In July at SEC Media Days, South Carolina tackle Tonka Hemingway was asked to give his opinion as to the toughest road venues in the SEC.

Georgia was not among the places listed.

During Monday’s press conference to preview Saturday’s game against the Gamecocks (3:30 p.m., CBS), Bulldog head coach Kirby Smart was asked about the comment.

“Yeah, I’m expecting it to be that. If people want to question whether our fans are elite, we’ll find out Saturday night, right?” Smart said. “It sounds like Tonka called them out. Maybe use Tonka for motivation and let him be the one that spurs our group to come out at 3:30 and be really loud and fired up. I hope our fan base will. They’ve answered the bell every single time. I don’t know why they wouldn’t now.”

Saturday’s game is a sellout.

Smart said wide receiver Dillon Bell will continue to see reps out of the running back position, but no full-time position change is in the offing.

“First of all, Dillon Bell has been a selfless player. He's done what we've asked. He's a really good wideout. This has been going on for a while. So, this is not something that's been new,” Smart said. “We've done this lot with a lot of players. Our situation at running back, having guys go back there and look, understand certain plays they can run. He's big enough, you know, 200 pounds plus, to pick people up. He's physically tough. He strikes people. So he can protect. He can do a lot of things from the backfield. And it's something we're always going to have, you know, as an option or package, but a lot of it has to do with the health of our backs.”

Bell rushed three times for 28 yards last week in the win over Ball State, including a 21-yard touchdown run.

The SEC announced that the Sept. 23 game between the Bulldogs and Alabama-Birmingham will kick off at 7:30 p.m. and he shown on ESPN2.

Smart’s first question of the day was about his thoughts on Kendall Milton’s pass protection: “He had two really key pickups in the game. He did an unbelievable job. The key to doing it is experience. When he got here, he wasn't the same player he is now at picking it up. He's probably our most experienced. He and Daijun (Edwards) both have a lot of reps. You know, Dell does a good job of bringing those guys along in terms of freshman year, sophomore year, junior year. They get to pick up a lot of stunts and blitzes from us. There's probably not a look they haven't seen. But seeing it and knowing who to get is one thing. And then physically being able to do it is another. And he had, I know, two key pickups. One of them wasn't even his, but he picked it up and did a nice job. He helped us out a lot in that regard.”

Smart said it’s been difficult to evaluate his defensive line two games into the season: “It's hard to evaluate because, you know, the teams they have played have been overmatched size-wise. We have more size than the teams we've played. So, it's a tough evaluation. We usually evaluate it based on efforts, how hard did you play, how hard did you strain?” Smart said. “We played a lot of guys up there, so nobody's played a large amount of snaps. So, you know, I think it's week to week. You know, you're going to watch and see the guys practice. I will say they get a lot more work against a really good offensive line in practices and they've hit that head on. They've gone out and practiced hard, practiced physically. A lot of them took a lot more reps on Tuesday and Wednesday than they did on Saturday in regards to the number of snaps.”

Smart was also asked about his team’s perimeter blocking a year after having former tight end Darnell Washington play such a dominating role last fall: “Darnell's a very unique player. I mean, he had a very unique skill set. But we have more depth at some positions and less depth at some positions that allow us the freedom to do things. But my concern is not about not having Darnell. We've known that for a long time,” Smart said. “It's really trying to figure out who our best 11 are, what those plays look like. I think we have a very good perimeter-blocking team. We're going to get an opportunity to show it for the next however many games we have. We work really hard on that. And when I watch our guys do it in practice, they really do a nice job. But I don't know if that answers your question.”

Regarding the development of Malaki Starks: “Disguises, tackling in an open field, being a leader. I think he's taken ownership and improved in a lot of ways. I go back and watch last year's game to see him as a freshman to now and jumps out at you, Like, oh, man, that guy was really nervous last year and was really struggling. And he's, you know, more confident, understands the defense better. But there are still a lot of things he can improve on. But when you watched him last year in this game, he was certainly nervous.”