Kirby Smart, Bulldogs preview 2025 Florida football game

Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart and two players, offensive lineman Drew Bobo and inside linebacker CJ Allen, spoke with the media on Monday about their upcoming SEC game against the Florida Gators.

5th-ranked Georgia and Florida will square off on Saturday, Nov. 1 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The game will be televised by ABC at 3:30pm ET (Buy Tickets).

Joe Tessitore will call the play-by-play, Jesse Palmer will provide analysis, while Katie George will report from the sidelines.

Below is a transcript of the Florida press conference which was provided by UGA.

HEAD COACH KIRBY SMART

Opening Statement
“We are getting ready to fire back up after a couple of days off for this big Georgia-Florida game. Excited again to go to Jacksonville and play in an awesome venue. It’s very unique to have the neutral site and have a split crowd. Every year we go and play in it, it’s very different from the SEC home-away atmosphere. It’s kind of weird because it sits right there in the middle, and it can be loud both ways, and it’s kind of a momentum game. Whoever’s crowd is into it at the time or who has the momentum. Our guys are back and ready to get to work.”

On Florida quarterback DJ Lagway…
“He’s a really bright player, got a bright future, great arm talent, got an ability to process information quickly, get ball out on RPOs and really hard to tackle. When you do get through on the rush, and if you ever get through, you’ve got to finish and finishing on a guy that size is harder than you think in terms of him and his escapability and ability to kind of lengthen plays. He’s done a good job, and he’s improved. We kind of watched him grow before our eyes throughout last year and this year, and he’s surrounded by a really talented group of wideouts and a really talented offensive line. Their physical and the offensive line have guys that have been playing there for a while, and that complements his style very well.”

On Florida’s new play callers…
“I don’t know that we have time to dig deep enough in the weeds that you would have to dig all the way into. I think Billy Gonzalez will have an impact on that as well. He’s been around some really good offensive staffs and has some things he believes in. You don’t change your entire offense in that short of time. There’s definitely ways to change it up in terms of going faster, tempo, and allowing guys to make plays and go with tempo. They’ve used tempo quite a bit this year, and I would expect them to continue to do that, to be in attack mode and try to take advantage of some of the things they’ve seen on tape versus us.”

On facing a team following a coaching change…
“There are probably challenges and advantages. There’s a new voice, sometimes new energy, sometimes change brings about a spark. I’m sure they’ll change some things up, and not to disrespect Billy [Napier], but sometimes when you bring somebody in, there’s new juice there. I don’t know the challenges it would present. I haven’t been part of that.”

On ILB Chris Cole…
“Chris is growing as a rusher and an inside backer. That’s been a big emphasis for us, for him to be able to play on the edge but also still play at inside backer. He even played early in the season and we still use him in some things against 12 personnel where he walks out and plays more of a star outside backer type position. He’s had three roles, and he’s developed in those while maintaining his special teams status of a really good player on special teams.”

On Florida running back Jadan Baugh…
“He has tremendous talent. Met him in ninth grade. He worked double as a safety and played a lot of DB early in his career and just kept getting better and better and played some linebacker and then kept playing safety. And then his senior year, he had a great year at running back and really played well, he carried their team and had some really electric runs, and he’s carried that over in his time at Florida. He is a really good back.”

On defensive improvements…
“I think I’d start with tackling. I think at the end of the day, that’s what defense is about, and good defenses have few missed tackles. When you look at the two of our lesser performances, there were a lot of missed tackles. The first thing you start with is that. You’ve got to tackle well, which starts with being in position to make the tackle, not being out of position. But tackling well is key. Third down defense, I’d like to see us get guys in third and long, because we’re pretty successful when we get guys in third and long. But that starts with first and second down. So it all carries over, and it kind of all bleeds into each other.”

On Nate Bargatze calling for recruits on College Gameday…
“No, I don’t get caught up in it much. I don’t look at the stuff like that and just recruit the best job we can and sell what we have and talk to the kids and communicate with the kids that we talk to and trust them for what they tell us and not get into gimmicks and propaganda stuff.”

On increases in midseason coach firings…
“It’s the world we live in. Everybody’s got a voice. Everybody listens to somebody. I don’t know enough about that situation, to be honest with you. I think you’re asking for a general view, but I don’t know enough about what’s going on over there. We’ve got enough things to worry about in our own house, and that’s what I focus on. It’s obviously a tough situation on everybody, let’s be honest. Players dealing with it, fans dealing with it, coaches dealing with it at this time in the middle of a season. I think there’s so much built around the playoffs, and everything’s boom or bust. You can’t have a normal season. People have to make decisions earlier based on how somebody does, and I don’t know enough about it. I know it’s high expectations. I coached at LSU, and a guy once told me, he said, ‘That office you’re in, that’s not your office. You’re borrowing it.’ I knew right then that if you didn’t win, you wouldn’t be there long.”

On Florida’s wide receiver group…
“Side speed. They got great side speed. Twitch, movement at the line of scrimmage, ability to make plays down the field, break tackles, block, crack in the run game, involvement in the run game. They do a really good job getting their wideouts involved in that shift motion to get them open. They’re talented. They’ve got young and old, and they’ve got good players.”

On the advantages of coaching your alma mater…
“There are advantages in terms of the people you know, the people you’re connected to, the infrastructure that you know about, whether it’s institutional infrastructure or it’s fan base infrastructure. I think there’s an attachment, and you understand it well. There’s also a burden that comes with that in terms of – I’ve been other places, and you never have to worry about keeping people happy that played there before or the people that were involved there before. Or feeling like your time is their time in terms of – I’m not just talking about alumni, I’m talking about former players and lettermen, I’m talking about alumni and everybody else. So, there’s advantages and there’s disadvantages to it. I don’t know if that’s correlated to anything or not. I would have thought during the NIL fundraising days it probably helped, but that’s not as prevalent right now. It’s a little more revenue share, and you get your piece of the pie, and you spend it how you see fit, whereas before it was how much can you go out and raise. So, that might have helped some in the last couple years.”

On DB Kyron Jones and improvements in the secondary…
“I want to keep seeing growth. I want to keep seeing guys getting better. Again, number one thing you can do in secondary is tackle. So, when you get an opportunity to tackle somebody, you have to get them on the ground. You get opportunities to make plays on the ball, then you have to make plays on the ball. Then you have to make some plays where you punish people when they make mistakes and catch the ball. So, those are things we’re looking for each and every week out of every group, but specifically the secondary. Kyron, again, we’re trying to get him back as soon as we can. We’re hoping he’s able to make it back.”

On a favorite memory from Jacksonville…
“A lot of memories, because it seems like every Georgia-Florida game that I’ve been involved in has been there. It’s been some really good battles, some great games. Then played there, three or four times. I’m not sure how many times, because we had one here. But I don’t know if there’s anything that really sticks out. Just some great wins and some tough losses.”

On Florida’s defense…
“They’re really talented and they’ve had some injuries. They’ve got some guys out. You can only imagine what this unit would look like if it had stayed healthy the entire year. But, they are really good. They’re big. They’re physical. They’ve got a great defensive coordinator who knows what he’s doing. He understands where weaknesses are. He understands what you’re trying to do. He has compliments for that. He’s been really successful as a defensive coordinator everywhere he’s been, and they do a great job of stopping the run and affecting the passer. A very dominant defensive team in terms of physicality and skill level.”

On QB Gunner Stockton…

“Yeah, I want to see him continue to grow, take what the defense gives him and understand what we’re trying to do. We give Gunner a lot of latitude and options in terms of the play call. It’s just more about putting us in the right play to be successful based on what they’re in defensively, and I don’t think he gets enough credit for that decision-making process. Every play might have two to three decisions he has to make, and those two to three decisions sometimes determine the outcome of that play. I’m really proud of his growth. He’s got to keep doing it and keep taking care of the ball. When he does that, we’re a good football team.”

On his relationship with analytics…
“Well, when it started, I wasn’t really involved in analytics. I don’t know that it was prevalent 10 years ago. Maybe it was, and I wasn’t, but it didn’t really play a part. Somewhere around year three or four, it began increasing. I’ve probably increased the use of it every year, but the use of it doesn’t mean being chained to it. It’s one of those things that you’ve got to use your gut, your intuition, but at the end of the day I do believe in statistics and analytics. I think it’s going to be right more times than it’s not. We know every situation, what it says. I don’t want to sometimes know what the book says and sometimes I don’t. I want to know what it says all the time and make the best decision in that situation.”

On coaching the sons of his teammates…
“I think it’s a lot of pride. It says a lot about the coaching staff and the community and the people that were here when their fathers played for their fathers to be willing to support their sons coming here. You don’t necessarily have to have a perfect experience to send your son here, but it certainly helps that you have a positive experience because you wouldn’t be sending your son there. You find a lot of people across the country that are maybe disenchanted, maybe where they went to school, maybe something didn’t go like they wanted to and it’s harder to get the son than it is if they went to school there. There have been a lot of legacies come through and we have not gotten them all, but we have gotten some of them, and I wish nothing but the best on the ones that don’t come, and I wish nothing but the best on the ones that we get because I think it’s important that if your father or whatever guardian played here, that you have a positive experience if you come, too.”

On teaching players about the history of Georgia-Florida…
“Not a lot. We talk about the things that are facts, about the history of the game, which is that the team that rushes, the team that does this, the team that thinks they’re obvious, explosive plays. You have more explosive plays than them, you’re probably going to win. You have less turnovers than them, you’re probably going to win. If you rush the ball better, you’ve got a good chance of winning. There’s things that are facts about that, and then there’s things that are just part of history. To be honest with you, I’m focused on what we’ve got to do to play well and be at our best, and I think we control that.”

On adjustments for the environment in Jacksonville…
“No. Other than explaining it. There’s not a big rah-rah hoopla. You’re responsible for your own ability to get up. If you can’t get up for a game like this; you don’t need to be playing.”

On TE Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie…
“I’ve seen the same thing I saw all year. I think you guys highlight when they get used and when they don’t, but they practice the same regardless. They don’t just turn it on in practice. They do a good job. Some teams play us differently than others. Some teams provide us the opportunity. Sometimes Gunner’s [Stockton] on the same page in terms of what we’re looking for and what they’re doing, and it opens itself up. But they’ve been huge assets for us, and they’ve practiced consistently throughout the season.” 

On replacing WR Colbie Young…
“Well, those other guys are physical too. I mean, we’ve got a physical group. There’s nobody in our secondary group that’s going to run away from contact or fear contact. Those guys are aggressive. Now, Colbie [Young] has a physical presence to him and he’s even more valuable with the ball in his hand because he’s hard to tackle and that’s his physicality is tackling him. He’s also physical blocking, but so are the other guys. We’ve got other guys. We’ve got tight ends we can use, 14 personnel, 13 personnel, 12 use of wideouts, a lot of good wideouts that can play for us and that’s been one of our deeper groups. So, we’ll continue to do what we do in that regard.”

On Florida assistant coach Ryan O’Hara…
“He’s been multiple places. He’s had success where he’s been. Billy [Napier] wouldn’t have brought him on the staff if he didn’t have those successes. He’s got a great relationship with the quarterback. I think the person that meets with the quarterback during the day and during the week and during the offseason and during all the game planning, that’s who the quarterback is comfortable with. So, his history has been with those quarterbacks, and he’s had success doing it. It makes perfect sense in terms of the feel that they have and wanting the quarterback to feel comfortable.”