Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart previews Clemson game, comments on Trevor Etienne status

statement and then we'll just raise our hands bring the mics around remember no live streaming please 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 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 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 has been able to stay uh 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 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 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 you looking at the TV copy from the spring game what are you studying to identify their identity well you you studi the history of the coordinators and um you looked at that hard you know Dabo 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 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 who makes the least catastrophic mistakes and avoiding turnovers and being explosive C laugh your thoughts on their quarterback k club Mick what he's been able to do in running that offense yeah it seems like he's been there forever and and this is really his I guess his third year but he's a great really good athlete um he played a lot of football ball for a guy that age um has the ability to to to scramble make plays on his feet um has some 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 start going to field a lot more as their feature back and um and became much more physical team so you know the addition of Matt Luke who's a tremendous coach was here with us I think that Mak 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 K 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 what you guys are going to see on Saturday 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 CU 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 um 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 um he's really good football coach kby will uh will Kobe 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 Saturday before that he's been able to get out there and run and um do some things he practiced uh ever since we started on clums in full go so he's been great should be ready to go yeah because you talked about some familiarity with that 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 perspective and you mentioned the familiarity uh some of those guys that come in here I'm sure you camp almost all those inate guys you feel like you have a better identity about their roster I don't know if 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 uh 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 a lot of lot of good defensive players from our state on their defense coach how do you feel about your running back rotation going into this game what what might it look like 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 rods 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 in 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 a great game Saturday I was going to ask you about Rod Robinson right off thatat did he have surgery and also Warren Bron status for Saturday 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 in 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 uh Kirby uh as far as Carson goes I guess I want to ask this question question since nil started locker room chemistry has been something that that is something that has to be managed can you talk about Carson's relationship with the team he's obviously had very high-profile n experience and yet from all indications it it appears that everything's smoothly yeah I think that's each individual person responds differently to um how they perceive nil so to assume that it's a problem in a locker rooms 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 and February when you start brand new that uh everybody uh is in a different position uh it's no different we showed 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 know what you have to you get on the field with with Carson what do you feel like the com comfortability factor is with him him having gone through everything he went through last year now having the belief in his teammates that he's gone out and know facing live bullets yeah I was pretty comfortable 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 concern this year in terms of uh his uh ability to execute to understand what defenses are trying to do um he's 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 he Kirby and one more about Carson just the luxury of having somebody I mean it's going to be very unusual going forward in today's college game to have a guy's been around that long um and also just where has he if you seen some progression in him I mean he had a great year last year obviously so much experience but if you seen him kind of take it even a little higher going into his final year yeah he's very comfortable in the offense I think uh you know coach poo 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 appease 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 running backs it's game week now I wonder if you can tell us if tror ATN would be available and how you feel about gr Robinson three freshman 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 suspensions but I'm excited about all the guys that going to get an opportunity to play it back we saw you SEC media days you talked about the meeting depth um long season a lot of injuries Etc um do you feel you have that right now since then or is it just over the course of the Season some guys will step up or as a head coach and does one never feel you have enough half throughout the year the ladder uh with rodri is there any kind of time frame for when they'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 I know you guys are going to handle that internally have those decisions at least been made internally or whether or not they will be a available for Saturday's game like I said we don't discuss those thank you uh coach Clemson's a team that doesn't typically add a lot of pieces in the transfer portal what's the impact of that uh as you get ready to scout for want phone PR there some of these other schools that might pie in the off season 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 Dao 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 in the kids we recruit and I want to grow them uh to get better it's not realistic ISC to think that you're going to keep all your players right now I mean what is realistic is that you need to be operating with 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 fact that they have the guys that have been in the program are in their program yeah with Michel just what have been the biggest challenges he's had to overcome just move into a little bit of a new position how you seen him attack that especially going on through Ball Camp yeah I don't know where that's coming from like he's not really out a new position like all all the things he did last year he's done this year so he works last year at uh outside linebacker in in in individual period and he worked with the 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 the 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 the best qualities and most rewarding quality is Rush and we want him to be able to Rush Kirby you're obviously no stranger Merc Benz Stadium your team was there last December is it fair to say that's an advantage just having been in the building I remember talking to STS mention location of flake clock and some other things they're familiar with and I guess when you go back there how fresh does it seem or does it seem like a a familiar place for you yeah hard to say I mean it's about 5 minutes worth of of value um once the game kicks off nobody's thinking about where they are they thinking about the person their playing against coach you mentioned the Clon offensive line experience they have their defensive front too has a lot of experience very good as well just kind of what you see from those the challeng POS for offensive line yeah you look at it on paper and people say well they only have certain number of defensive starters 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 um 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 with keys and recognition and they play really hard on defense he iach was going to ask about another defensive player obviously familiarity with bar 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 he's a playmaker and uh they got a good one in be coach with Branson Robinson um what do 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 cuz 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 time he had to break away go about things a different way spend 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 in terms of confidence you know he's gained confidence through special teams he's gained confidence through rips um but he he had a good body of work before so it wasn't like he didn't have that entire freshman year where he took a lot of reps um that 2022 season time for one more question Kirby Clemson brings back their lead rusher Phil mafa just what stands out to you about him and really their run game in general 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 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 when you can run the ball than coach