Coaches coy on QBs

Kirby Smart and Dan Mullen took turns playing coy about their respective quarterback situations during Wednesday’s SEC teleconference.

“They both look good and they’re both doing a good job,” said Smart, when asked where it stands with JT Daniels and Stetson Bennett.

“We’ll go into Wednesday and see how it goes,” Smart said.

A follow-up question quizzing Smart on the possibility of both players seeing action Saturday in Jacksonville (3:30 p.m., CBS) drew an identical response.

“Both guys have done a good job,” Smart said. “We’ll go into today’s practice and see how it goes.”

Mullen was equally as evasive.

“We will play a quarterback on Saturday,” said Mullen, who will choose between Georgia native Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson.

Who plays quarterback has certainly been the story line for Saturday’s game, featuring the nation’s top-ranked team in Georgia against a Florida team that will be looking to avoid its fourth loss of the year.

Daniels has not played since the first quarter of the Bulldogs’ 62-0 win at Vanderbilt due to a Grade 1 lat strain. He has thrown without pain now for over a week, and speculation has been that Daniels might be ready to reclaim the starting role.

Bennett has started the past three, leading the Bulldogs (7-0, 5-0) to impressive wins over Arkansas, Auburn and Kentucky.

Whoever starts, Mullen does not expect Georgia’s offense to change.

“They’re going to run their offense with either guy in the game,” Mullen said. “I think it’s understanding which guy is in the game. Schematically, it’s not going to be a difference or a change, it’s understanding what this guy and that guy brings to the table, what are his strengths and what are his weaknesses.

“Even if you run the same play with two different quarterbacks, each one is going to play and have a little bit of a strength to it in things that they bring to the table. You’ve just got to have awareness of who’s in the game.”

Mullen seemed more concerned about the Bulldogs defense.

Georgia comes in as the nation’s top-ranked defense (6.5 points per game). The Gators boast the league’s second-ranked rushing offense (254.9 yards per game), but Mullen acknowledges his team has not come up against a defense quite like the Bulldogs who are giving up just over 64 yards on the ground.

The Bulldogs’ physicality stands out the most.

“I think for them looking at them and the physicality up front, that’s kind of an insult because I felt they were a very good, physical team in the front last year,” Mullen said. “But I think their physicality is even better than it was last year.”

Mullen also had plenty of kind words to say about the Bulldog secondary.

“They certainly have a lot of talent there. One thing that Kirby does a good job of is tweak around the strengths of their players,” Mullen said. “They play a little bit of a different style this year than they did last year. You see the carryover that they’ve stuck to, but I think they’ve done a good job of looking at their personnel, looking at their players and making changes that fit their guys and put them in situations to be successful.”

On the flipside, Smart said the challenge for his defense will be how quickly his unit is able to adapt to what the Gators will attempt to do.

“You always feel like there’s so much you have to prepare for. There’s this encyclopedia of offense and you’ve got to figure out what you’ve got to prepare for,” Smart said. “Within the game there’s a lot of different packages you have to prepare for. You don’t know which one you’re going to get, so a lot of it boils down to how quickly you can adjust within the game and pit your plan to his plan.”