Kirby Smart’s press conference touched on many topics on Monday, but questions about his comments on Saturday’s crowd were asked throughout.
The follow-up questions were brought about by comments Smart made after Georgia’s 31-13 win over Auburn. After the game, Smart brought up a lack of crowd noise in an interview with Fox 5 sideline reporter, and former UGA QB, DJ Shockley. “If anything, to be honest, I’m probably disappointed in our fans for the first time,” said Smart. “I’ll just be honest about it. I think we’ve got to do a better job as fans,” he said. “I know I’ve got to do a better job as a coach, but we need these fans to support us and these players need them behind them.”
The Georgia crowd never reached a fever pitch in the win over the Tigers, and many seats in the North side of the stadium’s upper deck were left empty after halftime. Those seats were in direct sunlight all afternoon. Smart did acknowledge the hot weather, but also pointed out that UGA’s players were in full pads in the same weather.
Fan reactions on social media were mixed in the aftermath of Smart’s comments on Sunday. Many Georgia fans agreed with Smart’s assessment. Others said that Smart’s Bulldogs needed to play better and start faster to get the crowd into the game. Some felt that UGA needs to do more to improve the gameday atmosphere and create an exciting environment. Many argued over whether UGA needs to play different music to hype up the crowd in the minutes leading up to kickoff.
A fan posting under the username @TGentry97 on Twitter pointed out that many UGA fans are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. “Somebody please tell @KirbySmartUGA a lot of us were there with no power, water, showers…..simply exhausted from what we are going through. Still love ya coach…..but sometimes it’s bigger than football.”
When Smart was first asked about the comments he said that he said, “I think I said what I said and stand on what I said and feel that it could have been better. My job is to coach the football team, and I'm going to do the best I can in my power… We’ve had coaches tell us that come here and play that it was the best environment they played in the entire year. But I didn't think that was Saturday, and I don't think I'm the only one that feels that way. My concern is with Mississippi State, not the other. I trust the people that are in charge of it to help it. I trust our fans.”
Smart was later asked if there is anything the team can do to help provide a better fan experience. “Well, if you take pride in your performance, which I hope our team takes pride in their performance each week, then you worry about what you can control, and our players have an opponent to play, and we’re trying to make it hard on the opponent to play in our environment. You know, just a simple asked question- ‘Did we make it hard on them to play in that game?’ I don’t know.” Smart then went onto say that the pride in performance extends to the fans, the players, UGA AD Josh Brooks, and other UGA Athletics employees. “It’s a collective effort,” said Smart.
Smart was later asked if there was a particular part of the game where the team didn’t get the support it needed.
“You're wanting to make this us against them. That's not really what this is about. We're a team. We're a unit. I think it's okay to say how you feel and try to pull the family together and pull in the right direction. You guys want to make it about, well, Kirby said this. We're a team. Let's do this together. Let's help each other, not make it about what he said, and they said, I'm not into that. We need to all be together. When I got hired here It was all about pulling in the same direction, creating an atmosphere that's hard to play in. You win these games at home, and maybe you take it for granted if you win so many games at home. But I know this, it's hard. These teams are going on the road all across the SEC. You make it hard on them by what you do and what you create. So, it's not about a specific point in time. It's about us all pulling in the same direction.”
Debate on Smart’s topics could continue among different factions of the Georgia fanbase in the coming days, but his answers on the topic of crowd participation were illuminating. Smart made it clear that he views Georgia’s fans as a part of the program. They have a role to play in UGA winning games and capturing championships, just like the players, coaches and equipment managers.
It is worth remembering that Smart spent the summer prior to Georgia’s 2021 national championship season telling his players a simple truth- “You’re either elite or you’re not.”
Since Georgia captured that title, he has been fighting the complacency and entitlement that can creep into a program once it reaches the top of the sport. This offseason, the phrase “assume nothing” became one of Georgia’s mantras.
The Georgia-Auburn series was hotly contested for decades, but the Bulldogs have dominated in recent years. Saturday’s win marked UGA’s eight in a row over the Tigers.
Did UGA fans assume the Bulldogs would win? Have they started taking wins against a historic rival for granted?
If Smart thought his team was underestimating an opponent he would get their attention. Smart has made it clear he views the Sanford Stadium crowd as part of the team. Now he’s got their attention too.
Here’s everything else Smart had to say on Monday
On kicking kickoffs short
“I always prefer to kick it out of the back of the end zone. Our kicker's done a good job of getting great hang time, and we've got to continue to improve on that. But he's doing the best job he can.”
On Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren
“I'll tell you, he got thrown into the fire quick. I mean, in the middle of an SEC game to have to go in and play and then turn around the next week and go to Texas. That was two really tough games. He's a tremendous athlete. I think they've allowed him to do some things that he's really good at, and they're mixing the other quarterback in with quarterback run. So, they both are capable runners, but they bring Chris (Parson) in and do more stuff with him. I’ve got a lot of respect for Jeff Lebby and his offense and what he's done and where he's been. The people he's worked for in his career are really good offensive coaches. They're hard to defend because they space you out, they spread you out, they tempo you, they count your numbers in the box. They're almost always going to be right in terms of what they run. You've got to beat the man in front of you to beat them. You've got to outwork the guy to win two gaps a lot of times because it's hard the way they play. They've got really good backs.”
On younger players performing well
“I don't know last week that we got to see any of those guys in terms of play time. If you're referencing play time or practice time, I don't know. Chris Cole played a little more significant role because of Smael’s (Mondon Jr.) injury. Chris Cole has had to play a little bit more. Quintin (Quintavius Johnson) has taken a bigger role in special teams. KJ started on a couple units that really helped us. Justin Williams got to play on some special teams. I can mention all those kids in practice because in practice they're getting better. You know, we take a considerable amount of our reps and share them with young players because we want to see them develop. We told them when we brought them here, we would develop them and get them better. Sometimes kids only think that means in the game, but you get to go against our 1s if you're a 2 or a 3 every day. So, you play an SEC-quality opponent every day you go out there, and we're hoping those guys continue to get better.”
On what “cutting it loose” means
“Play with no anxiety. Play with no fear of what might happen. Execute at a high level. You know, not be – don't be entrapped by the weather. Play above all that. Cut it loose. And you earn the right to do that by what you do during the week. I thought we earned the right to do that in the game. And at times we did. At times we didn't.”
On Christen Miller and Jared Wilson
“I hope they will be able to. We'll find out today.”
On the team helping create a better environment
“Well, if you take pride in your performance, which I hope our team takes pride in their performance, each week then you worry about what you can control. And our players have an opponent to play. And we're trying to make it harder on the opponent to play in our environment. It’s a simple-asked question. Did we make it hard on them to play in that game? I don't know. But the pride in performance that our fans take, that our programming takes, that Josh Brooks and his staff take, and our players take. It's a collective effort.”
On Smael Mondon’s injury
“We hope to get him back soon.”
On Trevor Etienne’s impact and performance
“Yeah, I thought he performed really well Saturday. He made some things happen with nothing there and then had a couple that I thought maybe should have gotten more on that he's one step away from breaking one open and using his quickness. He's got really good open field skills to make people miss, and I think that's something that we've needed around here is a guy that can go make people miss in open spaces. He's a really good receiver out of the backfield. More important than all that, he's one of our best leaders. He holds people accountable. He's a good kid, and I appreciate the way he's come into our team and bought into the culture that we have here.”
On the adjustments needed when a team breaks tendencies
“Well, we rush three and drop eight on our defense, so it's not something that when we go against each other, we don't see. We see everything from our defense every week. We don't go out there and say, okay, ‘We're only working on this for Auburn.’ They might play man, but then they might play zone. They also rushed three and played man with two droppers, which is eight guys dropping, but it's man free. So, they did a little bit of both, and we continue to see that. Kentucky did that. They did that, and then people max splits. If you're a good defense, you're not going to do the same thing over and over, right? So, you pitch to people, especially somebody like Carson. You want to give him different looks. Our answers are within the route tree. I mean, we call a play. This portion of the play is for this coverage. This portion of the play is for this coverage, and Carson usually knows where to go with that.”
On the run game
“I've never thought of it that way. I look at it as win the game and do what you have to do in practice. If I really felt strongly that we needed to improve the passing game or improve the running game, or I don't really know what you're getting at with which part we're trying to improve in the game, I would do it in practice periods. I would say, hey, guys, we got to do more of this because this is our struggles. We've got to load the box and run against it. Well, I don't want to do that. We've got to throw the ball when we can throw the ball. I'm very pleased with where we are in terms of it. We've played some really good teams, especially when you look at some of the defensive statistics out there with Kentucky and Clemson, what they've done. So, the most important thing is to get better, and I think we do that in practice better than going into a game where we don't know what's going to happen in a game. Right? We don't know. I'm not into experimentation in games.”
On freshman LB Chris Cole
“Number one, he has tremendous pride in performance, and we rank that as one of the number one qualities. A lot of people rank size, speed, height, weight and stars. He is self-aware and has great pride in performance, and that is a number one trait of a winner, of a good athlete, of guys that play as freshmen. And he has size, he can run, but he's really intelligent and he's very conscientious. We've been very impressed with him, the way he's kind of grown up and gotten better, and he's still not there. I mean, it's like Raylen (Wilson) and CJ (Allen) last year. They weren't ready for what they had to go do, but they had to go play, and we need him to keep getting better and we need Justin to come along, too.”
On winning on the road in the SEC
“The margins are tighter. I don't think it has anything to do with the road or home. It's just the margins are tighter. Everybody's got the ability to go get people's backups and just look at the scores in the league. It's tighter than it's ever been. It's a really competitive league. We made it better by bringing more people in, and it really boils down to who can play the long game, and it's not about – I mean, it is hard to play on the road, yes, but it's not about that as much as it is these teams are closer than most people realize.”
On the secondary’s performance against Auburn
“I thought we mixed it up well, played some back-shoulder balls, got some balls down, had some 50-50 balls We got PIs on. We didn't come out of breaks in some spots very well, but we changed up coverages. We pitched to them. We were able to pressure them with our front. If you're going to make people one-dimensional, then they're going to throw it on you, and we didn't exactly make them one-dimensional from running it, so they had either-or downs a lot of times, and we got in some second and longs and lost some of them. But I was pleased with the secondary because I think that Auburn's a good team. I think Payton Thorne is a good quarterback. I think they have good skill players.”
On Raylen Wilson’s development
“He's really intelligent. He works really hard. He's got great athleticism. I think he needs experience, and he's gaining that rapidly. He's still just a sophomore, and it seems like he's had to play more than your typical sophomore. But he's a very intelligent kid and takes a lot of pride.”
On the running backs
“I like the depth in the room. I like what Cash (Jones) brings. I like what Nate (Frazier) brings. I like what Branson (Robinson) brings and what Trevor (Etienne) brings. We have four guys that I really feel good about. The young kid, Chauncey (Bowens), is doing some really good things. I mean, he's improved immensely since his arrival here and he's got great toughness, great character, and he's going to be a really good player. So, Dwight Phillips has gotten better over on the scout team. A kid that had never played in an environment like this one, he's getting better. So, I like that group as a whole and think it's a really good group.”
On Cole Speer and teaching offensive players to tackle on kick coverage
“From a litigation and insurance spot, we teach them all how to tackle because if a play happens and you've got to go tackle somebody, we want them to understand their heads up, how they go about it. He played some growing up. He's always been physical, and he's fast, and he's another guy that takes tremendous pride in his performance. He wants to do it right. It's important to him. Georgia is important to him, and I love the way he's playing right now. He plays with great toughness and without concern for his body, he plays reckless. I like the way he gets after it on special teams. So, he's been a great asset for us.”
Cover photo: UGAA
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