Kirby Smart makes sure to avoid getting ‘reprimanded by my mother’ in celebrating Auburn victory
AUBURN, Ala. — There was no downplaying the win from Kirby Smart after the 20-10 win over Auburn.
The win, Smart’s 10th against rival Auburn, meant a lot to the Georgia head coach.
“I’m proud of those guys in the room,” Smart said. “It was emotional for me because of my father being from here and a lot of his family went to Auburn and just proud of our staff.”
Smart didn’t just speak on his emotions following the win, as he touched on a number of other topics.
Below is the full transcript from Smart following Saturday’s game.
Everything Kirby Smart said after ‘emotional’ win over Auburn
Opening Statement...
“Opening statement is a tale of two halves. Our kids never quit. I’m proud of our kids. I’m as proud of this team as I am probably any team ever from the performance. We did not come out and start fast and play well. They outplayed us. They played with momentum, tempo, run game. Stopped us running the ball in the first half. Frustrating, but the kids never quit. That’s never been more evident than a punch out on the goal line, which we practice all the time. Raylen and CJ, whoever did it, it was an amazing play. They’re not in until they’re in. That’s our saying, ain’t in until they’re in. There were some long faces over there. The kids did a great job. Really electric atmosphere to play in. I thought at halftime, the coaching staff did a great job allowing the kids to have some confidence. The drive before the half kept us alive. I think we were the stronger team in the fourth quarter. That’s what we pride of ourselves on. Really proud of these guys.”
On what he told his team after the game...
“I’m not allowed to say that. I did that a while back and got reprimanded by my mother. I’ll use some better judgment this time. Just tell them that I was proud of them. There were some guys in that room who played hurt, injured. Bo continues to play both sides. Micah is hanging on by a string. Monroe went out on an injured ankle. Drew Bobo came back from a place that he was committed to once. It meant a lot to me to have these players go out and play the way they did.”
On how the coaches instilled confidence at halftime and what adjustments were made...
“Zero. Strike blockers, play blockers better. Tackle. We changed a couple things, but they were minor. Things you guys wouldn’t understand, no offense. It was just complicated. At the end of the day, if you win first down, it gave us a chance to win third down. We don’t win first down. I think we had five or six third and one or twos in the first half. You’re not stopping a quarterback run team on third and one or two. You’re just not doing it. Teams don’t stop us. You’ve got to get them in third and long. We were able to do that better in the second half.”
On the explanation he was given as to why the fumble before halftime wasn’t a TD...
“I never got an explanation. Of course, it took the longest I’ve ever seen. All I was told was someone saw a clear recovery, but they said he was down. I still don’t know he was down. The official said that he was down. Not the official that watched it, a different official said that he was down when his back was over the guy’s legs. I saw the ball from the sideline jostle out. I couldn’t tell if it was across the line or not, but I didn’t know who got it. Then Kyron popped up with it way downfield. There was no explanation.”
On how big it was to get that turnover just before the half...
“That’s huge, right? It’s 7-3. It’s a 10-point swing. Seven for them, three for us is a 10-point swing. That’s a huge swing in the game. Look, we didn’t just get given a field goal. We had to go get it. When you start on a one-inch line and you sneak one, you bust a run out, you go two-minute, you operate well with no timeouts and have a chance to score a touchdown and kick a field goal a little over a minute, I was proud of those guys. That gave us juice and life.”
On Gunner’s performance and his ability to keep his composure...
“He’s got composure. It’s never been an issue. Composure is my issue, not his. He’s got great composure. He’s got poise in the pocket. He’s tough. He takes hits. None of that surprised me because he’s got it, right? We have to play more effectively in the first half.”
On the final long TD drive and what that says to him about the offense...
“That’s really who we are, though. We don’t have these explosive plays. I’ve come to the conclusion, yeah, I want them. Yeah, we’re going to scheme for them. We’re going to put them together. We’re going to keep doing it. We’re going to try them. We’re going to throw the ball down the field. We’re going to hit Noah. But that’s who we are. We’re a stay out of third and long. We’re going to run the ball. We’re going to hit a quick passing game. We’re going to use Gunner’s legs. We’ve had several of those, if you think about it, these long drives. The problem is we’re having them on defense, too. It’s hard. I felt like the first half, we spent the whole, 20 to six, I don’t know what it was. Time of possession was way out of whack. I’m okay with that. It’s your identity. But you need to play really good defense behind that kind of identity. And we played okay on defense. It’s crazy how good we can play at times and how poorly we can play at times.”
On shutting Auburn out in the second half...
“I guess it’s the second time we’ve done it. I mean, really the third if you count Kentucky and the guys that were in the game, right? So, I don’t want to say there are no adjustments. Schumann and his staff do a great job. They made some different calls. But in awareness of what they were running after an off week, they hit us on some things that, honestly, we didn’t rep. We had to rep them and we had to get it fixed. We got it fixed. But we played blocks and tackled people better. And that’s football.”
On why he thinks the first halves have been so rough for his team...
“I don’t know. I wish I knew. I mean, I would tell you if I did. I asked the team that question afterwards. We’ve got to get it solved because it’s hard when you’re this style of team to play catch-up. It’s not really who we are. But we’ve got to get better.”
On winning the game despite not having a great rushing night…“Yeah, I don’t know. That stat, maybe it’s misleading. I don’t know. I’ll look to see how we are efficiency. I know we took, how many sacks? I know one or two. I don’t know how some of those things operated in there. But it was not the running game that we’ve had in the past. And theirs was, right? So, we showed them the stat that eight of the last ten Auburn-Georgia games were won by the team that rushed the ball more. And that wasn’t the case tonight. I still think we’ve got a good running team, a good stop the run team. I think they had a really good plan. Some of their rushing yards were perimeter things, rockets we call them. And that hurt us. It wasn’t direct runs.”
On the Georgia defense bouncing back in the second half....
“Awesome. Like, like, the reason they did is because the offense possessed the ball. I mean, the fourth down stop for us and them it was, you know, you go back and forth should be gone for it should we not should they have gone for it should they’re not both teams kind of sputtered on offense and defense started to take it over and it was, you know, it’s a tough decisions made out there. We’re going for it or not kicking this long field goal or not. Three to six margin on a field goal ain’t a lot, but I didn’t have much choice. And so I had to play the game with the confidence of the defense. And he probably was the same way.”
On Zachariah Branch...
“Yeah, that’s that’s a little misnomer because those are run plays. I mean, those are not, you know, those are RPOs that if you’re talking about the ones on the perimeter, he caught Dillon blocked really good for him in burst. I mean, those are runs and that’s, that goes as catches, but that ain’t, that’s not counted as a catch. That’s a run for us.”
On Noah Thomas...
“Yeah, I you know, everybody makes a big deal and that kid has worked so hard. He is in the huddle every game talking to defense, special teams. He’s full of energy. He practices so hard. There’s not one thing that he’s not doing right. And we have got to do a good job... And we did take some shots to him tonight. I thought he could have came down with the one, I thought was close to a PI. You know, we’re trying to find ways we did have a PI. So you have one that was a PI and one that wasn’t. And those were both passes for him. And then he had the over route he caught that he almost scored on. So we’re gonna do the best job we can to give those guys shots. We got to protect it. And keep our quarterback upright. And he’s got to hit him.”
On what the win meant to Kirby Smart...
“So much goes into these games, guys. I mean, we got another one next week. So much emotion and so much energy. And this one was special for me because my dad, I took Andrew today to a little small town called Slapout Hopewell, Alabama, they built a baseball field with my dad’s name on it. And they wanted to take me over there with a trooper and an escort. I said, Nope, I’m just taking me and Andrew. We’re gonna go look at my dad’s field is named after him and where I was born. A trailer behind a high school with two teachers that didn’t have anything coming out of college and we loved it. And to go back and see that field where he was. And, you know, I mean, I grew up coming to Auburn. So this place has always been very unique to me. And they play on the video board me talking about Jordan-Hare. So I’ll give them another sound bite. You know, it’s a great place to play. They can keep playing me here and show their recruits that that’d be real good. But I’m proud of those guys in the room. It was emotional for me because of my father being from here and a lot of his family went to Auburn and just proud of our staff.”
On the field being named after his dad...
“They named it a couple years ago. He helped build a baseball field there a long, long time ago, late 70s. Won a state championship and I wanted Andrew to see it. So we went and just he and I went over and took a picture and had a good time together to try to get my mind off all the emotion and drama built into these games. A lot of pressure. I mean, I got a lot of respect for Hugh guys. Hugh is one of my good friends. And we talked before the game about, you know, what does it come to that, you know, I mean, you feel like you’re playing for everything every week. And it’s a game that we all love. And there’s 130 of them. This is 131 now. Now, there’ll be another one next year. I’m just happy for these players that they get to enjoy this.”
On what changed offensively in the second half...
“We just wanted more snaps. I mean, I don’t know how many snaps we had on offense before that last two-minute drive, we just wanted opportunities. We’re three and out whenever we had one little drive going, we get to the sack on a misprotection deal. So, it was tough, but it wasn’t about taking more shots. It was just being efficient. That’s who we are. We’re a 5,7,8,4,5,7,8. That’s why we have 17-play drives. We have a coaching staff that puts together a good plan and go operate it. We’re just not a dynamic, dynamic offense right now in terms of vertical speed and throwing the ball downfield.
On the stoppage where Smart appeared to be calling a timeout...
“Yeah, they’re clapping. So I told him before the game, if these guys clap, it’s a penalty. They can’t clap because it will fault snap. I’ve lost games on that before in the stadium. And I told him I said they clap. I want to tell you, I got somebody in the box watching every play. They were clapping. So I ran over to him and said they’re clapping. They’re clapping. And he thought I called timeout. And so I wanted to make sure he understood. Go lip read, because I’m screaming, they’re clapping. They’re clapping. I didn’t need a timeout because we were going to get it off before the shot clock. It was 2,1. We’re going to get it off before the play clock ended. And I didn’t need a timeout. It was the fact that they were clapping. I wanted him to call it because it’s a penalty.”
On what he said to Gunner on the touchdown...
“Go down. We won the game. So they’ll be sending people to investigate that one because that’s a three to seven. It’s a three to 10 score. But we were thinking slide slide. He didn’t hear us say that we told all the players that we’re gonna get the ball. And Gunner thought we meant if we score, we win. And I was saying if we slide we could snap we could kneel the ball out. They couldn’t stop us to end the game. So we had to go out and play those defensive snaps for no reason. That’s another analytics.”
On Zach Branch and Josh McCray...“Yeah, I just love those guys. They’re both guys that came in here from other programs, really good programs and love, love Georgia and competed. I wanted them to get a taste of this atmosphere and be able to enjoy they both played well and did good things for us. But really proud of this team, guys. That’s the message. Nothing else needs to be said. And then how hard these guys played in the face of a tough crowd and tough adversity. We need a better atmosphere than that next week by our fans.
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.
