Kirby Smart, Bulldogs discuss 2024 fall football camp

UGA football head coach Kirby Smart and two players spoke to the media on Tuesday about Georgia’s fall 2024 football camp.

Smart touched on the progression of several players, Carson Beck, defensive backs, and more. Linebacker Jalon Walker and tight end Oscar Delp also fielded questions.

Below is a transcript of the fall camp comments that was provided by UGA:

Head Coach Kirby Smart

Opening Statement…
“We’re in the process of going through camp, obviously. I don’t look at camp as ending until Saturday scrimmage. So, when we get through scrimmage two, I would consider that the close of our camp. Unfortunately, our academic calendar doesn’t match up perfectly with what we’ve got going on, so school will start for the players tomorrow. They’re getting their books, they’re back to being student athletes, and it’s hard to do that in camp early on. So, we get them for a lot more time up until tomorrow, and it makes it a little bit tighter schedule for us. Progress has been good. Wouldn’t say that the first scrimmage was really up to the standard of our expectations. We did not have a lot of enthusiasm. We didn’t play to the level that I think we need to play to, but the good news is they got another chance this Saturday, and really every day, to go out and practice. I have been pleased with all the details that go into the leadership in terms of showing a younger player how to do it. Guys are coaching guys. Guys are on time. We must have 6,000 checks and balances in the last two weeks of what time you have to be somewhere. The guys have been great about that, which says a lot about them as people. We got a long way to go as a football team. We are nowhere near close to where we need to be. I feel like we have less depth than we’ve ever had, and that’s kind of a common theme talking to other coaches I talk to. I call it the deterioration of football. Every year we’ve been here, I feel like we’ve had more players capable of going in and play winning football, and every year that [number] goes down. So, we have to keep working to increase that number.”

On injuries in football…
“That’s the unanswerable question. How do you play football and practice football without getting injured? The guy that figures that out is going to be worth a lot of money because you can’t do that. You have to be smart. You have to be calculated. You have to know your positions, but injuries are part of football year-round. It’s not like it’s just this time of year. We don’t really do anything different this time of year than we do in spring. We don’t do anything really different this time of year than we do in November and December. Injuries are part of football, so we’ve been lucky so far. We haven’t had significant injuries, but we have a lot of guys that are soft tissue, beat up, banged up. We’re trying to get them back.”

On the progressions of Jared Wilson and Chaz Chambliss…
“Jared’s doing well. He’s been dealing with Achilles tendonitis. He’s been great. He’s worked on the side. He’s been able to push, but he was able to do some things yesterday and continues to ramp up his exposure and ramp up his reps. So, he’s doing well. Chaz is dealing with the soft-tissue hamstring he’s dealt with before, but he’s been able to do some things, too. He did more yesterday. He’ll do a little more today, but they’re both dealing with some nagging injuries.”

On the effect of the transfer portal on roster numbers…
“I don’t know if it’s transfer portal or the deterioration of football. Could be less people playing. High school’s not having as much of an opportunity to develop kids because their practice regimen and practice schedule is tougher. It’s a trickle-up effect, so we get the guys coming from the high school level. Do we have the same number of players? You can’t blame the transfer portal for that. I think we lose some continuity in terms of guys that have been in the program multiple years. Therefore, your next statement of making it easier for a younger player to play, I don’t know that it’s any easier because he’s up against guys that come out of the portal. But we have less guys that know and execute our system. We’re not even really considered a portal team. I don’t know how many we’ve averaged over the last four years. I can’t imagine it’s even double digits. We don’t have many guys coming from that. It’s not as much quality depth that I’m used to, but we probably have more than a lot of people.”

On the progression of Jordan Hall…
“Jordan Hall was coming back, starting to run from a stress fracture in his tibia. He is now dealing with the exact same thing on the other leg. The other leg had the same thing. It was strange for it to occur, but he didn’t acknowledge it until he started running when he was coming back from the first one. We had to fix the other one, but he’s on a good timeline. It’s not a long-term deal, and now he actually knows what to expect because he’s had it done to the left and the right. I don’t know the order of those, but it doesn’t matter. He had the other one fixed. He’s going to be back. We don’t know the exact timeline for that, but he’s been in great spirits. I’m just glad they found it when they did.”

On the progression of both the offense and defense…
“I’ve seen both sides of it. One day it’s one way, and the other day it’s the other way. There’s not been a dominant side of the ball if that’s what you’re asking. There have been explosives, and then there’s not been explosives. A little bit of that is predicated off of eye control, execution, depth, who’s in practice and who’s out of practice. But at the end of the day, both units have had glaring moments of success and moments of not success. There was a consecutive four-play stretch by the offense where they had four explosives in a row on Saturday, but then there were stretches where they didn’t. It’s like that every year. I can’t sit here and tell you that one side of the ball has been explosive, and the other side has given them all up. It’s a balance.”

On explosive run plays…
“I would have thought before you said that we had less explosive running than we have in the past, but maybe that’s just when you start getting to the big numbers. We do have a lot of 10 to 12-yard runs, but we didn’t have the home runs, the long runs that historically we’ve had, which are another category of explosive – more explosive. But it’s something that we pride ourselves on, and to be honest with you, you’re not going to be an explosive passing team because explosive passes happen off play action. You can’t be an explosive passing team off play action if you can’t run the ball. So, the balance of those two is really critical. We’ve been more explosive passing the ball in the last two years than previous years. A lot of that has to do with the skill players, has to do with the quarterback, has to do with how the coordinator calls the game. But we certainly need to be explosive in both. I think we’ve got the backs to be an explosive run team, we’ve got the perimeter blockers to be an explosive run team, and we’ve got the offensive line to be an explosive run team. I hope that we’re more capable of longer explosives, meaning when we get through there to 10 to 12, we can turn those into 40-50 and not 20–30-yard plays.”

On how the familiarity of the Clemson roster plays into preparation for the game…
“I’d reserve that to when we start worrying about them. We’ve got a lot to fix, guys. We are not where we need to be in terms of depth and enough guys to play winning football. I’m really so focused on how we can get better today and how our team can get better. That’s down the road.”

On Nate Frazier and what makes him different than other backs…
“He’s certainly a guy that’s trying hard to learn, to understand. I don’t think he’s ever had the detail of, on this run, this is your key. He gets the ball and runs, and there’s a lot to our blocking schemes in terms of who is he reading, who is he looking at, what are his steps, what does he have to do in protection. He’s got a lot to learn in terms of that because he didn’t go through spring. So, his spring is now. His spring was in the summer. So, he’s got a lot of catching up to do. He is an explosive kid, he’s got good track times, he’s got good speed, he’s got great toughness, and he’s a little ball of energy. But there’s a bunch of guys in that room that are doing a great job. Chauncey [Bowens] is doing a great job. The young kids, Dwight’s [Phillips Jr.] doing a good job. I mean, those guys are all doing a great job, and we need them to help us this year.”

On the running back room…
“Yeah, that room has been really good in camp. They’ve worked really hard. You know, Cash [Jones] is a guy that people just don’t give enough credit to, and he’s a really good back. He’s great at picking things up. I feel like Trevor’s [Etienne] the leader of the room and understands things and does a really good job of setting the tempo and setting the standard. Branson’s [Robinson] been great. Rod’s [Robinson] been dealing with a little bit of a toe injury, and then the three freshmen. So, we’re looking forward to getting all those guys ready to go.”

On Carson Beck in this offense…
“Yeah, I think I talked about it a little bit. Like the ones can go out there and execute, get calls, line up. I mean, might not do it just right, but there’s not a lot of errors. There’s a good nucleus of 11 guys who’ve played a lot of football when you count Arian [Smith], Dillon [Bell[, Oscar [Delp], Dom [Lovett] and those guys. But there’s not the depth around Carson and the skill positions that there’s been in the past. And it puts more pressure on him to probably feel like he’s got to be perfect, to feel like he’s got to make the right decision, the protection check, do this, do this, and can I count on that guy that hadn’t done it yet to do the right thing and trust that he’s going to do it even though he may be a freshman. Those are things that Carson’s got to get familiar with those other guys. And that’s the hardest part in the depth is we count on our quarterback to put us in the right play or make the right decision on so many plays. Carson does a great job of that. I think he’s had a very detailed, attentive camp. Assertive is not necessarily something that he is. He’s just not naturally going to go out there and just be assertive vocally. He’s assertive in his checks, and he’s assertive in his decision-making. That’s certainly much more important than just what he says to the group as a whole.”

On the defensive back room…
“Got a long way to go. We don’t have a lot of proven playmakers. They have to prove it by how they play. They’ve got to have better eye control. We’ve got to tackle much better. We did not tackle very well. We didn’t run to the ball and punch the ball out at the level we need to. I got a lot of confidence in the players in the secondary. They have to go do it live action, scrimmage this Saturday, practices every day, to get where we’re going to be really comfortable with them.”

On managing new roster rules…
“Not really doing anything with it. I mean, we’re focused on our team, our roster. We’ll have to make some decisions. We have a timeline set apart for the off weeks, different times in the season when we sit down and look at our roster currently, our roster next year, how that looks in terms of what do we have committed, what do we need, what are our numbers going to be. I think you’re referring to the 85 versus the potentially 105, and there’s a lot of gray area in that because you don’t have to go to 105. A lot of people may choose to. I don’t know that 105 scholarship players is the right way to go about it because you’ve got 105 NIL capabilities there. You’ve got more people that would be unhappy. You don’t have walk-ons when you do that, and I don’t think it’s set in stone yet that everybody’s going to rush off and go to 105. That’s a huge burden on the budget of the athletic department, and honestly there’s a lot of kids here that I think do a great job for us as walk-ons. You would be dismissing them to go out and say you’re going to sign 20 more high school kids. So, we really haven’t gone down the path of the numbers yet.”

On in-helmet communications….
“It’s great. We do it every day. We do it every opportunity we get. We use it at scrimmages, and we communicate with the guys. I think logistically it may be an issue with all the people in the stands, the crowd noise.  I’m really interested to see how this is going to work for guys. Can they hear it in an SEC stadium? Because you see a lot of NFL players covering their ears, and they’re trying to really hear it. A lot of times our stadiums, especially at the national level in the SEC, can be hard. And so, there’s no rule for that. There’s no, ‘You’ve can’t tell them to be quiet so we can hear.’ So, you’ve got to have a plan for how you’re going to execute it.”

On the progression of Raylen Wilson and C.J. Allen…
“More comfortable. They’ve been thrusted into the limelight, had to play earlier, probably before they were ready to be honest. You grow up when you have to do that. The amount of time, I think you forget sometimes what year they are. It happens to me all the time. I think Raylen and C.J. are like experienced vets on our team because they’re in the upper echelon of play time and upper echelon in terms of years here because the majority of our team is young. Even our mid-years. I’m out at practice and I’m thinking, ‘Man, this kid’s already been here a year.’ No, he hasn’t. He’s only been here five, six months. And you’ve got to grow up fast with the way this thing is now because young players have to be ready to play.”

On the progression of Damon Wilson…
“Damon has been good. He’s been able to be a contributing factor more on first and second downs. I think learning his assignment, like he could go play on third down and play with reckless abandon and did a really good job last year. Now, first and second down, he knows what to do. He understands it. He has better poise. He has better strike. He can hold up against a really physical tackle. He’s improved. Just by merely being here and going through the spring, he’s improved. He’s also gotten a good bit of work with Chaz [Chambliss] and some of the injuries we’ve had there.”

On the progression of Jamal Meriweather, Jahzare Jackson and Daniel Calhoun…
“Yeah, all three of those guys, Jamal Meriweather, Jahzare Jackson, Daniel Calhoun. Yeah, they all have gone with the twos and threes. Daniel has probably gone a little more at the twos with Jared’s [Wilson] injury and moving guys around, where the other guys have gone with the twos some and threes. They continue to get better. They need to. They’re still considered young offensive linemen in our program, and that’s the hardest place to play besides quarterback in the SEC. There’s nowhere you will get exposed more than on the offensive line, so those guys are going to continue to get better and develop. They all three have size on their side.”

On the progression of Jamal Jarrett…
“Jah has been good. His weight has been up and down. I think it’s something that he knows and he’s trying to work on. He has moments, flashes of being able to help us, and we need help at that position in terms of depth because we’ve got injuries at those positions. I think he’s getting better. He’s more dependable. He has a little more stamina, but there’s still an area for improvement that he’s got to be able to play in more consecutive snaps. That’s what we challenge him to do each and every day.”

#11 Jalon Walker | Jr. ILB

On cross-training as a linebacker…
“I’ve been blessed to be able to play both positions, and I just call myself a hybrid linebacker at this point – being able to play on the edge and being able to play in space and in the box as well. Coach Schumann has done a great job of developing me at the inside backer position because before I got here, I didn’t play inside backer. I feel like I’ve grown tremendously there throughout my time here. And then being on the edge with Coach Diribe, as well. He helps me a lot. The edge is my natural habitat, so I use that to the best of my ability. But I feel great being able to play both positions and being a hybrid linebacker.”

On getting comfortable at the inside linebacker position…
“During my setback of having a high ankle sprain in the spring, I got to learn more through coaching in the inside backer position. By watching those guys go out there and practice and compete, that opportunity got me to really dive into the details of being an inside backer. Throughout our summer as well, I’ve had my inside backer reps for our 7-on-7. Then I’ve had my pass rush days as well. So, having the balance of both throughout camp and throughout the season has been great. During this fall camp, I’ve been able to have the opportunity to sit in the outside back room and the inside back room, as well. So, having that position being a dual position is great.”

On the progression of Quintavius Johnson…
“He’s just a great athlete overall. I’m just excited to see him grow up. Since the spring, I’ve seen his strides to become a better player throughout the year. So, I’m just proud of him and his accomplishments.”

#4 Oscar Delp | Jr. TE

On growing as a leader on the team…
“It definitely wasn’t something that I was forced into. I think it just kind of happened over time and it just goes back to how I felt as a freshman. I remember those older guys just kind of bringing me along, and now I’m in that situation to kind of help them, so it just kind of all happens.”

On what comes with being a leader on the team…
“There are days where I get called to break the team down and all that stuff. Really it just comes down to that, you know, in those meetings in the room. You can tell when a guy’s down and a young guy kind of struggles a little bit or you know just having a rough day. Just kind of little things like that where an older guy who helps you out can change your whole mood and change your whole day. And those guys, one bad play it’s kind of the end of the world for them almost in some aspects of practice. You just got to kind of help them learn that’s how to grow, and that’s part of the game. That’s how it is here. I mean you have to fail to succeed.”

On his run-blocking…
“It’s solely buying into the run game and all the techniques that he [Todd Hartley] taught me. I came here and I had no clue what to do in the run game. I was a receiving tight end in high school, basically a wideout almost. And I realized there’s going to be guys that are bigger than you or guys that are stronger than you, and the way to beat that is with technique and angles. You know football’s a game of angles and numbers, so you learn those angles and the proper footwork and everything. It will make you way more successful than not most of the time.”

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The Georgia Bulldogs are set to open the 2024 season against the Clemson Tigers in the Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., on Saturday, Aug. 31. The game will be televised live by ABC at noon ET (Buy Tickets).

2024 UGA Football Schedule