COACH SMART: I want to open with a lot of credit to Notre Dame and their staff and their team. They played exactly like we expected them to play: Physical, tough, don't beat yourself. And they did that. They did those exact things. They got two turnovers, and we didn't. And they returned a kickoff for a touchdown. So, we basically spotted them probably 14 points off of that, and costed ourselves a possession in the red area when we fumbled down there. But they did a really good job. They played really hard, physical brand of football. So do we. Those two mirror each other. I think both defenses played well, and we turned the ball over and they didn't. And they gave us problems in the pass game with the sack and the sack fumble. So give them a lot of credit. That takes nothing away from these men on the stage and the seniors that are a part of this class. I mean, absolutely incredible. I just told them, what they went through this year and what they played and how they played, the resiliency, the injuries that we've had, and to win an SEC championship -- which I have so much respect for our conference -- and to win some of the comeback games they won and never quit, even in this game, never quit, that's the attitude you've got to have to get better as a football program. So, we've got a lot of guys moving on. A lot of guys are hurt in that locker room because we didn't get the outcome that we wanted, but that's part of life. I give Notre Dame credit for how they played and give our seniors and our leaders credit for what they've done for this program.
Q. Can you walk us through the final 33 seconds, the final minute of the first half, and going forward there, throwing the ball, and what happened.
COACH SMART: Yeah. Typically when you're down, you need every possession you can have. And we made a decision that we were going to be aggressive and we were going to try to go two-minute. And that's what everything says you should do. You can't give up possessions when you're trailing. So we're down 6-3. We felt like we had a little quick-game pass. Certainly not counting on getting beat that quick at left tackle. And got a sack fumble, which gave them some momentum. But at the end of the day, we got a great red-area defense. We should stop them. We don't play passive here. We play to be aggressive, and we're trying to go score.
Q. If I could follow up on that question, how much did you take into account that the offense hadn't really been moving the ball? And obviously Gunner [Stockton] was making his first start, as he contemplated playing aggressively?
COACH SMART: No, I don't think so. I think we did move the ball. We turned it over. We had more yards than they did at the time, and we had more passing yards than they did at the time. So I don't see it as just going to the shell. We got an opportunity -- we got timeouts. We got an opportunity to go score. We worked two-minute every week, and we stay aggressive with it. We've got a really good pass pro team, and we didn't pick him up on that play. Made a great rush, and he got a sack and fumble. I don't question that call because I really agree with the decision to be aggressive and try to go score.
Q. The opening second-half kick return for a touchdown, what happened there? And how much do you feel like that influenced the way the rest of the game played out?
COACH SMART: Well, I don't think it affected us because we bounced right back. Spotted an extra touchdown. It made it a harder comeback. But we an unblocked player that missed a tackle. And usually when that happens, you give the other team credit, but it's not a mistake. We just missed the tackle, right? And when you don't play for a while, sometimes you miss tackles. We had leverage on the ball, and we had somebody that couldn't get him on the ground. And that's what football is. It's fundamentals and tackling. We tackle him there, then we got a chance to stop them. But obviously, it played a huge momentum swing for them, but our guys didn't shy away.
Q. The fourth and one late in the football game, they run the punt team off. Was there a thought to call a time-out there? I know you guys were down.
COACH SMART: Didn't want to because that's what they wanted. They wanted us to burn a timeout there and try to do it. And we subbed. So it's really unfortunate, because I've been told by our head of officials in the SEC that you can't do that. You can't run 11 on, 11 off. We did it in 2017 against Tennessee. We've carried that. We practiced that and repped that because teams try to do it, and we were told by officials you could not do that. And so we were trying to say you couldn't do it. We got our defense out there. We were fine. I mean, I would have gone for it, if I was them. I don't think they were planning on going for it. They were going to hard-count us. We prepare for that. We do it every week. We jumped offsides, you know? But we also were told you couldn't do that in our league.
Q. Obviously, very defensive game. Notre Dame only had 90 yards passing. Have you ever kind of remembered a game like this where the opposition had 90 yards passing and still somehow managed to get the win?
COACH SMART: Yeah. When you have two turnovers and a kickoff return for a touchdown, that's what happens. I mean, I have been part of those games. I've been part of really good defenses, and they stop people. And we weren't able to get a lot going. And the turnovers are the difference in the game, guys. It's not an exact science. I mean, you should know when you turn it over twice and they return a kickoff for a touchdown, you're not going to have a lot of success.
Q. You had a long completion down to Arian Smith and get a sideline warning -- sideline interference there. The ball comes back. Walk us through what happened there. What were your thoughts?
COACH SMART: Yeah, very unfortunate. We had -- they said a coach but I think it was a player, from what I've been told -- in the white, and the white is reserved for the officials. That's a safety concern. Most of the time, they'll grant you a warning on that; but it was not a -- it was a situation where it cost us 15 yards. We still had first and ten and didn't take advantage of it. But, again, I call those things undisciplined, self-imposed wounds that you lose momentum on. So, it's just something you can't have happen.
Q. We've discussed a couple of fourth-down plays, special teams plays. I'm curious, how much do you think Notre Dame's success is built on the fact that they challenged sort of every play and are really willing to do lots of different things to sort of get the opponent off balance?
COACH SMART: I think everybody is as good a football team as that. I don't think that's a Notre Dame trait. I mean, every team we play in our league, they're going to try to create a competitive advantage. We knew they were really aggressive on special teams with what they do. They come after kicks. They had two roughing the kickers that were running into the kicker. That's a subjective call, right? So that's a decision he has to make as to what it is. Those could be first downs. But there's nothing different they do that's -- I mean, we prepare for it, you try to out-execute people. We had the same situation as them.
Q. You were told previously in a different game you can't run 11 on, 11 off. I saw you trying to talk to the officials. Did they ever come over and talk to you, the head official, or anything like that?
COACH SMART: Never gave me a real clear answer. Never gave me a real clear answer.
Q. My real question was about Gunner Stockton's first start, your thoughts.
COACH SMART: Gunner did some good things. Any time you don't have pass pro, it's tough. He had some tough moments out there. When it's your backside and you can't see it coming, it's tough. I thought he tucked it down and ran. He got us out of a couple sacks with his feet and legs, threw the ball away. Did some good things there. But obviously, it wasn't enough with the two turnovers, and we got to be better for sure.
Q. Kirby, you had mentioned the missed tackle on the kickoff and said you hadn't tackled in a while. You talked before the game about the layoff. I'm curious how much you felt that was a factor.
COACH SMART: I really didn't. I really didn't. I thought we tackled well as a defense, better than I expected. We built a wall on the run game. They had some success with quarterback run late and got some things out as we started to take more chances. But I thought our guys were in good shape, good condition. I wouldn't change anything we did leading up to it. I mean, I thought that our preparation was good. We got to run extra yesterday. I was really pleased with that. All the players felt confident about that. I did not think we had a conditioning issue, and I did not think it was a tackling issue. We did miss one on the kickoff, but that was an offensive player. He doesn't tackle as much as anybody because he plays on offense.
Q. Jalon, your first year, you guys win the national championship. Last year, you guys get left out of the playoff. You talked about it earlier in the week saying you felt slighted, saying you weren't there. Now you fall here in the Quarterfinals. How does this feel in comparison to last year?
JALON WALKER: Yeah, it hurts. Last year, we didn't have our appearance in the College Football Playoff, but we did have the appearance in the Orange Bowl. And we ended that off the right way against Florida State. Unfortunately, we didn't end it off in the right way this year. I just know that we played and gave it all. Offense and defense gave our all. So I wouldn't trade this moment for anything at all. It was just a great, hard-fought battle. All respect to Notre Dame. Physical offense. Hard-fought offense. Well-coached. And they just did what they needed to do.
Q. Tate, you look kind of beat up there. Talk to us about how you feel right now.
TATE RATLEDGE: Just hurt. A lot of emotions after that kind of loss and this kind of situation. So, I mean, of course, we'd rather go the other way but just a lot of emotions going through the head right now.
Q. Just to follow up on that, how were you guys able to kind of play after what happened yesterday and kind of focus on ball?
TATE RATLEDGE: I mean, this team's got one goal, and it's all the same goal, and that was to win a national championship. And it started here. And just knowing that we have one goal all together is how we ended up getting through that and showing up to play today.
Q. Apologies if this has been asked. It probably has. Any thoughts on all four teams that had byes losing in the first round? Do you think that played a factor at all?
COACH SMART: What played a factor? The fact that they --
Q. The fact that they had a game last week versus we had three weeks without playing football, or at least to play in a game.
COACH SMART: I don't know. I mean, I look at what Vegas says;and it went kind of what Vegas said, you know what I mean? I mean, at least in those two games. I guess ours was a -- I don't know what it was. It was close. But two of those teams were better than the other teams, to be honest with you. And that is what it is. That's more about the seeding process and where it is. But I'm not here to complain about anything. Given the opportunity, Notre Dame lost probably their best defensive player. So I don't know how that's an advantage.
Q. Given how hyper-scheduled football programs are at this level, how did you approach the uncertainty yesterday of figuring out when you're going to play, how you deal with practice in that 24-hour waiting period?
COACH SMART: Same as we do everything. We got a little group, we huddle up. We FaceTimed. We made a decision on what we would do. We brought the players down and met with them and said, This is the plan moving forward. We put it on the screen, and they said, Let's go. Put the ball down and get ready to go play. That's what our guys do. We change a lot of our plays. When change happens, it does not affect people. What you can't measure is the families of the Notre Dame players and the Georgia players that are -- you're concerned about your family, because they're in New Orleans and you don't know where they are. And I don't think you can put a -- quantify a measure of concern for both teams, their families. All of our players were on the phone checking on their family, and that's the biggest concern.
Q. Kirby, you've had a number of games this year where you haven't scored a lot of points. Any thoughts about your offensive identity, and what do you attribute that to?
COACH SMART: I attribute it to, number one, some really good defenses we've played. I mean, that one was a really good defense. We've played some really good defenses. We've had a rotating lineup with guys that have rolled in and out, and we haven't created the same thing on defense we've done in the past. If you go to years-past defense, we created more turnovers, better third downs to get the ball back. There's a lot of things we can do better to help our offense, but we certainly have to play better and do better. And a lot of that has to do with health and the schedule we play and having some playmakers that can make some plays, too.
Q. Kirby, you talked about the uncertainty of yesterday and kind of the concern. I'm curious, was there any carryover to today? Once you all started playing, did it feel like a normal game?
COACH SMART: Oh, guys, I'm not desensitizing what happened, okay? That was a very traumatic event. But this team was focused and ready to go play. So, I'm not going to sit here and talk about the tragedy affecting our team. Notre Dame played well. We didn't play great. But when we turned the ball over twice and have a kickoff returned, that's what I attribute the loss to. Not to the tragedy or what happened. And that's not any disrespect to the community of New Orleans or the people with tragic losses.
Q. Coach, I thought Smael Mondon had a really good game. He's a guy that's been with your program for four years. Georgia native. This year with the transfer portal, that's kind of a rare thing. How much of an impact has he had on your program?
COACH SMART: Yeah, he's an incredible kid. I mean, he had a really bad injury, guys, and then he had a really bad injury on top of his fixed injury. So, I got so much respect for him. He could have shut it down, not played this year. He sat out for three or four games to let it heal. And then he came back with just -- and played so good down the stretch. And I'm so happy for him because he's got to go into the NFL process with a pretty significant injury that he's had, and he's played with good tape. So, somebody's going to get a really good football player out of Smael. I've got one thing I want to say about these two guys before we break. I don't know who picked these guys to come, but they would have been the guys I picked because when we do our captains -- and rarely have I ever seen this where we did our captains -- and two guys got more votes than anybody we've ever had. A combination of an offensive player and a defensive player. Well, that's picked by the 130 players on the team. So they picked these two guys at about a 95% rate. Meaning out of the 130, 95 guys put these two guys in their combination. So what they did with this team in the toughest year of at least my tenure, easily the toughest year, they dominated the room. They controlled the room. They led the room through hard games and situations. There were some hard games and situations. I'll never forget this guy against Georgia Tech chasing everybody down telling them to stay in the game, hope's still alive. This guy doing the coin toss and saying we're about to win this game in overtime. And I know today will be written about and that's fine. But these two guys right here are as special as they come. Thank you, guys.
TATE RATLEDGE: Appreciate it, Coach.
