Georgia coach Kirby Smart reacts to Trevor Etienne arrest, provides spring practice updates

coach you have a opening statement that we can ask some questions please raise your hand we'll bring a microphone around to you just a reminder so live streaming um before we get football you know I know there's a lot of interest in the Trevor situation so from this past weekend uh I would first want to reiterate what I said last week about the kid um I really enjoyed getting to know him I think he's a great kid great person we've got to know his family um he enjoys being coached he's a bright kid uh we push him hard out there and and he really loves the competition but as we also know sometimes kids don't make the best decisions um the older you get sometimes the tougher the consequences are for your mistakes so he's not going to let this mistake Define him uh he's embarrassed he's upset he know he's made a mistake uh it's a teaching moment and we hope he gets better front you know in addition to our University discipline process we've got all the stuff we deal with inside house and he'll you know be be with those same details he'll be um under the same rules that we have in house as well as the university discipline so disappointed in uh his decision making but he is a good kid and U with that I'll open it up for questions Kirby is this a situation where you have to let the legal situation uh play itself out before you decide on any discipline going forward is that already detered some of both I mean some of it has to play itself out we're still gathering information in terms of the report and things but uh some things we know already as usual like I said the university discipline is going to take its course as well as what he has to have consequences for his actions uh from the team so both those things will play out as we gather more information hey coach I'm curious during your time here have you ever seen like during spring practice a player just seems like it clicks or he has a tremendous spring and then that rolls over into his performance in the fall if you have if there's been anybody that might be on that track this spring man it's hard to say it's like a on a Continuum I wish there was somebody I could think of uh you know I thought Carson had a really good spring last year because he you know took more of the ones reps than he ever had and he had a really good fall but I fully expected that to happen with him um Dylan Bell last year had a really good spring and uh thoughta had a good season um you know a couple of the young linebackers we've had where they like had good Springs and then jump forward to that I mean there's a lot of guys I think having good Springs out there right now but only time will tell whether that turns into a great fall hey Kirby uh we get a chance to talk to ja Thomas for the first time today and and to how he's been able to go at it this spring and where he's at kind of in that you know safety competition because I know you guys are going to have one oppos yeah uh you guys are going to have a couple guys today you haven't had as much I'm trying to get some some more faces that they were such a young team um so I asked the choco easy onor and Julio they're probably scared to death uh to come talk to you guys but he's a great kid he's uh we we we we we we recruit him as a size and speed player I mean he has really good size he has good speed um he's fun to coach he is a great kid um he's he he's he he had a first year he played a lot of niichel star in high school more like a sound linebacker walk out in the space we taught him as freshman year really how to play safety that was new for him uh last year I feel like he got to the point that he could he could really understand the defense know it react when you've never seen things from 10 yards and you've only played them two to three yards it's a big change in visual backing up well he's gotten that pretty good he's he's now working some at star with jonell as well so uh I I feel like he's had a good spring this far in terms of picking things up he's competing at two positions so he's a dual trained guy probably getting more mental reps at Star since he hasn't played that and while also getting reps at safety and I'm excited to kind of see him in his first scrimmage the side you to ask about another guy Julian hum guy the rotation going through last year how have you seen him progress over the past year or so and and where is he in in that corner battle how is he assume the role as as one of the veterans there cor yeah well if everybody understands Kamari situation last year Kamari could only practice uh I would say 30 40% of the practices uh during the season so there was uh a lot of available Reps for uh Julio juliia he he did a great job um he uh he worked hard he picked things up he had to increase his toughness he's always been able to run he's always been able to cover but his issues came from knowing exactly what to do people motion things change and I thought last year he did a great job of that he picked all that up he played really big in our Missouri game um and and covered people well kind of a Breakout game there and then he had the unfortunate injury against Old Miss so uh he's had uh a good spring practice so far I hope that continues he's hungry um they got good competition going on at corner you know we don't we don't look at it as two corners I mean we look at it as if there's four corners that can play one of them is going to also play Star and uh they'll all play and the more winning football players we can have at corner the better off our team can be yeah part of the discussion around Julio was also announcing that he was going to end transland ultimately ends up staying here what that process of getting him to stay here look like and in this day and age how prevalent is that how often does that have happen when you have multi-year guys going to try and stay in the program well I think kids get confused I think kids a lot of times um we try to communicate really well with our kids be upfront with our kids but look it's the nature of the beach they turn on their phone and they see other people doing it it becomes a trend it's like a anything else in social media if he's doing it then shouldn't I be doing it in the grass greener on the other side and sometimes they don't know and sometimes they're getting reached out to by other places and uh maybe they shouldn't be but that's just the nature of the Beast and ultimately here that's the only thing I'm concerned with and I don't think that's a story that he was thinking of going in and going back that's just the day and age we live in the the most important thing is he chose to be here and compete and he's got great family um they've sacrificed a lot for Julio to be in the position he's in and they support their son they want him here because they know how we coach and and the thing I like about jio's parents they they they they appreciate the toughness that we coaching with my question about what can you tell us about Daniel Harris and Janelle agero we have seen a whole lot of them some pros and cons a little more about him something you just mentioned about the portal U maybe people reaching out to him how prevalent is Tamp right now I don't know I don't have a phone tap on anybody's phone I don't have a wire I'm not the feds so I don't know uh I can only tell you that when kids come in to see me they they have a plan uh so they did some pre-planning or something occurred but it it's it's really almost impossible to navigate or monitor or police and uh I'll be honest with you I I I don't I don't get real lost over it because the the the kids that that that stay will be the ones we coach and the kids that go uh will have to provide an opportunity for somebody else you know and that's really the way I look at it I don't we try to do the best job we can being honest with our kids and sell what our program has done in the past I tell the story millions of times of everybody's past different and when you get on your phone and you hit maps and you go and put address in it shows you six different ways to get there and everybody's path is different and koi Walkers was very different than ni Kobe Dean so each one s but uh each to each his own but Daniel and jonell are doing a good job uh they're both again second-year player you know it used to be you know it was really hard to play your first year your second year was kind of your year to like start getting in the rotation maybe the two deep maybe special teams both of those guys were able to play some last year um through opportunities afforded a lead we got to get them in um they're both good athletes uh they both sometimes have poor eye control don't look at the right things but jonell is very physical is an explosive football player Daniel's very fast long um so sky's the limit but they're not to the sky so they got to keep improving and I'm excited about where they are they're really good football players if they want to stay here at Georgia and continue to get better and grow and play they have Bright Futures in front of them and each one of them is exciting players K this pretty old now six days old we haven't talked to you since the 2025 scheduling came out I wanted to ask you a of some of the conversations at the spring meetings I know you've been in favor of some of the different models and you want players to see different opponents over the course of their four years were you a little surprised and I guess just your reaction to them flipping the schedule rather than maybe going in the direction of the schedule rotation that we we've heard so much talked about I don't know what alternative schedule you're referencing that we have heard talk about yeah no I I'm not surprised because I mean if they start doing that then there's somebody not going to get get the braw into the deal you know I mean me personally I just got one of the toughest Road schedules in the country I'd like to see it flipped where I got the opportunity for our fan base to have probably the best home schedule ever in Georgia history um so you start changing the model I don't get the flip of the model and uh they they they presented us multitude of opportunities the the most continuity is in doing this for two let's see what it's like let's see how things play out let's see what the cfp becomes how many teams are going to be in the playoff does that designate us to go to nine um does television have something to do with that there's a lot of unanswered questions and to have a little bit of uh uh a little bit of just continuity and know what you're going to get I'm completely fine with that c when KJ buen was committed elsewhere what was the how did you approach recruiting him um you know with not giving up and LS Robinson doing their first Springs yeah they first spring players they're they're they're talented players everything they were advertised to be in terms of being good football players instinctive they both learn well uh they both have toughness uh I think both of them will contribute on special teams because they can run hit tackle um I'm excited about those guys you know the expectation of the outside world is that they're going to set the place on fire we have we had good football players here they're going to go compete with those guys and and uh hopefully earn some ability to play and play in time but um as far as KJ's recruitment I I never I don't I don't I don't see kids as committed to other places because I they're not they're not signed there's no like we we we recruit good football players we evaluate every player the same whether they're committed or not and um if there's interest from them and there's conversation from them and there's uh visits or they come to your campus then you just be very consistent and we're very consistent with KJ the the recruitment never stopped uh and I told him that from the day he committed to the day that he came to us we were not going to stop recruiting CU we think he's a great kid from a great family and a really really good football player so he and Ellis have a chance to make us much better in in the day Anda of college football day and of of college football where you better have depth and you better have players when guys lead these guys are going to get opportunities to play yeah I see another about another freshman Jess J his size really stands out how do you see his sort of development playing out because of that size unique abilities I don't know how his development plays out I think that would be remiss to me to sit here and tell you I know what this guy's going to become I mean no defensive lineman comes in here and just dominates the freshman year I I I don't we haven't had any um I think he can provide depth I think he can get a lot better the good news is he's getting a lot of work with tyram Dawkin out he's he's getting know 40 to 50 reps day which is huge for his development and get better he's not having to sit over there some of the mid years take 20 to 25 reps he's getting 30 to 40 reps and I think it's going to speed up his process and hopefully provide us some depth but you know I'm very pleased with where he is but he's not start next year not with some of the guys we got right now Kirby a couple weeks in Spring practice just what have you noticed about Dante and T Rob and their coaching Styles I think we saw Dante out there with a helmet on during the first day yeah I noticed that too I don't know if that's leg I hope it is cuz he's got a helmet on out there and like an extra player but uh he may need it for safety cuz some of those Corners may be coming after him um but they both had great energy um they they they they they got great relationships with their players uh they're really good recruiters but they're passionate and they have good energy on the field everything that we heard about them and the things we wanted them to come into our program for uh they're here for and I'm really proud of both those guys and how theyve transitioned thus far Kirby what have you seen from Micah so far this spring and just what's the competition at guard look like to this point in Spring well all those guys are rolling Tate's been able to play some Center which has opened up some guard reps um you've got Dylan Micah all those guys competing there at guard and two young guys uh playing playing there so it's been a good rotation um m is a very veteran physical presence he gives us u a toughness and uh uh just a an identity on offense of contact strike and guys on defense know when when Mich comes up on a double team with Michael PS U he's coming with bad intentions and he he's uh he's good to have in terms of that group creating an identity one last question on the uh driving defenses at least for me uh obviously there's been a lot in the in the last year 17 in last 15 months uh involve some sort of speeding or something like that I I just wonder from your perspective how much maybe nil might have to do that you know access to money and and nice fast cars and that kind of thing and in what ways are you trying to address that I know you are I understand you are what what how are you sort of trying to tackle that issue and particular particular yeah I think as everybody in the country shares ideas we talked about it at ACC meetings we talk about it all the time across the country when I meet with other staffs you know what do you do in special team what do you do in offense and defense what do you do what do you do off the field I think that's one of the areas that we've really tried to Target and I think we do it better than anybody in the country I can only speak for my University um but I think we do it better than anybody in the country in terms of Education speakers to your point about the nil you know we've done studies and looked we have more kids with vehicles now than we probably ever have um I can't really say to you know the style of vehicles you could probably make a an easy assumption that more money they have an opportunity to have nicer cars but just the number of players with vehicles is higher um but that's not any excuse for the ability to speed just means we have more opportunities um to have traffic sitations which we don't want can you recap how AR GRE fa last year very young guy at a pital position and what you seen this spring and kind of what you hope to see from him this coming season well his stamina and EIC in practice has improved each and every he came as a freshman talented had an injury couldn't play so then he comes back and he struggled to get through practices sometimes in the spring and in the fall last year he he got better at that he had better stamina he covers down more now he plays with a little more effort um there's times that I still think he gets matched up uh with guys he you know Michel goes with him Damon goes with him jayen goes with him those are great battles for him to get better the top SEC pass rushers he's going to have to go against that's great competition for he Prides himself on being an elite offensive tackle uh and he works that way so how did he play for a red Shir freshman and our league he played pretty good considering he held up and did good things had probably the hardest position to play uh in all the college football and I want him to be better this year I want him to be even better than he was last year like leads and practices hey coach um obviously you talked about some of the other guys in front of uh Joseph um two of those guys obviously being and Warr Bron how great was it to have those guys come back and have some veteran leadership in that group for a very young group as a whole yeah it's great as long as uh age doesn't prevent growth I mean there's opportunities for younger players to come in and grow and get better and I think uh those guys we have to be smart about number one how we practice them the Reps they take do they stunt growth if they stunt growth then maybe we don't get better for the next year I certainly didn't sit on this Podium last year at this time thinking those two guys would be back so the fact they were was a luxury uh in terms of depth um but we still have to get better and if they stay the same they did no good coming back and we've had multiple talks about how easy it is to get comfortable and complacent in these years but they both have a purpose so are they going to have a chip on their shoulder or they just going to sit around and and and and just you know collect I hope they get better I hope they grow I hope they have intentions of moving up and improving their their their draft status and getting their degrees and both of them are on track to do that got time for one more question XF is that something on the rul commit you all have talked about or about kick off changes yeah interesting I saw that somebody texted me that I didn't see it and I thought that came up in our meetings because we meet with the NFL personel they come in and give us a state of the union this is where we are and then we share with them this is where we are we're sharing stats from our game and it was I can't you don't quote me exactly on this it was around 80% of their kickoffs were Touchback and a lot of the NFL people and Personnel felt that special teams were becoming Irrelevant in their game because the punters are Elite hangtime and distance kickers are Elite kicking off if that's not part of the game then why are we doing it okay and how do we do it make it part of the game but yet also make it safer so I don't know our percentages in college football I would guess around 70% Touchback it's slowly getting taken out of our game there's coaches that can see just going to for catch and so I don't know what came out today y'all probably know better than I did I did see a picture of how they're lining them up they discussed that with us that's going to create less violent blows but the way I understood it it was also going to be a reward for you returning it or a uh uh a punishment for you kicking it out of the end zone it's going to promote kicking the ball in the field of play because if you kick it out of the end zone now the ball comes further out so they're going to make it defending they felt like you can't develop players in the NFL anymore without special teams because they feel like young players develop Charlie Warner nocoe Dean their first year they played 10 times more snaps on special teams than they did at their position but those snaps now are irrelevant was a fair catch or a Touchback so if you want to develop your roster you need to have special teams to develop it we feel the same way I developed my roster through special teams the guys last year that started on all the units will probably started a position this year so you need those plays to be part of it but you need them to be safe because the highest injury rate has been kickoff kickoff return P punt return a lot of that soft tissue because you would think collisions but it's more Sprint so you pull and then also the collisions don't kick off kick off return so I think the NFL is the model they know what they want they know what they're trying to do and they're going to it right and then you know hopefully we can start looking into that ourselves if the kickoff is not part of our game thank