Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart and two players, x, spoke with the media on Monday about their upcoming SEC home game against the Ole Miss Rebels.
9th-ranked Georgia and 5th-ranked Ole Miss will square off on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. The game will be televised by ABC at 3:30pm ET (Buy Tickets).
Chris Fowler will call the play-by-play, Kirk Herbstreit will provide analysis, while Holly Rowe will report from the sidelines.
Below is a transcript of the Ole Miss press conference which was provided by UGA.
Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement…
“I’ll start with this note. Volleyball’s 10K day is this Friday. They’re playing Alabama at 7 P.M. I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach (Tom) Black and the volleyball team and the job they’ve done. They’re trying to top last year’s state volleyball attendance record of 10,000 fans. First 1,000 fans will get a black t-shirt and the first 1,000 UGA students will also get a t-shirt and free food. I know we’ll be walking across that way headed to the Georgia Center to stay. We want to see a big turnout and see them top 10K for our volleyball team and try to break that record that they set last year. With that, I want to open by thanking our fans that were in Auburn. I thought they were incredible. There were times that late in the game I really thought that we had an impact in terms of that end zone, the turnout, the kind of passion and energy they showed at the end of the game and after the game. We need the best atmosphere we’ve ever had in Sanford Stadium. I have a lot of respect for Lane (Kiffin). He does an incredible job. Probably one of the best things he does is in-game coaching, having coached with him and watched him for years. His impact on the quarterback and the offensive play and ability to communicate with the quarterback, whether it’s by headset or by sideline, he does a great job of getting the quarterback’s attention and getting them in the right place based on looks, probably better than anybody else in the country. He and his staff do that. I’m going to give him all the credit, but he does an unbelievable job and we need to make that extremely difficult. The issue and the challenge has been issued for our fan base to be extremely difficult for them to communicate and do things offensively that they do, especially at home and sometimes on the road when it’s not the right environment.”
On Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss’ run ability…
“(Trinidad Chambliss) is explosive, right? He’s quick, he’s fast, he’s tough, he’s got great lower body, great instincts. There’s a difference in being a fast guy and being a runner. He’s patient behind blocks, quick when he needs to be. Some guys can only run perimeter runs well, some can only run internal well. He runs both, he does a great job in the draw game. He sets up blocks, and he’s a good passer. (Ole Miss) should get the greatest award there is for finding this guy. I don’t know who scouted, who found him, but he is a really good football player that they went out and got and did a tremendous job.”
On facing a dual-threat QB in the Auburn game…
“I don’t know, I can’t go back and think about the guys we’ve had. Some of those teams had a couple guys that could run the ball well. (Jackson Arnold) certainly was a physical downhill runner, but it’s a combination of things, right? Really good, excellent wide receivers on the perimeter. Really big physical offensive line, because sometimes you have a runner like him, and maybe you’re playing somebody that doesn’t have the same offensive line. They have an extremely physical offensive line. A lot of sideways perimeter runs packaged together with the quarterback runs, and look, Ole Miss has all those same plays. You turn on the tape, they’re tremendous offensively, and there’s not a run that Auburn runs that they can’t run. They have a lot of the same weapons that Auburn does on the perimeter. What Jackson did was really good, really, They had a good plan. And we got to find ways to stop it.”
On Ole Miss RB Kewan Lacy and the Rebels’ run game…
“(Kewan Lacy) becomes more effective because of the quarterback. He becomes more effective because of the tempo. They use tempo, they’re able to go really fast. They wear people down. They get lots of snaps against them, and we’ve had a lot of practice getting lots of snaps, that’s for sure, defensively. But they get lots of snaps, and they wear you down, and he’s a good back. He’s vertical, sideways, catches the ball, explosive, really good player.”
On Chauncey Bowens’ status…
“It was a deal going into the game. We felt like he was going to be able to go. It bothered him some, but it bothered him some last week, but it never got to the point that he wasn’t going to be able to play. He wasn’t as effective probably early. We weren’t as effective, I don’t know if it was him, but we struggled to run the ball a little bit early, and then when those other guys got going, we went with those guys. He should be fine, he should be ready to go this week.”
On the secondary’s play against Auburn…
“There’s some good and bad. Dalen [Everette] had some good plays, and he had some tough plays where he ended up grabbing the receiver. He got out of position some, and same thing with Ellis [Robinson IV], and same thing with Demello [Jones]. In this league, you’re going to be challenged every week. These guys got great wide outs, and a quarterback that can get them the ball, a quarterback that’s very accurate. So the challenge would be every week to step up and play.”
On Georgia’s standing in the SEC…
“Absolutely, I don’t evaluate, because I only evaluate the teams we play. So, I think we have a really good football team, and I think it shows every Saturday when we go out and compete. I don’t study the film of the ones we don’t play, although most people you don’t play, you get on crossover games. I’m not in the process of evaluating, I am evaluating us and Ole Miss right now.”
On Cayden Lee and Deuce Alexander…
“Both are really good players. They’re both very experienced, talented guys, who came up in our state. They have a bunch of guys from our state. They recruit our state hard. They do a good job in our state. They have coaches that played here. They’ve got ties to the state. Our state supplies every team in the country with players. Ole Miss does a great job of recruiting in our state. Both those players are really good players. They’re getting a chance to come home in front of their families and have an opportunity to play.”
On teaching to force fumbles…
“‘Has the emphasis changed?’ We’ve always emphasized it. We’re just doing more of it. We’re trying to practice it more, get more looks at it. We’ve taken time out of practice to get it. It’s nothing that anybody in the country doesn’t do, it’s just how much time do you spend on it? We’ve tried to take cut-ups of every play in a game that we miss an opportunity to take a shot at the ball and show that. We also flip it around, or our defensive staff flips it around, and they show where we did take the opportunity to. It’s a compilation of clips, so you’re getting all these small clips of shots on ball, hitting the ball, and just trying to do something different so maybe we get a different result.”
On Lane Kiffin’s ability to make in-game adjustments…
“Mainly in-game, I mean, like in play. Within one play window, the 40-second play clock, they’re able to– Everybody can do the same thing. They’re quick to the line, so they can talk to their quarterback down to 15 seconds in terms of communication. Then 15 and below, he’s on his own, but a lot of their snaps are above 15 seconds, so they’re able to communicate to him, look, talk to him, see what’s going on. It’s smart, right? It’s what you do in order to execute at a higher level, especially for a guy that wasn’t in their system last year and is in their system now. They do a good job of finding looks, of saying, ‘Okay, well, they’re in this, they’re in this.’ If you’re a good defense, you’re predictable. You can’t change what you do week in and week out, and they do a good job of doing that, and they’re in the right play a lot, right? They’re in the right look against the look, which is critical.”
On the Ole Miss defensive front…
“Really impressive, again. I got to watch four or five offensive games yesterday of Ole Miss, and only got through two defensive games, and pretty impressive, to be honest with you. They’re very disruptive, constantly moving, causing havoc and problems in movement, and [they’re] disruptive, and they’ve got a couple of the best inside guys we’ve seen.”
On Juan Gaston…
“[His] ankle, [was] kind of re-injured, bothered him. And then [he] went back in, and as I understand, he came back out, and just bothered him. But, he’s trying to go today. [We’ll] see where he’s at.”
On the pass rush against Auburn…
“It was situational, so when you look and say, where did the pressure occur, some of them were third downs, some of them were two-minute. Those opportunities present themselves more, and you get people in those situations, you’re able to create pressure, but pressure’s created by down-and-distance situations, and how much you’re willing to commit to the run versus a pass.”
On starting multiple offensive line lineups…
“We’re blessed to have the two freshmen can come along as fast as they did, because those two guys have helped us. Injuries happen, I don’t know, I wasn’t aware we had six different combinations, but it doesn’t surprise me, because it certainly feels that way. It feels even crazier in games, because we’re having to rotate guys in games, and it’s not rotation based on stamina sometimes, it’s just rotation based on an injury here, something there, and that makes it tough. I’m proud of their toughness and the way they play, and that drive they had to end the game shows something about their character and their ability to overcome and convert some third downs. But, look, we got to play better as a team, and that starts with what we do today, and that’s really what we’re worried about today.”
On hidden gems in recruiting…
“There are two kinds of recruiting, though, right? I think you’re talking about portal as opposed to recruiting, maybe you’re talking about both. I don’t know. High school kids are hidden gems; they’re harder because there’s so much exposure these kids have, and you’re seeing almost like a matriculation of guys to certain schools. As they’re better, they get brought to certain places, and they get put in the forefront. You don’t find the guys a great player staying somewhere. They end up going somewhere else, but as far as finds in the portal, they’re there. I know Lane and them do a great job of searching that out. They’re a higher portal team than, I don’t know, maybe they’re middle of the pack SEC now, or maybe high-end. In the past, they’ve been high-end. I don’t know where they are right now, but they do a great job because when you look at the list, there are guys on the sheet that are good players from other schools.”
On CJ Allen…
“I thought he really showed up. When you go back and watch the tape, it’s one of the better games that I’ve seen him play, and he was frustrated and disappointed after some of the earlier games, and we thought it was the first time that he looked as fast as he’s been. He’s been dealing with a hamstring, and he’s played through it, but he’s a leader, man. He’s a special kid in terms of what he’s willing to sacrifice and give up for the team and how much he pushes our team. So I thought he had a good performance.”
On the offense changing with Gunner Stockton gaining experience…
“A lot of it revolves around the run game because our explosive plays – which we’ve been really good at for two to three years. Outside of last year, we were really good at explosive plays going back. They came off of play actions. They came off of tempo plays. They even came off of runs prior to last year. Where do you get explosive plays from? You look and you track them. You see other people and you say, ‘Okay, these players make explosives. They need to touch the ball.’ That’s what we try to look at because explosives are the greatest indicator of who wins games – right there with turnovers and the middle eight. So, we want to be more explosive, obviously, and we played some teams early that played us in a very different way that made it hard to be explosive. We’ve actually been more explosive against some of the better teams that we’ve played because they play you more aggressively, which exposes them to risk. I can’t pinpoint or say exactly what’s going to allow it. I’m comfortable with who we are – although I want to be more explosive – but being a team that can grind it out and be physical in a day and age when a lot of people don’t want to be physical, it makes you different.”
On Monroe Freeling’s performance…
“Guts, toughness, grit. If you’d have told me after watching him Thursday, when he just went out and tried to run and work out, I was questioning whether we should bring him on the trip. He texted me and said, ‘Coach, I’m going on this trip and I’m playing, and I’m going to be ready.’
It just says a ton about his competitive character in a day and age that some guys have to look out for themselves or whatever. He’s all about the team. He made it clear that he wanted to help this team win that game and he played a huge role in the game, especially after Juan [Gaston’s] ankle and we had to start flip-flopping.”
On Noah Thomas…
“He’s played well in that stadium before. He had a really big game when he played before. We knew he had a lot of confidence against some of their guys, and he continues to show confidence. There’s nobody on our team that pulls harder for our team. He’s in every huddle. He’s cheering on the defense. He’s cheering on the kickoff team. He has been the embodiment of a team player and competing. We’ve got to continue to find opportunities to get him touches and make explosives. We had several balls that went at him the other day and we’ve got to continue to do that.”
On using last year’s loss as motivation…
“I’m not a big revenge guy. They could have said that last year about us because they came here and played the year before. I’m big into what gets us to play our best and that usually comes from intrinsic stuff from me, not from looking at the past. Those teams were different teams. This team’s a different team.”