What Was Said: Kirby Smart shares after Georgia spring game

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs put an end to spring practice Saturday with the annual G-Day spring game. The Red Team won 31-26 over the Black Team, but the score was far from the most important thing at Sanford Stadium. Instead, it was all about the development of the Dawgs that were on the field between the hedges.

Afterwards, Smart spoke with the media to share his thoughts on the game and Georgia’s spring as a whole. Here’s what he had to say.

KIRBY SMART OPENING STATEMENT

“Well first off as always, I like to thank the fans for turning out. Turned out to be a warm day. A lot warmer than our scrimmages. We had one scrimmage where we had rain, and then we had another scrimmage where it was nice and cool. That was warm. We needed that for all the other scrimmages we’ve had to push through, find out a lot about guys, physical and mental toughness when you have heat, how you respond. A lot of guys had to play more snaps than they’re used to, but I was really pleased with the effort. I thought it was the tale of two halves. The first half we kind of lit it up on offense and didn’t seem like we could stop anybody defensively. And then, flip that over in the second half, we couldn’t score any points. So, obviously we’ve got to improve in both of those areas, but there’s some positive things that came out of it too. Some guys played really well. I thought we did some good things on both sides of the ball. Got to continue to do that to get better. Came out relatively healthy which was big for today. We’ve got some guys that were injured coming into today, but we didn’t really lose anybody today which is big when you play tackle football.”

SMART ON WHAT HE FOUND OUT ABOUT HIS TEAM…

“I’m excited. I’ve always said, we’re built to sustain here. That’s my motto. Gunner did some really good things. I mean, I’m really pleased with all three quarterbacks. What you saw today was similar to what we’ve seen all spring. We have three really good quarterbacks that can make the throws and did a really good job.”

SMART ON HIS TAKEAWAYS WATCHING CARSON BECK AND BROCK VANDAGRIFF IN ACTION TODAY…

“It’s hard because I’ve got to go back and watch the tape as always. I thought both of them had good composure, good pocket presence. I thought Brock used his legs several times to break out of there and take off running. Brock unfortunately had some guys drop the ball on him. I thought the balls were really well thrown and should’ve been caught. He did a nice job in the pocket of making those throws. And then Gunner did some really good things. I was really pleased with all three quarterbacks. What you saw today was similar to what we’ve seen all spring. We have three really good quarterbacks who can make the throws and do a really good job. I was please with those guys.”

KIRBY SMART ON MEKHI MEWS AND DILLON BELL…

“Mews does that every day. Mews is a guy that, he last year kept getting really close to being able to play and help us. He was on scout team so I had seen him make plays on scout team. We put him in a couple of guys as the returner. Very sure handed, makes good decisions, you saw today he’s got some return ability. Exciting, and you get what you get from Mews every day. The guy is a worker, and I thought he made some plays today with his feet and made some really tough catches.

“Dillon Bell does that each and every day. He’s a guy that makes plays. He got better this spring. He got thrust into playing due to some injuries with AD and things. He took the bull by the horns and played really well. he had a good spring and was very productive this spring.”

SMART ON EARNEST GREENE AND AUSTIN BLASKE…

“Both of those guys are good football players. I’m excited.”

SMART ON THE NATURE OF THE TRANSFER PORTAL AND BEAR ALEXANDER TRANSFERRING…

“You know, that’s the way of the world. It’s who handles it and manages it best. It’s a new climate we’re in. The window will open and all across the country there will be guys going in and looking for greener pastures. Ultimately the climate we have created and more power to them. We’ve got a lot of guys who have benefitted from the portal and I hope we benefit from the portal. We had a couple guys out there today that came by way of the portal that made really good plays. It’s the climate we’re in and we’ll do the best we can to capitalize on it. But I’m very pleased with what we’ve got on our team and our roster. It’s not a way we’re going to build a team by any means.”

KIRBY SMART ON BOOTS FOR BRANSON ROBINSON, SMAEL MONDON AND NO RARA THOMAS…

“Rara has some things he has to work on and we’re working on those things. He was with us and he did some special teams things but he did not play on the offensive side of the ball. When you go to Smael and Branson, they’re both dealing with lower extremity injuries and the severity of that is still yet to really be determined. Both of those guys were unable to go today.”

SMART ON JORDAN HALL AND DAMON WILSON…

“Got a ways to go. They’re not ready. They know that. They’re working really hard at it. The sooner they get ready, the better we’re going to be. Becuase we’re going to need both those guys to step up and play. They’re just young. It’s okay to be young. They have a ways to go and I think they’ll get there. I think both of those guys will contribute and help us next season. I’m very pleased with where they are and how hard they work but they’re not there yet.”

SMART ON IF TODAY IS INDICATIVE OF THE WAY YOU SPLIT FIRST-TEAM SNAPS WITH CARSON GOING FIRST…

“It means he had the most practice reps. He’s been in our system the longest. Those guys have shared reps really all spring and Gunner has taken reps with the 2s and the 3s. The key is they all get to develop. I can promise you there’s no quarterbacks in the country getting as many reps as ours are because we’ve got enough defensive linemen and offensive linemen to have three units, sometimes four units. And in fall camp, we’ll have four. And when you have four units, you’re able to get twice as many reps. I’m very pleased with the amount of reps. We count reps in between practices. They’re getting better and the only way to get better is to go out there and practice and get reps. Some universities can’t give the reps we can give them because they don’t have the reps.

KIRBY SMART ON JAVON BULLARD AT SAFETY AND TYKEE SMITH AT STAR AND HIS CONFIDENCE IN THEM…

“We’ve got a three-way deal going at safety with David Daniel, Malaki and Javon. Those guys rotate and play there. Hope to get Dan Jackson back there who has played and started there at that position. Tykee has worked there as well. Tykee and Bullard can both play Star. We felt like we needed to invest reps in Bullard to create some safety depth where we’re short. Every rep that Bullard wasn’t taking Star that was allowing him to develop as a safety and we need more Stars. And plus we wanted to get Joenel as much nickel/star work and Marcus as much nickel/star work and if we had left Bullard there it would have eaten up some of those reps. You’re just trying to develop depth on your roster. That’s really what we’re trying to do with those guys to try to create some safeties who can play for us.”

SMART ON DEPTH AT DEFENSIVE LINE WITH TYRION INGRAM-DAWKINS, CHRISTEN MILLER AND HOW THEY’VE GROWN…

“Just work, just reps. Christen has come a long way. He’s gotten better. He’s a really good zero nose and he can stunt and move and he increased his pass rush ability some this offseason. He became better. I’m excited about what he can do and really excited about the group, the depth in that unit. We don’t have any dominant player in that unit but we’ve got really good depth. We’ll do some things with the backers around them to create havoc.

SMART ON INSTALLING AN OFFENSE WHERE IT PUTS THE TALENTS OF ALL THREE QBS ON DISPLAY…

“Well, you do what each one does well, you know? They all have mobility. There’s not one of them that doesn’t have mobility, so the first thing you do is you want to move the pocket and be creative. You know, I think they’ll all three be benefitted by hopefully a better run game come fall because we’ll be healthier at back. We’re not completely healthy at running back today, and we had to address that by how we played. But, you know, our offensive line is one of our strong suits with really four guys coming back to play a lot of football, so we need the backs to help the quarterbacks and set up play action with a strong run game.”

KIRBY SMART ON IF THE RUNNING BACK ROOM IS A CONCERN GOING FORWARD…

“No, we have good backs. Andrew Paul had a really good fall camp. We feel really good about him coming back healthy, and it’s going to be like his freshman year because he really didn’t get that so he’ll be behind. Branson, whenever we’re able to get him back, man, he had a great spring. He got the workload. We’ve got two backs with a lot of experience in Daijun [Edwards] and Kendall [Milton], who’ve played and done a good job. So I’m excited about those guys. Cash has done a great job. Roderick Robinson had a good day today. He’s a different kind of back, but he catches the ball coming out of the backfield. He’s big and physical. Guys don’t like tackling him. So we have a good group of backs. I feel really confident about the group we have.”

SMART ON HOW SMOOTHLY THE TRANSITION WAS ADMINISTRATIVELY WITH MIKE BOBO CALLING PLAYS…

“Yeah, it was an easy transition. I mean, he was here last year. Everybody else was in place. He was part of it. He learned the language last year. He’s had 15 practices. Somebody told me the other day we’ve had 52 practices because of our walk-throughs we have. We’ve had a lot of practices to get the language barrier connected, and that’s been smooth. 

“The biggest transition has been the number of wideouts that didn’t know the language because you add the two portal guys and the 3-4 mid-years with some freshmen who didn’t play, so the biggest thing has been communication from that standpoint. But not really like getting calls in or offensive plays. I mean, we’ve got plenty of plays.”

SMART ON WHAT STOOD OUT ABOUT RAYLEN WILSON AND CJ ALLEN THIS SPRING…

“Yeah, they probably had better days than they had springs. I mean, they both showed up. They’ve had some mistakes and some errors during our scrimmages. I wouldn’t say they’ve stood out as of today. They had a couple of flash plays. I thought CJ really burst and tackled some people and closed, and Raylen kind of made the play of the game there but it was a ricochet play. It was a ball that bounced off, and he was the right guy at the right time. But they’re both talented, and they’re both really high-character kids that are going to make our program better. They push the standard the right way.”

KIRBY SMART ON HOW ACCURATE OF A BAROMETER A SPRING IS TO THE UPCOMING SEASON…

“I don’t know. I mean, I haven’t thought we’ve had a bad spring, so maybe I’m just an optimist now. I don’t know. We’ve had good springs, and our kids practice hard. Our coaches work hard. People in the organization work hard, and I’m very thankful that they buy in and believe in what we’re doing. So I’m happy with the spring we had.”

SMART ON EVALUATING THE CORNERS, ESPECIALLY THE SPOT OPPOSITE KAMARI LASSITER…

“It’s a work in progress. We kind of rolled guys through there today. I’d be remiss if I said somebody stood out. I didn’t think anybody really stood out at that position. They’ll continue to battle for it. We’ve got some more guys coming that will continue to battle for it. We’ve been there before. We’ve been going into the season where we’re trying to make decisions. There’s about 25 percent of the hay in the barn. There’s 75 percent of practices left. That includes our summer workouts and our fall camp workouts. In that 75 percent, we’ve got to climb the ladder and get some guys that can play winning football at that position.”

SMART ON HOW BIG IT WAS TO GET A FULL SPRING FROM ARIAN SMITH…

“It was great. I hold my breath every time. I’m worried about injury. He’s really a fast guy. At times, he gets some awkward tackles and it scares you. He had a good spring. We have to be smart about our workload and volume of work for him. The more he does, the more he becomes injury-prone. He stretches the field in ways that other guys can’t do. We have to be smart about that.”

KIRBY SMART ON WHAT IT WAS LIKE GETTING CASH JONES TO GEORGIA…

“Dell McGee did that, did a great job. Dell recruited him, talked to him, met him, felt like he was a good player. He can run, he was fast. He wanted to come to Georgia, which is unique. He didn’t shy away from competition. He’s been in that room with some really good backs. Cash has gotten better and better and better. The guy catches the ball out of the backfield really well.”

SMART ON HOW MIKE BOBO HAS MORPHED TO YOUR SYSTEM OVER THE SPRING…

“I don’t know that he’s changed a lot. He has adopted some words and verbiage and terminology that wasn’t his. You’ve got to remember, he’s worked with Bryan McClendon, he’s worked with Stacy Searels, he’s worked with Todd Hartley. He’s worked with people in that room. They can co-exist and say, well, you want to call it this or do you want to call it this? It’s either apples or oranges. Nobody’s going to argue over what we call something. They’re good football coaches and they have good football players at their disposal. We should be good. We should be productive. We’ve got good football players, and we have good coaches. That combination has allowed us to be a good football team.”

SMART ON THE PROGRESS MADE BY DAN JACKSON, JALON WALKER AND MARVIN JONES IN COMING BACK FROM INJURY…

“Not much. They didn’t do much. I saw them do a lot of ab work, a lot of ropes, a lot of sit-ups, and a lot of getting yelled at by the microphone because I’m mad they’re not out there. They haven’t been able to do a lot. They all three take every walkthrough rep. They sit in every meeting. They pay attention, they hear your script, they make calls, they coach younger players. That’s the culture that’s created. Like hey man, you’re not in, you better coach the next guy up. They did that.”

KIRBY SMART ON CREATING A SENSE OF URGENCY WITHOUT A MARQUEE MATCHUP IN THE OPENER

“Those games didn’t create our sense of urgency; we create our sense of urgency. The game doesn’t do it. You may put that myth out there, but the Clemson or Oregon game doesn’t set that, that’s not the case. What sets it is when we put that ball down in Sanford Stadium, those scrimmages you had in fall camp, we’re going against the best team that we play and your standard had better be right. 

“You go out there in practice and you’re not playing your best, you’re playing against as good a team as you’ll play. So, it’s not about the team we play, guys. It’s about what we do. So, I’m not going to allow anybody else to make an excuse for the opponent we play.”

SMART ON THE OPPORTUNITY THE SUMMER GIVES THE QUARTERBACKS…

“They all will have the opportunity to throw with guys, the receivers. They’ll have throwing sessions, 7 on 7s; they’re used to doing that. Whether it’s Jake Fromm, all the way to Stetson (Bennett), all the guys we’ve had do that. That’s the leadership quality we hope that position possesses, the drive, the work ethic of the team.” 

SMAT ON HONORING DEVIN WILLOCK AND CHANDLER LECROY AND WHAT KIRBY WAS THINKING IN THAT MOMENT…

“Just thinking about both of them and wishing they were here with us. The players wanted to do something to remember those two, and we felt that was a good to honor them. It was a good way to honor them, love them and that’s what we did.” 

KIBRY SMART ON UGA XI AND UGA X…

“Not much. I know the name, Boom, I don’t know where that came from. I don’t know long X was there. I should. It’s an honor to be part of and maybe outlast one of them (reporters cackle in delight). Hopefully, I can be here as long as Boom. I know I need water like they do. It’s hot out there.” 

For postgame interviews with Georgia players including Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff, Javon Bullard and others, head on over to the DawgsHQ YouTube channel. Make sure to hit like and subscribe so you don’t miss a beat!