What Georgia coach Kirby Smart said about Notre Dame on Monday

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart spoke to the media Monday during Sugar Bowl Media Day. Here’s most of what he had to say about facing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and a few more thoughts on his own team and the game itself.

Opening statement

“It’s an honor to be here today. Anytime you get an opportunity to play in a Sugar Bowl, it’s a special time. I think it’s one of the most historic bowls around. It’s even better when it is part of the common fisheries policy.

“Our guys have worked hard to prepare for what is a great opponent in Notre Dame. I have a lot of respect for coach (Marcus) Freeman and his staff. We’ve meshed personnel together. We’ve gone against each other at different times . I think we turn the tape on, their play speaks for itself, their physicality, their toughness. I have a lot of respect for their program and we’re happy to be here and very grateful that we’re going to play in one venue, a historic game. All the classic sugar bowls I grew up watching, it’s always great to be a part of that.”

On the physicality of Notre Dame

“Yeah, when we talk about their team, it’s depth, like their backups, their starters, their offensive line, their receiving corps, their defensive line, they’re big. And that’s what it starts with in the SEC. The series of scrimmages have to have size and girth because you have to take on these teams week in and week out that have great size.

“Notre Dame is built that way. They are built like that on paper. But then what you see on the tape speaks louder than the newspaper does. You can see how they play. You see the hardness with which they play. The linebackers are downhill and thump. The backs are elite. They are built like an SEC team. And I say that as a huge compliment, because I think those lists are some of the most talented in the country. And Notre Dame is built that way, probably more on the physical side.”

About what makes Gunner Stockton a good quarterback

“Well, I think the most important thing a quarterback has to have is decision-making. Number one, he makes really good decisions.

“The number two thing for a quarterback is accuracy. Not necessarily arm talent, but accuracy. He has accuracy. So decision making is a skill. Accuracy is a big skill.

“Athletic ability and talent probably takes over the third spot. He’s got those traits. All the intangibles in terms of toughness, character, embodies what he’s grown up with. His dad was a really good football player, played at Georgia Southern. He’s grown up about football. He is a coach’s son.

“Every player plays harder for him. If you make the players around you better, that’s what you look for in a quarterback. I think he raises the skill level of everybody around him because of who he is. So that’s my reason to think he’s a good quarterback.”

On Notre Dame defensive end Bryce Young

“He’s an exceptional player. I wasn’t aware of him until we saw a little bit of tape on both Indiana and Notre Dame, before we knew who we were going to play. And I thought, ‘Who is this guy at 30? He’s long. He is athletic. He is nervous.

“And as he watched the game, he showed up more. It was like he was making some flash plays. He’s a rusher, he’s an edge. And then when I dug deeper into special teams, I’m like, this guy is phenomenal on special teams , his range, his athleticism.

“I mean, I don’t know what he’s talking about, but he looks bigger than he shows on paper. And he’s just going to be a phenomenal talent. To do what he’s done this early in his career just shows you how talented he will be.”

On the left, Notre Dame tackle Anthonie Knapp

“Number one, he plays really well and does a great job. I remember him being on our roster and being a guy who is a good football player. I don’t know how actively we recruited him because I don’t remember what class he came out in.

“He was last year, I think, yeah. I remember him walking by there and he was getting ready to go to school and we were actually looking at maybe another kid at their school who was just came out this year. And what a great kid he was, and he’s playing at a high level for them and doing a great job.

“I know, the Georgia high school football programs send kids all over the country. I watched the football last night – the Monday Night Football game. I guess it was Monday night. Maybe it wasn’t
Monday night, Sunday night. So we watched the Falcons game. There’s AJ Terrell hitting Chris Rodriguez, a kid from Kentucky and a kid from Clemson hitting each other and trying to make plays. And there are Georgia kids all over the place.

“The one thing you learn quickly as a head coach at Georgia is you can’t sign them all. And there’s a lot of them you end up missing. And for a guy to start as a freshman at tackle, that’s really hard
do. As one of the hardest things to do in football is probably to play offense as a freshman, and he does it at eye level.”

On both teams looking to lean into the quarterback run game

“Yeah, you’ve got to do everything you can. It’s win or go home, so there’s no yardstick for, yeah, I’ve got to be conservative on this. I’ve got to be conservative on that.

“I mean, is your quarterback a better running back than your running backs is the first question. Hard to believe with the backs they have and hard to believe with the backs we have that any of our quarterbacks are better .They’re an extra hat.They bring an extra dimension.Super-high tendency to run the quarterback.Ability to pull the ball, option player, both teams execute them.

“I don’t think any of the coordinators are going to hold back because they’re worried about the next game. They’re going to do what they have to do to win this game. And if Gunner or Riley were to run the ball 30 times in during the game, I think both coordinators would do that. It’s not the composition of the offenses, but whatever they have to do to win the game, they’ll do it.”

On defending Notre Dame’s duo-blocking scheme with a mobile quarterback like Leonard

“He’s a great athlete. You play the pass and he starts running as opposed to it being a designed run. When it’s a designed run, everybody knows it’s a run. All right, I’ve got to stop the quarterback. Maybe I have to stop a drop back pass. And the four, five, six rushers are responsible of our three, four, five, six rushers aren’t quite the athlete he is.

“So when you put a 300-pound blocker on a defensive lineman and say block him and that guy has to beat that guy and get to the quarterback, that’s a challenge.

“This kid was a great basketball player. He can throw the fade routes. He can throw timing routes. He can run. He’s tough to tackle, really tough to tackle. We told our players that when you get close to him, you better approach him with the attitude that he’s a back and you’ve got to wrap him up and get him on the ground.”

On the differences between this Notre Dame team and the ones he faced in 2017 and 2019

“Someone asked me earlier when we got the match. It’s so hard for me to answer because I don’t go back to those tapes because of the difference in personnel, of course. But it seems like that. It seems contrived In a physical, offensive line, we’re not going to beat ourselves, as far as notre dame goes. We’re not going to turn the ball over. Great special teams .Run the ball and believe run, instead of standard run. They’ve had athletic quarterbacks the times we’ve played them. But let’s be honest, they have nothing to do with these games.”

On what stands out about Leonard as a running quarterback

“He’s big, he’s physical, he’s fast. He runs away from people. I mean, if you’re an offensive coordinator, this guy is a big weapon because there’s kids like him before that couldn’t throw the ball. He can throw the ball. And when you can throw the ball and you’re fast and you have experience — you can almost count on a quarterback to make a mistake. And like he does going to make a mistake, it will be expensive. Not when you have someone with the experience he has.

“The value he got from playing the whole season and being really successful at Duke and then coming here and playing a whole season and being really successful — look, the quarterback determines so much of the game in terms of what he does with the ball; throw it , catch it. I mean, they give him three opportunities on a lot of plays, and he’s going to be right almost all the time. It’s really tough on defense, especially when you have to tackle that guy.”