What Was Said: Kirby Smart, Georgia Bulldogs look back on last night's win

LOS ANGELES — Georgia won its second straight National Championship on Monday night, and there’s no doubt the Dawgs celebrated the win well. Less than 24 hours after, Kirby Smart and a pair of players spoke with reporters about the game and the future of Georgia Football. Here’s what they had to say…

THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Kirby Smart and student-athletes Javon Bullard and Brock Bowers.

COACH SMART: Thanks for you guys showing up appreciate the coverage you guys give us. Not as quite a full room as it was last year I guess some of you celebrated last night. Appreciate the coverage you give us and what college football means to so many.

I appreciate these two young men what they’ve meant to our program and all the fans that spent a lot of money to come out here and celebrate us play in a national championship that’s hard to do I have a great appreciation for our players, our coaches our training staff and support staff.

There’s hundreds of people that sacrifice time away from their family to give us an opportunity to play in an event last night. Thanks to the CFP for what they put on and an incredible event certainly appreciate it.

Stetson was supposed to be here this morning how is the young man feeling the day after? And a few days ago you were talking about your season for next year’s start actually today. Are you going to put that on pause and appreciate what you guys were able to accomplish?

COACH SMART: I am concerned about our season next year the entire flight home and things we can do right now what’s important now. W.I.N., that’s our motto.

I know people think that’s unheard of, but you actually have to. There will be time to take off it’s just not today because decisions are imminent. We have several players on our team who stuck it out. Like they didn’t have to.

They could have said I’m going into the portal. We had several guys that said, Coach, I’d like to go in the portal; I’m going to go into the portal, but I want to win a national championship.

That makes me want to cry they did it for the team over themselves and that makes me really proud. That time is now for them the portal is a real thing. It’s a vehicle to go somewhere elsewhere you can be successful.

We had guys make sacrifices to do that. I think that’s pretty cool.

As far as Stetson, I don’t know. I didn’t see him, obviously.

You said somewhere in the run-up in this game it’s human nature to just let down after winning one. Can you talk about that and how do you get to three?

COACH SMART: I really don’t want to talk about three. I mean, it’s human nature to relax. It’s human nature to take the easy route. And I can be as guilty of that as anyone.

But it wasn’t this team’s nature to relax. This team – this wasn’t as hard a job as people made it seem because of the people we recruited – not because of talent, but because of what they were – like the DNA inside of them. These dudes, this team was different. This team was just different.

And every time they were backed against the wall they came out scratching, clawing. Like, if we had a bad practice, we’d have a great practice. They responded to everything. So the team’s makeup – I didn’t talk about this enough last night. Our team GPA was the highest we’ve ever had in, like, 15 years at Georgia.

Georgia’s not easy. Georgia’s hard academically. So when you have people that do well in school, they care about each other – I mean, Georgia’s not getting easier academically – you have a chance at success. And these guys bought into that.

So starting to think about the next one, I do think it’s going to be much tougher. And I do think we’re going to have to reinvent ourselves next year because you can’t just stay the same. Like these two guys up here, they’re coming back.

And we have a lot of guys, in my opinion, that are going to come back and it’s easy to get comfortable. And comfortable does not win.

Because you are trying to build something greater than a one-off championship and just a championship team, you’re trying to build a championship program, does this season, I don’t know, validate – is validate the right word – provide a little more proof of concept that you’re building, that your vision is really coming true?

COACH SMART: It’s awesome. But I don’t want their careers – I don’t want their self-worth or our program’s self-worth to be built on just championships.

I get it. I get that’s what you define Joe Montana on, Tom Brady on, LeBron and Kobe and Michael Jordan, on the number of championships. I don’t want these young men to be defined by that. I don’t want my career to be defined by that because I know tons of coaches and players out there that didn’t get one that had unbelievable careers.

So I never hang a hat or say, you validate. All I want to do is be the best I can be today. And I want these kids to know that they need to be the best they can each and every day so they can be successful. If you measure success based on wins in each day, that’s what I want our success to be measured on.

The question was all week about Darnell. What did you see from him as he was working to Monday night trying to be able to play? And then the fact he was able to play at all, just what it said about Darnell?

COACH SMART: I think our training staff did a phenomenal job. They can do the greatest job in the world, but if the player doesn’t want to buy into that, then it’s probably not going to happen. So he was not able to practice the entire time we were in Athens.

We came to LA. He ran with the team and ran decent on the first day we were here. And then he practiced. And we felt like there was going to be a good chance he was going to be able to play. There was no chance of doing any more damage.

And Darnell is a classic guy that came to Georgia with the sole purpose of having an opportunity at the NFL. He wanted to play in the NFL.

And by the time he left, he was one of the toughest players we had. Missouri, his shoulder pops out, and he will not come out of the game. I mean, he made two probably career-defining catches against Missouri, contested catches, with a shoulder that was hurt and he wouldn’t come out.

LSU, he gets cut. He’s 6’7″ and they cut him at his ankles and shins, nothing worse than that, and he’s waving people off – I’m not coming out; like, I’m pissed off.

And to see that growth and to see him care about winning the game last night, like, he played last night selflessly.

Not a lot of throws targeted for Darnell. It was blocking and covering people up. And that part will always hold a special place in my heart for the sacrifices he made for our team.

I feel I watched you guys morph week in and week out, and at one point you said there was zero overlap for four weeks defensively. What kind of football intelligence does it require to play at Georgia?

COACH SMART: A lot. J.B. will tell you. We spend a lot of time – I don’t know how other people do it so I don’t want to brag and say, we do this or that. I don’t know what other people do.

But I do know at our place we expand the brain. We stretch it and stretch it and stretch it. And then when you need to stretch it more in the game and change something, they have a comfort level with change.

Like, he sits in a meeting every day, we make him talk, we make him communicate, we make him take notes because we think that’s going to be the difference in the end.

And it makes things easier to go from an offense that might be completely different when you’re not afraid to change.

And hey, a lot of talk last night about Stetson and Brock and offense, and this guy is the defensive MVP. But our defensive staff now, Coach Schumann, Coach Muschamp, Chidera, Fran and Tray Scott, they do a hell of a job. That was, I don’t know, fourth, fifth leading scoring offense in the country. Whatever league you play in, pretty incredible.

Obviously Brock’s had an incredible career. We know about his All-American status. And Stetson’s, I guess, legacy is probably the best word. You had a couple of former three-star recruits this year in Kenny McIntosh and Ladd McConkey that you don’t see them getting the All-American honors or the highlights. Can you talk about what those guys meant to the offense this season in terms of leading the team in yards from scrimmage?

COACH SMART: Kenny, I can’t believe he would even be considered a three-star. That’s just disgusting to even think about because this guy is an incredible athlete. His brother plays in the NFL. He’s got great DNA.

Kenny is a great example of our program. He came in as a chubby kid with a great smile, playing behind people and didn’t know how to play on special teams. He left as an alpha leader.

And when he spoke, people really listened to Kenny. I’ve never seen a person will a team to a win like he did in Missouri. The guy was basically running crippled out there against Missouri and pounding people and running the ball. He took over games.

I can remember the Florida game, after the fumble, I’ll never forget the visualization I have of he fumbles and we say, you know what, we’ve got to come back to Kenny. He comes back with a vengeance running the ball just mad. And those memories stay with me forever.

And Ladd’s another one. Ladd’s, thanks to YouTube and smartphones, I probably wouldn’t know who Ladd was because I watched him at a camp just unbelievable quickness and suddenness. And he was beating kids that we were recruiting. I was, like, why is nobody recruiting this guy? What did he do? What did he do to not garner attention? Because all he does is make plays.

And there’s a certain element of you get a full day’s work out of guys. Bull and Brock, when they come to practice, we have to slow these two dudes down. Like, hey, slow down. That’s how Ladd is.

When you have that kind of culture, it makes success come much easier.

Javon and Kirby, when you hear the words “dynasty” with Georgia football, do you think that fits this program now?

JAVON BULLARD: I mean, this place is special. It’s special to all of us. I know it’s special to Coach Smart and I know it’s special to me.

Just growing up as a kid from the state of Georgia, playing for the University of Georgia, it’s special. So the word “dynasty,” it’s something we’re building together. And that was built before us and it’s going to continue to be built after us.

So we’re just trying to leave our legacy and leave this place in good hands.

COACH SMART: What’s cool is listening to the guys in the locker room. That locker room last night, it was first class, as good a facility as there is. Probably the newest NFL stadium, for all I know. You’ve got Jamaree in there. You’ve got Nakobe in there. You’ve got DK in there and Sony in there, and so many guys that played come back.

And they talk about how much they miss it. And I always tell our players, the players think I’m crazy, whatever, we want to get to the NFL.

All you do when you get to the NFL is want to be back in that locker room. I don’t care what locker room you’ve got in the NFL, there’s never that feeling of brotherhood because the guy across from you is trying to take your job.

In our locker room, it’s so different. And to be around that last night, it brings to me that we built something special because these guys want to come back. They want to talk to the other guys.

Monty Rice, he sacrificed everything for our program and unfortunately didn’t get a chance to win one. But I tell them all the time, they’re a part of these because they created the culture that allows us to win it now. And that’s what’s special.

Brock, when did you find out this morning that you were going to be coming here? And for Coach Smart, you’re flanked by a couple of sophomores right there. We assume they’re coming back. But where are you right now with roster management kind of knowing? Are you still actively dealing with, hey, he might go in the portal he may turn pro? Where are you knowing with what you’ve got coming back next year?

BROCK BOWERS: For me I was coming off the elevator. I saw Coach Smart and I started walking to go eat some breakfast. And I got a call and they said, you’re in the bullpen, come to media. I’m, like, okay, I’m in. Stetson is not going to make it. I guess I gotta go.

COACH SMART: He always wanted to be in Stetson’s shoes, so now he gets an opportunity. (Laughter).

As far as roster management, it’s every day. It’s continuous. We know the juniors coming out and you mentioned about these guys. They better be coming back because they can’t come out.

So they better get ready to go to work and they’re going to be some of the key leaders. But we’ll be dealing with it every day. I mean, we’ve been dealing with it – it’s not like it goes away. I’ve been dealing with it a week before, the day of. We were dealing with it yesterday.

We have 19 new guys that started classes yesterday. So we deal with it every single day and it will continue to be that way.

And you respect the process. My saying is you’ve got to be better at the process than everybody else is. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be better at it than everybody else is.

If you’re willing to work at it and have conversations, you manage it the best way you can.

I guess I want to know, I’m curious about the games that Georgia played that we didn’t get to see. Fall camp, when iron went against iron. When Javon and Brock were against each other. One, I wanted to know what that was like. And, two, Coach, how much is that indicative in your stage in your career where hey this is the types of things we do where we know days like today are possible?

BROCK BOWERS: I think like during those spring scrimmages and fall camp scrimmages the offense is going against probably the best defense in all those guys. So that really helps us out in the long run. And I mean it really makes games almost easier than practice. It definitely helps.

JAVON BULLARD: As far as that, let me add something. Offense used to whoop our butt. When fall camp first started offense gave us the business.

But like Brock said, competing with those guys, knowing you’re going up against some of the best guys in the country, if not be the best, like I said, it gives you a sure amount of confidence going into the season because you’re thinking that you already went against the best.

So when you compare it up to other competition, not to knock them down or nothing like that, but it’s, like, I’m going against Ladd at practice. I went against Brock. Like what better can I get from that?

COACH SMART: I love the iron sharpens iron. I told our guys, every scrimmage we had, I said, you think you can get ready to go play teams in our league, you better get ready to play today. Because if you’re not your best today you’ll get embarrassed. You’re going against the best defense or offense you’ll face.

They respect that. Our guys truly respect that. And those matchups even – I go back to the Ohio State week, Tuesday practice, we’re in the indoor, and they were – I mean, I was ready to call practice off. They were going at it.

And it was, like, Jalen Carter came to me said can we do a bet, Coach, we win team run over the offense and whoever wins doesn’t have to run. And the other team has to run.

I’m like, okay, sure, whatever. I’ll go for a game, competition, make it a little fun. I usually don’t like motivation tactics like that because it’s artificial and you have to simulate it every time.

Oh, I thought they were going to kill each other. We had two guys tackle. We injured a back. I’m like, guys, we are going to cancel practice if you all keep doing this. Because they were getting after it.

And those are those legendary matchups. I always liken it to the Dream Team, when they played. And they talked about how those two teams went at each other and Jordan took over. And it was like that in our building.

I’m, like, if cameras could see these guys go at it, Sedrick Van Pran takes so much pride in winning team run. And Jalen Carter takes so much pride in winning team run that there comes a time when you’ve got to call it off. And when you have that, you’ve got something special.

Kirby talks a lot about selflessness and the sacrifice that you guys as teammates will do for each other. Brock and Javon, could you talk about that attitude from the players’ perspective, being in the locker room. I know you touched a ball a lot, but there are times, Brock, you just block. But the players’ mindset, of that culture of being there for each other.

JAVON BULLARD: I know as far as defense perspectives you’ve just got to do your job. Not – just allowing yourself to do too much. You don’t have to be a superstar. This is a help-me, help-you defense.

Knowing what you gotta do and doing that to your full capability, the primary example that comes to my head is (indiscernible) – just knowing, I know Chris Smith is filling the alley, I stay outside. Even though I could probably make that play, it’s not my job to make that play; it’s Chris’ job to make that play. And it seems to be working out pretty good.

Selflessness is the team DNA. It’s one of our DNA traits. We’ve got so many selfless guys in the locker room and Sherman came up to us, and he gave us a speech last night. And it really touched me because he was, like, even if you’re not getting in the game we still need you.

He was, like, we still need you. We need your motivation on the sidelines. Don’t hold your head low. We still need that motivation. We’re playing in a national championship. If one person gets a sack the whole team gets a set. That whole selflessness is really what this team is made of.

BROCK BOWERS: What he said, selflessness and doing your job. We’ve got so many playmakers on offense that everyone is able to touch the ball and make plays. If it comes down to me blocking somebody for my brother behind me, I’ll just do whatever I need to do to get yards, get first downs, get touchdowns, win the game.

Kirby, obviously the quarterback position has always been about more than just athleticism, but Stetson was the extreme example of that. And you and Todd I know both acknowledge that you looked the other way too often. I’m wondering, moving forward, is this going to change the way you evaluate quarterbacks? Are you going to tweak your analysis at all moving forward because of what you just saw?

COACH SMART: I don’t know that it will change the analysis. I definitely put a heavier weight on mobility because of Stetson. I wouldn’t say this year. I mean, it changed for me as he had success.

I mean, last year his mobility was the difference in a lot of games. I mean, having been a defensive coordinator in this league, when you can’t account for the extra element, the 11th guy in the run game – it’s not even the run game. It’s like people pass rush so well now that he’s going to have to make a play with his feet.

Great example last night. I don’t know the situation, whether it was first, second quarter, we go empty, they max blitz us, they bring six on five – everybody does it in college football. We do it. And you can’t block one.

It reminded me of the Auburn play when Stetson had just taken over, they had a free rusher on him, on his outside shoulder. He spins out, beats the guy.

I’m, like, who is that? That’s No. 13. That’s the fast guy. That’s Dee Winters. He splatters people. Your quarterback just took their defensive coordinator and said, you called the perfect call and players make plays.

So does it change our criteria? I don’t know if it changes the criteria, it definitely puts more weight on mobility and that’s a really important factor.

I mean, like a scale of 1 to 10, if Stetson is an 8 mobility, you probably can’t win without a 6 or a 7 because you’ve got to have somebody who can step out of the way and avoid things and his athleticism.

But it’s rare to find the athleticism, mobility, but the mental capacity to handle the volume of offense, which that’s what makes Stetson unique.

Javon, obviously you guys on defense are losing some talent to the NFL, but what stands out to you about the guys coming back on defense in 2023?

JAVON BULLARD: We’re a young group. We knew that coming into this year. But just those guys that are leaving, just a special group of guys. I know a guy who touched me is Chris. I’m going to miss Chris. Chris is like a brother to me on and off the field.

Jalen Carter, I’m going to miss JC. But speaking of those guys still there, we’ve still got a season to play. This is college football. Those guys came in. They did their thing. They left with a great legacy and they left with a lot of pride and we thank them for that and we love them.

But like I said, we still have to play football. And the guys coming back are going to be ready to work come this next season.

You talked about Ladd’s story a little earlier. Javon, a little similar in the recruiting process. How important is the scouting part of this, the ability to see what other programs missed in terms of some of the success stories you have on this team this year and really throughout your entire time here as Georgia coach?

COACH SMART: I don’t think anybody has it figured out. I certainly don’t think we have a secret sauce for identifying players. We all watch the same tape.

The problem is I’ve come to the conclusion there’s very minimal difference between player A and player B. If they’re both starting, both playing, both getting recruited by SEC schools, there’s minimal difference.

The difference is in the hardwiring of that player. And I don’t – we all talk about it we all say I want the right guy. I want intangibles. I want him to have this and that and this and that.

Like, the difference in these two, they hate to lose. These guys hate to lose against each other day in and day out.

And I’ve started saying, you know what, you’re going to sign three D tackles and five DBs and two tight ends. You’re going to sign – sign the ones that can’t stand losing. And the ability part is important.

It’s not to be diminished. But sign the right mental makeup and get people that can develop. And how do you measure that? You can’t measure that just on a phone conversation.

These two guys were Zoom babies. They Zoomed. And this guy sent in 100 videos. We’ve heard about his videos. But Coach Monken Zoomed with him and his coach to sell his coach how we could use him to make him believe I could be part of an offense that hadn’t used the tight end that way. He had to sit on a Zoom. If they sit on a Zoom during COVID, they’ll probably be successful, because most people won’t do that.

In recruiting kids, are like, I’m not sitting on a Zoom talking about that. This guy was sending in videos out in his backyard. He’s got a military background. When you’ve got a military background, you’ve probably got some toughness and some makeup about you that makes you the right way.

And we’ve been fortunate to make some good decisions on kids that maybe other programs didn’t value their intangibles enough.

Kirby, Nolan Smith was pretty emotional last night. What makes your relationship with him unique, and what’s it say about him that his voice was still just as loud when he wasn’t playing for this team as it was when he was?

COACH SMART: Well, my relationship with Nolan is unique because Nolan had a commitment to Georgia that was unlike many others.

He was highly touted, considered one of the best players in the country, debatable always, but he committed to Georgia at an early stage in his career and he stayed committed. Nolan is one of those rare guys that saw the value in being from Georgia, committing to Georgia, never wavering from Georgia, and leading the class. It reminds me of Richard LeCounte where he said, you know what, I’m coming; that’s where I’m going and I’m going to affect others.

He never veered from that. He has some of the toughest DNA qualities I’ve ever been around. The guy – physical toughness. You can ask these guys, he never shuts up in the locker room. He’s like a motor mouth. But people embrace and enjoy him.

Of our captains, he was the leading vote-getter. It tells you that everybody respected him. And he was not playing. And he was going to check out and go train and go work out. I said, Nolan, it will be the greatest mistake of your life if you leave right now and don’t finish this because people will remember how you finished. Whether we win or lose is irrelevant. But the rest of your life you will be remembered, were you a captain, were you there for everybody? Did you stand by this team? Did you impact them in a way without being on the field? Because NFL teams will value someone who can impact their team when they’re not playing.

I told him, the Ohio State win, about 20 percent of that win goes to him because he was over on that sideline never doubting, and just kept preaching. It’s little things like that that make a difference in a team.

I’ve heard football coaches for years talk about finding your why. What’s your why?

COACH SMART: These men. I mean, I know my why every day. It starts with my family. It starts with my wife over there and our kids. And these men because there’s not one thing I wouldn’t do for these men.

And I hate being in that locker room for the last time because that team will never be together again. Coach Richt always touched me when he talked about Paul Oliver, and he talked about this is a young man that ended up losing his life because he felt like he didn’t have somewhere to turn and his career was over and he felt like he was defined by football.

And these guys play football, but that’s not who they are. And I think life’s a whole lot bigger. It’s a lot more important to me that I’m a good father and husband than I am a coach.

And I tell my wife – I texted her last night before the game, I said, I was like I feel like I haven’t been as good a husband and father as I can be because I spend so much time doing this.

And you know what, these men are why I do it. And I do it for them because I want them to be successful. And I want the University of Georgia to have impact in their life like it did mine.

Javon and Kirby, you’re both from Georgia – sorry, Brock – do you all have an appreciation level for Georgia being in this position, two-time defending champions, after years of people wondering whether Georgia would ever get back to this point?

JAVON BULLARD: I know it’s a special feeling for me being a Georgia boy and growing up here, and I know this state means a lot to me. It means a lot to my family. And me just having the opportunity to play here and step on the field and wear that G, it means the world to me. And I couldn’t dream this big. And the fact I’m living out my dream, I give a lot of glory to my God, and I couldn’t be happier. It means the world to me. And I know it means the world to Coach Smart too.

COACH SMART: I couldn’t agree with Javon more. We’re talking coming over here about high school football and how much it means in our state. And we’ll always recruit the nation to find guys like Brock, but we’ll always recruit our home base because it just means so much in our state and it’s been a state starved for success and for something good to happen.

It usually happens in cycles. You go through these cycles of times where you could be successful and right now we’ve got a good thing going and we want more kids in our state to join us because we have a special thing going.