Kirby Smart summarizes thoughts from Georgia's first spring scrimmage
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia held its first scrimmage of the spring on Saturday, and Kirby Smart walked away from it with positive thoughts about the team’s energy. While it wasn’t all too different from any other scrimmage he’s seen from an on-field perspective with the offense winning some reps and the defense others, Smart was impressed about the way his team approached the day.
“I thought the first scrimmage was a really good energy level, intensity — like, intent to go prepare to scrimmage. It was not lethargic, ho hum. The players had good intentions, good energy,” Smart said on Tuesday, his first meeting with the media since the scrimmage. “It’s a different time start for the scrimmage than our typical practice times of 2:30, 3:30, so I always worry about us starting fast and having good energy. We had that.”
“We’ve got a lot to work on,” he continued, transitioning to the stuff he saw on the field. “Really sloppy in terms of substitutions, getting guys on and off the field, communication, signals. There’s just a lot of new people in the organization. Whether it’s players who are new, midyears who are new new, portal guys who are new new, coaches who are new, it was not as clean as most of our first scrimmages. Some guys did well, some guys didn’t do too well. A lot of anxiety for the midyears.”
There were some highlights however. Smart told reporters wide receivers Arian Smith and Dillon Bell both made great plays. Running back Roderick Robinson put up impressive numbers on the ground – and they could have been better he said. But, to the head coach, with each positive he sees in the offense is a negative for the defense.
“I kind of look at it like, what scrimmage did we have that a skill player didn’t make a player? And what scrimmage did we have that a defensive player didn’t make a play? You guys just hear about it and then a big deal is made. I don’t look at it that way,” Smart said. “Arian (Smith) had an explosive play, but we also had a bust on defense. Was it Arian, or was it the defense? Dillon Bell had a great catch, but Dillon Bell’s had great catches all over the place.”
“I don’t get into it like, ‘These couple guys blew it out of the water, oh gosh, expectations are so great.’ I look at it as, ‘The defense sometimes messed up, we had some sacks.’ Did we have sacks because we have great pass rushers or because the back didn’t block the blitzer? Or we busted and slid the wrong way and cut a guy free. If a guy has a dominant performance, I’m more than happy to mention it. He beat every rep. But we didn’t have anybody do that, have a dominant performance,” Smart continued. “Guys got lucky and fell into plays. As coaches, we don’t look into those and see that as progress. Sometimes that’s taking advantage of what’s given to you, and we had a lot of those opportunities Saturday because we had a lot of busts.”
Georgia still has two scrimmages to go, the second of which the world will be able to see. G-Day is scheduled for April 13th at Sanford Stadium (1:00 p.m. ET, SECN+) where the Bulldogs’ squad will be split into two and battle for offseason bragging rights. But, before then, there’s another opportunity to get after it and continue to improve.
“From scrimmage one to scrimmage two, starting really yesterday but today, we’re moving toward how much can we improve from scrimmage one to scrimmage two,” Smart said. “You usually see immense improvement in guys that just got here because they’re not as nervous, it was their first practice in the stadium. So I’m hoping to see some of that growth this week and into Saturday.”
