Category: UGA Football

ATHENS, Ga. — University of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart met with the media Saturday afternoon and offered the following comments regarding the team’s scrimmage.

Opening Statement…
“I was excited today to get to see our guys go out, compete, cut loose and play with our coaches on the field. It is always the first time of the year you get that little bit of butterflies. Coaches are down there telling me what to do. We made a decision to go out and get after it Friday afternoon as well. We went in pads Friday outside and challenged them. Then turned around and had a practice a little earlier today than what we have bene doing. We typically start our scrimmage on Saturday around lunch and practice around two or three in the afternoon. It was good to find out who really wants to be a part of this, who really wants to go out and compete and get better. That part, we got to identify some guys who are ready to play versus some guys who want no part of it because they can’t sustain and keep their level of focus up during a scrimmage. I was glad that we got the conditions we got. We have an extremely long way to go as a football team. So many people make an assumption off of last year’s team and their accomplishments. I asked this team, after the scrimmage and after we ran, what have you done to deserve anything you have gotten? They have done nothing. We have got to get the right guys in the right spot, find the guys that can really compete. We may play four or five of our first four of five or five of five of our games in this tough heat. I kind of hope we go because I want to see where we are as a team. You find out a lot more about a team if you have to do kicking, offense and defense with 22 people on the field of your team the whole scrimmage. I got to see a little bit of that. Guy that are serious and guys that just physically could not scrimmage and are not ready to contribute yet. I know you guys are going to ask about the quarterback position. I can’t tell you anything until I watch the tape. I can tell you that I would like to see all three of them play better. The people around them have to play better. When you evaluate a quarterback and say, ‘well, he threw an interception,’ or, ‘he hit a guy in the hands,’ or ‘it bounced in his hands and it got intercepted,’ we judge that. There were seven drops in the scrimmage because of wet hands and heat, and you evaluate that. I don’t think any of those quarterbacks would tell you they played their best game. We need each one of them to get better to get where we want to go. A lot of that has to do with a cut down of some of the offense and deciding what we want to use. That wasn’t today’s goal. Today’s goal was to find out who has got some toughness and can push through.”

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