Kirby Smart gets honest on his time at Georgia on the 10-year anniversary of his hiring

ATHENS — Ten years ago today, Kirby Smart was introduced as Georgia’s head coach.

Now approaching his 50th birthday later this month, his hair is a little more gray. His fingers are a little heavier too, but that’s a byproduct of all the winning he’s done at Georgia.

The Bulldogs picked up another championship on Saturday, beating Alabama to win Smart’s fourth SEC championship as Georgia’s head coach.

The Bulldogs have won back-to-back conference titles for the first time since 1981-82. Yet on Sunday, Smart was thinking back on the day he was first introduced as Georgia’s coach.

“Nerves,” Smart said on what he remembers of the day. “Just overwhelmed. I felt like I was just — you know, I was trying to prepare for a national championship, or I guess a playoff game at the time and also take on running a program, which I had not done, and just overwhelmed with who am I going to hire? What am I going to do? Just a lot of nerves."

Smart has Georgia back in the College Football Playoff. It is the fifth appearance for Georgia since Smart took over the program. The Bulldogs have won two national championships and are aiming for a third.

The Georgia coach reflected further on all he’s done in his time in Athens while speaking to reporters on Sunday.

“In terms of the memories, they’re just incredible,” Smart said. “It’s just hard to believe it’s 10 years. All these pictures of my kids are popping up on the timeline and, you know, the aging of myself with the gray hair. I mean, it’s just crazy how fast it goes, but yet how slow it goes.”

The past wasn’t the only thing Smart spoke about on Sunday. The Georgia coach covered a number of topics in his Sugar Bowl press conference.

Below is a full transcript of what Smart had to say to reporters.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart previews Sugar Bowl

On the practice schedule and how hungry this team is for more with some people picking them to make a run...

“Yeah, I don’t know what people are picking and don’t particularly care. I’m a lot more worried about our schedule and how we’ll use this time and I don’t think I need to rush to judgment on that. You know, we just finished less than 24 hours ago, and we’re going to look into it, keep talking to people. We had a couple scenarios, a win scenario last night and a lose scenario last night of schedules, but it doesn’t mean we have to follow it.

“So we’re going to listen to the bodies of the players. We’re going to come in and meet as a staff and talk about areas we need to grow in. Right now, you know, let the kids finish final exams. That’s probably the most important thing, but there’s no set schedule yet per se for us.”

On Colbie Young and the chance of him being available for the Sugar Bowl...

“You know, I don’t know. We went over some injuries today, and his name came up. I think it would be a stretch, and we’re so far off. I was not thinking of being able to get him back when the injury occurred in the initial timeline. There has been some optimism with his rehab and his recovery, but it was more for after the initial game if we were able to advance. But again, I don’t know. I think we’ll find out over the next, you know, 20-something days, we’ll find a lot more out.”

On Gunner Stockton being the only QB in this playoff with a playoff start and how much that experience helped him...

“Yeah, I think it was huge for him. I think it was really huge for the game, you know, at Tennessee, the game at home. I mean, all the games he played this year, he created value through those experiences. Even the second half of the SEC Championship, man. I mean, he played against — number one, those were huge moments. Those were huge atmospheres, but those were really good defenses at Texas and Notre Dame, those two games. The game in the SEC Championship and the game at the Sugar Bowl. So, they certainly created confidence for him. How much that transitions to this year I think is way more about the games he’s played in this year already."

On being introduced as the UGA head coach 10 years ago today and what that time has meant to him...

“What comes to mind thinking about that day? Nerves. Just overwhelmed. I felt like I was just — you know, I was trying to prepare for a national championship or I guess a playoff game at the time and also take on running a program, which I had not done and just overwhelmed with who am I going to hire? What am I going to do? Just a lot of nerves.

“In terms of the memories, they’re just incredible. It’s just hard to believe it’s 10 years. All these pictures of my kids are popping up on the timeline and, you know, the aging of myself with the gray hair. I mean, it’s just crazy how fast it goes, but yet how slow it goes. And, you know, some of it hit last night when I’m pregame and I get, you know, five, six Alabama players that are on their staff or, you know, getting to see C.J. Mosley, who — I had a great bond with C.J., and I probably hadn’t kept in good enough touch with him [before] last night. It got pretty emotional for me before the game. He comes over, gives me a big hug, and we were really close, you know? He was a guy that kind of won that game against Georgia. And to see Ha Ha Clinton-Dix on their staff. So many guys. And then the guys coming back on our team, Richard LeCounte and all of them. It’s the memories and the relationships in coaching. It’s not the victories, and that hits home for me the older I get."

On scouting two separate opponents and if he learned anything from last year’s experience...

“Yeah, we took an approach last year that we were going to prepare for both teams in our advanced scout. We’ll do the same thing. We’ll treat those teams as equals. We’ll have coaches assigned to them. Coordinators will look at both, but we’ll split our staff in half, look hard at both teams, dive into their seasons. You know, we’ll do a lot of research into ourselves and study other teams in the country that were maybe top in their areas. Red (zone) area, third down, two-minute, everything, and just try to, you know, steal the inches and try to get better ourselves. So that’s the way we’ll approach that.

“As far as the practice schedule and how we go about it, not sure on that yet. We’re going to work hard on ourselves, but the coaches will work on the opponent, but I don’t know how much opponent work we’ll do ourselves until we know who it is.”

On the defense’s progress this season...

“Yeah, I watched a defensive staff that had a lot of confidence in the players. And, you know, I get to sit in meetings with offense and defense, and I listened to the defensive coaches explain to the defensive players that we’re going to be really good when we get this right, and you need to trust and believe in the process that we have and get better. And they got better.

“I mean, they weren’t [just] naysayers at the beginning of the season. There was naysayers throughout the season, and, you know, and probably with good reason. I mean, we had, you know, a couple of defensive games midseason and later that we didn’t play up to our standard, and a lot of that had to do with the team we’re playing. But I do think we’re getting better, but we have to continue that. Like, the last thing you can do is think you’ve arrived on defense or offense and not grow. That’s the key point in this window of opportunity, who actually separates themselves and does get better.”

On what he learned about the layoff last year...

“I don’t know that I can provide the layoff with any excuse. I think that’s what the general public and the people on the outside world want to say that the layoff had to do with it. I think it had something to do with a good football team we played against. I think they played really hard, played really physical. Everything we thought about that team held to be true. There’s not a lot that I would say the layoff had to do with that. You know, we were young in some areas, inexperienced in some areas, broke down on special teams, lost the middle eight. Those didn’t happen because of the layoff. We didn’t give up a touchdown and then another touchdown and then a kickoff return for a touchdown right after the second half, start of the second half because of the layoff. I have a lot of confidence in the history of what we do in these windows, but at the end of the day, we got to execute in the game.”

On the chances of injured guys like Drew Bobo and Colbie Young could come back...

“Yeah, they’ll all be on an individual basis. I mean, the hope is to get guys that are injured back and get those guys back available and we’ll see how that goes and where their injuries are.”

On how playing the SEC will help them come the playoff...

“Well, certainly we’ve been in tight ballgames this year. I think there’s been years that I’ve gone to the, you know, the four-team, two-game playoff and didn’t have a lot of tight games and you’re worried about how your team would respond and how those experiences would affect your team in the heat of a moment. That’s not the case anymore. We’ve been in them. But, you know, so have most of the teams in the playoff. There’s not a team in the playoff that you can say has just not been in a tight game or blown everybody out. I just don’t think that’s there. You know, most teams have a loss. Teams that don’t have a loss, they’ve been in some tight ballgames. So I think that everybody’s pretty even in regards to that.”

On if there is a specific area he wants to focus on...

“I wouldn’t say specifically, no ... I mean, I want to look at the whole picture, right? And we’re going to do a deep dive, self-scout, because we’ve got a little time. And when I say self-scout, we’re looking at ourselves, but we’re going to look at outside teams and see what might complement us, what might give us an edge in some area. But I can’t tell you what that is right now because I haven’t even looked at ourselves.”

On the memories of returning to New Orleans...

“Yeah, I think we knew that would be the option if we won the game and if we lost, we weren’t. I’ve been to New Orleans a lot of times in my career. That’s a blessing. This Sugar Bowl is an incredible event. I’ve had the great fortune of playing there more than I ever thought I would. I mean, I spent two years in the ACC at FSU and one of those two was in the Sugar Bowl. So I have found my way into this game, going to New Orleans a lot, a lot of respect for how much passion there is in this game. You know, this game is not about me or the experiences I had in New Orleans. It’s about this team and these players. And this team and these players have done an incredible job of buying into what we’re pushing on them as coaches, things we’ve asked them to do different than last year, and they’ve done all those things. So I’m looking forward to them going down there, this team, this Georgia Bulldog team, and having an opportunity to play whoever that opponent is, regardless of the circumstances of last year with a lot of stuff going on, you know, outside football.”