Kirby Smart speaks on offensive outlook, defensive mindset for Georgia

Kirby Smart was back on the golf course at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am tournament in Birmingham, Ala. on Wednesday, but before he teed off, he sat down for an appearance on the “McElory and Cubelic in the Morning” radio show. While National Championship winning Alabama quarterback Greg McElory was busy playing in the tournament, SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic asked Smart about the Bulldogs’ own National Championship in 2021 and what the future may hold for Georgia in 2022.

“We talked about the cold hard truths. The truths were, we didn’t play well in the red area, we turned the ball over, we were really bad on third down,” Smart said about the focus for Georgia in the time between its 41-24 loss in the SEC Championship Game to Alabama and the College Football Playoffs. Those were all things we felt like we could control, so we focused on those things. We knew that we had to get better, had to step it up. It was the first time that we had really been tested, and our guys responded well to it. We had some guys that felt like they were out of shape and weren’t ready to play. We really focused on that. I thought that was really big for us to play better, not only in the Michigan game but also the National Championship game.”

Smart’s Offensive Outlook

After the SEC Championship, Georgia would go on to beat Michigan 34-11 in the College Football Playoff Semifinals at the Capital One Orange Bowl and Alabama 33-18 in the National Championship Game to bring home the Bulldogs’ first title in over four decades. From that team, an NFL Draft record 15 players were picked, meaning that there’s plenty of turnover to be had headed into 2022.

“We’ve got to be able to be multiple and do some things,” Smart said about the outlook on the Georgia offense. “We’ve got some experience coming back, but we lost some good backs, lost a couple of good offensive linemen. That’s going to be the case every year, especially if you have a good team. You’ve got to get used to losing good players.”

“We want to be explosive, and we were last year,” he added. “Everybody talked about the defense and it (the offense) got overshadowed. We were top-10 in explosive passes, a lot better than a lot teams in the country at throwing the ball down the field. We did that very effectively because we were able to run the ball. So we have to continue to do that, we’ve got some tight ends that we’ve got to utilize, we’ve got three or four wide outs that are really good players, and we think we’ve got some really good, young backs that are going to help us. So with Stetson coming back and the other quarterbacks that we have competing, I’m excited to see what we can do offensively.”

Defensive Mastermind Shares Mindset

Meanwhile, on the defensive side of the football the losses are a little bit bigger. Travon Walker was selected No. 1 overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Jordan Davis, Quay Walker, Devonte Wyatt and Lewis Cine also went in the first round to complete the single largest draft class of first round defensive players from a single school in history. That doesn’t even include Nakobe Dean and Channing Tindall, two of the team’s top three leading tacklers, as well as Derion Kendrick, the team leader in interceptions and Defensive MVP of the Orange Bowl. All in all, eight defensive players were picked, leaving big shoes for the crew that’s left behind to fill. There’s a mindset and standard set by those that have come before them that will

“I think we sell that what you do affects the other guys. We teach it as a total defense. I don’t think we do anything that anybody else in the country doesn’t do,” Smart said. “We had really good players and the talent did have a lot to do with it because they were really good players, but they believed that if each one of them played well, we would accomplish more. They bought into that. Those twists that you’re talking about, a lot of times the guy penetrating, if the center passes that off too early and he comes off, the penetrator is going to be free. So we sell that any one of the guys could be free. ‘The better you penetrate, Nakobe, the more chance you have when he comes off to take the wrapper that you’re going to be free.’ They buy into that. We sell that. We compared this defense to the greatest defenses in all of College Football history. We didn’t compare them to the other top five teams in College Football. We compared them to the teams from 10, 15 years past, and they bought into that. They really liked the competition and being the best.”

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