WATCH: Kirby Smart talks Georgia improvement before SEC title

ATHENS, Ga. — For the second time in less than 24 hours, Kirby Smart addressed the media about Georgia’s upcoming SEC Championship matchup with Texas. The Bulldogs take on the Longhorns Saturday in Atlanta in a rematch of their meeting earlier this season in Austin, a 30-15 UGA win.

Smart spoke on a number of topics including how he and his staff are approaching facing a team for a second time – something he’s done twice in his time at Georgia – the challenges Texas presents and much more about his Bulldogs. DawgsHQ was on hand and has a full transcript, plus video, shared with you below…

Kirby Smart Opening Statement…

“Yep, we’re on to Texas, got started on these guys yesterday. Obviously, we had the teleconference, I guess, so you guys know that already. Sark’s done an unbelievable job, first year in our conference. I don’t know why I feel like they’ve been in the conference forever because of them playing the playoffs last year and they had the series with Alabama. You’ve seen them on tape, and their team is built like an SEC team. He’s done a tremendous job. Their defense is one of the best in the country. They’ve got explosive skill players, did a tremendous job in the portal. The quarterback’s playing at a high level, and they’ve replaced a big group of backs. The backs they’ve got are doing a great job. All in all, it should be an exciting, challenging SEC Championship.” 

Smart on where Georgia and Texas have improved since the first meeting…

“I don’t know how to answer that. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we played them. I guess it was October, mid-October or so that we played those guys. There are areas that we have played better in and then areas that we haven’t. It’s almost gone both ways in terms of we’ve had games we played better in certain areas and then games we didn’t play better in certain areas. Offensively, we didn’t run the ball real well against these guys. We kind of succeeded off of their mistakes, their turnovers, and we scored points off of their turnovers. But we’ve played well offensively at times since, and we’ve played well defensively at times since, but we’ve also not put a complete game together. That’s probably what we’re trying to do best now is play our best when our best is needed. As far as them, they’ve improved in a lot of ways. I think defensively they’ve been at a high level the entire year. I think offensively they’ve run the ball. They’ve committed to run the ball, being really physical. They’ve had 30 and 40 carries, runs in several games and a commitment to that and a physicality while also being able to throw the ball really efficiently. They’ve got the weapons to do both.”

Smart on the challenges of playing a team for the second time…

“They’re the same challenges they were the first time you played them. I’m a big guy of statistics and philosophies and things like that. In the NFL, you play everybody in your division twice, and then you might meet up with them again in the playoffs. So when you flip a coin, there’s no greater chance that it’s heads or tails the second time you flip it. I’m not comparing our game to a coin flip. I’m just saying that the previous matchup does not determine this matchup. You can’t overstate that to your players because the flow of that game was different in the first three, four, five drives, and then after a turnover it went the other way a little bit. Momentum has swung throughout that game, and momentum is going to swing throughout this game. It’s just the way these games are. It’s more about who executes well, who tackles well, who doesn’t turn the ball over, and who has explosive plays. It’s the way it comes down to every game.” 

Smart on how he felt the defensive line played against Georgia Tech without Christen Miller…

“I actually was very pleased with our defensive line against Georgia Tech. I thought we struck, played blocks really well in a really tough situation. We had 16 second and longs. So if you told me before the game we were going to have them in the second seven plus 16 times, I would have thought that we did something really, really well. What we didn’t do was play real well on a couple of second and longs and a couple of the third downs, which really cost us. But the defensive line, we played more players there. We had to go into the well and play some younger guys, and they struck blocks and did some good things.”

Kirby Smart on the challenge of facing Texas’ offensive line…

“Yeah, it’s a different kind of challenge. They’re massive, extremely physical. You know, the Georgia Tech challenge was very different because it was like playing a Wildcat quarterback. They’re both definitely challenges, but these guys have a lot of weapons around the quarterback and they use all of them well.” 

Smart on Smael Mondon…

“Yeah, Smael’s been great. I thought he played one of his best games in his career against Georgia Tech in terms of physicality and sticking his face in the fan and striking blockers. He’s a really good athlete, really good space player, and he had a lot of tackle production, but he played really physical in this last game. I think he’s ascending right now in terms of his play speed, his instincts, his confidence, and that’s great because we want him to finish strong in his career here.”

Smart on Texas backup QB Arch Manning…

“As far as Arch goes, he’s what everybody thought he was. He’s athletic, smart, thick, a great thrower. He can run their entire offense while at the same time creating designed runs or off-schedule runs. Both are scary because designed runs with him are tough to defend because you’re having to defend the whole field, and then he’s also an elite thrower and passer. He’s a great player, and they brought him along the way. He’s gained confidence each and every week in the way he plays. He got to start some games. You couldn’t write a better story for him in terms of development to be ready to go and be the starter.” 

Smart on Cash Jones being a good third-down back…

“Experience. I think third down is a lot about what you’ve seen in your career. The biggest jump for a running back from high school to college is third down because you’re asked to do a lot of things in third down, more than you are first and second. Cash’s experience with his years here, he’s gone through three springs, four springs of third downs. He’s gone through four camps of third downs. He’s a tremendous athlete. He’s one of the best. He spent a year on the scout team as a receiver, guys. There’s clips of him running around out there against Kamari and Kelee Ringo going one-on-one at receiver, and he’s catching deep balls. So he’s like a jack-of-all-trades.”

Kirby Smart on the defense being so up and down this season and if he can identify why…

“No, I don’t know that I can. I do know that when we execute well, we play well. We have great resiliency, but the trait that confounds you or bothers you is that when something goes wrong. Like any explosive play or any penalty that extends the drive has almost been catastrophic. Like, we can’t stop anybody if that happens, and we have not overcome that well. 

What we have done is stop people when we’ve had to, played well in the red area. For a while there we played really well at third down, but you can’t put a finger on exactly what it was. If I could do that, then we’d certainly put a stop to it. But we’ve played well at times and we’ve tackled well at times, and then we haven’t at times, you know? We’ve had more injuries than we’ve ever had in terms of guys in and out, but we don’t use that as an excuse around here.”

Smart on Carson Beck maintaining consistency and not riding the wave of emotions… 

“I don’t really know how to answer that. I mean, I don’t know how I’ve seen that because he hasn’t, you know what I mean? Carson’s very consistent in his thought process, his makeup, his process. You have to judge whether he’s consistent on the field because I think he has been. I think people judge it on stats. They don’t judge it on what we see. The day-in, day-out process oriented of what he’s going through and what he’s doing for the offense has been very consistent.”

Smart on what he saw from Roderick Robinson and an update on Branson Robinson…

“Yeah, we’re hopeful to get Branson back and bring him back at the speed that he’s comfortable with and that he feels comfortable with. I thought Rod, I don’t know how many snaps he played, 25, 28 snaps, something like that for a guy that had not played tackle football in a long time. He got his first live action back, and he’s still gaining confidence. He’s still getting his play speed back. You can’t replicate what he did in the game in practice. We try to. He got good reps during the week. I thought he did a great job in pass pro, an area that he’s taken pride in, two-minute catching the ball. He’s just got to get back comfortable carrying the ball, running the ball, doing those things. He’s certainly very talented, and we hope that the longer he’s coming back, the more he gets back to 100%. I mean, he can’t just jump back out there and be 100%.”

Smart on if he would like to see more coaches on the committee and if he’d want Nick Saban on there…

“I don’t know. I don’t know the best [setup] because I don’t even know the makeup. Like, I don’t know the exact number of coaches versus administrators, who all’s in there or who should be. It’s not something that I concern myself with because I don’t have a lot of control over it. I certainly think that there’s people that can make that decision better than me who all needs to be on it. They have to have a regional representation. I think that’s important, but it’s not something that I’m focused on right now.”

Kirby Smart on how Dillon Bell felt coming out of the Georgia Tech game and what he brings to the offense when he’s healthy…

“Well, he adds toughness, experience, quickness. He’s got body quickness, ability to win one-on-ones. I think he came out of the game pretty healthy. I think it bothered him once, but it was good to get him out of it healthy because we need him to be healthy for this game.”

Smart on why Carson Beck is so good second half on… 

“Yeah, I don’t know how to answer that because I don’t separate it. I mean, the stats do, but the stats like. Stats are for guys that look at stats. I just look at what he does on the whole. Does he make the right decision? Does he make the right read? And that’s not separated by halves or quarters. I just think the process he goes about to do it is. 

You can make a case that we have not started fast and well. Is that Carson Beck’s fault? I can’t sit here and say that’s Carson Beck’s fault. I can say that Carson Beck is responsible, just like every quarterback is, for things, but there’s other things that affect that and are outside of his control. I think Carson Beck does a good job preparing for games. I certainly think throughout his high school career, going back to the playoff run he made at Mandarin when he led them to a state championship, which I think was his junior year, he played well in those games. He’s played well at the finish and the end of our games as well. I mean, he’s a clutch guy. He’s a competitor guy, but I’m not questioning his ability to play in the first half just because of sheer numbers.”

Smart on the confidence the Georgia defense gets from having that background of getting stops when it has to… 

“Yeah, I don’t think you lean on that. You need to play well throughout, right? You need to start fast. You need to get off the field and give our offense field positions. One of the things we haven’t done a good enough job this year on our defense is creating field position advantage for our defense. We’ve had a lot of stops where we catch a ball on the 10-yard line, they start there, or we give up a field goal. And that’s great, but that’s not what we want to be. We want to stop people and force them to have to throw long third downs and then get the ball back to their offense. I don’t think you can say we’re confident that we can stop them when we have to. We need to be confident that we can stop them.”

Smart on calling timeouts in overtime against Georgia Tech and co-DC Travaris Robinson’s input on this year’s defense…

“No, T-Rob does a great job. He and Donte (Williams) both do. They both are responsible for our secondary. They both, one works with the safeties, one works with the corners. But they provide a lot of help to Glenn in game plan, in-game adjustments. They’re both really good coaches and help out all our defensive staff pitches in in regards to that. 

And then the timeouts are more relative to whether or not you feel like you’re in a good call against a look. That could be offensively or defensively. You can’t take it with you, so it’s one of those that you use it if you think it’s an advantage.”

Kirby Smart on Syracuse coach Fran Brown, his message to him before Saturday game…

“His son and my son are really good friends. So they went to school together, played football together, and played basketball together. So they’re good buddies. It was the morning. We didn’t have a game. It was the morning before their game. And we just wished him luck and congratulations on a great season so far. That was the biggest thing.

Fran’s done a great job. Fran made me a better coach. Fran thanks me all the time for what Will (Muschamp) and I did for his career and spent time with him. But Fran did more for us than we did for him. He’s a great recruiter, great person. He taught me a lot about managing players, talking to players, coaching players. And then he learned a lot of scheme here. And he’s been around a lot of good coaches. It’s not like his first place around good coaches. He’s been a great man, father, husband, but also a great coach. I knew he’d make a great head coach. He said that was his goal when he came was I want to be a head coach. So we’ll work together. You help me and I’ll help you. Both of us held up our end of the deal. I’m so happy for him and not shocked at all. He’s hired a great staff. And Fran has that way with people. They like Fran. Those players are going to fight like hell for Fran.”

Smart on playing better around Carson Beck… 

“Well, everybody do their job beyond just receivers and catching balls. The number one way to get them to catch them is throw them more. So we’ve got to continue to show confidence, let those guys make plays. You help the quarterback with a better run game, which that might be some communication by Carson to them, who we’re working to, and some communication by the O-line. It might be reads by our backs. And our backs are running the ball better and seeing the holes and reading things better. We’ve got young backs who sometimes they – hey, they’re going to hit it. They’re going to run hard. But there’s more to a run game than just how hard you run. So there’s a lot of things, tight ends, making plays, which we’re able to do in some of the Tennessee game. It dictated that to us. And it’s not as simple as, well, we’ve got to target this guy more. We’ve got to target that guy more. A lot of our offense is full-field reads and it’s not predicated on who the ball’s going to. It’s predicated on who the defense is giving the most space to. And that’s probably the biggest thing is that I think guys have played well at times around him. And he’s got to play better. He knows that. And everybody on offense does, so does the defense for this game.” 

Smart on Texas coach Steve Sarkisian… 

“Yeah, his attack mode. He’s threatening you on the width of the field and the vertical part of the field. And now more than ever, the interior between the tackle and run game. So he’s going to challenge you in every facet of the game and create matchups through motions and orbits. He does a tremendous job of the use of his personnel while they’ve been successful.”

Don’t miss out on a BUSY week of Georgia Football coverage! Be sure to check out the DawgsHQ YouTube channel where you can find press conferences, player interviews, podcasts and more…