Smart, Players Talk Spring Practice

GEORGIA FOOTBALL VIDEOS

Coach Smart

E. Griffin

N. Frazier

C. Bowens

ATHENS, Ga. – Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart alongside redshirt-sophomore running back Chauncey Bowens, junior running back Nate Frazier and sophomore defensive lineman Elijah Griffin spoke with the media on Tuesday afternoon and offered the following comments.

Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart
Opening Statement
"I'm excited about where our group is, and I've been really pleased with the work we've had. And I'm hoping we can stay away from the injury bug and just keep getting better."

On Gunner Stockton…
"He's great. He's practicing. He had a little off-season injury in our workouts, but he's fine now. He was limited a little bit the first couple days, but he's out there competing, doing a good job. Focusing on things he needs to improve on and competing with those other guys. I've been really pleased with Gunner."

On the offensive line…
"It's a great competition. Look across the board, we were getting three groups, 15 guys, a lot of reps. Sometimes we rotate some other guys in there, and everybody's at a different spot. We talk about it all the time. Your race here is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Each group has things they need to work on, each player does, and the guys are developing at those positions. They're working hard. We're changing up groups. We've got three, four guys rolling in at center, probably seven, eight guys rolling in at guard, and six or seven guys rolling in at tackle all competing for time and reps. I'm pleased with that group. Nobody really sticks out. They're all working hard, and they need to because that's an area that we have to improve in. You gain depth through these practices, so I'm really pleased with the energy and effort that they've done. They've done a good job. We're challenging them to cover down a little better and run by and pursue the ball better.They've had good energy at practice."

On Elijah Griffin….
"Disruptive twitchiness, giving him opportunities to move and beat guys with his quickness and make plays in the backfield. He's very strong for his age. He's very quick for his size, and just being unblockable is what we'd like to see. Playing with a high motor and a destructive attitude. Those are things that are going to make us better up front, the harder he is to block. The one trait that I think I've always found in defensive linemen, and I tell the players is, 'Are you hard to block?' People that are hard to block, number one, they usually make a lot of money, but number two, they also cause a lot of disruption. He's growing into that. I wouldn't say that he's not yet. The better he gets, he's got the capabilities of being an elite player."

On Kaiden Prothro…
"He's a guy that was kind of half semi-receiver, semi-tight end, and most of those guys coming in are. They weren't asked to play a natural tight end position in high school.
[Brayden] Fogle, those guys, Lincoln [Keyes], have all done a great job with Prothro. I think Coach Hartley, Coach Lilly, Mark Johnson, they all coach those guys, push those guys, develop those guys. He's got a way to go to be physical enough to play in our level, down in and down out. He's a talented pass catcher. He's a large target. He has some twitchiness and quickness to get away from press and get off of press, and we're going to keep trying to figure out what it is all those guys do best, and where they are in their progression. I'm just proud of their attitude and their work ethic right now."

On the quarterback room…
"All doing a great job. They've been able to get some reps. We're doing a lot of work around practice to the two spot to guarantee extra seven-on-seven time. I don't think you get better at the quarterback position without reps, so we've been pouring into those guys. We tell them to value every opportunity they get. So many teams across the country can't get the reps we can get from a volume standpoint because they don't have the depth and the pieces. All those guys are getting quality reps, quality work, growing in that room. In between practice days, they're getting 20, 40 reps of walkthrough, position meetings, extra.
When you talk about Buddha [Hezekiah Millender], the two Ryans [Montgomery and Puglisi] and Bryson [Beaver], all those guys, I'm pleased with where they are and need them to keep growing because they're going to get some live looks and some scrimmage looks here coming up soon."

On the leadership of Chauncey Bowens and Nate Frazier…
"Leadership, experience, third down. They don't have a lot of experience, so catching the ball out of the backfield, being better receivers, blitz pickup schemes, yards after contact, and breaking tackles. That's essentially what a back's measured by. What do you get that the offensive line doesn't get for you? That's how you become elite."

On Khalil Barnes and Ja'Marley Riddle…
"Khalil's been great. He's taken a lot of reps at both safety and star. He's very wise, very knowledgeable, very instinctive.All the things that we heard about him have been true. Ja'Marley's not been able to do much. He's still coming off a significant injury. He's doing our walkthroughs. He's mentally in our reps. We've got him 'mic'd' up and making calls and basically playing the game without playing the game, but he hasn't been able to physically do a lot."

On sticking with Zykie Helton throughout his recruitment and the development of Jahzare Jackson…
"Sticking with him was easy because he was a high character, high effort, great program, high school program he played in. What he put on tape spoke volumes, so it was concern of everybody when he was lower on his weight. I don't think anybody would tell you, not truthfully, that they weren't worried about it, but we've also seen kids be very successful here with Crohn's and do things right and control their weight once they had a management plan. He put that in place, and he also put a lot of really hard work on tape. He came to camps. He's a worker. He's tough. He practices hard. He's a bright kid to be around. He loves to practice every day. He's always smiling, it's a joy to be around. Just have a lot of respect for what he's been through as a kid to grow and mature. He's seen some things people hadn't seen, and he's hopefully going to be able to help us when he's fully developed and ready to go. Jah [Jackson] has been working really hard this spring, playing both tackle spots. When he got here, he was a work in progress. He was a size potential guy, but you don't just go play tackle and walk out there and be natural at it. Especially when you get played for four years of high school, so he's had to condition himself. He's had to callous himself in terms of contact toughness. It's a very physical position and physical game. Then, knowledge and understanding our scheme and where his help is, he's gotten better at that. He's improving every day and needs to continue to improve to get us where we want to go.""

On Isaiah Canion and his high school connection with Isaiah Gibson…
"I think it helps having teammates being from the state. Played against a lot of kids on our roster. He's a Georgia kid, so he's been around it. He's dealing with an ankle injury right now. He's been out for a day or two. He sprained an ankle. It's nothing real serious, but he's dealing with an ankle injury. We'll get him back out there as soon as we can."

On a recent viral clip of practice…
"I don't really worry about it much. I saw it. A bunch of people sent it to me, but it's not something we put out. It's something somebody else captures and put out, so I don't worry about it. We don't practice indoors. I don't worry about what other people think about our practices and what they do. I'll say this, that that play in particular, he actually slipped and stepped on somebody's foot, so probably not a fair assessment of him because when you step on somebody else's foot and slip, sometimes you get your -whooped. Then sometimes you just slip, and you're not allowed to slip. It wasn't as bad as it seemed, certainly, but I don't worry about it. There's a certain level of toughness it requires to play football, and that's all for you guys to worry about. Y'all like to capture things and put them out and make them a big deal. We do this every day."

On Robert Edwards…
"Robert's a guy that I have a tremendous respect for. I think he embodies what resiliency is. He is a tremendous person. He persevered so much in his career, not only his career here, but his career post-college. These young men, they're going to be a part of the future of football, and sometimes they want to emulate the guys that played here before them, the guys that played in the National Football League. They don't realize that your career can be one injury away. Robert's living proof of that, and he overcame his and came back and had a successful career. He wants to pour into these young men just like we do as coaches, and who better to do that than somebody that has a track record of overcoming things? He's here for the players to assist him, and I think that's a big draw."

On Cortez Smith and Malachi Toliver…
"Malachi got a lot of reps last year, so did Cortez. Cortez dealt with some injuries. Malachi dealt with some injuries. They both battled back. They're both doing a good job this spring. Waltclaire's [Flynn] working in there. Zykie's [Helton] worked in there. We got a lot of guys working. You can't have enough centers in terms of being able to snap the ball, communicate. [Henry] Peagler works in there, so we're developing those guys. They also are repping at guard because you can't be a one position guy. They're getting work at all positions."

On where he wants to see Elyiss Williams develop…
"I think understand each play. It's dynamic, what's going on around him. Use his size and quickness and become a little more twitchy to be a receiving tight end as well as a physical and dominating blocking tight end. He's a weapon on the perimeter because of his size, but he's also a weapon on the interior because of his ability to strike and roll his hips and be a really good athlete. Very pleased with that group, and they got a great competition going on in that room, like a lot of rooms, to compete for playing time."

On creating explosive plays in practice…
"Sometimes. When you have a 100-play practice, there's explosive plays and there's not explosive plays, so I don't know that I've ever been to a spring that we weren't explosive, and I don't think I've ever been to a spring that we were explosive enough. We're probably somewhere in the middle."

On how the team can be more explosive…
"Everything you just said. Blocking downfield, making holes, making plays. I don't think being explosive is really complicated, right? You have to throw the bal. You have to catch the ball. You have to protect the passer. You have to block downfield. We're going to get plenty of opportunities to be explosive. What do we have to do to see it? We have to execute it. You have to go do it, right? You have to beat somebody in some kind of way, whether it's physically, schematically, fastball, perimeter. There's like a million ways to be explosive. I think everybody in the country wants to be more explosive. That starts with us."

On the importance of explosive players…
"I think we need somebody to pop every year. Who's going to be explosive if it's not them, right? When you look at explosive plays in college football, it's your skill players, right? Have you ever seen a team be explosive without explosive players? I doubt it. Our explosive players in the past have been Brock's [Bowers], Ladd's [McConkey], Dillon Bell's, Zach Branch's. Those are explosive players, and you want to get your explosive players touches. Sometimes that's created through scheme, and sometimes it's created through your personnel and your talent level."

On Larry Knight's impact on the outside linebacker room…
"Still early. He's still developing a rapport and a relationship with him. I enjoy watching him work. He's one of those guys that he'll throw the cleats on, and he'll go out there and compete with them and teach them. Very technical in his process of the way he teaches. I think he's still getting comfortable with those guys because that's not a relationship that you just earn overnight. He's still earning their trust, and they're still earning his. It's a two-way street that I'm very pleased with where it is."

On the impact of Frazier's decision to resign with Georgia…
"Almost every player resigns, so that's not a big deal. That's a big deal to you guys and all that. To get a player to stay, they typically do resign, so I'm very pleased with where Nate is. I'm happy with his progress. I'm happy with that room's progress. We have to break some more tackles in there. We have to find some guys that can play a third down."

On Dante Dowdell and Craig Dandridge…
extremely hard workers. I thought they had really good off seasons. Dante's in a completely different spot than Craig. He's older. He's been, I think it was fourth year or fifth year, He's a senior. He's extremely physical, tough, strong, really quick feet. Can get in and out of the hole. He's had some explosive runs where he burst through the hole. He's had sometimes where he's still figuring things out for us because he's learning verbiage and things, but he's a confident vet. He's a very reliable guy. Hoping to get some play out of him on special teams and also at running back. Craig is going through what mid-year freshmen go through. He's very intelligent. He picks things up really well. He's physically not going to be able to go out there and dominate defensive backs right now because he hasn't been in a weight room long enough. He hasn't been asked to go out there with kids that are three and four years older than him go over there and dominate them, but he's made some plays in the passing game. That's typically where a freshman, you can find a skill set that a guy has that can run and catch. He has that skill set, and he's worked in the slot some. He's worked outside some. He's one of the few guys that can handle multiple positions."

On the development of Isaiah Gibson…
"I'm pleased with that outside linebacker room. They're competing. They're growing. Those guys are getting a lot of work and reps. He's in that group. He's a high effort, really tough, hard-nosed player. He's bounced in between what we call the 'big end' and the 'Jack', and he's playing both of those positions and helping us fill a role. He's flashed at times, especially in the pass rush with quickness and suddenness. I like his energy at practice. He loves the game and he plays really hard.He's continuing to improve."

University of Georgia Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Khalil Barnes

Dillon Bell

Chauncey Bowens

Craig Dandridge

Dante Dowdell

Nate Frazier

Isaiah Gibson

Elijah Griffin

Zykie Helton

Jahzare Jackson

Hezekiah Millender

Kaiden Prothro

Ja'Marley Riddle

Cortez Smith

Gunner Stockton

Malachi Toliver

Elyiss Williams

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