ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart, along with wide receiver Arian Smith and outside linebacker Chaz Chambliss, spoke with media Monday to preview the Bulldogs’ matchup against Florida in Jacksonville on Saturday.
Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement…
“Our guys got back for academics and everything last night, and we'll start it up today. We got a little work in last week on Thursday on Florida. You know, I think they're playing their best football. I think they have a really, really good roster. A lot of players we've recruited and recruited against them, but they're playing their best football, and obviously a talented group. Really a lot of great size across the front on the offensive and defensive lines. I think Billy (Napier) knows that's where the key is in the SEC in terms of length and size. They play a lot of players on defense. They've had a lot of guys play up front. But, you know, their three losses have come to three teams that are ranked in the top ten. At least I think they are. I don't even know. But they're really good teams, and they played those teams well. So, a lot of respect for Billy. He and I have worked together before. I think he's building a really good program down there, and he is a tremendous football coach. And he does not leave any box unchecked. I can assure you of that and know a lot of their staff. So, should be a great game in Jacksonville. It looks like it's going to be great weather. It's always a really tough, hard-fought game. I think it'll be one of the most physical games we play all year.”
On Florida’s offense since DJ Lagway became the starter…
“First off, he's a tremendous talent. You know, his arm talent and arm strength itself is elite. He has great size. He can make all the throws. He's got a couple really wild throws. I think for his age and experience, he's ahead of his time in terms of his pocket movement management. You know, a lot of freshmen abort the pocket and run out of it. He does a good job stepping up through it. And he's made several plays where he trusted the pocket and steps up and makes really good throws. Threw the deep ball really well, obviously, last game against Kentucky. You know, it's not so much the change. Obviously, he has a running ability, but Graham (Mertz) is a good athlete, too. So, it's not a huge change between the two in terms of what they ask him to do. I think he's capable of making explosives. And, you know, they got the extra element in the quarterback run when they need it. You know, they don't do it a ton, but when they need it, he can do it. And he's large. I mean, he's big. He's hard to tackle.”
On the first-half suspensions of Dan Jackson and Joenel Aguero…
“I'm not really focused on that today. I'm not really worried about it. It is what it is right now. Our guys are trying to get ready for Florida, and we're going to prepare to play Florida.”
On Florida running back Jadan Baugh…
“I've known Jadan a long time. He's a tremendous talent, a great athlete. Saw him his ninth-grade year here in our 7-on-7 camp, and what a great athlete he was then. He was playing safety and knew he would grow into something. He was a big kid then, but he's gotten so much better. He's explosive. He's twitchy. Hard to tackle. I mean, runs physical. He had a great year, but he had a great game against Kentucky with the opportunities he got.”
On if anything is wrong with Carson Beck…
“I don't answer it because I don't think anything's wrong with him. He hasn't played perfect, but nobody does. So, I'm very comfortable with where Carson is. And in terms of his leadership, his practice habits, the things we're asking him to do, I think he's doing a good job of those.”
On where Beck can improve…
“Well, I think he's going to own that regardless. If you ask a kid that, they're going to say that. He does need to play better. We need to coach better. We need to execute better. We need the people around him to play better. But that's the ownership that a quarterback takes. And I don't, you know, I wouldn't expect him to answer any questions like that any other way.”
On where Florida has improved during the season…
“Well, I think they're executing at a higher level. They're making explosives, which those number-one indicators to win and loss, turning it over a little less. They've been, you know, they played a really clean game against Tennessee at Tennessee, which we all know is a really hard place to play. And they've got more and more guys. Some of their portal guys have stepped up and made more plays. Very impressed with how they're playing, playing more confidence to me on defense and really flying around.”
On the significance of the senior class potentially going undefeated against Florida…
“No, I think it has no bearing on Saturday. Each season is independent of the previous. We don't get caught up in things like that. We're trying to earn it each day.”
On the rivalry in his house growing up and where Florida ranks as a rival…
“Yeah, it was Bainbridge-Cairo. There was no... I didn't know anything about college games. I didn't know they existed. I didn't, not until I was about a 10th grader did I worry about college. I was worried about making sure we had food on the table and we won the games we were supposed to win at the high school level.”
On players facing their former team like Trevor Etienne…
“Yeah, focus on the task. It's not a chance... You don't want to get caught up in emotions. I don't think that helps any. Dom's gone through it with Missouri a couple times and, you know, different players. That's the best part of college football now. We've had kids go down there, so we don't get caught up in it much. I mean, at the end of the day, what's going to make you play well? It ain't worrying about that.”
On Tate Ratledge’s status…
“We're hopeful. We think he's going to be able to give us something. He broke some last week, took some reps, did rehab over the weekend. Hopefully, he's raring to go. I know he wants to play it’s really important to him.”
On Trevor Etienne’s impact on the offense…
“He's talented, he's intelligent, he's a level-headed kid, he’s a good leader and a great kid. I think those qualities help anybody play, but he's older than a freshman. He came into a system that's not that far off from the one he was in in terms of offense. It may be different words, but a lot of the same plays. So, I think he transitioned well.”
On the increasingly close games in SEC play…
“I don't have a great explanation for that. I think there's more talent in our league than ever before in terms of accumulation of talent, whether it's from lower divisions, other teams. Every team we play, they give me a sheet of the portal players, and it seems to be more and more players from other conferences or even our conference that left and went to a team within our conference that we play, and the teams are better. I don't know that teams have as much depth. I know we don't have as much depth as we've had in the past, so that depth is shared out, which may create some more parity there. I don't know the exact reason for it. There is definitely not a large margin of separation top to bottom in our league, probably the least it's ever been since I've been in it.”
On what the team accomplished during the bye week…
“I think we got to look at ourselves. I think we got a lot of work for our younger players. I think we did a lot of targeted drill work, targeted things that we needed to work on specifically, offensively, and defensively, situational football, that we really hadn't got to do in the past couple weeks because it's been so fast.”
On his relationship with Mark Richt…
“I initially got to know Coach Richt when he hired me and worked a year on his staff and have known him for a long time. He and Katharyn, their family and son Jon, who is a quarterback coach and does a great job over at Prince (Avenue Christian). So, they have a tremendous family. He's a tremendous man. The support he's shown for this community and what he's done for so many others. There's so many lettermen that come back that played for him that it's important that we embrace them because I'm a letterman. I've come back here for years, and I want those guys that played for him to feel comfortable they can come back home, and him being here helps that.”
On Sam M’Pemba, Damon Wilson II, and Gabe Harris Jr.…
“All three of those guys are similar in the fact they play the same position. They're different in their makeup and their kind of their strengths. Each one has gotten better. I think Chidera's (Uzo-Diribe) done a great job developing those guys. We've seen Damon (Wilson II) increase his role this year from last year, and he's continuing to get better. Gabe (Harris) has given us solid snaps at some positions that we've struggled with, and we've had some injuries at the position that Gabe's been asking to play. Sam's (M’Pemba) continuing to develop. He probably had the furthest to go from a standpoint of he'd been an offensive player some of his high school career and was really just starting to play more and more on defense, but I'm pleased with all three of those guys.”
On Mykel Williams’ status…
“Mykel's still not full. He wasn't last week in terms of full strength and all the way back. I want to be clear on that. I think people look at the output against Texas and think he didn't play a lot of snaps. He didn't play, probably, the 100 percent role that he was playing against Clemson. We think he's going to be much better this week. We did a lot of rehab with him last week, but I don't know where he is. What does he allow us to do? He gives us depth. He makes everybody else better around him. He's certainly a hard player to block. He plays the run and pass well, so I'm happy to have him back. I just hope that he is 100 percent.”
On the intensity of the pregame warmups in Jacksonville…
“It's different. It's a different vibe. It's no relation to home or away. It's just a different vibe because it's a different fan base a little bit. It's not a home field for anybody. It's more of an NFL-type feel to it because a lot of people don't come in until kickoff, but that's just more about managing it. It's not a complaint. It's just a fact.”
On keeping the team at peak performance throughout the season…
“I don't know. I don't know that we have peaked. I hope we haven't. I think you're constantly trying to get better, and that's our pursuit of the best version of ourselves. We haven't reached that with this team. We haven't reached our best. We're trying to get better and ascend in every area and grow and create more depth. We've got opportunities to do that this week and weeks coming forward, but I'm not here to complain about the schedule.”
On Chaz Chambliss and Arian Smith…
“I think it makes them who they are. They (Smith and Chambliss) both have overcome a lot of adversity. In Arian's case, it's been injuries. He's had lots of injuries in his career. He's worked really hard to create a role for himself, whether it's special teams, playing wide out - he's just a hard worker. He comes to work every day and does it the right way. Chaz is the same way. He embodies this program. He's tough. He's physical. Guys will tell you around the team, he's not afraid of contact. He seeks it. He's led better this year than he ever has in terms of demanding excellence from the guys around him. I don't think he was comfortable doing that prior to this year, but I've seen it come out more and more with him.”
On Arian Smith’s impact on the offense…
“I think he brings consistency in terms of he's been in the offense. He understands it. He has vertical speed. He's become a much better route runner in this last couple years, and he's worked hard to develop at that and grow at that. I'm just really happy for him and pleased for him to keep working.”
Sr. WR Arian Smith
On playing in Jacksonville…
“I’m pumped to see that we’re bringing your own juice, coach said. When we go out there in warmups, it’s quiet. You don’t hear anything until you take off your headset. I just put some music in and just try to get myself up and energized for the game. When we come out of the tunnel, it’ll be packed and loud.”
On what it means to beat Florida…
“It is personal. That borderline rivalry, you already know that it is going to be a physical game. It feels like a good win when we come out of it and our fans are right there cheering for us. We see the other side clearing out. It is just one of those games where we want to come out as a dominant win.”
On being experienced with the offense…
“Easier to play in and be in the offense and to understand all the concepts. Where we ask stuff and are able to install. I am surprised when the defense does something and Carson (Beck) has a check, or the offense has changed. The whole thing can go in different ways. So, it is easier to anticipate and pick up on. One thing encourages and being in the positions where I play, which is all of them. So, it is easier to do that.”
Sr. OLB Chaz Chambliss
On the defense producing a similar performance to Texas…
“It came down to execution. We talked about it before the game, obviously there were interviews that led up to it talking about execution that we needed on defense. Honestly going into that game, we didn’t feel like we played our best game at all on defense. We would come out of each game thinking like we lost because we didn’t play up to our standard, and we finally played up to our standard that game.”
On his senior class potentially going undefeated against Florida…
“It’s an accomplishment in itself to go 4-0 against any SEC team. Every single team in the SEC is capable of beating anybody every single weekend. Going 4-0 against one opponent is a great achievement.”
On his development as a player…
“Coming in, I came in under a bunch of great players. They developed me to where I am today, and I still talk to them. Nolan (Smith) kind of took me under his wing, Bill (Norton) took me under his wing. Led me in the direction I needed to go, without those guys I wouldn’t be able to be in the place that I am now.”
On Florida’s offense…
“You can look across the league about how a running Quarterback affects the game. Go back to LSU vs Texas A&M, it completely changes the dynamic of the game when the quarterbacks would run it. It makes you prepare for more stuff, and we’ve struggled in the past with running quarterbacks. We have to prepare, know what’s coming, know the copycats that we’re going to get and just prepare perfectly this week.”
