WATCH: Kirby Smart shares on Georgia's work during bye week

ATHENS, Ga. — Vibes in Athens are much better entering this bye week than they were the last. Rather than an ugly one-point win at Kentucky, Georgia is coming off of a road victory over previously top-ranked Texas on Saturday. The Bulldogs vaulted up to No. 2 in both the AP and Coaches Poll as a result with the release of the first College Football Playoff rankings still two weeks away. Still, there’s much Kirby Smart and company want to improve upon before the back end of UGA’s schedule.

Smart and a pair of Georgia players spoke with reporters Tuesday night – the only media availability of the bye week. They shared on what they want to see this week, looked back some on the last outing against Texas and more.

DawgsHQ was on hand to hear from Smart and shares with you BOTH a full transcript and video from the press conference below…

Kirby Smart Opening Statement

“Yep, we had a good practice today on ourselves and try to fix the target areas that we think we can get better at in terms of offense, defense, and special teams. We did some quality control work and then worked on some future opponents. And then we’ll take a day tomorrow and do a lot of the same. Ramp it up a little bit tomorrow and then get to work on Florida on Thursday.”

Smart on the feedback he got from the SEC on the targeting calls and what a defender is supposed to do when the ball carrier ducks his head…

“Yeah, not duck his head. I mean, that’s what the defender’s supposed to do. I mean, if that’s my son out there and he’s got the ball and he’s running the ball, I don’t want him ducking his head with the ball like their offensive player did. I certainly don’t want our defensive players ducking their head or the crown of their helmet being used. It’s very dangerous. 

I can’t get into the commentary, but both of those were really close, unfortunate, borderline situations because one came from an offensive player lowering his head and then Dan mirrored it. And then Joenel’s was really tough because he’s trying to avoid helmet-to-helmet. He’s trying to avoid going high, which most NFL offensive players would rather you hit them high than hit them low because their legs are their career. They’re tough calls in both situations, but everybody’s trying to work on the safety of the game. I mean, that’s the focal point.”

Smart on where he wants to see the secondary continue to grow…

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve been a work in progress. I don’t know if I can say how young we are, but we are new. We’re relatively new. We’ve got three guys that are starting in the NFL. Anytime you have three guys that are starting in the NFL, that probably means they played for you at least two years, and those guys all did. There’s a lot of growing up that’s had to be done back there, and they continue to work to get better. 

All you can ask your kids to do is work, compete, be competitive, be tough. And they do that, and I’m pleased with how hard they work and compete. We haven’t made some plays on the ball that I think could have rewarded us or maybe when offenses make mistakes we don’t capitalize on that mistake a la a dropped pick. That was my reference last week — mean, after the game. I think some people took it to be about the offense, but my comments were about the number of dropped picks we had in one game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that. That’s where you have to hurt teams. You have to turn those into turnovers, and when you don’t they’re just incompletions. We’ve got to play the ball down the field better.”

Smart on a Smael Mondon update… 

“Yeah, we’re hoping to get Smael back. Can’t wait to get him back. Hopefully it’ll be soon. He’s out there with us right now, and I don’t know when it’ll be.”

Kirby Smart on how KJ Bolden and JaCorey Thomas played…

“Well, KJ’s played all year. He’s rotated and played a significant amount of football. So we look at KJ as a starter, and he’ll be prepared to play. And Ja’Corey started and played against Clemson the whole game. So we’ve got other guys that are capable of other packages and things we can play. And we’ll have to rely on that to prepare.

But again, we’re not really worried about that right now. We’re worried about how do we block better, tackle better, cover better. So many things we can get better at, including those guys. Including the guys that may or may not be out, they’ve got to get better.”

Smart on the Peyton Woodring opening kickoff of the second half…

“We were not trying to do what we did. We know about the Oregon play. That’s usually a tactic you use after a 15-yard penalty, in which the ball would be kicked off from the 50, therefore recovered on the 35, maybe 37, but that’s not what we’re trying to do at all. And it was a failed attempt of something that we worked on, but it was not what we were trying to do. So it’s not worth elaborating on because we may play them again. So I don’t really want to explain it.”

Smart on which position group has gotten better since the last bye week…

“I think everyone’s grown. I mean, the experiences we’ve had since the last bye week have been on the road at Alabama, home games against two tough SEC opponents, on the road at Texas. I mean, it’s been a journey. And the next journey, I think, is five game stretch, if I’m not mistaken, and it’ll be a hell of a journey too, because every week is a season right now. And I’m proud of the guys working. I can’t single anybody out. I think a lot of guys have shown improvement.

Our outside of linebacker group we’ve got the production out of Damon, Gabe, and Jalon when he plays that spot. Chaz had some big plays in the game.

I thought those guys had really stuck out. But it’s hard to single out one group.”

Smart on the fourth-quarter drive to score against Texas…

“Yeah, that was special. I told them after the game, the one thing that this offense has shown, and outside of at times being inconsistent, it’s some unbelievable resilience. When you think about the games we’ve been in, that we had to respond to a score. It seems like every time the second half somebody scores, they respond. I feel like that happened in Auburn, I feel like that happened in Mississippi State. I know it happened in Alabama, because it was the entire second half. So they show great resilience, and that is a quality, although there are higher ranking qualities possibly, that is a very high-ranking quality that not all teams have. And I don’t like the back against the wall mentality that you come out fighting, because I don’t like to play with my back against the wall. I want to start aggressively and attack. But there’s times where you lose momentum, and you have to respond to that. And they have been very good at that.” 

Kirby Smart on if the guys who got ejected will be available for Florida and how the appeal process works…

“I’ll be honest with you, I’d rather not talk about it. So I mean, it’s one of those things that I don’t really know the process, to be honest with you. So, we’ll see how it goes.”

Smart on Glenn Schumann and his wife having a baby last week and the job he did handling that… 

“Yeah, he did a tremendous job. I think the first thing as a coach, you don’t plan to have a baby in season. So that’s the first mistake you make is that. You gotta get your priorities in order when you do that. But it’s also his third. So she, Lauren’s an incredible coach’s wife. She does a tremendous job supporting him and his players. And she’s a wonderful mother and a great wife. She was at Alabama with Glenn and I and worked there in the football office. And she does wonderful things for the players and does so much. And she’s done a great job with her kids. We knew it was around that time. He said he was going to have a plan for it, and he executed the plan to a T. So he didn’t miss a beat. He got things set up where everything can go down Wednesday after practice, which we go home then. He was back in work Thursday morning at 7 o’clock with a smile on his face and a baby born, and he did everything he needed to do to not really miss a beat. I mean, we have guys miss all the time. Our special teams coordinator, Kirk Benedict, just had a baby as well right after the Texas victory. So he planned his a little better for the bye week.”

Smart on Chris Cole…

“First off, if you want to say the player that’s made one of the biggest jumps, going back to your question, Chris Cole has made, from the time he arrived to now, he has improved immensely. He and Justin Williams are so high character and toughness and intangibles. They almost compete against each other and drive each other off the scales in terms of competitiveness and doing things right, no matter who’s watching. And I think that’s a really good trait for young players to be like, it really doesn’t matter who’s watching, I’m going to always do it right. That’s Chris Cole and Justin Williams. But Chris has put himself in a position because he has really elite speed and flexibility to be able to cover and he’s got great length. And I think Schumann did a great job identifying those two guys as high character, high intangible players. And Chris has helped us, he’s gotten smarter and smarter. And the Smael situation has afforded him that opportunity. He and JaCorey have played in that role some in third down.” 

Smart on the drops, how you coach improving that area…

“You know, I think you have to be careful. You have to ask yourself why. You go through them, watch them and you try to analyze it. You want to create confidence. You want to create an environment of learning and teaching. I thought Coley did a good job talking to them and explaining to them that I think we’re second in the SEC in passes per game so we must have hellified confidence in them if we’re second in passing attempts per game in the league.

So we do have tremendous confidence in them, the backs, and the tight ends, and we’re going to continue to do that. I don’t think you can beat a good football team if you can’t throw and catch the ball. We have a guy that’s a weapon. There are a lot of teams out there in the country that wish they had a quarterback that could put them in the right play and has the ability to fix the protection and has the ability to get the ball to the right guy efficiently. So I know a lot of receivers want to play with a guy like that.”

Smart on Brett Thorson…

“He flipped the field great the other night. It wasn’t so much the distance and the hang, which both were elite, but the ball placement. When you put somebody on the sideline, there’s only one way to go on the sideline. He did a tremendous job of directional kicking and placing their returner, who we thought was really good, in tough spots. He was clutch, and I thought he did a great job.”

Kirby Smart on Tate Ratledge…

“Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of hard work. I mean, he could be one of the toughest players I’ve ever been around. You don’t question his toughness. He had a very significant tight rope injury. I mean, to the point, it was more significant than Brock’s, and he is fighting his way back.

I mean, he wasn’t ready to play, but he was an emergency guy that could have gone in the game if he needed to. We’re hopeful he keeps getting better. I know it’s not going to be because he doesn’t work hard.”

Smart on Trevor Etienne…

“Well Trevor didn’t do that by himself. There would be a lot of people that would admit that no running back runs on the number one defense in the country by himself. Somebody’s out there blocking, somebody’s cracking people, somebody’s taking on hits. So he had tremendous help, but he did a great job.

I mean, he has been a bright spot, especially off the field, like energy, enthusiasm, leadership. I mean, he cares about those linemen. He does things for them that are just, we haven’t had guys run here do that. And he was big the other night for us. He made some really big cuts and runs and exploded through the line. It gave us a weapon that we needed.”

Smart on Oscar Delp…

“Yeah, Oscar’s one of the best blocking tight ends in the country. He works really hard. He’s a tremendous kid. I think he would tell you he’s left some plays on the field that he would wish he could have back, but he made the most of those. And that’s what you’re judged on, is your competitive character for the next play. He made that play and continued to do it and hopefully will get a bigger role in passing game as we keep going down the road.”