WATCH: Kirby Smart Full Post-South Carolina Press Conference

Opening Statement

“What a tremendous night and the weather held off for the honoring of the first five black football players to play at Georgia.  

They came over and spoke to our team on Thursday and thought they did a tremendous job. What a tremendous honor to have them and host them. 

I’d also like to thank David Pollack, what a tremendous honor to get selected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Then our fan base. 

Our fan base came loud and proud. They did not take a week off. The student section was very impactful during pregame warmups and all the way through the game. 

The guys played really hard. So many guy played a big role in this game. It seemed the wealth was spread around offensively and defensively. I feel JT played with a high-level of confidence, the guys around him played good and we got the ball to our playmakers. They did a good job doing that. 

Pod is a great kicker and it was great getting him back on track in the second half and I’m proud of the guys. 

But we’ve got to get better. We’re not where we need to be. We did not play as well defensively tonight as we have in the past we will continue to improve.”

On the end to the first half, getting five points quickly

“Situational football is critical. We work on those situations every Thursday and I was proud of our execution. No. 1., they stopped us and that cannot happen. We cannot not have an opportunity. He took the timeout which told me he was going to try and not let the clock run out. Ameer Speed and Camarda started that whole thing with downing the ball inside the 1, which is just elite. We practice that really hard. We practice that all camp, and Ameer made a huge play, Jake made a huge play and the defense made a huge play, and the special teams made a big play. 

Then, we were able to save our timeouts and it was really big to get those pass plays to set up the field goal. I thought it was really a really good sequence to steal five points.”

On balancing taking what’s given and passing game being stronger

“It’s not that we’re taking what they give us, I just think we’re better right now with timing, throwing the ball, spacing and routes. I thought we actually ran the ball better. We rushed for 184 and it didn’t see like we struggled running as much as we did last week against UAB. Statistically, I was proud of our ability to run the ball. I thought our backs made some people miss, so I’m not down on the run game tonight. I thought we improved. I do think the timing and the pass pro was good, but to be an elite team, we’ve got to be good at both.”

On Stetson Bennett coming into the game, thinking behind that

“Yeah, to be honest with you, JT was not 100 percent all week. He practiced all week but he didn’t necessarily go with the ones the whole time. We didn’t know he was going to be able to go on Monday and we thought Stetson really practiced well and he and JT rolled all week.

We told them, I guess it was Thursday or Friday, we called them in and said, ‘hey look, you’re both going to play. We think JT is healthy enough to go but we’re going to play you, Stetson.’

It’s an unfortunate deal. Brock’s (Bowers) route was a little shallow and he probably shouldn’t have thrown it there. He threw it a little high, it sailed on him, and it got picked. Unfortunate for Stetson but he did have a good week of practice.

I’ve said it all along, and I continue to say it and stand by it, I have a lot of confidence in our quarterbacks — a lot of confidence in our quarterbacks. I can’t say that I’ve ever had as much confidence in three or four guys that I’ve ever had. Stetson earned that right and it just didn’t work out.”

On Nolan Smith’s performance

“He’s a great leader, one of the hardest workers. I’ll reserve judgement on how he played just off those two plays until I see the tape but he’s an extra-effort, get-after-it, positive leader. He impacts the game. Tonight, those two plays, that sack-fumble and safety were humongous plays in the game.”

On how much Georgia’s pass rush is affecting QBs

“I guess you’d have to ask them. A lot, I would think but our guys get off and pass rush and there’s a lot of detail that goes into that. The amount of time Tray Scott and (Glenn) Schumann and Dan (Lanning) and all the defensive guys spend on creating rush, right. Creating… It’s not just one-on-one, I beat my guy. It’s games, it’s twists, it’s stunts. It’s knowing when it’s a pass, when it’s a run. When I can take advantage of things. There’s a lot things our linebackers call to our front to get them in pass rush mode and when they’re in pass rush mode, they’re pretty good. I know it affects quarterbacks but I thought Luke (Doty) did a good job. He’s a really good athlete. He moved around, he made some plays with his feet, he bought time. He hurt us with some throws.”

On what would keep him from being satisfied

“Just execution of players. There’s things you work on during the week and then there’s things you work on that they just beat you sometimes. You get beat one-on-one, I’m not going to lose my sleep over that. They threw some one-on-one balls and beat us. But you don’t execute when a coach tells you what play is coming on third down and you show them the play and say, ‘they’re about to run this’ and they run it and you don’t stop it, that’s disheartening. On offense, when you turn the ball over three times. We will not be a successful team if we turn the ball over three times. I don’t care if we get three. We can’t throw two interceptions and fumble one and beat good football teams. That’s a fact. That will keep me from being satisfied or pleased.”

On players making an immediate impact, Adonai Mitchell

“It’s the way of college football now. A lot of good players leave after their junior years, and lot of freshmen come in early. Both those guys really aren’t freshmen. They were here all spring, so I look at them very different. They got a lot of confidence in the spring, they got routes, they practice really hard, they go against a really good defense every day. So AD Mitchell and Brock have competed at a high level, and they’ve earned that right. A great man and good friend, who passed last week, used to say to me, ‘If you’re good enough, you’re old enough.’ That’s compliments of my man Trevor Moawad who lost his battle with cancer. He meant so much to me personally, meant a lot to a lot of coaches. I spent a year at Miami (Dolphins), nine at Alabama and four or five at Georgia with Trevor. It just touches my heart and soul thinking about the lives he touched. That was something he used to say all the time. ‘If they’re good enough, they’re old enough,’ and they are.”

More on Mitchell

“He’s talented, he’s learning how to work. It’s very similar to Jermaine Burton. Jermaine Burton was a talented receiver last year that we felt like would get better the more he played. AD’s got a lot of parts of his game to work on. The physicality, but he does run routes, he does have elusiveness, and he has really good first step quickness. Our coaches felt like, ‘If we’re going to go where we need to, he’s got to play.’ He’s earned it, he’s made plays, he’s a good football player. As he’s earned that, he’s made our team better. I’ve got to say, Marcus Rosemy and Justin Robinson and a lot of those other guys, Ladd McConkey and Jaylen Johnson, they have done really critical good work, and they’ve gotten better. Marcus caught a ball tonight and turned and burst down the field. But AD has improved a lot too. As long as those guys are healthy and getting better, we’ve got a chance to be a successful team.”

On the state of college football, parody’s impact on Georgia

“I hadn’t seen any scores. I was asking on the way over here, ‘Who won the Penn State-Auburn game?’ I didn’t know. It’s a weird year, not necessarily the Clemson score or Alabama — playing at Florida’s a tough place to play — it’s just a different feel to it. There’s so many teams that I know are talented — and I’m not talking about those teams — but they lose to somebody that I’m like, ‘Man, they have no business losing to them.’ Or upsets, they seem to be more prevalent. And we’re not immune to that. We’re trying to heighten our awareness to the standard. ‘Hey, can we play to this standard all the time, or are we going to go out there, be flat and not play to our standard?’ It’s hard when you’re dealing with 18, 19, 20, 21 year olds because they start reading these things and believing it. I’m warning our guys all night, ‘Hey look, you played well tonight, but let’s be honest, we’re on this trajectory and we’re trying to climb this thing, on this flight we’re trying to take off. Wheels up. We’re getting there, we’re not at the highest altitude yet.’ What can we do to avoid that? But I see it, I see it every week in college football and we try to bring that to our guys’ attention.”

On Georgia’s pass rush tonight

“I have to watch the tape and see. I think our guys are great get off guys but I do think teams are going to scheme us up a little bit. They’re going to chip us, they’re going to seven-man protect. When you seven-man protect it is hard to beat it. Some of our sacks have been coverage sacks but tonight, they had a nice plan, they got the ball out quick and made it simple for the quarterback. They beat us 1-on-1 some so when you lose 1-on-1, you can lose some third downs. We won a couple of those third downs but it’s a worse situation for them. They were able to extend drives and do it. I don’t know how we improve it but I can assure you, our coaching staff will never rest. When you’re ripe you rot, when you’re green you grow. And by god, we’re going to stay green and keep getting better. “

On busts in the secondary

“Well it’s not just Ameer (Speed). It’s other guys. DK got one. He (Josh Vann) went up and got one over top of him. Kamari (Lassiter) got one. They hit an over route on Lewis, it came back being incomplete but they had him. It was not just Ameer, it was several guys. Josh Vann had a good night for them and hey, we’re going to face guys like him every week, every week. You got to play with great technique. I don’t care what your pass rush is, it’s not getting there before that ball is up. That ball is caught, catch throw. We can’t protect guys all game. We got to play one-on-one. If you want to be a good defense, you better be able to play man to man. That’s the No. 1 quality. Right now, we had some shots tonight that they got on top of us. We have to improve. We got to grow and develop some younger players. “

On success converting third downs

“Impressive. On that one drive, I don’t know if it was three or four third downs, but our offensive line picked things up, Kenny McIntosh stepped up and hit a guy right between the eyes on a blitz. They went soft zone, they went max blitz, they did it all and we converted on each one. When you’re efficient on third down, you are hard to beat. You are hard to beat. It’s so frustrating for a defense to get to third and 6, third and 5, third and 4 and you keep converting. Because then you end up hitting an explosive. I was proud of the ability to function and convert by our offense. It takes more than a throw and a catch, there’s a lot of protection in there. “