WATCH: Kirby Smart shares on ups and downs of Georgia win over Mississippi State

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia head coach Kirby Smart watched his team win 41-31 over Mississippi State on Saturday. UGA jumped ahead 27-10 in the first half, led 34-10 early in the third quarter and looked like it was cruising to a victory. Then, the opponent came a comeback effort.

There were ups and there were downs. He was happy about some things and disappointed in others. Smart assesses it all in his postgame press conference.

DawgsHQ was on hand to hear what the ninth-year head coach had to say. We share a full transcript and video of Smart’s comments for you below…

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Kirby Smart Opening Statement…

“I was really impressed with our fans. I thought they really helped us. When we came out for kickoff, I thought there was great energy and we needed that. We obviously needed it throughout the game. I think it affected them. A couple of delayed games, a couple of procedural penalties, which were big, could have been the difference in the game. We certainly helped them, too, with some dumb, dumb, dumb penalties. We gifted them basically 14 points on two error plays, and then we gifted them three first downs. I think they were third and longs, which I’ve never been a part of that, not since I’ve been in Georgia, where it was like, it’s hard to say undisciplined because the guy’s trying to rush the passer. He puts his hand on the face mask, and that basically gives them another touchdown. So we got 14 points gifted to them. 

Our offense got on rhythm, did a really nice job with pass pro. Carson was in rhythm, which was great to get those guys going. But we’ve got to continue to get better at frustrating some of the things, the secondary, 50-50 balls. I don’t think we’ve won one, maybe one 50-50 ball out there on the perimeter. We worked really hard on that and give them credit. They got some good wide outs, and I thought their quarterback gained confidence throughout the game. He made some plays. Early, he struggled, and as the game went on, he made some throws that were good throws, and they beat us on them. So, with that, I’ll open it up. 

Smart on the final touchdown drive for the offense, 16-play march to the end zone…

“Yeah, I went over and challenged them (offensive line), actually, before that. I said, look, guys, we’re struggling right now. We’re out of rhythm on defense. They’ve thrown some balls up, made some plays, and to be honest with you, we need you to take it over. We need you all to go out… It was more than just them because there was tight end receivers blocking, Carson milking the clock. I think there were a couple passes on that drive. I’m not sure. I feel like we got a couple third down conversions, but we were able to run the ball when we had to run the ball, and we were able to throw and catch the ball pretty successfully tonight, which is a good sign for us because we need some explosive plays, and I thought that our offense was able to do that tonight with some deep balls.”

Smart on if they’re more comfortable throwing it than running it… 

“I don’t know. It’s a little bit what the defense does, but, like, we do run it well at times, but nobody runs it… Just show me a team that runs the ball really well in the SEC. I don’t think that exists. You know, I can’t sit here and say, I mean, Vandy does. They have an offense that’s very different in terms of running the ball. So you run the ball to prevent turnovers. You run the ball to keep people from pass rushing all the time, to keep people honest. I do think we left some plays out there in the run game, and that’s getting to be, like, frustrating because there’s a couple plays where the ball’s going to spit and we throw it out of the RPO.You know, it’s like we hit four yards on the RPO, but the run would have hit the 50. You know, and it’s ifs and ands in a lot of those things. I think at least with where we are in terms of throwing it, we had some good timing passing it today.”

Smart on the Carson Beck-Arian Smith relationship…

“Shoot, how many years have they both been here? Five for both of them? They’ve known each other for a long time. They throw. We work a lot of timing routes on Monday The receivers don’t do conditioning, they go throw with Carson, and they get their running through their long, extended bombs and comebacks and deep routes. I thought that the last year or four weeks, that’s really helped Arian and Carson in terms of throwing vertical balls.”

Kirby Smart on lessons that carry over to Texas…

Lessons? I don’t know that much of it carries over to Texas. You know, defensively, you can’t give people things. I mean, we literally gave 14 points. I’m not talking about the 4th & 2  that we don’t cover the guy in the flat. I’m saying they earned that. But we gave 14 points. We gave up two back-to-back wheel routes in the first half, and then we gifted them one on three third-down conversions in the second half. So, you take 14 points off the board, you feel a little better, and there’s still things that they did to frustrate us, and they did a nice job.”

Smart on the severity of Branson Robinson’s knee injury…

Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s real serious. I think it’s an MCL, knee. You know, those are sprains, but I don’t know that for sure. So, I don’t know how serious it is. I don’t have the MRI results yet.”

Smart on KJ Bolden interception, first of his career…

“It was great. Right before the half, we weren’t able to do much with it. You know, it was one of those things, I think it was third down, so it was going to bring up fourth. It would have been a lot bigger if we could have stolen one of those early in the first half or stopped one of those drives with a turnover. Or the 4th & 2 we should have leverage on the back, and we don’t cover the back. Those would have been a lot bigger plays, but it was a great play for him. It shows his athleticism. You know, he’s made a lot of those plays with range in the middle.”

Smart on what exactly happened where the defense gave up the 14 easy points…

“Two of ’em were eye-control plays where a guy was running at me, and I — you know, they just ran right by us. It’s like they didn’t beat us. We gave them two plays. The play down our sideline and then the touchdown. And then the other drive was the third downs. There’s two third downs on that one drive. I mean, we’re off the field, and we have, I don’t want to say undisciplined penalties, but they’re just bad timing on them.”

Kirby Smart on anything the secondary can do better on those 50-50 balls… 

“Yeah, we work really hard on 50-50 balls. The way we play defense, we don’t give up any short, intermediate passes. We challenge people historically here, so if you’re going to hit balls on us, it’s usually shots, and if you miss those you’re in long yardage all day. If you hit those, then you’re explosive. And they hit some, but we work on them all the time just like they do, you know? They missed some, too. They threw some just like where you’re like, ‘Where’s he throwing that ball?’ He’s throwing the ball deep and he missed the guy, but they made some. And that hurt us.”

Smart on whether or not Georgia planned on targeting the tight ends more in this game…

“I don’t even know what the targets were. We don’t go to the game, Marc, and say, ‘We’re going to target tight ends this game.’ I think that’s what a lot of people think. You go to who’s open, you go where the coverage dictates. But it was not like a scripted, planned deal.” 

Smart on what Anthony Evans did to earn more playing time and how he performed…

“I thought he’s had two good weeks of practice. We tried to play him more last week in opportunities, and he went in and had a penalty, and then, you know, we didn’t get a chance to play him as much. But he’s had two of the really solid weeks of practice, continues to get confidence, grows. He’s made plays down the field. And I thought Mike and the offensive staff did a nice job of, you know, we’ve got to find more weapons to help us. We’ve got to find more explosive guys to help us, and he had some nice plays. He had some juice during the the week, so we thought let’s give these guys some touches.”

Smart on Trevor Etienne’s second effort on the fourth-quarter TD…

“Yeah, that was a huge play in the game. I mean, I give him credit, but I think there was some more help there. I mean, I saw a replay of it, so I don’t know if it was all of his effort, but it was the effort of the total group.”

Kirby Smart on how much confidence this win gives Georgia going into Texas…

“Well, it depends on what area. You know, throwing the ball or catching the ball. And, you know, Texas is not – Texas is a different team than Mississippi State. They have different structure, they have a different quarterback, different wideouts. I mean, it’s not the same offense or defense. I would have felt a lot better if the 14 points we gave them we didn’t give them. I think it could build some confidence, but we didn’t finish the game the way I would like to. That’s certainly the case.” 

Smart on Jared Wilson availability…

“We felt like he could be the backup today. So if something had happened to Drew, we felt like he could go in and play. Last week, we weren’t able to do that, so there’s progress. But he’s frustrated. You know, it’s been tough because you’re sitting over there with some of the best leaders we’ve got, Jared Wilson, Tate Ratledge, Smael Mondon, Mykel Williams, who’s – he’s playing at about 80, 85 percent, I don’t know how many snaps he played tonight. Jordan Hall. I mean, some of our best alpha leaders are cheerleaders. And that’s tough. We’ve got to try to get those guys back.”

Smart on team’s response to leaders being out…

“Next man up. I mean, the team, they don’t faze them. I mean, it’s just – it tears into your depth. You know, you’ve got more young guys playing.”

Smart on Tate Ratledge recovery…

“Yeah, he’s much closer. He’s running. He’s on dry land running, pushing it. You know, he’s got a custom-made brace. And we keep hoping he gets better.”

Smart on making contact with the Mississippi State quarterback…

“No. I think I was going after Schumann. I was trying to get Schumann’s attention. We were trying to change personnel. I think it’s the play they came over to our sideline. And I’m trying to get Schumann’s attention. But, no, I don’t really remember it.”

Kirby Smart on Alabama game preparing you for the Texas environment…

“Oh, similar environments? Yeah. I don’t know. That’s one place I’ve never been. I mean, I’ve been, but I’ve never been for a game. I’ve been there to meet with their staff like years ago. But I don’t know. I mean, I know it’s the SEC environment. I know it’s a top-10 matchup. I mean, you’re talking about powerhouse programs. So, at least we played at Kentucky, which was really hard. We played at Alabama, which was really hard. And so we’ve got some experience in that environment. But it’ll be a road environment.”

Smart on how the team fared “cutting it loose”…

“Good at times, poor at times. I can say the same thing every week. Nobody plays a perfect game. You have to accept that. But it’s frustrating because I thought there was a moment in time in that game where we had cut it loose. I think maybe 27-10. I don’t remember what the number was. And I was like, man, we’ve got this thing rolling. We’re getting after it, playing good. We played great run defense, which we thought they would shrink the game and run the ball and be really stubborn with the run. And when they said, OK, this kid can throw it, let’s air it out. And when they started doing that, they had a little more success and got it back in the game.”

Smart on how much the team has prepped for Texas…

“Yeah, no preparing for Texas. We’ve been preparing for Mississippi State. Even in the off week, I mean, we go all the way back. How many games have we played since off week, four? I don’t remember how many it’s been. But, you know, we’ve just been working on us, trying to get better. So we’ll start on Texas tomorrow and start trying to get prepared for those guys.”

Smart on Arian Smith making plays after early drops…

“That’s great. It shows how much he’s grown up. I think those things would have affected him two, three years ago. But now I feel like the kid’s grown over it, you know, grown out of it. The first one was tough, should have caught it. You know, the one down in the end zone, I thought he made a great effort trying to catch that one. It was a tough catch. Then he came back and made some tough catches. So I was really proud of him.” 

Kirby Smart on how much Carson Beck has grown as a leader…

“Well, he’s experienced. You know, the game gets a little tight there, two-score game. And he’s cool. He’s not panicked, takes us on a long drive. I think he continues to show. He’s got poise in his pocket. I thought he took off and ran at good times. I mean, he did some good things and made some good throws. And he’s affected our team in a positive way more this year than he has this past.”

Smart on Ellis Robinson… 

“He’s had the two best weeks of practice that he’s had. I thought that with the week against Auburn, he really started, like, you can hear him talking in walk-throughs. You can hear him communicating. You see him doing things. And then he had a good week this week in practice.

He got better. He competed. He did some good things. And you see him understanding the defense. I mean, this offense was very different. So had it been a traditional offense, he probably would have played earlier in the game. But they have really wide splits. We had to make different checks. They do hurry up. It makes it really tough on communication when you play that kind of game against people. But I am proud of him and his growth, how much he’s gotten better. Wish we could have got him in the game earlier.” 

Smart on the TV show being shot at halftime… 

“I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re talking about…  “No, I didn’t see him (Glen Powell).

Smart on finding out who Miley Cyrus was..

“Yeah, my kids made fun of me for that one. They got all embarrassed because I didn’t know who that was.”