Kirby Smart on Pickens' status, his new transfers and more

HOOVER, Ala. – Although Kirby Smart still declined to put a timetable on any potential return for George Pickens (ACL), the junior wide receiver apparently is making excellent progress.

While speaking to beat writers Tuesday at the Wynfrey Hotel, Smart said Pickens is doing about the best he can.

“George has made great progress. George is running straight-line. If you had to put somebody in the ACL program, who would you put him with better than Ron Courson, and the guys like Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb—guys he has done,” Smart said. “I’m excited about that part. When you see George out there running, it gets you excited. But you also realize that running straight-line is a lot different than playing football. He’s still a ways away.”

…Wide receiver Dominick Blaylock (ACL) is still not cleared for contact. “Dom is not completely cleared yet,” Smart said. “He’s been able to do a lot of wide receiver work and drill work, but he's not cleared for contact.”

…Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint (ankle) is 100 percent. "Marcus has been out there. He had an ankle sprain that happened during summer workouts, but nothing that has kept him out,” Smart said. “The receiver position has been the one where we’ve had the most injuries occur, and we’re also at a little bit of a deficit there in terms of our numbers, because of the portal guys that left. It’s not that we don’t have good receivers, we just don’t have a lot of depth.”

…In other injury news, Smart said Nakobe Dean (shoulder) is back to doing everything since before his labrum surgery and will be 100 percent for fall camp. Wide receiver Kearis Jackson (knee) will be ready for the start of fall practice. Backup linebacker MJ Sherman (shoulder) will also be ready to go.

Smart said newcomers Tykee Smith and Derion Kendrick are adapting well as Bulldogs since transferring from West Virginia and Clemson, respectively.

“I’m excited about them. They’re the guys that we’ve integrated into our team really smoothly. I think when you talk about players coming into a program, these guys are different, because they were already integrated into a program,” Smart said. “They’ve handled meeting the players and the players have embraced them. They’re working extremely hard. Where they’ll fit as pieces of the puzzle, there’s no way to determine that.”

Although most expect Smith to slide in at star, with Kendrick taking one of the starting roles at cornerback, Smart said that has yet to be determined.

“That would be total speculation. We don’t know that. None of the three of them went to spring practice,” Smart said. “Just as we have guys depart, we had guys come in. I think that’s going to be the status quo is finding the right pieces of the puzzle to help your team every year.”

When asked to speculate, Smart quickly declined.

"I don't think I can. I mean, I think there's a lot of talk about those guys. We haven't got to see them. Mostly what we've seen is on tape, and on the tape each one of them played very differently,” Smart said. “DK played corner and played a more similar style defense to ours. Tykee was different. He played a lot of overhang star. Wasn't asked to do a lot as far as man-to-man play. But we're going to find out what those guys are capable of. And we've got guys already on our roster who are going to compete with them, and that know that.”

On Monday, commissioner Greg Sankey told reporters that six of the league’s 14 teams are at 80 percent or higher when it comes to Covid vaccines.

Tuesday, Smart confirmed to beat writers his Bulldogs are one of the six.

“We’re over 85 percent and we’re not done,” Smart said. “The biggest thing is, we want our players to get vaccinated because it’s the right thing to do. And it’s safe. It can be a competitive advantage. If one school loses three players for a game and another school doesn’t—that’s a competitive advantage. Our drive is to get to 100 percent, and we’re not there yet.”

Senior nose guard Jordan Davis said the numbers are something he’s proud of.

“Definitely we wanted to put an emphasis on getting vaccinated. Definitely will save us in the long run, at the end of the season, but we also didn't want it mandated. We wanted to make it a choice for others. I definitely believe that it should be a choice,” Davis said. “Me personally, I got vaccinated, but I know some people who are kind of shy or don't want to get that now, and I understand that completely. We just want everybody to be safe and make sure our team is protected during the season.”

Smart credited Courson for helping get the point across.

“He has been invaluable—Superman in regard to this, because our staff has done a tremendous job. I’m going to talk about some things our staff has done, but Ron took it down to the studs and like has worked his tail off. He’s had African American doctors come in and speak,” Smart said. “We created a vaccine ambassador program, and J.D. is one. In which the school started that, created that. They took 25 students out of 35,000 students and made them vaccine ambassadors. Six of them are student-athletes. They got trained on how to peer-to-peer recruit and get guys to do the vaccines. There’s a lot of things that played into it, but Ron Courson has been integral in that piece.”

...As previously announced, ESPN made it official that GameDay will be in Charlotte for the opener against Clemson.

…In regard to opening against the Tigers and scheduling Power 5 schools in general: “I want the fans to enjoy the games. (Smart was reminded they also want to win). They do, but there’s not a game we’re afraid to schedule. I just don’t look at it that way. I’ve said since I’ve got here, we want to have a demanding, rewarding schedule,” Smart said. “I want to play Power 5s because the smaller games, fans are going off of TV, I don’t think fans are going to come out to those games. I’ve said this a long time ago, that the playoff system will expand, and you will be reward for having a more difficult schedule.”

…Smart said former wide receiver Demetris Robertson will graduate from Georgia this summer before transferring to Auburn. “D-Rob is a tremendous young man,” Smart said. “This young man did everything the right way. I know Coach (Mike) Bobo and those guys are excited to get him.”