Kirby Smart weighs in on conference expansion
Kirby Smart has the 2021 Georgia Bulldogs in a great position in the ultra-competitive SEC, widely considered the premier conference in college football.
With Oklahoma and Texas eventually making the move to the SEC, which has led to a shakeup amongst other Power Five conferences, potential expansion has been a hot topic across the college landscape.
The Georgia head coach met with the media earlier this week and expressed a positive view toward expansion, embracing the challenges that will come with it.
“I think conference expanding is going to allow us to have more opportunities to play more teams,” Smart said. “It’s going to depend on what format the presidents and commissioner [Greg] Sankey decide to go with, but that’s the least of my concerns right now, I promise you that. I don’t know what they plan to do, I’m certainly in favor of being able to play more SEC games because it is good for the league, good for the conference.”
Kirby Smart praises young defensive back
The Georgia head coach used the opportunity against Vanderbilt to put some new faces on the field, and redshirt freshman Kelee Ringo was one, as the Tacoma, Washington native made his first-career start in the secondary. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound defensive back redshirted and missed the entire 2020 season after recovering from off-season surgery, but the former five-star recruit has played in all four games for Georgia this season.
In his first-career start, Ringo had one tackle and two passes defended before Smart began to empty the bench, putting younger players in for the remainder of the blowout. Ringo and the Georgia secondary held both Vanderbilt quarterbacks, Mike Wright and Ken Seals, to just 24 passing yards on five-of-18 passing, and each signal caller threw a pickoff.
“Kelee has improved each week,” Smart said Saturday in Georgia’s postgame press conference. “He’s gained more confidence in our system. He’s cut down on his mental errors, and we think he’s going to be a good player. We’ve always thought that, and we’ve been trying to develop him and gain the confidence he needs.”
Kirby Smart continued
“We need him to grow up and play well. We need Speed. We need DK, Kamari, all those corners,” Smart said of Ringo and the Georgia secondary. “They’ve got to grow up and play, as it’s one of the thinnest positions on our team. We were happy for him, and I’ll evaluate how he played when I look at the tape.”
Georgia will have arguably its toughest test of the season vs. Arkansas on Saturday.