Kirby Smart said running back Nate Frazier’s pass protection skills continue to be a work in progress.

“It's getting better,” Smart said after practice on Tuesday, rattling off a list of boxes he wants to see before he’s ready to put the life of quarterback Carson Beck in Frazier’s hands.

“The first thing I found with freshmen is do they have the courage? Okay, he has the courage. Some of them don't have the courage. Does he have the strength? He's got the strength. He can lift weights,” Smart said. “You've got a 225-pound linebacker. You've got to be physical. The guy's coming full speed at you, and you're standing still. He checks that box. Then is he smart enough? Can he pick it up and know mentally what to get with the pace of it?”

From the sound of it, it appears fans may be closer to finally getting their wish of seeing Frazier earlier in games.

“He gets a lot of looks from us. He's not been perfect at that, he's had some issues with that, and we've got a quarterback that we feel like is really important to protect,” Smart said. “But Nate takes a lot of pride in his performance, and he wants to do it right. So, we give him a lot of opportunities to get better at that in practice and he's taken a lot of ownership in that.”

Smart said defensive lineman Christen Miller has been able to practice after leaving last week’s game against Auburn.

Center Jared Wilson (foot) is slowly starting to improve.

“Jared is better than he was, but not taking full reps,” Smart said. “He’s taking more than he was last week, but not full load.”

Smart also said that defensive tackle Jordan Hall is trying to go, but it hasn’t been easy.

“Man, he's pushing so hard. I hate it for that kid because he's had two rods – I mean, a rod put in both legs,” Smart said. “He's out there frustrated. He's doing more than he did last week, but I don't know that I can say he's ready to play this week.”

Hall has yet to play this year.

Smart was asked if he’s considered the team wearing its alternate black jerseys in an effort to boost the gameday excitement for his players and fans.

"I don't think that has one thing to do with the fan base. I just think that's hokey pokey,” Smart said. “I mean, it's great for recruiting. We may do it sometime. I'm not anti-doing it. But that shouldn't do anything for your atmosphere. Some of the best places I've played in great atmosphere, they never change their uniforms. They're traditionalists. And if it takes changing the uniform to get people fired up, then I'm at the wrong place."

Nevertheless, Smart is hoping for a more energetic atmosphere when his Bulldogs host Mississippi State (Saturday, 4:15 p.m.).

He said he briefly spoke to athletic director Josh Brooks about the situation after the team’s win over Auburn.

"I talked to him about it, and I voiced my concerns to him as much as I did to anybody,” Smart said. “But that's his job. I mean, he's in charge of all those people and those optics, and that's part of the comment I said earlier last time about, you know, we had coaches play here last year that said it was the greatest atmosphere they had ever been in.”

…Lawson Luckie agreed the tight end room needs to be producing better.

“I think that we all would like a little more production from each other. We’re playing great, giving great effort, but we’re not frustrated,” he said. “The catches are going to come, and we know that. We’ve just got to keep doing our job and going harder in practice. That’s one of the biggest improvements we’ve been talking about with Coach (Todd) Hartley. We’ve got to practice better, but I think we’re at a really good spot.”

…Smart on the difference a healthy Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins has made.

"Besides health, his work ethic. He's always been a pretty good football player. He's a great kid. He's been in the dumps because of his foot. And so, you'd see him every day, and he had no smile on his face,” Smart said. “He had considered the portal at one time, and he talked about his frustrations, but it was really more out of injury than it was anything else. He is sometimes woe is me, but he's a great kid. And I enjoy coaching him. And he's played really good football this year because he had a great camp. And he had really good camp practices, and it's helped him to play better."

…Smart said he hasn’t used last week’s wins by Arkansas over Tennessee and Vanderbilt over Alabama to help motivate his team.

"No, we don't rely on the motivation of others. I don't know. I just don't think that's a great way to go about things. We're really focusing on pride in performance this week,” Smart said. “I got a great analogy, somebody sent me and said 'If they're doing a Netflix documentary on you this week, who would you want to watch it? And would they approve? Would you send it to your parents, would you send it to an NFL team if they did a Netflix documentary on your performance, your pride, and how you practiced this week?'

“I was shocked. They must've all thought the Netflix documentary was on them today because they practiced (Tuesday) as good as they have ever done. Just give them a little attention and they eat it up.”