To those with questions about the thinking behind Georgia’s offensive strategy during the Bulldogs’ 23-17 win over Notre Dame, Kirby Smart has some concerns of his own.

During Tuesday’s post-practice press conference, Smart was asked about many of the same issues fans have been pointing out, including the trusting of quarterback Jake Fromm to make more plays.

“We're trying to get better in a lot of areas. Offensively, we're looking at what can we do to get the ball to our playmakers in space, how can we do it better, how can we find plays to get the ball on the perimeter to loosen some teams up ... throw the ball downfield ... find ways to get George (Pickens) the ball,” Smart said. “It’s limitless what we’re trying to do, but the central focus is protecting Jake and let him throw the ball vertical, spread the ball out some and loosen people up. We know our strength is running the ball. Sometimes teams try to take that away and you’ve got to have answers.”

Making sure plays are getting called in quicker is another area Smart said has to improve.

“We didn't get the call to him fast enough so we've got to do a better job of getting the call to him so he can do that,” Smart said. “Because when you're down on the play clock, it doesn't give him enough time to do that. That's what he does well. There were two or three times where I bet that he had the call with 11 or 12 seconds left and that's not enough time."

Defensively, there are areas that need work, too.

Topping that list is finding way to affect opposing quarterbacks better than they are currently are.

“We’re trying to affect the passer more. Our havoc rate is right on the line of where we need to be. We’ve been really close,” Smart said. “One game, we’re one or two under, another game we’re one or two over. We’re trying to find more ways and we spent the last two days looking at the teams who are elite, what are they doing? What in the SEC is working, who’s got the highest havoc rate on SEC defenses?”

Neither Eric Stokes (lower leg injury) nor Tyson Campbell (foot) were at practice today, but Smart did not sound like either would be out for long.

“Eric was not able to go today. He looks like he was going to be fine but he was a little sore. He jogged yesterday. He ran today but he wasn’t able to practice,” Smart said. “Tyson is working out, training, running but not able to practice.”

The news was so better on left guard Solomon Kindley was also better than expected.

“Solomon didn’t practice today. He’ll be day to day,” Smart said. “We think he’ll be fine but he wasn’t able to go today.”

Meanwhile, defensive end David Marshall was absent from practice after re-aggravating his Lisfranc injury against Notre Dame.

“David’s foot injury has bothered him all year,” Smart said. “I think he played 10 or 11 snaps. It continuously bothers him so we’re trying to help him out with that. We’re leaving him out (a little) this week and get him back next week.”

…Wide receiver Kearis Jackson is practicing despite still using a club over his broken left hand.

“He’s doing everything. He did everything today. He’s been practicing everyday doing everything. He just has a club on,” Smart said. “He practiced every rep today, he just has a big club on. He does everything that we ask him to do, he stays in shape, catches punts. He caught balls today. He’s just catching them with one hand in a club.”

…On if he thought Notre Dame players faked injuries and how common is it?”

“No. 1, my opinion does not matter whether I think they did or they didn’t. It has no bearing whatsoever so I don’t think I even need to answer that question,” Smart said. “But whether it goes on in college football or not, sure I think it goes on.”

…Smart said two players are competing with Jake Camarda for the starting punting job.

“Sure. We’ve got two or three guys out there. (Bill) Rubright’s out there competing. We’ve got the young man from Savannah that does a great job, (Noah) Chumley, that’s competing with him,” Smart said. “They haven’t out-punted him in practice and they haven’t out-punted him in games or scrimmages up until Saturday. He (Camarda) was really hitting a lot of bombs and he didn’t hit two good punts. He knows it. He had other guys punting today. We’ll continue the competition just like we will at every position.”

…Why Tyrique McGhee played cornerback opposed to Tyrique Stevenson:

“McGhee practiced all week, did a really good job, Tyrique McGhee’s played corner in several games. He played against Missouri several years ago. He played against Georgia Tech. He understands our overall system probably a little bit better right now,” Smart said. “Tyrique Stevenson is extremely talented, and there’s a really big, physical match-up guy. As he develops and works and learns the defense, he’s going to be a really good player. He’s close. He’s one of those guys who’s competing for the job. Tyrique we felt like would understand the coverages and know it. We had one corner out there who had never really started already on one side, and we didn’t really want to have two of them out there at a time.”

…On not using Zamir White against Notre Dame.

“We just didn't get into the flow of the game. We didn't get many opportunities. If No. 7 is running the ball the way he was running the ball, it's hard to give the ball to anybody (else). The guy was making people miss, running possessed. Brian was running hard. We wanted to get Zamir involved and we need to do that. And he's growing and getting better,” Smart said. “He had two of the best blitz pick-ups I've seen out there today where he stoned them. So, he's getting better and he's getting more confident and I want to be able to show confidence in him and put him out there and let him go play. It wasn't just Zamir. It was a lot of guys. There were a lot of guys that I would've loved to get in the game but the opportunity never presented itself. And we still played a lot of people.”