Category: UGA Football

UGA Football: Georgia Opens 2023 Spring Practice

ATHENS, Ga. — University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart and selected players met with the media to preview spring practice, which begins today and culminates with the annual G-Day intrasquad game on Saturday, April 15.

Following is a transcript from today’s remarks:

Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement…
“I think the first thing I’ll address and talk about a little bit is the expectations we have here at Georgia for our student-athletes. Certainly, we haven’t met some of those requirements, and we want our student-athletes to meet those, and we take those things very seriously. The standards that have been created here for a long time, that doesn’t change, and we want our players to live up to those. The mistakes they make, we treat them like we do our kids. We discipline them. We try to prevent them. We try to educate them. We try to do all we can to help our student-athletes in a positive way. It’s been a tough go with the death of Chandler and Devin. As you guys know, it was a tragic accident. Our players have been through a lot. When you talk about the health and the mental health that some of our guys have needed since the accident, it’s been a really tough go of it for them. I feel like our players are starting to be able to acknowledge and they understand that when you make mistakes, the decisions that are costly can cost you your life. That’s not to be taken lightly. I think our guys understand that, and continue to educate them, and we’ll continue to do all we can as a university to make sure they behave and do that in a proper way. I am very strongly in belief that we have a great group of young men on our football team. We have a great culture on our football team. We’ve had our highest GPA we’ve ever had. In the fall we have the most kids doing a lot of the community outreach. It is really positive. So there’s a lot of good there that comes out of our kids that probably doesn’t get noticed as well, especially with the things that have happened here recently.

A couple of statements about spring practice, and then I’ll open this up for questions. We have several guys that are out for spring. We always talk about this at the beginning. Dan Jackson is still out. Marvin Jones had shoulder surgery. Josh Miller came in with a shoulder surgery. Andrew Paul is still out with an ACL, and Jalon Walker is out with a shoulder surgery.
So, we have five guys that are out for the spring. Probably less than we’ve had in recent years, and I’m looking forward to a lot of competition and battles across the line in terms of positions. We have a lot of positions up for grabs.

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UGA Football: What Did Kirby Smart Say About the Quarterback Competition?

“I think it’s hard to say who has a stronger arm. I think those two guys would argue about who has a stronger arm because I don’t honestly know who has a stronger arm just from what we’ve seen in the past. You have to see those guys play in game action. I think they both have really good pocket presence. Brock (Vandagriff) is a really good athlete. Brock has added about 14 or 15 pounds of muscle. He wanted to get back to 215 out of his 203, 204 playing range. And Carson (Beck) has lost a little weight from 220, so they’re right at the same size. It’s hard to say the differences in those two. I don’t think people give Carson enough credit for being a good athlete. He was a really good baseball player. He has great movement skills. He is not going to run as fast as Stetson (Bennett). I think Brock is a good athlete. He can see the field. Carson has probably played a little more, but both those guys are good. I wouldn’t count Gunner Stockton out of this thing because this kid is talented, smart. I got to see him on the scout team the entire year and really saw him grow. I mean, when Monken left, I asked him about where he thought our quarterback room was. He was very adamant that we have three really talented, young quarterbacks, and Mike inheriting that room certainly feels that way, too. I’m excited about those guys.”

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UGA Football: How Much Will the UGA Offense Change Under Mike Bobo?

“There won’t be much change in verbiage. If anything, there will be some additions, maybe some slight wrinkles, but we feel like the verbiage for the kids works great. He is comfortable with the verbiage. He was in it last year with Coach Monken. Really our entire offensive staff — you have to remember when Coach Monken got here, some of that verbiage remained the same too, so it wasn’t like it was a total transformation of language. And you have to think about a guy like maybe Dell McGhee or (Todd) Hartley who have been here pre-Monken and now they’re here post-Monken. There’s a lot of carry-over because B-Mac (Bryan McClendon), Stacy (Searles), and Todd (Hartley) have all been in a room with Mike (Bobo). The decision was the continuity we have on offense. We want to keep that going. I have a lot of confidence in Mike with the job he has done with offenses in the past.”

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UGA Football: Kirby Smart Defends the Culture of the UGA Football Program, Including Racing and the Tragic Accident

OPENING STATEMENT

“I think the first thing I’ll address and talk about a little bit is the expectations we have here at Georgia for our student-athletes. Certainly, we haven’t met some of those requirements, and we want our student-athletes to meet those, and we take those things very seriously. The standards that have been created here for a long time, that doesn’t change, and we want our players to live up to those. The mistakes they make, we treat them like we do our kids. We discipline them. We try to prevent them. We try to educate them. We try to do all we can to help our student-athletes in a positive way. It’s been a tough go with the death of Chandler and Devin. As you guys know, it was a tragic accident. Our players have been through a lot. When you talk about the health and the mental health that some of our guys have needed since the accident, it’s been a really tough go of it for them. I feel like our players are starting to be able to acknowledge and they understand that when you make mistakes, the decisions that are costly can cost you your life. That’s not to be taken lightly. I think our guys understand that, and continue to educate them, and we’ll continue to do all we can as a university to make sure they behave and do that in a proper way. I am very strongly in belief that we have a great group of young men on our football team. We have a great culture on our football team. We’ve had our highest GPA we’ve ever had. In the fall we have the most kids doing a lot of the community outreach. It is really positive. So there’s a lot of good there that comes out of our kids that probably doesn’t get noticed as well, especially with the things that have happened here recently.

Read more

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