Kirby Smart ‘frustrated, disappointed’ in latest Georgia driving arrests

“Yeah, frustration, disappointment,” Smart said. “Look, there’s not two better kids on our team, guys. Like, Chris Cole is the highest character kid we’ve probably had in our program in a long time. I mean, he does it right academically, on and off the field. I can’t speak high enough for his character and Darren’s. And Chris is a year older than him, but they’re both great kids. So they made a mistake, and they’re gonna pay a price for the mistake. Certainly disappointed in them.”

Smart did not specify what the punishments for Cole and Ikinnagbon would be.

The arrests were not all Smart talked about on Tuesday, as he spoke for nearly 18 minutes at the start of spring practice.

The Bulldogs held the first of their 15 spring practices on Tuesday. Georgia’s final spring practice is set for April 18, which is when G-Day is scheduled.

Below are Smart’s full remarks from his opening press conference.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart talks recent driving arrests

Opening statement...

“All right, a lot to start on, but I want to start out by giving a shout out to our women’s track and field [team]. They won an indoor national championship. That would be two in a row for our women. Coach Carol does an incredible job. I enjoy working with her. I know she’s excited about the new track facility, but she’s been awesome. That’s two in a row, including the outdoor title, so really impressed with what she’s been able to do since being here. Pulling for the men to do the same in the outdoor.

“Also, shout out to our men’s and women’s basketball programs. I think it’s the first time since 2011 both made the NCAA Tournament. So I’m excited to watch both of them compete in the big dance. So excited for both those.

“Couple injury updates. I know you guys are probably asking about these guys. I never know what’s really out there, what’s not. We’ve got a couple guys that are obviously out for spring dealing with injuries.

“Drew Bobo will be out for spring, should get back to work sometime over the summer. Jordan Hall from his injury during the season, he’s out for spring. He’s running and doing some things, but he won’t be able to participate.

“Gabe, as we know, had the turf toe surgery at the end of the season. He’s out for the duration of the spring. Kyron’s still dealing with his ankle injury. Carter Luckie, who we got from high school, he had knee surgery in high school. He’ll be out for spring.

“And then Zayden Walker had a labral repair at the end of the season, and those typically are out for spring, might be able to do some stuff at the end of spring. We’ve got several others that have injuries that are coming back from, maybe in or out a couple days of practice. But those are the guys that are out for the majority of practices.

“Looking forward to this spring. We’ve got essentially about 40 to 50 new players once you count the signees, the portals, and some of the other guys. As we always say, the roster turns over quickly. I’m excited about spring. We’ve got a lot of areas to work on. I’ve seen a lot of things said or written about guys coming back, number of starters. I’d probably look at it that we have the least number of starters coming back we’ve ever had in terms of competition for positions. I think a lot of people look at it [like], ‘Well, this guy started three games. This guy started four games.’ But when I look out there on the field, or I look at the Pro Day tomorrow, there’s some good players leaving the program with a lot of experience. As these fifth- and sixth-year guys leave, our team always seems younger because we do not have many fifth-year players ever again in the program. It’s just more and more rare to have a guy [that is a] fifth-year. So a lot of new faces.

“Our goals for the spring are really simple: We want to grow the bottom of the roster to the top, and we want to get our top of the roster better. You can only do that through hard work and preparation. These guys have had a good six-, seven-week off season program. We put more into the off-season program. We went six days at 6 a.m. and tried to create a little more competition and culture among the guys, and they bought into that piece.

“So we’re excited to get started in spring ball today. We’ll try to follow the same model we always have: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday unless weather gets us somewhere and we can adjust. With that, I’ll open it up to you guys.”

Credit: Cody Chaffins

Credit: Cody Chaffins

On new assistants Phil Rauscher and Larry Knight...

“Yeah, Phil’s been with us, as you guys know. He brought a lot of identity to our offense last year, a lot of energy to that room specifically. I’m excited about what Phil brought last year. He’ll continue to do that. You know, he and Stacy are both working with the offensive line. Warren and Edmond both help out with that.

“I think the offensive line is probably the position that has the most need for coaches and eyes, because it’s a developmental position. Guys do not come in here ready to play, so we need a lot of guys to help with those units to get them better. And I know Phil will do that. He’s got great experience in the National Football League. He’s got a lot of good ideas for us offensively, especially in the run game. And he’s been a joy to work with, so I’m excited about that.

“Larry’s come in and done a great job really quickly. He interviewed. We thought he did an outstanding job in the interview. Very detailed in terms of things he believes in. He’s worked with some really good coaches, and he’s getting to know the guys still. He’s been in workouts with them for a couple weeks now, and getting on the grass should be fun for him to get to coach those guys and get to know them. He’s been around defenses similar to ours, and he’s very intelligent. He’ll pick up on the defense quickly and do a great job helping our unit perform.”

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

On wide receivers...

“Yeah, it’s young. We basically got one kid in from the portal, and he’s bringing a little more experience. Where years past, there might have been more guys coming in from the portal, or if you still count London that way, I think he’s now been here two years within our program. So some good competition out there. A lot of those guys haven’t proven they can do it. They’re gonna get an opportunity to do that in the spring. It’s one of those positions that you’re gonna get 10-15 balls a day that are competitive, and how many of those can you make?

“There are these 1-on-1 situations where they’re downfield, they’re contested, you got somebody hanging all over you. There’s no free access in the SEC. So you earn what you get, and you have to get used to making plays with people all over you. And that’s what we’re gonna need in the biggest matchups. So we’re gonna try to simulate that in practice, and see where these guys are, see what kind of growth a lot of the young ones have made, and see where they can take us.”

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

On Gunner Stockton having a year under his belt and what’s next...

“Well, we gotta be more explosive offensively, and that does not fall solely on Gunner, but that does fall partially with him. We have to be able to be more explosive in the run game, which some of that is blocking downfield or making people miss. And same thing in the pass game. We ran the ball better last year. So if we run the ball better, our play-actions should be more explosive and more effective than they were. So that comes from decision-making for him, that comes from protection from the front, and making plays vertical down the field for the other guys. But his steps are to grow, to get better.

“All the studies we did, a lot of our explosives came on unscheduled downs, unscheduled plays, plays that maybe broke down or something happened, and he was able to scramble and make a play down the field. We’ve gotta simulate those more for him and allow him to grow to make those plays. But I think the number one step for him is take what the defense gives you, use the skill set of the players around you, and be more explosive.”

On moves made in the transfer portal and retention...

“I think I was very pleased with it. We’re kind of past that point now. Looking back, it’s one of those things that we targeted some guys that went in, and we hit on them, and we really worked hard on retention with our team to retain the guys we have. We think that’s what provides a winning culture, what provides a locker-room culture, is retaining guys and guys having relationships. At the end of the day, you play for the guys you play with. Most teams that are a bunch of independent contractors don’t play as well together. And we sold ourselves on keeping the guys we got and building on that culture. And we’ll see how much better we can make them.”

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

On transfers Isiah Canion and Dante Dowdell...

Isiah, we knew about him in high school. We knew a lot about him in terms of, we remember Coach Bobo going down and watching him practice. He made a couple really acrobatic catches. He was in the back of our mind all along. Of course, we got to play against him last year. He made some plays against us last year in that game. The more familiar you are with someone through recruiting, the more success we’ve had. He’s a good football player. He’s an even better person. He played with several guys on our team. There’s a relationship there. We know him, so we’re excited about him.”

“Dante, we did play against as well. For us, it became about physicality, having a back that was big, physical, played in our league, knows what it takes to win at this level. He’s done nothing but come in and bust his butt and work hard.”

On what position group he is happy with in terms of depth...

“Yeah, we’ve talked about this many times in here. Nobody would be surprised by this answer: None.”

On the transition to tough practices at Georgia for transfer and freshman defensive backs…

“Yeah, I don’t know if that position is specific to DB or an entire team. Practices are hard here for everybody, so they’re meant to be tough. They’re meant to be hard because the game is supposed to be easier. In terms of the defensive back room, we’ve got some additions. We’ve got some subtractions. We’re trying to figure out where we are and grow those guys. It’s a transient position. There and receiver, you typically have guys go in the portal. You typically get guys out of the portal. It usually has something to do with the mindset of their belief and confidence that they should be playing.

“A lot of those guys that came in think they should have been playing more where they were, and they’re going to have an opportunity to prove that here. Some of the guys that left here probably thought they should have been playing more, and maybe we didn’t. Then the guys we signed certainly all believe they can play here, and time is going to tell whether they’re ready to or not. Our job is to get the best five or six defensive backs out there we can put out there. I’m excited with the group we have. I don’t know that I’m ready to say where they are because we haven’t seen them do anything.”

On the most impactful change in terms of recent NCAA legislation...

“I’m not sure I understand the question. Are we asking about the changes, or are we asking about this offseason? I feel like these changes have been here forever now, but what are you exactly asking about?”

Reporter clarifies most impactful in terms of a time commitment...

“I would say the biggest investment of time is the portal and retaining your players. I guess that all falls in roster management, right? I don’t know how many seasons that’s been going on now, three, four. But that’s where most of the time goes because your time is dedicated towards retaining your roster or evaluating other rosters. The more you have to evaluate, the more time you have to dedicate to it, and then see who goes in and see who you’re targeting. In terms of offseason, this year is different. We haven’t had to, since the portal closed and our roster became our roster and school started, I haven’t had to invest a lot of time in that because there is no second portal to retain your roster or go see about somebody else’s. We’ve been able to focus a lot more on our team.”

On the G-Day format...

“No, G-Day, will stay similar, assuming (health.) It’s a long way off, but assuming that we’re healthy and we have the number of guys we need to be able to play, G-Day would be a very similar format.”

On key themes for this season...

“As far as overarching themes, I mean, we have to run the ball and stop the run. That’s not ever gonna change. And I think that was driven home really hard last year. That’s not gonna change. I can’t change that because when you get down to the end of the game to win the game, you gotta run the ball or you gotta stop the run to get the ball back. It’s just what football is. So that’s not going anywhere.

“We do have to be more explosive, and we do have to be more disruptive on defense. So those two things are gonna always be there. They don’t go away. So I don’t know that I can say it’s exactly this. Much more clear on that last year in terms, because we didn’t achieve those things. We did achieve much better this past year at running it and stopping the run. But we weren’t effective enough in some other areas, being explosive, third downs, and then creating havoc in sacks and disruption on defense has to be better.”

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

On Amaris Williams and the outside linebackers...

“Yeah, we’ll find out what he can add. He’s certainly a quick and twitchy guy that we recruited out of high school. We know a lot about. He’s gotta be able to play within our system, understand our system. But add value, he can start by taking the reps he’s gonna get this spring. We’ve got three young guys that didn’t get a lot of playing time last year. I wanna see where they are. Q (Quintavius Johnson) is continuing to grow. So with Gabe (Harris) out, it’s gonna open a door for a lot of guys to get reps and grow and play. And I kinda wanna see what they can do. Kamari (Brooks)’s here, he’s a mid-year freshman. So we wanna see the growth in that room and see those guys continue to get better.”

On the arrests of Chris Cole, Darren Ikinnagbon...

“Yeah, frustration, disappointment. Look, there’s not two better kids on our team, guys. Like, Chris Cole is the highest character kid we’ve probably had in our program in a long time. I mean, he does it right academically, on and off the field. I can’t speak high enough for his character and Darren’s. And Chris is a year older than him, but they’re both great kids. So they made a mistake, and they’re gonna pay a price for the mistake. Certainly disappointed in them.”

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

On Raylen Wilson...

“Well, he was one of the leaders of the defense last year. I think CJ, his demeanor and his makeup sometimes overshadowed Raylen. But by all means, there was times last year CJ couldn’t practice, CJ couldn’t play, that Raylen took over. He did a lot of great things along with CJ. And I think he’s gonna shoulder more of that load along with Justin and Chris. And that’s where the leadership in your defense comes from, that middle group that communicates to the D line and communicates to the back end. So I have no concerns about Raylen’s leadership ability. I want him to continue to grow as a player and get better and have a great season this year.”

On possibly wearing white uniforms...

“Yeah, I hear that stuff all the time, the chatter online about how much I supposedly hate all that stuff. That’s never been my stance, just because somebody doesn’t do it, doesn’t mean you don’t like it. For me, it’s been, I focus on the guys like playing the game and worry more about winning the game than what you wear, and that’s been a staple for me. But our guys have brought it up several times, and I know a lot of people brought it up. I’m so sick of hearing about it, but to be honest with you, if they can triple our subscribers to Glory Glory, I’ll wear the s---. So if they wanna triple the subs and get it done by G-Day, I’ll be all about it. Y’all get them to do it, and I’m in.”