After making his initial plea Sunday on Twitter, Kirby Smart began Monday’s press conference by imploring Georgia fans to bring all the noise they can for Saturday’s game against Tennessee (3:30 p.m., CBS).

“I know our fan base will be loud and proud. I want to challenge our fan base. I mean, everybody talks about the Notre Dame game, but we want to be louder than that,” Smart said Monday. “We want to be there earlier than that. We had some great matchups last year here at home, and I thought they affected the game each time we had a big matchup. So, we'll need them again and we'll be ready to go.”

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel was asked about the noise during his press conference in Knoxville.

"It's going to be a great environment That's why you come to play and coach in this league. There's something unique about being able to face that environment on the road," Heupel said. "We'll practice with crowd noise like we always do. We practice it for our defense when they're on the field here. We'll try our best to be able to handle it. We obviously know it will be a great environment."

There have been other recent games at Sanford Stadium where crowd noise has affected the opposing team.

Zion Logue was a freshman in 2019 when Notre Dame came to Athens. With the crowd so loud while the Irish offense was on the field, Logue said the defense was forced to use hand signals to communicate.

The start of last year’s home game against Arkansas was so loud that it helped result in an early blocked punt. Georgia went on to win the game, 37-0.

While the unbeaten and No. 2 Tennessee team is certainly a lot better than that Razorback squad, Smart said Georgia fans can make a tremendous impact for the home team come Saturday.

He hopes they will.

“I think the home [field] helps. I think playing on the road's always a little different. I mean, they played in some big games this year. They played at Pitt, they played Alabama at home. They played some really big teams, and they played well against them,” Smart said. “So, I don't think that playing in the big games ... every game is a big game, to be honest with you, in the SEC. So, it's not like some guys go into it thinking of it differently. But I do think playing at home is important and certainly an advantage in our conference.”

Smart was asked about the performance of Stetson Bennett, who “only” completed 19 of 38 passes while throwing for 316 yards and two touchdowns against Florida.

Although Smart acknowledged that Bennett made some bad throws, he did not sound concerned with any lingering effects.

“He'll get ready this week. He did some really good things in the game. Some elite, elite things he did in the game. He had some decisions that he wishes he could take back,” Smart said. “But I don't know many quarterbacks that play a game that you can't say that about.”

Last year against Tennessee, Bennett completed 17 of 29 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for a 9-yard score.

“You're just trying to wipe those away. Because in the game of college football, including Tennessee and every team in the country, they put a ton on the quarterback to make decisions,” Smart said. “We do the same with Stetson. So, you know, he's not always going to make the right decision. We just got to make the right one, one more time.”

If you watched Saturday’s game with Florida, then you saw running back Kenny McIntosh run like a man possessed following his fumble early in the third quarter.

After scoring on a 4-yard run to help ice the game, Smart revealed to the media he called McIntosh “a bad MFer.”

Right tackle Warren McClendon liked what he saw, too.

“It always fires us up upfront when our running backs are running through people like that, especially for Kenny,” McClendon said. “I remember last week y’all asked me about Kendall (Milton) and Daijun (Edwards) running through people, and I was like you have to remember Kenny too. He’ll run through someone, too. For him to come out and do that over and over again. It fired us up.”

McIntosh finished with a career-high 90 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

Both Georgia senior safety Christopher Smith and sophomore tight end Brock Bowers have earned Southeastern Conference weekly honors following the Bulldogs’ win over Florida, according to an announcement Monday.

Smith, an Atlanta native, was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week for the third time in his career while Bowers, a native of Napa, Calif., earned the SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors for the second time this season. Bowers split this week’s honor with Arkansas running back Raheim Sanders.

Smith had seven tackles, including a sack, to anchor Georgia’s defense during its 42-20 beatdown of the Gators. With the Bulldogs up 14-0 in the second quarter, Smith broke through and helped force Anthony Richardson to intentionally ground a pass that stalled a drive, forcing Florida to punt. Smith was pivotal for the Bulldog defense as the unit kept the Gators scoreless in the first and last quarters and held them to only 2.9 yards per carry after they came in averaging 6.4 yards per catch.

Bowers hauled in five passes for a career-high 154 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown, during the win. In the second quarter, he grabbed a tipped ball and took it 73 yards for a touchdown to put Georgia up 21-0. Bowers completed his day by collecting a clutch 29-yard pass on 4th-and-7 in the fourth quarter deep in Tennessee territory to help set up Georgia’s sixth and final touchdown.

…. On comparing this year’s Tennessee team to last year’s Alabama offense: “No. No comparison in terms of the offenses. They're just completely different.”

… One of the biggest lessons, he learned from Vince Dooley: “Probably the way he carried himself. Such a class man. Just the humility is the biggest thing.”

… On Rodney Gardner and characteristics of his Tennessee defensive line: “Toughness. You know, he's old school when it comes to striking people and playing with a physical toughness. You know when you're playing against one of his defensive lines, they're not going to run from contact. They're not going to shy from contact,” Smart said. “They're not going to back down from a challenge. And it's not because of what they're going to do this week, it's because of the way he's molded them and the way he's coached them. You know, he coaches tough, he coaches hard. And he hadn't changed that with the change in generations of players. He's always done that. Even when I was a grad assistant here, he was coaching them hard.”

… Smart was asked to compare this year’s Tennessee offense to that of 2019 National Champion LSU: “Well, going back to that game, it was tough because they had five, six, something first-rounders. When you throw Jamar Chase and the quarterback, they had all these first rounders in there. And they were talented and they did a really good job executing,” Smart said. “They did use some tempo. Probably it's not the same tree of coaching, you know. There were some things we learned from that that helped us in the future, and we always kept them in our package of the three-down different looks they had. You know, we used 7 DBs in that game. Used different looks and you try to give them some confusion. But there's not a lot of similarities between the two offenses, if that's what you're asking.”

… Smart dismisses criticism of cornerback Kelee Ringo: “Well, when you play the position he plays, that's the only thing you do notice. You don't notice the 70, 80 other plays that he's in phase and he covers somebody and he does a nice job. He's done a good job this year,” Smart said. “He's big, he's fast, he can press people. He didn't make a great play on that ball. But he made a really good play the next time they went over there and did it. And, you know, you have to bat better than 50 percent. And he's done that most of the year. So again, I don't think Kelee's lacking in confidence. What he has ability-wise is the tool set that most guys wish they had.”