Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart and two players, Daylen Everette and Chauncey Bowens, spoke with the media on Monday about their upcoming SEC road game against the Auburn Tigers.
10th-ranked Georgia and Auburn will square off on Saturday, Oct. 11 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala. The game will be televised by ABC at 7:30pm ET (Buy Tickets).
Sean McDonough will call the play-by-play, Greg McElroy will provide analysis, while Molly McGrath will report from the sidelines.
Below is a transcript of the Auburn press conference which was provided by UGA.
Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement…
“All right, on to Auburn for us, what an atmosphere and opportunity to play a night game at their place. They’ve got an incredible atmosphere, which is starting to be the common theme around our conference, but this place is really hard to play. They do an unbelievable job with whatever you call the game interaction, the crowd, the fans, their students. Tremendous job they do, they’ve got a great football team. They’ve played two really, really hard road games in our league against two of the premier teams in our league right now and are playing really good defensively. They have a lot of weapons on offense, a lot of great skilled players that do a great job with special teams. I always respect Coach Freese’s teams. They will strike you and hit you and be really physical all across the board. You see it on tape. You see the physicality on tape and that’s the way it is in our league. I mean, it’s just week in and week out. You’re going to play really tight teams. The games they’ve played, they’ve been basically one possession games that came down to the wire on the road in tough environments, so a lot of respect for them. I know they’re coming off a week off. Our guys are coming off this Kentucky game and trying to get ready to go play this one today.”
How to prepare for Hugh Freeze Offenses…
“I would say every offense kind of evolves. Every offense coordinator, they take plays that work against other people and they use those plays. He’s done the same through time. He was one of the first to really start using the run-pass option. They still use those. It maximizes your skill on the perimeter and it forces the hand of the defense to make decisions on how you want to play the run game or the run-pass questions game, which most people think of as a pass game, but it’s really an extension of the run. They do a tremendous job of it and it’s one of the things that Hugh’s really been good at for a long time.”
On mitigating the rest advantage…
“I don’t know of anything I can do to mitigate that because this is going to be a physical game. I mean, you have to practice football to get good at football. They’ll practice this week, just like we’ll practice this week. We’ve had, I guess, the same number of bys they have, right? So we’ve had two. I’m assuming they’ve had two. I don’t know if they’ve had their second one yet, but it all evens out. You can’t really look at that and try to make any excuse for it. So it is what it is and we’ve got to go play well.”
On Drew Bobo’s impact…
“He’s been a tremendous asset in terms of communication. He calms everyone. His snap accuracy has been important. His ability to play at the first level when he’s covered up, he’s done a really good job controlling zero notices and then looking at when he’s uncovered and getting to the second level and making calls has been good. It’s when you’re sitting in the middle and you’ve got to communicate to your left and right, he has to be the guy to send the message down the line. And a lot of that’s points, mics, communication, which way we’re blocking it, how we’re blocking it. There’s a lot of intricacies that go into that. He does a good job of that.”
On preparing for Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold…
“First thing is his athleticism. He’s had two or three plays that were broken plays or maybe scramble plays, RPOs that were designed to be thrown, that maybe the loop changed, and he takes off running. He runs for 60 yards. He runs for 70 yards. He doesn’t just run for like eight, nine yards and go down. I mean, he runs like a running back. He runs over you, through you, around you, speed. They run gap schemes with him. They run perimeter runs with him. And then probably the toughest thing to defend is when he drops back, and he ends up taking off running. So he’s a weapon, and they’ve got weapons around him in terms of the ability to throw the ball downfield.”
On the capability of Auburn’s offense…
“You see it in games. I mean, they’ve had several games where they’ve been explosive in use of the skill they have. You know, like I said, playing on the road in our league is really tough, and they’ve had two times they’ve gone into, you guys know, A&M [Texas A&M] and Oklahoma’s environment, and it’s just tough places to play. But they have the skill, and they’ve got a lot of them, and they’ve got a lot of speed out there with those guys. And that includes their backs. You know, their backs as receivers are fast, athletic guys.”
On the status of Monroe Freeling, Jordan Hall, Earnest Greene III…
“I think [Jordan Hall] should be fine. He’s had the same issue for a while. He’s dealing with some patellar tendonitis that he deals with week in and week out. [Earnest Greene III] is working out with us this week and trying to recover, and we’ll see where he’s at today. And then [Monroe Freeling] has an ankle, but it’s probably not as severe as we thought. He’s not having any kind of surgery or anything, and, you know, we’re hopeful to get him back this week. We’ll just have to wait and see. He’s not going to be able to do a lot today, but we think there’s a chance he can go.”
On expectation of physicality of the secondary defense…
“Getting hands on people helps you cover them. Just don’t hold them, right? I mean, we had two or three holdings the other day, late in the game, that hurt us in tempo in terms of getting off the field. But, you know, if you want to cover somebody, you’ve got to put your hands on them. You’ve got to affect the timing of a route. If you’re going to be up on somebody, there’s not a lot of purpose in being there if you aren’t using your hands. And the advantage in college football over NFL is, you know, you can touch them past five yards. So you have to try to use that advantage and knock people, you know, off their route as you cover them.”
On transfers coming in and contributing to the team…
“I think it’s easy to come in and play. We’ve had a pretty strong history of guys. I thought London [Humphreys] came in and played well. Colbie [Young], obviously, has come in and contributed and played well. We’ve had some success going into the portal and bringing guys in to help our team. I look at [Trevor] Etienne last year and the impact he had. It’s easy to do. You have to be the best player or one of the better players at your position. You have to execute at a high level. You have to be better than the guys in front of you and play better than the guys in front of you. That’s the truth, whether you’re here or anywhere. I’ve been very pleased with the guys we’ve gotten out of [the portal] and what they’ve done to help us.”
On what improves from the first SEC road game to the next…
“It’s not what makes it hard at Jordan-Hare [Stadium]. It’s what makes it hard anytime you go on the road. It’s an intense, crazy environment. The night games are more so than the day games in terms of that atmosphere that’s created, but we practice in that. We create an environment of chaos and noise and try to create confusion and do things so that we have to communicate in that so our guys get to practice in it. We’ll have to go out and execute. I don’t know what increases from game one to game two on the road. I think you’ve got a lot of freshmen that now may not have as much anxiety because they’ve done it once. There’s certainly more anxiety the first time you do it, but it’s not like that goes away. You have to be confident and know your plan and execute your plan.”
On Justin Williams’ development throughout the season…
“He’s always been very competitive. He embodies our FPE. He plays really hard. He’s instinctive. He’s probably the most positive guy over there. Every game we’re in, he’s in somebody’s ear cheering them on. He’s on the special teams cheering them on. He’s just a joy to be around and a joy to coach because he’s full of positive energy, and I enjoy Justin [Williams]. He’s grown up, and he’s getting better. He’s getting stronger. He’s getting more physical. He’s very instinctive, and we need him to keep playing more snaps so we can divide those snaps up among those guys better.”
On Demello Jones and Ellis Robinson’s impact on the secondary, and Daylen Everette as a veteran leader…
“I think both of those kids are growing up. They’re getting more reps. They’re getting confidence while they’re on the field, the understanding of the defense, the leverages, the looks, playing snaps. You get that through practice, but you get it also through confidence in the games. Daylon [Everette] brings us a steady presence. As a tackler, he’s physical. He’s heavy-handed, so he uses his hands. He’s strong. He’s been in the weight room. He’s been in the program for multiple years. All those things matter. At corner, so much of our league is can you tackle a back, can you hold up on a screen or an RPO, or you have to take on a blocker, maybe a tight end. That’s one of Daylon’s strengths is his size and toughness.”
On the fast-paced offensive start against Kentucky…
“Do we want to start fast? Yes. We go out there to execute every game; sometimes the opponent makes that really hard. Sometimes we make it hard because we bust. That’s the objective of every game: how do we start fast, what do we do to start fast, and how can we execute better than the other team? At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about.”
On Bo Hughley’s performance this season…
“He embodies fire, passion, energy. The guy is happy every day at practice, he loves football, he works his butt off and he competes. He goes out, and no matter who is in front of him, he’s going to go to war and fight with him. He‘s done it at the left and right tackle, and he’s come in, in a pinch and played well in multiple games, and he’s a kid that I enjoy coaching him and he continues to get better because of the way he works and the way he practices.”
On Auburn’s effective pass rush this season…
“The twitch they have, they’re really twitchy even at the inside positions. Two edge rushers that are probably their premiere players on defense, they both can cause havoc, can wreck a game plan, get off the ball, rush the passer, they do a good job changing up their looks, so it’s not like oh just let them sit here and rush. They change things up with a lot of different looks and pressures and getting those guys in one-on-one situations is their goal and they do a good job.”
On Elyiss Williams’ growth as a blocker
“He’s really physical. I never realized a kid that size would take so much pride in growing as a blocker. Most kids come in, and that’s the hardest thing they have to get used to. They can all catch passes and run and run routes, but in line and C-area blocking, he has taken pride and gives Coach [Todd Hartley] a lot of credit for investing that time on his improvement and him working at it. He worked all spring, and he’s better than an average blocker for a freshman, and then as the year went on this year, he’s grown. He’s gone against really good people; he’s not afraid of contact. So I enjoy watching him grow, and he’s gotten better as a route runner and understanding our offense. He’s kind of worked his way into some of the roles. Some of the stuff that happened for him the other day was just really happenstance that it ended up going to him, but I was happy for him.”
On Thomas Blackshear and Daniel Harris…
“Thomas Blackshear is dealing with a groin injury he’s had that he’s been trying to fight back from. He’s really had it all camp, all year, and continues to work the rehab to get back from that. [Daniel Harris] has continued to play well on special teams. He’s done a great job for us, dealing with a little bit of a hamstring issue. It’s about practicing during the week and the guys that practice the best and play the ball the best) and compete are going to play in the games.”
On Eric Singleton Jr. as a weapon…
“Well, he’s a weapon, he’s a vertical weapon. He has horizontal and vertical speed. We’ve seen him at Georgia Tech. He’s a great player. They do a great job getting touches. They put him in the backfield, they motion him out of the backfield, they hand him sweeps, they take him vertical, they throw him screens. You have to defend the guy every way possible. That’s what good offensive coordinators do with good offensive players.”
On rivalries…
“They’re all special. Look at the league and look at the people we play and look at the competitive rivalries. There’s obviously a longer-standing tradition with this one. Our kids and their kids, I promise you, neither one of them know how many years Georgia has been playing Auburn, but it is in the history, and it’s been going on for a long time, and it was played in Columbus for quite a while. But that’s neither here nor there for this game, because this game is completely independent of the other 100 and however many times these two have played.”