Kirby Smart was asked about several subjects during his turn on Wednesday’s SEC teleconference.
Questions included:
• When asked how his team traditionally has strong special teams, Smart said it’s because everybody is expected to play a role.
“We’ve worked really hard at creating depth. We sell every player on being a part of every unit, and we have every player on our team work on special teams during the offseason and preseason camp,” Smart said. “As far as kickoff (returns), we have not got to use it as much, obviously, but it's one of those that when you play on the road it's one of the most important plays in the game because they have just scored. And when a team has just scored and has momentum, you need to seize momentum, and that is an opportunity to do that on KOR.”
• Smart was asked what he learned about his backups during last Saturday’s 48-3 wim over Tennessee Tech.
“You get a chance to reward kids that maybe wouldn't get to play this early in their career,” Smart said. “They work just as hard as the starters do in practice, and I know as a former player myself, there's nothing better than getting to play in your home stadium in front of your family and friends and see the growth that you've maybe made since the last time you played or get some of the anxiety out of the way if you haven't played at all.”
• Smart was asked about his scheduling philosophy in the 12-team playoff era, considering the Bulldogs opened their season against Clemson.
“I don't know how to answer that. I mean, the trend is you play the schedule you got, and I think everybody has a different schedule that sometimes they control, sometimes they inherit. I don't even know when the schedule was set, to be honest with you,” Smart said. “I know that when it was set, there wasn't a 12-team playoff in mind. It was done prior to that. So, I don't think as a coach you get into the ebbs and flows or ups and downs of who you're playing. You worry a lot more about how your team's playing week to week.”
• As a follow-up Smart was asked what he likes about opening with a bigger challenge.
“Well, I like playing good opponents. I think our fan base likes it. It makes for a better offseason,” Smart said. “So, I'm certainly glad we were able to play a really good team and good program like Clemson.
• Smart was asked what he saw from Kentucky in its loss to South Carolina.
‘Well, I saw a team that had some turnovers, lost momentum. When you lose momentum in a game, sometimes it's hard to get back,” Smart said. “Certainly, the score did not indicate the way the game went, but extremely physical football teams, which you see on tape on both lines of scrimmage.”
• Smart was asked how difficult it is to build an offensive line through the transfer portal.
“Well, it's a challenge in every era. I mean, offensive linemen are fewer and far between. First of all, there's less people in this world that are 6-foot-3, 6-4, than there are 5-10,” Smart said. “Less and less kids, in my opinion, are playing football at that size, so there's less and less, what do you say, a pool of players to get. We've gotten a lot of feedback from the NFL that, you know, it's the position they struggle the most to find. They're in constant pursuit in these colleges of looking and finding and trying to find linemen.”
Not surprisingly, so are college programs.
“If they're struggling to find them, so are we. And it's certainly that way at the high school level too,” Smart said. “I can't say it's deteriorated over 10 years, because I don't know it was hard 10 years ago to find them.”
