SEC coaches teleconference: Penalties, special teams worry Kirby Smart
Saturday is the first game of Georgia’s season, but it’s also Kirby Smart’s first as a head coach.
The No. 18 Bulldogs will travel to Atlanta for a pseudo-home affair against No. 22 North Carolina in the Georgia Dome. Considering all the time he spent on Nick Saban’s staff, expect Smart to be beyond prepared.
Nevertheless, whether operated by a rookie coach or a 10-year vet, Week 1 presents a different set of challenges for every team — experienced and inexperienced alike. Players may know the game plan inside and out, but recreating live bullets being fired in front of a capacity crowd is impossible.
The scout team can only do so much. Nothing teaches a coach more about his squad than the opponent.
“Penalties and special teams would concern me,” Smart said Wednesday on the weekly SEC coaches teleconference. “That’s always your fear the first game, not only undisciplined penalties, but just poor decisions and dumb timing, efficiency penalties. You have jumping offside and that kind of thing. And then special teams is a thing that every coach is concerned with in these games because you haven’t been able to simulate the live situations. There’s such great contact in those. Those are the two things that would concern me.”
Smart repeatedly talked special teams, as most pregame discussion focuses on offense vs. defense.
“As far as what’s going to fire me up, the flip side of that is great special-teams play, great effort,” he said. “But then also defensive players running to the ball, getting lined up quick, offensive players blocking on the perimeter and covering down and keeping people off our skill players.
“Effort-type stuff is what I’m looking for. I know that we’re going to have some screw-ups, but I’m looking for the effort and toughness that we want to create here.”
odom: ‘time has gone by very quickly’
Another first-year coach in the league, Missouri’s Barry Odom travels to West Virginia on Saturday.
Taking over for the retired Gary Pinkel, who walked away from the game due to health concerns, Odom — Mizzou’s D-coordinator last year — has done what he can to keep the guts of the program intact.
It’s been a whirlwind tour, though. The Tigers are coming off a disappointing 2015 that saw them go 5-7, plus the university as a whole has been dealing with strife on and off the field. If ever a team wanted to get back to basics and ignore the turnover and negativity on campus, it’s Odom’s.
While Odom technically has been the top Tiger since December, it sure doesn’t feel that way to him.
Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports
“Since I got the head-coaching job, time has gone by very quickly,” he said. “You get into the routine as a college coach. You have the season, then bowl season, then recruiting is non-stop. You’re on the road evaluating and building relationships, then you get into the winter-conditioning part of your program, then into spring ball, then spring evaluation, then summer ball rolls around, camp series — all the different things just run together. And then you know once you get to June, before you know it, you’re going to be in preparation for Game 1.”
Week 1 didn’t come a moment too soon for Odom, despite the difficult road assignment in Morgantown.
“It feels like to me it could have been a couple of weeks ago when I was announced as the head coach,” he said. “I’m kind of taking the approach of controlling what I can control one day at a time, working to make Mizzou football better today than it was yesterday. And consistently doing that over time, if we can hold true to that, at the end of the year we’ll be right where we want to be.”
muschamp: ‘they’ve got good players’
The first conference tilt of the 2016 campaign is Thursday night, as South Carolina heads to Vanderbilt.
Offensively, the Commodores are led by running back Ralph Webb, although their passing game is in transition as quarterback Kyle Shurmur develops. He’ll be handing the ball to Webb early and often.
But on defense, Vandy is an underrated unit. Zach Cunningham is arguably the best linebacker in the SEC, plus safety-turned-linebacker Oren Burks will have more chances to make plays in the box. The ‘Cocks — a work-in-progress offense at this point — are going to be tested.
Will Muschamp, getting ready to embark on Year 1 in Columbia, is impressed with the ‘Dores on tape.
“I think that they’ve got good players, number one,” he said. “And I think fundamentally they do a really good job of playing blocks and getting off blocks and tackling. They’re very sound in their gaps in the run game.”
Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason will again call his own defensive signals after doing so a season ago.
“Derek does a great job,” Muschamp said. “He did a great job at Stanford and has continued that at Vanderbilt.”
John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
