Kirby Smart shares philosophy behind using freshmen pass rushers
ATHENS, Ga. — Kirby Smart made his name in College Football as a recruiter and defensive coach. If there’s one thing you’d expect Smart to understand, it’d be how to best utilize young talent on that side of the ball. He’s recruited the right guys and coached them up early in their careers. Now it’s all about finding how to be apply their skillsets to be beneficial for both the team and their development as players. That’s exactly what he’s doing with a couple of Georgia pass rushers.
“They’ve earned the right to be out there,” Smart said on Monday when asked about the thinking of using true freshmen defensive linemen Bear Alexander and Mykel Williams, as well as redshirt freshman linebacker Xavian Sorey, in Georgia’s third down package. “They’re extremely good athletes. They have quickness, explosive. Might not have the strength in terms of the core weight room. I mean, Bear’s coming off a shoulder surgery. Mykel is a freshman that went through spring. And then Sorey’s a guy that came in and had not played a lot of football in high school because of injuries. So they all three have really good traits.”
“I think one of the best things we do here at Georgia is take a freshman and say, ‘What does he do really well? How do we utilize that in year one?'” Smart continued. “You go back to the year that we had any Nakobe (Dean) on third down, Travon (Walker) was on third down, Tyrique Stevenson was on third down. We had these players that were playing as freshmen on third down because they could go out and execute at a premium. Some of those guys you’re talking about are playing out of necessity. We had other guys that might be in front of them, some that might be Smael (Mondon) or Jalen (Carter) that get dinged up, those guys got to get ready to go play. So, been pleased with what they’ve done, but we got to execute a little better with each one of them included.”
Smart’s approach to finding the thing freshmen do best and letting them develop around that one particular skill certainly seems to be paying off. As he noted, Nakobe Dean and Travon Walker played in third down packages as true freshmen back in 2019. Three years later, Dean and Walker were two of the biggest centerpieces for a dominant Georgia defense and off to the NFL after their junior seasons. Is it possible that Alexander and Williams develop in the same way? Sure, but that’s beside the point. Right now – six games into their collegiate careers – Smart wants to see them continue to grow in all areas while using what they do best to help the team.
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“They better be run specialists because we don’t have enough of those. You don’t get labeled as one or the other. You have to be a run specialists in order to do it,” Smart said after the Auburn game on Saturday when asked about the pass rush specialists. “We earn the right to rush the passer by striking blockers. They just happen the fresh ones that go in on third down. They’re athletic and he’s (Robby Ashford) a really athletic quarterback so we felt we needed more athletes on the field. You have to be careful with a quarterback like that because they can run it on third down and then go for it on fourth. It’s a cat-and-mouse game on how to play those guys.”
Georgia takes on Vanderbilt this Saturday for the homecoming game at Sanford Stadium. UGA enters as a 38.5-point favorite according to Vegas Insider. Kickoff between the Bulldogs and Commodores is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
