Kirby Smart makes it clear this position group needs to get tougher coming out of G-Day

ATHENS — G-Day has always been set up to highlight the passing offense.

Which makes the play of the Georgia wide receivers coming out of G-Day all the more worth following for the Bulldogs.

Georgia was without two veterans, as London Humphreys and Sacovie White-Helton did not play on Saturday. That put more on the plate of Georgia’s younger wide receivers.

While some made plays, Smart wants to see more from the group. Especially if the Bulldogs are to reach their lofty goals.

“That’s an area that’s going to have to be — if we want to be explosive and do what we want to do next year, we got to play well at that position," Smart said following spring practice. “And I’m very pleased with the progress of that group. But they got to grow up with mental toughness and physical toughness.”

The play of the Georgia wide receivers wasn’t the only thing Smart discussed following G-Day, as he shared his thoughts on a number of areas.

Below are Smart’s full comments following the Georgia spring game.

Opening statement

“Yeah, excited for the Dawg Walk today. A lot of guys — I think, like, 40 or 35 or something, new guys — went on Dawg Walk that have never gone before. I was excited for them. I thought our fan base was really good out there and had good energy, and that creates a little anxiety for our players, which is really good for young players.

“Happy and pleased with the spring overall. I thought we had a good spring. I thought our guys got better. We got probably more reps than we’ve ever gotten before in terms of 1s, 2s, and 3s on a full body of work. We had more snaps today than we’ve had in spring games in the past. So I was pleased with that. The tempo the players had, it was 65 and 63 (snaps). We’ve been averaging around 120 for that game. Really happy for the players that they were able to do that. Got to play a lot of players today. At times it was sloppy and I get frustrated with in terms of trying to execute, but sometimes the heat has something to do with that, too. We had a little hotter day today. Our last two scrimmages have been usually cool. The guys had to push through today, and we actually got less reps today than we got our other two scrimmages.

“Pleased with the progress of the team. Got a lot of youth in this team that continue to grow up, and we’re going to have some guys be able to help us next year. Excited for the next step. The next step for us is to continue two weeks of weightlifting. We’ve got football school, which we do and take guys back through the install, and then we’ll crank up in June. So, with that, I’ll open it up.”

On Jaden Reddell...

“Yeah, he had a really good spring. I would say he was probably one of the most explosive, most improved players. He played twitchy, he played fast. He played with a chip on his shoulder, and we had not seen that before out of him. He probably had three or four incredible plays throughout spring practice. He was just really consistent. He’s improved blocking, and I can’t even tell you what he did today because I didn’t really — I mean, it’s hard to keep up with, but I can tell you throughout spring, the other 14 practices, he’s been great.

“He’s created a lot of competition in that room. That room has complete players in that room, and they’re going to really battle it out, and we’re going to have to find ways to use them.”

On getting different QBs run today and his evaluation of their play...

“It was a different kind of game. You know, they don’t have the run game as their friend in that game, so it’s like we put more pressure on them. We’ve got more two-minute situations, we’ve got more passing situations to put pressure on them to make decisions, to play with their feet, you know, and the defense knows that, too. They crank up the rush, and it makes it a little tougher.

“Overall assessment, I’ll reserve until I actually watch it. You know, we had a couple errant throws, and typically when you overthrow something into a split-safety coverage, you’re going to get interceptions, and that happened a couple times. The good news is we were able to make those plays defensively. In the past, sometimes we’ve dropped those interceptions.

“But guys did some good things. Gunner (Stockton) did some good things, and wideouts made some plays. So that was good experience for that wideout group.”

On Dwight Phillips Jr. getting bigger and contributing...

“Yeah, he had a good spring. He was very explosive. He and Jaden were the two guys that were probably most explosive. I don’t know if he got any bigger or not based on his size, but he’s 185 pounds and he runs really hard. Dwight’s one of the most prideful kids I’ve ever been around. I think (offensive coordinator Mike) Bobo and (running backs coach Josh) Crawford every day pointed out how much effort he played with and how much toughness he played with. We got to do a good job keeping him healthy because he’s not as big as our other backs, but he was the most explosive back of the spring, and he was a really big surprise.

“It’s always cool to me to see the guy that is playing hungry versus the guy that’s, you know, maybe not playing hungry and just kind of getting by. He was really hungry.”

On Tyriq Green...

“Yeah, Tyriq’s a football player. I mean, he could go play tailback if he needed to. That’s what he did in high school. He grew up playing football. He’s instinctive. He understands things naturally. He does not talk a lot, but he listens. He’s very intuitive as a defensive back. The transition to corner was really easy for him, and, you know, we’ll continue to progress him and see where we need him the most. Because, you know, there’s a chance that he can go out there and help us at either spot next year. We’ve got to make sure he grows and continues to get better.”

On Amaris Williams’ injury...

“I don’t know how long he’s out. I mean, you never know how long it is with the ACL. You know, George [Pickens] was able to come back and play. He had a similar injury. We would never put a timetable on it. He doesn’t want to put a timetable on it. He wants to do what he can to recover and get better. It’s unfortunate because it’s a noncontact, and I think — I counted — we’ve had eight or nine in 11 years maybe, seven or eight in 11 years, and all of them but one have been noncontact. That’s the way those are. You know, they’re usually deceleration injuries when you’re stopping or starting, and his was very much that way."

On the pass rush this spring...

“In terms of pass rush, we’ve had some guys really grow, get better. We’re going to have to get some help from our youth, too. But, you know, the pass rush is something that’s done as a group, not as one person. Chris Cole stepped it up a lot this spring. Some of the young guys have helped out, and we’ve gotten better push in the middle of the pocket. You know, (Elijah Griffin is) not the same player he was last year. He’s giving us some push. I mean, it’s something you always want to get better at. But I’m very pleased with where we are.”

On Nate Frazier leaving the game after one play...

“Yeah, precautionary. He had an ankle coming out of the last game and he came back from that and went through all spring, and then that first carry he reaggravated that ankle. So, we held him.”

On injury updates on Demello Jones and Raylen Wilson...

“Demello played all through spring. He had a pull last week going up for a ball. He had a soft-tissue injury, hamstring. And then Raylen had a knee during spring that bothered him, and we shut him down. He ended up having — I don’t know what practice number it was. But we needed those other guys to get a lot of reps, and Raylen was there for support in helping them."

On what he learned about this team this spring…

“They enjoy it. They compete. They’ve worked hard. I mean, we probably had one day that I wish I could trade in because we had a hot day early that they did not handle well, and then every day after that, they really compete. They come out and compete. And we’ve got a lot of guys that are either new by way of portal or new by way of midyear that I think are going to be able to help us. So, we’ve got to keep getting those guys ready.”

On how quickly Khalil Barnes asserted himself...

“Oh, he’s right away. I mean, he’s smart and instinctive, veteran football player, played a lot of snaps. So, he’s been a Day One guy that can go out there and play — plug and play."

On Zayden Walker’s injury...

“Yeah, Zayden had a shoulder repair, very typical of spring practices. He’s going through that and he’s worked hard to get in shape, get back. He was able to do some stuff in black shirts the last couple practices. He’s running full speed and just waiting to get cleared.”

On Braylon Conley...

“Yeah, he’s going to be a good player for us. He’s done a great job.”

On Ellis Robinson’s injury...

“Ellis had an ankle sprain and an MCL sprain in practice and he’ll be back rolling here in a week or two, ready to go. He just wasn’t able to go today.”

On Drew Bobo’s recovery...

“He’s good. He’s working out, doing all his training and he’ll be cleared to do some work in early summer. But, you know, it’s a rep count thing with him coming back.”

On Dante Dowdell...

“Yeah, he brings energy, toughness, size, speed. You saw him out there today. He flashes with some really good toughness and had some flashy runs. You can’t have enough backs in the SEC. And I thought he did a good job with the opportunities he got. He’s a great kid to be around and he’s blended in that room and worked really hard.”

On Juan Gaston...

“Well, he can play inside, he can play outside. To be honest with you, most of our guys do. There’s not an offensive line that we have that doesn’t take reps at multiple positions. So, Juan plays left, right. Earnest (Greene) can do left, right. Jah (Jackson) can do left, right. I mean, we put those guys guards, flip it over. You can’t practice without that. When you practice like we do, everybody’s got to play everything. Plus, we walk through and we flip you over from your opposite position to get walk-through reps.”

On Cortez Smith...

“He was more consistent with his snaps, which is critical. You know, we got to have, you know, we learned last year, you know, you got to have two centers. Sometimes you got to have three. And he’s going to get more work at guard and provide some depth there and continue competing at center. And I was pleased with his growth and his leadership.”

On the offensive line...

“That’s hard to say. I mean, they didn’t... got a couple scrimmages. We look really good. I think if we’re going to go where we want to go, we got to get in better shape. We got to be a little more dominant in the run game, which that’s not an observant of today because we didn’t get an opportunity to show that today. But some of the time, we got to get movement. When things get hot, things get sloppy, it’s a lean-em-up game. And, you know, I don’t like the games when it’s sloppy and hot. I want to see it when everybody’s playing fast and fresh. That’s why some of the time we go inside to compete at a faster level. But we can be as good as we need. We got good talent on the offensive line. We got to create some more depth. I’d like to come into fall camp with nine guys that can play winning football. And I don’t know that we’re quite there yet.”

On the young wide receivers...

“Yeah, they got to grow up. I mean, there’s a lot of hype, talk about group there. There’s not the substance of toughness where they’ve shown it. But it’s a talented group. I mean, there’s guys there that can make plays. I think you saw that today with guys making plays downfield. CJ (Wiley) made a play downfield. Talyn (Taylor) made plays downfield. Craig Dandridge made plays downfield. (Kaiden) Prothro has been working in the slot and giving us depth there. So we got guys that can make plays given the opportunity. And Gunner can get the ball to them. So that’s an area that’s going to have to be — if we want to be explosive and do what we want to do next year, we got to play well at that position. And I’m very pleased with the progress of that group. But they got to grow up with mental toughness and physical toughness. And then they got to actually go show it. Because it’s different doing it and talking about it.”

On Kaiden Prothro...

“Yeah, well he didn’t play all over the place. He played the slot. And that’s kind of the only place he played because we wanted him to grow in that position. We think he’s a mismatch. He’s really an elite catch radius guy. He put that on display today. And that kind of summed up his spring in his ability to go make plays on the perimeter. He’s a matchup problem. But it doesn’t always help you. Because if people don’t play man-to-man, he doesn’t get that. He’s got to learn how to play the position, which is when they drop zone, where’s the hole? What is my route structure? Where does the quarterback need me to be? Those are finer points that he does not know. But he knows how to see ball, catch ball. It’s just not that easy just to go out there and throw it to him.”

On the backup quarterbacks...

“You know, it’s interesting. I saw days that each was like everything. I mean, they all had their day. I mean, Buddha (Hezekiah Millender) had some days that you were like, man, Buddha’s playing good. Then the two Ryans had days that they really played well. I don’t know that any of the three of them were so consistent to be able to say, well, he’s the clear two, or he’s the clear this. It just wasn’t that way. And Gunner had good days and bad days. But he’s the most consistent in terms of making the right decision with where the ball goes. And that’s, you know, half the battle at quarterback. Do you know where to go with the ball? Then can you get the ball there? And then when all else fails, what can you do with it? And Gunner’s been the best at when all else fails, what can you do with it? He’s got the most experience. But the other three, four guys have done a good job. Look, Bryson Beaver’s done some good things when he’s had an opportunity to. We’re fighting like hell to get him all the reps we can each and every day in practice. That’s where it’s hard to get that many guys reps.”

On Hezekiah Millender...

“Oh, man, I think the scout teamwork he did last year is so valuable. People think that, like, well, if you go down there with the offense, you get better. Well, if you go down there with the defense, you get better. I mean, I saw Stetson Bennett grow up down there. I saw some guys go down there and really grow up. And he was with us almost every day last year. And you see glimpses of that ability when he’s out there playing quarterback. And I’m like, man, I’m so glad that he had to stand in there and make throws with rush coming at him because he made a couple really good plays today.”

On Zykie Helton starting on the offensive line...

It’s the same decision that every position does. I mean, we have 14 practices to decide who started every position. So, we put the guys out there that practice and play the best. I mean, he earned that."