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Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart and two players, sophomore defensive lineman JJ Hanne and junior running back Dwight Phillips, Jr., spoke with the media on Monday about their upcoming home game against the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Second-ranked Georgia (4-0, 2-0 SEC) and Vanderbilt (3-1, 0-1 SEC) will square off on Saturday, October 3 at Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. The game will be televised by the SEC Network and it will kickoff at 12:45pm ET (Buy Tickets).
Matt Schumacker will call the play-by-play, Aaron Murray will provide analysis, while Taylor Davis will report from the sidelines.
Below is a transcript of the Vanderbilt press conference which was provided by UGA.
Opening Statement…
“I have a lot of respect for Clark [Lea]. He’s one of the best voices in our room. He does a lot for college football. He’s super intelligent, and I enjoy the friendship I have with him. I respect the job he does for all of college football and the SEC, and the way he represents us on different things. But we’ll start getting ready for these guys today. They’ve got a great program, a great team. They arguably should have made the playoffs last year with the record they had and the teams they beat. He does a tremendous job there, and they’re really a physical football team, made in the same mold with a defensive coach as us.”
On Vanderbilt QB Jared Curtis…
“He has tremendous talent and is way better athletically than people give him credit for. I don’t know if one person has tackled him yet. He’s strong, he’s quick, he’s powerful, and he’s got great arm talent. Everything that everybody thought has been true.”
On the value of playing Oklahoma…
“I think there’s value in the opponent we play every day at practice. We get a lot more reps during the week than we get in games, so I’m a big believer that the quality of those has to be at a high level to make the ones in-game more efficient. The ones in-game matter, too, and with the ones against different opponents, you just don’t get enough looks at it.”
On strong starts for both sides of the ball…
“Our turnover ratio has been better. It’s probably the biggest difference. We’ve taken more than we’ve given.”
On prospects committing early in the process…
“No one’s committed until they’re signed, so I don’t see it as a challenge. I see it as they’re not committed because at the end of the day, they’re not bound until they sign something or they enroll, and that’s just kind of the way it is. I don’t really look at it as ‘What’s the challenge of keeping them?’ They’re not yours. They have an option to go to other places. You also have an option to not keep them.”
On WR Thomas Blackshear…
“Thomas has been afforded the opportunity because he’s worked really hard. Isaiah [Canion]’s injury and his absence has given the ability for a lot of guys to go over and play some X and develop and work. Thomas had a good camp. He was dealing with a hand injury there for a while that held him out, and he really was just coming back from that, going into the Arkansas game. But Thomas has worked really hard. He practices really hard. He practices really physical. I’m excited about the future that he has here.”
On WR London Humphreys…
“I’ve seen consistency, high level of character and toughness and just his overall character and moral aptitude. He is a great human being that loves this place, loves football, sets a tremendous example. Never too high, never too low. And he’s fast. He’s a weapon. And I’m very proud of him. Continue to get more opportunities. Continue to take advantage of down-the-field throws. I mean, there’s all kinds of things he could probably tell you he could improve on, but it’s not his attitude.”
On RB Nate Frazier and the running game…
“I’m really proud of those backs. Bo [Walker] and Nick [Peal] and Jae Lamar all picked up the slack in practice, got reps, got work. Obviously, Chauncey [Bowens] and Dwight [Phillips] got the feature presentation of most of that, but those other guys worked tremendously hard as well. As far as Nate, I’ll just defer to the injury report like everybody else does. That’s why we have one.”
On DL JJ Hanne…
“First off, you all are in for a treat because JJ is a wonderful kid. He is one of the most positive, optimistic, hardest working, cover down, run to the ball, play with the right energy, tenacity, never walks on the field a day that he’s discouraged. He always has a smile on his face, and I think his experience in life puts him so much further ahead of other kids who might take for granted an opportunity like this. He does not.”
On JJ Hanne and DL Valdin Sone’s European backgrounds…
“I would say soccer. I would say natural talent. They both have size and speed, so that has a lot to do with it, but the soccer background seems to be a common theme as long as you have toughness, too, and they have that. They have physical toughness along with good athleticism.”
On RB Dwight Phillips, Jr. waiting for his opportunity…
“It says something about his character. He’s had some opportunities. Last year, he flashed and had some really good plays, and he’s gotten some opportunities when guys have been dinged up, but he’s one of the consistent guys in the room in terms of work ethic. He has an elite trait, which is speed. He works really hard at special teams. I was more proud of the tackle than even the run because he’s worked really hard on that. He got opportunities in the past on special teams that he maybe wasn’t ready for or didn’t capitalize on and it bothered him, and he worked really hard. He’s taken thousands of reps to get that one rep that he covers down there and makes a tackle on the best punt returner, probably in the country or maybe in the conference, and he makes a big play. But the run, we’ve seen those things before. We’ve seen those at scrimmages. We’ve seen those against our defense, and we know the caliber of player and even better person that Dwight is.”
On DL Jordan Hall…
“Jordan’s fast. Jordan’s always been fast. He can run. He cares. He’s a great effort player. We have the same effort counts twice in this organization, and he embodies that. He just gives great effort. He runs to the ball. He leads, and I appreciate how hard he works.”
On facing running quarterbacks…
“It’s always important that you tackle well. It doesn’t matter if it’s a running back, a receiver, a tight end, or a quarterback. You’ve got to tackle well. We’re going to play mobile quarterbacks the entire year. Tell me somebody that’s not mobile that plays quarterback. I don’t know if there is one. They’re all mobile, they’re all athletic, and they’ve all got good arms, and they’re all good players, and they’ve all got good teams. It doesn’t change what we have to do each week.”
On the Vanderbilt defense…
“They’re athletic. They’ve got twitchy guys. They’ve always had really good defensive players, in my opinion. They do a good job. They’re sound fundamentally, play really hard, and he’s got a defensive staff, but he’s also the head coach. He’s a defensive guy. He does a good job of it.”
On Gunner Stockton sliding…
“I don’t know if it’s more dangerous. I think you’d have to probably do a study based on injuries, how they’ve done it. With Gunner’s baseball background, I’m going to defer to Gunner and what he feels more comfortable with. One, you’re giving yourself up and you’re losing yards because people don’t realize how far it goes back when you start the slide. The other, when you’re closer to a first down, you want to be able to go headfirst and get every yard you can as you dive forward. I’m not a trainer or an exercise scientist that can tell you which one has more risk of injury. It probably has a lot more to do with who’s coming at you and what their speed is.”
On DT Josh Horton…
“I think Josh Horton was a good player last year. I think he is a good player this year. I would say that he is more comfortable in our scheme, and he is a year older and typically when you’re a year older, you’re a better football player than you were the year before. I do think he’s playing better. He understands how we practice, he understands how we do things, and he was really active the other day.”
On former Georgia coach Ray Lamb…
“Ray Lamb one was special for me because he was here during the era that I played, and I went through trials and tribulations just like every player does. Self-doubt, playing time, just not having your parents here. He was like a second father to me and a lot of players. He was a father to a lot of people all across the state, in terms of high school football players that didn’t have a role model, that didn’t have somebody to stick up for them and above all else, the wins and the losses, just the man he was. I was a Graduate Assistant here and went to eat lunch with Dan Pitts at The Varsity and it was the highlight of my week to go eat with those two guys as a young coach and be around somebody that was a mentor, a Christian man, just a great human being. He worked on Jim Donovan’s staff, he worked with Ray Golf, he worked with Mark Richt. Nobody felt like he was loyal to one person. He was loyal to Georgia.”
On DB Demello Jones…
“I told him to go play and have fun. Demello practiced really well last week. It’s very important to Demello. You can tell that by the way people practice and so I want him to go have fun.”
On DB Justice Fitzpatrick…
“I don’t think he wants to be compared to his brother. He’s a great kid. First of all, he hasn’t been able to practice that much. He’s been able to do more recently, but I’m not going to compare or talk about his practice habits until he really can practice, and he’s still working through that. I’m excited about his demeanor, the way he approaches things. He’s very serious and very workmanlike.”
On his favorite Varsity order…
“I don’t even remember. I really don’t. Probably a mix of chili dog or chili cheese hamburger, something with chili on it. I like the fact that I didn’t have to pay then.”
On passer-receiver communication issues against Oklahoma…
“I wouldn’t say communication issues. I would say coverage dictates some things, and that can create communication issues. But sometimes it’s just mistakes.”
On the offensive line’s performance against Oklahoma…
“They were physical, tough, like we expected, hard-nosed. I think the complement of run, drop-back pass, play action, pocket movement, helps them. We have a lot of plays that we can run. When you have that, you’ve got things that complement your offensive line and allows them the freedom to not have to constantly drop-back pass, not to constantly have to do this. That group practiced hard. They played hard. There were things they could have done better. A lot of things they could have done better, but a lot of things they did well against a good defense.”
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