ANF+ SPORTS TONIGHT: FSU coach calls loss to Tech 'sickening'

yeah I just got it we starting with the George yeah we're starting with Georgia with the georgees so we're just gonna go here's Kirby Smart 18 minutes take well they like him more than they like us yes he's he's just a little more popular what's up Jordan how are you we need to get you on this one day just for kids open in five four three 2 one now from Atlanta news first plus this is sports tonight hump day Ellie the great and Emily here for you on a Wednesday August 28th 8th you know I never know the days you're always the one they do blur they do blur together a bit yeah I mean I forgot it was even Wednesday Today I don't know what day I thought it was but I definitely didn't think it was Wednesday Ellie how's your week going you know we got to start off with with our moves okay it's going good yeah Dragon Con is this weekend I'm a huge nerd I love it so I'm super excited all right so you're into Dragon Con yes Saturday Sunday uh I'm G I'm I'm gonna go the whole weekend mostly in the mornings because I will be here yep through the throughout the rest of the week y uh but yeah I'm going to get up very very early for me and and you're going to dress up and like do all the things unfortunately no I don't do cosplay okay uh quite yet so I thought so the Dragon Con is not just the people who dress up then no okay it's this big convention it's the one of the biggest uh sort of nerd conventions in the world I love it I love that it's here it's one of my favorite parts of living in Atlanta a so I love that you love that one of my favorite Parts is Georgia okay ug the dogs the number one team in the country uh this is the third time that they have been ranked number one in the AP poll and coaches poll to start the season I think the last time was 2008 and then 2023 and of course now we're in 2024 so backto back season the dogs are expected to finish number one basically uh is that what that's what that tells me I I'm assuming ug's favored I don't know by how much but to win uh the first 12 team college football playoff uh certainly in my opinion as long as long as Kirby's there we will see ug in the top 12 every year um but yeah so they start off the season top 15 matchup so number one against number 14 Clemson and I got to mention this I just mentioned it on TV Ellie um Jen our meteorologist our chief meteorologist she's a gator she went to us I saw that I saw Jen doing did you see the slate no I didn't see the Slate I did see Jen do the the gator ch ch so you you go for a noon kick between eug and Clemson to listen to this UF in Miami backto back talk about great games to start the season right that's a fantastic game so it's Jack as I Billy Florida we're talking about though Florida Miami I mean this is like chef's kiss for me chef's kiss I I yes I went to high school and college in Florida my sister's a gator uh and I just think that that rivalry is important to have and and sometimes they don't play it they haven't played it I don't is there a way to look up the last time they played that cuz it's been a second and I know I'm going off you keep putting me on the spot why do you do this I keep going off the cuff and asking you why do you do this and we're supposed to be talking about the dogs right now but that is how excited I am about this Saturday and the Slate that we have cuz even Alabama plays Kentucky to start the season I mean that's awesome so I think in Miami is supposed to be pretty darn good this year Florida Florida is uh better in a better position than supposedly than they have been as of recent supposedly yeah so let's get to it but let's also get to some did you did you figure it out no there no okay we'll we'll get back to you guys when we come back to tell you the last time Florida Miami played each other but Kirby Smart his thoughts on the game take it away Allie all right guys welcome to Monday game week and um our guys got work in on Thursday Friday a little bit Saturday and then uh starting back today after a Sunday off on Clemson our guys are excited for a great matchup um looks like we'll get the earliest kick of the day so it should be exciting in terms of um all the people across the country that'll be waking up on the West Coast getting to watch a great game and a really a great rivalry a rivalry that when you look back I didn't realize how many years consecutively Georgia played uh Clemson for a long time but just a lot of uh respect for their program what dabo's done he's done an incredible job uh he's got a great culture there a great environment you think about their coaching staff how intact it's been B to stay how many coaches he's had going to be head coaches um and uh they do a tremendous job recruiting our state and we we we go head-to-head with them quite a bit when you look across their roster there's a lot of kids that we were really close to and I'm sure it's same way with him so should be a uh uh an awesome environment I have so much respect for the kickoff classic game Gary stoken and his staff afflac you know is near and dear to my heart and uh has done a tremendous job job in our state um and for them to take over this cause I think it's a it's a it's a great um event and um to have two teams like this it's going to be awesome yeah coach when you studying for an opponent like Clemson haven't played in several years what are you looking at what are you studying are you looking at maybe some games from last year are you looking at the TV copy of the spring game what are you studying to identify their identity well you you study the history history of the coordinators and um you look at that hard you know dbo has an impact on the offense so you look at what he's done through his time being there um the most recent you look at is is last year's games um and nobody is exactly what they were the year before but you don't have any other options to study you know you don't have game film of this year and you know that's this is the only game that we'll go into without game film of this year so it all starts to change um but I'm sure everybody across the country is the same way you know do you have a new wrinkle do you have a new player that's an impact that you're trying to use in a certain way um you know what are you going to do different what are you going to do the same but at the end of the day coaches Chase all those things but it boils down to who blocks the best who tackles the best who makes the least catastrophic mistakes and avoiding turnovers and being explosive yours on yeah it seems like he's been there forever and and this is really is I guess his third year but he's a great really good athlete um he's played a lot of football for a guy that age um has the ability to to to scramble make plays on his feet um has more weapons around him I think he's a lot more comfortable now um in their offense you could see that throughout the year last year as you watch the season go on how much more comfortable he got um especially when they you know they started going to fi a lot more their feature back and um and became much more physical team so you know the addition of Matt loot who's a tremendous coach was here with us I think that makes them uh even more versatile and some of the things he's going to bring to the table but kade's been a great asset for them and I know he'll be you know very experienced Kirby I want to ask you about Matt L just with your experience with him what can you expect out of one of his offensive lines you guys are toughness you know he's got an extremely experienced offensive line I looked at I want to say it's almost 100 starts I mean three of the five guys have over 25 or something I mean that's it's crazy very rare in college football to have a person with more than 25 starts um because that means they stayed for at least they're coming into their uh third season starting and um they've got uh a tremendous offensive line in terms of the amount of experience they have starting I would have thought ours was one of the most experienced offensive lines in the country well theirs is got more starts than ours so I know mat do a tremendous job they'll play with toughness effort um I'm sure he'll add some wrinkles uh to their offense but he's really good football coach Will Will kby Young be available and what kind of work has he been able to get the last few weeks yeah Kobe's been great he's uh uh ever since the scrimmage not not this Saturday we didn't scrimmage the the Saturday before that he's been able to get out there and run and um do some things he practiced ever since we started on Clemson full go so he's been great should be ready to go yeah coach you talked about some familiarity with their roster particularly defense on on the defensive side of the football is there something about this state that they identify with on that side of the football just from a a player's perspective and you mentioned the familiarity uh some of those guys that come in here I'm sure you camp almost all those instate guys do you feel like you have a better identity about their Ross I don't know have a better identity I guess compared to what uh to other teams we play I mean you know you play more team you play more teams in your conference and you see them more in overlap film so a lot of times you can uh see defensive players in the SEC multiple times in your breakdown Clemson you won't see in your breakdown very often uh we do know a lot of their players but it's offense and defense both in terms of that there are a lot more seems like Georgia flavor to their defense um some of that may be the area that their their coaches on defense recruit I know they've got you know a former High School coach of Georgia on their defensive staff and um there's a lot of lot of good defensive players from our state on their defense coach how do you feel about yeah really excited about the backs we got the the guys have worked really hard um they continue to grow and get better um you know R's toe is uh still an issue for him but I mean anytime you go into a new season you're like you know what do I have you don't really know what you have like that's why it's so critical in our spring to go out and play our spring game like it's a game because it's the first version of your new self and then you go through the scrimmages which we've had two and you try to figure out the best version of yourself in those scrimmages because those are preseason games in the NFL terms and I felt really comfortable with where our uh our back field is those games and and doing a good job I mean at Georgia we don't like say okay let's start all over there's these guys that have been in our program that have been picking up stunts blitzes that our defense runs we do two spot walkthroughs where they're getting to pick things up so there's a lot of uh guys that have had a lot of reps uh doing those things that that hopefully uh have great game Saturday ask St Warren looks good he's practiced every day we've practiced for Clemson he's done a good job he's been um out there competing I mean he didn't get the uh luxury of going through Camp which to me is like you know Camp is what you build your foundation on so he missed some time in Camp but he also has had four camps in in in his time at Georgia so it's not like it's his his first uh his first go run in terms of that and yeah rod rod did have uh surgery on his toe yeah I think that's each individual person responds differently to um how they perceive nil so to assume that it's to problem in a locker room is probably not a good assumption and to assume that it's not is probably not a good assumption um so you know we we try to address that early in our our our team back in January February when you start brand new that uh everybody uh is in a different position uh it's no different we show the NFL uh salary cap we show the NFL uh minimum then we show the NFL highest thing you can get at each position you know and franchise players and it's very obvious what quarterbacks make is starting quarterbacks in the NFL and by no means do I think that we are the NFL but our kids acknowledge and recognize that the quarterback is a different position when it comes to uh nil and Carson does a good job handling that it's never been about that with him um he's very humble he works hard uh he's a leader and and the players players respect what Carson went through to get where he is and I think he earned that yeah coach you mentioned sometimes that you don't really what you have to you get on the field with with Carson what do you feel like the com comfortability factor is with him having gone through everything you went through last year now having the believe in his teammates that he's gone out facing live bullets yeah I was pretty confident with Carson last year to be honest with you because he's seen a bunch of live bullets uh in in practices when you've got a guy that's been in your program as long as he has and done as many drills and pickups and blitzes and third downs and I mean the guy you that was not my biggest concern last year and it wouldn't be my biggest concerned this year in terms of uh his uh ability to execute to understand what defenses are trying to do um he seen most of it um it's more about can the people around can he Elevate the people around him's game can he make them better and that's one of the things he's been working on hey kby and one more about Carson just the luxury of having somebody it's going to be very unusual going forward in today's college game to have a guy who's been around that long um and also just where has he you seen some progression in him I mean he had a great year last year obviously and so much experience but if you seen him kind of take it even a little higher for going into his final year yeah he's very comfortable in the offense I think uh you know coach boo coach Harley all the guys on offense that make decisions they know um they can probably put a little more on his plate um in terms of volume but you're always limited by the other people around you and I think that's that's key in the first game is that we're not overloading their plate to he's Carson and uh being smart about you know how much you game plan and how much you put in versus what do you do well and what do you do all year round well Kirby you mentioned some of the the top rning backs it's game week now wonder if you can tell usev at be Avail and how you feel yeah I'm excited about all those guys um I don't really talk about any of the other stuff uh regards to any of our players with suspension but I'm excited about all the guys are going to get opportunity to play it back the lad with rodri is there any kind of time frame for when he'll be able to come back not real sure um probably be week to week um not sure how long it'll take in terms of the surgery yeah regarding suspensions and know you guys are going handle that internally have those decisions at least been made internally and whether not will be available for sat like I said we don't discuss those thank you yeah I think that's much to do about nothing I mean you have who you have right so in the spring you have I'm going to guess 90 95% of your roster you might pick up some after that but I think everybody makes a big deal about that I mean I I'm I'm like dbo if I could keep my entire roster my roster I'd be all for keeping my roster my roster because I I believe in the kids we sign I believe the kids we recruit and I want to grow them uh to get better it's not realistic to think that you're going to keep all your players right now I mean uh what is realistic is that you need to be operating with um as much depth as possible and it's made it tougher to do that but as far as evaluating the opposing team whether they have kids or don't have kids one thing you know is they're going to know their system because they've been in it they're not new to it they're uh ingrained in it they're they know their culture they know who they are they know how they play they know what their standard is and um that to me is you can be envious of that the fact that they have the guys that have been in their program are in their program yeah with Michel just what have been the biggest challenges he's had to overcome just move to a little bit of a new position how you seen him attack that especially going all through b Camp yeah I don't know where that's coming from like he's not really at a new position like all all the things he did last year he's done this year so he works last year at outside linebacker in in in individual period and he worked with defensive line so those two are like a a mirror they almost share the same responsibilities so he's done the same thing this year that he did last year I think that's more of a souped up um answer that he's like playing a different position um he's not really playing a different position he's got the versatility to be able to go out and be an outside linebacker because he's really good athlete like he can cover and and and and play people but his one of his best qualities and most rewarding quality is Rush and we want him to be able to rush yeah hard to say I mean that's about 5 minutes worth of of value um once the game kicks off nobody's thinking about where they are they're thinking about the person they're playing against coach you mentioned off L experience have defensive front too has a lot of experience very good as well kind of what you see from those for yeah you look at it on paper and people say well they only have certain number of defensive restarters but two of the best players and most uh uh statistically best players they had last year are back and they were freshman who technically didn't start but those guys were dominant players Parker and Peter Woods both were really good players and um you know we knew those guys in recruiting and they they're tremendous athletes and uh both both very productive with other guys coming back they've got experienced guys coming back so when you look across the defensive front Clemson is never going to be uh short there they have Twitchy fast hard hard playing guys the the linebacker crew is extremely instinctive and well coached you can see um they carry over from when Brent left they don't miss things in terms of keys and recognition and they play really hard on defense hey coach you're going to ask about another defensive player obviously familiarity with Barett Carter what do you remember about his recruitment process and what kind of player has he developed into over the last you know several years first of all he's a tremendous kid I mean he's one of the high academic uh went to the great High School right there at north wette um just a fun kid to recruit because he had a great personality he enjoyed recruiting he was upfront and honest he didn't get too enamored in the process uh he handled it the right way and and made the choice that he thought was best for him and he's become a really good player a dominant player and you can see on tape his instincts his athleticism I me he's a playmaker and uh they got a good one in bar coach with Branson Robinson um what is this past year revealed to you about his character working back to be available week one well it's been a it's been a process I mean the kid was down in the dumps because he was having a great Camp um last year and you know the injury happened and you know he wasn't with the the rest of the team for a lot of the time he had to break away go about things a different way spent a lot of time in the training room that is a grueling injury to go through and work all the way back to the point where he didn't get to go through all of spring he did a lot of things in Spring but he didn't get to go through that in spring so this fall Camp's been big for him and terms of confidence you know he's gained confidence through special teams he's gained confidence through reps um but he he had a good body of work before so it wasn't like he didn't have an entire freshman year where he took a lot of reps um that 2022 season Kirby Clemson brings back their lead rusher Phil mafa just what stands out about him and really their WR yeah physicality he's got a downhill way about him he's one of those guys that that he was that way in high school I mean the more carries he gets the harder he is to tackle I think he enjoys it more the more he gets it and uh you know they they they hung their their their hat on him and he for there towards late season and he was really physical a really good runner and I think with that offensive line tying the experience they have and size they have to him is a it makes any offense work better all right Kirby Smart getting ready top 15 matchup noon on Saturday to kick off week one week Zer kicked off with Georgia and FSU now we get Georgia Clemson another uh no I was going to say another but no it was an ACC Showdown now you get an SEC ACC Showdown and then one afterwards yep did you figure it out Florida and Miami have not played since 2019 okay so five years five years nice see that's what I'm trying to tell you I think this is a good treat for us college football fans and who won that last game was won by Florida Miami leads the alltime series 2927 OH Close all right and so 2019 and what was it before then then it was 2013 2008 2004 2003 2002 2001 and then you jump back to 1987 which was the last time it sort of got played year interesting see so I'm Jack guys oh and then I checked the night game do you want to know what the night game is did you hear me talking about it no Notre Dame I think they're ranked number seven against number 20 Texas A&M all in one day all on one station is't that crazy that those those three games will dominate the day in college football can you can you imagine having a slate like that those are the best games of the day it's wild so are they yeah are they well are outside of Georgia Clemson I'm not theed you don't care it's Texas A&M in Florida man I mean outside of outside of SEC play like no I they come every year they come in overrated Billy Napier is not a good coach he's on the hot seat this year and and it's it's at the swamp that game's at the swamp okay all right we'll move on at least not feeling it I'm not I'm not feeling not feeling the hype for those latter two games but we'll discuss next week we'll discuss next week okay if I was excited for no reason or if I was excited for a reason it's hard to tell Falcons Falcons finalized their 53 Mana roster made some Final Cuts yesterday so no big surprises no big surprises no big no big surprises although uh a couple of the guys that got cut on Monday uh had some pretty good performances in the preseason but yeah no big surprises and most of those guys have been put on the practice squad right so you know once you get cut and it's unfortunate it happens to so many it's awful it's so public right when you and I quote unquote if we get cut like it's not as public as that is but um they clear waivers you know no other teams pick them up and then the Falcons can have at it so a lot of them are going to be put or were put on the practice squad uh and I think we're basically a week away from the NFL pretty much that's going to be next Thursday right M so guys not only will we to talk about college football but the NFL in like no time like real stuff not just like us guessing what's going to happen um all right Ellie topic tree tree tree the Braves snuck by the twins last night 6'4 in 10 Innings oh they had a four-run lead and then they botched it okay but they have no they have a chance to sweep don't they yes they now have a chance to sweep but that got close pitch that got close last night but this is good they need they haven't they haven't swept the team since like May I think something like that um Connor said it in in one of his pieces uh over the weekend and I was like wait a minute what yeah but it's been a minute minut SW the team this is this is what they need but they are playing much better yes I want to say this is like their fifth maybe fifth Series win in a row yes so very good very very good very very good all right now this is yours if you coach Mike Norville called the loss to Georgia Tech quote unquote sickening to ESPN he took four responsibility for the loss even though the Florida state front seven got bullied to no end in that game Georgia Tech sort of Stack the box and Florida State's defense didn't really have that much of an answer to it even though each team only got seven possessions which is how you ended up with the 24-21 score it was just some old school football but FSU coach Mike Norville was sort of encouraged by his team's response to loss so he was encouraged by their response yes by how they responded to losing and like better practices or I guess I I he did not he did not go into detail about what that means I've never been a coach I never will be a coach but my assumption responding to a loss is the next time I guess you really play in my opinion unless they had these really physical practices like Tuesday like Tuesdays in Athens bloody Tuesdays like did they have a bloody Tuesday of sort I mean I just want to know what like he did not all I know is that Tech seemed to want it more yes I watched that game The Vibes even coming even coming into the game like The Vibes were it just felt like Georgia Tech was is on a mission and FSU kind of just sat there and watched yeah it was very bizarre to me but in the best kind of way because Tech deserved that that win I thought I don't know about you Ellie but I kept thinking about defit I was like oh that final that final was waiting for the turnover though I was waiting for him to turn the ball like he's going to throw a pick he's going to throw a pick and he did so well up until that very what is it like second third to last play of the game third to last and then um the next play then the next play was a screen to Eric Randolph Jr and they got the yardage back and then they made field goal yep but with all that being said uh haes King looked significantly better in that aspect because last year he struggled struggled struggled with turning the ball over that was the biggest issue um and the fact that he did a pretty good job protecting the ball most of the game that was that was good mhm all right what's on your mind no you go first you go first you go first who's gonna say it um you know I just don't have much on my mind because I've been talking about this college football greatness because that's really all I'm excited about I just can't believe that those three games are on the exact like back to back to back but that's great for us we can sit on the couch together ol I know work is work but we can literally watch these games all day and I will make you like one of them even though you don't want to what's on do you have something on your mind so new Netflix series was am was announced starting five following Jimmy Butler Anthony Edwards LeBron James damont simonis and Jason Tatum during the 2024 season 2023 2024 season premier's October 9th does that sound like an interesting premise to you a documentary series following those five guys I mean it'll get watched it'll get watched I I I uh basketball's on my jym let's just put it that way but those are like the superstars of the league mhm it's going to get watched you're not going to watch I'm I'm gonna watch it just what you're saying to me right now get get the feel that you just you're like me I'm interested okay let's do that let's watch that two on the couch together all right guys we got to go have a good night