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Georgia Postgame Interview: Kirby Smart, Carson Beck and Smael Mondon, Jr.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with Coach Smart.

KIRBY SMART: I’ll open, like I always do, man, it’s unbelievable atmosphere when you play in the SEC championship. I mean, every year that I’ve coached in this thing, it’s just electric. I think it’s awesome that we get an opportunity to play in it.

Both crowds were really into the game, a lot of momentum swings like we thought. A field goal that hits the dang upright after an off-sides. We spotted them 10 just off of a turnover, a touchdown on a busted coverage by a freshman.

When you give good teams those things, they’re going to be hard to beat. But, man, am I proud of our fight and resiliency. Two times I guess we’re down 10 or three times we’re down 10, offense battles back, never quits, “never say die” attitude.

This team is really special in terms of how they play and how they compete. They’ve been through a lot with the guys in and out of the roster, which has been tough on these guys.

I’m proud of ’em and congratulate Alabama on a great game.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions.

Q. Kirby, why do you think the offense stalled after that opening drive? If the committee is watching right now, what is your case to be in the final four?

KIRBY SMART: Offense stalled after the opening drive? You’re talking about the rest of the night?

Q. 2-3 up until the fourth quarter.

KIRBY SMART: They did a good job there. We didn’t have quite as much continuity as maybe we’ve had out there. Look, it’s tough, guys. When Brock Bowers doesn’t practice for 15 days, and Ladd doesn’t practice for 15 days, they go out in the game, timing and rhythm is critical.

But give Alabama some credit. They played good defense, did a good job. I thought we ran the ball well and did some good things.

As far as your second question, Bill Hancock said it’s not the most deserving, he said, simply it’s the best four teams. So you’re going to tell me somebody sitting in that committee room and doesn’t think that that Georgia team is not one of the best four teams, I don’t know if they’re in the right profession ’cause it’s a really good football team. It’s a really talented football team. It’s a really balanced football team.

They have to make that decision, but it’s the best four teams. That’s critical.

Q. On that fourth and four play, Isaiah Bond comes down with it. Were you able to ask for a review? Did you get an explanation as to why you weren’t given a review?

KIRBY SMART: You’re talking first half?

Q. Yes.

KIRBY SMART: The first staple of any review is they review it up top, they go quick. For me to ask for a review, it costs me a timeout. They get to watch it.

I was not aware of it being called or not called. I guess you’re saying the replay showed he didn’t catch it. That was an extremely critical play in the game because they go on to score there.

Q. Both players, could you comment how tough it is going 12-0 through the season and now your playoff future being in the hands of a Playoff committee?

CARSON BECK: Yeah, I mean, to go through an SEC schedule, 12 games, and to win each and every one, it’s not something easy to do. It’s not easy, but super proud of these guys.

Obviously to come into this game and not finish the way that we wanted to and kind of leave the destiny of our team in someone else’s hands rather than ourselves, that’s hard.

At this point it’s out of our control. We fought hard. I thought throughout the season we showed that we were really a dominant team.

SMAEL MONDON, JR: What Carson said. It’s tough. It’s tough. I’m proud of the way the guys played tonight. A lot of guys had to step up. Them guys stepped up. Just proud of the guys.

Q. Kirby, why are you guys one of the four best teams do you think?

KIRBY SMART: I think it’s the eye test. You look at what we’ve done this season, to go on the road, the teams we beat, the teams that are in the top 20 that we were able to beat.

I don’t know if this is right or not, CFP era, a team goes in at 1, I don’t think has fallen out of that. Not that history says anything. When you talk about four best teams, watch the game. Go ask NFL talent evaluators. Ask NFL scouts. It’s about the best teams.

I have no question that it’s not one of the best four teams, 100%.

Q. Carson, what did you see on the end around that one ended up being fumbled? How hard is that knowing that winds up being the difference in the turnover margin?

CARSON BECK: Yeah, we’ve obviously practiced that play a ton. It’s a simple flip back. I’m not exactly sure what happened. I’ll have to go see it on film. I wasn’t able to see the replay.

I flipped it. Next thing I knew all the guys were running, the ball’s on the ground.

I really don’t know what happened on that. Just go back and obviously hope to fix it if we ever run that play again.

Q. Smael, can you talk about defending Jalen Milroe and the challenges there, the last possession when you wanted that stop?

SMAEL MONDON, JR: With how good of an athlete he is, it’s a real big challenge. As far as defending him, some plays he did good on, some plays could have fitted better on. That last drive, just got it fitted better.

Q. For the players, what would it mean to you if the College Football Playoff committee gave you one more shot to play for a national championship?

CARSON BECK: I mean, obviously it would mean everything to us. I mean, we fought so hard through the season. I mean, it’s been a gruesome season. Guys out, fighting to get back. Just like Coach Smart said earlier, like, Ladd, Brock, guys that are going to go on and play football for a long time haven’t really practiced at all for the past 15 days, two weeks. They’re out there battling.

Obviously we think that anybody that steps out on that field is going to go execute and play. Obviously I have a ton of confidence in every guy that’s out there and love them to death. I mean, we’re in there fighting together each and every day.

To be given that chance would be everything to us.

Q. Kirby, notwithstanding what you said, would you agree this season is sort of unique from the standpoint there’s at least five, maybe six teams that can claim ‘we’re one of the four best teams in college football’?

KIRBY SMART: I guess that does make it unique. I don’t know the history of the other years. The fifth team probably always feels like they didn’t. Seems like this is the year that it should be the four best teams because you can make a case for deserving for everybody. It’s unfortunate that these kids who give so much and play so hard, not just at Georgia, all these schools, they don’t get to decide it really on the field.

It’s sitting back with a committee who has to determine who the best four teams are. If it’s truly the four best teams, let’s put the four best teams in.

Q. Kirby, what is Sunday going to look like for you guys with that announcement coming around noon?

KIRBY SMART: Well, we play Alabama next year I think early in the season, so we’re coming in to grade the film, evaluate, see what we can do better and different. The coaches will have to get on the road and go recruiting. We’ll have a team meeting tomorrow afternoon sometime to go over the plans for the future.

These guys need some time. They’ll get some time off, but we’ll have a team meeting tomorrow to go through what our plans are based on what we find out.

Q. Kirby, you haven’t had to address the team after a loss for a while. What was your message to them?

KIRBY SMART: I love ’em. I mean, I love ’em. Guys in there, two classes of guys in that room that have not lost a game. You’re looking at, I don’t know, 10, 15 NFL players who lose it feels like every other week. There’s two classes of our kids that have not lost a game.

Just they’re resilient, they’re fighters. In life a lot of times you really can’t get better until you lose sometimes because you have to find out what you can do better.

It was a sad… Really upset guys. Guys really care about this team. The culture is really good on this team. They were hurt in there, rightfully so.

The message doesn’t change. Looking inward and figuring out what we can do.

Q. On what you said about agreeing that maybe there’s more than four teams that can make a claim, is that an advertisement for next year’s format in your mind, or will that take a little bit off of this game, this SEC championship game, if both teams are going to be advancing anyway?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I don’t know that next year has anything to do with it. I think next year is next year. Nobody is ever going to play in this game and not play it on the line and compete for a championship. You’re playing for a ring, something that’s really hard to get.

Look at the SEC championship. Our team in the playoff, look what they’ve done. Y’all tell me the record of the SEC teams in the playoff. It’s pretty spectacular.

Twice, two of them ended up playing each other. I mean, who are the best teams? Do we want the best teams?

Q. Do you have any updates on Amarius Mims, and how much did that change your game plan when he went out? What does it say about Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey limping off the field?

KIRBY SMART: All those guys are just warriors. Literally, I mean, just fighting.

Mims bumped it against — I don’t know exactly what happened, somebody fell on or he stepped on Tate, something happened. He just felt like it was weak and he couldn’t go. It threw us back to Truss having to go back out. Truss had moved in for Tate, try trying to play for him some. It threw Truss back out there. He played a little bit at tackle. Just part of what we had to do. We had to move those guys around.

Brock and Ladd, those guys battle and compete. They’ve been in rehab every morning. We wanted to play so bad against Tech and they couldn’t. They were going to be close today. They were out there limping around, not 100%.

But the game matters to them. The team matters to them. Brock Bowers of all people, this guy is going to be a first round pick, and he’s just out there battling his tail off.

Q. What led to some of the short yardage issues you had?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I have to watch and see. Golly, we went backwards on two of ’em I think. We decided we were going to go for it if we didn’t lose yardage. We lost yardage.

Only thing we can say is they whipped us up front. Late in the two-minute drive, we had a third-and-one, and they whipped us, we had to get it on fourth-an-one on the goal line.

They have big, big humans. People always say, Georgia can run the ball. It’s hard to run the ball when they have good size in there. They’re a physical front.

But I was very pleased with the run game, not the conversions. That probably was the difference in the game, the short yardage conversions and gifting 10 points away.

Q. What is the game plan tomorrow for watching? Are you going to be all together?

KIRBY SMART: I said earlier. We were going to come in and grade them. I set the schedule for the coaches. We’ll go through the game plan, talk about things we can do different. Offense will meet. There’s a break in there for the coaching staff to be able to watch and do that. We’re not bringing the players in till later to go over the schedule.

We’ll have a better idea of what we’re doing moving forward. I don’t want to bring them in and not know information, so…

Q. Carson, what did you learn about yourself in this loss, struggling at times, but pushing through and getting touchdowns?

CARSON BECK: I mean, obviously to always have the mentality to never give up. It’s never over. I truly believe that every guy on that sideline through every second of that game never gave up.

Obviously I’m super proud of this team. It shows how resilient we are. Obviously it didn’t finish the way that we wanted it to, but to see the guys fight and care and love each other on the field, truly fight for one another, is special.

I mean, it goes to say how special this program is and how Coach Smart has built this program. I mean, we just kept going out there and fighting and kept going. Obviously it didn’t go our way at times.

But just never give up.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

Malaki Starks, Sedrick Van Pran, Tykee Smith, Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, and Kendall Milton Interviews – SEC Championship

Alabama Postgame Interviews: Nick Saban, Jalen Milroe and Dallas Turner

THE MODERATOR: We’ll take an opening statement.

NICK SABAN: I think I couldn’t be prouder of a bunch of guys on a team that has come so far from where we were second, third game of the season. I think this is a great example for a lot of people who want to be successful in terms of the perseverance that these guys showed, the character they had to overcome adversity, the resiliency that they played with.

They’re truly a team. Everybody’s together. Everybody trusts and respects the principles and values of the organization and program and buy into them. They’re all responsible for their own self-determination, which means they can go do their job.

So I couldn’t be prouder of a bunch of guys, the progress that they made, the way we compete.

Georgia has an outstanding team – outstanding team. I think our team wanted to prove all year. There was a lot of naysayers early in the year. We wanted to show people what we could accomplish and what we could do. There wasn’t a better stage to do it, to play the No. 1 team in the country who had won 29 games in a row.

That’s the end point that says you really got where you wanted to go, you were able to go out there and compete in a game, play for 60 minutes, which it took all 60 minutes, and to win the SEC championship, which is in my opinion really, really significant.

It means a lot to me. This is a tough conference. I mean, we have, like, five teams that are ranked in the top 15. We got to play each other. I think we played four out of the five.

I know you’re going to ask me, so I might as well just get to it. Having anticipation is something that’s important to being a good coach. Not that I think I’m a good coach (smiling).

But the message that I would send is, we won the SEC. We beat the No. 1 team in the country, which everybody thought on the committee was the No. 1 team in the country. They won 29 straight games.

If we needed to do something to pass the eye test, I guess that probably contributed to it significantly. If you really want the four best teams to compete, the four most deserving teams that have progressed throughout the season. We’re not the same team we were when we played Texas. We’re not the same team when we played South Florida.

I don’t think we should be considered as that team right now. I think people should look at the whole body of work in terms of what the team was able to accomplish and what they were able to do. I think this team is one of the four best teams, one of the teams that’s deserving to be in the Playoff.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions.

Q. You obviously made your case for the Playoff. What would your response be if the committee disagrees?

NICK SABAN: I disagreed with them before. I disagreed last year. So I’ll respect ’em. I know they have a tough job. I know there’s a lot of good teams.

But I’m just speaking up for our guys on our team who have busted their butt all year long to accomplish what they’ve accomplished. I think that needs to be recognized.

Q. Jalen, Coach has been very complimentary of your season and progression. What can you say about his coaching job?

JALEN MILROE: The biggest thing as players that we can do best is be coachable. Coach Saban, the biggest thing I want to do is be a sponge for all information because end of the day all of our coaches are pushing us to be successful.

To speak about our coaching staff, man, they push us every single day. We set short-term and long-term goals before the season started. We have to be coachable, be receptive to all coaches. Find ways to improve and get 1% better each and every day.

NICK SABAN: I think our coaches did a fantastic job with these players. Fantastic job of helping guys develop and improve. I really appreciate our staff of people who contributed to the success of this team. It’s not about me. It’s about everybody on the team who contributed to the success of this team: players and coaches alike.

Q. Jalen, you guys get the ball back, they cut it 20-17, all the momentum was on Georgia’s side, what is going through your mind? How do you stay calm to engineer the drive?

JALEN MILROE: Singular focus. That’s the biggest motto we had going into the game, singular focus and doing our job.

It’s all about response. The biggest thing that we have on this team that contributes to any success is the FAMILY acronym: Forget about me, I love you. I think we do a really good job about that. It was about singular focus each and every drive.

Q. Dallas, what has it meant for you to have Coach Steele as a defensive coordinator? What has he brought to this team from start to finish?

DALLAS TURNER: The main thing that Coach Steele has instilled in us is holding us accountable every day in practice, having the right practice habits, going in practice how you play. Everything that we do before the games, everything, it’s just all a display of what we do in practice. You just practice how you play.

Q. Coach Saban, when Georgia played Georgia Tech last week, Tech got a couple of touchdowns on a fake toss with the quarterback cutting it up the middle, just like the play Jalen ran at the end to kill the clock. Anything from that game scouting-wise leading you to believe that play would be successful?

NICK SABAN: I can’t say it exactly came from that game. We watch almost every game the team plays the whole season. You’re always looking for things that people had success against ’em, things that created issues for them.

That’s something that I think our offensive staff did a really good job of. To have some of those plays in the bag when we needed to take the air out of it at the end of the game and not give them the ball back.

Q. A year from now the likes of Georgia and Alabama, even Texas, will be playing for seeding probably in this type of game, maybe even for a bye. Can this moment ever be like this where it’s so intense, so much on the line? The SEC championship is important, but we’re kind of at the end of an era tonight.

NICK SABAN: Yeah, I’ve been through a few of these eras where we didn’t have a national championship game, where two teams played, now four teams play, now 12 teams are going to play.

But I think when we have 12 teams, you all still will make a case for 12 more. That’s kind of your job (smiling). Just like the basketball tournament. I mean, how many teams they put in, 68? Then you have a two-hour show on who else should have got in or who got in that shouldn’t. That’s always going to be. That’s part of it. That’s what you do to create interest, which I appreciate.

There’s one other thing I want to mention I appreciate. We had two hellacious drives in this game, all right, that this guy contributed to, and some receivers made some great catches, too. Right before the half, scoring right before the half, when they got 20-17, which you already mentioned, that was a great drive, a necessary drive no doubt, but a great drive. A lot of plays made in those two drives.

Q. Coach Saban, what can you tell us about the status of Kool-Aid and assess the play of the secondary today.

NICK SABAN: Other than the one big play that we gave up, we didn’t play well early. The first drive, we were sort of out of sorts. We settled down and played pretty well. We gave up the one big play over on their sidelines, which led to a field goal. Then we got really bad field position on the punt return. It wasn’t a very good punt. Guy did a good job. Put two returners back so they could get the ball fielded. They hit us.

I thought they did a pretty good job. I think Georgia has a really good quarterback and really good skill guys. I thought they did a pretty good job of limiting their big plays.

Q. And Kool-Aid?

NICK SABAN: Kool-Aid has a concussion. He goes in concussion protocol. We’ll figure out how bad it is, how long it takes, when he’ll be clear. All the testing mechanisms that we have right now I think are really beneficial to players not getting multiple concussions.

Hopefully we’ll do our — our medical staff has always done a really good job of protecting the players when these things occur.

Q. A couple of weeks ago you said this team has been taking years off of your life. The last couple weeks, have they done anything to help you find the fountain of youth, especially with tonight’s win?

NICK SABAN: You know how tired I am right now (laughter)? I mean, I’m happy as hell we won. My speech in the locker room after the game was one word: celebrate. I had just enough left in me to do the dance, just enough (smiling).

Q. Jalen, this team has been talked about today as improved so much in the season. You felt like people kicked you to the curb. Now that you won the SEC title, do you have like some of that doubt it still out there?

JALEN MILROE: The biggest thing about this team is we know there’s unfinished business. We want to improve and get 1% better each and every day.

We have to acknowledge the journey we’ve been on. I can only be just complimentary of the guys in the locker room because end of the day when people doubted us, we continued to work hard. We just trusted in the coaching staff to continue to push us each and every day. We have a good leader like Dallas here right next to me that pushes the offense as we compete on the practice field.

There’s a lot of elements that allows our team to keep pushing towards the final step. But we’re nowhere near the finish line. We’re constantly trying to get better.

Q. Coach and Jalen, Isaiah Bond had four of his five catches on that last touchdown drive. Talk about the way he’s been so clutch this entire year, specifically against Auburn and tonight.

NICK SABAN: Go ahead.

JALEN MILROE: Contribute it to practice habits. When you practice well at practice, we implement different things you can do in the game. I think that’s the biggest thing that correlates to the game, is how well he practices.

He plays with a lot of speed. Also, he does well with the game plan. So Coach Rees just game plans very well with I.B. He continues to work hard. He’s a great resource for our offense to keep us going.

NICK SABAN: He’s been great all year. I think the one word that I would say is he’s very consistent in practice as well as the game. If you’re a quarterback, you want to be able to trust your guys, that they’re going to run the right route at the right depth at the right time and show up at the right place. He does a great job of that. He’s got great speed, so that’s always helpful.

Q. Dallas and Jalen, what would be your message to the committee about why you deserve to be in the Playoff, or do you let what you did on the field do the talking?

DALLAS TURNER: Honestly, I don’t even like to talk too much. I just like to perform on the field. Clearly we had a very good game tonight, a very big win. We just let our playing do the talks for ourselves.

JALEN MILROE: I’ve got something to say. Georgia No. 1, right? You beat the No. 1 team, what do you consider us? What does that consider us?

At the end of the day, that’s out of our reach. Biggest thing we got to do is trust the process, keep getting better. But we beat the best team in the nation considerably, so what do I consider us?

Q. Can we see the dance, one? Two, the play of Trey Amos, the opportunity that he had?

NICK SABAN: He’s been playing for us all year. Trey has been playing in dime all year long. We consider him a starter. When we moved Terry on the star and play him on third down, he’s done a really good job. He did a really good job tonight.

He’s been playing for us all year, but we have a lot of confidence in him. He did a really good job tonight.

I can’t remember two questions at a time.

Q. Can we see the dance?

NICK SABAN: Oh, no (smiling). Bad… It’s bad. I mean, ask them. It’s bad.

Q. We sat in here two years ago and talked about yummy rat poison. How does it taste this year? Has there been a value of external factors getting into the team?

NICK SABAN: I think that’s an interesting point that you bring up because one of the motivating factors for this team all year long is they wanted to prove who they were because of the criticism that they got.

Now, this validates. Winning the SEC, beating Georgia, the No. 1 team, kind of validates who they are.

The next challenge is how do you deal with success, how do you deal with success? That will be the next challenge for this team because I think, I agree with Jalen, that we should acknowledge the fact and celebrate the fact that we won the SEC championship. That’s significant.

But now, if we have an opportunity to do something else, what’s going to be our internal motivation to want to continue to be successful?

Q. Coach, you discussed the value of the tight end in that matchup. What did you do today to minimize No. 19, Brock Bowers, of Georgia?

NICK SABAN: After the first drive, we played almost all split safeties. The one McConkey caught to the one-yard line, we were in the middle-of-the-field coverage. Middle-of-the-field coverage didn’t do us much good today. That’s where we played in that first drive, so we played split safeties the whole time.

When you do that, you get more guys, somebody under him, somebody over him, somebody banging on them, and you’re not covering them one on one.

But to do that, you got to be able to stop the run. Our guys did a really good job with all that split safety stuff of stopping the run today so we could play it.

We went into the game thinking we couldn’t play it. But after the first drive, I said, Can’t get any worse, let’s just start playing it, because that was the plan. That was the plan that we wanted to take ’em away. The guys did a good job of executing it.

Q. Could you speak a little bit about the progression of Emmanuel Henderson as a player over this year.

NICK SABAN: Emmanuel has really developed nicely as a receiver. He’s got great speed. He really didn’t play that position in high school, so sometimes it takes those guys a little longer to develop the confidence, the skill set. But he has done a phenomenal job.

He’s been a good special teams player for us. He got hurt early in the season so he missed some time or he would have been a much more significant — would have made a much more significant impact I think this year. But he’s been very valuable for us all year long.

THE MODERATOR: Coach and players, congratulations. Thank you for attending and appreciate everybody being here.

NICK SABAN: Thank you. I do appreciate what you all do. You create a lot of interest. I know sometimes I get criticized for being a guy that doesn’t like the press, but I really do like you. I like what you do.

You do a lot to give our players a lot of positive self-gratification, and you also create a lot of interest in our game. I think that’s important. So thank you for that.

Photos: 2023 SEC Championship Game

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