Kirby Smart addresses Georgia’s continued struggles against Alabama

“That’s not gonna affect me. I’m gonna be happy, and just go-lucky if our team comes back and plays well. That’s what I worry about. But that, it’s just, we’ve got to get better. Next year won’t have anything to do with this year. Thank you guys.”

Kirby Smart gives defiant answer when asked about Georgia record against Alabama

Opening Statement...

“Yeah, I want to thank the fans, like I always do, because that was an incredible atmosphere. I mean, just absolutely one of the best I’ve been a part of in terms of the crowd going into it, atmosphere, and it was awesome. The crowd was phenomenal, and it was awesome for our players. So, they did their part for sure.

A lot of credit to Alabama. They out-executed us tonight for what was clear, especially on the offensive side of the ball. I don’t know that, I’ve coached a lot of years and we’ve never been 13 of 19 on third down, and that tells the tale of the game. We controlled the line of scrimmage and held the run down for them, which was the goal, and then we got win on third down, and we did not play well on third down, and it showed pretty much all night. So, I hate it. They controlled the tempo of the game outside of maybe the third quarter. They controlled the time of possession. On the turnover battle, and really special teams seemed like it was not even relevant. So, a lot of credit to them. I am very proud of our guys and the way they fought. You know, there were some guys really upset at halftime, especially defensively. They wanted to come out and play better, and we got to do a better job as coaches to help those players start better. It’s because we were spotting people too much and not executing at a high level. Sometimes it’s execution. Sometimes it’s, hey, they got a good call, they got a good play call, and they go out and execute against us. But if I didn’t think we could cover them or didn’t think we could stop them, it’d be disappointing. But to do it in the second half is certainly frustrating for us.

On the fourth down play call to Cash Jones...

“Yeah, we were third and four, I think. We had decided previous to that if we gained anything, we were going for it. We were going to probably kick the field goal if we didn’t get anything. So, there’s a thing called sequencing where you sequence plays to try to set up and know that you’re going to go for it. So, we felt we were going to go for it if we got anything, and we did. We got it down to fourth and one, and that play has been really successful for us. I think we hit Tennessee on it three times for a conversion. We’d run it earlier in the night and run it for a conversion. We missed a block that we got to make and they ran through and made a great play to stop it. But I’d do that 10 out of 10 times in terms of going for it. The decision is whether you go for it with tempo or not. We felt like tempo had been really good for us throughout the year.

On Chauncey Bowens..

“Man, he ran hard. He ran physical. He got yards after contact. He protected the ball. He was tough. He was getting better with his pass pro, catching the ball. I was proud of the way he ran, but it’s not all him. There was a lot of good run scheme in that game that helped us run the ball.”

On the disconnect between the run offense and pass offense...

You’re asking what’s the issue with our passing and rushing issue tonight. Yeah, I thought the rushing game was there. What did we rush for? 227. 227? I could see the passing game. There were some times there that we missed some things and maybe he hit some things. I thought two freshmen lined up here. I thought they protected pretty well. For Gunner, there was a couple times pocket broke down, and he tried to protect the ball, but I don’t know that it was a rushing issue. I think it was probably a third-down conversion. Not great. Sure not as good as them, and then being able to throw the ball and catch the ball with more consistency. We’ve got to be able to do that. We know what our identity is. We know who we are. The problem is to do that, you’ve got to play better defensively. And to be a hard-nosed, run team, physical, grind it out and be able to hit some shots. I mean, we hit some shots. We didn’t make all our shots, but it’s hard to play from behind all the time."

On slow starts…

“I don’t have an explanation for it. I mean, not starting well on defense. I can’t say that, it’s not really both sides of the ball. The kicking game, we made some plays. Offensively, we made plays. Defensively, two games we did, the two better opponents we played, we did not execute well in the first. It’s really frustrating because we show we can in the second half. We showed we can in the second and third quarter with Tennessee. And with this game, it was more second half.”

On having Cash Jones in on the fourth down stop...

“It was a different play now. We’re talking about third and four. So we’re not talking about the other. We’re talking about tempo plays, who’s in the game. So the decision is, do you stop, slow down, think about it, let them set their cleats in the ground, let them get everything they want, or do you try to hit it quickly? We have a philosophy, we believe in it. I mean, we do it every Tuesday and every Wednesday in our practices. We blow a siren, siren blows, we go as fast as we can, it’s third and one. The defense has to do it, which we had a big stop on them, and the offense has to do it. That’s a play that I believe in, and we believe it should work. It just so happens he was in on the third and four. He was in on the fourth down too.”

On what the defense figured out to shut Alabama out in the second half...

“I don’t know that we figured anything out. There was no adjustment, it was, we covered them better. If you’re going to play Alabama, this quarterback is accurate, he’s on time, he knows his protections. Watch the third downs and see. We got free runners on the quarterback, he gets the ball out. We get a free runner on the quarterback, he breaks a tackle, spins out, goes and runs around and throws a completion. You play zone, he hits you in a soft spot, a cover two hole throw, I mean, early in the game. He made some really, really good plays, and we were pitching and throwing to him, but at the end of the day, to play well in this league on third down, you’ve got to be able to put hands on people and cover them. We did that in the second half. We didn’t really do that in the first, and it wasn’t that we didn’t try. They just beat us.”

On how to improve the execution...

“Practice, you have to practice it, you have to execute it, you have to do it with confidence. You have to have guys do it more times the right way. You’ve got to keep doing it. I thought we had some guys grow up out there. I thought Demello grew up out there, Ellis grew up out there. They got to make some plays and then really compete. We’ve just got to execute it at a higher level defensively and stop some people. Now, you make it about the rush, you’re getting rush, but if the ball’s coming out as quick as it was, we had a free guy running on one third down, literally free, and the ball came out before he got there. That’s a good execution by them and poor by us.”

On what lessons he takes from this game...

“Lesson One take is we’ve got a good football team that’s got to get better. I love the team in that locker room. I’ve repeatedly said, they enjoy practice, they work their butt off. They’re not perfect. I mean, I’m telling you guys, this is the new era of what we’re going to see. There’s games like that all over college football, and they’re going to continue to be, and you know what? They’ve got to go play a good team next week, we’ve got to go play a good team next week. It’s just what it is. I realize it’s a big game, I realize everybody wants to make a big deal about it, but for us, it happened to us last year, right? We’ve got to go worry about the next one, because you can’t let this game beat you twice.”

On how last year’s loss to Alabama helped this team...

“Yeah I don’t know, it’s very different teams. We were older, more experienced, and this one’s, We’re playing some young diamonds, some young skill guys on defense, and it’s got to continue to grow and get better. I mean, the key is with the locker room, do you take the team in the right direction, the leadership, and say, okay, we know what we’ve got to work on, let’s get better at it. We’ve got some wideouts that can make some plays, and we’ve got to be able to allow them to make those plays. Because with the run game we have, I love where we’re going as a running team, but we’ve got to be able to make some shots, and make some plays down the field passing, and you need to complement that.”

On if there’s a reason why Daniel Harris didn’t play...

“Nothing really. I mean, he’s dealing with a little bit of a groin issue, I think. But played the guys that we thought would give us the best opportunity to win.”

On where he saw the freshmen offensive linemen improve...

“I can’t answer that question honestly. I mean, Donnie played really hard, Juan played hard. I don’t even know how many snaps they ended up playing, you know what I mean? Bo started in the game and got to play. You know, he helped there on the right side and competed his tail off.

“I’d have to watch the tape to speak to how they played.”

“Yeah, just that I love him and want him to get better. It’s not his first one. There’s nothing, he’s doing technically wrong. He’s just got to hang onto the ball. That comes with confidence. It comes with confidence in how you practice. You’ve got to practice it, and you got to have confidence and show it. It was more about Chauncey being the hot back more than it was anything Nate was doing.”

On talking to the team about all the ranked opponents they’ve played over the years...

“I don’t understand what you’re asking me. Well, we talked about history and what history is the greatest indicator of. The best thing you learn from history is how to win big matchups, right? And they should feel comfortable because of our history because we’ve played 55 [ranked teams] or something like that since being here.

“The things that I talked about were what wins big games. OK, you’re not gonna play perfect. Accept that, right? The next thing is win your box. See a little, see a lot. And I wanted the focus to be on those three things, not on anything else because us winning 33 straight games here or my record against Alabama has nothing to do with this game. Everybody else, that’s everybody’s story, but what our guys need to worry about was those other three things because those control how you win the game. Those examples are things that they instill confidence in you. Like, okay, this is how you win this game. You do this, this, and this, which we didn’t necessarily do.”

“Well, we’ve got to affect the quarterback. We gotta do a better job of affecting the quarterback. I mean, we’ve got more packages than the man in the moon to affect the quarterback, but we’ve gotta do it. We gotta do it, and we gotta go out there and execute and be able to do it.

“You know, teams do get the ball out. They have a stat for how fast the ball comes out, and sometimes the answer to that is don’t rush as many, you know? Then you’ll sit there and say, ‘Well, they’re not getting any pressure.’ Well, you’ve got more people covering, and that’s one of those things that, you can get over-aggressive. They hit us on two or three screens tonight that were really good play calls for them, and you’ve gotta be smart when you’re looking for pressure when they’re running screens.”

On going up to the guys after the loss...

“That’s what you do. I mean, if you’re the leader of the organization and you’re going to lead men, then you’ve gotta be at the front. You can’t hide. That’s always who I’ve been in terms of if things aren’t going well, I want the responsibility for that. If things are going well, I want our players to get the acknowledgment and what they do well. If things aren’t going well and we’re not playing well or we’re not doing this or we’re not doing that, that’s my responsibility and it starts with me and I want them to know that. And they’ll take ownership and looking in the mirror, and have an AAR, after-action review and go get better. Like, that’s all we can do? We can go get better, and that’s what we need to do.”

“I mean, what’s everybody else’s record against them? You’ve got it? I don’t [have it] either. I don’t lose sleep over that because those games have been, like, championship-caliber games, right? And even when we play in the regular season, they’ve been — I just saw 25 scouts out there. They’re all there to watch these teams play.

“That’s not gonna affect me. I’m gonna be happy, and just go-lucky if our team comes back and plays well. That’s what I worry about. But that, it’s just, we’ve got to get better. Next year won’t have anything to do with this year. Thank you guys.”