WATCH: Kirby Smart goes in-depth on Georgia pass catchers, Carson Beck and communication
ATHENS, Ga. — Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs are getting ready for a big one this week in Athens. They’ll head across state lines on Saturday to take on Alabama in Tuscaloosa, looking to secure a win over the Crimson Tide for just the second time in the last 10 matchups against the rival.
There’s no doubt it’s not been easy to walk out of a matchup with Alabama victorious. Smart’s done so once, hoisting a National Championship trophy at the end of that game. One thing that’s different now though: no Nick Saban.
The departure of Saban was well covered during Monday’s Georgia-Alabama media day with Smart. Tuesday, the topics were more focused on football. The leader of the Bulldogs shared a brief injury update, discussed the potential for changed plans to UGA’s travel schedule and much more. DawgsHQ was on hand for it all and has you covered with BOTH video and transcription of everything Smart had to say.
Kirby Smart Opening Statement
“Yeah, I was talking to Josh Brooks today and I wanted to acknowledge the University of Georgia again was recognized for U.S. news and world report’s in top public institutions in the country and the 2025 rankings came out and once again, for the ninth straight year, UGA was in the top 20 and actually moved up two spots to 18. That’s unbelievable to me that we’re blessed to have a university, to be part of a university that is one of the top public institutions in the country and consistently been in the top 20. So we sell that in recruiting hard. It certainly is a great academic institution, we’re blessed to be a part of it. So a lot of credit goes to our administration, President Morehead, our faculty, our students. It’s a really cool honor. So I want to recognize them and us for that. And I’ll open it up.”
Smart on practice this week…
“It’s good. You don’t ever have to worry about it all this week, you know. You’ve got to be careful not to leave it all on the practice field. That’s probably the biggest thing is holding guys back and making sure that they don’t overdo it. But spirited, get after it practice. As I said, you get these SEC rivalry games, it’s not a motivation issue.”
Smart on bad weather affecting the travel and the game…
“As I understand it, and we’ve been following it, watching it with the SEC office and our in-house people at Delta, it looks like it’s trending more and more eastward, which may affect us, but less and less effect towards the game. My biggest concern is the travel. And our travel arrangements, being able to get there in a convenient way is my concern.”
Smart on preparing for and simulating Jalen Milroe in practice…
“Yeah, if you could simulate this guy then he would be in transfer portal somewhere. He would be playing, you know, like he would be on a team somewhere playing because there is no simulation. I think that’s the problem. He can go as fast backwards as he can go forward. I’ve seen him get out of jams straight ahead, backwards, elite quickness. You’ve seen him in person on the field. He’s very thick and very hard to tackle, but yet has a bazooka for an arm. So, I mean, there is no simulation. You can show pictures and you work really hard on tackling and we’ve done that for two weeks because when you’re tackling him, it’s like tackling a back.
I mean, it’s just hard to get on the ground and very elusive. So, there’s no simulation. There’s only pictures of the best job you can.”
Kirby Smart on Jared Wilson’s play so far this season, specifically in terms of communication…
“Yeah, he’s done a great job. He’s very intelligent. He understands. He did a great job last year. He studied, under Sed Van Pran. He picks things up. Carson does a lot of our communication as well as Jared. They share in it. Carson has the ability to override, but Jared and he are on the same page, so he’s doing a really good job.”
Smart on Carson Beck’s play through three games and where he wants to see improvement…
“I think he’s done a better job this year with his legs. He’s decided to run on multiple occasions when he’s needed to. I’m sure he would say he’d like to have some throws back, but three games in last year he felt the same way. There’s some throws he’d like to have back. I’ve seen a lot of Carson to know that he’s in a good head space. He’s a really good quarterback. Got a lot of confidence in him.”
Smart on if this receiving corps is greater than the sum of its parts…
“I mean, I wouldn’t say there’s the star power. Brock Bowers is not playing, you know? That’s pretty obvious. A second-round pick and a first-round pick are no longer in those roles. I don’t know that we have the depth because everybody we had now we had last year, and they played a different role last year. All the guys now, their roles have been elevated. We’ve got a lot of guys that can play moving parts. We had some additions, Colbie and London and some young guys come along — Ben. But it’s a different group. You’re a different team every year, you know? We lost something when we lost Darnell. We lost something when we lost Jordan and Devonte. You replace that and you try to make up for it in every area you can. You’ve got the players you got, and the ones we got I’m very pleased with. I’m happy with the guys we got. We got to do a good job executing with the ones we have.”
Smart on limiting explosive plays and the challenge of Alabama in that area…
“Well, it’s extremely challenging against Bama because every play is a ticking time bomb. They’ve got explosive playmakers in backs, receivers, and then a quarterback that can extend a play from against one team might be a four-second play is now an eight-second play. When plays go from four to eight, I mean, one of the most explosive plays in all of pro football the last couple years has been scrambles. Well, there’s going to be scrambles. Like, we can’t say, ‘Well, they didn’t prepare for the scramble. There’s not a real preparation you can do for that. It’s going to happen. It’s inevitable. It’s how you manage it, how well disciplined we play down the field with our eyes. There’s a lot of things that go into that. They are an explosive team. We have limited explosives, but when those two usually meet head to head, it can go both ways.”
Kirby Smart on when Kalen DeBoer came onto his radar…
“Yeah, I didn’t really know who he was until probably when Lanning went to Oregon, and I followed Dan a lot, and they had the big rivalry with them. Not really last year, but the year before, started following Dan, their season. I think that was maybe the year that we had played Dan, and they went on to play Washington, I think once that year and then twice the following year, and that’s when it started popping up on my radar. Washington historically was known for great defense way back when, and he changed that, not that they weren’t good on defense, they were good on defense, but he made them good on offense.
His record speaks for itself. Everywhere he’s been, he’s been successful. I think he’s very confident in what he does, in his organizational methods, and I think it takes that in the situation he’s in. In the situation he’s in, you got be pretty confident in your own skin to go in there and do things your way, especially with the record they’ve had. It seems like he’s done that without any issue or problem. I think the smartest thing he’s done, he hasn’t changed everything Offensively, they have some similarities, because they have the same quarterback. We’ll probably see a lot more wrinkles that they haven’t shown, but for the most part, they’ve kept some of the staples that they had last year, because it makes the quarterback confident.”
Smart on tight ends…
“Got good depth in that position. Oscar’s been a little in and out, beat up, but he’s practicing now, looking back. Lawson, obviously, with the injuries last year, Ben has come and given us a really big body type that can make some plays. And the two young guys are getting better. Those guys have filled in nicely, and we haven’t asked them to do a lot but they’re gonna have to continue to play and get better to get us where we want to go offensively.”
Smart on value of safeties that have played against Milroe…
“Well, I mean, it helps that Jalen Milroe has played against them, too. We got some guys in the secondary that haven’t played against him. So it takes great discipline against this guy, but it also takes discipline rush. It takes a defined plan. It takes 11 people, we call it rushing coverage, working together. You have to team up against this guy. It’s not gonna be one guy that stops him. It has to be an 11-person plan that tries to control.”
Smart on if he’s reached out to Dan Lanning to talk defending a DeBoer offense…
“Yeah, I mean, we do that with everybody that plays against him. We do it with Dan, too, but I mean, he didn’t have the most success either. So I mean, he’s had some tough games and some tough decisions against him and has a lot of respect for him, just like we do. But we did a lot of that in the offseason. I mean, you talk to him about your future opponents and share ideas on like opponents.”
Kirby Smart on thoughts behind his pregame speeches…
“Yeah, don’t really write much down. Just kind of think of things during the week, things that we did well, things that we can be really positive about and reassure them that they’ve checked that box and that list grows the closer we get to the game. My thoughts grow a little more the night before, but not like I sit down and do anything.”
Smart on injury updates for Mykel Williams, Warren Brinson and Jordan Hall…
“Yeah, Warren’s continue to practice, taking his rep load. Mykel has been able to do a little bit. I still don’t know the timeline on Mykel. He’s looked good running and taking some reps, some light reps, some rush reps, some stuff he did today. It’s his first day really getting out there and doing some things. But I haven’t talked to Ron, so I don’t know. I want to watch the tape and be able to see that. Jordan’s still pushing through. But yeah, feel good about Warren. Mykel is gonna be close, and Jordan is still trying to get into practice.”
Smart on Jalon Walker…
“Well, I mean, we have different roles for Jalon, and he’s very bright. He’s, ability to play stackbacker, or he can play outside back, or he can cover people, he’s a good athlete. How you get the most out of him, you play him, and you have different roles for him, so you’ve got different packages for him.”
