WATCH: Kirby Smart's Full Post-UAB Press Conference

Opening Statement:

“I want to open with thanks to our fans. What a tremendous fanbase we have. They turned out, and I thought it was really awesome. It was an incredible atmosphere to go out and play in, and you don’t realize what you’ve got until it’s gone sometimes. I certainly missed that. I’d like to take an opportunity to thank all the men and women who’ve served this country and honor those who lost their lives on 9/11. It sounds like they had a tremendous presentation out at the game today, and that moment always sticks with me. I had someone text me today and say ‘Hey, do you remember where you were when 9/11 occurred? We were at Valdosta State watching film.’ Man, that was a long time ago. The people who lost their lives over the last 20 years serving this country, it means a lot, certainly to the University of Georgia, our team, my family for all the people who served. With that, thanks.”

On starting Stetson over Carson and JT’s status:

“JT got better as the week went on. We didn’t really know anything was wrong on Monday. He took most of the reps and was fine, but it was bothering him some. As the week went on, Tuesday it bothered him more. Today, he was better than he was earlier this week. Today was the first time he’d gotten to throw some balls down the field in warmups, and we hope he continues to improve.”

“The decision to go with Stetson, we’re really young offensively, and we have a lot of guys who are injured or out, whether it’s Kearis, George, Darnell. We just have a lot of young players trying to grow up, and we thought it would give us a calming effect in this with his experience and ability to play in games. He played really well, and we’re really proud of the way he handled it. The plan was to play both of them. We went 2-1, 2-1, exactly like we planned on to get those guys reps. I’m really proud of the way Stetson’s handled himself. Nobody has been better to the University of Georgia than Stetson Bennett in terms of his work, and he doesn’t get as many reps as a lot of other guys. I’m so proud of him and his success today.”

On Stetson being QB2 or QB1 now:

“It’s a day-to-day evaluation. You know that. It depends on JT’s injury. It depends on how they practice throughout the week. We thought Stetson practiced really well this week. That’s the reason we decided to go with him and the youth. It’s day-to-day. We’re not getting into hypotheticals today. I’ll let you guys do that.”

On stretching the field:

“Well, they gave us the ability to stretch the field. In the second part of the game, they played quarters, the same as Clemson played, but they bit on the run. They came up on the run, and Jermaine ran by the safety that was playing quarters. It’s not a matter of wanting to stretch the field versus not stretch the field. It’s what the defense does. If they don’t cover someone running down the field, you throw it to them. If they do cover them, you’ve got to find someone else. I don’t think it was about scheme. I thought it was aggressive, and that’s what we wanted to be. We want to be explosive, and that’s all we talked about all week. To be explosive, you’ve got to be fast. We played a little faster today. We’ve still got a long way to go, guys. Long way to go running the ball. Didn’t stop the run well today, but our kids did come out and play fast. They played hard.”

On playing to a standard:

“We did well. I feel like in special teams, we did not dominate the last game like we should. We played pretty dominantly on special teams today without a couple of stupid penalties. Outside of that, it’s a weapon for us. I want to use it. We played to the standard on special teams. Offense and defense played to the standard most of the time. That’s important. It’s important when you say you play to a standard, that you do that. I thought our guys played with connection. They played with toughness and all those DNA qualities we talk about, like resiliency. They were able to do that. The other team was probably overpowered. After watching them, we’ve got better players than they do. We played explosive football, which is big on scoring points.”

On giving up 100 yards and why running backs were held up:

“We didn’t move people up front. When you don’t move people and create space and holes, you’re not going to have long rushing yards. UAB did a good job. They’ve been a top five national defense for four or five years. They contained the run game on us, but it was expensive for them to do that, too. Defensively for us, we didn’t strike blockers real well. We didn’t play as well up front as we have in the past. We got cut down with some of their chop blocks. The ones did a pretty good job on the run, but when we went to our subs, especially at the end of the game, there were at least 40 yards rushing to close out the game. That was atrocious, and we can’t do that.”

On managing quarterbacks:

“It’s the same as the defensive back room and the wide receiver room and the other rooms. We go out and compete each day. They get reps, they get mental reps. I don’t see it any differently. I see there will be plenty of reps in practice for those guys to prepare, just like there were this week. We’ll prepare each guy. We have a very intelligent quarterback room. When you’re not getting a rep, you are getting a mental rep. That’s how you prepare. I told Carson and Stetson, I guess it was Thursday or Wednesday whichever day it was I met with them, that I have complete confidence in both of you guys. I mean a completely different position, but I have been consistent that I am really confident in our quarterback room. Last year, we were not in this position. We are in a much better position right now. Those guys have to get better and continue to grow.”

On how the team came out and avoided letdown:

“I was proud of the start. I don’t know that it was, I have to watch the tape, but was it what we did or what they did? Two really big explosive plays. Some of that has to do with good play calling or maybe a mistake by them. I don’t know. We wanted to be explosive, and we were. There’s a lot of things we can improve on, and there are a lot of players on our team who can get better. Our team did start fast today. That’s what we challenged them to do — play aggressively. We want to play aggressive and explosively, because we haven’t been, and I thought they did a good job of that at least in the past game.

On Brock Bowers, what he’s done to pick up the offense so quickly

It started in the spring. He’s very bright, very contentious. He was an interesting recruitment. We recruited him, his mom, his dad, his sister — his whole family. They’re a wonderful family. His mom was a tremendous athlete, his dad was a football player. He’s a great story. Every time I talked to him, I probably talked to him once every two weeks, (Todd) Hartley probably talked to him every day, we just felt like we had a special player. And once we got him, we realized it. This young man played tailback. Coach (Todd) Monken spent a lot of time on Zoom, showing him the way that he could be used and that we’d utilize his talents. We need tight ends like him to be elite. We have to have more guys like him. I mean, there’s guys out there across the country like him that we have to get in order to be elite at the tight end position. He’s become a really good weapon, and I don’t think people respect his ability to block because he packs a powerful punch and he’s tough. He’s a big weapon for us, and I’m proud of his humility.

On if he knew Stetson was nervous

No, I didn’t notice that. I felt like having all the jitters that he had last year, he was over that. He seemed very calm and collected like he always does to me. He has poise in the pocket. I still remember the spring game, he just walked down the field his freshman year and did a tremendous job. He’s always had great composure, great athletic ability and a great understanding of the game. And he’s a winner. He’s a Georgia Bulldog, and he’s meant a lot to this program. He’s done a great job, and all he does is do his job each and every day. I’m proud of how hard he’s worked to get this opportunity.

On the ups and downs that Stetson has been through

It’s extremely valuable. I mean, in today’s day in age of me, me, me, portal, portal, portal, this guy is doing the duty that lies nearest. That’s the kind of person, the kind of guy that he is. He does the duty that lies nearest, and it means a lot to me that we have a guy in our organization that does that.

On the importance of young guys getting in-game inexperience

It’s tremendous, and it does wonders for their confidence. You have to get over the number of times you have to make a mistake in a game to be able to grow, and I thought that some of our young players are starting to grow up. You can only practice so much before they get in the game and have to play. My favorite young pop, linebacker pop (Jamon Dumas-Johnson) gets his first college football play and it’s a pick-six for a touchdown. What a great story. He’s a great kid from a tough background, a tremendous family. He didn’t get to play football last year up in Maryland and comes all the way down here and his first play, gets a pick-six.

On if he found it funny that the guy people thought couldn’t throw the deep ball threw three touchdowns of 60+ yards

I honestly never heard that. If people say Stetson can’t throw it deep, he’s got one of the strongest arms I’ve seen. So, I had never heard that, I’ve never believed that, that doesn’t affect anything that we do. We make decisions based on facts.

On what a game like this does for building depth defensively

It’s tremendous, tremendous. It gives them the ability to play and play in more meaningful games. I don’t think enough people out there in the public understand that these kids practice every day. They get reps at practice. There’s just a chance that they don’t play. So, for the opportunity to go out there and play in a game, it has to mean something. There has to be enough pride to say, ‘I don’t care what the scoreboard says, this is my opportunity to show my coach that all my hard work has paid off.’ A guy like Tymon Mitchell, a guy like Warren Brinson, a guy like Chad Lindberg, a guy like Daijun Edwards. They work real hard too, and for that, they’re good football players. And for them to get an opportunity to go play and prove that they can play at a high, high level.

On what his conversations were like with Stetson this week

I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t really have a lot of conversations with Stetson. I sent him a text and said, ‘Are you preparing like you’re the guy? Are you working that way? Are you looking at this as, I don’t know if I’m going to be the guy or not?’ And he said, ‘No, I’m preparing like I’m going to be the guy.’ I don’t spend a lot of time in there, believe it or not. I don’t go sit down with those guys and tell them what they need to do. Coach (Todd) Monken does a tremendous job with the offense and those quarterbacks. We had a discussion and decided which direction we were heading after those practices. We told the quarterbacks exact what we were going to do, and we stuck to that plan, and we’ll continue to do that based on how they practice.

On if the QB plan was subject to change if JT felt 100%

“He wasn’t 100 percent. He did improve as the week went on, but 100 percent, that wasn’t the case. You guys are going to make a bigger deal out of that than it was. He’s not 100 percent. He was whatever percent better than he was on Monday or Tuesday, but he was not 100 percent and we felt like going with the other guys because the other guys got to practice more.

On if Stetson’s performance affects his number of reps going forward

Again, they’re being evaluated on a day by day basis. You want me to say something that will be eye catching and eye popping so you can go grab attention, but they’re being evaluated day to day. It’s ‘What percentage is JT (Daniels)? How does Carson (Beck) practice? How does Stetson (Bennett) deal with success?’ They’ll be evaluated day to day, and I don’t want to deal with hypotheticals.