Opening Statement…
“I’m going to open up with a couple comments about practice. I thought today was probably not our best day; I actually thought Saturday was our best practice so far this spring. I thought we had great energy Saturday. It was practice six, great weather, crisp offense/defense— really pads popping— but today was the first day where I thought we were dragging a little bit. Practice seven, I didn’t think we got the enthusiasm we needed. (It was) a little windy, but I didn’t think we connected really on some things offensively. Defensively, we were sloppy. A lot of freshmen I think we’re kind of hitting a wall, not able to process the information. We’re also at the end of an install. So, kind of at the end of the install, we start all over again today and start reinstalling so they can pick it up, but I’ll open it up for questions.
“I will comment on Brenton (Cox) and Robert Beal. I was made aware kind of right as we were going into practice about their situation. You know, I’m obviously extremely disappointed. I’ve obviously done a poor job with this group with connecting and making sure they listen and understand things. Obviously, we have policies and rules in place. These guys violated those policies and rules, and they’ll serve the punishment they deserve for it. I hate the decisions they’ve made, and they’ve got to learn as young men, that you can’t break the rule— you can’t break the law. Obviously, our guys have not done a good job of that, and that all falls on me, but we’re going to do a great job of moving forward and trying to get these guys in the right place and make good decisions. I will say this: with 90 percent of our team, we’ve got the least number of misses, the least number of tardies and are doing things right, and I’m very disappointed in the 10 percent that have not.”
On the internal leadership of the team/being ’team/player-led’…
“I always say that, and that’s always important. The sad thing is, I really do think we’ve got great leadership on this team. I don’t think a lot of our good leaders on this team can control some of these situations, and I think they’re disappointment. I think they’re frustrated, and I spoke to several of the guys in the leadership group after practice today, and they’re very frustrated and upset, as we are as coaches. But I can’t sit here and say we don’t have good leadership on this team, because I’ll be honest with you— at practice, the energy and the enthusiasm and a lot of the guys who are in that group have been better than in years past. So, I’m excited about where our leadership is, I’m just extremely disappointed that we’ve got guys who won’t follow the rules and the law and make good decisions and if they don’t, they’re not going to be here. So, they’re going to have to make good decisions.”
On what more Coach Smart, as head coach, can do to keep this from happening…
“Well, I think the biggest thing is you say, ‘Alright, what’s your selection process? What’s your criteria when you go to select players?’ You want to get guys of high character who make good decisions. You also want to get guys who lead and want to be a part of this organization. We tell guys all the time that this is a privilege. It is a privilege to be a part of the University of Georgia football. I saw Robert Edwards and Terrence Edwards out there today, and to see both those guys— they can speak ad nauseam about what a privilege it is to be part of something bigger than yourself. And I don’t know if some of our guys realize that, and I’ll be honest with you— sometimes, you don’t realize it until the privilege is lost. Sometimes, it takes a catastrophic event to change your course, and I’m talking a catastrophic event is losing your privilege of being here. And that’s unfortunate, but we’re going to follow our rules and policies on these guys and move forward.”
On whether Coach Smart’s job of enforcing such policies is made harder in an era when marijuana’s legality is a controversial topic/more relaxed…
“It doesn’t change when it’s against the law. I understand where you’re coming from, but it doesn’t change that it’s a) against the law, b) against NCAA rules, and every player on this team knows that and understands that.”
On details of Cox and Beal’s arrests…
“Don’t know much, I just know they were both charged with a misdemeanor and possession of marijuana. That is all I know right now.”
On increasing the havoc in all three phases (offense, defense, special teams) and how it is measured on special teams…
“Well, it’s not—the assumption about all three phases is probably not correct. We’ve made it about defense for havoc. Offense has its goals and there are a lot of goals there. We have got to get some guys that catch the ball consistently, make plays—the biggest part we haven’t seen of this team is experienced receivers. We got back to the havoc for us is the percentage of plays that you cause a ball-disruption, a turnover, a tackle for a loss. What we’ve done is every day in the defensive meeting room we ask a different guy to stand up and give the definition of havoc. So, everybody in that room will, with the highest ACT-SAT to the lowest, he’s got to stand up and give us what havoc rate is. If they understand what it is they know we are trying to cause it and we feel like we should have 20-percent of the play, two of every 10 should have a ball-disruption, a turnover, a (pass deflection) and a tackle-for-a-loss. We are charting that, and I don’t know maybe our charters are just liars, but our offense makes it look like we’re not causing havoc and our defense make it seem like they are causing havoc. We probably have to get a statistician in here to balance it out. I do think that we have created more negative plays and are really aggressive this spring at trying to do that. Coach (Dan) Lanning, Coach (Glen) Schumann have made that point of emphasis. So, that’s what havoc is for us.”
On the “aggressive” future scheduling announcing the 2027-28 Florida State series and second Clemson home series today…
“All right, I’m thinking that to get in the Playoffs, as the future goes, I don’t know if it will ever expand it, that’s not for me to even kind of divulge on, but I do think that you’re going to need a quality of schedule to do that. I think that there is going to be two-loss teams in the future, if they’ve got a really tough schedule—they are going to make that. I also think that at the University of Georgia you should be able to recruit the finest, best players in the country out of your own state and across the country. Our academic institution is so highly thought of, so I want to have the best players, I want to play the best teams. Kids come to this college to play big games. They do not come to play, I would never name anybody, but they don’t come to play anybody they haven’t seen before. They want to play the best teams, so we want to go schedule the best teams. Unfortunately, you cannot schedule these games but seven to 10 years out and that is so frustrating to me because I can’t think about seven to 10 years out, I’m trying to think about tomorrow and this year, and you’re having to schedule way in advance. We thought three Power Five opponents, non-conference opponents would be, not ground-breaking, but we thought it would be a new thing. We’re not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to go out and play. You look at the NFL teams. I know those are different players, but they play 16 teams in a season that are all good. There is no cupcake in the NFL. They play back-to-back-to-back quality opponents. We want our fanbase to get that. We also want our fan base to get potentially what might be seven consecutive home games, non-conference Power Five opponents. We’re trying to get that lined up for them, and play some good rivalries. I think it’s going to help us in recruiting, I always do. I like playing in Atlanta as well.”
On playing three Power Five’s in 2028 and 2029 and wanting that every season…
“Do I want it every year? That is going to be hard to do in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Why is that? They are already set. So what we are trying to do is schedule that out. We’re not running from Power Fives. We think that that is going to be the lay of the land, and I think the fans and what they are asking for and the ticket price that they are paying. They want to see those kind of games, and the SEC is brutal. I don’t think anybody would argue that it is the toughest league when it comes to week-in and week-out—now you are going to add three games on top of that. I think that 85 scholarships that remain you can put together a quality team together and you can go play those kind of teams and you can build yourself—they have proven that the later games in the year have more impact on who makes the playoffs. So if you can get a Power 5 team, non-conference late in your schedule—I’m talking about late in the back four or five games—you have a chance to spike and send your yourself into that conversation.”
On Walter Grant getting a look at the running back position…
“He’s done a heck of a job. It is interesting, because I recruited Walter [Grant], so I got to see him run the ball at Cairo [High School]. We just said who right now can help our team at tight end or running back and Walter played a lot of tailback in high school – we recruited him even when I was at Alabama as an either-or (type player). He is really bright, he picks things up quick, and catches the ball well out of the backfield. But he has done a good job back there. It is more of an experiment. Walter is bright, so in our system he can sit in our defensive meetings and know what to do, so if we install something new he’ll meet with his coach individually, but when he is learning the offense he is with the offensive guy. Right now he is kind of doing both.”
On James Cook…
“James (Cook) is not 100 percent. James is a tough dude. He is coming off that ankle surgery repair and isn’t hitting his GPS marks that he was before. But he is not complaining a bit and is taking his quota of reps. He is running the ball. He was electric last year in practices, especially in fall camp, but right now he is just not 100 percent. Also we aren’t tackling him either. He’s catching the ball out of the backfield. I mean he’s talented, he’s probably 90 percent right now, but he is just trying to get back comfortable.”
On running backs D’Andre Swift and Brian Herrien being more of a factor in passing game due to departing receivers…
“That and you can throw James Cook in there, you have a freshman coming in, and you have Zamir (White) who hopefully will be healthy. We think we have a stable of backs who are all really good at receiving out of the backfield. I’m not down on receivers don’t get me wrong, but the biggest drop off on our team if you compare it to last year is probably at receiver for obviously reasons. There were three guys at the NFL Combine that aren’t out there. Demetris Robertson has made some plays. JJ (Holloman) has made some plays. Tyler Simmons has been very consistent. We just don’t have many guys that we are counting on to be our depth, they are somewhere out in Atlanta or Louisiana (referring to departing players).”
On Demetris Robertson…
“He is more comfortable in the system. He knows the routes better, he knows how to beat a guy now. He doesn’t have to think about what to do. He has caught some deep balls. He has played better and has played more physical. He is growing.”
On using transfer portal…
“We haven’t changed much (on use). We look at the portal to see who is in it and we do it by position, so if we say ‘we need a tight end’, we’ll evaluate the tight ends that are in there. To be honest though at our level, it is tough. We are pretty high up on the food chain, so when getting players we need that tight end to be really talented. We’ll look at it, but it is not something that we’ve had to actively do. We do have people that look at it and through it each day. It is not something that we sit here and say we are going to pursue this guy or that guy. There is nobody in there right now that we are dying to get right now.”
On what Georgia has gotten better at this spring practice…
“Well it isn’t off the field, I can promise you that. I think really defensive back. I’m not sure we’ve gotten better from one-to-seven (number of practices), but we’ve got better from last year to now. So from practice one-to-seven we’ve had a couple guys make some busts, but it just seems like the youth with the young players – who do we have, Tyrique Stevenson, Lewis Cine and DJ Daniel – so with those three I don’t think we have another defensive back coming in for the fall. So we are done there, we got what we got. And what we have is some good parts, some experience. J.R. (Reed) staying really put us over the top, because we have depth. I’m not saying that we are playing unbelievable, but I’m saying we have guys that know what to do now. It used to be frustrating walking off the field and having a lot of busts, but now this group has gone through tough times last year, so that is a group (shown improvement). Inside backers are really the same guys, but it has one more year experience and Nakobe Dean needs to show up and make plays. Those two areas we are improved. Offensively, it is hard to say that, because there is so little depth at receiver and tight end, so it is harder to evaluate.”
On who are sharing the punt and kick return duties…
“There are a bunch of guys sharing them. Kearis (Jackson), Tyler Simmons, D’Andre Swift, James Cook, those four at punt return. Brian (Herrien) is back there at kick returner but he was back there last year. (Willie) Erdman has been back there. I don’t know what’s going to happen back there because we have Dominick Blaylock coming in. He’s done it a lot, he’s really good at it. I don’t like doing (punt returns) by committee or trial by fire. I want to find that out and I think it will come to fall camp when it’s a live kicking situation and we’ll try to figure that out.
On any worries about the possibility of a true freshman returning punts…
“I don’t mind a freshman at all (returning punts). It doesn’t bother me in the least bit if it’s the right guy. Blaylock is a football player, baseball player, has great hands, great vision and I would trust him all day to protect the ball.
On how much Coach Smart talks to the incoming freshmen at this point in the year…
“To be honest I haven’t talked to a lot of those guys a whole lot. I text them. I’ll motivate them by saying, ‘Hey, we need you, I hope you’re doing something,’ and I throw them a text message once a week just to fire them up.
On Jake Camarda’s punting this spring…
“I haven’t seen a whole lot because we haven’t punted live a lot. What I have noticed is his kicking. We are trying to find a backup kicker and he’s been No. 2 behind (Rodrigo Blankenship) along with Brooks (Buce). (Camarda) kicks field goals really well. He kicks the ball high and hits it fast. I haven’t noticed a lot of punts, I have been worried about the protection more than the actual punts. But we will look at that in the fall.
On freshmen “hitting the wall” and how the coaches deal with that…
“(The freshmen) always kind of hit a wall and it gets to be where it’s information overload. I have noticed where it’s happening with Nakobe (Dean) some, I noticed it with a couple of the other guys and definitely noticed it with Trezmen (Marshall) and Tyrique (Stevenson). They are at the point where their heads are just spinning. But that’s OK, we have a method to our madness. The method is you throw it at them and they get some of it. And then we will hit it again during the summer and then again in the fall. By the third time through, they are getting more each time. We don’t teach at their pace. We’ll do drills where we say, ‘Hey, J.R. Reed is not going to be in during this drill, let’s get Lewis extra. Jake Fromm might not take eight reps this period, he might take four and that gets Stetson into four more. We are trying to grow our team during spring practice and be really smart about who gets the most practice reps.”
On Malik Herring this spring…
“Malik can be a good player. He’s got to hone in and do the little things right. He needs to be a little more mature and serious about things to be the kind of player we want him to be. He has played well, just has to mature some.”