ATHENS, Ga. --- The Georgia Bulldogs conducted a two-hour practice Tuesday as they look forward to their second open date of the 2019 season this weekend. Following the off week, Georgia will be in Jacksonville to face the Florida Gators on November 2 at 3:30 p.m. on CBS
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart met with the media following practice. Selected comments from Smart are below:
Head coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement
“It was a good tempo today, good enthusiasm. They looked a little fresher because they had Sunday and Monday off so I thought it was good tempo. The guys got their legs back. We worked on a lot of fundamentals, blocking, tackling and a couple phases of special teams, couple opponents we’re going to play in the future that do some things that are just different and try to expose our guys to it. I thought the guys had a really good attitude and good juice.”
On the importance of Lawrence Cager…
“He’s been a good player for us. He’s been like Javon Wims was, he’s been an impact player for sure. He’s probably been more of an impact on that room. We carried him and used his experience for the other guys. We want him around is what I’m saying. Even though we knew he wasn’t going to play against Kentucky, he was still in the room impacting those guys. He’s very mature and he’s played a lot of football in his career. He has a positive impact on the guys.”
On if press coverage comes with experience for guys like Lawrence Cager…
“You get better when you play, certainly. Some guys come in and get off press really well. They’re really, really talented and they’re good at it. I think that’s something that experience brings value. Lawrence has a lot of experience; he’s been around a lot of good wide-outs when he played at Miami. He’s physically stronger and bigger than a log of other guys so he’s able to use his body to help him with that. Everybody is still working to improve that. We’re working at defensive backs to try to press better so we can compete and do a better job defensively. Everybody is trying to get better at it, but Cager is a great example on how to do that because he’s done it for a long time.
On having a bye week coming at a good time before a big contest…
“The bye weeks fall where they fall. I never get into ‘that’s great, it falls there’. I think the SEC goes a great job of balancing that out. You look at the big games and teams have off weeks before each other a lot of times. I’m sure they probably do that to not give a competitive advantage. It falls at a good time for us because we are beat up, but who’s not.”
On the upcoming challenges in November…
“There are a lot of good teams on our schedule and everybody in the SEC basically has the same schedule other than your crossovers, so we embrace that. All offseason we’ve worked for it to be a three-part season. There was part one, part two in the middle and then part three was going to be the meat and potatoes. We’ve known that. We’re building up this week to work on it. We’re trying to look at a lot of different opponent tape to figure out what other people are doing to us and what other people are doing defensively and offensively to get better.”
On diving into more aspects during the bye week as opposed to a regular game week…
“During the off week we look at all of our future opponents and we look at our self. You do self-scout, you do your opponent’s work and ask what they do that creates an issue and then you also look and say what’s been successful that we might be able to emulate with our personnel. So there’s three parts of that.”
On offensive quality control Shawn Watson’s role…
“Shawn has been a big part of that (scouting future opponents), he replaced Jay (Johnson). He is very involved as far as advanced scouting, we call it, looking at opponents ahead of time- both defensively and offensively. He gives our defense an analysis of each opponent’s offense. He’s primarily with the offense and looking at things. He’s an extra set of eyes to look at things, things he’s done, he has a lot of experience and been a part of a lot of successful quarterbacks on offensives. We use that as an asset, but we have several guys who do it.”
On the value of experience on the offensive line…
“Are you looking for a number? It’s super valuable. I can’t put a price tag on it. When you line up with two tackles that play you’re very fortunate. Tackles are hard to come by. Good ones are really hard to come by. Do the math, how many 6’6” guys are walking around? There’s not a lot. And then 6’6”, 300 pounds that can move? Very few. It’s hard to find guys like that. We have been blessed and Sam (Pittman) did a great job recruiting to get those guys. They’re not perfect either but I’m very pleased with those guys. They’re great competitors and they’re great leaders.”
On mid-season evaluations for the team…
“We do statistically, schematically, and professionally because we’re trying to find things that complement something we’re doing well. Say we’re doing something god in the red zone, we’re going to try to find something to complement that because people are going to try to attack you on things that are your strengths. We meet in the mornings for two to three hours. We have quality control guys come in and give presentations on what so and so is doing and they might not fit us, but they might and we try to use those things. It’s the same thing for me. I’m looking at the quality control of the offense, quality control of the defense, what’s been the most successful run versus what front. I look at it as a defensive coach to say what is the next guy going to do to stop us.”