What Was Said: Georgia coach Kirby Smart after win vs. Vanderbilt

ATHENS, Ga. — No. 1 Georgia defeated Vanderbilt 55-0 on Saturday for the homecoming game between the hedges in Athens. Afterwards, here’s what head coach Kirby Smart had to say.

Kirby Smart Opening Statement

“Happy for homecoming and our fan base. I appreciate them coming out. I know it was a little warmer than we anticipated. I certainly was proud of our players to start fast and we got to play a lot of guys. I thought the guys that came in during the second half really played to a standard. Anytime you get a shutout, any time you get that many yards, it’s a positive. And we got to play a lot of players. We’re a beat-up, banged-up football team going into the off week. It’s going to be important that we give these guys to get well.”

Smart on Ladd McConkey and Xavier Truss’ injury status

Ladd’s fine. He could have gone back. We taped his ankle up. I thought it was worse when it actually happened. He came back and said he could go. Truss was fine. Just walked by him coming over here. He’s fine.”

Kirby Smart on Arik Gilbert’s TD

It was great, man. Great for that kid confidence-wise and just trying to get him something to celebrate and be happy about. I was really happy for him.

Smart on Dominick Blaylock’s TD

“It was a great play. It was a great throw by Stetson on that play. We had gotten in ourselves in a third and maybe 7 or 8. It was long. A great throw and great catch. Great athleticism by Dom to turn it up there to get the touchdown.

Kirby Smart on Stetson Bennett getting in a rhythm downfield

“He made some better throws early. I thought he’s played well. He just hasn’t made the throws early. That one over the middle to Marcus early really helped him. He had the one high one to Darnell over the middle. Outside of that, I thought he had good middle. He did a good job throwing into the zone.

Smart on offense having a good week of practice and being successful

“They had good focus during the week. We had good practices Tuesday, Wednesday. I told the team that afterwards that I thought the maturity in terms of practicing physical and not worrying about who we played. We just had good practices. That does not always equate to playing well, but sometimes you peak too early in the week and I was worried about that. I thought Wednesday we got after it and had a really good practice. We had a good practice Tuesday too and played well today.”

Kirby Smart on special teams today

“Yeah, had a couple dumb penalties there, an offsetting and then Kelee blocking in the back. We’ve been really emphasizing getting better and trying to be more explosive on our units so it can stimulate our offense. I thought it did a good job today.”

Smart on what he’s learned about team heading into bye week

“Just keep getting better. That’s the ultimate goal. What’s the end goal? We’re trying to look at tomorrow. We talked about what we’re going to do tomorrow. I’m focusing on that. I’m not worried about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. I’m worried about tomorrow and how much rehab we can get and how much recovery we can get.”

Kirby Smart on if Smart was watching the Alabama-Tennessee game

“I was watching it until, we jumped in and we came on over. We thought it was going to go to overtime. But I heard as I was walking in that they nailed the field goal.”

Smart on if he can use the Braves as an example of how fleeting championship success is

“I don’t think so. They had a hell of a year. They won a lot of games and overcame a massive lead. They did a tremendous job. But each year is independent of the other. They’ll be the first to tell you that. Snit’s a good friend of mine. I think they did an unbelievable job. But there’s only one team that wins it at the end of the year, only one. It’s not normally the same team repeatedly. For us, we’re focused on us and getting better as us. We’ve got a long way to go, guys. We’ve got a long way to go to be the team we need to be. We’ve got to get that done in practices so that we can play well down the stretch run.”

Kirby Smart on Georgia’s schedule coming up

 “I’m worried about tomorrow, man. I’m not looking down bat that run, because you start looking at that run, you get caught up. I’m looking solely at one thing. It’s not Florida, or anyone else. It’s us. I’m gonna dig, clew, claw to get every player on our roster better. Because one of those guys is gonna be counted on to make a play in a tough game.”

Smart on Darnell Washington’s game:

 “Darnell practices really well. He practices really hard. He’s a great kid. I thought he practiced really physical this week. He got some opportunities off play action. When the run game works,  so that’s your chance to take shots at guys, he’s one of those guys that goes up and gets the ball.”

Kirby Smart on what he has learned about his football team for seven games

 “Resiliency, toughness, grit, physical practice hard, play hard, love each other. Just enjoy coaching.”

Smart on defensive performance in second half

 “Proud of them. That was an outmanned team, we were better than we were. And we’ve got to be able to execute when we play people that have equal talent.”

Kirby Smart on the receiver room and progress

 “We’ve got to keep getting better. We’ve gotta get better. We’ve got to win more 50-50s, make the big shots when we get downfield, we’ve got to make those count. And we’ve got to be more explosive.”

Smart on being able to trust the true freshmen to play 

“Well, we’ve got a level of trust in them because they have to play, you know? It’s not necessarily because want to play them. Some of them have earned the right to play — others have been afforded the opportunity to play based on someone in front of them or a hole. You know, I tell them every day, ‘Did you earn it? Did you actually earn it?’ ‘Cause if you didn’t earn it and it was given to you, what are you doing in practice to earn it? Because you go against as good or better in practice than you what we’ve gone against in games. So, we’ve got to continue to get better.”

Kirby Smart on if there is a reset during a bye week

“Yeah, we definitely reset. I mean, there’s going to be an off period there towards the end of the week that everybody gets to go away, get away from the building for two days, 48, whatever, 60-something hours off. That’s a big reset because it’s taxing, you know? We stretch the limit of what stamina you have. That’s mental focus stamina, that’s physical toughness stamina. We stretch that rubber band out, and we’re going to let that recoil a little bit then get back after it.

Smart on if dominating time of possession today was a deliberate effort

“I don’t think it’s deliberate. I mean, I think you always want the ball every play. You know, they just don’t let you do that in football. It’s not make ’em, take ’em, you know? So, when you score, they get the ball back. So, it’s not like we came out and said, ‘Let’s really control the time of possession today.’ I mean, sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it has to do with the tempo they go with. It has a lot to do with three-and-outs. But time of possession is usually an overrated stat.”

Kirby Smart on the importance of the in-game reps Carson Beck got Saturday

“They’re very important for his development. He gets to throw it in practice, gets to throw it in a game environment. He continues to improve and prepare like he’s ready to play because we’ve got a quarterback that’s mobile and a quarterback that’s going to get hit some. So, he’s got to be ready.”

Smart on Kamari Lassiter coming out of the game late in the first half

“It was just communication. He had a communication error. It was not really about the missed tackle, it was about the coverage that we were playing. It’s unfortunate. He’s got to do his job a little better.”

Kirby Smart on if it was a hold your breath moment when Stetson took off running and was hit hard

“No, I don’t think so. That’s football. We want Stetson to run when he’s able to run. When people max blitz you, that’s going to happen sometimes. His feet are a weapon, so I don’t think you hold your breath. You tell him to be smart. When you need to take a shot to get a first down, do it. When it’s not warranted, slide.”

Smart on if he thinks Georgia will be its healthiest after the bye week

“No. Some of these guys I don’t know if we’ll get them back. I mean, there’s no off week that say you magically get everybody back. It’s time. Each injury’s different. We have to see how they progress and how much pain tolerance they have. Ultimately, some players handle injuries better than others. I want them all to get better and get well, but it’s not realistic to think that all these kids are going to be back by Florida week. I don’t know that we’ll be completely healthy. I don’t know that you’re ever completely healthy. Hopefully we can get more healthy.”

Kirby Smart on how close Smael Mondon was to being able to go, the job Rian Davis has done in his spot

Rian’s done a great job. Smael’s pushing again. It’s more recent because it happened in the Missouri game. I don’t know that he was really close today, close this week. It’s one of those deals that we continue to treat him and get him better. If he can’t, then it’s next man up.”

Smart on Dillon Bell

“Yeah he’s coming out of that freshman wall a little bit. I think he’s getting better, growing as a player. He’s doing things for the second, third, fourth time in a game and sometimes you start to take a better personality as you play more games. You start to gain confidence. We need him to play with confidence.”

Kirby Smart on how much evaluation there is of players that haven’t been able to get on the field there is during the bye week

“A lot. We get to see guys. We’ll develop guys. We’re working like, ‘Hey, our threes may have to play in a game.’ You just don’t know. You never know what’s going to happen. We’ve seen it this year really at inside backer where guys have gotten sped up having to go out there and play. I think the more prep you get, the more reps you get, the more prepared they are.”

Smart on Cash Jones and his recruitment 

“Awesome. Well I’ll be honest, Dell did a great job with him. I didn’t get to meet Cash much. Dell had talked about him being a preferred walk-on. He’s a really good athlete, really fast. He said we got a kid from Texas that wants to come to school and he’s really fast and he’s got some small school offers. He came and he didn’t flash a lot his first year, but this last year, man. he’s been a demon on kickoff. He’s fast, he’s elusive, tough, smart. What a great run. We’ve seen that in practice and in scrimmages where he’s done that. THe team just loves the kid because he gives you everything he’s got every day.”

Kirby Smart on where Chris Smith has grown the most: 

“His maturity. Look guys if you play in the SEC for three and four years, playing at an elite level is a brave statement. I would say you’re going to know what to do and how to do it, know when to do it that way.  But I’m not PFF grading someone. I think sometimes those things give people a false sense of security. What he’s done well is take care of his body, tackle well and understand our defense.”

Smart on the Georgia offensive line coming together

“I don’t know if it has anything to do with that. I think it has something to do with who you play, it has something to do with the gumption to throw the ball. We’re going to play a lot more bigger defensive lines to be honest with you. Five yards a carry is a lot but we’ve got to have the run game to set up play action.”