Opening statement...
"Well, once again we come to Nashville and it feels like a home game. We had a lot of UGA red in the stands. I thought when we came out for warm-ups it was not as crowded, and then when we came out for the main part of the game there was a sea of red there as we came across the field and a lot of red on their side. So I was really appreciative of our friends making it like a home game, and I'm really proud of our players being resilient and fighting through some turnovers, some adversity, some sloppy play, some injuries. But at the end of the day, they responded and they got up to play on the road in the SEC, so I'm proud of them for that."
On the latest on Brock Bowers' injury...
"It's an ankle sprain. Don't know how severe. X-rayed it, and the x-rays were negative. Looked like it was lower, but we don't know. Until we get an MRI, we won't know until him or Truss. Same thing because both of them are ankle sprains."
On the offense responded after Brock Bowers and Xavier Truss left...
"Nah, I was proud of them. Monroe went in, did a really good job. Lawson Luckie, those guys practice every day. They take all of the same reps. I thought our guys did a great job. The red area stalled out a couple times, had to kick field goals, and that's probably a good thing for Peyton Woodring to go out there in that wind that we had and to nail some critical, crucial field goals. Really proud of them for that, and really proud of the offense on the day. I mean, they did some good things. Threw the ball in the perimeter, missed some explosives, and got sloppy with the ball there. One ball got tipped, and then Carson had the fumble. You can't turn the ball over and do that. But when you don't punt, I can't say that you didn't play good offense."
On five runs on the last drive and getting what you needed on that possession going old school...
"Yeah. I mean, there were some things attached to that that helped us, but I thought Daijun did a great job all day. I mean, he runs with such great toughness, great balance. A lot of good perimeter blocking for him to help him out."
On Kendall Milton's status...
"Yeah, his MCL bothered him again. He took a hit on it earlier in the game before the fourth-down carry, and it tightened up at halftime on him. Didn't feel like he could go because of the — what happens is it gets stiffer and we try to keep him warm with the MCL. But it tightened up on him when he took a shot — he took a helmet to the knee."On Vanderbilt's long touchdown pass on the opening drive..."It was an RPO, and they made a good play. We didn't play it the right way. They did a good job."
On Tykee Smith's performance, especially in the second half...
"Yeah, Tykee's been really solid for us. He had the huge interception before the half. We talked about the middle eight going into the game. The middle eight is one of the most critical times in a game — last four and first four. A lot of kids knew — we talked about it yesterday actually. Mykel came over and said, 'We just won the middle eight, Coach.' We got 14-0. That was a huge swing of momentum there before we went in for the half. And then to come out the second half and take care of the first four, we only got three points for it. So it ended up being 17-0 there.We did a good job. Tykee did a good job. He had some plays that he didn't do the right thing on either, though, and so he's got to play better for us to be where we want to go, but he made some plays, too."
On what goes through your mind when Brock Bowers goes down...
"The same thing it does when Truss does. The same thing it does when any player does. I mean, we worry about our players all the time. I think Christen Miller went down too, so it's not a lot you can do. It's the game of football, right? They're going to play tackle, and you're going to get injured. You're going to have bumps and bruises. You're going to have injuries and things. We're not going to overreact to it. We're thinking about Brock, but I think he'll be fine."
On your reaction to Carson trying to make the tackle after the interception...
"I mean, he doesn't need to throw it. He doesn't need to throw an interception. That ball got tipped I believe. But he made a great effort to get over there and get the guy. It gave us a chance defensively, which is critical. You can't have those kind of mistakes either."
On the fumble to start the game followed by the three-and-out and missed FG...
"Yeah, it's sudden change. We talk about a lot. I don't know what makes a team good in sudden change or bad in sudden change. You're either good on defense, or you're not. It doesn't matter when you go out there. Sudden change is critical. That was a big stop. That end of the field was kicking right into the teeth of the wind. I didn't think he could make that field goal, and we chose not to take a field goal down there because we had to be able to go for it. It was a pretty strong wind."
On the bye week coming at the right time with injuries...
"I've never had a bye week that came at the wrong time. I feel great about the bye week. I'm glad it's here. We'll try to get better. People don't understand what a bye week really is. I mean, it's an opportunity-for-growth week for me. It's not a bye week. I don't look at it as time off. We've got some players that need it, and we're a banged-up football team. We've still got guys that are missing practice and missing time and then try to go out there and play. We'll try to get them healthy."
On Dan Jackson's absence...
"Yeah, he got sick last night. He was with us, and we thought he was going to be able to play, and he's dealing with maybe some infection. I'm not sure. I just know he's sick."
On how Ladd McConkey came out of the game...
"He seems fine. The deal with Ladd, he gets tight at halftime. You know, he stiffens up and has to try to stay loose. A little bit of stamina because he doesn't get to practice as much as the other guys. But I didn't think anything happened to set him back."
On Dominic Lovett...
"You've got that extended run game thing down. Jed: "Yeah, I think about it all the time." "Great. I'm glad we got some knowledge for you there. I didn't have to make a comment, so that's good. He's been a good extension. We've really tried to get him to believe that's exactly what it is. It's a run. There's no need to dance. There's no need to juke. There's no need to stop because they're coming. I can promise you they're coming. You need to get 2-3 yards after contact. If we get you 7 or 8. I thought we started the game off with Dillon Bell doing that today. There was several times the ball was in space. Making people defend the entire field is frustrating for a defense."
On his message to Monroe Freeling, Lawson Luckie as they go into the game to play bigger roles...
"Proud of them. There's no message. They go into the game ready to play. I didn't say a word to them. They understand. We do a million walk-throughs and practices, and I've been telling Stacey and those guys, 'You've got to put Monroe in there. You can't just put him in the game. Put him in there with the ones and let him practice, let him see what it's like to go against our guys.' That moment came, and it wasn't too big for him. I thought he did a good job."
On Ladd McConkey coming into his old self...
"I thought that was a huge confidence boost for him and our team. Carson trusts him. I think he felt much better today, but it's day to day. He doesn't get to practice during the week, so we're trying to find what that rhythm is. Is it a mid-week one practice and then recover? How much does it set him back when he plays? We won't know that until tomorrow. It's just hard for the offensive coordinator to figure out how to use a guy if he's not at practice."
On McConkey's practice routine...
"He's not a full go every day. He does what he can."
On evaluation of Carson Beck...
"I want to reserve judgement until I watch it. I was frustrated by some decisions, taking a sack that almost knocked us out of field goal (range). Peyton went out and knocked it, but that was just not smart. If it's not there, throw it away, let's get the three points and let's go. I think everything for him has to be, 'I want to get a completion. I'm going to run for it.' It's okay. We've got a good defense, we don't have to score every possession. Be smart with the ball, don't give it back to them. I want to watch it and see how he played. Thought he made a couple of throws there, and he made a couple of nice throws that we didn't catch, but there were a couple of shots - the Marcus Rosemy one down the middle, Rara's down in the end zone that was near the ground, there were a couple that I thought he could have back. I'll watch it and see how he did, but I'm certainly proud of his composure. He doesn't lose his composure much."
On red zone goals...
"We want to be a 70 percent touchdown team. What happens is, you get ranked high in red zone but it's because you kick field goals and get points. We don't even evaluate that stat. It does us no good to go down there and kick field goals. It's a win for the defense. I don't know what we were today, but we were not 70 percent touchdowns in the red area. Hell, I don't think we were 70 percent touchdowns against Kentucky. I think we. were 67 or something. It's a hard goal to make, but it's the goal that we expect. We fell short of that today, but offense has been bouncing back on that goal. Defensively is the one that we're wanting to keep people out at a higher rate against touchdowns."
On Daijun Edwards and how he plays…
“Yeah, he’s workman-like. The guy’s got great vision, great toughness. He’s really hard to tackle. His balance is so tough. He does not take many tough shots. He’s got good wiggle, really good short yardage guy, really patient, hits the hole. Where would be right now without Daijun? I don’t know, because his toughness has won out.”
On areas of growth he wants to see in the bye week…
“I want to get all the twos, threes, all the guys that haven’t played as many snaps ready to go. I don’t know when it’s going to be, but it’s going to be a Monroe Freeling or a Lawson Luckie moment where a kid’s got to go in and play. It’s coming, we just don’t know who. I tell the guys all the time, there’s 22, 44 players twos and threes that we’ve got to get every single rep we can for them so they’re prepared for this stretch run of five games, guys, is going to be physical and tough. We may or may not be playing with a full deck. We’ve got to go get better.”
On if he was looking for a complete game today…
“I’m always looking for that, right? I don’t know when I wouldn’t be looking for that. That was the expectation. I thought that our practices were great this week, really good. There’s no distraction, they were crisp, they were sharp. We didn’t play bad, we just had some sloppy moments. I still think this team’s growing up, second game on the road, played a little sharper.”
On if this was one of the more unique environments he’s been in…
“It’s definitely unique, but they’re all unique in the SEC. It has no bearing on how you play. We talked about it all week, bring your own juice. I thought, man, the guys have got great juice before a game, warmups. Everything was awesome. Didn’t start quite the way we wanted to, took a punch and then we threw some punches.”
On recruiting plans for the off week…
“We’ll have guys out for sure Friday. We’ll burn up most of our days left on Friday. I think we’ve got a couple going Thursday after practice. We may even have one or two going Monday, not to a game but to watch practices and go out and evaluate. It’s a catch-up time, for sure. It’s your next chance to catch a breath and try to do some roster management stuff and figure out what do we need, what do we have, what’s out there.”
On if he likes where the team is at right now…
“Yeah, I’m really proud of the leadership of the team. There’s some great guys in that locker room that know we can play better, but look guys, I’m not going to, I’ve said it before, I’m not going to apologize for winning on the road in the SEC. I’m all about it, man. I told them the other day, the Braves played 162 games and that was an entire season, then they had a playoff. For us, we have 12 games, maybe 13, and every week is a season. We just finished a season. It was a long week and it was a season. Guess what, we’re going to have another two-week season now. Then we’ll have a one-week season, a one-week season. We want to win every season we can, that’s the goal.”On how it feels to be undefeated heading into the bye week…“It’s better than one loss."
