Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening statement …
“I would like to open with thanks to our fans. What a tremendous fanbase we have, and they turned out. I thought it was really awesome. Incredible atmosphere to come back and play in. You don’t realize what you got until it’s gone sometimes, so I certainly missed that. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all the men and women that serve our country and lost their lives on 9/11. It sounds like they had a tremendous presentation at the game today. That moment always sticks with me. I had somebody today ask me and said, ‘hey do you remember when 9/11 occurred?’, we were sitting watching film at Valdosta State, and I thought man that was a long time ago. The people that lost their lives over the last 20 years serving our country, it means a lot. I know to the University of Georgia, our team, my family for all the people that served our country, with that thanks.”
On the decision to start Stetson Bennett at quarterback …
“Yeah JT (Daniels) got better as the week went on. We didn’t even really know anything was wrong with him on Monday. He got taped up and said it was bothering him. But as the week went on, on Tuesday, it was a little more. Today, he was better than he was earlier in the week and actually felt good. Today was the first time he got to really throw some balls down the field in warmups, so we hope he continues to improve. The decision to go with Stetson…we are really young offensively, we have a lot of guys who are injured or out, whether it be Kearis (Jackson), George (Pickens), Darnell (Washington). We just have a lot of young players who are trying to grow up and we thought it would give a calming effect to have him in with his experience and his ability to play in games. You know he played really well. I am proud of the way he handled it well. The plan was to play both of them. We went two, one, two, one, I feel like we planned on getting those guys reps. I am really proud of the way that Stetson has handled himself. No one has been better to the University of Georgia than Stetson Bennett.”