What Was Said: Kirby Smart on opening day of fall camp 2024

ATHENS, Ga. — Kirby Smart spoke with reporters in the Classic City on Thursday before his Georgia Bulldogs took the field for the first time in fall camp. Of course there’s plenty to discuss as UGA looks to regain its spot on top of the College Football world after back to back national championships in 2021 and 2022. What all did Smart have to say? DawgsHQ has you covered with a full transcript below…

Kirby Smart Opening Statement

“Thanks guys, appreciate you being here. Looking forward to kicking this thing off. Our kids reported for camps last night, but I’ll open with some roster and injury updates. On Rara, I had a chance to sit down and meet with him face-to-face Tuesday, which I think was really important to let him know he can no longer be part of the football team. He understands that. We wish him nothing but the best moving forward.

In terms of injuries and things we have coming into camp, I think I’ve got a note here from Ron (Courson), we’ve got some guys banged up from the summer and just different injuries.

Warren Brinson’s dealing with an Achilles tendon, so he’ll be in-and-out. It’s the opposite of the one he had in spring, but it’s not long. We injected it, and he should be back shortly. Marcus Harrison’s dealing with a stress reaction on his foot. Should be back shortly. Jordan Hall has a tibia stress fracture that we ended up having to do surgery on. We expect a full recovery. He’ll be back hopefully by the first game, but he will be close. Ty Ingram is coming back from an injury that he’s dealt with. He’s not 100 percent but he’s close. Smael (Mondon) is able to do some stuff, not everything, but he’s almost back. Chris Peal had a labrum repair at the end of spring so he’ll be limited a little bit. Branson (Robinson) will start practice without limitations, but we will have some load management with him. Cole Speer’s dealing with a little mid-foot sprain. You will see most of those guys that I named involved in some way in practice. Some are just completely out, but others aren’t.

We were able to bring 120 into camp. I’m fired up about that. That’s good numbers for us. As you know, in the future, it won’t be that. So we’ve got good depth in camp, and we’re looking forward to creating some mental and physical adversity through the heat and through practices that we can kinda start to form our team. With that, I’ll open it up to you guys.”

Smart on something you don’t know about your team you want answered…

“That last statement. What’s our response going to be to the mental and physical adversity they face. I don’t know that in spring practice you can simulate that. We try to simulate it in the summer conditioning program, but it’s not the same as having all these pads on, helmets on, equipment on. I can’t simulate the heat they’re going to have with that equipment on, so I don’t know how this team’s going to respond when stuff gets hard and stuff gets tough and guys start complaining to each other and they’re not running, and they’re not getting to the ball and practice is tiring, but that’s what camp is. Our introduction last night was very deep into: why do you have a training camp? What is the purpose of the training camp? It’s to build the toughness within our team.”

Smart on Branson Robinson without limitations…

“Well, I don’t know what the number of months is. It seems like it’s almost a year because it happened preseason last year. It’s not a shock to me that he’s able to start and go without limitations, but the load management’s critical because you can’t take someone that hasn’t done everything and just throw them into everything, so we have to be smart about that, but it’s certainly promising. You know, I thought going into — I forget what practice he got injured last year — but he was having a really good camp. He looked really good. I thought, golly, this guy was about to have a great season, great camp, and then he has to go back. You forget the blitz pickups. You forget all the things that he missed out on that he didn’t get a chance to do that he’ll be doing now. I know he’s looking forward to it, and we’re excited to get him out there.”

Kirby Smart on support staffers being on field…

“Well, we’ll use more coaches now and have the ability to maybe move some coaches around in terms of, if you’ve got one drill going on, you’ve got another person that’s an allowable coach that maybe has really good experience coaching or knows our system to be an extra set of eyes, ears, and coach guys. We’re excited about that. I’m excited some of our special teams periods, we’re going to be able to take kids that aren’t in special teams where we had a lot of our coaching dedicated to special teams, we have people on the outside now that may be able to do special teams and free our coaches up to give a little time to guys that aren’t in. A little skill development. A guy can go over there and work on things he needs to work on and not lose time. It’s helpful organizationally to do that.”

Smart on preseason No. 1 expectations…

“I don’t feel like we’re familiar with it because we just don’t pay attention to it. You guys are probably more familiar with it than we are in terms of, like, well that’s the expectation. They’re gonna start the season top 5. Or they’re going to be predicted to win the East or West when it was there. Or they’re going to be predicted to win the SEC. I’ve never honestly paid any attention to it, and we don’t talk about it as a team. So the expectation is we’re going to develop and worry about today’s day, and really, we don’t think about that.”

Smart on identifying team leaders and having a leadership council…

“Yeah, we identify team leaders, and we have groups within our team that are for leadership. I don’t divulge what I do individually with players or with a group, but that’s something we’ve always employed. We can’t develop leadership at the top if we don’t start with kids when they enter, and that’s part of our skull session process. That’s part of our leadership training that we do when we take guys in the summer. We’ve definitely started that. That’s very important, and we think that’s a key to our success that’s mindset over muscle.”

Kirby Smart on Georgia’s receiving corps post-Rara Thomas dismissal…

“We’ve got a lot of guys that are pass-catchers back. We’ve got a lot of guys that have played in Dillon Bell, Arian (Smith), Colbie (Young) for another team’s played, Dom (Lovett)’s been very successful and gotten a lot of catches. We have depth at the top. I think we’ve gotta find more guys that can contribute in that room. Maybe they haven’t had their opportunity. Maybe they’re talented and pick things up quickly. We have several guys that came in from the portal with Mike Jackson and London (Humphreys), so I’m looking forward to the opportunity to each one gets to grow, and that really starts today, but I’m fired up about that group because we’ve got a good group of protectors around them and a good quarterback to get them the ball and a good group of tight ends.”

Smart on input from coaches on SEC tiebreaker…

“Zero, that I’m aware of. It’s not something we’ve talked about or concerned ourselves with. It gets so deep and so far that I think the Big 12 has had that come up. People have learned from the way they make their tiebreakers, and very little does it pass the first three or four tiebreakers.”

Smart on UGA’s defensive line group with injuries…

“They have been here a long time. I’m pleased with where they are. Warren (Brinson)’s dealing with a little bit of a nagging injury that he’s dealt with, and he’ll push through that. Naz (Stackhouse) has been great. We’ve gotta get the young guys to play. You never have enough defensive linemen, so just from the jump street, we’ve got some big bodies in that room, but we’ve got some inexperienced big bodies. So it’s really important that we establish depth, that we’re looking at a potentially longer season. 

We have, I wanna say, four or maybe five new guys that are first-year — with us, because that includes a portal transfer and four high school guys — that are 300 pounds or greater and haven’t played a snap for us. They will provide our depth in that room that when guys get injured, and guys get injured at that position, they’ve gotta be able to step up and play. That’s an area we’ve gotta continue to develop and grow. I mean, everybody does. Nobody has enough of them.”

Kirby Smart on what the adjustments that the young DBs have to make during camp…

“Well, work ethic. I mean, experience, confidence, practice habits. There’s a lot of things that go into being able to compete at this level. And some of them already have competed at this level, just as a two or a three in practice. We put more value in that because maybe you’re going against a better guy at Georgia in practice all spring than you may get a chance to go against in the season. I think they establish confidence in that and they know and trust that their training is going to carry them.”

Smart on Anthony Evans’ growth…

“Well, he’s gotten a little stronger. He’s going to have to continue to work to be competitive and compete every day. He’s a guy that we think has great potential, but potential means nothing if you don’t actually realize it and push through it. Camp is going to be critical for him to show toughness. You can’t play the position he plays on offense without establishing physical toughness, and he’s shown the ability to stick his face in there and do things. He’s going to be in competition to be one of our returners, so we need him to have a successful camp, and that really doesn’t come through wanting to have a successful camp — it comes through the mindset of what it takes to be physical and do your job each and every day, which will be key for him.”

Smart on what Daylen Everette’s done during the offseason…

“Proud of Daylen and his leadership in that room. I mean, he’s one of the few guys coming back with playing experience in that room outside of Malaki (Starks) and Dan (Jackson). I think he exudes confidence that maybe leaks over to others. He sets an example where maybe he followed Kamari (Lassiter)’s example for a while and learned from those older players. He’s got to carry the torch in that room, and I’m excited to see him do it.”

Kirby Smart on Oscar Delp’s leadership…

“He’s a leader by action. He’s a kid that’s taken a lot of reps here, so everybody will want to compare him and say he’s filling Brock Bowers’ shoes. That’s not happening. We’re not asking anybody to fill Brock Bowers’ shoes. We’re asking Oscar to be Oscar, which is extremely physical, extremely tough, extremely dependable. I mean, you talk about a guy that — I don’t know if he’s missed a practice since being here. There’s a lot of times that Darnell was out or Brock was out that Oscar took double the load, so his durability’s been incredible. He doesn’t necessarily have to lead by what he says, although he does speak up. He leads by his actions. I appreciate his work ethic.”

Smart on Arian Smith, hoping he reaches his potential…

“I think Arian has reached his potential. He’s a guy every time we’ve needed him to make a big play, he’s made a bunch of big plays. I don’t think a lot of the health he can control. There’s some things you can control. There’s some things you can’t. Most of the injuries he’s had have occurred by circumstance or collisions. I’m very pleased with where he is. I’m excited about the leadership he’s shown in that room in spring and through the summer and even now. He’s much more confident in himself, and I think he feels like he and Dillon Bell and Dom (Lovett) are the leaders in that room. I’m excited to see what he can do with it.”

Smart on different management of camp due to potential for more games…

“A lot of people have talked about that and discussed it. I don’t really know what the camp has to do with that. The NFL has extended their preseason. They’ve added games to the season, but there’s not a lot of changes to the camp. The camp is the camp. Maybe something changes within the season to the season because as we go and have more information and play out the season, we may know the duration of the season. We don’t know that for certain right now. What we do know is that we’ve got a really tough opening opponent and we’ve got a really tough schedule. I don’t know that employing a back off pace, take it easy pace lends itself to success when you’re talking about facing the schedule we have to face.”

Kirby Smart on Georgia’s running back room outside of Trevor Etienne…

“I’m excited about the room. You know, Rod (Robinson) is a guy that took a ton of reps last year for us in a position of being on the team. He’s had a great offseason. Branson (Robinson) we talked about it, he’s back. Cash (Jones) has been a veteran leader in that room. The young guys that are coming back that we just signed that had great summers, whether that be Nate (Frazier), Dwight (Phillips) or Chauncey (Bowens). I think we’ve got a room of good backs that are as talented as we’ve had, but inexperienced. Trevor does a great job of leading that room and holding people to a standard.” 

Smart on getting Tate Ratledge back and where he’s grown... 

“His maturity has grown. He’s always been a great practice player. He loves football. He’s become, kind of a centerpiece of that group. I think him coming back, just validated to the others that he wanted to do something special. Both he and (Xavier) Truss made that decision. Their leadership has been the different mindset, at least in the spring, in terms of our identity on offense and what they want in terms of forcing people and being physical. I can see it. It permeated our spring with the physicality that our offensive line played with. They have to continue to do that because they’ll be challenged this year.” 

Smart on how the transfer wide receivers are picking up the offense… 

“They’ve done great. They’ve done an awesome job. I don’t think that would be a concern. They’re very bright kids. All three of those kids have played in systems that are similar to ours. Very bright, adjustable, can play multiple positions. No concerns there.” 

Kirby Smart on Benjamin Yurosek… 

“That’s a hard question because I hadn’t really got to see them. Most of these guys, I saw through the spring. The late arrivals of late May, early June, he would be included in that. I would be remissed if I could tell you what he could do and what he’s going to do because outside of some summer workouts, I haven’t gotten to see him do a lot. I’m excited. He’s very intelligent, very consisuoness, I love the way he’s kind of approached the team. I see him meeting guys all the time, talking to guys all the time. He’s not just here for like one quick season and roll. He’s invested, he wants to be part of something special.”

Smart on watching his kids compete in big-time sports and the pressure he feels…

“The pressure doesn’t equate to what we do day to day and what we do with these kids and what we do with our program and the decisions that go into our games. I’m awful proud of all my kids, including Julia. I got to spend a lot of time in recent, last month, with them. I appreciate that time that we get away. You don’t get it back. People have told me over and over they’re going to be gone before you know it. They get out of the house and you’re going to be wishing you had done more. I don’t want to have any regrets. I spent a lot of time with them over the last month, really.”

Smart on coaching up KJ Bolden to deal with pressure as a hyped recruit…

“I don’t think there’s any pressure in terms of hype as a recruit. He may put that on himself, but we don’t because we don’t pick kids and say this guy’s got pressure and this guy doesn’t. I think we’ve got to prepare him day to day with intensity. Each day is an opportunity for him to grow and get better. Sometimes freshmen, they can’t rise to the occasion that number of times. They have these off days because they’ve never had this intensity. He’s going to be able to handle that well, number one because of where he came from, the program he played in. But he’s also a conscientious kid. We’re going to push him and we’re going to challenge him and we’re going to test him because he’ll certainly get tested in this schedule we’ve got.”

Kirby Smart on adding Jahzare Jackson…

“He’s a kid that we had in camp. He was a unique situation where he was eligible right now. He’s a tremendous athlete, raw, hasn’t played football since eighth grade. But we recruit size, recruit athleticism. We don’t have an expectation of he has to help us right now. We’ve got the expectation that he has to grow and get better and develop. We saw that as a kid that has the ability to be a good football player if he has toughness and all the qualities that it takes to play offensive line.”

For more coverage of the first day, be sure to check out the DawgsHQ YouTube channel where interviews with a quartet of Georgia players (Daylen Everette, Dan Jackson, Tate Ratledge and Arian Smith) can be found!