Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart and two players, Monroe Freeling and Demello Jones, met with the media Tuesday afternoon during the Bulldogs’ second bye week of the season.
Below is a transcript of the press conference which was provided by UGA.
Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement…
“We’re excited to get back to work today. We had the guys in yesterday and got to put the Ole Miss game to bed. Also got to work with some young players, try to watch a lot of tape and move forward. Big week for us to do a couple things. Number one, get better. Number two, get healthier. Number three, keep improving in the areas that we definitely need to. It’s good to be at this week of the season, but looking forward, there’s definitely five or six weeks, and then there’s possibly six, possibly ten more games. It could be ten more games moving forward. It could be five games moving forward. Who knows? We’ve got to prepare for that this week, and we’ll take that on in a very organized fashion which we’ve already begun as a staff.”
On Florida HC Billy Napier being let go and how that affects the Gators’ play calling…
“First of all, I have a lot of respect for Billy. I’ve known Billy a long time. We were on staff together at Alabama. I like Billy a lot. I think Billy is very intelligent, very well organized. His attention to detail is at a really high level. He’s a guy that thinks things out really well. I think they’ve recruited well and have done a good job. I hate it in this profession. We all know what we sign up for, and Billy understands that. As far as how that affects the matchup, it probably affects it more than a one-week window, but in a two-week window, there’s still so much you can do. They’ll make changes, and a lot of times you inject some energy. When you do that, you look across the country at guys that have had interim coaches. They’ve had some really big wins and had a lot of energy. I know Coach [Billy] Gonzalez will do a great job. I’ve had respect for him, gone against him for many years. They’ve got a really good staff. Again, I hate to say it, but I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about us.”
On defensive improvements…
“It’s just as many offensive and defensive and special teams. I know for the outside world looking in, it’s easy to say, ‘You don’t punt, and then you don’t stop anybody for 90 percent of the game’. You can point a lot of fingers, but you can go a week before that and a week before that, and there’s issues in both areas. At Auburn, we had our issues on both sides of the ball, and we’re not a complete product. We have a long way to go to get where we need to go, but we know who we are. We know what we need to work on. We know what we need to improve on. Contrary to a lot of people’s belief, it’s not necessarily some of the areas that people believe. It’s different areas, and we know what they are. Like I said after the Alabama game, I found out a lot more about our team in that game and the games to follow. It’s just trying to improve in certain areas and get incrementally better.”
On defensive improvements particularly in the secondary…
“I don’t see it like you guys do. I don’t see it as totally a secondary issue. Might be for the fan, the average fan or whoever just looks out there. I just don’t look at it as it’s completely a secondary issue. There’s a lot of factors in the things that we can improve on, and we’re going to improve on them. We’re going to keep getting better. We had I think nine or ten of the first 29 plays were second-and-seven or greater. I don’t know, I’ve coached in many games that you hold a really good offense to second-and-seven or greater nine times. The issue is you lose those every time, and you don’t get any third-and-longs. We were 100-percent on third-and-eight or greater the other day. We just didn’t get enough of them. You have to find ways to do that and do that well. Opening drive, you go through the opening drive, we have a third-and-seven in which we have a bang, bang man-to-man play. You have a third-and-four that we have an error on. Then you have a third-and-seven where we have an unblocked player into a quarterback draw. You have to be really careful how you do things and what you respond to in terms of, ‘Are we getting better at us and what we do? Are we getting better at tackling? Are we getting better at free access? Are we getting better at second-and-long so that we have more third-and-long?’ There’s so many things that go into it that we have to improve on, but I don’t look at it and say, ‘Oh, we have a poor secondary.’ I don’t think that at all. I think we’ve got really good cover guys, and we have to put them in situations to be able to be successful.
On the status of WR Colbie Young, DB Kyron Jones and WR Talyn Taylor…
“All three of those guys will be out.”
On RB Josh McCray effort in yard-after-contact plays and performance in the Ole Miss game…
“That was a huge play. I thought the second effort made the play for him. That’s who he is. He’s a second effort guy. He’s extremely tough to tackle, yards-after-contact guy. He’s given us sometimes what we don’t have in terms of yards-after-contact. He continues to get better. We have to do a really good job of finding roles for him to help our team. We have to find roles for Dwight [Phillips Jr.] to help our team and to use the weapons we have.”
On how the quarterback position has evolved in recent years…
“I guess it has. There are more running quarterbacks now than there ever has been. There have always been those guys, but there are more offenses utilizing their designed runs now. There is a little bit of a fad going on across the country right now of quarterback designed runs that are giving not just us but every defense problems in terms of there’s a running quarterback and there’s designed runs for quarterbacks. They have become the college football way to run the ball because as defenses have evolved, they stop the run outside of a few teams. Then teams said, ‘Okay, if you stop the run, then I’m going to run with this guy.’ Then you get a guy who can throw it as efficiently as he can run it, then you get into some tough situations.”
On what WR Colbie Young means to the receiver room…
“The expectations of him, first and foremost, are to take care of his foot, leg, and ankle. He is an incredible kid. What he has meant to, really this team, because I think his experience the year before to know what he missed out on and to see his work ethic to get back, his leadership throughout camp, his willingness to do anything to help the team. He had the best camp I think any receiver has ever had since I’ve been at Georgia in terms of day one to practice 25 before the first game. The physicality, the ownership, the accountability, the willingness to play positions. It was slowly coming out in the season with his play. We found that he was one of the hardest guys to tackle, so his touches went up. He was the best point of attack blocker. He was the best vertical guy, so it’s unfortunate that it happened. It’s part of football. I reassured him that his work that he put in was noticed, and that’s what he can control. Now, he has to control getting healthy.
On DL Elijah Griffin ‘PFF grade’ by analytical services…
“Elijah particularly is getting better. I don’t necessarily know what PFF response you’re talking about or what grade they’re talking about. In terms of disruptive nature, he is really powerful. He is one of our strongest guys as a freshman. He is really quick. He can be disruptive. We’re trying to utilize his skillset. He’s playing more and more snaps. He is probably our second or third leading snap-getter in the front as a freshman. I don’t know that that’s ever happened. He’s getting snaps, and he’s getting better each and every week. I love the kid’s work ethic. He still has some plays that he may not execute the right way, but I love the way he plays. I love the kind of energy he brings to that group, and he’s so humble. I expect him to have a big back half of the season. A lot of those freshmen are coming along. I don’t know who in particular you are talking about. All those guys are getting better and that’s their job. Find a way to put themselves into a position to help this team, and we don’t know which guy is up next.”
On cross-training guys on both sides of the ball during bye week…
“I can’t say we work corners at safety. We don’t do a ton of that unless we have a need. I can’t say we take receivers. We do have guys that play in the slot situationally based on plays, and some slots play outside. Zach [Branch] has plays where he goes outside, and he’s inside. I wouldn’t call it cross training. I would call it getting your best players on the field and trying to find a way to get them touches. We’re always going to do that. O-Line, they do work across between left and right. We’ve had to do that a bunch this year. We do whatever we think is the best chance to win football games.”
On the impact of shrinking margins between teams in the SEC and whether the increased parity mirrors the NFL…
“Yes, yes, and yes. I think all those things are true. I can’t tell you why. I just know they are. I kinda felt it was coming as the rosters assemble each year. There’s probably going to be an outlier somewhere. Somebody has an elite group or hits on the right guys at the right positions. Typically, it’s usually a quarterback or somebody that just blows it up, a dynamic player. That’s the life that we’re in. That’s the world that we’re in. I don’t know that it’s going to change. I think that it’s football. It’s more interesting because games that are tighter are more interesting than games that aren’t. It’s probably the way that it’s headed.”
On how coaches develop players’ game management…
“Experience it. I mean how does a quarterback get better at playing quarterback? It ain’t just through practice. It’s through real, live reps. How does a corner get better at playing a deep ball? It’s real, live reps. How do the o-linemen get better at – I mean, I firmly believe that you get better at those things the more you experience them. There’s no game simulator we can put people in, and they come out four hours later and they’re five years advanced. It’s time invested. It’s self-analysis, self-quality control, which we do a lot of. Those things make you better.”
On battling complacency coming off an AP top-five win…
“We’re going to work on what we do every bye week which is us and our opponents. Part of working on us is the opponents. We worked yesterday on opponents. We’re working today on opponents. We’re working today on ourselves. We’re working on Florida. We’re working on other opponents we have coming down the road because we think it’s important to do that and get exposure to something that’s different. You don’t want to be in unfamiliar territory when you have these games on these short weeks when you have time right now to look at it. Yes, we’re going to be working on Florida. Yes, we’re working on opponents. Yes, we are working on us.”
On DB Demello Jones…
“He’s strong, physical, heavy-handed. He does well in man-to-man situations. He has confidence to put his hands on people and cover them. Really good basketball player in high school. He’s growing and developing as a corner. He’s growing and developing as a nickel-cover guy. He’s very open to being uncomfortable and learning which I think is important in that position. He’s only tip of the iceberg of what he can learn to play inside. He’s been developing outside, but he continues to grow and get better. As long as he takes the right mindset towards that, he can be a good football player. What you worry about is when he’s had some success, he’s had some penalties. He’s had some times he’s gotten beat, but what he hasn’t done is let any of that change him.”
On WR CJ Wiley…
“CJ’s got size and speed. We knew that when we recruited him. He had a couple really good days in fall camp where he made plays on a vertical passing game. He reps. He’s probably the one guy that spends the most time up with our guys and less time with the scouts. Where those guys that go down to the scouts, they get tons of reps, and they get tons of work, and they get to go against the better defensive players. He’s been in the rotation with our offense down there and practices learning a little more of that game plan stuff, nuances of what we’re doing splits, what we’re doing here, so that he has a chance to help us. He continues to get better. I’m proud of where he’s at in terms of getting better, and he’s going to have lots of opportunities this week to continue to grow and show us what he can do.”
On DB Jacorey Thomas’ performance against Ole Miss…
“He did some good things. He’s been playing already. He just played more snaps. He’s got to continue to get better and more consistent, but I’m pleased with what he is doing.”
On the impact of DL Josh Horton and DL Xzavier McLeod against Ole Miss…
“I was proud of both those guys. They had huge plays in the game, momentum plays that any one of those plays you have earlier in the game, and you get a stop. You get a third down batted ball, it’s as good as a sack in terms of momentum. Both those guys have had a lot of success in our camp early batting balls, getting hands up, pushing the pocket, stopping the run. Josh gives us a little more quickness element, and he continues to grow and develop in our system. He’s worked really hard to contribute, and Zay [Xzavier McLeod] the same way.”
On the decision to put OL Monroe Freeling in against Auburn…
“He didn’t get to do a lot that week, so we didn’t know what – he was going to make a game-time decision, and he was just that. He went out in warm-ups, and felt good, felt like he could go. He looked pretty good in warm-ups, but warm-ups are warm-ups. Still got to go in the game and do it. As he played in the game, he gained more confidence in it, and he was able to sustain and play in that game which gave him confidence to get more practice reps this last week. He was able to get more practice reps and go play. It’s hard to play in games without practicing, but he was able to pull it off mainly because of his experience and his time in our system.”
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Following the bye this weekend, Georgia’s next game is on Saturday, Nov. 1 against the Florida Gators at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The game will be televised by ABC at 3:30pm ET (Buy Tickets).