Kirby Smart Press Conference Before Georgia Tech
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SportsTranscript
00:00 - Well everybody, thanks for coming.
00:03 Reminder, foley field's open
00:05 if you need to work over there when you're done.
00:08 We'll have a few opening comments from Coach
00:10 and then we'll take some questions.
00:11 Remember, raise your hand,
00:13 we'll get one of the remote microphones to you.
00:14 And reminder, no live streaming, please.
00:17 - Thanks guys.
00:21 We're on to Georgia Tech and excited for the prep
00:24 and love rivalry week across the country,
00:28 what makes college football really special to me
00:31 is all the rivalries you get to watch on this week,
00:34 very unique week timing wise.
00:36 A lot of distractions with Thanksgiving going on.
00:41 Those are good distractions, but they are different.
00:43 So how you manage that
00:45 and how you deal with that is important.
00:47 A lot of respect for Brent Key and his staff.
00:50 I've known Brent a long time.
00:51 He played at Tech when I played here.
00:53 His staff does a great job.
00:55 Obviously there's several guys on his staff
00:57 that we have worked with before, a lot of overlap.
01:01 And I think we're both very thankful
01:02 for a state of high school football in Georgia
01:05 that provides both of us
01:06 with a lot of really good football players.
01:09 He's done a tremendous job this year.
01:10 Buster's done a tremendous job for them
01:12 and Kevin taking over the defense,
01:15 kind of midstream there has done a really good job.
01:17 So with that, we'll turn it to Georgia Tech.
01:21 - Yeah, Coach, it's been mentioned multiple times this year
01:25 from different players about how Georgia Tech
01:27 is specifically a rivalry that you mentioned at the top.
01:31 What is it about Georgia Tech that you dislike so much?
01:34 Or why are they your premier rival
01:36 according to your players?
01:37 - Well, geographically, they're close, right?
01:39 They're in our state.
01:41 You're playing for something every time you play them
01:43 'cause you're playing for state championship.
01:45 And I think that's always important.
01:48 And they do a good job, but it's the next opponent.
01:52 I don't rank them any higher than anybody else
01:54 'cause I look at all the games as robberies
01:57 and I let everybody else debate what's the highest.
01:59 I don't get into those comparisons,
02:01 but a lot of respect for Brent and the job they do.
02:05 - Kirby, to your left,
02:05 what do you see as the biggest difference in a team
02:07 that's won as many games this year
02:08 as their last two years combined?
02:10 And a little bit, if you can, on Haynes King,
02:11 their quarterback, how he's established himself
02:14 in that system.
02:15 - Yeah, they've won games
02:16 because they're playing good football.
02:18 Number one, they've done a good job upgrading talent.
02:22 He understands what it takes to win at Tech,
02:24 what kind of players to go recruit.
02:25 And I think as he gets his recruiting classes in there,
02:28 he's not going to do anything but get better.
02:30 But when you got an offensive line coach
02:32 as the head coach,
02:33 you're going to have a physical tough team.
02:35 Like that's number one.
02:37 Haynes King is like that.
02:38 He's fast, he's athletic.
02:40 We've got several coaches that came from the Texas area
02:43 that talked about his athleticism in high school
02:45 and you see it on tape.
02:47 Buster's done an unbelievable job with him
02:49 and he utilizes his entire skillset.
02:51 These guys know how to run the football now.
02:53 They are really good at running the football.
02:55 They find best runs available, scheme runs,
02:59 quarterback runs, unbalanced runs, good backs,
03:03 really tough O-line.
03:04 So like it's a day's work when you go to play these guys
03:09 with the way they play in terms of toughness
03:11 and all those things.
03:12 That's what's allowed them to win is they have an identity.
03:15 - Kirby, do you guys have a sense of the severity
03:20 of Lad's ankle injury
03:21 and just his availability going into this week?
03:24 - Yeah, he's got a tweaked ankle
03:27 that he tweaked in the game here at home.
03:30 He was able to go a little bit some at the end of the week
03:32 but didn't practice much.
03:33 It bothered him a little bit Saturday
03:36 but nothing any more severe than that.
03:39 I mean, we've done MRI since the game
03:41 and doing even more testing,
03:44 but feel good that he's going to be able to return.
03:46 It's not, I guess, somebody said,
03:49 right before I came in here,
03:50 Claude said there's questions about tightrope surgery.
03:52 That's not the case at all.
03:54 I don't know where that's coming from.
03:55 - Coach, you talked about all the familiarity on their staff
03:59 obviously Buster and Kevin
04:01 and a couple of players over there.
04:03 I just wonder what is the logistical issues with it?
04:08 Are there logistical issues with that
04:09 in terms of just, I don't know,
04:11 maybe how you make checks,
04:12 what you use for checks or signs
04:14 or different things like that?
04:16 Or is it more intangible than just knowing
04:18 what it is you're trying to achieve
04:20 in different situations?
04:22 - No, no issues.
04:23 - Kirby, this game in Atlanta has been a noon game,
04:28 I think for all your years as head coach.
04:30 What do you think of playing this at night?
04:32 And obviously, you and Bam have a game
04:34 the week after as well.
04:35 - Not a lot of change in preparation.
04:38 I mean, it's different because of the timing
04:40 of our kids coming back from Thanksgiving,
04:42 getting here, going over there.
04:44 The Saturday will be different,
04:46 but that's really the extent of it.
04:48 Cooler, night, but that's what we deal with all the time.
04:52 We've had a lot more night games this year
04:53 than we've had in the past.
04:55 - Kirby, I know you got a lot of metrics to look at
04:58 when you're gauging your team's health or energy level.
05:01 And you mentioned last week a little,
05:03 I think, I don't know if you were tired, you may have.
05:05 How do you keep your team on edge
05:08 and ready to play physical,
05:09 but at the same time take your foot off the gas
05:11 and get them that extra breath they need
05:14 during the week, I guess?
05:16 - Yeah, I think there's mental and physical exhaustion.
05:18 They're two different things.
05:19 And you got to balance those two things and weigh them.
05:23 You can have both.
05:24 You can have one or the other.
05:26 You're trying to have neither.
05:27 And as a coach, you're always trying to balance
05:29 those two pendulums best you can.
05:32 And I don't think you ever know for sure.
05:35 I think you sense things and you talk to your players
05:37 and if they're honest with you and tell you how they feel,
05:40 you listen to them.
05:43 - Yeah, I noticed Warren Brinson didn't make the trip.
05:45 Is it still the calf injury there with him?
05:46 And then Rara, you said it wasn't an ankle on Saturday.
05:49 Is it still sort of a foot injury, I guess,
05:51 that he had tweaked?
05:52 - Yeah, Rara has a foot sprain.
05:55 We don't know the severity of it.
05:57 It's really probably better listed as a bone bruise
06:01 on his foot.
06:02 Think he's going to be okay, but we don't know that.
06:04 I mean, we'll see here during the week if he's able to go.
06:08 And then Warren had the calf strain, yeah,
06:10 and he was not, we wanted him to be able to get rehab
06:12 and stay here and get well.
06:14 And hopefully he's able to go today.
06:16 - Hey Kirby, back in June,
06:19 the longtime children's healthcare representative,
06:22 Shelton Stevens, passed.
06:24 You have some good memories about him.
06:26 And then can you also talk about the presentation
06:29 of the Governor's Cup and being on both sides of it?
06:32 - Yeah, I've never been on the Georgia Tech side of it.
06:36 (audience laughing)
06:37 - Not yet.
06:39 - Oh, okay, I got you.
06:41 He, Shelton is a great, great man.
06:45 I have a lot of respect for Shelton and what he's done.
06:48 I think the immediate image I get when I think of Choa
06:53 is Shelton Stevens.
06:54 He embodies and embraces everything they stand for
06:57 and did such great work for them for a long time.
07:00 I mean, I've known Shelton for a long time.
07:02 I didn't really know Shelton until I got to be a head coach.
07:05 And the one thing I'll say about him is he's always,
07:08 he always did the duty that lies nearest.
07:11 And that's the kind of person he was.
07:12 - Kirby, Georgia Tech's got one of the top scoring offenses
07:17 in the ACC.
07:18 Just what do they do that makes them so effective?
07:20 - Talked about a little bit earlier.
07:21 They have a quarterback that can run the ball,
07:22 which gets you an extra hat in it.
07:24 He's really fast and really athletic,
07:25 who happens to throw the ball really well too.
07:27 And he has speed on the perimeter.
07:29 They've gone out and got some really good, fast receivers.
07:32 Some through the portal, some through the high school ranks
07:35 that are playing at a high level.
07:37 They know what they're doing in the run game.
07:39 They know how to attack you, where to attack you.
07:42 They understand it and they have good backs.
07:44 So, I mean, same questions you have against our offense.
07:47 When you got people that know what they're doing
07:48 and they have good players doing it,
07:51 they become really hard to stop.
07:53 And they are really good offensively.
07:56 - Kirby, we go through 11 games.
07:59 Your team hasn't given up a punt return yard yet,
08:02 not even listed.
08:03 What goes into that?
08:04 And have you ever had that in your career?
08:06 - No, never had that in the career.
08:08 I've never, I don't know that I've ever seen it.
08:10 I've actually seen negative
08:12 more than I've seen zero return yards
08:13 'cause we've played a couple of teams
08:14 that have held people to negative return yards,
08:17 meaning the returner went backwards,
08:18 but he got a return.
08:20 Ours has just been,
08:21 the fact that having given up a return
08:24 is really a credit to the staff, the punt coaching staff,
08:29 the punt players and the punter
08:32 who has to match distance with hang.
08:35 And you have to have elite coverage in gunners.
08:38 And I don't think people give enough credit to Aaron and Dom.
08:41 They've been our gunners, I think,
08:43 on every single rep of every single game
08:46 that the game was not at hand.
08:49 They've been out there and they've done an incredible job.
08:52 I mean, it comes back to your punter and your gunners,
08:55 to how you do things.
08:56 And it's pretty remarkable what they've been able to do,
08:58 but we've also had fewer punts than what most teams have,
09:02 which helps with that stat.
09:04 - Kirby, having been on staff at Alabama
09:08 and being born in that state,
09:09 how much did you know about Bear Bryant
09:11 and Gene Stallings' teams that won as many games in a row
09:13 as you guys have?
09:14 - I was too young on the Bear Bryant teams.
09:19 My parents would tell me about them
09:20 and my dad coached during his tenure there.
09:23 And then the Gene Stallings, I was actually in Georgia.
09:26 So was starting to follow college football
09:30 in and around the South during that time,
09:34 but not a lot, I was too young.
09:36 - Hey coach, you mentioned the challenges
09:39 of Thanksgiving being this week.
09:40 Does anything change in terms of practice
09:42 or weight room or nutrition
09:43 leading up to Thanksgiving or afterwards
09:44 because you know they're gonna consume
09:46 a lot of calories on Thursday?
09:48 - Just time.
09:49 I mean, our times are off a little bit.
09:51 You know, we move practice up a little bit Wednesday,
09:53 up a little bit Thursday, do some extra things Friday
09:57 to help activate and get going.
09:59 Changing times, not changing routine,
10:02 which I mean, the changing times
10:04 makes for a changing routine,
10:05 but that's the biggest changes.
10:07 - Yeah, what's allowed Carson to be as consistent
10:11 as he has been, especially over the sort of
10:13 the second half of the season
10:14 with what he's doing on a week by week basis?
10:16 - Protection, scheme, hard work on his part.
10:20 That's probably it.
10:23 Protection, scheme, hard work on his part watching Tate
10:26 and really good skill player play.
10:29 - Last year when Mike Bobo and Buster Faulkner
10:35 were both on the staff together,
10:37 how were their roles?
10:38 Like what were their separate roles?
10:39 And then second, kind of what have you seen
10:41 out of the job that Buster's done at Tech this year?
10:45 - Yeah, I think I mentioned earlier,
10:46 he's done a phenomenal job
10:47 and I'm sure he would be the first to tell you
10:49 that it's not he that gets all the credit.
10:51 He has a great staff of offensive coaches with him.
10:54 They do a great job, their offensive line
10:56 is dirty, nasty, physical, play hard.
10:59 Everything you want in your offensive line,
11:01 you can tell they're a unit.
11:01 And like I said, your head coach is an offensive line guy.
11:04 That's what you're going to get.
11:06 Buster's done really well offensively everywhere he's been.
11:09 I mean, statistically, the reason he came here
11:11 was because he wanted to get an opportunity
11:13 at a bigger power five school.
11:15 And he got that opportunity.
11:18 He came here, he did good things.
11:19 He helped us tremendously.
11:20 He helped the coaches.
11:21 He brought ideas to our staff.
11:23 I think he and Mike both played a major support role
11:27 for Todd last year.
11:29 And Todd would be the first to say,
11:31 they were both idea guys.
11:32 They brought ideas to the table.
11:35 They're great to bounce ideas off of.
11:37 It's always great to have an extra set of eyes.
11:40 The thing about Buster is he never cared really
11:43 who got the credit or what the role was.
11:45 You know, he played a key part
11:47 in helping Coach Monken with Stetson
11:51 in terms of developing him.
11:53 - Kirby, what stood out to you about Dom Blaylock
11:57 while he was here and just what's it been like
11:59 seeing him have success since he's left?
12:01 - Yeah, selflessness.
12:03 I mean, probably the number one thing that stands out,
12:05 toughness.
12:06 He's such a great competitor.
12:07 Dom's one of those that just never says anything.
12:11 He doesn't complain.
12:12 He doesn't moan.
12:13 He goes to work every day.
12:16 He made some really, really big critical plays for us
12:21 over the years in terms of the stretch run,
12:23 going back to his freshman year, touchdown catches,
12:25 all the way to last year, making plays.
12:27 He's just very dependable.
12:29 And you've seen the same thing there.
12:32 They've got him returning punts
12:33 and doing things offensively.
12:35 You can see his value as a football player.
12:37 - Kirby, another Buster question.
12:40 When you have someone who was so involved
12:42 with the offense, like he's been for the past few years,
12:45 does that cause y'all to,
12:47 I don't want to say initially change,
12:48 not change what you're doing,
12:49 but does that give you other concerns
12:50 that, hey, that he might know kind of,
12:53 we might be doing that situation?
12:54 - There's this thing called tape
12:56 and they watch it and they see what you do.
13:00 And there's no secrets.
13:02 Like there's no secrets out there.
13:03 They're not going to go out there and trick them and say,
13:06 "Whoo, man, Buster knows when that double reverse pass
13:10 throwback to Brock Bowers is coming."
13:11 I mean, he doesn't know when that's coming.
13:14 And I think you waste a lot of time
13:16 and energy thinking about that.
13:17 I think it's great for you guys to write about.
13:19 Sorry, I didn't give you more juice on it.
13:21 - Kirby House, Tate Routledge.
13:24 And how did you guys feel Micah played,
13:26 stepping in for more playing time?
13:28 - Micah's been playing.
13:30 Micah's been playing a good bit.
13:32 I thought he did a good job,
13:34 continues to work hard, get better, condition himself.
13:37 Tate's good.
13:40 Tate has a bone bruise.
13:41 He banged knees, like we thought.
13:45 He's sore yesterday and is sore today.
13:48 Limping around, but no structural damage, which is good.
13:52 And we'll be just a timetable
13:54 of how long it takes to turn around.
13:56 - Hey Kirby, obviously the players were different
13:59 from last year's game with Tech,
14:00 but they really came out, in my opinion,
14:03 they won the first quarter for sure.
14:06 Might've been tied.
14:07 What do you think they did in that last year?
14:10 Was it a surprise or did they just, you know,
14:13 hit, come to the strike first?
14:16 - No, they had a good plan.
14:18 They did a good job.
14:19 They have good players.
14:21 I thought they had a good plan.
14:23 We didn't play exceptionally well early for whatever reason,
14:28 but they did a good job.
14:29 I mean, I think when you got good coaches and good players,
14:33 that's what you have to defend.
14:34 You know, you got to go out and play well.
14:36 They certainly did a great job starting it off last year.
14:39 - Georgia Tech's been able to create
14:42 a lot of turnovers this year.
14:43 Just what stands out to you about the way they attack
14:46 and the way they approach defense?
14:48 - Yeah, I think Kevin, having worked with him before,
14:50 we all know that games turn on explosive plays
14:53 and turnovers.
14:54 You got to find ways to get those.
14:55 And they've been really disruptive doing that.
14:57 I know how hard Kevin and them work at it, just like we do.
15:00 So they've been able to capitalize on those things.
15:03 And that's big.
15:04 That turnover margin is one of the biggest stats out there.
15:07 - Kirby, year two for Malachi.
15:11 You've obviously coached a lot of, you know,
15:14 do comparisons.
15:15 I won't go there, but he has evolved.
15:17 What's his ceiling?
15:18 Where do you see him at right now?
15:20 - He's really athletic.
15:24 He could go out and probably like play corner for us
15:27 if he had to.
15:28 I think when you, you know, you look at players,
15:30 you say, what can he do and what can he do?
15:32 He can do a lot of things
15:34 and there's very little that he can't do.
15:37 He's gotten tougher and more physical with his tackling.
15:41 He's much more knowledgeable and confident in his abilities.
15:44 He understands the check system.
15:46 He gives us the luxury of being able to do, you know,
15:49 extra things that maybe people can't do.
15:51 I mean, a lot of safeties can't really tackle well
15:53 and play man.
15:55 He gives us the ability to do both those things
15:58 and he's done nothing but get better
16:01 and lead since getting here.
16:02 - Kirby, can you give us an update on Brock Bowers?
16:06 We saw he was limping.
16:07 You said on TV that you asked him, he said he was fine,
16:09 but he looked like he was in pain.
16:10 And can, do you have any updates on Dumas Johnson
16:12 and Julian Humphrey?
16:14 - Yeah, both those guys are fighting to get back.
16:17 They're week to week and trying to get back
16:20 as soon as they can.
16:21 Brock feels good.
16:22 I think he's a little sore.
16:23 What's happening is he's using,
16:25 he's on his ankle more during the game
16:28 and obviously getting a lot of tackled
16:29 and the catches he got,
16:31 there's more soreness after the game
16:32 than there is during the week.
16:33 So the recovery takes a little longer with that process.
16:37 So, you know, we go lighter on him early in the week
16:41 because if you don't, he'll overwork himself.
16:44 So that's been the plan each week.
16:46 - Two more questions, anybody?
16:50 - I'm just curious.
16:57 I know back in the day, you guys on your staff,
17:00 you know, you've heard the basketball stories.
17:02 Is there a way you guys get out your competitive juices
17:06 as a staff now?
17:07 Is there anything that you guys do together?
17:09 - In the season, no.
17:11 I mean, in the season, every hour is accounted for
17:14 and the hours that aren't,
17:15 we want to be with our families.
17:16 So it's not like,
17:18 hey man, we're going to play basketball at lunchtime today.
17:20 We just don't have time.
17:22 The off season, there's a lot of things we do
17:24 and we get a lot more time,
17:26 but you know, I enjoy being with my family
17:29 during my off time and most of the coaches do that too.
17:32 So unless you're doing something within the work hours,
17:35 it's harder to do things just as a staff.
17:38 We do them with our team a lot.
17:39 - All right, thank you.
17:42 - We have one more.
17:43 - Yeah, I was just going to ask,
17:45 I mean, there was a time you did the player,
17:47 oh, sorry.
17:48 - There was the practical joke that you pulled
17:53 when you had the coaches run against the players.
17:55 Any lighthearted stuff like that
17:57 that you guys still do with the players or?
17:59 - Off season, yeah, we do stuff like that all the time.
18:01 We have chipping contests, putting contests.
18:03 We'll have a field goal contest,
18:05 but I mean, in a work week,
18:08 we're trying to use every minute we can towards work.
18:11 So, I mean, there's a time for fun and things like that,
18:14 especially when you get a break in the action,
18:16 but when you're on a week to week routine,
18:17 it's harder to do some of those things.
18:20 - Thanks.
18:21 (dog whining)