Kirby Smart on scuffle after win over Florida, KJ Bolden targeting ejection

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Tensions ran hot at the end of the Georgia-Florida game, as players were separated while the clock expired.

Coach Kirby Smart, who played in the rivalry, wasn’t all that bothered by what he saw. He knows what it’s like to play in this rivalry.

“A lot of Georgia kids out there for them, a lot of Florida kids for us,” Smart said. “Rivalry games, I mean, at that point the game was over. There wasn’t a lot you could do. You’d do all your talking and play them before the game.”

The end of the game was not the only subject on Smart’s mind when he spoke to reporters following the 24-20 win over Florida.

Below is everything the Georgia coach had to say.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart recaps win over Florida

Opening Statement…

“Yeah, opening statement is, this team just won’t go away. I mean, first of all, I want to give a lot of credit to Billy Napier who assembled this roster, and he’s got a bunch of good, tough, physical players. That’s one of the biggest defensive lines, offensive lines we’ve played against, and they match us very well from a physical standpoint, and they’re hard to defend. They did a good job up front, stopping things, they made it tough, our kids are very resilient. Another night in the SEC. I don’t know what else is going on in the country right now, but when you play in this league, every game comes down to the last two possessions. I thought we managed that well. Play of the game is obviously the fourth down, one or two, whatever it was stop, and that made the difference in the game. We knew they had four downs, because it was a three-point differential, he wasn’t going to kick a field goal there. I wouldn’t have either. The defense made a huge stop, offense had a great drive, and then defense came out with another big stop. So a lot of credit goes to the players, they’ve gotten better throughout the year. We’re a beat-up football team with a lot of injuries, so looking forward to getting ready for next week.”

On the fourth-and-1 stop in the fourth quarter…

“Yeah, two big plays. They went with their identity runs; we went with our identity defense. It was man-on-man, striking people. They’re really physical up front, I think their back (Jadan Baugh) is one of the best backs in the country. He’s from our state, and he’s really good, and for us to be able to stop him, that was a huge stop. I give a lot of credit to (defensive line coach) Tray Scott, (defensive coordinator Glenn) Schumann, they game planned for short yardage. We took some chances there, and it paid off.”

On if he was surprised Florida went for it on fourth down in the fourth quarter…

“Why take the points? Yeah, they take the points, it’s six. Three to six does nothing for you. You tell the other team you need a touchdown. He did the right thing. You’ve got to go for it, go win the game. Three to six (points) does nothing, you just tell the other team, you’ve got four downs to score, instead of thinking about a field goal.”

On what he saw from Gunner Stockton today…

“I mean, he’s a gamer, right? He plays better as the game goes on than when he has to. I didn’t think that he played his best game. I think they did some good things defensively. They’re really tight coverage, very different than Ole Miss. I mean, it just was a different kind of defense. The way they attack him, I feel like we could run the ball, but we didn’t run the ball as efficiently as we have in the past. That’s every quarterback’s best friend. We did hit a couple of explosives that were big for him.”

On what he saw from Chauncey Bowens in this game…

“Yeah, it was great runs. I mean, I’ll be honest with you, Nate (Frazier) could probably make those runs, too. I mean, Dwight (Phillips Jr.) could make those runs, (Josh) McCray could make those runs. Let’s give credit where credit’s due. Chauncey did an awesome job. I thought that the check on the run for the touchdown was the second biggest play of the game, because Gunner saw something, changed the O-line, picked it up, and it’s really hard to run that, it’s hard to defend that play with them stunting the line as they were doing. It was a great check by him. Our O-line picked it up beautifully. We work on that really hard, and the ball wound back, and Chauncey was rewarded with a great run. So I was really proud of him, but that was a good job. And then the toss sweep iced the game.”

On what he saw from Chauncey Bowens this week…

“Chauncey’s one of the most consistent players on our team. Chauncey’s number one, a great kid from a great family, from a great school. He loves getting better. He’s happy for his teammates. He’s really talented. He’s in a talented room. It’s hard when you share carries, because they’re sitting there with really one healthy back and one other back, and he’s getting all the carries. And then we got three, four guys that I’ve got a lot of confidence in in that room. I hate it for (Josh) McCray and Dwight (Phillips Jr.), because they’re really good backs. But they’re a good run-stop team, so they made it hard on him.”

On the injuries on defense and how they patched it together…

“Well, we patched it together because we had to. I mean, we have some depth on the D-line. I don’t know, Jordan (Hall)’s injury is something to do with his knee. I don’t know the exact injury. Demello (Jones), something to do with his elbow. I don’t know how severe it is. And then Chris Cole, something to do with his knee. But I didn’t get a report before I came in here, so I don’t know. But that puts us a little bit down at several positions. We have to have guys step up and get ready to play. It’s all over our league right now. Florida was that way coming into the game with a lot of defensive guys they got back for this game.”

On if Florida did anything that he didn’t expect…

“That’s a confusing question for me. Anything I didn’t expect that they did, I mean, they ran their offense for the most part. I think they simplified some things for the quarterback and tried to speed it up so he could go play and not have to shift motion. But they still ran parts of their shift motion. They still ran some of their staple plays that are very similar to ours. They’re really talented and hit some shots on that.”

On if he got an explanation on Gunner’s false start…

“Yeah, it’s a mechanic thing that they think that he’s overdoing the clap, which is, I mean, whatever. I mean, y’all are film guys, go show every time he’s ever clapped in his career. He overdoes it all the time. I’m like, ‘Gunner, quit gyrating before you clap, because you’re telling the defense when the ball’s being snapped.’ He did the clap on that play exactly like he did every play. But it got called, so we honor the call.”

On how valuable it is that his team is so resilient…

“It’s better than the alternative, isn’t it?”

On CJ Allen’s play tonight…

“Man, I wish he was out there every play. I mean, he’s a machine. He erases things. Ball gets out, (Florida quarterback DJ) Lagway looks like he’s about to go. And I was like, he looks like he’s going to run for a long way. And CJ runs him down and tackles him right away. The kid practices so hard and wants to win so bad for Georgia. I don’t know that I’ve seen a kid that cared more about the team performance than CJ does. Now, a lot of people care about it. They’re not willing to practice like he does. He practices so hard that it comes across in his play. He’s a great leader, and I appreciate the work he puts into it.”

On Gunner Stockton’s kneel down at the end…

“We got it fixed this time, right? To a lot of bettors’ dismay, we fixed it.

On the long pass to J. Michael Sturdivant…

“I saw a wide-open guy. We had busted coverage. So we got a guy that’s supposed to be in the half. He got the wrong signal and played the wrong defense. We had nobody back there. We were insanely lucky that, number one, he didn’t score, he didn’t catch. I didn’t see anything. I don’t know. I can’t tell you, man. That’s what it is. That’s their job.

On finding the run game in the second half…

“We committed to it. We ran the ball well in the first half, in my opinion. We had several runs that were five, six-yard runs that were good. And then we tried to throw the ball on the perimeter a little bit, and they got us on the perimeter some, and we had the holdings. The biggest difference in the game, we wasted either two or three possessions on penalties that you just can’t get the snap and two holdings. Just wipe out three possessions. And if you take those three possessions and score on one or two, then we’re kneeling the ball in the fourth.”

On Zachariah Branch…

“Yeah, I certainly envisioned him having a major impact. I didn’t know that it was a career high for him. He’s a weapon, a guy with elite quickness, toughness. He’s another one, too, now guys. When he goes to practice, he practices for real. He goes out there and works hard, and he showed players, CJ Allen and Zach Branch, and say, you wanna play good? Practice really hard. It pays off your conditioning levels high, and I thought Zach did an awesome job.”

On Zion Branch…

“I don’t know, I have to watch the tape to see. I mean, he had a big play on the first play of the second half, came out above and made a tackle on a boot. Great play, got beat across his face in an over, was tough right there. They threw Eugene Wilson, but I mean, the guy practices every day. The guy goes out there and works his tail off. So he practices against really good players, his brother. He got him man-to-man with some guys. He’s gonna be a guy that continues to grow and get better for us. I was proud of his poise to go in and play with he and JaCorey (Thomas).”

On the KJ Bolden targeting ejection…

“I never even got to watch it. I’ve gotten to the point where what does it matter? I didn’t say, well, ‘Is it targeting? Is it not?’ I’m like, OK, KJ’s in, we’re doing this. KJ’s not, then this is what we’re doing, and they gotta make the call and see. So I guess it was, that’s what they look for. So I hate it KJ, ‘cause there’s nothing intentional about it.”

On closing out this stadium with a win…

“Yeah it’s big. I don’t think it’s because it’s the last game. It’s because it’s the next game. I mean, it has nothing to do with where we’ll be next year or any of that. I told our guys, we got guys that won’t ever come back here. We got guys that for the next two years, they will not play in this venue. So they’ll be playing somewhere else. But really good football team, and I don’t think anybody would wanna play them regardless of their record.”

On finding ways to win late in games…

“I don’t know. I’m out of it. Does it help, or doesn’t it, I don’t know, I don’t believe in playing with fire. But if I could just write the script and say, yeah, let’s go up by 14, let’s go up by 21, I don’t write the script. So the script kind of plays out. I know that our kids are not uncomfortable playing from that. They don’t get chained to a scoreboard. There’s people that play chained to the scoreboard. Our guys are free of that, and they just play to the team and keep chopping. To keep chopping makes some good things happen. I do think we’re very well conditioned. I do think our guys believe in winning in the fourth.”

On transfer Noah Thomas…

“Proud of Noah. He’s worked really hard. I thought (offensive coordinator) Mike (Bobo) and them schemed up a really good play for him. It wasn’t like a one-on-one, go beat him. It was, he’s overcoming the player early in the game where he ricocheted off of it. And then he got a pick, and he made up for it by making a hell of a play with a guy coming at him, taking a free shot on him, on the whole shot.”

On the fight at the end of the game…

“And a lot of Georgia kids out there for them, a lot of Florida kids for us. Rivalry games, I mean, at that point the game was over. There wasn’t a lot you could do. You’d do all your talking and play them before the game.”

On winning this rivalry…

“It creates confidence, I mean, it’s a good team. It’s the next step in the puzzle. Look, I have a lot of respect for their staff. There are families on that staff that I’m good friends with. (Florida offensive coordinator) Russ Callaway, his dad, helped me get a job at Georgia. (Florida offensive coordinator and offensive line coach) Rob Sale, I live, I basically play golf (with), best friends with, (Florida defensive coordinator) Vinnie Sunseri, who I coached and love Vinnie to death. And I feel for their families because in this profession, that’s what happens. And they continue to get their players to play at a high level. It shows what kind of coaches they are and how much respect I have for guys that have the ability to do that.”

On the field turf…

“Didn’t notice it. I felt a little soft, like spongy. But nothing that, I think guys slipped and fell a lot. I think it was that opening kick, Peyton certainly did.”