WATCH: Kirby Smart talks Georgia-Florida rivalry game

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia is back from its bye week, and attention is on to Florida. Kirby Smart knows the Gators have been playing their best ball, and his Bulldogs better be ready for anything – especially when it comes to this rivalry.

Monday saw Smart speak with members of the media mid-day. His interview was followed by a pair of players: Arian Smith and Chaz Chambliss. To check out what players had to say, be sure to head on over to the DawgsHQ YouTube channel. As for Smart, you can find a full transcript AND video below…

Kirby Smart Opening Statement

“Yeah, our guys got back for academics and everything last night, and we’ll start up today. We got a little work in last week on Thursday on Florida. I think they’re playing their best football. I think they have a really, really good roster. A lot of players we’ve recruited and recruited against them. But they’re playing their best football and obviously a talented group. Really a lot of great size across the front on the offensive and defensive lines. I think Billy (Napier) knows that’s where the key is in the SEC in terms of length and size. They play a lot of players on defense. They’ve had a lot of guys play up front. But the three losses have come to three teams that are ranked in the top 10 — at least I think they are. I don’t even know. But they’re really good teams, and they play those teams well. 

A lot of respect for Billy. He and I have worked together before. I think he’s building a really good program down there, and he is a tremendous football coach. He does not leave any box unchecked, I can assure you of that. And know a lot of their staff, so should be a great game in Jacksonville. It looks like it’s gonna be great weather. It’s always a really tough, hard-fought game. I think it’ll be one of the most physical games we play all year.”

Smart on how Florida’s offense has evolved with DJ Lagway and Lagway’s play so far… 

“First off he’s a tremendous talent. His arm talent and arm strength itself is elite. He has great size. He can make all the throws. He’s got a couple of really wow throws. I think for his age and experience he’s ahead of his time in terms of his pocket movement and management. A lot of freshmen abort the pocket and run out of it. He does a good job stepping up through it, and he’s made several plays where he trusted the pocket and steps up and makes really good throws. He threw the deep ball really well, obviously, last game against Kentucky. 

It’s not so much the change. Obviously, he has a running ability, but Graham (Mertz) is a good athlete too. It’s not a huge change between the two in terms of what they ask him to do. I think he’s capable of making explosives, and they’ve got the extra element in the quarterback run when they need it. They don’t do it a ton, but when they need it, he can do it. He’s large. I mean, he’s big. He’s hard to tackle.”

Smart on any word back from the SEC on appealing the targeting penalties from the Texas game… 

“Yeah, I’m not really focused on that today. I mean, I’m not really worried about it. I mean, it is what it is right now. Our guys are trying to get ready for Florida, and we’re going to prepare to play Florida.”

Smart on Florida running back Jadan Baugh…

“Yeah, I’ve known Jadan a long time. He’s a tremendous talent, great athlete. Saw him his ninth-grade year here in our 7-on-7 camp, and what a great athlete he was then. He was playing safety and knew he would grow into something. He was a big kid then, but he’s gotten so much better. He’s explosive, he’s twitchy, hard to tackle. He runs physical. He had a great year, but he had a great game against Kentucky with the opportunities he got.”

Kirby Smart on how he answers when asked ‘What’s wrong with Carson Beck?’…

“Yeah, I don’t answer it, because I don’t think anything’s wrong with him. He hasn’t played perfect, but nobody does.

I’m very comfortable with where Carson is in terms of his leadership, his practice habits, the things we’re asking him to do. I think he’s doing a good job of those.”

Smart on what areas Beck can improve…

“Well, I think he’s gonna own that regardless. If you ask a kid that, they’re gonna say that he does need to play better. We need to coach better, we need to execute better. We need the people around him to play better. That’s the ownership that a quarterback takes, and I wouldn’t expect him to answer any questions like that any other way.”

Smart on Florida’s improvement…

“Well, I think they’re executing at a higher level. They’re making explosives, which those number one indicators to win/loss. They turning it over a little less. They played a really clean game against Tennessee at Tennessee, which we all know is a really hard place to play. And they’ve got more and more guys. I mean, some of their portal guys have stepped up and made more plays. So I’m very impressed with how they’re playing, playing more confidence to me on defense and really flying around.”

Smart on significance of potentially winning four in a row against Florida…

“No, I think it has no bearing on Saturday. I mean, each season is independent of the previous. We don’t get caught up in things like that. We’re trying to earn it each day.”

Kirby Smart on the most important rivalry in the Smart household growing up…

“It was by Bainbridge-Cairo. I didn’t know anything about college games. I didn’t know they existed. I didn’t, not until I was about a 10th grader did I worry about college. I was worried about making sure we had food on the table and we won the games we were supposed to win at the high school level.”

Smart on where Georgia-Florida stacks up with rivalries…

“They’re all dead even. They’re all at the very top.”

Smart on Trevor Etienne playing former team…

“Yeah, focus on the task, you don’t want to get caught up in emotions and be emotional. I don’t think that helps any. Dom’s gone through it with Missouri a couple times, and different players. That’s the best part of college football now. We’ve had kids go down there, so we don’t get caught up in it much. I mean, at the end of the day, what’s gonna make you play well? It ain’t worrying about that.”

Smart on Tate Ratledge…

“We’re hopeful. I mean, we think he’s gonna be able to give us something. He worked some last week, took some reps, did rehab over the weekend. Hopefully he’s raring to go. I mean, I know he wants to play in this game, it’s really important to him.”

Kirby Smart on what has allowed Etienne to be successful after transferring in…

“Well, he’s talented, he’s intelligent, he’s a level-headed kid, he’s a good leader, he’s a great kid. So I think those qualities help anybody play, but he’s older than a freshman. He came into a system that’s not that far off from the one he was in in terms of offense. Maybe different words, but a lot of the same plays. So I think he transitioned well.”

Smart on why there have been more close games in the SEC this year…

“Yeah, I don’t have a great explanation for that. I think there’s more talent in our league than ever before in terms of accumulation of talent, whether it’s from lower divisions, other teams. I mean, every time we play, they give me a sheet of the portals, and it seems to be more and more players from other conferences, or even our conference, that left and went to a team within our conference that we play. And the teams are better. I don’t know that teams have as much depth. I know we don’t. We don’t have as much depth as we’ve had in the past. So that depth is shared out, which may create some more parity there. I don’t know the exact reason for it. There is definitely not a large margin of separation, top to bottom in our league, probably the least it’s ever been since I’ve been in it.”

Smart on what the team accomplished during the bye week…

“Yeah, I think we got to look at ourselves. I think we got a lot of work for our younger players. I think we did a lot of targeted drill work, targeted things that we needed to work on specifically, offensively and defensively, situational football, that we really hadn’t gotten to do in the past couple weeks because it’s been so fast.”

Smart on his relationship with Mark Richt…

“Yeah, I initially got to know Coach Richt when he hired me and worked a year on his staff, and I’ve known him for a long time. Me and Katharyn and their family, and son Jon who is a quarterback coach and does a great job over at Prince. So they have a tremendous family, he’s a tremendous man, the support he’s shown for this community, and what he’s done for so many others. I mean, there’s so many lettermen that come back that played for him, that it’s important that we embrace them because I’m a letterman. I’ve come back here for years, and I want those guys that played for him to feel comfortable to come back home, and him being here helps that.”

Kirby Smart on sophomore OLBs Damon Wilson, Gabe Harris and Sam M’Pemba…

“Yeah, all three of those guys, they’re similar in the fact they play the same position. They’re different in their makeup and kind of their strengths. Each one has gotten better. I think Chidera’s done a great job developing those guys. We’ve seen Damon increase his role this year from last year and he’s continuing to get better. Gabe has given us a solid guy in some positions that we’ve struggled in. We’ve had some injuries at the positions Gabe’s been asked to play. And Sam’s continuing to develop. He probably had the furthest to go from a standpoint of he’d been an offensive player some of his high school career and was really just starting to play more and more on defense. But I’m pleased with all three of those guys.” 

Smart on Mykel Williams… 

“Well, Mykel is still not full, I mean, he wasn’t last week in terms of full strength and all the way back. I wanna be clear on that. I mean, I think people look at the output against Texas and think he didn’t play a lot of snaps. And he didn’t play probably the 100% role that he was playing against Clemson.

We think he’s gonna be much better this week. We did a lot of rehab with him last week, but I don’t know where he is. What does he allow us to do? He gives us depth, he makes everybody else better around him. He’s certainly a hard player to block, plays the run in pass well. So I’m happy to have him back. I just hope he is 100%.”

Smart on the pregame atmosphere…

“Yeah, it’s different, it’s a different vibe. It’s no relation to home or away, it’s just a different vibe. It’s a different fan base a little bit, it’s not a home field for anybody.

It’s more of an NFL-type feel to it because a lot of people don’t come in until kickoff, but that’s just more about managing it, it’s not a complaint. I mean, it’s just a fact.” 

Smart on keeping the team at a high level…

“I don’t know, I don’t know that we have peaked, I hope we haven’t. I think you’re constantly trying to get better, and that’s our pursuit of the best version of ourselves. And we haven’t reached that with this team, we haven’t reached our best. We’re trying to get better and ascend in every area and grow and create more depth. We’ve got opportunities to do that this week and weeks coming forward. But I’m not here to complain about the schedule.”

Kirby Smart on the developments of Chaz Chambliss and Arian Smith… 

“Yeah, I think it makes them who they are. They both overcome a lot of adversity. In Arian’s case, it’s been injuries. He’s had lots of injuries in his career. He’s worked really hard to create a role for himself. Whether it’s special teams, playing wide out, he’s just a hard worker. He comes to work every day and does it the right way.

Chaz is the same way, he embodies this program. He’s tough, he’s physical. Guys will tell you around the team, he’s not afraid of contact, he seeks it. And he’s led better this year than he ever has in terms of demanding excellence from the guys around him. I don’t think he was comfortable doing that prior to this year, but I’ve seen it come out more and more with him.”

Smart on what Smith brings to the offense… 

“Well, I think he brings consistency in terms of he’s been in the offense, he understands it. He has vertical speed. He’s become a much better route runner in his last couple years. And he’s worked hard to develop at that and grow at that. And I’m just really happy for him and pleased for him to keep working.”

Player Interviews (Oct. 28)