Kirby Smart: ‘I don’t think we should have won that game’ against Tennessee
ATHENS — Georgia certainly looked in trouble at times on Saturday.
The Bulldogs fell behind 21-7 early and looked defeat right in the eyes as Tennessee lined up for a 43-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining.
But Tennessee kicker Max Gilbert pushed the kick wide right and sent the game to overtime. Georgia would go on to win 44-41, moving to 3-0 on the season.
After the game, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart had a lot to say about his team, taking a defiant tone about those who counted Georgia out.
Below is everything Smart said in his postgame.
Everything Kirby Smart said after Georgia defeated Tennessee
Opening statement
“A lot of respect for Tennessee and the atmosphere that was created here today. It was a great college football game.
“I’m really proud of our guys. We talked about coming in here and conquering this place, which is not easy to do. And when you do something like that, you have to make your own way. You have to absorb blows. I don’t think I had any idea how many blows we would have to absorb, but we did, and we got a resilient group. I think that’s a really good football team we just played. I don’t think we played our best football, especially defensively. Give them a lot of credit, though. They made plays down the field. I’ve got a lot of respect for the quarterback.
“Just some guys to mention. Bo comes in off the bench and plays right tackle. Unbelievable. Gunner took some shots today and stood in there and made some big-time throws. I thought the offensive staff did an incredible job. That’s a really good defense we just played, guys. Outside of probably two drives in the second half where I felt like we stalled out, they did unbelievable. They kept them off balanced, off tempo. Mike and them put a great plan together. Couple special runs that we did not run that really helped us.
“Just all in all a great game, but I feel almost like we have to apologize to them. I don’t think we should have won that game I don’t think. They outplayed us in a lot of ways, but that’s the way it goes. I mean, I’ve had one against them about nine or ten years ago that certainly went that way. But it comes to go.”
On what Gunner Stockton showed him...
“Just resiliency, man. He’s so tough. I mean, he takes shot after shot. You know, I thought he did a good job with the run game — I’m talking about his run game. He saved us on a couple of third downs. IN the red area he made a couple runs. That plus-one run game can be big for us if he can protect himself. I thought he grew up tonight. He grew up a lot. He stood it in there. The fourth-down throw that he made was really good. Protection was better.
“I still want him to trust the pocket and stay in there, but, you know, that’s who he is. I think we’re going to evolve with him where we can scramble and make some really big-time plays if he’ll keep his eyes downfield when he scrambles.”
On what they saw on London Humphreys’ touchdown catch pre-play and Gunner making a perfect throw...
“Pre play? I have no idea. I don’t know what they were in. We were just going to take a shot there. We needed to score fast. We didn’t need to keep milking time. I thought they were defending the sticks and we were trying to get a touchdown, and sometimes you get an advantage when people play the sticks and you’re willing to take a shot.
“There was no guarantee that we were going to get the two. So I was on the headphones the entire time saying, ‘Hey, we need to score quickly because we may have to get the ball back.’ We can’t assume it’s a tie. The two-point conversion was the play of the game because that actually gave us a chance.”
On this being a young team and what it says they won a game maybe they shouldn’t have...
“Yeah, they grew up. I mean, look, the defense for two weeks has heard about how good they are, and they got punched in the face. I did think we played the run well early, and then we started having to make some adjustments to sacrifice some on the run to protect some guys.
“In the past, we’ve played them well. We didn’t give up good plays. Today we didn’t do that. It’s not all on the corners. We didn’t have a guy in the middle of the field. There should be a guy in the middle of the field. They can’t throw that ball there — the first one. We misjudged a ball.
“I mean, they’re correctable things is a good thing, but we really weren’t beat. We just misplayed it. That’s tough to swallow.”
On having a special season where you win some you shouldn’t...
“Yeah, most people, you could say. I mean, I would prefer it not be this early in the season. But, I mean, it doesn’t get any easier from here. Look, our league, I don’t know what’s going on with college football today, this league is tough. Every Saturday, I think games are going to be like that. I told our team I would not be shocked at all if it’s a fourth-quarter game that comes down to one possession, which it did.”
On Josh McCray’s role...
“Big man. He was a difference maker. We thought our advantage was our conditioning. We felt like we were a better-conditioned team. And I really thought there after the first drive of the second half, all right, here we go. We’re getting ready to rock-and- roll and trot them. But they bowed their neck. They’re playoff a football team, and they stopped the run some and forced us to do different things. But, McCray was great today. He was really instrumental. I told him a number of times, I said, guys, let’s get this big guy going. And, of course, Nate had the big run, and then he came in and finished it off. He’s a great complement to what we have.”
On winning five times in a row in Neyland...
“Well, I lost a lot of times in a row as a player. So, I mean, it still sticks with me. I have a lot of memories, good and bad, of playing here. Five in a row is a lot. Going back to Alabama, it’s probably more than that.”
On Gunner Stockton growing up...
“I think it was against him. I mean, I don’t want to judge you by watching the tape. There’s plays in there that can be made. He’s got to settle down and have confidence. The best thing he’s got is his legs. And he’s got a good arm. He’s got to trust his legs. He used them to extend plays, not just run. These guys are fast in our league. He tries to run the sideline, he might only get two or three yards. But if he runs north and south and sticks it up in there, he’s going to find some honey holes in that pocket. I think right now, he steps back. It’s hard to pass through. He goes back and does those things. He’s growing up. He’s getting back on the table. He did now. There was a lot of information. Check this, do this. They had a great plan, I felt like. A lot of those checks and stuff. This crowd, he did a really good job. First drive, guys, that was like clockwork.”
On keeping defensive confidence up...“Oh, they didn’t. That defense group in there, they didn’t lose their confidence. One player may have a little doubt, but that group in there, they think they can stop anybody, anytime. That’s a fun group to be around. They do it in overtime. They thought they were going to block a field goal. They believe, and they’re a confident group. Now, we’ve got to play smarter. But, look, that’s a hard game to prep for. We worked the hell out of our guys to get ready for that game. We probably overworked those guys. It came down to things that we didn’t not execute. We got beaten over top or didn’t make a play. It was frustrating because I thought we would play better defensively.”
On what he told the team after the missed field goal...
“I didn’t say anything. I talked about red-area defense. I talked about what breakdowns we’ve had in the previous drives. I told coach Bobo ‘Hey what works in the red area, let’s focus on what works.’ I didn’t want to do a bunch of hoo-rah at that point. I think the biggest thing is we got to play defense first. And we got to stop, which was huge. We put that kicker right back out there after that kick, which he drilled. And then I thought Mike and the offensive staff came up with an awesome play. We put a play in that we thought was going to help us. It plays off of other plays. And that run they had was a designed scheme run that we got from some NFL teams to really help set Nate free.”
On running the ball...
“Well, that’s who we are. If we’re going to be good this year. We’re going to have to run the ball. We’re not going to drop back 35, 40 times a game with Gunner and be a drop-back past him. We can’t play behind in games. We can’t do that. We have to be able to play action, run, let our quarterback make some designed runs, which he did. It worked to perfection, other than the fact that we couldn’t stop them defensively.”
On seeing plays from Gunner and getting confirmation...
“Well, it was much like that, yeah. I thought that they didn’t play us the other teams did. They weren’t soft in coverage. They got better rushers. They grabbed us a lot. I thought the officials ended up calling some holes, but we kept throwing like we were running by them and they were grabbing us. We wanted to get a heads-up over shots, but I thought the wideouts played extremely hard, played really well, and Gunner made some plays. We probably missed some, too.”
On potentially seeing Tennessee again...
“You just never know in this league. The schedules both of us got are so hard. Who knows what could happen this league? There’s a lot of really good teams in this league. It’s going to be about who can avoid injuries, which they’re down some guys. We’re down guys. We got Earnest, couldn’t finish the second half, and then we have to go to our third and fourth tackle. It’s just crazy, the depth levels. I think we’re going to be all over college football, especially the SEC, and then throw nine games in a couple years. We’re really going to have a hard time.”
On Bo Hughley...“Yeah, I didn’t know they’d make a change. Stacy (Searels) told the headphones he thought that Bo was going to play better. He thought he’d finish stronger than Uini. He was getting a little bit sloppy and a little bit tired. I think we’re going to have to find a rhythm of playing guys. It was hot today. We were worried about the conditioning level. We practiced hard this week. You’ve got to be careful you don’t leave it on the practice field. Some of those guys got tired.”
On the London Humphreys catch...
“I haven’t seen it. I think he caught it over his shoulder kind of. I thought the catch he made on the wheel route on the sideline was even harder. We reached out and got it, but I felt like he faded back into that ball and caught it. I couldn’t tell from where I was if it was bobbled or not, but if you’re talking about huge play, it was bobbled.”
On what does it say about London that he had the game he had...
“What a great kid. I mean, guys, I’ve never met a kid as nice as him. I mean, he is just the most polite, best kid. I mean, he had the fumble last week, and he came over to me in the fourth quarter and was like, Coach, why didn’t you yell at me or cuss me out? And I was like, London, you’re just too nice. I was like, I couldn’t do it. I know that, I mean, he plays so hard on special teams. He’s from the state. You know, he’s playing at Vandy. He’s, I mean, you ought to hear him in meetings. He’s just so intelligent and so hard working that it could not have happened to a better guy.”
On Dontrell Glover...
“Yeah, I mean, geez, you’re talking about a freshman guard coming in here and playing? I mean, incredible. I don’t know how he played. They were saying one of the runs that we thought we should have scored on. We kept having to kick field goals in the red area. One of them, they had a run through, they said it was his. But, I mean, he didn’t come mid-year. Like, this guy shows up, and he played on a great high school program. Well-coached, really well-coached offensive line, and walks in and just starts playing, and he’s natural, picking things up. I mean, where would we be without him right now? He has been a blessing for us. We got to get Juan healthy too.”
On Joenel Aguero...
“Well, some good and bad. You know, he missed a couple tackles there. He had to man-to-man late in the game. It was third down. If we stop him there, we get the ball back, and Joenel works really hard. That game was a little anxiety for him, because he doesn’t like tempo, having to get lined up, thinking and changing the calls. He gets frustrated with that, and he didn’t get to play against them last year. We moved Dan Jackson down there. He played well today. I was really happy he got the pick.”
On what kind of message a win like this sends...
“Well, I think we know who we are. You know, I mean, I don’t mean this directed at Tennessee, but I told our players, I was like, there’s a lot of whistling by the graveyard. You know, a lot of people don’t know what that saying means, but there’s a lot of whistling by the graveyard, and that ain’t who we are. So I’m not saying, I don’t think Tennessee is. They’re physical and they’re tough. But there’s a lot of outside whistling by the graveyard, you know, a little bit of acting like one thing. But we feel like our team is a certain identity, and we’re not going to go down without a fight. We’re nowhere near where we need to be. We’re a long way from being there, but boy, we’ve got some kids that aren’t afraid to fight.”
On what a win like this can do for a young team…
“It gives you confidence on the road. But look, guys, we’re going to be back at home against a really good team. We’re going to be on the road against really good teams. I mean, it can be good and bad. It’s how you take that medicine. And I’m going to make sure they take it the right way, and that we get better from it. We have to improve, and that’s the goal. We want to be on an elevating trajectory, not flat.”
On what he learned about his team...
“I mean, they never say die. I mean, we told them coming in. It was going to be blow by blow. How many could we take? Could we sustain?A nd could we keep throwing back? And we did, but we also cut it way too close. So we’ve got a chance to put somebody away, which I thought we did, we’ve got to do it.”
About the Author
Connor Riley has been covering the University of Georgia since 2014 before moving to DawgNation full-time before the 2018 season. He helps in all areas of the site such as team coverage, recruiting, video production, social media and podcasting. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 2016.
