Kirby Smart jokes about defensive gameplan to stop Missouri’s quick throws

Georgia hosts Missouri in what has become a pivotal SEC East showdown on Saturday. And Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart is determined to force Tigers quarterback Brady Cook into some bad spots.

That won’t be easy to do, Smart admitted, as Cook is one of the quickest quarterbacks to get the ball out, averaging 2.2 seconds. That’s not a universal figure, but Smart knows on the average play, it’ll be hard to get to Cook in time.

“I probably wouldn’t have a good answer on that,” Smart said when asked about other quarterbacks in the league and their time to throw. “That was only on my head because it’s so quick he gets it out. And there’s averages in there, there’s play action, there’s rolls — he’s not 2.2 all the time. But that ball comes out quick.”

Smart even joked that the defense might do something extreme and see if it forces Cook to hold on to the ball.

“We’ve been thinking about dropping all 11, just seeing if it works,” Smart said.

Smart and Georgia aren’t paying their CFP ranking much mind

Georgia clocked in at No. 2 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday evening. But Smart isn’t paying those much mind, he said on Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference.

Smart downplayed any significance of the CFP rankings at this point in the season and didn’t seem to care that his team was No. 2 as opposed to No. 1. He got asked specifically if he or his team feels slighted given they haven’t lost a game since December 2021.

“Nah. Not slighted. It just is what it is. We’ve gotten really comfortable with not paying attention to it over the last three, four years,” Smart said.

Given that Georgia’s schedule picks up in the last month of the season with a lineup of ranked teams on the docket, the Bulldogs will have plenty of opportunity to play into the No. 1 ranking.

And while Smart surely knows that is possible, he’s keeping his focus on the week and game in front of him. It seems to have served the Georgia head coach well in years past.

“It’s always one game at a time. You know the answer to that. No coach is going to sit here and tell you he’s worried about the future or the upcoming games. I’m worried about constant improvement. Getting players back healthy. Trying to get the guys that’s aren’t play, back playing and the guys that are playing better. And you do that one week at a time,” Smart said.