Kirby Smart was asked by UGASports to break down a few players the fans have not seen much so far this season, including the freshmen on his offensive line.
Read what he had to say below:
• OL Devin Willock: “I've been extremely impressed with him recently. He's climbing up the charts, in my opinion. He's really smart; he's very conscientious. It's important to him, but he missed—I forget how long it was; I don't know if y'all knew. He had an MCL sprain, maybe the last scrimmage in camp, and so there were three or four weeks when he didn't even practice. So it was like, golly, this guy is going to be way behind. And now he's come back. He's cut; he had to lose a lot of weight. I think he lost, like, 30 pounds. He's in the 330 range, and he's a massive guard. He struggles in pass pro right now, but he's going to be able to move people, and that's what you want at the guard position. You want a massive, big man that is hard to run through. So, I'm excited about him. He's just so bright, such a good kid.”
• OL Tate Ratledge: "Tate is making really good progress. He was getting some [second team] right tackle, I guess it was, when (Owen) Condon was out. But Tate had an injury and missed two or three weeks, and has just come back. So, he's behind a little bit, but we were really pleased with Tate in camp. He's just missed some time with injury.”
• OL Broderick Jones: "Broderick missed some time early, and Broderick's been playing left and right tackle. He's probably our fourth tackle in the game the last couple of weeks. Now that Owen's back—because Owen had some illness and sickness stuff—Owen and Broderick are fighting for that spot behind (Xavier) Truss, Warren (McClendon), and Jamaree (Salyer). Very pleased with Broderick. Broderick needs a year in the weight room, but he's a good athlete. He's just going to have to get stronger and more physical in the run game, but he can pass pro and stay in front of people. The beauty is, these guys get to go up against our outside backers one-on-one in pass rush every day, and I love it. There's not a day on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, that we don't make them go good-on-good and have to go block really good people, because that's the only way to get better.”
• OL Austin Blaske: "(Austin) continues to improve. I haven't seen a guy as tough and hard-working as he is. He works hard.”
• OL Chad Lindberg: “Chad's working at guard. He's working with us on the scout team, so when you look across the scout team and you've got Cam Kinnie, Lindberg, Willock, Blaske, and Tate across the scout team, it's good. We get really good work with those guys.”
• C Sedrick Van Pran Granger: “Yeah, Van Pran, he runs with the twos. He reps with the twos, so Warren (Ericson) can flip at the guards. So, Warren Ericson goes back and forth at guard, and Van Pran works at center. He's been really consistent. He's getting better fast—really smart. I felt like, if something happened to Trey (Hill), it would be really close between Van Pran and Ericson who would go in. But Van Pran is closing that gap, so that Warren can play the guard spots."
Smart was also asked about wide receiver Ladd McConkey and cornerback Daran Branch, neither of whom have played this year. Smart said McConkey missed 14 days due to contact tracing for Covid, and is currently working himself back into shape. "Ladd is another guy that was coming on, like really exciting, because he goes on the scout team and does so many good things,” Smart said. “Man, he's tough; he's physical. He blocks well, and then he had a contact trace that he had to miss 14 days, so it crushed him, because when we were down receivers, we thought we were going to get to bring him up and really work him, and then he got 14 days and just got back. So, we're limiting what we can do with him.”
Branch, however, still has a way to go. "Branch has worked on the scout team. He missed a little bit of time in fall camp, but he's worked with the scout team and is really competitive,” Smart said. “Hopefully, he grows into a good player, but he's just not ready right now."
