Kirby Smart looking forward to feedback, growth from first game

ATHENS, Ga. — Kirby Smart summed up his feelings after the first game of the season well in one statement: “I’m never going to apologize for a win.” It was a mixed bag of results for Georgia in the opener. With the good of a 48-7 victory over UT-Martin came the bad of a slower start and some offensive growing pains. Smart understands that. He watched the same game we all did, but having been in coaching for 24 seasons now, he also knows there will always be room for improvement.

“The expectation are never higher than they are in our building,” Smart said in his postgame press conference, asked to define success in a season-opener. “We have high expectations and our coaching staff will tell you that. You sit in on our headphones and in our building, we internally look at ourselves harder than anyone. But I’m never going to apologize for a win. I learned a long time ago, when a player in the NFL came to me and said, I’ve never felt like when I win, I lose. It will never be that way for me. I’m proud of the guys, I’m ecstatic. We’ve got a lot to work on.”

Smart saw that from the start. All week long, the emphasis for his team was on how to properly prepare for a game. He thought they did that well, meeting the standard there throughout the week of practice. Then, when it came to “setting the standard for how to play the games,” Smart said that they “probably didn’t meet that criteria.”

What would be the reasoning for that? There are a number of factors possibly in play.

“It could be anxiety. It could be the team we played. They did a good job. I wouldn’t say they controlled the line of scrimmage, but they stopped the run well. We weren’t explosive in the run game outside of two runs maybe, I don’t know. They did some nice things, and we’ve got an opportunity to improve on a lot of things and do better and find the guys that we’ve got to say who touches the ball,” Smart said. “There were some pretty good ones over there on the sideline that didn’t get to touch it. We knew we were gonna have to spread it around and get Rara (Thomas) involved, get Arian (Smith) involved, get Dillon Bell involved and find guys that are going to be weapons for us throughout the year. Dom (Lovett), (Mekhi) Mews, we’ve got to continue to use those guys.”

“I did think we had some players grow up out there today. When you look on the sideline and there’s 5-6 guys dinged up, banged up, you knew there were going to be some butterflies for some guys – particularly on offense,” he added. “I thought they grew up tonight, and we get feedback. The next step in this process is, what is the feedback? And I’m not talking about feedback from you guys, unfortunately I don’t care what you think or what you say. We get to watch the tape and say, ‘What does the feedback say?’ and figure out who we are and where we go from here.”

Overall, the message from Smart is one that comes down to one simple thing: getting better from here. He understands that there are expectations out there for him and his program. He said that they “live outside of expectations.”

“We’re going to go back to work tomorrow and put on a grind tomorrow to get ready for Ball State. I never read too much into it. I just don’t think you can get too high or too low,” Smart said. “People hit panic buttons. People have expectations. All I’m worried about is the process of getting better. At the end of the day, this is one thing I know: we’ve got to get better.”

“Our mantra is always about getting better and working. That’s what our mantra is. We live outside of expectations. I realize they’re there. That’s not foolish, but I’m old enough and smart enough and wise enough to know you better enjoy moments like tonight ’cause you don’t get them all the time,” he continued. “Winning football games is not easy no matter who it is, and if you don’t rise up or if you don’t meet the expectations — whether it’s a fanbase or a media base, you’ve got to make your team realize that we can actually get better. They don’t need to pay attention to any negativity — not that I’m saying there will be. We just got to get better. And guess what: the team that’s standing at the end will be the one that got better, so that’s what we’re trying to be.”

Georgia’s next game is set for noon ET on Saturday against Ball State on SEC Network. The Cardinals held their own for a little while against SEC opponent Kentucky this week, leading 7-3 at the end of the first quarter before the Wildcats scored 27 unanswered to run away in a 44-14 win.