretty low in the first quarter as well.
05:13 Yeah, I would start with absolutely we need to improve it.
05:19 But, you know, we look at everything and, you know,
05:21 I think we went three and out one time on offense.
05:25 Every other time we moved the ball, which that's what you want to do.
05:27 Obviously you want to score, but you want to move the ball
05:29 so you can create field position.
05:30 On defense, we've gone three and out maybe once or twice.
05:34 We did last week.
05:35 So it's not the first possession, but it is the first quarter, you know.
05:40 And some of that has been circumstances of missing a field goal.
05:44 Some of that has been circumstances of we defer, so if we win the toss,
05:48 we never get that extra possession in the first quarter because they get it.
05:53 But those are all just excuses.
05:54 I mean, we've got to play better.
05:57 There's a lot of reasons why it happens.
05:58 I've been in years where, you know, you score every first possession
06:02 and you stop them every time.
06:03 And then for a while we were like, we couldn't get it started in third quarter.
06:06 We could never get any momentum going in the third quarter
06:09 because we were off on the third quarter,
06:11 one of the years we won a national championship.
06:12 But it's something you try to address and think about the way you start the game.
06:17 But don't overthink it because we're trying to plan for the whole game.
06:22 Coach, I could be completely wrong here,
06:24 but I think you and Florida are pretty relatively similar schematically.
06:28 When you study that, how much can you have an opportunity to learn from that
06:31 what Kentucky had success against them?
06:32 How much of that was Kentucky beating Florida
06:35 or Kentucky stressing what they do schematically?
06:39 Are you talking about Florida's defense?
06:41 Correct, sir.
06:43 Yeah, I mean, there's some similarity there.
06:44 I don't exactly know what they're doing in some situations.
06:48 I mean, I don't – it's not complete overlap like I –
06:53 you know, some defenses I've seen before where we're like married up exactly the same.
06:56 I don't think it's exactly the same.
06:58 But, you know, at the end of the day, Kentucky played physical.
07:02 They had explosive plays.
07:05 They got some turnovers.
07:07 They started really fast.
07:09 And once, you know, a bat gets hot and he gets rolling,
07:13 he got really hot and started rolling and he was hard to tackle.
07:16 So it doesn't matter what defense you play.
07:19 It's not about schemes.
07:20 It's about striking blockers and getting off blocks and tackling.
07:27 I'm not – we're not out there practicing schemes right now.
07:29 We're out there trying to strike a block and get off a block.
07:35 You guys are playing your first ranked opponent this week.
07:37 There's three other ranked opponents on the schedule coming.
07:41 Some are knocking the schedule.
07:42 Are you – what would you make of the SEC teams that seem to be on the rise?
07:49 I don't know who you're referencing.
07:51 Missouri, you got Tennessee and Ole Miss.
07:55 The other teams that aren't on the schedule.
07:59 I personally think every SEC team should be ranked.
08:02 I guarantee you there's some teams that don't want to play them that are ranked.
08:05 I mean, I don't – I literally have no idea what you're referencing
08:09 because every team we play in the SEC is good enough to beat us.
08:13 And whether they're ranked or not, I could care less.
08:17 I'm trying to be more physical than them and outscore them.
08:21 And the only thing I'm concerned with, not their ranking.
08:28 Kirby, you said on Saturday that there's not a ton of separation
08:30 in anybody in college football.
08:32 What do you think that is?
08:33 Yeah, I haven't watched everybody, so it's hard for me to say.
08:35 I just feel like there's a lot more parity out there.
08:40 And I don't know why it is.
08:41 I don't think – I mean, I don't think anybody's as good as they were
08:46 three, four years ago.
08:47 I watched games three, four years ago.
08:49 I don't think high school football is as good as it was three or four years ago.
08:53 I think less kids are playing football.
08:55 The quality of the football that's played is a little less.
09:00 At the grassroots level, the teaching of it,
09:03 less people played football that are coaching it.
09:06 So, when you struggle to find officials because people didn't play
09:09 and they don't want to officiate and they have to rotate high school games
09:12 because they don't have enough officials.
09:14 And when you can't find coaches to coach youth organizations
09:17 and they didn't play, you know, the quality of the sport goes down a little bit.
09:22 It deteriorates.
09:23 And I've been able to see that.
09:25 There's just less people playing too.
09:27 But that's more saying that it's a sloppier game
09:31 than it is a finesse game or a power game.
09:34 That doesn't explain why there's more parity.
09:41 Yeah, what have you seen out of the first two practices from Kendall and Ladd
09:44 as they continue to sort of overcome and deal with their injuries?
09:47 Yeah, they've been great.
09:48 We didn't do a whole lot Monday.
09:49 We scaled back what our typical Mondays were and got after today
09:54 and they were great.
09:55 How can you scale back Monday because it is going to be –
09:58 you're anticipating a physical game this Saturday?
10:00 No, I mean, it's going to be physical, but that's our fifth week –
10:04 after our fifth week, so the sixth week we do that to try to recover a little better.
10:10 We want to give 48 hours recovery if we can.
10:12 So we – at Sunday and some up Monday to help them get their legs back.
10:19 Coach, sticking on that theme,
10:20 I have to ask you about Ingram Dawkins lately, how's he been doing?
10:23 He's still – same deal.
10:24 We're on non-weight bearing, waiting for some pictures to come back
10:30 and we had a four-week shutdown and then after five weeks
10:35 we'll take another picture, see where it's at
10:37 and decide whether or not we can ramp up.
10:41 Kirby, what kind of growth have you seen from Brett Thorsen
10:43 in his second year in the program
10:45 and just how far he's come since he first got here?
10:48 Just more confident, I think.
10:50 More than anything, he's more confident and easy, he's social.
10:55 You know, he came from a long way away and coming to a new place like Athens,
10:59 I mean, the guy flew in here and the day he got here we were leaving to go
11:03 wherever we were going for maybe the national championship
11:06 and he's like, you know, hey, it's my new family and just –
11:09 everybody's leaving, they're gone.
11:11 And he's enjoyed Athens a lot, he's a very interesting character,
11:15 you guys will enjoy him.
11:16 He's got a great personality and he's just so different than our guys,
11:19 he's different from where he's from that he thinks different.
11:22 So I enjoy him, I just have his way.
11:27 Did Brock and Gunner give you good QB run looks in practice
11:30 and does Devin Leary have that capability?
11:32 Yeah, he's got the capability for sure.
11:34 They've done some quarterback run looks with him
11:36 and they did some last year against us as well.
11:39 But, I mean, Brock and Gunner don't –
11:41 we don't run them on quarterback runs in practice, you know,
11:44 because it's no good if we can't hit them.
11:47 And we're not going to hit those guys, so we have other guys do it.
11:57 Going back to your question about less playing –
11:59 less people playing football and obviously being a coach,
12:02 you're around it a lot, but what kind of value just in life in general,
12:06 not necessarily even though, you know, guys want to go play in the NFL
12:08 or work in football full-time,
12:10 what kind of benefit is there to playing the game of football?
12:14 Well, there's two things that football and life have in common, they're hard.
12:18 And I don't know how many of you guys have put on 30 pounds of equipment
12:22 and pants and a shirt and gone out in 110 degree heat in practice
12:25 for two and a half hours.
12:26 Not that that makes you successful,
12:28 that makes you willing to go out and work for something in life.
12:31 Because if you're willing to do that and put a helmet on,
12:35 you're probably not going to be afraid to, you know,
12:38 go nine to five and pay the bills.
12:40 And the one thing I've learned in life is that life is hard
12:43 and football teaches a bunch of those lessons.
12:45 So I think the sport is one of the great teachers of lessons of life.
12:53 If I'm not mistaken, your older twins don't play football,
12:57 obviously he doesn't.
12:59 But Andrew, we know he does, is he a player?
13:02 Do you feel like he's carrying on the sport tradition?
13:06 He's got a lot of his mom in him.
13:08 So he's a good athlete and all three of them are really good athletes.
13:12 He just – he likes football more than Julia and Weston do.
13:16 But they all enjoy their social time and they all enjoy their sports.
13:25 We'll have two more questions, anybody?
13:29 Thanks guys.