Saturday’s second scrimmage of preseason was a little more to the liking of head coach Kirby Smart.

Was it perfect? No. But based on the way he described last weekend’s effort, there was a lot more to be positive about than not, during this most recent performance.

"I thought we had a much more spirited scrimmage. It was still hot out there, probably not as humid as it was last time. We didn't have the rain delay this time, but they started out a lot better, started out a lot faster, a lot more competitive. I thought both ones-units played better, which means the two units probably didn't play as well,” Smart said. “There were some explosive plays in the scrimmage, and I was proud of the competitive toughness. A lot of snaps out there. I think we ended up with 135 snaps, which is basically two football games wrapped into one. We got a lot of special team snaps mixed in, too.

“But the guys really pushed hard. They were hurting at the end. There were some really competitive goal-line periods; red-area period was competitive, 2nd-and-10, third down. Everything was pretty even across the board when we did the ones on ones, so I thought that was good. We were able to get the playmakers the ball on the perimeter, and we probably made more plays in the passing game than we did in the other (scrimmage).”

With the season-opener at Vanderbilt less than two weeks away, Smart feels his team is on track, compared to where it’s been in previous years.

But there’s still much to do. "We've got a lot to work on, a lot of situational, whether it's hands (onside recovery), onside, all that stuff. But I'm very pleased with the effort our kids are playing with. I'm proud of that,” Smart said. “We've had some tough, physical practices. These guys, this group, has not backed away or shied away from that. Our worst practice, by far, was last Saturday. I'm not saying today was our best, but it was definitely to par with the other good practices."

Although he’s taking part in passing drills, if the season were to start today, freshman quarterback D’Wan Mathis would not be part of the plan.

Mathis, who is recovering from brain surgery to remove a cyst, physically feels fine. But according to Smart, he's just not ready to be thrown into the mix behind starter Jake Fromm.

However, Mathis’ loss has apparently been freshman walk-on Nathan Priestley’s gain.

“Well, D'Wan is not able to go a whole lot in those situations, so Nathan Priestly has been in there, and he goes a good bit. I'll tell you, he's been like a blessing in disguise for us,” Smart said. “He's very bright. He's very athletic. Really good arm talent. Coley (offensive coordinator James Coley) will tell you, he takes the best notes I've ever seen in a quarterback room within our system, and that's important, because you don't get the volume of reps you want at the three. In camp he has, but his reps are going to start to dwindle as we narrow things down.”

A 6-foot-4, 205-pound native of Los Angeles, Priestley held offers from Colorado State, Montana State, and UNLV before deciding to walk on with the Bulldogs.

“He was early on our list because we thought he was a good player. His junior year, he was a guy that we wanted to go see throw. We wanted to go watch him practice. We went out the spring before his junior year, he's on the list; we watched him, we liked him, he was pretty good,” Smart said. “But somewhere in there, I'm not sure exactly when, but he tears his ACL. So, he misses the majority of his junior year with a torn ACL, and that's basically a quarterback's make-or-break year, because you're getting judged and everything's based on that. He didn't have tape for that junior year.”

Per Smart, Priestley was scheduled to walk on at North Carolina before the situation with Mathis occurred.

“He found out he could come in here and be a three right away with D'Wan's situation, and he jumped on it,” Smart said. “He comes from a wonderful family. I got to visit with his mom. I'm telling you guys, he's a good player. When you watch him take his reps with the threes, the way he functions and manages the offense; we're lucky to have him.”

Adhering to the SEC limit of 70 players that are allowed to travel for conference road games is never easy.

The upcoming opener two weeks from now at Vanderbilt is no exception.

“It’s always tough. It’s tough 80, it’s tough 85. It’s tough when you travel 100, because whoever the 101st, 71st, 86th--it’s tough. It’s going to be even tougher, but we know what we decide there’s not final,” Smart said. “It changes week to week. There’s not a week that I think our roster was exactly the same last year, No. 1, because of injuries, No. 2, because of effort in practice.”

In other words, there’s still time for players who might be on the bubble to make an impression.

“Michael Barnett didn’t travel, didn’t play, and went from going on the scout team on the defensive line to starting on the defensive line against Georgia Tech. It can come full circle,” Smart said. “We’re going to have some tough decisions to make. We’re not going to make them right now. We’ve got two weeks to finalize those choices and decisions.”

Jake Camarda and Bill Rubright continue to battle it out for the starting punter job.

“Both guys have played well. Good competition,” Smart said. "Camarda punted well today. Rubright punted a couple of times as well. To be honest, I’ll have to watch the tape. I don’t have stats for you. I’m a lot more worried about the hold-up and the coverage right now. We judge the rest on tape.”

Freshman running back Kenny McIntosh opened some eyes during Saturday’s scrimmage.

“I thought Kenny McIntosh did some good things today. He continues to improve. He's got really good balance, and he's been a good blessing. He's delivered some blows to people.”

The nation’s 112th-ranked prospect according to Rivals, McIntosh is currently repping behind D’Andre Swift, Brian Herrien, James Cook, and Zamir White, but that doesn’t mean there’s still not a chance for the Florida native to get on the field in a special teams role.

Whether or not he can excel in that aspect will determine whether or not he’s traveling to Nashville in two weeks.

“Somebody like McIntosh is a key to that decision, because his value right now is going to be special teams, initially,” Smart said. “He earns more value by how he plays on those teams; I think it’s new for him. He’s going through the Holyfield effect, and the Swift effect, and can I help on these teams, and how do I do it, because I didn’t do it in high school.”

“I probably saw a little more toughness on the front of the offensive line. They were knocking us off the ball. There were some licks passed out there, there were some pops made, a couple of goal-line stops, couple of hits with guys closing. But our backs are good players. They're able to make people miss in space.” – Smart on the offensive line

“It's been hot, guys. I'm not going to lie, not going to make any bones about it. Our guys haven't complained about it. To be honest, we've done a couple of practices where we've gone inside at the end of practice. But we start every day outside; we do 75 percent of practice outside; scrimmages are out there. I talked to some coaches that have been at our practices who have been at other practices and they said the same thing: "It's hot. Hot." So mentally, what are you going to do? It is hot. But our guys pushed through it, and I thought they did a good job today.” – Smart on the heat

“Lewis (Cine) comes up and makes plays; he hits people. J.R. (Reed) had some good tackles. We've just got to get our guys on defense to play within the system. We've got some guys on defense who still want to play rat trap and do what they want to do instead of what they're supposed to do. And when they do that rat-trap stuff it hurts us.” – Smart on the secondary