ATHENS — Georgia makes it a point to be a physical football team.
And if that is too much for a player and they elect to leave the program, Kirby Smart tends to want to play those teams that welcome softness.
“The ones that want to leave, we schedule them,” Smart said on Monday. “We try to get them on the schedule because, when they want to leave because they’re not physical, it means they’re probably going to a place that’s not physical. We like those places. We like to play them.
Phscality wasn’t the only topic discussed during Smart’s press conference on Monday. The Georgia coach could’ve a number of topics as the Bulldogs prepare for a non-conference game against Charlotte.
Below is a full transcript of what Smart had to say.
Kirby Smart calls out players who transfer away from Georgia: ‘We want to schedule them’
Opening statement…
“Yeah, looking forward to this week as we prep. The seniors, always a special day when these guys have their last home game, or what’s scheduled to be their last home game. It’s a special moment. It’s always hard for me because of the tradition and the moments we’ve had with a lot of these guys. It’s tremendous group, to get to go out and play in front of their families, in front of the Georgia fan base against Charlotte, so we’ll begin the prep for those guys today and this week.”
On CJ Allen’s injury status…
“He’ll be week-to-week, and see when we can get him back.”
On SEC title uncertainty with two non-conference games left…
“It’s not a difficult position. It’s, we’re worried about Charlotte, right? So we’re focused on them. We’re getting ready for those guys. That’s who we’ll prepare for. The next week we’ll have a plan for the following week in terms of people breaking things down, and things like that. But it’s not a difficult time, in terms of that, because we’re worried about getting better.”
On linebackers in CJ Allen’s absence…
“All those guys rolled in there with Chris, Justin and Raylen playing snaps. Those guys continued to grow and get better. They practiced well this year and continued to get more depth in that room. I was proud of the way those guys played a few more snaps.”
On who gets the mic’d-up helmet without CJ in there…
“No, they all have the green dot. They rotate who has it by who’s in. CJ doesn’t always have it. Raylen has it some. Chris has it some. Justin has it some.”
On Chauncey Bowens’ injury update…
“Yep, it’ll be day-to-day. Hopefully we’ll get him back. I hadn’t actually gotten a chance to see Chauncey yet. He was doing rehab this morning and had good reports from that, but don’t know much.”
On Gabe Harris’ role and progression…
“He’s been really consistent. He’s played really hard, really physical. He’s a twitchy player that we need, in terms of disruption and movements and striking blockers. He’s really tough. He’s really physical. He’s been really durable. I’ve been very pleased with his consistency throughout the entire season.”
On James Coley’s wide receiver room impact and Javon Wims…
“Coley does a tremendous job. He’s a really good teacher. He’s passionate about his game. Every day he goes into his meeting room prepared to teach, to challenge, to motivate. He fires up NFL tape. He’s got, whether it’s Jamar Chase, an NFL wideout, AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, the concepts we use in our offense are very common in the NFL, so those guys really like seeing the guys they look up to running those routes. So Coley does a good job integrating those things into his meeting to make it interesting. He teaches the toughness we need at that position. The skill set, he’s done a good job recruiting, so really pleased with the job James has done.”
“Javon works with those guys too. It’s great because Coley knew Javon when he was here. They’ve got a good relationship. He gives good energy. He gives good experience. He’s a guy that’s played at that level, and he demands a lot of those guys. He pushes them. He’s not afraid to challenge them, and I think that’s helpful.”
On how he’ll remember this senior class…
“Probably more by this year because the majority of this senior class has had an increased role, at least from a leadership perspective, maybe from a snap perspective in some guys’ cases, this year. Because there were a lot of seniors last year. This class has been unique in that this season’s been different. They’ve been part of the new culture. First real senior class that was brought into this group. A couple of them left last year. Malaki, Mykel, they were all part of this class that’s gone, but when you look across the board, the fourth-year seniors, they were kinda the first, I mean, it was infancy, but they were in the NIL stage in phases. Proud of them. Love them like I do the others, and I want to continue for them to grow.”
On patience with the young group…
“We’re going to be young every year, so I don’t think college football’s going to have old teams anymore. I think they’re going to be youth across the board, and I’m going to have to get used to being patient. It’s what it is, how fast you can grow your youth compared to others. But I’m proud of this group and what they’ve done. They’ve got good intangibles. They work hard. They’ll get tested this week in terms of their focus and how well they can continue to elevate as opposed to sit there and idle by. They’ve gotta make a choice if they want to continue to get better.”
On Georgia’s 37-3 stretch in SEC play compared to Alabama, Florida runs historically…
“I think that’s a hard question to answer. It’s a hard comparison because my perspective as a player and my perspective as an assistant is very different than my perspective as a head coach. It’s changed within that window you talked about. I don’t know that the early years in the five-year span were that different than those years than I was an assistant, but the last two since the expansion and the increased transiency and increased NIL, it’s become a more parity league in the last two. So probably within that five-year span, you’re talking about that record, it’s been harder on the backend of it.”
On growth from the DL getting pressure…
“None. We’ve been consistent all year.”
On Oscar Delp’s development…
“A ton. His maturity. He was really mature last year. He was a third-year player that was really like a fourth-year player last year. He’s a fourth-year player this year that’s really like a fifth-year player. He does things naturally that you just get over time. He’s really smart, really wise. He has great spacial awareness when it comes to who to block, when to block them. You can put more on Oscar than you can somebody else because he’s seen it all and done it all. You can’t put a value, and I don’t mean a monetary value, I mean a value in terms of our team, on what he does for the team. He’s just incredible. He leads. He’s got passion, fire and energy. He’s playing really physical this year. He’s grown up is what he’s done. He’s practiced better too this year, but he didn’t practice poorly before. He just improved that, and he fits this identity of our offense really well. He fits Gunner really well because some of the things Gunner does are made possible through guys like Gunner and Lawson.”
On red-zone success…
“Ability to run the ball. At the end of the day guys, do your red-area stats. If you struggle to run the ball, you’re going to struggle in the red area. There’s nowhere else to go. You can’t throw it up there in the 10th row. You’ve gotta go through somebody’s face, and that’s hard to do for a lot of people, and it’s hard for us, but we’re committed to it. Same way on defense. You’ve gotta be able to stop them from doing that. I think Gunner’s legs have helped with that creativity on offense with Bobo, his staff. John Lilly, in particular, helps with red area. They’ve done a tremendous job.”
On Christen Miller’s health update…
“As far as I know, he’s good.”
On Monroe Freeling winning SEC OL of the week again…
“Demeanor, character, leadership, approaches the game the right way. A growth mindset of being open to get better. He doesn’t ever think he’s arrived. He knows he can improve. He knows humility is a week away in this league because he’s blocking good players.”
On Gunner’s performances in big games and Heisman recognition…
“I would defer to you guys and the people that judge that, in terms of what that consists of. It’s hard for me to lobby for that. What I will say is he embodies everything about that award, resiliency, character, determination. I mean all those words that embody a Heisman trophy winner, Gunner’s got it, and he’s done it on the biggest stages, in front of the biggest audiences, against some of the toughest competition at a really high level, so he’s playing well, and he’s playing to make the people around him better. His value to our team is immense.”
On how 12-team playoff has changed the importance of championship game…
“Yeah, how we look at going to the championship game. That would be like say, are you looking at intentionally losing? OK, well, that’s what it sounded like. I want to win every game that we possibly play. So what does that mean? Again, my objective is to win every game that we play, so where does that put us? That puts us in that game. So there would be no way I would ever look at not playing in that game. Can’t do that. You’ve gotta look at the opportunity to go play and win a conference championship that has eluded more programs and has been as rare to win, in some cases, as a national championship. That, philosophically, I’m a kid that grew up in the SEC footwork and thinks that’s one of the key ingredients, most important games. To talk about the future and what that holds, I can’t even speculate what that holds. To talk about the way our coaches look at it, regardless of how they look at it, how are they going to perform on the field on Saturday? They’re going to go perform to win, which puts you in that game.”
On Demello Jones’ physicality…
“It creates value for him. It creates value for our team. We have what we want to be a tough, physical team, and hard to be that if you don’t have players that are willing to stick their face in there and tackle. He was that way in high school. He was that way in basketball. He’s been competitively that way all his life. He’s done it, so it doesn’t surprise me that he’s that way. He buys into that culture of toughness and showed it the other night.”
On Collin Gill at Charlotte…
“Physical, big, tough, plays on special teams, not afraid to hit you and plays different positions for them.”
On Ryan Puglisi’s development…
“Ryan’s doing a great job. He gets a lot of work, as well as Ryan Montgomery. Both those guys, we get them extra reps during the week. They get reps on Mondays, do extra throwing. Both those guys continue to grow.”
On balancing physical practices w/ transfer portal…
“We schedule them. The ones that want to leave, we schedule them. We try to get them on the schedule because, when they want to leave because they’re not physical, it means they’re probably going to a place that’s not physical. We like those places. We like to play them. We prefer them actually if we can get them on the schedule. It’s one of those deal, you don’t run from hard in life. You run from hard, you’ll find more hard.”
