Monday News and Notes

Although there were some initial concerns over the health of right tackle Warren McClendon and right guard Ben Cleveland after coming out of last Saturday’s win over Tennessee, apparently there's no cause for alarm.

“Warren and Ben will be fine,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “A lot of theirs was fatigue. It was humid, and they wore down a little bit. We tried to sub in for them there, but there were no injuries.”

With McClendon out, left tackle Jamaree Salyer slid over to right tackle, with redshirt freshman Xavier Truss taking over at left. Redshirt sophomore Warren Ericson took over for Cleveland at right guard.

However, the Bulldogs are not quite 100 percent.

Right tackle Owen Condon, who started the opener at Arkansas, is dealing with a minor knee injury, according to sources, while redshirt freshman Clay Webb is still nursing an ankle injury that has kept out him of the first three games.

Outside linebacker Jermaine Johnson (undisclosed injury) also hopes to play versus the Tide.

Smart also had good news regarding running back James Cook, who missed the past two games with an arm/hand injury,

“We expect to have him back. To be honest, we thought he could have gone emergency Saturday,” Smart said. “We felt good about him being able to go, should we have needed him Saturday. We have good depth there right now, so we’re hoping he’ll be 100 percent healthy and ready to go.”

Smart said its certainly no surprise that Alabama has had some much offensive success through three games.

It's the players.

“They’ve got really good players. Sark (Offensive coordinator) Steve Sarkisian) does a great job of implementing the system the kids can execute. It's based on really hard guys to cover outside."

So far, nobody has come close to slowing the Crimson Tide down.

Alabama is scoring 51 points per game, tops in the SEC, and almost nine more than Florida, which is second in the league averaging 42.3.

Running back Najee Harris tops the conference with 347 yards and 10 touchdowns, while quarterback Mac Jones leads the league in passing efficiency, having completed 66 of 83 throws for 1,101 yards and eight touchdowns.

"They've got one of, probably, the best backs in the country.... Najee (Harris) runs the ball really hard, and they're massive upfront. So, offensively, they're not built like some of these teams that go tempo the whole time and go hurry-up the whole time," Smart said. "They can go up-tempo and they do tempo well, but they're really big. They can take shots down the field with the explosive wideouts they have. They make you defend the entire field.”

Yes, Alabama’s defense has struggled.

Through three games, the Crimson Tide ranks 11th in the SEC in total defense (473 yards) and eighth in scoring defense (30.3 points per game).

Georgia, meanwhile, ranks seventh in total offense (420 yards per game) and fifth in scoring offense (36 points per game) under first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken.

“The biggest thing is that when we execute, we're hard to stop,” Smart said. “When we don't execute, we go backwards. It’s that simple.”

Smart said it's no secret what has to happen for his offense to be successful against Alabama.

“Everyone wants to make it about this or that. But if the guy has the right split, and if the guy does the motion right, and we block it right without cutting one free, Stetson’s (Bennett) accurate and he finds people; we block it the correct way up front, we move people—we have success,” Smart said. “If we don't move people, then we don’t. It's not really complicated. It’s more a matter of, can we execute at a high level, and are our players good enough to move their players.”

The Southeastern Conference football game between Georgia and Kentucky in Lexington will kick off at either 7:00 or 7:30 p.m. ET, according to an announcement Monday by the SEC office.

Kick-off time will be finalized following games on Oct. 17. The 7:00 p.m. kick time will be televised by ESPN, while the 7:30 kick will be on the SEC Network.

Redshirt sophomore Azeez Ojulari has been named the SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week, according to a league announcement. This marks the first SEC weekly honor for Ojulari in his career.

This is also the Bulldogs’ third weekly honor this season (Sept. 28, punter Jake Camarda, Special Teams; Oct. 5, Ben Cleveland, Offensive Lineman). Ojulari finished with five stops, including two sacks, two forced fumbles, and one recovered fumble during the Bulldogs’ third straight win. He had a strip-sack and recovery, which gave Tennessee its first turnover on the year, on the opening series of the second half. It came with Georgia trailing, 21-17.

The Marietta native followed that up three series later with another sack that forced the Vols to punt. Georgia scored on the ensuing series to distance themselves at 30-21. Ojulari led the attack against Tennessee in the second half as the Vols were held to 71 yards on 39 plays and only 214 total yards on offense during the game.

Smart on how Stetson Bennett has taken command of the team. - “I honestly think he’s just himself. He doesn't try to be someone else. He doesn't try to artificially lead or fake it. He never did that while he was trying to compete for the job, and he hasn't done it since he got the job. Stetson is who he is, and I think the skill players on offense, the offensive line—they all trust him and rally around him, because they know he understands what we’re trying to do offensively, and he can put them in good situations. The defensive players have all seen him play and see what Stetson’s about, so he does it his own way, which is doing very little in terms of trying to vocally lead. He leads by example, and he encourages guys and helps guys a lot.”

Smart on Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin’s comments and former Nick Saban assistants being winless against him - “(Lane Kiffin) revealed the text messages, not me. That's Lane being Lane. I’m not interested in that. He can do whatever he wants to do. He did it all last week—that’s Lane’s personality. As far as the record, I mean what is everybody’s record against Coach (Nick) Saban? Everybody always makes it about the assistants, and I always laugh, because I don't think anybody in the last 10 years has a really good record against him in terms of that. It's not something I try to focus on. I focus on what’s going to allow us to play good.”

Jordan Davis on the feeling in the huddle when the team starts to dominate. - "The last game at halftime, we told ourselves to stay positive, because we've been in this position before. We never wavered, we never fault ourselves, we just wanted to come out strong and make sure we stop them. Obviously, their offense made a lot of plays, but at the end of the day, we just wanted to have one more point than they did."