Kirby Smart Press Conference Highlights, Updates Headed into Auburn
Kirby Smart had his press conference today headed into the Auburn matchup this weekend. He gave injury updates and highlighted some of the keys to stopping Auburn.
Auburn provides a very distinct set of challenges, challenges that a football team doesn't exactly see every day, nor do they have the ability to replicate it in practice prior to the matchup. Coach Smart addressed some of the same concerns: blah blah blah
"They have some of the most elite speed guys on the perimeter. They do a good job of attacking your perimeter edges, while also pounding you up the middle as well. They have all the runs. " - Kirby Smart
One of those "elite speed guys" Coach Smart alluded to is Anthony Schwartz. Schwartz is quite literally world-class speed. He won the Florida State title in both the 100M (10.07) & 200M (20.41). Both times would have qualified Schwartz for the most recent Olympics in 2016.
Smart addressed Schwartz in particular in today's presser:
"You’ve gotta know where he is, but they do a good job of putting him in a lot of locations. They don’t leave him in one spot. I think awareness is how you handle it, nobody in the country is as fast as that guy. You gotta have ways to put people over the top of him. The good thing is, we aren’t in a track race against him. We gotta go play football." - Kirby Smart
Smart gave his defense a pretty lofty compliment today when asked how they stand out from some of the other great defenses that he's had the opportunity to coach.
"The only thing that really stands out about this defense is their work ethic. They work really hard. It’s a joy to be in meetings with these guys. They are very interactive, they listen, they ask questions. They take on the personality of their defensive staff which is energetic. This group probably doesn’t have the single star elite player on it, that’s not what this is made of. This is made up of a group of guys that buy into doing it the right way and play team defense." - Kirby Smart
The best part about it is, they are extremely young too, with just three seniors in the starting rotation, J.R. Reed, Tyler Clark & Tae Crowder, it seems like everyone can come back.
"You look out there sometimes and you’re like man, everybody that’s out there is coming back. Everybody out there has another year. But that’s the life of college football. Not a lot of guys sticking around for their senior years." - Kirby Smart
As for the Auburn defense that Georgia will be going up against this Saturday, Kirby Smart says it feels like some of the Auburn defenders have been making plays in this league for ten years or so. One of those guys, Derrick Brown is especially talented.
"He’s an extremely good athlete. I mean he was a great basketball player. When you have that kind of twitch and you’re as big as he is you’re just hard to block. He’s been a very disruptive player in this league for a long time." - Kirby Smart
