Kirby Smart updates progress of KJ Bolden, key position battles heading into Clemson

coach what's the biggest advantage of having a high caliber match up like this your first game season uh strength to schedule I mean get to play a quality opponent rout the the get-go and when you get into conference play You're battle tested probably better than a team that maybe doesn't play that kind of matchup find out more about your team um it's great for the the fans you know that's the Advantage great for recruiting exposure he me how has practice been C far this week been good been spirited the guys has been good yeah coach when we spoke to Carson yesterday I asked him to kind of identify what he thinks of Clemson defense and their identity is he mentioned they're a team who likes to bring a lot of pressure and play a bunch of man coverage uh what would be the recipe to have success against a defense that plays that style what would be the recipe for Success offensively to have success well don't get in situations that U that they're going to attack you and play Man in I mean the best thing to do is uh get first down before third down they do a tremendous job on third down they do a tremendous job of disguising coverages uh they're very multiple in their fronts um they're aggressive they tackle well I mean a lot of their defense reminds me of ours I mean they're they're uh they're physical they got they're well coached um situationally in games they know what they're doing um you can't say they're going to do this you can't predict what they're going to do a lot of times and I think good defenses AR predictable they're they're good so when you say how to attack them I mean well you need to be able to run the ball you know you need to be able to control the line of scrimmage um a running game is a quarterback's best friend for sure uh but you you got to keep them off balance and uh you got to win one-on-one battles hey coach what's kind of been the advantage this while be able to have your analyst and other staff on the field go coaching dur practice well I think you're able to do a little more um in terms of walkthroughs for us we we we we do multiple walkthroughs we we we try to uh coach our younger players at are different pace because we have someone that can be assigned to them um it's probably been a bigger advantage through camp like practi it's 1 to 16 or 1 to 20 whatever it was and then when you get any game week it's not as uh big an advantage because you're focused on the guys that are going to be uh playing but we're trying to ring the bottom half of our roster to the top half of our roster and I think the the the more an us helps do that it helps do that I'm glad NCA did it because it gives more guys an opportunity to coach yeah what have you seen a KJ Bal throughout fall camp and where is he sort of mentally going into this first camp we missed some time and that probably he back some he was uh there's about a four or five day spell there in Camp where he didn't get to to practice but he's I guess he's been back for about eight or nine practices now and uh he's sharp very intelligent um very coachable kid um good athlete you know but I mean he hasn't played major college football he's made played Major level of high school football he's played as at the highest level but um he's an intelligent kid I think he'll he respond well and when his number called on gets called on he'll be ready to play Kirby with the helmet Communications obviously the quarterbacks will wear that on offense but defensively who's going to be wearing that and what benefit do you think it brings to that side of the ball yeah we got about seven or eight guys that'll probably have it available and um you know can't one guy have it on at the time so there'll be multiple helmets and uh different different people that have the ability to to have it um the benefit of having it is just communication to 15 seconds um probably not as biggest people think it is Kirby what do you need to see from your secondary on Saturday tackle well do their job compete they're not going to win every battle not the not the positions you put guys in the secondary and they got good they got good wide outs got a good quarterback um just want to see them be resilient I want to see a response time to positive and negative things that's really quick coach you always mentioned that you think offensive line is probably the toughest position that play as a true freshman in this conference and in this league what would you deem apart from Special Teams might be the easiest position to get on the field early for young talented players Corner running back um those are spots that I think typically guys can get out their receiver we've had a lot of fresman receivers play contribute a lot of freshman running backs playing contribute had a few Corners um playing contribute specialty pass rusher can play a contribute but U some of those some of those positions inside or in the interior line or it's not that you can't because of the mental it's you can't because of the physical they're just stronger and been in a weight program longer than you Kirby I know um some sort of injury availability report system has been talked about a lot I know that this week wouldn't happen but what's your sense of uh where that is and what's your kind of General opinion on how it should go uh my only opinion on where it is is what I've been told which is the conference games will'll have it um and second part of that is what is my general opinion about what about it what do you think about I'm I'm great with it as long as we're all doing it I have no issue with it I don't think uh I mean Ron's going to be in charge of it for me I don't look at it as a cuz I think you know they're going to tie fines and things to it and all that I just want to say can the guy play or not and if it's a game pound decision he goes out there and works out he can't then he can't you know and and I think everybody trying to make this big deal about deception or like misleading I mean if I don't know if a guy can play then I got to find out before the game if he can play then he's going to go out there and play but I mean we've had countless numbers of guys that have gone out for the game to work out to find out if they can play or not and we we'll abide by the rules they give us it's the same as the NFLs so uh they've done it for years and and it keeps pressure off of our kids for people reaching out to them trying to get information for betting sites and trying to gain information there is no gain if you've got accurate information so protects our kids I'm for itby getting down in the Weeds on special teams what's it look like for you at kickoff specialist launch S return some transfers and some of those SPS yeah they're they're competing for that day by day right up until the end um you know Payton's done a great job ham kids done a great job kicking off and field goals the transfer we got and um both those guys have done a tremendous job pton will be doing our field goal kicking kickoff is probably still to be determined um in terms of long snapping we've got three really good long Snappers who have all snapped and u a couple of have snapped in games and we'll see how that plays out whether it's different for field goal and um punt um is that the the three you're talking about return is also yeah we we've got multiple guys back there uh Malachi Anthony sov mik Jackson um cash has been back there on kickoff uh Dylan Bell's been back there on kickoff etn does kickoff um so we've got a lot of guys that that do the the K and we'll decide you know closer to the game based on the scheme which guys we put back there coach you talked a few times about cash and have people outside building here may kind of overlook him a little bit I was wonder when he first got here you brought him in as a as a walk where there like a an eye opening moment for you hey this this kid May more what we thought yeah I can't remember it I mean I I don't know that it was the first year I do remember Dale coming to me and tell me he had a kid from Texas that wanted to walk on and um I had not met him and uh he came in and what a what a what a awesome kid he's been in our program and uh the wild moments for me are the first moments I remember are the the second spring when he was getting a lot of reps in Spring practice and uh made a lot of plays um got unbelievable toughness you know his ability to run in between the tackles has been really good I think he's hard to see back there he's tough um he he he he runs our runs the exact way we want to in terms of who we read on inside outside Zone and um he does a lot of really good things and U I'm excited for the kind of the buildup he's had he's he's waited his turn and um he's he's helped us this this I he's done a dominant job on special teams so I love seeing him compete on special teams he'll continue to do that but he also gets lots of opportunities at running back as well yeah guy who's already accomplished a lot in his career what do you want to see Mal start starting on Saturday just leadership I mean I don't I mean Malachi is going to play like he practice today I hope which is toughness great eyes uh really good athlete playmaker on the ball I mean he's a he's a good football player and U I don't I don't want to see anything necessarily out other W to see him do what he does every day at practice have more questions coach back to return game return game just a little bit of Anthony I remember in the champion had a really nice return he seen the same kind of flashing in that regard practice so far um yeah I think that was a little different circumstance than just a normal Power return but he uh he's he's he's done good things um with always been a good decision maker he's he's called a lot of punts so has jaob Malachi Mike Jackson Tom they've all done a really good job back there in terms of getting reps but Anthony is a explosive quick um tough stick his nose in there and does a good job so I'm excited to see him play wide receiver position all right thank coach