ATHENS — Kirby Smart and this Georgia team have played in plenty of big games this season. It should prepare them well for a Texas team that enters Saturday’s game as the No. 10 team in the country.
Led by quarterback Arch Manning and defensive end Colin Simmons, Texas is more than capable of coming away with a win.
Which is why Smart wants his No. 5 Georgia team playing its best this Saturday.
Smart spoke to reporters on Monday to preview the game. Below is everything Smart said during his press conference.
Everything Kirby Smart said as Georgia prepares for ‘tremendous’ Texas program
Opening statement
“Yeah, a big basketball game Friday night. Our basketball team will be hosting Georgia Tech, so you can buy those tickets now in Stegeman Coliseum. They’ve been off to a great start. Friday night at 9. And then also it’s Dawgs for Pups Season of Giving food drive. That’s an initiative our players started years ago and have followed up on. So as part of the Dog for Pups community engagement, we’re encouraging Dawg nation to join us by giving to the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia. Non-perishable items will be accepted there here at Butts-Mehre through November 21st. Our players really appreciate the Dogs for Pups Season of Giving food drive, which will be going on until the 21st of November.
“With that, we’ll move on to Texas. We’ve got a big matchup. A lot of respect for Sark. He’s become a good friend of mine. He does a tremendous job. He’s at one of the premier programs in the country. He’s been successful everywhere he’s been. He’s done a great job, and I enjoy his friendship and look forward to another great matchup on Saturday night.”
On the competition with Texas on the recruiting trail and the ramifications of these games…
“Yeah, I don’t know how the games tie [in]. I mean, the recruiting they do, they recruit nationally. I mean, a lot of coaches have gone to Texas and just recruited the state of Texas. I think Sark and his staff have reached out both West Coast to California all the way down to Florida. They’ve gotten some guys, and they’ve gotten some guys from Georgia. We’ve gotten some guys from Texas that we think are good players. It’s all in the eye of the beholder in terms of who you go after and with who you win. Certainly recruiting wins tie into the future of your program and the success of your program.”
On the Texas offense’s revitalization in the last few weeks and how Arch Manning has played during it…
“Yeah, he’s playing with more confidence. Number one, he’s getting better protection. He’s seeing things well. He’s making good decisions. He’s getting the ball out of his hand quickly. I mean, he’s maturing. He’s had an opportunity to play and grow, and you don’t really get that until you get out there and play. He played a good bit last year, but the kind of games he’s had to play in this year, just a different stature in terms of the SEC gauntlet.
“And you watch game by game. I watched yesterday each game throughout the year and watched him just grow and play and play better. He’s extending plays, he’s doing really well with scrambles, keeps his eyes downfield, doesn’t look at the rush. He’s made some really impressive wow throws, and they’re playing better offensively.”
On what stood out about Manning in the recruiting process and what Smart remembers given the celebrity nature of that recruitment…
“Yeah, it really wasn’t about the celebrity nature or the last name. It was about the tape. You know, I have a good relationship with their family. I’ve known his dad for a while, his uncle for a long time, and his grandfather. They’ve got a wonderful family, but it has nothing to do with his recruitment.
“His recruitment was based on he’s athletic, he’s fast, he’s tall, he’s intelligent, he’s got composure, he’s got arm. I mean, he can do it all. He can run the ball, he can throw the ball. In this day and age, you’ve got to have a quarterback that can do both. He can, and I think he’s got great composure. You know, He’s not really affected by not many things, even the way he’s managed the hype and expectations of what he was supposed to be this year. None of that was — he didn’t call on any of that to come to him. It’s just what the outside sources did, and it doesn’t seem to have affected him. He knows he’s gotta grow and get better, and I think Sark’s done a great job kind of bringing him up and allowing him to develop and get better.”
On the recruiting pitch to Manning to come to Georgia…
“I don’t really know about a pitch. I mean, it was relationships. I mean, right? I got to know him, our staff got to know him. He came over here a lot. He was very honest and had his thoughts about both programs. He liked both programs. He had to pick one. I mean, there’s no, like, sales pitch in terms of that.”
On Texas’ run defense…
“Yeah, they were really effective in that area last year. They’re built on the line of scrimmage. They’re built to be physical. They fit things really well. Pete [Kwiatkowski] does a great job as a defensive coordinator. They’re very disruptive, they create turnovers, aggressive. They’ve got good players. I mean, at the end of the day they’ve got big, physical, good players on the line of scrimmage, which allows you to stop the run.”
On the challenge of slowing down Colin Simmons and the Longhorns’ pass rushers…
“They’re tremendous. They’ve got great effort. They rush really hard. They’re leaders. They’ve got stars all over their defense. I mean, they’re very talented. When you watch that defense play, they play hard, they get after the quarterback, they disguise things well. Very disruptive. There’s a lot of challenges when it comes to dropping back, throwing the ball, and trying to run the ball. When you want to be balanced, they’re really good at making you not be balanced.”
On the secondary’s play since the second bye week…“I mean, we’ve played good in spurts and we’ve played poor. It’s kind of like everything. I mean, there’s things that I would like to see done better, and there’s things that were improved on. So it kind of depends on what quarter or what play you’re talking about.”
On if he looks for core traits in a QB or just tries to get the best player available…
“Well, I think the best player available every cycle does have core qualities or core characteristics. You’re going to be a quarterback, you’ve got to be a leader. It’s 80, 90 percent between the years, and I think people get enamored with just physical traits. How big is he? How tall is he? What does he run? How far does he throw the ball? How fast does he run? A lot of those things, they matter, but they don’t matter as much as, what does he do when there’s a guy free running at him? What does he do when the shot clock’s got three seconds left and he’s got to make a decision on which way to slide the protection? I mean, there is so much that goes into playing that position that is not talked about. A lot of them aren’t really qualities we can measure without having them in our program. So we don’t have a cookie cutter, like this is what we’re going after. We want to go after people that can lead our team. If they have a skill set that’s unique and that we think can make us better, then we want to enroll them within our program. They’re going to be the face of your organization, so you want to go after the right kind of person. They’re probably the sole person that makes the most decisions outside of the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator during a game. So you want to get the right guy for the mental makeup.”
On what Gunner has brought to the offense as a first-year starter…
“Toughness. He’s brought wisdom, he’s brought consistency. He’s made good decisions with the ball in terms of keeping us out of bad situations. I mean, you look at it, he’s avoided quite a bit of sacks. He’s avoided catastrophic things like turnovers. He’s made plays with his legs, and he’s made plays with his arm. So I think he’s improved throughout the season and continues to do that. And it’s going to make us very hard to defend when he plays well.”
On KJ Bolden’s biggest area of growth since arriving on campus…
“Probably leadership. I mean, if you say this year, I would say, his growth has been in leadership. I’d say his freshman year was probably in adding some bulk and some size. He’s done a really good job of that in the offseason. He’s fighting to maintain that throughout the season. We like for him to play in that 195 range. He works really hard at that. But his biggest growth this year is in being in a room where he has to step to the forefront and be a leader and communicate more. Where he relied on other guys to communicate in the past, he is the lead communicator on the back end now. He’s done a nice job with that.”
On what defenses have done to force offenses to include the QB in the run game…
“Well, I just think defenses are harder to run on without the extra element. I don’t know that they’ve done, they’ve taken more chances. Offenses can become more predictable when they’re not using their quarterback’s legs. But I don’t know that there’s a team we’ve played this year that hasn’t used their quarterback’s legs like everybody does. You say, well, that quarterback can’t run, they still use him. They still get him out of the pocket and use him to run the ball. So that advent has come about because rushing the ball matters. I don’t think that advent has come along because defenses have evolved to the point they stop people from doing it. It’s just we have to be able to get some situational runs, red area, third down, goal line, whatever you call it. You need creative ways to run the ball to stay ahead.”
On the latest on Lawson Luckie/Drew Bobo injuries…
“Yeah, Drew had a pretty bad laceration on his finger. He’s patched up and ready to go with practice today.
“Lawson is doing well. I think he’s going make a good quick turn, but we’ll see.”
On how the defensive line played in its first game without Jordan Hall…
“Yeah, they did a good job. I think they played kind of inspired about him not being there and wanting to play well, because he wasn’t there. It’s tough on Jordan, and he’s a leader in that room. Guys missed him, and we had to increase the snaps to some other guys.”
On if last year’s wins over Texas affect this week at all in terms of tendencies or confidence…
“Yeah, this team didn’t beat Texas. Texas hasn’t played this team of ours. So two completely different teams, in my opinion. So it has zero effect on them.”
On pressuring Arch Manning…
“Yeah, it’s a challenge every play. There’s six gaps, sometimes seven gaps up there. You gotta fill, you can’t fill them all. So you gotta rush intelligently and violently, and those two don’t always mix. So it’s hard to do that and contain the quarterback. We’ve had some opportunities to get sacks that we’ve capitalized on. We had a couple chances on normal down stuff the last week with Mississippi State’s style of play. But it’ll be key this week for sure, because Arch is really good. They’re really good at protection. They know what they’re doing. They’ve got different protections, and it’s a challenge every week for our defense to try to affect the quarterback.”
On the biggest improvement in the team recently…
“I don’t know if I can specify one area. I think I’ve been really proud of the consistency in practice. So I don’t know that that’s an improvement. I think that is a staple of this team. They have committed to practicing the right way and improving in a time when some teams are going the other way.”
On freshmen getting more snaps…
“I think some of it’s opportunity. Injuries in some of those cases have brought that about. Confidence, cumulative reps we’re big on here. Meaning the cumulative reps that each one of those guys have taken has grown. I mentioned CJ Wiley in that with Landon and Elyiss, Zayden and there’s other guys. Some people’s progression is just different than others. But as they grow and get better, and they get put in these tough situations in practice, they grow confidence. And honestly, we can’t make it through the year without a number of guys. And those guys are more ready to play now than they were earlier in the year.”
On if it was maybe Georgia’s best blocking game against Miss State…
“Well, we got hat on the hat, but I mean, we try to do that every game. So I don’t know if this game was more outstanding in terms of blocking. There were more explosive plays, so it probably brought to light a lot of those. But some of that comes around as missed tackles. We might be blocking the same guys in the same game, but one guy makes a tackle, it’s not an explosive. One guy breaks a tackle, it is an explosive. So I’m definitely pleased with the effort they played with.”
On Quintavius Johnson…
“Much better leader. He was forced into a role last year that he didn’t play a lot, but he played. And with the guys we’ve had leave at that position or go to the NFL, he’s grown up a lot and he grew up quickly and really proud of the way he owns his responsibility to the team and his leadership.”
On what the players from the state of Texas have brought to the team…
“Well, each one’s different. Dillon’s been here a long time, qw know what he’s brought. He’s brought an ability to play multiple positions, toughness, special teams. We’re still cracking the surface of those other two guys, but they’re tremendous leaders. Dillon’s a captain this week, he’s a joy to be around. They all work really hard, I think they come from great programs. I think Texas high school programs are similar to Georgia and they have great support structures, community involvement. High school football still matters in that state and I think that made those guys better football players.”
On Oscar Delp and Elyiss Williams…
“I think both those guys are playing well. I think (Todd) Hartley and (John) Lilly, those guys have done a great job with the development of Elyiss, but also with Oscar. I mean, he was not a completed player last year and he came back with a purpose of getting better. And I think he just loves Georgia and loves the team. He’s so fired up every game in whatever role we ask him to do. I mean, he’s just as excited about his downfield block for a touchdown as he is his catch for a touchdown. The guy’s never complained one time since being here about touches in the ball and making that a priority. He does whatever the team asks him to do. He’s very selfless, all those guys in that room are. And I think he should take some ownership in Elyiss’ growth, because he and Lawson both show him how to work, how to do things, what the standard is at Georgia. And they compete with each other to make each other better.”
On the offensive line…
“Well, we’ve gotten more continuity, but I mean, that’s by way of getting guys back from injuries. I don’t think we’ve played our best game yet. Still think we’ve got a level of conditioning we can improve on, in terms of playing hard and running down the field and covering down. I’d like to see more guys in that front group do that. Some of them do, and some of them can improve on it. But I like the depth piece we have. And if we stay healthy, we’ve got ability to play up to seven or eight guys. It’s just you don’t control the health part of it.”
On the DNA traits of a Steve Sarkisian offense…
“Explosive, attacking, window dressing. They’ve got a lot of shift motions. They employ tempo, and they’ll go fast on you. And they do a really good job of mixing things up and creating a lot to work on defensively.”