Kirby Smart hammers home the importance of fast starts after win over Kentucky

This was the first time Georgia held a halftime lead against a Power 4 opponent in nearly a year, since Oct. 19, 2024, when Georgia was up 23-0 on Texas.

Fast starts were not the only subject on Smart’s mind following the win.

Below is the full transcript of what Smart had to say on Saturday.

Everything Kirby Smart said after Georgia beats Kentucky

Opening statement

“Yeah, I was excited about our guys getting a fast start today. I think that was the goal. It’s the goal every game, but to start early and start fast, I thought we had good energy on offense. I thought they had a good plan in terms of how to execute. Every time we play them, it’s really physical. It was physical again. It’s always going to be physical. I thought some players had some good individual performances.

On what he’s learned about the secondary...

“That we’re a work in progress. I mean, we have some bad eye-control moments where guys don’t see what they’re supposed to see. They will work at getting better. We’re putting hands on people a little better. We’re getting balls down — 50-50 balls. We’ve worked really hard on that. We’ve got to continue to do it, but, I mean, I’m proud of the growth we’ve had and the development we’ve had.”

On the offense and defense on third down today...

“You know, I didn’t think we played as good as we can defensively third down-wise, and I don’t know how to judge offense. I know the numbers say so, but I don’t really agree with the numbers because we had a bad taste in our mouth to finish there with the young kids in where we gave up — I felt like we gave up some third downs, but maybe we didn’t. Maybe they were fourth downs, but it was just we can play better.”

“Huge. Huge. I can’t tell you how hard (co-defensive coordinator Glenn) Schumann and the defensive staff have worked. I mean, we sacrificed 10, 20, 30 — like 30-40 practice minutes, which are like golden nuggets. I mean, to y’all, 30-40 minutes is nothing, but 30-40 minutes out of a week to nothing but attempts and strip-outs and targeting balls and punching balls is really big. And I didn’t see it, but it looks like he used one of the tools that we had to punch it.”

On Georgia’s physicality on Saturday...

“Well, we did control the line of scrimmages. We have a depth in our defensive line. We have some size, and I’m starting to look across our league, and I’m like, OK, we played this team, we played this team, we played this team. Then we played these teams, and I’m like, man, I feel like the defensive lines are just — there’s just less big bodies than there used to be in our league. Maybe they’re spread out more. The SEC was known for super big, physical defensive lines, and we’re all a work in progress now.

“The one thing that ours has been consistent on is controlling the line of scrimmage, and our offensive line has done a good job with controlling the line of scrimmage, at least for the games so far. You have to have that.”

“Ankle. Don’t know how bad or severe it was. It was an ankle. He re-taped, tried to go, tried to put pressure on it, couldn’t. You know, Bo practiced all week at right and had to go at left. Didn’t take many reps there.

“Micah’s dealing with a hamstring pull from the week before. He was able to go without — he didn’t get many reps in practice, and then his shoulder slipped out, which he’s dealing with, and he came back. But, I mean, they’re a MASH unit. I mean, it’s tough sledding. It’s the dangest thing I’ve ever seen with the offensive line in terms of, you know, never played with two freshmen, never played with five guys and having to roll guys. It’s been really tough.”

On the message it sends when Micah Morris is playing through injury...

“Yeah, I mean, he’s probably not the only guy. You know, Jordan Hall’s that way. We have a tough culture here. We have a physical culture here, and they believe in pushing through if they can, and I’m proud of them for that. You know, there’s value for them in terms of the culture they develop for our team, but there’s value for them in terms of what they want to do at the next level because those guys play hurt every week, and that’s the first question they ask. These guys, Tate Ratledge, Dylan Fairchild, they all played hurt last year, so if that’s your culture, then they want guys that are willing to go out there and play with bumps and bruises, and our guys have really pushed through that.”

“Yeah, he’s just dinged up. I mean, I don’t know specifically what it is. He’s had a patella. He’s had some knee issues, and he gets dinged up a lot and comes back.”

On what has impressed him most about Gunner (Stockton’s) progression...

“Well, I would say he had the most growth today in terms of downfield throws, layered throws, stepping up in the pocket. Still has some work to do, and he had his first pick. I mean, it’s like, it’s going to happen. It didn’t faze him. He knows he wishes he had that one back, but you can’t throw a pick unless you take some risk. You can’t make plays unless you take some risk. He’s growing out of the risk aversion and moving towards, can I make calculated decisions through the right ones and use the skill set of the players we have?”

On Bo Hughley’s progression and his ability to play both tackle spots...

“He’s just a competitor, man. That guy loves football. He should be the poster child for fire passion, and energy. He never stops cheering. He’s in the halftime geeking people up. He loves football, he plays hard. He loves Georgia. I mean, he struggles to keep his weight up sometimes, but you love the way the guy plays, and I appreciate his competitive toughness.”

On the emphasis on starting fast in practice...

“Yeah, there’s nothing we did at practice to start faster. If we did, we’d do it every game. We can’t control that. So we talked about it, we wanted to start fast, we wanted to bring our own juice. We say FPE doesn’t come in a pill. FPE doesn’t come by way of an audience. FPE doesn’t come by, it’s a decision you make, and our guys made the decision today to have it.”

On Dillon Bell’s big day and what he means to the offense...

“Yeah, so excited for him, probably most proud of the catch he had over on our sideline. The two other plays were almost walk-ins that were well-blocked. It probably wasn’t about what he did, it was more about what the other 10 people did. But Dillon has been very selfless since he’s been here. He has not had many opportunities this year to touch the ball and make plays, and he has not complained one bit. He continues to work. I appreciate who Dillon Bell is, and I really appreciate all those wideouts, because it’s a good group that has stayed the course, and they understand who they are.”

On the ways Bell has been selfless...

“He blocks. He doesn’t complain when he doesn’t get the ball. We’ve had that play in for him for several weeks, and it hadn’t hit. We’ve had a couple plays, we’ve given him the ball, and it’s not there and he just gets bottled up. It’s like, those plays work in practice. It’s not like we pick them and say, this play’s really bad in practice, let’s run it in the game. We run that play in practice, it works, and then it doesn’t in the game. It’s disheartening, and sometimes that’s just football.”

On how he felt Gunner responded to the interception...

“I thought he was great. I don’t remember the drive after it. I just remember talking to him and told him that it was OK, that that’s going to happen. He’s just got to keep getting better. I don’t remember the next drive.”

On Elyiss Williams having a couple of catches and his progression…

“Yeah, Elyiss is a worker. He actually spends, I don’t know, 50, 60% of his time on the scout team. So he’s blocking Q, Gabe, Christen, and he’s over there working. Kentucky runs a lot of the same plays we do, so we just said, hey, you can get these same plays with us, you’ll get better. He’s becoming a really physical presence, a blocker, and he’s obviously a big target. I mean, some of those were just lucky they went his way. It was a bootleg, he was the third option and it went to him. That could have been Luck (Lawson Luckie) or Oscar (Delp), but it just so happened it was him. So it’s not about something he’s doing, he’s just getting better. He’s working hard, and he really grinds in practice. I mean, the guy takes 40, 50 reps in practice.”

On what impressed him most about the team’s response to the loss...

“I wasn’t shocked at all by the response of the team. I expected it. To be honest with you, I was proud of the way they played in the Alabama game. I told them that we’ve got a good football team. It didn’t always go our way. We did a lot of good things in that game. If we continue to get better, then we’ll be where we need to be. If we don’t get better, then we won’t. There’s only so many teams that are going to keep getting better.”

On Cash Jones’ touchdown...

“Yeah, it’s not redemption for me. Cash is one of our better players, so Cash’s charts had the most broken tackles in our camp. We have good defensive football players, and if he has the second most broken tackles, Chauncey (Bowens) was one, he was two in the back room. He was three total because Zach Branch was ahead of him, so when you get Cash the ball in space, he can break tackles. I go off who breaks tackles, and he broke tackles today. He made plays, and he’s got burst. He went down and made a tackle on kickoff inside the 20, and, hey, football players are going to be football players. He’s a football player.”

On how defenses play Georgia’s offense...

“I don’t know. I felt like early in the year, they played some really soft stuff and tried to bend but don’t break. Tennessee, not so much. Alabama, not so much. They played more SEC-type, closer coverage, and we probably missed some opportunities in that game, and today I have to watch the tape, but I feel like he’s getting better.”

On getting young guys on defense in the fourth quarter...

“It’s great for those kids because what it is is a learning process. They all tell me they’re ready to play. Why aren’t they playing? Why aren’t they playing? Well, go break down the tape and watch. Have an opportunity to make a play. Did you make the play? You were in man-to-man. Did you make the play? You were in zone. Did you make the play? You had an open field tackle. Did you make the play? So, the great thing is that’s a learning experience that they can go back to work on and continue to get better.”

On Ryan Puglisi’s interception and if there was a miscommunication...

“No mix-up. Errant throw, I guess. I mean, it was not a mix-up. We ran the route we called, and he threw the ball to the other team. That’s an interception.”

On Gunner Stockton avoiding contact while rushing...

“Yeah, he’s beat up. He’s beat up. And it’s not, you know, it’s not the designed runs getting him. He did a great job. He slid. He made a play today. Converted a first down. You know, some of it’s shots he’s taken through the year. It’s protection. It’s him putting his shoulder down and running hard. But he had some really big conversions that his legs allowed us to have, which those are really frustrating for defenses. But he’s got to take care of his body, and we’ve got to help him take care of himself.”

On the Georgia pass rush...

“Look, I’m excited. Put what you want. I get to watch our guys every day in practice. I mean, I watched our team have 60, 70-something third downs in four games before today, and I have a lot of confidence in our defensive unit team, pass rush coverage, third down plan. I mean, I feel good about it. I don’t feel good about the stats. But, again, you can’t look at stats and misleading, guys. There’s just not many opportunities we get. If the ball comes out before you get there, then it wasn’t probably even good to rush. We should have dropped 11. So it’s one of those things that you can’t equate to that. Do we need to do better? We need some guys that can win one-on-one inside. I mean, ask them why they went fast on third down. Because they didn’t want us to put people in there. If we were bad or I thought we had issues, they’d be begging those guys to come on the field. Hey, man, y’all sending those guys on third down. They kept us out of it by going really fast. That’s a mechanism we use sometimes because you don’t want to face those guys.”

On Gunner Stockton being risk-averse and clearing that hurdle...

“I don’t think so. I don’t think it was a hurdle for him. He wasn’t risk-averse. He was, at times, making decisions on, OK, this guy, that guy, what coverage it was, what am I doing with the ball? There was times that it was like, I’m going to go run it with my legs. And then there was times that he had to because we didn’t protect it well. I mean, go back to the early games. There were some times in there that the protection broke down on him. And as protection has improved, his confidence has improved. It’s never going to be perfect. You’re never going to block them all. You’re never going to win all your one-on-one blocks. They got good twitchy guys. But he gives us the element of when it does break down today. We’ve been talking about off-schedule plays. He gets an off-schedule touchdown run, I think, on a scramble. And then he gets an off-schedule hold on Dillon Bell that really would have been maybe a touchdown if the guy doesn’t hold him. So, you know, teams have to account for what he can do with his legs, and that helps us.”

“Again, worry about everything, but the priority list is our team more than everybody else.”