Kirby Smart on Clemson-Georgia Clash: 'It's Going to Be Awesome'
Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart spoke with media Monday to preview the No. 1 Bulldogs' matchup against No. 14 Clemson.
Opening Statement: "Welcome to Monday game week. Our guys got work in on Thursday, Friday, a little bit Saturday and then starting back today after Sunday off on Clemson. Our guys are excited for a great matchup. Looks like we'll get the earliest kick of the day, so it should be exciting in terms of all the people across the country that'll be waking up on the West Coast, getting to watch a great game and really, a great rivalry.”
“A rivalry that when you look back, I didn't realize how many years consecutively Georgia played Clemson for a long time. Just a lot of respect for their program, what Dabo (Swinney) has done, he's done an incredible job. He's got a great culture there, a great environment. You think about their coaching staff, how intact it's been able to stay, how many coaches he's had go on to be head coaches and they do a tremendous job recruiting our state and 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 the same way with him.”
“It should be an awesome environment. I have so much respect for the Kickoff Classic Game, Gary Stokan and his staff. Aflac is near and dear to my heart and has done a tremendous job in our state. And for them to take over this cause, I think it's a great event. To have two teams like this, it's going to be awesome."
On what he is studying about Clemson: "Well, you study the history of the coordinators, and you look 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. The most recent you look at is last year's games, and nobody is exactly what they were the year before, but you don't have any other options to study. You don't have game film of this year. This is the only game that we'll go into without game film of this year, so it all starts to change. But I'm sure everybody across the country is the same way.”
On Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik: "It seems like he's been there forever, and this is really his third year, but he's a great, really good athlete. He's played a lot of football for a guy that age, has the ability to scramble, make plays on his feet, has more weapons around him. I think he's a lot more comfortable now in their offense. You could see that throughout the year last year as you watched the season go on, how much more comfortable he got, especially when they started going to Phil (Mafah) a lot more as their feature back and became a much more physical team. The addition of Matt Luke, who's a tremendous coach, was here with us. I think that makes them even more versatile in some of the things he's going to bring to the table. But Cade has been a great asset for them, and I know he'll be very experienced."
On Clemson offensive line coach Matt Luke: "Toughness. He's got an extremely experienced offensive line. I want to say it's almost 100 starts. I mean, three of the five guys have over 25 or something. That's crazy. Very rare in college football to have a person with more than 25 starts, because that means they've stayed for, at least, they're coming into their third season starting. They've got 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 has got more starts than ours. I know Matt will do a tremendous job. They'll play with toughness, effort. I'm sure he'll add some wrinkles to their offense, but he's a really good football coach."
On Georgia’s running back room: "Really excited about the backs we've got. The guys have worked really hard. They continue to grow and get better. You know, Rod's (Roderick Robinson II) toe is still an issue for him. Any time you go into the new season you're like, 'What do I have?' You don't really know what you have. 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. 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. I felt really comfortable with where our backfield is in those games and doing a good job. I mean, at Georgia we don't like to 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. There's a lot of guys that have had a lot of reps doing those things that hopefully have a great game Saturday."
On Warren Brinson's and Roderick Robinson II's statuses: "Warren (Brinson) looks good. He's practiced every day. We've practiced for Clemson. He's done a good job. He's been out there competing. I mean, he didn't get the 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 his time at Georgia. So, it's not like it's his first go-around in terms of that. And, yeah, Rod did have surgery on his toe."
On memories from the 2021 Clemson game: "It was a crazy game, first off. By crazy I mean there wasn't much offense involved in that game. I think it was 10-3, if I'm correct. Really good defenses, I remember their defense being really good that year. Our defense was really good that year as well, having spent a lot of time on the scout team going against them. Going back to then, obviously it's a very different situation compared to now. It's crazy to see how time goes, how things can change. Going back to then, just remembering how good of a team they are. Them coming in, being ranked. Us coming in, being ranked. How big of a match up that is to come into week one. Now, full circle coming again three or four years later and seeing the same exact thing coming back, but actually being the starter this time."
