NASHVILLE – Prior to taking the big stage at SEC Media Days, head coach Kirby Smart met with beat writers for 17 minutes in what amounted to a housekeeping session regarding the two-time defending national champions as they look ahead to the start of fall camp.
Questions included:
Has Georgia settled on a holder?: “Actually, we have not, but we have had some, I can’t say competition. We’re trying to determine who our field goal kicker is before the holder. I usually defer to the kicker to decide who the holder is,” Smart said. “I like for it to be a quarterback, not necessarily THE quarterback, but we’ve opened up this year to try Ladd, and other guys back there. Stetson had done it for so long and he made me comfortable with his athleticism and speed. Of course, he could throw, but we don’t know who it is yet. We’ll decide it in fall camp.”
What will the competition at kicker be like? “The problem is we haven’t had the young kid there (Peyton Woodring), we know what he can do, but we don’t get to go out there and work with him over the summer. They kick, and they work amongst themselves, but we don’t go out there and say ‘OK, who hit what from where.’ It will be a big focus for fall camp, because we will have some pressure kicks in practice to try and decide. It goes back to the year of Rodrigo Blankenship for the last time we had an opening at that position. There will be some battles in fall camp and there will be, OK, we’re on the line and we’re going to run sprints if he doesn’t make it to try and put pressure on that guy to decide who that guy is. I will say this. I was very pleased with Jared Zirkel. He had his best spring by far, and it will be a good competition.”
What are your thoughts on allegations that Darnell Washington was paid by Tennessee?: “No, we don’t get involved in any kind of NCAA investigation,” Smart said. “I wasn’t aware of it or had known about it or anything to do about it. I saw reports about it like you guys did.”
What will Smart’s message be at Media Days?” “I think the biggest thing is that complacency doesn’t exist in our organization. We try to squeeze out complacency. I’ll talk a little bit about what that looks like. I’m going to talk about the cost of leadership, because I think everybody talks about the benefit of leadership, and we brought three guys here today that exemplify and are not afraid of the cost that comes with leadership. And we studied a group—and I talked about a little bit in the offseason—the New Zealand All-Blacks. That Better never rests, and that’s our approach. That organization over 100 years is the most successful team there is, and if you want to have sustained success, you better beat out complacency.”
On Smael Mondon and Jamon Dumas-Johnson fighting complacency: “Well, I saw a response. I mean, they responded to the criticism, and to me calling them in. They both answered the bell a little bit. I think they were maybe cruising. I don’t know. It certainly looked that way when you looked at their spring practice the previous year and the spring practice last year, and we do the same practice format; there’s three practices to look at, and it doesn’t look the same. They saw it, and there’s no greater evidence than what you see with your eyes. They responded to it. They’ve both been great leaders, and I think they acknowledge also that there are good players behind them. Xavian Sorey has come along. Had a really good camp. Excited about him. Jalon Walker, EJ Lightsey, the two young kids (Raylen Wilson and CJ Allen) had good spring games. If you sit around at linebacker, you’ll be sitting down somewhere if you don’t perform.”
Smart’s take on Tennessee transfer running back Len’Neth Whitehead: “I don't know. Stetson Bennett was a pretty good walk-on that did a lot of good things. It could be this extreme, or he could be like some other walk-ons who are role players who provide depth. We don't know yet. We haven't had Len'Neth in our program,” Smart said. “He hasn't been a part of it. He's got to improve his conditioning level. Even when he was at Tennessee, as I understand it, he was injured a lot of time. So, a lot of his background has been injuries. He's got to get in shape and go into a competitive room and earn it.”
Smart on if freshman defensive back Kyron Jones could play running back: “We discussed it. Didn't feel like it was favorable for the kid's career. Probably debatable if it was good for the team, because we have depth problems at DB as well. In terms of being able to develop players, it was going to hurt his development to do it. If we were that desperate, like if we didn't have Len'Neth maybe or we didn't have Sevaughn Clark come back, we might have considered it. But I didn't think it was best for the kid, and he ultimately was going to do what is best for the team.”
Smart on his involvement with Georgia’s offensive skill package and game planning: “I'm more involved in what the defense does and telling the offensive staff what hurts that. I don't get much into design of plays. I don't go over and say we better run this. I thought it was always interesting when I interviewed Todd Monken years ago, whenever he first came. I had a sit-down interview, and he said, 'I just want to be clear. Are you suggesting it or are you demanding it? That's my only issue that I've had with a defensive coach.' And I thought that was good advice. I sat through a lot of head coach meetings under my last boss where we didn't know if it was being suggested or demanded. I thought that was good by Todd. For me, it was like, if I'm going to bring this up, I need to be clear,” Smart said. “'I'm not saying it has to be in or am I saying if you should look into it. I've done both in my career. I've said, 'I want to do this because it makes our team better, and I want this play in, whether you want it in or not.' But I've also done it where, 'Go take a look at this, because it's giving us problems. I think you could look at it and that's as a suggestion.' Again, I don't get involved in the scheme part, I get involved in who is repping, where we are repping them, how many reps they get. What is the plan if he's not there? What is our plan if they do this, not designing plays.”
Smart on Brock Bowers, Kamari Lassiter and Sedrick Van Pran attending Media Days: “It's hard to find this year. Probably the toughest year we've ever had, because I usually can say, 'These two are going. Let's decide the third.' This year it was really a toss-up across the board because we had so many. I felt like we had so many guys capable of coming and worthy of coming to represent us, because we've got a really good group in terms of confront and demand and lead and do all those things. I think the separators were, they work really hard. They're selfless. They're team players. They love football. They embrace not being in the limelight, and that's important for me."
Smart on if having as many Media Day candidates saying something about being “ahead of schedule” this year in leadership: "There's no schedule for leadership. Last year this time we weren't where we are now, and two years ago we were probably ahead of where we were both years in terms of guys coming back and experience. I don't know what the stats say. You guys can tell me in terms of play experience, volume of offense, volume of defense. I don't look at that. I don't care about that. I just look at, what is the demeanor of the room, and I think it's a product of these skull sessions and things we've done. We have more guys who have done them, and so with three years of doing it, you've got a body of work that's greater than the first year we did it, the second year we did it. You have developed more leaders."
