WATCH: Kirby Smart following scrimmage No. 1

0:00 – Opening remarks – good to be out there and see who wants to compete (plus QB situation)

2:58 – How the players held up in the intense heat plus first team OL vs. first team DL

4:18 – How are the quarterbacks managing the offense

5:16 – Diversity of the quarterbacks

6:42 – Injury Situation – Kamari Lassiter, Kendall Milton, Chris Peal

7:50 – Managing the running backs (more on Branson Robinson)

9:10 = Play by the cornerbacks

10:25 – Impressed by anyone’s readiness?

11:02 – De’Nylon Morrissette’s missing practice and situation

11:39 – Defensive line players and how they are practicing

12:34 – The safety position and play by Joenel Aguero

13:38 – Any difference on how to prepare for a lesser season opener

14:35 – Raylen Wilson situation

15:05 – Smael Mondon’s injury progress

15:58 – What do you want to see from the quarterbacks to separate themselves

16:36 – Play by offensive lineman, particularly Earnest Greene and Austin Blaske

Opening statement

“I was excited today to see our guys go out and compete and cut loose and get to play without coaches on the field. It's always the first time of the year that you get that, like, little bit of butterflies and the coaches aren't telling you what to do and all that.We made the decision to go out and get after it on Friday afternoon as well. So, we went in pads Friday and went outside and challenged them and then turned around and practiced a little bit earlier today than what we've been doing. We typically scrimmage Saturdays around lunch and we practice around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. So, it was good.It was good to find out, OK, who really wants part of this. Who really wants to go out here and compete and get better. So that part, I think we were able to identify some guys who are maybe ready to play versus some guys who want no part of it because they can't sustain and keep their level of focus up during the scrimmage. So, I was glad that we got the conditions that we gotWe've got an extremely long way to go as a football team. I think so many people make an assumption off of last year's team and their accomplishments. This team, number one, I asked them after the scrimmage and after we ran, what have you done to deserve anything you've gotten? And they've done nothing. They've done nothing. And we've got to get the right guys in the right spots, find the guys that can really tough it out and compete. We'll maybe play four or five, or five of five of our games in what is tough heat. And I kind of I hope we do because I want to see where we are as a team. You find out a lot more about a team when you have to do kicking, offense, defense with 22 people on the feild with your team the whole strength. And I saw guys who could push through and guys that just couldn't; they physically could not push through. They're not ready to contribute yet.I know you guys are going to ask about the quarterback position, but I can't tell you anything until I watch the tape. I can tell you that I'd like to see all three of them play better. But the people around them have to play better. So, when you evaluate a quarterback and you say, well, he threw an interception. Well, he hit a guy in the hands and it bounced through his hands and got intercepted. Obviously we can judge there. If there's seven drops in the scrimmage because of wet hands and heat, then you evaluate that. But I don't think any of those quarterbacks would tell you they played their best game. And I think we need each one of them to get better to get where we want to go. And a lot of that's got to do with cutting down some of the offense, deciding what we want to use and really focusing in on that. That wasn't today's goal. Today's goal was to find out who's got some toughness and who can push through.”

On how the team handled the heat and how the first-team offensive line and the first-team defensive line did...

"It's the same typical thing. I mean, the one o-line didn't start real well. We went three-and-out and then maybe four- or five-and-out. I don't know for sure, but I feel like the one offense kind of won the third down challenge. The red area was kind of a toss-up. Two minute, the offense won. I mean, it's like back and forth. So I could say all these good things the offense did on the o-line and all the bad things the defensive line, and then it flips back and forth. I'm looking for a little bit more consistency. I certainly think that we have a very talented first group of o-line and maybe a couple backups. I feel like we've got seven or eight guys that can play winning football that I don't know that we got their best effort. Like, if you just said, 'I'm going to grade our o-line on their practices so far and then I'm going to grade them on this practice, I would've argued the practices up to this point have been a little better and a little more dominant than they maybe were today — at least in the run game, maybe not in the pass game. I'm pleased with the leadership of both those groups. I'm not pleased with, like, where we are."

On how Carson Beck has managed the offense and executed to this point in camp...

"Oh, he does a really good job. All three of them do — like, executing the offense. You've got to remember that all three of them were in it last year and have been in it for a while. The verbiage doesn't change so, like, they know and can execute the offense. The players around them have to make plays, and they have to avoid catastrophe situations. Because, you know, we have a defense that causes havoc. We have a defense that can be disruptive and disguise, and there's going to be a play every now and then that you've got to get us to the next play. You don't have to make a Superman play — you've just got to get us to the next play. I don't think that Carson or any of those quarterbacks don't understand what we're trying to do offensively or what we do to execute. They need 10 people around them functioning at a high level, and a couple of those 10 to make some explosive plays for them."

On installing certain packages with running quarterbacks and how you do that without tackling them in practice...

“I think the first part of that question I would disagree with. I don’t know how diverse it (our quarterback room) is. You may feel that way or someone outside may feel that way. I don’t really see any of our three quarterbacks in the same quarterback run people. I didn’t see Stetson that way. Now could Stetson run? Yeah, but we didn’t design runs. Maybe a few in the red area, but we didn’t design runs. We don’t really want our quarterback physically getting hit. Your question makes it sound like there’s certain guys that we’re going to have quarterback run packages for and certain guys we probably wouldn’t. Not the case. Now can one of them maybe run a little better than the others? Maybe a little bit. These three guys are all three pretty good athletes. I don’t know how diverse, when I hear diverse I think oh, they’re all three really different. They’re all three really more the same than they are different. If you lined them up in the 40, one might be a little faster than the others. One might be a little more instinctive in the pocket than the others. One might be just a better runner as in reading blocks because maybe he ran better in high school. But I don’t see them that different. We will not have an extensive quarterback run package. We just don’t, we’re going to give the ball to our backs and we’re going to throw the ball to the perimeter and let our skill guys do things with it.”

On injuries...

“RaRa did everything today. He was good. He had a hamstring spasm, not a pull. The practice you were at, he practiced, he just didn’t start with his position. He’s practiced each day, hasn’t missed a day, but he’s been held out of portions. Kendall has not been able to completely go. He’s trying to get back best he can. Kamari is much closer with the foot sprain. Ty (Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins) is much closer. Y’all always love to ask these questions. I’m not hiding from them, I just don’t know who you’re, ask me about somebody and I’ll tell you. We don’t play for another two weeks, so I don’t know what the paranoia is there? Is there anybody else there I’m missing? Chris Peal’s got a turf toe that he’s been battling, trying his best to get back from. He’s not back yet.”

On Branson Robinson...

“Yeah, Branson goes in individuals. That’s what you’re seeing in the assumption he’s back. But he is not cleared to go yet. He’s on track to get back earlier than we originally thought, but he’s not back yet. But he does do individual because that’s great exercise for him. That’s reps. He can catch the ball out of the backfield. But no, he did not scrimmage.”

On managing the running backs in terms of where they are health-wise there...

“Daijun, Cash, Andrew Paul, Rod Robinson, Sevaughn Clark. That’s five guys I know, JD, Joseph Daniels, those guys, they all get reps. In terms of when the season starts, we’ll take a picture of what we have healthy and make a determination. But Daijun’s doing a great job. Cash Jones is doing a great job. I think Andrew Paul is still trying to get his confidence back. I don’t think he was 100 percent today. I think that was a big psychological hurdle for him to go out there and get tackled live and be able to do that. Rod had a real nice run and some good pickups. I certainly think before the season’s over, I don’t know when, Branson’s going to be fine, Kendall is hopefully going to be fine. We’ve got the backs we’ve got. There’s ways to be creative around your running backs and use the skill players you have."

On how the cornerbacks played today, especially without Kamari Lassiter...

"I don’t know that I honestly can say, I mean there were some big plays, we gave up some plays, but we didn’t, people didn’t get behind us. There was a couple of plays they were behind us that were overthrows that I thought that maybe we should hit, um we did hit a couple big plays, but those weren’t necessarily on the corners. Our corners don’t play man every down, they have downs where they’re in the flat and you might get behind a safety. So just because there was a bomb hit, it doesn’t always go to a corner, it could go to a safety, it could go to the protection in the rush, but I think we have four guys that’ll get to play. Julian [Humphrey] was a little under the weather, he was sick and cramping a little bit, so he played, but he had less reps and uh. You know, Kamari is dying to get back, but Kamari needs work. He started for one year and he got to knock the rust and go out there and play too. There’s no assumption that just because you played last year that you’ll come in and be ready to play, I think people assume that, but these kids aren’t NFL players that have been playing for 10-15 years, so he needs to get back and knock some of the rust off."

On if any players did impress Kirby with their readiness today...

"Nope, can’t say I was impressed with anyones readiness today. The readiness came about third down period after about 66% of the practice was over. I thought that it wrapped up and the competitiveness went up, but it wasn’t like that earlier. So I don’t know if they just decided to push right through this and get through it, but I didn’t see a group that I was like ‘oh man, they’re dominant. They came out here today to really make the opponent not want to play em’ I didn’t see that."

On De'Nylon Morrissette's status...

"I don’t know what y’all call it. De’Nylon’s gonna join us when the school starts. So I’ll let you guys --- and that’s Wednesday --- so he’s been part of the team. He’s been with us, he’s just not practicing. He’s allowed to go to administrative programming, he’s allowed to go to a lot of programming we’ve got in place for him and the whole team, so he does that each and every day."On defensive line and how they're looking so far..."We've got some really tough, hard workers in there. I don't know that we have a dominant, disruptive, super hard to block guy. I think we've got to create that through our athleticism on the perimeter and our athleticism at backer, but we have some guys that believe in the core values of our defensive program which is to strike blockers, knock the hell out of them, knock them back. I think Jordan Hall is coming along. He had a tough day. He's got to grow up and be able to help us and play and be disruptive. We have very good experience there and very good toughness there when you count Naz, Z-Lo, Warren and Jonathan Jefferson, those guys have really pushed hard and give us four quality SEC players in there to help us."

On safety beyond presumed starters...

"Joenel is working at STAR most of the time, and haven't tried to cross train him with him being a freshman right now. Obviously Bullard, David Daniel, Malaki and Dan a little bit - Dan's still been injured. He had a hamstring pull early in camp, like the first day and he's been trying to battle back from that. He scrimmaged today but couldn't go as much as he'd like to. Tykee's getting a little bit of reps there. I think JaCorey and Justyn Rhett are the guys that are really battling to get in that rotation and play winning football. I thought both of them made some plays today. JaCorey made a really nice play and Justyn Rhett made some really nice plays, but they both have a long way to go too."

On avoiding different preparation without a marquee matchup in the opener...

"I don't sense any difference because we never talk about that. Whether we play Clemson, Oregon, the National Championship Game first, we don't talk about it. We just try to get better for us because we know that we have multiple games to play after that. I know that's a big deal to people that say offseason and all that, but the kids aren't thinking about that. They're thinking about, 'How can I lift today? How can I workout today? How do I scrimmage today?' Today was about playing Georgia, and you're not going to play too many teams better than Georgia so let's go play Georgia. Let's worry about that and not who our opponent is. Does that concern me? No, because I don't really worry about who we're playing until nine days out."

On Raylen Wilson, scrimmage injuries...

"Yeah, Raylen had a hyperextended knee. As of right now, I would reserve judgement until we know for sure, but the ligaments are intact and hopefully he'll be fine. It was a scary play but he seems to be fine. He walked off the field on his own, and Ron feels good about it. You never know. You've got to do your due diligence. Coming out of it, I think we had a couple of guys get ankles, but I don't know that we had a significant injury other than Raylen's. I don't know how long it's going to be, but we don't think it's ligament damage."

On Smael Mondon's recovery...

“Smael’s been great, man. He works really hard every day. When you’re dealing with that kind of injury, it’s a very sensitive injury. It’s one of those deals that we have to be patient with. We knew that when we found out about it in the spring, the very end of spring. We knew the minute that he had it, it was a long-term deal that he was going to be fighting. He’s fighting similar to what Dan Jackson had and also fighting what Xavian Sorey came in with as a freshman. Luckily we caught it early and we were able to start. The worst thing would have been having to not catch it and then figure it out in fall camp. He’s doing really well, he’s running on the side. He’s on progress."

On what you want to see in QB competition...

“Consistency; accuracy, consistency, those are things that always come out. If you are accurate in our offense you are going to have some easy, free throws. Decision-making, third down, because we’re going to get put in some third-and-10, third-and-6, third-and-8. What you do on first and second down, it’s either a shot it’s there or it’s not. It’s either a boot or naked, it’s there or it’s not. It’s a run play, and that’s not a lot of the control of the quarterback. It’s going to come down to who is accurate and makes good decisions on third down, and who can be explosive.”

On what you think of the offensive tackles, specifically Earnest Greene and Austin Blaske...

“Blaske has been battling some illness, some sickness, he got a little bit sick and there was one or two days he didn’t get to practice. When he’s been there he’s done really well, he’s been really competitive. I think the heat has been tough on him, he’s a fighter, he’s one of the toughest kids I’ve been around. Earnest has gotten more reps than him with the Ones. But I feel real good about Blaske. Truss has kicked out there and played at tackle, Dylan Fairchild has played at tackle, Micah has played at tackle, obviously Amarius has been able to flip and play both (sides). Monroe Freeling is a young kid that’s come in and gotten better every day. Chad (Lindberg) stays out there and plays.“We have kind of a working committee because the last thing you want is to not have a tackle ready to play in a game so far us we’re always trying to develop that tackle position knowing we have a lot of guards that go over there and play.”