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Video/Transcript: Kirby Smart’s Tuesday Postpractice Presser – November 05, 2024

On practice this week…

“Really good. It’s been good.”

On Trevor Etienne… 

“He’s been great. He did some extra conditioning, taking some reps. Been in a black shirt, but he’s toughing it out. You’ll have to figure out all the things he can and can’t do. Hard to say after the Monday practice, he didn’t do much. He was still stiff and sore. Ran around a little bit, loosened up, and then he did some more stuff today. Took some reps.”

On his thoughts on the first CFP rankings…

“Not much. I’m going to do my Tuesday night routine. I don’t think you can worry about it much. Certainly, whatever it is today, it won’t be next week or the next week or the next week. So, it’s great energy and buzz for you guys and for fans, I guess, but every minute you spend worrying about that is one less that I’m worried about our team.”

On the Ole Miss run defense…

“Big humans. Large, fast humans and immovable objects with twitch and twist. They’re fast and big. You want to see a good defense, look at fast and big, and they got both.”

On how Mykel Williams has handled this season…

“I don’t know if I’d say that. I think he’s had a great season. He’s had tremendous work ethic. He’s had the best camp he’s ever had and there’s value in that. We have 10-15 NFL scouts at practice. We had that many out there today. We had that many out there in camp. So, the reps he’s taken against really good players on our team, I think all that creates value for him. So, he’s been really level-headed. He doesn’t let things get him down. He’s not real emotional. He doesn’t take up the highs and lows. He’s worked really hard to get healthy, and I still don’t know that he’s 100-percent, but he’s much closer.”

On Dwight Phillips…

“He can do some more things. He’s a bright kid. He’s really smart. He’s 193 pounds or something. He’s a kid that’s getting better each and every day, and he’s growing a lot. He wasn’t here in the spring, so he didn’t get to go through spring, and he hasn’t played in an offense quite this style. He’s growing. What’s crazy is you tell him something once, and he remembers it, and he does a good job with learning.”

On if the Ole Miss offense is comparable to Texas…

“Hard to compare. I don’t like doing those comparisons because they’re different offenses, different style offenses. They’re both very talented, and [Steve Sarkisian] Sark and Lane [Kiffin] have a lot of history together. You don’t watch the two offenses and think they look the same. Different style, passing game. They have really good wideouts at Ole Miss. They’ve been through injuries, and yet they’ve still continued to throw for lots of yards. They’re one of the top passing teams, in my mind, in the country in terms of statistics, passing, throwing. They’ve done it with tight ends. They’ve done it with backs. They’ve done it with wideouts. It doesn’t matter who it is with Lane. He’s going to plug somebody in there. They’re going to figure out where your weaknesses are, find matchups, and look for coverages and find ways to beat those coverages. They’ve got a guy [Jaxson Dart] that can do it. This guy’s playing uncanny football when you talk about the accuracy, the completion percentage, the yards he’s throwing it for. He’s not throwing dink and dunk passes now. This guy’s throwing the ball vertical down the field, shots. Then, when you do that, let’s say you cover all that, and you do that, he can take off and run. You watch a quarterback run reel on this guy, and you don’t have enough people in the box. So, the reason they’re successful is because of the scheme and the players that are in the scheme.”

On punt returns…

“It’s going to be a matter of whether Anthony’s [Evans] healthy enough to. I think Malaki’s [Starks] going to do nothing but get better and get more confidence. He’s done it before in his life. He hasn’t done it in a game. So, that game changed a little bit. We weren’t asking him to do that at the point that they lost their quarterback. We got wind. We had a couple opportunities. We wanted to play safe on the punt return team and make sure we defended the fake. We didn’t set up returns. So, there were probably some yards there, but we were not asking him to do that.”

On Daniel Harris’ performance against Florida…

“He did some good things. He’s got to tackle better. He and Julio both had some situations there. They didn’t get the guys on the ground. They’ve got to do a better job tackling.

I don’t grade him based on one flash play or one big play. It’s more a cumulative effect of where his eyes are. Is he looking at the right things? Is he doing what he’s supposed to do?”

On the depth at wide receiver…

“I’ve told you 100,000 times. Y’all can ask me that question every day. We don’t have enough depth at any position. I don’t know one coach that will tell you, ‘I got the greatest depth in the world. We’re great there.’ I don’t feel good about our depth. I don’t feel great about our depth at snapper. I don’t feel great about our depth at holder. I don’t feel great about our depth at field goal protection. I don’t feel good about our depth at wide receiver or anything because I don’t ever think you have enough to practice the way you need to practice.”

On ‘pitching’ to the quarterback and offensive coordinator…

“Well, when you’re pitching to the quarterback, you are pitching to the coordinator – the coordinator and the quarterback. You’re doing both because they see it. They can talk in the helmet deal. They’re talking down to 15 seconds. So, whatever you’re giving the quarterback, you’re giving the coordinator. And in some cases, the quarterback does all the control and checks it. I’m sure they have the ability to do that. Jaxson’s played a lot of football. This guy, he can do it without them telling him. But that’s, that’s what good coaches do. They try to figure out what you’re in, and then they figure out how to attack it.”

On if the expanded playoff system changes his view on the rankings…

“You don’t look a little further down. You would look at 12 last year and figure out does the 12th team have a shot to get to the fourth? What’s got to happen for those teams to lose? Now you’re looking at 20, 21, 22, you know, the automatic qualifier – who’s got the best shot? How are they going to perceive these teams and what’s going to change the perception? That’s all the talk out there. I couldn’t care less because what is a quality win and a quality loss right now, they’ve been known to change their mind before it comes time.

We’ve probably been a casualty of that probably more than anybody in the country. So, I don’t put a lot of stake in it.”

On the challenges Ole Miss wide receiver Tre Harris presents…

“Vertical speed, size. You got somebody that big and that size, I mean, he can take a hitch and go to the house. He can take a post and go to the house. He is a dangerous player, and you see it on tape. Like, I mean, it’s amazing what they’ve done without this guy now. I mean because they’ve been explosive. And we do those explosive plays and put it up on the chart of all the SEC teams every week. And it’s like, theirs is like a dang slot machine just going up. They’ve done it with and without him, which is a credit to their offensive staff and their players.”

On how Tate Ratledge felt after Florida…

“Sore. We had two guys really sore and hurting in there. Micah [Morris] and Tate both were really tough, tough guys. You can see on the tape they pushed through some injuries and played with some great toughness.”

On how the reserve quarterbacks are developing…

“They get work each and every week. We throw them in there and mix them in. They get reps. Ryan Puglisi gets reps. They come down sometimes and throw with us on the scouts to get even more work. I think every rep you can possibly get right now, you’re just like, ‘how many times can I get a quarterback to go back there and have to make a decision and grow as a player?’ And I like to take pride in getting more quarterback development than anybody because we dedicate reps to threes every day. We’re going to do something with our threes. And not everybody is willing to do that because you can make a case it’s wasted time, meaning it’s not going to affect that week’s game because you’re not going to get to your threes. But we’re constantly looking at it saying, ‘okay, this is the future of our program. What do we have? Who can play? Who can’t?’ But both those kids and Ryan in that same group do a great job. They sit in meetings, take notes, and continue to be ready. I mean, look at Florida. You just don’t know.”

On his visors…

“No process. It’s whatever they give me. So, for the game, they put one down there and I wear it, and then I take it off after the game. The next game there’s another one there. There’s two or three sitting in my office, and I just get one before I go to practice. I don’t waste a lot of energy on things like that.”

On player leadership…

“I think we’ve had player-led teams since I’ve been here. The degree of which that is might vary, but I’ve been very pleased with the player leadership of this team. I meet with those guys on a regular basis, and they hold each other accountable, which is probably the most important thing. And they try to hold other players to the standard. And look, Nate [Frazier] made a mistake. He’s not a bad kid. He’s a good kid. He made an emotional mistake. He knows that. And his players, his brothers, let him know that and I think that’s important.”

Video/Transcript: Mykel Williams and Jared Wilson Post-Practice Interviews – November 05, 2024

On his injury recovery process…

“It takes a lot of patience dealing with the injury that I have, being a high ankle. I’ve been getting better week in, week out though, and I’m steady progressing towards 100.”

On the challenges Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart presents…

“Exactly that, kind of, because he’s a big physical dude, he’s very powerful, and he’s a skillful runner. So, we got to make sure we get him on the ground whenever he’s running the ball, whenever he’s in the pocket.”

On the challenges when facing an up-tempo offense like Ole Miss…

“Basically, just getting lined up, make sure our cleats are in the ground, we’re ready to play, and getting our call in, making sure we can play solid defense.”

On leading despite being injured this season…

“Just by remaining on the sidelines and keeping our guys positive, and trying to affect the groups in different ways, just by words and actions and helping the guys out.”

On the challenges facing the Ole Miss defense…

“They’re physical, they twist a lot. Honestly, they’ve just got a really good, physical, and a big D-line.”

On his injury recovery period…

“I had an injury against Alabama and was able to go back in. I didn’t feel good the next two weeks, but I feel good now. Those two games that I was out, (Jake) Bobo did a great job, and we trust him. He’s a really good player.”

On his conversation with Nate Frazier after his touchdown against Florida…

“I just told him we can celebrate on the sidelines. Just score the touchdown, celebrate with us, then get over to the sideline, and we can do all the celebrating we want. He’s young. He’s a freshman, so he’ll learn. But he is a great, phenomenal player.”

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