Sugar Bowl: What Georgia coach Kirby Smart said about Notre Dame on Monday

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart spoke to the media Monday during Sugar Bowl Media Day. Here’s most of what he said about facing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and a few more musings about his own team and the game itself.

Opening statement

“It’s an honor to be here today. Any time you get an opportunity to play in a Sugar Bowl, it’s a special time. I think it’s one of the most historic bowls there is. It’s even better when it’s part of the CFP.

“Our guys have been hard at work in preparing for what is a great opponent in Notre Dame. I have a lot of respect for Coach [Marcus] Freeman and his staff. We have intertwined staff. We’ve gone against each other at different times. I think we turn on the tape, their play speaks for itself, their physicality, their toughness. I have a lot of respect for their program, and we’re excited to be here, and very thankful that we get to play in a venue event, a historic game. All the classic Sugar Bowls I grew up watching, it’s always great to be a part of that.”

On Notre Dame’s physicality

“Yeah, when we talk about their team, it’s depth, like their backups, their starters, their offensive line, their receiving corps, their defensive line, they’re big. And that’s what it starts with in the SEC. The line of scrimmages have to have size and girth because you have to take on these teams week in and week out that have great size.

“Notre Dame is built that way. They’re built that way on paper. But then what you see on the tape speaks louder than the paper does. You see how they play. You see the toughness they play with. The linebackers are downhill, thumping. The backs are elite. They’re built like an SEC team. And I say that as a huge compliment, because I think those rosters are some of the most talented in the country. And Notre Dame is built that way, probably more on the side of physicality.”

On what makes Gunner Stockton a good quarterback

“Well, I think the number one thing a quarterback has to have is decision-making skill. Number one, he makes really good decisions.

“Number two thing for a quarterback is accuracy. Not necessarily arm talent, but accuracy. He has accuracy. So decision-making is a skill. Accuracy is a huge skill.

“Athletic ability and talent probably takes over third. He has those traits. All the intangibles in terms of toughness, character, embody what he was raised on. His dad was a really good football player, played at Georgia Southern. He’s been raised around football. He’s a coach’s son.

“All the players play harder for him. Do you make the players around you better is what you look for in a quarterback. I think he raises the skill level of everybody around him because of who he is. So that’s my reason for believing he’s a good quarterback.”

On Notre Dame defensive end Bryce Young

“He is an exceptional player. I wasn’t aware of him until we watched a little bit of tape on both Indiana and Notre Dame before we knew who we were going to play. And I was like, Who is this guy, 30? He is long. He is athletic. He is twitchy.

“And then while watching the game, he showed up more. It was like, he made some flash plays. He’s rusher, he’s edge. And then when I dug deeper into special teams, I’m like, this guy is phenomenal on special teams, his reach, his athleticism.

“I mean, I don’t know about what he lists, but he looks bigger than he lists on paper. And he’s just going to be a phenomenal talent. To do what he’s done this early in his career just shows you how talented he’s going to be.”

On Notre Dame left tackle Anthonie Knapp

“Number one, he is playing really well, doing a great job. I remember him vividly being on our list and being a guy that’s a good football player. I don’t know how actively we recruited him, because I can’t remember what class he came out in.

“He was last year’s class, I guess, yeah. I remember going by there, and he was getting ready to go to school, and we were actually looking at maybe another kid at their school that just came out this year. And what a good-looking kid he was, and he’s playing at a high level for them, doing a great job.

“I know this, the Georgia high school football programs put out kids all over the country. I was watching last night the football — the Monday Night Football game. I guess it was Monday night. Maybe it wasn’t
Monday night, Sunday night. So we were watching the Falcons game. There’s A.J. Terrell making a hit on Chris Rodriguez, a kid from Kentucky and a kid from Clemson hitting each other, trying to make plays. And there’s Georgia kids all over that field.

“The one thing you learn quickly being the head coach at Georgia is you can’t sign them all. And there’s a lot of them that you end up missing on. And for a guy to start at freshman at tackle is really hard to
do. Like, probably one of the hardest things to do in football is play offensive line as a freshman, and he’s doing it at eye level.”

On both teams wanting to lean into the quarterback run game

“Yeah, you have to do everything you can. It’s win or go home, so there is no measure of, well, I’ve got to be conservative on this. I’ve got to be conservative on that.

“I mean, is your quarterback a better running back than your running backs is the first question. Hard to believe with the backs they’ve got, and hard to believe with the backs we’ve got, that either of our quarterbacks are better. They are an extra hat. They bring an extra dimension. Red area, super-high tendency to run the quarterback. Zone read teams, ability to pull the ball, eye candy, option plays, both teams execute those.

“I don’t think either coordinator will be holding back because they’re worried about the next game. They’re going to do whatever they have to do to win this game. And if Gunner or Riley had to run the ball 30 times during the game, I think both coordinators would do that. It’s not the makeup of the offenses but whatever they’ve got to do to win the game, they’ll do.”

On defending Notre Dame’s duo blocking scheme with a mobile quarterback like Leonard

“He’s a tremendous athlete. You’re playing pass and he takes off running as opposed to it’s a designed run. When it’s a designed run, everybody knows it’s a run. Okay, I got to stop the quarterback. I got to stop the back. Maybe I got to stop an RPO. But when it’s a drop-back pass, you’re trying to stop everybody else. And the four, three, five, six rushers are responsible for Riley. Most of our three, four, five, six rushers aren’t quite the athlete he is.

“So when you put a 300-pound blocker on a defensive lineman and say, block him, and that guy’s got to beat that guy and get to the quarterback, it’s a challenge.

“This kid was a great basketball player. He can throw the fade routes. He can throw timing routes. He can run. He’s hard to tackle, really hard to tackle. We told our players, when you approach him, you better approach him with the attitude that he’s a back, and you’ve got to wrap him up and get him on the ground.”

On the differences between this Notre Dame team and the ones he faced in 2017 and 2019

“Somebody asked me that earlier when we got the matchup. It’s so hard for me to answer because I don’t go back to those tapes because of the difference in staff, obviously. But it seems that way. It seems constructed in a physical nature, offensive and defensive lines. We’re not going to beat ourselves, in terms of Georgia and Notre Dame, either team. We’re not going to beat ourselves. Don’t turn the ball over. Not highly penalized. Great special teams. Run the ball and believe in the run, instead of standard of run, but can be explosive. Athletic quarterbacks. They’ve had athletic quarterbacks the times we’ve played them. I mean, so much of that mirrors those games. But let’s be honest, those games have nothing to do with these games.”

On what stands out about Leonard as a running quarterback

“He’s big, he’s physical, he’s fast. He runs away from people. I mean, if you’re an offensive coordinator, this guy is a huge weapon because there’s kids like him before that couldn’t throw the ball. He can throw the ball. And when you can throw the ball and you’re big and you’re fast and you run, but you have experience — you can almost count on a quarterback to make a mistake in a game. And like he’s going to make a mistake, it’s going to be costly. Not when you have one with the experience he has.

“The value he got out of playing the entire season and being really successful at Duke and then to come here and play an entire season and be really successful — look, the quarterback determines so much of the game in terms of what he does with the ball; throwing it, catching it. I mean, they put three options on him on a lot of plays, and he’s going to be right almost all the time. That creates — really tough on defenses, especially when you’ve got to go tackle that guy. He’s hard to tackle.”