CFP National Championship:
Georgia vs TCU
Saturday, January 7, 2023
Inglewood, California, USA
SoFi Stadium
Georgia Bulldogs
Coach Kirby Smart
Press Conference
Q. How were you able to prepare for this time around
preparing for the national championship? And also
what did you learn about your team this year coming
into this season and how you guys were able to grow
and get to this point?
COACH SMART: We learned a lot about our team. It’s
one of those things I think every year you do. The journey
is what we do this for.
You think about this time last year, who we were and who
we are now, it couldn’t be further from the same team, just
very different mental makeup, physical makeup, very
different path to get here.
But the journey is what it’s about. And these guys have
everything we’ve asked. I’ve just been so pleased with the
mental makeup and the character of this team. They’ve
embodied everything we’ve asked them to do.
It’s funny, now you start making plans for next year of what
you’re going to do when you get back and when you start
workouts. We were doing the same thing this time last
year and had no clue who we did this for.
Q. Couple things about recruiting. You’ll go after the
best players in the country, but because you have
such a good recruiting footprint around you is there
something strategic about your decision to reach into
a Texas for an AD Mitchell or reach out to Brock
Bowers? In other words, is it more than just they’re
the best players so we’re going to get them?
COACH SMART: Well, nobody new who AD Mitchell was,
what AD Mitchell had to an offer. AD Mitchell was more of
a workout tape that he kept sending us. He’s a unique
situation. He’s very different than Brock. Brock was
recruited nationally, really highly. But every situation is
different.
Our footprint is really good. When you look at the MVPs of
our last game, Stetson Bennett and Javon Bullard, neither
were very highly recruited. They’re in-state players, really
good high school players.
Look at Ladd McConkey, he was an in-state kid. Wasn’t
highly recruited. Our footprint is what our footprint is. We
go after the players we think fit our culture. And that’s
more important than where they’re from.
Q. One quick follow-up on that. We hear about
Georgia’s highly rated recruits and developmental
program like TCU. Aren’t all programs developmental
programs to a certain degree? When you hear that,
what do you think?
COACH SMART: Don’t all programs also recruit? I think
it’s — the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It’s a
narrative that gets put out there. But I tell our players
about it all the time. Our best players on our team are not
our most highly rated players.
We’ve got four or five guys that were not — they’re really
good football players. TCU has a team full of really good
football players. And I watch those guys play and the way
they play is so much more important than worrying about
high school, who cares?
Our players respect football players, and they respect
football players on our team, whether they were a 2 or 3
star and respect players on the TCU’s team, whether they
were.
Q. You guys lost 15 players to the draft and 13 to the
transfer portal last season. Which player has stepped
up the most this year after losing a large pool of
players?
COACH SMART: There’s no way I could name one.
That’s impossible to single out one guy. I think a lot of the
guys that contributed last year improved, meaning they got
better. So they made themselves better.
And a lot of guys who didn’t contribute at all contributed
this year. That guy over there got better. He was a major
factor last year. Kenny McIntosh, to me, was a major
factor last year but he got better.
There’s a lot of guys that played last year that got better
but there’s even more that didn’t play that put themselves
in the situation to be helpful for our program.
Q. Update on Darnell and Chambliss?
COACH SMART: Hopefully they’ll play. That’s really hard
to say. We haven’t done much since then, since we’ve
been at home. I’m hopeful those guys are able to play and
help us. Those guys want to play. I promise you that.
Q. How much more difficult has it got to coach
defense with each season? We saw the high-scoring
semifinals and you being a defensive guy does it
frustrate you when you see scores like that in a
semifinal setting?
COACH SMART: I don’t know if “frustrate” is the right
adjective, but there’s something along those lines. You
feel, okay, when is good defense going to be played in a
semifinal or a final for that matter. I mean, I don’t know.
Football has evolved to where offenses are definitely
ahead of defenses. It just seems to expose itself more
towards the end of the year.
I don’t know if anybody can put a fingerprint — I’m not trying
to put a fingerprint on it right now, trying to stop the next
play, trying to score on the next play on offense.
But I think it is a thing. I just don’t know what causes it or
what allows it. The conditioning levels may have
something to do with that. And offenses have been ahead
of defenses. We have seen a lot of high-scoring games.
Q. With the entire football community being affected
by the Damar Hamlin injury, what were your initial
thoughts on it? And have you addressed the team
about it?
COACH SMART: Yeah, definitely. First of all, I have
children who play sports. And that injury happens actually
in hockey and baseball probably more often than football.
But it scares me.
Thank goodness we have Ron Courson who is almost a
30-year athletic trainer, athletic trainer for me. He
immediately reached out to me. We were studying,
watching tape getting ready for TCU. He reached out and
told me we need to address it with our team.
So the very next morning, first thing we did is we brought in
a mental health specialist, we brought in an athletic trainer,
we brought in a team chaplain, and we prayed. We also
addressed it from a mental health standpoint.
And then Ron educated players on exactly what happened
and how rare, but it can happen and you have to have
people in place to save lives.
What an incredible job they did on the scene to make sure
that he has an opportunity to recover from it. So the
education piece was important to us to ensure our players
that safety measures are there.
Q. And the last question, when he came to, his first
words were, “Did we win?” Now is that something that
you can use as a motivational factor going into
Monday, seeing what this player, what his teammates
mean to him?
COACH SMART: Yeah, I don’t think we’ll use that as the
motivating factor, but it just helps along, is a great sign.
Certainly happy for he and his family.
Q. You’re a perfect one to ask this age-old question.
Is it harder to get there or harder to maintain?
COACH SMART: It’s hard both. There’s nothing easy
about winning football, successful football programs. And
it’s harder than it’s ever been to maintain. And it’s harder
than it’s ever been to get there.
It’s just culture with all the things on the outside that we
deal with now, it’s harder than it’s ever been. That’s why
you see shorter coaching careers. You see coaches with
the ability financially to step out because they don’t love it.
You see a lot of different things.
But I can’t say whether one’s easier than the others. You
don’t use comparisons in that regard. They’re both really
hard in their own right. Sustaining, maintaining versus
achieving and climbing the mountain, both difficult.
Q. And I talked to Greg McGarity yesterday, the AD
that hired you. What do you remember about the
interview? You were well-prepared obviously but this
was going to be the opportunity of a lifetime.
COACH SMART: I don’t remember much. It was, I knew
Greg. I knew a lot of people at Georgia. I knew President
Morehead. I had a class with him. So it was a situation
that I had prepared for for a long time. But I don’t feel like
the decision was going to hinge on an interview. It wasn’t
going to be one of those, do you answer it wrong, they
wouldn’t have been talking to me if they weren’t interested.
I was really consumed with my position I was in and
making sure I did it right for the players where I was
working. That’s so important to me that you don’t put your
career ahead of your team’s.
Q. 20, 30 years from now when you’re playing golf
with your buddies and they ask you about Stetson
Bennett’s legacy to the program, what will you tell
them?
COACH SMART: Well, I got a long story to tell you, I can
assure you that. You think about the things he and I have
been through, decisions made. I mean, from the
recruitment process to his official visit to what will happen
Monday night. I mean, where to begin?
It will be a long round of golf because there’s a lot of history
there for he and I. And I’m just appreciative of the way he’s
handled everything and really what he stands for.
Q. What’s the vibe with the team thus far? You guys
are here, ready to complete the mission. What will it
take to come out victorious?
COACH SMART: Well, the same thing it does in every
football game — who can control the line of scrimmage,
who can be explosive, who doesn’t turn the ball over. The
game never changes. You just have more cameras here.
You have more people viewing, bigger stage, a lot further
away from home. But football’s football.
And our guys prepare for that really all year. So we’ve got
to go play a really, really good football team and we’ll have
to play one of our best games of the year to be able to
compete.
Q. Have you all used the word “repeat” around the
building at all? Have you all said it?
COACH SMART: No. I mean, it’s never about that. I
mean, we’ve never said “repeat” or “defend.” We hunt,
and for us we want to be staying on the aggressive side of
things.
Again, I’ve been a part of so many years where I came off
a win, that that wasn’t the narrative. This team is not that
team. Next year’s team won’t be this year’s team. So
they’re completely independent of each other, just like
every game is independent of the previous.
We don’t dwell in the rearview mirror. We try to focus on
what’s ahead.
Q. I was actually fortunate enough to speak with Mike
Leach a few weeks before he passed. And he was
telling me a story about recruiting you as a young
student-athlete at Valdosta State. What do you recall
about that? And can you speak to just the way his
aura is going to hang over the sport going forward?
COACH SMART: He was at Valdosta State and my dad
was a high school coach. So we were about an hour and a
half, where I grew up, from the program he was at. There
were a lot of kids that went from my high school where my
dad coached, that went and played at Valdosta State.
So it was kind of a cradle of coaches at the time. A lot of
coaches had come through there. They did recruit me. He
didn’t personally recruit me but his staff, the staff there. I
was defensive player. He was an offensive coach. So
they had a tremendous staff.
But my experiences with Coach Leach were just different.
I mean, we played them the COVID year. Nobody warned
me that before the game when you went and talked to him
that he would talk. And he would talk. And he would talk.
And I got worried because you’ve got time limits to do what
you’ve got to do pregame. And I couldn’t break away from
the conversation. We had run out of time. I had to go be
with our team. I’m, like, I gotta go; this guy’s still going.
Then this year I was a little more prepared. And I thought,
okay, I’m going to have my time, allow me to get away. I
found myself again, I couldn’t get away. He was talking
about South Florida, a place where he goes, how he’s
going to go down there after the season.
I kept looking at the clock; I can’t get away from this guy.
He’s unbelievable in his ability to carry a conversation and
just talk about anything.
But really I’ve enjoyed all the stories that have come up all
on social media where people talk about their experiences,
interactions with him and to read all the different ones, it’s
really cool.
Q. Curious, as you look back over your tenure at
Georgia, how do you get to the point where you said
this is what I want our offense to be, this is what I want
it to look like, how explosive I want it to be and
multiple —
COACH SMART: I don’t know that I — I don’t know that I
completely defined that. That’s an area that you do based
on who you have on your team.
When you have Nick Chubb and (indiscernible), who I think
are two first-round backs, you might look different than
what you have Brock Bowers, Oscar Delp, Darnell
Washington tight ends. And then you’ve got wideouts.
So we’ve evolved to fit who we have on offense. Do you
have to be explosive? Yes. But everybody’s explosive in
different ways. LSU was one of the most explosive teams
I’ve ever played against, in 2019, and they were different
than us.
Alabama, the year they had the four, five first-round
wideouts, they were explosive in different ways than LSU.
Everyone has their way of being explosive.
And that kind of evolves based on how your offensive
coordinator wants it to. And our guy does a tremendous
job.
Q. You’ve been a coach for a really long time, been
around some really great coaches. How much do you
lean on that advice and that experience in clutch
moments like this? And what coach gave you the best
advice and who was it?
COACH SMART: All coaches, I think we all plagiarize. I
give a lot of credit to my father who was my first coach.
And I grew up under his tutelage. And he meant a lot to
me as a coach.
And then Coach Bowden impacted me a lot. Coach Chris
Hatcher, Coach Richt. And I was with Coach Saban the
longest.
I think you learn different things from different people. And
I learned a lot from each one. So the impact has kind of
made me who I am. And now you can’t stop learning. You
never — you’re green, you grow. And when you’re ripe,
you’re ripe. You never want to be ripe.
For me, I learn from my coaches. When you bring new
coaches in, you’re able to gain things from them, maybe
how they do things or you go to other schools and you
study how they do things.
I’m infatuated with coaches across the country who do an
incredible job and you want to go visit them and see how
they do it to make sure you keep getting better.
Q. There’s always, sometimes, a level of resistance
when a new regime, new coach comes in to a program.
How much did you expect that in 2016? How much
did you sense it? And then also when did you sense
that it sort of started to turn?
COACH SMART: When did you sense what?
Q. That it started to turn around, basically.
COACH SMART: I didn’t sense any resistance when I got
there. I felt like I knew the culture I was coming into
because I had coached on that staff. So it wasn’t like,
okay, we’re going to say everything you did was wrong and
everything we do is right.
And I explained when I got there that there’s a difference in
the way we’re going to do things than what they had
previously done. Those were beliefs I had.
And that I needed everybody to buy into them because I
believed it would work if we did it a certain type of way.
But I never made it about — I told our coaches, it’s never
about the other staff versus this staff. We’ve got multiple
guys now on this staff that were on that staff.
So it was never us against them. I think that could be
really negative when you have a new coach come in and
they talk about the old coach because there’s a level of
loyalty there by the kids.
I went through that as a player when I had different head
coaches. So we were very sensitive to that. I didn’t feel
any resistance to the buy-in to what we did. It was different
what we did. And it was a tough first year because there
was a little change the way we did some things, plus we
couldn’t practice at our normal facility. But I feel like there
was a lot more buy-in the next year because the players
were really elite leaders — we had some really good
leaders that year, 2017, that pushed us over the edge.
Q. There’s always a lot of talk of the
quarterback/coach relationship, and quarterbacks and
coaches are just always linked now. How different do
you think it’s going to be next year without Stetson
who you’ve spent a lot of time with doing things over
the past couple of years? Do you think you guys will
have a friendship or bond going forward after the
season?
COACH SMART: Talking about Stetson?
Q. Yes.
COACH SMART: Oh, yeah, I’ll have a friendship with
every kid that leaves our program. I get texts all the time
from the guys that left in the last two, three years, reaching
out. I mean, I keep a relationship with them.
It’s very important to me that when a young man leaves our
program, they understand we are here for them. Not
everybody’s going to the NFL. People think our kids go to
the NFL forever. It’s short-lived. We’ve got guys that play
for us, went to the NFL and are already out. And I want to
help them be successful in life.
So that relationship with Stetson and whoever else, Kenny
McIntosh, for that matter, is going to be long-lived and very
important to me.
As far as who takes over that seat next year, I’m not
concerned with that right now. I know it will take its course
and we’ve got a lot of time to prepare for that.
Q. You mentioned your dad. In what ways do you
coach like him, and in what ways do you coach
differently from him?
COACH SMART: He’s a really special man to me.
Unfortunately, he’s not going to be able to make it to the
game. He’s had some medical stuff. It hurts me that he
and my mom won’t be here. But I know it’s the right
decision for him. He’s been at almost every, in terms of
home game in Athens, playoff games. It’s tough that he’s
not able to make it.
Nothing worse than watching your parents grow old. It’s
like taxes; it’s inevitable. They’re going to get old. And
that’s been tough.
But he’s taught me so much just about the way you handle
things, the right way, the wrong way. Control the
controllables. The moment’s never too big if you’re
prepared. And I always watched the way he prepared our
teams and our staff in high school. He was a very wise
man, a man of few words. I tried to follow his mantra as a
coach.
I’ve certainly evolved from going to coach for other people,
but a lot of my core beliefs came from the way he ran our
programs in high school.
Q. What stands out to you about this kind of unique
TCU defense and how much of a challenge it can
present for you guys?
COACH SMART: I don’t think enough is said about the
way they play. First of all, Joe Gillespie is unbelievable in
what he does. People try to paint this picture that it’s the
Big 12 defense. They’re not exactly like other Big 12
defenses. They’re very unique.
We studied him at Tulsa. He did an incredible job at Tulsa.
When he played Cincinnati, in the Peach Bowl, he was the
defensive coordinator at Tulsa. They had done the best
job against Cincinnati and had really stoned them in this
defense.
They have incredible toughness, keys. I can’t say enough
about what they do because what they do is so different,
you can’t simulate it.
I associate it to being a triple option offense. When you go
play them you can’t do what they do as good as they do it.
We’re trying to do what they do on our defense. It’s
completely different. It’s a concern because they’re unique
in what they do and they gave Michigan some problems in
what they do.
So a lot of credit to what they do. We’ll have to prepare
well for it. We’ll have to adjust in-game to it. But it’s the
way his kids play. They play with extreme physicality. If
you don’t bring the contact they will bring the contact to
you.
Q. You talked about your dad. I’m going to ask you, in
a profession that keeps you away from your kids so
much, what’s it like to have Andrew around and want
to be around and be such a part of this team?
COACH SMART: It’s awesome. I worry more about my
other two that don’t really — they don’t care to be around it.
They’re older. They didn’t immerse themselves in it. They
don’t love football. They love what football brings with the
trips and the chances to go places, but they don’t love
football.
He loves football. He likes contact. He enjoys the
relationship with the players. He’s got a very different
personality than them. So it’s great because that gives me
somebody with me. But I have to work really hard to spend
time with my other ones because I spend so much time
with football that he’s around it, I end up getting more time
with him.
Q. With TCU breaking through this year, and the
playoff expanded in the future, how much more
difficult is it going to be for the traditional power
programs to navigate through the playoffs and get to
this point?
COACH SMART: You’re saying when it goes to 12?
Q. Yes.
COACH SMART: How it will be hard for the traditionals to
win?
Q. Just to make it through, basically, yeah.
COACH SMART: I think it’s going to be hard for anybody
to. I don’t know that I would pigeonhole it to the Power
Five. I don’t know if you’re talking about the SEC. You’re
going to have more teams involved, which creates more
opportunities for — I don’t know if it’s TCU or whoever.
I think what people aren’t considering is where people will
play and home-field advantages, Southern teams going
north in December, Northern teams going south in
December. All that’s going to have a factor on it.
But I can’t sit here and say that Power 5s are going to have
a harder time because I actually think there’s going to be
more opportunities for more Power 5s. You’re going to
have some teams going head to head in early rounds that
are going to make some great matchups.
I think this year’s semifinals games, as I understand it,
were the closest they’ve ever been. And that’s unique
because it hasn’t been that way in the past. Maybe that
brings more evidence that we need the playoffs and the
teams, there will be a little more parity like you see in the
NFL.
Q. I don’t have the number off the top of my head, how
many championship scenarios you’ve been in national
championship games, including Alabama, but my
question to you is, how comfortable are you in this
environment and how important is that kind of
knowing what’s going to happen and being
comfortable with it?
COACH SMART: I worry more about the players. I think
they need to be comfortable in it. And I don’t think you can
get players comfortable in these environments because
they don’t get the repetitions that maybe a coach gets.
I’ve had the opportunity to call it from Texas, Pasadena, my
first one, playing Texas in the Rose Bowl, all the way
through the games we’ve had. I’ve had a lot of them that
have allowed me to be at peace with the decisions. And
you make the best decisions and you do what you
practiced and you live with the outcome. You try to do it
better than the other team.
But the kids, the players, you can say all these guys played
last year. No, they didn’t, not all of them. It’s unique for
them.
So you try to help them be at their best. That’s my job. I
don’t worry about myself. I don’t worry about our coaching
staff. So many of them have been in games like this.
Q. A lot of people have talked about this, but the rarity
of not going into the portal and taking kids out of the
portal and the fact that you guys were able to get back
here with all the guys who are on the roster recruited
by you. Is there a sense of pride in that in sort of
bucking the trend of sort of where college football is
today with this particular team?
COACH SMART: I don’t know that I can say “buck the
trend” because we’ve taken them this year and we would
have taken some probably last year if the right ones were
willing to come. We didn’t turn our nose up to the portal
and not use it. We searched for a certain type kid.
And that will continue to be the case because I think it’s a
culture element for us. It’s like who fits what we do. If they
don’t fit what we do, I don’t think we should bring them in.
I’m a lot more worried about retention than I am going to
get them, you know what I’m saying? I want to spend time
investing in people in our program, keep them in our
program than I am replacing them with someone else.
Q. How important has the staff-building process been
in this last run over the last two years and the
relationships that you have with your assistant
coaches?
COACH SMART: Staff’s always important. Like the
culture, we’re together so much. We’re together more with
each other than sometimes we are with our own families.
But we had four coaches leave. So I don’t know if the staff
building, because we had four guys leave and four new
guys come in.
I think the onboarding process and the integration of this
staff has been incredible. I feel as though this is the
strongest staff I’ve ever had, and this is probably the most
incredible job as a staff we’ve done with a team. I’m very
pleased with what this staff has done.
Q. What are some of the reasons why you think this is
one of the strongest staffs you’ve been part of?
COACH SMART: Only because it’s the last staff I had. I
would say that every staff I’ve have had is strong. A lot of
them have been consistent, and they respect the University
of Georgia. And they work really hard for Georgia. The
next year’s staff will probably be better than this year.
Q. You had experiences getting back to the title game,
obviously a different system at Alabama. But now that
you’ve experienced the road to this game as someone
that’s not been there before with the program and as
someone who is coming in as defending champion,
how does that compare? Is it harder to get back or
harder to get there the first time?
COACH SMART: Somebody asked that earlier. I can’t
compare those two things. I wish I could. It’s just hard.
Football is hard. Life is hard. There’s nothing easy about
what we do in terms of management of the portal, in terms
of the management of players, in terms of playing the
game and the work outs. It’s hard. It’s hard to maintain.
It’s hard to grow and move. It’s hard.
If you like hard, then you’ll fit into our place, but there’s
nothing easy about what we do. I can’t compare the two.
Q. You talk about the new staff and some of the new
guys. With Chidera, why did you want him on your
staff, and what’s he brought now that you’ve had him a
year or so?
COACH SMART: Sonny actually gave him rave reviews.
And Coach Dykes just bragging about him as a rising star.
We had done a lot of research across the country. We
were familiar with a lot of coaches who could have come
into our system and probably known our system better, but
we wanted to get the best coach, not the most familiar.
Once we interviewed him, we saw what people told us.
And I give Coach Schumann and Coach Muschamp a lot of
credit because I let them manage — I’m in the interview. I
decide who we’re bringing in. But I want them to do the
research. I they’re going to work with them. They’re
attached to assistant coaches better than I am.
Sometimes I think as a head coach you don’t know the
pool like you used to when I was a young assistant.
I think Schu and Will, even though Will’s not young, did a
great job of digging for Chidera and finding value. And we
made a really good hire there.
Q. There’s been coaches who have retired or
complained about where college football is, all the
outside factors, all different changes that have
happened. What keeps you going and what is it about
a team like this that you get to coach that keeps you
going?
COACH SMART: What keeps me going is the love for the
game, the relationships. I hate that I feel like it’s
diminished. Ten years ago, my relationship with players
was way higher than it is now because my time demands
are different. When you’re a position coach or an assistant
coach or a defensive coordinator, you’re one-to-one a lot.
Now 10 years later, that time is taken away and that makes
it — I could see how coaches gravitate towards, you know
what, this isn’t why I got into coaching for. You’re much
more of a CEO, organizational — I spend 80 percent of my
time on things that are non-relational.
And I think we got into it to have relationships, to have fun,
to be on the grass. And now I find it business
management. And it’s tougher. And that’s probably driven
some coaches away from it.
But it’s that 20 percent that you get to spend on
relationships with that keeps you going.
Q. The stakes are higher and yet you have almost a
normal week’s time to prepare. How do those two
things fit together?
COACH SMART: I mean, it’s the model we get. It’s
strange to me that you get the 28 and 20, it’s a long time.
Then you get the nine or 10, I don’t know technically how
you define it, but nine or 10 is more realistic. And you
almost wish it was that for both, for the kids’ sake, because
I think that has a little mental and emotional wear and tear
on players in terms of how long it goes on. And there’s
very few sports that you would wait 28 days to play.
This turnaround is much more natural. But it is the model.
Sounds like it’s going to change because it’s not going to
be that long before we’re playing week-to-week.
Q. Is there a moment that, to you, best defines who —
whether it’s a play, practice, moment, meeting,
whatever, a moment that best defines who Stetson is?
COACH SMART: I hope that moment hasn’t happened
yet. I hope that the defining moment is still ahead for him.
But that’s a hard question to answer because there’s so
many moments.
I think people will point to the fumble against Alabama. But
that’s in the past.
So I would point probably to the moment his mom and he
came into my office and said he was leaving to go to junior
college and that he wanted to play and that he felt he was
good enough to play and he wanted to go play.
And he knew there was no guarantee that he was going to
play at our place the next season but he knew he could
play if he went to Mississippi. They sat in there with
complete confidence. And I didn’t doubt him. I just didn’t
know if it was at Georgia. And that conviction they had
when they sat in my office should have said, there’s
something special about this guy.
Q. I was talking to Javon just now and he said your
team doctor sort of met with everybody and talked
about what happened to Damar Hamlin. What was that
like? And what prompted you to have that —
COACH SMART: When that happened to Damar, I
immediately got on the phone. I started receiving texts. I
called our athletic trainer. He reached out to me. The
mental health specialist and also our team chaplain. So
many of our kids are believers in Jesus Christ. So they
were concerned.
You start asking questions, if you play, could this happen
to me? We did education the next morning. First thing in,
we did it with two separate groups. We educated them
exactly what happened.
The injury actually happens more often in baseball and
hockey than football. It’s rare in football. We had a mental
health specialist, if anybody wanted to meet with. We said
a prayer and explained to them what happened and how
fast they reacted to save his life.
That’s also probably the most misdiagnosed injury there
are in sports where people don’t realize what’s happened.
And they did a great job there, the Buffalo organization, to
save his life. We just want our kids to feel comfortable with
it. I’m glad that I had people on my staff who came to me
to say we need to address it. It brought a lot of peace to
the players.
Q. Obviously everybody in college football now wants
an explosive offense. Seems like you have to have
one or the capability to do that to win some games.
I’m curious as you have built out your explosive
offense if you want to do it in a way that doesn’t kind
of hinder what you want to do with your defense. I
guess that’s the idea of complementary football. Is
that important, too, that you’re explosive in a way that
doesn’t hurt your defense?
COACH SMART: I know where you’re going with that. I
agree with that. I don’t know — it’s important to me that
we’re good on defense and we’re explosive on offense. Do
those two lend themselves — they can. They do for us.
We have what I think is a very explosive offense. We keep
up with those numbers.
And we’ve been very explosive on offense. At one point
we were leading the SEC in differential.
So it’s not about how explosive you are; it’s about how
more explosive you are than the team you’re playing. And
our differential throughout the year has been the greatest.
So we don’t give up as many and we get a good bit.
If you can be 1 in both categories, you’re elite. If you can
be high in one and high in defense, then you’ll have a
better chance to win games. You can’t give up a ton of
them and get a ton of them and be good. I don’t think the
two have to coexist. I think you can merge that.
And in the way you go about it, I think there’s some teams
that are explosive that maybe sacrificed defensively. We’ll
never do that because we have to play defense in our
league. You’ll never get to important games if you don’t
play good defense.
Q. I’m wondering your thoughts on officiating right
now in college football in three areas: Roughing the
passer; targeting; pass interference. Are you liking
what you’re seeing or could it improve?
COACH SMART: I think there’s times to look at that. And
I’m very process-oriented where it’s, like, okay, we’re going
to play the season, and we’re going to go back review it,
just like we do. How did we play third down? How did we
do on offense and short yardage and goal line?
You do the same thing in officiating. Fortunately, I’m on a
committee that gets to sit in Indianapolis for two days in a
room full of people and officials and we analyze that.
There’s a time and place for that.
How do I stand on it right now? I’d rather evaluate it when
I’m in a vacuum and able to look at it without saying right
now. Because I only know my league. I think the SEC
does an incredible job of officiating, and I’ve got a lot of
respect for the job they do.
It’s easy to sit back on Twitter and Instagram and talk
about officials. Until you’ve gone out there and done it and
you’ve got to make split-second decisions, I think they do a
phenomenal job of self-critiquing so they get it right. But
it’s not easy.
Q. When you bring a team down here for a game like
this, how do you keep them focused in, not paying
attention to all the distractions like all the talk and all
the hype around the game?
COACH SMART: All y’all?
Q. Basically.
COACH SMART: I think you’ve got to have a mature team.
I’ve told our team repeatedly the best conditions, the best
practice and who handles the travel and the game and all
the other stuff, the auxiliary stuff, that’s who usually has
this outcome.
It’s unfortunate, because you would like for these two
teams to go play like they play all year. This game is
nothing like you play all year. We don’t do this. So you
play on a Monday. Nobody plays on a Monday. You play
in LA. Nobody plays really in LA but the teams that are
from LA.
You take people out of their normal routine, and who
manages that best? I think that’s really critical in who
manages it.
But we do it from a process standpoint of this is Thursday,
this is Friday, this is Saturday. Today we’re taking you on
Thursday. I know it’s not Thursday but it’s Thursday of
game week. So we’re trying to replicate that as best as
possible.
Q. You talk about the process. To be able to do this
two years in a row, does it help going through this
multiple, multiple times and having been on this stage
before and just going through the process of knowing
that the players know how to go through this?
COACH SMART: It does not hurt. I told somebody earlier,
we’re not here because we were here last year. Okay. It
helps that we were here last year. I told our players we got
here last night. And I’m, like, this is like a zoo. It’s like
Vegas. It’s, like, it just is craziness.
You think about last year. They never saw the outside of a
building because they were inside — it was just different.
The weather was different. It was a different venue. So
there’s no similarities to where the two games were played
and really the way everything was set up. So it’s very
unique.
But we’re not here because we were here last year. But I
did tell our staff, I think the practices and the preparation
last year leading up to that game, the amount of time we
worked our 2s and 3s and we dedicated ourselves to
getting those guys better, that probably put us over the
edge in one or two games this year, that the work those
guys got maybe that won us a game, and that one game
got us to where we are.
So are we doing the same thing this year? Are we growing
our players, because there’s a bunch of guys on our roster
that, I’m like, man, we’ve got 12, we’ve got a bunch of
mid-years that are practicing with us. Last year that was
Mykel. That was Jalon Walker — these guys that are
contributing.
So I love the extra practice we’re getting, the work we’re
getting for the development of the team.
Q. Coach Richt was talking the other day, when I
spoke to him, about when you came in, there were a lot
of things, expanded staff, obviously indoor facility
came in later. Put you in position to do a lot of things
and moving forward. Obviously you can’t win a
national championship every year, but do you think
with sort of the things that you have in place now in
the program that you could be in this position every
year to contend for a national championship? And I
know you want to word this carefully, but just the
position —
COACH SMART: I feel like he was too. I’m saying he was
in the — had there been a four-game playoff or playoff
system, it’s hard to argue that Georgia wouldn’t have won a
national championship.
I studied that from afar, as you know. I was in the state
recruiting and there’s a lot of years that they would have
definitely been in the four. If there was a 12, I assume they
probably would have been in almost every year.
And I think it’s easy to say that we have had, our, staff,
since arriving, have had success because of some of the
things that our administration learned from that.
And the indoor is not fair, because I didn’t have anything to
do with the indoor. When I got there, the indoor, they
designed it. It was being built. The ground was being
broke one of my first days at work. But that was one of the
key cogs.
But everything else has come since then and they had
success. Just never quite got lucky enough. Some
unlucky breaks in there that you can look at. He knows
that. Coach Richt and I are close and he knows how close
they really were.
But can we do it every year? Personally, I think we really
have. Like, outside the first season I was there? There’s
not a year that we weren’t — that the game didn’t matter
who we were about to play until the SEC Championship,
besides one.
And I think that’s how you contend. You get to the SEC
Championship and that puts you in contention every year,
and that’s what we have to do. We have to win the East
and we’ve done that most years besides one.
But we wouldn’t have done that as quickly if it wasn’t for
Coach Richt, his staff, the things he built. There was a
good program in place when we got there.
Q. You mentioned that this game is like no other. But
when you look at your team, does the Peach Bowl give
you any confidence in this team’s mentality going into
this game?
COACH SMART: The Peach Bowl doesn’t necessarily do
that alone. The whole season does. Our team has been
built to this point where we are and we’re evolving. And
you see a different dynamic each and every week.
I’ve been fortunate to see this resiliency that we talk about
in our DNA. I’ve seen it in TCU, too. I’ve got to watch
them play several times. I talked to Coach Dykes at the
Heisman Trophy about what an unbelievable job he did to
end the Baylor game. His management of that situation is
just phenomenal. And as coaches, that’s like a player
seeing another player make a play.
So for me that was a coach managing the situation the
right way. So I think both teams have grown and gotten a
lot better throughout the season which comes to a
culmination now.
Q. What is your go-to Waffle House order?
COACH SMART: Bacon egg and cheese, hash browns,
smothered and covered.
Q. No pecan waffle?
COACH SMART: No, my kids get the pecan waffle, but I’m
a bacon, eggs and cheese man.
Q. We’ve got to talk to all the South Georgia players
on the team. You, being the head man in charge from
Bainbridge, how do you feel representing Bainbridge
on this stage?
COACH SMART: It’s awesome, WALB, I grew up
watching Ducky Wall — you probably don’t know who he is.
Q. We do.
COACH SMART: My parents and I spent every Friday
night tuning in to watch the other highlights. I can
remember as a 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-year-old kid watching the
highlights on Channel 10 News as a kid. And that was my
game day. That was my “College Gameday” when I
watched high school games on that channel.
And I remember Coach Bobo came back to our staff and
we had an old VCR tape — you probably don’t know what a
VCR tape is — of all the high school shows recorded. And
he would talk about his highlights. I would talk about my
highlights. He’d talk about Thomasville and I’d talk about
Bainbridge and how many times we went to Hugh Mills
Stadium to play.
I was a little gym rat running around Hugh Mills Stadium
my entire life because my dad’s teams had to go play there
four, five times a year. Four, five times a year, I thought
that was home for me. That was my Mercedes-Benz.
And we always had a good time playing in Albany. A lot of
great memories from South Georgia. And certainly the
people from Bainbridge is where I call home. Although my
parents don’t live there. That’s what I think of as home.
Q. I think it’s amazing how your roster has nobody
from the portal. You’re still making these
championship runs. Is that kind of the mindset you go
into in recruiting players, you want home-grown talent
all the time?
COACH SMART: We want to manage our players and
want them to enjoy being there and want them to know
we’re invested in them. But we do have — it’s not fair to
say we don’t have anybody from the portal; we just didn’t
take anybody from this portal. We do have some kids like
Tykee Smith and older players that came from the portal.
But it will always be a factor for us to use the portal
because sometimes kids are looking for a chance to be in
a place like Georgia. Because we tell them, you come
here, it’s different. We’re going to practice different. We’re
going to hit different. We’re going to work different. And if
you don’t want different, don’t come.
So it’s very important they understand the culture that
they’re entering. But I’m really proud of our retention rate,
being the kids we keep.
And we’re going to lose some kids. We lost kids last year.
But it’s making sure we get the right ones and we keep the
right ones, most importantly.
Q. Ringo made a play last year that’s going to be
remembered 40, 50 years from now, like Lindsay Scott
when we say that. But he was talking about, within
moments of it and days of it, like vowing that he wants
to do things to make him known for more than just a
play, a huge play. What do you think about that and
what does that say about him and so on?
COACH SMART: It says he’s got a good mental makeup.
You don’t want to be defined by one play whether that’s
positive or negative. Nobody wants to be defined like that.
We as coaches will never do that. As fans, that will be
hard to overcome because that moment was so long
awaited and so many people associate that game with that
play.
But just as big as that play is (inaudible) blocking the field
goal. That was a huge play in that game — Stetson
Bennett bouncing back. But it says a lot about Kelee that
he doesn’t want that to define him. He wants to continue to
work.
And I think he’s worked really hard this year to improve.
It’s so hard for people to see improvement because all they
see is that play. They don’t see the ground, grassroots
work ethic he’s had to get better for this season.
Q. The (indiscernible) composure is one of your DNA
traits, but the idea of a composure card and pulling it
out when you need it, where did that come from? Is
that new for this year or have we heard more about it
this year, or where did that sort of originate?
COACH SMART: It’s a little — the application of that
statement is kind of new. We’ve always had composure;
it’s one of our four DNA traits. It’s critical to be successful
in all sports to have composure. But we talk about
muscles. And kids understand muscles, because they
train them. So that liking it to a muscle, and I’m going to
redeem my card.
I think that started us more thinking about my kids and
Chick-fil-A and the way you take your chicken sandwich
card and you get a chicken sandwich.
I want to physically remove the card and use it when I need
it. And we had several kids do that within the game, it just
shows you that what you’re saying is having effect. I guess
nothing more than that. It’s not a real card. It’s an
intangible thing.
Q. How much more different do you think this team is
from a composure standpoint than last year from the
fact that you’ve had all more closer games, times
you’ve struggled, things like that?
COACH SMART: It’s very different. I mean, they’re just a
different group. Has nothing to do with composure.
Composure is similar to there, but it’s just a very different
team all together.
Q. When you have time to really get intricate with the
film and watch a team, has something surprised you
about TCU that you didn’t know about before?
COACH SMART: Yeah, I have watched some games just
casually on TCU and seen some things. I’d not really
watched their defense until we drew them as a opponent.
I’ve probably watched their defense a lot and just the way
they key and diagnose and strike is really elite. You can
tell they’re really well-coached. You can tell they’re very
tough. You can tell they’re very talented. And their
coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for the way in which
they play.
Q. When you were watching a team, the secondary is
really the primary in this area of the football where the
ball is being thrown so much. What do you see from
their secondary?
COACH SMART: Playmakers. They had two pick-sixes
last week. They harass. They have a lot of depth in their
defense. Hands on balls. They cover and strike people.
They have people around the ball a lot; ball hogs.
Q. Since we are just right outside Hollywood, I’m
curious, if your team was casted in a movie, which
players would play the role of a villain and the role of a
hero?
COACH SMART: No way I would know that. The hero is
always the quarterback, right? The villain’s always the bad
guy. So we don’t have any bad guys. So I don’t know.
Maybe it would be the coaches as the villains and the
players as the heroes because we’re usually the bad guys
when it comes to that.
Q. I, of course, asked some of the players who they
thought in Hollywood could play the role of you if the
team had a movie made. One of them said Mark
Wahlberg. What do you think about that?
COACH SMART: That’s pretty cool. I like Mike Wahlberg.
I’ve always enjoyed his shows and films. I like that
analogy. He’s probably a lot more talented and a lot
younger and a lot better looking than I am. I used to go
with Robert Redford, the old wrinkles in the face, like
Redford.
Q. If there was a movie made about your team, what
would the title be?
COACH SMART: Grit.
Q. What specifically do you think you took from
coaching with Coach Saban that has helped you build
this program to the extent you have?
COACH SMART: The ability to demand and make sure
that people understand the importance of everything about
that. He has elite organizational leadership traits.
Q. Some of the goals winning a national
championship, how often is that talked about in the
fall, in the offseason, how much of a focus is that?
COACH SMART: Never. We don’t talk about it.
Q. Did your dad go to the Peach Bowl?
COACH SMART: No, he was not able to go to the Peach
Bowl. He was at the LSU game, the SEC Championship
but not the Peach Bowl.
Q. When did you get a chance to discuss the Peach
Bowl game with him?
COACH SMART: I wanted to call him that night, but he
was already in bed by the time it got to that point. So the
next afternoon, on the way home, got to call him and talk.
Q. Hard to stay in the moment to get the program
where it’s been and sustain it?
COACH SMART: It’s never hard to stay in the moment.
I’m pretty grounded when it comes to that stuff, and you
just focus on what’s the next thing I can control. Like
what’s the next event we have. Staying grounded has
never been a real problem for me because humility is one
week away. And that’s what I always say: Humility is a
week away. So we’ve got to focus on the task at hand.
Q. When success can breed complacency, these guys
always seem like there’s always another ring to reach
for. How do you get them to see that and believe that?
COACH SMART: You do it through how you act and how
your coaching staff works. Like, we’re never going to arrive
as a program. I think complacency sets in and it can be a
disease. And I talk about entitlement. Like, when you start
feeling entitled, that’s how the mighty fall.
We take a lot of business analogies, how companies have
fallen in this world we live in, society we live in, how do
empires fall and how do companies and businesses fall.
You see the ebb and flow and we try to learn from their
mistakes. And a lot of that is denial. Hubris. You have to
stay humble or anything will get you, and our kids
understand that.
Q. Not having Uga on the sidelines Monday, are you
concerned about that?
COACH SMART: It’s a scary thought. I realized that — I
didn’t know that until I read it last night or yesterday. It will
be different. I can’t lie. I don’t see Uga a lot. I’m usually
tied up in some other things. I know that would be a big
deal to a lot of fans. But it’s a good decision by the Seiler
family.
Q. Apparently the rapper Drake loves you on Monday,
but there’s the Drake curse. Are you worried about
that?
COACH SMART: I don’t know what that is.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
Stetson Bennett
CFP Media Conference
Q. Stetson, you were pretty outward bound to how you
played last week. Kirby was too. (Inaudible) What do
you take from it?
STETSON BENNETT: You know, I think I started off the
game pretty well. Finished it pretty well. There was a little
period in the middle I would like to have some things back,
but that’s football, and they’re a really good team.
You know, they’re going to coach you to make mistakes
sometimes. So just work to fix that.
Q. What’s the difference between preparation, feeling
in your stomach this time around in this National
Championship game?
STETSON BENNETT: I think the preparation is the same
thing. Just day-by-day watch film, keep practicing, respect
who TCU is, and just get ready for it.
Q. (Inaudible).
STETSON BENNETT: Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know. I
don’t know. We’ll think about that a little bit later I think.
Q. Stetson, obviously you grew up a fan. (Inaudible)
from the outside it seemed like it was a fan base that
felt like it was getting so close and getting over the
hump. What has it meant to you to help get the
program to this spot on this stage (inaudible)?
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, it’s funny. You know, it’s
hard to be a fan while you’re in it. I remember when I went
into JUCO in 2018. I was so much more fan — it hurt
whenever they lost to LSU like it did when I was a kid
again.
While I’m here, it’s hard. I do have just an immense
amount of respect for Coach Smart, all the guys who are
on this team go to work every single day. You sweat
together. You bleed together. And it is to create a
program that’s like this. Extremely proud of that. Proud to
be a part of it.
Q. The fact that this is going to be your final college
game. I know you talked about it before, but does it
make it a little bit easier to really put extra in on this
point?
STETSON BENNETT: I think it’s the National
Championship. Regardless if I had years left or, you know
— I don’t, but it’s the National Championship. It’s the last
one of the year. It’s the big one. It’s why we were doing
this winter workout so hard. It’s what we dreamed about it
when we were kids. I don’t think really me leaving has
anything to do with how hard I’m preparing.
Q. You’ve had some stories over the past few years.
One, I heard that you quarantined on a cruise ship.
(Inaudible). The milk man. The milk man in. I wanted
to ask you about when you did that and how much fun
that was for you?
STETSON BENNETT: No, I wasn’t on a cruise ship. We
did have some guys who were. Mr. Ron was freaking out
before we left because it was about to hit. We didn’t know
how hard it was going to hit, but when we were going to
spring break, he said be smart. Maybe not a cruise. I
didn’t go on a cruise, but…
And then the milk man thing was fun. There was a whole
production crew. The director was awesome. All the
people on set were awesome. That was really one of the
most fun NIL things that I’ve done.
Q. I have a hypothetical. If 2021 doesn’t happen or
even (inaudible), are you second year student right
now somewhere?
STETSON BENNETT: Oh, if I was, I would probably be a
little sad, but no, probably not. I probably would have left
and went somewhere else. Who is to say what would
happen, but I probably wouldn’t be a law student yet.
Might be on the way, though. Might be getting there, yeah.
Q. People talk about so much parity in college
football, but (inaudible).
STETSON BENNETT: I think it speaks to our culture more
than anything because that’s what builds lasting things is
the culture and the work that we put in on a daily basis 365
days a year.
It’s hard. It’s harder to build a program that can last than to
build one for a year. So it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot
of commitment, it takes a lot of sacrifice, which I think this
team has done a really great job of doing.
Q. (Inaudible – question regarding being at repeat
championships.)
STETSON BENNETT: It’s hard for people to go back and
do what got them there, and that’s why it takes great
leadership like Coach Smart and the coaching staff
because we’re all college kids, and it’s easy for us to lose
sight of what’s important or what we’re trying to go do.
It’s hard for a lot of people to see that and then work. And
you have good teams every year, man. It’s not really up to
you always. There’s going to be special teams.
Q. How surprised are you that your opponent in the
title game is TCU, and they’ve been fairly off the radar?
STETSON BENNETT: No. You know, I really — we were
all worried about what we were going to do at the
beginning of the year. I really didn’t know how good any
team in the country was going to be until we played them
that week really because we were focused on who we are
as a team, focused on us getting better, and then whoever
we were playing that week, then we would move on to
them.
In our building it’s always been it’s about us. We prepare,
and then we go — we play the opponent that week.
Q. (Inaudible) — back-to-back National
Championships? What has the story been like for
you?
STETSON BENNETT: It’s been a little surreal. I don’t
know. It’s hard to look at it in its whole entirety. It’s a lot
easier to break off bite-sized chunks. That’s how it all
happened. Just day-by-day.
None of it was — it was planned, but not really. Just do the
best that you can each day, and then hopefully that puts
you in a position to be somewhere cool one day.
Q. Talking about TCU, what jumps out to you about
their team? (Inaudible)
STETSON BENNETT: I think the first thing that jumps out
is how passionately they play and the team speed. They’re
really fast, and they’re physical.
They’ve got a lot of pride. Michigan was talking crap, and
they came out and had a bone to pick with the run. You
know, they’re a really physical team, really fast, and then
Max is the heart and soul of that whole team. Met him up
in New York. He is a great dude, and he is a great football
player.
He runs when he wants — when he needs to run, but he
can throw it. He can throw it all over the board, and he has
a great receiver too. So it’s going to be a good game.
Q. So as somebody who (inaudible) and someone who
has covered sports for a long time as well, what have
you learned about — what did you learn about yourself
and you as a player being away from the Division I
game and coming back —
STETSON BENNETT: I think it was really important for me
to go be the guy somewhere again. Playing football is
pretty much the only way you can get better at playing
football, right? So to go be in that position where you are
the starter, it comes down to you in certain situations. That
taught me a lot.
And fighting for a championship over there. You know, we
didn’t end up winning it, but that — it always teaches you
something.
Sorry. I can’t remember the last part.
Q. Just what did you — just talk about the player side
of things. What did you learn about — piggybacking,
what did you learn about yourself during that process
knowing that your opportunity to come back here
wasn’t guaranteed and that you had to fight for every
inch?
STETSON BENNETT: Oh, yeah. When I left, I thought it
was deuces out forever from UGA. I didn’t think I was
coming back.
What I learned about myself — I don’t know if I learned
anything about myself. I kind of knew when I pulled the
trigger that, hey, I’m not here at Georgia just to hang out
and be on the team and have some footballs in 30 years. I
want to play ball. I want to do what I think I can do.
So went over there and figured out that, hey, I think I’m
right. Then they came back and went and attacked it
again.
Learning stuff? I don’t know. I think I’ve always had a
pretty good idea of who I am, and I guess kind of what I
want, what I want to achieve, what I want to go for.
STETSON BENNETT: I can’t hear you.
Q. (Inaudible)
STETSON BENNETT: I wouldn’t say close. I would say
we’re boys. I respect him as a player. We had some really
cool moments up there just hanging out chatting.
I saw him one night. He was going to see the Christmas
tree, and he is a dude. CJ is a dude. Caleb is a dude.
Everybody gets so caught up in all these cameras, and we
grew up and went to high school and just we’re trying to
figure it out just like the rest of everybody, you know.
I think it’s cool whenever all of us could get together and
just kind of realize that about each other. Just normal
dudes who can throw a football.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Did he say where we were
different?
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a lot of
guys who learn from a lot of guys from last year’s team.
You know, there are some — me, Chris, and Nolan and
others, who were an integral part of last year’s team, but
there’s a lot of dudes who did not — who were not a part of
it. They were a part of it, but they didn’t contribute on the
field to it.
I think they’ve done an outstanding job of learning from
those guys, learning from the guys who have played, and I
think the leadership on this team is outstanding. Not
saying that that’s different from last year because it was.
But, yeah, I mean, we’ve got a bunch of different
personalities, a bunch of different ways to play football.
As far as exacts, I don’t really know, but I would say the
personality of this team is a lot different.
Q. (Indiscernible) in some ways it’s different.
Obviously there’s been ups and downs (indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: I wouldn’t say we’ve had that many
ups and downs. I would say we probably had more downs
last year because we lost to Alabama in the SEC.
We’ve had some places in some games where we’ve had
to dig ourselves out more so than last year, but we have
dug ourselves out. I don’t know. It’s been a fun season.
It’s probably been a little bit more interesting season than
last year until the end, but it’s been a blast.
Q. (Inaudible – question about losing players to the
draft)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I think a lot of dudes. I think
about our linebacker situation where we lost, what was it,
three dudes to the draft in the one position. And, you
know, they’ve all stepped up. You could see it in winter
workouts when they were trying to push through and get to
the shape where it needs to be.
And then a lot of our DBs, not really stepped up because
they’ve played, but they were probably the most — the
position group that stayed the most similar to last year as
far as defense-wise, and so they’ve really stepped up I
think. And we’ve got Malaki. You all haven’t asked me
those questions. Just a lot of dudes stepping up.
And then on offense when people go down, people step
up. It’s just the way it goes.
Q. (Inaudible)
STETSON BENNETT: Probably in the offseason just
thinking about the game, working hard, training. Third year
in the system, know it, know it pretty well. But not just the
system. Starting to understand football more, and then
footwork was probably my main concern in the offseason.
So I’ve probably stayed a little bit better there.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: I said, “Thank God.” It was a big
timeout. Then it seemed as if for me the first half and the
second half were almost identical except for we didn’t start
hot in the second half.
But, you know, we came back from 14 points in the first
half, and so we were looking at each other, and we were,
like, okay, we score, they stop, we score. Right? That’s it.
We were determined to go out there and run a great route.
Stepped on the dude’s toes. Then defense went out there,
held them to a field goal, and then we went down and took
care of business again.
Q. (Inaudible) Monday night you’ll get to do something
you have never done before. What is that like? How
big of a performance is it to adjust to play where you
and your team haven’t played?
STETSON BENNETT: I think we’ll go practice there today,
so that will probably get all that stuff out of the way, but I
think it’s the old Hoosiers thing, man. It’s, like, ten-foot
goal, right, 15 feet to the free-throw line. I think. I don’t
know. Didn’t play much basketball.
It’s 100 yards, 53-and-one-third or something like that,
10-yard end zones. That’s how it works. We’ve played a
lot of football together. We’ve been in this moment, so
hopefully we can keep our sense of wits about us and just
let it be football because that’s what it is.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I think just consistency.
Consistency in my play, consistency in the message.
Good or bad, it’s never over. We just have to do what we
do.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: I think just — I think their corners
are really good. I think that allows them to play — that frees
up everybody else because they trust him out there on that
island and just their overall team speed.
They’re real fast. They train it a lot, but then they’re also
really physical. When you have both, that’s a dangerous
combination. It’s going to be a fun game.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Next play. Got to do my job. Give
the good balls to the good players, and then just play
football. It’s not going to happen now. We can’t hit a
15-point play. Just have to keep going, keep working,
and… yeah.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Well, we just got here yesterday.
But, yeah, I say so. Yeah. I mean, coming out to
California is cool as hell. Being here with the teammates,
my family is out here, you know, but this is a business trip.
We have to play a football game, but I think it has been
cool for everybody to get out here.
We were on an airplane. I had one of those cool lay down
seats, like a full bed. So I liked that. That was a big perk.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah. There’s a few teams that
run, I guess, if not that structure, something similar to it.
But, you know, this team has been to the National
Championship. They do things their own way, and they’ve
got intricacies that — you know, I’m just kind of talking out
of my butt right now, but they’re a really good team.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: No, I don’t think so, no. No, I
haven’t thought about it (laughing).
Q. Being here in Los Angeles, do you think
(indiscernible) —
STETSON BENNETT: On our team? Oh, I don’t know.
What’s the story line?
But the villain — I don’t know. Who would play a good
villain? I think Chris would play a good villain.
Chris, if we had a movie, could you play a villain? Yeah,
he could play a villain. Yeah, yeah, yeah (grinning).
Sed is the good guy. Sed is good to the core, yeah.
Q. I know how much this means to you, but what’s the
chance to win back-to-back titles from where you
started until now — I’m sure you’ve been thinking about
it. How has that sunk in, and what would that mean for
you?
STETSON BENNETT: We’re trying not to make this game
bigger than it is because, you know, it would be hard to
handle then, but it would be special. It would be an honor.
It would be all those things, but we’ve got to win this game
first.
So I’m not really thinking about story lines or — I’m trying to
avoid all that. I hate to be a buzz kill with quotes, but TCU
is really, really good, and kind of got to divert all our
attention to that and not really thinking about the other
stuff.
Q. The entire football community is affected by Damar
Hamlin. What were your initial thoughts?
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I mean, it was scary. I didn’t
know what to think. Just waiting for more information.
I think he is doing better now, which is really good. But,
yeah, it was a freak accident. I still don’t know exactly what
happened, but super scary. You could see how shooken
up all the players were, and so you knew something was
different than when somebody else — when you have seen
players on the field in the past. It looked a little bit more
serious, and they called the game.
So it was scary. You know, football is a really dangerous
and violent sport, and I’m glad he is doing better.
Q. When you see when he came to that his first words
were “did we win,” and you see that type of mentality
and team, what came to your mind?
STETSON BENNETT: It’s team first, and it’s just
competitor to the core. Special dude. There’s a lot of
special dudes in football. I think football — it brings out the
best in you. Especially the further down the road you get,
the better. You start to see how the game is supposed to
be played, especially on the good teams. What it takes to
win and the sacrifice and commitment that it takes. That
just shows me — what was it? He was, like, a sixth-round
pick or something, and he played the most snaps on
defense this whole year?
Q. He started after Micah Hyde —
STETSON BENNETT: He loves football. I hope he
recovers well, but, yeah, that was good.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, just their defense — the
structure is a little bit different than usual. Again, they’re
really fast. They’ve got really good corners. They’re
physical.
And, you know, they’re really, really well-coached, and they
do their jobs. So those teams are always dangerous, and
this team especially because, like I said, they’ve got Max
as their leader, and that dude is true to the core and a
really good football player.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Maybe once I leave (smiling). But,
yeah, we’ve got good football players, and Coach Monk is
a damn good play caller. Maybe.
I think Coach Smart has done a good job of seeing the
trend of where college football is going, what needs to
happen if we’re going to continue to stay relevant and
compete for championships. So I think we came into this
year thinking that we could be really good on offense, but
not knowing. So, you know, kind of thought that we had to
go prove ourselves a little bit.
Q. Last season did you consider not coming back?
(Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: It really wasn’t — I really didn’t think
about not coming back. I told people I did, but in my head I
always knew — I was, like, how dumb could I be to leave
this opportunity that I’ve got here?
I’m starting quarterback at Georgia. I trust in Coach Smart,
trust in our players. We have a lot of guys coming back on
offense, and I’m going to get better.
So, yeah, I didn’t really think about it that long. I didn’t tell
people for a little bit, but I had made up my mind.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: I mean, I can’t remember that.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, yeah. I think it’s extremely
important. Especially to have a dude as smart as Sed is
because he understands what we’re trying to do, and he is
curious. He tries to learn more. All right, if we do this here,
why are we doing this here? So he can anticipate what
that play might go to, right?
That’s special. He is a leader of the offensive line. He is
the leader of this team, and it’s — with all those guys up
front, you just feel safe, you know, because they love you,
and you love them, and they’re a lot bigger than me, so
they take all the hits, you know (smiling).
Q. (Inaudible – question about special teams)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I always told them I could do
it. I was, like, dude, I could catch that ball. That’s all you
do. And I held in college — or not college. Held in high
school. I think I held in JUCO.
But, yeah, I was, like, dude, who else — if I can catch it and
put it down, well, if there’s a bad snap, who else would you
want to have the ball, right? So I’ve always thought that
way.
But, no, Pod didn’t want me there for a little bit. I had to do
infinity reps just on the sideline after practice catching
balls, catching balls from our snapper Payne and Mote,
and just putting them down so he could just see me and
see it and trust and learn to trust that the ball is going to be
there.
So I figured out how mental kickers are, but it’s worked out
so far.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Really? Yeah, yeah.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I think we would have kids
out there, growing up. People sleep over. I mean, you’ve
been out there. You can do what you want.
I don’t know. There’s something freeing about being out
there with all the oak trees and all the land. I don’t know.
You miss it.
But, yeah, it’s special to be here, to be in this situation
knowing the past and the background, but, yeah, it’s a cool
place, isn’t it?
Q. Is it tough to be back here (indiscernible) —
STETSON BENNETT: No, I just dreamed of playing, I
guess, which is probably why I’m up here, honestly.
But, no, I did send a video. We’ve got a group message
with some of the walk-ones from 2017. And I was, like — I
sent them a video of my little lay-out bed that I had on the
plane, and I was, like, dude, we couldn’t sniff these seats
back in ’17. Now I’m all the way up there. They’re all, like,
heck ya. Makes me happy, so that was cool.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: I just had my laptop with the film. I
had a little notepad. I had a gallon of water, and I just had
this bed that could recline all the way down. It was really
cool.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: It makes me happy. You know,
there are some times where you have tried, I think, and I
made you miss. Have you not tried?
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: (Laughing).
Q. You have never made me miss.
STETSON BENNETT: On purpose. You know, I feel like I
can still move around thanks to you and Jalen pulling off
and not hitting me, and thank you for that.
Q. I got you. My last question, Stetson, I’m going to
miss you.
STETSON BENNETT: Well, thank you.
Q. Even after this, what’s the best place to eat in
Athens?
STETSON BENNETT: What do you want?
Q. We’re having a nice sunny day. It’s a Sunday after
a Saturday night. We are going out downtown.
STETSON BENNETT: Lunch spot I think you’ve got to go
to — you have to go get Marker 7 over there in Five Points.
Q. Have you had the grouper nuggets?
STETSON BENNETT: I have the grouper nuggets. I get
the black and shrimp tacos with some french fries and
ketchup.
Q. Marker 7 and fish tacos?
STETSON BENNETT: No, shrimp (smiling). Maybe I did
say fish. Who knows?
Q. A hard-hitting journalist in here.
STETSON BENNETT: I’m sorry you have to follow that up.
Q. I am too. You’re qualified to speak on this. How do
you define the (inaudible) —
STETSON BENNETT: I don’t know. I remember being in
high school, and we were trying to — it was senior year of
baseball or maybe junior. I can’t remember. You know,
trying to get guys fired up.
And I was sitting there thinking, and we were watching this
“Rocky” movie, and I was, like, “Rocky” is really cool. But,
no, it was “Miracle.” It was “Miracle,” sorry. “Miracle,” that
is the greatest sports movie of all time. Saying that without
thinking. But I was, like, but Russia won for 30 years. So I
think that’s the dynasty.
Q. (Inaudible)
STETSON BENNETT: I think you have to do more than
two, probably. People can forget about two. Especially
two back-to-back. They can make excuses for that, but as
far as a dynasty I wouldn’t say championships. But, no, I
would say it’s got to span a decade of dominance probably.
Q. Stetson, second time playing here for a national
Championship, man, but how do you guys — to get to
this point what would it mean for you to finish your
career in rarefied air? Not a lot of quarterbacks and
team are able to do it for a second team.
STETSON BENNETT: It would be super cool. This is
what we set out to do this year. You know, there was a lot
of people who doubted us, a lot of people who — I know
people are going to be, like, no, we didn’t. No, yeah, you
did.
Maybe not doubted us as far as unranked doubted us, but
it wasn’t — there wasn’t a consensus, and it seems as if
people have forgotten that storyline and forgotten what this
team has done as a collective.
We fought through that and heard all the doubters. We’re
talking about 15 draft picks lost to the draft and a lot of
those guys are over on defense and even on offense that
heard that, you know. So we took it week-by-week, and
now we’re here. I think that’s really special.
Q. Obviously, you have multiple guys that can step up
in multiple games. It’s an unselfish unit. It can be a
couple of tight ends, a couple of receivers. How do
you make sure that that mindset stays the same
throughout the season?
STETSON BENNETT: Well, I don’t think — well,
throughout the season — I don’t know. I don’t think we ever
really had to do that. Winning helps with that. When you
start losing, that’s when you start…
But we never really had any issue with that. You know, I
think it started a little bit last year. I think we were kind of
sort of that way, and more so this year just spreading it out.
But, yeah, the dudes on this team love each other. You
know, when I say they love each other, we’ll be a part of
this team forever, and we’ll make trips and go all over the
place and hang out and talk about the glory days, but it’s
easy to be unselfish whenever you are looking out for your
brother and you know he is a damn good football player
too, right?
Q. TCU has that 3-3-5. What challenges do they
present as an offense?
STETSON BENNETT: I think it’s that. I think it’s a different
defense. It seems like there’s 50 players sometimes on the
field, right? And they flow really hard. They’re really fast.
They’re really physical, and so when you have a fast,
physical, disciplined football team, you usually are doing
pretty good.
Q. Last week your music taste got called into
question. You had a Death Row Records shirt
underneath. Do we have anything underneath, or did
last week kind of —
STETSON BENNETT: I just have Georgia on today. What
was the actual question? Sorry.
Q. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have the
Death Row Records. We’re in California.
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, that wasn’t planned last
week, so that’s why I think it was so cool. I couldn’t plan
something.
But, no, yeah, I think I’ve been listening to a lot of it The
Mamas & The Papas “California Dreaming” a lot. I think
that’s my new favorite song right now actually.
Q. (Inaudible)
STETSON BENNETT: I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought
about that one.
Q. (Inaudible)
STETSON BENNETT: No, I don’t think so.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: I would say there’s probably a little
less nerves, but not because of, you know, a less, you
know, importance of a game. Probably just because I’ve
been here before, right? We’ve been here before. We
know what the deal is. There’s no really unexpecteds.
There will be butterflies plenty on Monday, but just leading
up to it, kind of just knowing that it is — it’s not another
football game, but it is. Just follow that, do that, and we’ll
be good.
Q. You’ve been here back-to-back years. What’s the
biggest difference from you from last year to this year?
STETSON BENNETT: In what way?
Q. In term of the championship.
STETSON BENNETT: As far as the whole season?
Sorry, I —
Q. The whole experience. What’s the mindset having
been here before?
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I think it’s are probably a little
bit more sense of calm. More sense of, all right, this is
what we did, this is how we do it, this is what we’re going to
do.
And then as much as I love Indy, this is Los Angeles, so
there are a little bit more distractions. Weather is going to
be a little bit better.
But, you know, the season is different. I think it’s a
completely different team. I think Coach Smart has hit on
that. I think everything is. The trip to here, everybody’s
expectations coming in, during the season, and then
capping it off in L.A. This is pretty cool.
Q. Talking about it being a different team, you guys
had first round draft picks all over the place. Who is
the unsung hero?
STETSON BENNETT: Unsung hero. I’d say — I’d say, you
know, Kamar is really good football player. I don’t hear
very many people talking about him, and he is a bulldog. I
can’t remember when he came in, but when he came in, I
was, like, that dude is good. That dude is really good.
He is, and he is tough as nails are. He is gritty. He is a
damn good football player.
Q. Stetson, we polled six of your teammates and we
got four nos and yeses. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: I don’t know. I would have to hear
their reason. Who was it?
Q. The two yeses were Jalen Carter and
(indiscernible). Brock Bowers gave an emphatic no.
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, Brock — who are the other
three?
Q. Tate gave a firm no. Nolan is a firm no.
STETSON BENNETT: Oh! That’s shocking. Who is the
last one?
Q. Totally blanking.
STETSON BENNETT: 88? He said yes?
Q. 88.
STETSON BENNETT: The other 88. Goede, Ryland.
Damn tight ends. No, but listen to Jalen and
(indiscernible). Thank you.
Q. (Indiscernible) — when you can actually get into a
game prep and play in this game and play in moments
like on this stage, the reason that you wanted —
(indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, that’s why you do it, right?
And I think it’s important to realize that when you are there
are because I think — and I’ve been guilty of it even this
year. You know, getting somewhere that you were working
to get but then not really realizing it.
And that’s good, and it’s bad, and whatever, but this is why
we’re here. This is why we do this. This is why — Monk
has this great thing. We work 360-something days for, like,
12 in the regular season. Right? For 12. Like, 12
three-hour little games, right? We bust our a ass for a
whole year to do that. This one is the big one. This is the
hang it in the rafters forever, right? It’s special.
Q. What does it feel like right now for that one
three-hour game?
STETSON BENNETT: It’s business-like, I think. It’s
exciting. I love it. Because you know what you are doing,
and you know you’re not there yet, but you know you’ll get
there, and you trust that, and it’s day-by-day and
step-by-step.
I mean, it’s exciting, and it’s fun to make those little
progresses, to hit those little goals, and it’s a challenge,
right? Everybody loves to compete.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: It’s tough for me to say anything
about TCU’s culture. I don’t know anything about their
program or how they run it. Obviously it works.
But, yeah, I have seen — it has been cool to kind of — I
wasn’t here in ’16. I really wish I was here in ’16. I feel like
I could have learned. I think we won eight games or
something that year. I feel like that was an important year,
but I’ve been here every year since then.
Except for ’18. That was a bad year too. Hey, maybe
there’s something there. I’m just kidding.
Yeah, I think it has molded a little bit more into that. I think
Coach Smart has learned and adapted, and he had the
greatest to learn from, but he did learn from him, right, and
he knew it.
He was smart enough to wait until a job like this opened.
He didn’t — but, yeah, there has been continual — I mean,
you look at our facilities now. They’re absolutely ridiculous.
He has the belief of the whole state and for good measure.
And the team has started to — this is his team completely,
right? It’s, like, me — there’s a few guys that, like,
remember the guys that were here before Coach Smart
was here, but other than that there’s no people.
So it is his program now, and I think it’s been molded, and
it’s almost more professional, like you said.
Q. (Indiscernible) — how do you as the quarterback get
ready for such a unique challenge like this?
STETSON BENNETT: Well, I think our scout team does a
great job. They’re in there watching film of TCU’s defense
to run their defense, which is it — that’s special. And they
do it because they care about this team too, and they put in
the work too, and they’re here too, and they love and want
to win just as much as we do, right? They’re not going to
get on the field, so they’re going to make the guys who are
getting on the field better.
So those guys are selfless and damn good football players
too. But, yeah, it is tough. You try to watch as much film
as you can just to get inundated — is that a word?
Q. Inundated.
STETSON BENNETT: Inundated. Yeah, right. Just
familiarize yourself with the defense, so when you are out
there and you see it, it slows down a little bit, and you know
what you are seeing.
Q. Are you excited — (indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I tried to kind of pace myself
a little bit. I think I didn’t do a great job of that last week,
but pace myself. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Don’t get all
the jitters and the nerves and the adrenaline before you
need it, and then when you need it, let it all out.
Yeah, there is a buzz in the air in the preparation of it.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: What age did I realize —
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: I don’t know if I ever realized that. I
think I just always and still am just hungry to get better,
right, because that’s what makes it interesting and that’s
what makes it fun it. Competing and competing with
yourself day in and day out. Getting your brothers beside
you , them competing, them getting better. So I think it’s
just a constant struggle for that toward perfection.
And then what was the next part? Sorry.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: My inspiration. I guess if there is —
I think probably more than anything my dad used to tell me
this story about Erk Russell because Daddy walked on to
Georgia Southern when Erk was there.
He said in the first team meeting of the year, and coaches
come in, and you go through the team rules. We have a
manual about 70 pages long. It’s a pain in all our butts.
Coach Russell just walked in there and wrote, “Do right.”
Do right.
I think most of us usually know what’s right. As far as
football goes, I was just always trying to do right. Do the
best that I can to get to where I wanted. So I think that’s
probably inspiration.
Q. (Indiscernible) — on the West Coast now. A little
switch-up. What is on your playlist on the West side?
It’s a little bit different.
STETSON BENNETT: You know, I don’t — it probably will
be a little bit different. A little bit more — a little cooler. A
little breezier. Yeah.
Q. For some reason everybody kept saying last
person on the bus is Stetson Bennett. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: I don’t know. I do kind of move at
my own speed, I guess. It is a problem. It’s probably the
bane of my existence. I’m usually not late, but I am — I
don’t know why. I don’t know why. I’m working on it. I
promise I am.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: What am I eating?
Q. (Indiscernible).
STETSON BENNETT: I eat a lot of grapes. A lot of
grapes because I don’t want to be heavy, but I get hungry,
and I love the crunch, the crunch. I eat them at halftime,
and apple sauce. We’ve got these little things of apple
sauce, and I just slurp those down. They’re, like, quick
carbs, and they taste yummy. I love apple sauce.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: How bad of an outfit?
Q. Bad. Like bad outfit, bad haircut.
STETSON BENNETT: Oh, I would probably rather have a
bad outfit because you can change your outfit.
I know I need a haircut. I know I need one. I’ll get one
before the game.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Probably — I think Peyton is
probably an icon, so probably Peyton. Either him or Luke
Bryan, probably.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Oh, there’s a number (laughing).
Who would I not let?
Oh, Nolan Smith, that traitor. No way. Yeah, he is not
dating my sister. No chance. Yeah, that traitor.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: My grit? Probably a 10 there.
Pretty gritty.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I think it’s a — I think it’s very
important to our success. Just remembering where we
come from, how we got here, and it’s almost like the old
‘ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ right?
So when we — we know what the dangers are of the
mighty, you know, whatever are. What traps they fall into.
Then we can be on the lookout for them. So I think it’s
helped.
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: All-Star. All-Star. I’m an All-Star
guy. I can have my sausage burned, as black as your
apron. Hash browns scattered well and cheese eggs. Lots
of ketchup.
Q. You said Peyton and Luke Bryan?
STETSON BENNETT: Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Q. Do you want to say something and see if one of
them will answer?
STETSON BENNETT: No, I’m not going to bother them.
I’m no fun.
Q. We were doing some Stetson Bennett trivia with
your teammates, so I was wondering what would be a
good question we can ask somebody about?
STETSON BENNETT: In what way?
Q. We’re asking people your middle name and your
dad’s name, and a lot of people got that wrong.
STETSON BENNETT: That’s a good one. That’s a good
one. Stetson Bennett IV’s dad’s name. Oh, man.
What was the furthest place I ever lived away, I guess?
Alaska. Alaska. Frame the question better than that. I
don’t think that’s a great question, but…
Q. (Indiscernible)
STETSON BENNETT: No. It is a wild journey that I don’t
think anybody would really believe. But for me, again, I
just took it day-by-day. Then we ended up here.
It would be really special. It would be a lot of pride, and my
teammates, these guys here, the coaching staff, you know,
nutrition staff, everybody involved in that program,
recruiting, Ms. Kim, our cooks, our chefs. Everybody that
sacrifices so much and the hours, and it’s expected of
them, but they do choose to be there and to do it, and it’s
all for this game.
So that would be — it would mean a lot, and winning makes
people happy for some reason.
Appreciate it.
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