UGA Football: Head Coach Kirby Smart’s Media Conference Call

Q. Coach Smart, anything you want to say to begin?
KIRBY SMART: The number one thing is the well being of our players, their families, our student-athletes, our students here at the University of Georgia. We’re trying every way we can to make sure they have everything they need because so many of them have parents in harm’s way, they’re in harm’s way taking care of themselves if they don’t respect what they’re being told.

And then a lot of them, they’re concerned about their being in shape, their ability to grow and get better, and that’s not the primary concern right now. The primary concern right now is the health and well-being of all our communities, and that’s really important that we drive that home, that this conference is really — although it should give you information, but it’s also to make sure that you understand that our priorities are in order and we think it’s really important that our players stay safe and healthy, and I think Ron [Courson] and his staff have done a great job of sending out information in regards to that. With that, I’ll turn it over to you so we can do some questions.

Q. How is your organization functioning over the last few weeks? Who’s in the office, who’s mostly at home, and does the coaching staff have daily Zoom meetings?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, so that’s really like a three-part deal. The way we’re functioning the past few weeks, first of all, it starts back to spring break because we were on spring break, and that’s probably been one of the toughest transitions for us as you can imagine. A lot of schools were in session when this happened, and they were able to have a team meeting, they were able to have a little exit strategy. We were all over the place, and so everybody was out and we couldn’t really feel comfortable about bringing everybody back in together because we couldn’t come back to Athens.

So it’s been hard because we’ve had to call each player individually. We have ways to connect with them obviously through Zoom and FaceTime, but not having that exit meeting to say, okay, this is where we’re headed from this point, that was probably the toughest thing. So the weeks have been different.

Who’s working in the office, it’s very limited. We’re not allowed to have but a few people and they have to be essential people, and essential is defined by the USG, and we check in and out the people that are able to come in, but we’re not asking guys to come in the office to be honest with you. The only time you would come by is if it’s something you have to do. Most of us are able to work from home.

And does the coaching staff have daily Zoom meetings, yeah, we’re on a Zoom meeting right now with offense, defense, special teams, all separate, so we have daily Zoom meetings as a staff, and those are used to do exactly what we would be doing if we were in spring ball. So they’re more information meetings, install meetings, going through those, but those are staff meetings only.

Q. What’s it been like spending so much time at home, and how have you talked to your own kids about the changes we’re all making in our lives?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, it’s been a unique experience for me. That much — it’s not spent just at home for me as much as it is outside exercising, going on walks, going on jogs. Probably been better for my real health than anything because I’ve had more time to do things like go out and go exercise. I don’t like sitting at home at all, but certainly that’s what we’re all having to do, and that’s the toughest adjustment for people that want to go out and do things is what can I still do and social distance.

Yeah, we talk to our kids. We can’t help but talk to them about it because they’re seeing it on TV. They’re asking questions. I’ve got 12-year-old twins that are just smart enough to know something is going on, and they want to ask a ton of questions about it and educate themselves. You know, we’re trying to get used to a new normal, at least a new normal for right now, and it’s an adjustment for everybody out there and certainly an adjustment for my family as it is for many others.

We’re all trying to find ways to kind of get our social interaction, whether it’s through Zoom, FaceTime or just conversation, and that’s about the best you can do because you’re not getting to spend much time with friends and family, that’s for sure.

Q. What’s been your interaction this pre-draft process with the NFL teams since they did not have a chance to come to Athens for pro day, and how do you think that might affect the players who hope to be drafted?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I don’t know the answer to that. That’s a little speculative. I don’t know how it’ll affect them. I know that these pro teams do the greatest studies that you’ve ever seen to get information, so they’re not going to leave a stone unturned. It’s not like the Minnesota Vikings are not going to look into a guy that wasn’t at the combine because he wasn’t at the combine. They’re not just going to say, we’re just going to go with combine guys this year. They’re not going to do that. I mean, they call. I’ve had at least five NFL head coaches reach out. I get a text almost every day about our kids and communicate about them, so they’re having to go back to non-traditional forms of communication for them to get accurate information because they’re used to coming to your building, getting it in your building, getting it through a pro day.

I do really hate the fact that our non-combine guys didn’t get a pro day. It just fell where it fell. We had our same pro day, same scheduled date we’ve always had and just missed out on it before the pandemic really hit and before we started social distancing and doing things, and the guys like — I kind of want to name them, Tae, Tyler, Tyler, some of the guys, Eli, guys that didn’t get to go to the combine that we think are really good football players, I worry for them for their sake that they never get that — you feel good when you go out there and you go perform. Whether you perform good or bad, you feel good that you got your opportunity. That’s unfortunate for our guys where they’ve got to rely on their tape.

Most NFL teams will tell you, we’re going to go off the tape anyway. They’re not going to draft a kid just off what he does in his shorts in a combine. They’re going to do it off tape. And those guys got a lot of good football tape, and we certainly are doing everything we can in our organization to help those guys through information and communication because the draft not having moved is one of the few things that NFL-wise they’re working really hard on.

Q. How and how often are you and your staff speaking with the players to check in on their health and activity while the team is separated?
KIRBY SMART: We have to be careful on that one. We can have unlimited contact with our players, calling them, checking on them, their health, their well-being, and that’s certainly something that with our staff — we’ve assigned the strength staff one week; hey, call in, check in with every guy, make sure everything is going good with him, then position coaches, then the support staff. Everybody checks in on our players, really on a daily basis.

But as far as the activity their they’re doing, we can’t mandate any activity for our players. We’re not allowed to mandate that they get this done or that done. Anything they’re doing in that regard has to be done on their own and we have a clear separation of that and clear guidelines on that, but we certainly talk to them. I know I reach out to the guys and try to reach out to everybody on the team one way or another, and it’s getting easier to do now, now that we’ve gotten into some of these Zoom sessions, I can pop on and see a face and talk to a guy face-to-face in a group setting. But we obviously are trying to reach out to our guys every chance we’ve got just to keep them knowing what the next step is because a lot of these kids don’t understand. And when they’re home, they’re usually off, and to be at home and be in school is very unique for our players.

Q. What was it like spending two weeks in quarantine, and how did you spend your time?
KIRBY SMART: Well, it really wasn’t any different than anybody else in the country when you think about it. I shared that with some people. We ended up having — I think it was a state department declaration if you came in from outside of the country, and we had multiple players, we had multiple coaches and other people that had the same thing, but once I got back, basically the whole country was on quarantine. There was nowhere you could go. There was nothing you could do. We shut down our offices, so there was nothing much more you could do.

For me, as far as what I did is what I talked about. I mean, went and spent time with family, exercised outside, tried to be as active as I could in recruiting, just finding out what’s going on with other people and things like that. But it wasn’t like I was locked in a room or anything.

Q. Schools are able to start having two hours a week video conferencing with the players. How do you and your coaches hope to take advantage of that, and how much of a help will it be?
KIRBY SMART: I don’t know how much of a help it’ll be. We’re just on the first baby steps of it. We’ve been preparing for that. We initially wanted to do that right when it started, and the SEC told us initially we could not do that, and I know other conferences were doing that, and then we got the capability as of yesterday to do that.

So anticipation of doing it, we were trying to get ready. We were practicing ourselves, uniquely a lot of these kids are better at these technological things than the coaches are, so we had to practice ourselves. We tried to do sessions within ourselves and practice to get ready so that we hit the ground running yesterday, and those two hours are used for football and not trying to get on, trying to get set up, trying to get this done. You want to be up and running when you get an opportunity, and that’s what we were able to do yesterday.

How much will it help? I think that’s speculative. I don’t know that. I just hope that we’re using them wiser than other people.

Q. What is your overall biggest concern involving no spring practice, how it affects the team overall but especially the offense with the new coaches and quarterbacks, and how much can be done virtually?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing with no spring practice would be just knowledge, just experience. I think that any team that has experience is at an advantage, so it’s not like you can say that everybody is not going to have spring practice, so it’s pretty even across the board. The difference would be some teams were able to get two and three and four practices in. A lot of them knocked some out. I think they got a little bit of an advantage to get out on the grass and have those practices.

But outside of that, the biggest advantage you can have is have good leadership, have a veteran football team, and when you’ve got that, it doesn’t matter whether you have spring practice or not. When you don’t have that, it’s tougher, when you don’t have leadership and you don’t have the experience at certain positions.

So as far as the QBs and the offense for our guys, we were able to meet leading up to spring practice. A lot of people forget that. We were able to have walk-throughs leading up to spring practice, which we maximized that time and knew that we needed that time, not anticipating not having spring, just knowing that we had new quarterbacks and new really offensive systems. We had to make sure we spent time with that, so we spent a lot of time on that.

How much of it can be done virtually? I don’t know that. I think that that’s something we’re coming across now, and it’s really more how much can they digest virtually because you want to give the kids everything they can. We’re trying to act like we’re going through spring practice right now and we’re doing it with our players virtually, but with two hours a week, it makes that a little bit tougher.

Q. Can you describe what recruiting is like right now without any physical contact and how it changes the way Georgia recruits in terms of the technology, timing and taking commitments and making offers?
KIRBY SMART: You know, it’s unique this year. February was dead if you guys remember, and that — I’m not saying that hurt us. Everybody was even. It was just unique because February is a time we get a lot of visitors. Like we get a ton of Saturday, Sunday visitors, and the kids come in, local kids from Atlanta would come over. So we lost all that February.

So during February you had to look at it and say how can I recruit without them coming to campus. Well, lo and behold, that’s how we’re having to recruit the total time now.

And timing-wise we got a raw deal because when it came back active in March, when it came back active, we were on spring break, and so two of our weekends that would have been active were tied to spring break, where our staff, our players, our campus was dead. Nobody was here. Other campuses were able to bring kids in the weekend of March and the next weekend in March where both those were tied to spring break. We lost both those weekends, so we actually lost like almost a dead period from February to the first week and a half of March, and so we lost all that time.

So for us, it’s really been FaceTime, communication, talking to family members. We’re checking on the well-being of everybody we recruit. We’re not making it about selling Georgia as much as it is, hey, what’s going on in your community now, how is your high school doing with this, how are your grandparents, how are your parents doing and making it personal and trying to talk to them.

I know these kids are getting bombarded because recruiting is a competitive market, and as you can imagine, they’re getting a lot of calls because a lot of college coaches don’t have anything going on right now, and they’re calling all these kids a lot.

Q. Is Todd Monken going to be the quarterback coach?
KIRBY SMART: Yes, that is the plan.

Q. And what was the thinking on Scott Cochran as special teams coordinator?
KIRBY SMART: Scott and I have had a relationship for a long time, and just when I think of good coaches, I think of guys that can relate to players, that can — I’ve always judged a coach by two qualities: What is his ability to make players want to play for him, like his relationship. Do players want to run through the brick wall for their coach, do they respect their coach, do they want to play hard for their coach, can he relate to them in a personal way and get them to do something that maybe another coach can’t, does that separate them; and then their ability to recruit. And both those two things, the nine years I was at Alabama he was outstanding at it. He was always involved in some way, shape or form with special teams. That’s always been something, even dating back to when I was at LSU, he was kind of a quality control guy at LSU that worked with special teams. So his background has been around that, and we certainly have a staff full of guys, Glenn Schumann, Dan Lanning, Todd Hartley, Cortez [Hankton], Dell [McGee], Charlton [Warren] have all had special teams duties in their career, so this is not a Scott Cochran is the only special teams guy on our staff. We have an immense amount of knowledge and experience in special teams, and they’ll draw on that.

Scott will be the special teams coordinator, but we’ll use the entire staff to help with that. We’ve got quality control guys who do a great job coaching our coaches, and then I’m involved with special teams and I always have and I always will be because I think it’s a really important part.

So a big part was just hiring Scott because we felt like he brought a lot to the table in terms of the entire organization.

Q. Who are some of the players who were impressive during the off-season workouts prior to the suspension of group activity?
KIRBY SMART: Well, it’s so hard, you never got to put on pads, never got to go out and do anything, and a lot of football is built off pads, and we don’t get to do that. Now, we did get to do off-season running and movement and agility, and there’s a ton of that sophomore-junior group that’s kind of like waiting on their chance to step up and really have an impact. I hate to single any one guy out, but there’s guys just working really hard. I thought that George [Pickens] was competing really hard and doing good things in the workouts. He liked the competitive side of those things. Clay Webb was a guy who was really competing hard, did some good things. James Cook, I mean, we had competitions daily to see who was going to win individual battles, and James probably had the largest winning percentage, he and Zamir [White] really challenging each other and competing really hard, and those guys continue to grow.

I mean, the freshmen that just got here, the mid-year enrollee guys, it’s hard to single any of them out because they’re still learning a new system. They’re still figuring out off-season workouts. But there was a lot of kids that were working really hard. Shaffer is coming back off injury, not that he was an outstanding performer, but considering he wasn’t able to do anything for six to eight weeks and now he’s coming back out there competing and pushing through adversity, I was really proud of the way he worked and tried to lead.

There are a lot of guys that did some good things, and I was excited about the off-season we were able to have.

Q. Do you have a date in mind when you think practice and group conditioning would need to start up for the season to start on time, and in terms of making sure players are physically prepared for a regular season as we currently know it?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, that one is like completely speculative. I can’t say. You say, well, what’s your opinion. I don’t want to give an opinion on that because I don’t want to be speculative and guess. I think you’d have to leave that up to the medical people. I’ve certainly visited with Ron, and the SEC is doing studies, the NCAA is looking into that. I know the NFL has come out with some dates they feel like they would have to start by, but to put a time on that, I just don’t think it’s fair, and I don’t think we as coaches should be going out there saying that because we’re not the exercise scientists, we’re not the medical people and professionals. We can say what we feel, but it doesn’t matter if a medical person disagrees with us. I would hate to even speculate on that.

Q. For guys like Blaylock and Mathis, how have their rehab processes been impacted?
KIRBY SMART: Really haven’t been. The great thing about rehab is you can do it anywhere. You might — Ron has them set up. They come over, do check-ins with Ron. If they choose to be here in town, they can do their rehab locally here and have access to everything. I mean, the good thing is Ron knows so many people across the country that every one of these kids, he can reach out to somebody and have a home networking plan where they can get their rehab done, and these two guys are so committed to it, Dom and D’Wan, they both do exactly what you ask them to do, and they know it helps the future of their careers to be rehabbing, and we’ve got a lot move guys that possibly would have missed spring that are now just rehabbing throughout, and they’re committed doing that. The good thing is the NCAA has allowed us to help those guys.

Q. Your quarantine experience you’ve already addressed, but where did you go, and did you buy any souvenirs for the beat writers?
KIRBY SMART: Well, there wouldn’t have been anything down there where I was to get you anything, so there’s nothing much coming out of there that I think you guys would enjoy, so other than some questions answered, I’m sure that’s all you guys need. But the experience was fine. Like I said, it was really — kind of the entire staff was doing the same thing. I talked to other staffs, they were all doing the same thing, and a lot of them were not — didn’t even come off spring break, they were going on spring break and were getting quarantined because they couldn’t go anywhere in their communities. It was not as bad as people made it out to be, and I made the most of it and got to continue to do that because it’s really no different now.

Q. Aside from Scott Sinclair‘s videos on Twitter, what other workouts have been given to the team during this suspension of practice?
KIRBY SMART: Well, we really can’t. Like I said, we can’t do much. We can’t do anything. We can’t get online and go — we can’t go work out with them or have them call us. We can’t do that. What Scott is able to do is say, hey, if you don’t have a place to go, which we’re finding out not many of our guys do, you don’t have a weight set, you don’t have a good place to go work out, here are innovative ways to get the same thing that you need without having to go to a workout facility, a training facility because so many of them are shut down around them that it really makes it tough. I know Scott has done a good job of being creative and just trying to share that with the world so that anybody that wants to use it can, and Scott has done a good job of that.

Q. Was it Costa Rica that you guys visited for spring break?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, it was multiple places down that way.

Q. Do you like having such a prominent former Georgia player as Todd Gurley so close by, and maybe do you have a favorite Todd Gurley story?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I think it’s awesome to have him back. Number one, he’s a great player, but he’s a great ambassador for our program. I can’t tell you how many times he’s been at large events, whether it was the ESPYs or wherever and he represents Georgia so well, has done so much for our program. The brand he has is just incredible. So many kids in recruiting associate with Todd, not even just running backs, but every position. He’s like a premier player, and to have him in Atlanta, I know Dan is super excited to have him on the team.

But as far as a story, the only thing — my biggest story with him is — I wasn’t here when he came — was going against him in the SEC Championship. He was ferocious. He ran over one of our linebackers down at the goal line and about knocked him out when I was coaching at Alabama, and just a tremendous player. I prayed every time they didn’t give the ball to him because I thought we were blessed every touch he didn’t get in that game.

Q. You mentioned some of those guys that weren’t able to get to the combine, guys like maybe Michael Barnett or Tae Crowder. What would you say about some of those players and their ability to make it in the NFL?
KIRBY SMART: Oh, I have no question that we’ll probably have three to four guys that will be either late draft picks or free agents and make a team. You see it every year, different guys. Ledbetter pulled it off last year, and every year there’s been somebody that makes a team, and the NFL recognizes that. Their league is comprised of non-drafted free agents, that you come in and make it for two to three to four years, maybe get that second contract. One of those guys is going to do that. I don’t know which one, but one of those guys or a couple of those guys may pull it off.

They’ve got good tape. It’s not like they don’t have good tape. They play in a really competitive league. The NFL people, they know that. They know that when they turn on the tape and see Michael Barnett going at nose guard for three years as a productive player, they know he’s a good football player. They’ve reached out, and those guys will get their opportunity. They’re going to get plenty of opportunity when we back on the field, and if they get into a training camp this fall and are able to do it, those guys are going to have a chance to show what they can do on the field.

Q. I know you can’t go through all your players, but can you talk about D’Andre Swift as a first rounder? What would you say about Swift relative to what Sony and Nick Chubb have done and the kind of back he’d be in the NFL?
KIRBY SMART: Well, he’s a tremendous leader. You know, Sony and Nick had each other, and that always helps. I think Sony took pressure off Nick, Nick took pressure off Sony. We have Herrien, and certainly on the field they were able to use each other and bounce off each other and those things. I definitely think D’Andre did an unbelievable job in the locker room of commanding respect and wanting the ball, especially in big moments in games. I go back to Notre Dame, I go back to Texas A&M, there were a lot of tight ballgames that he was able to get us get conversions and create open opportunities and explosive plays. I mean, you go back to Kentucky, as tough as things were, and he makes two or three runs that were just electric in that game that helped kind of ice it in the second half.

I know what kind of competitor he is. I know the NFL scouts know that, but as good as competitor as he is, he’s a better person.

Q. Kirby, have you personally been doing any home schooling? And have you watched the “Tiger King” on Netflix?
KIRBY SMART: Wow. So first question, home schooling, personally doing it, my frustration level exceeds any ability to have the patience to do that. I have a lot of respect for teachers but even more so respect for teachers that teach anything from first grade to about fourth grade because I’ve recognized that sixth graders on, they can kind of do their own thing, but these young kids, my seven-year old, wow, it’s extremely frustrating. So no, I have not done any. My wife does not allow me any time to do that.

And then the Tiger King, I actually — I was like dying for shows to watch while I was doing self-quarantine, and I got through two episodes, and I just couldn’t do it, man; I couldn’t stomach it. Everybody continues to talk about it, but my patience wears thin. I’m looking for a little more plot, I’m looking for a little more — I don’t know what the right word is, but that’s not my cup of tea. I’ll just say that. I’m more of an “Ozark” guy.

Q. The time that Jamie Newman had on campus, do you think there was time to get some familiarity with the receivers in a non-structured setting, and how much not having an experienced quarterback will be a factor for you guys and other teams that are adjusting that way?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, that’s the one position that if you had to say who does this affect the most, is it going to affect the running backs, the DBs, the Mike linebacker; it’s going to affect the quarterback more than anything in my opinion, and there’s no substitute for reps on the field, and we can’t argue that we’re not going to lose reps. We’re losing reps.

That’s tough. I feel like he was starting to get some rhythm and he got to throw a lot with those guys in their own time, the time that they elected. They did a good job, he and Stetson [Bennett] and Carson [Beck] and D’Wan [Mathis] would all go out there and throw with our wide outs. They were able to do some 7-on-7’s unstructured on their own with their team members, and they did a good job of that. We know that’s no substitute for what they would have gotten in spring ball, but I can’t sit here and (indiscernible) because we’re going to get all that done when we get the opportunity, and hell, nobody knows when that is.

Q. Kirby, any final thoughts?
KIRBY SMART: You guys stay safe, and I hope everybody’s well-being is good out there, and appreciate you guys tuning in for this.