Kirby Smart said during Wednesday’s SEC teleconference he received clarification from the SEC office regarding the roughing the passer call on linebacker Jalon Walker in the fourth quarter against Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff.

“Yeah, they confirmed and felt strongly that that was a penalty, and it was more about the finish and the driving to the ground,” Smart said. “They're trying to make a concerted effort, obviously, to protect the quarterback.”

The 15-yard penalty with 7:18 left in the game resulted in a Wildcat first down.

“They said, the way I was driving, and I let it on top of him, which caused the personal foul,” Walker said. “It was a bang, bang play, so I feel like it was a judgment play. But we move on to the next play.”

Still, Smart wasn’t sure what else Walker could have done.

“It's tough because they're basically asking him to roll over and take the brunt of that on himself,” Smart said. “So, instead of him falling on top of Brock, it should be Brock falling on top of him and he's got to somehow torque his body to twist and land on himself, which, you know, is tough.”

There have been several times when Smart has singled out running back Trevor Etienne for being one of the best leaders on the team, despite being a first-year transfer.

However, it’s not unusual.

“I mean, we've had several guys that have come in and done that for us. Dom Lovett has been able to do that for us in terms of leadership. You know, Mo Smith was the first guy, and he was voted captain after one season of doing that,” Smart said. “And I know I'm missing some other guys here because it's all running together. But we've had a lot of guys. I think of Tre’ McKitty. I don't think it's that unusual to happen anymore.”

Still, Smart said take nothing away from Etienne, who spoke to the Georgia media for the first time Tuesday afternoon.

“Certainly, we have a lot of structure and foundation, I feel like, in place that may be coming into our place. It's like, well, they've got established leaders. They've had success,” Smart said. “It'll be harder to break into that, but it's really just each individual player. London's (Humphreys) going to be a good leader for us. He's just younger. But (Etienne) has played a lot of winning football, so he had a little bit of a platform to start with, and he's just a really, really good person.”

As expected, Smart’s turn on the teleconference included a question about the team’s game next week at Alabama.

But per Smart, he’s not focusing on the Crimson Tide quite yet.

“We haven't started on Alabama yet. We're working on us right now. And our typical protocol is to work on all the opponents we have further out,” Smart said. “As the week goes, we begin honing in on that. We actually worked on other opponents yesterday. We're going to work on some opponents coming up today, and then we begin our Alabama work (Thursday).”

With the new schedule, this Saturday’s bye is the earliest Georgia’s had off in the season in memory. The Bulldogs’ traditional bye has taken place before the Florida game and will be so again.

“It's different. I don't know if I'd call it weird, but it's different. I think the management of it is critical because are all bye weeks the same? Are all bye weeks created equal? We had to go back and look to the last time we had two in one season, you know, and how we use those and where they fall,” Smart said. “Bye weeks serve different purposes, and I think ours fall at two very different, distinct times, so we will treat them very differently in terms of how we utilize them.”

Smart admitted that the fact Nazir Stackhouse, Christen Miller and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkin each took more than 52 snaps qualified as an anomaly.

“In terms of how many times that's happened, I don't know or remember. You guys will probably have to tell me,” Smart said. “It's not normal for us. We like to rotate in that position. We want to stay fresh. But we knew going into that game that potentially could happen.”

Injuries to players like Warren Brinson (ankle), Mykel Williams (ankle) and Jordan Hall (stress fracture) haven’t helped Georgia’s cause.

But Smart did not put the entire blame on their absence.

“Some of that's self-inflicted because if you don't get off the field on third down, then you're going to take, you know, three more and possibly more and possibly more, and that usually compounds itself in games. We could have done a better job of reducing that,” Smart said. “We could have done a better job offensively reducing that by keeping the ball. So, some of it was a circumstance of that game. But we're in a lot better place.”

The Bulldogs did get South Carolina transfer Xzavier McLeod back for the first time this year. Other youngsters are also starting to show they could potentially offer more help.

“You know, we've got young defensive linemen that are getting better, but we may not have felt like they were ready for that. We may not have felt like that was the position to put them in. And I do think Jamal Jarrett and Xzavier McLeod did a good job relieving those guys some and probably could have done even more,” Smart said. “But neither of them had gotten a lot of work. Like Xavier McLeod didn't practice until either Wednesday or Thursday. So, it's one of those things that will feel much better in this off week already with the guys that are taking reps.”

Smart said he plans on spending Saturday’s open date like millions of other college football fans – propped in front of his TV.

“If the opponents are on, I'll watch them. I'm not trying to specifically watch them and, like, take notes,” Smart said. “I'm not going to do that.”

That doesn’t mean he will not be paying close attention.

“If anything, I'm watching, you know, game management, how people are going about things, maybe what other teams are doing,” Smart said. “But really, I’m just enjoying the ability to sit back and watch games.”

Smart said redshirt sophomore Julian Humphrey is off to a strong start.

“He's taken a really focused effort on improvement in terms of, like, his ability to communicate, anticipate things, play with technique, tackle better,” Smart said. “He's done a really good job of taking ownership of that.”

Smart said that the ability to communicate is setting Humphrey apart from typical cornerbacks he’s had in the past.

“I've told him, you know, from preseason camp, he talks and anticipates and communicates really well for a corner,” Smart said. “He does it almost like he's a safety in terms of making calls and that puts him in a better position to be successful, anticipating problems and motion adjustments and different things.”