Kirby Smart following UGA's win over Arkansas

well i the opening remark would be how incredible our fan base is and they answered the bell today i think all you guys would admit um they were elite and we noticed it and to come out there in warm-ups in uh coming out of the tunnel to look up there and see every seat full at a noon kick um it is special special to be at georgia and they impacted the game i thought the first series for arkansas and offense our crowd was extremely disruptive i thought our crowd impacted the block punt in terms of cadence and things like that which forced a touchdown so i give the uh our our crowds our fans at least 10 points and that's big we were patient today but aggressive and that's hard to be it's hard to be that in football but we were patient and aggressive and i think that's important we preached that all week one series at a time not getting ahead of ourselves and felt like arkansas had a really good team but that if we were patient while still being aggressive and physical that we could uh at least impose some of our own will got a lot of respect for sam and his staff and their team they've got a good football team but today our crowd was very impactful okay let's go to seth emerson and then to dean leggy kirby uh run game i'm sure you didn't exactly plan on 57 runs versus 11 passes uh but how much of it was arkansas did respect the passing game how much of it was stetson starting and wanted to take pressure off him just what what what accounted i guess for just having such a reinvigorated run game this week well it's it's it's called scheme seth i mean it's not a reinvigorated run game as much as it is you take what they give you and we felt like it was important to play the game patient but aggressive and i i i would have definitely thought there might have been 53 runs in this game 57 runs whatever there were because that was the kind of game plan that we needed to approach it with and you know what it might be different next week the best teams i've ever been around can take on the personality of what they need to take home and i'm really proud of the offensive line i'm proud of the offensive coaching staff who did an incredible job game planning against what is a very good defense in my opinion a very good defense and they did a really good job of game planning for that so it had nothing to do with stetson been at the quarterback had nothing to do with the reinvented reinvigorated run game had to do with what we thought it took to win sorry for the background noise kirby two things number one what was going on with the punt uh procedures and then number two could you please talk a little bit about zamir he seemed extremely extremely excited after that block punt and this is twice now i guess he's made that sort of play against the hogs could you talk about some here for a little bit please uh zamir is just incredible there's two kinds of of players there's the player that knows his role and then there's a player that knows his roles and is committed to his role and zamir knows his role and he's committed to his role i mean he probably had three or four of the biggest plays in the game the touchdown that broke it open with the rum where the knee was almost down the uh block punt i think dan jackson actually blocked the punt not zamir but zamir recovered it samir takes so much pride in that you know like you have to stay after practice on two days a week and work on punt block well a guy that's been here four years that'd be easy for him to say i don't really want to do that i want to get off the field and go inside but he stays out there and works on punt block because that's his unit that's his special teams coach muschamp the the special team staff has done an incredible job of impacting the game and uh i thought that uh they were both very aggressive calls to come after the punts and and zamir recovered it but as far as the penalties that was uh illegal procedure we didn't we didn't line up on the ball i mean just silly dumb penalty and uh we tried to get it fixed at halftime but then it happened again so we'll have to get that fixed i'll take it coach appreciate that i know i asked about stetson a lot in these uh interviews but uh just once again just having him to to step in when you know when jt is not able and uh and just as far as jt go just just kind of what exactly i know it's a status with the lat right now moving forward it's week to week guys i mean do your research on a lat injury it's one of the largest muscles in the body um it can be strained it can be stretched it can be torn uh dak prescott went through this injury and and dax we think was more extreme getting a little bit of an echo there claude um dax was more extreme than we think jts is but jt's is a grade one uh lat sprain and we think we're gonna be able to get him back um but we don't know when and i know this the men in the locker room have confidence in whoever we put out there and i know y'all don't believe what i say i know you say yeah whatever that's just coach speak we have confidence in our quarterbacks like i have a lot of confidence in carson beck brock van der griff goes in front of me every day so i'm very pleased with the quarterbacks we have it's unfortunate that jt can't go because it's not like we've done anything to make him worse if anything he's had a lot of time off and we don't know if you know the oblique compounded the lat but they're two separate injuries and it's been flaring up on him and it's a painful injury that we're hopefully going to get him back from but i can't explain it any more than that but i'm not losing sleep over it guys because it's beyond our control and stetson bennett is a really good quarterback and i keep saying that and you know people don't believe us but he's a good quarterback i think i heard you said this would be a four-quarter game uh obviously you guys have had some really fast starts last couple weeks and your defense continues to kind of dominate i mean uh what about that formula to you know getting these big leads yeah it's a hell of a formula you think we can keep it up mark i mean i i i'd love i love the formula i mean i don't know that that's gonna always happen right so you prepare for four quarters of battle and you react to what you get you respond to what you get but i mean yeah if i could write a script to drive down score block a punt score score you know i'd be all over that okay let's go to charles odom and then mike griffith i could uh ask one more uh about jt you were you said uh on tv before the game that his availability would be based upon um pre-game was it was it um was it close at all or or um you know stetson made it sound like he was he was the number one guy why is this the conversation i mean was it close at all he couldn't play he couldn't go out and effectively lead the team and play to do that you don't need to have a strained lat now could he have gone out there and handed off the ball possibly but that's not the guys you're missing the window like y'all are making a story all about that the story should be about these fans the story should be about these these these players that go out there and lay it on the line and play and play their butt off and i'm so proud of our offensive line our tight ends our receivers who didn't get a ton of catches and they blocked their butt off and their defense and the special teams unit make it about that guys i mean jt is going to be okay make it about what matters well i only asked that follow-up because you you did say that it would be based on pre-game but that's right it'll be based about it'll be based upon the pre-game next week too because so we'll go ahead and write that down it's gonna be based upon the pre-game next week to see if he's ready to go kirby i'm thinking about a story where i want to make it about the coaching uh you went for it on fourth and one on the second series of the game that seemed like a pretty aggressive call at the time can you just talk about the confidence in your mindset well i wanted to show confidence in our players and our offensive line and the demeanor we're trying to create um and to be honest i got a lot of confidence in our defense you know so if we don't get it we got to be able to handle that and we were not in field goal range right so it was not a real hard decision for me it's either punt it and gain 20 to 30 yards or go for it and possibly get seven points so it didn't make it real hard and if we hadn't gotten it and i'd live with that too you know what i mean like that's part of that decision was made a long time ago in my mind let's go to chip towers and then to uh chris lowe it coach hard to believe we've gotten this deep in the conversation not talking about the uh the defense in itself uh was that even beyond what your expectations would have been for what they could do against this offense today chip for the first time in my career i could not agree with you more with your comments thanks that was that was a good one um yeah i was proud of the defense because you know they got a good offense that quarterback is one of the toughest human beings i've ever seen he doesn't blink he doesn't flinch he's tough man he sits in there it's hard to tackle um because brows does a good job with off tempo stuff and you know hey look all we told our defense all week is you ain't played nobody and they went out and played i don't know what they were 26th 30th i really don't know i know they had beaten two good football teams and um and they went out and they shut those guys out and you know what we're going to tell them next week they ain't played nobody you know so we're going to keep preaching to get better and grow we're not where we need to be but as long as they're like buying in because we got this really good vibe on our team of complimentary football special teams offense defense and the defensive coaches do a great job of selling to the defense that hey man what you're doing is elite you're special now we didn't we didn't force the turnovers i don't guess we got any turnovers and that would be the one drawback that we're really trying to to get more of those we agree on that chip chris lowe do you have a question yeah do her gary good chris hey uh speaking about your defense uh the way you sort of put this defense together and i think you touched on this a minute ago how well are they sort of complimenting each other guys in the back end and guys up front sort of what you guys are trying to do right now man they play hard it's just i tell you we've never met as a defensive unit this long and i think what dan does and coach adai because schuman and scott and coach muschamp and the gas they sell unity in there they have fun like we have a 45-minute meeting on a tuesday or wednesday and you would think everybody's like oh i gotta go practice today they they hype it up they play music they show turnovers they've really done this really good messaging where they're showing elite defenses you know the teams that were like super elite the ravens the bears the these really and what's happened is everybody wants to be them they want our defense to be those guys emulate those guys and uh it's made them not really go about i'm playing the opponent we're playing the standard and we're playing this this can we be this elite team and our offense really helped us today because i don't know what the time of possession was but it seemed like we ate a lot of clock and ran the ball really well so we didn't have to play as many snaps let's go to maria martin and then to brandon such coach we've hit on this a couple times about your offensive line i mean they've progressed from the beginning of the year to now how have you seen them especially today really step up and be able to make sure that you guys can run the ball effectively as well well from the from the get-go from from when we won that game last week before i got on the bus in vanderbilt i was already had my mind set on what we were going to have to do to win this week and it was issuing a challenge to a group of men who have a lot of pride justin schaefer warren erickson jamari saylor broderick jones cedric van praan warren mclendon maurice mims xavier trust say all their names because they bought in to what they had to do and they they they liked that they liked it the backs like that you know it was just a really good grind it output coach mcgee sold his backs on you know georgia five you go get a georgia five georgia five yards is grown man ball it might be two yards but you get it five and there's a lot of buy-in to that hey uh kirby i'm gonna follow up here um on the defense but the whole thing where you say you're either a leader you're not it seems like coach speak but i feel like it's got a lot of i got a lot of like substance in terms of how you guys go about the day today i mean do you guys keep preaching the whole thing of you're not elite yet or is it you want to be elite week after week yeah you're either elite or you're not and you know we've had what i think are some elite performances i thought today was really special i thought clemson's was really special i didn't think uabs were so great but we've had some that are really special but the elite or not is really about turnovers you know you either get them or you don't so today we weren't elite in terms of turnovers but we were elite in a lot of other ways and uh the buy-in to that has been great and the kids they understand it it's like it's not like a gray area where you're 50-50 you either are or you're not and nobody wants to be not everybody wants to be elite at least in in this group and uh that's kind of permeated our team okay let's go to jeff schultz and then to uh drew hubbard kirby it's been too long i feel like somebody needs to upset you with a question again so it's going to be about jt right let me guess jeff i'm sure how about this do you think your your ceiling is just as high with with stetson bennett this year as it is with jt probably not a fair question because you're asking me to make a comparison or an opinion and i've probably seen more snaps of those two than anybody right because i was here the whole time with stetson and some of our offensive staff has been here the whole time with stats and as well as monk's been here the whole time with with jt so i don't i just think it's a hypothetical jeff and i'm not upset with you for asking it but i would have begged to my team why does it matter like i think that both of them are really good players you know we have a lot of confidence in both of them and i think the outside perception is that like one guy's way better than the other and i think both of them are really good and i'm proud of both of them i'm so glad that they've handled it the right way jt is frustrated he wants to play quarterback and he doesn't get to when he has an injury stetson just goes out and does his job and wants to be there to help the team so i don't i don't think ceilings i think growth and that's where my focus is thank you hey kirby i wanted to ask you about daniel jackson um obviously he's kind of a guy no one really expected coming to this season but he blocked that point he's got a lot of big plays what's he even like what kind of difference who are you again i'm sorry uh drew hubbard with her in black awesome question dude this is the best question of the day daniel jackson is the most untold story that we have on our team okay the guy came from i don't know where walk on okay he runs 4-5 all sudden his freshman year and i'm like where did we get this front guy from i mean he's a good football player he doesn't play but he's out there then spring rolls around and we have a mass exodus of dbs eight to be exact so he went from like 16th to eighth in one semester all right and then he worked his way from eighth to sixth and then he worked his way to about fifth and then he blocks a punt and all he does is give you everything he's got every day i love the kid he's done a great job the guy deserves a dang scholarship and as soon as we can get one for him we're going to try to do that but every player on the team when you ask them who you respect i call them players and say james cook who do you respect on the team two guys he mentioned first lad mcconkie and daniel jackson the kids know kids see it and he he's a special player and i appreciate you asking about it okay let's go jake rowe and then to uh emily from 46. we got to see darnell washington come back and obviously the passing game wasn't really in the game plan and and you know that's where people want to see you know darnell be but he is he he's looked like he was a weapon in the run game for you guys and i know he need to play a ton but how excited are you to kind of get that big body back for the run game and just him back in general was extremely excited however much excited you could say excited because he bought in to his role he's another one of those guys that we said all week there's a difference between knowing your role and buying into your role you know we had video of two teams that were severely frustrated playing arkansas frustration had set in and all we talked about all week was patience aggressive had several conversations with darnell about if you're ready we want to play you if you're not we'll wait and after he smacked about three linebackers during the week we knew he was ready and he embraced his role because he is not a hundred percent okay he's not a hundred percent and he'll he'll be the first to tell you that but man go back and watch the film go back and watch the film and see a guy fight for his teammates and i have immense respect for people that buy into team values and darnell did that today a couple of questions for you coach the first one you might not be able to answer do you remember the loudest the stadium has been since you've been here which game that was since you wanted it to be so loud today and then my second question back to back shutouts the last time the dogs did that was 2006 the last time it was done in a conference 1980 how rare is that well you just said it i mean it's 1980 rare so that's a long time um last i remember being ever was that fourth down on notre dame i thought that was extremely loud and impactful and to be that loud at noon it's beyond elite i mean let's let's call it like we see it we challenged the fans because i knew we needed them they answered the bell the players answered the bell total team unity and effort and buy-in from the fan base and everybody else now if we can just not get complacent coaches players fan base take things for granted and not um have that same impact in other home games then then we can be a good football team and uh i thought it was i know it's as loud as i've ever heard it at 12 because i've never even seen it packed at 12. but it may have been one of the loudest ever somebody mentioned earlier to me since the lsu uh lsu georgia game back when matt and aaron murray were playing that's what they reminded them of we got time for two more questions go to connor riley and then to jed may hey kirby what do you think it says why do you seem so frustrated when there are questions about jt given how well everything else is going why am i frustrated because i want the guys that deserve all the credit for all the work they've done for all the things they've done positive i want them to be able to receive that i want them to get you guys to write about their effort and how they played instead of the story being about jt's lat right because jt can't control his lat injury right and there's nothing i can say i've given you i've called and i've talked to trainers of the cowboys the yankees i mean we've done all this research there's nothing else we can do but let it heal right the story's not about george not being out there right now right so the story should be about the guys that went out on the field and performed today and did such a great job of following the game plan i want them to get that so it's not a frustration that you're asking about jt is that you're not talking about the other guys but chip was kirby this is one about the defense so we'll end on a good note um you know stetson said that you know having a defense play this well can help an offense get through lulls when things aren't going so well just from a coach's perspective how much that helped you i think you mentioned a little earlier you know you were able to go forward on that fourth and one there just when the defense is playing that well how does that affect your decision-making well i mean we got a good defense right so whether we did or not i probably would have gone for that one because you you're not it's just it's the best decision i mean you can't do much there but gain 20 or 30 yards so it's the best decision i have a lot of confidence in our offensive line our offensive staff to get one yard and that's the way you have to approach college football because you have to score points but stetson is right they helped get us through lows because we had a couple laws in the game where we lost the field position battle and you know i got upset and was frustrated but coach munchen remind me we changed the field position because we moved the ball from coming out one time and flipped it you know and that's how you play football you play complimentary football and i thought we did a good job of doing that thank you coach mark thank you guys

Channel: Georgia Bulldogs Football

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Keywords: Georgia Bulldogs, Dawgs, UGA, Kirby Smart, Athens, Georgia, Georgia Bulldogs highlighs, GoDawgs, Georgia Highlights, Savage Dawgs, Bulldog highlights, Go Dawgs, UGA highlights, Georgia Bulldog game highlights, Georgia game highlights, Georgia game, UGA Game highlights, UGA game, UGA bulldogs, college football rankings, college football 2021, uga recruiting, georgia recruiting, georgia football, UGA football, kirby smart press conference, JT Daniels, georgia bulldogs football

Id: 4bX_qa2hqdc

Length: 21min 36sec (1296 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021