Kirby Smart's Press Conference Ahead of Matchup with Auburn
Kirby Smart wasted no time setting off the fireworks during today's press conference. Within two minutes of his opening statement, he announced that JT Daniels will be cleared for this week's matchup against the Auburn Tigers.
He also went on to say that he essentially will not be making any announcements this week about who will be his starting quarterback on Saturday. Georgia released a depth chart today that simply had all three quarterbacks — Bennett, Mathis, and Daniels — listed as the starter for Saturday.
He went on to say that he didn't think D'Wan Mathis played as bad as some would think, that a lot of the things that looked like D'Wan's fault, in reality, were not. He did mention that he felt as if the hit from Bumper Pool fired Mathis up if anything, not hindered his play moving forward.
He did mention that there were a few players banged up, but not critically injured on Saturday against Arkansas. Jermaine Burton suffered a minor shoulder injury.
As for the rotation upfront on the offensive line, Smart said that's something they've been doing throughout camp and he likes the versatility that both Warren Ericson and Trey Hill bring as both guards and centers. If you will recall, Saturday offensive line coach Matt Luke inserted Warren Ericson in at center, placing Trey Hill at right guard and pulling Ben Cleveland. He then flipped Hill over to left guard and gave Justin Shaffer a breather as well.
This is to help alleviate any conditioning concerns according to Smart. He said during the times of COVID, it's unreasonable to expect guys to be in good enough shape to not need a breather. And they will continue to rotate linemen in hopes of giving the team the best chance to win.
Here's the second portion of the presser:
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