KIRBY SMART: I always open with thanking our fans, but I also want to thank Aflac as the title sponsor for this event. What an incredible venue, atmosphere. Anytime you play in Atlanta in this facility and it's part of a title sponsor game where you're playing another top-15, top-20 match-up, to me it feels like a playoff game. It's a great way to try to assess where you are as a team.
No longer do you have to win every game, but you do have to find out when you're going to be playing your best, and you want to be playing your best towards the end of the year, and one of the best barometers is to get quality wins.
I've got a lot of respect for Clemson, Dabo, the way they play, the way they coach. But this event is special to me, and every chance we get to play in it, we want to play in it.
Gary Stokan and his staff do a tremendous job, and so has Aflac.
Q. Coach, Malaki started a few years ago as a freshman. This game he made a big catch, I mean interception. Made another huge interception this game today. And then freshman KJ Bolden, he's a freshman, had a pretty good game. What do you attribute the credit to Stark's growth in this game and being able to put freshmen in games like this and they have a great performance?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I think Coach Schumann and his defensive staff have done a great job of making our defense adjustable, complex without being complex, and you can play more players that way.
We play freshmen all the time. We had Malaki play in this game two years ago; KJ played in the game today; Mykel played in the game two years ago.
If you're a talented freshman and you can learn, then you can play. Malaki's growth is a credit to his humbleness or his humility, and he is a great kid from a great family, and that's what makes Malaki special.
Q. Coach, a tale of two halves. That first half looked like the game in Charlotte a few years ago. What kind of adjustments or was there anything you saw at halftime? What would you owe the offense getting loose in the second half?
KIRBY SMART: I think Mike and his staff did a good job at halftime looking at pictures, seeing what was there, capitalizing on some explosive plays. We blocked well on the perimeter, and that drive in the second half kind of opened things up. I think it loosened them up. It allowed us to be more explosive, and we used some tempo to help us, and we think we're a really well-conditioned team, and I thought that juice between Nate's quickness brought some energy and Arien and Dillon making some plays on the perimeter.
Q. Mykel goes down in the third quarter and Jalon Walker comes in at outside linebacker. Back to back tackles for loss on one drive; next drive it's back-to-back sacks. What allows him to come in and play inside and outside and make an impact like he did today?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, he wasn't really playing for Mykel. He was playing outside linebacker before Mykel went down. They don't really play the same position. There's packages there where Jalon plays inside; there's packages where Jalon plays outside.
We've had to get uncomfortable as coaches to use his skill set, and I think shim anyone and the defensive staff have done a great job of finding ways that he can be successful.
Mykel and him both are really good football players, and they both need to be on the field. They don't need to share time.
Q. I think during the game, Bull tweeted that Malaki is the best DB in the country, Javon Bullard. Do you think he's the best DB in the country?
KIRBY SMART: I don't know. How can I judge? I haven't seen him. It's easier for Bull to say that because he has seen the things Malaki has done in practice. I do think the play I saw him make today may be one of the best defensive football plays I've ever seen live in person.
I've seen a lot of them on TV, but that one he twisted and contorted his body and how he can find the ability to go find that ball and get it, it's pretty special.
Q. Obviously the first half it was a little bit difficult to get the running game going. How did Nate Frazier help you open up the offense a little bit and get the offense going?
KIRBY SMART: I don't know that Nate opened up that. We hit some perimeter runs to start the game, and you try to mix and mingle and try to catch people off balance.
We thought that can we could run it a little bit better inside than we did. They have some big defensive linemen. They're big on their edges. They're big up the middle. They are going to give people problems defensively. I have a lot of respect for them.
I think Nate brought a little juice and a little energy there as Cash did, too, and Branson. Branson hasn't playing football in a year, so Branson is going to be fine. He is a really good back and we're going to continue to get better and look forward to using all those guys' skill sets.
We've got a really good dynamic in that running back room in terms of the players we have.
Q. On that note, Nate Frazier had an excellent debut. How would you assess his place on the depth chart after today?
KIRBY SMART: We don't do depth charts at running back. Cash Jones had a great day, too, and I was really proud of all those guys stepping up.
But there's no depth chart. We play the guys that have the best week in practice.
Q. Your transfer receiver today made some big plays. Colbie down around the goal line made a great catch and London showed how fast he is.
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, London I thought really stepped up. I thought the play of the game was the play he caught over the middle. Dillon had gone down with some cramping. London had to step up and go play. He made a great catch. I think it was a 3rd down conversion, I'm not sure, but once we converted that, it kind of was a springboard to being explosive and scoring. I thought that was a clutch catch. London is a great kid.
He's very level headed. Nothing really affects him. It didn't surprise me in the moment that -- the moment wasn't too big for him because he's played in a lot of these SEC match-ups.
Q. You mentioned Mykel earlier. What was the injury for him and for Warren Brinson, as well?
KIRBY SMART: One was an ankle, and Warren's was more of a contusion of some kind. I don't want to say high ankle, but it was above the ankle. It was more calf, in there where he got stepped on he felt like. And Mykel's X-rays, they looked good, but I've seen that before, so we've got to go check it when we get home and see.
Q. Obviously Etienne didn't play. Was that a suspension, and is it over now? Will it carry into next --
KIRBY SMART: You know we don't talk about those things. It was a good try, though. I'm focused on how our guys played today, and that's the focus and energy I'm putting it towards. I appreciate your question.
Q. We all know that Carson is calm, cool, and collected. We're heard you say we want him to show a little bit more passion, get his teammates fired up. Did you see that from him today?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I thought he got a little passion and energy there, too. We started early and didn't have 3rd down conversions in the first half, and I thought he responded well to that. He came in, sat down with the iPad, and he told me, when we come out second half, we're going to go in there and score, Coach, and sure enough, we did. I thought he really handled that well.
Look, that was a good defense, guys. Y'all can say what you want. That's a really high-quality defense.
Q. That kick from Peyton, 55-yarder pretty late in the half there, how big was that?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, it was big at the time, but you can't play these games in three, three, three, three. You've got to score touchdowns. That probably was a little out of my comfort zone, but it looked to me that he had some room to spare on it.
What was it, was it --
Q. 55.
KIRBY SMART: I didn't realize that. I knew when we had to kick it it was out of the zone that I really wanted to, but I didn't have a lot of options there, and we were playing field position, and I've seen him make them, so indoors I think it makes it more significant.
Q. I believe Carson Beck extended some plays with his legs there, a couple 3rd down conversions. Talk to that growth in the area of his game using his legs.
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, tremendous. The first conversion was that, it didn't end up in points, but what it did was flip field position. It made play behind bad field position most of the day. He has the ability to do that and I tell people all the time they don't know the athlete he is and it's not the speed it's the body control, decision making.
He can hurt you when you go out there and match everything, and then he takes off on you. He's got really good pocket presence, and he makes some plays with his feet.
Q. With Warren going out, Jordan Hall, Xzavier McLeod not out there, what did you see out of Christen Miller and Naz Stackhouse today middle of your defensive line?
KIRBY SMART: Just tough guys, man. I can't say how they played. I didn't watch it specifically. But to play the plays they played, the number of snaps, the volume they've taken, they have been extremely durable and extremely tough.
Tray has done a great job of bringing the young players along in that room, and we're getting a blessing in some ways of getting all these young guys ready while we're trying to get healthy. That could really pay dividends late in the year if we get everybody back.
Q. Coach, some of the talk surrounding Clemson has been that they have not been utilizing the transfer portal as much as some other teams have. Can you talk about how the transfer portal guys have affected your roster and how they've affected the way that you guys play this year?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, that's hard for me to speak on. I'm not in judgment of someone else. I guess you're not asking me to judge their program, you're saying how the transfer guys have helped our program. We're very selective in the transfer department.
We take a tight end out of Stanford who's played in a similar offense, two tight end sets, we take a wide out who we play against and can run, and we need wide outs because we lost guys at wide out.
We take Colbie who's a high-quality kid. We talk to these kids, visit with these kids. I want my team to stay my team. I've always said that. If you could give me every team kid I sign, they stay at my program for four years and they can't leave, I would take that every day of the week.
But if we're going to lose kids, we've got to replace them with high-quality kids that are character kids that are looking to have an opportunity to win a championship, that want to go somewhere and play, because otherwise you can't survive in the SEC without the depth you need.
It's a forced situation. You have to use it. So we use it selectively because we actually like signing high school players that can develop and the guys that you see in our program most of the time are that.
Q. I think I saw you guys played seven offensive linemen today. What does that say about the depth of your program and what kind of benefit does that provide to you?
KIRBY SMART: Well, we want to play a lot of linemen all the time. Carson works with those guys all the time. We like playing eight or nine. To get through the year you're going to have to do that.
We're thinner than we have ever been. We've played seven, eight guys and we've always played three tackles, and we'll continue to do that if they're playing winning football.
Q. Coming out of halftime, you guys score on the opening drive, Clemson comes back down, threatening to score, your defense holds them to a field goal. What did you like from that series from your defense and how big was that in the moment?
KIRBY SMART: I thought we responded. I'm trying to remember that one. I think they got to a short yardage situation, we were able to stop them, knock them back, gave them a negative play. I thought the defense executed well in the red area which is something we work on situationally a lot. Coach Schumann called some really good calls and Jalon and those guys on defense executed them.
Q. Obviously you guys have new faces every year, but I know you guys have some traits and characteristics that you like to instill in your team. Did you see that when it's 6-0 and you guys take control in the second half like that?
KIRBY SMART: I didn't understand what you asked.
Q. In terms of some of the resiliency, not looking at the scoreboard, being able to do what you guys practiced to do.
KIRBY SMART: I was proud of the way our team played both halves. I really was.
I think the narrative is out there you're going to roll the ball out and Georgia is just going to win. They're going to win because they have a G, and they are going to roll over these teams.
Football is not that way. That's a really good football team we just played. The fact that we played and pushed through that is indicative of the things you're talking about. We built into our program. We said we had to out-physical them. I thought we did. We had to out-hustle them. I think we did. We'll watch the tape. You got to out-discipline them.
Those are three areas that we thought we had to win to beat Clemson, and our guys proved true in that.
Q. I know you said postgame that the interception from Malaki reminded you of Champ Bailey?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, when Champ was a freshman we were in 42, people don't remember it, he would play middle field safety and he had range that was unheard of. He could go from sideline to sideline and he made some diving plays and extended his body.
Malaki is very similar to that in terms of his ability to play man-to-man, his ability to play safety. He can go out and play corner if he had to. He's just an tremendous athlete but with all that accolades, he's one of the most humble, great kids I've ever been around.
But I saw Champ before the game and I told him that Malaki has a lot of his same traits.
Q. The past couple off-seasons there were some incidents and from the outside there were questions about the culture of Georgia football. On the inside, how would you describe the health of the culture of Georgia football right now?
KIRBY SMART: Awesome. I wish you could talk to our players. I wish you are could live in there and see all our guys day-to-day and see Thomas Settles and Bryant Gant and all the people that stand up in front of our team and talk about connection and share their experiences.
I mean, there's two of them sitting right there. You can ask them. They'll tell you.
What you know on the inside is a lot more than what people can paint pictures to be outside. People use it in negative recruiting, and they throw it out there, and it comes back to bite them, too.
Q. Coach, you guys went 40 consecutive games in the regular season. That means you've got to be a very focused program. What do you think the secret is for you keeping these players focused no matter -- players come and go, but that focus seems to be pretty consistent.
KIRBY SMART: I think it's a process. We believe in what we do. The leaders on our team that I meet with, they believe in it, they sell it, they push it to the younger players. I think somebody said the other day we had 38 or 42 my advisor brought to me. We had 42 or 38, I can't remember what it was. I had to sign something saying they were all eligible and they were all new. We had 38 or 42 new people. New.
When you turn over that much, you'd better have a nucleus around them that can keep them grounded. That is what we've been able to sustain at Georgia is, we're not going to change what we do based on who we play. We're going to do what we do and we're going to try to out-execute you and just do it the right way.
I think a lot of people that's hard to do it the hard way all the time, because everybody wants to find an easier way. There's no easy way to win these games. They're all hard.
Q. On that fade route to Colbie Young, it looked like Beck and Young had been playing together for years. How have they been able to build that connection so quickly?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, it's been tough because Colbie hasn't actually practiced a full practice week. He was very selective. We had him where he was not taking a full load of reps. They had a really good connection early in camp, and then when his hamstring occurred, they lost some of that rhythm, and I think we've got to get more out of Colbie. Colbie is a really good player, and we need him to step up if we're going to go where we need to go.
Q. What can you say about your freshman Nate Frazier and the impact he's had in this game?
KIRBY SMART: Awesome. The players can tell you that I get on him all the time because he's out of control. He is just foot to fire, moving, going at the speed of light, doesn't know he might run into a brick wall, cutting back. He cut back a couple times in practice and I told him, when you get in a real game, you cut back like that, they're going to light you up.
I might have actually said some things I can't say in here, but he cut back and went all the way across the field for about 50, and told him it's okay now. He can do that.
He's a great kid. He got an opportunity; he seized the moment. A lot of people locked in front of him. And like I told you, Chauncey Mullins is a good back. He will have an opportunity to grow and play.
So I'm looking forward to that room because I think we got some juice in that room as they get more experience. Look, guys, Nate is a long way from a complete package. He wasn't here in the spring, so he missed 15 practices of intense work that he's trying to play catch-up on.
Q. Joenel banged up going into this football game. You talk a lot about Malaki and you said he's your best corner, could be your best corner --
KIRBY SMART: I said he could play corner.
Q. Could play corner. What did it mean to be able to slide him in at nickel today for you guys?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, that was huge. That was probably the thing -- you bringing it up, I forgot about that. That was one of the biggest things that got us in the week, when Joenel had a pull, and it happened on Saturday and we didn't know.
He didn't go Monday, he didn't go Tuesday, he walked through Wednesday, and we're all messed up because now we're having to not move one person in his spot, we're having to move Malaki, then Dan, then KJ.
It was really scary because we didn't have the volume of reps with that makeup, so then we tried to go with JaCorey some, but every time JaCorey was in Malaki had to play over here and Dan had to over here. Then when Malaki went in, Dan jumped over here and KJ went over here.
They did a tremendous job of knowing what to do from three different positions, and we really needed to get Joenel healthy, and I thought JaCorey stepped up and took advantage of his opportunity.
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GEORGIA PLAYERS
Q. Carson, Coach said you told him before the second half we're going to get a touchdown here, Coach, right away. Tell me what obviously besides confidence did you guys make some adjustments at halftime that you felt very good about being able to execute in the second half?
CARSON BECK: Yeah, I think just coming out in the first quarter, maybe there was a little bit of nerves. Maybe guys were just trying to get warmed into the game.
I mean, once we got in that second half, looking at the iPad, seeing what they were doing against us, it was everything that we saw on film that we watched from last year. So we just kind of deciphered which ways we wanted to attack them and maybe tried to be a little bit more aggressive coming out at the half, and I think we did a really good job of that. We got on the perimeter, had some good perimeter runs and were able to throw the ball down the field a little bit, and that ultimately ended up opening things up for us.
Q. Jalon, back-to-back tackles for loss in the third quarter and two sacks on the next drive. What allows you to make plays like that both at outside linebacker and inside linebacker on this defense?
JALON WALKER: Just honing in my preparation throughout the week: Like Coach Smart was saying, we do have various packages where I'm at inside backer and then there's packages where I'm at outside backer. I feel like I had a great week of practice doing that, keying in on those details of what I really need to do, and I felt they paid off today.
Q. Carson, how did it feel having Coach Smart in your ear all game with the new communication in the helmet?
CARSON BECK: Yes, actually Coach Bobo is the one that's communicating with me. He's up in the box. So he's down there calling the whole entire game.
It was definitely different. I liked it a lot personally. There's still some times where you look over to the sidelines and we're not going -- we're going slow, we're not going fast, and you still look at the signal, confirm everything. But I definitely think it picks up the pace of the game and allows us to play faster on offense, play to play.
Q. With two different perspectives, what was your reaction, and did you see Malaki Starks' interception?
JALON WALKER: Let me tell you about that. I'm on the field and I'm just covering my guy and then I see K throw the ball, and I'm like, okay, this is a 50/50 ball with Malaki and the receiver, and I looked, and I seen him twist and catch that ball, and I just took off in a sprint. That's probably my fastest GPS time I probably had all game. That was insane. That was an incredible catch.
Me and Malaki had a moment before then, and we told each other, I said he's going to get one and I'm going to get one. And we did. I appreciate him and I'm proud of him. Much love.
CARSON BECK: Yeah, I didn't see it live. I was over there watching the last drive, and I just heard the whole stadium go crazy. I'm like, well, someone did something crazy, and I see Malaki jump up. I'm like, he definitely just did something crazy. I'm running out there on the field and I'm looking up at the Jumbotron, and Tate is right next to me looking up at it, too, and he jumps up, he catches it, and me and Tate look right at each other, lock eyes, and we were like, oh, my gosh. It's crazy what he's able to do. He's very talented. So very proud of him.
Q. At the beginning of the week you were asked about the last time you guys played each other and you said it was 10-3 and that the defense played really well. There was a similarity even though these teams are very different now, your team didn't allow any touchdowns today. What can you say about how they played today?
CARSON BECK: Well, I have to play against our defense every single day, and I don't enjoy it very much, either. They're phenomenal. The things that they're able to do and the multitude of defense that they're able to play, that's a credit to their intelligence on the defensive side of the ball, and then not only that, but going out there and executing the plan and Coach Schumann calling the plays and the players actually going out there and performing, like I said, I absolutely hate playing against our defense every day, but I think that's what makes our offense get better and better. But to watch them go out there, it makes our job a little bit easier. We have good field position and we're really not too worried about the other team scoring.
Q. Two of your transfer receivers made some big catches for you today. What's it been like working with those guys and contributions today?
CARSON BECK: Absolutely. I think that wide receiver room has so much depth and I've been saying that -- everyone wants to say guys left and there's no talent in there, but there's so much talent, and we have so much confidence in every single guy that goes out there and steps out there on the field from -- you look back to spring ball to summer to fall camp, all the countless reps, we do a lot. Really there's a lot of accumulated reps with those guys and a lot of confidence that I have in them.
For them to come out first game and be able to make some plays, that instills more confidence for me into them, and obviously it's a good moment for them, so super proud of them.
Q. You talked this off-season about your motivation to come back to Georgia after the last game you played here. I wonder what it was like to walk off the field with a big win for Georgia today, and do you think that you saw things from this team that you might be able to come back here a couple more times?
CARSON BECK: No, definitely a different feeling walking off the field this time compared to the last time we were in this stadium. I'm just super proud of this team. I think the preparation that went into this game, you could see from -- we started last Thursday prep for Clemson, you could see the sense of urgency pick up, you could see the attention to detail of guys locked in, focused on the plan and what they needed to do and just flying around during practice. We had some really good practices leading up to that.
I think for us, if we can just be consistent in that and each week have that same exact approach, then we'll have the success that we need to have to get back here.
Q. The first 3rd down conversion you had to London where it's 3rd and 10 and you guys are up in the third quarter 13-3, can you walk me through what you saw on that play and firing that pass in there?
CARSON BECK: Yeah, so they played a very similar coverage on a couple 3rd downs in the game, so Coach Bobo went to a play that he's on an in-breaking route. He did a great job of breaking the corner off, coming back negative underneath the linebacker, which first and foremost, I have to have a lot of trust in him that he's going to run the route right, that he's going to win so that I can let it go on time, and that comes with reps and continuously doing it over and over again.
No, I think that was a huge play for us in the game and really catapulted us as an offense, especially on 3rd and long. It definitely changes the momentum.
Q. This is for both players. To win 43 regular season games, that means you guys have got to be very focused. You have a lot of different situations. But the results have been the same. What do you attribute that to why you guys have been able to keep that focus?
JALON WALKER: Our culture being our culture, what they instill in us at the University of Georgia, being moment led, doing moment by moment. We focus on each game individually. We don't skip ahead in the season. We don't backtrack. We don't do anything. We be where our feet is planted, and I feel like we do a great job of keeping the main thing the main thing. Next week we go into our next game, and we'll do so again for that game.
Q. Carson, what did you think of Nate Frazier's performance today. Obviously a big game from him?
CARSON BECK: Yeah, I think he did a great job. I think it's super cool opportunity for him. Obviously he came here in the summer so he's only been in Athens for two, three months, which is crazy to me. But we have a lot of confidence in him. We were able to see what he could do in practice. Obviously he translated that to the game, and that's usually how it works.
That running back room had a huge day, him, Cash is someone that you haven't seen much of in the past that really stepped up for us today, as well.
Those guys being able to step into their roles, I'm excited to see what they're able to do as the season goes on.
Q. Carson, when you talk about Nate right there next to you, with having a young player that hasn't been there very long next to you, what was the communication like between you and him pretty much all day I would imagine?
CARSON BECK: Yeah, there was a couple guys out there for the first time starting or -- you could say starting, not starting, but there was a couple guys out there playing for the first time in a Georgia uniform. For me, being a starter last year, coming back and being my second year, just communicating to those guys like lean on me. If there's an issue or problem out on the field, if you don't know something, if you need help, come to me. I have confidence in understanding our game plan, what we need to do, so I'm going to handle what I need to handle, and that's going to get done. But if you need help, come to me, I can manage that.
I think that's something that I've really been trying to do as I've stepped into my second year.
