Kirby Smart addressed the media about the tight end debacle during his press conference on Tuesday. The head coached didn’t understand why people worry about the tight ends getting the ball. According to him, they do get the ball, but they have other responsibilities to take care of as well. However, Smart mentioned a lot of time teams play them in man coverage. So that restricts the tight ends ability to be open in routes.
 

Smart said that if the tight ends get open, the quarterback will throw to them. Georgia is a run dominant team, and teams cover run heavy teams with man coverages. So when the offense wants to get a passing play in there its hard for the tight ends to get open because they are usually covered by guys just as fast as them. Smart says the offense has plays to go to the tight end’s but haven’t gotten to use them because of the coverages.
 
 

If the tight ends get open, they get thrown the ball,” Smart states. “When people play you to stop the run, they play man a lot. When they play man they cover the tight ends. I dare you to show me where there is a tight end that’s open against man to man. I feel like our DBs can go out and cover our tight ends it’s not like they are super fast. So you want to get them matched up on linebackers well that’s hard to do a lot of times because most of the linebackers we play in the SEC are as fast as our tight ends. Our tight ends are really physical they do a good job blocking and they catch the ball when they are open. We got plays designed to go to the tight ends, but they’ve been covered. So its not a matter of we don’t want to throw to our tight ends we have not mutiny against them we just have to keep working at it and try and get some spots where they’ll be open and we some teams play zone we can throw the ball to the tight end.”

 
 
Despite fans thinking that the tight end’s don’t get the ball enough, Smart thinks otherwise. He mentioned in his press conference that one of the biggest things overlooked in college football is a tight end that can block the big man. Smart then complimented Charlie Woerner, Jeb Blazevich, and Isaac Nauta for their improvements on blocking this season. He seems to be happy with the unit, and well frankly that’s what matters.
 
 

“They’ve improved a lot. I  think one of the most overlooked things in college football is tight ends that can block because so many of them cannot,” Smart says. “Ours improved throughout the year they’ve gotten beat just like everybody has, but they take pride in blocking. We do a lot of drill work here where they block men because they have to do it in games. And I  thought the other night, Charlie and Jeb and even Isaac on two touchdowns, they did a tremendous job blocking at the point of attack. Its hard to find guys who can do that in college that can block the defensive linemen they can block.”

 
 
For Kirby Smart’s full press conference, check out the YouTube Clip below.
 
 

 
 
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