Herding The Horns: Kirby Smart talks explosive Texas offense in Tuesday Presser

When looking at the numbers, Texas' rushing offense doesn't jump off the page. Currently, the Longhorns average 189 yards per game, the 40th most in FBS. However, Georgia football coach Kirby Smart was sure to not overlook the unit that features wide-zone rushing schemes, led by Steve Sarkisian. 

After a pair of season-ending injuries to CJ Baxter and Christian Clark, the seemingly thin unit has found its footing. Three Texas running backs have over 200 yards, with Quintrevion Wisner leading Jaydon Blue, followed closely by freshman Jerrick Gibson. 

Most of the load will likely be carried by Blue and Wisner against the Bulldogs. Wisner is averaging 6.2 yards per carry and Blue with 4.4. With early concerns of depth and preseason injuries, how have they been so effective?

"They've got really fast physical backs," Smart said. "They've got three backs that all play and do a great job. They've also got probably one of the deepest, most talented offensive lines in the country."

Smart continued, noting they're averaging a lot of yards per carry for the SEC, a league typically deemed more physical. 

How has Georgia's run defense fared thus far? The unit is 43rd in the country, allowing 120.2 yards per game. The better question, however, is how has Georgia defended the outside run.

Two alarming examples come to mind: Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe and Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter. Against Alabama, Milroe ran for 117 yards and two touchdowns, consistently beating the Bulldogs on the edge.  However, most notable was Georgia's almost-historic comeback, which was in large part due to halftime adjustments that better defended the edge. 

Against Auburn, Hunter ran for 91 yards and a touchdown. 

Smart was very aware of these issues and noted that Texas would likely try to attack it.

"We've had problems with certain runs in the last couple of weeks," Smart said. 

Leading up to one of the biggest games of the year, many will talk about the offenses, specifically passing, in what looks to be a shootout. However, a key matchup will be Texas' running backs against Georgia's edges, which could set the tone. If Texas can run the ball effectively on Georgia, things could be ugly for the Bulldogs who would then be susceptible to explosive plays against play-action. On the flip side, if Georgia can shut down Texas' run game and make the Longhorns one-dimensional, the underdog could come out on top.

Everything else Kirby Smart said on Tuesday:

On what Isaiah Bond brings to Texas' offense…
"He's electric. He's a great release guy. You know, they got other good wideouts. They did a great job of upgrading their talent pool in the portal. They got, I think, three, maybe four, portal receivers. I don't know, three. They play a lot of time, and he was one of those guys. He's twitchy fast, explosive, elite speed, and elite body quickness. So, when you talk about covering people, he's explosive. You know, he can take a handoff, or he can run through the middle of your defense and blow the top off. And Sark [Steve Sarkisian] is used to having really good guys like that to set plays up with, to stretch the field vertically and horizontally."
 
On practice this week…
"It's good. I mean, I don't know if it was our best Tuesday. I thought that it was good, not great. And we've had some good ones, but it was a spirited day, they got after it. We had a good competitive practice. Yesterday was a lighter Monday. Like I said, we've had more snaps played this year than we ever have before. So, we just did a little bit less on Monday. And the same kind of Tuesdays we've been having."

On similarities between Carson Beck and Quinn Ewers…
"Yeah, it's interesting you say that. I mean, I feel that way. You know, I don't get a chance to watch them. I didn't get to watch them last year, other than, you know, I watched their playoff games, obviously, and then watched them in the offseason some. And then, you know, you don't have a full, like a full quota of his, he hadn't played in every game. The games he's played in, they're very similar in terms of knowledge, understanding of their offense, protections. You know, it doesn't seem pressure affects him much. I mean, he seems like he has really good composure in there, stands in there. They both have the ability, if something goes wrong, to get you out of a bad play and typically avoid catastrophes. That's what older quarterbacks do. That's the similarities they seem to have."

On Georgia-Georgia Tech taking place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2025…
"Yeah, I don't really know. I had heard that. I mean, the rivalry is there. They've done a tremendous job. I think they're recruiting at a really high level. They're competing. They're playing really hard. They play really physical. They've got a great coaching staff. So, as far as the game being there over, I mean, I don't think it affects the rivalry. You know, like, where you play, in that game doesn't matter. It's going to be, you know, physical."

On Ellis Robinson IV, difficulties of playing SEC football as a freshman cornerback…
"I don't know where to begin. I mean, the hardest parts are, you know, it starts with ability. He's blessed with God-given talent. He's really talented. He's practiced better the last two weeks than he has all year. I think he has the stamina to, like, go practice the whole time, the attention to detail to, like, focus in meetings. He takes much better notes right now than he has. I mean, in his awareness, you know, early on, there were times where he might, you know, bust a coverage. And if he's playing squat, flat to the field, and there's nobody behind him because, you know, we're in a different coverage, that can be, you know, it's not like a D-lineman. A D-lineman messes up, none of you know. You don't have a clue. The linebacker messes up? Very rarely do you know. But when a corner messes up, everybody knows. And, you know, we're trying to take that out of it. And physical, he's a physical football player. But he continues to develop. He's been lifting. His toughness shows. He's always been a good tackler. So, I'm excited about Ellis. I think he does a really good job. And we've got to keep finding ways to try to get him out there."

On Jordan Hall and Jared Wilson's statuses leading up to Texas…
"Yeah, Jared has been good. Jared has been practicing. Seems to be doing more the last two days than he has in the previous weeks. Looks good and repped out there today. Jordan has done more than he has in the last two weeks. He has been out there repping, taking reps with us and getting better. I mean, Jordan has just been a long, hard process. And he's having to get comfortable with the pain that he has. And it jumps up and bites him at times and you never know. It might just hit him on a rep and that's kept him from being able to take the rep load that he would like to take. But he was out there today doing more this week than he did last week. And Jared was, too."

On motivation as underdogs heading into Texas…
"No. I don't even know that. I do not look at lines and underdog favorites. I worry about one thing. What do we have to do to play our best? That comes with a lot of game planning. There is a minimal approach to the game, but I don't think it's about being the underdog. I don't think that's, you know, I think it's about being physical and being prepared to play in a tough place. And the mental strength it takes to play well on the road, you don't need to waste all that energy talking about being the underdog."

On lessons learned from the 2019 Sugar Bowl loss…
"I don't remember much about it. I get those things confused. There was one that we had a lot of guys out. We had a lot of guys either academically out, and we kind of took this approach of, like, if you want to be here, get all in. If you don't, get all out. I think that was the Baylor one. That was really fun, and it was, like, exciting. But I think we learned, maybe, from the Texas one, with guys that may not have been all in. It was a weird season, because I think that was the year that you're all the way in it to the very end, and then you're not. And it was like one of our first games that you weren't playing for to play in the playoffs. Maybe that's not right. I don't know that. But it seemed that way. And, you know, you're always trying to find a motivating factor, especially at the end of the year. And I remember they had a really good team, and they were very talented, and so were we. And I know we played a lot of young players in it. But I don't know if that answers your question or not."

On his recruitment process in the state of Texas…
"There's tons of players in Texas. I mean, I've always said the entire SEC footprint prior to Texas being in the SEC and [Texas] A&M being in the SEC could fit into Texas. So, like, if you took all the people in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and you just said, it's like Texas. So, there's so many good players there. There are so many good high schools. Development. Coaches get paid more. They have indoors. They have practice all day. They practice year-round. I mean, they just got everything. So when you go over there, I liken it to getting Georgia high school football players. They're very well-coached, hard-nosed. Football is important. So, but they're hard to get because of the travel. What we usually end up doing is getting somebody that's connected, you know? It's like, okay, they have some kind of connection, somebody in Atlanta, some relative, maybe a connection to a coach. Or they really wanted to play in the SEC. And before, they had one option. You know, now they've got multiple options. But it's the hardest job in Texas is figuring out who to go after, you know? And that's what I've always heard. Will [Myers] has always said that about the Texas job. It's not a hard job because of that. It's hard because you have to figure out who you're going to go recruit because there are so many good players. And differentiating player A and player B is really hard."

On the narrative of Georgia can't lose another game…
"No. That's for you guys to talk about and speculate about, not for us. The quote you had about you weren't playing for anything. We were playing for something, okay? I shouldn't have said that. I want to say it was playing for the Sugar Bowl. That matters. That's a big deal. It was not a national championship narrative, and at that point, we weren't in that every year anyway. I look at it every year and observe our team based on the criteria of, 'Did we get the most out of them? Did we maximize the potential of that team?' And we know what we see every day on the practice field. We know what we have relative to who we're playing. We know all those things. I don't get caught up in, well, if this happens or that happens or they're playing - everybody's going to start saying that. They're going to say that for every game, for every team the rest of the way. And really, you're playing the long game. The long game is, 'Who can be the best teams at the end of the year?' You're trying to be one of the best 12 teams, and how that aligns with this game, it's not real. We've got to worry about how we play in this game. We've got to worry about what we've got to do to play well in this game - not any narrative that's out there or what people are talking about in the playoffs. That's a ways down the road. We've got to get better at what we've got to do."

On where he feels the run game is…
"Who am I playing? Texas this one. Right. So, our run game is relative to who we play, typically. I think you take the opponent out of it and say, we set the standard. We should be able to do this, but I also think it's unrealistic in this league to find many teams that are just dominating in the run game. If they are, they probably are doing it some with a quarterback run, okay? If you take quarterback run out of it and you say, 'All right, these are the teams that don't run the quarterback by design, where do you stack up? How are your backs? How are you blocking people? What is your success rate? What is your, not average yards per carry, what is your efficiency runs per carry?' And I've been really comfortable with where that is based on who we play."

On what Dillon Bell has brought to Georgia during his time in Athens…
"He's developed a lot. He came in as a raw, talented running back, you know, and we knew he could be a wideout from being here at camp. He's brought toughness. He's brought a very different skill set, a catch-and-run skill set, hard to tackle skill set. He's very intelligent, and he's made us a better team and program. Very thankful we were able to get him to come."

On defensive line depth…
"Still coming. We're not complete. We're not injury-free. Warren's [Brinson] battling injury. Jordan's [Hall] battling injury. Mykel [Williams] has been battling injury. And Christian [Miller] has been battling injury. He's not able to complete the work week every week, in and the week out, but he's able to go out and play. Naz [Stackhouse]has been the most reliable and dependable in terms of staying injury-free, but when you're beat up in one area, it usually means – Xzavier McLeod missed all that time. There's not really a guy that hasn't missed time at that position. We've been really fortunate to have the numbers we have, even though it's not necessarily the experience we need. It is a lot of big frames and big body types who are getting better."

On Nazir Stackhouse's durability…
"I don't know. He's been really durable. Of all the players we've ever had, I can't remember if this is his fifth year, right? So, I think it's his fifth. I can't remember the guy missing practice. He has tremendous flexibility, which keeps you from getting injured. He has what we call contact balance which means he can strike and not get knocked off when another person hits him on a double team. He can anchor. He's been very durable, and we would be in trouble without him. I thought he had a really, really good year two years ago. He had a pretty good year last year, and then this year he's played better to me than last year. He continues to grow and get better, but he's just been a workload. He's an invaluable leader because he sets an example by the way he practices and his toughness. He carries more reps than anybody, and we've tried to take some of that off of him, too, in practice because he's played so long."

Photo Via UGAA