ATHENS — While the Georgia Bulldogs are coming off a thrilling win over Ole Miss this past Saturday, Kirby Smart wants his team to keep getting better.

He knows it can potentially be a long season if the Bulldogs make a deep run in the College Football Playoff.

That is why it is critical for Georgia to get the most out of its second off week.

Smart touched on a number of topics on Tuesday. Below is a full transcript of his remarks.

Kirby Smart highlights which areas he wants to see Georgia improve in during off week

Opening statement

“Yeah, excited to get back to work today. We had the guys in yesterday and got to put the game to bed and also got to work with some young players, try to watch a lot of tape and move forward. Big week for us to do a couple things: number one get better, number two get healthier, and number three keep improving in areas that we definitely need to.

“It’s good to be at this week of the season, but looking forward, you know, there’s potentially — there’s definitely five more weeks and then there’s possibly six, possibly 10 more games. So it could be 10 more games moving forward. It could be five games moving forward. Who knows, but we’ve got to prepare for that this week, and we’ll take that on in a very organized fashion, which we’ve already begun as a staff.”

On Billy Napier being let go at Florida and how it affects prep given Napier was the Gators’ offensive play-caller…

“You know, first of all I have a lot of respect for Billy. I’ve known Billy a long time. We were on staff together at Alabama. I like Billy a lot. I think Billy is very intelligent, very well-organized. His attention to detail is at a really high level. He’s a guy that thinks things out really well. I think they’ve recruited well and done a good job. I hate it in this profession. We all know what we sign up for, and Billy understands that.

“As far as how that affects the matchup, you know, it probably affects it more than a one-week window, but in a two-week window there’s still only so much you can do. You know, they’ll make changes, and a lot of times you inject some energy when you do that. You look across the country at [teams] that have had interim coaches. They’ve had some really big wins and had a lot of energy. I know Coach Gonzalez is doing a great job. I’ve had respect for him, gone against him many years. They’ve got a really good staff, so — again, I hate to say it, but I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about us.”

On the improvements he’s looking for on defense…

“Yeah, I’ll be honest, it’s just as many offensive and defensive and special teams. I know for the outside world looking in it’s easy to say, ‘Well, you don’t punt, and then you don’t stop anybody for 90% of the game.’ You can point a lot of fingers, but you can go a week before that and a week before that and there’s issues in both areas. I mean, at Auburn, we had our issues really on both sides of the ball, and we’re not a complete product. We have a long way to go to get where we need to go, but we know who we are. We know what we need to work on. We know what we need to improve on.

“Contrary to a lot of people’s belief, it’s not necessarily some of the areas that people believe. It’s different areas, and we know what they are. Like I said after the Alabama game, I found out a lot more about our team in that game and the games to follow. It’s just trying to improve in certain areas and get incrementally better.”

On if secondary issues boil down to coaching it better or better execution by the players…

“You know, I don’t see it like you guys do. I don’t see it as totally a secondary issue. It might be for the fan, the average fan, or whoever just looks out there. I just don’t look at it as it’s completely a secondary issue. There’s a lot of factors in the things that we can improve on, and we’re going to improve on. We’re going to keep getting better.

“You know, we had, I think, nine or ten of the first 29 plays were second-and-7 or greater. I don’t know that I’ve coached in many games that you hold a really good offense to second-and-7 or greater nine times. The issue is you lose those every time, and you don’t get any third-and-longs. You know, we were 100 percent on third-and-8 or greater the other day. We just didn’t get enough of them. So, you have to find ways to do that and do that well.

“I mean, the opening drive — you go through the opening drive — we have a third-and-7 in which we have a bang-bang, man-to-man play. You have a third-and-4 we have an error on. Then you have a third-and-7 where we have an unblocked player into a quarterback draw.

“Like, you’ve got to be really careful how you do things and what you respond to in terms of are we getting better at us and what we do? Are we getting better at tackling? Are we getting better at free access? Are we getting better at second-and-long so that we have more third-and-longs? There’s so many things that go into it that we got to improve on. But I don’t look at it and say, ‘Oh, we’ve got a poor secondary.’ I don’t think that at all. I think we’ve got really good cover guys, and we’ve got to put them in situations to be able to be successful.”

On injury updates for Talyn Taylor, Kyron Jones, and Colbie Young…

“Yeah, all three of those guys will be out.”

On Josh McCray’s fourth-down conversion against Ole Miss…

“Yeah, it was a huge play. I thought the second effort made the play for him. That’s who he is. He’s a second-effort guy. He’s extremely tough to tackle, yards-after-contact guy. He’s given us sometimes what we don’t have in terms of yards after contact, and he continues to get better.

“I mean, we’ve got to do a really good job of finding roles for him to be able to help our team, to find roles for Dwight to help our team and use the weapons we have.”

On how the QB position has evolved…

“Yeah, I guess it has. There’s more running quarterbacks now than there ever has been. There have always been those guys. But there’s more offenses utilizing their design runs now. There’s a little bit of a fad going across the country right now of quarterback design runs that are giving not just us, every defense problems in terms of there’s a running quarterback and then there’s design runs for quarterbacks. And they’ve become the college football way to run the ball because the defense has evolved, they stop the run outside of a few teams. And the team said, okay, you stop the run, and then I’m going to run with this guy. But then when you get a guy that can throw it as efficiently as he can run it, then you get into some tough situations.

On Colbie Young…

“Expectations of him, first and foremost, are to take care of his foot, leg, his ankle. He is an incredible kid. What he’s meant to this team because I think his experience the year before, to know what he missed out on and to see his work ethic to get back. His leadership throughout camp, his willingness to do anything to help the team. He had the best camp I think any receiver has ever had since I’ve been at Georgia in terms of day one to practice 25 before the first game. The physicality, the ownership, the accountability, the willingness to play positions, and then it was slowly coming out in the season with his play. We found that he was one of the hardest guys to tackle, so his touches went up. He was the best point of attack blocker. He was the best vertical guy, and it’s unfortunate that it happens. It’s a part of football. I reassured him that his work that he put in was noticed, and that’s what he can control now. He has to control getting healthy.”On Elijah Griffin…

“Yeah, Elijah particularly is getting better. I don’t necessarily know what PFF response you’re talking about or what grade they’re talking about. I mean, in terms of disruption, he’s a really powerful. He’s one of our strongest guys as a freshman. He’s really quick. He can be disruptive. We’re trying to utilize his skill set. He’s playing more and more snaps. He’s probably maybe our, I don’t know, second or third leading snap getter in the front as a freshman, and I don’t know that that’s ever happened. So he’s getting snaps, and he’s getting better each and every week. So I just love the kid’s work ethic. He still has some plays that he might not execute the right way, but, I mean, I love the way he plays. I love the kind of energy he brings to that group, and he’s so humble. I’m expecting him to have a big back half of the season. A lot of those freshmen are coming along. I don’t know who in particular you’re talking about, but all those guys are getting better, and that’s their job is to find a way to put themselves in position to help this team, and we don’t know which guy’s up next.”

On cross-training at the bye week…

“Yeah, I can’t say we work corners in safety. We don’t do a ton of that unless we have a need. I can’t say. We take receivers. We do have guys that play in the slot situationally based on plays, and some slots play outside. Like Zach has plays where he goes outside and he’s inside. I wouldn’t call it cross-training. I would call it getting your best players on the field and trying to find a way to get them touches. We’re always going to do that. A line, they do work across between left and right. We’ve had to do that a bunch this year. So we do whatever we think gives us the best chance to win football here.”

On the margin shrinking in college football and the SEC and if Kirby expected that…

“Yes, yes, and yes. I mean, I think all those things are true. I can’t tell you why. I know they are. And kind of felt it was coming as the rosters assemble each year. You know, there’s probably going to be an outlier somewhere that somebody, you know, has an elite group or hits on the right guys, the right positions. Typically, it’s usually a quarterback or somebody that just blows it up and is a dynamic player. But that’s the life that we’re in. That’s the world that we’re in. I don’t know that it’s going to change. I think it’s football. It’s more interesting because games that are tighter are more interesting than games that aren’t. So, it’s probably the way that it’s headed.”

On how coaches can improve in game management…

“I’m still not understanding the question. I want to be clear how I answer it. So you’re asking me, me personally or in general? How do you get better at it? Experience it. I mean, how does a quarterback get better at playing quarterback? It ain’t just through practice. It’s through the real live reps. How does a corner get better at playing the deep ball? It’s real live reps. How does the O-linemen get better? I mean, I firmly believe that you get better at those things before you experience them. There’s no game simulator we can put people in and they come out four hours later and they’re five years advanced. It’s time invested. It’s self analysis, self quality control, which we do a lot of. Those things make you better.”

On if the team will look ahead to future opponents during the bye week…

“Yeah, we’re going to work on what we do every bye week, which is us and our opponents. Part of working on us is the opponents. So, I mean, we worked yesterday on opponents. We’re working today on opponents. We’re working today on ourselves. We’re working on Florida. We’re working on other opponents we have coming down the road because we think it’s important to do that and get exposure to something that’s different. You don’t want to be in unfamiliar territory when you’ve got these games and these short weeks when you have time right now to look at it. So, yes, we’re going to be working on Florida. Yes, we’re working on opponents. And yes, we’re working on us.”

On Demello Jones’ pass breakup in the fourth quarter and his progression….

“Yeah, he’s strong, physical, heavy handed. He does well in man to man situations. He has confidence to put his hands on people and cover them, a really good basketball player in high school. He’s growing and developing as a corner. He’s growing and developing as a nickel cover guy. He’s very open to being uncomfortable in learning, which I think is important in that position. He’s only tip of the iceberg of what he can learn to play inside. He’s been developing outside. But he continues to grow and get better. As long as he takes the right mindset towards that, he can be a good football player. What you worry about is, he’s had some success. He’s had some penalties. He’s had some times he’s gotten beat. But what he hasn’t done is let any of that change him.”

On CJ Wiley…

“Yeah, CJ’s got size and speed. We knew that when we recruited him. He had a couple really good days in fall camp where he made plays on the vertical passing game. He reps, and he’s probably the one guy that spends the most time up with our guys, and less time with the scouts. Those guys that go down to the scouts, they get tons of reps, and they get tons of work. And they get to go against the better defensive players. He’s been in the rotation with our offense down there in practice, learning a little more of that game plan stuff. Nuances of what we’re doing splits, what we’re doing here, so that he has a chance to help us. But he continues to get better. I’m proud of where he’s at in terms of getting better. He’s going to have lots of opportunities this week to continue to grow and show us what he can do.”

On how JaCorey Thomas played against Ole Miss and the safety spot opposite KJ Bolden…

“Yeah, he did some good things. He’s been playing already. He just played more snaps. He’s got to continue to get better, more consistent. But I’m pleased with what he’s doing.”

On Josh Horton and Xzavier McLeod…

“Yeah, I was proud of both those guys. They had huge plays in the game, momentum plays that any one of those plays you have earlier in the game and you get a stop. You get a third down batted ball, it’s as good as a sack in terms of momentum. Both those guys have had a lot of success in our camp early batting balls, getting hands up, pushing the pocket, stopping the run. Josh gives us a little more quickness element and continues to grow and develop in our system. He’s worked really hard to contribute, and Zay the same way.”

On the conversations that led to Monroe Freeling entering the game against Auburn…“Yeah, he didn’t get to do a lot that week. So we didn’t know what we were going, he was going to be a game-time decision. He was just that, he went out in warm ups and felt good, felt like he could go. He looked pretty good in warm ups, but warm ups are warm ups. Still got to go in the game and do it. And as he played in the game, he gained more confidence in it, and he was able to sustain and play in that game, which gave him confidence to get more practice reps this last week. He was able to get more practice reps and then go play. It’s hard to play in games without practicing, but he was able to pull it off mainly because of his experience and his time in our system.”