Lightning put a damper on Georgia’s first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday, but apparently that wasn’t the only part of the afternoon that left head coach Kirby Smart in a pensive mood.

“We caught a little weather delay, had to go in for about 30 minutes because of lightning, so it set us back some timewise. But it probably wasn’t the kind of scrimmage I was expecting to have. It wasn’t the temperament … I don’t know if it was the enthusiasm,” Smart said. “We’ve gone 6-7 practices now and gotten after it pretty good but I didn’t think we had the same juice today as a team.”

Apparently, it was the first team offense and defense that was having the most issues for the Bulldogs.

“Both No. 1 units were a little lethargic, not real good timing, some bust on defense, so there are some things to clean up. The good news is we’ve got time to clean it up. The good news is I thought both No. 2 units, the No. 2 offense and No. 2 defense, they didn’t dominate the scrimmage but they did some really good things,” Smart said. “This is the first day you get to see twos go against ones, ones go against twos, you get to go crossways and you also get to go good on good. I thought the second offense and second offense had some positive things done but we’ve got to clean up those first units. We’ve got to make sure everybody is responding the right way and creating an identity. I didn’t think we created an identity today. Some guys did some individual things well.”

... “It was a rack of 1s versus 2s and 2s versus 1s, both ways, so the offense gets to go against the two defense and flips after the threes go with 1s-1s, 2s-2s. You get a little bit of both. You get 30 plays both ways,” Smart said. “The twos came out with a chip on their shoulder. The No. 2 offense had a 13-play drive. We only do 12 plays in a set and the took the whole set and wound up driving for a touchdown. They did some good things against the first team defense and the same thing for the No. 2 defense against the No. 1 offense.”

... The Bulldogs almost got their 150 plays, but due to the weather settled for 115.

“We probably could have gotten them it but it would have taken us a lot longer,” Smart said. “So, we cut a couple of the kicking plays short, a little bit of the three on threes short.”

Smart said his outside linebackers still have some work to do.

Although he’s couldn’t give an exact assessment without looking at the film, Smart said there were areas of their play that definitely need to improve.

“I’ll have to reserve judgment on that until I see the tape. I don’t know everything, how every guy played. I know Nolan (Smith) made a couple of plays on the perimeter,” Smart said. “We lost contain a couple of times with Walter (Grant) and Jermaine Johnson. They’ve got to do a little better job there. Those guys are really working hard. We’ve got some really good athletes in that group. I’ve been really pleased with the work ethic from that group thus far.”

Smart was asked if he was considering moving another player to the outside linebacker room to take the place of Cox. Right now, that does not appear be his intention. “We have one of them on the field on most snaps. If we have one of them on the field and there’s six of them, I wish we were that deep at every position. We don’t,” Smart said. “Sometimes we get two of them in regular but not a lot of people play regular anymore. We sometimes get two of them on third down. We sometimes get two of them when people are in large sets. It’s probably the most underutilized position because they have to take more snaps on special teams.”

Although he didn’t single out anyone in particular, Smart said his receivers had an up and down afternoon. “There were some guys that made some plays, especially with the two group. They made some plays. The one group, we probably didn’t have as many. There were a couple of drops out there,” Smart said. “I’ve been pleased with those wide receivers, the work ethic, the things they’ve done in practice up until today. A couple of the twos made plays right across the board, but a couple of the ones didn’t. We’ve got to do a good job getting the balls in their hands getting those guys an opportunity to make plays.”

Smart did say junior Demetris Robertson continues to take advantage of his opportunities. ““He’s gotten more opportunity. Last year he had a plethora of guys. He had three draft picks in front of him. And he was coming in not knowing an offense,” Smart said. “Now he’s got three draft picks removed, and he’s the guy that’s out there playing the slot, catching the balls, and he did some nice things today. He’s got to continue to work and improve. He’s got Kearis (Jackson), (Willie) Erdman, Dom (Dominick Blaylock), he’s got a lot of guys behind him that are competing and pushing.”

Sophomore cornerback Tyson Campbell was limited due to a minor injury putting junior college transfer DJ Daniel in position to rep with the first team defense.

Smart was apparently impressed.

“D.J. Daniel has been a pleasant surprise. D.J. Daniel’s done a good job. He’s gone with the ones quite a bit. Tyson got dinged up a bit today, hopefully he’ll be back. But Stokes has been going with the ones, Tyson’s been going with the ones, D.J.’s been going with the ones, Tyrique (McGhee) has gone in there some,” Smart said. “So they’re all getting good work. The thing that you guys want to measure is who’s with the ones, and we’re trying to get match-ups. I want every corner to go against Tyler Simmons. I want every corner to go against Lawrence Cager.

"I want every corner … so the only way we get that is you move guys around. We’re just not really looking at a depth chart, we’re looking at who’s winning the 50-50 balls, who’s not giving up big plays, who’s making big plays. It’s not fair to judge a guy if he’s going against a third-team wideout the whole time. We’ve really thrown those guys around.”

Smart said punter Jake Camarda had his moments – both good and bad.

“I’d have to reserve judgment on that, because I know he missed one today. But he hit a couple other good ones. He’s done some good things in practice,” Smart said. “We didn’t coffin corner, or pooch punt today, we’re not working on that. Everything was meant to be kick it as far as you can. So, you can’t really go by an average. But we’re working hard on his hang time and his placement.

"If he can have good hang time and good placement then we’ll have good coverage. We didn’t have but four returns last year, five returns. So, we’ve got to do a good job of having hang time in there.”

● On the offensive line: “I don’t know it would be hard to see, because it’s hard to tell without looking at it. I know if you’re not scoring points on offense, there’s probably not going to be a whole lot of linemen up for awards. And we didn’t score a lot of points today,” Smart said. “So, at the end of the day it’s one of those things, how well you perform, what is your identity, what are you trying to create. Because there’s some good players on that offensive line, but good players gotta play good.”

● Status of D’Wan Mathis: “No D’Wan can’t go yet,” Smart said. “He practices every day but he can’t go in the scrimmage. He played in the 7-on-7.”

● The overall performance of the freshmen: “I think the mid-year freshmen, I don’t even see them as freshmen anymore. They’re like … Lewis made some plays, man. Nolan (Smith), Nakobe (Dean), all those guys that you guys have known about through last spring they kind of are like comfortable out there playing,” Smart said. “The newest guys are George (Pickens), Dom (Blaylock, Kenny McIntosh made some nice plays. Those guys are getting to kind of be the guys that are like, Wow this is my first scrimmage.

"The defensive linemen, Travon (Walker) gets some work in there. Tymon, Bill and Zion get some work. The two linebackers, (Rian Davis and Trezman Marshall) we had them in the spring and didn’t get to see them do much, they got a lot of reps today. They’re going to be guys that have to help us on special teams in order to make the bus, to make the trip. And both those guys are picking things up well. They’re not ahead of the guys older than them, though.”

● Regarding Brian Herrien: “Brian had a good scrimmage. Brian comes to work every day and is a lunch pail guy,” Smart said. “He works his tail off and caught the ball out of the backfield, protected and had one long explosive run. I don’t know how long it was, but he had a good run. Brian is a guy, everyday he’s out there, he loves football.”

● Having five inside linebackers to rotate: “I don’t know if I ever said I wanted five. I’d rather have one really good one. Give me Roquan (Smith) and I don’t need to play five. I don’t know that you want five, but I think you need enough depth in our league. The more you sub, you’re specializing because this guy does this good, this guy does this good and this guy does this good,” Smart said. “You want to have this continuity of two or three guys who are ready to go out there and play. We don’t have much separation right now, especially among our top three. I thought last year we were able to spell and keep guys fresh by playing three. It’ll be important now for us to get a fourth and fifth guy who can learn, but play on special teams. If you leave one of those three, another has to step up and go play.”

● Stetson Bennett and UGA's walk on QBs: "Stetson had a good day today. I thought Stetson, he executed the offense. He was being that, it seemed like the longest drive ever, against one defense with the two offense. He was really steady, really consistent, converted a third and one, converted a fourth and one, just kept going. It was a long drive. He executed well. He moved around the pocket well. He did some good things,” Smart said. “During the third-down period, I want to say he went six or seven of eight when it was twos on twos. Converted a lot of third downs. He did some good things. I'm proud of Stetson for that because he has worked really hard on doing that. He still has some areas he can improve on from checks to making the right decisions late in games, two-minute and things like that. “The (Nathan) Priestley kid we brought in once we knew D'Wan (Mathis) was going to be there, he did some good stuff with the threes. He's a kid who was talented. He had an ACL his junior year so he didn't get seen. He had a pretty good senior year. He's one of our walk-on players who took a lot of reps with the threes and I thought he did a good job today."

● Offensive line performance

: “That's hard to measure because we didn't run the ball every single snap like a lot of the games. We go out there and we're a really physical team and get after it. I can tell you that the standard to me is not that you're going to go out there against the two defense and not score on 50 percent or 60 percent of your possessions,” Smart said. “You've got to go convert and score, but that's not all on them. That's on the entire unit as a whole to execute and come out, wide receivers catching balls, quarterbacks doing things, the running backs breaking tackles, and the o-line dominating the line of scrimmage. We didn't do that today, not with the one offensive line. We didn't, but those guys rolled. Cade (Mays) and Ben (Cleveland) rotated like they've been doing and Cade rotated at center too."

● Kickoff and punt return update: “We do punt and punt return every day or kickoff and kickoff return every day,” Smart said. “So, Tyler Simmons, Kearis Jackson, D'Andre Swift, (Willie) Erdman. Kickoff return, some of the same guys but D-Rob, James Cook, there's been about six guys back there on punt returns and kick returns. Today, because we only had a limited number, Tyler, Kearis, and I think Erdman and Blaylock.”

● Smart on Cade Mays: "He's gonna do some tackle. He's done some tackle in practice. We just didn't do that with him today. He's gonna get some left tackle work as we advance,” Smart said. “We wanted the meat and potatoes to be guard and center and then after the first scrimmage, we're gonna say, okay, he can get some tackle but he's still in a battle for that guard spot."

When asked about Mays’ strengths, Smart had this to say.

"First of all, he's versatile. He's an athlete but we can't let that be a detriment to him because if he can be in the starting five, he needs to be in the starting five,” Smart said. “But his value also is that can snap and he's an athletic center. If you can play center, left tackle, and guard, you're pretty talented and you're bright. He's really tough, man. He plays hard. He plays tough and physical. He's a bright spot for us but he's in a battle for a spot."

● Defensive line synopsis: "I wouldn't say anything has jumped out. The freshmen are all brand new so they're a little overwhelmed. They're not out there knowing everything to do. They're still playing with a little ‘Uhh, I'm not real sure about this" because they were not here midyear. Then the seniors, you've got David (Marshall) coming off a Lisfranc, he doesn't get all of his reps. Julian (Rochester) is coming off an ACL, he doesn't get all of his reps,” Smart said. “Two of those guys are kind of spot players. They're not out there taking every single rep. Tyler (Clark) gets a lot of the work. Mike (Barnett) gets a lot of the work. Jordan (Davis) has done some good things. Devonte Wyatt has played really physical and played well. Tramel has come on some as well. We've got to play better on the d-line. We've got to cause more havoc. We've done that in some practices but we haven't done that consistently. That's where we've got to be able to do that, with those guys up front."