Video/Transcript: Kirby Smart Postgame Interview – October 08, 2022
Opening statement…
“Like always, I’ll start with thanking the fans. I thought the atmosphere was great. We came out of the tunnel and I looked up in the rafters and it was packed. I knew that Auburn was going to be in for a tough time from the crowd standpoint, a team that had not played on the road in the SEC.
I thought our crowd impacted the game. I thought our guys came out with a game plan. Striking, attacking, we really wanted to be physical. We wanted to win the line of scrimmage, we thought it would pay dividends in the fourth quarter, and in the second half being somewhat of a hot day, I thought it took its toll on them, especially in the second half for our team to be able to run the ball like it did.
“That helped us. We continue to grow and get better. This team has proven its resilience. They’re tough, but we’ve got a lot of things we can clean up. We didn’t play as well as we could have, but I want to say I’m very proud of the way our team went after it and attacked.”
On how satisfying the run game was…
“It was good. I still think there’s inconsistencies. There’s things we missed on. We missed a block here, but a guy runs through and a couple of times our backs just made a guy miss. We had third-and-2 and Daijun didn’t touch anybody. It was much better at the line of scrimmage. We played more physical at the line of scrimmage, and I thought we wore the other team down. The environment was a little bit different, too. The heat wears on defensive linemen. Some teams have more they can use and some teams don’t.”
On Daijun Edwards’ day…
“I thought he did a really good job. He does a good job around the goal line, makes people miss. He’s elusive, but not so much explosive. He’s probably not going to break off a superlong run, but he gets a lot of positive runs. It’s really hard to get him for a tackle for loss.
“The addition of Branson was really big for us; he’s a guy we felt like all week we had to get more opportunities for him because he’s run the ball well in practice. He’s got a bit of a burst, and was able to get some carries with Kendall being banged up and I thought he did a good job.”
On the key in the second half to Jamon Dumas-Johnson playing as much as he did…
“He works really hard. He missed I want to say Monday, Tuesday and he was able to go Wednesday and Thursday. Conditioned, ran hard. He runs extra after practice so he can play more snaps. I was really proud of the guys that stepped up there. Sorey got significant playing time today for the first time not on third down. Rian Davis had to step up and play because we’ve got some dinged-up guys.”
On his reaction to Stetson Bennett’s 64-yard TD run…
“I was happy for it. I was happy for him. It was a great call by Monk and a good designed play. They ran what we thought they were going to be in and it worked great. It wouldn’t be explosive if it wasn’t for a really good athlete. It proves again that he’s multi-dimensional, is hard to defend because of things he can do.”
On Malaki Starks’ mentality after the death of a former high school teammate
“You’d probably have to ask Malaki about that. We did talk to him about it. He was very close. Thoughts and prayers with his family. Malaki’s parents reached out to us. He was close to him. Malaki handled it very maturely. He did his job today.”
On special team play on fake and Ladd McConkey’s punt return?
“It was great. Ladd’s been really aggressive. I’m really proud of Ladd. I don’t know what Auburn was in punt cover. Somebody told me they were 1 in the country or 1 in the conference at negating punt returns with the way the punter kicks it. We worked really hard this week saying we could spark a drive, change field position and not who we put on punt return. I think Ladd will be the first to tell you he’d give a lot of credit to the guys up front who affected the kicker by almost blocking one. It speeds up. The sooner he kicks it, the sooner it gets to Ladd. They’re elite at holding the ball and not giving up returns. They probably had us on the fake. Nolan made a great play. It was one of those times where they didn’t execute but they had a good look and they checked it. Kudos for them but kudos for Nolan stepping up. That was a huge play.”
On the slow starts and if the team is pressing early in games…
”I can’t define if somebody is pressing. Certainly not clicking the way we’d like to. Some of that falls on, a little responsibility on everybody. We take turns having a lack of execution and when you play really good teams that score lots of points, you can’t do that. You’ve got to value every possession. We didn’t click. When we click, we roll. Then if we don’t get start, we tend to drive, we had several three and outs where it was like, was that a wasted opportunity? We’ve got to get first downs, change the field position, be explosive. Some of that has to do with some injuries and some guys being dinged up but some of that has to do with Stetson. He knows he’s got to continue to play and play better. We’ve got to arm Stetson with people around him. He’s got to have guys around that can really help him. You can’t be one-dimensional and be explosive.”
On Kendall Milton’s injury…
“It’s groin. He said that he got tackled and the guy fell on him and stretched his groin out and it bothered him. I don’t know how severe it is.”
On areas to improve after a 42-10 victory…
”Everything, like what does the score have to do with how we played? It really doesn’t to me. You look at the stat line and you say, ‘oh we ran the ball great,’ and I think there’s a lot of times that we didn’t block it right. We got whipped at the point of attack. There’s other times that we did it right. That’s across the board. Defensively, all we talked about was containing the quarterback. Well, we didn’t do that all the time. He got out of there. There’s an immense amount of improvement that needs to happen for our team to get to the level we need to. I think everybody has this perception of what your ranking is and what the experts say you should beat somebody by. I keep saying over and over, we won’t get caught up in that. We have to get better. We’ve got a really really tough schedule coming and we’ve got to get back. The only way you get better is practice. So we’re going to keep doing that and keep trying to rhythm and get better.”
On how much freedom players like Nolan Smith have…
“Yeah, that’s not freedom. We don’t say, ‘Hey, you have the freedom to do what you want.’ You play within the system. But there are overreach and overstretch. They’re a stretch team, so when teams give you that angle, a natural, good athlete can beat it underneath. We’re also breaking the pocket to get him out of there on one of those plays you’re talking about. It was third and long and he beat a guy underneath. But he was trying to break the pocket to get the quarterback out to get the scramble guy to go tackle him.”
On if Georgia’s problems are experience-related…
“I don’t think that’s an excuse. What does that matter? The players we’ve got are the players we’ve got. We should be good. I’m not apologizing for winning 42-10. What I’m saying is we’ve got to get better. The monster that’s created that you’ve got to live up to this expectation that you’ve got to score every drive, that was created by going out against Oregon and having a great opening. That doesn’t control how we look at things. I just celebrated in the locker room with a group of kids that are 18 to 22 years old that just beat Auburn for a consecutive, some number of times. I’m proud of them. I’m happy for them. But I’m also realistic. We’ve got to continue to grow and we have to continue to get better. It’s not about the age of your players. Every team in college football is young. That’s just the way it is.”
On the second-half start…
“It was huge. Disappointed in the start of the second half. That was the big talk in the locker room. What are we going to do? How are we going to execute? What kind of juice are we going to come out with? Again, it feels like there are these times, and it’s not just us. I felt that way against Kent State, it feels like teams are tired in the second half. It’s not just us, the opponent. At times, it just seems lethargic. Where you really didn’t have those lulls last week. It was cool, it was night, there was energy. And hey we didn’t play great, but there was energy and there was people running fast. As much as anything I’ve seen in the last three or four games, it’s conditioning level of teams. The temperature didn’t seem hot but it was sunny.”
On Warren Brinson and Bear Alexander being pass-rushing specialists…
“They better be run specialists because we don’t have enough of those. You don’t get labeled as one or the other. You have to be a run specialists in order to do it. We earn the right to rush the passer by striking blockers. They just happen the fresh ones that go in on third down. They’re athletic and he’s a really athletic quarterback. So we felt we needed more athletes on the field. You have to be careful with a quarterback like that because they can run it on third down and then go for it on fourth. It’s a cat-and-mouse game on how to play those guys.”
On Daijun Edwards’ day…
“Well I’d love to take credit for it. I know Dell would love to take credit for it. But I watched him at Moultrie and he was the same way. Part of the reason we took him was because of his toughness. And everybody in the town said you give him the ball on the 30th carry, he’s better than the first. He’s not real big but he’s real tough and hard to takcle. I’m sure Dell put a little of that in him but he came with a lot of it.”
On being frustrated with Stetson Bennett after he missed Ladd McConkey on deep ball…
“I mean, I was frustrated on any of them, right? We had Brock on one and Ladd on one. Didn’t think at all about field pressure where he had Oscar late, you know, and he was a little high with it. I mean, Stetson would be the first to tell you he missed those. You know, we’ve got to get rhythm, and we’ve got to help them. We’ve got to go to do those shot plays in practice, and you hit any one of those three and all we’re talking about is how explosive we were. We’ve got to try and hit some of those.”
On what he liked from his offensive line today…
“I liked their tenacity. I liked the fact that they came out and tried to be physical and create a demeanor. We didn’t do it every play — and you’re not going to do it every play. You know, they’ve got guys on scholarship over there, too. But I liked the fact that they came out competing.”
On the offensive linemen taking the criticism from last week personally…
“I have no idea ‘cause I don’t know how they take criticism, you know what I mean? I don’t go in there to criticize; I go in there to try and give them answers of how we do it better. I don’t know that criticism helps. You know, it makes you maybe play harder and there’s a pride factor and everybody needs some kind of motivation, but when you need motivation from you guys, then that’s when it’s not fun anymore.”
On how far along wide receiver AD Mitchell is…
“Really thought he was going to be able to go, you know? Ironically, he had a thumb sprain in the week because we were using him. He fell down and had a thumb sprain, and it became more of the thumb sprain than the ankle. Now, he did have a little bit of a limp, and as the game goes on, he got to the point where he’s not in it and you’re not using him, he gets cold. We tried to keep him on a bike, tried to run him. But we thought that he could have gone had we needed him. We did end up getting out to a lead, and I guess he did play a couple snaps. But it was just, we didn’t get to really use him like we normally do. We need him back.”
On scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter and if it was about wearing Auburn down…
“Probably more of the latter. I mean, to be honest with you, I thought they were tired. They don’t have a lot of depth. I mean, every team across the country right now is struggling with depth on the defensive lines. You just don’t see a lot of size, and we’re dealing with it too. So, I thought that had a lot to do with it. I thought they got tired. I thought the tempo hurt them some.”
On Daylen Everette earning playing time through practice…
“He’s getting better. He’s getting better. You know, we want to try and find ways to play him in the game. He keeps getting better. You know, I’d have to go back and watch the long touchdown catch — we had three guys miss tackles. Just atrocious on the sideline. Atrocious. And, he was involved in that. I don’t know who exactly missed it. But he keeps getting better. He works really hard and is very intelligent, and I’m excited about what he brings to the future being a true freshman. I feel like he’s a sophomore because he was here in the spring, but he’s not.”
On advice to Stetson Bennett on the sideline and both having a competitive nature…
“Sometimes it’s just communicating information, you know? Sometimes it’s, ‘Hey, what did you see there? What made you do that?’ We put a lot on Stetson. I keep telling y’all that. We ask a lot of him. If it’s this, this, this, do this or this, and sometimes you may not see it like we saw it in the box. We’d like to find out why, you know? Sometimes it takes discipline to execute and do it right. He is a competitor. I think I have a great relationship with him, and he respects the fact that he knows I’m emotional and a competitor, and I saw that last week, you know, where it was, like, hey, this guy throws down on two big drives. He made a lot of throws and made a lot of plays when he had to.”
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