WATCH: Kirby Smart Full Post-Clemson Game Press Conference

Smart’s full post-game transcript:

Opening Statement…
“I’d like to thank both fan bases for an incredible atmosphere. I think we all missed that kind of atmosphere and it was special for players to play in. I certainly appreciate the city of Charlotte because they were great hosts and I’m proud of our guys. We talked about two words, composure and attention to detail. I’ve never seen two words become more true than when the punt hit us and everybody just kept saying, ‘keep your composure, keep your composure.’ Nobody panicked. It started looking like it was getting bad there and the team really handled it well. We held the line, played to our standard, and I’m just really proud of our guys and how hard they played. That’s a really good football team.”

Did this game have a championship feel despite being the opener and what does it mean for the entire season…
“I told Dabo (Swinney) before the game that I thought the atmosphere was incredible. It reminded me of a playoff or a conference championship-type atmosphere because it just felt that way. It was electric at the hotel, the drive-in, it was special. To me, you could say it was a lot like an SEC football game but it wasn’t like one last year because none of them were like that. As far as the rest of the year, what matters for us is UAB. I said all along and I stand by what I said. Whether we won or lost, we controlled our own destiny and we still control our own destiny. The important thing is that we have to get better. What I did find out is we’ve got a lot of resiliency and when our offense had to convert, when our offense had to force the ball down somebody’s throat against a pretty good defense, they were able to do it. That makes me proud but we certainly have a long way to go to be explosive and get where we need to go offensively.”

On Georgia’s defensive front and how it controlled the game against Clemson…
“I knew we’d be pretty good and we’re pretty deep. I’m proud of them. It just seems like we’re more athletic up there than we’ve been in the past. There’s a lot of speed on the field. When we do plays against the scout team and Travon (Walker) and Adam (Anderson) are chasing plays down, they’re fast and they can run. Dan (Lanning) did a great job calling the game tonight. The defensive staff did an incredible job with the game plan. The kids were into the game. I think we frustrated them and confused them. We didn’t do well offensively either but we did have some moments where we could run the ball. They struggled to do that.”

Getting that much pressure on the quarterback, was that the strategy or emphasis coming into the game?
“I’ll have to watch the tape to see. I feel like we won some one one ones where we didn’t even have four people rushing. Sometimes you affect the quarterback and sometimes you sack him. We did get some sacks but some of those were coverage sacks. He held the ball and I think he got confused and he got frustrated. Do we have an elite pass rush? I don’t know that yet. Can we affect quarterbacks? Absolutely. We can affect the quarterback and be disruptive if we tackle well on the perimeter and make space playss. Our guys played really well and tackled well, I thought, tonight.”

What are some of the changeup things UGA did on defense…
“We really took a hard look (this) offseason at what hurt us last year and we just said we’re giving up explosives on… We’ve got kids with more ability than we should be giving those plays up. We went back and took a hard look. We get a lot of shift motions and things to try and confuse us with a lot of rules and to be honest with you, we dummied some things down. We didn’t call a lot of really hard calls. Just let our kids play, let our kids rush, get them to third and long, and give us some credit, but give them some credit too. The quarterback got rattled some and missed throws and we’ll play some guys who maybe have more experience. But I am proud of the way those guys competed.”

Kearis Jackson not playing on offense and playing without the regulars on offense, the effect it had on the offense…
“I can’t make excuses. You know what I mean? We had parts of our offense available all camp but never everybody. Jermaine Burton missed, I don’t know, two weeks. The very first practice he sprained an ankle. He missed two weeks. That has affected him. (John) FitzPatrick, I don’t feel like he’s practiced at all until last week. But he was just able to go and when we had all the foot injuries, we were worried about him not being able to play. So we were fortunate to get him in. Kearis, we didn’t know if Kearis was going to be able to go or not. Kearis is cleared to go but he’s just not himself yet. He would argue that he’s 85, 90 percent and we felt like he gives us the best chance on punt return in terms of confidence. In this kind of game, this kind of atmosphere, we trusted his experience but he’s not 100 percent on punt return. So when you add all that up, it’s just a lot of parts missing. But I’m not using that as a crutch or an excuse. We’ve got good players out there. They’ve got a good defense and they played some soft zone and they didn’t give us a lot of shots. I’m interested to watch the tape and see how they controlled the run game as well as they did with some soft coverage and split-safety stuff.”

Guys playing in the secondary without a ton of snaps for Georgia, how’d they hold up?
“I thought the corners did good. We asked them to play some man, they played some man. I didn’t think we found the ball well. We’ve got to get a little more confidence with our back to the ball. The two PIs on Kelee (Ringo), I think he’ll get better. He’s a talented player. Ameer (Speed) had one that, I’ll have to watch it and see. I thought he did a good job playing it, but I’m proud of the secondary because they’ve worked really hard. All you guys have talked about is the secondary for so long and we’re very thin and there were times… Chris (Smith) had the long run back. We’ve got to create some depth in the secondary and we’ve got to stay healthy. That scares me because we’re not as deep as we used to be.”

Emotion on the field during the game and not getting the kill shot…

“Yeah, it’s frustrating. It felt like we kept letting them hang around, right? But all we talked about was playing for each other, connection, resiliency. We preached so much composure and attention to detail all week. I was just so proud because they got some momentum in the second half, right? They went down, and that red area stop was humongous. To hold them to three, that was a big stop by the defense. Things went bad, and they double moved us, but nobody ever panicked. That’s usually the sign of a good character team, especially when you’re playing a really good team. Clemson’s a really good football team, and I’m really proud that they never folded. They fought for each other.”

Did you have any idea you could hold Clemson to three…

“No, I never would have thought that. We go to every game with the goal to shut them out. That’s the goal, but we have a goal on defense that says no explosive plays and going to hold them under thirteen points. Everyone thinks we’re crazy. They think ‘you’re never going to hold teams under thirteen points in this day and age.’ Why can’t we? Just like they have an offense, we have a defense. We want to be able to defend it. We’ve got to get better. I think we rattled the quarterback, and once he got affected, it probably hurt him with his eyes downfield and things. I’m not ready to anoint anybody. The one thing I know about this defense is that they love each other. They fight for each other. There are so many guys who didn’t play tonight that were happy for the other guys. That’s what’s unique. I’ve been in a lot of these game where you go in the locker room, and there’s guys sulking about ‘Man, I didn’t play.’ There were guys who didn’t play to tonight, and they were just so excited for the other guys. That’s a good sign.”

On JT finding the checkdown and short passes…

“I don’t know if I expected it. I thought they might play us a little different defensively, and with young wideouts, I thought we’d see a lot of press and them getting up on us. I thought we’d be able to take some shots. They didn’t do that. They played a little bit softer and gave us some underneath stuff. We just never could hit an explosive on them, and I hate it, because to be elite, we’ve got to hit some explosives. We’ve got to get to work on that.”

Bama/LSU games comparisons and how much do you enjoy a defensive game like this…

“I enjoy winning. People got me mistaken. That game tonight was nothing like that game. They were in two-back, ISO, getting linebackers. That was a spread, throw it out, motion, dink, throw a flare route. When we played Bama/LSU, it was headbutt time. That was not that kind of game. I agree with you that the score turned out that way and the back and forth. It was two elite defenses going at each other, but let’s be honest, guys. In the start of a season, I’ve always felt defense is ahead of offense. When you go to the first scrimmage, defense is ahead of offense. It’s that way probably across the country. I saw some games, one game was 0-0 at the half. You tend to create an identity and start figuring things out, and as the year goes on, defenses usually don’t tackle as well and numbers go up. So right now, I think both Georgia and Clemson’s defenses are pretty good.”

What you learned about the team and jumping on the bench after to celebrate with fans…

“I was nervous about that jump, Jeff. I said ‘If I slip, this will be on every camera in America, and it’ll be on ESPN’s Not Top Ten.’ That went through my mind. I was happy, and I felt like our fans didn’t get the love they needed. Our players sprinted into the locker room, and I wanted to show them some attention with it.”

“The ball hit us on the punt. We’re trying to be aggressive, and they hit a rugby punt. Some people believe you don’t even try to field that. Well, I hate that, because the ball is going to roll forever if we don’t get it, and sure enough, we got some bad luck. Kearis did what he was supposed to do. Kendall was blocking his tail off, and you get bad luck and things don’t go well. Offense, didn’t play perfect, right? Gave up some sacks, had some untimely penalties. We did move the ball. We just weren’t explosive. We did not play our best, but we played a really good team. Most teams, you come out and play a team like that right off the get go, it’s tough on you, and it’s tough sledding. What I found out is when we have to go four minute and grind out first downs, we’ve got a really good, physical football team, but we’ve got to score points. Defense is hard to play now. You’ve got to score points to win games. We know that, and we’ve worked really hard on that. We’ve got to get better at that, because we’ve got to be able to score.”

On Ameer, Brini, Jaylen and sticking to it…

“It says something about their character. They weren’t guys who jumped in the portal and left. Brini could have easily done that. Speed could have easily done that. They were behind really good players. Jaylen Johnson is a walk-on that earned a scholarship. They’re really good football players, and I’m proud of them because they have stuck it out. They love Georgia, and they do it for each other. The development is great. We’ve developed some good kids, and we’ve gotten them better. The credit goes to them, not us, for sticking it out and being loyal to each other. They do it for the brotherhood they have.”

On counting on atmosphere to rattle Clemson’s young quarterback…

“I won’t say I was counting on it. I really didn’t know what the atmosphere would be like, but it was electric. I thought their crowd matched our crowd, because when they had momentum, it felt like it was a road game. When we had momentum, it felt like it was a home game. It was a really electric atmosphere, and I hoped our defense would rattle their quarterback. That was the hope.”