Kirby Smart, Earnest Greene, and Raylen Wilson Speak With the Media

ATHENS, Ga. – Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart and select players spoke with the media on Tuesday afternoon and offered the following comments

GEORGIA HEAD COACH KIRBY SMART

On practice this week…
"It wasn't great yesterday. I hate it when you change routine, but we didn't do anything with the players. The players didn't have anything to do Sunday and they didn't have school Monday. I don't know, historically the years I've been here, Monday's not great of Labor Day because they lay around all day Sunday and then they lay around all day Monday because they don't have classes and then they come over here and didn't have a great day, but today was much better. I think maybe it had something to do with the weather. It's a little cooler today and there were good spirits. We had good practice."

On true freshmen playing against Clemson…
"I don't know about playing time. I think we can disprove that with the guys that have started and played. It may get used, but it doesn't work very effectively because we have as many freshmen All-Americans and as many freshmen players as anybody in the country. So, I don't know how effective it is. But I don't know, I would be interested to see how 13 compared to other years. Obviously, the type of game you play in would dictate that. Meaning, you know, last year we probably had more than 13 play because of the score and the differential. A couple of years ago against Clemson, we probably didn't have many. I know one that did, but I don't know many more than that one. But every year is different, you know. It's not about – it's about their development. I think so many freshmen across the country right now are so caught up in, 'am I going to play? Am I going to play this week? Am I going to travel? What am I doing? Did I make the right decision?' Because all they got to think about is the alternative of where I can go. If you just be where your feet are and get better, you'll come out on top in the end."

On freshmen being ready to play in their first year…
"Oh, they're not. I don't know. They're having to play out of necessity. Having to play out of the fact that we got more transient rosters. I mean, they're not any more ready to play physically, mentally. That disposition – no, not many freshmen are. I'm going to say this, in our league, playing in our league, SEC to SEC, if you're playing with a lot of freshmen, you're in trouble. Because they're not physically developed. That doesn't mean one can't do it. You don't want to be out there playing with a lot of freshmen."

On Raylen Wilson…
"I haven't gone back and watched the film from Saturday since like Saturday night. That game's over and done. I'll speak about Raylen, but I can't tell you the first thing because I'm on and popping to the next one. Raylen worked really hard in camp. He had some struggles with cramping, and he wasn't able to finish some practices. He missed a little time, not really injured, just not being able to finish it up. I thought that hurt his stamina in camp, and then the last week he started playing better and better and better in practices and then that carried over a little bit into the game. I think he's much more confident in the scheme. He's seeing things well. He has some nice plays Saturday. He's a really good athlete."

On recruiting inside linebackers…
"Yeah, it's a premium now. It probably used to go size, speed, toughness, keys. Now it goes speed, intelligence, space player, size, toughness. It just changes the order because it's a priority to have length. It's a priority to be able to match up and play in space and you've got to be able to run, cover down. I mean, you're in conflict every play. You've got this gap, but you've also got to go play the bubble. You've got to see counters, pulls, RPOs. It's absolutely insane how much you're having to defend now compared to 2012."

On Dan Jackson's influence on the program…
"Dan is a product of toughness. The program. I mean, first of all, we're lucky to have Dan Jackson because we fell into him. We didn't do one thing to earn Dan being here. He came to us, and he has made himself into a really good football player, but he did that through hard work. He's proof that if you stick around and you have toughness and you're smart, you're going to play. I mean, we've got millions of examples of kids that have come here, have shown toughness, stuck around and played. Cash [Jones], Prather [Hudson], I mean, all these guys have done it and Georgia has a long history of great walk-ons, and he's one of those."

On the progress of Jordan Hall and Xzavier McLeod…
On why Georgia has not played more in-state programs in recent years…
On the approach to playing smaller programs during the season…

On if he will begin preparing for Kentucky this week…
"I don't have time. I don't. What I do do is look at all the third and one and fourth and one plays in our conference, you know, all the explosive plays in our conference, and the tape was extremely long considering there's 60- and 70-point games out there. It's not looking at anybody specifically. It's just what's going on." 

On Michael Jackson III and Jake Pope…
"Both working hard. Both doing good. Both are part of our culture and our program and doing a really good job of pushing and fighting for playing time."

On analyzing short-yard plays against opponents…       
"It's something I always do, you know. I think it's important to if I got to make the decision whether we're going for it on third and one and fourth and one, I want to know what's going on."

On the progress of Joenel Aguero, Mykel Williams and Warren Brinson…
"Yeah, it's a soft tissue injury. Joenel practiced and did everything today. I wouldn't say he was 100 percent, but he practiced and did everything. Warren did some things, was out there, moved around pretty good. I would say that Joenel's ahead of Warren, but Warren's got a shot. Mykel's out there, you know, watching our guys, doing rehab, being in all the walk-throughs and things, but he's not participating in them."

On the availability of Trevor Etienne…
"We don't talk about it. It's not something that I share and talk about. Respectfully, I respect your question."

On availability reports…
"I understand the availability report, when it was discussed, there was a debate about whether you had to put that on there. I think you're talking about a non-injury reason to not be playing, like a kid's got a death in the family, and he's not going to be at the game because he's got to go to a funeral. Or he's suspended. You have another category there that you have to report that they're not going to play, and there was a debate about that. I think it ended with you do have to put that. There was disclosure to me and to several coaches in the SEC that were concerned about what the speculation will be. Because if you put them in that category, what are you immediately going to assume? That they're what? That they're suspended, and I don't think that's fair. You could be an assumption that it's wrong, but I think you do have to disclose that in there. I'm not 100% accurate on that. We haven't had to worry about it, because we're not to Kentucky week. Like I said, Ron's [Courson] going to handle the entire injury part of that, because I don't want anything to do with the injury part of that. It's not gamesmanship at all for me. It's a kid. It's a kid, his family. It's respecting when recruits come in my room, we respect the way you handle things because a kid takes enough drug through the mud in headlines. Everybody puts it out there, and then nobody knows if it's wrong or it gets dropped or any of that. They never get to do that. I want to defend the kid. And to discuss it again and say it again, then it's another whole headline out there. So, it's not gamesmanship in any way, shape, or form for me. It's just I don't want that for the kid. I don't want to have to go through that again. That's why I don't discuss it."

On the toughness of the freshmen against Clemson…
"I don't know. I didn't see. We had a couple freshmen go in and get knocked off the ball. So, no, I wasn't really proud of that. I don't know that a freshman got to show toughness. There were not enough snaps. I mean, what freshman took the most snaps, KJ Bolden? He didn't have a lot of. He didn't have to show a lot of toughness. He wouldn't up there in the trenches, and he had some nice tackles. He had some nice plays, but he didn't have to show toughness. Nate Frazier had some nice holes and made some nice cuts, but he didn't have to show toughness. So, I respect your question, but I don't know how to answer it because I don't know that our freshmen had to show toughness." 

On the growth of Monroe Freeling…
"He's physically stronger, mentally in a better place, more confident in the system. We wouldn't put him in there and rotate him if we didn't have a lot of confidence in him. So, he's going to continue to get better."

On the two-minute warning now in college football…
"I think it's an extra timeout. You know, like I've said repeatedly, I think it's going to get coaches more criticized.It's another thing that you can screw up, and you got to be really smart. I'm not talking about me now. I'm talking about you got to be really smart to not screw it up based on the analytics and all the things. A lot of people just say, 'I'm not worried about that. I'm just going to play with my gut.' But when you read all the analytics into it, it's pretty deep."

On members of his staff dealing with clock management…        
"We've got three or four people on staff that do that, and I think it's really critical that you got people covering your back."


#5 RAYLEN WILSON | SO. ILB

On the defensive performance against Clemson…
"We learned where we were at as a defensive unit as a whole. We all felt like we played pretty good holding them to three points, a field goal. You can't get too much better than that, unless it's a goose egg."

On his performance against Clemson…
"I know it wasn't my best game, but I feel like it was a good start to the season for the plays that came to me that I made. So, I feel like it was a decent start."

On the development players have at Georgia…
"Me personally, I know it's more about the development for me. Playing earlier is just like a plus. My main reason for coming here was to get developed, and that's what we do every day. So, I feel like it's pretty easy if your head is on right and you want to get developed and you want to get better every day."

On the mentality of the team going into Tennessee Tech…
"It's really the same vibe every week. We're going in there to beat somebody for four quarters. We don't really look at the team we're playing, It's really about us being better than we were last week."


#71 EARNEST GREENE | SO. OL

On the performance of the offensive line against Clemson…
"That's why you come to a school like this -- to play top-tier guys and the best competition in big games like that. I'd say as a unit, we played okay. There is always room for improvement everywhere, but I'd say we could do a little better with communication."

On what changed offensively in the second half…
"I'd say communication, that was just one of the biggest things. When you go out there for the first game of the season, not rusty, but you just have to get the kinks out a little bit. That was the biggest emphasis going into the second half, which is why we are pushing it this week to just be better communicators."

On offensive tackles he watches…
"I watch a lot of the Andrew Thomas film from his 2019 season. I like watching his game, and how he broke it down by being a technician and really exceeding with his technique. I always like to watch Andrew Thomas tape."

Transcript and Photo via UGA Athletics